Tag: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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What About Those Folks Facing Eviction, Governor?
By Dick Hall-Sizemore In his July 24 letter to the Chief Justice, the Governor requested the Supreme Court extend its moratorium on evictions. He concluded his request by saying, “This [the moratorium] will provide my administration the time to both work with the General Assembly to develop and pass a legislative package that will provide…
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The Hearings Are Over, Let the Battles Begin
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The House Committees on Courts of Justice and Public Safety held three meetings/public hearings in preparation for the General Assembly’s consideration of criminal justice and police reform in the upcoming special session. The sessions were billed as public hearings, but, in actuality, most of the time was spent in hearing from invited…
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Another Perspective on Evictions
By Dick Hall-Sizemore As has been reported on this blog, the Virginia Supreme Court granted Governor Northam’s request to extend the moratorium on evictions related to non-payment of rent. The court was closely divided, 4-3. The dissenting opinions are quite convincing. It is obvious that the majority, cognizant of the dilemma caused by thousands of…
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Take a Seat, the Doctor Will See You Shortly
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The latest action by Virginia hospitals is sheer chutzpah. The 2020 General Assembly adopted actions aimed to reduce state Medicaid payments for emergency room services later deemed to be unnecessary. As described by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the aim was to discourage Medicaid recipients from unnecessary use of emergency departments instead of seeking…
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Clueless
By Dick Hall-Sizemore As noted recently on this blog, Virginia’s capital city experienced some semi-organized violent activity last weekend. This was not a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration that escalated. Rather, it was a mob, with some members armed, seemingly bent on confrontation, violence, and general mayhem. This event brought about a rare confluence: Bacon’s…
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Democrats Stack the Deck
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia State Crime Commission is a legislative body established in 1966 and set out in the Code of Virginia (Sec. 30-156 et al.). Its purpose is “to study, report and make recommendations on all areas of public safety and protection.” Following is a sampling of its recent topics of study: Sex…
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A Different Approach to Opening Schools
By Dick Hall-Sizemore I am struck by the contradictions of some people on this blog. On the one hand, they are terribly troubled, even outraged, by what they see as liberal indoctrination happening in our schools (here and here, for examples). On the other hand, they are outraged at the prospect that the schools may…
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Praise for DOC COVID-19 Response
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The Department of Corrections has received praise for its response to inmates with COVID-19 from an unlikely source — an inmate who survived a serious bout with the disease. A story in today’s Richmond-Times Dispatch provides the details. The inmate, who is serving two life terms, was housed in Sussex II State…
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Virginia Hospitals Rank High Nationally (They Are Not the Ones You Would Assume!)
By Dick Hall-Sizemore In a new national ranking of hospitals, two Virginia hospitals are included in the Top 20 Hospitals in the country. Furthermore, the Commonwealth’s two major teaching hospitals are in the list of the 50 best teaching hospitals. Finally, one Virginia hospital was one of the 100 best safety net hospitals. The two…
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What It Is, Is Not Journalism
By Dick Hall-Sizemore I never thought that I would agree with Jim Bacon on the slant of the RTD’s news coverage, but an article on evictions today just really irritated me. It was the usual article about activists demonstrating at the Richmond courthouse and protesting evictions. (At least the demonstration on Thursday was peaceful; no…
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Conservative Budgeting–Still the Virginia Way
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne is following in the classic conservative tradition established by his predecessors: under project your revenues and then look good when they come in higher than projected. In his case, he gets to bask, not in a bigger surplus than projected, but in a much lower shortfall than…
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Conservatism’s Foundation Showing Some Cracks
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The pandemic has presented a challenge to at least a couple of the basic tenets of conservatism. The first of these challenges is to the basic negative attitude toward regulations. Conservatives abhor regulations. In anticipation of objections from Jim Bacon and Steve Haner, among others, that such a statement is too broad…
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Our Cell Phones Are Still Off-Limits to Robocalls
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Here is a follow-up on a previous post. The Supreme Court handed down a decision today that will probably be lost in the coverage of its other decision released today, the one about “faithless” Presidential electors. Nevertheless, the decision in that other case, Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, inc., saves…
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Second Amendment is Not for Everyone
By Dick Hall-Sizemore For anyone who doubts that black people are harassed in everyday actions by other citizens and law enforcement, there is the recent incident in Shenandoah County to consider. A black pastor was on the property of some apartments he owns when he saw a man and a woman, not his tenants, dragging…
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Virginia Democrats Gearing Up for Police Reforms
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The upcoming special session of the General Assembly will be about budget cuts and police reform. Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn announced last week that actions on police reform would be allowed to be taken up at the special session to be held on a to-be-announced date. Whenever it is held, it apparently will…