The Northam Administration’s Safety and Health Codes Board agreed June 24 that COVID-19 in the state’s workplaces demands an emergency state response, but the nature and exact wording of that response remains undecided. If adopted, formal regulations come with the potential for heavy penalties for employers cited for failures. The vote to...
With the General Assembly taking up policing reform in this summer’s special session, there should be at least one bill stopping a problem before it begins. Most big problems are created by a small number of people. The same is true of police officer transgressions. Derek Chauvin was a bad...
The US Supreme Court recently ruled 7-2 to reverse a lower court ruling invalidating a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which will bring West Virginia natural gas to Virginia and North Carolina, for home heating, factory power, electricity generation and manufacturing petrochemical feedstocks. Environmentalists had claimed the US Forest Service...
High school and college students are probably struggling to find summer jobs in this era of COVID-19. Ads for some of the typical summer jobs for students have plummeted compared to a year ago, in large part, because of social distancing and the economic slump, based on Chmura’s Real Time...
Throughout history military commanders have faced a classical dilemma: When confronted with overwhelming odds, do they stand fast and hope for a miracle to deliver victory, while risking total annihilation as a fighting force? Or do they conduct an orderly retreat, regroup and live to fight another day? Robert E....
It’s been a tough week in America. It’s hard to explain what’s been going through my mind as I am a problem solver but it’s apparent that at this point, in order for us in America to truly move forward, we have to start speaking and sharing our truths on...
“We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” The infamous Vietnam era quotation may or may not have been uttered by an anonymous US Army major. It may have been misquoted, revised, apocryphal or invented. But it quickly morphed into an anti-war mantra that reflected attitudes of...
“How is this fair?” Shannon Jones wants to know. How is it that her grandfather’s funeral was forced – by order of the governor – to be almost a non-event while demonstrators and protestors violate Virginia’s 10-person crowd-size rules with absolute impunity? I have no answer. Perhaps someone will show...
According to Governor Ralph Northam, the way to ensure access to quality, affordable medical insurance for Virginians is to reject bills that would… expand access to health insurance for Virginians. Last week Northam vetoed two bills passed with broad bipartisan support that would have allowed self-employed people to buy insurance...
The Jefferson Journal: Stop the Problem Before It Begins
With the General Assembly taking up policing reform in this summer’s special session, there should be at least one bill stopping a problem before it begins. Provisions commonly found in Collective Bargaining Ageements negotiated between governments and the local police union create obstacles to holding bad cops accountable. Unless the...