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Athwart Virginia, yelling ‘Stop!’
Like most outsiders, everything I know these days about what’s going on at the Virginia General Assembly comes from the news. And based on that reading, I have to say that it looks like even in the face of recent election losses and declining support, Virginia Republicans are dug in and continuing to dig. A […]
Gun politics are all about gun sales
Let’s picture your child on the first day of classes next September. Now, let’s picture your child’s teacher. We’ll call her Ms. Becker, because it sounds like a good name for a teacher and because that was my high school homeroom teacher’s name. Now, picture Ms. Becker packing heat, say a 9 mm Glock. She’ll […]
A Senate vote on federal criminal justice reform is a long overdue good start
In early 1987, I was assigned the city cops and courts beat at The Richmond News Leader. My tenure on that beat coincided with the rapid increase in the city’s murder rate, which at one point was the second highest in the country. It was a horrible time in the city, especially on the East […]
Let’s talk about guns
At last, the midterm elections are over. Let’s talk about guns. Last month, after a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh, no less an authority on gun violence than the president of the United States lamented that the synagogue didn’t have a security guard. (Four Pittsburgh police officers […]
Pack the court, with women
No less a bright light than Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa had this to say about the recent combat over Brett Kavanaugh: “If that’s the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again.” He was reacting to Christine Blasey Ford’s claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were […]
Endless outrage is exhausting
These times are so uncertain There’s a yearning undefined And people filled with rage – Don Henley Reporters have always lived on outrage. They discover, or stumble upon, or hear about some egregious behavior that really gets their blood up and they go after it. Sometimes it’s a government official abusing his position or maybe […]
Two visions in conflict
If you step on it, you can drive from the Atlantic Ocean to Nelson County, Va., in about three hours. In the not-too-distant future, you could be able to make the trip in a lot less time. That’s not because we’ll have flying cars or frictionless roads, or because Great Birnam Wood is moving to […]
Trust me, I’m a reporter
Years ago, I worked at an afternoon newspaper called The Richmond News Leader. It was a great place to work, populated by reporters and editors who ground it out every day, against the odds, hitting very tight deadlines. As the police reporter, I started my workday at 6 a.m. and my first deadline was, as […]
What is it about Lee anyway?
One of the more entertaining exchanges I ever heard concerning Robert E. Lee went like this. It was after a public hearing attended largely by African-Americans and largely ignored by white people. ‘”The white folks didn’t come down because they knew the fix was in, and they didn’t have to come down,” said Official A. […]
Give thanks for President Trump
Raise your hand if you ever talked about the emoluments clause in our Constitution until about 18 months ago. Most Americans never heard of it before Donald Trump became president. Many Americans, in fact, knew nothing at all about the Constitution beyond the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights, though they generally ignored that […]
Are we up to reforming our civil system to help poor litigants?
Lately, we have all been horrified by the spectacle of toddlers and other children, separated from their parents at our southern border, appearing in court alone to face deportation. While our collective distaste is justified, the truth is that people of modest means, like these asylum seekers, have been shuffled through our court system unrepresented […]
For Republicans on the ballot, it’s tough to totally reject Trump
Much has been made of longtime respected Republicans calling for voting against their own party. Steve Schmidt, a lifelong GOP activist and the man who, as John McCain’s campaign manager in 2008, brought us Sarah Palin, recently resigned from the party and said he would support Democrats this fall. George Will, the conservative columnist who […]