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THE WEEKENDER: a round-up of opinion and commentary across Virginia
Election Day is almost here. From mailers to TV spots, the mud is flying fast and furious, spurred by sky-high levels of campaign spending. It’s all a reminder of what’s at stake Tuesday: control of the Capitol. Mercury columnist Bob Lewis, a veteran former AP statehouse reporter, explained in his first column for us why this year is […]
The Weekender: a round-up of opinions from across Virginia
Mercury commentary you might have missed: Roger Chesley reminded elected officials, who often seem to view themselves as indispensable, that they’re all replaceable. And, in a guest op-ed, attorney Jon Sokolow made the connection between the long-running struggle for civil rights and the fight against Dominion Energy’s proposed Buckingham compressor station, part of the Atlantic Coast […]
The Weekender: Impeachment, eulogies, guns, gubbins and more
The Weekender: a round-up of opinions from across Virginia. Mercury commentary this week that you might have missed: If there’s a tie election this year in a House of Delegates or Senate race, we’re still going to the bowl (a random drawing). But that needs to change, I argue. Roger Chesley says a judge’s decision striking down Virginia’s requirement to identify […]
Remember that bowl? We still might need it.
For a little while, the bowl was all anyone could talk about. The blue-and-white stoneware vessel handcrafted by a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts potter got a starring turn in a memorable episode of Virginia politics a little less than two years ago when the name on the slip of paper plucked from within, concealed […]
The ‘Reverse Robin Hood’ rides again
Autumn? Fall? Samhain? Nah. There’s only one name for the time between Labor Day and Election Day: the Silly Season. Once, it referred largely to the news desert doldrums of August, but it’s more or less applicable to our politics year-round these days. Flacks of all persuasions and affiliations are aggressively shopping what’s know as […]
Virginia’s first state official focused on diversity, equity and inclusion is hired
A former Old Dominion University administrator will be Virginia’s first-ever director of diversity, equity and inclusion, the governor’s office announced Monday. Janice Underwood, ODU’s former director of diversity initiatives, will be the first person to fill the position Gov. Ralph Northam created in May amid his pivot to addressing racial equity following his blackface scandal. […]
Experts predict erosion at a third of Virginia’s beaches from Dorian
Experts predict more than a third of Virginia’s beaches and dunes will see “some level of erosion” from Hurricane Dorian, the U.S. Geological Survey said Friday. Virginia will be much harder hit than Maryland, with about 34 percent of the commonwealth’s dunes experiencing erosion compared to only 2 percent in its northern neighbor, the agency […]
Border wall money diversion will take $77 million from Virginia military projects, Kaine and Warner say
The Trump administration’s relentless push to build its wall along the Mexican border will siphon more than $77 million from four military projects in Virginia, Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner said in a statement today. The Democratic senators said they were informed by the Department of Defense that the overall diversion of $3.6 billion […]
Wanna buy a gun? Here’s what I don’t have to do before I sell it to you.
Say that I’ve got a gun for sale. I have a few options. I can sell it to a licensed gun dealer or place it on consignment with one, in which case that dealer would be required to perform a background check on anyone who wants to buy it. I could take it to a […]
State commission approves new emergency regulations to protect striped bass numbers
Recreational anglers will see their allowable catch of striped bass curtailed this fall, an effort by state regulators to protect a diminishing stock they say is being overfished. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved emergency regulations that will limit fishermen to a single fish between 20 and 36 inches long per day […]
Virginia Department of Health issues warning on vaping illness
Three cases of a severe lung illness associated with vaping have been reported in Virginia, the state Health Department reported Monday in a warning about the risks of e-cigarettes. As of last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified 193 potential cases of the vaping-related lung illness in 22 states. “Symptoms of […]
Send us back?
Sooner or later, this was bound to happen. When Virginia’s own Ken Cuccinelli — the former attorney general famous for attempting to prosecute climate change research, covering up Virtus’ bareness, suing to overturn Obamacare, defending anti-sodomy laws and other conservative windmill-tilting that even rolled the eyes of many a Republican here — joined the Trump […]