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Yes scams are numbingly commonplace. But since people keep falling for them, it’s crucial to spotlight the grifters.
I hope there’s a special place in hell reserved for the ringleader of an overseas scam that fleeced thousands of Americans — mostly the elderly — of an eye-popping $10 million. They included a Chesterfield County woman, listed in federal court records as “VICTIM #1,” who was taken for nearly a half-million dollars. That was […]
Overcoming vaccine hesitancy with FOMO
Too many people in Virginia and nationwide are refusing the COVID-19 vaccines that can help us quash the current pandemic. It’s a dying shame. That’s not a misprint. As I write this, about 600,000 Americans have perished since February 2020 from the disease. The rate of deaths, though, have dropped considerably since the advent of […]
System ‘needs to be broken’: Pharrell Williams launching Norfolk private school
Virginia Beach native and multiple Grammy Award winner Pharrell Williams has announced he’ll create a private school in Norfolk initially aimed at third-to-fifth-graders from low-income families. He will thus become the latest entertainer around the country to spearhead an alternative to traditional schools. It will be called Yellowhab and provide tuition-free education for the original […]
There’s an easy fix for complaints about a labor shortage. Cutting benefits isn’t it.
Prescriptions for getting Virginia back to work, written by two business leaders from Hampton Roads, are so tone deaf and offensive that I wondered if they were serious. The leaders of their local chambers of commerce — one of whom has pocketed an annual compensation package of nearly $300,000 — wrote recently that the commonwealth […]
Do you believe us now?
“Do you believe us now?” That’s what Black people are saying across Virginia about the way people of color are stopped, sweated and searched by law-enforcement officers in the state. Often based on racial profiling. Often due to nothing more than a whim. First came the now-viral video of two Windsor patrol officers and their […]
Virginia should jettison its special privileges for lawyer-lawmakers
Billy Robinson Jr., the brilliant, late legislator-attorney, was the worst abuser of a state law that allows repeated delays if court dates conflict with time periods surrounding General Assembly sessions and committee meetings. News stories on the Norfolk Democrat — chronicling complaints from crime victims and prosecutors in cases Robinson handled — were plentiful during […]
The pride of Maggie Walker H.S., Norfolk State finally gets his due
Bob Dandridge, a true son of Virginia, never strayed too far from the commonwealth — before, during or after his illustrious NBA career. That makes Sunday’s announcement that the 13-year veteran was selected, finally, to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame all the more special. The question is what took so long. The smooth-shooting […]
Take it from a former fast-food worker, the minimum wage increase is way overdue
Here’s a story for all the folks who thought Virginia shouldn’t have raised its minimum wage this month to $9.50 an hour, from the previous rate of $7.25. It’s the first increase in a dozen years in Virginia, which had followed the federal standard. Yours truly entered the workforce back in high school, toiling at […]
Can training solve over-aggressive policing?
Police officers in Windsor’s small, now-maligned department will receive training next month on best practices and de-escalation techniques during encounters with citizens, the executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police told me this week. Dana Schrad said her organization helped set up the two-day training session, following the release of video into […]
‘Unnecessary opportunities for strife and use of force’: It’s time to re-evaluate police traffic stops
The traffic stop by two Windsor police officers of an Army officer should never have become a viral video. The fact that it did, and that a federal lawsuit has been filed, means better training of officers is mandatory in law-enforcement departments across Virginia. Perhaps more importantly, the mindset of “compliance above all else” — […]
It was past time for the Virginia Board of Elections to crack down on lax candidates
To hear some candidates tell it, a decision last week by the State Board of Elections is heavy-handed and reeks of political chicanery. The board’s move prevents a few Democratic Party challengers from getting on the primary ballot in contests for the House of Delegates this year. The three-member board, these candidates claim, won’t provide […]
Fairness demands that Virginia’s neighbor earns statehood, despite Republican opposition
Growing up in the nation’s capital, I always felt congresspeople considered themselves overseers of local residents. They weren’t benevolent ones, either. The plantation reference is harsh, I know. Yet it’s accurate, since predominantly Black officials from the District of Columbia were forced to go, hat in hand, for approval of local policies and budgets from […]