Tomorrow at 1:3o, Corey Stewart will announce that he is running for re-election for Prince William County Board of Supervisor for the Chairman’s seat. Stewart currently holds that position.
Prince William County voters need to ask him one question: Does he plan to serve as chairman for the entire 4 years if elected chairman?
Stewart has toyed with running for Senate and other state election during this past election cycle. Prince William County residents don’t need to have their chairman campaigning the entire time in office. Either he runs for Chairman of the BOCS or he sits it out and campaigns for another office. There is simply no reason for him to campaign for another office on our time.
Often PBS Television comes into the sights of some Republicans for defunding. This year is no exception. Already the speeches are being made with various people holding Kermit and Big Bird puppets. TV commercials are beginning to pop up on shows on PBS. What disturbs me is why PBS. I can’t see what’s not to like.
Most people don’t give a rat’s ass about the politics of PBS, if there are any. Most people just like NOVA, Antiques Road Show, Masterpiece, and American Experience. There are numerous kids shows, some entertainment and some educational. At least 2 or 3 generations grew up on shows like Sesame Street and the Electric Company. These shows were on the airwaves. No cable was needed. Poor kids got some solid education, even if their parents didn’t have cable or if there were no satellite TV.
The last living WWI veteran Frank Buckles of West Virginia died Sunday at age 110. His death was not unexpected. Buckles was born in Missouri. At age 16, he wiggled his way into the military by lying about his age. 90 years later, he had the distinction of being the only surviving WWI veteran,
In 1917 and 1918, close to 5 million Americans served in World War I, and Mr. Buckles, a cordial fellow of gentle humor, was the last known survivor. “I knew there’d be only one someday,” he said a few years back. “I didn’t think it would be me.”
His daughter, Susannah Buckles Flanagan, said Mr. Buckles, a widower, died of natural causes on his West Virginia farm, where she had been caring for him.
Buckles’ distant generation was the first to witness the awful toll of modern, mechanized warfare. As time thinned the ranks of those long-ago U.S. veterans, the nation hardly noticed them vanishing, until the roster dwindled to one ex-soldier, embraced in his final years by an appreciative public.
“Frank was a history book in and of himself, the kind you can’t get at the library,” said his friend, Muriel Sue Kerr. Having lived from the dawn of the 20th century, he seemed to never tire of sharing his and the country’s old memories – of the First World War, of roaring prosperity and epic depression, and of a second, far more cataclysmic global conflict, which he barely survived
Another piece of living history has been lost to the annals of time. There are no living survivors of WWI. How long before we will be forced to say the same about those who served in WWII?
These attacks have been linked through DNA. Police have looked at and cleared over 700 suspects. Call police if YOU have information; with DNA it’s easy to rule out innocent people. Your tips are vital and may be the information police need.
Yesterday around 7 pm both chambers of the General Assembly ajourned until the special session in April. Negotiations on the budget went on until the early morning hours of Sunday. Here are the highlights of this year’s budget directly from the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Budget
highlights
Here are highlights of legislators’ amendments to the state’s two-year, $32 billion general-fund budget.
•Eliminated 80 percent of mostly smaller merchants from having to pay the accelerated sales tax.
•Authorized the filling of 21 vacant judgeships.
•Kept the 50 percent “hold harmless” payment to schools that would have seen a decrease in funds under an adjustment to the index that determines state aid to local districts.
•Reduced funding for public broadcasting by 10 percent.
Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch explains why Wisconsin can’t happen here. Virginia is a right to work state. This status has only been reinforced through the years as this mini history lesson tells us.
Many of us are comfortable with Virginia being a right to work state. Does that mean that that there is no collective bargaining with the private sector? It is illegal for the public sector to have collective bargaining. Would that make salaries higher if that trend were reversed?
So, as you know, I have been asking many questions regarding this facility that required no permits. The journey continues and I still await some pretty basic answers to some pretty basic questions. Let me add that the official square footage is amost 18,000 and forty feet tall to its peak.
Humor me please, and just chime in with your opinion………
The Richmond Times-Dispatch host Jim Nolan hands out the inaugural Squawkie Awards as the session draws to a close. The ceremony is entertaining and funny. Of course, there is the oily aroma of Virginia politics.
The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to the Democratic leaderhship in the Senate. You can guess why.
Enjoy. You will never guess who gets the Best Picture Squawkie, Citizen Kane! Will he or won’t he?
This past week I have been especially saddened by the rhetoric and zeal regarding the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the passage of Virginia’s new regulations that will essentially close almost all abortion provider clinics.
But that isn’t really what I want to discuss, what I want to discuss is the overwhelming disconnect I see emanating from social conservatives. Let me say this, as strongly as I can, being pro-life does not end once you “stop” an abortion. For those that so passionately advocate on behalf of those poor innocent “unborn”, where, I ask, where is that same compassion for human beings once they take their first breath, not only at the beginning of their lives, but along the journey of life, until, in the end, we all must make our final peace and move through that last cycle of life, death.
Where are all these social conservatives when social workers, whose job is to save children and the elderly from abuse, are underfunded but overworked? Where are all these social conservatives when critical programs like head start, which feed America’s hungry children, are cut? Why does compassion seem to end upon birth? Why are so many of our elderly choosing between medicine or food?
Are you a public employee? Have you ever been one? Are you part of the VRS, the federal retirement program or other pension fund? Do you get a matching 401k from a government agency?
All those who can answer yes need to pay close attention and watch things closely. When will someone go for your pension or retirement fund? When will you get cut out of that for which you have worked for years?
First they came for the Wisconsin Public employees. I didn’t do anything because I wasn’t from Wisconsin. Then they came for the union folks. I don’t have collective bargaining so I paid no mind.
You know where this is going……
Decent government pay means decent government!
Everyone needs to be concerned about the scapegoating of public employees and the attacks on civil servants.
The Virginia Senate has postponed a major vote over abortion rights, as Democrats in the chamber hunt for votes to kill last-minute legislation that would regulate clinics where first trimester abortions are performed as hospitals.
The chamber Wednesday began a debate over the abortion clinic amendment added by the House of Delegates to an unrelated bill. Sen. Jeff McWaters (R-Virginia Beach) told colleagues that the measure is needed to ensure the safety of women who seek abortions.
Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington) said that Virginia would be the first state in the country to regulate first trimester abortion clinics as hospitals and that the rules, which include regulations on hallway and doorway width, would put the majority of the state’s abortion clinics out of business.
