Dear Friend of TJI, When 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot by Columbus, Ohio police as she attempted to knife another teen, the state’s US Senator (Sherrod Brown), a former presidential advisors (Valerie Jarrett), a former Cabinet Secretary (Robert Reich), and the ACLU condemned the killing and accused the officer of “murder.” The investigation has begun, but Americans may come to a different conclusion after watching the body-cam footage (here) and video from a neighbor’s security camera (here). The Washington Post did (here). The death of any teen is a tragedy, but we strongly suspect a political narrative guides Brown, Jarrett, Reich and the ACLU, who have not retracted their accusations. We also strongly suspect that the teen-ager in pink is grateful the police officer is not a politician. Meanwhile … 1.) In the never-ending Parole Board scandal, the progressive Virginia Mercury scoops the mainstream media with a recording of Governor Ralph Northam’s Chief of Staff and Secretary of Public Safety putting the heat on the Parole Board’s Inspector General (here), concerned more about who blew the whistle on the Board than on violations the Board itself committed. If you’re just catching up, Jim Bacon, at Bacon’s Rebellion, has a good summary of what is truly a scandal here. 2.) Over at the Education Department Governor Northam’s education staff and Board of Education have started moving forward to eliminate both Advanced Studies Diplomas in order to operate as a “lever for equity” (here), and “taking Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 … and removing them from our high school mathematics program, replacing them with essential concepts for grade eight, nine, and 10” (here). Advanced Studies Diplomas (and Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses) have provided more than a credential – done well, they teach high school students better study practices and the expectations of college-level coursework. It is the case that the “deficits children carry with them into the classroom” are a barrier, says civil rights activist and educator Robert P. Moses, founder of The Algebra Project, but notes that the answer is higher expectations (here), not lower. Having been unsuccessful in teaching low-income children (although Moses and others seem quite successful), it appears the answer of the Northam Administration is to give up by lowering the bar. In doing so, it does damage to students at both ends of the academic spectrum, in the mistaken notion it will lead to the Golden Age of Equality. 3.) The City of Alexandria has adopted the state’s first collective bargaining ordinance, permitting them to move forward and negotiate a monopoly union contract (here). Among the provisions: Taxpayers will be paying for unlimited “official time” (union leaders doing union work while paid their city salaries); after expiration, any contract will remain in effect until a new one is negotiated (a famed New York tactic enabling union leaders to wait for favorable folks on the other side of the table); a Hotel California clause (you can check in anytime you want, but you can never leave) in which union members can be locked into paying dues for a year, even if they want to leave; a 30 percent requirement to certify but a 50 percent requirement to decertify; and more. Loudoun County has authorized moving ahead on an ordinance (here); Fairfax is not far behind. Coming to a county or city near you ... 4.) Jefferson Institute Visiting Fellow F. Vincent Venuccio offers more on the costs of collective bargaining here. And Philip K. Good, author of The Death of Common Sense and chair of the Campaign for Common Good, will speak about how such contracts destroy accountability in an online presentation May 6, at 7:00 pm. Register here. 5.) In Virginia Beach, union leaders attempted to intimidate a candidate in the Democratic primary, offering her a union position if she dropped out of the race (here). It doesn’t take much to imagine a more forceful intimidation if the school system operates under a monopoly union contract to which its employees are bound. 6.) In a week the number of jobless claims nationally declined, the number rose in Virginia (here). One reason may be that the state temporarily suspended online applications on April 6. But another reason is more likely one told by employers – that workers aren’t returning because a federal supplemental benefit means some low-income workers are receiving as much or more income to stay home than go to work (here and here). Government programs making long-term recovery steeper is wrong. 7.) Comes now a study from MIT saying you’re no safer indoors spaced at six feet than at 60 feet (here). MIT Professor Martin Bazant, who co-led the study suggests this might be one reason why there haven’t been spikes in transmission in states like Texas or Florida that have reopened businesses without capacity limits. Says Bazant: "We need scientific information conveyed to the public in a way that is not just fearmongering but is actually based in analysis. Left-wing comedian/commentator Bill Maher, who frequently skewers the Right, makes the same point about news media and liberal politicians here. 8.) From the Washington Free Beacon comes the story that Green New Deal backers stand to benefit financially from President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan to invest billions in green infrastructure (here). But its not just conservative publications saying it: So, too, does leftist filmmaker Michael Moore who spends most of Planet of the Humans demonstrating that green energy (and its backers) is a fraud (here). 9.) The proposed Transportation and Climate Initiative is part and parcel of this effort. Watch the Jefferson Institute’s video on the subject by clicking here. You can sign a petition to stop it at www.StopTCI.com. 10.) Meanwhile, the Left continues to make politically motivated attacks against the Georgia voting law (Texas is the next target), and consequently the All-Star Game venue change will cost the city of Atlanta, with a black population of 51 percent, $100 million in revenue. Twenty-one black leaders have now signed a letter calling the law “a proper, honest step in reforming the election process” (here). North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson explains why it isn’t racist to require voter ID, rips apart the partisanship of the Biden Administration and tears apart H.R.1 here. And Heritage Foundation President Kay Cole James writes that, having been a black teen-ager in the sixties she doesn’t believe the Left’s “Lies about Jim Crow Election Laws” here. 11.) A graduate of VMI, Army veteran having served in the Middle East and once one of the most conservative Delegates in the General Assembly, Scott Lingamfelter offers a moving commentary on a racism that is “endemic in humanity” here. Finally … if Virginia applies their proposed academic challenges to sports, Dashiell Robert Parr has already learned what its like. Happy Sunday, Everyone. Excellence is not a four-letter word. | |
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