I wanted to reach out and thank you for your interest in Monday’s federal job fair in Stafford. I know it was a long day for many and we apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. Through our online pre-registration process, we had planned for as many as 5,000 jobseekers to attend the job fair throughout the day. We even extended the length of the event so that it would end at 4 p.m., and not at noon as we originally had planned. Unfortunately, we were not able to accommodate the more than 7,000 participants who ultimately turned-out on Monday. We apologize for the traffic you encountered and your extended wait in line. For those of you who were able to leave resumes with my staff, we are sending them to the participating federal agencies. Please remember that you must be registered at USAJobs.gov to be considered for any openings and that the processing and decision times vary by agency.  Interested agencies will contact you directly through USAJobs.gov. I encourage you also to check our website, http://warner.senate.gov/jobsfair, for links to all of the participating federal agencies.  Each agency has a jobs page on its website that contains much of the information that agency recruiters provided at Monday’s job fair.  Later this week, we will post online video of the federal government’s training session with some helpful guidance about applying and interviewing for federal jobs. You may be interested to know that, after returning to Capitol Hill on Monday, I spoke on the Senate floor about our job fair. I told my colleagues that the individuals who I met during my visit that morning did not care about filibusters or the partisan procedural tactics that too often dominate our discussions here in Washington. I reminded them that it is crucially important that we put partisanship aside and get serious about an effort to create more, and better, jobs. Again, I thank you for your patience, apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced, and urge you to contact my office if you need further assistance. Thanks, Mark Warner P.S. — As we plan for our next job fair — which we hope will include both federal agencies and private-sector employers — we would love to hear your thoughts on how we can improve. If you have a few moments, please click here and complete this short survey to let us know how we can improve.

McDonnel Overrides AG Cuccinelli's Order To Withdraw Gay Protections At Virginia Universities

Do they really think that they are fooling anyone? At least anyone with a brain?

Plenty of people cynically dismiss politicians of every stripe by saying they’re all alike. Why vote? they ask mockingly, it only encourages ‘em.

Elections prove all politicians aren’t the same. Virginians who were too bored to bother with 2009’s statewide elections are already being taken to school by the two of the Republicans who were sworn in two months ago.

Yes, for better or worse, Gov. Bob McDonnell is going to make a difference. McDonnell is not likely to be mistaken for his predecessor, former Gov. Tim Kaine, any time soon.

However, in the last few days Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has become the most talked about Republican in Virginia. At this writing he looks more like a throwback to the mean old days of institutionalized discrimination than any statewide figure in a long time.

Move over Virgil Goode and Bob Marshall, it looks like Cuccinelli is determined to be the Flat-Earth Republicans' top dog in Virginia.

Cuccinelli’s much-in-the-news letter to Virginia’s colleges and universities has instantly made him into a fresh-faced hero to this country's angry legions of Dittoheads and Sarah Palin fans.

Make no mistake about it, Cuccinell’s move was calculated to do just that. There was no widespread outcry for him to weigh in on this matter. His rather uncalled-for opinion seems to provide cover for university personnel, who moght like to use their own homophobic beliefs as a basis to deny someone a job, or acceptance into a program, etc.

In other words, Cuccinelli is saying that only the General Assembly can direct state-supported schools' personnel to be fair in their dealings with all citizens.

How this bizarre legal opinion/stunt will hold up in court tests probably doesn’t concern Cuccinelli all that much. His short-term strategy appears to have more to do with him showboating his way into national prominence than it does with establishing his legal chops.

When a judge puts the kibosh to Cucinelli’s opinion it won't matter so much, because he will have already reaped the benefit he wanted in the first place. For the next four years Cuccinelli is in place to make as much mischief of this sort as he pleases.

Which means that for the next four years we Virginians may see a lot of our tax money devoted to reanimating the zombies of all sorts of issues we thought had been resolved long ago.

That’s how Flat-Earth Republicans operate. They pick at scabs, hoping fresh blood from yesterday’s thought-to-be-healed problems will distract Democrats so much they will lose their focus on today’s battles. That strategy seeks to tie up Democrats defending social gains made decades ago, at the expense of spending time on today’s problems, such as healthcare reform.

Flat-Earth Republicans are prepared to unravel Medicare and Social Security. From their propaganda it looks like they would be happy if all abortions and trade unions were illegal. It seems they would actually like to return to something akin to the time before voting rights were extended to all citizens, before trust-busters in government began to regulate capitalists.

They will continue to tell us it’s about lower taxes and more freedom. But force-marching us all across a narrow bridge to the 19th century appears to be the true agenda.

Yes, you can’t always get what you want … you get what you elect.

-- Words by F.T. Rea

Last night, I left Richmond at 5 p.m. and made the long trip up Rte 95 to Washington, D.C. to meet with a special group of pastors regarding SB 116.

It's a long story but here's the short version ...

In December 2008, I was contacted to potentially represent a number of D.C.-area pastors who had been victimized by an ingenious marketing scam involving a bogus advertising kiosk to be installed in each church.  The kiosk, when it was installed, did not work or had no usable content.  It generated no revenue. 

As part of the deal, the churches were enticed to sign a leasing contract which obligated them to a series of payments for the kiosk and onerous penalties if they did not comply.  The leases specified that any "disputes" would be settled in Wisconsin(!) and that the leasing companies were given direct access to the church bank accounts to facilitate payments.

Next stop, disaster.

I had an initlal meeting with Rev. Thomas of Johnson Baptist in December 2008.  After meeting with several groups of pastors in early 2009 and seeing that the scope of the problem was big (more than 30 congregations in D.C. alone), it was apparent that one lawyer could not solve the problem.

Since two of the major impacted churches were based in Virginia, I contacted the former Attorney General, Bill Mims, to see if the AG's office could step in and defend the Virginia churches.  The answer was "no."  Why?  Because churches don't have standing under Virginia's consumer protection laws and thus the AG had no grounds to intervene.

SB 116 addressed that by giving churches standing to make consumer claims.  The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously.   It got some good media, thanks to the hard work of my Communications Director and the Interfaith Coalition which endorsed it and featured it on the front of their session newsletter.

That sets the stage for last night's meeting, where I met again with Rev. Thomas of Johnson Baptist, which is located on Ridge Road high above Southeast D.C.  He was there with a passel of other pastors interested in our bill, including some from Richmond.  I was honestly moved when they greeted me with hugs and applause.  You don't usually get that reaction in this business. 

I can't say that SB 116 can "turn back the clock" and make restitution for the hundreds of thousands of dollars scammed from our local churches.  But we can try.  And, God willing, we'll get the chance once the Governor signs the bill.

Inspired by Slowpoke this morning, here's the video for one of my all time favorite songs, New Noise, by Refused.

The Roanoke City School Board has decided to pursue legal action against the Commonwealth and Governor McDonnell's decision to radically remake local school funding. Roanoke is estimating that their schools will see a $10 million cut in funding.

The board voted 5-2 on a motion introduced by member Jason Bingham, who said the state -- by cutting millions of dollars in state aid to localities -- is not fulfilling the constitutional requirement to establish and maintain a high-quality program of education.

I remain shocked that our local representatives have not been called on the carpet by the Rockingham School Board and the Board of Supervisors for supporting the Governor in his effort to change the school funding formulas in favor of Northern Virginia school districts. I mean, who are Matt Lohr, Todd Gilbert, and Dickie Bell working for? What of Prince Obenshain? I see Senator Hanger is fighting to open bars to gun toting drinkers. Thanks for nothin' boys!

Jon Stewart poked fun last night at Virginia’s Governor, Bob McDonnell and Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli.

UPDATE: The Governor has issued Executive Directive #1 (pdf) on discrimination. From the accompanying email:

While the separation of powers doctrine precludes the Governor from changing the Virginia Human Rights Act via Executive Order, he wants to be clear that discrimination in state employment will not be tolerated.

Getting closer here.

And in case you missed it, Sen. Tommy Norment inserted language into a bill today that protects gays and lesbians from discrimination.

UPDATE 2: LG Bill Bolling also issued a statement.

UPDATE 3: From new DPVA executive director David Mills:

While we applaud the administrative gesture made by Governor McDonnell today, his non-binding statement of policy does little to protect Virginians from discrimination. The Governor is instituting half-measures necessitated by political crisis, and the time for these games is over.  We call on Governor McDonnell to definitively and permanently eliminate the threat that discrimination poses to the lives, jobs, and welfare of all Virginians.

Rather than play legal games, Governor McDonnell should just send down a bill that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Under Governors Warner and Kaine, Virginia became the best state for business by enacting the tolerant policies that attract world-class employers to our Commonwealth. No matter how many administrative gestures he makes, the fact remains that Bob McDonnell and his Ken Cuccinelli have rolled back protections against discrimination.

Of the most current personalities of the powerful angry-throwback wing of the Republican Party, who's most likely to become the next cable news talk-show superstar?

Until last week Gov. Bob McDonnell was Virginia's most obvious/likely entry in that contest. His direct connection to the rather eccentric Rev. Pat Robertson gave him a leg-up. Now, it seems, the buttoned-down McDonnell has been upstaged.

Virginia's suddenly showboating Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has started picking fights that were designed to make headlines. The Richmond Times-Dispatch's columnist Bart Hinkle has been watching Cuccinelli's attention-getting moves.

Cuccinelli recently sent a letter to the state's colleges and universities directing them to rescind their policies forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The schools lack the proper authority to enact such policies, he says.

This seems to imply colleges are forbidden to do anything they are not explicitly required or authorized to do. Which is odd. Colleges do a great many things not specifically spelled out in the Code of Virginia or the state Constitution.

Click here to read all of Hinkle's OpEd piece,"There’s Nothing Funny About This Cucci Coup."

Click here to read the Washington Post's original story on this brouhaha.

I have long been a proponent of the "smaller class size" school of thought for improving student performance. It just seemed logical to me that if there were fewer students per teacher, each student would get more of the teacher's time, and would then benefit from a better education. One of the great things about No Child Left Behind (and I believe it has its pretty sizeable flaws) is the requirements for data gathering and analysis about schools that it imposes. This data analysis can put hypotheses like "smaller class sizes" to the test.

Some data is starting show that the most basic element of student performance is the teachers themselves. Not class size, not funding, not curriculum. Teachers.

The testing mandates in No Child Left Behind had generated a sea of data, and researchers were now able to parse student achievement in ways they never had before. A new generation of economists devised statistical methods to measure the “value added” to a student’s performance by almost every factor imaginable: class size versus per-pupil funding versus curriculum. When researchers ran the numbers in dozens of different studies, every factor under a school’s control produced just a tiny impact, except for one: which teacher the student had been assigned to. Some teachers could regularly lift their students’ test scores above the average for children of the same race, class and ability level. Others’ students left with below-average results year after year. William Sanders, a statistician studying Tennessee teachers with a colleague, found that a student with a weak teacher for three straight years would score, on average, 50 percentile points behind a similar student with a strong teacher for those years. Teachers working in the same building, teaching the same grade, produced very different outcomes. And the gaps were huge. Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, found that while the top 5 percent of teachers were able to impart a year and a half’s worth of learning to students in one school year, as judged by standardized tests, the weakest 5 percent advanced their students only half a year of material each year. - The New York Times

Of course, at this point it is important to remember the words of a good friend who is a teacher in Fairfax. "I don't think you can objectively measure a teacher's effectiveness through student grades and test scores because there are so many other variables at play (namely, the students themselves)."

Nonetheless, it is nice that our debates over school and education policy are becoming more informed by rigorously gathered and analyzed data, even if it verifies some obvious conclusions like "teachers matter."

[Update] Nicholas at Donkeylicious weighs in on the subject as well.

[Update] New nationwide academic standards for public schools?

In all the hubbub about health care reform, its hard to hear the calls for college loan reform. As a primer for those who might not know, it's far cheaper for the Government to loan money directly to students than to funnel that money through banks. Basically, the government guaranteed not only 97% of the loan itself, but also a 9.5% (!) return on the loan, at zero cost or risk to the banks lending the money. This blanket giveaway to banks is a very easy and obvious way to cut government costs while increasing the funding available for other programs, like Pell Grants.

The House of Representatives has passed the necessary legislation, which is pending in the Senate. FireDogLake has started "Students Not Banks" campaign to get that legislation passed by reconciliation in the Senate, now.

President Obama proposed, and the House passed, a plan to cut out the bankers from student lending that will save $87 billion. That means more money for students, and none to the bailed out banks.

But the banks aren't happy. They want to hijack Obama's planand steal tens of billions for themselves in a fake "compromise." We can't let them get away with this.

Sign our petition to the Senate: don't give another dime to bailed out banks. Pass direct student lending now. - FireDogLake

I am a huge supporter of helping out students and recent graduates. From forgiving college loans to providing loans to recent graduates who need a downpayment for a car, or first-and-last-month-rent for an apartment, I think one of the best ways to stimulate the economy and build our future is to invest, today, in our youngest voters.

Please go sign the petition. The fight for young people is the fight for our future.

Yesterday in the Courts Committee we took up a number of House bills which covered areas we had not previously addressed.  Here are some of the votes:

HB 15 (Marshall):  Would have prohibited Virginia from holding anyone accused of terrorism in its prisons.  Where else are we going to hold them?  In our schools?  Thankfully we killed this bill.

HB 166 (Pogge):  Expanded the death penalty eligible crimes to include the killing of a fire marshal in the performance of his duties.  While I usually  vote against death penalty expansions, I did vote for this bill since fire marshals have "felony arrest" powers but are not otherwise covered by the statute.  The bill passed.

HB 502 (Gilbert):  This bill revisited the "triggerman" rule but with a slightly different spin, i.e. it eliminated the rule only for the killing of law enforcement.  However, all the same issues apply, e.g. how do you prove that an accomplice had the intent to commit murder when he's sitting in a get-away car?  And he didn't actually kill anyone?  Treating all defendants the same may give the prosecution leverage but it's not justice.  We defeated this bill.

HB 513 (Rust):  Permits the impoundment of the vehicle when an unlicensed driver continues to drive in violaton of the law.  For reasons I can't quite fathom, this bill has been hotly contested.  I voted "yes" and it did pass this time.

HB 728  (Albo):  Limits the conditions of pre-release for those convicted of a felony.  This bill became a huge "turf battle" as pre-release personnel lobbied against limitations on their taxpayer-subsidized services.   Commercial bail bondsmen, on the other hand, supported the bill.  I co-sponsored Albo's bill thereby earning mention in an hysterical Roanoke Times editorial  (fyi, editors, my donor history is at www.vpap.org).  In its pared-down version, the bill was a wash in terms of saving taxpayers.  Regardless, it was "carried over" on an 8-7 vote.

HB  1197 (Iaquinto):  Would require a mandatory ignition interlock device be installed on the vehicle of anyone convicted of driving under the influence. Right now, it's mandatory on second offense only.  Otherwise, it's judicial discretion.  This "all drivers" concept is complete overkill IMO and reflects what happens when single-issue advocates are allowed to dictate our criminal laws.  (e.g. "abuser fees")  The bill was defeated.

The Senate just spent a full day debating three bills sent down by Governor McDonnell regarding charter and alternative school issues. 

These bills include SB 736 (establishing College Lab schools), SB 737 (relating to charter schools) and SB 738 (relating to on-line curricula).  All three of these bills recognize a reality that education in this century will be markedly different than the desk and blackboard instruction of my youth.

There has been tremendous opposition to these bills.  Some of it is substantive and some is symbolic.  Either way, people have strong opinions about public schools, how they're funded and how the students are orgnanized.  All the historic divisions of this Commonwealth are invoked.

On the other hand, President Obama himself has endorsed these concepts -- especially charter schools -- as a means for improving schools, especially in under-performing districts.  His "Race to the Top" program allocates nearly $5 billion to states based upon their participation in innovative programs.  A few days ago, Virginia learned it would not join fifteen other states in receiving those funds.  While our weak "charter school" law was not the definitive reason for this failure, it was a relevant factor.

Here's how the process played out today ...

SB 736 (College Lab Schools) would have permitted our universities to set up "lab schools" in the community in conjunction with their Schools of Education.  Here's the problem:  our colleges don't have enough money to educate their own students.   And now they're going to open an elementary school?   I voted "no."  Regardless, the bill passed 25-15. 

SB 737 (Charter Schools) actually was mostly symbolic.  The pared-down version of the bill only changed the law in permitting the State Board of Education to play an advisory role in a charter school application.  The final decision still rests with the local School Board.  This bill passed 27-12.  I sit on the Board of a non-profit that is considering applying for a charter school.  Therefore, I recused myself from this vote pursuant to Senate Rule 36.  If I had voted, I would have voted "yes."

SB 738 (On-line schools) will have the most impact.  This legislation set up a system for the Board of Education to evaluate and regulate on-line curricula and those school divisions which establish on-line programs.   Schools are already moving this way..  This bill is a catch-up.  The bill passed 35-5.  I voted "yes."

These bills will pass the House and go to the Governor. 

In yet another attempt by the VA GOP to take this state back to the 19th century, Cuccinelli Tells Colleges that they Cannot Protect Gays from Discrimination.
What's next, will he try to bring back slavery and the 60 hour work week?

Limbaugh: "I'll Leave the US if Health Care Reform Passes."
I feel sorry for Costa Rica....

The state senator arrested leaving a gay club joined a long and illustrious tradition of double-talking, double-living conservative figures.

what version are we on, again? Whatever it is, here’s another increment:

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.

I don’t think this will get terribly far (in the near future, that is), but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Come May 4, the residents of Newport News will elect a new mayor. Joe Frank, who was the city’s first elected mayor in 1996, has decided to step down. Some say the reason is that Frank could no longer count to four: the seven member council has a relatively new coalition of four and Frank is not one of them. Emerging from that coalition is one of the two candidates for mayor. The other is McKinley Price. I had a chance to chat with him last Sunday.

McKinley L. Price is a native of the city he seeks to serve, having graduated from Huntington High School. He did his undergraduate work at nearby Hampton Institute, now Hampton University. After a stint in the military, he earned his DDS from Howard University and shortly thereafter, returned home to practice.

Although he is a first-time candidate for office, Dr. Price is no stranger to public service. He served eight years on the appointed school board, two of those years as chairman. He also served on city council, having been appointed to fulfill the unexpired term of now Delegate Mamye BaCote. He was named Citizen of the Year in 2005 by the Daily Press, a recognition that garnered him this commending joint resolution in 2006.

Newport News has a ward system, in which the city is broken down into three areas: North, Central and South. Each of the wards has different issues. Price spoke candidly about the challenges of making Newport News “what it can be.”

“We have 24 elementary schools and only four gyms,” Price told me. He would like to see more gyms, that could be used by the schools during the day and by the communities after school. He said that the city has built large recreational centers, but some of the people who would like to use them often cannot: they lack transportation to the centers and the resources to pay to use them. Looking at Richmond, Price would like to see Newport News have smaller, community-based rec centers.

“The gang problem,” Price said, “is not a police problem; it’s a community problem.” Having rec centers in the community is only a part of what Price sees as addressing the issue of gangs in Newport News. He said there are some 64 gangs in the city, with about 2,000 documented members. It was quite clear to me that helping to solve the gang problem is a passion of Price’s. He spoke at length about who the gang members are: not at all who you might expect. Price said that some of the gang members are students with 3.0 averages, who join the gangs for survival. And he made the point that the gang problem is everyone’s problem, as the gang activity is not confined to one area of the city.

And that led us to a discussion about jobs, something at the forefront of nearly everyone’s minds these days. Price spoke of the need for job creation within the city. He talked about the workforce development partnership that exists between Thomas Nelson Community College and Canon. Price serves on the board at TNCC and previously served on the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, a position to which he was appointed by then-Governor Mark Warner. Newport News has an unemployment rate of 7.7% (December 2009), which, while lower than the national rate, exceeds that of the statewide rate. If elected, Price plans to pursue other such arrangements for Newport News.

Overall, my impression of Price is that he has the background to serve the diverse interests of the city well. His quick wit, combined with a good grasp of the issues and a commitment to listening to – and acting upon – citizen input make him a solid choice for mayor.

Dr. Price will be having a campaign kickoff this coming Saturday, March 13, at 1pm at the American Legion Post 368. The event is free and open to the public. More details can be found on this flier.

Just a note to let folks know that the administration and content of Rockdem is being handed off to three good friends.  I've got some other directions to pursue for a while.

Best to all!

By the time Virginia Senator Mark Warner arrived today at the University of Mary Washington’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies, University Hall was already pushing well past “standing room only” capacity … the line to enter had started forming by 6 a.m. and by 8:30 UMW’s parking lots were filled … Senator Warner saw thousands standing in line who would experience wait times to enter the building from a minimum of two to over three hours …

By 12:15 Senator Warner’s office was sending out emails to people who had RSVP’d but were not already in line advising:

“Thank you for your interest in today’s federal job fair in Fredericksburg hosted by Senator Mark Warner.

The interest and turn-out at today’s event has been tremendous — so tremendous, in fact, that participants are encountering lengthy lines and extensive wait-times at the event site.

We will make every effort to accommodate the individuals who presently are on-site, but it is unlikely that new arrivals will be able to access the job fair before its scheduled completion at 4:00 p.m. today.

We will work with the federal agency representatives to schedule an additional job fair in the area in coming weeks, and we will inform you of the specific details when they become available.

Thanks again for your interest in today’s job fair, and please be sure to visit our website for more information.

Best,
Senator Mark Warner’s Office

Fed Audit Bitterly Opposed By Treasury

It doesn't matter what party that you affiliate with, this should be a huge outrage. The Treasury's opposition is a total cover-up of Fed elitism and control of our government, and taxpayer abuse.

Palin admits to frequent crossing of the border to pimp the Canadian "socialist" medical system

You have to be the biggest IDIOT to believe or trust this classless attention seeker....

• Sacramento Bee: Sen. Roy Ashburn—'I'm gay' Gay-hating Republican senator turns out to be gay. What a cliché. (tags: republican gay)
• The Globe and Mail: Sarah Palin sees eye-to-eye with Albertans in Calgary speech Palin on growing up in Alaska: "We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada." (tags: palin healthcare)
• Politico: Republicans scold Liz Cheney Prominent conservative attorneys are going after Liz Cheney's "Keep America Safe," the witch-hunt group that she's started to keep her father out of jail. The group's thesis is that any attorney who has represented a Guantanamo detainee is an enemy of the U.S. That's some of the most heinously anti-American conservative bullshit that's been served up in the past eight years. I'd thought that Republicans had wised up as to the foolishness of this argument, but apparently not everybody has gotten the memo. (tags: cheney republican terrorism)
• White House: President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts The president has named Edward Tufte as the guy in charge of quantifying economic recovery spending for public consumption. This is six kinds of awesome. I own all of Tufte's books on displaying data visually, and I'm a big fan. (tags: statistics president)

I arrived at the Powhatan Wildlife Management Area at around noon last Saturday to hunt starlings. In my company was Bob, my father in law; Tanya, a vegan anthopology student who is finding out what's wrong with us studying us; and Paul Fritz, a gun-tinkering blacksmith who usually serves as our range safety officer for my deer hunting classes. We unloaded the shotguns and packs and waited for the rest of our group.

Scott, a former student of ours (and the first alumnus to get a deer), pulled into the parking lot and walked over to greet the rest of our hunting party. As he approached, we noticed that he had a 9mm handgun on his hip.

Paul cocked his head and spoke. "That 9mm is a little light for starlings, don't you think? What if they all rush you at once?"

"Always remember to save the last round for yourself," I added.

Somehow that pistol ended up back in Scott's car before the hunt began.

I am on a quest to establish the hunting of invasive European starlings as a practice as common as dove hunting in America. In the interest of doing this, I need to bag a bunch of starlings and come up with palatable recipes for them.

My rationale in hunting the Powhatan WMA was that last season's dove fields might still have enough grain on the ground, hidden under the snow since mid-December, that large flocks of starlings would be attracted to the site. What I was looking for were the mega-flocks of thousands of birds that snake across the sky like a biblical plague.

I wanted as many hunters as possible, my logic being that there would be long periods of nothing in the sky followed by the sudden appearances of these massive flocks in a situation where we'd need to put as much shot in the air as possible for a minute or two before they were gone.

The good news is that I was indeed half right. There were in fact the long periods of nothing happening, precisely as I'd predicted. The bad news is that these long periods of nothing happening were punctuated more by a growing sense of hopelessness and failure than by gigantic flocks of starlings per se.

We saw bluebirds, turkey vultures, ducks, sparrows and a lone turkey. Precious few starlings. Still, it was a nice day a-field and I suppose that from an anthropological perspective Tanya got just as much out of it as she would have if we'd have bagged 100 birds. The only actual starling was spotted by the keen eye of Scott, who missed it since he was still new to shotgunning. In retrospect, he'd probably have hit the thing if he'd used the 9mm.

Naturally as we drove off we saw a huge flock of between 3 and 5 thousand birds snake their way directly over our car.

Starlings are everywhere around my office in downtown Charlottesville but shooting at them is frowned upon. In an urban setting I think that traps of some sort could work well and Paul and I intend to do some experiments in that direction. The pursuit of the large swarms of starlings with shotguns is still worthwhile, I think. Better locations for future hunts will probably be agricultural land. Dairy farms where large amounts of feed are spread out in the open on a daily basis for the cows will also tend to attract huge flocks and the farm owners will probably appreciate some help in being rid of them.

I had hoped to be cooking starling meat every night for the rest of this week and obviously this has been a bit of a set-back. Meanwhile, if anyone reading this in central Virginia has a large tract of land with a constant starling problem then I would love to hear from you.

[Photo used courtesy of Midlander1231 under Creative Commons license]

Yesterday was the first "spring" day of the year.  I had the family down and we spent most the afternoon exploring Richmond, including Shockoe Bottom and the State Capitol grounds. 

In the afternoon, I ran down Grove Avenue to Libbie Avenue and back.  For the first time, there were outdoor diners to heckle me. 

Got into the GA office early today (about 6 a.m.)  Lots of bills left to vote on in committee and on the floor.  Also conference committees will be forming this week to deal with disputed bills.  So far, I haven't been assigned to any but that will surely change.

1982 Biograph Naturals

Each year the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament is a blessing during the month of March. It helps get basketball junkies, like me, through those last icy days of winter.

Of course, to be a junkie in full bloom one must still play the game. Since I quit playing basketball in 1994, I’ve been a junkie in recovery. Yes, I’ll always miss the way a perfectly-released jump shot felt as it left my fingertips. Nothing has replaced the satisfaction that came from stealing the ball from an opponent, just as he stumbled over his hubris.

Covering college basketball, as a writer, has helped to soothe my basketball jones. Since the improvisational aspect of basketball always appealed to me, especially, I like to pay particular attention to players who have a special knack for seizing the moment.

While basketball is in some ways a finesse game, there are brutal truths to be reckoned with. Although I’ve heard people claim that we can’t remember pain, I’ve not completely forgotten what it felt like to dislocate my right ankle on April 20, 1985; I was undercut on a fast break lay-up.

Take it from me, dear reader, popping your foot off your leg hurts too much to forget -- think James Cann in “Misery” (1990). To say that fateful event changed me physically is an understatement; the foot still feels like it’s attached to the rest of me at the wrong angle -- slightly the wrong place. More about that later.

There years before that injury, my then-34-year-old nose was broken in the course of a basketball game (March 4, 1982). As painful and infuriating as that experience was in the moment, the next day it turned out to be a lucky break.

In that time, the Biograph Theatre, which I managed, had a team in a league called the Central Basketball Alliance. Other teams were sponsored by The Track, Soble’s, Hababa’s, The Jade Elephant, deTreville, etc. Personnel-wise, it was an off-shoot of the Fan District Softball League, with some of the same characters. But with the basketball league there was no pot-smoking or beer-drinking going on in the gym … during the games.

The morning after my nose was bashed in by an opponent’s upwardly thrust elbow (while I was coming down from a failed attempt at a rebound), I went to Stuart Circle Hospital for treatment.

My nose wasn’t just broken, it had been split open at the bridge in three or four ways. The emergency room doc used Super Glue and a butterfly clamp to put it all back together. (It’s a little worse for wear, but it still works.)

Then, while I was waiting around in the lobby to sign some papers, my grandmother (Villa Emily Collins Owen) was wheeled by, stretched out on a hospital bed. As I grew up in her home and was still very close to her, it had the same shock effect as accidentally seeing one’s parent in such an unexpected context.

We spoke briefly. She said she was feeling a little weak from a cold and wanted to spend the night in the hospital. Pretending to ignore my gripping sense of panic, I calmly assured Nana (pronounced Ny-nuh) I’d be back during visiting hours, to see how she was doing. Six decades before that day she had trained to be a nurse at Stuart Circle.

Later I took my then-12-year-old daughter, Katey, with me, when I went back to see Nana. The doctor came in her room and told us she’d be fine with a good night’s rest. As Katey and I are both frustrated stand-up comics, we spent a half-hour making 83-year-old Nana laugh as best she could … feeling a little weak.

Nana died in the middle of that same night.

Katey and I wouldn’t have had that last visit with Nana, had luck not interposed a fate-changing spark. Nana would have sneaked into that hospital without telling anyone, if she could have. That was her nature. Seated at her mother’s piano, Nana could improvise endlessly on just about any tune.

Which means I have to say the palooka who elbowed me in that basketball game did me a favor. Perhaps in more ways than one.

In order to keep playing in the Biograph’s games in that season, I needed to protect my still-tender beak, while it healed. So, I got one of those protective aluminum nose-guards I’d seen players wear. It was a primitive version of the clear plastic masks in use today.

As a kid, I saw NBA great Jerry West wearing such a broken-nose-protector in a Southern Conference game, when he was playing his college ball at West Virginia. It impressed the 12-year-old version of me to no end, how tough and focused West was.

Wearing what was to me a Jerry West mask, I played the rest of the CBA season -- maybe five more games. Now I believe that period was about the best basketball I ever played.

Not wanting another whack to the nose made me a little more careful. More purposeful. On defense, I got lower and kept my hands up and extended a little extra. On offense my moves were slightly more planned, more under control. I didn’t know it until then, but that’s exactly what my game needed. I tweaked it to initiate more and rely a little less on being a counter-puncher.

The team didn’t lose another game that year; the Biograph Naturals won the league’s championship. It has taken the passing of time for me to realize that in testing my nerve, in a fashion after the way West tested his, I had been living out a dream.

Eventually, I also came to see how much my art matured in the year after the aforementioned ankle injury. While I was on crutches I designed and pasted -up the first SLANT (a local newsletter/magazine I published for nine years). Those artistic breakthroughs for me were facilitated by that injury.

And, although I thought I’d never play basketball after I got off the crutches, like a junkie, I played another nine years. For decades, it seems that I absolutely needed what basketball gave me. Then, it seems, a time came I needed to live a spell on crutches.

How much had my own hubris contributed to making that broken nose inevitable?

The college players I write about love the hyper-reality of playing in an important game. They’re hooked on basketball and can hardly imagine the day they will call it quits. They can’t let themselves be much concerned with the awkward landings and dislocations that are an inevitable part of what the game has in store for its junkies.

As fast as the Division I college game moves, the best of its improvisers see it slow-mo vision, when they need to.

The weather is supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. Yes, it’s not February, any more. The Ides of March brings us brackets to ponder … break a leg.

-- 30 --

-- Words by F.T. Rea; photo by Larry Rohr.

Gotcha! McDonnell moves from promises to rhetoric...
Dems in disarray with shallow bench.

On issues synonymous with his landslide victory, McDonnell may be signaling, as he shifts from the discipline of the campaign to the disconnectedness of governance, that rhetoric can be more important than results.

Don't count on Democrats, though, to point this out. Their wilderness years, just beginning, are complicated by erratic, disjointed leadership, coalition-rattling suspicions and a shallow, shallow bench.

The General Assembly went along with McDonnell, pledging for transportation phantom revenues from offshore drilling. The dollars may never be seen, at least on McDonnell's watch, because of any manner of wrinkles, one of which is the telling silence of oil companies. If we drill, will they come? Really?

Pumping out a lot of hot air potentially creates the appearance of momentum for McDonnell, never mind he was warned as a candidate by a prominent Hampton Roads economist who studied the dollars and sense of offshore drilling, former Old Dominion University President James Koch, that he risks overstating the supposed windfall from exploration.

Read more from RTD

Each Monday morning during the men's college basketball regular season, SLANTblog will publish its new Virginia Top Five. For the third consecutive season this feature will attempt to rank what seems at the moment to be the best five teams from among the 14 Division I programs in the Commonwealth. Only games against Division I opponents are counted in won/loss records.

SLANTblog's VA Top Five

1. Richmond (24-7, 13-3 in A-10, No. 24 RPI)
2. ODU (25-8, 2-0 in CAA Tournament, No. 33 RPI)
3. Va. Tech (23-7, 10-6 in ACC, No. 50 RPI)
4. Wm. & Mary (21-9, 2-0 in CAA Tournament, No. 56 RPI)
5. VCU (22-9, 2-1 in CAA Tournament, No. 65 RPI)

Note: This rating feature puts more weight on the results of recent games than it does on games played in Nov. and Dec. Whereas, computerized RPIs are obliged to see all games as equal. Since the last Top Five (Mar. 1): Richmond went 2-0 to stay No. 1; ODU went 2-0 stay No. 2; Va. Tech went 2-o to stay No. 3; Wm. & Mary went 2-0 to stay No. 4; VCU went 2-1 to stay No. 5. Note: Wm. & Mary faces ODU tonight in the CAA Tournament Championship.

The 62nd Annual Shad Planking will be held on Wednesday, April 21, beginning at 2pm at the Wakefield Sportsman’s Club. The formal event starts at 4pm and the speaker will be former Senator and former Governor George Allen.

Tickets are $20 if purchased before April 1 and $25 thereafter.

Wright at McCain/Palin Rally - Virginian Pilot

… who needs enemies?

The photo at left shows Norfolk Councilman Randy Wright at a McCain/Palin rally. Sitting next to him is Pam Brown, the president of the Norfolk Republican Party, and, I’m told, one of the co-chairs of his campaign. In the blog post which accompanies the photo, Pilot writer Kerry Dougherty calls him “McAuliffe’s man.” But once McAuliffe lost the primary, Wright supported Republican Bob McDonnell.

From Sunday’s Compass, the Norfolk insert in The Virginian-Pilot:

Wright has been endorsed by every constitutional officer in the city

All of the constitutional officers in Norfolk call themselves Democrats.

Smigiel is a longtime Democrat with wide support in the party, yet Sen. Mark Warner, arguably the state’s most prominent Democrat, will host a fundraising event for Wright in Norfolk on March 19.

Tommy Smigiel has been working on campaigns since he was 15, including those of the current constitutional officers. He was a paid staffer on Mark Warner’s 2001 gubernatorial campaign.

I was about to call out the Norfolk City Democratic Committee for not endorsing one of their own, like the Newport News DC did when they endorsed in the mayoral race there. As it turns out, a close reading of the Virginia Democratic Party Plan (doc) shows that the section which deals with ousting of party members when they support another candidate (Sec. 10.8) only comes into play if the candidate is the party nominee. Most Hampton Roads localities prohibit, by city charter, partisan council elections, the result being that there are never any party nominees. This loophole needs to be closed. The Party Plan should treat endorsees just like nominees.

Yes, Smigiel has wide support in the Party, even if those at the top choose to support someone else. Smigiel has wide support – period – and with our help, will be victorious on May 4.  Help him out.

Now – does that video below make more sense?

"Last year, with the help of Recovery Act investments, we increased wind power capacity by nearly 40 percent. According to the American Wind Energy Institute, in 2009, the U.S. wind industry announced, expanded or brought online 38 new manufacturing facilities." Steven Chu


From the New York Times:

Despite a crippling recession and tight credit markets, the American wind power industry grew at a blistering pace in 2009, adding 39 percent more capacity. The country is close to the point where 2 percent of its electricity will come from wind turbines.


The American Wind Energy Association, in its annual report to be released on Tuesday, said the amount of capacity added last year, 9,900 megawatts, was the largest on record, and was 18 percent above the capacity added in 2008, also a banner year.


The group said the growth of wind power was helped by the federal stimulus package that passed a year ago, which extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry.


But the growth could be slow...

On Saturday afternoon the VCU Rams defeated the George Mason Patriots at the Richmond Coliseum by a score of 75-60.

For more information about that game and plenty of CAA coverage click here to visit the Fan District Hub.

-- Video by F.T. Rea

One of the few bright spots of principle in the Obama Administration had been its insistance that the American justice system was not outclassed by terrorists.  And now, it seems that Obama’s inability to stand up to even the weakest of criticism has the administration reconsidering.  LG&M suggests the proper response:

It’s every bit as illegitmate for the White House to order Holder what to do in this matter as it was for Richard Nixon to order Elliott Richardson to fire Archibald Cox. Barack Obama (let alone his messenger boy Emanuel — or is the other way around?) is not the nation’s chief law enforcement officer: Eric Holder is. Holder has spent the last three months telling everyone that considerations of basic justice argued for trying KSM in our regular courts, rather than in military tribunals set up for the purpose of disposing of particularly troublesome criminal cases.