SPOTSYLVANIA ALERT FOR BOOK BURNERS
The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office and fire department will maintain a presence at the next School Board meeting as a response to a book burning event scheduled by a local Facebook group, according to a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, which was warned that such an event violates fire codes. The group Spotsy 411 posted the event Nov. 22, urging Spotsylvania parents to have their children check out books from the school library that they want to see removed, and bring them to the Dec. 13 School Board meeting, where “we will burn every last one of them.” The event disappeared from the page Nov. 25 and the page was no longer published on Facebook as of Nov. 28.
Spotsy 411 also posted the names and workplaces of all school division employees who spoke at the Nov. 15 School Board meeting in opposition to the board’s decision to remove “sexually explicit” books from library shelves without following established policy for challenging library materials. The board later rescinded the vote to pull the books.
Can Democratic witches be far behind?
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CHASING THE STEAL
Days before Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election, state Sen. Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) claimed she knew how Democrats were “cheating” and that the information had been shared with Glenn Youngkin’s campaign.
Attorney General Mark Herring asked Chase to hand over any evidence of election fraud she claimed to have with his office, saying in an Oct. 28 statement that she was required to provide it to the authorities “rather than secretively sharing” it with political allies. In a text message on Nov. 4, Chase said, “the right people already have the information” and she would be releasing a full election report. No such information has been presented to the governor-elect, Virginia’s next attorney general, Jason Miyares, or Herring’s office.
Chase said that she has brought together a coalition of experts, including “data engineers and scientists,” to work on the election report but it won’t be ready until after Youngkin and Miyares are inaugurated. “It’s pretty comprehensive. It’s very technical in nature,” Chase said of the report. “It’s a lot of information to digest.”
Keep on keepin’ on, Amanda.
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OPINION PAYOLA
A columnist with the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press has been let go after the publication of a story detailing payments he received from Dominion Energy, over $60,000 per year from 2017 through 2020.
The columnist wrote regular, signed columns for the papers on and off for almost two decades alongside a biography that noted he’d previously worked for Dominion Energy, PepsiCo, and other corporate groups. In addition to his columns, he also wrote some of the editorial boards’ unsigned editorials, including some of at least seven editorials published last year that defended or lauded Dominion Energy, one the most influential political groups in Richmond. .
The Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement on Oct. 4 expressing “deep concerns” over the unsigned editorials, which they viewed as a “conflict of interest and a breach of journalistic ethics” given that the columnist was paid by Dominion during the same period.
He said he had not collected payments for his work for the newspapers in recent years, and that he was financially secure without the income, and viewed his editorial contributions as a way to help the struggling papers.
It’s a slippery slope. Transparency is best.
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