Legal matters: How court rulings will affect the 2016 elections

Although it’s not something most voters tend to notice, Virginia’s upcoming congressional and presidential elections have already, to a surprising large degree, been shaped and remolded by a number of crucial court rulings (with one of the biggest still to come). The first of these legal battles began way back in 2010, when the General […]

Pols gone wild: Watch what you share, people!

Well, here we are in the thick of the congressional election season, with strivers from both parties jostling and jockeying to grab one of the limited number of golden tickets to the halls of political power. This is, it goes without saying, one of our favorite times of the electoral cycle, as the probability of […]

Trumped: Whoops! There goes the election

Greetings, dear readers. Before we dive mirthfully into the fact that Donald John Trump is now the de facto Republican presidential nominee, we’d like to hop into the wayback machine and take a quick trip to the evening of Saturday, April 30, when Republican Party of Virginia state convention attendees gathered to approve a slate […]

Drop the mic: The legislative season comes to a welcome end

We would like to dedicate this edition of our humble column to a brave and tenacious young man: the awesomely named Gavin Grimm, who has (thus far) triumphed in the face of unrelenting adversity and intolerance to champion a basic human right: to pee in peace and comfort. A junior at Gloucester High School, Gavin […]

A sorry state: Things could always be worse

Imagine, if you will, an alternate reality version of our beautiful commonwealth. A bizarro Virginia where Ken Cuccinelli won the governorship in 2013, and E.W. “Yoga is a tool of Satan” Jackson was elected lieutenant governor. Now imagine that this dynamic duo were in charge when Senate Bill 41, which would exempt religious organizations from […]

President Clinton: Get used to it, folks

Okay, we’re calling it. As of this moment, it is virtually guaranteed that Hillary Clinton will be the 45th president of the United States. She has an almost insurmountable delegate lead over her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders, and even if she should lose every remaining primary and caucus, the Dems’ lack of winner-take-all states makes […]

And away we go… Everybody back in the pool!

Ah, January in the capitol, when Virginia’s legislators swarm in from all corners of the commonwealth for the annual General Assembly session, bringing along the petty grudges and crackpot bills they’ve managed to generate over the previous year. And every year we sit in anticipation, just waiting for the next intemperate floor speech or ill-considered […]

Opinion: Deadly numbers and weak laws

A year ago in April, a UVA student nearly shot his neighbor, a UVA law student, when he accidentally fired his AK-47 through his wall and into the next apartment. Because the judge didn’t find enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn’t simply an accident and not a criminal act, charges were dismissed, but […]