Norfolk City Council: 3/8/11

Change is in the Air By Tommy Smigiel With the arrival of spring in the next few weeks, Norfolk’s new city manager has already started some spring cleaning.  The addition of Marcus Jones to city hall has added a new and refreshing approach to the way business is conducted.  In the few short weeks he … Continue reading Norfolk City Council: 3/8/11 →

American Idol Results 03/03/11

American Idol took a weird turn with its results show Thursday night. Based  on the voting Tuesday and Wednesday night, ten of the top 24 contestants were placed into the top 10. The remaining fourteen contestants were put into a wildcard round. The judges then selected six of the 14 for a final sing-off. From … Continue reading American Idol Results 03/03/11 →

Not a bad year, all things considered

By Steve Vaughan The 2011 regular session of the Virginia General Assembly is in the books. Compared to recent years, I'd say the legislature did pretty well. Sure, they took an extra day to get the budget worked out, but that happens more often than not these days. And it's not really partisan gridlock that … Continue reading Not a bad year, all things considered →

Norfolk informal meetings recorded

The fine folks at AltDaily have decided to record and post videos of the informal meetings of the Norfolk City Council. Most of the work gets done in these sessions, but so far, council has refused to broadcast them. I hope the headline from The Virginian-Pilot story is true - that AltDaily will be streaming … Continue reading Norfolk informal meetings recorded →

Power instead of governance

A tip of the hat to Del. Albert Pollard, whose resignation (pdf) provided some much-needed inspiration for my latest op-ed.  And congratulations to the General Assembly, whose unanimous passage of the budget gave me hope that it is possible to put politics aside and do what is right by the people.

Throwing out the baby with the bath water

OK, so the news side of The Virginian-Pilot let an article slip through that read more like an opinion than news. Mistakes happen and the editor acknowledged it.  But that's not enough for some people. As I read through the comments over there, I was surprised at the folks who said they didn't subscribe to … Continue reading Throwing out the baby with the bath water →

March: Women’s History Month

March is Women's History Month. I hope to have a chance to write some posts but if February's Black History Month posts are any indication, don't bet on it 😦 You might enjoy an earlier article I wrote about the Virginia's role in the struggle of women obtaining the right to vote. Happy Tuesday! Only … Continue reading March: Women’s History Month →

Monday this and that

Been one of those days 😦 Time for a few links. Seems the General Assembly managed to pass a budget yesterday.  The vote was, amazingly enough, unanimous. I'm not so sure what to think of that. I'd like to think it means that the negotiators actually compromised to do the best they could by the … Continue reading Monday this and that →

Norfolk City Council: 3/1/11

By Tommy Smigiel Sorry for the delay on posting the agenda items for this Tuesday.  I had some difficulty downloading the agendas and some of the item specifics were deleted by accident from my drop box.  City Council was off last week, and this week doesn't offer anything exciting on the agenda.  Some may question … Continue reading Norfolk City Council: 3/1/11 →