Yearly Archives: 2020

Inmates fight to be safe

Posted on April 21, 2020 at 9:00 am by John Flannery |

Aman Singh Lail, from Loudoun County, is an inmate at Deerfield Correctional facility and we’ve asked for a pardon from the state so that he may avoid the deathly virus infecting our prisons and jail.

Aman is one of many in our prisons and jails at risk because the coronavirus has made these facilities unsafe.

I’ve asked the State to release Aman from prison since they can’t protect him from the disease.

At our local jail, and jails across the Commonwealth, authorities are releasing some inmates who are serving time while leaving in custody those who are only accused of committing a crime.

We might consider the fact that very few crimes either charged or resulting in conviction provide for severe illness or death as an appropriate punishment. Continue reading →

Fighting to Save the Family Farm

Posted on March 10, 2020 at 8:13 am by John Flannery |

Lovettsville’s Chris Van Vlack

Lovettsville’s Chris Van Vlack, the President of the Farm Bureau, and the Urban/Ag Conservationist for the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District, has been fighting to save Loudoun County Farming from shrinking any more than it already has.

The way to do so, Chris says, is an agriculture task force that goes beyond Loudoun’s concerns and cooperates with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG). Continue reading →

The Harmony of David Updegrove

Posted on February 18, 2020 at 9:16 am by John Flannery |

Kevin Rudy, Bob Rodriquez, Dave Updegrove, and Ray Sitter

David Graham Updegrove had a bass singing voice that was crooner smooth and comforting to hear.

In his “real life,” David mostly worked the numbers on spreadsheets in long columns, recognizing the significance that any history of numbers means for a going concern and to the many divisions of tax officials.

Continue reading →

On the the Senate – to try Trump

Posted on January 14, 2020 at 10:02 am by John Flannery |

I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

A. IMPEACHMENT PREP BY THE HOUSE.

The “delay” in passing the articles of impeachment from the House to the Senate is “timely enough.”

Whatever advantage may have been obtained by Speaker Pelosi, by withholding the articles of impeachment until mid-January, I expect that the time was used:

a. To identify and prepare the managers,
b. To assign critical roles to try the case,
c. To draft the written and oral arguments to launch the prosecution at the Senate trial,
d. To prepare to present the evidence the House already found proving the articles of abuse and obstruction beyond any reasonable doubt. and, I hope,
e. The leadership and managers prepared a ground game to attack the unfair trial that the Senate Majority Leader has planned for the impeachment trial.

[The articles of impeachment]

B. THE DELAY OBTAINED SOME ADVANTAGES.

No question, Speaker Pelosi’s delay over the congressional recess, scared Senate Majority Leader McConnell to jump the gun, and say outright he was going to protect Trump at the trial. You don’t usually get a tribunal to confess it’s bias against your cause.

Next up, there’s Trump, who is so strong when bullying, but characteristically cowardly in defense. Continue reading →