Falls Church and Northern Virginia's Premier Weekly Newspaper Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Mother’s Day is this Sunday. I look forward to this day every year. My children are well aware that I have certain expectations regarding their role in celebrating this institution, though this doesn’t eliminate their occasional lapses. Not surprisingly since all of my children are now adults with deep progressive […]
I have always been an activist and an advocate, and a firm believer in educating those around me about the value of raising your voice to create change. Raising my voice in advocacy was my path to running for the Fairfax County School Board. The year before I decided to […]
It is profoundly disappointing to Democrats in the General Assembly to be focused on negotiations with Republicans on budgetary priorities, while so much our attention is seems inevitably to be drawn to the painful shortcomings of our state leaders.
The 2019 Virginia Legislative session began at noon on Wednesday. There are a number of highly consequential decisions we will take up during this session, including moving forward on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution, voting rights, the environment and education. Many key decisions follow from […]
This Sunday I had the pleasure of hosting the Late Autumn Launch of the Blue Wave, a coalition of grassroots activist groups who dedicated themselves to changing the composition of the House of Delegates in the 2017 election. They succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations by electing so many new Delegates that […]
As a member of the Joint Health Care Commission, I requested a two year study on the Medical Aid in Dying legislation being adopted by a notable number of states across the country. My question was: What has been the outcome of this legislation? Is this a step that we […]
I frequently contact elected officials urging action on issues that I believe are important to all of us. Here is an example: Dear Mr. President: I am writing to respectfully urge you to resettle at least 75,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2019. The United States is a generous country with […]
Friends, I have recently searched the Constitution of Virginia for any language describing a Virginian”s right to clean air and unpolluted water. Here is what I found (it may be dense, but definitely worth wading through): “Article XI.Section 1. To the end that the people have clean air, pure water, […]
I have joined Virginia Interfaith Power and Light in their letter-writing campaign urging our Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the State Air Pollution Control Board to deny issuing the air pollution permit for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) Buckingham County/Union Hill compressor station. The proposed 54,000+ horsepower ACP […]
While we all are celebrating the passage of the new state budget which expands Medicaid eligibility to an estimated 400,000 uninsured working Virginians, and thus allows us to increase funding in education and mental health, while raising the salaries of teachers, first responders and state employees with the resulting savings. […]
