Del. Pollard's column
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Delegate Albert Pollard, Jr., represents the 99th District, which
consists of the counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond,
Westmoreland, King George and a portion of Caroline, in Virginia’s
House of Delegates. You may contact his office in Lancaster Courthouse
at (804) 462-5940 or visit his website at www.albertpollard.com. |
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Last week, I focused on the correction to state law that is needed for an upcoming session of the General Assembly. The correction is needed because a new Supreme Court ruling essentially says that state DNA forensic lab technicians would be required to testify in every one of the 100,000+ cases involving every piece of evidence they process or instruments they calibrate each year.
The ensuing court backlog could essentially create a miscarriage of justice by gumming up the court system. In order to be effective for society, criminal courts must be quick enough to have a reasonable nexus of time between the crime and criminal sentence.
The other end of the scale is that when a person is wrongly sentenced, they should have reasonably quick access to the restitution which is due those who have paid a debt they never owed.
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Circumstances for Special Session |
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Being a citizen legislature means, by its very definition, that we don’t meet full time. By extension, every now and an issue crops up mid-year which requires a special session just because of the circumstances of the subject, as opposed to a special session called because the Governor wants a specific subject addressed by the legislature.
The last special session we had that was called because of the circumstances of the subject was in 2004 - a clerical error from the regular session earlier that year erased a double negative reference to “blue laws” which meant many Virginia companies would not be able to operate on Sundays.
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A couple of years ago, when I was on hiatus from the General Assembly, I was at one of the local grocery stores and struck up a conversation with the clerk. After saying that she recognized me, I suggested that maybe we had gone to school together or that we lived on the same end of the county – knowing full well that my picture had been in the local paper nearly every week during the previous six years as delegate.
Finally the woman snapped her fingers and said, ‘I’ve got it! You work bingo sometimes up at the firehouse, don’t you?’
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Summer is here – humid days, hot sun and lots of mosquitoes. All three of these can be temporarily dispelled by a quick swim in the river…unless, of course, you are visiting one of the local state parks.
Upon reading the signs posted along the shoreline – which are required by the Richmond central office, it prompted me to send the following request for an opinion from our Attorney General:
Dear Attorney General Mims,
I am writing to request an Attorney General’s opinion regarding Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation’s policy of only allowing state park visitors to wade into the public waters which are adjacent to certain Virginia parks. This ‘no swimming’ policy is, while perhaps well intentioned, in my mind, ‘nanny-istic’. More importantly, I fail to recognize the statutory authority by which any riparian owner can prohibit activity in publicly owned waters, or on publicly owned bottom land.
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During the national healthcare debate, there is an important statistic to remember: the #1 injury for Northern Virginian’s on Saturday and Sunday mornings is a bagel cut. That is, folks put a bagel in their palm and slice the knife towards their hand. This is not a mistake that Northern Necker’s make.
This does visualize, however, much of the cost around healthcare. A relatively minor injury can have huge costs. The same hospital emergency room that can mend a bagel cut can also be used to perform open heart surgery or emergency c-sections. In addition, the same staff that can clean and apply a butterfly dressing, can operate the defibrillator and assist an ER physician performing a tracheotomy. And, of course, there is insurance that covers it all.
Enter “Minute Clinics”.
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I think that really SUCKS< Even Thou-The Cem...
