News

“Thank YOU, friend” — that was the message from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to Randi Weingarten, head of the nation’s second-largest teachers union. Earlier, Weingarten convinced Walensky to water down language about the ability of schools to reopen following extended COVID-related closures, after which Weingarten thanked the CDC director for the revisions.

In the exchanges between Weingarten and Walensky, the union boss objected to draft language stating that “all schools can provide in-person instruction.” After Weingarten’s objection, the CDC revised the language to read, “all schools have options to provide in-person instruction.”

Whether it is combatting addiction or standing up for freedom, the American Miracle has a fighter in Jason Miyares.

Last week, TRS was able to sit down and talk with Attorney General Jason Miyares (R-VA) about the challenges he is facing from opioid and fentanyl abuse to the FBI Richmond’s targeting of Catholics in the public square.

Miyares — a longstanding conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and a leading thinker in his own right — shares his convictions.

Last week, I attended the Safety and Security community meeting at South Lakes High School facilitated by Superintendent Reid and Safety and Security Director Tom Vaccarello. With the FCPS four-page information sheet in hand, I listened to the presentation and responses to audience questions. 

What was evident to me is there are extensive security vulnerabilities across Fairfax County Public Schools.

A year-long, independent, third-party security review is supposed to complete in July.

As a veteran, I am deeply troubled by recent comments made by School Board member Melanie Meren, as reported in the Fairfax Times on May 18, 2023. Meren suggested removing artwork depicting the American flag from Gatehouse, the School Board office building, due to personal triggers. This remark struck a chord within me, stirring a strong emotional response.

Throughout my military service, I dedicated myself to defending the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all, alongside the protection of the fundamental right to free speech. These rights, enshrined in the Constitution, find their embodiment in the revered symbol of the American flag.

Drawing from Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address, the following video lauds the “will and moral courage of free men and women” who are now memorialized with “simple white markers” etched with crosses or Stars of David in Arlington National Cemetery:

“Each one of those markers is a monument to the kinds of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.”

Attorney General Miyares led a coalition of 23 States in filing an amicus brief in Florida v. Mayorkas, supporting the State of Florida’s lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s unlawful immigration policy, creating a dangerous crisis at our southern border. Rather than detaining illegal immigrants as the law requires, the Biden Administration has released those cited at the border into the United States. This policy flagrantly violates federal immigration law and encourages immigrants to try and cross the border illegally, hoping to be released into the interior.

In a 2-1 split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board.  The district court had ruled in February 2022 that the Fairfax County School Board’s revision of admissions criteria for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”) were adopted with the intent to, and effect of, reducing the proportion of Asian Americans in the student body, thereby violating the “equal protection of the laws” guarantee of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Mary Pauline Jones — beloved daughter, friend, and public servant — passed away on May 15, 2023. She was 36 years old.

A Fairfax native, Mary Pauline served as a Board Member on the Fairfax Transportation Advisory Commission and the Fairfax Area Disability Services Board. Her diverse career included work for the U.S. House Government Oversight and Reform Committee as well as the Office of Supervisor Pat Herrity.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held Tuesday at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Herndon. “Mary Pauline will be dearly missed by her family and friends who will always remember her as a patriotic, adventurous, fun loving, thoughtful, and caring person,” her obituary reads.

Eighteen months after Glenn Youngkin and Virginia Republicans rode Terry McAuliffe’s condescending and dismissive comments on parents to the governor’s mansion and a majority in the House of Delegates, Democrats still haven’t learned their lesson.

Less than two weeks ago, State Senator Monty Mason and Delegate Shelly Symonds were caught on a hot mic belittling parental rights legislation killed by progressives in the State Senate.

May 15 was Peace Officers Memorial Day, established to honor all law enforcement professionals who sacrificed their lives to protect others. The entire week of May 14 – 20 is National Police Week. “Too often, Fairfax County’s rank-and-file law enforcement officers have been unfairly devalued and even demonized by ideological zealots,” Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts said today. “Our county’s men and women in blue deserve our thanks and our support.”

Governor Glenn Youngkin honored the Commonwealth’s law enforcement officers during a ceremony in Virginia Beach. “May God protect and bless Virginia’s law enforcement professionals and their families,” the governor tweeted on Thursday.

A man wielding a metal bat assaulted two staffers on Monday inside the Fairfax office of Congressman Gerry Connolly. The suspect was arrested and later identified as 49-year-old Xuan-Kha Tran Pham. The motive for Monday’s attack is currently unknown.

“All of us were shocked and outraged to learn of today’s attack in Fairfax. Our hearts go out to Congressman Connolly, his staff, and their loved ones,” Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts said Monday afternoon. “Everyone — whether a public servant or private citizen — deserves to feel safe in their place of employment.”

Good news, Virginians! Virginia has withdrawn its membership from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-profit, multi-state partnership that purports to keep voter rolls ‘clean and updated,’ but could better be defined as a partisan mass voter registration effort funded by unsuspecting taxpayers.

Virginia now joins seven other states (Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Alabama, Ohio, and Iowa) which have also terminated their contracts with ERIC over the last few months.