IN THE NEWS:

The new fiscal year has started, and there's still no budget amendments coming out of the General Assembly--which means no funding for any new laws, including the bipartisan mental health initiative passed last year. Plus, that $180 million hole in the education budget is still causing problems...and neither Republicans nor Democrats seem incentivized to blink or negotiate.

Fairfax County's police department has converted its store of largely-unused shotguns into less-lethal beanbag guns, meant to surprise and stun without killing the target. While that might mean safer encounters, it might also cause cops to be more likely to draw their weapon in an encounter.

At the Watercooler:
- Efforts to legalize marijuana in Virginia seem dead in the water
- Pod Virginia is now on Threads!

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope  

I'm Michael Pope.

Thomas Bowman  

I'm Tom Bowman.

Michael Pope  

And this is Pod Virginia, the podcast that is having fun, but probably not as much fun as folks at the White House. What's- Thomas, what's going on at the White House?

Thomas Bowman  

I couldn't tell you; the only mysterious powder in this house is the smoked paprika I put on the Bowman family's deviled eggs.

Michael Pope  

Puts a new meaning to the word "White," in the White House. Okay, let's get to the news. Budget crisis. So people experiencing a mental health crisis, they often pose a challenge to law enforcement officials and emergency rooms. So that's why Republicans and Democrats came together earlier this year in a rare bipartisan display to propose a $170 million program of mobile units and drop-off centers. Now Governor Glenn Youngkin outlined the proposal back in December, just as lawmakers were preparing for the upcoming General Assembly Session. 

Glenn Youngkin  

True transformation requires a comprehensive, multi-year, Commonwealth-wide effort. And we must start now because Virginians deserve the right help right now.

Thomas Bowman  

But now that help is on hold. Talk is cheap; reform is not. The new fiscal year started on July 1st without any budget amendments to pay for that mental health transformation. Senator Creigh Deeds says fixing the mental health crisis requires an agreement on the budget impasse.

Creigh Deeds  

There are still people who get dropped off in hospitals when the hospitals aren't ready to take them. There are still frustrated law enforcement officers who sit in emergency rooms for hours on end. If we want to change things, we've got to pass the budget, and we've got to do it soon.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, this is a really complicated story here about how law enforcement officials are often called to the scene when people are having a mental health crisis. Well, guess what? Law enforcement officials are probably not the best people to respond to someone who's having a mental health crisis. And then they end up in the emergency room. Well, guess what? The emergency room is probably not necessarily, the best place for someone who's having a mental health crisis. So like these people who are having a mental health crisis, they're not getting the help that they need. Meanwhile, law enforcement, you know, resources are being tied up, and emergency rooms are at capacity, and something needs to be done. This is where it's really interesting, like a very rare bipartisan show of support. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is working with Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds. So that, actually, was a success story from the General Assembly. Oh, but wait a second. Oh, that's on hold because they never got around to passing budget amendments. And Thomas I, I'm starting to think they never will.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, well, there are two schools of thought here. There's one, I would call it a traditionalist school of thought, that says, "Don't worry, they'll figure it out. They always do. And we'll eventually get to have a budget." But if you listen to some of the reporting that we've been doing here on the show, people are very clearly telegraphing that the Governor has moved on to his next year's Marquee budget, his legacy budget, and I would point out that the Senate Finance Committee has been decimated, there's not that many Democrats left on it that are coming back. So they don't have the incentive, necessarily, to fight tooth and nail for whatever their priorities are, if you know, or, of course, they could be fighting even harder because it's their last chance. So this is really one of those places where it could go either way, but I don't see the momentum there, and there's an impasse, and there's so much that's just dropping through these cracks- the mental health reform, being one of them that everybody agreed on is a huge priority.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. And the sad part is people are falling through the cracks. I mean, as Senator Deeds pointed out, right now, today, at this hour, people are getting dropped off at hospitals when the hospitals aren't ready to take them. And right now, at this hour, frustrated law enforcement officials are sitting in emergency rooms for hours on end; that doesn't help the people in crisis, and it doesn't help the law enforcement officials. So like, this is a problem that needs to get fixed now. And yet, you know, we're waiting around for this budget impasse. And it seems like the incentive structure is such that they're probably, it seems like they're headed in the direction of just not having amendment, just saying, "Eff this. Let's, let's move on to our legacy budget that we'll do next year." Well, meanwhile, you're going to have all these people falling through the cracks. So you know, did they really care about these people initially? Or are these just some talking points that they wanted to have a press conference about? I mean, I hate to be that cynical about it, but that's kind of where we're headed right now. Because if they failed to have budget amendments, this is the kind of thing that perhaps they could come around next year and fix, but guess what? All these people have been harmed in the meantime.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. And, Michael, I know you were looking into it. What's the status of some of these budget conferences? Who's left?

Michael Pope  

Well, the Senate Finance Committee is starting to look like a ghost town, Thomas. So I mean, just reading the roster here. Janet Howell is retiring. George Barker lost reelection, and Dick Ssaslaw left. Tommy Norment is leaving. Emmett Hanger is leaving. Louise Lucas, of course, is going to be around, and she clearly, wants to be Chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee. So, I mean, I suppose if it's going to happen, you know, perhaps she could play a role in making it happen. But you know, even the rest of it is, you know, Newman is leaving. Rough is still around; Vogel is leaving. Edwards is leaving; Deeds, who you heard audio from, like, he could be part of this as well, I suppose. Locke, clearly, is going to be around. Peterson is on the committee. He recently, of course, lost his reelection. But then Marsden won his reelection, and he's still gonna be around, as is Adam Ebbin. So I mean, that's those are your handful of Senate people who might play a role in fixing this. But at this hour, as we record this, there is no movement. And I'm certainly not anticipating any by the time our listeners hear this, or even anytime this month, really?

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, well, high stakes mean high drama. And the stakes are always high when you're talking about a state budget where it's zero-sum, right? So we can't necessarily go into debt. It's more complex than that. But we can't deficit spend out of any holes in Virginia the way that other states can. And so you basically have a pie, you have to cut it up. And you have to make sure that everybody gets a big enough piece of the pie. And, of course, it's never big enough. That's, you know, the catch-22 that they're in. And now it looks like that pie is probably never going to be, you know, from where we are today, it feels like it's never going to be given out because Republicans want to do something like a billion dollars worth of tax cuts that we can't afford. And then the Democrats, well, I hate to phrase it this way, but the Democrats are, in a pickle, right? It's Democrats in disarray, again, because the conferees, and the Finance Committee, have lost their way. I think they gambled on some people being able to come back who are not coming back. And I don't know if they have a clear path ahead of them. Because both parties, for different reasons, have the same incentive, which is to kick the can down the road till they have a better negotiating position to get the things that they actually want. 

Michael Pope  

All right, well, sticking on the topic of the budget impasse, let's move on to our next story. Math erroneous, the cost of doing nothing, is about to hit some of the poorest school divisions in Virginia. That's according to numbers from the Virginia Education Association, which says places like Emporia, Franklin City, Martinsville, and Buena Vista, they'll all be hit with the highest cost per pupil if the General Assembly fails to amend the budget and fix a math error that the Department of Education discovered earlier this year. Do you remember that $200 million math error? Well, Emporia, for example, will be out $300 per student if the General Assembly fails to amend the budget. Chad Stewart at the VEA says that makes planning for the future very difficult.

Chad Stewart  

Hires at the local school level, staffing, and fixes to different systems; when you're assuming that your budget might be millions of dollars larger over the two years, you spend differently, and it has a real effect on the day-to-day operations of your school.

Thomas Bowman  

Now school divisions are trying to do more with less. Laura Goren at the Commonwealth Institute says a stop-gap measure passed earlier this year did not fix the problem. 

Laura Goren  

They put in this little $16.8 million towards fixing the $201 million hole created by the state's calculation error.

Michael Pope  

Okay, so let's look at the numbers. That means if members of the General Assembly fail to pass budget amendments, which seems likely that they'll never get around to passing budget amendments, school divisions across Virginia will be out $180 million. So that's an average of $152 less for each student in Virginia; the cost per pupil statewide, the average is $152 per student. So we just talked about people in mental health, people having a mental health crisis, falling through the cracks. Now, we're also talking about public school students in, you know, school divisions across Virginia that need basic aid; they're falling through the cracks, too.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. And this is, like you said a minute ago, hitting the poorest school divisions the hardest. And, of course, unfortunately, that's how it often can work.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. So if you look at the numbers that the VEA put out about how this hits specific school divisions, it doesn't hit every school division the same way because basic aid is calculated based on a range of factors and the demographics of your, you know, school division. And this calculator is exactly what caused the $200 million math error to begin with. That's a math error that has not been fixed. Okay. This is another sort of common misconception. People think, "Oh, the skinny budget. Didn't the skinny budget fix that $200 million error?" No, it did not it. It did help out a little bit. It invested about $20 million in fixing that $200 million problem, but simple math. I'm not great at math, Thomas. I know you, and I have had some math errors in our podcast in the past. But I could do a little bit of basic subtraction here and 200 million minus 20 million. Well, that leaves a $180 million hole that we need to fix. And some of the poorest school divisions are hit the hardest. So that's per pupil in Emporia, $301; Franklin City, $295 per student; Martinsville, $267 per student; Buena Vista, $259 per student and then Buchanan, $258 per student. Now Emporia, Franklin City, Martinsville Buena Vista, Buchanan, those all kind of sound like Republican areas, but I looked up who actually represents these areas, and that includes Senator Lucas and Senator Deeds. So you know, the people negotiating at the highest levels on the Senate side have an interest in fixing this problem. And so if they don't, school divisions across Virginia are going to have to figure out how to cover for this math error at the Department of Education. 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, and while we did say that most of the incentives were for not agreeing to a budget, one thing that is pushing in the direction of finding compromise is going to be the localities themselves because they absolutely rely on this money, not just to backfill their own budgets, but to ensure a predictable amount of spending. And there could absolutely be an impact on Virginia's credit rating, and the localities municipal credit ratings, you know, if they don't have a reliable, predictable revenue.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I mean, we on this podcast, we've talked, a number of times, about the political incentive structure. And that's true; the political incentive structure is to do nothing and hope for the politics to help you out next year when you might have a majority in the General Assembly. And next year, you can work on your legacy budget, and that's the incentive. So the political incentives are all, do nothing and just wait until next year. But what about like good government incentives? Aren't people incentivized by actually having a government that works and helps people?

Thomas Bowman  

Well, historically, in Virginia, yes, absolutely. But Virginia is also experiencing its own version of some scorched earth politics now that we had been very proud of not participating in previously, the way that it has happened in the federal government over the last 20 or 30 years. But now it is coming to Virginia.

Michael Pope  

Can't they just strike a deal? I mean, like, I know, nobody wants to compromise here. Compromise is a dirty word, but like, can't they just figure out how to give the Republicans some tax cuts and give the Democrats some services and like actually help people?

Thomas Bowman  

Michael, it sounds like you're saying, "Can't we all just get along?" 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, well, our next story actually has people figuring out a way to get along. So let's move on to our next story. Policing ain't a beanbag. So the shotguns that Fairfax County police officers used to carry around in their cruisers were almost never used. That's why leaders of Virginia's largest police department recently converted all those shotguns into less lethal weapons. So I spoke to Deputy Chief Brooke Wright at Fairfax County Police Department, and she says they're all now beanbag shotguns.

Brooke Wright  

If not a game of cornhole, it's gonna knock you down or cause impact, that's gonna surprise, stun, they will cause pain. It's gonna leave a mark. But officers are trained to hit large muscle groups or maybe even extremities like your arms that may be holding a weapon.

Thomas Bowman  

John Jones at the Sheriff's Association says these weapons are often much more useful than traditional shotguns. 

John Jones  

Keep in mind we use a shotgun. It's usually a buckshot. And it's gonna spray a pattern of buckshot wherever you aim it and then the proximity. So the beanbag will come to use in close proximity, or inside of a building, even in some of the jails could use them. So, the beanbag technology is excellent.

Michael Pope  

It kind of sounds like a weaponized hacky sack.

Thomas Bowman  

Are you trying to say an attackee sack?

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, it's fun to joke around about beanbag shotguns, but this actually will help save lives. Right? So I mean, this is, you know, I, it's probably rare for me to say this, but kudos to Fairfax County Police Department, who figured out a way to take their shotguns, which were never used. So I mean, the important thing to think about with shotguns is they're not at all precise. You know, like when you shoot a shotgun in a direction, it's going to spray that whole area. So in an urban setting, they're basically useless, which is why those Fairfax police cruisers, never... those shotguns were in the back of the cruisers, but nobody ever took them out because they were basically useless. So I mean, it's, it might sound like we're playing a game here, but it's actually going to hurt if it hits you.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. And I predict that they will be using these more and more because one thing that we know is when you take lethal weapons and give cops nonlethal weapons, they get used more- the teasers come to mind, and how those can cause medical events of their own. So I'm not going to pass judgment one way or the other on these beanbags or the use of shotguns; I'm not saying they're good or bad or anything; it just- they are what they are. But I do predict that we will see these being used more often. And it's going to be a mixed bag as far as the pros and cons.

Michael Pope  

A mixed bag, so to speak. So you know, you brought up the taser issue, which is important to recognize that just because it's less lethal, doesn't mean it's not lethal. In fact, I covered a case years ago of the Fairfax County Sheriff's Department killing a woman by tasering her to death. And so this is something that you have to keep in mind is that these beanbags, they actually can hurt people, and they might, in fact, kill some people. In fact, I think there may even be some documented cases of that at some point. So it's, these are also still weapons that are deployed against people. So the converse to that is firearms, you know, which are much more lethal. So I mean, in the grand scheme of things, you want to make sure that these officers have the ability to respond to situations without killing people. So I mean, that's a plus. Right?

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, like I said, this was one of those stories that can sometimes become a no-win for everybody because there's not a ton that anybody can do other than comment on the fact that it's happening and notice the trend. And certainly, it's not a bad thing to have fewer guns for the cops do not reach for their lethal firearms. But I want to point out here that the incentive then becomes to use it. The incentive of only carrying lethal weapons, generally speaking, is to not use them, right, because they're lethal. The incentive for nonlethal weapons is to use them because the cops think that they are safer, and, by the way, you get to pull a trigger, and you get to fire and shoot something, and, ideally, not cause too much damage. So they are going to get used more. I'm not saying that this is a good or a bad thing. It's just a thing.

Michael Pope  

Just a thing. Well, on that note, let's take a break. When we come back, we'll play a round of trivia and read some of your comments.

All right. And so we're back on Pod Virginia. It's time to play a round of trivia. So last week, it was where we were leading up to the Fourth of July, so we wanted to ask you a Fourth of July-inspired question. We asked you about the other British colonies.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, everyone talks about the 13 colonies. That's all everyone ever talks about. But there were actually more British colonies in 1776. Right, Michael?

Michael Pope  

Yes. So the answer to our trivia question is Florida. Okay. So to be more specific, in 1776, there were two colonies, East Florida and West Florida. So East Florida had St. Augustine, and West Florida had Pensacola. Mobile and Biloxi. So Happy Fourth of July if you live in British Florida. 

Thomas Bowman  

I didn't realize that there were two Floridas.

Michael Pope  

People that live in Florida have no clue about this, because this is like a totally forgotten chapter of American history, that- because people think of Florida as being a Spanish colony, which it was. But here's the crazy history. Florida was a Spanish colony, then a British colony, and then a Spanish colony again. And then Andrew Jackson invaded, and it became an American territory.

Thomas Bowman  

Okay, well, look what you call West Florida, I call East Alabama, and what you call East Florida, I call South Georgia.

Michael Pope  

All right, well, having said all of that, I bet our friends in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida weren't really celebrating the British on the Fourth of July. Okay, so we had a bunch of people make guesses on this, although nobody actually had the correct answer. But the first person to say Florida was our friend, Alex Parker, so he got the prize. Thomas, what does Alex Parker win?

Thomas Bowman  

Our first thought for a prize is the $10 Governor Youngkin swore he wanted to give you, but it never materialized.

Michael Pope  

Oh, yes, there's; I guess there's an impasse. They're still trying to figure that out. All right, option two is a copy of the original theme song to "Cops," where instead of saying bad boys, they say, "beanbags," as in, "Beanbags, beanbags. What you gonna do?"

Thomas Bowman  

Michael, it's good you're a journalist, not a singer. 

Michael Pope  

"Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?" 

Thomas Bowman  

Another prize that we're running by legal right now is a T-shirt reading, "When was the last time America did anything for my birthday?"

Michael Pope  

Oh yeah. All right. Well, we all have birthdays. We do celebrate birthdays on Pod Virginia.

Thomas Bowman  

What's our trivia question for next week, Michael? 

Michael Pope  

Yes, well, let's go to something a little closer to home. So our trivia question this week has to do with a different kind of colonial history, the British Invasion, specifically, the British Invasion of Richmond. Okay, so this is the question, who led the raid on Richmond, the British Invasion of Richmond, in January of 1781? I'll give you a hint. This is not an obscure person; you definitely know the name of this guy. Okay, so who was the guy who led the British Invasion of Richmond in January 1781? 

Thomas Bowman  

All right. So if you think you know the answer, hit us up on social media, and we might even read it on the podcast. 

Michael Pope  

Alright, let's head over to the water cooler. Thomas, what's the latest you're hearing about the water cooler?

Thomas Bowman  

Well, it looks like Glenn Youngkin is not at all interested in legalizing marijuana. So this impasse of a different kind in Virginia is going to stay in this weird gray space, probably for the foreseeable future for the duration of his term.

Michael Pope  

Puff puff impasse? Yeah, I mean, this crazy gray area, a greenish gray area, that Virginia has found itself in, it just makes no sense. I mean, it's legal, but you can't buy it because nobody has a license to sell it. And we have a general assembly that can't agree on how to create licenses for people. And a governor that kind of seems uninterested in this. In fact, if anything, they get the sense they want to move in the other direction. And so they just can't agree on anything. So we're gonna leave things the way they are, which is totally dysfunctional. I mean, welcome to Virginia, the state of dysfunction.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. Getting ready to become North Florida, I suppose. Well on its way. Michael, what about you? What are you hearing?

Michael Pope  

Well, there's this new social media app you might have heard of it called Threads. So Pod Virginia is on Threads. If you set up- if you already have an Instagram account, you basically already have a Threads account. All you need to do is hit a few buttons, and boom, you're on Threads. And so you can go there, and you can follow Pod Virginia on Threads. And the last time I looked, we already had more than 60 followers and growing fast. So the first Thread on there for Pod Virginia was, "We're sew ready for Threads, assuming it's what it seams." So pretty bad puns already on our Thread, but- and I suppose there probably will be more in the future.

Thomas Bowman  

Is anybody here taking credit for that? Or we're just gonna have to imagine which one of us that might have been?

Michael Pope  

No, I'm actually super excited about this because, I mean, Twitter was great when it was the public square. But ever since Elon Musk got in control of it, it's just been horrible. I mean, like, you, I'm sure you will recall when Paul Pelosi was attacked by the crazy right-wing guy with a hammer? So Elon Musk went on Twitter and spread this stupid conspiracy theory about how they were in a relationship with each other. And, I mean, so it did two really horrible things at once. I mean, it kind of celebrated violence against somebody, which is horrible. And then it was also kind of homophobic on top of that, right? So like this, people kind of forgot about that Paul Pelosi thing and moved on to other stupid things that Elon Musk has done. But I started to feel about Twitter, the way I mean, I started to feel about it as like, it's this abusive relationship that I was caught in and that I couldn't get out of. And so now, Threads is given an off-ramp to people who are just fed up with Twitter.

Thomas Bowman  

Alright, so there's quite a tangent now at this point. But so Elon Musk, and Twitter, tried to sue Facebook to stop, or Meta, I should say, to stop the rollout of threads. But in that lawsuit, they say there's a whole paragraph there, where they say that the people who are building this are former Twitter employees, who still have access to the company documents, and secrets, and- or, "trade secrets," is the term that they use, which means that they fired so many people in their IT team, that they don't have anybody left at Twitter, who knows how to spend the five seconds it takes to cut off somebody's access once they've been fired. Isn't that crazy? Like that's a giant security risk in and of itself, that is a lot worse for Twitter than it is for Meta.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. And he's got the money to just thrash around with this toy object that he's got, without any regard for making any money, too, right?. So I mean, let's just-

Thomas Bowman  

Does he? Yeah, there's, there are people who say he doesn't, you know, and that's why he's not paying his bills.

Michael Pope  

Clearly, what he's doing is not good with this, like this what used to be kind of like a public good, right? This was a public square where your local police department was issuing tweets to tell you about what was going on with your local police department. So I mean, outside of the profit structure, it actually had a public good to it. And now it's this carcass that's lying in the sun, you know?

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. Well, maybe that was the plan all along. Michael, I think we should go around the Commonwealth.

Michael Pope  

Let's...Oh, yes, we should. Sorry, I should have just held on to that right. The State Board of Elections certified the primary results, bringing an end to Amanda Chase's very contentious bid for a recount. 

Thomas Bowman  

Look, we'd tell her to give up the chase, but Richmond kind of already did that.

Michael Pope  

Despite a federal indictment involving deputizing people in exchange for bribes, Sheriff Scott Jenkins is still running for reelection in Culpeper County. He must have a winning strategy.

Thomas Bowman  

This just in, every resident in Culpeper County is now a deputy sheriff.

Michael Pope  

Because of the new pornography access rules. Virginia now tops the list of residents googling VPNs, which is a pretty easy way to avoid restrictions. Goes to show you, you can't police the internet.

Thomas Bowman  

"I'll be the judge of that," said one officer before firing a beanbag at his laptop.

Michael Pope  

In Richmond, officials had to remove a colony of bees that created a massive hive inside the Crypt of the Washington Statue. So they went to war with a colony that wanted to exist freely in July.

Thomas Bowman  

In response, the bees issued this statement. "We hold this buzz to be self evident that all bees are created equal with unalienable rights to flight liberbee, and the pursuit of honey-ness."

Michael Pope  

Yeah, were you making fun of my Threads puns earlier? Because I mean, I think we're even now. 

Thomas Bowman  

May-bee. 

Michael Pope  

Maybe. 

Thomas Bowman  

Get it? May-bee? 

Michael Pope  

Let's open up that listener mailbag. Thomas, what are our listeners talking about? 

Thomas Bowman  

Hey, we got a new review on Apple Podcasts, Michael.

Michael Pope  

Thank goodness. I love it when people give us new reviews on Apple Podcasts. So yes, this person...I'm not sure how to say this? HFOGLIO, H-foglio, I don't know, but whoever this person is, says, "Pod Virginia is the best way to keep up with Virginia politics. Love listening to this podcast and keeping up with what's going on with Virginia politics. Highly recommended."

Thomas Bowman  

Thank you, folio.

Michael Pope  

Yes. And so you, if you haven't already written a review of Pod Virginia on Apple Podcast, stop what you're doing right now, stop what you're doing, and go write a review. Seriously, those reviews actually help people find the show. So it's kind of a big deal. We'll even stop the show right now, so you can go write a review.

Thomas Bowman  

Okay, have we waited long enough? 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I think so. All right, let's move on with our podcast. Thank you in advance for writing a review of Pod Virginia on Apple Podcasts. 

Thomas Bowman  

Michael, we also got some feedback about our water cooler discussion of Emerge Virginia. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah. Last week we pointed out that Russett Perry, Kimberly Pope Adams, and Susannah Gibson are all graduates of this year's Emerge Virginia program, which is led by Danica Roem. 

Thomas Bowman  

Well, listener Jessica Schneider chimed in to say she's also a 2023 graduate of the program. And she's a candidate for the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors.

Michael Pope  

Danica Roem responded by saying she was grateful that Schneider was part of the 2023 signature program, adding that she's very excited for her to win the campaign this fall.

Thomas Bowman  

We also got more feedback about the unpopular opinions from last week. This one is about vanity plates. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, Mel Pruitt says she wants to see Virginia ban those vanity plates, and she wants candidates to be on the record in favor of banning vanity plates.

Thomas Bowman  

Well, that prompted our friend Gonzi Aida to chime in, saying he couldn't disagree more and that he had just put a brand-new vanity plate on his car.

Michael Pope  

That prompted Mel to respond by saying, "If I'm wrong, I don't want to be right." 

Thomas Bowman  

Alright, we also got some feedback about our discussion of the lack of money Amanda Chase invested in direct mail. Alex Parker chimed in to remind us of something that happened during the General Assembly session.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, so it was kind of weird and funny at the same time, but I guess now, it all makes sense. So I'm gonna play some audio from our previous episode, so you'll hear Amanda Chase finished this bill that she's presenting to essentially ban the drop boxes. And then Senator Jennifer Boyce goes her up with a trick question. Check this out. And this will all make sense if you think about Amanda Chase not investing in direct mail.

Amanda Chase  

These boxes have created a lot of consternation among Virginians. And with that, I would move we would pass this bill. Thank you, man. Question from the member's committee. Yes. Yes. Mr. Chairman, I have a question for the patron. Are you familiar with mailboxes? I'm dumbfounded by your question. Of course. I'm familiar with mailboxes. And can you tell me how you use a mailbox? Actually, I use a post office box because I don't trust the mail service. I don't trust my mailbox.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. So, Virginia, those are the kind of moments that you're not going to get anymore with Amanda Chase no longer being in the General Assembly. She doesn't trust her mailbox. I guess these are the same people that think that Nest sensors are out to get them, right?

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, well, I trust someone will step up to fill her heels.

Michael Pope  

Her trumping heels? 

Thomas Bowman  

Maybe. Somebody always steps up to fill in the crazy. That's a constant. You can bet on that.

Michael Pope  

Well, let's celebrate some birthdays this week. Oh, let me look at my calendar. Look at this. We have zero General Assembly birthdays this week, so let's celebrate some other birthdays. Today, July 10th, is the birthday of Arthur Ashe. That's the only statue left standing on Monument Avenue.

Thomas Bowman  

And Tuesday, July 11th. is the birthday of President John Quincy Adams.

Michael Pope  

Wednesday, July 12th, is the birthday of Julius Caesar.

Thomas Bowman  

Thursday, July 13th, is the birthday of actor Harrison Ford.

Michael Pope  

And then Friday, July 14th, is the birthday of President Gerald Ford. So we got two presidents, John Quincy Adams, and Gerald Ford, this week.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. And then, of course, July 15th is the birthday of Rembrandt. Everyone knew that.

Michael Pope  

A little closer to home, for here in Alexandria, Sunday, July 16th, is the birthday of Alexandria City Councilman John Taylor Chapman.

Thomas Bowman  

If you want us to read your birthday. Give us a shout-out. Let us know what you are celebrating. That's it for this week's episode of Pod Virginia. Don't forget to check out our website and follow us on more social media for updates and discussions on Virginia politics. 

Michael Pope  

Pod Virginia is a production of Jackleg Media. Our Producer is Aaryan Balu, and our Advertising Sales Manager is David O'Connell.

Thomas Bowman  

Find us on Facebook or Twitter. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and hey, write a review on Apple Podcasts. It really helps people find the show.

Michael Pope  

Make sure to smash the subscribe button so you don't miss the next episode of Pod Virgina.