Hey there,

Welcome to the second edition of Virginia Capital, Dogwood’s new economic policy newsletter where workers come first.

If you missed the first edition on Tuesday where I introduced things, you can find it here.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to check us out, and a special thanks to Gene Zitver and Sidney Lester for their kind words. Zitver tells me he has been posting about Virginia labor issues for years in a Facebook group. 

Today, I report on the growing anxiety about Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and discuss my issues with Clipse’s new album art.

Michael O'Connor, Dogwood

On Wednesday, I had a problem familiar to many reporters responsible for covering a broad set of topics. 

Abigail Spanberger was holding a campaign stop 50 minutes to my west at a union hall in Manassas. But the event was around the same time I could tune in to a live stream of a presentation to lawmakers in Richmond about President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and Medicaid. 

So, which to cover? I opted for the Medicaid presentation because the prospect of new insights into Trump’s attack on America’s fraught social safety net seemed more urgent, especially amid recent estimates from state officials that the bill could cost Virginia hospitals up to $26 billion. 

Unfortunately, the news gods weren’t smiling on me, and the Medicaid presentation turned out to be a bit of a dud. That’s because Cheryl Roberts, the Gov. Glenn Youngkin-appointee who oversees the state Medicaid program, shied away from offering up much detail and opted instead to play up the uncertainty of it all.

State Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News) told me after the presentation she was frustrated that Roberts’ presentation lacked urgency and failed to match a moment when, as Price sees it, people’s health and lives are at stake. 

“We are hearing from some of the health organizations and community partners that funding for HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment is being cut right now,” Price said. “Funding that was promised that just is not showing up.”

This all matters to working people because Trump’s bill is expected to take away health care from more than 300,000 Virginians. An untold number in the state will be forced to decide whether to try to address a health issue or keep their job (one that doesn’t even offer them health care). 

And while no economic model can really predict the ripple effects to the broader economy as people get kicked off their health insurance, recent research suggests the Medicaid changes in Trump’s bill could result in hundreds of thousands of job losses over the next nine years. 

Among those who could lose their jobs are home health care workers, nursing home workers, and rural hospital staff. All so Trump can pad the pockets of the rich and comfortable. 

And it’s not just Virginia Democrats anymore who are raising alarm bells, as they have been since well before the legislation was passed.

One state Republican on Wednesday referenced the “foreboding fear” he senses from rural hospital administrators awaiting to hear how Trump’s cuts will impact their finances.

• The Virginian-Pilot’s Trevor Metcalf reports that workers at the Norfolk Botanical Garden voted Wednesday to form a union.                                          

• 13NewsNow’s Tracy Cooper has an update on the ongoing, frustrating push in Portsmouth to allow city employees to engage in collective bargaining. 

                                           
• The AFL-CIO published a tool for looking up CEO pay. Dominion CEO Robert Blue’s total compensation for fiscal 2024 was a cool $12.9 million.

Screenshot

Earlier this week, InsideNova’s Emily Seymour broke the news that the Virginia Education Association had taken over a local chapter in Prince William County after an external audit “revealed fiscal mismanagement and governance failures.”

If you are a Prince William Education Association member, I'd love to hear how you're feeling. You can remain anonymous.  

Predictably, Republicans turned the news into red meat for some of their union-hating followers on social media. But I happen to think what’s happening with the Prince William Education Association – bad as it is – actually reflects well on organized labor. 

The leadership of a local union let down its rank-and-file members. The state union caught wind of it and is taking steps to rectify the situation. Every large organization deals with issues like this. Not all of them take the necessary steps to address them. 

Unions and the labor movement are not monoliths. Some unions are more democratic than others and even have wildly different politics across different chapters.

Based on what we know, the Virginia Education Association discovered serious financial issues with one of its local chapters and is stepping in to fix them. I say good for the VEA. The system to catch problems like this worked. 

Somehow that’s all too nuanced for Virginia Republicans like state Del. Ian Lovejoy of Prince William. Lovejoy, who is up for re-election this fall, tried using Prince William’s bad news to dunk on unions. 

But in the mental gymnastics required when attacking an organization fighting for working people in his own district, he ended up tripping over himself.

Lovejoy originally posted a quote from VEA president Carol Bauer, but then decided to delete that post and repost it, editing out the part where she pledges to help the Prince William Education Association rebuild.

Apparently, a future where his constituents have more say in their workplace is just too terrible to imagine for Lovejoy. But it’s a future many teachers and school staff members have told me is worth fighting for. 

Michael O'Connor/Dogwood

The rollout of the new Clipse album, Let God Sort Em Out, has had the internet abuzz since its release earlier this month. From a next-level Tiny Desk concert to a viral stare down with a Labubu doll, Virginia’s own Pusha T and Malice are getting their flowers seemingly everywhere. 

But can we talk about the album art by the artist Kaws? 

On its own, the cover of Let God Sort Em Out is fine. The hands hovering over, sorting out the bones of the skeleton is a not-so-subtle nod to the album’s title. My issue is less with the cover art per se and more with Kaws’ broader body of work, which just strikes me as lacking empathy and humanity. 

I say all this as someone who happened to be in Toronto for a wedding a few years back and, on a whim, caught a Kaws exhibit while I was in town. Pondering over iteration after iteration of Kaws’ Companion character was sort of soul crushing. The repetition of this image leaves no room for individuality. His cartoon-inspired figures paired with those dead, crossed-out eyes are a morbid gesture to the joy we felt as kids growing up and cannot return to. 

To be clear: this millennial has loved Clipse since the days of Grindin' and Hell Hath No Fury. But Kaws’ cover art gives me nightmares.

Let me know if you’ve been enjoying the Clipse rollout as much as the rest of the internet and if I’m wrong about Kaws. I’m not. But you can still make your case.  

[Editor’s note: This newsletter was edited while listening to, what else, Virginia.]

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