Tina Wilson

Certified Executive Coach/Communications/PR/Thought Leadership Expert/Love to Help People and Help my Community

[Virginia News Vanguard @VaNewsVanguard]

🚨NEWS COVERAGE: Ousted Virginia Tech Rector refuses to step down.
ADDITIONAL FACTS: The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors is scheduled to meet on Monday. This issue will be front & center.

§ 23.1-1300.C of state law authorizes a governor to remove a board member for "malfeasance, misfeasance, incompetence, or gross neglect of duty." The governor is also required to "set forth in a written public statement [her] reasons for removing any member pursuant to subsection C at the time the removal occurs."

*However, the governor's public statement included no references to violations of subsection C.

WDBJ reports on the pushback:

[Tina Wilson @TWilsonPRStreet]

America's fastest-growing city has a message: "We're full" https://t.co/hpXHjSPQ1B

[Dave Mitchell, Stochastic Humorist @the4thdave]

@thisisfoster This will now be taped to my monitor. Thank you, sir.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

Here’s a simple way to get unstuck when you’re worried, overwhelmed, or overthinking a decision.

Ask yourself one question:

What kind of thing am I dealing with?

Most issues fall into one of three categories.

1. Settled Things

These are things that have already been decided.

Your birth family.
Your nation of origin.
Your height.
Your past decisions.
Your upbringing.
Things you did.
Things done to you.

Some of these things were decided by your own past actions. Others were decided by God’s providence. As Paul says in Acts 17:26, God determined our appointed times and the boundaries of our dwelling place.

You can’t go back and change these things.

So the question is not, “How do I undo this?”

The question is, “Does this have any bearing on what I should do now?”

If not, leave it alone. Don’t spend your life fighting settled things.

2. Action Things
These are things you have some real control over.

Your diet.
Your exercise.
Your spending.
Your work ethic.
Your attitude.
Your friendships.
Your theological knowledge.
Your presentability.
Your habits.
Your skills.

These are your controllables.

You may not control everything about your health, finances, relationships, or future. But you usually control more than you think.

So if the issue falls here, don’t overthink it.

Take direct action.

Start small if you have to. Make the call. Go on the walk. Open the Bible. Apologize. Apply for the job. Pay the bill. Clean the room. Do the next faithful thing.

3. Prayer Things

These are things outside your direct control, but not outside God’s control.

The economy.
The weather.
The housing market.
The availability of a suitable spouse.
Other people’s choices.
Timing.
Open doors.
Closed doors.

You can’t force these things. You can’t grab the steering wheel of providence.

But God can act.

So you take indirect action through prayer. You ask. You wait. You prepare. You remain faithful. You do what you can do and trust God with what only He can do.

So ask yourself:

Is this settled?
Then accept it and learn from it.

Is this actionable?
Then do something.

Is this outside my control?
Then pray and trust God.

This is a simple framework, and yes, it’s a little reductionistic. But that’s the point. The goal is not to explain every complexity of life. The goal is to get you unstuck.

Most people waste too much energy trying to change the past, control what belongs to God, or pray about things they simply need to obey.

So categorize the issue.

Then act accordingly.

Accept what is settled.
Act on what is yours.
Pray over what belongs to God.

[Matej Sis @MatejS247]

Already recruiting, top 100 QB Peter Bourque says he is ready to bring 'that program back' with Virginia Tech #Hokies via @BrianDohn247 https://t.co/WFSItJDLG2

[mike bski @BskiMike22802]

You know what a burn pit smells like.

If you were there -- if you served in Iraq or Afghanistan -- you already know. That thick, chemical, wrong smell that never fully left the back of your throat. Plastics. Chemicals. Medical waste. Ordnance. Burning. All day. Every day. Right next to where you slept, where you ate, where you ran PT in the morning.

Nobody told you what it would do to your lungs.

His name was Richard Star. Army combat engineer from Ohio -- right near Cleveland. He cleared IED-laden roads so other soldiers could drive on them without dying. Desert Shield. Desert Storm. Iraq. Afghanistan. Kuwait. He went back. He kept raising his hand. He breathed those burn pits for years -- the same smoke, the same chemical air, the same carcinogens that had no business being in a human lung.

In 2018, that smoke caught up with him. Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. The VA rated it 100% service-connected. His own government certified in writing that the United States of America's burn pits gave Richard Star terminal cancer.

He was medically retired before hitting 20 years. Not because he quit. Because there was nothing left to give.

And then the Army sent him a letter.

The letter showed two numbers. The first number was what Richard Star had EARNED in military retirement -- what the United States government had promised him when he raised his right hand and swore an oath and then spent decades keeping it. The second number -- what he would ACTUALLY receive -- was zero.

Zero dollars. Zero cents.

His 100% VA disability rating for the cancer eating his lungs wiped out his entire retirement check through the concurrent receipt offset. Dollar for dollar. Every single penny of retirement pay he had earned, gone. A man dying of cancer he got in uniform, holding a piece of paper from his own government that said his retirement was worth nothing.

If you have buried someone from burn pit exposure, I need you to sit with that image.

Your brother. Your battle buddy. Your soldier. Sitting at a kitchen table. Oxygen tank next to the chair. Chemo running through his veins. Holding a government letter that says zero.

That is what happened to Richard Star.

His wife Tonya quit her career to become his full-time caregiver. While she sat next to him through every treatment, while their household ran on whatever the VA disability check provided, while the retirement check the Army told him he'd earned sat at zero -- Tonya was also fighting. Calling. Writing. Testifying. Standing in congressional hearing rooms telling her husband's story to the people who had the power to fix it.

Richard never stopped either. He traveled on oxygen tanks to advocate for this bill. He could barely stand. He fought for the 50,000 veterans behind him who were carrying the same injustice, because that is what that kind of man does -- he thinks about the ones behind him even when he is the one dying.

He died February 13, 2021. He was 51 years old.

Tonya kept going. She kept his name alive in every room she could reach, because she loved him and because she refused to let what happened to Richard happen to the next family.

Tonya passed away on August 12, 2024. She was also 51 years old.

Both of them gone at 51. Both of them fighting until they could not.

The bill still not law.

Right now -- today, this month, this year -- there are 50,000 veterans receiving that same letter Richard received. Two numbers. What they earned. What they actually get. And for too many of them, the second number is devastating. Some of them are already sick. Some of them already have the diagnosis. Some of them are sitting at kitchen tables with oxygen tanks next to the chair, opening mail from the government that sent them to those burn pits, wondering if this country is going to keep its promise before they run out of time.

Sgt. Lyle Allen. 14 years. Multiple deployments to Iraq. His vehicle hit an IED. He does not remember much after that -- just the medics' faces above him. The VA certified his TBI as 100% permanently and totally disabling -- it will never improve. The offset wiped out his retirement. He calls himself "retired without retirement." He says the country is "turning their backs" on him.

A Marine. 17 years. Three combat tours. An IED in Afghanistan took both of his legs. THREE YEARS from the 20-year mark. Three years. The government took his legs in the service of this nation and then took his retirement check on top of it because of a calendar.

These are not abstractions. These are the men who were standing next to you downrange. The ones who smelled what you smelled. The ones who drove those roads.

The bill to fix this is the MAJOR RICHARD STAR ACT. Current 119th Congress: H.R. 2102 in the House, sponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) with Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), introduced March 14, 2025. S. 1032 in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) with bipartisan co-sponsors including Mike Crapo, Elizabeth Warren, and Rick Scott. Previous Congress: H.R. 1282 in the House and S. 344 in the Senate -- died without a floor vote.

Current co-sponsors: 322+ in the House. Nearly 80 in the Senate. The Wounded Warrior Project, MOAA, VFW, IAVA -- virtually every major veterans organization in this country -- stands behind this bill. The votes exist. The will to schedule them does not.

On March 3, 2026, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin blocked this bill on the Senate floor. Twice. Once on unanimous consent. Then again when a compromise was offered for a simple recorded roll call. He did not want the bill to pass. He did not want to go on record opposing it either.

His reason: cost.

Richard Star got a letter that said zero. Senator Johnson found that affordable.

I need you to make a phone call. Right now. While this is still in your chest where it belongs.

SENATE SWITCHBOARD: [phone].

Tell them: "I am calling to demand my senator support S. 1032, the Major Richard Star Act, and force a floor vote. Combat-wounded veterans are dying while this sits in committee."

HOUSE SWITCHBOARD: [phone].

Tell them: "I am calling to ask my representative to co-sponsor H.R. 2102 and demand leadership schedule a floor vote."

Then share this post. Every share puts Richard Star's name in front of someone who has not heard it yet. Every share might reach a veteran who does not know they are owed this money right now. Every share might reach the family member who makes the call that changes the vote.

Richard Star traveled on oxygen tanks to fight for veterans he would never meet.

The least we can do is make a phone call.

@MajorStarAct @StarActEnemies @SenRonJohnson @SenatorWicker

IF you agree: LIKE this post so the algorithm shows it to the people who need to read it. SHARE this -- for Richard. For Tonya. For the veteran you know who is sick right now and does not know this fight exists. COMMENT below -- have you called yet? Tell me right here. Hold yourself accountable out loud.

And if you want MORE of this -- the data, the history, the science, the stories -- JOIN Bski's Classroom community on X or YouTube.

But what do I know -- I am only a medically retired Army combat medic who breathed that same air, who served alongside men who came home carrying things that would kill them slowly, and who has spent years watching a government that sends people to war find every possible excuse not to keep its promises when they come back broken.

#MAGA #Veterans #Trump #majorstaract

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

The Billionaire Tax is actually an Everyone Tax.

The Billionaire Tax is a new tax proposal written by four professors who don't believe in the American dream. Some of them aren’t even American…go figure.

Despite its name, it applies to every California resident who currently has assets or ever will.

The creators named it the Billionaire Tax so you would get into a froth andwouldn't look closely at what it actually does to you.

On page twenty-six, it explains how the government can convert to an Everyone Tax without voter approval.

They can also adjust the tax to be a yearly tax, not just one time…again, without your approval.

Here's how the tax would work: As a voter, you're being asked to approve a tax that would require you to:

1. list all your assets and the value of each, then submit them to the California Franchise Tax Board.

2. authorize the tax board to appraise your assets and confirm the value of each.

3. pay a penalty of up to forty percent of your tax bill if the board determines your reported value was too low in their opinion.

4. allow the tax board to subpoena your financial records from every one of your financial institutions for auditing.

This Everyone Tax runs 34 pages of shifty language describing how the government plans to take your assets. Read the fine print and decide for yourself.

If this were truly a billionaire tax, it would be 3 pages.

It’s 34 pages so that it can create the mechanisms to steal from all of you.

[Asra Nomani @AsraNomani]

1/ WATCH: Cole Allen in his own words…

The California computer scientist, 31, accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner isn’t just any would-be killer — he is an elite-trained engineer from Caltech, where students with perfect SAT scores gain admission.

And now — in a new @FoxNews Digital story with my colleague @pmd_reports — I’ve unearthed a video of him from 2017 speaking publicly about…yes, creating brakes for wheelchairs to make life easier for seniors.

🔗 Read our full story here: https://t.co/qZo4A37gTM
⸻

[Ken Blackwell @kenblackwell]

Thomas Sowell is 95 years old.

Let that number sit with you.

Ninety-five years on this earth, and in all of them, he has never held public office, never had a viral moment, never begged for anyone’s attention.

What he has done is write 30 books and spend 50 years of patient research building a body of work that has outlasted every fashionable idea his critics tried to bury him with.

While the loudest voices in Washington were chasing polls and the cleverest minds on campus were chasing grants, Sowell was in the library reading the data, tracking the outcomes, and dismantling one bad idea after another.

He doesn’t argue feelings.

He measures results.

He isn’t selling anything.

His whole approach boils down to one line that every politician and activist in this country should be forced to recite before they open their mouths:

“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”

Sit with that, too.

Every federal program, every mandate, every well-meaning crusade carries a cost, and somebody pays it.

Sowell’s life work has been the simple act of asking who.

Listen to him on the “help” our communities have been promised for two generations:

“I’ve been doing studies now for 20 years of programs designed to increase equality. They increase inequality.”

“Even when the programs are designed for disadvantaged groups, they help the affluent members of the disadvantaged groups, while the lower members of those groups fall further behind than ever before.”

That is the whole affirmative action racket laid out in two sentences.

The kids from the same zip codes as the Harvard faculty get the slot, while the kids from the neighborhoods that actually need a ladder are told to wait their turn.

Sowell says it plain:

“The vast majority of blacks who go to places like Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford are not blacks from the ghetto. They’re from the same neighborhoods as the whites there.”

The race hustlers don’t want you to know that, because they need the grievance to stay in business.

Sowell’s advice to young people cuts right through the hustle:

“Stay away from the race hustlers.”

“Equip yourself with skills that people are willing to pay for.”

That is the whole ball game right there, a matter of skills, work, and accountability rather than slogans, hashtags, or another federal program designed to pad a consultant’s salary while leaving the South Side worse off than before.

Here is the line I want every young person in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and every other corner of America to read tonight:

“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

That one sentence explains our schools, our cities, and why the neighborhoods the War on Poverty was supposed to save are in worse shape now than they were before the checks started flowing.

Sowell has pushed a whole generation of us to stop reacting and start asking harder questions.

What are the incentives?

Who actually benefits from this policy?

What do the numbers look like five, ten, twenty years later?

Ask those questions honestly, and the illusion falls apart.

The most dangerous man in America right now isn’t the one shouting on television.

He is the 95-year-old professor in Palo Alto who doesn’t need you to agree with him, because he has the data on his side.

Ninety-five years of telling the truth.

Thank you, Dr. Sowell.

[Tina Wilson @TWilsonPRStreet]

US/Digital: EU opens new Office in San Francisco to reinforce its Digital Diplomacy | EEAS https://t.co/Ww0njj8ALm

[Andrew Kolvet @AndrewKolvet]

Scottie Scheffler, the world’s number one golfer, explains his WHY:

“I play golf to glorify God.”

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Even we have to agree with this.

[Chad Prather @WatchChad]

WOW! A drone show put on by a church in Manvel, Texas depicts our Savior Jesus on the cross.

One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Tomorrow, HE IS RISEN.

[Moni 💕 @MoniFunGirl]

Wow, Happy i saw this… God bless. The Shroud of Turin, authenticated.

Video: @ShawnRyan762

[Sardar Waleed Mukhtar @waleedmukhtar_1]

انڈونیشیا میں 7.8 میگنی ٹیوڈ کے زلزلے نے سب کچھ ہلا کر رکھ دیا

#indonesia #Earthquake

[Governor Josh Stein @NC_Governor]

I’ve declared a State of Emergency as North Carolinians brace for winter weather this weekend. The State Emergency Response Team is already working to make sure resources are in place to keep folks safe.

Now is the time to be prepared and get everything you need in advance of the storm. The roads may be slick and dangerous. Unless absolutely necessary, make a plan to stay home until the weather improves.

[Breaking911 @Breaking911]

For the first time in 540 days, Highway 64 in Bat Cave, North Carolina—previously destroyed by Hurricane Helene—has officially reopened to the public.

[Tina Wilson @TWilsonPRStreet]

Excited to be part of the CISNC board! Just learned how integrated support is improving student success and building a stronger workforce! @cisnc #allinforkids #EconomicMobility

[Henry Bolton OBE 🇬🇧 @_HenryBolton]

Staggering.

What has the Defence Secretary been doing? He cannot possibly be unaware of the readiness state of Royal Navy warships after the debacle surrounding the deployment of HMS Dragon.

I'd be wanting a daily readiness and operational status report on my desk every morning at 08:00. Royal Navy, Army and RAF.