Month: September 2012
-
Making Room for Market-Driven Health Care in an Obamacare World
With the passage of Obamacare, responsibility for health care policy passed decisively to the federal government. If the polls can be trusted, it looks increasingly like Barack Obama will be re-elected president, which means the chances of repealing the health-care overhaul is just about nil. The question for Virginians then becomes, is there anything we…
-
Out of Money, Out of Ideas
by James A. Bacon I have come to a reluctant conclusion: Virginia’s business leaders are intellectually bankrupt when it comes to solving the most pressing public policy issues facing Virginia. They have nothing to contribute beyond the same tired nostrums that have proven unworkable for a decade or more. Nowhere is this lassitude of mind…
-
The Tax of Inaction
by James A. Bacon The message came through loud and clear at a transportation conference hosted yesterday by Chambers of Commerce from Hampton Roads, Richmond and Fairfax County: Virginia needs more roads for transportation. What no one appears to have resolved yet is how to pay for those improvements or how to prioritize the spending.…
-
Thinking Big: a “Park in the Sky” over the James River
Two weeks ago Ella Kelley and Mike Hughes ran a brief op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting their idea for building a “park in the sky” across the James River. Inspired by the success of New York City’s High Line bridge project (pictured above), which converted a 1.45-mile stretch of railroad line slated for demolition…
-
Where Learning Meets Exercise
Incorporating daily physical activity into classroom routines delivers a public policy twofer: It promotes learning and it helps combat obesity. Says Science Daily, citing recent classroom studies: “Physical education and academic instruction need not be mutually exclusive.” As part of its commitment to combating childhood obesity in Central Virginia, Bon Secours Virginia Health System will…
-
Short Lines Draw the Short Stick
by James A. Bacon Pity Virginia’s short-line railroads. There are nine of them, they serve 150 industrial customers and they operate 500 miles of track, hauling products from peanuts and lumber to stone and steel. But they are no match for the big hogs on the farm when it comes to grubbing for state and…
-
Union Executive Resigns from MWAA
Slowly but surely, Governor Bob McDonnell is establishing more authority over the unruly Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors. Dennis L. Martire, a thorn in McDonnell’s side for more than a year, has announced his resignation from board effective October 17 in a deal reached with the administration. Said McDonnell in a press release:…
-
Bacon Bits from the September CTB Meeting
Reporting from the Commonwealth Transportation Board meeting in Winchester: Quote of the day: Think the McDonnell administration isn’t doing enough to address Northern Virginia’s transportation needs? Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton has this response: “Eighty percent of the construction work going on in the Washington region is occurring in Northern Virginia.” Oddity of the day: We’re all familiar, or…
-
Scary Stuff Out of New Kent’s Tea Party
—
by
in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Education (K-12), Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka If you read some bloggers on this site, you come away with the idea that conservatives are one, big happy tent where everyone is welcome. They are the new inclusivity; open to “ethnics” such as Hispanics, African-Americans, Indian-Americans and others. As they become educated, earn more money and move up the food…
-
The Great Re-Migration and the Coming Realignment of African-American Voters
In a reversal of the Jim Crow-era “great migration,” African-Americans are leaving failed cities in the north and returning to the South, writes Daniel Disalvo in a recent City Journal essay. But they’re not moving back to the poor, rural counties their ancestors hailed from, nor are they moving back to the inner city. The…
-
Ballot Referenda: Virginia Could Do Better
Periodically, Virginians are called upon to vote on proposed constitutional amendment on topics ranging from taxes to eminent domain. Sometimes the proposals are clear, sometimes the amendments are so obscure and the language so tortured that I have no idea what I’m voting on. As someone who blogs about Virginia public policy for a living,…
-
Talking the Talk, Walking the WalkUp
Momentum is shifting decisively from the traditional model of auto-centric development associated with “suburban sprawl” to WalkUps, the term that urbanist Christopher B. Leinberger has coined for Walkable Urban Places. Not only that, contends Leinberger in a new paper, “D.C.: The WalkUP Wake-Up Call,” but the Washington region stands at the vanguard of the national…
-
A Small Victory for Virginia in the Space Race
Awesome! The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) has inked a deal with Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation under which the state of Virginia will fund completion of improvements to the Wallops Island space-launch facility and Orbital will launch 10 Antares rocket missions from it. The rocket launches include one test flight, one demonstration flight and…
-
Eating the World’s Most Delicious Philly Cheesesteak at the Reading Terminal Market
by James A. Bacon When the Bacon family visited Philadelphia this weekend to watch the Eagles play the Baltimore Ravens, there was only one thing I wanted out of the trip. I had to chow down on an authentic Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich. I’d tasted ersatz cheesesteak hoagies in Virginia but that was like ordering grits……
-
Sen. Stanley Now Says Uranium “Call” Was His Idea Alone
By Peter Galuszka State Sen. Bill Stanley has told a Southside newspaper that he “misspoke” when he brought up the name of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell during his Aug. 31 telephone call that was taped recorded by Pittsylvania County Supervisor Jerry A. Hagerman. Stanley admitted that he “misspoke” when he told Hagerman that McDonnell had…