Year: 2012
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A Rising Tide Raises… Questions. Lots of Questions.
A new William & Mary Law School clinic will address prickly legal and policy questions arising from endemic flooding in Virginia’s vulnerable Tidewater lowlands. by James A. Bacon No one knows how fast the sea level off Virginia’s coast will rise by the end of the century. It could be more than a foot, if…
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The Big Picture on Coal
By Peter Galuszka Coal mining continues to be a flash point in the presidential campaign as Mitt Romney accuses Barack Obama of proposing onerous regulations designed to kill Appalachian coal jobs. In the two years I spent researching my new book, “Thunder on the Mountain: Death at Massey and the Dirty Secrets Behind Big Coal,…
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Tax Incentive Disease
The Cato Institute and I share a pet peeve: business tax incentives. In its “Fiscal Report Card on America’s Governors 2012,” author Chris Edwards chastises a practice that is prevalent in Virginia: the granting of special-interest tax breaks to favored businesses under the guise of economic development. States the report: While some governors are pursuing…
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How Fiscally Conservative Is McDonnell, Really?
Does Governor Bob McDonnell deserve his reputation as a fiscal conservative? The libertarian-leaning Cato Institute is dubious. McDonnell “hasn’t taken any major actions to shrink the Virginia government,” writes Chris Edwards, author of “Fiscal Report Card on America’s Governors 2012.” Indeed McDonnell and Virginia rated a “C” for fiscal policy, as measured by seven indicators…
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Hampton Roads More Broadly Affluent than NYC?
Dr. James V. Koch, a professor of economics and former president of Old Dominion University, is back in the news yet again, this time for making the seemingly outrageous observation that Hampton Roads is more affluent than New York City. A few years ago, when he first discovered Hampton Roads’ relative affluence compared with New…
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The Bicycle Movement Builds Momentum
Cyclists flexed their muscles — quadruceps and gluts, mostly — as almost 1,000 of them took part Saturday in the “Martin’s Tour” in the Richmond region, a set of 29-, 59- and 102-mile rides around the metropolitan region. (The Times-Dispatch has the story here.) The event, organized by Richmond Sports Backers and sponsored by Martin’s…
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Holy, Moly! Private-Sector Passenger Rail in Va.?
While the McDonnell administration seeks funding to extend Amtrak passenger service in Virginia, Hampton Roads planners are pushing European-style high-speed rail from Norfolk to Richmond and Washington — financed largely by the private sector. by James A. Bacon There’s an inherent difficulty in getting High Speed Rail to Virginia. Amtrak leases its rail lines from…
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IG of the Day: Walking Communities
Governing magazine has just published an interactive map showing which United States metros have the highest percentage of workers who walk to work. No surprise, the leaders in Virginia are small metros with large student populations — Charlottesville, Blacksburg and Harrisonburg. The graphics are somewhat deceptive, however. The size of the dot appears to bear…
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Brown Blasts LaHood over Fed Role in Rail-to-Dulles
Robert Clarke Brown, an outgoing board member of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, unloaded with both barrels today in a letter addressed to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The recent fixation on MWAA’s governance issues, he charged, was a distraction from far more important issues — the minimal contributions to the Rail-to-Dulles project by the…
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What Massey Energy? What Mine Disaster?
By Peter Galuszka A follow up on the “Governor’s Conference on Energy” in Richmond this week. Yesterday, I attended a session titled “Coal: Rhetoric Versus Reality.” As expected, the “rhetoric” was that of environmentalists and the “reality” was what was presented by two coal company executives and a lobbyist from the American Coalition for Clean…
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Boomergeddon Watch: The Ring of Fire
Bill Gross, the head of PIMCO, the world’s largest bond manager, has published a jeremiad that makes my “Boomergeddon” thesis look Pollyanna-ish by comparison. To avoid an economic meltdown, says the money mogul, the United States needs to close its fiscal gap by $1.6 trillion, equivalent to 11% of the GDP. In my book, I…
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Step Aside, Gutenberg
“Higher education is at a crossroads not seen since the introduction of the printing press.” So begins an op-ed written by L. Rafael Reif in the Wall Street Journal today. “Just as edX, Coursera, Udacity and other online-learning platforms are beginning to offer the teaching of great universities at low or no cost, residential education’s…
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Learning the Proper Lesson from International Walk to School Day
by James A. Bacon Some 114 schools across Virginia have registered for International Walk to School Day with the goal of encouraging children to build awareness of walking as an alternative to the automobile for getting to school. One of the participating schools is Robious Elementary School in Chesterfield County where parents won funding for…
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D.C. Council Passes MWAA Reform
The Washington, D.C., City Council has adopted changes to the bi-state compact governing the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that allow for Virginia to seat two new members, while Maryland and D.C. get to appoint one new member each. The legislation must be signed by Washington Mayor Vincent Gray to become law. Gov. Bob McDonnell, who…
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More On Coal and Utility Money Ties to Va. Politicians
By Peter Galuszka This isn’t exactly breaking news, but coal companies and utilities pay to be a dominant force in Virginia politics, a trio of environmental groups charges as The Governor’s Conference on Energy opens in Richmond today. The three groups – Appalachian Voices, Sierra Club Virginia and Chesapeake Climate Action Network – note that…