Year: 2012
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Virginia’s New Manufacturing Challenge — Peoria, not Peking
by James A. Bacon At long last there is evidence to suggest that manufacturing in the United States has turned the corner. After a decade and a half of steady of corporations moving their manufacturing platforms overseas, U.S. manufacturing employment has enjoyed a modest rebound the past two years. Chinese labor costs are rising, corporations…
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MWAA’s Murky Constitutional Status
by James A. Bacon Is it possible to create an interstate compact when one of the “states” is the District of Columbia, which, in fact, is not a state? To be more specific, is the agreement between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia that creates the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority a true…
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Are We Going Back to Selma?
By Peter Galuszka Imagine it is Alabama in early 1965. The Southern state, like Virginia, has for decades deployed a number of ruses such as poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent U.S. citizens and state residents from voting. These people otherwise would have been qualified voters but also happened to be African-Americans whom the…
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Voter ID: Get Over It, and Get Out the Vote
by James A. Bacon I didn’t see any pressing need for the Voter ID law in Virginia but now that we’re going to get one, I don’t see the need to get all agitated about it. In signing the Voter ID legislation into law, Governor Bob McDonnell issued an executive order instructing the State Board…
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Former Guvs Urge MWAA to Backtrack on PLA Policy
Three former Virginia governors and a former U.S. Senator have urged the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to “put ideology, partisan politics, pride and parochial interests aside” and reverse its decision to favor Project Labor Agreements (PLA) when evaluating construction bids for Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles project. “The Project Labor Agreement (PLA), the key…
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Yes, the Cville Bypass Is under Budget
by James A. Bacon Last week the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) opened bids for the design and construction of the Charlottesville Bypass, claiming that the low bid of Virginia Beach-based Skanska-Branch/JMT came in beneath the department’s official projection and within the $197 million allocated to the project. However, project foes stated that, based upon…
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Will Washington Mayor Gray Side with McDonnell on MWAA?
by James A. Bacon Overlooked in the contentious debate over Virginia’s representation on the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board is this salient fact: MWAA won’t seat the two new directors appointed by Governor Bob McDonnell until the District of Columbia joins Virginia in amending the interstate compact creating MWAA. While Virginia passed the necessary legislation,…
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Virginia’s Perpetual Bigotry
By Peter Galuszka All the talk of a “new” Virginia that is somehow the apple of Richard Florida’s “New Urbanist” eye got a drubbing this week when the General Assembly voted against a gay man for a judgeship, showing just how badly the social right-wing is running amok and how more thoughtful people can’t control…
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Media General Sells Newspapers, Old Richmond Fades Away
by James A. Bacon Richmond-based Media General announced the sale this morning of all of its newspapers, except those in the Tampa Group, to Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. for $142 million in cash and help in refinancing its capital structure. Newspapers affected include the Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as daily newspapers in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Danville, Bristol…
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Quote of the Day: Jim DeMint
From a viewpoint written by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, and published by the Republican Joint Economic Committee: “Just as Greece enjoyed years of low interest rate loans to finance their debt due to the backing of the Euro’s good name, the United States is today enjoying a time of artificially low interest rates as a…
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Hoist a Mug to Win-Win-Win Economic Development
It may be a small step forward — perhaps I should say, a “micro” step forward — but Governor Bob McDonnell’s signing yesterday of two laws to stimulate small beer breweries in Virginia is exactly the kind of economic development initiative the state needs. One law will permit manufacturers to lease space in their brew…
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IG Report Highlights MWAA Board Conflicts
James A. Bacon It seems that “partisan Republicans” and “wild-eyed Tea Baggers” aren’t the only people who have problems with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) board of directors. The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Obama administration expressed concerns in an interim report on its review of the board’s policies…
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Chart of the Day: Virginia Economic Performance
This chart from the Joint Economic Committee of Congress comes from a recent report, “Understanding the Economy: State-by-State Snapshots.” It shows how Virginia falls in the quadrant of lower-than-median unemployment and lower-than-median job loss since the beginning of the recession. A logical question to ask is how much credit the McDonnell administration deserves for the…
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Assembly Balks at Reining in MWAA
Among other hijinks yesterday, it appears that the General Assembly shot down Governor Bob McDonnell’s bid to withhold $150 million in state contributions to Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles project if the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority refused to accept two additional Virginia appointees to its board. Steve Contorno has the story for the Washington Examiner.…
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Bail outs for Failed States? No Way!
by James A. Bacon As Greece stumbles towards default on its budget promises and the European Union continues its slow-motion meltdown, a growing number of people are wondering if default is in the cards within the Dollar Union, in other words, the good ol’ United States of America. California’s projected budget gap has increased from…