Year: 2012
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$100 Million in Mo’ Money for Hampton Roads Tunnels
The Virginia Department of Transportation has reached financial close with Elizabeth River Crossings to begin construction of the new $2.1 billion Midtown/Downtown Tunnel project in Norfolk. Also, Governor Bob McDonnell announced today, he will ask the Commonwealth Transportation Board to allocate “up to $100 million” to cover the cost of delaying the tolls until January…
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Art as Richmond’s Future
by James A. Bacon Art in Richmond is busting out of the museums, universities and galleries and into the streets. The latest efflorescence occurred Saturday when a dozen nationally known street artists gathered to create an outdoor gallery along the James River Power Plant Building and Floodwall along the canal walk. Hundreds of people came…
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Fuel Economy Standards Will Price 200,000 Virginia Drivers out of the New Car Market
Proposed fuel economy rules for the year 2025 will raise the average price of a vehicle by $3,000 and price seven million potential new car buyers out of the market nationally, according to a new study by the National Association of Automobile Dealers released today. A state-by-state breakdown indicated that 122,000 drivers in Virginia, or…
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“Address the Transportation Crisis” — Code Words for Mo’ Money
by James A. Bacon In a foreshadowing of a possible grand urban alliance, Hampton Roads mayors have reached out to counterparts in Northern Virginia and the Richmond region to unite in pursuit of a comprehensive transportation funding solution. “We all recognize the crisis Virginia faces as it relates to transportation, therefore, we strongly believe it…
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Corey Stewart’s Racist Baggage
By Peter Galuszka Corey A. Stewart, the scourge of “illegal” immigrants and standard-holder of good old fashioned American values, is now running for lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket in 2013. News reports of his recent announcement were predictably bland – comments in the right-wing blogosphere even more so – despite the fact that Stewart…
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Dulles Rail: “Good Night, John Boy”
By Peter Galuszka The convoluted schemes of Virginia state politicians to avoid paying for rail service to Dulles International Airport are as frustrating as they are self-defeating and unfair. Just a few days ago, it seemed that the General Assembly would consider adding $300 million to extend Metrorail to Dulles on the Silver Line when…
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Rail-to-Dulles and the Debt Dilemma
by James A. Bacon General Assembly Democrats fought McDonnell administration proposals in the 2012 session to divert funds from the General Fund to transportation programs on the grounds that the transfer would short-change education, health care and other core programs. They don’t appear to be applying the same principle, however, to the issuance of state debt. A…
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Rail-to-Dulles Gets Fairfax Nod, Hurdles Remain
by James A. Bacon The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has just voted to confirm the county’s participation in Phase 2 of the $2.7 billion Rail-to-Dulles project. (See press release.) The county’s share of Phase 2 will be $330 million raised through a tax on Phase 2 District property owners equal to 25 cents per…
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A Positive Light on Virginia’s For-Profit Colleges
Michele Claibourn with the Weldon Cooper Demographics & Workforce Blog took a look at the same data that I did in my previous post and made a very interesting comparison, as seen in the image at left. The top graphic compares the four- and six-year graduation rates of Virginia’s public colleges, private colleges and for-profit…
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Closely Watched Trains
By Peter Galuszka A few weeks ago, I was making another trip to the area near Matewan, W.Va., a small, historic town of red brick buildings a stone’s throw across the Tug Fork River from Kentucky. Matewan is noted for its coalfield labor strife caught dramatically in John Sayles superb 1987 movie of the same…
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More Fodder for Higher Ed Data Freaks
Q: What Virginia college had the highest four-year graduation rate of any four-year private institution nationally? A: Washington & Lee University, with a 92.8% graduation rate. That compared to an 84.5% rate for the University of Virginia, a 49.1% rate for all Virginia public universities and a 31.3% rate for all four-year colleges nationally. Virginia…
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Academic Freedom Requires Academic Accountability
Should public university faculty email be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act? So asks the Roanoke Times in dueling op-eds from David W. Schnare with the American Tradition Institute (ATI) and Kate Westcott with the American Association of University Professors. ATI sued the University of Virginia to gain access to the emails of a…
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The Most Senseless Transportation Project Ever?
by James A. Bacon There is an interesting back story to the General Assembly deliberations over subsidies to the Rail-to-Dulles project (see previous post). Engaging in a form of informational guerilla warfare, a hardy band of skeptics in Northern Virginia has managed to inject a critical new issue into the debate: How much traffic will…
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The Latest Twist in Rail-to-Dulles Politics
Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Manassas, signed off Friday on a state budget compromise that omits $300 million for the Rail-to-Dulles project, reports the Washington Post. Colgan said that his agreement in Senate-House budget conferee deliberations does not commit him to actually voting for the compromise budget when the Senate must ratify it. But his decision…
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Bye, Bye, Vice President McDonnell
It appears that ultrasounds, handgun purchases and helping groups ban gays from becoming adoptive parents are costing Gov. Robert F. McDonnell his dreams of being a Republican vice presidential candidate. Now that Mitt Romney has 655 electoral votes tied up and looks like a sure thing as far as the GOP nominee, McDonnell has fallen…