Year: 2012
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The Curse of the Yellow Powder
Is it possible to restore a landscape damaged by uranium? Ask the Navajo in New Mexico.
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Will Virginia Participate in the “Open Urbanism” Revolution?
by James A. Bacon A global revolution in the design and management of cities is gaining momentum. The rapid evolution of sensors, analytics and automation technologies is creating once-in-a-generation opportunities to drive down the cost of infrastructure and public services at the very moment that state and local governments face the worse fiscal stress since…
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Regulating Uranium Mining Would Be Huge Task
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Infrastructure, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & healthBy Peter Galuszka Virginia appears to be reaching a critical mass regarding uranium mining and milling in Pittsylvania County. Today, the Uranium Working Group issued its report outlining what steps would be needed if Virginia were to lift its 30-year-old moratorium on uranium mining. Meanwhile, the powerful Virginia Farm Bureau joined a group of mining…
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We’re No. 9! We’re No. 9!
Yikes, there is yet another ranking of the 50 states, this one from 24/7 Wall Street, which provides “commentary for U.S. and global equity investors.” This report purports to measure the “best and worst run states in America.” Here is the philosophy animating the study: The successful management of a state is difficult to measure.…
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Woo, That VRS Pension Reform Came Along Just in the Nick of Time
Morningstar, the investment research firm, has published a new study, “The State of State Pension Plans,” that delves into the dangerously underfunded condition of many state pension plans. Pensions, states the report, “will play an integral role in determining a state’s fiscal health and overall credit quality, going forward.” I keep looking for a report…
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A Bump in the Road for the Cville Bypass?
Foes of the Charlottesville Bypass have won an important ally. In an advisory opinion, the Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) consider alternatives to the 6.5-mile bypass of U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville. Sean Tubbs fleshes out the details in Charlottesville Tomorrow: “Alternatives analysis is the heart of [the…
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A Tale of Two Controversies… or Really Only One?
by James A. Bacon There is a fascinating sidebar to the Teresa Sullivan firing/rehiring at the University of Virginia that has gone unremarked upon in the Virginia press yet has inspired articles and blog posts among journalists and commentators following the Global Warming debate, including, recently, the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. The question…
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Virginia Graduation Rates: Fair to Middling
Until this week it was impossible to make meaningful state-to-state comparisons in high school graduation and dropout rates because each state had its own definition of what constituted a dropout. Invariably, states used definitions that would make them look better. The U.S. Department of Education has required states to use the same methodology to compare…
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Americans Still Moving to the Sun Belt
State-to-state migration within the United States has slowed dramatically since the 2000s, but foot-loose Americans are still moving to sprawling Sun Belt cities, maintains urban geographer Joel Kotkin in the New Geography blog. Drawing upon 2010-2011 data, he writes: “The weak recovery has slowed migration, but expensive, overregulated and dense metropolitan areas continue to lose…
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A Respite from the Culture Wars?
by James A. Bacon It sounds like Virginia Republicans have learned a lesson — at least temporarily — from the shellacking they took in the November elections. All the talk of “legitimate rape,” rape-induced pregnancy as a “gift from god” and, earlier this year, trans-vaginal ultrasounds has poisoned the Grand Old Party in the minds…
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Liberty U Fights for Our Freedoms, Too
Liberty University has renewed its challenge to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) on the grounds that it violates the school’s religious freedom. Read the details in FoxNews. Personally, I’m a big fan of birth control. I’m all in favor of insurance companies paying for it. Birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies. I wish…
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We’re No. 12! We’re No. 12!
by James A. Bacon Virginia may be holding onto its sterling AAA credit rating, but global asset manager Conning & Co., gives it a so-so No. 12 credit ranking in its latest State of the State report. For reasons not explained in the white paper, the Old Dominion fell from a No. 6 perch in…
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Crime Drops, But Virginians Pack More Heat
By Peter Galuszka Virginians have been buying more firearms than ever even though crime has been steadily falling. Why? Last year, 420,829 firearms were bought through licensed gun dealers in Virginia. That’s a 73 percent increase from the sales in 2006. Leading the list were pistols (175,717) sold last year, followed by rifles (135,495). Central…
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Public-Private Transportation Act Needs Reform
Virginia’s reliance upon the Public-Private Partnership (P3) process to build large bridge, rail and highway projects has led to the centralization of decision making in the hands of the governor’s office with little effective oversight, contends James J. Regimbal Jr. with Fiscal Analytics, Ltd., in a report sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC).…
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Another Free Market Innovation for the Age Wave
America’s population is aging rapidly, and so is the number of elderly who require assistance in daily living. Baby Boomers, to many of whom has fallen the responsibility of caring for aging parents, often find the alternatives unattractive. Nursing homes can be either too impersonal or too expensive. Caring for the parent at home is…