Year: 2012
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Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
Communities in Schools aims to boost graduation rates for inner city Richmond students by helping them surmount a deep-rooted culture of poverty.
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VDOT to Study Potomac Crossings
by James A. Bacon Three days ago the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) issued an innocuous press release announcing that it would sponsor and fund a study of future travel demand across the Potomac River. Specifically, the study will focus on cross-river traffic and demand between the Route 15 crossing north of Leesburg to the…
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Black Friday, Internet Retailing and the Tax Base
by James A. Bacon As millions of Americans plot their insane Black Friday retail rush, trampling over one another to reach the best deals in Wal-Mart and Target, millions of other Americans are planning to sit at home and shop online. Who needs the risk of getting crushed like a fallen participant in the Pamplona…
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IG of the Day: Projecting Virginia’s Age Profile
As the massive Baby Boomer generation achieves senior citizen status, as people live longer and as birth rates stagnate, Virginia’s demographic pyramid won’t look very pyramidal anymore. In the future there will be a whole lot more old people, transforming the pyramid into more of a column. Yup, the geezers will be out there, driving…
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Inquisitor, Investigate Thyself
The Southern Commission on Colleges has far better subjects for its oversight activities than the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors. by Reed Fawell III Despite the fracas last summer between University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors and President Teresa Sullivan, or perhaps because of it, the university has charted a bold new course, as…
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Solid Thinking about Richmond’s Future
by James A. Bacon Richmond’s Future, a regional think tank founded by former Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene Trani, is spear-heading the most interesting conversations taking place today about the future path of the region’s economic development. It’s a welcome change from the regional leadership’s old habit of touring other cities in the search of…
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Va. Offshore Oil Back on the Front Burner
By Peter Galuszka Pressure is building to open up Atlantic seafloor off of Virginia for oil exploration. This time, according to a New York Times article, both of Virginia’s Democratic Senators are on board with Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and the state’s mostly GOP Congressional contingent to open up tracts off the coast for…
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A Market Alternative to Regulating Payday Lenders
by James A. Bacon As Chesterfield County continues to debate how extensively to restrict payday lending — a classic manifestation of the do-gooders’ proclivity for imposing their exquisite sensibilities upon the population through government coercion — it is nice to be reminded of a positive experiment to help Virginians with short-term lending needs. Under former…
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It’s Not Your Grandfather’s White Suburb Anymore
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, Transportation, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka Virginia’s slow and steady color change from red to blue was underscored again in the Nov. 6 election with Barack Obama once again winning the Old Dominion. As Republicans lick their wounds, they may consider just how reliable GOP bastions of the state are changing and how that very neatly tracks trends…
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Reform Juvenile Treatment: Save Money, Save Lives
The tab for holding juvenile offenders in secure state facilities averages $221 per day per youth over a stay of 14 months. That amounts to almost $100,000 per kid. The result? Seventy-four percent of those confined in state facilities are convicted of another offense within three years. Writes Mike Thompson in the latest edition of…
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Another Income-Inequality Study Stating the Obvious
by James A. Bacon Along comes another study demonstrating that income inequality in the United States is getting worse and worse. The wrinkle this time is that it breaks down the growth in inequality by state. Virginia, it turns out, ranks 15th in the country for income inequality in 2008-2010, with the top fifth of…
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First Fat, Now Unhealthy
If there ever was any question that Virginians need to act more aggressively to improve public health, there shouldn’t be any longer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released new data showing that the incidence of diabetes has increased dramatically in all states between 1995 and 2010. Diabetes among adults in Virginia now…
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Truckers Question Safety of Cville Bypass Design, Still Support Project
Virginia trucking companies are concerned that a new design of the Charlottesville Bypass would create safety issues, says Dale Bennett, executive director of the Virginia Trucking Association (VTA), but he doesn’t know of any company that would avoid using the Bypass. And he stands by the association’s long-stated support for the $244 million project. In…
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Coal Firm Swears off Mountaintop Removal
By Peter Galuszka In what may become a widespread trend, a major American coal firm, Patriot Coal, has agreed in a court case to ween itself from mountaintop removal mining practices in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Bankrupt Patriot agreed to shut down a huge drag line at its…
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More Business-As-Usual Proposals to Raise Your Taxes
James A. Bacon It looks like the 2013 session of the General Assembly will be consumed by one or more proposals to jack up taxes to pay for more transportation spending. Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, has advanced a complex package to raise an estimated $734 million for transportation, which he will unveil publicly at a…