Year: 2012
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APM’s Case for Port Privatization
Privately owned APM Terminals provides something for Virginia’s ports that the state cannot: super-efficient container yards and the ability to expand capacity without incurring $2 billion in debt.
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Good Riddance, Bill’s Barbecue!
By Peter Galuszka Hold the Texas Pete while I wipe away my tears. The Mitt Romney campaign is featuring a two minute video of Richmond’s venerable Bill’s Barbecue restaurant chain. The firm’s president, Rhoda Elliott, narrates the spot claiming that growing unemployment under President Obama was the reason for the demise of the chain which…
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Uh, Oh, Irresistible Force Meets Immovable Object
The $1.4 billion U.S. 460 Connector has hit a roadblock: The Army Corps of Engineers is not ready to sign off on the route selected by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), reports Dave Forster with the Virginian-Pilot. VDOT’s proposed route for the Interstate-grade highway, which would parallel the existing U.S. 460, is not the…
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Celanese: The “War on Coal” Versus Reality
By Peter Galuszka The “War on Coal” has marched on Giles County and the propaganda is flying. Yet the problem is a bit more complicated. The latest skirmish involves a Celanese Acetate plant that makes products for cigarette filters and other items. The largest employer in the mountainous county, Celanese opened its chemical works on…
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Celanese Cypher: Why Did the State Contribute $2 Million?
by James A. Bacon Celanese Corporation has announced that it will invest $150 million at its Giles County chemical plant to replace coal-fired boilers with natural gas-fired boilers. The project, in conjunction with unspecified “other efforts” at the site, will create 22 full-time Celanese positions and employ 200 construction workers. Noting that Virginia competed against…
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Moral Hazard and the Federalization of the Disaster Business
According to a graphic displayed on the “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC this morning, Hurricane Sandy will be the second most expensive hurricane in United States history, after Katrina. The usual suspects will use information like this to argue that a bigger, stronger federal government is needed (a) to respond to natural disasters, and (b)…
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Sandy, Nukes, the Internet and Climate Change
By Peter Galuszka Super-storm Sandy raises more issues about nuclear power, the internet and also about global warming. As the storm struck the New Jersey coast and flooded New York City, three nuclear rectors were shut down because of problems with high water levels and electricity. Another reactor went on standby “alert” because its water…
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Idea Jam: Bicycles and Community Health
The Richmond metropolitan region has one of the highest obesity rates in the country — 29.4% of the population compared to 26.1% nationally, according to the 2012 Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index. The resulting health care treatment costs the region $520 million a year. Cutting obesity in half would save the regional economy roughly $254 million…
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More Internet Sociology on Dropout Rates
by James A. Bacon In a blog post yesterday, I observed that, while blacks are more prone to drop out from high school than whites statewide, in some 30 rural Virginia localities, blacks showed a lower dropout rate. In Nottoway County, the drop-out gap between blacks and whites was 14 percentage points for the class…
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Sandy’s Subliminal Messages
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Insurance, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Science & Technology, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka You have to love the Richmond Times-Dispatch. They never miss an opportunity to showcase their beloved Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell. As Hurricane Sandy approached, our intrepid governor was pictured everywhere: giving a statement about a state of emergency; looking very leader-like in a command center; appearing concerned as in this TD…
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Graduation Rates and White Social Pathology
by James A. Bacon Over the weekend, I heard a story that a teacher from Wilkes County, N.C. in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, told about discipline problems he had encountered at school. My friend kept us spellbound as he described how a trouble maker, whose mother had taught him “not to take…
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Tourism and the Creative Class
by James A. Bacon A draft plan written by PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP makes a valuable contribution to thinking realistically and creatively about Virginia tourism. The “Virginia State Tourism Plan” comes tantalizingly close to integrating the development of tourism initiatives with economic development in the Knowledge Economy… but never quite completes the loop. Virginians have long touted…
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New Criticisms of the U.S. 460 Connector
by James A. Bacon The state of Virginia is putting $400 million more of its own cash — $1.18 billion in all — into the U.S. 460 Connector under a recently announced deal financing than it would have under a public-private partnership contemplated two years ago, writes Peter Samuel, proprietor of Toll Road News in…
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The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
The de-lawning movement is slowly taking hold in the Richmond region. Converting grass into flower beds and vegetable gardens creates more attractive yards, cuts the expense of lawn maintenance and helps clean the Bay.
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Virginia Immigrants: More Prosperous than the Natives
With more than 900,000 foreign-born residents living here in 2010, Virginia had the ninth largest immigrant population in the United States, reports the Commonwealth Institute in a new report, “Critical Assets: The State of Immigrants in Virginia’s Economy.” Forty percent of Virginia immigrants hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. They are more likely to participate…