Author: James A. Bacon
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Skirting the Maelstrom
by James A. Bacon It’s Business As Usual in Virginia as the political class grapples over budget issues seemingly oblivious to what’s happening in other parts of the world. Politicians of varied political stripes seem to think it’s a perfectly good idea to borrow another $300 million, over and above $150 million already set aside,…
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Fairfax County’s Incredible Shrinking Growth Forecast
More great analysis from Terry Maynard! In a memorandum to fellow members of the Reston Master Plan Special Study Task Force, he tracks the incredible deflating population growth projections for Fairfax County and explores what it means for transportation and land use planning. As recently as 2008, the sky was the limit. As the federal…
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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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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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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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Under the LiDAR
New technology is taking cost, time and uncertainty out of highway design. For Virginians, this quiet revolution means less traffic disruption, lower costs and faster turn-around times on big projects. by James A. Bacon Last fall Fluor Transurban was negotiating a contract with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to build or upgrade 29 miles…
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Sugar Shock
Food activists proved wrong about fat are now setting their sights on sugar. by James A. Bacon Once upon a time, there was a medical “consensus” that fat and cholesterol in the diet were major causes of heart disease. Armed with this “settled science,” the public health establishment moved in the 1970s to expunge the…