Author: Peter Galuszka
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Bad Move by U. Va.
By Peter Galuszka Helen Dragas gets it. The Board of Visitors member at the University of Virginia tried to hold the line against cutting back on the school’s AccessUVA program, a highly successful endeavor that for 10 years has helped low income get a high level education with generous grants. Citing cost pressures, U.Va. President…
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Innuendo vs. Substance In the Governor’s Race
By Peter Galuszka Virginia’s nasty gubernatorial race fills television screens and Web sites with suggestions of corruption by both candidates, involving everything from gifts to natural gas rights to a struggling electric carmaker in Mississippi. There’s anything but a smoking gun, but no shortage of innuendo. And I think it is important to point that…
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“Near Certainty” on Humans and Global Warming
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in Business and Economy, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka Here’s some red meat for global warming deniers: A draft report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there’s “near certainty” that humans cause global warming. This is the group of hundreds of scientists and other experts who review global warming data under the auspices of the United Nations and are…
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Meals Tax: Laura vs. Jim
By Peter Galuszka It looks like Jim’s in trouble with Laura. No not that Laura, but Laura Lafayette, chief executive officer of the Richmond Association of Realtors. In an op-ed piece in this mornings Richmond Times Dispatch, Ms. Lafayette attacked Jim’s suggestion that a resurgence in the Henrico County housing market makes a proposed 4…
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Is Maureen McDonnell “Madame Ten Percent?”
By Peter Galuszka When is too much, too much? That’s my thought when I read the Richmond Times-Dispatch‘s intriguing story this morning that Maureen McDonnell, wife of the embattled governor, traded thousands of dollars worth of Star Scientific stock supposedly without her husband’s knowledge. In May, 2011, Jonnie Williams Sr., head of the troubled Star…
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The Big, Bad Federal Deficit
By Peter Galuszka I can’t help but being amused every time I see another chart showing the plummeting U.S. federal deficit. In June, it was 4 percent of GDP, well down from 10 percent ($1.4 trillion) at the start of the Great Recession in 2009. Where are all the scary stories you used to read…
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Now, The Sharks Are Turning on Each Other
By Peter Galuszka You know something bad is up when Gov. Robert F. McDonnell starts turning on his gift-giving pal Jonnie R. Williams Sr. of Star Scientific and federal prosecutors. On Friday, the troubled dietary supplement maker filed securities documents saying that the firm has been told by federal prosecutors that it would not be…
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Cuccinelli’s Strange Obsession
By Peter Galuszka Atty. Gen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, now running as a Republican for governor, has had a number of strange obsessions: going doggedly after a climatologist over global warming issues he disagrees with and pushing to arm investigators involved with Medicaid fraud. But nothing compares with Cuccinelli’s stubborn insistence that sodomy should be illegal even…
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Richmond’s Remarkable Underground Press
By Peter Galuszka With its broad, tree-lined avenues, Georgian-style redbrick buildings and statues of Confederate generals, Richmond comes off a snooty and tranquil. Yet, in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Frankel, it is a place “with larger-than-life personalities and a façade of gentility and political etiquette covering an underworld of cut-throat, back-room politics…
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Rethinking Ethics in Virginia
By Peter Galuszka Kenneth Cuccinelli’s call for a special session of the General Assembly to consider plugging “severe holes” in the state’s ethics is outrageously self serving but it does show what may be a turning point in Virginia’s attitudes about disclosure and gift rules. It’s about time. Virginia has perhaps the most lax ethics…
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Another Probe: This Time It’s McAuliffe
By Peter Galuszka All Virginia’s gubernatorial race needs is another investigation for potential wrong-doing. Yet here’s another and it involves Democratic contender Terry McAuliffe. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating two McAuliffe-connected firms. They are GreenTech Automotive and a sister firm, Gulf Coast Funds Management, according to the Washington Post. McAuliffe, a veteran…
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The Death of Harry F. Byrd Jr.
By Peter Galuszka One of the most important figures who defined much of what was wrong with Virginia in the 20th century has died at age 98. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the son of the man who set up the one-party system of control in the state smitten with the democratic ideals of Thomas Jefferson,…
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Time to Get Serious About Ethics Reform
By Peter Galuszka After months of embarrassing controversy, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell announced today that he will return gifts that he and his family received from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the head of a Henrico County dietary-supplement maker. McDonnell had earlier said that he had repaid $120,000 in loans provided to him and his…
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Where is McDonnell’s Gas Pump Relief?
By Peter Galuszka When Gov. Robert F. McDonnell won approval earlier this year for his far-reaching transportation plan that would eliminate the 17.5 cent per gallon gas tax to provide $4.3 billion for roads and public transit, a big question was what it might mean to consumers at the pump. In exchange for eliminating the…
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“Dear Gov. Robert F. McDonnell:
Thank you for your public apology for the embarrassment that you and your family have brought the citizens of Virginia. Thanks also for paying back the more than $124,000 in loans that you and your wife have received from Jonnie R. Williams Sr. I know that all of us can at times be venal and…