Author: Peter Galuszka
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Has Road Privatization Gone Frankenstein?
By Peter Galuszka Since 1995, Virginia’s politicians have had a ready tool that they love to use as a ruse to build roads without raising taxes: the Public Privatization Transportation Act. Once considered a nation-beater and major step in the craze of putting private management methods and money in pubic transport projects, the PPTA was…
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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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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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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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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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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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Richmond’s Redskins Deal Gets Even Weirder
By Peter Galuszka The deal for the Washington Redskins to build a summer training facility gets richer, more one-sided and more questionable by the day. The latest wrinkle, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch, is that the City of Richmond will use money from its school and jail budgets to pony up a $10 million…
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Our Out-Of-Control Military
By Peter Galuszka Are we too in love with our military? Forgive the pun, given the resignation of CIA director and former Army general David Petraeus in a sex scandal. But it still needs to be asked given the decade-long gush of praise for men and women in uniform, many of whom have some Virginia…
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Is Now the Time for a Carbon Tax?
By Peter Galuszka With the 2012 election decided, there seems to be some movement towards considering establishing a carbon tax to cut greenhouse gases and mitigate climate change. Despite the Kyoto Protocols of 1997, which the U.S. did not sign, and a slew of renewable energy projects in places such as Europe, there has been…
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McDonnell’s Post-Electoral Pouting
By Peter Galuszka It’s only three days after Virginia and the rest of the nation reelected President Barack Obama but already Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is acting like a petulant child. Faced with the certainty of Obamacare, McDonnell appears to be tossing the responsibility of creating exchanges to help self-employed or people denied medical insurance…
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The Scary New World of Uneven Sea Water Levels
By Peter Galuszka Ten days later, New York City and parts of the New Jersey and New York coast are still reeling from Super Storm Sandy as yet another nor’easter packing 50 mile per hour winds approaches. Scientific evidence points out that sea level rises caused by melting polar icecaps caused, in turn, by climate…
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President Barack Obama!
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in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Uncategorized, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka President Barack Obama’s re-election and success with Virginia in Tuesday’s contest could provide a fresh opportunity to solidify more economic recovery than what have otherwise may have happened. It could be a real chance for bipartisan progress. Here’s my takeaway at 2:30 a.m.: Virginia has again shown that it is morphing into…
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No Need for Question 1 on Eminent Domain
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Environment, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka It hasn’t gotten a lot of attention during this campaign, but Virginia will decide Tuesday whether to go with an amendment resulting in the toughest law in the country regarding eminent domain. Virginia has a law already that requires fair market compensation for private property taken for “Public Good” such as building…
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“The Bay,” The Chesapeake As Horror Movie
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in Agriculture & forestry, Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Environment, Government Finance, Health Care, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Property rights, Science & Technology, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka Imagine you are enjoying a refreshing summertime swim in the Chesapeake Bay or one of the Rivahs. You feel great, but shortly afterwards, you become very ill. Before you know it, new forms of parasitic isopods are eating up your heart, lungs and kidneys. You are terrified, in great pain and you…