Author: Peter Galuszka
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Who Gets Credit for Virginia’s Recovery?
By Peter Galuszka As with fruit tree blossoms, economic recovery is in the springtime air in the Old Dominion. Virginia’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent in January, a three-year low. The question now is who gets credit for it. Leading the “credit me” pack is Gov. Robert F. McDonnell who insists that his job…
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Richmond’s Arab Spring
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in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Government Finance, Health Care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, LGBQT, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka What seems one of the wildest General Assembly sessions that ended on Saturday was actually a healthy display of democracy in action. It could presage a fundamental way that things are done in Richmond. True, a new Republican and conservative majority in the House of Delegates pushed odious wedge issues at the…
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The GERM That Is Destroying Public Education
By Peter Galuszka Sarah Wyscoki seemed to be doing well as a fledgling fifth grade teacher in the District of Columbia public system. Last spring her appraisal praised her “sound teaching” along with her ability to motivate students and keep things positive, according to The Washington Post. She was fired two months later. Why? The…
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¡Viva la Revolución!
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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, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, 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 waterEstimado Jefe! Usted nunca debe salir de la ciudad, señor! Ahora que usted está ausente, la revolución comienza! Amados lectores de ya no ver los artículos que glorifican a los ricos y privilegiados. Vamos a ayudar a la tierra y los pobres y redistribuir los fondos de cobertura. ¡Viva la Revolución!
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That Danged News Media!
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in Business and Economy, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka After a deluge of negative national publicity in recent weeks over a number of socially conservative and highly controversial bills that he originally endorsed, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has complained on a WTOP radio interview that he’s disappointed with the news media. “All we ever ask from the media is to…
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The Atlantic: Virginia’s Pathetic Leadership
With proposals such as mandated ultrasounds for abortion seekers and bans on Sharia law, state legislatures avoid actual governance in favor of dead-end ideas. Virginia’s attempt to intrude (literally and figuratively) upon the privacy of its pregnant women would be bad enough if it were merely a rare example of state lawmakers unhinging proposed legislation…
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“Our Bodies; “Our Idiot Selves”
By Peter Galuszka Forty two years ago, a feminist group titled “the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective” got together to start researching their own books about female health since they distrusted what they considered the male-dominated medical establishment. A substantial part of their research had to deal with birth control since the pill had been…
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Bad Days for Mickey D.
By Peter Galuszka There must be considerable gnashing of teeth in the Governor’s Mansion. Robert F. McDonnell had been working so hard to distance himself from his social conservative past, notably that nettlesome and Neanderthal anti-gay and anti-female graduate thesis. He had worked hard to remake himself as a reasonable moderate, thus setting himself up…
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National Laughingstock, Again
By Peter Galuszka Saturday Night Live’s recent mocking of the Virginia General Assembly’s proposed legislation to force women considering abortion to have trans-vaginal ultrasound exams and establishing conception as the moment of life’s beginning makes the Old Dominion the butt of national jokes once again. It seems that no matter how Virginians try to build…
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Our Upstanding Founding Fathers
By Peter Galuszka Since it is President’s Day and Virginia is the “Mother of Presidents,” I thought it might be interesting to put some things in perspective. One of the more curious blog postings of late on the site was Jim Bacon’s gushy advocacy of a move to private, religious-oriented schools because of what he…
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Why Tobacco Exports Are Wrong
By Peter Galuszka Virginia’s business lobby is blasting President Barack Obama for balking at pushing U.S. grown tobacco leaf in upcoming trade talks involving Pacific Rim nations. Barry E. DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, complains that Obama is “targeting tobacco” by trying to leave it out of upcoming talks involving…
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A Pathetic Half-Time
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By Peter Galuszka It’s so-called halftime at the Virginia General Assembly, and with conservative Republicans holding sway and many serious problems facing the Commonwealth, here’s what we’ve come up with so far: Women exercising their constitutional right to have an abortion now will be forced to undergo and pay for an ultrasound before the procedure.…
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Goodbye Grundy! Hello, Wal-Mart
By Peter Galuszka Hours west of Richmond by car lies the old coal town of Grundy, lying at a confluence of the flood-prone Levisa Fork River below steep cliffs of sedimentary rock of sandstone and shale. Grundy has been a touchstone for my various trips to the Virginia coalfields over the years. I hadn’t been…
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Punting on Obamacare
By Peter Galuszka The Virginia General Assembly is taking a powder on Obamacare. Faced with a federal mandate of next January to show they are making progress, Richmond legislators have dilly-dallied past the problem, many apparently fearful that too much action on setting up state-run exchanges for people to shop for health insurance will bring…
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The Cooch’s Personal Cops?
By Peter Galuszka Virginia’s zany attorney general wants to create his own armed, flying squad of crime-busters. In what could be a 21st century version of “Dragnet,” Kenneth Cuccinelli wants to create his own police force. He wants to arm 40 of the 83 members of his Medicaid fraud investigative arm. They’d have badges, too. Cuccinelli…