Author: Peter Galuszka
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Philip Morris: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
by Peter Galuszka It’s been a very long goodbye. Faced with billions of dollars in health-related lawsuits and huge public relations problems in 2008, cigarette giant Philip Morris split itself in two very different companies. It reminds me of the scene in Stanley Kubrick’s brilliantly sarcastic war move, “Full Metal Jacket.” A colonel stops Private…
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How Trump’s Trade Madness Hurts Virginia Farmers
by Peter Galuszka Virginia farmers are paying a big price for President Donald Trump’s chaotic trade war with China. If anything, it’s likely to get worse as Trump vows even bigger tariffs, drops the idea and then comes back to it. There’s no question that Trump’s peculiar negotiating behavior and questionable logic are having their…
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The Death of David Koch
by Peter Galuszka Imagine the coincidence. On Friday I was reading business writer Christopher Leonard’s excellent “Kochland” book on the hard-right, billionaire industrialists, Charles and David Koch. I put my Nook down for a moment to check the news. David Koch had died at age 79. He, his brother, the rest of the family and…
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Why Is Expanding Broadband Still Such a Problem?
by Peter Galuszka U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-7th) has drawn lots of attention for her Rural Broadband Summit at Louisa County High School in Mineral on Aug. 17, which got plenty of comment from primarily rural residents unhappy that they can’t get access to quick, reliable Internet service. Good for Spanberger, who beat Republican Dave…
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My Three Days of Peace and Music
Fifty years ago, when I was 16 years old, a classmate from my high school in suburban Washington, D.C., called and asked if I wanted to go to Woodstock. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was about but I had some time off since I had just finished a summer journalism course at a D.C.…
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The Curious Case of the Amazon Op-Ed
For decades, Stephen S. Fuller has been regarded as a regional asset. His study of the state’s economy as a professor at George Mason University has been praised as insightful, especially his idea that Virginia needs to diversify from its traditional reliance on federal government spending. So, it seemed odd that Fuller, who plans to…
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Jeff Thomas: “The Virginia Way” Prevails
A little less than three years ago, Richmond author and analyst Jeff Thomas shook up the state political elite with a densely research account of how “The Virginia Way” actually works and how major players schemed to benefit from it. Thomas’s book was brilliantly timed, arriving after the state’s first major corruption trial involving from…
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Housing Humans For Profit Draws Protests
More than 70 people strong, a small caravan made its way through the quiet streets of Farmville July 27 to protest a private jail for undocumented immigrants being prepared for deportation. “We were offering prayers for the detainees. We have lost our moral compass,” said Elena Ceberio, a protestor and member of the Pullen Memorial…
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Cyberhacking: A Threat That Won’t Go Away
One rainy, windy Friday in mid-May, I went into a chemistry department auditorium at Tufts University outside of Boston where I was attending my 45th reunion. The room, with its oversized wall illustrations of the periodic table, was familiar turf. I had been through chemistry lectures there as an undergraduate. That morning, the topic was…
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So Long, Bacon's Rebellion
By Peter Galuszka For that past six (or is it seven or eight?) years, I’m been pleased to pound away posting my peculiar views on Bacons Rebellion. My stance has typically been that of a liberal or progressive albeit one of the near and not the far left. My opinions have been honed by 41…
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So Long, Bacon’s Rebellion
By Peter Galuszka For that past six (or is it seven or eight?) years, I’m been pleased to pound away posting my peculiar views on Bacons Rebellion. My stance has typically been that of a liberal or progressive albeit one of the near and not the far left. My opinions have been honed by 41…
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Alpha Natural Resources: Running Wrong
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka Four years ago, coal titan Alpha Natural Resources, one of Virginia’s biggest political donors, was riding high. It was spending $7.1 billion to buy Massey Energy, a renegade coal firm based in Richmond that had compiled an extraordinary record for safety and environmental violations and fines. Its management practices culminated in a…
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Sorry, We Have No Solar Today
By Peter Galuszka If you are a homeowner in Virginia interested in installing solar panels at your house, you might consider moving to New Jersey. Why? Because a subsidiary of your very own utility, Dominion Energy Solutions, is partnering with SunPower, a California-based company that makes solar systems for the home, to move into the…
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Renewable Energy: A Tale of Two Virginias
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By Peter Galuszka Call it a tale of two Virginias – at least when it comes to renewable energy. One is the state’s traditional political and business elite, including Dominion Resources and large manufacturers, the State Corporation Commission and others. They insist that the state must stick with big, base-loaded electricity generating plants like nuclear…
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The Ironies of Virginia's Growing Diversity
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Suddenly immigration is popping up as a major issue in Virginia and the nation. Virginia Beach has been dubbed a “sanctuary city” for undocumented aliens by Fox News and conservative Websites. GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is scarfing up poll number hikes by calling Mexicans trying to enter the U.S. illegally “rapists”…