Category: Civil Rights, Individual Liberties
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Lies, Damn Lies, and CNN Statistics
So, I listened this weekend to some of the speeches in the “March for Our Lives” protest against guns, and heard a lot of criticism of the National Rifle Association for buying votes through its enormous campaign contributions. Then I saw this article published on the CNN website that purports to explain why the NRA holds…
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“Moderation in the Protection of Liberty is no Virtue”
Last week members of the Brody Jewish Center and Hoos for Israel at the University of Virginia hosted an event entitled, “Building Bridges” to “promote conversation and respectful dialogue between students of different religious and political backgrounds.” It seems like some Wahoos weren’t interested in respectful dialogue. About 10 protesters entered the event in Clark…
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Seriously? We Can’t Even Ban Bump Stocks?
In a 4-to-3, party-line vote, the House Militia, Police and Public Safety subcommittee killed a bill yesterday that would ban bump stocks — a mechanism, made notorious by October 1 mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music concert, which allows semiautomatic weapons to fire more like automatic weapons. I’m skeptical of many gun control measures and…
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Safeguard Privacy of Student Contact Info
Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, has submitted a bill that would exempt college student cellphone numbers and private email addresses from publicly available data. Del. Chris Hurst, D-Blacksburg, and Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham, have submitted similar bills. Reports the Roanoke Times: The bills address concerns raised during the 2017 election when NextGen Virginia, a progressive political group,…
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Oyster Wars, Viewsheds and Property Rights
One might think all Virginians would be delighted by the resurgence of the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay. But more oysters means more oystermen, and more oystermen means more strange men trudging around the shallows and dragging around ugly cages within the sight of wealthy waterfront property owners. The resurgence has led to resistance from…
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Will NIMBYs Thwart SolUnesco Solar Plan?
Not all barriers to solar energy emanate from Richmond. Take Albemarle County, for example. The county zoning code outlaws solar farms, we learn from Charlottesville Tomorrow. “The current zoning ordinance allows for the transmission and distribution of energy, but not the generation of energy,” said county planner Margaret Maliszewski at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The issue arose…
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Campus Speech Is Free… As Long As It Isn’t “Biased”
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has published its 2016 ratings of free speech in U.S. college campuses. Despite all the publicity given “safe spaces” and microagressions,” formal campus speech policies are getting somewhat less restrictive nationally, FIRE reports. Three Virginia universities stand among a small minority of institutions that do not threaten free…
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Hundreds Seek Pipeline Construction Jobs
The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is highly controversial in Augusta County, where property owners fear pipeline construction will jeopardize water supplies, create a safety hazard for nearby residents, and drive down property values. But hundreds of mechanics, welders, electricians and other blue-collar workers see the $5 billion project as a potential boon. By noon Thursday,…
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Pipelines Offer Hope, Provoke Despair
Recent articles have highlighted rural communities that stand to win and lose from proposed natural gas pipeline mega-projects crossing the state. On the hopeful side, the Daily Press reports that Isle of Wight County economic development director Tom Elder would like to build a lateral line off the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) to supply…
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The Cooter Controversy as Window into the New Class/Culture War
by James A. Bacon Ben Jones, the former actor and Georgia congressman, has built a small retail empire around the character Cooter he played in the “Dukes of Hazzard” television series. In addition to his Cooter’s store in Rappahannock County, Va., he has opened stores in Nashville and Gatlinburg, Tenn. But Jones has to contend with a…
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Haymarket Project More than Amazon’s “Extension Cord,” Dominion Says
Dominion Virginia Power would have to upgrade its electricity distribution system to the Haymarket area of Prince William County sooner or later, even without the development of a data-center campus, testified Mark R. Gill, an electric transmission planning engineer with Dominion, in State Corporation Commission testimony filed yesterday. “Without the request for service to the Haymarket…
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Who Should Pay for Haymarket Transmission Project, Amazon or Ratepayers?
by James A. Bacon Dominion Virginia Power wants to upgrade its electric grid to serve a new data center campus in the Haymarket area of Prince William County. Residents are up in arms about the potential loss to property values, and the cost of the project could range between $51 million for the least expensive alternative…
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Pipelines Don’t Hurt Home Values, Study Says
A month after foes of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline issued an economic study showing that the natural gas pipeline would diminish property values along the proposed 550-mile route by $141 million, Dominion Energy has fired back by citing a study claiming that gas pipelines have no impact on residential property values at all. Analyzing property values in…
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Guns, Shmuns
With all the stories I read about guns sold in Virginia making their way to criminals in New York, I figured Virginia was a haven for gun nuts. The impression was reinforced by the recent hooplah over Attorney General Mark Herring’s bid to sever reciprocity of gun rights with other states, and then the dramatic reversal of the…
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Putting a Price on the Priceless
How does the state put a dollar value on historic, cultural and environmental assets threatened by eminent domain? by James A. Bacon In its high-stakes effort to win regulatory approval to build a 500 kV electric transmission line to the Virginia Peninsula, Dominion Virginia Power proposed in December to spend $85 million to mitigate the project’s impact…