Category: Consumer Protection
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Pope Francis Slams “Trickle Down”
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in Abortion, Feminism, Women’s Rights, Business and Economy, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka In a sharp rebuke to traditional conservative economic thought, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics says he wants the church to rethink its strategies towards addressing income inequality and poverty and shun “the idolatry of money” and “trickle down” philosophies that give the rich far too much influence. Pope Francis outlined…
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Why Some Health Care Plans Aren’t Worth Keeping
By Peter Galuszka You can almost hear the telexes chattering in the predawn hours sending out coded instructions to eager conservative bloggers. It’s a “red state” alert! Plan “R” for “Roger!” Just like Major General Jack D. Ripper. It’s the go code for attacking Obamacare! So, you have them excitedly dusting off their purple prose.…
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The Dangers of the Biking Craze
By Peter Galuszka There is no question that bicycling is a hot trend, favored by fitness advocates and Smart Growthers alike. What’s not to like? Bikes don’t pollute, don’t require expensive parking lots and provide riders with lots of flexibility not to mention muscle and cardiovascular workouts. You hear a lot about it on this…
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The State Trooper at Jonnie Williams’ House
By Peter Galuszka For three years, residents in a secluded, leafy road in Goochland County near a famous golf course were mystified by the sudden appearance of State Police cars running up and down Hunting Ridge Road day and night. Some knew that at the end of the road is the long winding driveway to…
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Cuccinelli, Penguins and Natural Gas
By Peter Galuszka Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s strange episode involving a natural gas lawsuit involving one of his largest political contributors for his gubernatorial campaign raises yet another issue about his ethics. First, whatever was a Cuccinelli staffer doing advising a subsidiary of coal and gas giant CONSOL Energy, which has given Cuccinelli more than…
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“You Want Maggots With That, Hon?”
By Peter Galuszka Free trade capitalists may cheer the proposed $4.7 billion takeover of Virginia icon Smithfield Foods by a Chinese firm, but there is plenty to give pause and the blowback is creating some strange bedfellows. The major issues are whether one should want Chinese-style management in charge of American corporations given their record…
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Holy Pig Slop! Chinese to Buy Smithfield
By Peter Galuszka For eons, the name “Smithfield” has conjured up rich, salty Virginia ham slices that fit right on Christmas rolls or in crab dishes and with eggs for breakfast. The company that has produced such food for 80 or so years is based (of course) in Smithfield, a quaint Tidewater town the Pagan…
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Bob Dole’s Memorial Day Remembrance
By Peter Galuszka Memorial Day is typically a time for remembrance of the sacrifice of military veterans, cook-outs and the unofficial beginning of the summer season. As always, the media is filled with photos, video and stories of crippled vets, salutes and the like, but one opinion piece stands out: that of Republican stalwart Bob…
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The Cooch’s Freak Show Dream Team
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in Business and Economy, 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, 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, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Ken Cuccinelli just can’t keep away from the bizarre, but perhaps that’s what makes him what he is. He stages a convention instead of a primary to neuter Bill Bolling. And since a convention is smaller, it draws more GOP hard-righters than June bugs on a humid night and they succeed in…
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Data Shows Hospital Billing Outrages
By Peter Galuszka It’s long been fascinating how Big Hospitals, linked with Medicare, Big Pharma and Big Managed Care, have come up with an extraordinarily convoluted system of setting prices for various hospital procedures. There is plenty of nonsense about including on this blog about bringing “free market efficiencies” to health care, as if human…
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GiftGate: “If I Were a Rich Man . . .!”
By Peter Galuszka Richmond’s “Giftgate” scandal just gets worse. On Friday, Atty. Gen. and presumed GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Cuccinelli announced that he was amending his required disclosures of gifts to show that he took more goodies from Star Scientific plus previously undisclosed gifts of a $7,750 trip in 2010 to Southwest Virginia from coal…
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The Tumbling Tots of Sydney
by James A. Bacon “Smart growth kills children!” quipped email correspondent Ron Utt yesterday. He proffered the sly comment in passing along a blog post describing how 169 children in Sydney, Australia, plunged from high-rise windows or balustrades to serious injury or death between 1998 and 2008. In the New Geography blog post that Ron…
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“I Got Mine from Mah Daddy!”
By Peter Galuszka One of the stranger attributes of Virginia’s conservatives is their cheesy, Calvinist streak. Their world view tends to celebrate the rich and powerful, regardless of whether the individual worked diligently and creatively to generate the wealth or if it was inherited. For example, one man (not a Virginian) whom I respect described…
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The Lessons of the 2013 General Assembly
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in Business and Economy, 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, Health Care, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka If there’s any good news from the 2013 General Assembly session, it is that the hard right’s strange hold on taxation has been broken. Republicans can start acting like responsible adults once again instead of dogmatic shills or spoiled children. Gov. Robert F. Donnell and legislators found a way to raise badly…
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Peanuts, Tobacco and Corporate Greed
By Peter Galuszka Stewart Parnell had a dilemma. The owner of Lynchburg-based Peanut Corporation of America faced deadlines in shipping peanut butter from his troubled manufacturing plant in Georgia but test results from salmonella, a problem because of unsanitary conditions at the factory, were not back from the lab yet. His customers included schools, snack…