Category: Courts and law
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Virginia’s Very Own Keystone XL
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Uncategorized, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka The rise of natural gas keeps raising more questions about the proper future of Virginia’s and the nation’s energy policies. What just a little while ago seemed a benign source of energy has gushed into a mass of controversy and advantage. One focus of the conflict – good and bad – is the…
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More Evidence of Parallel Universe!
By Peter Galuszka Front Page, today’s Richmond Times Dispatch: “Judge tosses one conviction against Maureen McDonnell He finds evidence does not warrant obstruction verdict” Page B-1, The Washington Post: “McDonnells’ request for retrial denied VA. EX-GOVERNOR, WIFE FACING PRISON TIME Judge throws out one count against former first lady” And in which universe do you live?
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Dominion’s Strange Tobacco Money
By Peter Galuszka Dominion Resources, the powerful, Richmond-based utility with $13 billion in revenues, has strangely been getting $30 million public funds to bring a natural gas pipeline to a new generating plant in Brunswick County. Odder still (or maybe not so) the public funds are coming from the GOP-controlled Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community…
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U.Va.’s Real “Existential Crisis”
By Peter Galuszka One wonders why the University of Virginia, arguably the state’s most prestigious college, seems to be hit with one bit of horrible news after the other. We’ve gone through the May 2010 murder of student Yeardley Love, 22, by another student, George Wesley Huguely V, a lacrosse player from a privileged suburban…
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My Drive Through Two West Virginias
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka It was a biting eight degrees when I hit the road in Beckley, W.Va. last Wednesday morning having held a book signing and given a talk in Charleston the night before. I wanted to drive two hours up to Harrison County, where my family lived from 1962 to 1969, and see what…
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Former Massey Coal Chief Indicted
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Infrastructure, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka The indictment today in Charleston, W.Va. of coal baron Donald L. Blankenship, the former head of the notorious Massey Energy Company, for violating federal mine safety and securities laws, has been long awaited, especially by the families of the 29 miners who died on April 5, 2010 in a huge explosion at…
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In Energy Studies, No Renewables, Please
By Peter Galuszka For years, Virginia Tech has operated the Center for Coal Research which is dedicated to studying bituminous product, enhance its marketability and make mining it safer and less environmentally destructive. The center receives funding and has sponsors and an advisory board made up of big utilities like Dominion, coal-hauling railroads like Norfolk…
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Was Bob McDonnell Convicted with Tainted Testimony?
Jonnie Williams’ trial testimony about a critical meeting with the former governor was contradictory, implausible and sometimes incoherent. But the jury bought it anyway
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FLOP! Goes Their Argument
By Peter Galuszka How confusing can we make it? Together, former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his wife Maureen had numerous conversations with businessman Jonnie R. Williams from 2011 until 2013 about more than $177,000 in gifts and loans. They were convicted of corruption in federal court on Sept. 4. In an opinion piece that…
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Did McDonnell Prosecutors Knowingly Use Tainted Testimony?
Published this morning in the Roanoke Times: By Paul Goldman, James Bacon and Mark J. Rozell Did Democratic U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sanction using tainted trial testimony against Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell? In closing argument, the prosecution said jurors could “discount everything, every single word uttered by” Star Scientific founder Jonnie R. Williams and…
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Sticking it to the Chinese
By Peter Galuszka This is a review of “Factory Man,” a book about the Virginia furniture business and dealing with the inequities of Chinese trade by Beth Macy (Little Brown, 451 pages). This was first published in the October 2014 Bulletin of the Overseas Press Club of America in New York of which I am…
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Why Virginia Has No Renewable Energy
By Peter Galuszka For all the hew and cry over renewable energy sources and the “War on Coal,” it is extremely interesting to see just how much progress Virginia has made with renewable energy. The answer: hardly any to none. A moment of clarity came when I was perusing blog postings by IvyMain, a D.C.…
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When Big Data Turns Bad
How the heck did this happen? From Wired magazine: Five police agencies in Hampton Roads have been compiling a massive database of telephone records under the aegis of the Hampton Roads Telephone Analysis Sharing Network. The localities include Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Suffolk. Writes Wired: The effort is being led in part by the Peninsula Narcotics…
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Et Tu, McAuliffe?
By Peter Galuszka Sure, parents want to help their children but in the case of former State Sen. Phillip Puckett, it is getting ridiculous. And the latest disclosure in this morning’s Washington Post makes the Terry McAuliffe administration look just as sleazy as their Republican counterparts. Puckett, of course was a Democratic senator who held…
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Good Luck With McAuliffe’s Ethics Panel
By Peter Galuszka Despite the obvious need, Virginia still has done very little to address its monumental problems with ethics reform. The latest endeavor was announced yesterday by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, but it seems too much like just another panel. And panel it is. McAuliffe has created the 10-member Commission to Ensure Integrity and Public…