Category: Courts and law
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Behind a Massey Energy Lawsuit Settlement
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Money in politics, Politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka It might have otherwise gone unnoticed, but Bristol-based Alpha Natural Resources, one of the country’s largest coal companies, has agreed to settle a leftover securities fraud lawsuit for $265 million involving Massey Energy Co., the notorious, formerly Richmond-based firm that Alpha bought in 2011. The settlement with the Pension Reserves Investment Management…
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Mental Health: McDonnell’s Small Gesture
By Peter Galuszka It seems so little so late. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, apparently trying to get some 11th hour positive spin, has announced that he wants to put $38.3 million over two years to improve the state’s mental health system. He also wants to expand the amount of time an individual can be held…
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Why Mental Health Care Shouldn’t Be a Budget Cut
By Peter Galuszka The tragedy experienced this week by Sen. Creigh Deeds and his family is drawing attention to how Virginia and the rest of the country mistreat the mentally ill by cutting funding for their care and denying them treatment. Deeds was apparently stabbed by his 24-year-old son, Gus, on Tuesday. Gus, who then…
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Disband the ObamaCare Wrecking Crew
By Peter Galuszka As the right wing echo chamber continues to crank up after the botched launch of the Affordable Care Act, here are a couple of items that direct us back to reality. One gives us a picture of how the U.S. really compares with comparable advanced countries with universal or near-universal coverage. The…
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Why McAuliffe Is Saying No to Uranium Mining
By Peter Galuszka Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe has made one of his first pronouncements and it is an important one: he will veto any law the General Assembly passes to lift the decades-long ban on mining uranium in Virginia. The bigger question is whether he was start disassembling the energy-industrial complex that outgoing Gov. Robert F.…
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Thank God It’s Over: Seven Election Takeaways
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, LGBQT, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The awful Virginia gubernatorial contest is over. Utter disaster has been averted with the defeat of strident rightwinger Kenneth Cuccinelli. Here are seven takeaways from Election Day: 1. Winner Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, now gets to deal with a contentious General Assembly where the GOP maintains firm control on the House of…
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The Birth and Death of “Miner’s Revenge”
By Peter Galuszka A couple of weeks ago, Scott, the photographer with whom I worked on my book on Massey Energy and the worst mine disaster in 40 years, emailed me to ask if I knew about a new Halloween amusement at Kings Dominion, the amusement park just off Interstate 95 in Doswell. Called “Miner’s…
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Sunday Morning Coming Down
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in Business and Economy, 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, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Planning, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka With apologies to Kris Kristofferson, this Sunday morning presents a grab bag of interesting morning newspaper stories and positions. To wit: GiftGate Update, Getting the Stories Straight: According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, Star Scientific boss Jonnie R. Williams Sr. told federal prosecutors he insisted on meeting personally with his then-buddy Gov.…
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The Madness of Virginia Republicans
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka Virginia’s Republicans are posed to take big hits because of the infuriating deadlock in Congress over the budget and debt ceiling. The ones looking the worst are U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, and gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Cuccinelli. Both have played too hard to Tea Party anarchists whose scheme seems…
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The Tobacco Commission, GiftGate and Sleaze
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Electoral process, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Infrastructure, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The latest turn in the McDonnell GiftGate scandal goes back to a familiar entity, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission which has acted as a large slush fund for favored projects in Virginia’s tobacco land for more than a decade. No surprise there. The tobacco fund is swimming with money…
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Virginia’s Medicaid Travesty
By Peter Galuszka Some things never seem to change in the South and in Virginia, namely the idea among conservatives that the poor, notably African-Americans, are not worthy of help. Such is the predicament faced Virginia and other states that have not expanded the federal Medicaid program to help the poor with health insurance just…
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The GOP’s Idiotic Kamikaze Pilots
By Peter Galuszka On an otherwise lovely early autumn afternoon, we’re stuck waiting from depressing news from Washington about radical House Republicans holding the U.S. government and the debt ceiling hostage. In a pointless exercise, after midnight today, U.S. parks might close and some federal workers might not get paid. It could get even worse…
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Yikes! Driverless Cars in Blacksburg.
As usual, technology is evolving more rapidly than the ability of pundits, bureaucrats and politicians to absorb the implications — especially in the realm of transportation. Two more cases in point: Googleburg. Google is now testing its self-driving car on the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Smart Road in Blacksburg. Reports the Roanoke Times: The technology…
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The McDonnells’ “He Said, She Said” Defense
By Peter Galuszka The latest in the months-long GiftGate soap opera engulfing the governor’s executive mansion has been revealed. The federal probe of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, his wife Maureen and businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., has been slowed down as prosecutors mull over new evidence McDonnell’s team was legally forced to surrender. Lawyers for…
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GreenTech Auto: Lots of Smoke, Little Fire
By Peter Galuszka This year’s bizarre gubernatorial race has had stories beyond belief. There’s Jonnie, Maureen, Todd, Ken and Bob. And there’s also Terry, Xiaolin and Benjamin. The tantalizing tales of the first group need not be repeated. They, of course, involved tardily disclosed stock holdings, a wife not telling husband about stock buys, big-time…