Category: Labor and Workforce
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Another Example of Good Intentions Gone Wrong
by James A. Bacon Last year Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order to “ban the box” prohibiting employers from asking job seekers about their criminal history at the initial job stage. The goal was to “remove unnecessary obstacles” to felons seeking employment after incarceration. How could one object? Once felons have paid their debt to…
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Move to the City, Young Man, Move to the City
Virginians are most likely to move to another jurisdiction when they reach age 18 and head to college and again as they establish themselves in the job market. As they grow older and sink personal and professional roots in a community, their proclivity for moving steadily declines. Only when Virginians hit retirement age does the…
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DEQ Approves Utility-Scale Solar Permit in Buckingham
by James A. Bacon The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a permit for construction of a 19.8-megawatt, utility-scale solar project in Buckingham County, Governor Terry McAuliffe announced yesterday. Construction of the 200-acre facility is expected to begin early in 2017 and be finished by the end of the year. The cost is estimated…
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How to Stop Worrying and Learning to Love the Nuke
by James A. Bacon I don’t know what kind of future the nuclear power industry has in the United States, but whatever it is, Virginia wants to grab a piece of it. The Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC) and the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER) have announced a plan to join forces to bring…
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Free the Data!
by James A. Bacon I’m not sure if this idea will lead anywhere but it’s worth a try: The Commonwealth of Virginia has released an open data set of job postings in the state with the hope that someone will come up with innovative ways to use it. The initiative arises from an executive order…
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Rocky Mountain High Real Estate Values
by James A. Bacon According to a 2011 Wall Street Journal article, Aspen, Colo., could boast of having the most expensive real estate in the country. I don’t know if that’s still true, but I wouldn’t be surprised. As I sit here blogging at Ink! Coffee, looking upon a patio filled with Pellegrino umbrellas and…
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The Renaissance of the Artisan Class
by James A. Bacon I’ve been giving some thought to why I’m so fascinated with the maker movement, and I think I’ve finally found the answer. As a self-employed writer I identify with other artisans and craftsmen who make a living through their creativity and hard work. Marx and Lenin might refer to people like…
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Tech’s “Smart Infrastructure” Initiative Progresses
by James A. Bacon Virginia Tech has been re-thinking for a several years now how to invigorate traditional engineering disciplines by integrating civil engineering and computer engineering to create “smart infrastructure.” The $100 million initiative received a $5 million boost yesterday from the Hitt family, owners of Falls Church-based Hitt Contraction, a company that typically recruits eight to ten Virginia…
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Pulse Has a Pulse after All
by James A. Bacon When last I blogged about Richmond Pulse, the Bus Rapid Transit plan for the city’s Broad Street corridor, the projected cost had leaped $11.5 million over its original $50 million estimate. While I support mass transit in the right circumstances, I saw little good coming from this project, in which state…
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Thumbs up for Virginia Undergrad Business Schools
The new Bloomberg ranking of undergraduate business programs in the United States provides the following rankings among the top 100: University of Virginia (McIntire): No. 5 College of William & Mary (Mason): 12 James Madison: 41 University of Richmond (Robins): 46 Virginia Tech (Pamplin): 64 Virginia universities may not be leaders in R&D, but they…
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Coal’s Messy End Game
by James A. Bacon The U.S. coal industry is in collapse. Market forces in the form of cheap, abundant natural gas have put coal at a huge competitive disadvantage while environmental initiatives have gutted demand by compelling the shutdown of coal-fired power plants not worth retrofitting with scrubbers. Earlier this week Peabody Energy, the largest coal producer in…
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What Charlottsville Needs Is… More Charlottesville
There is nothing else in Virginia like Charlottesville’s Tom Tom Founders Festival, which launched a week-long series of events yesterday. Food trucks, craft beer, music concerts, an art bus, murals, films in the park, street dancing, a capella performances, craft cocktail competitions, a chili showdown, crowdfunding pitch night, and celebrations of arts, innovation and entrepreneurship — it’s all…
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Has Virginia’s Economy Turned the Corner?
Good news on the Virginia employment front. After two years of sequestration-related stagnation, employment in Virginia grew faster than the national rate year-to-year through February 2016 — 2.5% compared to 1.9% — according to figures released by the Virginia Employment Commission. Growth was strongest in the Winchester and Richmond MSAs but it was solid where…
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Mark Warner’s Centrist Democratic Solutions for What Ails Us
by James A. Bacon As governor of Virginia between 2002 and 2006, Sen. Mark R. Warner thought deeply and seriously about economic development in an era of globalization and knowledge-intensive industry. Although he is far less visible to Virginians since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2008, he continues ask what it takes for the United States…
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The Decimation of Coal Production and Alienation of the Working Class
In rejecting the extension of coal tax credits Friday, Governor Terry McAuliffe noted that the number of coal miners employed in Virginia has tumbled from 11,100 in 1988 to less than 3,000 in 2015. At one time — the late 70s and early 80s, as I recall — coal mining employed more than 20,000. Since then,…