Category: Labor and Workforce
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Keep ’em Poor; It’s for the Best
By Peter Galuszka The think tanks are spinning their lines now that Congress is considering raising the federal minimum wage. A Democratic proposal would hike the level from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 by 2016, putting more money in the pockets of 27.8 million people. As The New York Times points out this morning, think…
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Strike a Blow against Income Inequality — Marry a Floozy
by James A. Bacon President Obama has made it plain that addressing income inequality will be the great theme of the rest of his presidency. Now is the time for all good liberals and progressives to follow his call — not just by seeking to tax the rich but by aligning their personal behavior with…
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The Start of De-Coochinization
By Peter Galuszka Mark R. Herring, Virginia’s new attorney general, is working quickly to disassemble much of what his predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, put in place. Herring (D) dismissed two law firms hired by Cuccinelli to represent the office for former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his staff in investigations connected to $165,000 in gifts…
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West Virginia’s Lessons on Fracking
By Peter Galuszka Tap water is now drinkable for most of the 300,000 residents in the environs of Charleston, the capital of Virginia’s sister state to the west, but the mess has ample warnings for future problems notably fracking for natural gas. The national newspapers are filled with interesting pieces this morning about the problems…
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Journalism’s Death Is Greatly Exaggerated
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in Business and Economy, 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, LGBQT, 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, Transportation, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka “Investigative reporting, R.I.P. In-depth reporting is dead. If not dead, it’s comatose. Reeling from declining revenue and eroding profit margins, print media enterprises continue to lay off staff and shrink column inches.” Err, maybe not. James A. Bacon Jr., meet Rachel Maddow. The quote comes from advertised “sponsorships” in which an outside…
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Where the Poor Are
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka With expanding Medicaid about to become a major issue with the incoming Terry McAuliffe administration, it is curious to see exactly where the poor people in Virginia live. An intriguing New York Times interactive graph provides clues and allows one to draw some rather disturbing conclusions. The single worst pocket of poverty…
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Expand Free Clinics, Not Medicaid
by James A. Bacon So, what’s the alternative to expanding Virginia’s Medicaid program? Let an estimated 400,000 Virginians continue without health insurance? That option was workable in the past because the federal government gave financial aid to hospitals to help offset some of the cost of providing health care to indigent patients. But the Affordable…
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The McDonnell Track Record: Incremental Improvement
by James A. Bacon Governor Bob McDonnell’s four-year term in office is drawing to a close. Sadly, it appears that the governor will be remembered mainly for his atrocious judgment in accepting more than $150,000 in gifts and loans from a Richmond businessman. While the Giftgate scandal deservedly dominated the headlines in his last year…
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How Shanghai, Finland and Canada Teach
By Peter Galuszka Not one to be carried away by the STEM craze, I did find it fascinating in today’s editorial page of the New York Times that the United States is way low on the totem pole on math scores for students. We’re below Latvia, Russia and Spain and a little above Sweden, Israel…
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Core Confusing Words: Rural and Metro
Some interesting data from Wendell Cox by way of the New Geography blog… We think of metropolitan areas as being urbanized, whether at inner-city densities or “suburban” (post-World War II development-pattern densities) but, in fact, they contain a lot of “rural” area. A majority of “rural” residents in the United States, observes Cox, actually reside…
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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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Time for Some Tactical Suburbanism
by James A. Bacon Tactical urbanism is the term used to describe small, inexpensive, often temporary, urban improvements that make life more colorful, fun or livable. They include such things as guerilla gardening, parklets, pavement to parks, pop-up retail, pavement-to-plaza, de-paving and chair bombing (the latter would be the creation of public seating, not the…
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A Closer Look at Virginia Auto Ownership Patterns
Last week I published maps produced by the Vizual Statistix blog showing the breakdown of car ownership per household across the United States. Virginia appeared as the only East Coast hot spot on the map, with exceptionally high rates of automobile ownership compared to other states. Only limited conclusions could be drawn, I lamented, because…
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Rise Up and Strike, Abused Adjunct Profs!
By Peter Galuszka Despite the common view on this blog that college professors are lazy, closed-minded louts always out on sabbatical, the reality may be something quite different. Cash-strapped colleges across in the country, and in Virginia, are relying increasingly on low-paid adjunct professors to close the gap, especially when they increase the number of…
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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…