Category: Business and Economy
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Paid Leave and Paid Sick Days
by Chris Saxman In a recent column called Hitting the Cutoff Man, I explained the need to work with the business community if you want to solve problems in our economy. I used the famous “There’s no crying in baseball!” scene from A League of Their Own. The lesson was, if you have a goal…
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Industrial Escape from Green Energy Costs Blocked
by Steve Haner Virginia’s major energy-intensive industries will not get a requested path to avoid some of the coming cost shock from the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). The bill that sought them a lifeline was tied to an anvil and sunk in a House of Delegates subcommittee today. It didn’t even help when…
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Unintended Consequences of Minimum Wage Hikes
by James C. Sherlock Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and Del. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, contributed an op-ed titled Home health workers at risk without legislative action this morning in the Virginian-Pilot. They will be surprised to read that I agree with every word. And that I would go farther. Unintended consequences in the government economy Lucas…
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There Is a God and He Has a Sense of Humor
by James C. Sherlock The Left won control of government in the most recent elections nationally and in Virginia. Elections indeed have consequences. The focus on race instead of class by the newly victorious left will have major consequences here. A combination of (1) Biden policies requiring antiracism training for federal workers and contractors; and (2) state…
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Transdev Employees Seek to Reverse NLRB Ruling, Decertify OPEIU
by James A. Bacon Office workers with the Fairfax Connector are represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 2. This fall some employees wanted to hold an election to decertify the union, and they gathered the number of signatures required by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), but an NLRB director…
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Confusing “Workplace Harassment” Bill is Back
by Hans Bader “Old bills never die, they just wait for votes,” notes the East Bay Times. A bad bill can die in one legislative session, only to come back with a vengeance in the next session, and get passed due to more intense lobbying, or the death or retirement of opposing lawmakers. That may…
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Taxing the Money That Saved Virginia Jobs
By Steve Haner Concern that Virginia is seeking to tax federal pandemic relief grants to Virginia businesses – grants which kept Virginians employed — is putting a normally routine tax administration bill in jeopardy. The House Finance Committee on Monday approved the annual bill to bring Virginia tax law into conformity with the Internal Revenue…
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COVID Vaccine Distribution: What Can Virginia Learn from Florida?
Fiasco. From the start, Florida prioritized anybody 65 or older into its top tier for receiving the COVID vaccine. Virginia initially limited early access to the vaccine to those 75 and over. Last Thursday Gov Northam announced that Virginia would include people 65 and over in the current distribution of vaccines. That adds 9.5% of…
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Virginia Pay Bill Will Be a Nightmare for Some Small Employers
by Hans Bader Pay regulations that are a manageable hassle for the biggest employers can be a nightmare for small employers. One example is SB 1228, a bill pending in the Virginia legislature. If enacted, it would keep employers from setting employee pay based on employees’ past wages, even though wages are usually a sign…
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Northam Again Targets Virginia Business Taxpayers
By Steve Haner Washington giveth and Richmond taketh away. Once again, the Northam Administration wants Virginia to ignore business income tax changes made at the federal level because they would lower state revenue. Governor Ralph Northam’s finance secretary was in front of the House Appropriations Committee Friday explaining the reasoning and complaining that new federal…
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Northam Proposes Legal Marijuana in Va Within Two Years
by DJ Rippert Ralph Reefer. On Wednesday the Northam Administration unveiled legislation to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Virginia. The legislation will be introduced by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, and Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth. Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and Del. Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth. Northam took up the cause…
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Employer COVID Mandates Might Outlive Pandemic
by Steve Haner Virginia’s emergency temporary workplace standards on COVID-19 are one step closer to becoming permanent, over the continuing loud objections from employers that they are duplicative, expensive, and not making anybody any safer than existing health and safety protections already do. UPDATE: The text of the final permanent standard approved Wednesday was finally…
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Recreational Marijuana Soon to Be De-Facto Legal in Northern Virginia
by DJ Rippert Elections have consequences. The recent presidential election along with the Georgia run-off election has secured Democratic control of Congress with no serious risk of presidential veto. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., has tried for years to establish a recreational marijuana marketplace only to be thwarted by Republicans in Congress. Finally, in the 2020 session…
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Can “Medium” Save Local Journalism?
By DJ Rippert The medium is the message. Medium is an online publishing website founded by Evan Williams — who also co-founded Blogger and Twitter. The genre of Medium is sometimes called social journalism. As described in Wikipedia, social journalism “relies on community involvement, audience engagement, social newsgathering and verification, data and analytics, and relationship-building.”…
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Mark Zuckerberg, Call Your Lawyer
by James C. Sherlock “You don’t need a Weatherman To know which way the wind blows.” — Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues. Consider this: “Facebook was hit with twin lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from dozens of states on Wednesday, in one of the most serious challenges ever to the Silicon Valley…