Category: Social Services and Entitlements
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Navy Lays on Small Fleet for Hanks Flick
By Peter Galuszka For dramatic five days in April 2009, four Somali pirates held the crew of the Norfolk-based container ship Maersk Alabama before escaping with Captain Rich Phillips in the ship’s international orange-colored lifeboat. It seemed a selfless and heroic act in the treacherous waters around the impoverished Horn of Africa. Among other supplies,…
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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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The Ironies of Tom Clancy
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in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The timing is extremely odd, but the death of techno-thriller author Tom Clancy came this week just when federal workers were being furloughed by the hundreds of thousands through Capitol Hill gridlock. Clancy, who died in Baltimore at 66, did much in the 1980s to makes heroes of the men and women…
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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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Libertarian Wins Gubernatorial Debate
By Peter Galuszka The most interesting thing about the Virginia gubernatorial debate Wednesday night wasn’t the bitter personal attacks between the two lackluster candidates from the dominant political parties. It was the television ad by the man who wasn’t there. Looking young and fresh, Libertarian Robert Sarvis, kept out of the debate, cast himself with his…
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The Cooch and the Pope
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Federal issues, Gun rights, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” says Pope Francis, leader of the globe’s Roman Catholics, regarding abortion, gays and contraception. One wonders if Ken Cuccinelli gets the message. Or maybe even Bob McDonnell. The attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate and the sitting governor have worn…
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Suspicious Trading In Gas Ethanol Credits
By Peter Galuszka On the busy Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, some 33 squat petroleum tanks sit just across the water from the giant cranes of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. The tanks, along with 31 other ones just south of downtown Richmond, play a role in an intriguing and mysterious…
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Charlottesville’s Surprising Start-up Strength
By Peter Galuszka It may be a throwback to the glam years of the 1990s, but there’s always been an aura about bright minds getting ideas and having the fortitude and guts to push them to fruition without the warm womb of a big corporation or university to keep them nice and safe. Finally, after…
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The Cost of Family Breakdown in Richmond
Family breakdown and the absence of fathers in the household in the City of Richmond costs taxpayers at the federal, state and local levels a mind-boggling $205 million a year, according to a new report issued by the Richmond Family & Fatherhood Initiative. The study bases that figure on the assumption that a “minimum” of…
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Working Still Beats Welfare in Virginia
Despite the highly controversial reform of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program in 1996, welfare benefits actually have increased in generosity over the past 17 years. Social-services benefits for the poor pay more than minimum-wage jobs in 35 states, even after accounting for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and in 13 states they…
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The Big, Bad Federal Deficit
By Peter Galuszka I can’t help but being amused every time I see another chart showing the plummeting U.S. federal deficit. In June, it was 4 percent of GDP, well down from 10 percent ($1.4 trillion) at the start of the Great Recession in 2009. Where are all the scary stories you used to read…
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Welfare Dependency Breeds More Welfare Dependency
A new study explores the phenomenon of inter-generational welfare and finds that children of parents on welfare increase their participation over the next five years by 6% and over the next 2 years by 12%. “We find strong evidence of a welfare culture, where welfare use in one generation causes welfare use in the next…
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Will More Gov’t Spending Reduce Richmond Food Insecurity?
by James A. Bacon After two years of deliberations, a Richmond Food Policy Task Force has issued recommendations for tackling so-called “food deserts” in low-income city neighborhoods racked by obesity and food insecurity. I was anticipating a touchy-feely report full of good intentions divorced from real-world considerations. My worst fears were not confirmed. Although they…
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Who Speaks for the Parents of “Normal” Kids?
Julie Landry’s autistic son had trouble adapting to 2nd grade in Fairfax County schools. The rambunctious lad was prone to outbursts. In one incident in April, the boy ignored instructions during P.E. class, ran around the gym, yelling and throwing volleyballs, and, when teachers tried to restrain him, punched, kicked, head-butted and bit multiple staff…
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Food Insecurity: Virginia Must Be Doing Something Right. But What Is It?
by James A. Bacon Question: Why does Virginia have the third lowest rate (tied with Massachusetts) of “food insecurity” among the 50 states? Given the Old Dominion’s low rates of unemployment and poverty and relatively high incomes, one would expect Virginians to be less at risk for going hungry. But look at the map above,…