Category: Environment
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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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The Dangers of the Biking Craze
By Peter Galuszka There is no question that bicycling is a hot trend, favored by fitness advocates and Smart Growthers alike. What’s not to like? Bikes don’t pollute, don’t require expensive parking lots and provide riders with lots of flexibility not to mention muscle and cardiovascular workouts. You hear a lot about it on this…
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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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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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Pittsylvania County Loses a Good Man
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in Business and Economy, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka During these days of GiftGate with top Virginia officials and their families accepting unreported Rolex watches, turkey dinners, corporate jet rides, New York shopping sprees, real estate loans and wedding presents, it is important to remember other public servants who shoulder on doing their work as honestly as they can. On Thursday,…
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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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Facts, Reality and the “War On Coal”
By Peter Galuszka Now that the Obama Administration is finally getting ready to set long-overdue regulations on limiting carbon dioxide at new coal-fired electricity plants, Big Coal and its allies are again beating the “War On Coal” drums. The rules, which will apply only to new coal-fired plants, will shut down the industry, kill jobs,…
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How to Cut Water Bills by Billions of Dollars
Leaky pipes lose an estimated 2.6 trillions gallons of drinking water every year, or about 17% of all water pumped in the United States. One reason the situation is so bad is that water utilities use corrosion-prone materials. Corrosion represents a $50.7 billion annual drain on the economy. So says a new study by the American…
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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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Stressed Out: Storm Water
by James A. Bacon Two years ago Clyde Cristman made a presentation to the Senate Finance Committee estimating how much it would cost to meet Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay watershed clean-up goals. Some of the costs were reasonably solid but others, he recalls, “were little better than a wild guess.” The total tab for state government,…
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Good News on Virginia’s Offshore Wind Power
By Peter Galuszka News that Dominion Virginia Power has won an auction to lease about 113,000 acres about 27 miles off Virginia Beach for an offshore wind turbine farm is welcome, but don’t expect anything to happen right away. Dominion won the rights to develop the shallow waters from the Interior Department for $1.6 million.…