Category: Media
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Tar Heel Grief Just Down the Road
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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, Housing, Infrastructure, 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, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka It’s sad to see two states to which I have personal ties – North Carolina and West Virginia — in such bad ways. The latest raw news comes from the Tar Heel state where we are seeing the handiwork of hard-right- Gov. Pat McCrory who has been on a tear for a…
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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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Yet Another Coal-Related Mess
By Peter Galuszka More and more, “The War on Coal.” seems like “The War On Us.” Just a few weeks after 300,000 people in the Charleston, W.Va. area were without drinking water because of a coal preparation chemical leaked into the Kanawha River system, another spill involving coal could threaten the drinking water of Danville…
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Why Is Anatabloc Still Being Sold?
By Peter Galuszka One real question involving indicted former governor Robert F. McDonnell may well not be the issues about the ethics of public officials he raises. Indeed, according to Forbes and Slate, the real problem is that unregulated dietary supplements that McDonnell was promoting for his former friend and benefactor Jonnie R. Williams Sr. of…
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Message to GOP: Shoe’s On The Other Foot
By Peter Galuszka Not three weeks ago, Newly elected Gov. Terry McAuliffe stood before the Virginia State Capitol and extolled a new era of bipartisanship in Richmond. It doesn’t seem to have lasted very long. Whether by design or chance, a series of events have strengthened the state Democrats’ hand and terrified the Republicans who…
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A Sea By Any Other Name
By Peter Galuszka Pity Terry McAuliffe. It’s hard to be a politician and trying to please everyone, especially when it comes to rivals Japan and South Korea. The new governor promised Virginia’s large Korean community that he would move to have the state’s textbooks call what is commonly referred to as “the Sea of Japan”…
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McDonnells: Don’t Need “Quid” for “Quo”
By Peter Galuszka How many times have you seen on this blog the comments or headlines regarding the McDonnell case as “No quid for the quo” as if that somehow absolves the former governor and his wife of any legal problems and brings them to automatic innocence? Well, before we all become over-Baconated in amateur…
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In Court With the McDonnells
By Peter Galuszka The courtroom was packed and I ended up in the hallway of Richmond’s fairly new and modern look federal courts building. Inside, history was being made: a bond hearing for Robert F. McDonnell, the first Virginia governor, former or sitting, ever to be charged with misconduct while in office. Inside, U.S. Magistrate…
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The McDonnells and Their Apologists
By Peter Galuszka It seems bizarre to balance news of the worst political corruption scandal in the state’s history and efforts by bloggers and commenters on Bacons Rebellion to dismiss it all as “everyone does it.” The apologia is getting a little too hot and heavy here. One famous blogger wanted to smack former governor…
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A Sad Day for the Commonwealth
By Peter Galuszka It’s a sad day for Virginia. Former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his wife have been charged by federal authorities with 14 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obtaining property through their office in connection with their relationship with Jonnie R. Williams, former chief of Star Scientific. The…
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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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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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McAuliffe’s Ethics End Run
By Peter Galuszka Kudos to Terry McAuliffe. Virginia’s new governor has taken strong and important steps to force the state into much needed ethics reform by issuing an executive order setting a gift acceptance cap of $100 for himself, his staff and members of state agencies. He’s also allocating $100,000 to set up a state…
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Drinking Water and the “War on Coal”
By Peter Galuszka It’s curious against whom the “War on Coal” really is. You might ask the 300,000 residents of Charleston, W.Va. who are being trucked emergency bottles of water because the spill of a toxic chemical used to help prepare coal has polluted their drinking water. As many as 5,000 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol…
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A Toothless Ethics Proposal (No Surprise)
By Peter Galuszka Virginia finally seems on a path toward toughening its ethics rules after the Giftgate scandal involving Gov. Robert F. McDonnell. but — predictably — the deal reached by the two parties is toothless. The arrangement proposed by a bipartisan group within the General Assembly would cap gifts to officials and their families…