Category: Politics
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Weasel Watch: Eric Cantor
by James A. Bacon Are you kidding me? A couple of days ago I received a four-page mailer from the Cantor for Congress campaign plastered with the headline: “Liberal College Professor David Brat.” The flier showed a picture of Brat, an economics professor at Randolph Macon University, with a graduation hat superimposed on his head and…
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Ukraine and Russia: Even Scarier
By Peter Galuszka The news from Ukraine grows progressively more disturbing with dozens of deaths in recent days in the seaport of Odessa and in some Ukrainian cities near the Russian border. Meanwhile, Russians forces, some at involving brigade-strength units of tank, motor-rifle and airborne troops, plus Spetnaz special forces, are taking up positions on…
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Fracking’s Strange Winners and Losers
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil is creating a new and confusing class of corporate winners and losers in Virginia and elsewhere. Analysts believe that environmental opposition to expanded pipelines such as Keystone helps railroads by putting more tank cars on rail lines. That could further tax a stressed-out rail system…
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Fracking’s New Threats
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Property rights, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The derailment of 14 oil-laden CSX tank cars and subsequent huge fire caused by three of them Wednesday in downtown Lynchburg underscores a number of environmental threats brought on by America’s fast-changing energy markets. Three tank cars carrying crude oil from North Dakota Bakken Field that involves hydraulic fracking drilling methods shot…
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Herring Rises as McAuliffe Falls
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Electoral process, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s ruling that undocumented Virginians who entered the state as children can qualify for in-state college tuition is another bold and praiseworthy effort to drag the Old Dominion into the new age. His comments on gay marriage this winter foreshadowed a U.S. district judge’s decision in Norfolk that…
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A Frenchman Turns Economics Upside Down
By Peter Galuszka Call it “The Anti-Baconomics.” Thomas Piketty, a French economist, is turning conventional, conservative economic thinking on its head. Goodbye to the idea that all boats rise in capitalism. What we are seeing instead is a dangerous concentration of 21st century wealth in the hands of an ever-smaller elite. This is Piketty’s message…
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The Perils of Gas Fracking
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka More media accounts are showing up now that 84,000 acres of lands south and east of Fredericksburg have been leased for possible hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas. This Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch published a map showing the leased area covering big swaths of land from the Fort A.P. Hill military area east across the…
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April Is The Cruelest Month
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka April is the cruelest month, especially for brutal energy disasters. This Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling blowout that killed 11 and caused one of the country’s worst environmental disasters. April 5 was the fourth anniversary of the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion in West Virginia…
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Fracking the Mother of Presidents
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By Peter Galuszka Controversial hydraulic fracking appears to becoming a distinct possibility in areas south and east of Fredericksburg on land that is famed for its bucolic and watery splendors along with being the birthplaces of such historical figures as George Washington, James Monroe and Robert E. Lee. After several years of exploring and buying…
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Rethinking Online Classes at U.Va.
By Peter Galuszka Just two years after the University of Virginia weathered a crisis and the short-lived resignation of its president for supposedly not embracing online education fast enough, Mr. Jefferson’s school is taking a cautious approach about Web-based courses. This is a good thing, despite the excitement over having thousands of distant students sign…
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The Richmond Elite’s Bizarre Self Image
By Peter Galuszka If one wants to know one source of Richmond’s malaise, she or he need look no further than the pages of the Richmond Times Dispatch, the mouthpiece of the city’s elite. This is especially true when one reads this morning’s edition. The inadvertent revelations about the city and what is wrong with…
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The Political Economy of Sprawl
by James A. Bacon I spend a lot of time agonizing over questions that nobody else does. That’s largely because I’m one of the world’s few conservatives who supports the broader vision of the Smart Growth movement.* I have articulated a vision of Smart Growth that is based upon the principles of fiscal conservatism, limited…
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“Where Is the Closest Tiki Bar?”
By Peter Galuszka Often times, blog commenters really hit the nail on the head. This is the case with “Virginiagal2” who responded to my blog post earlier this week that Richmond’s schools are decrepit and crumbling, as Style Weekly detailed in a recent cover story. They note that Richmond’s elite has done little for its public…
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Is Blackwater Successor in Ukraine?
By Peter Galuszka A private security company with ties to Virginia and northeastern North Carolina has been linked to rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia that some fear could turn into war. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement April 8 saying that a security firm named “Greystone” that is tied historically to the defunct…
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Richmond’s Huge and Hidden Problem
By Peter Galuszka There’s been plenty of image-building on this blog site in favor of what is perceived to be a “new” Richmond. In this view, the former Capital of the Confederacy famous for its gentile white elite and, unfortunately, race politics, is being transformed to a major draw for talented young people and active…