Category: Politics
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Meals Tax: Laura vs. Jim
By Peter Galuszka It looks like Jim’s in trouble with Laura. No not that Laura, but Laura Lafayette, chief executive officer of the Richmond Association of Realtors. In an op-ed piece in this mornings Richmond Times Dispatch, Ms. Lafayette attacked Jim’s suggestion that a resurgence in the Henrico County housing market makes a proposed 4…
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Is Maureen McDonnell “Madame Ten Percent?”
By Peter Galuszka When is too much, too much? That’s my thought when I read the Richmond Times-Dispatch‘s intriguing story this morning that Maureen McDonnell, wife of the embattled governor, traded thousands of dollars worth of Star Scientific stock supposedly without her husband’s knowledge. In May, 2011, Jonnie Williams Sr., head of the troubled Star…
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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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Now, The Sharks Are Turning on Each Other
By Peter Galuszka You know something bad is up when Gov. Robert F. McDonnell starts turning on his gift-giving pal Jonnie R. Williams Sr. of Star Scientific and federal prosecutors. On Friday, the troubled dietary supplement maker filed securities documents saying that the firm has been told by federal prosecutors that it would not be…
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Bill Maher Plays to the Liberal Id
Bill Maher brought his stage act to Richmond last night. Unrestrained by whatever programming standards are left at HBO, which airs his “Real Time with Bill Maher” talk show, he let loose with a hour-and-a-half, profanity-laced tirade against Republicans, conservatives and all forms of religion, leavened by a handful of jokes about Anthony Wiener, wimpy…
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Cuccinelli’s Strange Obsession
By Peter Galuszka Atty. Gen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, now running as a Republican for governor, has had a number of strange obsessions: going doggedly after a climatologist over global warming issues he disagrees with and pushing to arm investigators involved with Medicaid fraud. But nothing compares with Cuccinelli’s stubborn insistence that sodomy should be illegal even…
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Richmond’s Remarkable Underground Press
By Peter Galuszka With its broad, tree-lined avenues, Georgian-style redbrick buildings and statues of Confederate generals, Richmond comes off a snooty and tranquil. Yet, in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Frankel, it is a place “with larger-than-life personalities and a façade of gentility and political etiquette covering an underworld of cut-throat, back-room politics…
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Rethinking Ethics in Virginia
By Peter Galuszka Kenneth Cuccinelli’s call for a special session of the General Assembly to consider plugging “severe holes” in the state’s ethics is outrageously self serving but it does show what may be a turning point in Virginia’s attitudes about disclosure and gift rules. It’s about time. Virginia has perhaps the most lax ethics…
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An Endless Game of Whack-a-Mole
There is no question that Virginia needs to clean up its laws regarding the giving of gifts, and the reporting of those gifts, to public officials. The sole encouraging aspect of the ongoing GiftGate saga is that there appears to be near-unanimous agreement, even among elected officials, upon the need for reform. Here at Bacon’s…
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Another Probe: This Time It’s McAuliffe
By Peter Galuszka All Virginia’s gubernatorial race needs is another investigation for potential wrong-doing. Yet here’s another and it involves Democratic contender Terry McAuliffe. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission is investigating two McAuliffe-connected firms. They are GreenTech Automotive and a sister firm, Gulf Coast Funds Management, according to the Washington Post. McAuliffe, a veteran…
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The Death of Harry F. Byrd Jr.
By Peter Galuszka One of the most important figures who defined much of what was wrong with Virginia in the 20th century has died at age 98. Harry F. Byrd Jr., the son of the man who set up the one-party system of control in the state smitten with the democratic ideals of Thomas Jefferson,…
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Time to Get Serious About Ethics Reform
By Peter Galuszka After months of embarrassing controversy, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell announced today that he will return gifts that he and his family received from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the head of a Henrico County dietary-supplement maker. McDonnell had earlier said that he had repaid $120,000 in loans provided to him and his…
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Where is McDonnell’s Gas Pump Relief?
By Peter Galuszka When Gov. Robert F. McDonnell won approval earlier this year for his far-reaching transportation plan that would eliminate the 17.5 cent per gallon gas tax to provide $4.3 billion for roads and public transit, a big question was what it might mean to consumers at the pump. In exchange for eliminating the…
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The Eminence Grise Behind the Bi-County Parkway
by James A. Bacon Everybody who’s followed the politics of real estate development in Virginia has heard the name of John T. “Til” Hazel, the high-profile attorney and developer who did so much to shape the human settlement patterns of Northern Virginia. Hazel was gregarious, combative and willing to campaign like a politician to counter…
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“Dear Gov. Robert F. McDonnell:
Thank you for your public apology for the embarrassment that you and your family have brought the citizens of Virginia. Thanks also for paying back the more than $124,000 in loans that you and your wife have received from Jonnie R. Williams Sr. I know that all of us can at times be venal and…