Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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“Near Certainty” on Humans and Global Warming
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in Business and Economy, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka Here’s some red meat for global warming deniers: A draft report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there’s “near certainty” that humans cause global warming. This is the group of hundreds of scientists and other experts who review global warming data under the auspices of the United Nations and are…
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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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Virginia Is for Oenophiles
Virginia’s wine industry is on a roll, and one of the factors driving growth are some of the most wine-friendly consumer laws in the country. Virginia is one of seven states to win a perfect A+ rating from the Virginia Wine Consumer Coalition in its 2013 state-by-state report card on consumer access to wine. “Wine…
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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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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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Best State for Business? Tell It to Tesla!
Tesla Motors, manufacturer of the premier-priced Tesla electric car, has opened a gallery at Tysons Corner. Too bad would-be buyers can’t actually purchase a car there. It turns out that Virginia law prohibits car manufacturers from operating their own dealerships. Writes the Washington Post: “The California-based company is using the Tysons Corner location as a…
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Coal, Power Lines and Historic Jamestown
By Peter Galuszka Captain John Smith would be shaking in his boots. Now the National Trust for Historic Preservation agrees. Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to erect a $155 million, 550-kilovolt power line across the James River just east of the Colonial Jamestown settlement would “compromise scenic integrity of historic cultural areas surrounding the river.” The…
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“Jac” Cales’ PPTA Monkey-Wrench
By Peter Galuszka For four decades, James A. “Jac” Cales Jr. was a fixture on the judicial halls of Hampton Roads, albeit not one to take himself too seriously. As Portsmouth commonwealth’s attorney for a decade in the 1970s, he would lean back in his chair, his hands folded over his stomach and nod vigorously…
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The Good and Bad of Exporting LNG
By Peter Galuszka Riding a chunky, balloon-tire bicycle may seem awkward enough, but imagine pedaling in a six-feet-wide concrete tunnel for one mile on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It’s amazing what we Bacon’s Rebellion bloggers do to keep you readers informed, but it’s all in a day’s work — just like…
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Cuccinelli, Penguins and Natural Gas
By Peter Galuszka Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s strange episode involving a natural gas lawsuit involving one of his largest political contributors for his gubernatorial campaign raises yet another issue about his ethics. First, whatever was a Cuccinelli staffer doing advising a subsidiary of coal and gas giant CONSOL Energy, which has given Cuccinelli more than…
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“You Want Maggots With That, Hon?”
By Peter Galuszka Free trade capitalists may cheer the proposed $4.7 billion takeover of Virginia icon Smithfield Foods by a Chinese firm, but there is plenty to give pause and the blowback is creating some strange bedfellows. The major issues are whether one should want Chinese-style management in charge of American corporations given their record…
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My Moment of VPAP Clarity
By Peter Galuszka Last week, the Virginia Public Access Project held its annual luncheon and invited gubernatorial candidates Kenneth Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe to speak. No debate. No questions. Just a few minutes of remarks. The ballroom of the downtown Richmond Marriott was filled with the usual suspects, including lobbyists, lawyers, corporate officials and politicians.…
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The Cooch’s Freak Show Dream Team
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, 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, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, 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, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Ken Cuccinelli just can’t keep away from the bizarre, but perhaps that’s what makes him what he is. He stages a convention instead of a primary to neuter Bill Bolling. And since a convention is smaller, it draws more GOP hard-righters than June bugs on a humid night and they succeed in…
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What the Clams Know: Warming Waters
By Peter Galuszka Are warming seas forcing fish to migrate to cooler waters? That’s the thrust of an intriguing report in Nature magazine as covered in this morning’s Post. The impacts on the seafood industry are already playing out. New England fishermen after cod and haddock report having to move farther north to catch them.…