Category: Science & Technology
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The Rehabilitation of Helen E. Dragas
By Peter Galuszka Call it the rehabilitation of Helen E. Dragas. Dragas, the head of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, got into a big mess last spring when she tried and failed to oust popular university President Teresa Sullivan. After a national embarrassment, the reappointment of Dragas, a politically influential construction…
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Fighting the Long Battle for a Virginia Virtual School
by James A. Bacon Del. Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, knows he faces an up-hill climb creating a public online alternative to local school districts in Virginia, but he’s not giving up. The challenges are many. The educational establishment doesn’t like any idea that would turn schooling over to private-sector contractors. The governor’s office has not signed…
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Uranium Mining on Slate.com
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, 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 & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka Just in time for your weekend reading, here’s a piece I did for Slate on the uranium mining controversy.
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Here Comes Cooch-ageddon!
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in 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 waterHard right conservative Kenneth T. Cuccinelli has a very good chance of becoming the next governor. At least that’s my view 11 months out. I disagree with Cuccinelli on almost everything and will spare my readers the list. But I do agree on one thing: he has proved to be a wily politician. He’s turned…
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Thinking Outside the School Yard
by James A. Bacon Step aside Bob McDonnell, you and your tax-hiking, burden-shifting transportation-funding package. Make way for Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, who has introduced what may prove to be the most audacious piece of legislation of the 2013 General Assembly session — a bill to create a state virtual school organized as a free-standing statewide…
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Sticking Southside With Uranium Mining
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in Business and Economy, 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, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka If you are a resident of Pittsylvania County in Virginia’s Southside, you can be happy to know that some Richmond legislators and a few citizens want to restrict uranium mining exclusively to your county. Led by Republican State Sen. John Watkins of Powhatan, the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission voted 11-2 to…
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Oh, Canada!
By Peter Galuszka The rumbling started Saturday and reached a head on Sunday, resounding through the tall, loblolly pines like a distant thunderstorm that somehow got stuck in a downdraft and just wouldn’t move on. The curiosity was that the early January sky was a bright blue with only a few high clouds zipping by…
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The Conundrum of Exporting Natural Gas
By Peter Galuszka Energy firms and utilities are finding themselves in an odd and unexpected position because of the fast-changing dynamics of the natural gas market. In a blow to the Sierra Club, a Maryland judge has ruled that Richmond-based Dominion Resources can export liquefied natural gas from its Cove Point facility on the western…
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The Beltway’s Brain
To get a taste of Virginia’s transportation future, take a spin on the 495 Express Lanes project where sensors, artificial intelligence and dynamic pricing combine to optimize scarce capacity on the Capital Beltway.
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The New Geography of Jobs
by James A. Bacon “The New Geography of Jobs” is arguably the most important book about urban economics published in 2012. Author Enrico Moretti, an Italian-born economics professor at Berkeley, analyzes the great divergence occurring between metropolitan regions in the United States. While much of his narrative about the “innovation” sector as the key driver…
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Taxes and the Urban Mobility Revolution
by James A. Bacon Et tu, Hugo? Del. Tim Hugo, R-Centreville, has proposed eliminating Virginia’s motor fuels tax and replacing it with a 0.9% increase in the state sales tax, the Times-Dispatch reports today. That measure, combined with the allocation of an additional 0.5% of the sales tax to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, would raise…
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Addressing the E-tail Sales Tax Dilemma
Small online retailers are under threat by a Congressional initiative that would force them to collect sales taxes for their customers’ home states. “If that happens,” writes Phil Bond, executive director of WE R HERE, “a small online retailer operating from a longtime street-front location, a modest warehouse space or even the owner’s kitchen table…
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The IT Revolution Cometh. Will It Passeth Virginia Transportation By?
by James A. Bacon The spread of smart phones and car navigators equipped with GPS technology is making it easier than ever to measure automobile traffic, and some transportation planners are putting the data to good use. In northern Spain, for instance, the Basque Traffic Control Centre is using GPS data from TomTom navigation systems…
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Coming Up: Smart Parking
Here’s a new wrinkle in the digital cities world: a smart phone application that tells you where the empty parking spaces are and how much they cost. Santa Monica, Calif.-based ParkMe has introduced an app that lets users find the the best bets for parking on a block-by-block basis, throwing in a rate calculator, “in-app”…
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Terry McAuliffe — Fast Talker or Visionary?
by James A. Bacon I have renewed confidence in the judgment of the professionals at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). According to emails uncovered by an Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, they evinced skepticism of an electric-vehicle manufacturing project pitched by Terry McAuliffe, chairman of GreenTech Automotive. The golden-tongued…