One of my pet peeves is how the high cost of college tuition is creating a new debtor class in America. An outfit called the Project on Student Debt, which publishes data on the indebtedness of students at colleges and universities around the country, allows us to put numbers on the problem. As it turns…

It is a strange world that we live in. There is an entire website devoted to bacon haiku, including this: “No, Mr. Bacon,“I expect you to sizzle”Bacon, James Bacon I have no idea who served as the inspiration for this poetry. There are many James Bacons, some disreputable, some nefarious, some dangerous, and a few…

I return to the idea propounded by my favorite left-wing blogger (see “The Song of the Uninsured Musician“) that free-market conservatives have offered no alternatives to the dysfunctional status quo or to leftist solutions such as Obamacare or universal care. I offered a fairly detailed analysis in my book, “Boomergeddon,” that describes a path to…

I have revamped the Wonk Salon to focus exclusively on public policy issues with a state-local dimension. No more posts on the Middle East, global poverty or federal budget priorities. Nearly every post has implications for Virginia policy. Here’s today’s offering: How Will Health Care Reform Affect Costs and Coverage?Rand CorporationMore health care insurance for…

The United States’ 99 largest metro areas have accounted for a disproportionate share of unemployment in the three years since the recession, and the bulk of the increases occurred in jurisdictions outside the urban core, concludes a new Brookings Institution study, “The Landscape of Recession.” According to Brookings data, the Washington and Richmond metro areas…

CITIZEN MEDIA, THE NEXT STEP is one on six Perspectives being developed at SYNERGY. This Perspective is the evolution of the 24 November 2010 post on BRB and the logical next step from THE ESTATES MATRIX – PART TWO of TRILO-G. The original intent was to post just the Overview in Chapter 1 and Chapter…

CITIZEN MEDIA, THE NEXT STEP Citizen Media serves the interests of the New Fourth Estate – citizens and their Households. Citizen Media is the source for information citizens must have to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth and in the market place. OVERVIEW (Beta 1) In 1999 Robert W. McChesney published the highly regarded…

CITIZEN MEDIA CHAPTER TWO – CITIZEN MEDIA CONTEXT Citizen Media serves the interests of the New Fourth Estate – citizens and their Households. Citizen Media is the source for information citizens must have to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth and in the market place. Chapter Two further explores the three primary challenges facing…

CITIZEN MEDIA CHAPTER THREE – INTENTIONAL INFORMATION SABOTAGE AND LESSER CRIMES Citizen Media serves the interests of the New Fourth Estate – citizens and their Households. Citizen Media is the source for information citizens must have to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth and in the market place. Chapter Three shifts from a focus…

CITIZEN MEDIA CHAPTER FOUR – THE LITMUS TEST CONCEPT Citizen Media serves the interests of the New Fourth Estate – citizens and their Households. Citizen Media is the source for information citizens must have to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth and in the market place. Chapter Four provides an overview of a Litmus…

CITIZEN MEDIA CHAPTER FIVE – PROTOTYPE LITMUS TEST Citizen Media serves the interests of the New Fourth Estate – citizens and their Households. Citizen Media is the source for information citizens must have to make intelligent decisions in the voting booth and in the market place. Chapter Five presents a draft Prototype Litmus Test focused…

Want to reduce the number of traffic accidents and automobile fatalities? Cracking down on drunk driving, enforcing seatbelt usage, installing air bags and banning texting while driving all have proven useful. But, while the incidence of traffic fatalities has declined from five per year in 1960 to two per year in 2000, the total number…

Here’s the good news: If the Virginia Retirement System can generate an annual return on investment of 8% annually in the future, it will last until 2040 before the money runs out. Here’s the bad news: If the assumed returns are more modest (or more realistic) — say, 6% annually — assets will last only…

The wolves are circling NPR, the supposed bug-a-boo of liberal bias. The conservatives are building momentum, in one form or another, to cut the influential radio, television and Internet system that provides badly-needed news, analysis and foreign reporting when market-driven news sources have chopped away most of their assets in pursuit of ever-dwindling net income…

There’s a right reason and a wrong reason to support Gov. Bob McDonnell in his proposal to eliminate state funding for public broadcasting. According to today’s Times-Dispatch, McDonnell seeks to cut $4.2 million over the next two years. The wrong reason is that public broadcasting is “biased” and “liberal.” That’s the justification that Rep. Eric…