It never ceases to amaze how Richmond’s business elite, while espousing free markets, are at heart state capitalists, sort of like Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore. The latest ripple: the business community has organized $600,000 in public money to go to a “Save Low Fares Richmond” campaign to keep carriers such as cheap fare carriers…

Virginia will pay an estimated $594 million in 2012 to service its $9 billion in tax-supported debt. That will make interest payments the sixth largest category of expenditure in the General Fund budget, behind public education, Medicaid, higher education, corrrections and the car tax rebate. And those numbers do not include debt on transportation projects,…

John W. Forbes II, state secretary of finance under former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal wire fraud charges. It is by far the biggest scandal involving a state cabinet-level official in years. The case also raises questions about a state entity that is…

It has been some time since EMR visited the issue of MainStream Media (Enterprise Media) and THE ESTATES MATRIX. Among the four major projects on-going at SYNERGY one focuses on Citizen Media – the media serving the interests of the New Fourth Estate – citizens / Households. FIFTH ESTATE OR FIFTH WHEEL A recent discussion…

There’s a movement afoot in the Old Dominion to bring in riverboat gambling to help rescue transportation finances. Let’s hope it springs a leak. Norfolk City Councilman Paul Riddick thinks that bringing in water-borne gambling palaces would be a great way to boost the state’s transportation budget, which is short upwards an estimated $100 billion…

General Motors, long considered by some as a hopeless dinosaur, seems to be embarking on an historic comeback. It launched an Initial Public Offering of new stock for the first time in 18 months and on the first day of trading, shares were up nearly 7 percent. Proceeds from the IPO will be used to…

Soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor promises to bring a results-oriented approach to governing in Washington, reports Tyler Whitley with the Times-Dispatch. “This will not be a spring of 100 days or 100 hours, but rather a long march, requiring top-to-bottom reform, focused on producing results in three key areas,” he said: cutting spending, shrinking…

Virginians can rest assured that there are at least two serious budget cutters in Washington, D.C.: Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Their draft budget-balancing plan issued Wednesday gores so many oxen and butchers so many sacred cows that the Chicago Board of Trade would be…

Virginia’s schools of higher learning are among those universities most at the center of issues of conflicts in research, according to a new publication of the American Association of University Professors. The most recent edition of the AAUP’s “Academe: the Conflicted University” publication includes examples of Virginia schools as it examines how seriously academic freedom…

So where does AntiPartisanism stand after the mid-term elections? Well first, based on the comments from Jim B and Groveton to the ONE MORE DAY post, plus those heard from via other channels, six Bacon’s Rebellion ‘regulars’ followed Rule One or Rule Two of the AntiPartisan Voters Guide. Not bad for a start. However, something…

I like my old “Usuthu” license plate just fine (if you’ve never watched the movie “Zulu” starring Michael Caine, you won’t understand), but it may be time to trade it in for a new one. You’ll find the details on how to get one of your very own at Right Side News.

(From today’s Washington Times, online edition): As the old saying goes, be careful what you pray for: The gods just may grant you your wish. Republicans fervently hoped for a return to power, and the political furies granted them their biggest win in six decades. Now the GOP must make good on its promises to…

Meredith Whitney is on the warpath against out-of-control state spending. The banking analyst warns today in the Wall Street Journal that a wave of municipal defaults and indiscriminate bond selling will prompt the next big federal bailout. Indeed, she writes, the bailout has already begun. More than 20% of California’s debt issurance in 2009 and…

At first glance, Tuesday’s election was an obvious rout of Democrats, with Tom Periello, Rick Boucher and Gelnn Nye losing their seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The fate of Gerald Connolly isn’t known yet. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor easily won relection and with Republicans now in charge of the House, he’ll likely…

CNN say’s 75 percent of the voters want to throw the bums out. Well known political analyst Brewster Rockit goes one better: “Don’t Let the Bums in.” The ANTIPARTISAN VOTERS GUIDE – YEAR ONE With Federal mid-term elections looming tomorrow and important contests facing voters in many states, please memorize The ANTIPARTISAN VOTERS GUIDE –…