I’m not sure what the provenance of this document is, but it has replicated in cyberspace as an e-mail from Del. Philip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, to Tom Holden, a writer with the Virginian-Pilot. I re-publish it here because it is the best outline I’ve yet seen of why Republican legislators oppose Gov. Timothy M.…

A debate that periodically erupts in the comments sections of this blog centers on a perceived solution to traffic congestion on Interstate arteries, unaffordable housing and other ailments of large, dysfunctional metropolitan areas. Why don’t employers just move the jobs closer to where to where people live? In the words of blogger Ray Hyde, why…

The University of Virginia will install a light-emitting diode pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of University Avenue and Culbreth Road. According to the Daily Progress, the LED crosswalk will be similar to one installed previously on Emmett Street near Alumni Hall. This blurb of a story strikes me as highly significant. It opens up a…

Via Jim at Bearing Drift comes a most interesting blog sighting: The Fast Lane, a blog from the USDOT that features contributions from, among others Sec. Mary Peters and even a few guest posts from folks like Tim Kaine. Sure, there’s plenty of rah-rah, and I would be surprised if the Secretary, or many of…

It’s been 40 years since Richard M. Nixon came up with the “Southern Strategy” so aptly named by political analyst Kevin Phillips. Nixon took advantage of the once solidly Democratic South by playing upon upheavals caused by integration and civil rights and Southern conservative disgust with 1960s cultural change. The GOP lock on the South…

Well, white women may not rule yet, but they will. Give them 25 years. Think of Hillary Clinton as a leading indicator: It doesn’t look like she’ll win the 2008 Democratic nomination, but she’s paving the way for the next generation. I got a glimpse of the next generation at the Phi Beta Kappa induction…

Perhaps the last Installment on “Supercapitalism”, by Robert Reich. If I missed some key point of the book, please advise and I’ll post again. The issue is money and influence. Power to move power. It’s as old as governments are in ancient civilizations and as American as apple pie. The difference in the transforming Information…

Virginia boasts of many fine medical centers including the Medical College of Virginia, the University of Virginia and others. Doctors’ offices in metro areas are chock-a-block with diagnostic and surgical devices that can do in seconds what used to take hours. So, it comes as a bit of a shocker to realize that in some…

The May 5, 2008, edition of Bacon’s Rebellion is now available online. (To make sure you don’t miss future issues, click here.) Here’s what on tap: Second Battle of FredericksburgA Yankee invader… er, investor… wants $30 million in incentives to build a giant waterpark in Fredericksburg. Local foes say they are fighting to save the…

Jim is busy and cannot come to the Blog right now, but leave a message and there will be a new excuse to keep hopes for a flawed scheme alive by the time he is back. Someone figured out that in a tight race Rep Wolf, whom so ever runs for Davis’s seat and others…

I was hoping to squeeze in some blogging on Bacon’s Rebellion this morning — the Rail-to-Dulles story cries out for a follow up — but it’s been a wild and crazy day. In partnership with Richmond.com, Richmond’s leading independent online news source, I have launched R.Biz, a blog that delivers updates on Richmond-area business and…

Hundreds of foreign-born families have pulled their children from Prince William County public schools and enrolled them in nearby Fairfax and Arlington Counties, “imposing a new financial burden on those inner suburbs in a time of lean budgets,” reports Amy Gardner with the Washington Post. Normally, I find Gardner to be a pretty fair reporter,…

The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn makes a case for school choice this morning inside the the framework of the presidential race. The point he makes could just as easily apply to Virginia’s 2009 gubernatorial contest: There’s a good opening here for John McCain. As a senator, he has been a forceful voice for giving…

Others have made this point on the blog, but it bears repeating and emphasizing: While home prices are getting hammered everywhere, they are falling fastest in neighborhoods located the farthest jobs. Long commutes are a killer. This comes from National Public Radio: Economists say home prices are nowhere near hitting bottom. But even in regions…

The transformation from the Industrial Era to the Information Era changes everything. It doesn’t eliminate everything, but it transforms everything. Because technology permeates every aspect of a society. Technology touches all. Starting in earnest in the 1980s the technology driven changes hit sector by sector of the economy. Increases in productivity – and the tax…