Virginia is looking more like California every day. The William & Mary student council has agreed to provide $1,450 to help bring the Sex Workers Art Show to campus. The event, which is on nationwide tour, features monologues and performances by porn actors, strippers and other sex workers, reports the Daily Press. More than a…

The State Corporation Commission has given Dominion approval to proceed with pilot projects to test the viability of nine different conservation programs. The power company is billing the projects, some of which should begin as early as this quarter, as “consistent with the new Virginia Energy Plan” and potentially helpful in advancing the General Assembly’s…

The 2008 session of the General Assembly has barely commenced, and already we’re generating editorial copy for the amusment of the rest of the world. Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, has introduced a bill that would ban the display of ornaments that resemble human genitalia on automobiles. The display of such ornaments would be a…

Please humor me as I make one last blog post on “A Growing Divide: The State of Working Virginia.” The ground-breaking study by the Commonwealth Institute presents two more sets of important data: the percentage of Virginia workers with health care insurance, and the percentage of workers with pensions. It’s a classic good news/bad news…

While a recent report by the Commonwealth Institute, “The Growing Divide: The State of Working Virginia,” issued stark warnings about growing income disparities in Virginia, it did offer one morcel of good news. Even as United States workforce productivity has soared over the past two decades or so, productivity gains in Virginia grew even faster.…

Wilder and city establishment strike out and lose Braves. Predicament shows just how hopelessly dysfunctional Richmond’s leadership really is. Three years ago, I was sitting in the skyscraper office of a large Atlanta real estate firm listening to Thomas D. Bell Jr., CEO of the firm, talk about how Atlanta was trying to deal with…

Last November, Peter Galuszka penned a column for the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine, “The Invisible Working Class,” in which he decried the condition of working class Virginians. Drawing upon the book, “Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War,” by Winchester writer Joe Bageant, Peter offered considerable anecdotal evidence for the shrinkage of manufacturing jobs,…

“The city seems prone to consulting things to death to such a degree that nothing happens. You’ve got to have the strength to pull the trigger.” — William Pantele, Richmond City Council president, in reaction to news that the Richmond Braves would leave the city after 42 years. After years of study, the Richmond region…

With education a topic of consideration on the blog recently, I’ll toss this into the mix: A prominent supporter of a market-based approach to improving public schools, Sol Stern, says he no longer believes charter schools or vouchers are a “panacea.” In an article published in the latest edition of City Journal, Mr. Stern, a…

Here’s a sign of the times. I just received a e-mail from the University of Virginia “Travel & Learn” program, which I presume is targeted at alumni of advancing age like myself with the time and financial means to enjoy travel. The sales pitch is fascinating in itself: Join leading U.Va. faculty and their colleagues…

The New Year has blown in a breath of fresh air: The January 14, 2008, edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine. If you don’t visit this blog regularly, subscriber for a free subscription to make sure you never miss an issue. Click here. Here is our line-up of commentary: Building Human CapitalHuman capital is the…

So, this is what the Civil Rights movement has come to 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education: There’s nothing wrong with Virginia’s failing public school systems that showering them with more money won’t solve. In a nutshell that’s the message conveyed by Oliver Hill, Jr., and Andrew Block in an op-ed piece in…

That’s my reaction to the news that Pat Robertson, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, is a potential bidder for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, which the Batten family has put up for sale. According to an Associated Press story: “Although the price for The Weather Channel is a little rich for my blood, I am considering…

As the General Assembly works on its budget, the “rebenchmarking” of the educational Standards of Quality looms large. This Constitutionally mandated process recalculates how much Virginia school districts receive in some $6.2 billion in Direct Aid to Public Education dollars distributed by the state. As I’ve often observed before, this rebenchmarking process represents one of…

As a rebel by temperament, I tend to be highly critical of the way we Virginians conduct our business. But it’s OK to remind ourselves occasionally that we do a few things right. In his State of the Commonwealth speech yesterday, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine listed a number of accomplishments that Virginia can be proud…