Before launching into criticism of the funding proposals in the GOP transportation package, which I regard as an unmitigated disaster, let me say something positive. The compromise contains some very promising ideas for reforming land use, aligning transportation and land use and overhauling the Virginia Department of Transportation. It represents only a start, but the…

Michael Hardy, Jeff Schapiro and the Richmond Times-Dispatch have outdone themselves with the headline and lead paragraph of their transportation story today: Fees, fines for roads proposedGOP plan relies on bonds, increased fees and fines, and $250 million from schools, police and the poor. Republicans hope to finance Virginia transportation improvements with the government credit…

There’s nothing like reopening old emotional wounds to promote racial reconciliation. I feel so warm and fuzzy I’m ready to start singing Kumbaya… Not. The rhetoric emanating from Del. Don McEachin’s resolution to exact an “apology” from the General Assembly for slavery, Jim Crow and other assorted wrongs is escalating. Now, reacting to comments by…

Like it or loathe it, there is no other word to describe the General Assembly’s compromise on transportation and land use in Virginia: monumental. The legislative package represents one of the most far-reaching overhauls of Virginia’s transportation and governance since the Depression-era organization of the modern-day transportation system in 1932. If a deal can be…

Let’s hope there’s money in the transportation compromise crafted by the General Assembly (to be announced at 4 p.m.) for one of the cooler initiatives in the Kaine administration’s proposed transportation package. Bacon’s Rebellion reporter Peter Galuszka sat down earlier this week with transportation secretary Pierce Homer and technology secretary Aneesh Chopra to get the…

The Virginian-Pilot is reporting that the leadership of the state Senate and House of Delegates have agreed to a compromise transportation plan that will include a combination of tolls and fee increases. The $2 billion package calls for issuing bonds and redirecting revenue from the General Fund. Additionally, the package calls for regional plans for…

I’ll never forget trying to help an old man and his wife try to find his way out of Richmond. He was heading north but had taken a wrong turn and ended up in a residential neighborhood. I explained how to get back on the Interstate, but I could tell he wasn’t absorbing my instructions.…

If Del. Don McEachin, R-Richmond, hoped to initiate a “healing process” with his resolution apologizing for slavery, he didn’t get off to a very good start yesterday. Del. Frank Hargrove, R-Hanover, took exception to his resolution and made some remarks that some perceived as outrageous. Tempers flared and accusations were hurled. The exchange was magnified…

Del. Chris Peace, R-Mechanicsville, is forming a state task force to study textbook reform in Virginia. The goal, as discussed in “A ‘Textbook’ Study of Knowledge-Wave Education Policy,” is to devise an end-run around monopolistic textbook manufacturers, who publish school books geared to the curricula of bigger states like California and Texas. Through use of…

The big cultural wedge issue in this year’s General Assembly session comes not from the right but from the left. Del. Don McEachin, D-Richmond, has submitted a bill that calls for “atoning for involuntary servitude of Africans and calling for the reconciliation of all Virginians.” It pays to read this bill carefully and to note…

State government is plodding in its embrace of technology to deliver services to the public, but the fact that it is plodding suggests that it is moving forward. A case in point: As part of its outreach program, the Department of Business Assistance is holding a webinar tomorrow about the state’s eVa procurment system. States…

Let us now praise the Daily Press, normally one of the more truculent voices for Business As Usual thinking in the Mainstream Media. Today’s editorial makes a key point that all too often goes missing from MSM reporting and punditry: that it matters not only how much money we raise for transportation maintenance and improvements,…

I am probably the last blogger in Virginia to mention it, but there may be a few readers who haven’t seen Waldo Jaquith’s new “Richmond Sunlight” website yet. Waldo’s creation provides an interface to General Assembly information that’s far more user friendly than the G.A.’s own website. Plus, it has cool features such as lists…

An Associated Press article about childhood obesity this morning kicks off this way: RICHMOND–At Chimborazo Elementary, apples aren’t just for teachers. The glossy fruit lined lunch trays on a recent Wednesday, alongside wheat rolls, low-fat sorbet and gobs of greens–healthy choices all happily scarfed by fourth graders. “There’s a direct correlation between a healthy child…

Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, has pinpointed a key player in the transportation debate — the teachers union — that I, for one, have not appreciated, relying as I do upon Mainstream Media reporting for insight into the political dynamics of the General Assembly. Why, Purves asks, does the state Senate…