Category: Uncategorized
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The Latest Twist in Newspapers’ Downward Spiral
More Virginia victims of media downsizing: Richmond Times-Dispatch. “We are repositioning the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2018,” says Publisher Tom Silvestri today. “The continued disappearance of print advertising, now coupled with rising newsprint costs, will mean in 2018 we will have to do more with fewer resources.” The newspaper, part of the BH Media Group, is…
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NoVa Enters Finals for Amazon Sweepstakes
Just out: Amazon has narrowed its list of candidate locations for its $5 billion second headquarters, and Northern Virginia made the list. So did Washington, D.C., which gives the Washington metropolitan area a one-in-ten chance of winning the big prize. USA Today lists the finalists. (Hat tip: Rick Gechter)
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Stop Executing the Severely Mentally Ill
by Dale M. Brumfield While Governor Terry McAuliffe’s commutation of the death penalty to life in prison for the mentally ill William Burns was welcome, the fact that the governor in July also allowed the execution of the equally mentally deficient William Morva shows the need for a fair and consistent law. Diagnosed with delusional…
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Let’s Hope This Act Never Grows Old
I’d never heard of the Church Sisters — Savannah and Sarah Church — until this week, when I read they were coming to play in Richmond. These young ladies who were raised in the heart of the Virginia coalfields, Dickenson County, and in Danville, meld Bluegrass and Gospel. The melody in this video, “Where…
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Documenting Cville’s Left-Wing Radicalism
The primary purpose of the Heaphy report on the Aug. 11-12 United the Right rally was to evaluate the actions of Charlottesville city officials and whether the violence could have been prevented. But the document provides a treasure trove of raw material to help pundits and commentators understand the larger context of the confrontation between…
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Acronyms that Will Change our Communities: MaaS and LML
You know something is destined to become the Next Big Thing when a business research firm like Navigant Research starts charging $1,800 for special reports on the subject. I can’t afford to pay that kind of money, but I do subscribe to Navigant’s alerts to keep tabs on the hottest, most hyped trends in the…
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More Money for What?
by John Butcher The tug-of-war between the School Board and City Council over school funding enters a new era of speculation: Will the recent election results produce more funds for Richmond schools? That overlooks the more fundamental question: What is the School Board doing with all the money it now is spending? The most recent…
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The Research Crisis in Higher Ed
The modern American research university is in crisis. Perverse rewards and incentives create an unhealthy “hyper-competition” among research scientists and encourage unethical behavior that can lead to bad science. So say Mark A. Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor best known for exposing the high levels of lead in the water in Flint, Mich., and Siddhartha…
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Cville Ranks 3rd Nationally In Happiness. If Only We Knew Why.
Thanks to the intrusion of outsiders bent upon confrontation, Charlottesville has become synonymous in the public discourse with hate and discord. It’s a bum rap. In a recent survey of the happiest metros in the United States, C-ville ranked third, behind Boulder, Colo., and Santa Cruz, Calif. The study by National Geographic and the Gallup…
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Is Dominion Eyeing a Big Move in South Carolina?
Hmmm… Santee Cooper, the state-owned electric utility in South Carolina that lost a bundle through nuclear power overruns, is thinking up putting itself up for sale. One of the four companies sniffing around, according to this report in The State, is Dominion Energy. Dominion has been beefing up its presence in South Carolina. Since 2014,…
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Building for the Ages
They don’t make buildings like they used to. The United States and other modern countries are infinitely wealthier than the Medieval societies that raised the great cathedrals. But what has the contemporary world created that will endure as the cathedrals have? The 14th-century sanctuaries still evoke a sense of awe and wonder. Which of the…
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Austin, Texas, Here We Come!
It’s a perfect day in Austin, Texas — blue skies, low humidity, about 83°. The Bacon family is in town for a wedding, and we’re going to stick around a couple of extra days to get a feel for one of America’s great cities. We were really hungry when we arrived, so we headed to…
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Disaster + Fiscal Insolvency = Puerto Rico
I can watch only so much CNN and MSNBC before I get nauseated, but I have seen enough the past day or two to be appalled at how the media are spinning the post-hurricane disaster of Puerto Rico: It’s another Katrina. The Trump administration hasn’t responded fast enough or aggressively enough to help the battered…
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Do Remedial College Classes Need Reform? In Virginia, Probably Not
How do you handle a situation when a student is admitted to a college but isn’t academically prepared to do the work? Traditionally, colleges and community colleges have required students who fail basic readiness tests to take remedial courses. Nationally, students spend an estimated $7 billion a year on such courses, according to the Wall…
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Maybe Hampton Roads Isn’t the Second Most Vulnerable Metro After All
Dave Mayfield, a reporter with the Virginian-Pilot, has frequently repeated the claim that Hampton Roads, after New Orleans, was the most vulnerable to sea level of rise major U.S. metropolitan areas. I’ve repeated that factoid on this blog — perhaps I picked it up from his writing, I can’t remember. Anyway, Mayfield began wondering about the…