Category: Uncategorized
-
Fully Funded? Not Even Close
by James A. Bacon Earlier this month the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) announced that it had generated a 15.7% return on its investment portfolio over the previous year, bringing its total assets to $66.1 billion. It’s always good news when the pension fund for 600,000 state and local employees and retirees goes up, not down. That’s…
-
More Defense Cuts Plague Virginia
—
by
in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Politics, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Virginia continues to see painful military spending cuts in the aftermath of the years’- long U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the latest news is that the Army may cut 3,600 jobs at Ft. Lee, ironically the site of a recent and large expansion, by 2020. That could result in a…
-
McAuliffe Hits Private IT Outsourcing
By Peter Galuszka Just a decade ago, privatizing and out-sourcing traditionally government work was all the rage. Virginia’s Democrats and Republicans alike saw a philosophical advantage in fending off Information Technology, road maintenance and other work to for-profit, private companies who supposedly – if you believed the hype then –could always do things better, faster…
-
How Charlotte Stays Economically Competitive
Envision Charlotte, a public-private partnership in Charlotte, N.C., has set the goal of reducing energy consumption in the city center by 20%. The initiative has achieved 8.4% savings so far, saving businesses in the central business district an estimated $10 million or more, Envision Charlotte and Duke Energy announced last week. “We have cracked the…
-
Finally, Some Sense on Climate Change
—
by
in Consumer Protection, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Health Care, Infrastructure, Insurance, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Pulling the state’s head out of the sand, Gov. Terry McAuliffe has reversed his predecessor’s policy on addressing climate change. He has reestablished a 35-member panel to see what the state can do to deal with what many scientists believe is an impending crisis. McAuliffe revived the panel first created by Democratic…
-
Two UMW Daughters of the ’60s
—
by
in Business and Economy, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Just a few days ago, Elena Siddall, a Mathews County Republican activist and Tea Party Patriot, posted her account on the Rebellion of being a social worker in New York in the 1960s and the wrong-headedness of Saul Alinsky, a leftist organizer who had had a lot of influence back in the…
-
Denying Truth on the Outer Banks
—
by
in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Insurance, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka North Carolina’s Outer Banks have always been a touchstone for me – in as much as anyone can associate permanence with sandy islands being perpetually tossed around by tremendous wind and water forces. The Banks and I go back to 1954 and Hurricane Hazel when I was an infant. They mark many…
-
It’s Like Leaving Paris on Bastille Day
Now they tell me! The Bacon family has just made plans to spend the 4th of July watching fireworks at the national mall in Washington, D.C., only to read that WalletHub lists Richmond, of all places, as the No. 1 place to be in its 2014’s Best & Worst Cities for 4th of July Celebrations. Our humble home…
-
Tea Party Populism vs. Eric Cantor
—
by
in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Political analysts and the media are still trying to tease out the meaning of soon-to-be-former House Majority leader Eric Cantor’s primary loss last week to an obscure college professor. Two major themes seem to be emerging. One is what the Tea Party’s role was and what the Tea Party really is. The…
-
Deconstructing Duany
by James A. Bacon Never in all the times over the years that I have heard Andres Duany speak, nor in those occasions in which I interviewed him, have I heard him utter a scintilla of partisan political sentiment. If I had to guess, I would say that he disdains both political parties. As he said yesterday of…
-
Buffalo, Beer and Pot Roast
So, I rolled into Buffalo, N.Y., around 6:30 p.m. this evening, checked into my hotel, then looked for some action with fellow attendees of the Congress for the New Urbanism. I ran into fellow Richmonder Andy Boenau during a guided tour of the city’s historical canal district, we got hungry and we decided to get something to…
-
Brightening up the Beach
It seemed like such a great idea: Commission painters to adorn Virginia Beach’s lifeguard stands with bright, crowd-pleasing art, and then pay for the initiative by selling sponsorships. “Between 42 lifeguard stands and 37 containers over a 3-mile resort strip, you’ll effectively have one fixture every 75 yards,” Bobby Levin told city officials, as re-told…
-
Bacon Bits
More, more, we want more! Richmond BizSense profiles Richmond entrepreneur Matt Ellington who has built a business around tearing down small, cheap houses and replacing them with bigger, more capacious houses. Rather than remodel existing houses, he tears them down to the foundations and erects much bigger houses in their place. He’s completing a project near Libbie…
-
Suck It Up, Bacon!
By Peter Galuszka There’s no denying it now. We’re two degrees hotter than in 1991. There is no denying it, according to the National Climate Assessment of experts. I am sure the Deniers will way in with their pseudoscience. In response, read what former GOP presidential contender Jon M. Huntsman has to say.
-
The Perils of Gas Fracking
—
by
in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka More media accounts are showing up now that 84,000 acres of lands south and east of Fredericksburg have been leased for possible hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas. This Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch published a map showing the leased area covering big swaths of land from the Fort A.P. Hill military area east across the…