Category: Uncategorized
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No Brainer Ethics Reform
It’s nice to see that Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly can agree on something. House Republican Majority Leader Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, and House Democratic Minority Leader David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, unveiled the outlines of their ethics reform plan in an op-ed published in the Times-Dispatch this morning. They will unveil details in a…
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Where the Poor Are
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka With expanding Medicaid about to become a major issue with the incoming Terry McAuliffe administration, it is curious to see exactly where the poor people in Virginia live. An intriguing New York Times interactive graph provides clues and allows one to draw some rather disturbing conclusions. The single worst pocket of poverty…
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Maureen, Bob, Ken, Jonnie and the FDA
By Peter Galuszka Here it is, the New Year, and we’re still facing news about Robert and Maureen McDonnell and Star Scientific — last year’s biggest political story. The news is puzzling. It turns out that the dietary supplements Maureen McDonnell was pushing more than two years ago for Jonnie R. Williams Sr., former head…
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How the Scandal Started
There is a fascinating tidbit in the Washington Post article today about Todd Schneider, former executive chef at the Governor’s Mansion, that has gone largely unremarked upon. It may have been reported before, but I had not taken note of it, and I don’t believe anyone else has either. Before I explain, let me ask…
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New Questions about the Shockoe Stadium Proposal
by James A. Bacon I’m heartened to see someone on the Richmond City Council ask tough questions about big headline-grabbing deals. Councilman Jon Baliles (son of the former governor) has raised substantive issues about Mayor Dwight Jones’ proposal to build a new baseball stadium for the Flying Squirrels in Shockoe Bottom. In particular, the analysis…
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Brace Yourself for the Internet of Things
by James A. Bacon The “Internet of Things” is one of the hottest buzz words in the global technology sector today. The phrase refers to a phenomenon, the mass proliferation of Internet-connected devices, that is as world-altering as the invention of the personal computer and the rise of the World Wide Web. Economy and society…
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A Savior for the Suburbs?
by James A. Bacon The conventional suburban cul-de-sac is a planning and architectural dead end, maintains Rick Harrison, a Minnesota designer of residential communities. But rather than abandon the traditional suburban development model, as New Urbanists and smart growthers advocate, he proposes to reinvent it. Grid streets, the solution proffered by the New Urbanist movement is not…
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Fiscal and Economic Benefits of Smart Growth
This “Meet the Experts” interview, filmed by Smart Growth America, dates back to the New Partners for Smart Growth conference early this year. But the themes are enduring. I make the case for smart growth as a strategy for lower-cost growth and economic development. — JAB
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An Inquiry into the Origins of Social Disorder
by James A. Bacon The conventional wisdom in housing-reform circles these days emphasizes the need to bust up concentrations of poverty. When Mayor Dwight Jones recently explained his thinking behind Richmond’s latest plans to inject mixed-income housing into the City of Richmond’s desolate East End, he said he wanted to change the culture of poverty. Poor people…
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The GOP’s Idiotic Kamikaze Pilots
By Peter Galuszka On an otherwise lovely early autumn afternoon, we’re stuck waiting from depressing news from Washington about radical House Republicans holding the U.S. government and the debt ceiling hostage. In a pointless exercise, after midnight today, U.S. parks might close and some federal workers might not get paid. It could get even worse…
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The Cooch and the Pope
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Federal issues, Gun rights, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” says Pope Francis, leader of the globe’s Roman Catholics, regarding abortion, gays and contraception. One wonders if Ken Cuccinelli gets the message. Or maybe even Bob McDonnell. The attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate and the sitting governor have worn…
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The Case for Interstate Tolls
Virginia faces a $13.6 billion price tag (net present value) to reconstruct its aging interstate highways, estimates Robert W. Pool Jr., with the Reason Foundation in a new study, “Interstate 2.0: Modernizing the Interstate Highway System via Toll Finance.” The cost nationally of reconstructing the Interstate system is estimated to cost $589 billion (in 2010…
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Live Art
It was a gorgeous day in Richmond yesterday, temperature in the high 60s and the most perfect blue sky I have ever seen — the ideal setting for street artists to ply their craft. In the second annual RVA Street Art Festival, nearly 30 painters gathered at the old GRTC bus garages this week and…
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The “GiftGate” Cast of Characters
By Peter Galuszka GiftGate appears to approaching its dramatic conclusion with attorneys for Gov. and Mrs. Robert F. McDonnell scheduled to appear before federal prosecutors again before Sept. 15. A decision about whether to indict them is expected soon. The plot, while delicious, is a bit hard to follow in what is the worst ethics…
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Transportation Tumult
by James A. Bacon There is an extraordinary level of hubris in the world of transportation and land use planning. Planners in state transportation departments, including Virginia’s, advance mega-highway projects based upon forecasts of what transportation demand will be two or three decades from now. My friends in the Smart Growth camp rightly reject many…