Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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Long-Term Care: A Great Bet If Made Long Ago
It is just like your econ professor told you – insurance is nothing but a bet. It is a bet you often don’t want to win, but in one field you had a great chance of winning simply by hanging around and continuing to breathe. That field is (or at least was) long-term care coverage.…
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Are PBMs Killing Pharmacies, Hiking Medicaid?
A form letter mailed this month announced the death of another local independent pharmacy, this one in the bustling community of Nellysford. Residents of Nelson County’s Rockfish Valley, including those in the large Wintergreen community, will join plenty of other rural areas in the U.S. without a pharmacy close by.
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True Conservatism In Eight Simple Questions
Answer eight simple questions correctly and you, too, could be a true Virginia conservative, joining the ideological movement which continues to challenge chances for Republican success in the Commonwealth. Several high-profile candidates in next month’s contested GOP primaries have done so, earning good marks from a group calling itself Virginia Constitutional Conservatives. Two out of…
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Meet GOP Carbon Tax Advocate Bob Inglis
There is a hotbed of carbon tax advocacy at George Mason University, led by a former GOP congressman sent packing by South Carolina voters because he’s ready to tax them into loving solar and wind.
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Update: Aggregation Petition Moves to Full SCC
The debate over retail aggregation and choice for electricity underway at the State Corporation Commission is moving to another decision point, with a hearing examiner’s ruling May 21 on one of the many petitions.
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Correction: DLS Was There At Energy Conference
There was a Division of Legislative Services staff person present at the recent National Regulatory Conference in Williamsburg. My piece yesterday was in error. Attorney Christine Noonan’s name was on the list and I missed it. She’s been at DLS for a while, but only this session started as staff support for the committees doing…
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VA Energy Regulatory Conference All About Carbon
WILLIAMSBURG — “The environmentalists don’t want to admit when they’ve won, but they’ve already won.” That line was delivered by Joseph A. Rosenthal, principal attorney at Connecticut’s Office of Consumer Counsel, during a discussion Thursday on the status electricity grid modernization efforts in his state and several others. It was a part of a day-and-a-half…
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Now Everybody Has a Club on Abortion. Wonderful.
Watching the abortion issue being shoved into the coming Virginia elections by ideologues on both sides, it is fair to ask the question: Can the center hold? Are the many people who are fairly comfortable with the state of the law these last few decades going to be sorry with an outcome in either direction?…
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A Horrible Abuse Case. The Daily Reality Behind It.
The news today is horrifying – the death, possibly from sexual abuse, of a 17-month-old. Our distracted minds are focused, for a while, and we all go into a collective shudder and wonder what monster could do such a thing. The daily reality is worse and doesn’t get enough attention. In the fiscal year ending…
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Despite Success, a Failure Warning from SCHEV?
Hiding the silver lining deep in a grey cloud, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia reported today that Virginia is meeting its educational attainment goals to date and is on track to meet its aggressive 2030 higher education target.
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Three 2016 Dominion Solar Plants Missed Targets
Some of Dominion Energy Virginia’s recent solar installations, despite using technology designed to track the moving sun, have turned in disappointing energy results, fueling skepticism at the State Corporation Commission toward the utility’s claims for future solar energy success.
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SCC Demanding Data in Future EE, DSM Cases
Two recent State Corporation Commission rulings on utility-sponsored energy efficiency and demand management programs produced contrary results for the applicants but a consistent theme of SCC skepticism in the absence of hard data and a demand for more data going forward. The SCC last week approved all eleven new or continued programs proposed by Dominion…
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Dominion Tool? The GA Is an Entire Toolbox
Retiring state Senator Frank Wagner gets appointed to some job by Governor Ralph Northam Friday and the headline on Blue Virginia labels him a “Dominion tool.” But has the other legislator being rewarded with a full-time job, Delegate Mathew James, cast any votes against the state’s favorite political whipping boy?
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Is the Goal Cutting CO2 or Imposing a Tax?
While it would have been a popular step with his political base, and one he was expected to take, Governor Ralph Northam may have been smart to pass on seeking to veto state budget language preventing Virginia membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
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All Fatal Wounds Are Self-Inflicted
There’s no better example of how great Virginia Republicans are at forming circular firing squads than the disaster underway in the 97th House of Delegates district, where allies of the incumbent are seeking to change the rules and cancel a nominating convention he was about to lose.