Tag: University of Virginia
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Pocahontas Parkway Sparks Regional Feud
By Peter Galuszka The Pocahontas Parkway east of Richmond has proved one of the biggest disasters Virginia has ever conjured up in recent years. Now it is provoking regional feuds over transportation policy power. The Richmond Metropolitan Authority which oversees the city’s Downtown Expressway, part of the Powhite Parkway, some parking lots and the Diamond…
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The Ironies of Tom Clancy
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in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The timing is extremely odd, but the death of techno-thriller author Tom Clancy came this week just when federal workers were being furloughed by the hundreds of thousands through Capitol Hill gridlock. Clancy, who died in Baltimore at 66, did much in the 1980s to makes heroes of the men and women…
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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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Pittsylvania County Loses a Good Man
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in Business and Economy, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka During these days of GiftGate with top Virginia officials and their families accepting unreported Rolex watches, turkey dinners, corporate jet rides, New York shopping sprees, real estate loans and wedding presents, it is important to remember other public servants who shoulder on doing their work as honestly as they can. On Thursday,…
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Libertarian Wins Gubernatorial Debate
By Peter Galuszka The most interesting thing about the Virginia gubernatorial debate Wednesday night wasn’t the bitter personal attacks between the two lackluster candidates from the dominant political parties. It was the television ad by the man who wasn’t there. Looking young and fresh, Libertarian Robert Sarvis, kept out of the debate, cast himself with his…
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Facts, Reality and the “War On Coal”
By Peter Galuszka Now that the Obama Administration is finally getting ready to set long-overdue regulations on limiting carbon dioxide at new coal-fired electricity plants, Big Coal and its allies are again beating the “War On Coal” drums. The rules, which will apply only to new coal-fired plants, will shut down the industry, kill jobs,…
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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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Suspicious Trading In Gas Ethanol Credits
By Peter Galuszka On the busy Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, some 33 squat petroleum tanks sit just across the water from the giant cranes of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. The tanks, along with 31 other ones just south of downtown Richmond, play a role in an intriguing and mysterious…
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Virginia Does NOT Say Yes to Nuclear
By Peter Galuszka In his typical business-only fashion, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has named several nuclear energy industry executives to the new, 17-member, non-profit Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority set up this year just as the move to end the uranium mining moratorium was augering in for a crash. Hmm. Let’s check this out. State…
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Whatever Happened to Virginia Uranium?
By Peter Galuszka A big effort to mine uranium in Southside Virginia seemed stymied when the General Assembly failed to end a moratorium on such activity in the last General Assembly. It would seem that exploiting a large deposit of ore in Pittsylvania County by a wealthy local family and some obscure Canadian investors had…
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The Syria Conundrum
By Peter Galuszka Where I live in the piney woods of southern Chesterfield County, one can gauge U.S. foreign policy by sounds in the night sky. Listening to them, I was able to mark the run up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later, in 2011, the SEAL Team Six mission against Osama…
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Good News on Virginia’s Offshore Wind Power
By Peter Galuszka News that Dominion Virginia Power has won an auction to lease about 113,000 acres about 27 miles off Virginia Beach for an offshore wind turbine farm is welcome, but don’t expect anything to happen right away. Dominion won the rights to develop the shallow waters from the Interior Department for $1.6 million.…
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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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The McDonnells’ “He Said, She Said” Defense
By Peter Galuszka The latest in the months-long GiftGate soap opera engulfing the governor’s executive mansion has been revealed. The federal probe of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, his wife Maureen and businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., has been slowed down as prosecutors mull over new evidence McDonnell’s team was legally forced to surrender. Lawyers for…
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GreenTech Auto: Lots of Smoke, Little Fire
By Peter Galuszka This year’s bizarre gubernatorial race has had stories beyond belief. There’s Jonnie, Maureen, Todd, Ken and Bob. And there’s also Terry, Xiaolin and Benjamin. The tantalizing tales of the first group need not be repeated. They, of course, involved tardily disclosed stock holdings, a wife not telling husband about stock buys, big-time…