Tag: University of Virginia
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McAuliffe: Can a Schmoozer Transform?
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in Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, 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, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka On Easter Sunday, I was driving in a cold rain to Charlottesville for a family event. My cell phone started beeping with messages from Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe. He said he was on his way to his own family brunch but wanted to tap me for $5. I got similar messages…
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No Reform Three Years After Massey Disaster
By Peter Galuszka Three years ago today, a tremendous blast caused by bad safety conditions at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., killed 29 miners. It was the worst coal mine disaster in this country in 40 years. But three years later, very little has been done to toughen mine safety regulations…
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Sullivan’s Risky Bet on STEM
by Reed Fawell III Teresa Sullivan’s proposed four-year financial plan will forever alter the character and mission of the University of Virginia, undermining the financial model that has enabled the university to thrive. If adopted by the Board of Visitors, the plan will raise student tuition to fund the conversion of the University from a…
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The Remarkable Renaissance of Virginia Rail
By Peter Galuszka Many decades ago, Richmond was a major, and colorful, train hub. Crack passenger lines of all liveries, the purple and silver of the Atlantic Coast Line, the citrus colors of Seaboard, and the blue and yellow of the Chesapeake & Ohio, all went through town. Cars and aircraft reduced rail to dirty…
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What’s the Deal With Star Scientific, McDonnell and Cuccinelli?
By Peter Galuszka What, exactly, is the relationship between Governor Robert F. McDonnell, his family, and Attorney Gen. Kenneth Cuccinelli with the head of a money-losing, tobacco-related dietary supplement maker that is the target of federal prosecutors? All involve Jonnie R. Williams Sr., chief executive of Star Scientific, a Henrico County-based firm that has sold…
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“One Piece At a Time”
By Peter Galuszka Straying from the Virginia plantation, I’ve been noticing how Cyprus, a small historic island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, is once again acting the tail wagging the Euro-system dog and is affecting the finances of many farflung people. The Euro-crisis has taken hold in tiny Cyprus, forcing such draconian suggestions as a…
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The “New” Mind of the South
By Peter Galuszka What is “the South” all about? It’s a great question about what could fairly be described the most unique, tortured and remote region of the United States. Being “Southern” requires not only a special state of mind, but a special spirit that is, by turns, as alluring as it is odious. It…
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Virginia May Help Offshore Wind Power Up
By Peter Galuszka About 22 miles off Virginia Beach, at points too far to see with human eyes, Virginia’s first real effort to harness the wind for electricity is about to take shape. Richmond-based Dominion Virginia Power will begin work this year on erecting two wind turbines, each capable of producing 6 megawatts of electricity…
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McAuliffe Pitches Jobs vs. Ideology
By Peter Galuszka “Fantastic,” says Terry McAuliffe as he listens to officials at the Culpeper, Va., campus of Germanna Community College talk about projects ranging from designing machine controls to a weight-loss competition. The tall, curly-haired McLean businessman — a Democrat who wants to be Virginia’s next governor — walks through a campus building while…
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The Dragas-Sullivan Battle at UVa Blazes On
By Peter Galuszka It appears that the conflicts between Helen Dragas and Teresa Sullivan are far from over. After all the brouhaha last summer between the head of the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors and its president – a battle that got national attention and sparked lots of questions at universities around the country…
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“I Got Mine from Mah Daddy!”
By Peter Galuszka One of the stranger attributes of Virginia’s conservatives is their cheesy, Calvinist streak. Their world view tends to celebrate the rich and powerful, regardless of whether the individual worked diligently and creatively to generate the wealth or if it was inherited. For example, one man (not a Virginian) whom I respect described…
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Cuccinelli’s Strange Lesson in Federalism
By Peter Galuszka (Note: You’ve heard from Jim and Les on Ken Cuccinelli’s book. Here’s my review that runs in this week’s Style Weekly). Kenneth Cuccinelli, Virginia’s firebrand attorney general and Republican gubernatorial hopeful, is typically full of fire and vinegar that make him such a lively politician. But you’d never know it from his…
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The Lessons of the 2013 General Assembly
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka If there’s any good news from the 2013 General Assembly session, it is that the hard right’s strange hold on taxation has been broken. Republicans can start acting like responsible adults once again instead of dogmatic shills or spoiled children. Gov. Robert F. Donnell and legislators found a way to raise badly…
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Peanuts, Tobacco and Corporate Greed
By Peter Galuszka Stewart Parnell had a dilemma. The owner of Lynchburg-based Peanut Corporation of America faced deadlines in shipping peanut butter from his troubled manufacturing plant in Georgia but test results from salmonella, a problem because of unsanitary conditions at the factory, were not back from the lab yet. His customers included schools, snack…