Tag: University of Virginia
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Two Unsatisying Conventions
By Peter Galuszka Thankfully, we’re done with two underwhelming, policy-idea-deficient political conventions that, save for a couple of speeches, offer limited hope for the November election from either party. The best part of the Democrat-confab at Charlotte was Bill Clinton’s rousing speech, as well as Michelle Obama’s class-act performance, but they gave Barrack Obama a…
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Virginia’s Hottest Contraband
By Peter Galuszka Somehow it seems as quaint as a black and white crime movie from the 1950s. A van pulls up to a country store in the dark of night. A gang of men led by gravel-voiced Robert Mitchum loads up on cartons of cigarettes, and sets off for the big city Up North…
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Where is Sarah When We Need Her?
By Peter Galuszka It seems so underwhelming. There was the hurricane that went elsewhere. A retrograde platform. A vice presidential candidate in search of a fact checker. A lame speech by POTUS-to-be. Even Clint Eastwood couldn’t make our day. Flash back four years. John McCain stunned the nation with Sarah Palin, the tough hockey mom…
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Forbes on Cutting Virginia’s Defense Sector
By Peter Galuszka A couple of days ago I went to my mailbox next to the brightly-bloomed crepe myrtles and there was a four-color brochure from my Congressman, Randy Forbes, whose district stretches from the military-saturated cities of South Hampton Roads to the southern part of Chesterfield County where I live. Randy Forbes is a…
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Last Year’s Quake Shook Up Virginia Nukes
By Peter Galuszka A year ago tomorrow, Dominion Virginia Power operators watched dozens of brightly-lit boxes strung across several walls in their control rooms for two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power station about 50 miles northwest of Richmond. It had been a sleepy, sunny afternoon. Suddenly, at 1:51 p.m., delicate sensors noticed that…
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Forgetting Slavery for Baseball in Richmond
By Peter Galuszka In Virginia, it never ceases to amaze how the white elite finds it so easy to extract the painful history of slavery from whatever it is they are trying to do. In his first year in office, for instance, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell went astonishingly brain-dead when he completely forgot to mention…
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Nice Memorial, But No New Mine Safety Laws
by Peter Galuszka The mood was as heavy as the humidity during a July 27 commemoration in Whitesville, W.Va., a creaky little coal town nestled in a tight valley by the narrow Coal River and a railroad spur. Hundreds of people, including miners in fluorescent-striped work garb and a young girl in a lacy white dress…
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Australians May Dump Pocahontas Parkway
By Peter Galuszka This just in from Australia! Transurban, the Aussie company that owns public-private partnered Pocahontas Parkway near Richmond, is considering selling the toll road because it has become a White Kangaroo. If so, this is incredibly bad news for PPP3 advocates everywhere, including various moderates and conservatives such as Gov. Robert F. McDonnell…
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Virginia’s Pathetic Air Pollution Ranking
By Peter Galuszka Despite a glut of less-polluting natural gas as a source of generating electrical power, Virginia is still a significant air polluter, according to a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council. One person who should take note is Gov. Robert F. McDonnell whose energy choices have always leaned heavily towards fossil…
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Hottest July on Record!
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in Business and Economy, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Taxes, Water-waste water‘Nuff said. — PAG
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HCA’s Dr. EBITDA?
By Peter Galuszka Just on the heels of a blog posting praise for-profit HCA hospital company for “partnering” with doctors in Virginia to encourage “peer review” of best practices comes a devastating front page lead story in this morning’s New York Times. It seems that HCA got into big trouble in Florida when doctors ordered…
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Beware Hedge Fund Traders Bearing Gifts
By Peter Galuszka As noted in previous postings, I have always been curious as to the role in the Teresa Sullivan flap of big money hedge fund traders who are University of Virginia alumni and live in a world beyond most of us. Of special curiosity is the role allegedly played by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones…
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Keeping the Silence About Guns
By Peter Galuszka Late morning near Ashland, the shopping crowd of mostly middle-aged white men is busy poring over the wares at Green Top Sporting Goods. Although it is only late July, hunting season looms and buyers are checking guns and rifles of all types and sizes. Also on display are scores of handguns, mostly…
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A Birds-Eye View of a Medical Practice
By Peter Galuszka Reforming health care is perhaps the most important issue confronting Virginia and the country today and also one of the most contentious. One hears opinions and solutions of every ilk anywhere — on blogs like this one, television, newspapers and private conversations. One important turn came when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld…