- 2006 -

November 20: Making Government Work II. Virginia business executives must define leadership in a "purple haze" state.

November 6: Making Government Work. Whatever the results of Tuesday's election, the underlying issues for Northern Virginians are competence and problem solving.

October 23: Catching Crayfish Craig. Understanding how Virginia grew a Nobel Prize winner can inform everything from budget discussions to economic development strategies.

October 9: Fair and Friendly? Or rigid and regulatory? Voting for an amendment that discriminates against unmarried households is no way to improve Virginia's business climate.

September 25: Future Still Shocking. In our age of accelerating change, some institutions adapt more quickly than others. Insights from the Tofflers' new book help explain the challenges facing Virginia.

September 11: This Time, Pull Together. September’s special session on transportation gives delegates and senators another chance to meet public expectations.

August 28: Sportsmanship Matters. In politics, as in baseball, there is a way to play the game.

August 7: Beach Week. Reading might be a lot safer than swimming outside of Virginia this year.

July 10: Connecting the Crescent. The Northern Virginia economic engine isn't powering growth only in metro Washington, it's creating jobs in Hampton Roads and Richmond, too. Politicians need to get with the program.

June 26: Ip, Ip Hooray! Virginia is conducting a 180-degree turn in its approach toward intellectual property originating at state universities. Lighter central control could stimulate more commercialization of R&D.

June 12: Hunting Dogs and Disclosure Documents. The knowledge economy could give Jeff Foxworthy a lot of new material.

May 30: Reinventing Springfield. There is more to Springfield than the massive interchange at Interstate 95 and the Beltway. A wave of development opens possibilities for creating a very different community.

May 15: Sense and Census. Opinions about new and different Americans are fine. Facts are better. 

May 1: Making the Disaster Fit the Plan. The Congressional analysis is in: The Katrina disaster represented a failure at all levels of government, not only to plan ahead, but to communicate and react to unforeseen developments.

April 17: Take a Piece of Transportation. Since being named to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, this e-zine columnist is trying to stay on time and on budget. 

April 3: Getting to Yes. Some great values, respect, decisiveness and experience were on display this week.

March 20: What Hath God Wrought? From the telegraph to BlackBerry, advances in technology define the challenges to Virginia far better than does the squabbling in the General Assembly.

February 27: The Special Session Is Now. The outline of a compromise on transportation funding is coming dimly into view: Some new funds now, a full-fledged plan later (maybe).

February 13: A World of Commonwealth. Immigrants contribute many of the skills and ideas Virginia needs for the future. So, if opportunity knocks, why keep keep the door shut?

January 30: Transportation Hold 'em. Most of the cards on the General Assembly's transportation table are lying face up. But it's still too early to know who's got the winning hand.

January 16: "Let Us Begin". Gov. Kaine drew upon four centuries of tradition at his Williamsburg inaugural, but he also pointed to a new way forward. 

January 3: "Then Let Them Stand". With the Virginia Capitol under construction, the Governor and General Assembly will convene this month in unfamiliar surroundings. 

- 2005 -

December 12: High Stakes Pool. As the national competition for scientific talent heats up, Virginia enjoys bipartisan support for Gov. Warner's proposal to fund more R&D at Virginia universities. 

November 28: Faith in the Future. A new governor, a new legislature, a treasury flush with revenue... Constrained expectations of recent years are giving way to a sense of new possibilities. 

November 14: Million Vote Baby. Tim Kaine joined an exclusive club on Election Day, reaffirming political lessons that even a child can grasp. 

October 31: 53, 25, 21. Those digits show the percentage of economic growth accounted for by technology compared to labor and capital. But technological progress, Virginians now understand, does not just happen.

October 17: Lost in Translation. Can Virginia's restructuring of higher education remain bold and, therefore, effective?

October 3: Pragmatic Conservatives. The characteristics of the 2006 General Assembly are taking shape well ahead of the November elections.

September 19: Twin Hopes. Virginians hope that their candidates listen to them -- and that they don’t.

September 5: The Last Hurricane Party. When New Orleans needed competence from the feds, it got lame excuses, political spin and an avoidable catastrophe. Without changes, we're next.

August 23: Hypocrisy Helps. To feign and dissemble are human, but they don't bring progress. Endangered species, gas prices and illegal immigrants could all use some straight talk.

August 8: We Are What We Finance. Virginia pension funds, not just private companies, could grow on "profits" from credit-worthy infrastructure projects. 

July 25: Smell the Red Herrings. Virginians will be the losers if the election debate focuses on the world according to the political consultants.

July 11: May the Healthforce Be With You. Without waiting for government to study the problem yet again, Northern Virginians are expanding their healthcare workforce.

June 20: Elections? Whatever. More Virginians voted in American Idol than in last week's primary elections. Such widespread indifference calls out for fundamental change. 

June 6: Re-VITA-lyzing Government. After two years, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency is generating cost savings and making government more accessible to citizens.

May 23: In Name Only. US Airways keeps its name in its merger with America West, but the Arizona airline is sucking the show right out of Virginia.

May 9: "Freedom and Learning". Six legislators protesting a student-sponsored sex education fair--an event that included conservative cultural groups--should ponder the meaning of the GMU motto.

April 25: Competition for the Creative Class. With Richard Florida now at GMU, Fairfax County is debating what it takes to recruit and retain the creative geniuses who propel the economy forward.

April 11: Technology's Long Wave. Robert Atkinson's discussion of technology-powered growth highlights the policy choices ahead for Virginia.

March 28: The Platinum Party Card. Money can't buy love -- but it can buy a leadership position with a political party.

March 14: Look at their Shoes. A self-absorbed Virginia cannot win in the global, innovative economy. Take a look at what other states--and countries--are doing.

February 28: Three Levels of Autonomy. Commonwealth universities didn’t get to Charterland, but they did pin some serious new commitments on the General Assembly.  

February 14: Disfiguring the Public Interest. Now more than ever, Virginia’s General Assembly needs to tread lightly on matters of liberty, opportunity and the Constitution.

January 31: Taking Care of Business (2). Virginians like spending the tax revenues generated by Northern Virginia's booming economy. But if they don't invest in the region's prosperity, the cash cow may run dry.

January 17: Taking Care of Business. Booming Northern Virginia is generating record tax revenues. To keep up with this world-class tech center, state government must learn to become a better partner.

January 4: Paved with Good Intentions. Without new resources for transportation, Virginia in 2005 will be stuck on a familiar road.

- 2004 -

December 13: No Waiting for Huang. Virginia's new Secretary of Technology has lost little time putting his imprint on Virginia's high-tech policy. Eugene Huang's priorities include life sciences, nanotechnology, broadband and IT.

November 29: The Right Message. A great weekend for Virginia collegiate football started with handshakes on the 50 and the defense of final exams.  

November 15: The Bio Rush Is On. Staking its claim in the biotech turf, California will issue $3 billion in bonds to invest in stem cell research. The initiative leaves Virginia -- and everyone else -- flat footed.

November 1: Self Inflicted Bio-Terror. Former Gov. Jerry Baliles has a $12 billion plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. That's a lot of money, but we'd spend it if al Qaeda had done the damage instead.

October 14: Risky Business. Virginia has a promising base of biotech enterprises and research institutions that could make it a player in the life sciences -- if government and business leaders can learn to live with the risk.

October 4: Let the Camera Roll. George Mason may or may not have agreed with film-maker Michael Moore, but he would have been outraged by the move to run him off from the university that bears his name.  

September 20: Posses and Vigilantes . Virginians may have to ride hard to keep their politics local.

September 7: COVITS. ko'-vits. (21c) n. Commonwealth of Virginia Technology Symposium. v. to acquire knowledge about technology

August 23: Internet Jobs, Not Taxes. Virginia shouldn’t relinquish competitive advantages in Internet retailing for unproven theories of tax policy.

August 9: Broad Horizons in Nano Tech. Could Virginia be where the metal rubber meets the polymer road?  

July 26: Getting From Point T to Point D. In a testament to a rare bipartisan effort, Virginia has finally started moving on the Tysons-to-Dulles Metro rail project.

July 12: More than Money. If the Commonwealth isn't prepared to pony up an extra $400 million a year to support higher education, it must give universities more financial flexibility and regulatory freedom.

June 21: Connected Development. Southside and the Tobacco Commission are patting each other on the backbone for their just announced regional fiber-optic initiative.  

June 7: Promise into Profit. ODU’s wrestling match with maglev illustrates the difficulty of engineering scientific principle into a working product … and the necessity of doing so.  

May 24: Open and Shut. The files on Virginia campaign contributions are open, but the tax records should stay shut.

April 26: Late Fees Explode at Video Stores! The millions of dollars Virginians pay for late charges could spur a lot of competition, from video on demand to high-definition television on PBS.

April 12: r= A < BCD. How does this old formula help explain budget gridlock, budget hopes and the difficulty of change in Virginia? Read on...

March 29: Down and Dirty. Virginia is a nice place, but don't drink the water. More than half of our rivers and streams are polluted.

March 15: Taking Liberties. The erosion of Virginia’s conservative values by new moral dictators is proceeding at an alarming rate.

March 1: Got to Pick a Pocket or Two. Central characters from the musical adaptation of a Dickens novel may have the best advice for budget conferees in Richmond.

February 16: VoIP and BPL Break Loose. While Virginia legislators contend with tax issues, two new technologies are taking a wrecking ball to the regulatory system for Virginia telecom.  

February 2: Why HOT is Cool. Given Virginia's fiscal realities, High Occupancy Vehicle lanes with toll options may be only the realistic model for improving Northern Virginia's transportation system in the foreseeable future.

January 19: Man Cannot Live on Tax Policy Alone. Or can he? Our fearless commentator gives it a try. 

January 5: Aesop or Buffet? Will Virginia lawmakers, like the teller of fables, demand immediate gratification in 2004? Or will they, like the billionaire investor, calculate the benefit of investing for the future?

- 2003 -

December 15: Drip, Drip, Drip. The never-ending budget squeeze is water torture for Virginia's environment.  There's not enough money to evaluate pollution permits, much less clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

December 1: Litmus Test. Taxes have been the key test for Republican candidates in their rise to majority, but responsible governance is the new challenge.

November 17: Dot.Gov Bubble Bursting. General Assembly money committees find out again this week what the private sector learned the hard way three years ago.

November 4: Learning from Mother Nature. Events remind us again how powerful natural forces can be. But can we avoid disasters of our own making?  

October 20: si-'kyur-et-e. The pronunciation guide in a dictionary shows just how difficult security is to define and maintain. But rest assured that Virginians are on the case.  

October 6: Alabama-izing Virginia. If no-tax leaders in Virginia want us to be more like Alabama, they shouldn’t skip the rest of the story.

September 25: Power to Choose. After Isabel struck, electric consumers just wanted their power restored. But the SCC, which recently dissed deregulation, should take a longer view of the future of the electric-power industry.  

September 8: AAA! XXX! Harry Potter might ask Mad Eye Moody for a look at the Budget Shortfall That Must Not Be Calculated, but the investor service now says “Watchlist” for Virginia’s bond rating right out loud.  

August 25: More Cabinet Space. The idea of creating a Secretary of Agriculture is sprouting again, to the potential benefit of every sector and region of Virginia.

August 11: Let’s Get Real. State Senator John H. Chichester went straight to the bottom line in his address to Virginia FREE, much to the relief of the business community.

July 28: Contact Sport. Efforts to recruit a major league baseball team to Northern Virginia have run into resistance. But as Yogi Berra might say, the game isn't over until it's over. 

July 14: Comfortably Numb. Until the pain emanating from under-funded state programs exceeds the pain of change, tax reform is doomed.

June 30: A Feast for Futurists. Showcasing the work of 25 scientific teams, the research summit of Virginia's Institute for Defense and Homeland Security created a model for promoting R&D and economic development.

June 16: What Happened Tuesday? Virginia’s primary elections June 10 produced individual triumphs and disappointments, but no real surprises.

June 9: Radical Pragmatism. Will Marshall, a national Democratic reformer, advocates a practical, problem-solving approach to governance. His principles apply to Virginia as well as the nation.

June 2: Here Comes the Sun. The sun finally shined on Virginia this week, and lots of new mothers may be naming their baby boys Ray.  

May 26: 160 Identical Twins in Prison! What reads like a headline ripped from the Virginia Enquirer really illustrates how far the crime-fighting potential of the Commonwealth’s DNA databank has come in 14 years.

May 19: Conscience of the Commonwealth. His inauguration as president of the Northern Virginia Community College gave Robert G. Templin, Jr. another forum to champion both opportunity and pragmatic action.

May 12: No Knowledge, No Knowledge Economy. The brief from the governor: Achieve research excellence in Virginia. But first, a higher ed summit had to rekindle understanding of why R&D matters.  

May 5: Hellfire and Spamnation. Virginia legislation making fraudulent, unsolicited, bulk e-mail a felony represents a triumph of the practical, problem-solving New Politics of the New Economy.

April 28: Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Anti-tax zealots in Fairfax County are protesting property taxes, but the logic of their tea party invites comparisons to Alice in Wonderland, not the remonstration in Boston Harbor.

April 21: The Politics of Culture. The furor over looters ransacking Iraqi antiquities parallels the concern driving the Commonwealth's own efforts to preserve its past and extend it into a new future.

April 14: Pull Down Dillon's Rule. In a dynamic economy, communities need greater flexibility in spending public revenue to provide citizens the public services they need. It's time to scrap the Dillon Rule.

April 7: Redirected Aggression. A late-night partisan clash between two veteran Northern Virginia delegates last week revealed the bitterness lingering from the Gilmore-Wilkins budget disaster of 2001.

March 31: Unwired and Proud. Rural Virginia’s move to wireless communications shows how fast new technology is driving economic development thinking forward.

March 24: Advise and Dissent. Freedom of speech and democratic discourse about world events are most important precisely at times when American troops are committed to war.

March 17. A.D.D. on Security. Virginia has mapped out a comprehensive plan to promote homeland security. But Federal Attention Deficit Disorder is leaving Virginia to get by on duct tape.

March 10: Facts, Figures or Fulmination? Political punditry can yield almost any conclusion regarding Virginia's political future. It all depends on how deeply you want to drill beneath the surface.

March 3: I.T. Ship of the Desert. The compromise information-technology plan worked out by the Administration and the General Assembly doesn't have to be sleek to advance procurement reform in a harsh budget climate.

February 24: Gods, Generals and Governors. Film making and historical tourism came together last week for a gala benefit for five historical foundations. What was good for the generals might be good for the governors.

February 17: Research Drives Development. Virginia has taken a big step toward one of the first research goals articulated by Gov. Mark R. Warner. Will the General Assembly follow?

February 10: Secretary of Foreign Affairs. With a population of more than seven million and a General Assembly wrestling with international matters, why shouldn't Virginia get its own foreign policy?

February 3: Con-Vergence. Virginia lawmakers propose a variety of responses to the growing crime of identity theft, but controls on public records threaten public access.

January 27: New Lines, New Future. A new CIT report outlines a number of strategies for rural communities to wire their citizens and businesses to the broadband future.

January 20: Conservative and In Charge. The economy may be growing again, but chronic budget stress is forecast for years to come.  Republicans are discovering that winning elections is not the same as governing.

January 13: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. The reluctance to deal with comprehensive tax and revenue reform continues to trap the Commonwealth in budget games.

January 6: Virginians of the Year. Fifteen women and men used the challenges of 2002 to show Virginians what resilience, commitment and leadership are all about.  

- 2002 -

December 23: Governor of Christmas Past . Comments by the Governor of Christmas Past and a revelation by a Cabinet Secretary of Christmas Present set into motion an imaginative tale about standards of learning.

December 16: Lott's Look Back. Since Trent Lott insists on looking favorably at a 1948 Dixiecrat candidacy for president, Virginia's U.S. Senators should help him get a new perspective from the Republican back bench.

December 9: Workforce Redux. How long does it take to grasp that smart, skilled workers are the key resource in a knowledge economy? And to invest public resources accordingly?

December 9: Book Review. Building Corporate Value.

December 2: Give Thanks, Give Back. Reflections in the holiday season suggest that "giving back" is a good model for business, too.

November 25: Paint by Numbers. Filling in pre-numbered spaces with colors isn't really art. Managing the Commonwealth's structural imbalances with endless budget cuts isn't fiscal responsibility, just an ugly picture.

November 18: ROI. Business incentives have an excellent return on investment in job creation and tax revenues. So why would Virginia reduce its investments at a time there are bargains to be had?

November 11: That Was Plan B. The defeat of the regional sales tax referenda sends the Commonwealth back to Plan A on transportation -- statewide taxes, bonds and public-private partnerships.

November 4: Cup Half Fuller. George Mason University's Steven Fuller documents a powerful trend that stretches back three decades -- Northern Virginia is becoming the center of the universe.

October 28: Broadbrush Broadband. The Warner administration has articulated broad goals for the deployment of broadband across Virginia. But experience, research and a stronger economy may mean more than state policy.  

October 28: Roasting Dr. Dial-a-Quote

October 21: Incoming. NASA and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute demonstrate the kind of development that a sustained commitment to education and quality of life can bring to Virginia.

October 14: Hold Your Head Up. From the anguished remembrance of a son came words Virginia can heed as it struggles to make ends meet.

October 7: Gonna Win. Northern Virginia's half-cent sales tax referendum for transportation is running in the mainstream. Finally, the region will be able to jump start road, rail and transit solutions.

September 30: Government Transformed. Welcome to the Warner-Newstrom vision of e-government and the new information technology utility – a whole new way of defining problems, engineering solutions and doing business.

September 23: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics. In Virginia 2002, one can get numbers about almost everything. But statistics are no substitute for judgment in prognosticating the future.

September 16: Advance Look. What are the Warner administration’s priorities for allocating resources during the 2002 budget crisis? The 2002 Southern Innovation Index may hold some clues.

September 9: Standing Pat. A small group of delegates and senators are discussing how to revise Virginia's tax code. Given the "taxes are worse than death" climate of electoral politics, why bother?

September 3: All the Knowledge -- or Just Some? It's better to borrow money from bond investors and pay it back than to borrow education and opportunity from Virginia students, who may never get it back.

August 26: Get a Life (Science)

Virginia has the potential to achieve biotech greatness. But it’s not clear that the state is willing to make the necessary commitment.

August 19: Thunder and Lightning

The electric storm at last week's session of the Wilder Commission was powered by clashing visions of how to address Virginia's fiscal crisis.

August 12: Network for Innovative Technology

CIT is no longer the "center" of Virginia's tech network. It's just one node -- and it needs to rethink its mission accordingly.

August 5: Stargate on the Dan

Danville's new Institute for Advanced Learning and Research represents Southside's best hope yet for participating in the cyber-economy.

July 29: Wagging the Dog. In state politics, Northern Virginia is no longer the tail that wags the dog -- it's a big part of the dog.

July 22: How the Mighty Have Fallen. Vance Wilkins crashes to the ground. His successor, William Howell, should change the tone of the General Assembly.