Prolific Chris Graham over at the Augusta Free Press is reading the fine print of an economic development announcement. I don’t think the powers that be want anybody doing that. Oh, and is it just me, or is Del. Chap Peterson the AFP‘s darling?

Is this really a safety measure, or a clever way of discouraging hunting by taking all the fun out of it?

While Arlington and Loudoun Counties roll in dough, Bristol appears to be seriously hurting. Update: Norm Leahy over at One Man’s Trash has some suggestions for Bristol.

In a little-noticed piece of legislative sleight-of-hand today, members of the House and Senate amended General Assembly rules in a manner that gives them until midnight Wednesday, Feb. 16 to agree on state spending (the budget bill), but two additional days, until midnight Friday, Feb. 18 to identify where the money comes from! What’s the…

Unfortunately our conservative Virginia is becoming the ultimate nanny state. We covered the droopy drawers bill ad infinitum—enough said on that. Today The Washington Times reported on the following caretaker bills: A bill to fine drivers $250 for showing X-rated videos in their vehicles if passersby or other motorists are exposed to them A bill…

Becky Dale, a Virginia FOIA savant who wears the Bacon’s colors and writes out of this stable, rounded up–as an independent study project–a collection of E. B. White’s New Yorker pieces while completing her MA in English at VCU. The collection was published by HarperCollins in 1990 as ‘E. B. White: Writings from the New…

The apparent darling of this blog, Warrenton Mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate George Fitch, looks to be making the rounds of Virginia papers. Allison Brophy Champion (What a great name! What great initials!) has an interview with Fitch in the Culpeper Star-Exponent. He’s singing my song: For the most part, said Fitch, Gov. Mark Warner…

Let us pause from our relentless bashing of the House of Delegates for this kind characterization from Warren Fiske of the Virginian-Pilot: Some lawmakers describe the disagreements between the two Republican-controlled chambers as a biorhythm of the legislative process; after all, the legislative bodies were created as a check on each other. The House, up…

What was the point of this stunt? And how did a variation make it to the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial page?

In my current Virginia Pundit Watch column, I noted a Sunday op-ed in the Washington Post by David Brunori, a contributing editor to State Tax Notes magazine and a research professor of public policy at George Washington University. He strongly defended the local property tax. Brunori was on-line today, taking reader questions and sticking to…

Given the unrelenting assault on family budgets in NOVA, with higher property taxes, last year’s tax increase (the largest tax increase in the history of our State), the proposed toll increase on the Dulles Toll Road, just to list a few, I find it preposterous that any elected official from NOVA would vote for even…

The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors has voted 5-2 in opposition to adding a reactor to the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant. They cited conerns about the water level in Lake Anna and the fact that they are one of the fastest growing regions in Virginia. Wonder where they expect the electric power new residents will…

by Becky Dale The monitoring of public meetings throws open the question of how to count a quorum.It’s normally easy to know if a quorum exists at a public meeting. You count who’s there. A quorum is usually a majority of members. When a council has seven members, four is a quorum. If four are…

by John Goolrick A hardy perennial in Virginia politics is the ritualistic denunciation of gerrymandering. Sure, redistricting is unfair. But none of the alternatives looks any better. My hometown paper, despite its philosophical permutations over the years, has constantly railed editorially about changing Virginia’s system of redistricting. And in response I have always called their…

by James Atticus Bowden The Higher Ed lobby defines the “charter” university issue as all about money. But Virginia citizens must guard against educrats imposing an unwelcome brand of political correctness.If “war is too important to be left to the generals”, then certainly “higher education is too important to be left to the educrats”. Generals…