Month: April 2007
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Case Closed: Norment, Stolle Cleared of Ethics Charges
Sens. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, and Thomas Norment Jr., R-James City, have been cleared of conflict-of-interest charges by the Senate Ethics Advisory Panel. David Nixon, a Roanoke lawyer and Republican activist had filed a complaint noting that the two prominent lawmakers were employed by Kaufman and Canoles, the leading law firm in Hampton Roads, which…
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New York in Bloom(berg): Time for Congestion Fees
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed an $8-per-day congestion fee for drivers who enter parts of Manhattan. He’s billing the fee, patterned after a similar levy in London, as a tool to ease the strain on infrastructure, combat ground-level pollution and curtail greenhouse gases implicated in global climate change. The New York Times has…
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Cockburn’s Chemicals
Writing in Counterpunch, confirmed man of the left Alexander Cockburn offers his jarring, almost anarchist, take on the murders at Virginia Tech last week. It’s a lengthy piece, and one that will, no doubt, raise more than a few hackles. But sifting through it all, and in a way following-up on Jim’s post from earlier,…
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Spotsylvania County: An Overhang of 28,000 By-Right Lots
We see the same problem replicated in county after county across Virginia: an overhang of thousands of lots that can be developed by right. Typically, these lots are located on off-the-beaten track farmland that will be inefficient and expensive to serve with the utilities, public services and other amenities that urban refugees demand. By definition,…
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Cho Seung-Hui and the Rights of the Mentally Ill
Since the morning of April 16, Virginia Tech students, professors and administrators have displayed extraordinary dignity in the face of one of the nation’s great tragedies. My respect for the institution and those who are part of it has increased immeasurably. I can only hope that I, if faced with a comparable horror, would acquit…
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Can You Say “Big Dig?”
The latest estimate for the cost of phase one of the Rail to Dulles project — extending the Metro system to Tysons Corner — recently jumped up to $2.4 billion to $2.7 billion, up from the previous estimate of $2.1 billion. How much, then, will it cost to build phase two, which takes the heavy…
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Senatorial Ethics Charges Aired
Yesterday, a Senate ethics board heard allegations that Senators Thomas K. Norment, R-Williamsburg and Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach have engaged in a conflict of interest when legislating property rights. According to Roanoke lawyer G. David Nixon, the two powerful lawmakers have a conflict because they either represent clients that acquire property through eminent domain…
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The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round…
One of the more obscure laws to emerge from the 2007 General Assembly allows local school boards to work out deals with private schools to transport their students on the same buses. Predictably, this common-sense measure was opposed by the Virginia School Boards Association on the grounds that public money should not “subsidize” private education.…
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Hospitality on the Taxpayers’ Dime
John Sugg writes in Reason magazine that southern states are leading the way in doling out incentives to lure businesses: Consider three deals finalized in 1995, all of them in North Carolina. This End Up, a furniture manufacturer, accepted $230,000 and other incentives from the state for a new plant near Fayetteville that would employ…
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Nichol Losing Confidence of W&M Alumni
The Wren Cross controversy may be settled for now, but a growing number of William & Mary alumni are convinced that the cross episode is merely a symptom of a larger problem: President Gene Nichol. Seth Freedland at The Daily Press reports on a movement to pressure the Board of Visitors not to renew Nichols’…
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The Bay: Improving, Yes, but Too Slowly
Environmental clean-up efforts in the Chesapeake Bay are making slow progress, concludes the Chesapeake Bay 2006 Health and Restoration Assessment, but improvements are coming slower than expected. The encouraging news: Nutrient discharge: Nitrogen discharges from wastewater treatment plants are at 72 percent of the reduction goal; phosphorous discharges from wastewater treatment plants have reached 87…
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Virginia Conservation Network to Honor Leaders in Environmental Stewardship
~ Capitol Steps to Performat 3rd Annual Awards Event ~ On May 3, 2007, the Virginia Conservation Network (VCN) will honor individuals and organizations within the Commonwealth who have set themselves apart as leaders in conservation and sustainability. The event, which will include a performance by the Capitol Steps, will take place at the Modlin…
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How About This for a Name for the Ordinance – WOBOITYBOOT?
Say you live and work in a comfortable, middle-class neighborhood off Forest Hill Avenue in Richmond. And say a tattoo parlor opens up across from your office. The shop’s name is DILLIGAF, an acronym for Does It Look Like I Give a F—, which is kind of funny if it’s a tattoo parlor down in…
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Extreme Creekover
First it was volunteers cleaning up roads and highways. Now it’s volunteers cleaning up creeks. What a heart-warming tale. In today’s Times-Dispatch, Rex Springston describes how a team organized by the James River Association is conducting a $100,000 “extreme makeover” of Oldtown Creek in Colonial Heights. The creek, he writes, is “dirty, trashy and ugly.”…
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Wooden Nichol
College of William and Mary President Gene Nichol has stirred up a good deal of controversy at Virginia’s oldest university. The Wrenn Cross episode was only the most visible of his antics. (See “Nichol Bound for Duke?” for a satirical take on his brief but tempestuous tenure there, with links to documentation of less widely…