Month: July 2008
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A Pathetic Pander
It’s back to school time, folks, and that means…. tax holiday! Save money on Susie’s Shrek-bedecked looseleaf binder. Pocket some change from the purchase of Johnny’s new Nikes! Grrr. Makes me mad just to think about it! As The Roanoke Times rightfully described this gimmick, the back-to-school holiday on the sales tax this weekend is…
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Land Use and the International Financial Crisis
Wendell Cox, a visiting fellow with the Heritage Institute, has published a new report, “How Land Use Restrictions Exacerbated the International Finance Crisis” that makes an important contribution to our understanding of the residential real estate bubble and the ensuing financial collapse that has roiled the global economy. Unfortunately, he undercuts a potentially valuable study…
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An Example of ‘Government’ Speech
This is the written ‘ government’ speech from an Act of the General Assembly passed in 1786. Written by Thomas Jefferson. “An Act for establishing religious Freedom. Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits…
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Tobacco Commission Meets the Energy Crisis
The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission will likely approve the expenditure of $12 million to establish two energy-research centers in the region, reports David McGee with the Bristol Herald Courier. The centers, to be located in Abingdon and Wise, would study clean coal and other environmentally friendly technologies. The Southwest Virginia Clean Energy…
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When Is It Time for Civil Disobedience in Virginia?
(From Larry O’Dell, AP, July 23, 2008) “A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the Rev. Hashmel Turner’s lawsuit challenging a nonsectarian prayer policy adopted by the council in 2005. The court said the policy does not violate Turner’s rights because the prayer is “government speech,” not individual speech.…
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Southside’s Nuclear War Still Simmering
The battle over Pittsylvania County’s uranium deposit — the largest undeveloped deposit in the United States and reputedly the seventh largest in the world — has attracted the attention of the Wall Street Journal. Max Schultz, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute, quotes two environmental foes but makes it clear he does not sympathize…
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SCC Official Endorses Dominion Power Line
A State Corporation Commission hearing examiner has endorsed Dominion’s plan to build a 65-mile, high-voltage transmission line through Virginia’s northern piedmont. In a written opinion, Alexander F. Skirpan Jr. wrote that Dominion made a solid case for the line, reports Sandhya Somashekhar with the Washington Post. The company contends that the $243 million project is…
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The Price of Gas in China
The price for a gallon of gasoline plunged noticeably over the weekend. Maybe it was just my selection of gas stations, but I paid about $.40 less Sunday per gallon of premium on the way home from a funeral in Florence, S.C., than I paid Friday on the way down. It sure would help the…
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Conservation Voters Release Annual Scorecard
The Virginia League of Conservation Voters has released its ninth annual Legislation Conservation Scorecard. The scorecard ranks 140 members of the General Assembly based on their votes on bills ranging from the application of fertilizers (to reduce runoff into state waters) to performance standards for state road projects, from the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions…
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Variable Speed Limits Come to Virginia
Many Northern Virginians soon will get to experience a key feature of the congestion tolling on the Interstate 495 HOT lanes: variable speed limits. The Virginia Department of Transportation is deploying variable speed limits to help manage congestion on the Capital Beltway when lanes are closed for construction in the approaches to the Woodrow Wilson…
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Just What We Need: More Businesses Begging for Public Funds
The Virginia State Rail Plan is a dangerous document. The Kaine administration report, prepared by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, lays out an intellectual justification for aggressive expansion of state planning and funding not only for commuter rail, as one might expect, but for freight rail. The plan is dangerous because, if…
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With Big Stories Brewing, Bacon Goes AWOL
So much to blog about and so little time… Unfortunately, my wife suffered a death in the family, and we have to travel to South Carolina today to attend the funeral. I will have no time to blog today. If I did, I would dearly like to turn my attention to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s…
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Has Gene Trani Stayed On Too Long?
Someone has to ask the question: Has Eugene Trani stayed on too long as president of Virginia Commonwealth University? I have enormous respect for Trani, who has done an extraordinary job building VCU as an institution and will no doubt go down in Richmond history as one of its great, visionary leaders. He has transformed…
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Scandal Reaches Critical Mass at VCU
It looks like Peter beat me to the punch on the latest developments at Virginia Commonwealth University (see “A Tale of Two Outrages.”) Rather than repeat the points he made, I want to amplify his comments about the “neo-Stalinist” atmosphere at VCU. I wouldn’t choose that particular, highly loaded adjective to describe the Trani administration…
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A Tale of Two Outrages
The drumbeat of bad news continues at Virginia Commonwealth University. The latest is that four top officials have resigned as part of the controversy over former Richmond Police Chief Rodney D. Monroe’s improperly awarded VCU undergraduate degree. According to news accounts, one of the reasons for one of the resignations was that when VCU officials…