Category: Consumer Protection
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Photo Project Spotlights Pipeline Impact
By Peter Galuszka Veteran photographer Karen Kasmauski, who grew up in Norfolk, has a brilliant online project that shows the human and environmental impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. She is a senior fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, a non-profit group that funded her project that centers mostly in rural Nelson and Buckingham…
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Virginians Hit the Sauce
By Peter Galuszka Virginians are stocking up on spirits, fearing that the ABC store system might shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week saw sales of $30.1 million up from $4.5 million the previous week. While big, the volume has not surpassed the holiday seasons last year. For days, there have been rumors…
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A Look at Richmond and COVID-19
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in Agriculture & forestry, Business and Economy, Children and Families, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Culture wars, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Money in politics, Planning, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Resilience, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Telecommunications, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Here is a roundup story I wrote for Style Weekly that was published today that explains the effects of COVID-19 on the Richmond area. Hopefully, BR readers will find it of interest. It was a tough piece to report. The impacts of the deadly virus are very complicated and multi-faceted. An especially…
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Who’s Worse, Price Gougers or Hoarders?
by James A. Bacon My wife and I were slow to stock up on CoronApocalypse survival supplies — hand sanitizers, masks, rubber gloves… toilet paper. Big mistake. Now we’re running low on toilet paper, and we’re getting nervous. The shelves are empty of paper-supply products at every store we’ve visited. Except paper napkins. You can…
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How to Fix the Borderline Fraud of Surprise Billing
by James A. Bacon Surprise medical billings are one of those things where people of all political stripes come to agreement. It sucks to go to a hospital within your health insurance network only to discover when you open your bill that an anesthesiologist, consulting physician or emergency room doctor at the hospital, unknown to…
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The Bureaucratic Nightmare of Hospital Billing
by James A. Bacon It’s not easy going through life with Parkinson’s Disease, afflicted by tremors, stiffness, fumbling hands, and difficulty walking. Carrying on becomes a real challenge when you add debilitating rounds of chemotherapy. That’s the predicament my old friend Lisbeth finds herself in these days: fighting off two terrible diseases at once. As…
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How No Regulation Toasted Vaping
By Peter Galuszka There’s a mighty disconnect between being innovative in developing new products and putting the buying public in danger. We are often lectured about the benefits brought by industrial creativity unfettered by regulation on this blog and elsewhere but that isn’t always the case. In fact, doing so without meaningful regulation can spell…
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Die, Robocallers, Die!
Attorney General Mark R. Herring has filed suit against two Roanoke-based telemarketing companies, charging them with illegal robocalling and deceptive sales practices. The complaint alleges that Roanoker Bryant Cass and his companies, Aventis, Inc., and Skyline Metrics, LLC, made 586,870 unsolicited robocalls nationwide between 2014 and 2017, pitching car-selling services to people who listed cars…
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Long-Term Care: A Great Bet If Made Long Ago
It is just like your econ professor told you – insurance is nothing but a bet. It is a bet you often don’t want to win, but in one field you had a great chance of winning simply by hanging around and continuing to breathe. That field is (or at least was) long-term care coverage.…
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Cuccinelli to North Carolina on Electricity Regulation – Avoid Virginia’s Mistakes
The Cooch is back. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli penned an op-ed for the Wilmington, North Carolina based Star News opposing Duke Energy’s proposed changes to electrical regulation. The title of the opinion piece is, “N.C. should block this Duke Energy power grab”. Cuccinelli’s biggest issue with the pending regulation is extending the period…
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Promoting Financial Literacy
Here’s a government initiative I like. The City of Richmond’s Treasurer’s Office is holding its first Financial Literacy Fair this Friday. States the press release: The purpose of this fair is to empower the citizens of Richmond to take more control of their finances and begin the initial steps needed to build personal wealth. The…
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JLARC Report on Licensing: Useful, But a Missed Opportunity
As the old saying goes, you find what you look for. And in its examination of occupational licensing in Virginia the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) largely found what it was looking for — inefficiencies and overcharges. Conducting the review was worthwhile, but the exercise was small ball — it missed the opportunity…
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The Real Reason Why Amazon Is the Future
I’ve finally figured out what people can do when robots and AI wipe out half the occupations in the economy — they can get jobs fixing all the #$*& that doesn’t work! The last couple of months have been a succession of extraordinarily frustrating experiences in the Bacon family — from trying to find tradesmen…
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Protestants, Progressives and Paternalism
To put Steve Haner’s recent post about the Virginia lottery in broader perspective, I have displayed the “freedom from paternalism” ranking of the 50 states published this year by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. Virginia ranks 39th in freedom from paternalism. The flip side of that finding is that the Old Dominion ranks as the…
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Would an Eviction-Diversion Program Help or Hurt?
Renters-rights defenders and landlord advocates may be reaching common ground on how to reduce the rate of evictions in Richmond: Create an eviction diversion program. Reports Ned Oliver in the inaugural edition of the Virginia Mercury: Planning is still in its early stages, said [Martin Wegbreit, director of litigation at the Central Virginia Legal Aid…