Tag Archives: Stephen D. Haner

No Great Leap, But a Continuing Tide

Posted on June 13, 2019 by | 3 comments

The following was written for the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Jefferson Policy Journal and distributed earlier today.  Some themes repeat an earlier post. 

Fighting Joe Morrissey

It’s hard to dissect a battle while the smoke is still clearing, but the June 11 Virginia primaries demonstrated again the state’s continued and steady move away from its conservative past. It was not a Great Leap Forward for the progressive elements of the Democratic party, but where they didn’t win, they applied some serious heat.

Case in point, Senate minority leader and ultimate inside player Richard Saslaw of Fairfax, who only survived because the 51 percent of voters who rejected him had two liberal choices and split their votes. Case in point, former and once-disgraced delegate Joe Morrissey, who defeated long-time incumbent Senator Rosalyn Dance for the seat stretching between Richmond and Petersburg. Dance is no conservative but has proven willing to work across the aisle.  Continue reading →

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Posted in General Assembly, Politics

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Primary Reading: Themes on the Partisan Blogs

Posted on June 10, 2019 by | 8 comments

Hanger

How different will Virginia’s politics and political future be at close of business tomorrow? This time the big shift may come in tomorrow’s primaries rather than with the November general election that actually chooses 140 General Assembly members.

A lead weekend story on a major conservative political blog, The Bull Elephant, was an attack on incumbent State Senator Emmett Hanger (here). It was only a temporary interruption in its otherwise microscopic coverage of the circular Republican firing squad still underway in the 97th House District, where incumbent Chris Peace (always wrong on Bull Elephant) claims victory in a firehouse primary and challenger Scott Wyatt (always right on Bull Elephant) does the same based on a convention.   Continue reading →

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Posted in Politics

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Dispatches. 75 Years Ago Tonight, Now, It Was On.

Posted on June 5, 2019 by | 20 comments

American Cemetery, Coleville-sur-Mer.  Personal photos from a 2017 visit.

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (AP) — Allied troops landed on the Normandy coast of France in tremendous strength by cloudy daylight today and stormed several miles inland with tanks and infantry in the grand assault which Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

German broadcasts said the Allies penetrated several kilometers between Caen and Isigny, which are 35 miles apart and respectively nine and two miles from the sea.

Prime Minister Churchill told the House of Commons part of the record-shattering number of parachute and glider troops were fighting in Caen, and had seized a number of important bridges in the invasion area.   Continue reading →

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Long-Term Care: A Great Bet If Made Long Ago

Posted on May 30, 2019 by | 5 comments

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.

Two top executives from major insurers told the State Corporation Commission last week just how badly their companies calculated the risk on long-term care decades ago.  They were seeking to explain the major premium increases their companies are seeking here in Virginia and all around the country in a proceeding previewed (here) in March on Bacon’s Rebellion.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Consumer protection, Health Care, Insurance

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Are PBMs Killing Pharmacies, Hiking Medicaid?

Posted on May 29, 2019 by | 7 comments

Stoney Creek Pharmacy, Nellysford, VA

A form letter mailed this month announced the death of another local independent pharmacy, this one in the bustling community of Nellysford.  Residents of Nelson County’s Rockfish Valley, including those in the large Wintergreen community, will join plenty of other rural areas in the U.S. without a pharmacy close by.

“Very few independent pharmacies show a profit now unless they sell CBD oil, still unproven, do compounding or find other niche markets that small populations…cannot support,” wrote pharmacist Bob Ladd, who first owned the business in 1988, got out and then bought it back in 2017 in a last ditch effort to make it viable.  A new Dollar General store nearby was a major blow to his non-prescription sales, he added.  Continue reading →

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Posted in General Assembly, Health Care, Insurance

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True Conservatism In Eight Simple Questions

Posted on May 28, 2019 by | 19 comments

Answer eight simple questions correctly and you, too, could be a true Virginia conservative, joining the ideological movement which continues to challenge chances for Republican success in the Commonwealth.  Several high-profile candidates in next month’s contested GOP primaries have done so, earning good marks from a group calling itself Virginia Constitutional Conservatives.

Two out of eight involve enmity toward President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and its expansion of Medicaid eligibility.  One Obamacare question revisits the question which started the American Civil War and Virginia’s Massive Resistance – the concept of State Nullification.  The group is also offended by the idea you need a license to conceal your handgun of choice.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Politics

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Meet GOP Carbon Tax Advocate Bob Inglis

Posted on May 23, 2019 by | 31 comments

The Hon. Robert Inglis

There is a hotbed of carbon tax advocacy at George Mason University, led by a former GOP congressman sent packing by South Carolina voters because he’s ready to tax them into loving solar and wind.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Energy, Regulation, Taxes

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Correction: DLS Was There At Energy Conference

Posted on May 21, 2019 by | 5 comments

There was a Division of Legislative Services staff person present at the recent National Regulatory Conference in Williamsburg. My piece yesterday was in error.  Attorney Christine Noonan’s name was on the list and I missed it.  She’s been at DLS for a while, but only this session started as staff support for the committees doing energy legislation.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Energy, Regulation

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VA Energy Regulatory Conference All About Carbon

Posted on May 20, 2019 by | 17 comments

The Hon. Bernard McNamee, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

WILLIAMSBURG — “The environmentalists don’t want to admit when they’ve won, but they’ve already won.”

That line was delivered by Joseph A. Rosenthal, principal attorney at Connecticut’s Office of Consumer Counsel, during a discussion Thursday on the status electricity grid modernization efforts in his state and several others.  It was a part of a day-and-a-half National Regulatory Conference and William and Mary’s law school which had several nominal topics but was really about carbon regulation.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Regulation

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Now Everybody Has a Club on Abortion. Wonderful.

Posted on May 19, 2019 by | 26 comments

Watching the abortion issue being shoved into the coming Virginia elections by ideologues on both sides, it is fair to ask the question:  Can the center hold?  Are the many people who are fairly comfortable with the state of the law these last few decades going to be sorry with an outcome in either direction?

The point has been well-made that the debate over the less-restrictive third-trimester abortion rules, proposed in a failed bill during the 2019 General Assembly session, involved very few cases.  As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch long ago, under the current law third-trimester abortions are not happening here.  The bill in question might have changed that, but not much.  Continue reading →

26 Comments

Posted in Abortion, Politics

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A Horrible Abuse Case. The Daily Reality Behind It.

Posted on May 15, 2019 by | 7 comments

Click for larger view. Source: Families Forward

The news today is horrifying – the death, possibly from sexual abuse, of a 17-month-old. Our distracted minds are focused, for a while, and we all go into a collective shudder and wonder what monster could do such a thing.

The daily reality is worse and doesn’t get enough attention. In the fiscal year ending last June, Virginia child abuse and neglect investigations resulted in 6,485 “founded” reports. The standard for a founded report, out of the 37,000 complaints involving more than 55,000 children, is that a preponderance of the evidence supported the claim.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Children and families, Public safety & health, Social services

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Despite Success, a Failure Warning from SCHEV?

Posted on May 13, 2019 by | 5 comments

Source: SCHEV. Degrees and certificates awarded in Virginia, cumulative through 2018, and projected through 2030.

Hiding the silver lining deep in a grey cloud, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia reported today that Virginia is meeting its educational attainment goals to date and is on track to meet its aggressive 2030 higher education target.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Education (higher ed)

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Three 2016 Dominion Solar Plants Missed Targets

Posted on May 13, 2019 by | 43 comments

Dominion’s Scott Solar Facility in Powhatan Co.

Some of Dominion Energy Virginia’s recent solar installations, despite using technology designed to track the moving sun, have turned in disappointing energy results, fueling skepticism at the State Corporation Commission toward the utility’s claims for future solar energy success.  Continue reading →

43 Comments

Posted in Energy, Regulation

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Dominion Tool? The GA Is an Entire Toolbox

Posted on May 6, 2019 by | 17 comments

Retiring state Senator Frank Wagner gets appointed to some job by Governor Ralph Northam Friday and the headline on Blue Virginia labels him a “Dominion tool.” But has the other legislator being rewarded with a full-time job, Delegate Mathew James, cast any votes against the state’s favorite political whipping boy?  Continue reading →

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Posted in Energy, Money in politics, Politics

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Is the Goal Cutting CO2 or Imposing a Tax?

Posted on May 3, 2019 by | 11 comments

While it would have been a popular step with his political base, and one he was expected to take, Governor Ralph Northam may have been smart to pass on seeking to veto state budget language preventing Virginia membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Regulation

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