Author Archives: Peter Galuszka

Screwing Workers On Safety and Liability

Posted on May 4, 2020 | 24 comments

A GRTC bus driver in better times

By Peter Galuszka

At 4:30 a.m. on April 27, about 100 workers of the Greater Richmond Transit Company — half of the total – failed to show up for work.

Worried about the health of its membership, Local 1220 of the International Amalgamated Transit Union demanded additional safety measures such as full personal protection equipment, time and a half hazardous pay, limits on the numbers of passenger and testing.

GRTC management threatened to fire workers who stayed away from work but agreed to talk. A resolution may come at a May 19 board meeting.

Indeed, stories are showing up throughout Virginia and across the country as workers most likely to be exposed to COVID-19 often have the least protection and no guarantees their employers will provide testing, hospitalization and sick pay.

In Timberville near Harrisonburg, workers at a Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant worry that they are required to work at less than six feet –- considered safe distancing –- from each other. In Norfolk, non-union workers at a General Dynamics ship facility were required to do electrical work until they refused, citing exposure threats and a death. Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in Bacon and Pigs, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Corruption and Scandals, Economic development, Environment, Federal issues, General Assembly, Government Finance, Health Care, Money in politics, Public safety & health, Regulations and Government Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Transportation

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Why Northam Is Such An Important Governor

Posted on April 28, 2020 | 32 comments

By Peter Galuszka

This is a bit like throwing chum at a school of sharks, but here is my latest in Style Weekly.

I wrote an assessment of Gov. Ralph Northam that is overall, quite positive. My take goes against much of the sentiment of other contributors on this blog.

They are entitled to their views but, to be honest, I find some of the essays shrill and not really fact based. If Northam wants to delay elective surgeries at hospitals for a week or so, some want to empanel a grand jury.

An acute care health facility in Henrico County becomes one of the most notorious hot spots for coronavirus deaths and it is immediately Northam’s fault even though the care center has had serious problems that long predated the governor’s term in office.

He’s a trained physician who served as an Army doctor in combat during the Iraq War yet he is vilified as being incompetent and incapable of understanding the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s like the constant repetition of the “Sins of Hillary” on Breitbart and Fox News about emails and Benghazi.

Like him or not, Northam is bound to be one of the most consequential governors in Virginia history given the gigantic problem of the pandemic. He’s not a showboat salesman like Terry McAuliffe nor a smarmy, small-time crook like Robert F. McDonnell.

Anyway, here’s the piece.

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Posted in Abortion, Feminism, Women's Rights, Agriculture & forestry, Business and Economy, Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Defense and National Security, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Government Transparency, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Regulations and Government Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Telecommunications

And Now For Something Completely Different

Posted on April 24, 2020 | 24 comments

By Peter Galuszka

Dear Baconauts,

As you know, people like me have been described by a B.R.  commenter as those who submit “scorch and burn, mock and smear writings encased in scornful, supercilious, opinionated, and shallow rhetoric.”

I freely admit this and am damned proud of it.

But instead of dishing out the usual sarcastic bile, I have another idea today. I don’t know about you, but with me self-quaranting as much as possible, I am running out of things to read or watch. I still have for-pay work but who knows how much that might last? So, why don’t we exchange ideas of new stuff to occupy our minds with. Here’s a list of recommended movies, TV series and books:

  • On Netflix, I am a huge fan of the German TV series “Bablyon Berlin,” which imagines a very dark, brooding German capital after the Great War and before Hitler. The chief characters are Georeon Rath, a shattered war veteran and police detective who gets into the seamy side of life. His heart throb is Charlotte Ritter, an office worker and part-time prostitute. The series has everything, shady characters, mysterious train shipments from the Soviet Union, fascists, communists, early porn studios. The acting, story line and photography are excellent. It’s like a grown up version of “Cabaret.”

Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in Blogs and Blog Administration, Culture wars, Defense and National Security, Energy, Environment, Immigration, Media, Mental illness and substance abuse, Money in politics, Politics, Public safety & health

Notes from the Right Wing Echo Chamber

Posted on April 23, 2020 | 45 comments

By Peter Galuszka

On Wednesday, I was standing next to the Capitol grounds in Richmond watching brightly decorated cars and pickups drive on 9th Street, their horns blaring.

I was attending the drive by protest rally on assignment for Style Weekly and happened to speak to Jason Roberge, a Spotsylvania County resident who is one of several Republicans hoping to oust U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former covert CIA officer who represents the 7th Congressional district.

Roberge was there to protest what he says is Gov. Ralph Northam’s “terrible job” in temporarily shutting down businesses to prevent the spread of the COVID 19 virus. The rally was part of a series of protests across the country that are being set up on cue from right-wing activists.

Roberge told me: ”I hear he’s (Northam’s) down on North Carolina beach while this is going on.” As he spoke the House of Delegates was holding a special session under an outdoor tent nearby while the Senate presided at the Science Museum of Virginia.

Northam at the beach? It turns out that the conservative echo chamber has been peddling a story, firmly denied by Northam’s office, that he was at his house in Manteo, N.C. not far from the beaches at Nags Head during the special General Assembly session. Continue reading →

45 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Corruption and Scandals, Courts and law, Culture wars, Economic development, General Assembly, Governance, Money in politics, Politics, Property rights, Regulations and Government Oversight

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Rethinking Ralph Northam

Posted on April 16, 2020 | 62 comments

By Peter Galuszka

Governor Ralph Northam has been taking his lumps, especially from critics on this blog, for his performance in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

He’s been described as inept, incompetent, unresponsive and, incredibly, as potentially dictatorial.

What is indeed curious is that while Northam was slow to get moving on virus issues, he has gotten rave reviews from the public, at least according to one poll.

More than three quarters of those contacted, 76%, approve of how Northam is handling the coronavirus crisis, according to a statewide poll conducted by the Center for Public Policy at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Of those, 40% have replied that they “strongly approve” of Northam’s performance. The approval ratings cross party lines, the poll reports, with the highest overall approval ratings being in Hampton Roads. Continue reading →

62 Comments

Posted in Politics

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Upper Big Branch: Ten Years After

Posted on April 10, 2020 | 17 comments

By Peter Galuszka

This week is the tenth anniversary of one of the worst coal mine disasters in recent U.S. history. The massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch at Montcoal, W.Va. on the afternoon of April 5, 2010 killed 29 miners, the largest number in 40 years.

The disaster meant the undoing of Massey Energy, a Richmond-based company that had been widely called out for its safety violations and mountain-top removal mining practices.

I wrote a book about the firm and Central Appalachian coal that was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2012. West Virginia University Press bought paperback rights to the book and we published an expanded and updated version in 2016.

Today, I have a remembrance in today’s Washington Post. It will be in print this Sunday on the Local Opinions page in the Metro section.

For many years, Massey Energy and its predecessor firm, A.T. Massey, operated a headquarters in a chunky building in downtown Richmond. The Massey family has been generous with its local donations and has helped such institutions as the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

The Massey family was notorious for breaking labor unions but during the two years it took to research the book, I learned that miners felt the firm listened to them and tried to take care of them.

Then a stocky man with a moustache, Don Blankenship, took over. He became notorious for skimping on safety and micro-managing. He served a year in federal prison for ignoring safety at UBB. Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Labor and Workforce

Another WTJU Podcast at UVA

Posted on April 9, 2020 | 9 comments

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Lessons From Canterbury Rehab

Posted on April 9, 2020 | 30 comments

By Peter Galuszka

For weeks, the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., has been seen as the epicenter of the threat of COVID-19 at tightly packed health care facilities. So far, 37 patients have died of the virus.

It hardly gets the national media attention, but a suburban Richmond facility, the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, maybe surpassing Life Care with 35 deaths of the virus as of April 8.

Why so many deaths?

That’s an important question. There have already been signs of mismanagement there. Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas has been unusually scathing in his criticism of Canterbury. He has said that the deaths could have been avoided and administrators at the facility rejected offers of help from the county.

To be sure, early on Canterbury officials had asked for emergency supplies of medical equipment, such as face masks. They asked for state help and the state asked the federal government to let it have supplies from a stockpile it keeps for just such occurrences. Continue reading →

30 Comments

Posted in Health Care

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Right Wing Uses Virus To Stifle Needed Reforms

Posted on April 7, 2020 | 44 comments

Statue of Gov. Harry F. Byrd on the state capitol grounds.

By Peter Galuszka

Right-wingers in Virginia have been apoplectic for months that Democrats finally captured the General Assembly after years of Republican control.

They also were enraged that the legislature this winter passed a number of reforms that would draw Virginia into the 21st Century such raising the minimum wage, boosting collective bargaining, tightening rules on carbon pollution and raising taxes for cigarettes, a deadly product.

Now such conservatives are using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to throttle or delay such needed reforms. They have banded into groups such as the Coalition fort a Strong Virginia Economy. They have used the Virginia Municipal League’s complaints against the reforms, claiming they cost too much, as a way to derail new measures.

According to the left-leaning blog site Blue Virginia, one of the more extreme advocates for scrambling changes is Dave LaRock, a far-right Republican delegate from Loudoun County. A pronounced gay-basher, LaRock wants to squelch all of the reforms made by the more progressive General Assembly. Continue reading →

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Posted in Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Culture wars, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Government Transparency, Gun rights, Health Care, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Regulations and Government Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes

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Thank God for Medicaid Expansion

Posted on April 4, 2020 | 31 comments

By Peter Galuszka

For years after the Affordable Care Act, “Obamacare,” made millions of federal dollars available for states to expand Medicaid health coverage, Virginia Republicans steadfastly blocked Virginia from using the money.

Led by former House Speaker Bill Howell and Sen. Tommy Norment, the GOP claimed that expanding Medicaid to nearly 400,000 people would be too expensive and would blow out state funding.

This skinflint approach was finally put to rest after Democrat Ralph Northam became governor in 2018, foreshadowing a Democratic sweep of the General Assembly in elections last year.

Thank God the Democrats prevailed.

Virginia’s formerly robust economy has been shattered by the COVID 19 pandemic. Last week, some 110,000 Virginians filed for unemployment support. It was 46,277 the week before.

Who covers them is an open question but many would qualify for Medicaid. Expansion has boosted lower-income Virginians so that they may be able to better ride out the pandemic. Continue reading →

31 Comments

Posted in Children and Families, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Government Finance, Health Care, Poverty & income gap, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes

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“We Are All Keynesians Now”

Posted on April 2, 2020 | 104 comments

John Maynard Keynes

By Peter Galuszka

John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, advocated government spending and monetary intervention as suitable for modern economies.

When I was a student at a liberal college in New England in the early 1970s, we were taught that Keynes very much had the right idea. As evidence, we had the Great Society programs of Lyndon B. Johnson and, strangely, the Vietnam War. They all relied on vast amounts of deficit public spending.

Since then, free-market types came into favorable light and it all became the magic of the market, little regulation and other panaceas.

According to whom you read, pro-capitalism economist Milton Friedman admitted the necessity of Keynes’ thinking by stating, “We’re all Keynesians now.” President Richard Nixon, a Republican, is also credited with the quote when he took the U.S. off the gold standard.

The phrase is taking on increasing relevance with the COVID-19 pandemic. Virginia is no exception. Continue reading →

104 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Land use & Development, Regulations and Government Oversight

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Photo Project Spotlights Pipeline Impact

Posted on March 31, 2020 | 1 comment


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 Counties that would be dissected by the natural gas pipeline.

She combines spectacular aerial photos with deep close ups of people.

One of her subjects is Ella Rose, a retiree who lives in a small house in Union Hill. She was living a quiet happy life in her natural setting until she got a letter from Dominion Energy stating that they would be routing the ACP about 150-feet from her house.

Union Hill is a touchpoint for pipeline controversy since it is largely African-American community that ACP officials have selected for a compressor station. It is one of similar localities that seem to be targeted with other loud and disruptive equipment along the pipeline route. Continue reading →

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Posted in Agriculture & forestry, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Land use & Development, Regulations and Government Oversight, Science & Technology

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Is It the Death Knell For Dominion’s Pipeline?

Posted on March 29, 2020 | 28 comments

By Peter Galuszka

For more than a decade, hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas and oil has transformed the American energy picture, leading to big revivals in such energy fields such as Marcellus in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and the Bakken field in the Dakotas.

It has prompted Dominion Energy and its utility partners to push forward with an $8 billion or so Atlantic Coast Pipeline that will take Marcellus gas through Virginia all the way to South Carolina. The project, tied up in court fights, has been enormously divisive as property owners have protested the utilities’ strong arm methods of securing rights of way.

But now there’s clear evidence that the fracking boom is over, and that has huge implications for the ACL project. The reason? Oil and gas prices have dropped thanks to a perfect storm of issues. There’s the coronavirus pandemic tanking the U.S. economy, bitter energy wars between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and the fact that fracking gas and oil rigs are enormously expensive and wells can produce for only a short period.

The Hill reported last week: “Oil sank to $23 (a barrel) from a high of $53 in mid-February, far below the break even point that producers need to drill new wells to maintain supply, and with volumes rapidly diminishing at existing wells.”

The newspaper points out that a fracking well can cost more than $10 million while a traditional well is only $2 million. As price pressure mounts, the number of wells nationally has plummeted from 790 to 772 in one week.  At the Bakken field, reports The Washington Post, producers are cutting costs.

The situation has clear implications for the ACL project which was conceived at the height of the Marcellus boom. Dominion claimed that the gas would be badly needed in coming years while others claimed there isn’t enough demand. Continue reading →

28 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Planning

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An Interview With the State Epidemiologist

Posted on March 27, 2020 | 11 comments

Here is interview I did today for Style Weekly with Dr. Lillian Peake, the State Epidemiologist for Virginia. It was for Style Weekly, but I think they won’t mind if I share it with you.

— Peter Galuszka

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Posted in Health Care

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Virginians Hit the Sauce

Posted on March 27, 2020 | 13 comments

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 that ABC stores would shut down.

Not so, says the ABC system. They are changing store hours to open at noon and close at 7 p.m., seven days a week

So far, one store in downtown Richmond has been temporarily shut down because an employee tested positive for the virus.

Governor Ralph Northam, hoping to ease the financial pain of restaurants now closed to dining inside, has urged them to ramp up their takeout and delivery sales by letting them include wine and beer.

There had been talk that cocktails might be included, but the ABC says no.

A local ABC store employee told me that there are big runs on large bottles and there are some shortages but generally, the delivery system seems to be working. ABC also offers online sales.

Among the best- selling brands are Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and Tito’s vodka.

Bottoms up!

13 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection

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