In June, 2016, I described a Clean Water Act (CWA) case involving a California wheat farmer. A U.S. District Court found John Duarte chisel plowed pasture lands which were considered to be vernal pools even though the pools seldom have water in them. The Court determined his vernal pools were...
After hinting at it for several months, the White House made it clear last month: the Administration wants states to have the option of using toll financing to modernize their aging Interstate highways. Having a toll revenue stream would also make it feasible for states to enter into long-term P3...
Virginia is honoring our immigrants with a well-deserved “Immigrant Heritage Month” as declared by Governor Terry McAuliffe. With that in mind, I want to review some important facts and figures about the impact our immigrants have here in Virginia and then highlight a few immigrant stories. Virginia has about 900,000...
The latest annual report from the National Institute for Early Education Research ranks Virginia #29 in early education access for four-year-olds – a statistic comparing unfavorably to the Commonwealth’s surrounding states. Some argue that increasing early childhood education access can come only by spending a lot more money; others dismiss...
In the wake of the financial meltdown in 2008, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank law which was intended to regulate big banks and address the causes of the financial crisis. As so often happens with legislation, despite good intentions, bad consequences have flown from the Dodd-Frank law,...
In my April column in Public Works Financing, I pointed out that the Trump Administration faces a dilemma in its quest for a $1 trillion infrastructure program based largely on private capital investment via public-private partnerships (P3s). Any such program must be enacted by Congress, and therein lies the problem....
The Heritage Foundation Blueprint for Agriculture includes a lengthy chapter on U.S. biofuels policy and the renewable fuel standard (RFS). Heritage concludes that ethanol and other current biofuels are harmful to agriculture, the environment, and consumer. My first two reviews of Heritage’s positions on ag, found here and here, may...
Jefferson Journal: Immigrants Add To Our State’s Economy
Virginia is honoring our immigrants with a well-deserved “Immigrant Heritage Month” as declared by Governor Terry McAuliffe. More than 17 percent of business owners in Virginia are immigrants, generating more than $3 billion in business income. Here are three of those Virginians who were either born in foreign countries or...