Even casual purveyors of the news readily concede there is liberal media bias. But the spin in this past year’s media coverage of the Virginia Governor’s race has been over the top. From local Virginia papers to the Washington Post; from PBS to Time to MSNBC, the verdict is in:...
Our economy is in desperate need for more middle-class job creation. Recent statistics continue to show a very weak recovery – one of worst recoveries since World War II. Once Congress gets back to it, the immigration debate needs to focus on reality and not “news bites” and unrealistic concepts.A...
Ken Cuccinelli can’t catch a break. From the left, opponent Terry McAuliffe charges that his tax plan will cut funding to education – a false claim ignoring the truth noted by Democratic blogger Ben “Not Larry Sabato” Tribbet: that Cuccinelli would fund any tax cuts by cutting tax loopholes, not...
The recent controversy concerning alleged “unconstitutional” National Security Agency (NSA) collection of vast telephone “metadata”—records already collected by private sector telecommunications companies that identify what phone numbers were connected with what other phone numbers along with when the calls occurred and how long they lasted—has sadly been driven by misinformation,...
Here’s a pop quiz: since their inception in the 1990s, the Standards of Learning tests have (a) relied exclusively on multiple-choice questions, (b) rewarded rote memorization, (c) resulted in ever-higher passing rates, or (d) none of the above. Go to the head of the class if you correctly answered “none...
(This first ran in Surface Transportation Innovations). For several years I have thought that, given the non-sustainability of fuel taxes for highway funding, the only way we are likely to be able to reconstruct the Interstate highway system as it reaches the end of its 50-year design life is via...
The Virginia General Assembly is grappling with decisions of whether or not to expand the number of individuals served under the Virginia program, the cost of doing so, the consequences of not doing so, and in either case the most cost-effective manner of providing services. The Virginia Association of Personal...
In the lead article Peter Katz (profiled here) elaborates his thoughts on fiscal analytics and growth management. He starts with the argument, which I have embraced, that the fiscal impact of development projects is better understood by comparing revenues and costs per acre. He goes on to suggest that local...
(This is the text of a speech delivered to the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy on July 18, 2013 at its “Virginia’s Energy Future” Leadership Round Table Discussion in Richmond, VA. Over 50 key stakeholders attend this Leadership Round Table Discussion.) Thank you Mike (Thompson) for inviting me to...
Jefferson Journal: Immigration Reform Needs to Be Realistic
Our economy is in desperate need for more middle-class job creation. Recent statistics continue to show a very weak economy — one of the worst recoveries since World War II. Once Congress gets back to it, the immigration debate needs to focus on reality and not “news bites” and unrealistic...