The federal budget sequestration may have kept a lid on escalating federal budget deficits, a good thing, but it was a disaster for Virginia’s economy. The cap on federal spending hammered a Northern Virginia economy built largely around the Pentagon. The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency signaled a...
Virginia stands to receive more benefit than any other state in the country under the president’s plan to increase military spending. In President Trump’s address to Congress last week, his plan “calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.” Defense spending contributes to the...
(Editor’s note: this column ran on the “Day Without a Woman” protest and Alexandria’s schools closed for the day) Public schools in Alexandria, Virginia, will be closed Wednesday because roughly 300 staff sought to take the day off for the “Day Without a Woman” protest. The school system did not...
On Feb. 27, 2017, the 9th Circuit United States Court of Appeals issued a common sense opinion regarding housing and safety conditions where hens lay eggs. Compassion Over Killing, Animal Legal Defense Fund, (NGOs) and 6 individuals claimed FDA, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the...
Politico reported last week (Feb. 8th) on an interview with Chris Spear, the relatively new CEO of the American Trucking Associations. Spear told Politico that ATA sees room to compromise on toll finance—for newly constructed roads or bridges. But he drew the line on tolls for “existing roads that we’ve...
The Virginia General Assembly has taken an important step: For the first time, it has approved bills to expand public charter schools that will address the poor performance of predominantly low-income students. The issue has now landed on the desk of Governor Terry McAuliffe, and he should sign the bill....
The University of Virginia estimates that it spends $20 million a year complying with unfunded federal mandates, just for its academic division, reports Karin Kapsidelis with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The College of William & Mary estimates its compliance costs at $4.5 million to $6.7 million, and Virginia Commonwealth University puts...
The months since Election Day have brought forth a proliferation of lists of “needed” infrastructure projects. First came the Treasury’s list of 40 mega-projects that I critiqued last month. This was followed in short order by a list of 50 projects that was presented as if it came from the...
Things are never quiet on the climate front. After calling dangerous manmade climate change a hoax and vowing to withdraw the USA from the Paris agreement, President Trump has apparently removed language criticizing the Paris deal from a pending executive order initiating a rollback of anti-fossil-fuel regulations, to help jumpstart...
“On or about February 10, 2016, in the above named judicial district, the crime of FARM ANIMAL CRUELTY, in violation of HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 25990, a misdemeanor, was committed by Robert Allen Hohberg, Hohberg’s Poultry Ranches and Hohberg Properties, L.P., who unlawfully confined a covered animal, on a...
