Data Crush is coming, and it gives us an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform aging and decrepit institutions, designed for the mid-20th century. As futurist Chris Surdak argues the “digital trinity” — mobile computing, social media and advanced analytics — is sweeping all before it. Digital-driven innovation is outpacing the ability of...
Apparently a college degree does make a difference – at least when it comes to a region’s ability to recover from recession. Northern Virginia is a driver of growth in our state. This was the case in the period between the last two recessions. From 2002 through 2007, employment in...
(Editor’s note: As public private partnerships are debated here in Virginia, it is interesting to see that Los Angeles which has more people than Virginia wants to have the authority to negotiate such transportation agreements.) California has long been seen as having the greatest need of all 50 states for...
The World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued a report in late October claiming processed meat causes cancer. IARC reviewed epidemiological studies and decided to classify the consumption of processed meat as “carcinogenic to humans” and consumption of red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. IARC did not...
Virginia’s hospitals are lobbying in favor of Medicaid expansion, arguing that they need the extra revenue to survive. Yet, their own filings show that the combined profit of reporting hospitals is more than $1.7 billion, and their net worth is more than $16 billion — both double digit growth over...
Virginia’s landmark 20-year old transportation public-private partnership (P3) law has been a boon to the state. It has helped bring in additional financing sources and shift risk from the public sector to the private sector. Across the country, the state is seen as a model of leveraging private resources to...
Amid growing national concerns about “mass incarceration,” particularly of African-Americans, a Center for Public Integrity study found in August that Virginia schools refer students to law enforcement agencies at a higher rate than schools in any other state in the country — and three times the national average. The report...
EPA won a legal decision in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 29, which has been advertised as a victory for U.S. Farmers and Ranchers trying to protect private, personal, and financial records regarding their Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. I have some qualms about the case after reading the court decision. Five...
As we all know, the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) was intended to be fully self-supporting from the various federal taxes paid by highway users, mostly on gasoline and diesel fuel. But for most of the past decade, this user-tax revenue has been about $10 billion a year short of...
As Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition for 15 years, Tomas de Torquemada, presided over the interrogation, torture, imprisonment and execution of thousands, for the “crimes” of religious heresy and pretended conversion to Christianity. Historian Sebastián de Olmedo titled him “the hammer of heretics.” Today Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and...
