In recent years the federal government has continued to impose burdensome new regulations on the states, especially in the area of health care. Strict new rules handed down as a result of Obamacare are forcing insurance companies to cancel coverage for roughly 250,000 Virginians this year, and costs are continuing...
Earlier this month my paper on “New Technologies for Coping with Climate Change in Virginia” was published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy (read here). After re-reading the paper, receiving many favorable comments, and presenting it in public forums, several important realizations have come to light. Virginian’s should...
In 2005, the City of Buena Vista in the Shenandoah Valley issued $9.2 million in bonds to pay for construction of the Vista Links golf course. To obtain financing, the city purchased insurance for $400,000 and pledged the golf course, police station and municipal building as collateral. The city made...
Long-term contractual arrangements between a state DOT and a consortium of companies to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain a highway, bridge, or tunnel represent a major paradigm shift in how such projects are procured, operated, and maintained. So it’s not surprising that there is resistance to this dramatically different...
The Small Business Administration tells EPA to ditch its Waters of the United States proposed rule. The SBA has an Office of Advocacy and that office advises EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw its proposed WOTUS definition and start over. It is one thing for private...
From battles over Medicaid expansion, to the rise of education choice, to promoting Virginia as the “Energy Capital of the East,” the Thomas Jefferson Institute has been in the thick of things in 2014.
... It’s been said that when it comes to good ideas in education, there are no Republican or Democratic ideas. The same could be said for dumb ideas in education, including one born in the George W. Bush Administration and vigorously defended in the Barack Obama Administration.The idea? That, after a...
Cosmological theorists posit the existence of an infinitude of alternate universes. In one of those universes, perhaps there is one with a Henrico County School System that collects data showing that African-American students are more likely to suffer from violence and disrupted classes in school rather than data showing that...
The importance of science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, knowledge in our labor market is talked about a lot. Jobs requiring that knowledge in STEM fields often pay much more than the average job. Many STEM jobs, such as computer programmers and operators, also are growing much faster than...
(This article was written before Thanksgiving.) Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to celebrate family and this wonderful country. While you are enjoying turkey and football, think about folks who really have reason to celebrate Thanksgiving. U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in his new Waste Book 2012 Report points out the...
