Some years ago, Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution postulated that adding capacity to a congested highway leads to a “triple convergence” of responses: some drivers shift from other roads, some drivers shift from other times of day, and some commuters shift from other modes. The predictable result is that...
A new study shows how technology can help America’s energy industry meet new environmental reuirements, save millions of dollars and help clean our environment. Authored by businessman and environmentalist Robert Hartwell, it details several new technologies, many of which are already working on a smaller scale.
... The political class is all excited (or agitated, as the case may be) by the Republican takeover of Congress in Washington, D.C., but life continues as usual here in the boondocks. The pocketbook issues that propelled the Republicans to power nationally dominate politics at the state and local level as...
U.S. Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, M.D., has just released his “Waste Book 2012” report. It is 131 pages demonstrating waste of your taxpayer money by federal agencies and departments. Coburn identifies 100 projects – many of them from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – costing over...
At the annual meeting of the International Bridge, Tunnel, & Turnpike Association (IBTTA) in Austin last month, Ed Regan of CDM Smith gave a dazzling presentation on the potential future of tolling in the United States. Scanning the country and extrapolating recent trends, he predicted a bright future for networks...
The midterm elections underscore how much Americans value energy, job and economic revival – and how much they want less Washington control of their lives, livelihoods, and dreams for their children and grandchildren. If ever there was a time to end the ban on oil exports, it’s now. With U.S....
Stan Collender, “one of the world’s leading experts on the U.S. budget and congressional budget process,” claims in his Forbes column that the federal deficit is “falling rapidly as a percent of Gross Domestic Product and that means the national debt is less of an economic burden than it has...
A quarter century ago this month, the move to standards-based education kicked off in Charlottesville, Virginia. There, President George H.W. Bush and the man who would succeed him, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, led an education summit of the nation’s governors aimed at examining what the nation’s education goals should be,...
A year or so ago, few would have predicted the manufacturing expansion we are seeing here in Virginia. After years of seeing jobs and indeed entire manufacturing industries move offshore, we are thrilled to hear of new operations happening right here in the Commonwealth. Recent months have brought announcements of...
In closing statements of former Governor Bob McDonnell’s August trial, lead prosecutor Michael Dry made a remarkable statement. McDonnell had flat-out denied key testimony of star witness Jonnie R. Williams, a suspected con man under federal investigation who had agreed to testify in exchange for a generous immunity agreement. Dry...
