A lot of the push for increased federal transportation funding has been generated over the years by projections from the Federal Highway Administration and two national commissions, based largely on numbers from FHWA’s biennial Conditions & Performance (C&P) report. The latest C&P report, 2013 Status of the Nation’s Highways Bridges,...
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency. The case will determine how far EPA can extend its regulatory overreach, to control “climate changing” carbon dioxide from power plants and other facilities – by ignoring the Constitution’s “separation of powers” provisions,...
Noting that the Keystone Pipeline decision is coming down to the wire, Thomas Jefferson Institute President Michael Thompson has written the Institute’s supporters urging their action in support of the Keystone Pipeline. "Either the US gets this needed oil or it will be shipped to China," Thompson noted. "Your action...
February, 2014 the non-partisan, independent Congressional Budget Office released a comprehensive analysis of the likely employment impacts that Obamacare will have on the economy over the next several years, and its conclusions sent shockwaves through the already heated healthcare debate. Among its many findings, the CBO study estimated that up...
The catastrophic chemical spill that put 300,000 people in West Virginia out of public water for ten days inevitably raises questions about the safety and security of water systems nationwide. On Thursday, January 9, 2014 some 5,000 gallons of an industrial chemical called 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, spilled from a storage tank,...
Today our local newspapers headlines were that the president was backing off from Social Security cuts in his budget which will be released early in March. As someone who receives Social Security, and also one hoping his own children will have a decent retirement which will include Social Security, it...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is pushing to control the waters of the United States. And at least one political leader is pushing back. “To let EPA begin to regulate all waters of the United States would have devastating impacts on rural towns, farmers and local governments,” says Congressman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. ...
Can you name one thing on which Governors George Allen, Jim Gilmore, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Bob McDonnell agreed? Here’s one: the importance of Virginia’s Standards of Learning. The Standards of Learning, or proverbial “SOLs,” became the basis of our public school accountability system under Allen in the 1990’s....
Most parents of children with disabilities don’t worry about the nuances of school governance for full-time virtual schools in Virginia. They just want their child to receive the services he or she needs. The Virginia Virtual Academy provides full-time online instruction to nearly 350 children throughout Virginia, including students with...
Urban Mining is the Way of the Future BackgroundAround the world as historical commodity prices climb and metals and raw materials become more scarce and more valuable, utilizing and recycling all such materials is becoming more prevalent each day, starting new industries and creating jobs, and monetizing traditional waste streams....
