(This first ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch) The real estate industry has been showing signs of sustained growth over the last year. That’s good news for an industry that has been in a severe contraction since the recession of 2007-2009. Residential investment grew by double digit rates in the...
(This first ran in Surface Transportation Innovations.) Virginia’s Midtown Tunnel P3 project, being delivered as a $1.7 billion toll concession, has been challenged in court as an unconstitutional delegation of tolling authority to Virginia DOT (and hence to the concession company, a joint venture of Macquarie and Skanska). To the...
The EPA since 2009 has adopted a confrontational relationship with the states. This power grab does not impact just the states, but you and your pocketbook. In fact, an Illinois congressman said this about EPA: “There is an outlaw in Washington…and Congress must police it.” A new report issued by...
Read Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s plans for pre-K through 12 education and you’ll find a lot in common: Both want a new emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricula, to reform the state Standards of Learning to incorporate more problem solving and critical thinking, and...
Medicaid expansion should only take place after real reforms are made to the federal health program for the poor and uncertainties surrounding expansion are eliminated according to a new public opinion survey released last month by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The Jefferson Institute’s survey is made more...
Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox have introduced the concept of the “inspirational” city — cities to which people move “to change their circumstances and improve their lives.” These are cities on the rise — restless, growing and entrepreneurial magnets of opportunity. I was pleasantly surprised to find Richmond ranking No....
(This article first ran in Surface Transportation Innovations). A protectionist measure known as Buy America has long been applied to many federally aided public works programs, including highways and transit. If there is even one dollar of federal money in such a project, the iron, steel, and manufactured products involved...
(This article first ran in Farm Futures.) Twenty years ago, a dangerous legal decision was issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in U.S. v. Weitzenhoff where the Environmental Protection Agency sent two employees of a sewage treatment plant on the Hawaiian island of Oahu to...
Signs of pride and prosperity were evident all over Williamsport and the gorgeous northern Pennsylvania countryside around it. Friendly, happy people greeted us. New cars, trucks, hotels and restaurants sparkled in a clean, bustling downtown. New roofs topped barns and houses, while late model tractors worked the fields. Formerly dirt...
Medicaid expansion should only take place after real reforms are made to the federal health program for the poor and uncertainties surrounding expansion are eliminated according to a new public opinion survey released last month by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
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