The Jefferson Journal
Commentary
Once again Virginia is fretting over our economy’s over-reliance on the federal government. Our state is no longer growing rapidly. We are no longer seeing our jobs increase faster than most other states. Our state budget is in the red because our economy is not growing as we had hoped....
January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, so it is time to recognize, and bring awareness to, the horrible evil of human trafficking. Human trafficking is when individuals use violence, threats, debt, and other forms of coercion to force women, men and children to engage in sex or...
Writing in the Times-Dispatch today, my friend Noah Sachs highlights a systemic risk in our society: the threat of chemical leaks and spills to our water supply. Last year the release of toxic chemicals into the Elk River disrupted the drinking supply of 300,000 inhabitants of Charleston, W.Va. Closer to...
The current economic expansion that began in June 2009 is now in its 68th month. That makes it nine months longer than the average of the 11 expansions that occurred between 1945 and 2009, although the last three expansions have lasted an average of 95 months. Does the current expansion...
On Jan. 14, 2015, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that dairy manure is a “solid waste,” like garbage, under EPA’s Resource Conservation Recovery Act. The judge said conditions existed at the Washington State Cow Palace dairy which may cause or contribute to eminent and substantial endangerment to citizens drinking...
is out, and it shows that our economy — with its overreliance on federal spending — continues to recover slowly from the Great Recession. More importantly, it points to a way to develop Virginia into the “Energy Capital of the East Coast.”
... The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, the state premier public policy foundation, recently released its 15th annual Economic Forecast for Virginia and it shows that our economy continues to slowly recover from the Great Recession. Written by the state’s foremost private economics firm, Chmura Economics and Analytics of Richmond,...
Virginia’s K-12 education community is in for challenging times. The annual Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report examining Standards of Quality (SOQ) education funding demonstrated that state spending on K-12 education rose only 0.2 percent over the past year – and that spending per student dropped by 0.4...
Body cameras and independent prosecutors for police misconduct, are both good ideas, but not the place to start in addressing our current National policing crisis. We will never succeed in avoiding another Ferguson, Staten Island, or Cleveland, until we all have the same rights under the law. You may have...
Every so often Virginia undergoes a spasm of skepticism regarding the Certificate of Need (CON) law that subjects proposals for hospital expansions and equipment purchases to regulatory approval. The law gives proof to the oft-heard claim that Virginia is “pro business” — state government protects existing businesses from the challenges of newcomers — and the lie...