The Jefferson Journal
Commentary
While serving on the Fairfax County Planning Commission, I heard numerous citizen arguments to various development and infrastructure projects. Change, particularly in land use, is often hard to accept and spawns cries ranging from “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) to “Build Absolutely Nothing, Anywhere Near Anybody” (BANANA). Economic growth...
Passage of the new transportation bill shifts the debate from a question of “Where are we going to get the money?” to “How are we going to spend the money?” Taxpayers need to make certain the new funds are spent in a way that relieves congestion and grows our economy....
Regardless of how one feels about the recent transportation law, all agree it will pour over $1 billion of year into Virginia’s aging transportation infrastructure and should build necessary capacity to meet our growing infrastructure needs. Governor McDonnell did all elected officials, and the two candidates for Governor this year,...
As part of Obamacare, states are invited–it was going to be essentially federal compulsion, but the Supreme Court changed this last June–to sign up millions of new people for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the non-elderly. Washington is to pay the expansion’s entire cost for three years, and (ratcheting...
I had occasion the other day to visit an inner city convenience store in Richmond while working on an article (see the next issue of the Jefferson Policy Journal). I am not exactly Mr. Health Food Guy — I won’t touch tofu, cauliflower or fish oil — but even I...
One year ago this month, I wrote “Animal agriculture may soon owe Feld Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, a deep debt of gratitude” (April 23, 2012). Now, a win on attorneys’ fees in U.S. District Court by Feld (a Virginia based company)...
(This article first appeared in the April issue of Surface Transportation Innovation.) This is not an environment newsletter, but since a growing amount of transportation policy stems from concern over global warming, it’s important for transportation people to keep up-to-date on this critically important subject. To that end, you should...
In their 2013 legislative session, the Virginia General Assembly passed and Governor McDonnell signed HB1790 and SB1138. These identical bills were proposed by Governor Bob McDonnell as a part of his 2013 legislative agenda. The legislation, titled Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC), will become law on July 1, 2013. VNEC...
The Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS), in cooperation with the United Nations, has issued a UN report on nutrient threats and benefits involving production agriculture. The 128-page report prepared by 50 experts is entitled “Our Nutrient World – The Challenge to Produce More Food and Energy with Less Pollution.”...
(This column first ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch on April 8, 2013) Looking back over my years of forecasting, it’s clear that macroeconomic shifts that impact the national economy for lengthy periods lead to winners and losers among the states. Computers and information technology, for example, have driven national...