The Jefferson Journal
Commentary
As an undergraduate political science major, the grounds upon which a Supreme Court Justice should be considered was made clear to me in my Constitutional Law course: Integrity, experience, temperament, and intelligence. One thing not to be judged was politics. Not to be asked were “How would you rule if...
Virginia Commonwealth University is pondering a tuition increase of between 3% and 5% — over and above a 2.8% increase for the current academic year — to compensate for an $8 million reduction in state appropriations and a 3% salary raise authorized by the General Assembly, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch....
A petition to substantially increase regulation of CAFOs was filed on March 9, 2017, with EPA. Environmental groups claimed in the petition that “Decades after passage of the CWA, CAFOs remain a significant – and substantially unregulated – source of water pollution throughout the United States.” Environmental groups also declare...
Rights and Wrongs of Interstate TollingThe prospect of a $1 trillion federal infrastructure program has led to numerous hands out for pieces of the action. Some officials are presenting the mismanagement of their highway systems (“years of under-investment” in South Carolina; “crumbling roads” due to underfunding in Mississippi) as a...
The federal budget sequestration may have kept a lid on escalating federal budget deficits, a good thing, but it was a disaster for Virginia’s economy. The cap on federal spending hammered a Northern Virginia economy built largely around the Pentagon. The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency signaled a...
Virginia stands to receive more benefit than any other state in the country under the president’s plan to increase military spending. In President Trump’s address to Congress last week, his plan “calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.” Defense spending contributes to the...
(Editor’s note: this column ran on the “Day Without a Woman” protest and Alexandria’s schools closed for the day) Public schools in Alexandria, Virginia, will be closed Wednesday because roughly 300 staff sought to take the day off for the “Day Without a Woman” protest. The school system did not...
On Feb. 27, 2017, the 9th Circuit United States Court of Appeals issued a common sense opinion regarding housing and safety conditions where hens lay eggs. Compassion Over Killing, Animal Legal Defense Fund, (NGOs) and 6 individuals claimed FDA, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the...
Politico reported last week (Feb. 8th) on an interview with Chris Spear, the relatively new CEO of the American Trucking Associations. Spear told Politico that ATA sees room to compromise on toll finance—for newly constructed roads or bridges. But he drew the line on tolls for “existing roads that we’ve...
The Virginia General Assembly has taken an important step: For the first time, it has approved bills to expand public charter schools that will address the poor performance of predominantly low-income students. The issue has now landed on the desk of Governor Terry McAuliffe, and he should sign the bill....