Commentary
3 strategies to help Americans bridge the deepening partisan divide
Is it possible to bridge America’s stark political divisions? In the wake of a presidential election that many feared could tear the U.S. apart, this question is on many people’s minds. A record-high 80% of Americans believe the U.S. is greatly divided on “the most important values”. Ahead of the election, a similar percentage of Americans said […]
Localities, state rake in casino revenues, but they can’t be sole economic strategy
Joyce Jackson was eager to get inside the sprawling Rivers Casino Portsmouth on a recent weekday. Nor was she reticent to express her opinion about the full-scale gaming center that opened early last year. It’s one of five casinos that’s already operating or being planned across the commonwealth. “I love it!” said Jackson, 76, who […]
The clean energy revolution will continue
Eight years ago this week, I wrote a column titled, “Why Trump won’t stop the clean energy revolution.” Calling global warming a hoax, businessman and reality TV star Donald J. Trump had just been elected with a promise to save coal jobs and pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. Climate activists were […]
Trump hopes journalists, a last line of defense, will cower in the face of his threats
Donald Trump, the once-and-future president, holds special animus for people who dare question his statements and actions. At a rally just before Election Day, he placed journalists in the cross-hairs, at least figuratively. Trump told rallygoers in Pennsylvania it wouldn’t bother him if someone shot the reporters there covering the event. He had mentioned an […]
Inaction on climate change costs Va.’s agriculture industry hundreds of millions of dollars yearly
More than $125 million. That’s the preliminary estimate of damage to farmers in Southwest Virginia after Hurricane Helene brought damaging winds, heavy rain and flooding to the region. We were lucky the storm didn’t impact more of our state, but for those farmers who are today facing crop losses, property and equipment damage, and other […]
A GOP-dominated Supreme Court resuscitates Youngkin’s late-game Virginia voter purge
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a partisan vote, did exactly what many feared it would do Wednesday in this pivotal election season and green-lighted a Republican-ordered, late-in-the-game scouring of Virginia voter rolls in search of “noncitizens.” The court’s two-thirds majority of Republican-appointed justices (three by former President and current GOP nominee Donald Trump) granted a […]
Virginia’s schools must lead in the fight against the opioid crisis
Every day, five to six Virginians lose their lives to drug overdoses, a staggering number that highlights the severity of the opioid epidemic gripping our state. Since 2020, more Virginians have died from fatal drug overdoses than from car accidents and gun violence combined, with fentanyl responsible for a significant portion of these tragedies. This […]
Virginia seniors, don’t let Medicare con artists siphon your wallets
Welcome, autumn: Leaves change color and flutter to the ground. Daylight hours shorten. Scam artists also descend like locusts upon unsuspecting seniors who are changing coverage options during Medicare open enrollment, which runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. The only difference from the insects? Pesky scammers strike every year, with nary a respite. Medicare […]
Once again, Dominion’s energy plan falls short. This time, the SCC isn’t having it.
On October 15, Dominion Energy Virginia filed its 2024 integrated resource plan (IRP), and just as in 2023, the company shows no inclination to meet the carbon-cutting requirements of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). Blaming soaring load growth from data centers, Dominion models only scenarios with increasing amounts of fossil fuel generation to supplement […]
Will housing win in November?
When all the polling is complete and the yard signs have gone away, when you stop receiving “time is running out!” text messages, the many campaigns of this election season will help to answer one big question: What will we do about the housing crisis? In Virginia, voters will get dozens of chances to answer […]
Clean voter rolls are essential, but Youngkin’s late, politically driven ‘purge’ deserves challenge
By now, you probably know who will get your vote for mayor, for your congressional seat, for the U.S. Senate and for president. But do you know whether you’re still an eligible voter? Will you arrive at your neighborhood precinct on Nov. 5 and discover that you have been excised from the registered voter rolls […]
No country still uses an electoral college − except the U.S.
The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election. Thanks to the Electoral College, that has happened five times in the country’s history. The most recent examples are from 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the […]