A West Virginia Jed Clampett
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- Published on Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:37
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In 1890 my great grandfather farmed 120 acres along the Ohio River, in Tyler County, West Virginia near a town called Sisterville. He once told my dad that he was 44 years old before he had ever seen $100 in one place. However, 1890 was also the start of the great West Virginia oil boom. The petroleum industry was just beginning and the demand for kerosene, fuel oil, lubricants, and later, gasoline, was outstripping supply.
Don’t underestimate Ken Cucinelli
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- Published on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 00:19
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To Virginia Democrats, the likely Republican nominee for Governor, Ken Cucinelli seems so easy to beat that some, no doubt, are already planning what to wear to Terry McAuliffe’s, the likely Democratic nominee’s, inaugural.
It’s understandable. Cucinelli has managed to position himself so far to the right, and take so many controversial stands, that winning statewide, by some, is seen as nearly impossible. But, that would be
Has VA’s Attorney General gone too far?
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 March 2013 00:19
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There are times, given all the effort that Mr. Cucinelli puts into playing politics, when
I wonder when he has time to be Attorney General.
Virginia Attorneys General have historically been a reserved and thoughtful bunch. Names, now all but lost to history, Andrew Miller, Marshall Coleman, Gerald Baliles, Mary Sue Terry and Jerry Kilgore, were, first and foremost, lawyers. The Attorney General’s Office employs more than 70 lawyers. If it were a private firm it would be one of the largest in the state. The Attorney General deals with almost every conceivable legal
Richmond offers a lesson in legislating
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- Published on Wednesday, 06 March 2013 00:10
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We have seen so little successful legislating that many of us don’t recognize it when it happens.
Washington, D.C., could head its own chapter in a book on legislating called “…don’t let this happen to you.”
There have also been times when many felt the same way about the General Assembly in Richmond. This has been particularly true when it came to transportation funding. It has been one of the Commonwealth’s biggest legislative headaches.
It’s time to increase the minimum wage
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- Published on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 10:34
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They’re perhaps the most forgotten group in American society. But almost nobody mentions them. Politicians fight over who is the biggest advocate for the middle class. Entire elections are fought on this theme.
As for the wealthy, with their lawyers, overseas investments, and special tax rates, they take care of
Is sequestration really all that bad?
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- Published on Wednesday, 20 February 2013 11:16
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There is one common thread to the arguments that have been swirling around about the cuts in federal spending associated with sequestration. And that’s that, apparently, there is nothing anywhere, any place in the federal budget, that anyone thinks can be cut.
Sequestration, as a real prospect, has been in the news since the election and that’s given all of the lobbies, industries,
