The federal government’s ultimate goal for transportation should be to devolve the resources and decision making to the states, who know their transportation needs better than Washington does.[1] Embracing devolution, however, does not equate to an endorsement of ill-conceived, misguided policy prescriptions. Two such examples are the plan recently passed by the Virginia…
The federal government banned uranium mining on more than 1 million acres of federal land in Arizona.[1] Virginia lawmakers are considering doing the same in their own state. Buried 1,600 feet beneath a cattle farm in southern Virginia on a tract of private land called Coles Hill are 119 million pounds of uranium ore—the nation’s largest known deposit of uranium, and the…
Genevieve Wood on PBS 4/22/07…
Over the past several decades, federal and state transportation policies have struggled to keep pace with a rising population and increasing numbers of motorists and trucks using the roads. As a result, congestion has worsened in most major metropolitan areas, imposing extra costs on all motorists and truckers and threatening to undermine the economic vitality of many…
The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 requires contractors on all federal construction projects to pay their workers the prevailing wage in their locality. The law is intended to ensure that the government does not drive down construction workers' wages, but flaws in the U.S. Department of Labor's wage determination process have caused the law to have the opposite effect in…
No metaphor in American letters has had a more profound influence on law and policy than Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between church and state." Today, this figure of speech is accepted by many Americans as a pithy description of the constitutionally prescribed church-state arrangement, and it has become the sacred icon of a strict separationist dogma that…
The argument that original meaning should guide constitutional interpretation is nearly as old as the Constitution itself. Before there were strict constructionists, before there were judicial activists, there were originalists. In those early days, few seriously objected to the notion that the Constitution should be read in accord with its original meaning, though there…
This month, several individuals detained as "enemy combatants" will make their appeals for freedom to the highest court in the land. Perhaps now, more than any other time in recent memory, the eyes of the world are intensely focused on the United States Supreme Court. In making their decisions, they must walk a fine line between protecting the civil liberties we all…
The Medicaid expansion is touted by proponents of Obamacare as a "no-brainer." While it is true that some states may see...…
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), water can be regulated as a pollutant by the authority of the…
President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney had a heated exchange about energy in the most recent debate. The...…
With all the gloomy economic news coming out of late, one bright spot flew under the radar last week: the United...…
North Dakota's energy boom helped the state surpass California and Alaska to become the No. 2 oil-producing state in...…
On Tuesday, the Virginia senate approved a bill that would require an initial drug screening of welfare applicants,...…
On August 23, 2011, a 5.8 earthquake centered in Virginia was felt throughout the mid-Atlantic. Minor by the standards...…
BREAKING NEWS—Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Jon Huntsman will not be on the Virginia GOP...…
Speaking at Heritage this morning, former Speaker Newt Gingrich called on House Republicans to put politics aside and...…
A recent WORLD magazine article highlights the success of a Virginia organization committed to providing struggling...…