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2021’s biggest climate and weather disasters cost the U.S. $145 billion
By Stacy Morford, The Conversation The disasters just kept coming in 2021, from Hurricane Ida’s destruction across Louisiana and the Northeast to devastating wildfires in the West and damaging storms, tornadoes and floods. Nearly half the U.S. was in drought, and extreme temperature spikes disrupted power supplies just when people needed cooling or heating most. […]
How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert
By Ken Hughes, University of Virginia Now that a full year has passed since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, the 2020 election and the republic, it’s evident that the attack never really ended. Instead, it spread out to other, less visible, more vulnerable targets. Donald Trump had hoped to reverse his election […]
The ‘sore loser effect’: How rejecting election results can destabilize democracy
By James Piazza, Penn State An attendee at an October 2021 political rally hosted by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk asked: “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The attendee was referring to the baseless allegation that Joe Biden stole the 2020 U.S. presidential election and that he unfairly denied […]
Incorporate social-emotional learning into physical education in Virginia schools
By Lila Newberry The Virginia Department of Education says their recently developed equity-focused social-emotional learning standards are in place to “ensure every student in Virginia attends a school that maximizes their potential and prepares them for the future: academically, socially, and emotionally.” The development of SEL standards for Virginia schools is a step in the […]
Manchin killed Build Back Better over inflation concerns. Why that’s misguided:
By Michael Klein, Tufts University One of Sen. Joe Manchin’s main concerns in deciding to pull his support for President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan is that it would drive up inflation, which is currently rising at the fastest pace in four decades. On Dec. 19, 2021, the West Virginia Democrat said in an interview […]
There’s something rotten in Bristol
By Jo Albers My husband and I spent several years researching what part of the country we wanted to spend our retirement; our golden years. We wanted to be close to the mountains, but also to have access to restaurants, live music and shopping. We narrowed our search to the Southwest Virginia/ Northeast Tennessee region, […]
Home care is a lifeline for people with disabilities. Congress has to find a way to invest in it.
By Steve Grammer In high school, while my classmates were away on college visits, I toured nursing homes. Even though I was just 18, I was informed that I would soon be living in one. It was true: Barely into my 20s, I was moved to a nursing home where my roommates were elderly Alzheimer […]
Halt hydrogen hype
By Mary Finley-Brook Hydrogen energy produced from natural gas can have a higher carbon footprint than using either natural gas or coal directly for heat. Hydrogen types are not the same: Green hydrogen production is based on renewable sources, yellow hydrogen comes from nuclear energy, grey from fossil fuels and blue specifically from fossil gas. […]
How effective are vaccines against omicron? An epidemiologist answers six questions
By Melissa Hawkins, American University The pandemic has brought many tricky terms and ideas from epidemiology into everyone’s lives. Two particularly complicated concepts are vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. These are not the same thing. And as time goes on and new variants like omicron emerge, they are changing, too. Melissa Hawkins is an epidemiologist and […]
Chickahominy Pipeline: Should we trust them?
By Karen Gill The developers promoting Chickahominy Pipeline are asking central Virginians to allow them to build an 83-mile gas pipeline to feed a merchant gas plant, permitted for Charles City County. As they work to convince landowners to allow initial surveying and eventual construction of a high pressure pipeline for transmission of natural gas, […]
Keep Virginia moving forward: accelerate efforts on workforce development and equity
By Scott Jenkins and Brian Sponsler To those who appreciate good government and the smooth transition of power from one administration to another, the scene of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Gov. -elect Glenn Youngkin together represented a moment to celebrate. Northam presented the next governor with his challenge coin and Youngkin graciously accepted it, […]
Virginia’s flood woes: It’s time for some consistency
By Skip Stiles For those of us working on the threats that sea level rise and intense rainfall flooding pose to Virginia, December has been a confusing time so far. On Dec. 1, Virginia received an early Christmas present when the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction generated nearly $38 million for the statewide Community […]