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In a maelstrom of mistakes, failing to learn from this pandemic would be the gravest error
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about an interview I did on a bleak day in December of 2016 in Buchanan County. In the gravel lot of a maintenance yard for coal-bed methane machinery, a 68-year-old heavy equipment operator was showing me his truck — festooned with Trump and “Hillary for Prison” stickers — for […]
Rate review bill lands on Senate committee docket with little time to spare
A much-watched bill that would restore the ability of the State Corporation Commission to review Dominion Energy’s base rates has been placed on the docket for the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee’s Monday meeting. The bipartisan legislation by Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, and Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, cleared the House on a 77-23 vote but […]
On one powerful Senate committee, elections definitely have consequences
Back in 2018, as Dominion Energy was pushing its contentious Grid Transformation and Security Act through the General Assembly, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee was debating whether the legislation allowed a “double dip” — that is, billing ratepayers twice for hundreds of millions in new utility spending contemplated by the law. Sen. Dick Saslaw, […]
Democratic-led Senate committee kills bills to beef up regulation of pipeline construction
Remember that marathon State Water Control Board meeting from last year? The board agonized behind closed doors for hours with its legal counsel over whether it had the authority to revoke a certification it issued for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which had been spilling sediment all over its Southwest Virginia construction route, clogging private property […]
Virginia, here’s why you should worry about your newspapers
If you’ve ever worked in journalism or had the misfortune of listening to a reporter complain about it, you’ve probably heard a version of this adage: The hours are long and the pay sucks, but, on the other hand, everyone hates you. That’s why it’s probably too much to expect mass apprehension about what’s happening […]
Monday’s gun rally, two state laws and some thorny questions
Yes, Monday’s massive gun rally, which closed streets and saw thousands of heavily armed people playing soldier on the streets of Richmond, ended without violence. Yes, many of those who attended are undoubtedly law-abiding people sincere in their fervor about the Second Amendment. Yes, the crowd shouldn’t be construed as solely a collection of fringe […]
The Weekender: Gun rally, firearms debate dominate opinion pages
Programming note: The Weekender is moving. Starting this coming week, this newsletter will go out on Saturdays. Mercury commentary ICYMI: In a guest piece, Alexa Capeloto, an associate professor of journalism at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explores how schools like George Mason University get to keep secret donors who can influence instruction. Mercury […]
Reaping the harvest of the (mis)information age
Shortly after Barack Obama won his first term as president, I was sitting in a courthouse in South Louisiana waiting for the start of a proceeding in a trial I was covering. The sheriff’s deputies who patrolled the courthouse were chatting with clerks about the havoc the new president-elect was about to create for gun […]
The Weekender: our round-up of Virginia opinion
Good morning from the Mercury! Mercury commentary ICYMI: Guest columnist Joyce Barnes, a home health worker, remembers the moment her teenage grandson, in his first job as a janitor, outstripped her earnings. She says it’s time to boost Virginia’s minimum wage. Former State Air Pollution Control Board member and retired UVA professor Vivian Thomson argued that […]
The Weekender: our round-up of Virginia opinion
Mercury commentary ICYMI: 2019 was quite the year for Virginia, and, through a wild 12 months, the Mercury helped you make sense of it all. I complied a list of some of our best news and opinion coverage here. Jay Bookman, a columnist at the Georgia Recorder, an affiliate website, noted that climate change hasn’t gotten […]
The best of the Mercury: the editor’s picks
Yes, Virginia, we had ourselves a year. From the executive branch scandals in the beginning of the 2019 General Assembly session — which came on the heels of a conservative furor over a failed abortion bill mentioned by President Donald Trump in his State of the Union address — to the Virginia Beach mass shooting, the […]
The Mercury’s Top 10 most-read stories of 2019
Today’s a day for countdowns and retrospectives, so as we slide into a new decade, here’s a look at the Mercury stories that pulled in the most readers in 2019. It’s hard to anticipate how far and fast a story will spread once it’s sucked into the digital maelstrom, and there are slithering snakes, kazoos, […]