All results / Stories / Kenneth R. “Ken” Plum, State Delegate (D-36)
General Assembly Underway
The General Assembly convened for its annual session on Jan. 14. Although the session scheduled to adjourn at the end of February is termed “the short session,” it will have a full agenda of opportunities and challenges.
Commentary: A Circus Show
The purpose of the legislative session is serious business and not entertainment like the circus. There are times, however, that it may be difficult to tell the difference.
Ironically Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus moved into the Richmond Coliseum for its annual stand at the same time last week that a few blocks away the General Assembly concluded its annual meeting and members packed up and went home.
Commentary: Past Time for Reform
Commentary by Kenneth R. “Ken” Plum: State Delegate (D-36)
Commentary: New Year Resolutions
Resolutions for the new year are easy to make; I have made dozens in my lifetime.
Column: A Letter from Sandy Hook
On the fourteenth of each month, the anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy, I join dozens of others at a vigil at the National Rifle Association headquarters to remind everyone of the need for sensible gun safety measures. After the most recent vigil, I got an email from Erin Nikitchyuk which I share with her permission to remind us of how we all need to be concerned about this issue.
A Silver Line Train for the Holidays
As I drove across the Wiehle Avenue Bridge over the Dulles Access Road a couple of weeks ago, I was sure I saw a Metro railcar on the brand new Silver Line tracks. I hurried to the post office and returned to the scene, parked my car in a nearby lot, and walked to the bridge to record the historic moment. By then it was dusk, and search as I might I could not find a railcar. I began to doubt myself. Had I worked on the project so long that I was seeing things?
Richmond Diary
Governor McAuliffe Sets the Stage
Each year the Governor of Virginia addresses a joint assembly of the House of Delegates and the State Senate in a speech not unlike the President’s State of the Union address except that the Governor provides a “State of the Commonwealth” as well as his recommendations for legislative action. Last week I heard the 35th such speech since I have been a member of the House of Delegates. I think Gov. Terry McAuliffe made the best of any of the speeches I have heard over my career in the legislature.
Column: Uranium Mining in Virginia
Virginia has one of the largest deposits of uranium of anyplace in the country in Pittsylvania County in the southern part of the state. The location of Coles Hill Farm where the deposit is centered is in the Roanoke River watershed. There are smaller deposits of uranium in other parts of the state including the Piedmont region.
Column: Short Changing the Education
Last week I addressed the House of Delegates to express concern that Governor McDonnell’s proposed budget short changes the education of our children (http://youtu.be/-VbOv_uJXOU).
Commentary: Smoke and Mirrors
One of my mentors in my earliest years in the General Assembly was Delegate Dorothy McDiarmid who served off and on from 1960 to 1989. First elected on a platform of keeping the public schools open during racial desegregation, the gentlelady from Fairfax Mrs. McDiarmid went on to successfully add kindergarten to the public school system of the state and to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Her supporters gave her the campaign slogan, “The Lady Has Clout.” Delegate McDiarmid taught me to look carefully at political proposals for many lacked substance and were simply “smoke and mirrors.”
Opinion: Commentary: Not Over Until It Is Over in Virginia
Hundreds of new laws went into effect last Wednesday. A total of 1,289 new laws passed the General Assembly in its regular session in January and February and were signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam.
Accepting the Outcome
Commentary
Even though I literally wore holes in the soles of my shoes campaigning door to door, covering the equivalent of five districts in a person-to-person campaign was impossible. I congratulated the winners and kept on working.
Commentary: Shades of the Old South
It is always important to vote, but it is more important than ever this year.