All results / Stories / Kenneth R. “Ken” Plum, State Delegate (D-36)
Southwestern Virginia
Commentary
For many years Jane and I have used our spring break to visit locations throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. This year was no exception as we went to the southwestern region of the state. Although we drove about 225 miles to Roanoke from Reston, we were not yet in what the locals call Southwest Virginia. In fact, only by driving another 134 miles down I81 to Abingdon did we get to what many consider the doorstep to Southwest Virginia. It would have been possible to drive another 111 miles west with a short swing into Tennessee to get to the western-most point in Virginia at Cumberland Gap. That point is further west than Detroit. Regardless of how far you travel, the natural beauty of the mountains and streams in this part of the state are unequaled, and the local people are wonderful to meet.
Column: What Else Was Done?
Previous columns have focused on major legislation passed in the 2015 General Assembly session, but this column will describe other legislation that passed. Implications for these bills may be more limited in the number of persons affected, but you can be sure that for those persons these bills may be the most important.
Column: New Fee is a Bad Idea
The building of the Dulles Toll Road in the 1980s was viewed as a way to provide traffic congestion relief to western Fairfax County at a time when Routes 7 and 50 or a series of secondary roads were the only ways to get from Reston to Tysons Corner and beyond.
Column: Chesapeake Bay – Barometer of the Environment
Commentary
When Captain John Smith and other Englishmen made their way to the new found land of Virginia in 1607 they found a richness of natural beauty and resources unmatched in anyplace else they had been.
Commentary: Energy Sustainability and Resiliency in Virginia
Those who were concerned that the 2016 Energy, Sustainability and Resiliency conference sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Foundation would be business as usual were in for a surprise.
Reston Column: Clinging to the Past
Commentary
At the same time that the Nation is moving forward with a major political party nominating a woman as candidate for the presidency of the United States, Virginia institutions are clinging to past traditions that should have been abandoned decades ago.
Column: Higher Education Funding Squeeze
A favorite target for budget cutters in Virginia and other states during the economic recession has been higher education. While public institutions of higher education rely on state funding, there are other sources of funds available to them, the most obvious being tuition and fees.
Commentary: Selective Accounting
The Commonwealth of Virginia prepares its budget on a biennial schedule. The budget proposed this year by the Governor and adopted by the General Assembly will become effective July 1, 2016, and extend to June 30, 2018.
Opinion: Commentary: Next Steps: Virginia legislature must take significant next steps in the closing months of this year.
Readers of this column are certainly aware that on more than one occasion I have praised the work of the 2020 General Assembly session as being historic and transformative.
Opinion: Commentary: A Dysfunctional House
Universal background checks has an approval rate among voters hovering around 90 percent.
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Opinion: Commentary: Changing Images of Virginia
On the east side of Capitol Square near the Executive Mansion in Richmond is the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial featuring 16-year-old Barbara Johns who led the student walkout that resulted in a civil rights case before the Supreme Court as part of Brown v. Board of Education that found racially-segregated schools to be unconstitutional.