All results / Stories / Kenneth R. “Ken” Plum, State Delegate (D-36)
Commentary: Name Makes a Difference
Almost a year ago the Washington Business Journal carried a headline, “George Mason University sells Patriot Center naming rights.”
Opinion: Commentary: The Results Are In!
This column is being written before election day with a schedule for publication the day after the polls close.
Opinion: Commentary: Time for Being Thankful
Next week is the formal day set aside for thanksgiving.
Opinion: Commentary: Budget Equity
Only now has the Virginia economy recovered such that the funding of education today is exceeding that of pre-2008 levels.
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Commentary: Save Our Schools
In this season of teacher appreciation we need to thank the teachers for the exceptional work that they do.
Commentary: Forging a Future Path
Over the next couple of decades Virginia will have many more job openings for educated professionals and skilled technicians than there are persons in the pipeline to fill them, according to Northern Virginia Community College President Robert Templin speaking at “Blueprint Virginia,” an annual economic summit in Northern Virginia last week.
Tolls Must Have Limits
The notion that the user of a public service should be the one to pay for it makes sense in theory. But when the service is a roadway and the payments are tolls, the system can feel a bit unfair and clearly needs limits. It made sense when I voted to approve an authority in the early 1980s to build a toll road in the Dulles Corridor to provide traffic congestion relief for western Fairfax County and to open the area for economic development. Using the toll method of financing meant that we got the road and expanded it decades before it would have been considered through the usual methods of road financing. It even made some sense that toll collections be used as a percentage of financing for the extension of Metrorail in the corridor, since the mass transit system would help relieve future traffic congestion on the Toll Road. But there has to be limits on the use of tolls, and clearly the level of tolls proposed for the Dulles Toll Road is too high.
Commentary: Moral Consequences of Our Votes
Columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. wrote in The Washington Post this past week that we should not be afraid to remind voters that elections and budgets have moral consequences.
Commentary: Northern Virginia’s Health
The 2.2 million people in the Northern Virginia communities of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties and Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park cities live in the most populous region in the commonwealth and in some of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the nation.
Column: Family-Friendly Voting
Commentary
According to the Virginia Family Foundation, I am not a very “family-friendly” legislator. On their recently issued scorecard for 2014-2015, I scored 11 of a possible 100 points—up from my score of zero on their previous scorecards.
Commentary: Being Among the Happiest
Technologists have applied their big data and computer-crunching to determine where in the world and where in the United States are the happiest places to live.
Opinion: Commentary: John Lewis Legacy
The body of John Lewis will be laid to rest this week, but the legacy of his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement will live on.
Reston Column: No Time to Lose
Commentary
“Our Nation is at risk,” thus began a report on schools given to President Ronald Reagan in 1983.