All results / Stories / Kenneth R. “Ken” Plum, State Delegate (D-36)
Column: Post-Game Analysis
While I enjoy watching college athletic competitions, I do not watch many professional sports on television. For sure I do not watch any of the post-game shows. Panels for these shows seem carefully selected to ensure controversy and banter to fill the time slot.
Opinion: Commentary: Lifetime of Learning
My mom and dad had little or no formal education which was not that unusual for children in large families growing up in rural Virginia in the 1920s.
Opinion: Commentary: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!
I have never known a politician who has not promised better schools, quality of life and safety.
Opinion: Commentary: Putting Just Into Justice
Under current Virginia law a person who steals something of value less than $1,000 can be punished by up to 12 months in jail with fines up to $2,500 along with any restitution that might be owed.
Under the Influence
Commentary
People who could benefit from an expansion of Medicaid that closes the coverage gap by insuring more of the working poor are found throughout the Commonwealth. The highest percentages of such persons tend to be in the southside and southwest regions of the state. Impose a map of regions represented by Republicans and Democrats over a map reflecting the highest percentages of the working poor and the two maps are close to identical. Yet, Republicans who represent areas of great need oppose the expansion of Medicaid, and Democrats who have large numbers of persons but a smaller percentage of those who would benefit from the expansion support it. The historic interest of the two parties explains in part this contradiction, but there are other explanations as well.
Column: Vacation Time
Jane and I just returned last week from a wonderfully relaxing, ten-day vacation in Italy. It was our first visit to that country.
Opinion: Commentary: Electrification of Virginia Transportation
In 1998 I chaired a task force of business and community leaders to collectively document what Northern Virginia needed to do to be an “EV Ready Community.”
Saved by the Feds
Commentary
As I wrote in a column several months ago, Virginia has historically ceded decisions to federal authorities on major issues on which the state had been unwilling to move forward, despite the Commonwealth's historic antipathy toward the federal government.
Opinion: Commentary: Hate Has No Place Here
The outpouring of generosity in our community during the COVID-19 pandemic has been incredible. I continue to learn of people who have responded in remarkable ways to the needs that have been brought on by the quarantine or that have been recognized as a result of our having to stay home.
Column: Taking Care of the Newborn
I am in Richmond on April 18 for the Reconvened Session of the General Assembly to consider vetoes and amendments proposed by the Governor to legislation passed in the regular session of the General Assembly.