Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said the addresses are unlikely to undo the logjam between the White House and Capitol Hill. “Presidential speeches in and of themselves almost never reset administrations,” he said. “Events and trends do.”
For the first time, the FORBES Top Colleges ranking has two non-Ivies at the top: Stanford University (No. 1) and Pomona College (No. 2). It is also the first time that two California schools take the gold and silver. The best state school in America is University of California, Berkeley at No. 22. Here is what makes this shift so significant: It may splinter the grip of the East Coast Establishment colleges and open up a more diverse, accessible portfolio of best schools for students. (Note: The University of Virginia ranks 29th overall, and is the No. 2 public. Complete list here.)
Another indicator of economic health is consumer confidence, according to Tom Guterbock, the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Survey Research. The center recently finished conducting a Jefferson Area Community Survey — its third one in the past two years — that revealed, on average, more people in Nelson County are feeling confident about the economy than were at the same time last year.
That two more physicians are vying for a Senate seat to join the fight in repealing Obamacare is not surprising to one political strategist. "Most GOP nominees will focus on Obamacare, whether they are medical doctors or not," wrote Larry Sabato in an email to CNBC. "Republicans are planning to use opposition to Obamacare to motivate and energize the party base in 2014. Turnout drops a great deal, so mobilization is a critical part of politics in midterm elections."
High-cost investment choices by consumers and fiduciaries are substantially hurting 401(k) returns, according to a new study. University of Virginia law professor Quinn Curtis and Yale law professor Ian Ayers analyzed 2009 data from 12,475 plans supplied by Brightscope Inc. to conduct the study.
(Letter to the editor by Colin Welch, and environmental science and urban planning student) The ban on uranium mining in Virginia that is currently in effect has been under pressure recently by Virginia Uranium Inc. for repeal because of two sizable uranium deposits in Pittsylvania County. Keeping the ban firmly in place should be the goal of Virginians across the state, not just in our southwestern family.
Virginia's population is going to look quite different in three decades, according to the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. The center has released demographic projections for all 50 states, looking at population estimates up to 2040. The numbers show that minority groups will continue to rise nationwide. And that trend will show itself in Virginia.
In politics, the “outsider” tag is a sought-after commodity. But in policy, some of the best advice can be found in those who have spent their careers inside the Beltway. This is the advice six former Transportation Secretaries recently offered to Anthony Foxx. James Burnley, Andrew Card, Samuel Skinner, Rodney Slater, Norman Mineta, and Mary Peters sat down to reflect on their time at DOT and what advice they could offer to Foxx, who succeeded Ray LaHood as Secretary on July 2. The gathering was part of the David R. Goode National Transportation Policy Conference, orga...
If the governor wants some slack, he should ditch the gifts as well, pronto. “I think he might consider returning those or donating them to charity,” said Kyle Kondik, political analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “If (Tuesday’s) decision by him was an admission of at least the appearance of impropriety existed, the way you mitigate it is you do a little more than McDonnell did (Tuesday).”
Republican leaders in the House of Delegates announced Tuesday they are open to some reforms, like reporting gifts to family members and training politicians in disclosures. But some will not likely support an all-out ban on gifts. "There's a tremendous amount of resistance among the legislators," University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said.
If a draft paper he co-authored with Quinn Curtis, a law professor at the University of Virginia, is any indication of the things to come in his research, the news is pretty dark for companies that have excessive plan fees. Using a legal argument that overpriced plans are breaching an employer’s “fiduciary duty,” Ayres and Curtis examined “fiduciary losses,” that is, situations in which the employer wasn’t looking out for the best interests of employees. Some 60 percent of such losses were due to “excess fees.”
Researchers at Knopp, formed in 2004 to discover possible treatments for ALS, have long been interested in dex, a compound identified by a University of Virginia researcher that may work by increasing the efficiency of mitochondria, which produce energy in the body's cells.
Former President Jimmy Carter, a leader of humanitarian efforts in the three decades since leaving office, has received more death threats than any other former commander-in-chief, a new book by University of Virginia political science guru Larry Sabato claims.
Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia Center for Politics said the McDonnell's efforts to put some distance between himself and the Star Scientific scandal won't put an end to the questions about his relationship with Williams his nutritional supplements company. "The questions are going to be waiting for him when he comes back," Kondik said. "If he wants to recover from this he probably needs to be a little more open about what happened than he has been previously."
Some of the military's top brass are embarking on a year-long mission in corporate America after a business boot camp at the University of Virginia. The Corporate Fellows Program wrapped up Wednesday at the Darden School of Business. It's part of a four-week-long Department of Defense training program to prepare 15 leaders from the military's branches to work alongside CEOs in the private sector.
The outcome of the election could sway the Medicaid panel, said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “It will tell the legislators which way the wind is blowing in the state, and the election’s outcome might push members one way or the other,” Kondik said in an email. “So voters, in making their choice for governor, might effectively be making a choice about Medicaid expansion, too. Whether they realize that, though, is a different story.”
Jason Odell Williams doesn't yet know if he'll attend the 65th Emmy Awards on Sept. 22 or even for sure if he'll receive his own golden statuette. When the Columbia native got a text message July 18 from an executive producer of National Geographic Channel's popular "Brain Games" TV series that read simply, "Congratulations on your Emmy nomination," he thought it was a practical joke.
(Analysis) While myriad challenges face higher education these days – from pressure on finances to innovations in educational technology to questions about shared governance – only one group in the academy is charged with addressing all of them: the governing board.
University of Virginia political scientist Brantly Womack is a long-time watcher of US-China-Vietnam relations. “When Vietnam feels insecure, who is it going to feel insecure about? Laos? Cambodia? Thailand? The United States is too far away … so is China,” he told VOA
European klezmer was never even given the chance to evolve - because entire populations of Yiddish musicians and their audiences were wiped out. "If you pose these weird historical questions like what would klezmer music have sounded like in Europe if there hadn't have been the Holocaust, we don't really know, but I am quite certain the music they would have been playing in the 50s and 60s would have sounded quite different," says Joel Rubin, assistant professor of music at the University of Virginia. Rubin played a central role in the revival of Klezmer music in the United S...