Tom McLaughlin

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank based in Washington, D.C. that does a terrific job explaining how politics and policy in our frustratingly polarized world affects the lives of ordinary people.

It never ceases to amaze how often our small community becomes part of the national conversation – in ways both good and bad.

Whaddaya say to a roundalay?

If Frank Ruff actually had a day job, I’d advise him to stick to that rather than try his hand as a columnist. Not that I feel like I have some kind of monopoly over the craft, but just as the Supreme Court justice once was called upon to decide what is and what isn’t pornography, I know bad when I see it.

It may have earned its nickname, “Tiger Beat On The Potomac” — for that priceless little jab, you can thanks Esquire blogger Charlie Pierce — but Politico, the on-line news magazine that keeps tabs on what the cool kids in Washington, D.C., are up to, published a very interesting piece this week on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s work to develop new regulations for coal ash.

Everything that Gov. Terry McAuliffe said during a Tuesday forum at Halifax Regional Hospital to promote Medicaid expansion made sense to me, but the real stars of the show were the doctors who spoke up about what the change in Virginia’s program would mean for many of our friends and neighbors here in Halifax County.

Late last month The New York Times came out with an article, “Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged,” (http://www.nytimes.com, Feb. 28 edition) that opened with this arresting passage:

Does mere chance drive events in this world? Or do things happen for a reason? This week, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe briefly turned from his No. 1 priority since taking office — pushing Medicaid expansion through the General Assembly — to put in a request for records from the Virginia Tobacco Commission. It seems the new governor is on a fact-finding mission to determine if the leaf commission has been successful at revitalizing Virginia’s traditional tobacco-growing regions. Hmm.

Four weeks into the Duke Energy coal ash spill in Eden, N.C., new information continues to emerge about the likely damage to the Dan River, which of course flows into Buggs Island Lake and Lake Gaston here in Mecklenburg County.

Everyone nowadays is so into making lists, I feel like I should contribute to the genre.