Bacon's Rebellion

  • Virginia’s #3 for Business Rank Argues for Stability, Not Change

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Derrick A. Max 

    Key Takeaways: 

    • Virginia’s rise to No. 3 in CNBC’s ranking is good news, but it reflects past strengths more than future policy risks. 
    • Richmond’s new labor mandates, payroll taxes, energy taxes, and data center tax could make Virginia more expensive and less competitive once fully implemented. 
    • To stay near the top, Virginia must protect Right-to-Work, keep taxes competitive, build reliable energy, and raise expectations in education. 

    Key Quote: “Virginia’s No. 3 ranking is a credit to the Commonwealth’s inherited strengths, not a blank check for Richmond to tax more, mandate more, and make it harder to do business here.” 

    Virginia’s climb in CNBC’s newest “Top States for Business” ranking — moving from No. 4 back to No. 3 — should be welcomed. But it should not be misunderstood. 

    The lesson is not that Virginia has solved its problems. It has not. Nor is the lesson that every decision coming out of Richmond is suddenly validated by a national ranking. It is not. The real lesson is more important: Virginia remains one of the strongest, most durable, most business-capable states in America — despite the federal uncertainty and despite policy choices made this year that will weaken our future competitiveness and ranking once fully implemented. 

    That is why conservatives should resist two temptations. 

    (more…)

  • Digital Future – Build It the Right Way

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    Too often, conversations about data centers are presented as an either-or: tech companies versus local communities, or economic growth versus environmental protection.

    That is the wrong debate.

    The real challenge is whether communities, businesses, utilities, investors and public leaders can work together to support the infrastructure a growing digital economy requires while planning carefully for the future.

    Digital infrastructure has become as essential to modern life as roads, railroads, ports and power plants were for previous generations. Local businesses, schools and hospitals rely on it. Families rely on it every day, often without realizing it.

    As demand for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, streaming, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and digital services continues to grow, communities across the country are grappling with how best to accommodate that growth while preserving the qualities that make those localities strong.

    The answer is not to stop progress. Nor is it to ignore legitimate community questions. The answer is to ensure growth is guided by transparency, collaboration and careful planning.

    Virginia’s clear example

    Virginia offers a clear example of why this issue is more connected than it first appears.

    Through retirement accounts, pension funds, mutual funds, index funds and direct investments, millions of Americans own shares in the hyper-scale technology companies driving the data center boom.

    The Virginia Retirement System reported a record investment portfolio of $122.8 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and paid $6.8 billion in retirement benefits that year, with investment earnings funding approximately two-thirds of those payments.

    (more…)

  • Virginia’s Reckless Budget Bill

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Jason Miyares

    Image credit: Chat GPT

    Statement on Governor Spanberger’s Marijuana Budget Debacle

    I warned that rushing marijuana commercialization through Virginia would lead to reckless governing. This week, that warning came true in the worst possible way.

    Governor Abigail Spanberger and the far-left majority in the General Assembly jammed their marijuana retail scheme into the state budget instead of allowing it to go through the normal legislative process, where it could have received the scrutiny it deserved. Now we know the cost of that shortcut: according to Williamsburg-James City Commonwealth’s Attorney Nate Green, former president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, the drafting is so sloppy that Virginia’s own prosecutors are warning the law banning marijuana distribution, and the law protecting Virginians under 21 from possessing marijuana, may have already been repealed a full year earlier than anyone intended.

    Let that sink in.

    Because far left Democrats chose to legislate drug policy through a budget bill instead of a real bill with real hearings, prosecutors across this Commonwealth are now uncertain whether they can even enforce the law against selling marijuana to a minor. Mr. Green himself said it plainly: courts resolve ambiguity against prosecutors, and defense attorneys already have grounds to argue these protections no longer exist.

    This is not a minor technical glitch. This is what happens when ideology outruns competence. Continue reading.

  • Virginia’s Gun Law Under Fire in Courts

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Rich Tucker

    Ken Cuccinelli rendered in 18th-century garb in the style of Gilbert Stuart. Image credit: Grok

    Virginia’s governing Democrats made it a crime to buy, sell, manufacture, or swap so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition. The law’s July 1 enactment, however, sits in a legal limbo as a wave of lawsuits moves through various courts.

    Plaintiffs in four state jurisdictions have sued to have the law overturned. The lawsuits all claim that the gun law violates Article I, Section 13 of the state constitution, which reads, in part: “That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

    Another case, filed in Fauquier County, makes that same legal argument, but adds that the law also violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

    Former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, lead counsel in the case filed in Spotsylvania County, told the Daily Signal why that case is unique.

    “Our case is unique in that we are suing under the original militia clause. The ‘right to keep and bear arms’ language so familiar to people today was only added to Virginia’s State Constitution in 1971,” Cuccinelli said.

    (more…)

  • Pittsylvania County Breathes Sigh of Relief

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Berry Hill Mega Site in Pittsylvania County. Picture credit: City of Danville via Cardinal News

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The Colorado-based company, Stack Infrastructure (Stack), has announced that it will move forward with its plans to build a giant data center complex in Pittsylvania County.

    As was reported earlier in Bacon’s Rebellion, the company had made its decision to locate in Virginia contingent on the state continuing its exemption of computer equipment purchased by data centers from the Commonwealth’s sales tax. That exemption had been threatened by budget amendments proposed by the State Senate. With the adoption of a budget that leaves the exemption intact, the company will proceed.

    This project is of major importance, not only to Pittsylvania County, but to that area of Southside Virginia. In its performance agreement with the regional industrial development authority, the company has pledged to invest at least $100 billion and create at least 2,500 jobs with salaries of at least $80,500 over a 30-year span. Under the provisions of current law, the company will be exempt from the Commonwealth’s sales tax on the purchase of computers and other equipment until at least 2040. That exemption could be extended until 2050 if the company meets certain investment and job creation criteria.

    According to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the project represents the largest private investment ever announced in Virginia and one of the top five industrial announcements ever made in the United States.  One local official declared that the agreement would be “transformational” for the area.

    (more…)

  • Some of Virginia’s Worst Nursing Homes are Being Sold

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Some of Virginia’s Worst Nursing Homes are Being Sold

    by James C. Sherlock

    One discerning group of investors in the real estate-with-nursing-home-tenants business appears to hire operating chain-management companies exclusively from those headquartered in the Lakewood, New Jersey, area. The chains compete, but are all run by the same small circle of acquaintances.

    That background is meaningful because five of Lakewood-based Medical Facilities of America (MFA)’s facilities in central Virginia are being sold. Not coincidentally, they are among the worst skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in America:

    • Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights) of multiple staff arrests for neglect and wrongful death fame,
    • Henrico Health and Rehabilitation Center in Highland Springs, officially designated the worst nursing home in Virginia,
    • Parham Health Care and Rehab Center in Richmond,
    • Wonder City Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Hopewell, and
    • Westport Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Richmond.

    It may not have been up to the CEO of MFA to decide whether to sell those five facilities or to whom. The facilities are likely being sold not because they are awful, which they have been for years, but rather because their occupancy rates have dropped well below the levels that supported the 20% rates of return investors saw in earlier years.

    That is cause for celebration in Virginia, but not in Lakewood. It is primarily due to WTVR TV6 News’ excellent and dogged reporting since the Colonial Heights scandal in December 2024. We all owe that station and its lead reporter on those stories, Tyler Layne, a major vote of appreciation.

    But for investors, it signaled time for a change. They want to be able to advertise “under new management” to residents and regulators to wipe away the mess. It may work.

    The owners are changing horses, but not stables.

    (more…)

  • What Do Virginia Muslims Think?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Qasim Rashid, (left) a University of Richmond Law School graduate, presented the Independence Day guest session speech at the 76th annual Ahmadiyya Muslim community conference. (Photo courtesy Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA by way of the Henrico citizen.)

    The question has arisen in the comments of this blog regarding how Virginia Muslims reconcile their devotion to Sharia law with the American constitution. Qasim Rashid, a University of Richmond law school graduate, expounded on this theme in an Independence Day celebration at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. According to the Henrico Citizen, about 10,000 citizens were in attendance. With all due recognition that Muslim views are diverse, Rashid undoubtedly reflects the views of many. Here follow some quotes from the Henrico Citizen article. — JAB

    “The command of the Quran and the promise of America meet on the very same ground that every human being carries a dignity that is divine in origin and absolute important,” said Qasim Rashid in his address on Saturday. “There is no peace without justice and there is no justice without that dignity. And here is the remarkable thing, America’s all highest institutions already recognize this unity between the Islamic and the American view of justice. This is not my interpretation; this is historical affirmation.” …

    Rashid emphasized the common ground between Islamic teachings and America’s highest ideals, saying: “The command of the Quran and the promise of America meet on the very same ground: that every human being carries a dignity that is divine in origin and absolute in worth.”

    (more…)

  • Spanberger’s Backfiring Gun Stance

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Joe Thomas

    Image credit: Grok

    Who is the best gun salesperson in Virginia? Gov. Abigail Spanberger—that’s who.

    According to the FBI background check registry—more about that in a moment—there were 124,319 firearm background checks conducted just in the month of June. Wrap your head around that. That’s more privately owned firearms sold just in June than exist in the entire country of Iran—that is, unless you count the ones all the Kurds kept that were supposed to be distributed to civilians so they could stand up to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but I digress.

    What has Virginians rushing out to their local gun shops and gun shows to make sure they can defend themselves is the idea that maybe they won’t be able to very soon.

    Two Virginia judges have issued preliminary injunctions blocking the enforcement of the assault weapons ban.

    A Washington County judge granted the most recent injunction, and a Lancaster County judge issued a similar order the week before. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones claims that these only impact Washington and Lancaster counties and not the state at large. However, the list of law enforcement officers and commonwealth’s attorneys who refuse to enforce these restrictions—calling them unconstitutional—continues to grow.

    (more…)

  • Virginia Court Halts Spanberger’s AR-15 Ban, Delivering Major Victory to Gun Owners

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    After months of legal battle and Second Amendment uncertainty, a court order temporarily blocked Virginia from enforcing a ban on AR-15s.

    by Bronson Winslow

    Virginia gun owners secured their first major courtroom victory June 26 after a Lancaster County Circuit Court judge granted a temporary injunction against Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s sweeping ban on the sale and transfer of AR-15s.

    The injunction was secured by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), Gun Owners of America (GOA), and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF). Those groups argued that Virginia’s newly enacted “assault firearm” ban violates both the Virginia Constitution and the Second Amendment. The ruling delivered a timely setback to one of the most extreme gun control laws in the nation.

    “Article I, Section 13 is the commonwealth’s recognition of a pre-existing right with which Virginians were endowed by their creator, and it operates as a fixed limitation on the power of government to enact legislation affecting firearms,” the plaintiffs said in a motion.

    For now, the court’s order prevents the Virginia State Police from enforcing the law while the constitutional challenge proceeds. The law would have taken effect July 1.

    (more…)

  • PJM’s Heat Wave Warning

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The grid runs on reality, not wishful rhetoric

    by Derrick Max

    Image credit: Grok

    The July heat wave that pushed PJM toward record electricity demand should force Virginia policymakers to confront an uncomfortable truth: the electric grid does not run on mandates, slogans or wishful thinking. It runs on power that is available when people need it.

    During this heat wave, PJM — the regional grid operator serving Virginia and all or parts of 12 other states and DC — came within striking distance of its all-time summer demand record and may well have exceeded it once emergency demand reductions are counted.

    PJM’s measured July 2 peak reached 162.3 gigawatts, just below the old 2006 record of 165.6 gigawatts. But Steve Haner, writing in Bacon’s Rebellion, noted that about 6 gigawatts of demand had been shed through emergency demand-reduction programs. Add that curtailed load back, and underlying demand likely exceeded the old record, even if the official metered peak did not.

    That distinction matters. PJM did not avoid a crisis because the needed power was comfortably supplied. It avoided it because emergency tools shaved demand at the moment of greatest stress. Grid failure is no longer a theoretical policy debate — the grid is operating near the edge. 

    (more…)

  • Meanwhile, in Richmond… America Not Feeling the Love

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Roadside Islamic Rallies Coming to a Town Near You

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Muslims of different nationalities living in the United States gather to perform Eid al-Fitr prayer, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at the Dar Alnoor Islamic Community Center in Prince William County, Virginia. Photo rendered in style of Mughal Indian art by Grok.

    by Pedro Rodriguez

    The town of Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., was recently home to a public roadside march of Islamic supporters who chanted sayings in a foreign language, beat their chests, and flew flags written in Arabic.

    The scene was captured in a video posted on X.

    Amy Mek, founder of the Rise, Align, Ignite, Reclaim Foundation, described the march on social media as an organized event from the Mohammadia Center of Virginia, a group that describes itself as “a cornerstone for the Shia Muslim community in the Washington metropolitan area.”

    The Mohammadia Center of Virginia did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

    “Another show of force in the Old Dominion. Democrats are celebrating their demographic conquest,” Mek wrote. “Shia Muslims marched through the streets of Woodbridge yesterday in a full Ashura Juloos – flags flying, chants echoing, the whole imported ritual on public roads.”

    (more…)

  • PJM Probably Reached Record Demand Thursday

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    A proprietary energy industry newsletter shared with Bacon’s Rebellion reports that the PJM Interconnection regional electricity grid probably set a summer record for demand on Thursday, July 2. The old peak of 165,563 megawatts in the 13-state region was seen in 2006.

    The system maintained its service by activating demand reduction programs forcing big users to shed about 6,000 megawatts of load but never issued an order for the large data centers to turn on their backup generators. With the demand reduction efforts, Thursday’s (and the weekend’s) peak was about 162,700 but if you add the shed load back in the old peak was passed. 

    A “deploy all resources” order was issued to Dominion and two other Mid Atlantic load serving entities for the first time since that was added to the emergency toolbox a decade ago.

    This new peak claim is one observer’s conclusion and not an official PJM pronouncement. That will come later. Dominion Energy may have set a new summer peak. But the numbers cited match observations I made during the five-day hot spell, constantly opening the PJM Markets and Operations website to watch for a new peak. PJM was posting emergency directives not seen since last winter’s bitter cold spell.

    (more…)

  • No Queens: Stop Tyranny in Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From pot to pork, the Democrats’ budget will cost every Virginia adult an extra $3,880.

    by Victoria Mannning

    Virginia’s state motto, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” or “Thus Always to Tyrants,” declares that virtue and just governance always defeat tyranny. Yet Virginia Democrat leaders have become the tyrants.

    Led by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, they ignore the Constitution and use the budget to pass sweeping marijuana laws, give themselves a hefty raise, and waste hard-earned taxpayer dollars on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) pork.

    On July 1, some of the most extreme legislation in Virginia’s history takes effect. Democrats have solidified their long-standing goal of disarming law-abiding citizens by adopting broad anti-Second Amendment laws to tighten control over Virginians. They also used budget negotiations to implement dangerous marijuana laws that failed to pass in the regular legislative session.

    The final pork-laden biennial budget totals $207 billion, a staggering $24 billion increase from 2024. With roughly 6.7 million people aged 18 and older in the state, that amounts to $3,880 more per adult compared to former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s budget.

    Thomas Jefferson must be turning over in his grave.

    Senator Louise Lucas’ pot shops

    For weeks, Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Louise Lucas claimed she wouldn’t approve the budget unless it included an elimination of tax breaks for data centers. Lucas even went on a “data center listening tour” across the state, referring to Spanberger as a “data center diva.” Yet when the final, agreed-upon bill was released, the tax exemption remained—alongside 149 new pages of legislation authorizing retail marijuana.

    (more…)

  • The Left Tinkles on America’s Birthday Party

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Did anyone else’s spidey senses go off the minute they saw this Reuter’s photo that the corporate media labels “chilling”?

    Lemme get this straight: These white supremacists took the metro to a downtown D.C. march this weekend and a freelance photographer just happened to be in the same rail car where a lone black woman was also riding? Oh, and this is the only metro car in the world with no ads or signage?

    Sorry. This looks staged. Prove me wrong.

    Reuters published the photo and the left engaged in the usual theatrics.

    Anyone else remember the last time the media told us to be frightened because the Patriot Front was out and about? Continue reading.

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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