Author: James A. Bacon
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A Tale of Two Rallies
One was the best of rallies, one was the worst of rallies by John A. Lucas This weekend I attended two rallies in Richmond, Virginia. Both claimed to support freedom for the Iranian people. But, to borrow further from Charles Dickens’ contrasting images of Two Cities, one stood for darkness with a platform of hatred, anarchy and…
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Terror at ODU: We Don’t Have to Live Like This.
by Kerry Dougherty One ODU professor is dead and two ROTC students were injured Thursday, shot by an Islamic jihadist while attending class. The shooter? Mohamed Jalloh, a naturalized American citizen from Sierra Leone who traveled to Africa on three separate occasions in 2015 to join ISIS. Instead of being executed for treason, as he…
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March 12, 2020. Our First Day in Covid Hell.
by Kerry Dougherty Never forget what happened six years ago today. And how power-drunk despots like former Gov. Ralph Northam used a pandemic – and phony science – to stomp all over the constitutionally protected rights of Virginians. It could happen again. You’ve been warned. Yep, it was March 12, 2020, when Northam declared a state…
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Collective Bargaining Will Only Further Divide Virginia’s Universities
by Derrick A. Max Cardinal News ran my guest column this morning warning that collective bargaining at Virginia’s public universities will only further deepen the political divides that are undermining Virginia’s once esteemed system of higher education. The push to unionize university workers in Virginia is not about increased pay, better working conditions, or fairness. Beneath…
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Nuts & Bolts: Modernizing State Cyber-Security
At least three Virginia government entities — Albemarle County, Gloucester County, and the Office of the Attorney General — were subjected to ransomware attacks in 2025. In my most recent Oinkonomics podcast, Secretary of Finance Steve Cummings touched upon the Youngkin administration’s approach to cyber-security. — JAB Cummings: My former life was a banker. My last stop…
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Dems to Vote Selves 278% Pay Raise
by Scott Dreyer The Democrat-led General Assembly voted in recent days to raise the salary for State Delegates and Senators to $50,000 per year. Virginia has always had a General Assembly made of part-time legislators. The idea was for them to have their primary jobs back at home, and their service in the legislature in…
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Referendum Ad Wars
by Kerry Dougherty Look who’s doing dabbling in investigative journalism! It’s my old employer, The Virginian-Pilot. Yep, they were so stunned by “Vote No” campaign literature aimed at black voters on the upcoming redistricting referendum, that they went digging. Figures. In a story headlined “Who’s Behind An Anti-Redistricting Flyer Invoking Jim Crow?” the paper asked…
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Two Intrigues of the Utmost Importance to the UVA Community
by the Jefferson Council A number of recent mysterious events have brought into the open serious concerns involving the issues of transparency and accountability—two topics that have been subjects of repeated controversy by various elements of the University community. As devotees of Conan Doyle and the sleuth of Baker Street, we have put on our…
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Nuts & Bolts: Modernizing State IT Systems
In my last Oinkonomics podcast, I asked former Secretary of Finance Steve Cummings to discuss the commonwealth’s travails in upgrading its financial information systems. In the glory days of Virginia journalism, reporters could have mined these remarks for a half dozen articles. Today? Government-efficiency stories don’t generate clickthroughs, so they don’t get written. — JAB…