Author: James A. Bacon
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Crazy Talk: Jennifer McClellan
by James A. Bacon If you’re looking for craziness in Virginia, it’s not hard to find. By “crazy,” I mean disconnected from reality. Crazy people are commonly found among the homeless, in state mental institutions, and in the General Assembly. This gem comes from Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, during a televised Democratic Party gubernatorial debate.…
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The Proper Role of Virginia’s Attorney General
by Jack White By now, Virginia voters have heard from many candidates running for Attorney General making sweeping promises about policy changes they will implement as AG or talking about being the chief prosecutor for Virginia. With due respect to the other candidates in the race, I feel compelled to reiterate what is and what…
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Alexandria Stands with Government Unions, Not Workers
by F. Vincent Vernuccio In mid-April, the City of Alexandria passed an ordinance allowing government unions to bargain with the city. Unfortunately, many of the ordinance’s provisions are lopsided: they grant special advantages for government unions to easily organize public employees and trap workers into paying dues. Alexandria’s lopsided ordinance. Alexandria’s ordinance makes it is easy for…
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Shots for American Kids While Indians Are Dying for the Vaccine?
by Kerry Dougherty It was yet another gird-your-loins day in Virginia on Thursday. Gov. Ralph Northam held a briefing on COVID-19, which could only mean one thing: more disappointing news from the Rajah of Richmond. Northam said he may lift his now-14 month-old emergency order- – an abuse of power by any standard — in…
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The Ballad Merger II: Cuts and Consolidations
by Carol J. Bova Upon the merger of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System in 2018, the first order of business for the newly created Ballad Health was shoring up its finances. If Ballad wasn’t successful at this, it would not have the resources to invest in the new services, facilities, programs, and…
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Give ‘Em An Earful
Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to achieving “educational equity” in which every FCPS student thrives academically, socially, and emotionally, and is empowered as “the next generation of change leaders for a more just world,” declares a communique to parents issued today. A key strategy in advancing that vision is changing teaching practices along with…
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Arlington County School Wi-Fi Crashes
This just came in from a Bacon’s Rebellion correspondent around 10:50 a.m. “Arlington wifi was out at all schools for the first hour of school today. At home students just sitting there. In school now totally dependent on powerpoint, google slides etc for instruction.” There is no acknowledgement on the Arlington County Public Schools home…
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Bacon Bits Does Electric Grid
Boom times ahead for electricity. Electricity demand in Virginia will grow 30%, give or take, over the next 15 years as more energy-consuming data centers are built and more Virginians drive electric vehicles, writes Bill Shobe, a University of Virginia professor who supports the transition to a net-zero-carbon electric grid, in a new report. Electricity…
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Race and Redemption
Bacon’s Rebellion normally does not republish campaign literature. We happily accept op-ed pieces from political candidates as long as they address substantive public policy issues, but otherwise I like to keep a healthy distance from office seekers. Today I make a partial exception. Jack White, a Northern Virginia attorney seeking the Republican nomination for Attorney…
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The Ballad Merger — A Leap of Faith by Two States
by Carol J. Bova In April, 2015, two Tennessee-based not-for-profit hospital organizations with a 75% market share in Southwest Virginia said a merger would allow them “to address the serious health issues affecting the region and to be among the best in the nation in terms of quality, affordability and patient satisfaction.” The merger would…
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Why Can’t We Have a Governor Like DeSantis?
by Kerry Dougherty Help me out here. I’m trying to decide which of the seven deadly sins I’m committing every time I see Gov. Ron DeSantis on TV or in print and wish he were governor of Virginia. It is covetousness? Or envy? Well, dictionary.com defines the first as “eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth or…
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About Those Face Masks for Kids…
Letter from Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, to Governor Ralph Northam, dated May 5, 2021: With the onset of warm weather and summer quickly approaching, we request clarification of your mask protocol for children participating in required school activities. I heard from multiple constituents regarding yesterday’s high temperature and the dangerous effect it had on…
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CNU Polls — Post-Trump Shift Happening in Virginia
by Chris Saxman Folks, we have a ball game in Virginia. Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center released another poll today and VPM’s headline captured the catnip as their headline writer wrote, “New Virginia Poll Shows Support for Progressive Ideas, but Not Labels.” It should have read “Virginians are centrists but like free stuff.” In that…
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Where Is the Trump Donor Money Going?
The Virginia Public Access Project has done an interesting bit of data sleuthing. It identified 360 Trump donors who have given to Republicans battling for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination through the end of March. Trump in Heels Amanda Chase is dominating in the number of contributions, but average size of most her donations is small.…
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Virginia Hospitals Rank High in Safety
Half of all Virginia acute-care hospitals scored a “safety rating” of A, the fourth highest percentage of the 50 states, according to the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade rating. Leapfrog bases the rating on 27 performance measures, some developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and some from supplemental data sources. These…