Governor Youngkin gave blood yesterday. The Commonwealth’s top elected official publicly setting an example for this vital activity sends a strong signal for others. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, blood donations are slowing down during the summer, so Youngkin’s active endorsement through participation is welcome.
RWH
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Remember when Gov. Glenn Youngkin was warning us about the dangers of the Chinese owning “the rich and vibrant agricultural lands God has blessed us with?”
Even the publisher of Bacon’s Rebellion thought that was far-fetched.
At Youngkin’s urging, the General Assembly passed legislation prohibiting any “foreign adversary” from acquiring “any interest in agricultural land in the Commonwealth.” The legislation required the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to issue an annual report, beginning July 1, 2023, on the amount of total farmland in the Commonwealth under foreign ownership.
The first report has been issued. As of 12/30/2021, there were 45 different countries identified as the nationality of the foreign interest in parcels of agricultural land in the Commonwealth. The parcels totaled 254,494 acres, 1.2 percent of the total privately-held agricultural land in the Commonwealth. The country identified with the most parcels was France.
Companies or individuals from China owned 13,890 acres, 5.5 percent of the total foreign-owned acres. Of the Chinese holding, 13,389 acres, 96 percent, were farms that were included in the Smithfield Foods acquisition. The acquisition of those acres in 2013 was the last time any corporation or individual associated with China acquired farmland in the Commonwealth.
It seems that Virginia’s “rich and vibrant agricultural lands” are safe from the Chinese. Those Canadian solar and timber companies are another matter, however.
Because the requirement for the report is embedded in the Code, this report will take its place alongside many other reports that agencies are required to spend time preparing, only to have them be ignored.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
I have a question.
Under the recent Supreme Court case ruling that a wedding website designer could refuse to provide her services to a gay couple because to do so would require her to write something that she did not want to say, thereby violating her First Amendment right to free speech, if I were the owner of a sign shop could I refuse to make signs for Democratic candidates because I do not want Democrats to win elections and to require me to design a sign that says “Elect ______, Democrat for State Senate” would violate my freedom of speech? What if I refused to make such signs for Black candidates because I don’t think Blacks should be elected to office? Or women candidates? Or Catholic candidates? Or Jewish Candidates?
by James C. Sherlock
America is the most successful nation in the history of the world because of the freedoms and rights guaranteed by our Constitution.
More than a hundred other nations have emulated the American Constitution.
Without constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights, we would be chained to the whims of the state. Most immediately to the whims of the executive branch. There would be precious little for the judicial branch to protect.
A recent Supreme Court decision found affirmative action in college admissions to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, Section 1:
No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Justice Roberts for the majority ruling that the Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause:
Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.
Three justices disagreed.
Justice Sotomayor read her opinion from the bench — a sign of strong disagreement. An excerpt:
Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits. In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.
Note that Justice Sotomayor, as always careful of the words in her opinions, chose “endemically” to modify “segregated.” Oxford dictionary: “regularly found and very common among a particular group or in a particular area.”
That is different than the word “systemically” — Oxford: “in a basic and important way that involves the whole of an organization or a country and not just particular parts of it.” (more…)
by Steve Haner
Dominion Energy Virginia’s customers still owe it $1.26 billion for fuel they have already used, as of the end of June. The utility is going to give us either seven or ten years to pay off that debt, but at a total cost of over $1.54 billion if we take seven years or almost $1.7 billion if we take the full decade.
The difference, of course, is interest, a return on investment (profit) for the lender, almost $300 million on the seven year plan or $400 million on the ten year plan. And that initial $1.26 billion already includes some interest. It was clear from the beginning that extending this debt out like a credit card balance would produce a profit for the lender. (more…)
by James A. Bacon
It will be exceedingly difficult to hold an honest conversation in Virginia about the role of race in higher-education admissions and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. College administrators are the gatekeepers of data critical to the discussion and they will not share it.
I have been stymied twice this week in my efforts to acquire admissions data: once by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, and once by the University of Virginia. SCHEV and UVa officials cite various justifications for being unable to supply the numbers, but I believe the underlying reason is that university administrators simply don’t want to make the data available. Why? Because he who controls the data controls the narrative.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling restricting the use of race as a factor in admissions, I have embarked upon the mission of laying out the data available in the public domain: how have admissions and enrollment patterns evolved over the past 1o to 20 years? How have preferential policies for selected minorities fared, as tracked by measures of student thriving such as feelings of “belonging,” drop-out rates, student-loan debt burdens and post-graduate income?
In recent posts, I have documented that males and Whites are slightly under-represented in entering classes at UVa, while my colleague Walter Smith has described UVa’s use of the Landscape platform to provide school- and neighborhood-specific “context” for applicants. Last year Smith shed light on the new racial calculus in UVa admissions by showing how offers to applicants vary by race/ethnicity and legacy status. The Office of Admissions, which was commendably open with its data last year, stopped providing it after we published his article.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) maintains a searchable online database of higher-ed statistics regarding enrollment, admissions, tuition & fees, financial aid, student debt, retention rates, and degrees awarded. SCHEV breaks the data into dozens of different reports that are searchable by individual institution. It is an invaluable resource for anyone analyzing higher-ed in Virginia. (more…)
by James A. Bacon
I increased my respect for Cedric Wins. In his personal Facebook page, the Virginia Military Institute Superintendent congratulated Lt. James Mansfield (class of ’22) and Cadet Russell Crouch (class of ’24), co-editors of The Cadet student newspaper last year, for winning the Virginia Press Association’s Journalist Service and Integrity Award.
That couldn’t have been easy. The student journalists had been critical of the Wins administration’s implementation of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and its approach to student mental health. But Wins proved he is capable of setting aside any personal pique he might have and applaud the cadets for their significant accomplishment.
Wrote Wins: “The Virginia Military Institute lauds these cadets’ commitment to the free exercise of expression and looks forward to working with those cadets who follow in their footsteps.”
Yes, this the same student newspaper that The Washington Post slammed with allegations of plagiarism and conflict of interest — perhaps the first time in history that a newspaper of such global stature stooped to undermining a prestigious award for a student newspaper of a small college. The Post’s vindictive criticisms — I use the word “vindictive” because The Cadet articles contested a racial-oppression narrative peddled by the Post for two years — successfully triggered a VPA investigation into the allegations. The findings of that investigation, however, found that the contest rules provided no mechanism for reversing the award.
Wins looks like a bigger man, and The Washington Post looks petty and mean- spirited. (more…)
To add to those revealed in James Sherlock’s excellent posts about nursing homes and the health care industry generally, here is another culprit–private equity firms. They buy up medical practices in an area, creating great bargaining power with insurance companies, and begin raising prices. The fight is between giant, merged insurance companies and giant, merged medical practices. The losers are patients and the winners are the private investors.
Today’s Washington Post has a long article describing how this happened with anesthesia practices in the Denver area. The company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, which calls itself a physician-owned company, was, in reality, created by the private equity firm, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, which owns 55 percent of the stock.
by James C. Sherlock
Patterns of understaffing, medical harm and abuse in nursing homes are traceable:
Regardless of the reason, Virginia regulators and law enforcement agencies must execute the roles they are legally charged to perform.
State sanctions must be levied.
Enforcement will result in fewer, but better and safer options. (more…)
By James C Sherlock
We have some great nursing facilities in Virginia. We also have far more than our share of bad ones.
Virginia has a decision to make about the latter.
The federal government sets standards for those that are paid with federal funds. It both levies fines and denies payments as it feels appropriate.
But more direct action to assure quality of and safety in nursing homes is left to the states, who both license and regulate them.
There are simply not enough nurses nationwide or in Virginia to staff all of the nursing homes currently operating. And that shortage is not temporary.
The decision Virginia needs to make is straightforward:
We cannot have both.
The nursing shortage cannot be a reason for government to leave open to new patients grossly understaffed nursing homes. If that understaffing is sufficiently chronic, some must be closed.
Among the bad facilities, some owners are scoundrels. Others are just not able to get it done. Better enforcement will reduce the number of both.
Actions must be taken to assure that when citizens need a nursing home, the state license can be trusted as a sign that basic standards are maintained.
That they will be safe.
by James A. Bacon
The 4th of July, commemorating our nation’s declaration of independence, is an occasion to think about what we appreciate about America. Amidst our social breakdown, culture wars, and vitriolic politics, that’s not an easy thing to do. Among the most demoralizing aspects of our times is the abysmal level of understanding of the source of the precious rights — freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and petition the government — that we take for granted.
As Joni Albrecht, director of the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics, observes in the Virginia Mercury, less than half of U.S. adults could name all three branches of government; only one in four U.S. adults could name a single right identified in the First Amendment.
Many of our schools fail to teach the basic knowledge required to be a functioning and contributing citizen. According to Virginia Department of Education data, only 70% of Virginia school children passed their Civics & Econ Standards of Learning exam in the 2021-22 school year. Only one in five scored “advanced.” In other words, 30% are politically illiterate, and another 50% are marginally literate. (more…)
by Joseph Postell
It’s common for Americans on July 4th to read and discuss the Declaration of Independence, and to reflect on its principles and ideas. Those principles and ideas are often attributed solely — though wrongly — to Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the draft of the Declaration.
Jefferson’s draft was modified in two stages: first, by a “Committee of Five” composed of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston; and second, by the entire Continental Congress.
The Congress discussed Jefferson’s draft for three days, and made significant changes (according to Jefferson, “depredations”) to his work.
In short, the Declaration was the work not of a single person, but of the representatives of the American people. Jefferson was the author of the draft, but it was an American Declaration.
(more…)
by James C. Sherlock
It is the day to celebrate America’s freedoms. It is also a good day to enforce them.
United States Constitution, Amendment XIV, Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Supreme Court decisions in the Harvard and UNC cases make unambiguously unconstitutional many elements of the way Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is currently implemented in colleges and universities.
For example, clearly there is no legal space between unconstitutional processes in the recruiting of students and the same processes in the recruiting and promotion of faculty.
None. (more…)
The logical next shoe has dropped in the fight over college admissions. A civil rights organization has sued Harvard University, alleging that its practice of giving preference to legacy applicants and applicants whose parents are big donors discriminates against applicants of color. The complaint even quotes the recent Supreme Court majority opinion: “A benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter.”
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.
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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