Bacon's Rebellion

  • Buta Biberaj and the Political Weaponization of the Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Office – Against Other Democrats and the Press

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj courtesy

    by James C. Sherlock

    Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj (D) has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the tool that opens up government to citizens, in an attempt to destroy political opponents and intimidate the press.

    Ms. Biberaj has admitted to investigating her political rivals using FOIA requests to view correspondences between county officials and local reporters.

    George Soros-funded Ms. Biberaj, with subpoena power through her grand juries, has not even alleged a crime.

    The requests have come not from her re-election campaign, but her government office.

    She was looking for “leaks.” From Democrats. To reporters. For which she is properly under attack. By Democrats. And reporters.

    Ms. Biberaj is beyond question guilty of an ethical breach.

    But by doing what she admits to having done she may have committed a Class 4 felony. (more…)

  • More Discouraging News for Virginia Student Test Scores

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    As recently as 2015, the percentage of Virginia high school graduates qualifying for college credit on at least one Advanced Placement test ranked third in the nation. In the 2021-2022 school year, according to data released by the College Board, Virginia’s percentage had fallen to 11th in the country, slipping two notches from the previous year.

    “Virginia’s 2021-2022 AP results are yet another sad reminder that when previous Administrations lowered expectations, Virginia’s children suffer,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera in a press release. “The commonwealth must reverse the declines in the AP scores that have occurred over the last 10 years by restoring rigor and celebrating the achievements of our students.”

    The College Board also reported that 25.2% of 2022 graduating Virginia seniors earned a score of three or higher on at least one AP test, down from 26.9% for 2021 graduates, and from 30% for 2014 grads. (more…)

  • How To Really, Really Tick Off Fairfax Taxpayers

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Screen shot from WJLA-7 April 4 report.

    People don’t understand!  These political leadership jobs are hard! It is a great sacrifice to serve, and it is only fair that the taxpayers contribute to the comfort and convenience of those of us working so hard for their better future.  They can be so ungrateful….

    Did that go through Fairfax Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay’s mind as he watched local WJLA-7 news kick him around like a rag doll yesterday for using a county car on personal business and, worse, political business? Or was it what should have gone through his mind:  How could I be so dumb and greedy and assume nobody would notice or care?

    This is not a new story, because it happens often and gets ratted out all the time.  This is not a partisan story, because this behavior crosses all lines. Lack of electoral competition does contribute to this way of thinking. This may not be a fatal blow for Democrat McKay, who as board chairman recently raised his pay from $100,000 to $138,000 per year (as the televised report helpfully reminds us.)

    No, this is a “when will they ever learn” story. People who don’t get the privilege of transportation with the entire bill paid by involuntary tax levies, people who must pay the hated car taxes and registration fees and fuel bills on their cars, tend to get irritated when they find out politicians (or any government employees) use public cars for tons of daily private business.

    Someone please forward this to the Internal Revenue Service. I know the folks at the Virginia Department of Taxation, and they can check to see if McKay’s valuable perk was declared for tax purposes. It is very much supposed to be. (more…)

  • Langley Looks to the Moon

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    Robin Beres

    by Robin Beres

    While mainstream media may be transfixed by the gutter politics going on in New York, exciting, uplifting events are happening in other parts of the nation — including in our very own little city of Hampton.

    Located on Hampton’s Langley Air Force Base just off the Chesapeake Bay, the Langley Research Center is NASA’s oldest field center. Established in 1917, the 764-acre facility consists of nearly 200 separate facilities and employs around 3,400 civil servants and contractors.

    In the early 1960s Langley was a top contender to be named NASA’s Mission Control Center for manned space flights. But because the Hampton facility was so close to Washington, and Hampton Roads was already home to both military and civilian aerospace and aviation communities, NASA selected Johnson Space Center in Houston over Langley.

    Although missing out on the Manned Spacecraft Center, Langley has nonetheless continued to play a vital role in the research and training that has made every space mission from Gemini I to Artemis successful. The historic research facility has had countless scientific breakthroughs and historic firsts. The first crews of astronauts were trained there. Langley’s Rendezvous and Docking Simulator trained both Gemini and Apollo astronauts. It is where the Apollo Lunar Module was tested.

    Scientists at the center were instrumental in the development of supersonic flight. Researchers there created the world’s first transonic wind tunnel and developed today’s international standard for grooved airport runways. And, if you saw the fabulous — and true — movie, Hidden Figures, you know that those incredible women worked at Langley.

    Today, Langley is very much involved in NASA’s plans to put humans on the moon — and eventually on Mars. The space agency’s Moon to Mars program is no longer just a dream or a science fiction story in Popular Mechanics. The Artemis space program is moving rapidly forward on several goals which include putting a base on the moon and eventually landing humans on Mars.
    (more…)

  • Virginia Very Low Income Housing Voucher Waiting Lists are Closed

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    sherlockj

    SeaView Lofts apartments in Newport News

    by James C. Sherlock

    Some things don’t change that should.

    Or don’t change fast enough to keep up with markets.

    Which means they will fail.

    From Virginia Housing’s discussion of the Housing Choice Voucher Program

    The Housing Choice Voucher Program is the federal government’s major program for assisting very low-income families, low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to decent, safe, and affordable housing in the private market.

    Housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, and allows you to find housing (single-family homes, townhouses, mobile homes, and apartments) that that [sic] fits your needs.

    Or not.  From the Housing Choice Voucher Waiting List Portal

    We are sorry, but none of Virginia Housing waiting lists are currently open.

    That is the list for the entire Commonwealth.

    The program is broken. So, what is going on? (more…)

  • LifePoint Health Credit Ratings and Outlooks Signal Additional Challenges for its Virginia Hospitals

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    by

    sherlockj

    LifePoint’s Sovah Danville Hospital

    by James C. Sherlock

    One thing I watch about companies in industries I cover is the ratings and outlooks on their credit.

    In my experience, the SEC’S three largest nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs), Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch, tend to know as much about company finances as their boards do.

    Sometimes more.

    I recently wrote about management and staffing issues at Sovah Health hospitals in Danville and Martinsburg. Both are owned by privately held LifePoint Health, headquartered in Tennessee.

    Lifepoint also owns in Virginia:

    • Fauquier Hospital;
    • Clinch Valley Medical Center;
    • Twin County Regional Hospital; and
    • Wythe County Community Hospital.

    The rating agencies are not in love with LifePoint’s credit.

    Yes, it matters. (more…)

  • Personal Use of Campaign Funds–Some Clarifications

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    James Sherlock has posted an article accusing the General Assembly of being “the only state that allows candidates to raise unlimited funds and spend that money on personal expenses.” He bases that accusation on the defeat of two bills:  HB 1952 in 2021 and SB 1471 in 2023.

    The accusation is misleading and the issue is more complex than he acknowledges.

    Currently, Sec. 24.2-948.4 of the Code of Virginia has this language: “It shall be unlawful for any person to convert any contributed moneys, securities, or like intangible personal property to his personal use or to the use of a member of the candidate’s ‘immediate family’ as that term is defined in § 30-101.” If that language seems familiar, it is because it is the same language quoted by Jim as being in the 2021 and 2023 bills. (more…)

  • Virginia Municipal Bond Issuers Face Higher Costs for Borrowing

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    People learn — and relearn- – things over time about investing.

    One of the things they have learned over the past three years about investing in municipal bonds, as with all bonds, is that, having experienced the effects of inflation risk for the first time in decades, they will want a higher coupon next time.

    Issuing new ones, especially revenue bonds, is likely to prove significantly more expensive than in the past few decades.

    Tough market.

    That chart is a little tough to read, but it shows that the annualized return on Virginia municipal bonds over the past three-year period is 0.17%.

    Total return, tax adjusted, was down 7.36% in calendar year 2022.  If you were a seller, the market price was down 36%.

    Using the muni market to fund local government projects and even non-governmental projects like hospital expansions that have access to the muni market will be more expensive, at least for a while.

    So, of course, will labor, land, construction-equipment leasing, and construction products and materials.

    Reflecting the higher costs to issuers, U.S. municipal securities issuance dropped 20%, from $483 billion in FY 21 to $387 billion in FY 22, while trading volume, reflecting nervous investors, nearly doubled over the same period. (more…)

  • Public Corruption Transacted in Public

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Want that country club membership but don’t want to write the check for the initial membership fee?

    How about the down payment on a vacation home?

    Run for office in Virginia. Pay for it with campaign money. You don’t even have to win as long as you spend it during the campaign.

    And it’s legal.  Because it’s not illegal.  Just claim that both are meant to host campaign strategy sessions.  Donor confabs.  Anything.

    If you win, especially in one of Virginia’s single-party-dominated districts, you can do it every time you run.

    Sweet.

    Virginia is the only state that allows candidates to raise unlimited funds and spend that money on personal expenses. The only one.

    General Assembly Democrats and Republicans take turns killing legislation to change the law. Bipartisan at last.

    That is public corruption transacted in public.

    And they don’t care. (more…)

  • Richmond Gas Works Back on Energy Death Row?

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Pending Termination

    by Steve Haner

    The Richmond City Council member seeking to kill Richmond Gas Works is finally asking her colleagues to put some money behind her dream, seeking a budget amendment to pay for a study on a path to ending the government-owned utility.

    Thus reports Patrick Larsen of Virginia Public Media, who wrote (and presumably also broadcast) on March 31 about Councilwoman Katherine Jordan’s request for $200,000 to be added to the next Richmond budget. This is about 18 months after she sponsored a successful council resolution committing the city to an anti-fossil-fuel future that would include ending the provision of natural gas to its residents.

    The city natural gas monopoly also has the exclusive right to serve all of Henrico County, much of Chesterfield County and even a part of Hanover County. Along with residential and commercial customers it also serves several major industries using natural gas in their manufacturing processes. Those outside city lines have had no vote in electing Richmond’s City Council.

    No state law requires the city to maintain its natural gas service, but contractual and debt obligations could complicate an effort to shut down the utility without selling it to another provider. Selling the physical assets and territory to another provider, very much a viable option, would not advance the goal of eliminating the use of natural gas to heat homes, cook food or run factories. (more…)

  • News or Commentary? You Decide

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Washington Post leads its story about Governor Glenn Younkin’s comments on the indictment of former president Donald Trump this way:

    RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is famous for being just Trumpy enough to woo MAGA Republicans without alienating more moderate voters, but the former president’s indictment this week by a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments to an adult-film star found Youngkin leaping to Donald Trump’s defense.

    It goes on to quote Youngkin not as defending Trump but criticizing the New York district attorney who prosecuted him.

    ‘It is beyond belief that District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted a former President and current presidential candidate for pure political gain. Arresting a presidential candidate on a manufactured basis should not happen in America,’ Youngkin tweeted on his personal account Thursday night after the news broke. ‘The left’s continued attempts to weaponize our judicial system erode people’s faith in the American justice system and it needs to stop.’

    Reporters Gregory Schneider and Laura Vozzella proceed to quote tweets, emails and comments from five Youngkin critics, contrast Youngkin’s “forceful response” to the Trump indictment with his restrained response to Irvo Otieno’s death in a state mental health facility “in his own state,” and assert that the governor’s comment belies “his carefully crafted image as a zipped-up vest-wearing suburban moderate.”

    If this article had appeared in the op-ed section of The Washington Post, I would not have given it a second thought. But Schneider and Vozzella purport to report the “news.” (more…)

  • Move Over Covid: Sharks Are Back

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    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Great news!

    Sharks are swarming off the coast of the Outer Banks. Nine great whites so far. One, named Breton, is a 13-foot adult male weighing over 1,400 pounds according to a story in Saturday’s Virginian-Pilot.

    Why is this good news?

    Because it’s a sign that Covid is truly over. The general public may not be aware of this, but shark stories are a staple of digital news outlets because they generate thousands of clicks. Anyone else remember the summer of 2001? The news media were full of shark attack and Chandra Levy stories.

    Until the terrorist attacks of September 11 bumped the clickbait off the front pages, that is.

    We haven’t been reading a great deal about sharks for the past three years because the news media found something better to scare the bejabbers out of the public: “scary-new-variants-are-coming” and “Covid-isn’t-over” stories.

    Think about it: since 2020, anything with “Covid” in the headline — especially stories stoking the fear factor — were hot tickets for news outlets. The fact that newspapers, including the all-Covid-all-the-time New York Times, have finally ditched their tedious daily Covid tracking charts is a sign that the public long ago lost interest.

    In fact, Congress finally acted last week to terminate the executive emergency powers that the pandemic gave to Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

    The U.S. Senate voted 68-23 to officially end the Covid emergency, even though Biden planned to “wind it down” beginning May 11. Only 23 Senate knobturners voted against the measure, including the usual far-left suspects: Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker. (more…)

  • Alternative Energy Picking Up Steam

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    No matter how much some on this blog protest, the move to alternative energy sources is picking up momentum across the country.

    I was in South Carolina last week visiting my brother. Pictured is a large array of solar panels adjacent to a huge Walmart distribution center. An electrical co-op also had solar panels outside one of its administration buildings. These were in rural, western South Carolina, near the Georgia border. No one can accuse those folks of being woke, progressive Democrats. (more…)

  • Virginia Hospital Profits Soared Far Above National Averages – Again – in 2021

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    The Business of Healthcare

    by James C. Sherlock

    The predictions for hospital finances in 2021 forecast Armageddon. Then the actual financial data from 5,600 U.S. hospitals in 2021 were assessed.

    Based on those data the median operating margin for U.S. hospitals in 2021 was actually a loss of 1.5%. Meanwhile, the average operating margin for hospitals was a loss of 11.7%.

    Virginia hospitals blew those numbers away. Crushed them. Again.

    As they do every year.

    Newly posted state data show that the average 2021 operating margin in Virginia acute care hospitals was a positive 12.5% in 2021.

    I don’t know how many standard deviations that is, but it is a lot. We are finally number one in something to do with health care, but the bad news is that the money is paid by Virginians one way or another.

    If you lost that badly in a card game, you would think something was amiss.

    It is in this case. (more…)

  • How Orwellian Is “Student Conduct Software”?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    More than 1,300 educational institutions across the country use software developed by Charlottesville-based Maxient, which bills itself as the “industry leader” and “most trusted provider for incident reporting and behavior records management.” Clients include most of Virginia’s public institutions of higher education.

    The recent revelation in The CollegeFix and Wall Street Journal that the nation’s universities maintain consolidated files on student “behavior” is troubling to many, conjuring images of “Big Brother” college administrators compiling dossiers on students who commit microaggressions or otherwise transgress woke codes on speech and behavior.

    While it is clear (1) that most colleges have developed the capability to build such dossiers and (2) that many have integrated them with their “bias reporting” systems, concrete incidents of abuse have yet to surface. The fact is, little is known about how the software is being used. Only now are questions being asked.

    The Cadet, the independent student newspaper at the Virginia Military Institute, has taken an important first step in finding out. The Cadet submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to all public universities to determine how Maxient is being used. Some institutions — Longwood University and Mary Washington University — were particularly forthcoming. Some were not. Virginia Commonwealth University refused to hand over any documents or answer any questions, referring The Cadet to the university’s website.

    The Longwood and Mary Washington responses to The Cadet FOIA show the kinds of incidents that at least two public universities are putting into their “student conduct” databases. (more…)

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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