Bacon's Rebellion

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

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    LifePointโ€™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 SECโ€™S three largest nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs), Moodyโ€™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 LifePointโ€™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 โ€œthe only state that allows candidates to raise unlimited funds and spend that money on personal expenses.โ€ He bases that accusation on the defeat of two bills:ย  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: โ€œIt 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 ยง 30-101.โ€ 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. ย 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 donโ€™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 donโ€™t even have to win as long as you spend it during the campaign.

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

    If you win, especially in one of Virginiaโ€™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.ย 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 donโ€™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 Jordanโ€™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 Richmondโ€™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

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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 โ€” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is famous for being just Trumpy enough to woo MAGA Republicans without alienating more moderate voters, but the former presidentโ€™sย indictmentย this week by a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush-money payments to an adult-film star found Youngkin leaping to Donald Trumpโ€™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 tweetedย on his personal account Thursday night after the news broke. ‘The leftโ€™s continued attempts to weaponize our judicial system erode peopleโ€™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

    Posted on

    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 Saturdayโ€™s Virginian-Pilot.

    Why is this good news?

    Because itโ€™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 havenโ€™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: โ€œscary-new-variants-are-comingโ€ and โ€œCovid-isnโ€™t-overโ€ stories.

    Think about it: since 2020, anything with โ€œCovidโ€ 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 โ€œwind it downโ€ 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

    by

    sherlockj

    The Business of Healthcare

    by James C. Sherlock

    The predictions for hospital finances in 2021 forecast Armageddon.ย 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 donโ€™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”?

    Posted on

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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…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From the Bull Elephant

  • Continuing Turmoil at Danville and Martinsville Hospitals Raises Questions of Oversight – Again

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Sovah Health Danville Hospital

    by James C. Sherlock

    Beckers Hospital Review reports that Sovah Health hospitals in Danville and Martinsville have eliminated the Chief Operating Officer (COO) positions at both hospitals.

    Sovah announced that the responsibilities of those two positions will now be absorbed by “other members of the existing team.” Whatever that may mean.

    Management turmoil at Sovah is hardly a new issue. But those changes just never seem to work.

    Not even a little.

    The timing and structure of these current changes are especially unusual given Sovah’s plea agreement with the Food and Drug Administration that is still in force. Seems employees were dealing drugs from the hospital supply.

    Similarly unusual, unfortunate actually, are the weak-to-non-existent oversight activities of the Virginia Department of Health and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

    You read that right.

    Sovah Danville is a teaching hospital. (more…)

  • Free Speech and Open Inquiry Are “Non-Negotiable”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Aimee Guidera, Secretary of Education

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin made a national name for himself by standing up for parents’ rights in public education. His administration has engaged in bruising battles over transgender policy, critical race theory, and educational standards in K-12 schools. His approach to higher-ed issues has been far less contentious. Other than fighting for a year-long freeze in college tuition & fees, which he won, Youngkin’s higher-ed policy has generated few headlines.

    That doesn’t mean Youngkin has neglected higher education. Rather than take a confrontational approach, such as seen in Florida and North Carolina, the governor is trying to work within the system. In a keynote address delivered to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) Friday, Amy Guidera, Virginia’s Secretary of Education, described the administration’s philosophy.

    The purpose of higher education is to equip students to become more productive and constructive members of society, Guidera said. Allowing free speech, free inquiry and intellectual diversity is critical to achieving the larger goal. It is important, she said, for students to “be confronted with ideas and beliefs [they] have never encountered before.”

    Rather than enact legislation, Youngkin has chosen to work with the Council of Presidents, comprised of the presidents of Virginia’s public colleges and universities. He has met with the Council every quarter, something that no previous governor did, Guidera said. In those meetings he has been clear about his support for “a culture of free expression.” (more…)

  • Alumni Rising

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    If you’re heartsick at how your alma mater is turning into an incubator of intolerance and hate, you are not powerless. You can organize and push back just as the alumni of The University of Virginia, Washington & Lee University, the Virginia Military Institute, and James Madison University are doing. This eight-minute video produced by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) — in which yours truly plays a brief role — describes the rise of the alumni movement across the United States.

    Local alumni groups have banded together in the Alumni Free Speech Alliance to share tactics and strategies. AFSA provides resources, checklists, and mentors to help you launch an alumni group at your alma mater. No need to reinvent the wheel.

    You can ignore the culture wars, but the culture wars won’t ignore you. The social justice warriors in our institutions of higher education have declared their intention to fundamentally transform every institution in our society. You can sit by, do nothing, and find American society unrecognizable 20 years from now, or you can get off your butt. Visit the AFSA website now. — JAB

  • New Rule: He (or She) Who Shouts the Loudest and Uses the Most Curse Words Wins

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    This exchange took place at Virginia Commonwealth University during the Students for Life at VCU event. Everyone in the VCU community should be hanging their head in shame at the how the VCU student conducts herself.

    VCU alumni, are you going to let this slide? Regardless of where you stand on abortion, is this how we as a society are going to “debate” contentious issues? Time for alumni to assert themselves. Time to organize. Time to tell President Michael Rao that this kind of behavior is disgraceful and unacceptable.

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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