Bacon's Rebellion

  • 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

    Posted on

    by

    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

    Posted on

    by

    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

    by

    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

    Posted on

    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.

  • Violent Transgender Activists and Antifa Agitators Shut Down Pro-Life Event at VCU

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Michael Ippolito

    Violent transgender activists and Antifa agitators interrupted the final Students for Life โ€œLies Pro-Choicers Believeโ€ Tour at Virginia Commonwealth University on Wednesday and shut the event down.

    Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkinsโ€™ and student ambassador Isabel Brownโ€™s speaking tour concluded at the Richmond public university in violence as police arrested protesters and forced the speakers to leave.

    โ€œWe were deeply disappointed in how campus and city police handled the incident as First Amendment rights were trampled upon and physical attacks were made due to inaction,โ€ Students for Life press strategist and staff writer Caroline Wharton told The Daily Signal. โ€œPro-life speech is free speech and should have been firmly defended as such, especially at a public university.โ€ (more…)

  • Free Speech Under Assault Across Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Threats to freedom of speech grow by the day in the Old Dominion. Consider the latest news stories:

    • VCU Protesters broke up a speechย by pro-life activist Kristan Hawkins with chants and obscenities. Two pro-lifers suffered minor injuries in a fight that broke out. VCU police broke up the fight but canceled the event.
    • More than 7,000 faculty and students at George Mason University have signed a petition to disinvite Governor Glenn Youngkin from delivering the university’s commencement address.
    • Matt Walsh, a conservative pundit critical of the trans movement, has postponed a speech at Washington & Lee, where a campaign to disinvite him had taken root.

    Of these, the most worrisome for Virginians is the VCU protest. GMU President Gregory Washington has held firm so far on the commencement invitation, so it appears that Governor Younkin will not be canceled. And it appears that Walsh’s decision was influenced by death threats arising from the deadly shootings at a Christian school in Nashville, where he lives, not from anything happening at W&L. But there is no avoiding the fact that the enemies of free speech are getting bolder and more assertive.

    The VCU incident was the most disgraceful, and it sets a new low in Virginia. (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • The Elephant in the Room Has a Welcome Sense of Humor

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    University of Virginia President James Ryan announced today that he oversaw an important effort to solve one of the Universityโ€™s most pressing problems.

    No, not anything you can imagine.

    He announced that he and, of course, a committee, have officially changed the logo of that school from UVA to … wait for it … UV.

    Thus potentially making Mincer’s perhaps the most profitable small business in Virginia over the next few years.

    Not only would they get to mark up the price of their current inventory of UVA logo sportswear to reflect its now-collectors-item status.

    But they would get to sell everyone the new stuff.

    But, then again, it is April 1st.

    The video.

    Good for Ryan.

    Just not nearly as good as it would have been for Mincerโ€™s.

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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