Bacon's Rebellion

  • Calls Increase for Judge Bennett’s Resignation

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    Adrianne Bennett

    by Scott Dreyer

    As reported here, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) recently released a scathing report on the former Virginia Parole Board scandal from early 2020. As documented in 69 pages, the former board repeatedly broke both laws and the board’s own procedures to illegally release many prisoners convicted of violent crimes, and failed to notify the victims’ families.

    The statute of limitations has since expired, so no members of that board will face any legal repercussions. One of those members was Roanoke City Mayor Sherman Lea Sr. (D). However, the former Chair of the Board, Adrianne Bennett, was later appointed to be a state judge in Virginia Beach before the parole board scandal became public knowledge.

    Seeking some accountability, Del. Chris Head (R-Botetourt/Roanoke) as reported here has called on Judge Bennett to resign due to what the OAG described as a pattern of illegality and endangerment to the public.

    Del. Head seems to be tapping into a large reservoir of voter ire. This frustration regards what to many appears to be a lack of accountability for political figures who do wrong and a two-tiered justice system that quickly punishes normal people but lets powerfully-connected individuals get off scot-free. (more…)

  • Suparna Dutta: Ilhan Omar is ‘Completely Unaware’

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    Suparna Gutta
    Photo credit: Education News

    by Asra Q. Nomani

    Awakening in the darkness of the predawn, brave Virginia mother Suparna Dutta spoke out on Fox and Friends First, challenging not only the hegemony of Democratic power over parents in Virginia but also the nation, as she fired back on not only Virginia Democrats who attacked her with the “white supremacist” smear but also Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who tried to gaslight parents this week in the U.S. Congress.

    Omar claimed in a congressional committee hearing she was “unaware” of school boards ignoring parents. Suparna fired back and said Omar is a “completely unaware” politician if she hasn’t see the evidence in school districts around the country of parents treated “like dirt.”

    This is Omar’s first serious emergence in the debate over parental rights and reveals how the Woke Army of Islamists working with leftists is going to see cracks in their ranks if they keep trying to sideline parents.

    Are Omar’s Islamist supporters going to accept schools keeping secrets from them about their children’s pronouns? You can bet the answer is no.

    In fact, Omar needs look no further than her own state and her own congressional district where Muslim parents with immigrant backgrounds from Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, her native Somalia and elsewhere are demanding their rights at fiery school board meetings. One parent is Shukri Abdrirahman @ShuForCongress, a religiously conservative Muslim immigrant mother from Somalia in Minnesota, who opposes the new age-inappropriate sexual books being taught in schools. Shukri ran as a Republican against Omar and she is building awareness now in Minnesota among her Somali-American community over how the alliance of Muslims with Democrats — embodied in people like Omar — ignores the values of parental rights sacred in immigrant communities. Stay tuned for more on Shukri’s efforts.

    Watch Suparna’s interview with ToddPiro@ToddPiro to see that the Woke Army may have won a vote to oust Suparna from the Virginia Board of Education but they have just empowered a mother to fight even harder against their tyranny.

    Parents around the world are cheering you, Suparna! Send her a note of support if you’d like to at [email protected].

    This column is republished with permission from Asra Investigates. 

  • Del. Chris Head Calls for Controversial Judge Adrianne Bennett to Resign

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Scott Dreyer

    In a bold move, Valley legislator Del. Chris Head (R-Botetourt/Roanoke) has called on controversial judge Adrianne Bennett to resign her position.

    Bennett was formerly the Chair of the Virginia State Parole Board. During March and April 2020, when most people were distracted if not paralyzed by fear from the new Covid pandemic, Bennett led the Board to release an unprecedented number of prisoners and broke countless laws and procedures by doing so. As news of that scandal began to go public, The Roanoke Star ran an August 19, 2020 commentary.

    However, before the news became public, Bennett resigned from the Parole Board and was appointed by the General Assembly to be a state judge in Virginia Beach, a position she still occupies. However, for unknown reasons, Judge Bennett has recently not been hearing cases or presiding over trials. (more…)

  • Woke Army Puts American Hindu Mom in its Crosshairs

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    Fairfax journalist Asra Q. Normani continues her remarkable reporting on the Virginia Senate’s refusal to endorse Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s nomination of Suparna Dutta to the state Board of Education. Dutta is a brave immigrant mother who has advocated for the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, democracy and meritocracy.

    Read all about it at Asra Investigates.

  • Focus on the Standard Deduction, QBI Deduction

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    We tried to tell everyone. Indexing the tax code for inflation is wildly popular, but it’s not in the pending package.

    We have seen this before in Virginia and here we go again: the classic conflict between tax cuts for the many versus more government spending for a few.

    The Republican-dominated House of Delegates has passed a series of broad tax reductions, while the Democratic-dominated Virginia Senate has killed its versions of the same bills.  Last Sunday the Senate then produced a budget proposal about $1 billion richer in funds for education, mental health services and other poll-tested priorities.

    Killing the tax bills creates even more revenue to spend in future years, billions more. (more…)

  • Gubernatorial Appointment Politics At Work

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Suparna Dutta
    Photo credit: Education News

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Last year, Republicans in the General Assembly rejected three of former Governor Northam’s appointments to the State Board of Education, giving Governor Glenn Youngkin the opportunity to appoint a majority of the members of that board. Last night, Senate Democrats partially returned the favor by rejecting one of Youngkin’s appointees

    That rejected member was Suparna Dutta, a co-founder of the Coalition for TJ, and a fierce critic of the new admissions policy for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County. In an unusual development, her rejection did not result as an amendment from the Committee on Privileges and Elections, as is usually the case. Apparently, opposition to her had been brewing since the committee reported the bill (SB 276) and her name was deleted from the bill on a floor amendment offered by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield). It passed on a party line vote of 22-18. (more…)

  • Mental Health and Virginia Public Schools – Part 1 – Progressives, School Closures and Child Mental Health

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    by

    sherlockj

    By James C. Sherlock

    Credit JAMA Pediatrics, April 6, 2020

    We have arrived today at a situation in which huge percentages of Virginia children and adolescents exhibit mental health problems.

    Both sides of the political divide acknowledge the problem.

    It’s existence is not up for debate.

    Both blame the soaring pediatric mental health issues, a problem before COVID, on COVID school shutdowns that caused children to lose foundational developmental experiences that depend in part on socialization in schools and in part on interpersonal relationships with friends, both of which were profoundly interrupted.

    Both sides acknowledge that minorities suffered worse than white kids.

    That is where the agreements end.

    Conservatives blame the disparate mental health impacts largely on easily observable inappropriate responses to COVID insisted upon by progressives and executed for far too long in progressive-run school divisions — in which minority children are mostly educated in America and in Virginia.

    Progressives, by dogma never acknowledging agency in any problem, have actively tried to blame those same disparate impacts on institutional racism.

    The facts are on the conservative side.

    This article will show what progressives did and the results.  Progressive dogma was the cause of extended school closures.  Both the closures and disparate impacts happened disproportionately in progressive school divisions and progressive states.

    So progressives closed the schools, closed them disproportionately on minority kids and now bemoan the outcomes of those closures as artifacts of systemic racism.

    It reminds one of the story of the young man who killed his parents and asked the judge for leniency because he was an orphan.

    It takes some combination of denial, an assumption that people who hear those claims are idiots, and Olympic-level audacity.

    Racism, unless it was progressive racism, had nothing to do with it.

    (more…)

  • IEPs Are Not a License for Violent Behavior at School

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Kerry Dougherty

    It may be time to rethink the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which was signed into law in 1990 by then-President George H. W. Bush.

    If the late president had known that some school officials would use a wrinkle in this law to keep psychopaths in the classroom I wonder if he would have signed it.

    IDEA entitled students to a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment possible. It meant kids with physical, mental and emotional disabilities could get individualized learning plans and ideally have an education tailored to their needs.

    It’s a well-intended piece of legislation built on several earlier laws that also attempted to give those with disabilities the same opportunities as other children for a free public education. It appears that IDEA may have been expanded to mean that a child with an IEP has a license to be disruptive and even violent while teachers are powerless to get them out of class. If that’s the case, well, it’s time to narrow the law.

    Or scrap it. (more…)

  • Virginia Senate Approves Early-Release Bill for Many Inmates

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Hans Bader

    The Virginia Senate has voted 24 to 15 to approve SB 842, the so-called “second look” bill. If it becomes law, inmates who have been in prison for 15 years or more could ask to be released, or ask for a reduction in their sentences. Originally, the bill applied to inmates of all types, but it was amended in the Senate Finance Committee to exclude first-degree murderers. Inmates released under second look legislation tend to be murderers (such as second-degree and first-degree murderers), although Oregon’s second look law excludes a few “aggravated” murders.

    In 2022, the Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate passed an earlier version of the second look bill by a 25 to 15 vote, but it then died in a subcommittee of the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. That earlier bill was broader than this year’s bill in one way (it did not exclude even first-degree murderers such as serial killers) but narrower in another respect (it required inmates to meet specified “behavioral standards” in prison be released, which is not true of SB 842).

    This bill faces an uncertain future in the House of Delegates. On the one hand, the bill is supported by many well-funded progressive interest groups with multi-million-dollar budgets, such as the ACLU, and supporters of the bill have massively out-lobbied opponents of the bill. On the other hand, it is opposed by the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, which most House Republicans pay attention to. And most Republicans already oppose the bill. (more…)

  • Fairfax SAT Scores Fall 27 Points Since 2018

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Arthur Purves

    When my wife and I were looking for a home in Fairfax County 50 years ago, we asked the real estate agent how the schools were. “Excellent!” she replied.

    But today? The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Oct. 5, 2022, press release on 2022 SAT scores shows that between 2018 and 2022 the average FCPS SAT score fell 27 points, from 1212 to 1185. The last time FCPS SAT scores decreased over a five-year period was 1989-1993, and the decrease was one point.

    The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance (FCTA) emailed FCPS School Board Chair Rachna Sizemore Heizer to ask why SAT scores decreased. She forwarded our question to the Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services, who replied that, “… five-year trends for mean SAT scores are down globally since 2018, a pattern consistent in Virginia and FCPS.”

    However, the FCPS press release itself says that Virginia SAT scores increased 14 points while FCPS scores fell 27 points. So, the FCTA replied to Chair Sizemore Heizer with this correction and again asked why FCPS SAT scores decreased.

    Two weeks have passed without an answer. (more…)

  • Affordable Housing For Some

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Henrico County library at Libby Mill

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    In the discussion over the shortage of “affordable” housing, one could point to one company that could be considered the cause of the disappearance of a lot of the affordable housing stock in the Richmond area:  Gumenick Properties.

    The company has redeveloped an 80-acre tract it owned near Broad St. on the Henrico/Richmond boundary to include apartment buildings; commercial space, including restaurants and fitness centers; and a large, state-of-the-art public library (Henrico County).  As reported in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, the company is ready to construct its third large apartment complex on the property.  It will consist of 398 units, ranging from studios to three bedroom apartments.  The rents for its current complexes, which have a maximum of two bedrooms, range from $1,400 to $2,700.  It is reasonable to expect the three-bedroom units to exceed this maximum. (more…)

  • Where Is the VEA on School Safety?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Greetings from sunny Costa Rica, the well-run Central American nation that bears less resemblance these days to a banana republic than to the United States!

    Costa Rica dedicates some 7% of its GDP to education, according to Wikipedia, and its population is 97% literate, which, if you think about it, might be higher than the literacy rate of the U.S. I wonder if Costa Ricans have the same kinds of scandals in their schools that we do in Virginia.

    I am prompted to such musing by a recent article in The Virginian-Pilot, which reported allegations that the infamous six-year-old terror of Richneck Elementary School in Newport News who shot his teacher had previously choked another teacher “until she couldn’t breathe.”

    It has been amply demonstrated by now that the Newport News public school system had done an atrocious job of keeping its teachers safe. Which raises yet another question, which I have not seen asked anywhere: Where is the Virginia Education Association, the organization that purportedly fights for better  working conditions for teachers? (more…)

  • Joe Morrissey Banned from Henrico Jails

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    Joe Morrissey

    by Jeanine Martin

    Last weekend Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) was banned from two Henrico County jails when he brought his three young children to Regional Jail West and refused to supervise them. His ban lasts for 90 days.

    Morrissey came to the jail to introduce one of his incarcerated constituents to an attorney who would represent him. He left his 3 young children in the lobby of the jail with crayons and paper on which to color. Sheriffs at the jail informed the senator that rules require all children in the jail be supervised by an adult. (more…)

  • Roller Coaster Casino Ride

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Jon Baliles

    The road to a casino in the General Assembly is on a roller coaster ride that is careening down the hill and likely to jump the tracks at any minute. Last week alone, the bill that would allow a casino referendum in Petersburg and block a second one in Richmond until Petersburg has a chance has taken the following ride:

    • Cleared a Finance General Laws subcommittee on a 7-2 vote on January 26;
    • Cleared a Senate General Laws committee on a 11-4 vote Wednesday;
    • Failed in a Senate Finance committee on a 7-8 vote Thursday evening;
    • Cleared a House of Delegates General Laws subcommittee on a 5-2 vote on Tuesday;
    • Cleared a House of Delegates General Laws committee vote 7-4 on Thursday;
    • Cleared the House of Delegates Appropriations committee 11-9 on Friday afternoon.

    So what’s next? Well, there are three possibilities: (1) the bill dies because the House and Senate won’t find a suitable compromise, which means the Petersburg proposal could vanish and Richmond gets another referendum; (2) the Petersburg referendum is inserted into the final budget language (as it was last year) and their referendum will proceed and Richmond’s put on hold; or (3) the zombie apocalypse will commence.

    Personally, I’m rooting for the apocalypse. (more…)

  • A Sharper Image

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Jim McCarthy

    Bacon’s Rebellion has crested to the fully emancipated age of 21 (birthed in 2002). It seems appropriate now that the platform assume some contemporary dress to revitalize its imprint and impact upon state, regional, and local public policy as a “non-aligned portal” in Virginia’s (indeed the world’s) eyes.

    For some years, conservatives have enjoyed utilizing a kind of Morse code (perhaps Esperanto is more apt) to depict foes on the left with pejoratives – libwits, snowflakes, among a few – which sadly lost their cachet in a short time. A search on the Bacon Rebellion’s site reveals that the term “woke’ has not been prominently featured since an article on December 19, 2022, suggesting perhaps a high-water mark for the term.

    At the same time, the Republican National Committee, following its recent meeting in California, announced an effort to rejuvenate “election integrity’ as a campaign theme for 2024, likely to complement emerging proposals from its U.S. House majority to force spending reductions. While strict adherence to traditional values is highly treasured, free market competition demands change. The following is offered as an updated masthead for BR:

    The raffish, roguish gent hints at an early 20th century iconography, sufficiently ethno-American to satisfy enduring conservative tastes. The addition of a “Sister Sheila” companion for universal audience acceptance might also be in order.

    Jim McCarthy, a former New York attorney, resides in Northern Virginia.

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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