Bacon's Rebellion

  • Betrayal

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    A joyful man and woman with developmental disabilities embracing and smiling together, showcasing a moment of friendship and happiness.
    Credit: Healthy Place https://www.healthyplace.com/neurodevelopmental-disorders/intellectual-disability/intellectual-disability-causes-and-characteristics

    by James C. Sherlock

    This will be the first of a series of reports on the scandalous failures of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) in its stewardship of Virginia’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in matters affecting the safety and health of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

    The programs that started in 1991 in response to the ADA serve more Virginians daily than Virginia’s nursing homes do.

    Virginia and DBHDS have been subject to a series of federal court orders aimed at improving compliance with the ADA in these programs, beginning with a 2012 settlement agreement.  DOJ returned to court to seek enforcement with performance measures in 2020.  Settlement-compliant Virginia regulations were enacted that same year.  A permanent injunction in 2025 dissolved the settlement agreement and required compliance with the performance measures going forward. Failure continues today.  

    Readers will see three pieces of evidence against DBHDS and thus the Commonwealth:   

    1. a Fiscal Impact Statement for a bill currently before the General Assembly that reports what DBHDS does not currently do;
    2. a December 2025 report on unexplained deaths in the system by the disAbility Law Center of Virginia; and
    3. A report issued that same month by the court-appointed federal monitor showed that, after 14 years since the settlement agreement, DBHDS has met the specified goals for just three of the Consent Decree and Permanent Injunction’s 29 Terms.  And that report did not even mention the deaths or the failures to levy sanctions.

    The overwhelming impression is malfeasance.  The author has no other idea how these things can be true.  The scope and details of the betrayal of the court orders, the IDD community, and taxpayers portrayed below are stunning.   

    Finally, the bill for these programs has been paid entirely by Medicaid since 1991.  Most of Medicaid money comes from the federal government.  Virginia Medicaid’s stewardship of those funds is clearly in question.

    The author expects the Commonwealth to be summoned to federal court in Richmond for violating the injunction.  The Attorney General will have to defend.  He is also responsible for investigating Medicaid fraud.  In this case, it is hard to see how he can do both.

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  • March RGGI Carbon Tax Jumped 26% in One Year

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    We can use this RGGI member map again, with Virginia now back in as soon as can be arranged.

    The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) held its first carbon allowance auction of 2026 Wednesday and the price came in at just under $25 per ton of emissions, 26% higher than a year ago. There should be no doubt now about predictions that imposing this carbon tax on Virginia electricity plants will cost them $550 million or more per year once Virginia is again a full member.  

    What the tax costs the electricity producers will then be paid by their customers, one way or another. In returning Virginia to this interstate trading compact the General Assembly imposed no barrier on the utilities or independent producers simply passing the cost on to energy buyers. Raising the price of hydrocarbon-fueled power is the whole point of RGGI.

    The price of an allowance has basically doubled since Virginia last participated in this exercise, from 2021 through 2023. If Dominion Energy Virginia goes back to collecting the tax with a direct charge on its monthly bills, what was just over $4 per month three years ago for a 1,000 kilowatt hour user will likely be $7 per month or more in 2027.

    The $24.99 auction price was slightly lower than the $26.73 bidders paid in the December 2025 auction. March’s price was held in check by RGGI releasing 7.8 million allowances it had held back in a cost containment reserve (CCR). It did the same a year ago, releasing more than 8 million allowances from the CCR in the March auction, draining its reserve for that year.

    The acceleration in the allowance price, really a tax per ton of emissions, is bound to continue. It happens by design. It was $7.60 per ton during Virginia’s first auction just five years ago and was $24.99 per ton Wednesday. If that trend continues (almost 230% growth in five years), in March 2031 the auction price will be approaching $60 per ton of CO2. 

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  • Albemarle Schools Policy Violates Free Speech

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    James A. Bacon

    Last night the Albemarle County School Board voted 5 to 1 to adopt a policy prohibiting student organizations said to promote or endorse violence, harassment or hatred. Critics noted that the policy would be used to ban noncurricular student organizations. including TPUSA, from hosting guest speakers during the school day. Here follows a letter (minus footnotes) submitted yesterday by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression to the school board. — JAB

    A young man with short hair and a surprised expression, wearing a white shirt and a tie, has his mouth gagged with a piece of cloth.
    Image credit: Grok

    The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan nonprofit that defends free speech nationwide, is concerned by proposed revisions to the Albemarle County School Board’s policy governing student activities and organizations. As written, the amended policy would violate the First Amendment, which protects students’ right to free expression. The
    proposal also follows controversy surrounding a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) club’s speaker invitation, raising serious concerns that the Board is targeting the group because of its views or the views of its guest speakers. FIRE calls on the Board to reject the proposed revisions and to respect and uphold students’ First Amendment rights.

    I. Factual Background

    Last September, the TPUSA chapter at Western Albemarle High School (WAHS) arranged to host guest speaker Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation, at a regular lunchtime meeting for an event titled “Two Genders, One Truth.” WAHS Principal Jennifer Sublette initially ordered
    the club to cancel the event because the topic was too “complex,” “controversial,” and “mature.”

    The Founding Freedoms Law Center then wrote Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) to object to the cancellation, explaining that it constituted unlawful viewpoint discrimination. The letter observed that another student organization—the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club—was permitted to hold lunchtime meetings addressing related issues from an opposing perspective.

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  • NY Court Strikes Down Section 8 Housing Mandate

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    The ruling casts doubt on similar law in Virginia.

    by Hans Bader

    A judge in a courtroom strikes a gavel on a sound block, conveying authority and decision-making.
    Bringing down the hammer. Image credit: Chap GPT

    Virginia attorney general Jay Jones is being sued over a Virginia law that bans landlords from discriminating against people who use federal housing vouchers to pay their rent. Landlords often don’t like accepting those vouchers because they have to waive their Fourth Amendment privacy rights against warrantless inspections and deal with burdensome government red tape.

    Requiring landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers is unconstitutional. A state appeals court in New York has reluctantly struck down a similar law in New York state, finding it violates the Fourth Amendment. The New York Times reports:

    A New York State appeals court on Thursday invalidated a key protection for low-income tenants, ruling that a state law that bars landlords from discriminating against people who use federal housing vouchers to pay rent is unconstitutional.

    The unanimous ruling, by a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division’s Third Judicial Department, acknowledged that the goal of the law was “laudable”…But the court sided with the landlord who had appealed the case, asserting that requiring him to accept vouchers under the federal program commonly known as Section 8 violated his constitutional rights.

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  • A Tale of Two Rallies

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    One was the best of rallies, one was the worst of rallies

    A diverse group of people standing together outdoors, some holding flags, with their hands over their hearts, expressing solidarity and unity.

    by John A. Lucas

    This weekend I attended two rallies in Richmond, Virginia. Both claimed to support freedom for the Iranian people. But, to borrow further from Charles Dickens’ contrasting images of Two Cities, one stood for darkness with a platform of hatred, anarchy and antisemitism. The other symbolized light, even wisdom. One exuded despair; the other marked an unprecedented alliance that bore hope for the future.

    I will offer some observations of both rallies. You can judge which of the descriptions in A Tale of Two Cities descriptions fit either of them.

    The Saturday rally

    The first rally was on Saturday in Richmond‘s Monroe Park. It was sponsored by the local “Party for Socialism and Liberation,” i.e., the PSL, with funding by the “Answer Coalition,” among others. Broadly speaking, it was characterized by opposition to the ongoing Operation Epic Fury, hatred of everything about the American system, and virulent anti-Semitism.

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  • A Slippery Slope Down to Dark Backroom Deals

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    by

    Steve Haner

    by Chris Braunlich

    Unless Virginia voters reject the constitutional amendment on the ballot April 21, gerrymandering will return to Virginia.

    Five years ago, 66% of Virginia voters — 2.8 million Virginians — approved a bipartisan redistricting constitutional amendment ending gerrymandering. The result was a map that is widely regarded as one of the fairest in the country. The new proposal, however, for which early voting is now taking place, restores gerrymandering, sending Virginia back down a slippery slope to the dark days of backroom deals.

    The original “gerrymander,” after all, doesn’t look all that more contorted than the new Seventh Congressional District proposed for Virginia. The accusation fits.

    Opposed by The Washington Post and a majority of Virginians, ridiculed by former Democratic Senator Chap Petersen as “Destroying Democracy in order to save it,” the new amendment was rushed into play, to be voted on in a special election when no one is paying attention, to replace something that works.

    Although the Redistricting Commission’s 2021 launch was uneven, the amendment’s backup plan — a Special Master appointed by the courts — worked spectacularly … so much so that the Princeton Gerrymandering Project rated the final outcome an “A.”

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  • Terror at ODU: We Don’t Have to Live Like This.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    One ODU professor is dead and two ROTC students were injured Thursday, shot by an Islamic jihadist while attending class.

    The shooter?

    Mohamed Jalloh, a naturalized American citizen from Sierra Leone who traveled to Africa on three separate occasions in 2015 to join ISIS.

    Instead of being executed for treason, as he should have been, Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in 2017, which means he should still be behind bars. Instead, he was sprung early, reportedly by a Biden-appointed judge. Continue reading.

  • Social Breakdown Update: the ODU Shooting

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A smiling military officer in full camouflage uniform stands outdoors, surrounded by trees and greenery, with a message of gratitude and remembrance displayed on the image.

  • Social Breakdown Update…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • “Affordability” Update: College Tuition

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • March 12, 2020. Our First Day in Covid Hell.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    A creative image depicting a merger between a virus structure and a man's face, suggesting a connection to health or the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Image credit: Grok

    Never forget what happened six years ago today. And how power-drunk despots like former Gov. Ralph Northam used a pandemic – and phony science – to stomp all over the constitutionally protected rights of Virginians.

    It could happen again. You’ve been warned.

    Yep, it was March 12, 2020, when Northam declared a state of emergency because of the covid 19 virus.

    That was quickly followed by Executive Order 51, the first in a long succession of increasingly restrictive – and nonsensical – rules spit out by a midwit in the Governor’s Mansion.

    The state of emergency was supposed to expire on June 10, 2020. It was finally lifted on June 31, 2021.

    By then, businesses had closed, many for good. The sick had died alone, without the comfort of loved ones in their final hours. Alzheimer patients withered away, lost in their memory centers where no one visited them and everyone wore masks. School children fell hopelessly behind in their studies. Children as young as five were forced to wear face diapers. Sobriety ended for many who relied on daily in-person AA meetings.

    And churches were shuttered after Northam blamed church attendance on the spread of the virus. Continue reading.

  • Collective Bargaining Will Only Further Divide Virginia’s Universities

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Derrick A. Max

    A group of protesters holding signs and flags advocating for workers' rights and Palestinian freedom, gathered in front of a building.
    Image credit: Grok

    Cardinal News ran my guest column this morning warning that collective bargaining at Virginia’s public universities will only further deepen the political divides that are undermining Virginia’s once esteemed system of higher education.

    The push to unionize university workers in Virginia is not about increased pay, better working conditions, or fairness. Beneath the rhetoric it is clear this debate is about reshaping how universities are governed, embedding a radical woke agenda in university leadership, and how Virginia will adjust to the most challenging period coming for modern higher education. 

    Demographers have long warned about a coming “enrollment cliff.” Beginning later this decade, the number of college-age students will decline sharply due to falling birth rates following the Great Recession. Colleges across the country are already preparing for fewer applicants, greater competition for students, and tightening budgets. Smaller colleges are already closing or seeking ways to merge with more stable institutions.

    At the same time, higher education costs have been rising far faster than inflation for decades. Tuition increases are driven largely by labor and administrative costs — the largest components of university budgets.

    (more…)

  • UVA Bizarro World Update

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    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Nuts & Bolts: Modernizing State Cyber-Security

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A pile of rusty nuts and bolts resting on a wooden surface.

    At least three Virginia government entities — Albemarle County, Gloucester County, and the Office of the Attorney General — were subjected to ransomware attacks in 2025. In my most recent Oinkonomics podcast, Secretary of Finance Steve Cummings touched upon the Youngkin administration’s approach to cyber-security. — JAB

    Cummings: My former life was a banker. My last stop was I was CEO of a $6 billion revenue bank owned by the Japanese, highly regulated by the Fed, by the OCC, by the SEC. And I spent most of my regulatory time on cyber. And as you can imagine, that is top of the priority list. If you look at finance, what I would say to everybody as I was pulling my team together, hey, folks, we’re going to do things differently. We are the bank. We collect the revenues. We manage those funds when they come in to optimize them, and we pay all the bills through DOA.

    Why do you rob a bank? It’s because where the money is. We are the number one target. And we had those three agencies, which is the core, all doing it differently, completely independently, different tools, different standards, different tracking, and at much different levels of maturity of execution. So, I said, I don’t care what you say about the incidents. We got to get this fixed.

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  • Dems to Vote Selves 278% Pay Raise 

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Scott Dreyer

    The Democrat-led General Assembly voted in recent days to raise the salary for State Delegates and Senators to $50,000 per year.

    Virginia has always had a General Assembly made of part-time legislators. The idea was for them to have their primary jobs back at home, and their service in the legislature in Richmond was designed to occupy only a few weeks per year, with a modest stipend in accordance with that limited time.

    The move to grant themselves salaries of $50,000 per year is already more than many Virginians make at their full-time jobs working year-round.

    The Democrats ran on “affordability” as a major platform during the fall 2025 campaign.

    The nearly 300% raises were passed on largely party lines, with Republicans opposing. Having passed both houses of the General Assembly, the measure now needs to be signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to become law.

    Per state law, legislators cannot vote themselves a pay raise during the same session as their vote. There must be a new election before the pay raise can take effect, therefore the 278% pay raise would not take effect until 2028.

    Delegates are currently paid $17,650 a year; senators $18,000. Under the proposed increase, that would nearly triple to $50,000 a year for each.

    (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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