Bacon's Rebellion

  • Virginia Beach Throws Millions At the Family of Donovon Lynch

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Oh, look.

    Virginia Beach just agreed to make the family of the late Donovon Lynch millionaires. The city announced Tuesday that the Lynch estate is getting $3 million. The city council approved the payout.
    You remember Lynch, don’t you? He was the 25-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer during an oceanfront orgy of violence and gunfights on the night of March 26, 2021.

    That bloody Friday night left the Beach resort strip looking like a “war zone” and saw 10 people shot, two fatally, including Lynch.

    Lynch was African-American and so was the officer who shot him, so there’s no unarmed-black-man-killed-by-white-cop narrative for local members of the media to push.

    The officer who was involved claimed that he believed Lynch was racking a gun at the time he fired his service revolver in self-defense.

    Lynch’s father sued the city for $50 million in a wrongful death suit that alleged the officer’s actions amounted to gross negligence and that he used excessive force.

    It’s worth noting that the special grand jury that investigated the shooting disagreed. In fact, the grand jury determined that no crime had been committed and furthermore that the officer acted “in justifiable self-defense.” (more…)

  • UVa Law Rejects U.S. News Ranking Methodology

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    James A. Bacon

    Lemming

    by James A. Bacon

    The University of Virginia School of Law has announced that it will no longer cooperate with U.S. News & World Report in compiling its ranking of top law schools. The school currently ranks No. 8 in the country.

    Here’s the reason given by Dean Risa Goluboff: “As they currently stand, the U.S. News rankings fail to capture much of what we value at UVA — facilitating access to legal education and the legal profession for students from every background; fostering the free exchange of ideas within a community of joy, humanity, and trust; providing top-notch teaching by accomplished faculty; supporting public service; and launching our graduates into the stellar career paths of their choosing.”

    I’ll leave it to others to comment upon the law school’s commitment to “fostering the free exchange of ideas” and probe the meaning of the modifier that such an exchange should take place “within a community of joy, humanity, and trust.”

    I’ll focus instead on Goluboff’s commitment to facilitating access to legal education for students “from every background.” (more…)

  • And They Wonder Why Teachers Are Quitting

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Last year, a Loudoun County teacher refused to abide by the school board’s policy regarding the use of pronouns when referring to students. The school board made the mistake of suspending him because he publicly criticized the policy. Although the courts rightly overturned the suspension on the basis that he was punished for exercising his freedom of speech in a public forum, Tanner Cross continued to assert his larger right not to abide by the policy. He declared, “No government can force its citizens to say things they disagree with. This is especially true in schools, where ideas should be fiercely protected, both for the sake of freedom and the sake of truth.” Cross’s lawyer expressed his client’s position this way: “Teachers shouldn’t be forced to promote ideologies that are harmful to their students and that they believe are false.”

    Fast forward to January 1, 2023. Under the provisions of legislation enacted by the 2022 General Assembly, each school board must have in place by that date a policy dealing with notifying parents of “any instructional material that includes “sexually explicit content.” Such policy must contain provisions relating to:

    1. Ensuring parental notification;
    2. Directly identifying the specific instructional material and sexually explicit subjects; and
    3. Permitting the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and provide, as an alternative, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests.

    What should happen to a teacher who, citing the “Tanner Cross doctrine,” refuses to abide by this policy? In her defense, she contends that she should not be forced “to promote ideologies” such as censorship in this case, that are harmful to students. Furthermore, she objects to compiling a list of “sexually explicit materials,” since her understanding of “sexually explicit” may differ from the understanding of some parents and she should not be forced to define material in a manner with which she disagrees. Finally, the ideas expressed in these works (for examples, let us say Beloved or Catcher in the Rye) should be “fiercely protected” in schools.

  • Can Threat Assessment Teams Function in Schools Practicing PBIS?

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    sherlockj

    Stone Bridge High School Chantilly

    by James C. Sherlock

    Last I read, Attorney General Miyares’ Loudoun County special grand jury is still empaneled.

    There is another matter worthy of investigation in the cases of the rapes of two school girls in Loudoun County high schools.

    That is the matter of the threat assessment teams (TATS) in each school.

    The special grand jury, an investigating and reporting body, offers a very important opportunity to understand why these school safety structures required by Virginia laws, which failed at the institution of higher education (IHE) level in the case of a shooter at UVa, failed as well under a parallel law in two different Loudoun high schools that hosted a double rapist.

    The TAT system in these two high school cases may prove to have been unused, a violation of that law.

    But in practice a TAT may be unable to function as designed…

    • in schools in which a discipline system of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) exists as in Loudoun County; or
    • in an IHE which consciously avoids making judgments on student conduct and is unduly sensitive to cultural and racial scorecards.

    Virginia school divisions and the General Assembly need the details of what happened in the cases of the TATS in those two high schools to assess whether both law and practice of threat assessment need to be adjusted, or indeed if school safety is even compatible with PBIS.

    The short answer to that last question, based on my research and reporting, appears to be no. (more…)

  • Virginia Agrees To Compensate Fishing Industry For Damage From Offshore Wind

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Nine states, including Virginia, have agreed to establish a major compensation fund to pay their private commercial and recreational fishing companies for damages caused by offshore wind turbines.  

    Three guesses where the money comes from. The announcement, made December 12, hints at it coming from project developers, but in Virginia of course that is a monopoly utility guaranteed by law to collect all costs from its customers. Dominion Energy Virginia’s planned 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) just got more expensive. In other cases and other states, also expect the bill to end up with energy consumers or taxpayers. (more…)

  • To Address Root Causes of Crime, Ban Convenience Stores!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The statue of A.P. Hill removed from atop the Confederate general’s grave. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    by James A. Bacon

    Now that the City of Richmond has expunged the scourge of the Confederate memorials that were blighting the eyes of residents — the last statue, of General A.P. Hill, was removed yesterday — City Council finally can turn its attention to less pressing matters such as violent crime and failing schools.

    After a string of shootings at the Carolina Express convenience store, Councilwoman Ellen Robertson has formulated a novel solution for fighting crime — eliminate the convenience stores.

    According to WRIC, Roberston proposes to remove the ability of property owners to build convenience stores “by right,” or without a special permit, in certain commercial and residential zones. In designated “overlay districts,” merchants would need to secure city permission.

    The idea apparently springs from the observation that some convenience stores become hangouts for disreputable elements. WRIC quotes JJ Minor, president of the Richmond NAACP: “Most convenience stores are doing what is right, but there are some who just won’t comply and they’re doing wrong by the neighborhood. There’s a lot of congregating and illegal drugs being sold at these convenience stores. Wherever there is a lot of congregating, you can see things before it happens.” (more…)

  • Buta Biberaj’s Hot Potatoes

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    sherlockj

    Buta Biberaj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I admit it.

    I hope the cases against the two Loudoun County school officials actually go to trial.

    The indictments for misconduct by school system officials surrounding the rapes of two school girls seem to require it to assign accountability.

    But left-wing icon Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj is in a hard spot whether they go to trial or not.

    She had her chance to use the special grand jury system to investigate these circumstances and did not.  The Attorney General, with approval of the Circuit Court in Loudoun County, did it for her.

    Now the interesting part starts for Ms. Biberaj and the rest of us. (more…)

  • Indictments For Loudoun County School Officials

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Looks like Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares just turned up the heat on Loudoun County.

    When he was elected, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order calling for an investigation into what happened in Loudoun County Public Schools, where an alleged predator in a skirt reportedly got a pass for raping one girl in a girls’ bathroom and was then shuffled off to another school where he allegedly assaulted a second victim.

    On Monday a special grand jury convened by Miyares unsealed indictments against both Loudoun County School Superintendent Scott Ziegler — who was fired last week after the release of the grand jury report that called him “incompetent” and a “liar” — and LCPS spokesperson Wayde Byard who was suspended from his job yesterday.

    They face criminal charges for allegedly making false statements. There are other charges against Ziegler.

    Investigative reporter Luke Rosiak, who broke the Loudoun County story when most of the corporate media ignored it, claims that the alleged victims have been ignored by school officials.

    The father of the first victim, Scott Smith, was thrust into the limelight after he was arrested at a June 22, 2021 school board meeting where Ziegler denied awareness of any bathroom rapes, despite having intimate knowledge of the attack on Smith’s daughter a month prior. But the second girl, who was dragged into an empty classroom, choked, and sexually assaulted in October 2021 at Broad Run High School, has remained silent publicly except for remarks at the assailant’s sentencing in court.

    On Monday, her family issued a searing statement through their lawyer, Patrick Regan, saying that no school board members or officials had ever reached out to their daughter to ask how she was doing or express sympathy.

    “With the release of the Grand Jury report, the public now knows what we have suspected since the start of this tragic event – that what happened to her on October 6, 2021 could have and should have been prevented,” the statement read.

    “Over the last 14 months since our daughter was assaulted, not one member of the school board, LCPS administration, or even our local high school leadership has reached out to check on how she is doing, lend any type of support or even apologize for what we are going through as a family. That alone speaks volumes to what we have endured throughout this ordeal.”
    (more…)

  • What JLARC’s Education Report Got Right and What It Didn’t

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Matt Hurt

    On November 7, JLARC released the Pandemic Impact on Public K-12 Education. In this report, the challenges of educating students during the pandemic were outlined, and policy prescriptions were provided to mitigate these issues in the future. From the perspective of an educator, the report adequately addressed some issues, but failed to provide an in-depth analysis of various problems. This lack of understanding of these problems provided policy prescriptions which will likely miss the mark.

    To be sure, this report highlights some major problems that have impacted student outcomes in Virginia. Chronic absenteeism, teacher shortages, and virtual instruction all negatively impacted student outcomes across the Commonwealth in 2022. While other factors highlighted in the report also attributed to lower performance in 2022, I will focus on these three in this paper. (more…)

  • Public Education and the Management of Change

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    sherlockj

    Freedom High Woodbridge

    by James C. Sherlock

    Peter Drucker’s famous five questions should always be asked by and of government.

    What is the mission? Who is the customer? What does the customer consider valuable? What are the results sought and how are they to be measured? What is the plan, to include both abandonment and innovation?

    So, in reviewing the 119-page JLARC report Pandemic Impact on Public K–12 Education 2022, we must inquire first what JLARC was asked to do by the General Assembly.

    Then examine what they did with that charter.

    Both were well intentioned but incomplete. (more…)

  • Violent Crime Wave? What Violent Crime Wave?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Who’s more racist — conservatives calling for a crackdown on violent criminals or the people who insist that the surge in violent crime is a fabricated conservative talking point?

  • RGGI Tax, On Path to Repeal, Reaches $524 Million

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Virginia’s two year take of carbon taxes under RGGI. RGGI table.

    by Steve Haner

    First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.

    The tax on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted by Virginia electricity plants dropped to below $13 a ton in the most recent sale of CO2 allowances conducted by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). That meant Virginia collected only $71 million in tax revenue for the fourth quarter, the lowest amount of the four auctions in 2022. (more…)

  • Helping Minorities Thrive in STEM

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Josipa Roksa

    by James A. Bacon

    There is a shortage of doctors, scientists, engineers and other employees with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and medicine) backgrounds in the U.S. economy. One reason is that American institutions of higher education aren’t turning out enough graduates with STEM degrees. And a big reason for that is that roughly half the students who enter STEM programs drop out. The labor shortage is especially marked among Hispanics and African-Americans.

    The University of Virginia is trying to address disparities in STEM degrees awarded by applying university funds to leverage a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute — $7.7 million total over five years — to support the Driving Change and Inclusive Excellence 3 initiatives that aim to “enhance the academic experience and success of STEM students, particularly those who belong to historically excluded groups.”

    The project director is Josipa Roksa, a professor of sociology and education who gained notoriety a decade ago as co-author of Academically Adrift, a book that demonstrated that more than one-third of college students showed “almost no significant improvement in learning” during their four years in college. Since then, her research has focused on racial/ethnic inequalities in learning.

    The underlying problem is that many students who enter UVa STEM programs are academically unprepared for the courses taught. (more…)

  • About that Bestiality Post…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    I have received several responses from readers who were shocked by a recent post. Was I serious about contextualizing the behavior of a Hampton Roads man for videotaping an act of bestiality with his dog?

    The answer is NO, I was not serious!

    I was being totally tongue in cheek when I asked if the man’s wife was being judgmental when she called her husband a sexual deviant! I’m libertarian, but not that libertarian. My purpose was to troll progressives who have continually defined deviancy down and to find out if there are any limiting principles to sexual behavior they deem acceptable.

    My sense from the comments in the post is that, no, they don’t approve of bestiality but they cannot articulate any limiting principles…. so our society truly is on a slippery slope.

    C’mon people, privacy rights for dogs? Surely you knew I was being facetious! Some behaviors, including pedophilia, at the very least, should be taboo. Still, if I failed to make my intention crystal clear, the fault is mine.

    — JAB

  • The JLARC Report and Virginia’s Unexecutable School Discipline System

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    Freedom High Woodbridge

    by James C. Sherlock

    The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report Pandemic Impact on Public K–12 Education 2022 collected and made available a lot of valuable information.

    One issue escaped their analysis and recommendations — school discipline.

    The authors reported student conduct as the number one concern of school teachers, and then failed to address it in any substantive way.

    Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Virginia’s official school conduct support system component of Virginia Tiered System of Supports (VTSS), was mentioned only once, in a margin note.  Possible reasons include:

    1. An in-depth discussion of the politically explosive topic was considered out-of-bounds for an apolitical organization serving the General Assembly;
    2. They simply could not get a grip on it in the time and with the resources allocated; and
    3. The organizations they interviewed were overwhelmingly system insiders, some of whom were the drivers behind PBIS in Virginia.

    JLARC has excellent company in its reticence about analysis of student conduct.

    JLARC indeed acknowledged that the Virginia VTSS escapes the grasp of most of Virginia schools that have tried to implement it, so it recommended more training.

    The truth is that VTSS in general and PBIS in particular is far too complicated and time-consuming.  A reasonable return on investment seems unlikely at best.  And most people inside Virginia’s schools have figured that out.

    As such it won’t ever work at scale. (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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