Bacon's Rebellion

  • Before Deeds and Zillow

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The Arlington-Culpeper Grant Sparked Bacon’s Rebellion and Redefined Virginia Real Estate

    A 1736 map of the Northern Neck Proprietary in Virginia, showing land boundaries and rivers, with decorative elements and compass rose.

    Virginia real estate history does not begin with subdivisions or courthouse deed books. It begins in political exile. In 1649, after the execution of King Charles I during the English Civil War, England’s monarchy collapsed. His son, Charles II, fled Europe and depended on loyal aristocrats for financial survival.

    With no treasury and no functioning government, Charles II used land in the American colonies as compensation. In September 1649, he granted a massive tract in Virginia to seven royalist supporters. This territory stretched between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, from the Chesapeake Bay westward into unmapped Appalachian terrain. The grant would become known as the Northern Neck Proprietary.

    The scale was extraordinary. More than 5.28 million acres of fertile river valleys, timberland, and frontier wilderness were transferred into private control. The proprietors were given authority not only to sell land but to collect quitrents, establish counties, and manage economic development within the territory.

    This was not simply a land deal. It created a privately controlled real estate jurisdiction operating alongside colonial Virginia.

    The Restoration and colonial resistance

    For more than a decade, the 1649 patent held little practical force. Parliament controlled England and its colonies. Virginia’s colonial government continued issuing its own land patents and organizing counties inside proprietary boundaries.

    (more…)

  • Cost of Undergrounding Program is Mostly Profit to Lenders, Stockholders

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    And the winner is….

    Dominion Energy Virginia’s ongoing program to place selected neighborhood service lines underground, spreading the bill for the upgrades onto all its 2.7 million customers, will cost another $3.8 billion if the General Assembly blesses its extension for another ten years.

    Of that, about $1.6 billion is the cost of the construction work and $2.2 billion (58 percent) will be to pay interest to the lenders or profit to the stockholders who put up the working capital. Those numbers are from an analysis provided to a curious legislator by the State Corporation Commission’s staff in a letter earlier this week.

    Almost a third of the money will come from the utility’s commercial and industrial customers (yes, including the scapegoated data centers), the SCC reported. But the upgrades being financed will benefit few if any business customers. An earlier report on Bacon’s Rebellion extrapolating data from an SCC case file had some similar cost projections.

    When it is the business customers subsidizing electricity for homeowners, nobody in the legislature squawks at all. Politicians only feign outrage if homeowners think they are subsidizing businesses. And none of them dares admit how much profit their favorite political donor is making from all this. (If half the financing is equity, not debt, more than a billion dollars in profit is a pretty good payoff for $20 million in campaign donations. And this is hardly the only 2026 bill enriching the utility.)

    (more…)

  • New Democratic Districts Invite Republicans to Vote

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    Proverb

    If you can’t beat them, join them

    and as George Bailey said in It’s a Wonderful Life:

    This is a very interesting situation

    Having seen three different polls (one public and two private) that show the constitutional amendment to re-gerrymander Virginia’s congressional districts is under 50%, the odds of its passage on April 21st are clearly in doubt.

    No wonder national Democrats are pouring money into the Commonwealth to win this vote.

    This is not a done deal. Hence the money.

    Okay. Let’s play it out…suppose the amendment passes.

    Democrats then have a clear path to a 10-1 federal delegation in the House of Representatives.

    The GOP would be on track to losing districts 1, 2, 5, and 6 as none of them would have less than 56% of the vote going to Democrats based on the 2025 gubernatorial landslide victory of Abigail Spanberger.

    Map illustrating the 2025 Gubernatorial election results by district in Virginia, showing a breakdown of U.S. House, House of Delegates, and State Senate outcomes, with color coding for political party strength.

    What would Republicans and Independents then do in these new districts if they know the very likely outcome in November is a Democratic representative?

    (more…)

  • Cadet Crisis: VMI’s Culture on Trial

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Proposed legislation reopens questions into the validity of the state’s investigation into VMI student culture.

    Four military personnel in uniform holding a red flag with the Virginia Military Institute emblem in an outdoor setting.
    he past six years at VMI have been defined by the microscopic look into VMl’s student body culture by the state of Virginia. Photo courtesy of Pikabuu2 via the Creative Commons License

    by Jackson Doane

    It’s commonly said that good fences make good neighbors. Between Washington and Lee (W&L) and the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), nothing separates us but a short walk, yet we have long been good neighbors. So when news broke in January that two bills were introduced in the General Assembly that would limit VMl’s ability to self­govern, I felt it only right to look into why our neighbors were suddenly under scrutiny.

    House Bill 1374 and House Bill 1377 were recently introduced, and since then, the complicated and, at times, hostile relationship between the school and the state government – which dates back at least five and a half years – has resurfaced with renewed intensity.

    In October 2020, a front-page article in the Washington Post detailed allegations of racially discriminatory incidents at VMI over the preceding years. The story drew national attention, especially in the wake of a summer and fall of race-based political protests, and thrust VMI into the national spotlight.

    The article caught the attention of the then-governor at the time, Ralph Northam, who is also a VMI alumnus. He co-signed a letter with the lieutenant governor and attorney general to VMl’s Board of Visitors, the school’s governing body, calling for a “state-funded, independent third-party review” of the student body’s culture, particularly regarding students of nonwhite ethnicities.

    Northam’s letter described what he believed to be a “clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism at the Virginia Military Institute.” That letter, combined with national media attention and pressure from state officials, led the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to commission an investigation by the third-party law firm Barnes & Thornburg, which released a report published in June 2021. The 2021 report
    The SCHEV investigation at VMI was conducted from January 7, 2021, to June 1, 2021, spanning a period of 145 days. According to SCHEV, it was done with the purpose of investigating allegations of racism and sexism at VMI.

    (more…)

  • Virginia’s Population Reached 8.88 Million in 2025

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Map showing the 2025 population estimates by locality in Virginia, color-coded based on population size: more than 250,000, more than 100,000, more than 25,000, and less than 25,000.
    Click here to view interactive map. Credit: Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service

    The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia has published its mid-decade population for Virginia and its localities. Summary from the Weldon Cooper website:

    Virginia’s population reached 8.88 million as of July 1, 2025, an increase of more than 248,000 residents since the 2020 Census. Between 2020 and 2025, the state’s average annual growth rate was 0.5 percent, slightly below the national rate of 0.6 percent. Virginia remains the 12th most populous state and ranked 11th nationally in numeric population growth during this period.

    Of the state’s population increase since 2020, natural increase (births minus deaths) contributed 78,388 people (31.5 percent), while net migration (people moving in minus people moving out) added 170,326 people (68.5 percent).

  • The Data Center Scapegoat Led to Two Different Sacrificial Altars

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Virginia’s world-leading data center industry, once a source of economic pride to our Commonwealth, has become the scapegoat of the 2026 General Assembly. The State Senate and House of Delegates have built different altars for its sacrifice.

    The Senate is about to vote to strip away the major sales and use tax exemption which has helped make Virginia the center of this burgeoning industry. This would raise the taxes they pay by more than $1 billion initially and then up to $2 billion annually, an infusion of cash the Senate will happily find ways to spend. 

    House Democrats have gone a different direction, keeping the exemption but making it conditional upon the industry adopting a fully Green New Deal energy policy. Ending any reliance on natural gas or diesel generation is the stated goal. Companies would be forced to buy renewable energy certificates on an even faster schedule than the Virginia Clean Economy Act requires for Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power Company.  

    And both chambers have approved versions of legislation that will allow the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to assign 100 percent of the future costs of Dominion Energy Virginia’s energy capacity purchases and transmission upgrades onto that one industry. There is no reason that approach will not spread beyond Dominion if the SCC goes along, given politicians are already bragging this will lower bills for everybody else. 

    (more…)

  • Follow-up on Voter Registration Rolls Suit

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    There was considerable reaction to my recent article regarding the U.S. Dept. of Justice suing Virginia for not turning over an unredacted copy of the statewide list of registered voters. 

    Two comments in particular struck me as needing some response from me. Matt Hurt posed this question: “The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 both require states to maintain accurate voter rolls, and both provide DOJ with the authority to enforce them. If DOJ doesn’t have access to that information, how can it ensure states are compliant with these laws?” After considerable discussion, Nathan had a request of me: “I hope you will follow up, to provide the information necessary for a more complete understanding of this issue.”

    These are legitimate questions and requests. I was out of the house for most of the day both Saturday and Sunday and thus not in a position to respond. I have now done some research and can provide some follow-up.

    First, my major concern with this request lies with how DOJ said it was going to use it. In its MOU that DOJ asked agencies to agree to is this statement: “You agree therefore that within forty-five (45) days of receiving that notice from the Justice Department of any issues, insufficiencies, inadequacies, deficiencies, anomalies, or concerns, your state will clean its VRL/Data by removing ineligible voters.”

    Simply stated, DOJ would examine a state’s voter registration list and identify ineligible voters for the state to remove from its registration list. This would be an extraordinary step. The state would be relinquishing a key component of its authority to administer elections. Identifying “ineligible” voters is prone to many errors, especially for the federal government, which is removed from the details of individual registration statuses. Even state governments, in their effort to purge ineligible voters, inadvertently remove eligible voters in the process. For example, in 2024, the Youngkin administration revoked the registration of approximately 1,600 eligible voters in its effort to find noncitizens who had registered.

    Turning to the legal authority for the current DOJ request for unredacted statewide registration data, the federal government cited the following federal legislation statutes:

    (more…)

  • It Helps to Have Friends in High Places

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    (more…)

  • April 21: Not Really What Virginia Needs Now

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A group of children protesting in the streets, holding signs saying 'Yes' and 'No', with a variety of expressions showing determination and passion.

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Want a political version of blunt force trauma? Then welcome to Virginia’s April 21 referendum on congressional redistricting. Look at the map and behold the winners. No one has to be fair about “fairness.”

    It’s “temporary,” they keep saying. Temporary — as in, it won’t last long.

    You could say as much about the vaunted redistricting commission. Installed via a constitutional amendment but five years ago, it proved very temporary.

    Appointed to a college or university board by the governor? That’s temporary, too.

    Such appointments were previously tantamount to service. There was no pause in between or abrupt removal. You even got a certificate, suitable for framing: “To All To Whom These Presents Shall Come — Greeting. Know Ye, that from special trust and confidence reposed in his fidelity, our Governor by virtue of authority vested in him by law, hath appointed and hereby commissions …”

    I pulled that language right off a certificate in the hallway, which names moi to the Board of Visitors of Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009. It’s signed by Gov. Tim Kaine.

    Republican Speaker Bill Howell, with his party’s majority in the House of Delegates then, could have killed that appointment dead to rights. He did not. Why? Because Speaker Howell was an honorable public servant who respected Virginia’s governing traditions.

    Or maybe Speaker Howell just shrugged and said to himself, “Jeez, that twit,” and let my appointment go with no more thought.

    (more…)

  • The General Assembly’s 22.5% “Labor Tax” Gamble

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Derrick A. Max

    As the Virginia General Assembly enters the final weeks of its 2026 session, a wave of new labor mandates is about to reach the Governor’s desk, two of which she has promised to sign, and one she seems inclined to support as well.

    House Bill 5 (Paid Sick Leave), Senate Bill 2 (Paid Family and Medical Leave), and House and Senate Bill 1 ($15 minimum wage) are moving through both chambers, putting the Commonwealth on the verge of a fundamental transformation in its labor market — one that carries a rigid and predictable consequence for every small and medium sized business in the Commonwealth. 

    For those tracking the economic health of Virginia, these aren’t just “wage and benefit” bills; they represent a coordinated, multi-layered surcharge on the act of hiring. When you combine a $15 minimum wage with a new sick leave mandate and a paid family and medical leave tax, you are pricing growth out of reach for many smaller firms, and reducing employment for low productivity, entry-level employees.

    The 3.3% Base

    House Bill 5 mandates one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. This calculates to a fixed 3.33% mandatory increase in the cost of labor.

    (more…)

  • The Fiscal Flywheel Effect

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    In my Feb. 13 podcast, former Finance Secretary Steve Cummings explained the positive feedback loop between strong state finances and economic development. His observations about the fiscal flywheel effect are worth highlighting here. –JAB

    Cummings: “The underlying premise here is growth. When you have a declining revenue stream, when you have declining population, you’re gonna have a really hard time running a government and running it effectively.

    “Through the policies that the governor implemented, we’ve attracted companies, we’ve added 277,000 jobs over the term of the governor’s administration. There’s still 220,000 open jobs, not counting jobs that aren’t yet open, but 85,000 new jobs that are in the economic development pipeline to be delivered over the next five years. And that does not include the 40,000 construction jobs that are associated with them. So, when you put all that together, it’s like 600,000 people who still are looking to fill jobs and growth that’s coming. So, Virginia has jobs.

    “This is the narrative that we think is fact-based and others don’t want to talk about. And the reality is that at 220,000, we have 1.6 jobs for every unemployed person in Virginia. Nationally, it’s under one. That dynamic is underlying your revenue stream because withholding is our biggest revenue source. And that is what can help the flywheel get going here, where we are successful in generating revenues that continue to grow and which allows us to fund other things and reduce taxes.

    “You can look at a couple other key states here. North Carolina is the best example. They got that flywheel going five to 10 years ago, and they have been consistently reducing taxes while their budget has increased.”

  • VDH Rejects CDC Vaccination Guideline Changes

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Dr. Cameron Webb, Virginia State Health Commissioner

    Virginia has joined 23 other states and the District of Columbia in rejecting the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control regarding childhood vaccinations. 

    The CDC guidelines no longer include hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, flu, COVID-19 and meningitis in the routine immunization schedule.

    Explaining that the recent changes in the CDC guidelines were made “in the absence of new data or safety signals to prompt such an update,” Dr. Cameron Webb, Virginia State Commissioner of Health, in a recent letter to clinicians throughout the state, said that the Virginia Dept. of Health “strongly recommends that all children in the Commonwealth be vaccinated in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule” instead.

    Thanks to Axios of Richmond for alerting me to this story

  • The Cabal Strikes Again

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Fairfax County Prosecutor Lets Killers Escape Justice Through Insanity Defenses

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by the Liberty Unyielding staff

    The chief prosecutor of Fairfax County is letting some killers escape a conviction by accepting insanity pleas that would almost certainly be rejected by a jury. The insanity defense is used in less than 1% of criminal cases and is successful only about 25% of the time, making it a rare and difficult defense to employ. Defendants typically have to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that they were unable to distinguish right from wrong due to severe mental disease or defect at the time of the crime. Merely having a mental disorder is not enough to establish an insanity defense. It is the defendant who has the burden of proving insanity.

    Close-up portrait of a smiling man with short blonde hair and blue eyes against a neutral background.
    Joshua Danehower, plead Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity for shooting a man ten times in his bed.

    But Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) has let 11 killers avoid conviction by accepting their plea of “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.” That’s about a fifth of the killers recently arrested in Fairfax County. So killers are 100 times more likely to avoid a conviction by claiming to be insane in Fairfax County than they would be in the rest of America. Even though there is no reason to think insanity is more common in Fairfax County than in the rest of the country, much less 100 times more common.

    As Mary Katharine Hamm notes, “A man murdered Gret Glyer execution style, shot him” ten times “as he slept next to his wife.” The killing was premeditated, and the killer “even wrote it down in ‘The Plan.’” Yet Descano’s office has now accepted “a flimsy insanity plea” to send the killer to a “mental health facility, where he will be evaluated and eligible for release soon and over and over, each time potentially free and dangerous again.”

    (more…)

  • Neither House nor Senate Budget Raises General Taxes

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    But the Senate Strips the Data Center Tax Break Next Year

    by Steve Haner

    The Senate and House of Delegates financial committees met on Sunday to approve competing sets of amendments to the next Virginia budget, neither proposing any general tax increases. The Senate version included modest tax reform: a small taxpayer rebate for this year and an increase in the income tax standard deduction.  

    The Senate, however, allows the existing sales tax exemption for the data center industry to expire at the end of 2026, which raises almost an additional $1 billion over the next two years. A portion of the sales tax is dedicated to transportation, and the extra sales tax money to be paid by the data centers is earmarked for public transit in Northern Virginia.   

    The full Senate and House are expected to pass their competing budget bills in the coming week, setting up the annual conference committee process to reconcile differences before the scheduled General Assembly adjournment on March 14. Because of the Senate’s move against the data centers and its proposed tax reforms, a contentious conference is possible. 

    Both budgets include an increase of the base legislative salary to $45,000 per year starting in 2028. Neither committee discussed the raises openly during their meetings, with the only mention coming when a Senate Republican spoke up to announce he would abstain on that individual item.  

    (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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

About

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.

Fund the Rebellion

Shake up the status quo! Your contributions will be used to pay for faster download speeds and grow readership. Make a one-time donation by credit card or contribute a small sum monthly.

Can’t wait until tomorrow

For your Bacon’s Rebellion fix?

Enter your email address to receive immediate notifications of new posts by email.

SUBSCRIBE

Search Bacon’s Rebellion

Categories

Archives

The Jefferson Council

Protecting Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy at the University of Virginia

Forgot Your Password?

Shoot me an email and I’ll generate a new password for you.

Latest