Bacon's Rebellion

  • Were Herring’s Last Actions as AG Racist?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Attorney General Mark Herring wound up his last day in office today with an announcement that he is holding three more gas stations “accountable” for alleged price gouging during the Colonial Pipeline emergency in the spring of 2021, bringing the total to six enforcement actions.

    As I noted in a previous post, it seemed to be a curious coincidence that of the  4,000 or so gas stations in Virginia (a decade-old figure), the three that had been charged in November for jacking up prices during the gasoline shortage stemming from the Colonial Pipeline shutdown all had Asian proprietors. It turns out that the latest three enforcement actions target Asian proprietors, too. Here’s the list of all six (business name — proprietor name):

    • 7HC — Eltam Salem
    • Tahir and Sons LLC — Tahir Mahmoud
    • RIR Mart Exxon (Saly Inc.) — Balwinder Singh
    • Shivoham Inc. — Hemali Patel
    • George Mason LLC — Philip Chung
    • Shriji Maharaj LLC — Nashib Patel

    No other gas stations owners have been fined for the Colonial Pipeline crisis. Not. One. White. Gas. Station. Owner.

    There are two ways to look at this anomaly. (more…)

  • Early Fireworks

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Todd Gilbert, Speaker of the House of Delegates

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The 2022 General Assembly has gotten off to an inauspicious start.

    It started off quietly enough. On Wednesday, the first day, Delegate Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, was elected Speaker on vote of 97-0. It is not usual for the person selected by the majority party caucus to be Speaker to be formally elected by unanimous vote.

    On Wednesday night, Governor Northam addressed the Joint Session in the annual State of the Commonwealth speech. Speaker Gilbert, sitting in the Speaker’s chair behind and above the Governor standing at the podium, either got bored or irked, or both, because he started Tweeting during the speech. As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, this was one message:

    Ralph Northam is leaving office as his own lost cause, condescendingly lecturing us all from some assumed moral high ground because he read the book ‘Roots’ and then went on a non-stop reconciliation tour. Saturday can’t come fast enough.

    Needless to say, Democrats were outraged. Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, the former Speaker, was on her feet in a speech on the House floor on Thursday morning calling the current Speaker’s conduct “reprehensible” and that his oath of office was to be the Speaker for the whole House, not just the majority party.

    Anyone who has watched Gilbert over the years should not be surprised at his remarks and their tone. He has seldom minced words in expressing his disdain for Democrats. It was evident two years ago when Filler-Corn became Speaker that there was bad blood between them.

    Unless Gilbert tones down his partisan rhetoric, it could be a rocky session.

  • UVa on Third-Vaccination Mandate: Trust Us

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    So, the University of Virginia bumped up its deadline for students, faculty and staff to get a COVID-19 booster shot to today, one day before Glenn Youngkin, a foe of vaccination mandates, takes office. In an interview with CBS19 News, UVa spokesman Brian Coy says Youngkin’s ascension to office was not a factor in the university’s decision making. “This is what we think is necessary to keep our community safe,” he said.

    What factors did go in to the university’s decision making? That’s less clear.

    “This variant does pose a unique challenge, but having everybody boosted and having everybody wearing masks we believe gives us the best opportunity to have a good semester and make this year strong,” Coy said.

    Coy added that UVA will be monitoring case counts, quarantine space and hospital capacity to make any decisions, and said if UVA opts to enforce other mitigation strategies, those will be announced to the community by the end of this week. (My bold)

    Ah. I see. UVa will be monitoring case counts, quarantine space and hospital capacity. By implication, UVa will not be monitoring actual hospitalizations or deaths, otherwise Coy would have mentioned them. (more…)

  • Unvaccinated Being Slammed by Omicron

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    Steve Haner

    VDH data breaking down the last year’s diagnosed cases by vaccination status. Note the recent radical change in the ratios. Click for larger view.

    by Steve Haner

    In just four weeks ending January 8, more than 12% of unvaccinated Virginians have been diagnosed with COVID-19. In the most recent week reported, the unvaccinated were almost 60 times more likely to come down with the disease than those current on their shots. This is new.

    This Omicron version is clearly a different animal. Breakthrough cases among the vaccinated are also jumping, but in four weeks just over one-half of one percent of that group was diagnosed with the disease, 624 cases per 100,000 people. Compare that to 12,368 cases per 100,000 among the unvaccinated.

    This all comes from the data posted today at the Virginia Department of Health’s dashboard, the tab for data by vaccination status. You can see on the chart reproduced at the top how the case count among the unvaccinated exploded in those weeks. The slope since the arrival of Omicron is undeniable.

    I’d seen the data for the week ending January 1 (226 vaccinated versus 4,468 unvaccinated) but wanted to see a second week before writing. The January 8 weekly count published today was 89 versus 5,222. There is every reason to believe that pattern will hold through the Omicron wave.

    In the same four weeks, only 9 vaccinated persons per 100,000 ended up in the hospital, compared to 223 per 100,000 among the unvaccinated. It is too soon to speak about deaths, but so far they are not spiking. Again, Omicron is proving less severe for people in all categories than earlier versions, overall, but as they say, “individual results may vary.” (more…)

  • Is Resistance Forming to Youngkin’s Education Agenda?

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    James A. Bacon

    Scott Braband

    by James A. Bacon

    A day after Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced the appointment of two vocal opponents of Critical Race Theory-inspired policies in public schools, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS) has announced a new executive director… who is a vocal advocate of CRT initiatives.

    Dr. Scott S. Braband, superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools will take charge of the association, which represents the interests of the state’s 133 school superintendents, in July. In the past, judging from its website posts, VASS has focused mainly on practical issues such as getting more state funding for schools and solving the teacher shortage. Does Braband’s appointment indicate a shift in emphasis?

    Braband was a polarizing figure in Fairfax County, leading the push for “diversity, equity & inclusion” and “anti-racism.” Most controversially, he changed the admissions criteria for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to admit more Blacks and Hispanics at the expense of Asians.

    The question arises: what does this appointment mean? Is VASS signaling that it will transition from nuts-and-bolts operational and fiscal concerns to ideological priorities? Is VASS positioning itself to oppose Youngkin’s vow to rid schools of CRT? Alternatively, did Braband just see the writing on the wall and figure he didn’t have much of a future as a school superintendent in the new order? (more…)

  • Boom! Youngkin Drops a Bomb on Virginia’s Educational Establishment

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Signaling his intention to transform Virginia’s public school system, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced today the appointment of outsiders to the positions of superintendent and assistant superintendent of public instruction — the top two officials in the Virginia Department of Education.

    Jillian Balow, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction

    Jillian Balow, superintendent of Wyoming’s public schools, landed the top slot. Elizabeth Schultz, a senior fellow with Parents Defending Education and an outspoken foe of Critical Race Theory in Virginia schools, will be Balow’s deputy.

    “Jillian and Elizabeth are going to be crucial in helping Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera restore excellence in education,” Youngkin said in making the announcement. “Under my direction, they will get to work on ensuring our schools remain safely open, ban critical race theory and political agendas from our classrooms, and rebuild our crumbling schools.”

    Elizabeth Schultz, assistant superintendent

    Wow. Youngkin’s campaign rhetoric wasn’t just campaign rhetoric. He’s not recruiting retreads from the Virginia public school system. Between Balow, Schultz, and Aimee Guidera, his pick for Secretary of Education, he’s putting in charge three outsiders not beholden to the educational establishment in any way. (more…)

  • A Peek Behind the Veil

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Background

    During my research for the articles on state financial assistance for public education, I ran across a curious provision and, subsequently, tracked the history of that provision. That history provides a small peek at the budget development and legislative processes that illustrate:

    1. Why I find them so fascinating, and
    2. Why many people find them exasperating, if not downright outrageous.

    For those readers who did not read the first post on the SOQ financing, and for those who did, but need a reminder, you need to understand the importance of “cost-of-competing” adjustments (CCA). A major component of the costs of implementing the Standards of Quality (SOQ) is the “prevailing” salary for teachers, administrators, and other support activities. The Appropriation Act has long provided that the prevailing salaries are to be increased by “cost-of-competing” adjustments for school divisions in Northern Virginia.

    In the introduced budget bill, the language related to the CCA includes Accomack and Northampton counties. These two jurisdictions are not included in that language in the current Appropriation Act. I pointed out this anomaly in my article. One commenter, Don Rippert, picked up on this new provision and raised questions about it, for which I had no answer. (I was not surprised that he was the one to focus on it.) I now have the answer. (more…)

  • Imprisoned by the Past

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    James A. Bacon

    Libby Prison on Cary Street, Richmond, circa 1865. Photo credit: Flickr

    by James A. Bacon

    As a parting gift to Virginia, outgoing Attorney General Mark Herring has overturned 58 opinions issued by attorneys general between 1904 and 1967 that supported racially discriminatory laws from poll taxes to the prohibition of interracial marriage.

    “While these discriminatory and racist laws are no longer on the books in Virginia, the opinions still are, which is why I am proud to overrule them,” Herring said in a press release today. “We are not the Virginia we used to be, and in order to truly be the Virginia that we want to be in the future we need to remove any last vestiges of these racist laws.”

    Herring’s action will have no practical effect — the laws supported by these opinions have all been overturned. But many African-American politicians and activists found solace in the gesture.

    “Just like Virginia wiped racist, outdated laws off its books in recent years, so too should it wipe away racist, outdated legal opinions that supported and helped to implement those laws,” said Cynthia Hudson, a former chief deputy attorney general and chair of the Commission to Examine Racial Equity in Virginia’s law.

    I have mixed emotions. I can see the symbolic value of getting these heinous rulings off the books. (See a compilation here.) We should slam the door on Virginia’s racist past. However, I find the fixation on the past a distraction from current-day injustices that have origins unrelated to historic racism. Continually dredging up ancient wrongs feeds African Americans’ sense of alienation, victimhood and grievance, and it perpetuates the false narrative of systemic modern-day racism. (more…)

  • Can Financially Failing Coal Plant Be Closed?

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    by

    Steve Haner

    Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, St. Paul, VA. Dominion Photo.

    by Steve Haner

    The economic decision on whether and when to cut and run from a losing investment is always complicated. The debate over the future of Dominion Energy Virginia’s economically failing coal plant in Wise County will be complicated by power politics.

    The State Corporation Commission has been asked to accept an agreement between the utility, the Office of the Attorney General and environmental opponents of fossil fuel generation to consider closing the plant in just a few years. The stipulation calls for a report later this year on the economic cost and benefits of pulling the plug as soon as 2026.

    Dominion has been proposing to operate the plant, which opened in 2012, until at least 2045. Legally it can, despite the move away from fossil fuels in recent state laws. In the pending matter before the SCC, it continued to argue Wise County should stay open despite the economic losses.

    The economic costs either way will fall mainly on the company’s customers. We have been subsidizing the operation of the money-losing plant as it sank into red ink. But if the decision is made to close it, the utility will seek to recover – from its customers – the $1.6 billion of outstanding investment it has in the facility.  Heads they win and tails we lose.

    That’s how we do electric power regulation in Virginia. It was the General Assembly that mandated construction of the plant, far outside Dominion’s service territory, in 2007 legislation riddled with political trade-offs. The investment would never have been found reasonable and prudent by the SCC absent legislative interference, but was deemed “in the public interest” by law. (more…)

  • A Bold Reform for Education Funding

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    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Braunlich

    (Author’s Note: Eight years ago, we suggested incoming Governor Terry McAuliffe pursue a bold education funding reform that would modernize and supercharge Virginia’s education infrastructure. He chose not to. We offer it again, verbatim, to Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin … because we believe the idea crosses ideological lines and party divides and would represent the first full-throated reform of Virginia education funding in decades. Judging from his appointments, Mr. Youngkin has been more than willing to move beyond “business as usual,” and that tendency portends well for the Commonwealth.)

    11/11/2013 — George Allen and Standards of Learning reform. Jim Gilmore and car tax reduction. Bob McDonnell and transportation reform. That’s what we remember.

    So what does Governor-elect McAuliffe want to be remembered for when he walks out of the office?

    How about reforming K-12 education through “Weighted Student Funding?” This is a concept attracting attention from Governors as diverse as Jerry Brown (D-CA) and Rick Snyder (R-MI), and policy analysts from Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Education Bill Bennett to John Podesta, who chairs the center-left Center for American Progress. Here’s why – (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: Public Servants in Action

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    James A. Bacon

    Robert Bobb to the rescue. Robert C. Bobb, a former Richmond city manager turned public-sector turnaround artist, pulled the City of Petersburg back from the brink of bankruptcy. Now he will endeavor to manage the City of Charlottesville, which has been hobbled by racial tensions and interpersonal conflicts. After debilitating turnover in the administration — seven executive-level positions are vacant or filled by acting supervisors — City Council has hired the Robert Bobb Group to provide city manager services for the next six months, according to Virginia Public Radio.

    Bobb salvaged Petersburg, but can he save Charlottesville? Petersburg suffered from simple incompetence. But the People’s Republic of Charlottesville is prone to militancy, ideological fracture, absolutist judgments and cancel culture. Bobb, who stabilized Detroit public schools, is an administrative superman. Will Charlottesville be his kryptonite? 

    Faking DNA results to fake out suspects. The Virginia Beach Police Department used forged documents linking peoples’ DNA to crimes on at least five occasions to get them to confess, the Attorney General’s Office has found. The fake documents bore a seal and letterhead from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and the signature of a fictitious employee, reports CBS News. In one instance, a forged report was presented to a court as evidence. After its own investigation, the VB police ended the practice earlier this year. “This was an extremely troubling and potentially unconstitutional tactic that abused the name of the Commonwealth to try to coerce confessions,” said AG Mark Herring. (more…)

  • No More “Medical Bandwagon Thinking” for Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Dr. Marty Makary

    by Kerry Dougherty

    For the past several weeks, Glenn Youngkin has been busy appointing top members of his administration.

    One of the most exciting announcements came this week when we learned that Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon and public policy researcher with a dazzling resume at Johns Hopkins University, agreed to chair Youngkin’s COVID advisory team.

    In other words, he’ll be Youngkin’s Fauci. Only Makary appears to be a lot smarter than Fauci and is unafraid to question the groupthink that forms many of America’s ineffective COVID policies.

    Makary’s written two best-selling books and more than 250 articles on public health for publications that include The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He’s also a frequent contributor to Fox News, the only cable network that seems to allow dissenting views about Washington’s response to COVID-19 and Biden administration edicts. (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: Bills of Interest

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    James A. Bacon

    More transparency for land-use proceedings (HB 626). Submitted by Del. Danica Roem, D-Manassas Park. Alters land use disclosure requirements applicable to boards of supervisors, planning commissions and boards of zoning appeals by broadening the language from “relationship of employee-employer, agent-principal, or attorney-client” to “business or financial interest.” The same change is made to existing provisions that currently apply only to Loudoun County but will now apply statewide.

    Comment: Good. The more transparency in land-use governance the better. The additional disclosure should not prove burdensome.

    Anti-harassment mandate. (HB 757). Submitted by Del. Paul E. Krizek, D-Alexandria. Requires each employer with five or more employees to provide training for sexual harassment and workplace discrimination. The training required under the bill must be provided by an educator or human resources professional.

    Comment: Bad. Says Hans Bader: “Requiring an hour of anti-harassment training for all employees by a human resources professional is likely to be a pain for small employers that don’t have human resource departments. (Two hours are required for supervisors).”

  • Government Attacks on Parental Choice in Virtual K-12 Education in Virginia. Chapter 7: Recommendations

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Recommendations. Where to begin?

    First things first. Day one, as Governor-elect Youngkin likes to say…

    Stop the continued expansion of Virtual Virginia. We know hardly anything about it, and what we do know is not encouraging.

    • We don’t have Virtual Virginia kids’ SOL scores;
    • We do have parental survey data that have been less than enthusiastic about Virtual Virginia;
    • We don’t have demographic data for either its student body or its teachers; and
    • We don’t know its full financial costs.

    Additional expansion is out of the question until we can fully define those parameters.

    To stop the additional expansion, eliminate the line item in the Executive Budget that allows further expansion of Virtual Virginia from fees paid by the school divisions.

    That will freeze the Virtual Virginia student population and its staffing at current levels until we get a handle on it. It will also leave up to $59 million in schools’ budgets over the next two years that they will not have to send to VDOE.

    Crucially, it will also give time to make the more fundamental changes recommended below. (more…)

  • Northam’s Legacy as COVID Fighter

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    As the hours tick down on his term in office, Governor Ralph Northam is inclined to reflect upon his performance. In the limited remarks he has made in public, he has expressed few regrets and admitted to few mistakes.

    As demonstrated by the thoroughly documented meltdown in Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores, his positive self-appraisal is laughably myopic. Northam is the worst education governor in modern Virginia history. Hands down.

    But there is more to governing than education. One must consider the performance of the economy, the budget, taxes, public safety, quality of life, and health care, among other factors. Perhaps the most pressing challenge during Northam’s term in office has been the COVID-19 epidemic. Any judgment about Northam’s performance as governor must assess his leadership in dealing with that crisis.

    Several Bacon’s Rebellion contributors, including myself, have been critical of specific aspects of his performance — testing, vaccinations, school shutdowns, mask mandates, protecting nursing homes, etc. But, then, it’s easy for pundits to criticize. We weren’t the ones who had to make tough calls in the face of incomplete, evolving, and often conflicting data. Every governor was groping in the dark. No governor amassed a perfect track record. At the end of the day, we should ask, how well has Virginia fared in the pandemic compared to the other 50 states? (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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