Bacon's Rebellion

  • Delta Dawn at JMU?

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    James A. Bacon

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    More than 1 in 9 James Madison University students was infected with Covid-19 during the school year that ended in May. To date, the university has accepted little responsibility for those illnesses or for any associated spread in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.

    President Alger and members of the Senior Leadership Team have been predominantly silent about any mistakes the university may have made and what it will do to correct them this year as students return in the midst of the more virulent Delta Variant spread.

    The university’s stance a week after classes began last year was “cautious optimism,” according to an email from Alger a few days before in-person classes were canceled. A few weeks later a university spokesperson, not Alger or any senior administrator, told the media, “There’s nothing at blame here except for the virus.”

    Silence from the university and from Alger has continued this summer. The university has said it will require students to be vaccinated, but in effect the policy amounts to asking students to tell the university if they aren’t going to be vaccinated. Faculty and staff are explicitly not required to be vaccinated. (more…)

  • “Model Polices” on Transgender Students vs. Laws Guaranteeing Parental Rights

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Emilio Jaksetic wrote an excellent article this morning.

    Mr. Jaksetic, a lawyer, commented on the decision by Judge J. Frederick Watson of the 24th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Virginia Board of Education’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools for lack of standing.  The judge did not rule on the substantive merits of lawsuit.

    So, Christian Action Network did not have standing. I also believe that it sued under the wrong theory of law and in the wrong court. I told them so at the time.

    One basic flaw in Model Policies is that it specifically permits portions of educational records to be withheld from parents by school personnel. That was not challenged by the Christian Action Network suit.

    Yet it appears to be illegal under both federal and state laws.

    School boards should take actions on Model Policies only with qualified legal advice. (more…)

  • What Fun! Spending $4.3 Billion in “Free” Money!

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    James A. Bacon

    Manna from heaven

    by James A. Bacon

    Before departing for the private sector, former Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne outlined his thinking for the disposition of $4.3 billion in federal COVID-helicopter money: The funds are a one-time windfall. Spend them on one-time projects. Do not use the money to fund programmatic expansions that will make an ongoing claim on future tax dollars.

    In recent days, the Governor’s Office has been issuing press releases on how Governor Ralph Northam proposes to allocate the manna from heaven, technically known as the American Rescue Plan. To a significant degree, the Governor is hewing to what might be called the Layne Doctrine. Here are the ten announcements he has made so far, listed in the order in which he made them: (more…)

  • Dueling Claims of Victory in Transgender Lawsuit

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    James A. Bacon

    by Emilio Jaksetic

    On July 27, 2021, Judge J. Frederick Watson, with the 24th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, issued a decision on a lawsuit challenging the adoption of the Virginia Board of Education’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools, reports The Virginia Star. Because Judge Watson dismissed the lawsuit for lack of standing, he properly did not rule on the substantive merits of lawsuit.

    A copy of Judge Watson’s decision is available here. A copy of the Virginia Board of Education Model Policies is available here.

    Despite dismissal of the lawsuit on procedural grounds, both sides claimed victory.

    The Christian Action Network claimed victory on the grounds that Judge Watson’s decision included a ruling that the Model Policies is a guidance document and that school boards have the option to decide whether or not to follow it. Furthermore, the Christian Action network claimed “the judge is granting school boards the right to decline to act on Virginia’s ‘Model Policies,’ which is exactly what our lawsuit intended.”

    The ACLU of Virginia claimed victory on the grounds that dismissal of the lawsuit was warranted, and asserted “[a]ll school boards in the state are legally required by law to pass policies aligning with the model policies for the 2021-22 school year.” (more…)

  • Vaccine Shaming Will Backfire

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Lemme get the straight. The president wants everyone in the country to get vaccinated against Covid-19 — an admirable goal that would likely reduce the virus to a national head cold.

    So how is he persuading those who are reluctant to take the vaccine to get a shot?

    By insulting them.

    Just this week Joe Biden said “If you’re not vaccinated, you are not nearly as smart as I thought you were!”

    Way to go. I’m sure that calling the unvaxxed stupid ought to convince them to roll up their sleeves. (more…)

  • Congrats UVa Health and Centra – the Right Kind of Healthcare Affiliation

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Centra Health

    Now for a kind word for my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Virginia.

    In a press release yesterday, Lynchburg-based Centra and UVA Health announced a strategic clinical affiliation.

    From what we know from the announcement, that is exactly the kind of healthcare affiliation Virginians need. (more…)

  • Stoney Off the Hook for Statue-Removal Contract

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    James A. Bacon

    Mayor Levar Stoney

    by James A. Bacon

    A special prosecutor has closed his investigation into Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s awarding of a $1.8 million statue-removal contract to NAH, LLC, set up by a former campaign contributor. Timothy Martin, Augusta County’s Commonwealth Attorney who was assigned to the case when Richmond’s chief prosecutor recused herself because of a conflict of interest, said he will not seek charges against Stoney. Authorities found no evidence of public corruption. “It’s over,” Martin said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    “This is exactly what we said in July 2020; that there was no evidence of anything. The mayor had nothing do with the choice of this contractor,” said Stoney’s attorney Jeff Breit.

    However, Martin said it is “still debatable” (the RTD’s words) whether the administration violated emergency procurement rules or the state’s law on war memorials. He would not consider charges based on those allegations because the scope of his investigation was focused on public corruption. Pursuing charges on the technicalities of procurement policy, he said, would be a “misuse of resources.” (more…)

  • COVID School Closure Learning Losses in K-12 Students – a Generational Catastrophe

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I have written here extensively about the pre-COVID state of learning in Virginia’s public schools and my concerns about COVID school closure learning losses exacerbating the issue.

    Those learning losses have come to pass.

    McKinsey & Company just published a study of the results from Curriculum Associates testing.  That in-school sample consisted of 1.6 million K–6 students in mathematics and 1.5 million in reading. The sampling that required in-school testing favored states that opened earliest for in-person schooling.

    The outcomes were hugely troubling. (more…)

  • Nuking the Schools

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    James A. Bacon


    by James A. Bacon

    The COVID-19-related shutdowns of K-12 schools across the country have been educational disaster of historic proportions, according to data published in a new McKinsey & Company report. McKinsey doesn’t use the phrase “disaster of historic proportions,” but how else can one describe a response to the pandemic that left students on average five months behind in mathematics and four months in reading?

    Worse yet, the racial gap in educational achievement has widened. Students in majority Black neighborhoods ended the year with six months of unfinished learning and students in low-income schools with seven months, the report says.

    Over and above the lost academic ground, the shutdowns had a tremendous adverse impact on children’s mental health. Thirty-five percent of parents say they are “very” or “extremely” worried, a significant increase from pre-pandemic levels.

    The numbers are national in scope. McKinsey did not break down estimates by state, so there are no Virginia-specific numbers. But given the fact that the school shutdowns were more pervasive and longer lasting on average in parts of Virginia, especially in Northern Virginia and center-city jurisdictions, one can predict that the educational collapse is at least as catastrophic in the Old Dominion as in other states. (more…)

  • SCC Starts Review of Dominion Wind Proposal

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Acting on its own initiative, the State Corporation Commission has established a docket to consider the coming application from Dominion Energy Virginia for its massive offshore wind proposal, the centerpiece of Virginia Democrats’ plan to save us all from catastrophic climate change.

    Earlier this month, the utility started the federal review process with a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for the project. The clock on the first round of comments to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management runs out August 2.

    If Dominion builds all future planned phases, a full 5,200 megawatts, the sticker price is more than $17 billion, which with profit and financing costs will ding customers in total $37 billion over a few decades. (more…)

  • In Virginia, Only Inova, UVa Health and VA Hospitals Mandate Vaccinations for Staff

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Among large Virginia health systems, only Inova, UVa Health and VA Medical Centers appear currently to mandate staff vaccinations.

    Inova is the only one of those that is private.

    On Monday, a Joint Statement in Support of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for All Workers in Health and Long-Term Care was issued by a long list of signatories including the American Medical Association (AMA), American Nurses Association (ANA); and the American Public Health Association (APHA):

    “We call for all health care and long-term care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”

    It is a coordinated plea.

    The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, the lobbyist for non-profit hospitals in Virginia, on July 18 published a statement encouraging its own members to take action: (more…)

  • DHR Sets the Fiscal Benchmark for Statue Removal

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    James A. Bacon

    The Lee statue being removed from the U.S. Capitol building.

    by James A. Bacon

    Let us all praise Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources. The department may be part of the culture-cleansing machine taking down historical statues and moving them to locales where they don’t offend people, but at least it is looking out for the taxpayer.

    The Northam administration, acting through DHR, made national news last December when a statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from the National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S., Capitol and relocated to a Richmond storage facility. But news accounts, such as this Associated Press piece, didn’t tell the story behind the story.

    DHR arranged for the removal and transport of the statue to Richmond for $11,700. Let that serve as a benchmark for appraising the procurement policies of governments and universities carrying out their purges. (For background, see Carol Bova’s recent article, “Making Money from Cultural Cleansing.”) (more…)

  • Why So Much Vaccine Hesitancy?

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    COVID-19 Vaccine doses received -- Virginia
    COVID-19 vaccines received — Virginia

    by James A. Bacon

    Only a month ago, it seemed as if we were putting COVID-19 behind us. With the emergence of the super-virulent Delta strain, all bets are off. Even vaccinated people and virus-resistant school children are being called upon to start wearing masks. I have no set opinions on the proper course of action. Receptive to a wide range of viewpoints, I am in data-gathering mode. Suspecting that many other readers are as well, I am resurrecting a Bacon’s Rebellion feature from earlier in the pandemic in which I regularly posted snapshots of Virginia COVID data.

    The graph above highlights the fact that almost everyone who wants a vaccine in Virginia has been able to get it. The state has received 10.2 million doses, of which 87.5% have been administered. The rate at which the state is receiving new vaccine supplies, an indicator of how many people are getting vaccinated, has tailed off to almost nothing. Earlier this year, vaccine supply was the bottleneck. Today, vaccine hesitancy is the problem.

    Why? (more…)

  • Out of Many, Weakness

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    James A. Bacon

    The Stonewall Jackson Shrine, recently renamed the Stonewall Jackson death site.

    by Donald Smith

    John Hay, Abraham Lincoln’s press secretary, wrote that Stonewall Jackson’s temperament and personality reminded him of John Brown. Hay didn’t mean that as a complement. But he did have a point. Jackson was an eccentric. At times he looked silly — sucking a lemon, wearing a beaten uniform, losing control of his VMI classroom, holding his arm up in the air so his blood would flow properly.

    For all his quirks, Jackson was one of America’s great battlefield generals. He was also a man of character. He was devoted to the Virginia Military institute where he taught. And in creating a Sunday school for Black slaves, he defied the disapproval of the community. His legacy matters — at VMI and beyond.

    The cities of Richmond and Charlottesville have pulled down statues to Jackson, Lee and many other Confederate figures. Progressives and SJWs are still celebrating in their parents’ basements. I find that less distressing than Jackson’s treatment at the hands of VMI. (more…)

  • Dazed and Confused: The CDC

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Confused?

    Of course you are. Anyone watching the hair-on-fire ninnies at the CDC is dizzy by now.

    They lack common sense, their pronouncements are irrational, their messaging is bizarre. Oh, and they clearly have no idea what they’re doing.

    One day these “experts” are experiencing scary “feelings of impending doom.” Next they announce that the vaccinated can ditch the masks. Now they say the vaccines work but the vaccinated should wear masks to protect others, presumably the unvaccinated.

    Ridiculous.

    Oh, and without citing any data, on Tuesday the CDC declared that all children in grades K-12 — who are at almost no risk of serious illness — should wear masks all day in school this fall. (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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