Bacon's Rebellion

  • About Those Face Masks for Kids…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Letter from Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, to Governor Ralph Northam, dated May 5, 2021:

    With the onset of warm weather and summer quickly approaching, we request clarification of your mask protocol for children participating in required school activities.

    I heard from multiple constituents regarding yesterday’s high temperature and the dangerous effect it had on our school age children, who are still being required to wear masks when participating in PE and recess. Here in Virginia Beach, temperatures reached a high of 92 degrees, and numerous children suffered heat-related complications and injury as a result of wearing a mask.

    Governor, the CDC has already announced that masks are not necessary when outdoors. In addition, with school staff being vaccinated, the risk of COVID-19 transmission to students is minimal. There is no health benefit to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by having our children wear masks outside. If your mask protocol is an attempt to protect our children, I would submit that requiring masks outdoors and inside during PE accomplishes quite the opposite of
    protecting—it is, in fact, harmful. (more…)

  • CNU Polls — Post-Trump Shift Happening in Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    Folks, we have a ball game in Virginia.

    Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center released another poll today and VPM’s headline captured the catnip as their headline writer wrote, “New Virginia Poll Shows Support for Progressive Ideas, but Not Labels.” It should have read “Virginians are centrists but like free stuff.”

    In that VPM report (VPM is PBS/NPR’s new label – irony noted) is this quote from CNU’s Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo:

    “Americans as a whole tend to lean conservative in their ideology,” Bromley-Trujillo said. “And this usually is kind of based on broad values, like liberty or small government. But when you get into specific policy proposals, then you see more support for Democratic policies.”

    This is not new. This is also why we put the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on our kids’ credit cards. This is also why we fight incessantly over health care — everyone wants Mayo Clinic level care on their street corner, but no one wants to pay for it. (more…)

  • Where Is the Trump Donor Money Going?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The Virginia Public Access Project has done an interesting bit of data sleuthing. It identified 360 Trump donors who have given to Republicans battling for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination through the end of March.

    Trump in Heels Amanda Chase is dominating in the number of contributions, but average size of most her donations is small. The big money is going to Glenn Youngkin and Kirk Cox. Here is the breakdown:

    — JAB

  • Virginia Taxes New Firms Higher, NC the Opposite

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    The overall effective tax rate on various kinds of businesses in Virginia, and how they rank against the other 50 states. (Lowest = #1) Click for larger view. Source: Tax Foundation and KPMG LLC

     

    by Steve Haner

    Virginia is far more tax friendly to established businesses than it is to new ones.  That’s one major conclusion of a major state-by-state business tax comparison released today (here) by the Tax Foundation and KPMG LLC.

    In neighboring North Carolina, on the other hand, the tax structure encourages new investment with more attractive rates for incoming businesses of several types. It has been a conscious strategy for that state’s political leaders for some time.

    Instead of seeking to put an overall ranking on the state’s business tax climate, as has been done in the past or in other studies, the Tax Foundation devised eight imaginary firms in different industries and then calculated their effective tax rate in each of the fifty states. It used tax laws and incentives as they were in force January 1 of this year.

    One of the principal authors is a former General Assembly legislative aide well known around our capital, Jared Walczak, now a vice president at Tax Foundation. This approach of comparing how the various states would tax a set of reasonably typical firms is a big step up from previous methods.  (more…)

  • Virginia Hospitals Rank High in Safety

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Source: Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade

    Half of all Virginia acute-care hospitals scored a “safety rating” of A, the fourth highest percentage of the 50 states, according to the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade rating.

    Leapfrog bases the rating on 27 performance measures, some developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and some from supplemental data sources. These include process measures such as, how long it takes staff members to respond when patients ask for help; structural measures, such as whether hospitals use computerized systems to prevent errors in administering medications; and outcome measures, such as how often surgeons leave foreign objects like sponges or tools in a patient’s body.

    The survey encompasses 2,700 hospitals nationally. Massachusetts sets the national standard in 2021, with 58.6% of hospitals scoring A. North and South Dakota hit bottom with zero hospitals making the grade.

    Here follows a list of Leapfrog’s Virginia hospital ratings (in alphabetical order within each grade cluster): (more…)

  • Virginia Voters Tilt Mildly Right — Why Can’t Conservatives Win More Elections?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Question: Overall, would you say things in the UNITED STATES are heading more in the right direction or the wrong direction?

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia voters describe themselves as ideologically moderate, leaning conservative, according to a new poll by the Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University. Asked to place themselves on a 0-10 scale (liberal to conservative) with 5.0 being middle of the road, the 1,008 voters polled rated themselves 5.83 on average. Independents, the swing vote, pegged themselves at 5.72.

    An obvious question arises: Why can’t conservatives win statewide elections in Virginia?

    One possibility is that voters perceive Republicans as more conservative than they see Democrats as liberal. Respondents rated the Democratic Party as 1.97 points off the middle-of-the-road 5.0 mark nor while they rated Republicans as 2.45 points off the norm.

    This raises a subsidiary question: Is the perception of Republicans as more extreme based on objective fact, an artifact of the parties’ messaging, or a distortion created by media misrepresentation? (more…)

  • Chesapeake Regional Medical Center Sues Sentara – Again

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    A tip of the hat to my friends at Checks and Balances Project for alerting us to a new civil suit filed April 27 against Sentara by Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC).

    I will comment on Sentara’s response to the suit when it is available.

    The complaint alleges various instances of tortious interference by Sentara with CRMC’s business and conspiracy to do the same. I recommend you read the complaint as filed. It is quite a story.

    Although I am familiar with only part of the evidence in this specific case, that being Sentara’s successful intervention against CRMC’s COPN application for open heart surgery, the other allegations match decades of Sentara business practices.

    (more…)

  • “Virginia Students Will Never Get This Year Back”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Kirk Cox. (Photo credit: Roanoke Times.)

    by James A. Bacon

    I have no inkling whether Former House Speaker Kirk Cox will win the Republican gubernatorial nomination, but I do think he just latched on to a good issue and framed it just the right way. The headline of a press release issued today says, “Virginia Students Will Never Get This Year Back.”

    Cox, who was a public school teacher for 30 years, can speak with some authority on the subject of K-12 education. And he taps into a deep reservoir of frustration at the slow pace with which Virginia’s educational establishment is returning school children to in-person education.

    “We’ve got three to six months of learning loss in reading and math right now,” Cox said. “You’ve got kids who have missed an entire senior year. … You’ll never get that back. You’ll simply never get it back.” (more…)

  • Only You Can Prevent Mega Fires

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Controlled fire on Summers Mountain in Highland County. Photo credit: Virginia Mercury

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia’s environmentalists seem determined to out-California California when it comes to fighting global warming and pushing for a zero-carbon economy. But they do seem unlikely to repeat the colossal error that has made the Golden State a cauldron of forest fire infernos. Rather than let understory vegetation grow out of control, Virginia foresters have been practicing “controlled burning” — a practice that is written about approvingly in The Virginia Mercury, which reflects the thinking of the bien pensants in Virginia’s environmental community.

    Virginia has many advantages over California when it comes to combating forest fires. We get more rain, and we have fewer and shallower droughts. But our biggest advantage may be that our environmentalists are not insane. Excessively fixated upon climate change, perhaps, but not totally disconnected from reality. (more…)

  • More Nonsense from AG Candidates

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Candidates for Republican AG Nomination Image credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch

    By Dick Hall-Sizemore

    A recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch has compelled me to once again mount my soapbox about one of my favorite peeves — the misleading claims, and understanding, of the role of the Virginia Attorney General.

    I will say upfront that I realize that mine is a lost cause and, furthermore, what I am reacting to is political rhetoric. Nevertheless, like Steve Haner on another subject, I need to get it off my chest.

    The article profiled the four candidates for the Republican nomination for Attorney General. In their remarks, there were several themes in common:

    • Opening schools and businesses
    • Professionalism of the Office of Attorney General
    • Use of force by police
    • Qualified immunity for law enforcement

    (more…)

  • Michael Saylor: Prophet or Charlatan?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Great cover story in Virginia Business magazine this month: MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor’s $2 billion gamble on bitcoin.

    I’m glad to see this story. First, it represents a return to the kind of business journalism Virginia Business did when I was editor and publisher many eons ago, when we wrote about Virginia’s most consequential and controversial CEOs. This story is the best read about a Virginia entrepreneur that I have come across in literally years.

    Second, the story explores a topic of great fascination — cryptocurrency. With my libertarian leanings, I am sympathetic to the vision of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin as an alternative to the fiat money created by central banks. As the U.S. indulges in ever-growing deficit spending and amasses a national debt that can never be repaid, the Federal Reserve Bank will face mounting pressure to inflate away the debt. Just one problem: I don’t see bitcoin as an alternative currency. With its wildly gyrating prices, it is not a stable store of value. Put your bitcoin in the bank, and you have no idea what it will be worth tomorrow. (more…)

  • An Achievable Dream Is an Asset to Henrico County

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Achievable Dream Academy in Highland Springs. Photo credit: Richmondmag.com.

    by Aubrey L. Layne Jr.

    My first experience with An Achievable Dream Academy is one that I never will forget. I remember shaking hands with Newport News elementary school children and seeing the excitement in their eyes.

    Every encounter since further solidifies my belief in the value of this program for our community, and for the future. Its presence in Henrico County is a sign of the community’s dedication to some of our most vulnerable children.

    My wife, Peggy, and I have been supporters of the program for almost 20 years — beginning with my serving on the board of directors for An Achievable Dream’s (AAD) Endowment. My commitment to this program only strengthened when I served as president and CEO of AAD in 2013, just prior to my appointment as secretary of transportation for the commonwealth of Virginia.

    While leading AAD, I was fortunate enough to spearhead the expansion of the program to Virginia Beach — in partnership with Virginia Beach City Public Schools. I am so proud of how it has flourished.

    (more…)

  • Union Bosses Bullied the CDC to Keep Schools Closed

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Anyone remember when Donald Trump was pummeled for putting pressure on the CDC over COVID?

    Wonder what those critics are saying now that we learn union bosses from the American Federation of Teachers essentially wrote public policy for the agency that kept children locked out of schools last winter.

    It’s an astonishing, but not an altogether surprising development, given the outsized influence teachers and other trade unions have in the Biden administration.

    In a Saturday front-page story headlined, “Powerful Teachers Union Influenced CDC On School Reopenings, Emails Show,” The New York Post reported that it was muscle from the militant AFT, rather than science, that slowed school reopening in many places. (more…)

  • Brood X is Coming!

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Photo credit: Baltimore Sun

    By Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It was spring, 2004, several months after our first grandchild had been born. My wife and I were visiting our daughter and family in Fairfax County. There was a loud, incessant buzzing, almost roar, in the air. Big bugs were everywhere; you could not walk without crunching on them. They were dropping from trees, sometimes on you.

    I had heard of periodic cicadas, but had never seen them. It was simply amazing. I was fascinated. And, I thought to myself, when Calvin becomes 17, they will back. That time is now.

    Brood X, one of the major 17-year cicada cohorts, is due to emerge in the Northern Virginia suburbs this year  Reportedly, a consistent ground temperature of 64 degrees is their key to emerge. So, May is the month.

    They do not pose a danger to humans.  hey do not bite or sting. They don’t even eat the shrubbery. The only potential “problems” will be that some people may feel they are a nuisance — the noise and the omnipresent bugs and their shed husks. On the other hand, the birds will go crazy; it will be feast time for them. I have heard that dogs like to eat them, as well.

    This is one of those shows of nature that comes around only every so often.  Enjoy it.

  • Ball of Confusion

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginians are still suffering from massive confusion about what the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is proposing for its controversial Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative. The befuddlement arises from the use of various words that are seeming synonyms but have precise, different meanings when used by educators.

    Two columns appearing in my inbox this morning illustrated the continued inability to get the story straight: one published by the Washington Post, which quotes James F. Lane, state superintendent for public instruction, and one by the Virginia Star, which cites VDOE spokesman Charles Pyle.

    Here is the root of the problem. “Tracking” means one thing. “Accelerated pathway” means another. “Advanced courses” means another. Lane and Pyle are choosing their words very carefully. But journalists are missing the nuances. (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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