Bacon's Rebellion

  • We Underpaid Dominion in 2019? Not Really.

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Future Dominion price increases. Source: SCC.  Actually, 1000 kWh per month is a bit low for the average residential customer, so many Virginians will be paying much more. Click for large view.

    By Steve Haner

    You will be shocked to learn that we customers of Dominion Energy Virginia did not pay it enough money in 2019. The shareholders did not get the profit margin they were due, the utility reported to the State Corporation Commission, which subsequently reported it to us on August 18.

    Actually, these guys were not utility accountants, but they were on the right track.

    We’ve entered the realm of energy comedy. The utility accounting process now mirrors the famous movie “The Producers,” with the goal being to book little or no actual profit so high rates can be maintained or even made higher. There is honest accounting, show-biz accounting, but for real whiz bang results there is utility accounting.

    The SCC’s annual report to the General Assembly on utility accounting, now including projections of future rate costs, normally comes out closer to September. I was tipped to expect it early by a Dominion big wig, which should have told me it was a report they wanted publicized. This is Dominion playing the long game, preparing for the 2021 showdown on its rates and profits in a formal SCC audit and rate case.

    The rules for this long game have been rigged in the utility’s favor over several years by a compliant General Assembly. This is not news to Bacon’s Rebellion readers. But here we go again.  (more…)

  • Records? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Records!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn and House Clerk Suzette Denslow. Photo credit: Virginia Mercury.

    by Dave Webster

    On July 30, 2020, I served a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request on House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn regarding her removal of the Lee statue and other artifacts from the State Capitol, specifically inquiring as to who she hired, how much they were paid, and where she stored the artifacts which are the property of the people of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I also asked her if there was a competitive bidding process for the contract or contracts.

    Her reply was:  “The requested records do not exist.”

    Faced with this mysterious response, I was compelled to file suit against Speaker Filler-Corn in the General District Court for the City of Richmond on August 11, 2020. (Case No.  GV20014728-00). (more…)

  • Lacking the Courage of Supermarket Clerks, Virginia’s Delegates Flee for Home

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    It’s official.

    Virginia’s supermarket clerks, hair stylists and nail techs have more courage than the elected members of the House of Delegates

    Hours after arriving in Richmond to gather in a socially distanced manner in the VCU Siegel Center gym, the nervous Democratic majority decided that it was too dangerous to meet in person. They immediately voted to hold Zoom meetings for the remainder of the special session.

    These shameless greedballs then voted to continue to collect their $180 a-day tax-free per diem that is supposed to cover the cost of hotels and meals while doing the people’s business in the Richmond. These pathetic excuses for public servants will be slurping up tax dollars as they wander around their houses in their bathrobes.

    And the only way the public will be able to watch these lawmakers in action is online. (more…)

  • Northam Asks Legislators: Resist Urge to Spend

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    Steve Haner

    Governor Ralph Northam in an almost empty Pocahontas Building committee room, addressing legislators miles away. State photo.

    By Steve Haner

    Perhaps the most important point about Governor Ralph Northam’s latest Virginia state budget proposal is what he did not recommend. He did not recommend dipping into the state’s current cash reserves to restore spending items which had been frozen. No additional taxes are proposed.

    In fact, Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne told legislators in the budget briefing August 18 that no new budget bill is needed from this month’s special session at all, and the General Assembly could let the current document stand as approved in May until it comes back in January for the full 2021 regular session.

    Whether Northam’s cautious, some would say conservative, approach will satisfy the General Assembly or spending advocates will be the story of the special session, at least on the financial front. The run up to the Assembly’s arrival was marked by escalating demands to address issues related to the COVID recession, and general complaints about poverty and income disparity in the Commonwealth.

    “We have concentrated on building cash and limiting spending on recurring expenses. That is why I stated we do not need budget action from a financial standpoint. Let’s hope the General Assembly follows suit,” Layne wrote in reply to a question.

    That is hardly guaranteed. The frozen spending amounts, more than $2.2 billion, represent some of the highest priorities of legislators (and the Governor himself.)  Most cannot be addressed by using the federal funds provided to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. They could be funded in part by the more than $1 billion in cash reserves, divided between the official Revenue Stabilization Fund and the more informal Revenue Reserve Fund. Northam left those alone. (more…)

  • The Tell Tale Heart: Racism in Richmond Medicine

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    Peter Galuszka

    By Peter Galuszka

    On Saturday, May 25, 1968, the Medical College of Virginia, now part of Virginia Commonwealth University, made medical history.  A surgeon recruited from Stanford University a couple of years before successfully transplanted the heart from one middle-aged man to another.

    MCV officials in Richmond officials were ecstatic. Organ transplants were a hot, fairly new surgical procedure. Once stuck in the junior varsity leagues of medical training and research, MCV was basking in glory from media coverage.

    There was one peculiarity that no one seemed to notice. The name of the heart donor was missing. As it turned out, the donor was Bruce Tucker, a Richmond Tucker happened to be African-American.

    Tucker had suffered a serious brain injury from a fall the day before. He was taken to MCV. Hospital officials made a perfunctory search for his relatives. Tucker’s brother was desperately looking for him and his business card was in Bruce’s pocket. No one found it.

    So, after Bruce was pronounced dead, his heart was removed and placed in the chest of Richard G. Klett, a white business executive from Orange. This shocking story is well documented in a highly readable book by Richmond author and journalist Chip Jones that has been just published by an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Tucker’s brother finally located hospital officials who started talking about an autopsy and that he needed to find a funeral director. (more…)

  • Bill Would Release Inmates Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Hans Bader

    Virginia’s legislature has a good chance of releasing many prison inmates guilty of involuntary manslaughter. In its special session this August, legislators plan to pass Senate Bill 5034, which would shorten many inmates’ sentences by increasing the number of credits they receive for good behavior while in prison. The bill would not apply to people who commit rape or murder, but it would benefit inmates who committed many other serious offenses: involuntary manslaughter and other crimes such as drunk driving, home invasions, and assaults that injured people but were not intended to kill or maim. It would apply even to inmates whose crimes are part of a long pattern of criminal activity. So, career criminals could be released — like the habitual drunk driver who kills someone after driving drunk many times, or the career thief who steals millions of dollars.

    Right now prison inmates in Virginia who avoid major misbehavior receive good-behavior credits. The credits give them a 4.5 day reduction in their sentence for every 30 days in which they behave. For the majority of Virginia inmates, Senate Bill 5034 would increase that reduction. For many, that reduction would eventually rise to “one day for each one day served” — nearly seven times the current rate. (In the first year of such good behavior, they would receive up to 13 days reduction in their sentence for every 30 days served, triple the current reduction; in the second year of such good behavior, they would receive up to 16 days off for every 30 days served; in the third year, up to 20 days off; in the fourth year, up to 25 days off; and in the fifth and any consecutive year thereafter, they would get up to a full day off their sentence for each day served.) (more…)

  • Stoney Justifies Statue Contract

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Stoney administration did not answer Bacon’s Rebellion requests for information when we were researching Mayor Levar Stoney’s awarding of a $1.8 million contract outside of Richmond’s procurement laws, but it did respond to the Richmond Times-Dispatch when the newspaper followed up on the revelations posted on this blog.

    Here’s how Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan justified the awarding of the contract to NAH LLC, owned by Devon Henry, a Stoney donor, to take down several of the city’s Confederate statues last month. 

    Were it possible to pursue a traditional procurement, the mayor would have done so, but circumstances required him to pursue a different legal avenue and he chose to prioritize protecting lives and property over process. … This decision was fully within his authority, and he stands by it.

    (more…)

  • California, Here We Come!

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    For a look at Virginia’s energy future, just take a look at California. It’s not a pretty picture. The state’s grid operator imposed short rolling blackouts twice over the weekend due to an inability to meet peak demand caused by a heat wave. More blackouts are possible later this week.

    Both Virginia and California aspire to have 100% carb0n-free electric grids, but the Golden State is farther along in adopting wind and solar power. The California Energy Commission estimates that “34% of California’s electricity came from renewable sources in 2018.”

    The Northam administration has signed legislation requiring Dominion Energy to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable sources (primarily solar and wind) by 2045, and Appalachian Power to meet that goal by 2050. All coal-fired plants must close by the end of 2024. California’s present is Virginia’s future just a few years out. (more…)

  • Virginia’s Special Session: Political Theater

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Gov. Ralph Northam’s “special session” of the General Assembly that begins today in Richmond is quickly turning into political farce.

    What began as an emergency convocation of lawmakers to address the budget catastrophe brought on by Northam’s shutdown of the commonwealth and was expanded to include law enforcement reforms, now threatens to become a legislative free-for-all.

    Members are merrily introducing bills that do everything from honor notable Virginians — those couldn’t wait until January? — to bills that prevent police officers from stopping cars when they detect the smell of marijuana.

    (Odd, I couldn’t find a companion bill that prevents cops from detaining drivers who reek of alcohol.)

    On the eve of the session, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, was charged with not one, but two felonies in connection with the June protests that culminated in the toppling of a Confederate monument that nearly killed a man. (more…)

  • Shhh. COVID Deaths Drop. Keep It Quiet.

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Virginia Department of Health. Click for larger view. Go to the website for the interactive version.

    Isn’t this always the way? Just as the Virginia General Assembly arrives in Richmond to save us from COVID-19, Virginia’s number are getting way better.The 7-day average for deaths in the Northern Virginia region tracked by the Virginia Department of Health is zero. Zero. It has recorded zero deaths in August so far.

    The statewide 7-day average, which tracks about a week back, has dropped to 5 deaths per day, the lowest average since the pandemic’s initial assault. That’s the chart above. Eastern Virginia’s 7-day death average is now below two per day, and here in the Central (read Capitol) region, is it about one death every other day. That region has had only six deaths recorded so far in August.  (more…)

  • Inching Closer to a Sustainable Mass Transit Model

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Fairfax County and Dominion Energy are testing a driverless electrical shuttle. The Relay, a 13-foot-long blue bus is expected to begin regular service this fall, shuttling passengers back and forth between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station and the county’s Mosaic District.

    The service will be free. Users will be able track the Relay’s position with an app.

    The 12-passenger shuttle, an EZ10, is now learning its fixed route, undergoing testing and awaiting approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to begin passenger operations, reports the Washington Post.  (more…)

  • The Godzilla of Truth Launches Digital News Site

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    As old-school newspapers fade away, there’s a new star in Virginia’s media constellation — the Virginia Star. The John Fredericks Radio Network has launched a daily news and digital newspaper for Virginia as an affiliate of Star News Digital Media.

    “The Virginia Star will be fiercely local in its core news reporting content, augmented with a national flavor and robust commentary section,” said Frederick, a flamboyant radio personality who bills himself the “godzilla of truth,” in announcing the venture. The enterprise has hired three local full-time reporters and has contracted with several more on a part-time basis.

    “We will be covering the real stories in Virginia that the fake news chooses to ignore, which prompted the vision for the publication,” said Fredericks. “We believe TheVirginiaStar.com will soon grow to be one of Virginia’s key resources for the truth. Our mission is to bring our readers real news without the leftist bias in reporting that unfortunately drives most newsrooms today.”

    Known for his conservative, pro-Trump commentary, Fredericks also said in his announcement:

    Our primary RVA competitors are furloughing staff members, making buyouts, shrinking coverage while becoming beholden to the far left fringe agenda. Another news competitor in the Virginia digital space is fully funded by a Democratic play to pay activist who’s spent millions on electing Democrats in Virginia. Honest reporting is sacrificed as a result. We intend to resolve that. We are growing and will continue to bring Virginians real news and information.

    (more…)

  • Masks Outdoors? That’s a Hard NO.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Every writer has a favorite place to sit and create.

    Mine is my screened porch. Most days I grab my laptop and coffee to head outside for most of the day. I’m there now, in fact, enjoying a drizzly, warm and quiet Sunday afternoon. There are no high-spirited beachgoers walking by with kids and beach chairs today. Just unseen birds singing in the trees and the occasional dog walker sloshing by in squishy boots.

    I like to watch the world while I write.

    Lately, working on my porch has provided me with a new distraction: I find myself pausing numerous times a day to watch the construction of a new house just across the street. The old place that stood there for at least 75 years was charmless and dilapidated. It was razed several years ago.

    In its place, a gabled, three-story home is rising. I’m in awe of the skill it takes to build such a structure. (more…)

  • The Gory Details of Levar Stoney’s Statue Contract

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Devon Henry, principal of NAH LLC, which was awarded the $1.8 million contract to take down Richmond’s Confederate statues.

    by James A. Bacon

    When Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney needed help taking down the city’s Confederate statues, he turned to Devon Henry, a prominent local construction contractor who had donated $4,000 to his 2016 mayoral campaign and political action committee. No local crane & rigging company in Virginia was willing to undertake the controversial project, but Henry lined up a Connecticut firm willing to do the work.

    Bypassing City of Richmond procurement procedures and city administrators on the grounds that the city was facing an “emergency” in the form of civil unrest, Stoney awarded the contract directly to Henry himself. Under the $1.8 million agreement, the city reimbursed NAH $180,000 per day for equipment, crew, and consultants.

    That sum struck some observers as exorbitant. Bacon’s Rebellion could not find a Virginia rigging company willing to comment upon the contract on the record, but an individual with one firm said the job would have cost no more than $10,000 a day had it been handled by a local contractor, or $20,000 a day for an out-of-state contractor who had to pay for transportation, food and lodging for its crew. He was astonished that anyone could get away with charging $180,000 per day for the job.

    Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan declined to respond to Bacon’s Rebellion questions asking how Stoney selected Henry for the lucrative contract. Likewise, Henry declined to respond to questions posed by Bacon’s Rebellion. (more…)

  • The Hearings Are Over, Let the Battles Begin

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    By Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The House Committees on Courts of Justice and Public Safety held three meetings/public hearings in preparation for the General Assembly’s consideration of criminal justice and police reform in the upcoming special session. The sessions were billed as public hearings, but, in actuality, most of the time was spent in hearing from invited speakers. Comments from members of the public were relegated to the end of the three-hour period and each speaker was limited to three minutes. At each session, only about 10 members of the public made comments.

    The subsequent list of criminal justice legislative issues adopted by the House leadership for its special session agenda can be found here. Remarkably, all but three items were also included on the list released earlier by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. (See my compilation of that list here.) The only items not on the VLBC list was the Attorney General’s proposal that his office be authorized to conduct “pattern or practices” investigations of police departments and two vaguely-worded proposals relating to vetting law-enforcement applicants and diversifying the Committee on Training of the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).

    The VLBC proposals missing from the Democratic Caucus list are ones to “defund” the police and regulate, by Code, the use of force by police. Obviously, the Democrats knew what they wanted going into the meetings and tailored their lists of speakers to ensure they got it. Based on the resulting list of proposals, the meetings may as well have not been held. (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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