Hey, I was still in the Denver Airport and on the plane most of yesterday. Did I miss anything while riding the rails in the Rockies? Jim returns this week, I think.
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Sunday Memes on Monday (Again)
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Opportunity or Faustian Bargain?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
(Author’s Note: The following article is unusually long, even by my standards. The subject is a federal policy document recently sent to the University of Virginia and eight other institutions of higher education. The document is ten pages long and contains numerous provisions which could have a significant impact on higher education and, thus, deserve extensive explanation and discussion.)
The University of Virginia has been offered an opportunity to obtain “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships”, as well as an invitation to the White House. All it has to do is give up its academic freedom and financial independence.
This offer comes in the form of a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” sent to UVa, along with a letter from the Secretary of Education asking for comments by Oct. 20 and “a signed agreement by no later than November 21, 2025.” UVa was one of nine institutions of higher education offered this opportunity. The others were Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, and Brown University.
The compact document declares that “it represents the priorities of the U.S. government in its engagements with universities.” It sets out ten areas which would constitute the agreement between the university and the federal government.
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Disbar Mr. Jones
By James C. Sherlock
Disbarment presents a higher requirement for wrongdoing than perhaps it used to.
But counselor Jay Jones has easily exceeded any such standards with his deranged- and written- call for the murder of the Speaker of the Virginia House.
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Government Shutdown Threatens to Upend Governor’s Race
By Chris Braunlich
Figure credit: Education Week For more than a half century, it has been the case that Virginia elects a Governor who is from the opposite party as the President elected the year before.
With one exception.
In 2013, the year after Barack Obama’s re-election, Virginians sent Democrat Terry McAuliffe to the Governor’s Mansion. The background to that should send a chill down the spine of gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger.
As National Review observed, “Democrats are confident that they can work with their allies in the media to blame any shutdown on Republicans….But historically, the public has tended to place the blame on the party that rejects a clean bill and forces a shutdown to make policy demands on issues that aren’t directly related to disagreements over the government spending levels.”
Back in October of 2013, Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to support a budget keeping the government open. Their demand was to delay or make major changes to the Affordable Care Act in exchange for passing the resolution – disagreements unrelated to differences over funding. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Republicans “anarchists” and advocated a hard line against Republicans declaring “We will not go to conference with a gun at our heads.”
Reid convinced then-President Obama to not meet with Republicans, and on the morning of October 1, Obama declared “One faction, of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, shut down major parts of the government – all because they didn’t like one law.”
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Comments Test
This is a test post for the comments system. Please disregard.
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Off the Interstate: A National Monument to a Virginia-born Slave
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Booker T. Washington Picture credit: Wikipedia Nestled among the commercial development and luxury homes along Smith Mountain Lake along Rt. 122 between Bedford and Rocky Mount is a National Monument to a slave born in Virginia.
Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 in the community of Hale’s Ford in Franklin County. His enslaved mother, Jane, was the cook on the tobacco plantation of James Burroughs. Burroughs would have been considered a hardscrabble farmer by the wealthy plantation owners in Tidewater Virginia. The Burroughs men and hired hands worked in the fields alongside the slaves. However, his neighbors in Franklin County probably considered Burroughs as one of the well-to-do.
Most of Burroughs’ wealth was bound up in his human property. At his death in 1861, the value of the slaves on his property exceeded the combined value of everything else he owned. That total included the valuation of five-year old Booker–$400.
Booker T. Washington National Monument, Hardy, Va. From an early age, Washington longed for an education. One of his duties was to carry the books for Burroughs’ daughter to school. Washington later wrote that he thought that going to school would be like “getting into paradise.”
After their emancipation, Washington’s mother moved with her children to West Virginia to be with Washington’s stepfather, who had escaped slavery earlier. While in West Virginia, he worked in the salt and coal mines, but his stepfather allowed him to go to school at night. At some point, he left the mines and went to live with and work for a family in the community. The wife of the family “taught him proper conduct and cleanliness and encouraged him to get an education.”
During this time, he heard about Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), a school established for Blacks in 1868. In 1872, at the age of 16, he set out for Hampton Institute, 500 miles away, walking most of the way.
To pay for his tuition and board at Hampton, Washington worked as the school’s janitor. After graduating from Hampton, he went back to West Virginia to teach for two years and then studied briefly at Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. He returned to Hampton Institute to teach there. Upon the recommendation of Gen. Samuel Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, Washington was hired to start a school for Blacks in Tuskegee, Alabama.
When he arrived at Tuskegee in 1881, at the age of 25, he found 30 “anxious and eager students,” but little else. There was no land, teachers, or money. The only building was a leaky shanty. Washington and the students literally built the school themselves, using bricks they fired in a kiln they built. At Washington’s death in 1915, Tuskegee Institute had more than 100 buildings, approximately 1,500 students, 200 faculty members, and an endowment of about $2 million.
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State Spending Grows Faster Than Income. Something Has to Give.
By Steve Haner,
There was an important story in the preliminary end-of-year financial report that the Richmond Times-Dispatch misinterpreted as the state “running in the red.” State spending has been on a major growth spurt under Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, although the Democrats with the majority in the General Assembly have just as much to do with it.
The data from the state comptroller, which will reappear later this year after the state’s books are audited, shows that general fund tax revenue grew 25% during the four years it covers in one of its tables (page 3), fiscal years 2021-2025. During that same period, the spending in that general fund category grew 47% (from $23.1 billion to $34 billion.)
The report uses only a few broad categories for spending. Again, this is general fund only so all the various federal programs or dedicated non-general fund revenue for the same services are not included. Spending on individual and family services was $10.7 billion in the year ending June 30, 2025, and that was 52% higher than four years ago. That is steady growth of far more than 10% annually, with Medicaid likely leading the charge.
Spending on education, which always gets the most political focus, was the largest category by far. The $14.9 billion spent during FY 2025 was an increase of 50% since 2021. Presumably this covers the waterfront from pre-K through higher education. Higher education is much more dependent on non-general fund revenue (think tuition and fees), but does share in the general fund, too.
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Jeanine’s Memes
But the overall theme of the batch is “paybacks are hell.” Jim Comey probably regrets his earlier post about those seashells….
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No, Times-Dispatch, Virginia’s Budget Did Not “Run in the Red”
By Steve Haner,
It is not clear who should be more ashamed of themselves, the Richmond Times-Dispatch or Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax). Both didn’t just mislead Virginians, but defamed Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin and the entire state finance staff. Even the silly season has limits.
Virginia’s state government finances did not “run in the red” during the fiscal year that ended June 30, despite the newspaper’s front page headline September 26. Surovell knows that full well, and if he doesn’t, somebody better audit his law firm escrow fund. His claim that the governor is “trying to hide the real numbers” would garner an instant lawsuit if he made it about the CEO of a major publicly traded corporation.
Of the bitter partisan Surovell, I no longer expect better. His shoes do not fill the footsteps he seeks to walk in, those of the late Senators Ed Willey and Hunter Andrews and the still kicking Walter Stosch.
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“Clean” Energy Mandates are Raising Power Bills, Not Data Centers
By Steve Haner,
No, Virginia, we cannot blame the data centers. The impact of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) on rising electricity bills is more significant and destined to grow. With the cost of living turning up in election polls as a top voter concern, a repeal of the VCEA is one step the next Virginia General Assembly could take if voters make the right choices.
Some of the ways VCEA is raising electricity bills, mainly for 2.7 million Dominion Energy accounts, are easy to find:
- The up-front construction cost of the $11.3 billion offshore wind project for Dominion, which will not produce electricity until next year. If your Dominion bill is 1,000 kWh, as of September 1 you are paying $11.23 per month for that. Without VCEA the project likely would not have been approved as prudent.
- The cost of purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) from companies other than Dominion, most of them not in Virginia. Under the VCEA, Dominion must hit an annual target for non-hydrocarbon electricity, and when it misses the target, it must pay for RECs or pay a fine. That is adding another $7.68 to the 1,000-kWh bill.
- The up-front construction cost of a growing fleet of large solar projects. The VCEA also mandated that and is calling for much more solar in the next several years. The cost for the current projects is $3.67 on that monthly 1,000-kWh bill.
- The cost of energy efficiency subsidies offered to induce customers to reduce their use of electricity, often with the purchase of LED lighting, insulation or newer appliances. Some of the subsidies are given to businesses. They currently add $1.45 to that 1,000-kWh monthly bill.
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A Million Reasons to Worry Either Way the Election Goes
By Steve Haner
Jay Jones Democrat Jay Jones and Republican Jason Miyares have now both accepted more than $1 million each in campaign contributions from major players in Virginia’s energy wars. The job they both seek, Attorney General of Virginia, includes a duty to stand firm on behalf of Virginia’s energy consumers against the elephants in the room at the State Corporation Commission.
Do you feel protected?
Jones had passed the $1 million mark in contributions from the environmental activist group Clean Virginia by the time of a previous contributions summary, which was complete through the end of June. The former state delegate from Norfolk remains at a similar level, $1.11 million, now that the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) data includes donations through the end of August.
Jason Miyares Miyares, the incumbent attorney general and former state delegate, received additional money from Dominion Energy Virginia in the most recent report, and his total from the utility is now $1.25 million. To that must be added another $125,000 given to his political action committee since 2024, bringing his total to $1.375 million for the cycle. In the four years since his last election, the two accounts combined have received more than $2 million.
Dominion’s key energy role as a monopoly electricity provider clearly creates potential conflicts with the interest of consumers. In recent years, Clean Virginia has moved from merely making political contributions into the regulatory arena, and it now brings its own attorneys and expert witnesses to energy cases at the State Corporation Commission. It had a small army of lobbyists at the last session.
Clean Virginia is just as capable of being at cross purposes with consumers as Dominion is. A consumer counsel who owes it his election has a problem.
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The Pediatrician-in-Chief
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Photo credit: NPR and Getty Images At his press conference last week, President Trump railed at length against giving young children multiple vaccinations at once. In his view, doctors were pumping all this stuff into those “beautiful bodies.” At times, he alluded to 80 vaccines, as if children were being given every vaccine available. At other times, he clearly was talking about the standard MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccination shot. He urged parents to separate those vaccination shots. “Take them [the children] in three, four, five times,” he advised.
He offered no medical or other scientific basis for this recommendation. “This is based on what I feel. The mumps, measles and — the three should be taken separately. And it seems to be that when you mix them, there could be a problem. So, there’s no downside in taking them separately. In fact, they think it’s better. So let it be separate.”
There is a major obstacle to being able to follow that advice. The three vaccines are not manufactured separately. For each of these diseases, the Centers for Disease Control says, “Single-antigen vaccine is not available.”
https://www.cdc.gov/rubella/hcp/vaccine-considerations/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mumps/hcp/vaccine-considerations/index.html
My daughter is a pediatrician in Northern Virginia. She told me that she occasionally has had parents ask about getting the MMR vaccination in separate shots. When told that separate doses are not available, they drop the issue. Now, I can imagine her and other pediatricians throughout the state being confronted by angry mothers demanding separate shots and not believing that such doses are not available. After all, President Trump told them that was the best way.
Pediatricians may be affected by this crusade against vaccinations in another way. My daughter recently had a mother of a four-month old ask when was the earliest that her baby could be vaccinated. (Doctors recommend that children get their first MMR vaccination when they are 12-15 months old.) She wanted to get her child vaccinated as soon as possible because she was worried that the vaccines soon might not be available.
The President is spreading misinformation and fear among parents over an issue of which he is ignorant.
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A Call for Civility
Virginians are desperate for a change in tone. The Charlie Kirk memorial at UVA hit all the right notes.
I was proud of the University of Virginia students speaking last evening at the Charlie Kirk memorial held in Cabell Hall. The message was pitch-perfect: a celebration (as advertised) of free speech and civil dialogue. The students’ uplifting message was echoed by Attorney General Jason Miyares and UVA faculty legends Larry Sabato and Ken Elzinga.
Since Kirk’s assassination, social media has been its usual cesspool. Left and right affixing blame for political violence upon the other. Lefties tut-tutting that violence was not justified but Charlie Kirk was a horrible person, others celebrating his death openly. Their counterparts on the right tarring all Democrats, progressives, and leftists with extremist sentiments expressed on Tik Tok and Twitter.
The UVA students sponsoring the UVA Kirk memorial — Young Americans for Freedom, the College Republicans, Turning Point USA — stayed positive. They did not call for vengeance but for forgiveness. They did not demonize those with different views. They called for comity, for engaging with and listening to others.
As the country immolates itself with hatred and political violence, this is a message that most Americans desperately want to hear.
Readers may have noticed that I have significantly cut back my posts on Bacon’s Rebellion. I make an exception today, before heading off for a two-week vacation in France. (For what it’s worth, the atmosphere in France is just as ugly as it is here. The center is not merely eroding. It has collapsed. Demonstrations and strikes are breaking out everywhere.) I am hoping against hope that, thanks to events like the UVA memorial and another taking place at Virginia Tech today, the mood in Virginia will be a little less rancorous when I return. — JAB
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As MAGA As Ever
John Reid John Reid’s endorsement by Joe Morrissey won’t fool voters into thinking he’s a political moderate.
by Paul Goldman
Radio show host John Reid got nominated by accident when the likely GOP Lt. Governor primary winner dropped out. Soon Reid, now the GOP LG nominee by law, chose to engage in a public feud with GOP Gov. Youngkin. In that regard, Reid seemed to suggest Youngkin was anti-gay when apparently the Governor’s political folks tried to get Reid — openly gay — to drop off the GOP ticket. This instantly made Reid the poster boy for the anti-Youngkin MAGA GOP folks loyal to President Trump. He eagerly embraced them despite the basic anti-equality bias of the MAGA movement
I wrote about these events months ago, predicting they showed that John Reid wasn’t ready for prime time as a statewide political candidate. Before he got embroiled in the statewide politics at the candidate level, John had been perhaps the most successful political radio host in Virginia.
But there’s a world of difference between radio show host politics, and politics at the statewide candidate level.
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If Politics Ruined PJM, is More Political Control the Fix? Maybe.
Former FERC Chair Mark Christie by Steve Haner
State elected leaders want more control over the regional electricity marketplace that manages the power grid in Virginia and 12 other neighboring states. They have a point in their complaints about PJM Interconnection Inc.’s problems but they are also deeply engaged in blame shifting for higher energy costs.
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) was one the several state governors who called Monday for major changes in the governance of the regional transmission grid operator, with an open threat that Virginia might leave entirely if demanded reforms were not adopted. The speech was covered by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, but with little focus on just want Youngkin and the others are asking for. Youngkin also said nothing about what would replace PJM, given Virginia is a major power importer.
Top on the governors’ joint list of reforms is an opportunity to choose, or at least nominate, two members for the 8-seat PJM governing board. What Youngkin and the newspaper didn’t mention is that one of the names they put forward is Mark Christie. Christie is the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and spent 17 years on the Virginia State Corporation Commission. He spoke right after Youngkin.
PJM, one of several regional transmission organizations around the country regulated by FERC, is currently governed by a board chosen by the multiple generation and transmission companies which are part of its network. Some of the most controversial energy decisions within its footprint, from eastern North Carolina to west of Chicago, are largely out of the control of state and local authorities.
Christie’s prepared remarks, which he shared with Bacon’s Rebellion, and we share with you in full (with some of the acronyms explained), get into that history. A key excerpt follows:
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