Bacon's Rebellion

  • Former Swim Team Captain Exposes Abusive, Vengeful Staff

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    James A. Bacon

    A young woman wearing a Roanoke College swimming shirt stands at a podium during a press conference.
    Roanoke College Swim Team Captain Lily Mullens Oct. 5, 2023. (WSLS/YouTube screenshot)

    by Scott Dreyer

    On August 25, Attorney General Jason Miyares held a press conference at the Salem library to share the findings of his office’s investigation into how Roanoke College treated members of its women’s swim team, a controversy that first erupted in the fall of 2023 and went on to make national headlines. Miyares claimed that not only did his office find that Roanoke College violated the swimmers’ civil rights, but also violated the Virginia Human Rights Act and federal Title XI, which was created in 1972 to guarantee equal access to sports for females.

    Cady Mullens read a statement on behalf of her daughter Lily Mullens, one of the complainants in the Attorney General’s investigation of Roanoke College, who could not attend the conference due to work obligations.

    “I am Lily Mullens, the former captain of the Roanoke College Women’s Swim Team. I’m here today with a heavy but hopeful heart, sharing an experience that’s honestly been the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through. Two years ago, my teammates and I returned to campus with college dreams of an amazing swim season. But that optimism was shattered when we learned a male swimmer was joining our women’s team, and we realized that instead of focusing on training and our studies, we would be entering into a battle against our own school and the NCAA for our very basic rights, to compete fairly with and against other female swimmers and to speak freely in defense of our own fair treatment.

    “What followed was a grueling ordeal that took a tremendous toll on my mental health, physical well-being, and emotional strength. My teammates and I faced anxiety, sleepless nights, and a sense of defeat and abandonment, knowing biology stacked the odds against us. The leaders responsible for ensuring a safe and lawful educational experience were not only indifferent to our discrimination but actively retaliated against us, upset that we wouldn’t prioritize a man’s feelings above our own rights and accomplishments. At times, the backlash on campus left me so fearful, I became a prisoner in my own dorm room.

    (more…)

  • The Future of News?

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    James A. Bacon

    Restoration News has a thoughtful essay by Matt Wolfson about Jeff Bezos’ makeover of The Washington Post, the largest provider of state/local news in Virginia. Although Bezos is pushing the Post’s op-ed section to embrace liberty and free markets, Wolfson sees the Amazon CEO’s moves as a deep-state power play.

    His conclusion: “This is media-as-cartel: A monopolization of information by a small number of connected players who can set the terms of its release, and even stop some information from being released at all. It is an unprecedented threat to America’s constitutional republic and the free flow of public opinion on which our founders knew it to depend.”

    In this view, state/local news reporting is very much the tail of the dog — indeed, hair on the tail of the dog. How that coverage is structured and resourced likely hinges largely upon decisions made for strategic reasons that have nothing to do with Virginia’s wellbeing. — JAB

  • Our Family Survived Four Days Without Cell Phones!

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    A historic building with multiple balconies, surrounded by a vibrant garden featuring various plants and flowers.
    Shrine Mont

    They say that when people look back on their happiest children experiences they rarely reminisce about the big trips or visits to plastic theme parks like Disney World.

    Nope. Our fondest memories center around the time we spend relaxing with loved ones.

    It’s the small moments, the quality family time that stick with us.

    That sounds right.

    My happiest childhood memories almost always settle on our annual family camping trips: the Jersey Shore, Niagara Falls, Maine, West Virginia.

    It wasn’t the destinations that I remember. It was the long car rides where we played license plate games, sang, told stories to pass the time. I don’t remember any fancy meals, but I do recall the food we shared at splintered roadside picnic tables.

    With that in mind, my daughter and I decided to plan a four-day last-gasp-of-summer getaway for five adults and three kids, who range in age from four months to nine years.

    Where do you go to spend a couple of days of relaxation – with an infant – without breaking the bank?

    “What about Shrine Mont?” I suggested.

    Last summer a friend and I spent a weekend in Orkney Springs, Va. at a quirky, old-fashioned church retreat center. We weren’t there for spiritual growth. We were there for a pickleball camp.

    We came away enchanted and vowed we’d be back with our families. Continue reading.

  • Who Are the Haters Now?

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    James A. Bacon

    by Chap Petersen

    Ten years ago, with the initial rise of Donald Trump, a yard sign began popping up in the yards of right-thinking progressives: “Hate Has No Home Here.”

    The message was effective, promoting the righteousness of the homeowner while demonizing “the other.” A moral hierarchy was established.

    Funny, how that seems a long time ago.

    Last Thursday, the Lt. Governor of Virginia, a black woman and first-generation immigrant, was speaking before the Arlington School Board on its decision to let students use bathrooms based on identified, rather than biological, sex.  Protestors surrounded the meeting to protest her speech. One of them held up a sign which stated the following:

    A protestor holds a sign reading 'HEY WINSOME, IF TRANS CAN'T SHARE YOUR BATHROOM THEN BLACKS CAN'T SHARE MY WATER FOUNTAIN' during a demonstration outside a school board meeting, surrounded by other demonstrators carrying various signs.

    In other words, if you don’t agree with our position on “trans” kids in school, we will return this state (and you) to its segregated past.

    Political activists say a lot of dumb things. But what was so disturbing about this message was that it was written in big block letters and openly displayed for an extended time in the most liberal community in Virginia — without anybody objecting. (To her credit, Abigail Spanberger quickly and firmly condemned the offensive sign).

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

    A humorous graphic featuring crispy bacon strips with text that plays on a riddle about what someone would have if they took pieces of bacon.

  • The Governor’s Race

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    James A. Bacon

    Polls, common sense, Eskimo Pie, $$$, tonsils

    Happy group of diverse people celebrating in front of a chart showing increasing votes, with money bags in the foreground.

    by Gordon C. Morse

    Just like that, Virginia Lt. Gov. Earle-Sears, the Republican candidate for governor, has seen a significant improvement in her race with former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat.

    This news came via Roanoke College, whose polling folks calculated a few months ago that Earle-Sears trailed Spanberger by 17 points. That seemed to be a sizable gap – sizable enough to make you wonder if Earle-Sears would enter the fall as a viable candidate. Virginia’s quadrennial exercise in gubernatorial selection could conceivably lay an egg.

    Now the chicken, the egg, whatever, has recovered and Earle-Sears trails by only 7 points, says Roanoke College.

    The other preferred metaphor involves resuscitation or even resurrection. She’s not flatlining anymore; she’s not comatose; there’s a pulse.

    Then again, another recent poll – this one from Old Dominion University and completed online – invites Earle-Sears back into the ER. Furrowed brows all around.

    (more…)

  • A Cautionary Tale for Republican Appointees

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Todd Gilbert Photo credit: Roanoke Times

    In a surprise move, Todd Gilbert has resigned his position as acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.  Gilbert, a stalwart conservative Republican and former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, had been in the position for a little over a month.  Gilbert offered no explanation for his resignation.

    Brandon Jarvis, who publishes the Virginia Political Newsletter, reports that the story among insiders is that Gilbert was forced out by the Trump administration because he dared to buck the leaders in Washington. 

    Time for a little background.  Virginia’s Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, had submitted two recommendations to the Trump administration: Gilbert and Rober Tracci, former Commonwealth’s attorney in Charlottesville.  Trump nominated Gilbert, who was then sworn in as the interim U.S. Attorney, awaiting confirmation by the Senate.  Gilbert called it the opportunity of a lifetime.

    According to Jarvis’ sources, “the White House wanted him to replace an employee who worked in the office under the Biden administration and hire Robert Tracci, who was the other person in contention with Gilbert for the appointment.”  Gilbert pushed back, citing his prerogative to hire his own choices for his staff.   He eventually gave in and hired Tracci as the number two official in the office. 

    Gilbert’s display of independence must have irked or alarmed someone in the White House, because word soon came down that the President would withdraw his nomination unless he resigned.

    Tracci is now acting U.S. Attorney.

  • Maybe Ryan Should Have Toughed it Out

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The Trump administration has found that George Mason University (GMU) has violated federal law with its DEI policies. A spokesman for the Dept. of Education said, GMU “waged a university-wide campaign to implement unlawful DEI policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race.”

    The penalty? The president of the university, Gregory Washington, must publicly apologize for his actions and pledge to follow the law. In addition, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports, “the school must review its policies and documents, such as instructions for hiring panels and scoring rubrics for resumes, to ensure they comply with Title VI. And Mason must conduct an annual training for administrators who make hires and promotions.”

    Wow! That’s it for such serious offenses? All he has to do is apologize and promise not to do it again? At UVa., the president had to resign. At Harvard, Columbia, and Brown, fines are in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. The administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement against UCLA.  Trump is obviously going after schools with deep pockets and lots of federal research grants. There is not that kind of leverage against a large, public university that has a relatively small research budget. In addition, thumping GMU does not generate the national headlines.

    (more…)

  • There’s Drama in Small- Town Virginia School Districts, Too

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    James A. Bacon

    Two superintendents and a school board chair step down amid allegations of wrongdoing.

    A classroom featuring wooden desks and chairs arranged in rows, with a green chalkboard and a bookshelf in the background.

    by Victoria Manning

    Large Virginia school districts like Loudoun and Fairfax public schools aren’t the only ones in trouble — they’re just the ones making the headlines.

    School superintendents in Essex and Northumberland Counties were recently removed as state police conduct investigations. Plus, the Essex School Board Chair, Garlyn Bundy, stepped down amidst a police investigation and accusations of defamation.

    Essex County Schools investigation

    Reports indicate potential financial mismanagement by Essex schools. In 2022–23, the reported special education program expenditure amount was different than what was reported to the state. That left the small division of Essex, a small county in eastern Virginia on the Rappahannock River, owing over $450,000, a large chunk of its $20 million budget.

    Earlier this year, accounting director Elizabeth Franklin was removed by the school board. The board also put Superintendent Dr. Harry Thomas III on administrative leave; he ultimately retired from the position. In a letter to the community, Thomas acknowledged a “litany of mistakes, miscues, and missteps along the way. . ..” The Rappahannock Times further reported financial issues related to salary payments and retirement benefits currently under investigation.

    Drama seeped into an Essex school board meeting in June when Garlyn Bundy, who was scheduled to step down from her position as board chair, instead pointing fingers at others and refusing to step aside. She is accused of making defamatory statements against acting Superintendent Doranda Scott during that meeting.

    (more…)

  • Barbara Jean Monaco: Still Missing After 47 Years

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    This is a story I could write in my sleep. After all, I’ve penned some version of it almost every year since 1985.

    The first installment appeared in The Pilot on Sept. 1, 1985, after Pauline Monaco called the newspaper to ask us to write again about her daughter – Barbara Jean – who’d been missing for seven years.

    I just happened to answer the phone that day. I didn’t know that decades later, the story would be still be a cruel mystery.

    A young woman with curly dark hair wearing a red top, looking down thoughtfully.
    Barbara Jean Monaco

    Intrigued, I found a file and a series of front-page stories about an 18-year-old from Connecticut who came to Virginia Beach for a week’s vacation in the summer of ’78 and never went home.

    Since then I’ve written about the case so many times I’ve almost memorized the details.

    The pretty majorette from Derby, Conn., her older sister Joanne and a friend arrived in town on Aug. 20, 1978, and checked into the old Aloha Motel on 15th Street.

    They hit the beach during the day, the clubs at night. Early on the morning of Aug. 23 — a Wednesday — Barbara Jean left the motel to meet a bartender at Peabody’s who was finishing his shift.

    She walked along Pacific Avenue. Yet somewhere between 15th and 21st Streets, Barbara Jean vanished.

    Her frantic sister went to the police in the morning, but the cops made her wait 48 hours to file a missing person’s report.

    By then, it was already too late. Continue reading.

  • Dark Money Activists Behind Key Virginia Redistricting Lawsuit

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    James A. Bacon

    A lawsuit could increase Democrat influence in the state’s largest city, and that’s by design.

    A close-up of a map highlighting Norfolk and Virginia Beach in Virginia, with a red pin marking the location.

    by Hayden Ludwig

    A far-left Beltway group is behind a lawsuit to boost Democrat control of a major Virginia city by redrawing its voting maps, Restoration News has learned.

    The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a D.C. litigation group once bankrolled with millions of dollars from infamous crypto-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, is representing two Virginia Beach plaintiffs in a lawsuit to change how residents elect their city council and school board officials. If successful, the lawsuit could carve out new Democrat-controlled “majority-minority” seats, or districts whose residents are mostly non-white.

    The lawsuit centers on Virginia Beach’s complex “7-3-1” voting system, which is divided into seven single-member council districts—where candidates must reside to run for local office in order to properly represent those neighborhoods—and three at-large council seats, whose eligible candidates may live anywhere in the city. Residents also elect a mayor city-wide, hence “7-3-1.”

    In practice, voters might cast their ballots for 5 councilmembers total: One member for their district plus one member per at-large seat, in addition to the mayor. This system is embedded in Virginia Beach’s city charter, which also requires the local school board follow the same system—meaning the stakes are high for controlling the future of Virginia’s largest city.

    (more…)

  • Mother Of Dead Infant Pleads Guilty To Child Neglect

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    A close-up photo of a newborn baby being held by an adult, both looking at the camera. The adult is wearing a face mask. The background suggests a hospital setting.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Norfolk’s Commonwealth Attorney Ramin Fatehi promised to talk to us about what appeared to be a lenient plea agreement in the case of a dead infant after the mother who’d been charged with murdering her 9-day-old daughter had her day in court.

    He kept his word.

    And Fatehi’s explanation for comparatively mild sentences for both parents of the battered baby makes sense.

    Still, it doesn’t sit right. It doesn’t seem that justice was served. Neither parent confessed to killing the baby, neither pointed the finger at each other.

    They’re both culpable.

    And if jurors have been given a glimpse of that tiny child’s broken body, if they’d seen what must be a harrowing autopsy report, they may very well have sent both of these monsters to prison for life.

    As it is, the father, Hilary Darnell Johnson II, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and according to a plea agreement accepted by the judge, will be sentenced in October to no more than 19 years in prison. (The maximum sentence is 40 years.)

    On Tuesday, the mother of Iijayah Johnson, Z’Ibreyea Parker, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and could face up to 10 years behind bars.

    Here’s an explanation from the prosecutor: Continue reading.

  • A Trusted Source Crawls Out on a Political Limb

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    One nice thing about detailed economic prognostication is that the predictions can later be checked and compared to reality. But the grim forecast for Virginia produced recently by the Weldon-Cooper Center for Public Service will have done its political damage long before the results are tallied.

    The predictions of job losses and at best a flat state economy for 2026 were highlighted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch front page and gave Cardinal News editor Dwayne Yancey fodder to predict it will hurt Republicans in the coming election. The spin will intensify when Democratic campaign messaging kicks in, with a heavy dose of blame placing on President Donald Trump.

    Weldon-Cooper has long been the trusted repository of key economic and U.S. Census data. It has earned quite a bit of brand impact and that is why this report is potent political ammunition.

    Weldon-Cooper is new to the economic forecasting game. It started publishing what is planned to be a quarterly analysis in February, “as a useful resource for the good of the Commonwealth.” The rule on economic models is the same as on all the others out there: all models are wrong, but some models are useful. Many economists count themselves as good at predictions if they successfully call four of the next two recessions.

    Weldon-Cooper is not displaying any genius in predicting that federal government layoffs and the wave of new tariffs will have a disproportionate impact on Virginia. Virginia is home to major federal agencies, huge federal contracting operations, and a major deep channel port.  

    But this new August report is already proving its April report was too pessimistic. The April report predicted Virginia would lose 32,000 jobs overall during 2025 and the August report has already retreated and now predicts 11,700 fewer jobs this year. Too late however — the higher 32,000 figure is already highlighted in Democratic attack ads on Republicans and expect it to stay there despite Weldon-Cooper’s downward revision.

    (more…)

  • Will Richmond Tackle Corruption or Pretend It Doesn’t Exist?

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Jon Baliles

    A chaotic scene inside a city hall office, with startled officials reacting to scattered papers flying around, depicting a sense of urgency and confusion.
    Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    Inspector Generals are (and should be) vital cogs in any governmental or organizational machine. Many federal agencies have them, state governments use them, and local governments depend on them. They bring to light the waste, fraud, and abuse that can permeate and be hidden so well at the local level they aren’t caught for years, and deprive localities of millions of dollars that could be used for needed city services.

    Take for example the ongoing case in Richmond where Reginald Thomas, a former employee, over the course of several years set up three fake businesses and used city credit cards and purchase orders. The news of that scandal at City Hall, however, broke not from the release of an Inspector General (IG) report but because of Samuel Parker at the Times-Dispatch.

    When Parker first reported the story in May, he had uncovered almost $840,000 in highly questionable expenses (like $75,000 for custom cabinets). In June, Parker kept digging and reported the amount of alleged fraud had grown to $2 million that began in 2017 and apparently went undetected for eight years. Now that it is a known story and in the media but there are still invoices to be examined and uncovered and that amount could easily pole vault past $2 million. The city cut Parker’s FOIA requests off after that, but recently agreed to again allow him to examine other invoices related to the spending — but only after the Times-Dispatch sent a copy of a lawsuit they were preparing to file against the city.

    That is why the not-so-distant history of the IG office and the recent turmoil this summer is something the city simply cannot afford to continue. IG Jim Osuna was fired/resigned/relieved by City Council in May at a surprise personnel meeting with no explanation or comment. This week, the latest news is that Craig Johnson, the former Deputy IG, is no longer with the city and, once again, no one knows why (personnel decisions are usually not commented on) and unsurprisingly, no one on City Council responded for comment.

    (more…)

  • Selling JMU to Itself

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    James A. Bacon

    Academic department puts million-dollar mark on football field

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    Aerial view of James Madison University's football field, showcasing the field's markings, including the JMU logo at center field and 'DUKES' at the end zone.
    Image credit: Helix Steel

    There either is or should be a rule that says if your organization is doing something that makes absolutely no sense to most of the people outside and many of the people inside, you should explain it better or do it differently.

    Specifically, if one of your academic departments is paying a million dollars to the athletic department to advertise on the football field, you might want to explain it as more than a partnership. But first, you’d have to figure out what it is.

    Paraphrasing the Daily News-Record story, with sponsorship logos on the playing surface now allowed by the NCAA, the JMU School of Professional and Continuing Education had purchased the right to place its logo at each 25-yard line at Bridgeforth Stadium. JMU SPCE will pay JMU athletics $1,066,675 total through the 2028-29 academic year.

    Images in JMU’s marketing of this deal show just the name of the SPCE painted on the field. Nothing about what the school does or what it can do for the average football fan. Just the name.

    (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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