Bacon's Rebellion

  • Richmond, Pay the Man His Money!

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    A smiling older man wearing a blue baseball cap with a lion logo, glasses, and a blue shirt that reads 'I'M A PROUD BROTHER.'
    Marvin Grimm. Image credit: WRIC

    by Jon Baliles

    A strange story appeared this week almost out of nowhere and seems to have caught everyone by surprise, including the Mayor, who has spent the last few days fumbling the situation like a rookie running back. Graham Moomaw at The Richmonder broke the news Monday that Governor Youngkin sent the city a letter scolding the government for dragging their feet in adhering to a new state law that requires localities to match state compensation to pay those wrongfully convicted of a crime for time served in prison.

    The city owes $5.8 million to Marvin Grimm, who was wrongly convicted at age 20 and sentenced to life in prison for the death of a three-year old boy in 1976 but was exonerated last year. The state approved a $5.8 million allocation to Grimm during the General Assembly earlier this year. The city owes the same amount because the General Assembly passed a new law that took effect July 1 which requires localities where the wrongful conviction took place match the state compensation. It was bipartisan legislation approved 99-0 in the House of Delegates and 40-0 in the Senate.

    The Governor’s letter warned the city that the state could withhold state funding if the money is not paid to Grimm by August 15th. Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, wrote the law and told Moomaw, “Richmond is obligated to pay it. That is the statute that we passed. The governor is doing what we directed him to do in that statute.”

    The Governor is also doing something the city so far has chosen not to do — answer Mr. Grimm’s attempts to receive his due compensation.

    (more…)

  • Hashmi a Radical on Abortion, Gun Control

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    James A. Bacon

    A woman speaking into a microphone, wearing a white jacket with black trim, appearing engaged and confident.
    Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) Photo credit: VPM

    by Jacob Grandstaff

    State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrats’ pick for Virginia’s Lt. Governor, has cultivated a social policy record more suited to San Francisco and New York City than the commonwealth she seeks to represent. From her attacks on the sanctity of life to her assault on Virginians’ Second Amendment rights, her agenda represents a direct affront to key principles that makes Virginia great—valuing life and the right to defend it.

    A champion for abortion extremism

    Hashmi is not only pro-choice; she’s pro-abortion. In fact, she voted to limit the information women could access to make an informed choice. Additionally, she enjoys massive support from the abortion lobby. She even brags of Virginia’s abortion tourism industry for women who want to kill their babies but can’t do so legally because of pesky right-to-life laws in other states.

    In 2020, Hashmi voted for the Reproductive Health Protection Act. This expanded who could perform abortions to include nurse practitioners. It also eliminated mandatory ultrasounds and 24-hour wait times, which in the 2010s helped reduce abortions by around 32 percent in the commonwealth.

    By expanding provider eligibility and removing mandatory in-person counseling, the bill made it easier for abortion providers to mail mifepristone and other abortifacients to women after the FDA approved telehealth abortions the following year.

    (more…)

  • Shell Game

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    sherlockj

    Shell Game

    by James C. Sherlock

    We note that the owners of Medical Facilities of America (MFA) have renamed their entire 51-facility chain “Lifeworks Rehab”.  

    They can change it weekly if they wish.  There are no rules on that front.

    We are left to presume it is happenstance that now none of the bad MFA headlines and stories can easily be traced to them.  The same coincidence happened in December 2024 when the Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center scandal exploded.  At that point the same guys retired their Innovative Healthcare Management flag and moved Innovative Healthcare’s facilities under their MFA label.  

    Those facilities advertised at that point that they were “under new management”.  I wrote about it.  They removed that claim from the websites.  

    Now “Lifeworks Rehab”.  All is forgiven.

  • LCV Attack Ads: Three Swings, Three Misses

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    by

    Steve Haner

    School bus? Storage battery? No, utility profit center.

    By Steve Haner

    The best defense has always been a good offense.  With Virginia Democrats under some political pressure over their wind, solar and electric vehicle addictions (not enough pressure, in my opinion), Virginia’s environmental activists are counterattacking at Republicans who won’t drink their green Kool-Aid.

    The Virginia League of Conservation Voters has announced a digital media buy aimed at nine Republican House members who voted against some of LCV’s favorite bills.  The claim is that Republican votes caused rate increases which enriched some unnamed big energy company.  Dominion Energy is unnamed in the ads, of course, because it gives more money to Democrats than it does Republicans in Virginia.  It has spent twice as much so far this cycle buying Democrat loyalty as Clean Virginia has, and that is saying something.  So Democrats have to tiptoe around Dominion this year, but that’s another story.

    You can see the ads here and here.  In this old comms guy’s opinion, I’ve seen better. The longer one in particular is confusing, but they are both worthless unless somehow they get tied to the individual candidates and the election. Instead, the message in the tag line is “clean energy lowers prices.”  No, and it isn’t even that clean, but that’s also another story.

    In explaining why it did this, LCV’s release on its website cited three specific 2025 bills, two of which passed and one of them vetoed.  Let us explore those bills in the order in which they listed them, and why someone might have voted against them.  None of them lower any prices at all. 

    House Bill 2266, which was signed into law, is described by them as cutting “excessive interconnection costs …to make small clean energy projects more affordable and bring projects online faster.”  Well, no, but it directs the State Corporation Commission to work with the utilities on improving that process. That is not a bill that this observer targeted as obnoxious. I should have.

    (more…)

  • Let’s Run the Medicaid Numbers Before Hitting the Panic Button

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    A green cartoon character with a wide grin and outstretched hands, accompanied by the text 'DON'T PANIC' in bold, yellow letters.

    Aubrey Layne was a great public servant in Richmond before he moved back to Norfolk to take a job as chief administrative officer of Sentara Health. He did a superior job as Secretary of Transportation under Gov. Terry McAuliffe and then as Secretary of Finance under Gov. Ralph Northam. He earned my respect as a nonpartisan straight shooter. So, when he says that the Medicaid cuts enacted in the “Big Beautiful Bill” are a cause for concern, I pay attention.

    In a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch column, he warns that Virginia “will face difficult decisions that could directly affect access to care for low-income families, children, seniors and individuals with disabilities.” Safety-net hospitals and rural providers who rely disproportionately on Medicaid revenues, he says, will be particularly hard hit.

    In contrast to the hysterical, people-will-die narrative dominating Virginia’s news coverage, Layne argues that Virginia can handle the fallout of the Big Beautiful Bill — its various provisions will cost Virginia $26 billion over 14 years, according to the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services — through fiscally smart investments in primary care and the social determinants of health.

    I wish he’d delved deeper in his analysis. What kind of investments in primary care? Which social determinants of health are even fixable? Indeed, is the magnitude of the problem remotely as bad as the sky-is-falling chicken littles are proclaiming? Admittedly, that’s a lot to ask of a 750-word op ed.

    (more…)

  • Education Issues, Choices Facing Virginia’s Voters

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    Steve Haner

    By Derrick Max 

    Virginia’s education system is in crisis. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are a wake-up call: only 31% of Virginia’s fourth graders are proficient in reading and only 40% in math, and just 29% of eighth graders meet proficiency standards in both reading and math. Worse, nearly one in three Virginia students can’t demonstrate even the partial mastery in reading necessary to demonstrate grade level proficiency. 

    Yet our state Standards of Learning (SOL) tests tell a very different – and dangerously misleading – story. While NAEP exposes the truth, Virginia’s SOL tests label students “proficient” even when their skills are far below grade level. Parents are left in the dark, believing their children are on track when they are not. 

    Virginia can – and must – do better. 

    The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy’s Vision for Virginia 2025: Education Policy lays out a plan to finally hold schools accountable, restore parents’ trust, and put our students back on the path to excellence. 

    Here’s how: 

    (more…)

  • “A Weak and Ineffective Republican”?

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Todd Gilbert, in his new office as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Va. Photo credit: Roanoke Times

    Todd Gilbert may be having mixed feelings today.

    The U.S. Senate has a custom whereby a member can veto a presidential nomination for a district court judgeship or U.S. Attorney in his or her state. It is called a “blue slip” and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has said that he will keep honoring that tradition.

    President Trump, using his favorite word for something he doesn’t like, has called this custom or tradition a “hoax.” “The only way to beat this Hoax,” he wrote, “is to appoint a Democrat or, a weak and ineffective Republican. Therefore, I would never be able to appoint Great Judges or U.S. Attorneys in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, and other places.”

    Gilbert was a long-serving member of the Virginia House of Delegates and served as Speaker from 2022-2024. He was known as one of the most conservative and outspoken Republican members. He has been nominated by Trump to be the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. The two U.S. Senators from Virginia, both Democrats, have voiced their support for him. While awaiting his confirmation by the U.S. Senate, which has been deemed to be “as good as a done deal,” he has been appointed and sworn in as the interim U.S. Attorney for the district.

  • An Alleged Wrongful Death in Colonial Heights Revisited

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    sherlockj

    An Alleged Wrongful Death in Colonial Heights Revisited

    by James C. Sherlock

    I published in February 2025 a series of articles on a nursing home wrongful death scandal that was revealed when police swarmed Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights) in late December of 2024.

    The government has alleged in court that a woman, helpless with cerebral palsy and diabetes, died in late October last year after prolonged suffering from sepsis suffered as a result of criminal abuse and neglect at Colonial Heights.

    Criminal charges have been filed against 19 members of the facility staff.

    I wrote in February in Virginia’s Nursing Homes and the Courts: No charges have been filed against any corporate manager or owner in either of the two Colonial Heights cases. … Perhaps the indicted employees are not the only culprits. 

    Perhaps indeed they are not.

    I mentioned in the story that Mr. Moshe Rajchenbach holds a mortgage on Colonial Heights. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data show he has been far more involved than that.

    (more…)

  • A Word of Caution

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It irritates me a great deal to have an AI “answer” appear whenever I try to search the internet for information. AI is so notorious for misinformation that I wonder that the Googles of the world put it out there. I customarily ignore the AI “information” that appears. However, it was impossible to ignore one that recently popped up; it was so outrageous.

    In searching for some information pertaining to a recent article on Bacon’s Rebellion, I keyed in the following question:

    Does the Fairfax County circuit court assign cases to judges on a random basis?

    Here is the answer that AI provided:

    Fairfax County Circuit Court generally assigns cases to judges on a random basis, according to the U.S District Court (Northern District of Iowa).

  • Judge Affirms Senate Dems’ Power Grab

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A Fairfax County circuit county judge has sided with state Senate Democrats who filed a lawsuit to prevent eight public university board members appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin from continuing to serve.

    The Democrats claimed that an 8-to-4 vote June 9 by a Senate subcommittee during a special session required no other action. Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares countered that rejection had to undergo a full vote of the Senate. The eight nominees could continue serving until such a vote occurred.

    “The Senate’s rejection of the Confirmation Resolution, by and through the vote of the Committee charged by the Senate with reviewing the resolution and determining whether it should advance or die in committee, constitutes the refusal of the General Assembly to confirm the Disputed Appointees,” wrote Jonathan D. Frieden in a ruling handed down today.

    “Today, the court affirmed what we have maintained all along,” said Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, head of the Privileges and Elections Committee, in a statement: “The Senate of Virginia has the constitutional authority to confirm or reject board nominees, and that authority cannot be bypassed.”

    Affected are board members of the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute and George Mason University, each of which have been embroiled in battles over Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI).

    (more…)

  • Virginia Democrats Get Win in Fight Over Appointments

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Fairfax circuit court has sided with the Virginia Democratic Senate in its fight with Gov. Youngkin over some of his appointments to boards of visitors of institutions of higher education. The judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting recent appointees to the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), and George Mason University from taking any further action until the General Assembly confirms them. Attorney General Miyares said that he appeal the decision.

  • John McAuliff’s Money Trail

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Climate Activist running for delegate is scooping up the green bucks.

    A smiling man with a beard, wearing a white shirt, stands in front of a wooden background.
    John McAuliffe

    by Kevin Mooney

    Virginia residents should expect to see their energy bills go up and the lights to go out if John McAuliff, a Fauquier County Democrat running for the Virginia House of Delegates in District 30, wins in November.

    That’s according energy policy analysts, who found radical green money throughout McAuliff’s campaign finance filings.

    McAuliff, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Geary Higgins, has gone on record supporting the energy tax plan known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the taxpayer subsidized green energy mandates attached to the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), also known as the Virginia Green New Deal. The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a free market think tank, has warned against rate increases and potential blackouts if Virginia continues to embrace VCEA’s green energy mandates and if the state rejoins RGGI. 

    The money trail leading into McAuliff’s campaign indicates climate activists opposed to affordable and reliable energy sources view the candidate as a worthwhile investment. This year McAuliff has received $5,000 from the Jane Fonda Climate PAC and $4,000 from the Cabinet Climate PAC. Fonda, known in some quarters as “Hanoi Jane” for her treasonous behavior during the Vietnam War, is a Hollywood actress. 

    (more…)

  • Million Dollar Job Opportunity

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    I knew UVA’s woke administrators were well-compensated. But who knew the president was raking in about a million bucks a year?

    Logo of the University of Virginia featuring a stylized dome and columns with stars.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Thinking about a career switch? Need to earn more money? Want to live in a mansion with a staff?

    Have I got an opportunity for you: there’s an opening in the president’s office at the University of Virginia.

    Far be it from me to pick on Virginia’s flagship university, but when I took a gander at embattled former UVA President Jim Ryan’s pay and compensation package, I was stunned.

    Whatever made me go into journalism, I wondered.

    As best I can tell, the university president’s salary is funded mostly by state money and endowments. 

    I knew UVA’s woke administrators were well-compensated. But who knew the president was raking in about a million bucks a year?

    Here’s how it breaks down: Ryan’s base salary was a whopping $912,200 with a $100,000 bonus and deferred compensation. In addition to other benefits, of course.

    “Other benefits” include a car allowance (he couldn’t afford a Ford Fiesta without help?) club memberships and a full year’s salary upon leaving office.

    In 2024, Ryan earned a $200,000 bonus for surpassing the university’s $5 billion capital campaign goal ahead of schedule. Continue reading.

  • Virginia Election Wildcard: What If Trump Wins the Nobel Peace Prize?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Paul Goldman

    Close-up view of a gold Nobel Prize medal featuring the profile of Alfred Nobel.

    Just when the Virginia GOP thought it couldn’t get worse this year. They lose votes every time Trump’s name is in the newspaper. So, what happens if he gets the Nobel Peace Prize? Does he suddenly go from albatross to asset?

    Remember, the Norwegians gave the prize to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. As a long-time anti-Vietnam War protester, this disgusted me: The Nixon-Kissinger policy had intentionally extended the war for several years for political reasons, not shortened it. Nothing the Norwegians dominating the Nobel committee picking the winner might do would shock me.  

    That having been said: Looking at the history of the 111 individual winners over the years, Trump winning is not another Virginia GOP MAGA fantasy. Three sitting American Presidents have won: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama. The latter conceded he really hadn’t been in office long enough to do anything worthy to win the prize. 

    Wilson won for his work to create the League of Nations. Wilson never got the United States to join. Indeed, when campaigning around the country to generate support for joining the League, Wilson suffered a stroke, leaving him secretly paralyzed in the White House for the remainder of the second term. The League of Nations was a key part of the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty’s punitive anti-German terms led directly to the rise of Adolf Hitler and thus the second world war. 

    (more…)

  • Restore the Battle Streamers

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    A collection of multi-colored battle streamers with gold lettering, representing various Civil War battles, laid out on a table.

    by Donald Smith

    Summertime in Washington, D.C., is NDAA Time. NDAA, as in the National Defense Authorization Act. The federal government dispensed with proper budget procedures a long time ago. Everything it does is now funded by continuing resolutions, omnibus bills, or other confounding mechanisms. The NDAA, though, always passes because it funds the Defense Department.  Hence, crafty politicians attach anything and everything to some spot deep in the depths of the NDAA language. They know it’s a sure-fire way to get controversial matters enacted, often without most Americans knowing about it. 

    Congress created the Naming Commission through the Fiscal Year 2021 NDAA. Earlier this month, Democrat members of the House of Representatives responded to President Trump’s recent re-re-naming of Army bases by inserting an amendment into the FY 2026 NDAA. From Roll Call, on July 17th:

    The Trump administration has undone a 2022 congressionally chartered commission’s renaming of military bases and ships that had for years celebrated the Confederacy, but as of this week both the House and Senate are poised to consider at least a partial reversal of President Donald Trump’s moves.

    The House fiscal 2026 NDAA contains an amendment by Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., that would ensure all the formerly Confederate-linked facilities, assets and streets across the U.S. military are renamed along the lines proposed by the 2022 commission to honor other warriors or certain values.

    OK, then.  If this is NDAA amendment season, then here’s another amendment Congress can enact: return Confederate battle streamers to Army National Guard unit colors.

    (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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