Bacon's Rebellion

  • FBI Targets State Sen. Louise Lucas

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A woman with light-colored hair, wearing a green blazer, speaking into a microphone.
    “I wake up every morning with a fight in my heart.” Louise Lucas at redistricting town hall.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Democrat Louise Lucas has been the queen of machine politics in Portsmouth for decades. Graceless in victory, venomous in defeat, relentlessly partisan, full of braggadocio and vulgarities, Lucas has prospered while the city she represents has become increasingly dysfunctional.

    Casino gambling and weed were what she offered the people. Not only are they businesses that prey on the poor, but both lend themselves to certain business irregularities.

    So when news broke Wednesday morning that the FBI and DEA were raiding Lucas’ district office, her cannabis business and reportedly her Medicaid waiver services center, no one in the commonwealth who has watched Lucas in action was shocked.

    Some knee-jerk Democrats tried to paint this as a Trump administration vendetta resulting from the recent redistricting referendum, but The New York Times quickly reported that that these raids were part of a sweeping fraud and public corruption investigation that began three years ago, during the Biden administration.

    Just how serious did the suspected fraud have to be for Biden’s politicized DOJ to investigate a Democrat?

    The Washington Post reported, The specifics of the probe remain unclear, though the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation, said it involved allegations of bribery related to the cannabis dispensary. One of those officials said the investigation began during the Biden administration.

    Once Trump is taken out of the equation, Lucas’ allies will inevitably pivot and claim the investigation is racially motivated.

    Let them. The search warrants were signed by a federal judge. Ten separate locations were reportedly raided yesterday.

    While the media is focusing on Lucas’ cannabis business, her bigger problem may be with Lucas Lodge LLC her Medicaid waiver service for the disabled. Investigative reporter Jim Sherlock has been reporting on widespread corruption in Virginia’s nursing home and home health industry on baconsrebellion.com. We plan to run his series beginning this weekend. Continue reading.

  • News Bulletin – FBI at Lucas Lodge

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    This author was just contacted by a local TV station, which notified him that the FBI is currently executing a search warrant at Lucas Lodge in Portsmouth.  L. Louise Lucas, President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate and Chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, is the CEO of Lucas Lodge.

    For anyone wanting to know the background of the Lucas Lodge story, read Jim Sherlock’s dogged reporting on Bacon’s Rebellion. — JAB

    Part 1: Betrayal

    Part 2: The Virginia General Assembly

    Part 3: Out-of-Control Programs

    Part 4: Portsmouth

    Part 5: Lucas Lodge LLC

    The Virginia Senate’s Louise Lucas Dilemma

    For broader context, here’s a list of Sherlock’s coverage of the nursing home industry and Medicaid fraud generally. The Lucas Lodge story is the tip of the iceberg of what warrants public attention.

  • Virginia’s “Fitness Tax” Was Never Really About Gyms

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    It was about expanding government taxation to fund equity-based redistribution in Virginia schools.

    An illustration of a room with a sign labeled 'TAXED,' featuring stacks of boxes labeled 'EQUITY' and a person sitting at a desk. In the background, a government building with a flag is visible.

    Loudoun County resident Scott Mineo is doing great work as a citizen journalist. You can read his X posts under the name of “A Guy on X Striving to Be the Virginia Change Agent” @VaChangeAgent. He’s not a journalist, but he does love to dig into documents. And there’s a lot to probe in the avalanche of bills submitted to the General Assembly each year. Not all pass — those he profiles below didn’t — but they do reveal how the rising generation of leftist legislators hopes to advance the “equity” agenda. — JAB

    Most Virginians heard the headlines. “Democrats want to tax gym memberships.” But after digging through HB978, HB900, SB730, committee records, fiscal language, and revenue allocation formulas, something much larger begins to emerge:

    The proposed “fitness tax” was not an isolated policy idea.

    It was part of a sweeping attempt to permanently expand Virginia’s taxation system into the modern service economy — and redirect a massive portion of the new revenue toward equity-based education funding structures across the Commonwealth.

    The gym tax was simply the politically visible tip of the spear. The real story was buried much deeper in the legislation. And most Virginians never saw it.

    Continue reading Scott’s post.

  • In the Business of Health Care Fraud, Virginia is Minnesota

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    In the Business of Health Care Fraud, Virginia is Minnesota

    by James C. Sherlock

    Health care fraudsters are often treated by Virginia elected officials in the same way moonshiners were in this state, as local heroes pursued only by the feds. Many prefer not to interrupt the product flow. They simply want a taste from the jar.

    Dick Hall-Sizemore, a dedicated contributor to BR and a good man, wrote in a comment on this author’s article on restructuring Medicaid: “Having that much money at stake should be an incentive to go after fraud. Even a relatively small reduction in fraud can amount to big bucks.”  

    He is exactly right. But “should be “is a plea, not an observation.  

    Dick’s goals cannot be fully realized in Virginia and other states as long as elected officials treat Medicare and Medicaid as found money. With a ton of money at stake that is mostly federal, too many state politicians continue to view the fraudsters as harmless and motivated donors rather than as criminals. But the outcome of the worst frauds is the destruction of the lives and the premature and suspicious deaths of Virginians who cannot help themselves. Corrupt public officials have been around as long as governments themselves. The majority of Virginia elected officials at the state and municipal levels are on the take. Bribery is legalized here through unlimited campaign donations at both the state and local levels.

    Members, the Governor, and the Attorney General, in January of this year, accepted campaign donations from those who have long been committing fraud in plain sight. Some of the most powerful members of our legislature treat healthcare fraud as a means to funnel money into the “communities.” One senior member has been identified by state inspection results as violating state laws and regulations. There is a word for that.

    With $20B in Medicaid funds and $24B from Medicare flowing into Virginians’ pockets every year, medical services fraud has become a major industry in the state. It is stolen for the same reason Willy Sutton robbed banks. Federal estimates put annual healthcare fraud nationwide at over $50 billion, which would make Virginia’s share over $1 billion a year. Bet the over. In Virginia, this author’s years of research and reporting show that $1B a year appears to be a major underestimate of the take from fraud in the nursing home industry alone.

    A recent headline shows law enforcement chipping away at fraud. The case recovered $10 million that had been stolen over a six-year period. It is easy to see that a joint federal-state investigation and prosecution at that level likely costs more than the recovery. But this author applauds it nonetheless.   

    The biggest problem is with the regulators.  The General Assembly hobbles them, but they have not, in 60 years, used the authority they do possess to stop fraud.  This author tends to lay that at the feet of the political appointees who make the decisions, not the career staff.

    (more…)

  • Just What Fairfax Schools Need: More PhDs

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Fuel Price Spike Hits Your Dominion Bill Next. Pow!

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    The typical Dominion Energy Virginia electric bill could rise another $22 this summer to cover the rising cost of the fuel it uses and the cost of its purchased power, according to the company’s latest filing on its fuel charge with the State Corporation Commission.

    The utility’s costs of fuel and purchased power are collected in a direct pass-through charge designated Rider A on bills, and for residential consumers it is one of the charges still visible on their monthly invoice. Right now, a consumer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month is paying $29.68 for the current fuel charge and another $2.91 to slowly pay off the fuel cost spike that resulted from the war in Ukraine.

    Dominion’s application projects its fuel costs for the 12 months beginning July 1 as $2.7 billion and seeks recovery of over $1 billion for the costs it did not anticipate during this current 12-month period. If collected all at once starting July 1 the charge for 1,000 kwh would reach $51.47 month, plus the $3 bucks in deferred costs.

    It wasn’t that long ago that $50 a month would cover the whole electric bill in many households. At the beginning of 2026 here in Henrico a 1,000-kwh residential bill totaled $171.51, including the local taxes. The full fuel cost would be almost a 13 percent increase.

    It has been a busy time over at the SCC with Dominion filings. The only newspaper that even pretends to cover the SCC, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, chose to ignore the fuel filing and instead wrote this week about an SCC decision on solar customers who use net metering. That’s about 65,000 customers. All 2.7 million Dominion customers care about the fuel charge, which is often an even larger portion of an industrial customer bill. 

    The media in Virginia is also still ignoring the flashing red warning light about the coming costs of compliance with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The futures market price that was the basis of this Bacon’s Rebellion post, $41 per ton, started this morning instead at $52 per ton.

    (more…)

  • Adversarial Government Works Best

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A graphical representation contrasting the left and right perspectives in governance, depicting various stakeholders in a tug-of-war scenario, symbolizing accountability, social justice, and the balance of power in a democratic system.
    Image credit: ChatGPT

    by Chap Petersen

    A couple years ago, I wrote an essay entitled: “Single-Party Government Didn’t Work in the Soviet Union, and It’s Not Working in Fairfax County Either.”

    My goal was to point out the parallels in failing one-party systems.

    But frankly the points were too obvious. So I didn’t bother publishing it. Maybe I should have.

    The last couple weeks have been depressing. On April 21, Virginia voters by a narrow margin (3 points) approved a redistricting map which will create a “10-1” map for Democrats, by intentionally diluting the votes of rural white voters.

    A week later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1989 Voting Rights Act violated the “Equal Protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by requiring states to create “minority-majority” districts, whenever possible.

    The logic of the Supreme Court’s majority was unassailable: classifying voters based on race is inherently fraudulent, if not impossible in today’s America. (The  modern reality of mixed families defies the precepts of racial classification). The reality is a bit more complicated, however.

    With the striking down of the race-based districts, there is now an open invitation for Republican legislatures to redraw their maps, just like Virginia, and wipe out any Democratic-leaning seats, both in Congress and in state legislatures. It would make short-term partisan sense.

    But it is a terrible idea.

    (more…)

  • A Solution to the Threats to Medicaid in Virginia

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    A Solution to the Threats to Medicaid in Virginia

    by James C. Sherlock

    Medicaid fraud is not a new issue, but it has exploded into the public consciousness as the Trump administration has taken action against it. Virtually every critique of Medicaid fraud, from both sides of the debate over how pervasive and costly it is and what to do about it, has been written from a Washington perspective. This article will offer a Virginia perspective. It is not a pretty one.

    As of early 2025, more than 1.7 million people are enrolled in Virginia Medicaid, including over 595,000 covered under the expansion guidelines. Mental health, substance use, home care, nursing home services, and support services for the intellectually and developmentally disabled are major sources of fraud nationwide and in Virginia.

    Medicaid, established in 1965, is a joint federal and state program fundamental to the health of the poor and disabled. It is rife with fraud because states that manage it have perverse incentives to police it, driven by the predominance of federal funding.

    Only a fundamental change in the funding mechanism will drive significant reductions in Medicaid fraud.

    (more…)

  • The Technological Republic and the Re-Industrialization of America

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Here’s a fact: the data center buildout is going to re-industrialize America. The sooner we embrace this reality; the sooner we reap the rewards.

    by Shaun Kenney

    A satellite image of the United States at night, showcasing illuminated city lights against a dark background.

    Data centers have arrived and it’s about time they did — and it’s your fault, too.

    Well, not entirely your fault — but if you’re watching Netflix and Amazon Prime, using AI tools to generate images or research or God forbid grade term papers, you’re in on the joke.

    …and they are everywhere.

    Map of Virginia showing locations of various technology and telecommunications companies, including logos of firms such as Microsoft, Visa, and Equinix.
    Gratuitously stolen from The Virginia Mercury. source: VDEP

    Of course, organizations such as the Piedmont Environmental Council naturally takes their place in the constellation of groups that have questions, though it is difficult to tell if they oppose data centers per se or whether they oppose the present means by which data centers are changing the economy.

    One thing seems to be in agreement — the internet of things is here to stay, the energy problem isn’t as difficult to resolve as one might think, and the use of cool tech to cool the data centers is already here — even if the ubiquity of small modular reactors (SMRs) are at best a decade away.

    Yet even if we wanted to go back to newspapers and the Res Publica Litterarum — and I certainly would be in line to do so — the fact of the matter is that artificial intelligence is going to be as serious a jump in technology as the automobile, the early internet, air conditioning, the steam engine, rural electrification, cell phone towers, public sanitation, and movable type.

    It’s happening — the match will not be postponed.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A humorous depiction of three men standing together, with a caption discussing Alabama's student scores in math and English being higher than those in New York and California.

    View more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • Coming Soon to a 2nd Grade Classroom Near You – Critical Whiteness

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Coming Soon to a 2nd Grade Classroom Near You – Critical Whiteness

    by James C. Sherlock

    Marx believed the economic system determines the nature of social, political, and intellectual life.  The University of Virginia (Main Campus) School of Education and Human Development has established itself as a leader in Marxist thought in education.  

    This author thinks that Virginians will learn from that school’s “Critical Whiteness Study Group.  It is not helpful (nor perhaps possible) to summarize what these self-defined scholars have written, so it is quoted below.

    What is the Critical Whiteness Study Group?

    Basically, this book group is open for anyone to join our shared reading and critical discussions about disrupting white supremacy culture (e.g., racial hierarchy, white privilege, capitalism) at the root of the inequity. This is the first year of our grant funding, and we aim to meet monthly over the summer to discuss a book that addresses whiteness and disrupting white supremacy. At each meeting, we will vote on the next book to read together, beginning with Margaret Hagerman’s 2018 book “White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America,” which is a critical ethnography of ethnic-racial identity development in White, affluent children.

    Mission and Vision

    • To support emerging and established scholars committed to doing research that advances equity.
    • To deepen understanding of Critical Whiteness Studies through reading and discussion.
    • To critically examine existing research and literature that addresses white supremacy culture (e.g., How will we apply CWS to our research?  What are the commitments/next steps of extending anti-racism from personal work to community action to empirical evidence?  What are existing strategies for dismantling whiteness? And how do we research them? How does our research perpetuate or disrupt oppressive norms?).
    • To connect emerging and established scholars for potential future research collaborations.
    • To extend beyond our knowledge of individual, institutional, and systemic oppression toward research on how to address white supremacy culture.
    • To promote equitable climate at EHD and UVA by expanding the offering of equity-focused learning and collaboration opportunities.

    Well.  What to take away?

    (more…)

  • The Source of All Evil: Data Centers!

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Jefferson Forum’s President Derrick Max puts out a Sunday morning summary that only some of you probably see, and I cannot really link to it for you. But today’s email had a useful and entertaining riff on the ongoing efforts to demonize Virginia’s data center industry, a clearly coordinated hit job from the left and its media allies. The following is useful to consider as the Democratic Trifecta in charge of Virginia continues to fight over how to (not whether, but how to) punish the data centers for their unforgiveable success in meeting market demands…

    14.) Data Centers don’t damage schools. The Virginia Education Association, argues that the state’s aggressive tax incentives for data centers are draining vital resources from the K-12 education system by “costing” $212 per student because of the school’s loss of $267 million — their portion of the tax incentives granted to this industry. The authors fail to understand that data centers are one of the most significant positive revenue sources for Virginia localities. While the authors focused on the state sales tax exemption, they failed to understand that data centers contribute hundreds of millions to local budgets annually, which are the main funder of our schools. They also fail to understand that the revenue from data centers does not require expenditures for new schools and roads and other public services as data centers are a relatively low employment sector. The teacher’s union also failed to mention the investment the data centers make to improve local power grids, roads, and fiber-optic networks, providing public benefits that would otherwise have to be funded by traditional taxpayers. Give it to the left, when they hate an industry, they can count on the teachers to do their bidding – even with false data if necessary.

    (more…)

  • “Death to America”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The event was not registered as required by university policy. But Virginia Tech allowed it to proceed unimpeded at McBryde Hall, Room 202.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Close-up of crispy bacon strips laid out on a surface with a humorous caption about needing a hug or bacon, featuring a container of Denny's Bacon Salt in the corner.

  • Classrooms or Campaigns?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Virginia legislators have passed three bills this year to dilute and politicize history and civics instruction in public schools, accelerating the undeniable trend of indoctrination in the state’s public schools.

    by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora
    Published originally in IWFeatures

    Last week, a Fairfax County mother said her twin 14-year-old sons were each encouraged by two public school civics teachers to urge their parents to vote in favor of the state’s partisan gerrymandering referendum. According to the mother, the teachers used similar talking points, including urging a “yes” vote to make Virginia’s maps “as fair as they can be” and to “stop [President] Donald Trump at all costs.” 

    Those teachers are likely satisfied with their efforts to disenfranchise Virginia’s conservative and independent voters. The measure ultimately passed by a 51.5% to 48.5% margin. In Fairfax County, 69.5% of voters voted “yes,” in favor of liberally colonizing their southern neighbors. For now, the matter is in court, where multiple lawsuits are challenging the referendum as unconstitutional and unlawful. 

    Some families might have been shocked to hear that their public school teachers were behaving in such a blatantly partisan manner. Those of us in Fairfax County, however, are used to it. And the problem of inappropriate politicization in classrooms is likely to get worse with the Democratic Party controlling both the General Assembly and the governor’s office. 

    In fact, state Democrats already have introduced three new laws to bolster activist teachers’ efforts to indoctrinate public school students in leftist ideology. Beginning in academic year 2026-2027, for example, HB182 will permit students to substitute African American History courses for the World History I course or the World Geography course to satisfy history and social studies graduation requirements. 

    (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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