Tag: Guest contributors
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Another Call for Face Masks
Should people don face masks when they go out in public? The question has caromed around the Internet with many conflicting opinions. A previous contributor to Bacon’s Rebellion has argued that Virginians should wear them. Contributor Hans Bader agrees. — JABย ย by Hans Bader You should wear a mask when you leave the house. In…
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Yes, You Should Wear Masks — to Protect Others, If Not Yourself
๏ปฟ — by a contributing writer This week Governor Ralph Northam restated what we have all been hearing for weeks: โHospitals and medical facilities in Virginia and around the country are in desperate need of additional masks, gowns, gloves, and other personal protective equipment.โ HCA Virginia reiterated the need Monday when announcing that it had…
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Wartime Governor
by Chris Braunlich If Donald Trump is a โwartime presidentโ, Ralph Northam is now a โwartime governor.โ Unless one has been isolated on a Pacific isle (or wears tinfoil hats to block evil radio waves), Virginians understand that the pandemic we are in is deadly serious, growing exponentially, and requires radical steps to reduce its…
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How to Optimize the Lives/Jobs Tradeoff in the COVID-19 Epidemic
by James. B. Murray, Jr. The debate now raging over the tradeoffs between saving lives and economic disruption is clouded by oversimplification. The solutions we ultimately adopt will not be some groundless elimination of protective measures on Easter Sunday, any more than they will call for quarantining everyone, everywhere until some arbitrary date in July…
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Keep Cash Flowing
by Chris Braunlich The government actions taken to flatten the coronavirus pandemic will most effect the smallest of businesses, as well as part-time and lower income workers such as restaurant wait staff, and โgigโ economy workers without benefits For small businesses, an SBA loan (even at discounted interest) is no substitute for customers and cash…
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Freeman Dyson, Scientific Consensus and Virginia Politics
by Irfan K. Ali One of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century, Freeman Dyson, recently passed away. This most unassuming man hobnobbed with the likes of Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, John von Neumann, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and other giants of science and technology. He was a true giant in the world of science.…
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Dems Win Big on Renewable Energy, But Issues Remain
by Jane Twitmyer In the 2019 election, Virginia voters finally figured out the one weird trick that allows any jurisdiction to pass good climate and clean-energy legislation, according to Dave Roberts at VOX. “They put Democrats in charge.โ Virginia is the first southern state in the U.S. to set a goal of sourcing 100% of…
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Surviving COVID-19 with Video Chat, Netflix and Amazon Prime
Northern Virginia reader Allen Barringer responded to my request yesterday for readers to describe how they are coping with COVID-19. He started writing this piece as a comment, but it became so comprehensive that we decided to publish it as a full-fledged post. — JAB by Allen Barringer We live in a surreal moment: On…
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Collective Bargaining in Schools: a Prescription for Problems
by Chris Braunlich Joseph Ocol is the kind of teacher most parents would fight to have teach their daughter. His Englewood, Chicago, girls’ chess team won the national championship in 2016 against 60 other schools, an achievement noted in the Congressional Record, by news media and by the mayor and city council. And the girls…
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Is Carbon Capture Technology Scalable?
by Jane Twitmyer When talking about the future of Dominion Energy in a recent TV interview, Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell mentioned carbon sequestration as an approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the company moves toward a “zero net” carbon energy mix.ย In the past, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) seemed to be going…
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Virginia Values Act: Trial Lawyers Win, Business Climate Loses
by Hans Bader Both houses of the Virginia legislature passed the Virginia Values Act yesterday. Media coverage of the bill has focused on the fact that it will add sexual orientation and gender identity (transgender status) to state laws against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. As the media note, this is the first…
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Update: Geriatric Prison Release Bill Advances
The Virginia Senate has voted 21-to-19 to make prison inmates (including many murderers) eligible for โgeriatric releaseโ as early as age 50. The vote was largely along party lines, with all Democrats except Lynwood Lewis voting for the bill, and all Republicans except Emmett Hanger voting against it.
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Bill Broadens Definition of Sexual Harassment
by Hans Bader On January 30, a subcommittee in Virginiaโs House of Delegates voted 5-to-2 to adopt a revised version of HB 1418, a bill to expand employersโ liability for sexual harassment. The bill originally applied to employers with six to 14 employees. Now it applies to all employers with more than five. Originally, while…
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Rocket Fuel for Health Care Costs
James C. Sherlock Elections have consequences. Democrats won fairly at the ballot box the right to pass anything they wish. I simply request that they consider the costs of legislation to their constituents, to business balance sheets, and to jobs before submitting health insurance-related bills. Virginians who get their health insurance both at work โ…
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Senate Committee Votes to Raise Minimum Wage
by Hans Bader The Virginia Senateโs Commerce and Labor Committeeย has voted to raise Virginiaโs minimum wage. As NPR notes, โbusiness groups maintain that Virginia will lose jobs โย and its business-friendly reputationโ โ as a result. The Virginia chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businessย estimatesย that the increase wouldย slash 130,000 jobs in Virginia over 10 years.…