Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

  • DePasquale Owes an Apology

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    Thomas DePasquale

    by James A. Bacon

    A year ago, University of Virginia Board member Bert Ellis was called to task for referring — in private text to two fellow board members — to his UVA critics as “numnuts.” He also referred to unnamed employees in President Jim Ryan’s office as “shmucks,” and expressed disappointment in the leadership of then-Rector Whitt Clement. The pejoratives, which were mild compared to the accusations of racism and homophobia to which he had been subjected, were deemed so insensitive that The Washington Post devoted a full-length article to the topic.

    As the minutes of the March 1-3 board meeting laconically recorded, “Mr. Ellis then apologized for the texts; he said they were private and confidential messages that were still out of place.”

    This April Thomas DePasquale, an eight-year board veteran, unleashed a torrent of vitriol against Ellis in a series of draft letters distributed to Rector Robert Hardie, former Rector Frank “Rusty” Conner, board Secretary Susan Harris, and perhaps others. (All emails to President Jim Ryan obtained through the Freedom of Information Act were redacted.) After getting feedback, he blasted out to the full board a toned-down version asking for Ellis’ resignation. (more…)

  • Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Sleet…. Ah, Forget It.

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    by James A. Bacon

    If you’ve got something more important to mail than a greeting card, you might consider an alternative to the U.S. Postal Service. Come to think of it, if you live in Central Virginia and don’t want people thinking you’ve forgotten their birthday, graduation, or anniversary, you might not even entrust greeting cards to the U.S. mail.

    Everyone knows the mail is frequently late. But it turns out that postal carriers sometimes dump the mail rather than deliver it. An internal USPS investigation, initiated by widespread complaints of late or nondelivered mail, has documented that three mail carriers, in the words of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “ditched the mail rather than deliver it last year.” Reports the RT-D:

    In one case, a mail carrier in Fredericksburg on April 22 asked to use a resident’s bathroom and then use his recycling trash can. Four days later, the resident found 400 pieces of bundled mail in the can. The mail was recovered and the carrier, who admitted to dumping his cargo, was later fired.

    (more…)

  • University of Lynchburg Bites the Bullet

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    Biting the bullet

    by James A. Bacon

    In anticipation of shrinking numbers of college-bound students, the University of Lynchburg has taken proactive steps to reduce its cost structure. A small private institution affiliated with the Church of Christ, the university has announced that it is cutting employee headcount by 10%, with further reductions over the next three years.

    Staff positions will be eliminated immediately; faculty positions will be phased out through retirements and reassignments, reports WSET News.

    “Lynchburg is closing 12 undergraduate programs and 5 graduate programs, impacting a total 4.5% of students,” the University said in a press release. “Currently 70% of undergraduate students are studying in eight majors, and 95% of students are in 21. The university offers 51 majors.”

    Everyone in higher education knows that the demographic tsunami is coming. Everyone knows that competition will heat up for a smaller number of students. Everyone knows that pressure will intensify to admit less-academically-qualified students and students with greater financial need. Institutions that freeze with indecision about what to do will find themselves burdened with unsustainable overhead and bleeding financial reserves. University of Lynchburg leadership was wise to make the hard decisions before encountering a fiscal crisis. (more…)

  • Why Virginia Democrats Should Support the New School Accountability System

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    President Obama signs the Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015.

    by Todd Truitt

    In 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin was able to flip the education issue on Democrats to pull off a victory. In 2025, Democrats need to reclaim the education issue to flip the Governor’s mansion back. One way of doing that is by supporting the new statewide public school accountability system, which furthers core Democratic values. If Democrats don’t get out ahead of this issue, Republicans will use it as a political issue.

    The Current Broken Accountability System in Virginia

    The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to have accountability systems in order to “measure and hold schools and districts responsible for raising student achievement for all students, and to prompt and support improvement where necessary.” However, referring to the current failure by many states to live up to their responsibility, a long-time New York Times editorial board member said recently:

    The federal government made a disastrous choice a decade ago when it abandoned [a federal] accountability system (known as No Child Left Behind) that required schools to focus intently on helping the lowest-performing students catch up with their peers. Since [ESSA returned accountability systems to states], the already alarming achievement gaps that separate poor and wealthy children have only widened.

    The COVID era demonstrated the failure of Virginia’s combined accountability and accreditation system. Virginia had some of the largest drops on the national NAEP exams, with the lowest performing students suffering the most. And yet, with accountability tied to accreditation, nearly the same number of Virginia schools were accredited last year as there were in 2019 (92% of VA schools in 2019-20 vs. 89% in 2022-23). (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    From The Bull Elephant

  • Gas Tax Tops 40c Per Gallon, Up 150% in Four Years

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    By Steve Haner

    Virginia’s motor fuel taxes rise again July 1, finally breaching 40 cents per gallon for gasoline. Four years ago the tax was 16.2 cents per gallon, but former Governor Ralph Northam (D) signed 2020 legislation to both increase the tax and to begin automatic annual inflation adjustments.

    The tax becomes 40.4 cents per gallon. The inflation adjustment this year will add 1.3 cents per gallon, or an extra $13.50 annually for a vehicle owner purchasing 20 gallons per week. The same 1.3 cents is being added to the tax on diesel, which becomes 41.5 cents per gallon on July 1. (more…)

  • BoV Secretary Edited Board Member’s Scathing Rebuke of Foe

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    Thomas DePasquale

    by James A. Bacon

    Thomas A. DePasquale, an eight-year veteran of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, is very unhappy with board colleague Bert Ellis. A dogged defender of President Jim Ryan, he took it upon himself in April to write a missive to other board members criticizing Ellis, who has made no secret of his desire to change the way UVA does business. But before sending the letter, he shared various drafts with others, including Rector Robert Hardie, past rector Frank “Rusty” Conner, and Susan G. Harris, Secretary of the Board of Visitors.

    Harris, who has served in the staff position since 2009, responded. She fixed spelling, corrected grammar, and tamed syntax in DePasquale’s jumbled prose. Among the sentiments expressed in the revised draft were the following:

    It is after great reflection, working directly with you, participating in meetings of the Board of Visitors, and attending Jefferson Council meeting on April 9th that I have come to this conclusion: that as a Member of the Board of Visitors you have failed and will continue to fail. In this effort you have crossed lines that cannot be excused. …

    You have made clear you [sic] lack of skills and basic ethics to serve as a Visitor. You of course owe me no response, but if you have chosen not to resign, I will ask for a special board meeting.

    That is not the version that DePasquale ultimately blasted out on April 19 to the full Board of Visitors. The final draft concluded even more explicitly, “Bert, with no pleasure or bad will, I strongly believe that you should resign from Board of Visitors.” (more…)

  • UVA to Pay $9 Million in Mass-Shooting Settlement

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    The University of Virginia has settled with the families of five victims of a November 2022 mass shooting that occurred after a class outing to Washington, D.C. The university will pay $2 million each to the families of football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry and another $3 million to be divided between two other students who were wounded.

    “The settlements approved today is [sic] just one small step on this terrible road that these families are on,” Elliott Buckner, a lawyer for Perry’s family, told media at the courthouse Friday, reports the The Daily Progress.

    However, Buckner urged UVa to release a state-commissioned report that delved into the University’s failure to follow up on warning signs that Christopher Darnell Jones, the alleged shooter, was a potential menace to the university community. (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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  • Is There an AI for Fact Checking AI?

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    Type “UVA Board Visitors members” into the Bing search engine, and the above information highlight appears atop the page. Just one problem. The UVA Board doesn’t have seven members, it has 17 members. For a source the text points to an article in UVA Today discussing board appointments by Governor Bob McDonnell in 2010.

    Admittedly, the info-box right below the one I show here did get the number right. But let this serve as a warning to one and all that AI has a long way to go. At the current exponential rate of improvement, we may be only a year or two away from a generation capable of generating reliably accurate results. For now, buyer beware. Search engines may be free, but you get what you pay for.

    — JAB

  • The Junk Science Behind a Property-Valuation Study

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    Junk science

    by James A. Bacon

    When you examine every issue through a racial lens, everything looks like racism. It’s even easier to find racism everywhere when you resort to junk science (or social science, as the case may be).

    A case in point is a new study by Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (Home), which purports to find that systemic bias in real estate appraisals results in under-valuation of properties in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in the City of Richmond. This bias harms African-American property owners, the report contends, despite the fact that if the bias actually exists it would mean African-American homeowners would be paying lower real estate taxes.

    So, how does HOME demonstrate bias?

    The story begins in 2022 when Dr. Andre Perry with the Brookings Institution make a presentation in Richmond showing that home values are much lower in majority-Black neighborhoods than in predominantly non-Black neighborhoods. While acknowledging that part of the difference arises from differences in the homes and opportunities available in the neighborhoods, his statistical analysis showed that different valuations occur even when comparing “identical homes in neighborhoods with identical (non-racial) characteristics.” (more…)

  • Wait, I’m Confused. Are Rising Housing Valuations Good or Bad for Black Neighborhoods?

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    by James A. Bacon

    It’s hard to keep up with the twists and turns of what progressives deem to be racist these days.

    Once upon a time, gentrification was considered racist because the phenomenon of White people moving into a neighborhood increased local property values, which increased taxes on long-time African-American residents and pressured them to move out.

    But that’s old think. Now the problem isn’t that property values in gentrifying neighborhoods are too high. In the City of Richmond, property values in majority Black neighborhoods are too low!

    “An under-valued home limits the owner’s ability to access credit through home equity and limits potential profits when the owner decides to sell,” concludes a new report, “Policy Approaches to Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Home Values and Related Risks of Displacement,” published by a nonprofit group, Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia.

    “The disparities are the result of a long history of racial discrimination that has adversely affected neighborhoods of color in Richmond,” the report says.

    Got that? If appraised property values are too high, higher property taxes drive out Black residents. That’s racism in action. If property appraisals are too low, Black residents are deprived of credit, and they get less for their houses than they would have otherwise. That’s racist, too. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Everything’s racist, folks. Everything! (more…)

  • Injunction to Stop Wind Project Denied

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    A federal judge in Washington has declined to prevent Dominion Energy Virginia from constructing its offshore wind turbines, but presumably the underlying legal challenge to the federal permitting process will grind on through the court process. Virginia Mercury reports the basics this morning.

    Installation of the first monopiles actually started while the judge was still pondering the petition for an injunction, but getting such an injunction before the actual trial process requires clearing a very high legal hurdle. The plaintiffs claim the project will cause irreversible harm to marine life in the area, including whales, but the truth is evidence either way is lacking.

    You cannot tell from the carcass if a dead whale ended up on the beach because of noise from sonar mapping of this construction site, or construction work on previous projects elsewhere. Likewise those who claim the work won’t harm whales cannot prove that negative. The federal regulators actually are of the opinion there is risk but claim the mitigations they have imposed will prove sufficient.

    Time will tell on that. What remains is the project’s inordinate cost for the likely energy output, especially if the claimed 25- to 30-year lifespan proves too optimistic, or the project suffers major damage in some future (and long overdue) mid-Atlantic monster hurricane. And Dominion’s project is pretty much the only one which still claims it will be built for the advertised cost, thanks to contracts locked in long ago. Costs are exploding for many other developers. (more…)

  • Footloose Aaron Spence. Having Fun On Loudoun County’s Dime

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    Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.

    by Kerry Dougherty 

    Let’s just admit it. Those of us who thought Aaron Spence was a disaster as Virginia Beach School Superintendent are experiencing a shameless bout of schadenfreude.

    Yep, we’re enjoying the misfortune of others.

    Those “others” would be Loudoun County parents and taxpayers. Aaron Spence is their problem now. He left Virginia Beach last year for the greener pastures of Loudoun County, the richest in the U.S.

    According to excellent news reporting by tenacious ABC News7 reporter, Nick Minock, Spence has only been on the job for just nine months but has spent 30 days out of the district at a variety of boondoggles, er conferences.

    Spence who makes a whopping $375,000 a year, ducked out of Loudoun County 10 times this school year for destinations such as Miami, West Palm Beach, San Diego and Puerto Rico, as well as several closer to home. According to records obtained by the reporter, it appears taxpayers picked up the tab for his conference registrations, hotels and travel, while at least in one instance he slurped up $15,000 for teaching two seminars at the conference seminars.

    This would be just another example of a greedy public official living large off the generosity of unsuspecting taxpayers, but this case is much, much worse. (more…)

  • Yes, You Can Fight City Hall

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    Ken Davis

    by James A. Bacon

    Sometimes it takes grumpy old men to get things done.

    Ken Davis, retired from a career in the Attorney General’s Office, lived with his wife in the Willow Lawn area of Richmond for more than 40 years. They paid their property tax bills on time and without complaint. But in July 2023, thanks to late delivery by the U.S. Post Office, they missed their first payment.

    Davis went down to City Hall and dutifully paid the tax plus an $800 fine. But then he learned he wasn’t alone. More than 20 of his neighbors were late in receiving their bills, too. So, he filed an appeal.

    The city finance director turned him down. “The city complied with all applicable billing and advertising requirements and non-receipt of a tax bill does not relieve a taxpayer of fault for failure to pay taxes on time,” she wrote, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch tells the story. (more…)