Bacon's Rebellion

  • Spanberger Playing “Russian Roulette” with Virginia’s Must-Pass Budget

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Derrick Max

    Virginia is now facing one of the most dangerous habits in modern state government: using a must-pass budget to carry major policy changes that could not, or did not, move through the normal legislative process.

    Budgets have always contained some policy language. No one who has watched Virginia government closely would pretend otherwise. The Appropriation Act regularly includes agency instructions, reporting requirements, spending conditions, transfer authority, and implementation language. That is part of budgeting.

    But there is a difference between budget language that manages state spending and budget language that rewrites major areas of Virginia law.

    This year, that line has been crossed.

    The General Assembly is being asked to vote on Governor Spanberger’s budget amendments today — barely two days before the start of the new fiscal year and under the threat of a July 1 shutdown. That timing matters. It means legislators are not being asked to judge each policy on its own merits through the normal process. They are being asked to accept or reject sweeping policy language under deadline pressure, with the operation of state government hanging in the balance.

    The budget now before Virginia is also a sprawling policy vehicle touching taxes, energy, data centers, cannabis, labor law, public safety, environmental regulation, local referenda, health care, and more.

    (more…)

  • Social Breakdown Update

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

  • $2 Million this Biennium for Menhaden Research

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Former House Delegate Tim Anderson on Menhaden fishing:

    “Every state on the east coast has banned reduction fishing of menhaden in coastal waters except Virginia. A Canadian company is raping the bay to deplete menhaden for omega oils for dog food.

    “And no governor – Republican or Democrats wants to stop it. Makes me sick. Let’s throw another $2 million at it. I wonder why the Chesapeake Bay is collapsing? 51,000 tonnes of menhaden are pulled out annually. That’s enough fish to fill bumper to bumper tractor trailers from Reedville to Richmond.

    “Politicians looking the other [way] for campaign donations. Pathetic.”

    See the full post on X here.

    Here’s where Big Fish — Omega Protein — has been spreading its money this year.

  • ICE Enforcement Continues in Red Virginia

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    James A. Bacon

    From Uriah Kiser at the Virginia Insider:

    Virginians woke up to news of ICE and Greene County deputies rounding up illegal criminal immigrants near Charlottesville – and the left is losing it.

    Abandoned cars lined rural roads after the operation, proving enforcement is happening even under [Governor Abigail] Spanberger’s restrictions.

    Sheriff Steven Smith didn’t mince words: he doesn’t answer to the governor when it comes to working with ICE. Elected sheriffs serve the people, not Richmond.

    Enter Charlottesville attorney Andrew Young – a land use and environmental lawyer, not a criminal or immigration specialist – who rushed to the scene, offered representation, and allegedly had multiple firearms in his car. Officers drew weapons during his traffic stop. Young claimed it was about due process. Critics see it as classic obstruction from the Charlottesville bubble.

    This mirrors dangerous incidents elsewhere where activists have confronted federal agents.

    Meanwhile, Virginia families still mourn victims like Stephanie Minter, killed by an illegal immigrant with a lengthy record.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

  • Board of Education Moves Forward on Raising Standards

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Derrick Max

    Yesterday, the Virginia Board of Education voted by a near majority to reject a proposal to delay the implementation of more rigorous Standard of Learning cut scores. I was honored to testify before the Board, along with Arlington Democrat Todd Truitt — who really has been a leader on this important issue. A handful of other parents and leaders testified in opposition to any delay, while no parents testified in favor.  

    Thank you to the dozens of readers who sent in emails to the Board calling for them to move forward on the planned implementation of the higher standards after reading my last article. 

    We applaud the Board for doing the right thing and look forward to hearing Governor Spanberger’s continued support for greater accountability and standards! Virginia’s children deserve our best. Governor Spanberger’s leadership on this is critical.

    Below is the testimony I gave before the Board yesterday:

    My name is Derrick Max, I am Vice President of the Jefferson Forum, previously known as the Thomas Jefferson Institute. Thank you for serving on this important board and for allowing public comment today. Your work matters more than you may realize, it is greatly appreciated!

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Coop Customers (But Not NOVEC) May Now Get RGGI Rebates

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    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative’s territory within the greater Northern Virginia region.

    Governor Abigail Spanberger’s proposed amendment to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative rebate system will give most but not all residential customers of Virginia’s rural electric cooperatives a shot at some cash back. The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative is still in the RGGI wilderness.

    The feeding frenzy over the RGGI carbon tax dollars, predicted when a carbon allowance auction reached a record $35 per ton of emitted CO2 last month, is well underway and getting very complicated, perhaps too complicated. The state is likely to reap $800 million to $1 billion or more per year in RGGI taxes at that $35 per ton carbon price.

    Spanberger’s new language, due for a vote when the Assembly comes back on Monday, also precludes any rebate to a non-Virginia customer. That presumes there will be utility customers deemed “non-Virginian” who are paying the utility a direct RGGI tax on their bills but will not be eligible for rebates.

    Do they not teach the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution anymore? Can a state law discriminate that way against people or a business in another state? (I cannot find a link directly to the amendment she put out last night, so it is set out at the end of this column.)

    Spanberger and her fellow Democrats in the Assembly have gone from claiming that RGGI, with its carbon dioxide tax, cap and trade approach would lower customer costs, to admitting customers foot the bill. The generation companies that must pay the tax on the coal, oil, and natural gas they use simply pass it along to customers somehow.

    (more…)

  • Ask the Real Questions about Nursing Homes in Virginia

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    This author is tired of hearing that the left has compassion for poor people.  

    The left that runs Richmond just completed another session in which they refused to face our nursing home crisis. They claim to prioritize the concerns of minorities, but pretend that Medicaid long-term residential care is somehow not a minority concern.

    Too many Virginia nursing facilities are horrible because out-of-state chains take Medicare and Medicaid money and put it in their pockets rather than properly caring for their residents. It is no more complicated than that.  

    Our Governor and too many General Assembly members take money from industry lobbyists, put it in their pockets, and look the other way. That is not complicated either. It is corruption.

    The current administration, generally tight-lipped about what is happening in the Secretariat of Health and Human Resources, has not offered a comment, much less a plan to improve the situation. The Department of Health press releases instead lean into things like World Doula Day.

    Look at the nursing facilities in Virginia Beach, the Commonwealth’s largest city.

    The chart is highlighted with stoplight colors.  It should prove a profound embarrassment to the city and the state.

    • People of all ages needing post-hospital residential skilled nursing care have very few beds available at safe facilities.  
    • Medicaid members have no safe option for long-term residential care.  

    Our Lady of Perpetual Hope is primarily an assisted living and memory care facility. Medicaid does not pay for those services. The Jones and Cabacoy Center, much welcomed, serves only Virginia veterans. Westminster Canterbury is a profoundly expensive continuing care facility with skilled nursing beds available to non-members, but only as space allows.

    It is no surprise that the Virginia Beach outposts of two of the worst chains in America, Eastern Healthcare Group and Medical Facilities of America (MFA), DBA LifeWorks Rehab, are uniformly horrible. Yet they dominate the bed counts in this city.

    (more…)

  • Soros’ Man in Virginia

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    James A. Bacon

    Tom Perriello, Democratic Party candidate for Congress, in a May 6, 2026, email blast:

    And for the past 15+ years – ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the dark money floodgates – a network of corporate special interests and right-wing billionaires have been using unlimited funds to buy the election results they want.

    To protect their corrupt power, they are going to need to hold the new VA-6. Our race could well make the difference between restoring our Constitutional system of checks and balances or continuing a GOP trifecta that is laying waste to the American dream.

    Top donors to Perriello’s campaign, according to the Virginia Public Access Project:

    “The dark money machine is coming for us,” warned the Perriello email. “We don’t need to match them dollar for dollar. We just need to raise enough to get our message to the people.”

    Total campaign contributions to Perriello and his two Democratic Party opponents in the congressional district incorporating Charlottesville and the surrounding area:

    (more…)

  • Virginia Board of Education Rejects Surprise Proposal to Delay Cut Score Increases…For Now

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    Todd Truitt

    The Virginia Board of Education on Thursday rejected a last-minute proposal from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to delay implementation of tougher passing standards (“cut scores”) on Standards of Learning (SOL) exams. Board members repeatedly emphasized we have the lowest math and reading cut scores in the country and that Virginia students, especially the least advantaged, have already waited long enough for more accurate measures of academic achievement.

    But it’s not dead yet.

    Governor Abigail Spanberger’s appointees will control the majority of the Board in August. Two of the three Spanberger appointees yesterday voted to reject the move on cut scores. The other Spanberger appointee abstained for procedural reasons while the fourth appointee was absent. But if the administration continues with this proposal, one can imagine the pressure these new Board members would be under.

    Suspicious Timing; Board Members and Public Left in Dark Until Last Moment

    Board members noted that even they just learned of the proposal on Thursday, June 24th when it became public. The proposal’s timing—released Thursday afternoon before a holiday weekend and after schools closed for summer—appeared designed to limit public scrutiny.  And if the proposal had been approved yesterday for first and final review, it would have been subject to a final vote at the Board’s August meeting—the first meeting that Spanberger appointees would control the majority.

    There were no other public hints this was coming. The possibility of delay was not reflected in the VDOE listening sessions report or appendices issued in April. In the Board slides, the VDOE’s references to any support in the April listening session documents for this proposal were scant and indirect.

    One notable timing issue is that Spanberger vetoed the collective bargaining bill on May 14. The president of the Virginia Education Association, Carol Bauer, released this impassioned video the same day denouncing the Governor as betraying working people. On June 1, organized labor held a mass protest against Spanberger.

    (more…)

  • Europe Sizzles While Americans Stay Cool

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    If 1967 was the summer of love, 1985 was the summer of sweat.

    For me, anyway.

    I spent a lot of time on the beach 31 years ago. Over the roar of the surf I could hear Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” blaring from boomboxes, vying with Huey Lewis’ “The Power of Love.”

    The soundtrack to my summer, however, was “The Heat is On” by Glenn Frey.

    The heat really was on, although after reviewing historical temperature charts it seems there was nothing remarkable about 1985. It was an ordinary southeastern Virginia summer with temperatures in the 80s and low-90s.

    Humidity in the gazillions.

    It felt awful because it was my first full summer in what we all then called Tidewater. I’d moved here after a three-year stint in Ireland, where summertime temps seemed stuck in the 50s and 60s. Where people wilted if the mercury climbed to 75.

    Not only was I unaccustomed to southeastern Virginia’s unrelenting heat, but I was living in a cramped one-bedroom garage apartment at the oceanfront.

    Second floor. Low ceilings. Small windows.

    No air conditioning. My landlord insisted the ancient electrical system couldn’t handle the load. Continue reading.

  • A Victory for Transparency

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    The Richmonder wins FOIA lawsuit against School Board over redacted documents.

    From The Richmonder:

    The Richmond School Board improperly redacted documents related to an investigation into alleged misconduct by a school division employee, a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled Wednesday.

    The documents are related to the departure earlier this year of Ronald “Bobby” Hathaway, the former director of facilities and custodial services for Richmond Public Schools. The school division conducted an investigation into Hathaway before he left the role, but kept most details of the investigation secret by heavily redacting documents before releasing them in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

    “The documents in question do not contain data, facts or statements that are of a private nature,” [Judge Tracy] Thorne-Begland wrote in his decision. “They contain allegations of malfeasance, discrimination, and favoritism by public employees and the investigative steps and conclusions reached by the board in reviewing the allegations.”

    State and local agencies, including public universities, use the same “personnel” dodge across the state. Hopefully, other judges will follow Thorne-Begland’s ruling in making the Freedom of Information Act a tool for government transparency.

  • What Caregivers of Autistic Children Should Know

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    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Parents, grandparents, and other caregivers of autistic children must understand who will actually be treating the child and monitor the services so that the rules of the insurer, which are important to the child’s outcome, are followed.

    Many of the Board Certified Applied Behavioral Analysts (BCABA) licensed in Virginia live in other states. Some BCABAs who live in Virginia advertise their services statewide. That means neither will be providing in-person services to many of their clients.

    An additional concern is that many billing errors and some fraud identified in state Medicaid programs for autism services stem from disregard for the required provider hierarchy in patient care, both in treatment and in billing.

    Medicaid will be used as an example, but private health insurers generally follow the same hierarchy of services and payment rules.   

    In the case of Virginia Medicaid, to qualify for reimbursement, all service delivery must comply with:

    1. The licensed clinician’s scope-of-practice guidelines; and
    2. The rules of the Virginia Medicaid Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program.

    Caregivers’ concerns should mirror those of Virginia Medicaid

    Virginia Medicaid sent a letter to all ABA service providers in December 2025. That letter pointed out specific issues that needed to be addressed. Those issues are as important to caregivers as they are to Medicaid and private health insurers. They include:

    (more…)

  • Debunking Data Center Myths

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Jeff Reynolds

    You’ve heard the stories. Data centers are loud, water-guzzling monsters chewing up rural landscapes. They promise jobs but deliver none. They’ll suck the grid dry, jack up everyone’s electric bill, overload the power grid, and leave abandoned warehouses when the AI bubble bursts. Opponents paint them as the latest corporate scam, with Chinese Communist Party–backed accounts flooding social media to amplify every complaint from low information voters. 

    Meanwhile, the Big Tech acolytes tell us these monstrosities will unlock human flourishing to a degree never before seen in history. The AI revolution will free humanity to create instead of having to punch a clock as a slave to the grind. It will transform industries, contribute trillions to the global economy, and even heal the planet by slowing global warming. All at a relatively low low strain on resources, unlike the claims to the contrary by those opposed to data centers in their back yard.

    So who’s right?

    The social media furor has gotten so loud that local governments are hesitating, even while the technology reshapes the economy. 

    The sheer volume of misinformation surrounding the issue has marred any sort of thoughtful debate about the pros and cons of data centers. 

    To be fair, this is not to advocate for one side of the debate or the other. The purpose of this exercise is to examine the BS and offer actual facts so the debate can proceed with true understanding, not hype and fearmongering.

    This graphic made the rounds recently on social media. Regardless of verifying whether the claims hold any statistical significance, it indicates the sheer volume of misinformation and disinformation emanating from both sides of the data center divide:

    (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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