Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Author: Bob Rayner

  • Richmond’s Next Chapter

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    by Jon Baliles The Times-Dispatch Editorial Board printed a piece this week entitled “The city’s Lost Cause statues are all gone. So what now?” While it recaps the events and protests of 2020 and the fact that all of the former Confederate statues have been removed, it offers a bit more foresight by looking at…

  • Baby, It’s Cold Outside

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    by Kerry Dougherty On Sunday evening we headed over to the Sandler Center to see Ballet Virginia’s production of The Nutcracker. My granddaughter was in the corps of dancing Ginger Snaps. It was cold, for the Beach anyway. Temps were In the 30s. Please don’t laugh, Northerners. That’s frigid for these parts. I threw on…

  • Bad Times at Richmond Jail

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    by Jon Baliles If anyone knows what the hell is going on at the Richmond City Jail, please raise your hand. Stand up. Write it down. Grab the mic. Something. Anything. In a bizarre series of stories in recent days, people are dying, guards are getting beaten, and strange and awful things are happening at…

  • Tumblin’ Dice

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    by Jon Baliles The casino project proposal in Petersburg was unveiled this week and it is a big one. In poker terminology, it could be considered an “all-in” proposal. The Progress–Index reports that The Cordish Companies propose a $1.4 billion “‘city within a city’ of entertainment, retail, office and residential property. Its centerpiece would be…

  • Dominion’s Wind Gamble Could Cost Customers

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    by William O’Keefe A study by the Kleiman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania concluded that reaching long-term offshore wind power targets presents serious challenges with “the most pressing being the need to build out the electric grid to reliably and economically deliver vast quantities of offshore wind power.” And that also…

  • The Trophy in the Middle of the River

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    by Jon Baliles Some great news this week about the one thing most everyone can agree on: the James River is awesome, and the heart of the City just got a LOT more awesome. Or at least it is pointing in that direction. Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reported that The Capital Region Land Conservancy…

  • A Christmas Guide to De-Bugging Virginia

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    by Kerry Dougherty This is not a sponsored post. I wish it were; I could use the loot. This is just my gift to you, a last-minute Christmas shopping tip. You’re welcome. I don’t know why more people don’t do their Christmas shopping at truck stops. These friendly joints stock loads of items you can’t…

  • What JLARC’s Education Report Got Right and What It Didn’t

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    by Matt Hurt On November 7, JLARC released the Pandemic Impact on Public K-12 Education. In this report, the challenges of educating students during the pandemic were outlined, and policy prescriptions were provided to mitigate these issues in the future. From the perspective of an educator, the report adequately addressed some issues, but failed to…

  • Youngkin’s Housing Start

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    by Adam A. Millsap U.S. housing prices have risen 10 percent since last September and 41 percent since before the pandemic. Though prices have dipped slightly over the last three months, inflated costs remain a major problem. Policymakers around the country are trying to bring prices down, and a new proposal from Virginia governor Glenn…

  • Lively Libertarians Convene in Ruther Glen

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    by Bruce Majors Meeting in rural Ruther Glen in Caroline County, Virginia, Saturday, December 3rd, at a rustic venue (The Barns of Mattaponi Springs) that usually hosts weddings and Christmas parties, 54 Libertarian Party (LP) convention delegates from Richmond, Charlottesville, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Annandale, Arlington and other parts of Virginia met to elect new…

  • Anti-Religious Satanic Group Demands Equal Treatment in Chesapeake

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    by Shaun Kenney There are certain political groups that we rightly exclude from the political commons. Not because in doing so they are antithetical to our ideas of liberalism (lowercase-L) or democracy (lowercase-D), but because they are antithetical to the moral tradition from which both liberalism and democracy spring. Of course, our Founders were wise…

  • Data Dump

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    by Bob Rayner Modern marketers understand the value of data — no matter how trivial. That’s how we know, or at least can consider the possibility, that Virginia is the 10th sleepiest state in the union, tied with Pennsylvania, a numbers nugget delivered by MatressInsider.com, the bedding retailer. The company gathered county health data from…

  • An Open Letter to the Mayor of Roanoke

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    (This letter was first published by The Roanoke Star.) Mayor Sherman Lea: I called your office last week in an attempt to speak with you about the current state of affairs and my recent experiences in Roanoke City. Your secretary took my information. I asked for a return call; I’ve heard nothing from you. What…

  • Remembering Donald McEachin

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    by Chris Saxman Virginia lost a good man this week when Congressman Don McEachin passed away at age 61 due to cancer. Having served with McEachin in the Virginia House, I can attest to his fine nature and dedication to his principles. While I didn’t have the fortune to work with him directly on legislation,…

  • Richmond Community Hospital: Poster Child for Reforming 340B

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    By Dr. William S. Smith and Chris Braunlich Nonprofit hospitals in low-income neighborhoods should be the backbone of the American safety net system for low-income people who lack insurance. Instead, thanks to a federal program called 340B, many nonprofit hospitals have made maximizing revenue their primary goal, not providing charity care. Thanks to a New…