Tag: James A. Bacon
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Economic Development in the Era of CRT and COVID
by James A. Bacon George Allen is no longer engaged in the rough and tumble of partisan politics. But as a Reagan Ranch Presidential Scholar with the Young America’s Foundation, he still gives a fair number of speeches. And when he does, he sounds the Reaganesque themes that he championed as Governor and then U.S.…
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JMU: Where Not Only Are You Wrong, But How Dare You Ask?
by James A. Bacon Western Civilization went more than 2,000 years with people dividing the world between male and female. About 10 years ago, the idea gained traction in the United States that gender wasn’t based on biology — XX and XY chromosomes — but was a social construct. Within an extraordinarily short time, transgender…
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The Affordable Housing Crisis Intensifies
The Washington Post has published an interactive graphic showing how much rents have increased across the United States over the past year. Average rents in Virginia increased most rapidly in Hampton Roads, the Richmond metro, and the Fredericksburg area — up 20.4% in Spotsylvania County and 20.2% in Bedford County outside Lynchburg. Among localities that…
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At This School, the Cellphones Rule
by James A. Bacon Literally every student at the high-poverty high school where Fletcher Norwood teaches has a cellphone — and not just a flip phone, but an expensive smart phone. And every student seems to have an unlimited data plan, and earbuds, and a recharger. Kids may get free lunches, they may wear t-shirts…
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Richmond Starbucks Employees Vote to Unionize
by James A. Bacon Employees at five Starbucks coffee stores in the Richmond area have voted for union representation — and I’m just fine with that. I oppose public-sector unions for reasons frequently enumerated on this blog. But if private-sector employees want to band together to increase their bargaining power with management, that’s their right…
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Mass Transit and Flying Machines
Real rebound or just a dead cat bounce? After bottoming out at around 21,500 riders a year ago, the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail service in Northern Virginia is experiencing a recovery in ridership, reports The Free Lance-Star. In February, VRE reports, monthly rider trips totaled more than 52,900. That’s a far cry from the…
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A Fairfax High School Principal Cracks Down on Cellphones in Classrooms
by James A. Bacon Virginia educators are waking up to the classroom disruption caused by cell phones, and one is actually doing something about it. On April 11, Herndon High School in Fairfax County started enforcing major restrictions on cell phone use, reports Fox News-Channel 5. More recently, the New Kent County School Board has…
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Racial Bean Counting for Dominion’s Offshore Wind Project?
by James A. Bacon Dominion Energy expects to create 900 construction jobs and support 1,100 employees in ongoing operations for its proposed $9.8 billion offshore wind farm. Hundreds more jobs could be created if, as hoped, companies in the wind power industry begin manufacturing components and providing ancillary services in Hampton Roads. As part of…
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The Alexandria Experiment
by James A. Bacon The election of Governor Glenn Youngkin may bring about changes in K-12 educational policy in Virginia, but those changes will take time to take hold, and they will not play out uniformly across the state. “Progressive” school systems are organizing a form of Massive Resistance (a term I use with deliberate…
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Criminal Charges Against Conservative School Activist Dismissed
by James A. Bacon A General District Court judge has dismissed criminal charges leveled by against Harry Jackson, a conservative parent active in the Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology admissions controversy. A Fairfax magistrate had charged Jackson, who had alleged in tweets and a YouTube video that a political antagonist had engaged…
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The Monetary Rape of Middle-Class Retirees
by James A. Bacon This past year saw one of the greatest redistributions of wealth in U.S. history. People are upset by the 8.5% increase in inflation, but they’re not nearly as upset as they should be. Wage earners, especially lower-income wage earners, have every right to be irate. Their hourly pay has increased, but…
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Free Speech Lives at the University of Virginia!
by James A. Bacon Former Vice President Mike Pence came to the University of Virginia last night, attended two receptions, and delivered his speech, billed as “How to Save America from the Woke Left,” without a hitch. The Pence event created a national stir when the editorial board of The Cavalier Daily student newspaper said…
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Such Words Have “No Place in Virginia”
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin did the right thing by demanding the resignation of David Dietrich, a Hampton Republican Party official serving on the city electoral board, for making a racist Facebook post. In accusing certain senior military officials of persecuting “conservative, freedom-loving Americans,” Dietrich referred to them as “nothing more than dirty,…
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Virginia’s COVID Performance Rates a D
by James A. Bacon Virginia performed worse than 35 other states during the COVID-19 recession, based on an analysis that encompasses mortality rates, economic performance and educational performance. The Commonwealth fared better than average in health outcomes, worse than average in economic performance, and near the bottom in school closures. The overall ranking: D. Nationally,…
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Racism as Anti-Social Defiance
by James A. Bacon Joel Mungo is a teacher at Menchville High School in Newport News. Over the past several months, he says, someone periodically left a banana outside his classroom door in what was “clearly a deliberate act.” As a Black person, he not unreasonably interpreted the bananas as a play upon the old…