Sunday News: ABC Moderators Fail, but Democratic Candidates Succeed; Bob Goodlatte Wants to Kill the Chesapeake Bay

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, December 20.

• ABC Moderators Ignore Climate Change And Planned Parenthood, But Find Time For Presidential Spouse Questions (David Muir and Martha Raddatz were truly abysmal last night. Fortunately, the Democratic candidates were all-around excellent, despite the idiot “moderators.”)
• The ABC News Moderators Didn’t Ask a Single Question About Climate Change (Meh, I mean it’s only the future of life on our planet and BY FAR the #1 issue facing us, but whatever!)
• Key Moments From the Democratic Debate (“From Bernie Sanders’ apology to Hillary Clinton’s empty-podium moment.”)
• Hillary and Bernie Each Had a Pretty Strong Debate. That Means Hillary Won. (Agreed; Sanders did well, but so did Clinton, who was on her “A game” last night.)
• Clinton: Trump ‘Is Becoming ISIS’ Best Recruiter’
• For Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, a bond of power-hungriness, vulgarity and cynicism (“The American tycoon sees his doppelgänger in Russia’s autocratic leader.”)
• Here are 7 things from the #DemDebate that will win Democrats the election next November (“By far the biggest loser in tonight’s Democratic debate was ABC. If you thought CNBC’s moderators in the Republican debate were bad, ABC beat them by a mile.”)
• Sanders apologizes to Clinton for breach (“Sanders said his staff had acted improperly. ‘This is not the type of campaign that we run.'”/li>
• Here’s what happened with NGP VAN, the Sanders Campaign, and the Clinton Campaign (“With the correction of the glitch and further audits by NGP VAN, we are confident now that the data within the system is secure.”)
• An Explanation of What Bernie Sanders Staffers Actually Did and Why It Matters (“As it turns out the ethical breach by Sanders operatives was massive, but the actual data discovery was limited. So it made sense and was fairly obvious that the DNC would quickly end up giving the campaign back its NGPVAN access—particularly since failing to do so would be a death sentence for the campaign and a gigantic black eye to the party.”)
• Watch Bernie Sanders’ Shrewd, Spirited Takedown of Donald Trump’s Bigotry (That was a GREAT answer by Sanders!)
• No budging by Virginia Republicans on Medicaid expansion (“Lawmakers still won’t extend health insurance to thousands of poor, even if hospitals spare taxpayers the cost.”)
• Ralph Northam: Clean Power for a Healthy Virginia (Good to hear; the key is taking the Clean Power Plan as a bare minimum and going way further!)
• Schapiro: Va. corporate cops urged to man up – by one of their own (“A rare, little-noticed dissent by a powerful Virginia regulator could trigger anew – perhaps in the state Supreme Court – the debate over Dominion’s controversial power grab.” We should just break up Dominion, it’s an anachronism and a corrupt one at that.))
• Editorial: The saboteurs of the Chesapeake (“U.S. Rep. Goodlatte’s fealty to the farmers of the Shenandoah Valley won’t surprise anyone. It explains his choice to value their freedom to pollute creeks and rivers over the rights of everyone else to a Chesapeake Bay not fouled with animal waste.” Goodlatte is truly BADlatte.)
• Casey: Presenting the 2015 Dano Awards (“The dumb, and dumber and dumbest of the year”)
• Virginia’s scant opposition to offshore drilling stands out (Crank it up, guys!)
• Amid spike in heroin deaths, Virginia Beach police to carry lifesaving drug
• Arlington mourns the loss of a top schools administrator who died in diving accident
• D.C. area forecast: Winter chill stays today, spring-like warmth is on its way