Saturday News: Prank Call to Air Force One Fools Trump; “How SCOTUS Could Crush American Democracy”; “Federal judge blocks Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, June 30.

• North Korea has increased nuclear production at secret sites, say U.S. officials (“‘Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,’ said one U.S. official.”)
• Satellite images raise alarms about North Korean nukes (“NBC News also reported on Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe North Korea has increased its fuel production for nuclear missiles at several secret research sites, adding officials fear Kim may try to keep the sites hidden amid negotiations with the U.S. “)
• ‘We’re in the abyss’: how despair in Mexico set ‘Amlo’ on verge of presidency (“Violence, corruption and poverty explain why leftwing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the frontrunner in election”)
• Canada hits back at U.S. on tariffs, says it will not back down
• Trump Says He Has Narrowed List of Possible Supreme Court Picks to Five (“President is pressured by key senators to pick an ideological centrist to succeed Justice Kennedy” Problem is, there are no centrists on the “list” he’s working off of…)
• Trump Apparently Duped by Prankster on Air Force One Phone Call
• Trump Says He’ll Announce Supreme Court Nominee July 9
• Manchin warns Trump against picking court nominee who will overturn Roe v. Wade
• CNN reporter shouts at Trump: ‘Will you stop calling the press the enemy of the people?’
• Why a new chief of staff wouldn’t change Trump’s White House (“The president has proved resistant to being managed by either of his first two chiefs, and few expect anything different even if he replaces John Kelly.”)
• Trump’s top economics adviser lies about ‘rapidly’ falling budget deficit (“There’s just one problem.”)
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Message to the Democratic Party (“In terms of messaging, Ocasio-Cortez isn’t as much of an outlier as she might appear. Although many prominent Democrats seem to be talking mainly about Trump—to the point that they can barely see straight—that preoccupation is partly an artifact of the media’s focus. In a world of all Trump all the time, Democrats who bring up other things don’t get much coverage. The fact is that many Democrats are concentrating on the same issues that Ocasio-Cortez emphasized during her campaign”)
• Summer of Rage (“White men are the minority in the United States — no wonder they get uncomfortable when their power is challenged.”)
• How SCOTUS Could Crush American Democracy (“In the early 20th century, the Supreme Court systematically gutted regulations to favor business and attack organized labor. Those dark days have returned.”)
• U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Resigns in Disgust After Trump Anti-Europe Rants (“James Melville is the latest in a string of career diplomat resignations over Trump’s comments and policies.”)
• Far-right online message board users celebrate Annapolis newsroom shooting
• ‘Shaken’ Rosenstein Felt Used by White House in Comey Firing
• Honor the dead journalists by respecting their profession
• Dave Eggers: A Cultural Vacuum in Trump’s White House (“Never have we had a president not just indifferent to the arts, but also combative toward artists”)
• Conservatives have trained for this moment for decades (“The next Supreme Court justice will establish a solid right-leaning majority, and will validate the GOP’s long-game strategy.” Why haven’t progressives had a long game? Why haven’t progressives built the kind of infrastructure conservatives have? It’s mind boggling and also disastrous.)
• Trump has made it a verbal open season on journalists (“At news of the Annapolis shooting, many people thought it was bound to happen.”)
• An explosion is coming (“You can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it.”)
• The Deepwater Horizon Spill Happened 8 Years Ago. The Ocean Still Hasn’t Recovered. (A reminder of why we should strongly oppose drilling off Virginia’s coast.)
• Russians Offered Business Deals to Brexit’s Biggest Backer
• Talk About ‘The Appearance of Corruption’ (“Anthony Kennedy and Donald Trump had a special relationship.”)
• The America We Thought We Knew Is Gone
• GM Warns Trump Tariffs Could Lead the Carmaker to Shrink in the U.S.
• Idaho Republican threatens to show peaceful young protesters heavy weaponry (“Do you think I should show these girls the empty 30mm shell I have in the truck?” WTF???)
• White America’s Age-Old, Misguided Obsession With Civility
• U.S. government says it will detain migrant children with parents (“The U.S. government said in a court filing on Friday that it has the right to detain children and parents caught crossing the U.S. border illegally for the duration of their immigration proceedings.”)
• Resignation of Republican regulator who didn’t toe the party line surprises energy world (“Environmental groups aren’t shedding many tears, though.”)
• Federal judge blocks Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements (Potential implications for Virginia’s Medicaid expansion?)
• The Fight Over Medicaid Begins in Kentucky (“A federal court’s decision to vacate newly-implemented restrictions on the state program challenges the GOP strategy across the country.”)
• In the middle of tragedy, Capital Gazette sticks to its mission
• Capital Gazette gunman constantly harassed journalists on Twitter. Why wasn’t he stopped? (“Ramos, 38, posted harassing social media messages that alarmed editors at the paper and led police to investigate, but fell short of leading authorities to pursue charges or Twitter to ban him. Twitter suspended Ramos’ account Friday. It declined to comment on it.”)
• ‘Most dangerous person I’ve ever dealt with’: Lawyer feared newspaper murder suspect
• Rep. Gerry Connolly: Trump prank call has ‘chilling’ implications (“Comedian able to break through security”)
• Senate Passes Warner-Kaine Sponsored Bill to Aid Domestic Violence Survivors & Their Pets (“Bipartisan Legislation Expands Protections, Resources for Pet Owners Fleeing”)
• Tim Kaine to barnstorm Virginia with 25 campaign stops during July 4 week
• New laws in Virginia going into effect July 1
• UPDATED: Mountain Valley Pipeline suspends construction in Virginia (“’I think it’s a public relations ploy, to be honest, to a certain extent,’ said Kirk Bowers, pipelines campaign manager for the Sierra Club’s Virginia chapter. ‘So that’s why we’re going to remain vigilant with DEQ.'”)
• Rep. Dave Brat says media report on large protest at his office was ‘fake’
• Blacksburg woman released on bond after pipeline protest
• Metro asks FTA to reconsider year-end deadline for installing safety barriers to 7000-series trains
• Charlottesville judge awards Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler $5 for activist cursing at him
• New tax assessments show Richmond property values surging 7.3 percent, the biggest increase in a decade
• On America’s Founding River, two men battle each other for progress and history
• Liberty University professor accused of trying to have sex with a minor
• Intense heat this weekend and into early week