by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, January 29.
- May Rips Up Her Divorce Plan to Keep Party United: Brexit Update
- Taliban Talks Raise Question of What U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan Could Mean (“A hasty American withdrawal, experts said, would erode the authority and legitimacy of the Afghan government, raising the risk that the Taliban could recapture control of the country. Short of that, it could consign Afghanistan to a protracted, bloody civil war, with Taliban fighters besieging the capital, Kabul, as they did in the 1990s.”)
- Bolton: ‘All options are on the table’ for Trump in Venezuela (“The U.S. announced sanctions Monday against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company amid a constitutional power struggle in that nation.”)
- Justice Dept. charges Huawei with fraud, ratcheting up U.S.-China tensions
- PG&E Files for Bankruptcy With More Than $50 Billion in Debt
- Powell faces early reckoning on Fed’s $4-trillion question
- Roger Stone Expected To Plead Not Guilty In D.C. Federal Court Tuesday
- State of the Union: Trump and Pelosi agree date for delayed address (“Speech postponed amid shutdown wrangles will now take place on 5 February”)
- Trump Is Destroying His Own Case for a National Emergency (“By waiting for Congress to act, the president is undermining the legal basis for any declaration.”)
- Republicans may block Trump from another shutdown (“The Senate GOP has no appetite for another political debacle and is pushing Trump away from closing the government again.”)
- Lawmakers push to end govt shutdowns — for good (Agreed, this should never happen again. Ever.)
- This is how to end government shutdowns forever (“Shutdowns are a problem created by Republicans, so any solution needs to pressure the GOP.”)
- ‘Slow roll’?: Trump admin says shutdown means delays in responding to House Dem oversight (“Many White House staffers who deal with document and email requests from Democratic committees were furloughed, but some members of Congress are suspicious of the excuses.”)
- Trump is a fraud (“But no one can reasonably claim to believe in Trump’s brand as it was sold in 2016. We have plumbed the shallows of his boasts. They are refuted lies. And whatever else the president may be, he is a fraud.”)
- The government is trying to turn Trump’s lies into truths (“Somewhere, some hapless government workers have probably just been tasked with searching for the phantom 58,000 alien voters, joining those already searching for illusory duct-tape incidents on the border.”)
- Dem duo poses test for Trump, GOP (“With Pelosi in charge of the House, Schumer now has more power over his caucus and seems thrilled to have an enforcer on the other side of the Capitol.”)
- Government Shutdown Will Cost the U.S. $3 Billion, CBO Projects
- Mueller investigation is ‘close to being completed,’ acting attorney general says
- Mueller team signals to Stone associate another indictment may be in the works
- Democrats’ 2020 presidential contest is wide open as danger mounts for Trump, new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows (“A 56 percent majority of all Americans say they would ‘definitely not vote for him’ should Trump become the Republican nominee, while 14 percent say they would consider voting for him and 28 percent would definitely vote for him.” Wow, that’s horrendously bad for an incumbent with 100% name ID.)
- The Last Thing America Needs Right Now is a ‘Centrist Independent’ (“Howard Schultz is contemplating a run for president, while Kamala Harris leans into Obama-style rhetoric.”)
- Report: Even Trump May Think That Howard Schultz’ 2020 Bid Is Good for His Reelection
- This is no time for Howard Schultz’s foolishness
- Mike Bloomberg Statement on Independent Runs (“Given the strong pull of partisanship and the realities of the electoral college system, there is no way an independent can win. That is truer today than ever before. In 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would just split the anti-Trump vote and end up re-electing the President. That’s a risk I refused to run in 2016 and we can’t afford to run it now”)
- Former Obama aide joins Howard Schultz’s team. Democrats aren’t happy. (Disgraceful.)
- Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Says He Wouldn’t Be A Spoiler In Race For White House (And he knows that…how?)
- Kamala Harris Deserves Better Than Sexist Criticism About Her Personal Life (“The 2020 presidential candidate has faced down creepy gossip about a past relationship for 20 years. It should stop—now.”)
- Kamala Harris’ Choices (“Much of the talk as the Democratic field takes shape has been of the progressive and moderate lanes. Harris’s candidacy suggests a subtler divide, over whether the country is in a deep enough crisis that a profound economic and social transformation is needed…Harris is not exactly a centrist, as the Times described her. But she projects the view that Democrats do not need such deep self-scrutiny, that the problem with the country is the Republicans. Alone among the field so far, she is a figure of liberal restoration.”)
- Kamala Harris defines her fight against Trump in CNN town hall
- Kamala Harris endorses Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’ (“I support a Green New Deal. Climate change is an existential threat to all of us, and we have got to deal with the reality of it”)
- House Democrats unveil top 2020 targets (VA05 did not make the list.)
- Judge delays Paul Manafort’s Virginia sentencing for tax and bank fraud
- An Obscure White House Staffer’s Jaw-Dropping Trump Tell-All (“In Team of Vipers, Cliff Sims recounts his year and a half in a West Wing ‘out of control.'”)
- The Supreme Court may kill Roe v. Wade as soon as this week (“Lawyers representing a Louisiana abortion clinic and at least two physicians filed an application in the Supreme Court on Monday asking the court to halt a Louisiana law that is identical to a Texas law the justices struck down in 2016. The court is almost certain to deny this application in a 5-4 vote — possibly as soon as tonight. When it does so, it will effectively mark the end of Roe v. Wade.”)
- The Fight Over The State Of The Union Was About The Future Of Democracy
- Former vice presidential nominee expected to appear in KC with mayoral candidate (“Former Democratic vice presidential nominee and Kansas Citian Tim Kaine is expected to stop in Westport next week for a lunch and town hall with Steve Miller, one of 12 candidates running for mayor. Kaine, who grew up in Overland Park, is the junior U.S. senator from Virginia and was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election. He and Miller, a Kansas City attorney, attended Rockhurst High School together and have remained friends.”)
- When loans are not worth the risk (“Attorney General Mark Herring issued a warning last Tuesday to federal workers and contractors who had gone without pay for more than a month: If you’re strapped for cash, be aware of scams.”)
- Delegate pushes for tax conformity first, policy debate later
- Voting Rights Advocates Respond to House GOP’s Proposed Redistricting Constitutional Amendment (“The GOP’s proposal simply replaces one bad system with another…under this amendment, voters would lose the power of their vote because districts would be required to be drawn to create a certain number of blue districts and a certain number of red ones”)
- Sen. David Suetterlein’s redistricting bill passes Senate (“The state Senate voted 21-17 Monday to approve a redistricting reform bill that has nearly the same language as a bill Gov. Ralph Northam vetoed less than a year ago.”)
- Diverse Candidates Strengthen Our Democracy
- Video: Debating RGGI, Virginia House Rs Show True Colors; Rant About “Deep State”; Reference Famous “Deniers” Copernicus, Galileo, Einstein; Fail to Respond Intelligibly (Superb jobs by Dels. Toscano and Lopez in calling out these know-nothings!)
- Video, Photos: Supporters of Virginia Public Education Rally in Richmond
- As Virginia teachers march on Capitol, House announces plan for 5 percent pay raise
- Thousands of Virginia teachers march to state capitol demanding more funding, better salaries
- Thousands of Virginia teachers rally in Richmond for better pay, school funding (Interesting that the Daily Press and ThinkProgress say “thousands” while the Virginia Mercury says “hundreds”)
- A march, not a strike: Hundreds rally for Virginia education funding
- These are the Virginia (and other) elections we’re watching
- Northam announces start of constituent meetings across state
- Minor and DuVal column: Higher education measures will help diversify Virginia’s economy
- Editorial: Fairness necessitates change to license suspensions (“VIRGINIA HAS a good chance this year to stop the bad practice of automatically suspending driver’s license for unpaid court fines and fees.”)
- Study: Virginia Still Growing, but More Slowly than the Nation
- Audio: VA State Sen. Amanda Chase (R) – “I Call My Revolver My Little Equal Rights Amendment”; Says ERA “Protesters” About to “Lay Hands on Me” Backed Off When They Saw It (“Meanwihle, Trumpster host John Fredericks says the VA House GOP’s rejection of the ERA took the VA GOP’s ‘body’ and ‘burned it to a crisp'”)
- Virginia House GOP leaders endorse plan for independent redistricting commission (“The plan rolled out Monday by Del. Mark L. Cole (R-Spotsylvania) and endorsed by Speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) would call for an amendment to the state constitution to set up a 12-member commission appointed mostly by the legislature.”)
- ‘It’s every educator standing up’: Virginia teachers march in Richmond
- Million-dollar settlement reached in Silver Line suit over flawed concrete panels
- Virginia House approves $750 million in Amazon subsidies after 9 minutes of debate. (“The House sent the bill to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who has said he will sign it. The tally was 83 to 16 in favor of the measure, which the Senate had approved a week earlier on a vote of 35 to 5.” Voting against the deal in the House of Delegates were Adams, D.M., Bell, Richard P., Carter, Cole, Freitas, Guzman, LaRock, Lopez, McGuire, Miyares, Peace, Pogge, Price, Rasoul, Ware, Webert. In the Senate, hard-right Black, Chase, McDougle, Obenshain, and Suetterlein voted no.)
- Belvoir’s 60s-era nuclear power plant to be fully decommissioned
- Environmental groups attack federal approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline (“In a sweeping attack, a coalition of environmental groups asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reverse a federal agency’s approval of the 303-mile pipeline.”)
- House Finance Committee Advances Package to Ensure $950 Million in Middle-Class Tax Relief (This is from Speaker Kirk Cox’s office, which is all you really need to know about it.)
- Veteran journalist Pamela Stallsmith named RTD’s first female opinions editor (That SEEMS very encouraging. Time will tell whether this editorial board moves away from being hard right, pro-Dominion, etc.)
- Virginia industrial sites sit empty despite hefty spending
- Prominent businessmen behind attack ads that failed to take down a Virginia Beach councilman
- Who’s running to replace Senator Black in the 13th district? (“Rumors are circulating about John Stirrup seriously considering a run for the senate seat being vacated by Senator Dick Black..Stirrup is unapologetically pro-life, is an avid Second Amendment supporter and has a pro-taxpayer track record when he served on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. While on the board, John Stirrup held dozens of town hall meetings, was a leader in stopping illegal alien crime.” Haha, yeah, I kinda hope Republicans nominate this nut.)
- Leahy: Schools are a better bet than casinos
- Snow and wintry mix today; cold temperatures bottom out by Thursday
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