by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, April 13.
- North Korea’s Kim Jong Un gives U.S. to year-end to become more flexible
- 2018’s Hemispheric Heat Wave Wasn’t Possible Without Climate Change, Scientists Say (“Heat waves are covering wider areas, and people are suffering the consequences. With 2°C of warming, most summers will look like 2018, scientists say.”)
- What Will Really Matter in the Mueller Report (“The public will be looking for salacious details on collusion. But the most important legal questions all have to do with obstruction.”)
- Trump embraces another dictator. Congress has to do better.
- Trump Urged Homeland Security Official to Close Border Despite an Earlier Promise of a Delay
- Trump’s plan to send migrant detainees to sanctuary cities draws concerns about cost, legality
- The country isn’t ‘full’ — and Trump knows it (“As the president himself said recently, it desperately needs more workers.”)
- Trump told CBP head he’d pardon him if he were sent to jail for violating immigration law (Just imagine the reaction on Fox, etc. if Obama had done this for, let’s say, health care or climate change or guns or whatever.)
- For Trump, the name of the season is treason (Very, very dangerous.)
- Trump’s Unpardonable Challenge to the Constitution (“The president regards the border as a lawless space, where courts have no purchase and the only thing that matters is strength of will.”)
- Trump’s Fed pick Stephen Moore is a self-described ‘radical’ who said he’s not a ‘big believer in democracy’ (Yep, Moore is heinous.)
- Company led by Trump nominee was rife with harassment, including groping and kissing, report says
- Court settlement paves way to reunite Central American children with parents in U.S.
- Trump tax ‘cut’ actually increased taxes for 10 million American families, report finds (“A Center for American Progress estimate found that 10,260,263 families saw their taxes go up, thanks to the 2017 law.”)
- Pope Benedict shows us how the Catholic Church went so terribly off-course (Benedict is horrendous.)
- The American Republic Is Crumbling, Piece by Piece. Soon There Won’t Be Anything Left. (“Donald Trump is winning his war.”)
- The first picture of a black hole made Katie Bouman an overnight celebrity. Then internet trolls descended. (“The situation highlighted the vitriol that women continue to face on the internet, and the continued vulnerability of major internet platforms to trolling campaigns.”)
- Most Trafficked Mammal at Risk of Extinction, Record Haul Shows (“Singapore confiscated 26 tons of pangolin scales in one week. China, Vietnam are biggest consumers of pangolin and its parts.” Ugh!)
- Electric Car Price Tag Shrinks Along With Battery Cost (“Choosing an electric car over its combustion-engine equivalent will soon be just a matter of taste, not a matter of cost.”)
- Republican State Lawmakers Split Over Anti-Abortion Strategy
- How to Break the Republican Lock on God (“The progressive leaders Pete Buttigieg and Stacey Abrams are confronting the hypocrisy of the religious right.”)
- Pete Buttigieg Just Had One Hell of a Week (“A massive polling surge, a feud with Mike Pence, and an Ellen appearance. And Mayor Pete hasn’t even officially entered the race.”)
- There are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are evangelicals and Catholics, a survey finds (“Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion…Burge estimates that ‘No Religion’ will be the largest group outright in four to six years.” Good.)
- Ilhan Omar Never Stood a Chance (“Political disagreement was bound to define the encounter. But anti-Muslim bigotry is not innate — it is a choice that Omar’s detractors continue to make, and the dangers of doing are only becoming more apparent. Now that Trump has fanned the flames, the backlash only stands to intensify further. The costs are already steep, and they will only get higher.”)
- President Trump targets Rep. Ilhan Omar with a video of Twin Towers burning (Absolutely appalling.)
- Faced with Trump’s Horrifying Vision for the Country and Disturbing Parallels to the 1920s/30s, It’s Time for Dems to “Get Behind a Bold Vision”
- Booker launches ‘Justice’ tour, aiming for surge in U.S. presidential bid
- Inside Ivanka’s Dreamworld (“The ‘first daughter’ spent years rigorously cultivating her image. But she wasn’t prepared for scrutiny.”)
- This is what passes for ‘political analysis’ on CNN (CNN is a joke.)
- William Barr Obliterated the DOJ’s Standard for Defending Laws Because Donald Trump Asked
- In Bill Barr, Trump Has Finally Found His New Fixer
- Mitch McConnell is getting sick of Donald Trump’s bad nominees (“McConnell’s stated opposition to Cuccinelli is due, in large part, to the fact that the former Virginia attorney general runs the Senate Conservative Fund, a super PAC designed to promote conservative challengers and which has repeatedly clashed with McConnell in recent years”)
- Warner calls Barr ‘a political sycophant to Donald Trump’ (Yep, anyone who gave Barr the benefit of the doubt appears to have been totally wrong, naive, etc.)
- ‘If I can wrestle an alligator, I can certainly wrestle Donald Trump!’ former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe says (TMac is a complete/utter clown.)
- Luria’s 100 days
- The first 100 days: Rep. Elaine Luria talks first months in Congress
- Spanberger focuses on drug costs, broadband, bipartisanship in first 100 days
- Where Do Democratic Virginia House of Delegates Candidates in Primaries Stand on the Issues? Part 4: Fighting for LGBTQ Equality
- Probes of Virginia Pols Fairfax, Northam May Never Become Public (“When it comes to the governor and Morrison & Foerster’s Justin Fairfax, about the only thing certain is that Virginia’s biggest law firm, McGuireWoods, will have some role to play.”)
- How Peninsula lawmakers are getting things done
- Fairfax NAACP Organizes Protest of Northam Event with Dem State Senator on Sunday
- NAACP To Protest Northam’s Second Campaign Stop Since Scandal (Gotta love this one; doesn’t credit Blue Virginia, which broke the story, and also repeatedly misspells the name of Northam’s comms director, Ofirah Yheskel. Brilliant.)
- Students from Arlington’s last all-black high school class recall growing pains of integration
- In Increasingly Blue Fairfax County, Supervisor Pat Herrity (R) Demagogues on Illegal Immigration, Overstates Legal Defense Fund Money 1,000-Fold
- He’s Just a Genie in a Bottle…Virginia State Sen. Bill DeSteph (R) Wore Costume with “Rub Me” Lamp “Protruding from Crotch”
- Ralph Northam should go big — on guns (Agree that Dems should make this a big issue in November, as Republicans killed dozens of gun violence prevention bills this past session and will continue to do so unless Dems take control of the General Assembly.)
- Former councilman launches new effort to remove Parker Agelasto from Richmond City Council
- Virginia adds $4 million to affordable housing fund (“More communities seeking help to house homeless, disabled and low-income residents.”)
- Virginia Launches New Study On Ways To Fix I-95 Congestion
- $11 million missing from Portsmouth school coffers? No, says the superintendent.
- Hampton Roads’ longest-serving schools superintendent to retire over the summer (“Deran Whitney has led Suffolk Public Schools since 2010, longer than any active superintendent in the region’s seven cities. He will retire on Sept. 1.”)
- Despite tech boom, Loudoun remains an agricultural leader
- Metro’s Silver Line to Ashburn runs into another delay
- Brett Leggs column: Putting Words into Action: How to achieve the mayor’s unified vision for Shockoe Bottom
- Clouds linger this weekend, but it’s warm and fairly dry
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