by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, April 23.
- Sri Lanka bombings were response to Christchurch shooting, says defence minister – live news
- Sri Lanka Was Warned of Possible Attacks. Why Didn’t It Stop Them?
- Christianity under attack? Sri Lanka church bombings stoke far-right anger in the West.
- U.S. Moves to Stop All Nations From Buying Iranian Oil (“By tightening sanctions, the Trump administration sought to isolate Tehran economically and undercut its projection of power across the Middle East.”)
- Enforcing Iran Oil Sanctions Would Be a Gift to Saudi Arabia
- Stocks splutter as oil races to near six-month high
- US threatens to veto UN resolution on rape as weapon of war, officials say (“Exclusive: US warns it will reject measure over language on sexual health in latest example of hardline abortion stance”)
- A Decade Of Implications At Stake, Supreme Court Hears Census Citizenship Question
- Mueller Exposed Trump’s Biggest Betrayal (“Trump repeatedly put defending his own legitimacy ahead of defending America”)
- The Great Republican Abdication (“A party that no longer believes in American values.”)
- Pelosi beats back calls for Trump impeachment (“‘Mueller didn’t do us any favors — he left us bread crumbs to follow,’ said Rep. Val Demings.”)
- Evan McMullin Trump welcomed the Russian attack and obstructed resulting investigations, an impeachable offense (“What kind of patriotic American wouldn’t reject and report a foreign offer to collaborate against our country?” Trump is absolutely NOT a patriotic American.)
- 14 Mueller Report Takeaways You Might Have Missed (“Donald Trump runs his White House like a Mafia boss.”)
- As McGahn Emerges as Chief Witness in the Mueller Report, Trump and Allies Ramp Up Attacks
- Mueller’s findings: Too stupid to conspire. Too incompetent to obstruct.
- House Democratic leaders say no immediate plans to open impeachment proceedings against Trump
- Poll: Trump approval sinks 5 points after Mueller report, tying all-time low (“Only 39 percent of voters surveyed in the new poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, approve of the job Trump is doing as president. That is down from 44 percent last week and ties Trump’s lowest-ever approval rating in POLITICO/Morning Consult polling — a 39 percent rating in mid-August 2017, in the wake of violence in Charlottesville, Va.” It’s astounding that Trump’s approval rating is that high…should be zero.)
- Trump’s Monday night retweeting blitz (“President Donald Trump undertook a retweeting blitz on Monday night, surfacing 24 posts in about 30 minutes that went back as far as a year and covered topics from the Mueller report to Easter festivities at the White House.”)
- 5 takeaways from CNN’s town hall marathon
- Buttigieg steals Beto’s thunder
- Can Elizabeth Warren Get Her Groove Back? (“She has the most ambitious policy platform of any Democrat. So how come she’s not doing better in the polls?”)
- Pete Buttigieg: ‘God doesn’t have a political party’
- Watch Amy Klobuchar’s ‘Please Clap’ Moment (“It’s when you guys are supposed to cheer, okay?”)
- Kamala Harris Proposes Executive Orders on Gun Control
- Sen. Kamala Harris says she supports impeaching Trump
- Town hall marathon exposes not ‘terribly many differences’ in 2020 primary (“The Democratic presidential candidates are swapping praise and avoiding conflict early in the 2020 campaign.”)
- Inside Biden’s battle plan (“He is seeking to mark his entrance into the 2020 race with a rush of union support, early-state endorsements and fundraising figures.”)
- Scoop: Joe Biden’s 2020 announcement message (“Look for Biden to announce with a video tomorrow or Thursday, then headline a fundraiser being held by Comcast’s David Cohen in Philadelphia.”)
- With Cain Out of Fed Contention, Focus Shifts to Moore, Trump’s Other Pick (“Stephen Moore, President Trump’s economic adviser and pick for the Federal Reserve Board, faced scrutiny for writings that denigrated women. Herman Cain withdrew his name from consideration amid bipartisan opposition over past allegations of sexual harassment.”)
- Trump Fed pick Stephen Moore called it a ‘travesty’ that women ‘feel free’ to play sports with men (Actually, Moore is the travesty.)
- The President* Will Stop at Nothing to Keep the Public From Finding Out How He Made His Money (“Here’s another subject for discussion during the impeachment hearings.”)
- Supreme Court to Decide Whether Bias Law Covers Gay and Transgender Workers (“The law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbids employment discrimination based on sex. The question for the justices is whether that language bars discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status.”)
- What to do about Sarah Sanders? White House reporters have a few ideas. (Any reporter who trust Sarah Huckster Slanders should not be a reporter anymore.)
- Fox News has united the right against the Green New Deal. The left remains divided. (“A familiar story in US politics: asymmetrical intensity…Here’s a familiar story in US politics: Democrats (or the left, broadly) find something, a candidate or a policy proposal, that sparks grassroots excitement and enthusiasm. The enormous right-wing media machine immediately smells blood and targets the person or policy with relentless negative coverage, ensuring that the right-wing base views the person or policy as almost comically evil. There is no parallel left-wing media machine to swing around in support of the person or policy. Democrats have no such machine, and they couldn’t get their shit together to be unified enough to run one if they had one. There is only the mainstream press, which the right has conned everyone into thinking is the ‘other side.'”)
- Militia patrolling U.S. border was allegedly training to kill Hillary Clinton, George Soros (“Larry Hopkins of the United Constitutional Patriots was arrested on Saturday.”)
- Pruitt, Zinke move through revolving door from government to industry (“Both former officials are now working closely with the industries they were recently tasked with regulating.” Utterly corrupt. Why aren’t both these guys in jail?)
- Joe Biden Reportedly Delays Wednesday Campaign Announcement
- Should Joe Biden Announce His Presidential Candidacy in Charlottesville?
- Chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc. Donates $50k to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (Kaplan is a large, for-profit education company; Fairfax raised only $3,178 in 1Q19)
- Fairfax reaps $50,000 donation and looks ahead to two fundraisers (As is often the case, Blue Virginia beat the WaPo to the story.)
- Dixie House seats: Dems outraising GOP (“VA 5 Denver Riggleman: $140,000…VA 2 Elaine Luria: $263,000…VA 7 Abigail Spanberger: $403,000…VA 10 Jennifer Wexton: $371,000”)
- Virginia Explained: Can a local prosecutor decide to just stop prosecuting marijuana cases? The Va. Supreme Court will decide (“May a prosecutor on his or her own discretion choose not to prosecute conduct the General Assembly has criminalized?”)
- Our ancestors’ voices are begging us to stand up (“We are waiting to see if and how the governor will prioritize racial healing, but he could start by promoting and ensuring that environmental justice is considered in all new policies at the earliest stages of decision making.”)
- Editorial: Three surprises from the chamber’s energy conference (“Coal barely got mentioned…The key to a new economy in rural Virginia runs through the community college system.”)
- GOP committee might reconsider vote for convention in heated Peace vs. Wyatt House race (“Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, who prefers a more open primary process, is being challenged from the right by Hanover Supervisor Scott Wyatt, who supports a convention. Wyatt has strongly criticized Peace’s 2018 vote for a state budget that included Medicaid expansion, which Peace has defended as a pragmatic choice that helped ensure fiscal safeguards were included in a policy that seemed inevitable after a string of Democratic electoral victories.”)
- New generations of science (“Virginia should continue to prioritize research in scientific fields for future generations”)
- Legislators took campaign donations during the General Assembly session (“The legislator who apparently saw the largest sum given during the session was Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, whose campaign finance report shows $18,000 given on the second day of the session. Saslaw’s campaign manager, Andrew Whitley, said the money was actually collected during the Senator’s Richmond fundraiser, two days before the session started, but the campaign treasurer didn’t deposit the money until several days later, and filled in the date of the deposit as the date of the contribution on the campaign’s financial report. Whitley said the campaign will amend the report”)
- Lawsuit against Gloucester school board alleges student left on freezing bus for 7 hours
- Maps: Overlapping Primaries in Fairfax County (“In no area do you have all three offices – House, Senate, Supervisor – on the primary ballot”)
- Richmond City Council Fails To Eliminate Cigarette Tax, Utility Rate Increases In 2020 Budget
- Education advocates turn out en masse at Richmond City Council budget hearing
- Roanoke pound needs help to avoid euthanizing animals
- After disallowed goal for Capitals, Hurricanes push series to a Game 7 with 5-2 win
- Gorgeous today with temperatures near 80. Next chance of rain holds off until Thursday night.
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