by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, May 11.
- US-China trade talks end with no deal — and more tariffs (“President Donald Trump raised tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on Friday with no trade breakthrough in sight.”)
- China Names Its Trade-Deal Price as Trump Sets Month Deadline
- Trump’s tariffs, once described as negotiating tools, may be here to stay
- Trump’s Tariffs Put China at the Center of 2020 Re-Election Bid
- Trump may be underestimating Iran’s resolve in resisting nuclear sanctions (“Analysis: An increasingly isolated and beleaguered American president is creating a dangerous confrontation with a hostile regime in Tehran.”)
- White House Asked McGahn to Declare Trump Never Obstructed Justice
- Don McGahn Rebuffed White House Request to Say Trump Didn’t Obstruct Justice
- Democrats subpoena Trump’s tax returns in escalating fight with White House
- Democrats Subpoena Donald Trump’s Tax Returns Through Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (“The next stage begins in earnest.”)
- Trump’s accounting firm emerges as the most unlikely hero of democracy (“Mazars appears to have no interest in joining Trump’s resistance to the subpoena. To the contrary, its stated neutrality suggests that it will comply with the subpoena unless a court affirmatively orders them not to do so. Mazars’ neutrality, in other words, reverses the balance of power between Trump and Congress. Instead of being able to run out the clock, Trump now has to obtain a court order preventing Mazars from complying.”)
- What Patrick Shanahan’s nomination for secretary of defense would mean for U.S. foreign policy (“The national security advisor can roll over Shanahan, who is inexperienced and doesn’t even seem to be ‘part of the foreign policy conversation.'”)
- Thirty-four GOP members buck Trump on disaster bill (None from Virginia bucked Trump.)
- Trump moves DC July 4 fireworks display, plans to deliver remarks: report
- 2020 Dems: Trump doesn’t deserve credit for the economy (He simply inherited the economy that President Obama and the Democrats had set on a healthy course.)
- Jared Diamond: There’s a 49 Percent Chance the World As We Know It Will End by 2050 (“At the rate we’re going now, resources that are essential for complex societies are being managed unsustainably. Fisheries around the world, most fisheries are being managed unsustainably, and they’re getting depleted. Farms around the world, most farms are being managed unsustainably. Soil, topsoil around the world. Fresh water around the world is being managed unsustainably. With all these things, at the rate we’re going now, we can carry on with our present unsustainable use for a few decades, and by around 2050 we won’t be able to continue it any longer. Which means that by 2050 either we’ve figured out a sustainable course, or it’ll be too late.”)
- London’s mayor says Trump ‘not in same class’ as Obama and Bush, not worthy of state visit to Britain (Bush wasn’t in the same class as Obama either.)
- Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says U.S. doesn’t “have a strategy” on China
- Trump off on Puerto Rico funding by $50 billion: Weekly Fact Check
- For Trump, Morning in America never seems to dawn (“The optimism of Ronald Reagan has been replaced by overt cynicism.”)
- Giuliani reverses course, says he’s no longer going to Ukraine to press Biden investigation
- Giuliani Scores a New Client: an Authoritarian, Middle Eastern Regime (“The president’s lawyer has signed a contract with Bahrain even as he continues to rep Donald Trump.”)
- Giuliani Cancels His Trip to Ukraine, Blaming Democrats (“Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, faced withering criticism accusing him of seeking foreign assistance for the president’s re-election campaign.”)
- College Republican Group Turning Point Has A White Supremacy Problem (“A video of a Turning Point USA leader declaring ‘white power’ and flashing a white supremacist sign is just one of many similar incidents for the group.”)
- Biden Has Turned the 2020 Primary Upside Down (“The Democratic electorate as a whole, for better or worse, seems to imbue a candidate’s perceived capacity to defeat Trump with more weight than, say, which health care bill she plans to watch die in the Senate. And right now, again for better or worse, the Democratic electorate as a whole believes the person with the best capacity is Biden. To defeat him, the rest of the candidates will have to prove that they would be a stronger matchup against Trump.”)
- The Planet Is Heading to Catastrophe and Joe Biden Wants to Take the “Middle Ground” (“The former VP wants to maintain a role for fossil fuels and veer away from the Green New Deal framework.”)
- Bernie Sanders: Biden’s reported climate plan ‘will doom future generations’
- Georgia loses film and TV business after governor signs near-total abortion ban (“Will you pledge with me not to film anything in Georgia until they reverse this backwards legislation?” Stacey Abrams should, of course, be governor of Georgia.)
- Democratic female freshmen signal Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t represent them (“But the message from Reps. Elaine Luria and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania was clear: Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t represent them, and she’s not the one who’s going to help Democrats maintain their majority.”)
- Campaigns should report outreach by foreign powers to FBI under penalty of law: Warner
- Kaine visits Stafford school to brainstorm solutions to teacher shortage
- Easing traffic in Virginia means thinking beyond roads (“The problem is our land use, and the solutions must begin with more efficient land use that will make our communities more economically competitive and better places to live and work.”)
- Editorial: Judiciary oversight essential to Virginia
- In each of Virginia’s largest metro areas, more than 20% of teachers are burdened by housing costs
- Jennifer Lewis: Rural Virginia, A Sacrifice.
- FOIA Requests Find that Sen. Amanda Chase (R-SD11) Grossly Exaggerated, May Have Outright Lied to Defend Her Nasty Behavior to Virginia Capitol Police
- Sen. Chase’s frequent use of police transports during session was outside protocol
- Poll: Metro’s reputation is improving, but that doesn’t mean more are riding
- Richard Schragger column: High stakes in the Charlottesville monuments litigation (“As the city has argued repeatedly, the original decisions to erect the Lee and Jackson statues in the early 20th century were intended to and did send a message of white racial superiority. The Lee statue was erected in a whites-only park, and occurred against the backdrop of resurgent Ku Klux Klan activity, including parading Klansmen celebrating the ‘Lost Cause’ on Charlottesville streets. Statues to Confederate generals were erected across the South and were meant to reinforce symbolically what Jim Crow segregation laws reinforced explicitly: that African Americans were second-class citizens.”)
- State lawmakers urge Virginia’s congressional delegation to secure funding for I-81
- Interview with Former Virginia Air Board Member Sam Bleicher, Who Was Removed by Gov. Northam Ahead of Vote on Union Hill Compressor Station
- Analysis of HD68 – “the closest race that became a flip for Democrats in 2017,” Now Leans D
- With fight over tax rate in rearview, Richmond City Council slated to approve budget Monday
- 2 dead, at least 4 injured after explosion at Virginia gas station
- It’s a wet weekend as waves of rain pass by today and tomorrow (“Widespread totals around two inches of rain seem possible.”)
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