by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, December 18.
- 2020 May Be The Hottest Year On Record. Here’s The Damage It Did (For starters, we need no new fossil fuel projects. Period. We also need to switch to clean energy on an emergency basis. Oh, and massive reforestation.)
- Why Offshore Wind and Energy Giants are Chasing Off-Grid Green Hydrogen
- Trump’s Mideast deals are good for Israel. But they involve bad trade-offs.
- Russia hasn’t just hacked our computer systems. It’s hacked our minds.
- Mitt Romney: It’s Extraordinary Trump Hasn’t Mentioned Suspected Russia Cyberattack
- Just ‘a few hours’ left to agree a Brexit trade deal, top EU negotiator says (“A deal would likely ensure tariff-free goods trade between the U.K. and the EU after Dec. 31, but key disputes over issues such as fisheries have continued to plague discussions in recent weeks.”)
- Hacking campaign targeted US energy, treasury and commerce agencies
- More Hacking Attacks Found as Officials Warn of ‘Grave Risk’ to U.S. Government
- Biden and lawmakers raise alarms over cybersecurity breach amid Trump’s silence (Interesting, Trump is silent about his BFF Putin. Treason, anyone?)
- Exclusive-Suspected Russian hacking spree reached into Microsoft -sources
- Nuclear weapons agency breached amid massive cyber onslaught (Great job, Trump administration – not!)
- 3,500 Americans died in one day. The President didn’t mention it.
- Devastating day as US shatters coronavirus records
- FDA panel endorses second Covid vaccine in U.S. as Moderna wins key vote in path to emergency use
- Trump’s recognition of Western Sahara is a serious blow to diplomacy and international law
- Exclusive: U.S. to blacklist dozens of Chinese firms including SMIC, sources say
- A Day of Deaths 25 Percent Higher Than Spring’s Worst (“For the second week in a row, more COVID-19 deaths were reported in the U.S. than at any other time in the pandemic.”)
- U.S. Reports Over 1 Million Cases in 5 Days as Intensive Care Beds Fill
- Poll: Americans care a lot more about Covid-19 relief than the national debt right now
- When Will Vaccines Put a Real Dent in America’s Death Toll? (“It might be a while”)
- Hang On for Three More Months (“Some simple advice for anyone contemplating a holiday gathering: Wait until March.”)
- States report confusion as feds reduce vaccine shipments, even as Pfizer says it has ‘millions’ of unclaimed doses
- Congress to receive first batch of Covid-19 vaccines, but uncertainty lingers
- White House aides talked Trump out of last-minute demand for stimulus checks as big as $2,000
- Trump fights for a job that he’s not doing (“As the nation plunges deeper into the battle against Covid, the President is missing in action — content to let the gears of government function without him”)
- Irritated by loss, Trump hunkers down at the White House and avoids talk of future (Pathetic loser.)
- “You Can’t Reason With Him At All”: Trump Spends Final Days Plotting Revenge Against His Enemies and Pardons for Everyone Else (“West Wing officials are packing up, while the boss is stuck in denial—refusing to call Joe Biden and obsessing over Hunter. ‘If Trump is going to leave office,’ says one source, ‘he wants a special counsel, 100%.'”)
- 10 ways Biden should fix the EPA (“Biden is expected to nominate Michael Regan to lead the agency, which must be rebuilt and strengthened in the new administration.”)
- With historic picks at interior and EPA, Biden puts environmental justice front and center
- Closing In on Stimulus Deal, Lawmakers Clash Over Fed’s Role (“Democrats worked to include more emergency aid to states while Republicans moved to prevent the Federal Reserve from restarting loan programs.”)
- Biden transition team laying groundwork for bipartisan infrastructure deal
- Both Republicans And Democrats Want Congress To Approve A New Coronavirus Stimulus Package
- Trump’s New Brand Is Loser
- Homeless and doubled up, families living with other households may fall into aid blind spot
- Biden picks Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be first Native American interior secretary
- Democrats fret about Garland for attorney general
- MAGA leaders call for the troops to keep Trump in office (Outright fascists.)
- Republicans are still pretending there was election fraud
- Trump and his party are threatening our constitutional order
- How to keep politics sane in 2021 (“This is how we move past Donald Trump.”)
- John Roberts’s self-defeating attempt to make the court appear nonpolitical
- Once friends, Biden calls Lindsey Graham ‘a personal disappointment’ for not recognizing election win
- Biden Tells Colbert He Has ‘Great Confidence’ In His Son Amid Investigation
- Scoop: Ben Carson makes plans for his post-Trump life
- Can you feel your blood pressure going down? Thank Joe Biden.
- Kathleen Rice beats out AOC for spot on coveted House committee
- How Offshore Oddsmakers Made a Killing off Gullible Trump Supporters
- Trump Bows to Reality, Asks Confidants: Should I Do ‘The Apprentice’ Again?
- In a preview of the next four years, right-wing media refuse to admit that Joe Biden is the president-elect
- Kelly Loeffler Keeps Posing For Photos With White Supremacists And Other Extremists
- Democrats in Georgia: ‘Trump is helping our case.’
- An outraged Kemp blasts pro-Trump conspiracy theorists harassing his family
- ‘An evil family’: Sacklers condemned as they refuse to apologize for role in opioid crisis
- ICU availability in Southern California at 0%, and it’s going to get worse, officials warn
- Virginia’s Jennifer Wexton to serve on powerful House Appropriations Committee
- AG Mark Herring Joins Coalition of AGs in Lawsuit Seeking to End Google’s Illegal Monopoly
- Senator Tim Kaine says COVID-19 relief bill likely to pass within days
- Biden and Democrats: Be wary of the trap Mitch McConnell is laying
- Warner, Kaine say relief package isn’t perfect but promises urgent aid
- Amanda Chase’s Recent Comments have Some Calling for Removal from State Senate (“If calling for martial law after a perfectly constitutional election is not disorderly behavior, I don’t know what is”)
- VA05 Voters Could Have Elected Dr. Cameron Webb, Who Just Got His COVID-19 Vaccine Today; Instead, 52.4% Went with the COVID-Denying Nutjob/Extremist
- Virginia celebrates arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, but health officials won’t say where exactly they’re going.
- Health Officials Work to Break Down Vaccine Barriers for Latinos
- FERC “greenlights Mountain Valley [Pipeline]’s request to resume construction in a 17-mile stretch of a large ‘exclusion zone’” (FERCers!)
- Mountain Valley gets another approval for pipeline construction
- Stronger financial incentives spur a big jump in stream fencing among Virginia livestock farmers
- “Lifelong Conservative” Disgusted with Trump GOP Announces He’s Leaving to Run for Virginia House of Delegates as a “Conservative Democrat” Against Far-Right Del. Mark Cole (R)
- The Eviction Freeze is Ending. What Happens Next for Virginia Residents?
- Editorial: Three lumps of coal (“Why has no one from Southwest Virginia applied for the redistricting commission?”)
- Virginia’s Republican gothic (The VA GOP freak show includes Freitas, Cline, Wittman, Griffith, Chase, Good, etc.)
- 2021 VA GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Amanda Chase Re-ups Call for “Martial Law,” Adds “We are at war. The Democratic Party hijacked our 2020 Presidential Election and have committed treason.” (She’s completely batshit.)
- Thursday (12/17) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +3,853 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 296,093), +150 Hospitalizations (to 16,503), +45 Deaths (to 4,553)
- Fairfax school board switches to ‘holistic review’ admissions system for Thomas Jefferson High School (“Under the new rules, Fairfax will first identify all eighth-graders who meet certain academic criteria: those who achieve an unweighted GPA of at least 3.5 while taking Algebra I or a higher-level math class, in addition to math and science honors courses and either an English or social studies honors course. Qualified eighth-graders will be invited to complete a math or science problem-solving essay, as well as a ‘Student Portrait Sheet.’ Fairfax staffers will review these, taking into account “experience factors” including whether students are low-income, have special needs or come from households that do not speak English…In a bid to ensure geographical diversity, a certain number of seats will be allotted to every middle school in Fairfax County, to be filled by eighth-graders at that school who meet criteria.” So basically this is a tweak, not a massive change, in the end?)
- Grand New Podcast – Episode 37: Heather Mitchell for Delegate (After listening to this, in which Mitchell mostly cites an editorial against Jennifer Carroll Foy in the far-right Free Lance-Star, you’ll be more committed than ever to electing Democrat Candi King in HD2!)
- Latest wind farm plan is for 15 turbines, at 624 feet tall, in Botetourt County
- Arlington students are failing at higher rates. The most vulnerable are struggling most
- Arlington Ranked Safest Locality in U.S., With Lowest Cost of Crime
- Hampton Roads Regional Jail facing a staffing shortage so severe it’s moving 250 inmates
- D.C.-area forecast: A couple more chilly days, before a slow warm up
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