by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, December 17.
- South Australia set sights on stunning new target of 500 pct renewables
- France’s Macron Isolating After Testing Positive for Covid-19
- Big oil’s diverging bets on the future of energy
- U.K. Power Grid Moving Offshore to Support $27 Billion Wind Boom (The U.S. needs to be going at least as fast as the U.K. on this.)
- Defense Experts Call on Biden to Ready Military for Climate Change
- Biden’s Twin Climate Chiefs, McCarthy and Kerry, Face a Monumental Task
- U.S. Surpasses 3,600 Daily Coronavirus Deaths, Breaks Prior Hospitalization Record
- Crisis grips America as Trump feeds his sideshow (“For the first time in months there were small signs of a functioning government in Washington, DC on Wednesday”)
- Fed raises its economic outlook slightly, sees 4.2% growth next year and 5% unemployment rate
- People Thought Covid-19 Was Relatively Harmless for Younger Adults. They Were Wrong.
- FDA says Pfizer vaccine vials hold extra doses, expanding supply
- Biden expected to get coronavirus vaccination early next week
- Record numbers of covid-19 patients push hospitals and staffs to the limit
- Biden to get Covid vaccine in days but mega storm threatens rollout
- Scoop: Vice President Pence to receive televised vaccine shot
- ‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal
- $900 Billion Covid-Relief Plan Inches Forward With Talks Down to Final Details
- McConnell getting much of what he wants in emerging relief deal
- Congress is close to ending surprise medical billing. McConnell must clinch the deal.
- 5 things to know before FDA panel votes on Moderna’s Covid vaccine today
- Billions Spent on U.S. Defenses Failed to Detect Giant Russian Hack
- How suspected Russian hackers outed their massive cyberattack
- I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump. We’re Being Hacked.
- Biden order to halt border wall project would save U.S. $2.6 billion, Pentagon estimates show
- Trump’s Last Stand Is a Lost Cause (“The president is threatening to veto a military funding bill because it would rename 10 Army bases that honor Confederates.”)
- Anti-vaccination groups target local media after social media crackdowns (“From California to Maine, local news stations have been by covering their protests and giving anti-vaccination activists a microphone to spread misinformation.” Disgraceful.)
- ‘It’s turned crazy’: Inside the scramble for Trump pardons (“Turned?”)
- Joe Biden may be tougher than the GOP expects
- Trump Lashes Out After Mitch McConnell Congratulates Biden: ‘Too Soon To Give Up’ (Trump’s a nutjob.)
- Trump recycles OAN’s latest debunked Dominion voting machine conspiracy theory (I repeat, Trump’s a nutjob.)
- Interior Secretary Bernhardt tests positive for covid-19
- Ron Johnson turned the Senate into a platform for discredited election conspiracy theories (“Chris Krebs stole the show.”)
- GOP senator: Investigate voter fraud because our voters believe our lies about it
- Ron Johnson Ran a Grievance-Laced Puppet Show Starring the President*’s Disgruntled Devotees
- We’ve finally identified the source of fraud in the 2020 election. It’s Ron Johnson.
- Senate GOP has accepted Biden’s win but continues to push Trump’s baseless fraud claims (Again, why use the word “baseless” as opposed to “false?”)
- House conservative pushes back on ‘surrender caucus’ after McConnell urges senators to let election results stand (They’re not “conservatives,” they’re seditionists, extremists, etc.)
- Never-Trump movement splinters as its villain heads for the exit (“‘Is there a market for an anti-Trump Republican Party now?’ said one prominent member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. ‘I would say no.’” How about an anti-Trumpism Republican Party?)
- Biden’s Cabinet Picks Start to Move Through Confirmation Process
- How to make deals with unreasonable people (“Negotiations for a stimulus deal show how the parties are going to operate in the Biden era.”)
- Thank the Supreme Court, for Now (“The justices did the right thing by declining to hear the case brought by red states to overturn the election results. But let’s see what happens down the road.”)
- Biden’s search for an attorney general complicated by ‘competing questions’
- Kayleigh McEnany Watch: Abetting a coup
- Two outsiders emerge as top contenders for Biden’s education secretary (“Leslie T. Fenwick, dean emeritus of the Howard University School of Education, and Miguel Cardona, the top education official in Connecticut, are the transition team’s focus, people familiar with the process said.”)
- A Glitch in Trump’s Plan to Live at Mar-a-Lago: A Pact He Signed Says He Can’t (LOL)
- Twitter joins Facebook and YouTube in banning Covid-19 vaccine misinformation (What took so damned long? Also, they need to ban Trump ASAP.)
- Mitch McConnell gives away the game: ‘Kelly and David are getting hammered’
- New Supreme Court filing includes blatantly wrong information about Michigan
- Trump names Rudy Giuliani’s son and 2 other aides to Holocaust Museum Council (Disgraceful.)
- McCarthy forges new path as White House climate lead
- Groups hope Buttigieg opens door to more LGBT nominees
- Rep. Joe Wilson Announces COVID Diagnosis After Speaking on House Floor (One of the worst members of Congress.)
- Georgia Senate Runoffs Fueled Mostly by Out-of-State Donors
- GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of Georgia runoffs (Anti-democracy.)
- Obsessed Tucker Carlson Calls Jill Biden ‘Illiterate’ and ‘Our National Shame’ (Demented, hateful, etc.)
- “Proud that Barbara Johns will soon represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol” (Commission on Historical Statues in the United States Capitol votes to recommend civil rights icon Barbara Rose Johns to represent Virginia in the National Statuary Hall Collection, replacing Robert E. Lee)
- Virginia commission chooses civil rights leader Barbara Johns to replace Robert E. Lee as a statue in the U.S. Capitol (“The General Assembly will vote on the choice of the teenager who fought school segregation in the 1950s.”)
- Governor Northam Presents Budget Amendments to Restore Progressive Agenda, Provide Relief to Virginians, and Bolster Economic Recovery
- Gov. Northam unveils Virginia budget plan with big spending on coronavirus as economy improves
- Northam’s budget plan protects school funding, pushes teacher pay raises and adds to cash reserve
- Should Teachers Get a Raise? Proposed Budget Amendments Focus on Education
- Northam’s sunny budget rewrite roils Republicans with his proposed Court of Appeals expansion (Yep, it’s perfectly fine for Republicans to pack the courts for years if not decades…)
- Editorial: Looming eviction crisis demands action (“Virginia reported high rates of evictions before the pandemic, but those numbers are set to explode soon without concerted action to help those in need.”)
- Schapiro: Northam’s monument is carved in proposed budget
- Some health officials have urged schools to close. But that advice isn’t always being shared publicly.
- Wednesday (12/16) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +3,931 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 292,240), +166 Hospitalizations (to 16,353), +38 Deaths (to 4,508)
- Appalachian Power and the attorney general are challenging the SCC’s electric rate ruling, but for different reasons
- Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring formally launches reelection bid
- McAuliffe highlights Lucy Simms as part his campaign proposal for education
- New Report by VA Dept. of Education Finds “Disproportionate Racial Representation in Gifted Programs”
- ‘It’s a damn shame’: Stoney says lack of federal help has left states and cities to face the virus alone as Virginia adds 3,931 new COVID cases
- Dropping Out of the Electoral College (“Lawmakers to consider joining National Popular Vote Compact”)
- Dominion Takes Step in Establishing Offshore Wind Industry: Contracts for Construction/Services Ship
- Dominion wants Hampton Roads to anchor offshore wind installation business, and a $500 million ship
- Virginia Officials Must Begin Planning for Wise County, Other Power Plant Closures
- C&BP Asks Gov Northam: What’s Your Position on Sentara-EVMS Controversy? (“Mega-Donor ‘Dubby’ Wynne Called Governor to Preside Over July 27 Meeting with Health Care Institutions”)
- Briana Sewell Announces House of Delegates Bid in 51st District (“Delegate Hala Ayala stated she will not be running for re-election and has thrown her full support behind Briana in this race.”)
- Northam proposes $50 million to advance goal of bringing passenger rail to New River Valley
- Loudoun Supervisors Ask to Change Harry Byrd, John Mosby Highway Names; Launch Inventory of Racist Symbols
- Arlington House, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s former home, won’t be a symbol of the county for long
- A VCU nurse was one of the first in Richmond to treat a COVID patient. She became the first to receive the vaccine at VCU
- Carilion, LewisGale administer first COVID-19 vaccines on a day when new statewide cases approach 4,000
- D.C.-area forecast: Clearing but blustery today and remaining chilly into the weekend
