Thursday News: On Earth Day, Biden Pushes For Aggressive Climate Action; “Thanks to Republican Anti-Vaxxers, the U.S. May Never Reach COVID-19 Herd Immunity”; “Black Democrats urge party to shift its voting rights push”; New VA-GOV/LG/AG Poll

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, April 22.

• Biden Pushes Carbon Plan to World Burned by Trump, Leery of Risk
• The U.S. Has a New Climate Goal. How Does It Stack Up Globally?
• How 1.5 Degrees Became the Key to Climate Progress (“The number has dramatically reorganized global thinking around the climate.”)
• Climate Change Could Cut World Economy by $23 Trillion in 2050, Insurance Giant Warns
• Compete, confront, cooperate: climate summit test for Biden’s China watchwords
• Biden Will Commit the U.S. to Halving Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030
• 17 Young People on the Moment the Climate Crisis Became Real for Them (“I was, and still am, so angry.” Same here.)
• Biden Makes New Pledge For U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A 50% Cut
• US vows to cut its emissions at least 50% by 2030 ahead of climate summit (“Move comes as the US scrambles to regain international credibility after the climate denialist presidency of Donald Trump” A “climate denialist presidency” must NEVER happen again!)
• Biden pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030
• India Records World’s Highest One-Day Surge in Covid Cases (“Infections surged beyond 300,000 Thursday.”)
• India can’t vaccinate its way out of its latest Covid-19 surge
• India’s Second Covid Wave Is Completely Out of Control (“Complacency and lack of preparation by the government pushed the country into an unprecedented crisis.”)
• Putin Warns of a Russian ‘Red Line’ the West Will Regret Crossing
• Putin’s Tough Talk (“Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine, a dissident gravely ill, new sanctions. What’s it all mean?”)
• Memorials aren’t enough. Here’s what the West can do right now to protect Alexei Navalny.
• Biden Preparing to Declare That Atrocities Against Armenia Were Genocide
• The Castros are finally gone. The U.S. should end the Cuba embargo and open the gates.
• China behind another hack as U.S. cybersecurity issues mount
• House votes to limit arms sales to Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi killing
• Where Covid Kills the Young: Brazil Shows What May Await Others
• EU prepares legal action against AstraZeneca over vaccine delivery shortages
• The U.S. And China Inch Toward Cooperation On Climate — Thrilling Other Countries
• At Least 1,700 Protesters In Russia Arrested After Nationwide Anti-Putin Rallies
• ‘We did it’: Biden celebrates U.S. hitting milestone of 200 million doses in his first 100 days
• Biden Went Big in His First 100 Days, and Now Comes the Hard Part
• The Flu Vanished During the Pandemic. What Will Its Return Look Like?
• Thanks to Republican Anti-Vaxxers, the U.S. May Never Reach COVID-19 Herd Immunity
• Once again, we’re being held hostage by Republicans’ delicate feelings (“We won’t reach herd immunity and defeat the pandemic unless we can cajole them into thinking of someone other than themselves.”)
• The U.S. has vaccinated half of adults. The problem is the second half.
• U.S. sees significant drop in vaccinations over the past week (“Vaccinations declined 11 percent, the most significant downturn in the seven-day average since February.”)
• SALT Cap Critics Ask Yellen to Add Repeal to Biden Economy Plan
• A Different Kind of Supreme Court Reform Is Already Happening (“The left is finally paying attention to the court, and it might be having an impact.”)
• Black Democrats urge party to shift its voting rights push (“Congressional Black Caucus members are pressing a narrower strategy, focused on a bill named for the late Rep. John Lewis.”)
• Senate Democrats reject Republican infrastructure bid (Right, because it’s a complete farce.)
• Senate GOP preserves earmark ban, adds strict debt ceiling posture (The same people who massive ran up the debt. What a joke.)
• The Most Powerful Weapon for Police Reform Is Back (“Biden’s DOJ takes out a tool shelved by Trump to force local law enforcement to change”)
• The central challenge in combating white supremacist violence remains (“The biggest part of the problem is a political party and the right-wing media that propound such ideology.”)
• Does Your Member Of Congress Vote With Or Against Biden? (“An updating tally of how often every member of the House and the Senate votes with or against the president.”)
• Two stats show why Republicans are so fixated on suppressing the vote (“The GOP faces an existential crisis.”)
• Abrams goes viral for response to GOP senator’s question on Georgia law (Abrams is so, so impressive.)
• The Postal Service is running a running a ‘covert operations program’ that monitors Americans’ social media posts
• States should be listening to protesters. Instead they’re shutting them up.
• Harris casts tiebreaking vote to advance Biden nominee
• About a third of service members have taken the COVID-19 vaccine
• The Strong Medicine Is Back at the Department of Justice
• Lofgren: Capitol Police official being investigated for directions to pursue only ‘anti-Trump’ protesters Jan. 6
• Chauvin verdict injects fresh momentum into police reform
• The Chauvin verdict opens up a world of possibilities. Will we squander them? (“The conviction for George Floyd’s murder suggests a moment of both extraordinary promise and peril.”)
• With the Chauvin Verdict, One Battle Is Won. The War Continues. (“The fight for equality doesn’t end after a single conviction.”)
• Chauvin verdict may rock the Senate (“A day after ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted, both parties in Washington sought common ground on police reform”)
• There Will Be More Derek Chauvins (“Powerful political actors are committed to ensuring that the system of American policing remains unchanged.”)
• For my brother George Floyd, this is what justice feels like
• Tucker Carlson despises the Derek Chauvin verdict (Shocker.)
• The disturbing link between Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene (“Once you free yourself to depict the leftist threat however you’d like, then anything goes in response.”)
• Tucker Carlson has complete meltdown and ends segment when guest says convicted murderer Derek Chauvin used excessive force (Nutjob.)
• Derek Chauvin Is Being Held in Solitary Confinement For 23 Hours a Day
• ‘Gentle Steering of the Ship’: How Keith Ellison Led the Prosecution of Chauvin (“Years before he won a murder conviction for the death of George Floyd, Mr. Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, was a young civil rights lawyer taking on police misconduct.”)
• Fox News coverage casts suspicion on validity of Chauvin conviction despite offering halfhearted praise
• Liberal advocacy group stirs debate, discomfort with primary challenges
• Sexual Assault Allegations Against Biographer Halt Shipping of His Roth Book
• Fox’s Newt Gingrich: “The real racists are the people who want to brainwash your child so that they feel guilty about being born white” (Up is down, hot is cold, etc.)
• It’s Long Past Time That Virginia Stopped Adding Natural-Gas-Fired Power Generating Capacity and Went to 100% *Clean* Power Additions (There’s still far, far too much dirty power projected as part of Virginia’s future. That needs to end.)
• Editorial: Virginia state parks are ours to enjoy — and protect
• Chase, Cox, and Youngkin sent a joint letter to the Republican Party’s State Central Committee (“The Republican Party—the party of election integrity” – hahahahahahahaha.)
• Three Republicans running for Virginia governor wary of vote-counting software (These people are bonkers.)
• New Wason Center Virginia Poll: McAuliffe “running away with Democrats’ governor bid; Herring has big lead on Jones for attorney general nod; Rasoul leads crowded Lt. Gov. field, but most undecided”
• In Latest Sign of Extremism, Virginia GOP Candidates Earn Straight A’s From The NRA
• Schapiro: Making dollars and sense of a wealthy donor’s agenda
• Video: Gov. Ralph Northam Ceremonially Signs Bill Legalizing the Simple Possession of Marijuana in Virginia
• Northam Signs Marijuana Legalization Bill Into Law
• Virginia governor signs bill legalizing marijuana possession starting this summer
• Black-led Marijuana Advocacy Group Left Out of Legalization Bill Signing (Northam: “We’d love to have this room packed. We’re still in the middle of the pandemic, so we want to be safe and responsible”)
• Civil rights groups skip ceremonial signing of marijuana bill, as Black-led activist group left out
• Roanoke Times Eliminates State Political Coverage “as a full-time beat.” The Problem Is, “When local journalism declines, so does government transparency and civic engagement”
• After two sessions and with elections looming, Filler-Corn says Democrats have delivered while GOP is ‘stuck’ (100% accurate.)
• Wednesday (4/21) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +1,261 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 649,608), +68 Hospitalizations (to 27,852), +15 Deaths (to 10,640)
• The Parole Board scandal raises big questions — about the state’s watchdog agency
• Richmond casino proposals down to 2: City strikes Bally’s Stratford Hills proposals from project shortlist
• Arlington approves $1.4 billion budget (“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, falling revenue and heavy impacts on the county’s commercial and business properties have resulted in a $26 million budget shortfall.”)
• Southwest Virginia Sees Another Rise in COVID-19 Cases
• Ballad Health: UK Variant Likely Driving Surge Of Cases in SW Virginia and NE Tennessee
• Will Virginia colleges require COVID-19 vaccinations? Should they?
• Two-Front Primary (“Self-styled ‘aggressive progressive’ wages statewide campaign while defending House seat”)
• D.C. firefighter freed from prison after conviction based on Fairfax County officer’s false claims is thrown out
• Fairfax schools will try to make fall as close to ‘pre-pandemic normal’ as possible
• Windsor police want to hire company to help revise policies, will create hiring panel that includes citizens
• Peninsula’s first food forest will bring free fresh food to southeast Newport News (“The food forest will be home to several varieties of fruit-bearing trees and other plants native to Virginia to form a 5-acre edible landscape.”)
• Loudoun, Montgomery counties look to reopen a ferry across Potomac River
• D.C.-area forecast: Gusty winds chill Earth Day before a milder weekend with Saturday night rain