Tuesday News: “Biden’s Great Economic Rebalancing”; “The New Republican Sacrament: Pushing the Big Lie”; “House Republicans have had enough of Liz Cheney telling the truth about Trump”; “The Washington Post owes Biden an apology”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, May 4.  Just four days until the VA GOP unassembled convention, and just 35 days until the June 8 Democratic primaries…

• India reports more than 357,000 new Covid cases as total crosses 20 million
• G7 mulls a message to China: the West ain’t over just yet
• ‘Rising threats’ and Russia on the agenda as G-7 foreign ministers meet in London
• Putin’s Posturing Is a Test of Western Resolve
• Analysis: Diplomatic dance or standoff? N.Korea and U.S. tread cautious line
• Hillary Clinton warns of ‘huge consequences’ in Afghan US troop withdrawal
• A patent-free ‘people’s vaccine’ is not the best way to help poor countries
• At least 20 dead as Mexico City metro overpass collapses
• An election fiasco leaves the Palestinian government weaker than ever
• MDMA Reaches Next Step Toward Approval for Treatment (“A new study shows that MDMA, known as Ecstasy or Molly, can bring relief when paired with talk therapy to those with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.”)
• Forget Herd Immunity. Here’s How We End This Nightmare. (“By the time Israel recently crossed the threshold of 60 percent of its population having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine (with more than one half receiving two doses to become fully immunized), new COVID-19 cases and deaths had plummeted.”)
• Vaccines are helping bring down US Covid-19 numbers. But the virus is now hitting one group of Americans harder
• The F.D.A. is set to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those 12-15 years old by early next week.
• Why Lagging COVID Vaccine Rate At Rural Hospitals ‘Needs To Be Fixed Now’
• CVS, Walgreens have wasted more Covid vaccine doses than most states combined
• Millions Are Saying No to the Vaccines. What Are They Thinking?
• America’s Covid-19 endgame could be much closer than you think (“America’s vaccine campaign may not be too far off from getting Covid-19 under control.”)
• Biden raises refugee cap to 62,500 after blowback
• Biden Administration Begins Migrant Family Reunifications
• On separated children, Biden has a long way to go to restore justice
• Biden’s Great Economic Rebalancing (“The President is looking to correct a capitalist economy that has gone askew, and reclaim a lost vision of shared prosperity.”)
• Schumer Readies Plan B to Push Immigration Changes Unilaterally (“Should bipartisan talks stall, the Senate majority leader is exploring trying to use budget reconciliation to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.”)
• The Booming U.S. Recovery Is Leaving Some Communities Completely Behind
• Republicans have no standing to give advice on tax policy (“They live in their own economic universe.”)
• Be optimistic — unlike the sad-sack Republicans
• How Kamala Harris spent her first 100 days (“She has worked behind the scenes to promote inclusivity.”)
• McConnell says Republicans are done working with Biden on jobs before they start
• A majority of voters see an urgent need for police reform following the Chauvin verdict
• What is bipartisanship for? (“When you ask the fundamental question, all the arguments in its favor begin to break down.”)
• Report: Trump’s Inner Circle Is Terrified the Feds Are Coming For Them (“To be fair, they probably should be.”)
• The only thing Republicans are debating is their degree of loyalty to Trump
• The New Republican Sacrament: Pushing the Big Lie
• The GOP’s devotion to Trump threatens to destroy American democracy
• Donald Trump’s Bashit Ravings Could Return to Facebook on Wednesday
• Trump’s Facebook account should never be reinstated because we know what he’d use it for (“The former president used social media as a propaganda tool to try to undermine American democracy. Of course he’d do so again if given the opportunity.”)
• Meet the people deciding Trump’s fate on Facebook
• Democrats confront difficult prospects for midterms
• The mask slips, revealing the truth about the GOP voter suppression game
• They’ve been beaten, trolled, threatened with sexual violence but refuse to be silenced
• Conservatives see a new threat in critical race theory as schools expand racial equity work (Conservatives imagine threats everywhere, and a lot of them have to do with race.)
• U.S. approves massive solar project in California desert
• House Republicans have had enough of Liz Cheney telling the truth about Trump
• Is a Liz Cheney Purge Upon Us? (“Republican lawmakers reportedly think a second vote to oust Cheney from her leadership position is in the cards.”)
• Elected Republicans are lying with open eyes. Their excuses are disgraceful.
• Liz Cheney says Trump’s ‘big lie’ poisons democracy as split with Republicans grows
• Allies of GOP leader vow to oust Liz Cheney
• Cheney: What Trump did ‘is a line that cannot be crossed’
• Scoop: GOP wants to replace Cheney with another woman
• MI6 spy Christopher Steele ‘produced second dossier on Donald Trump for FBI’
• The Washington Post owes Biden an apology
• How three major news organizations all got a story about Rudy Giuliani wrong
• Women journalists face escalating violence online. We should know.
• Biden administration taps Richard Cordray as student loan chief
• Bill and Melinda Gates to Divorce With $146 Billion at Stake
• U.S. trustee opposes NRA bankruptcy petition in blow to gun rights group
• NRA Leadership and Bankruptcy Assailed by U.S. Trustee
• Over Thomas dissent, high court rejects West Point case
• How the Supreme Court Helps Keep American Law White and Male
• ‘I Listened to Too Much Propaganda’: Trump Voter Gets Probation After Casting Ballot (No jail time?)
• In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner Wanted Trans Athletes to Play As “Who They Really Are.” What Changed?
• Florida Gov. DeSantis suspends all remaining Covid restrictions: ‘We are no longer in a state of emergency’
• DeSantis signs law giving himself sweeping power to cancel public health measures
• Completing network of trails in the D.C. region would bring a financial boost, report says (“A new report says a plan for a nearly 900-mile network of trails would create 16,000 construction jobs and generate $1 billion a year.”)
• Intruder stopped by armed guards from driving through CIA main entrance
• Tucker Carlson is the face of Fox News (“It’s time for advertisers to decide if they want to bankroll extremism” And white supremacy.)
• President Biden pushes for free pre-K, community college in visits to Yorktown, Portsmouth
• Video, Photos: Northams Greet Bidens in Newport News On Route to Yorktown Elementary School
• Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says He Supports “Vast Majority” of PRO Act, But It Needs to Recognize “Changing Nature of Work” From a “1980s Type of Economy” That’s Not Coming Back (Warner also says that with record-low interest rates, we’d be “almost derelict” not to include some sort of financing authority in the infrastructure bill.)
• Video: Former Rep. Riggleman (R-VA05) Says “Every Single [VA GOP] Candidate” Is Talking About “Election Integrity”…aka, the “Fantasy that the Election Was Stolen”
• Video: Jay Jones for Attorney General Releases New Ad Featuring Governor Ralph Northam
• AG Mark Herring Continues Fight to Have ERA Recognized as Part of the Constitution; Appealing Lower Court Ruling
• Virginia GOP expects to hear appeals over rejected delegate applications on convention day
• Virginia lieutenant governor’s race attracts a dozen candidates who want to lift role out of obscurity (“Republicans and Democrats seeking the state’s second-highest office have policy goals that belie the reality of a part-time job that pays $36,000.”)
• Kirk Cox: The Best Choice for Virginia & the GOP
• GOP candidates for governor make final pitches ahead of Saturday’s convention
• 11 Reasons Why Virginia Republicans Won’t Win This Fall
• The Virginia Cornerstone PAC is attacking another statewide candidate
• ‘Anybody’s game:’ Democratic LG candidates still working to introduce themselves to Virginia voters (It’s definitely not *anybody’s* game, as there are at least a couple candidates with basically no chance.)
• Monday (5/3) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds 1-Day COVID Cases Up Just 611 (Lowest Since 10/7/20); Lowest 10-day New COVID Cases Since 10/9/20; Lowest Hospitalizations Since 7/6/20
• Northam: Vaccine passports are ‘on the table’ but no current plans to require them in Virginia
• Editorial: Virginia on the right track to expand rail options
• Virginia Employment Commission study deemed urgent as JLARC tackles big issues in work plan
• Shareholders Demand Dominion Energy Clean Up Its Reporting (Among other things, Dominion needs to disclose its membership in and payments to ALEC, which opposes climate action and puts out climate misinformation)
• Boeing is giving Virginia Tech $50 million to help launch new campus (“It will be largest corporate gift ever to the public university based in Blacksburg.”)
• More Virginians are foraging for ramps. Many are poisoning themselves by picking the wrong plant.
• Photos: A long run in protest of the Mountain Valley Pipeline
• Virginia approves 9 solar farms for Dominion Energy, including facilities in James City County and Chesapeake
• PVCC to offer free fall, spring tuition, fees for most students
• Editorial: Could Southwest Virginia be a hyperloop hub? (Doubtful.)
• A toasty Tuesday with a late-day storm chance; rain is more likely Wednesday