by Lowell
Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, February 13.
- ‘The Sky Isn’t Falling’: Providing Perspective on the Data Center Boom (“Data centers are way down on the list, accounting for 8.6 percent of the increase. I don’t want to minimize this. For a highly specialized type of business to account for nearly 9 percent of global growth in electricity demand is significant. But it’s less than the increases in other sectors, including from the global shift to electrified transportation, which is 11.5 percent.”)
- Zelensky Makes His Pitch to Trump (“Ukraine’s president calls on his most powerful ally to not squander the chance to make peace.”)
- As leaders descend on Munich, Ukraine’s fate hangs in the balance (“The Trump administration’s attempt to end the war hasn’t produced major breakthroughs as the war approaches its fourth anniversary.”)
- ‘Everything is frozen’: bitter winter drags on for Kyiv residents as Russia wipes out power
- House leaders say lawmakers can’t attend Munich Security Conference as official delegation
- Rubio warns Europe of new era in geopolitics before big Munich speech
- Europe has the weapons, but still needs America to wage war (“European countries rely on the the U.S. for intelligence, logistics, communications and command-and-control.”)
- Europe Rethinks Nuclear Weapons After US Delivers Reality Check
- Second US aircraft carrier is being sent to the Middle East, AP source says, as Iran tensions high
- An epic feud threatens Mideast stability at a delicate moment (“The UAE and Saudi Arabia rivalry also matters for Trump’s plans to transform the region.”)
- NY Fed report says Americans pay for almost all of Trump’s tariffs (Obviously!)
- Trump border czar Tom Homan announces Minnesota immigration surge is ending
- Agents Who Shot Marimar Martinez Caught On Video Saying ‘Do Something, Bitch’ (“Newly released body camera footage shows Border Patrol agents swerving their car into the Chicago woman before shooting her five times.” Arrest them all IMMEDIATELY!)
- Beyond Big Cities, ICE Is Rattling Small-Town America
- ‘I Just Want to Get Out of Here’: ICE Is Detaining Hundreds of Children (“The number of children being detained has spiked. Families describe poor conditions and little education.” HEINOUS.)
- Justice department moves to drop charges against men accused of hitting ICE officer in Minnesota
- Judge Ends Deportation Case for Mexican Father of 3 U.S. Marines (“The arrest of Narciso Barranco, who was detained by federal agents while landscaping outside an IHOP in Southern California last June, garnered national attention.”)
- Trump judge slams DHS for blocking detainees’ access to lawyers
- DHS Claims to be Winding Down in the Twin Cities. Local Leaders Are Still Pissed.
- Partial government shutdown looms as Congress leaves town without a deal
- Even Trump’s own appointees are ruling against ICE’s mass detention strategy
- The Oil Industry’s Latest Disaster: Trillions of Gallons of Buried Toxic Wastewater (“Documents show the industry and regulators knew decades ago that injecting drilling’s toxic liquid leftovers underground wasn’t safe”)
- Trump’s repeal of landmark climate ruling ‘un-American’ and ‘Orwellian’, says John Kerry
- ‘We Will See Them in Court’: Environmental Lawyers Vow to Challenge Trump’s Repeal of Key Climate Finding (“The Trump administration repealed the EPA’s 2009 determination that greenhouse gases are a pollutant, an important legal foundation for their regulation.”)
- </Trump’s EPA repeals landmark climate finding in gift to ‘billionaire polluters’a> (“Rollback of government’s ability to limit climate-heating pollution will make families ‘sicker and less safe’, environmental advocate says”)
- Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change (“The Environmental Protection Agency rejected the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being. It means the agency can no longer regulate them.”)
- EPA reverses long-standing climate change finding, stripping its own ability to regulate emissions (“The agency announced it is repealing its 2009 conclusion that greenhouse gases warm the Earth and endanger human health and well-being.”)
- Scientific studies calculate climate change as health danger, while Trump calls it a ‘scam’ (It would be SO easy for a news outlet, in this case the AP, to insert the word FALSELY in there, as in “while Trump FALSELY calls it a ‘scam'”. Why don’t they???)
- EPA No Longer Believes Greenhouse Gas Emissions Threaten Public Health (This is no longer an agency that protects the environment – quite the contrary.)
- A look at false claims made by the Trump administration as it revokes a key scientific finding (AP correctly uses the word “false” in this headline – good!)
- Trump named ‘undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal’ by industry group (Disgusting.)
- Trump news at a glance: White House rejects climate science and opens door to more pollution (Absolute evil.)
- RFK Jr. made promises to get his job as health secretary. He’s broken many of them (Lunatic fringe.)
- FDA’s rejection of Moderna threatens to stifle broader vaccine industry
- The January CPI inflation report is due out Friday morning. Here’s what it’s expected to show
- The MAGA Bubble Is Imploding (“Americans aren’t buying Trumpist gaslighting about the economy”)
- Behind the Curtain: Resistance rising (“To be clear, the number of House and Senate Republicans willing to cross Trump publicly remains tiny. But everywhere else, resistance is growing.”)
- “If We Don’t Have Free Speech, Then We Just Don’t Have a Free Country” (“Donald Trump’s attempt to criminalize political expression is crossing a line that’s held since 1798.”)
- Oxygen Journalism: Why ‘Both Sides’ Is Killing the News (“Corporate media keeps mistaking “debate” for journalism—and the loudest liars keep winning just by getting a seat at the table.” This is rampant in both national and Virginia political media.)
- Editorial: Reminding service members of their oath isn’t a crime (“Repeating the law and reminding service members of their duties are the furthest thing from criminal acts.”)
- Gabbard Whistleblower Complaint Based on Intercepted Conversation About Jared Kushner
- Trump: Too busy to be a defendant but plenty of time to sue
- Pam Bondi is daring the Democrats to impeach her (“The reasons for her contempt are secondary to the contempt itself.”)
- Pam Bondi’s Contempt for Congress (“The Attorney General treats oversight like roller derby.”)
- Epstein’s Ghost Is Calling All the Shots in Trump’s White House (“Trump thought he’d cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein years ago. But the deceased financier’s shadow lurks across an administration struggling to outrun its own history.”)
- House speaker condemns Trump Justice Department monitoring of lawmakers’ Epstein document review
- Goldman Sachs General Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler Resigns Over Epstein Ties
- The Epstein Files and the Hidden World of an Unaccountable Elite
- A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS (Noem is a sadistic monster, also completely incompetent.)
- US antitrust chief Gail Slater ousted from Trump justice department (“Exclusive: Decision comes after Slater lost the support of JD Vance and Pam Bondi, the attorney general”)
- Offshore wind project targeted by Trump will begin operating within weeks (“Revolution Wind in New England is nearing completion after overcoming Trump administration efforts to halt the project.”)
- Trump met with David Ellison days before saying he’s ‘not involved’ in Paramount’s Netflix battle
- Trump pardons 5 former NFL players for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking (WHY???)
- Candace Owens Gets Inside TPUSA’s Head (“Her nutty theories about the killing of Charlie Kirk have won over some of his organization’s employees.”)
- Exclusive: Arizona sheriff blocks FBI access to evidence in Nancy Guthrie abduction, source says
- FBI releases description of suspect in Nancy Guthrie kidnapping
- As advocates push for Chesapeake Bay-specific data, menhaden quota bill advances
- Video: Sen. Mark Warner Says He’s “concerned that [the Trump administration] may try out some of their [voter suppression] tactics” in the VA Redistricting Referendum in April (Sen. Warner says he strongly opposes the “SAVE Act,” says it would “disenfranchise folks” in rural areas, women who change their name when they get married, etc.)
- ‘Keystone Cops’: That’s what Sen. Mark Warner has to say about border officials in Texas
- Video: Fmr. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA10) to Federal Employees – “I’d just like to take the opportunity…to apologize to you as a Republican for what has happened, which has been so egregious” (“I think of the career staff watching [Pam Bondi’s,deplorable performance] who had to realize their boss is unhinged and corrupt.”)
- Video: Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07) Announces Re-Election Campaign in Virginia’s (New) First Congressional District (“…should Virginians approve a mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts to confront Trump administration corruption.”)
- Musical chairs: Eugene Vindman announces run in First District congressional race
- Third candidate enters the Democratic race for 6th District nomination (“Hugh Murray joins Beth Macy and Tom Perriello in the race. He also doesn’t live in the district.”)
- Video of New Ad: “It’s Happening” — GOP Politicians Redrawing Maps to Rig the Midterm Elections (“Virginia can’t sit back and do nothing.”)
- Pro-redistricting group launches campaign with $5 million from donors it doesn’t have to disclose (“Meanwhile, the leader of a 2020 push for bipartisan redistricting helps found a new group that hopes to defeat the referendum to allow partisan mapmaking.” Geroge Allen is in the anti-amendment group? And Chap Petersen? LOL)
- Pope & Schapiro: Redistricting, appointments, and a pay raise
- Virginia AG joins suit against Trump regime on student loan forgiveness program
- Reforming public university boards is a hot topic at the General Assembly
- Va. revenues ahead of forecast, as assembly prepares budget
- A bill to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board is again advancing in the Va. legislature
- Bill that would guarantee right to contraception passes in Virginia Senate (“‘I did not think in my lifetime I would have to do this much work to protect access to the birth control pill,’ said Del. Marcia Price.”)
- Effort to create emergency management fund punted by General Assembly for a second time (“Two bills intended to create a fund to support emergency management efforts in every locality in Virginia were amended down to instead order a study.”)
- The Confederacy is losing again, this time in the General Assembly (“Multiple bills are moving through the General Assembly to purge remnants of Confederate reverence from Virginia.”)
- Virginia House passes bill to lower cost of insulin
- This Virginia County Is Ground Zero in the Battle Over Data Centers (“Prince William County is a window into how data centers can pit residents against local officials.”)
- Charlottesville school makes civic engagement part of the curriculum
- Northern Virginia man pleads guilty in pedo case involving 12-year-olds (“The Trump DOJ only protects pedos who are millionaires and billionaires. If you’re a regular dude from Northern Virginia using Snapchat to mess with middle-school girls, they will throw the book at you, as they should.”)
- CWG Live: Cold today, mild Saturday then a mixed bag for Sunday storm (“Sunday’s storm, if it hits us, leans rainy but slushy accumulation is possible.”0
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