Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax to discuss special session reform priorities.
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The Richmond City Council chose to delay a vote on an amendment to its firearms ordinance. The council heard over an hour of public comments and discussion in the virtual meeting on Thursday afternoon. Eventually, the council members concluded they needed more time to clarify questions about vague wording in the amendment.
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President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon was arrested Thursday on charges that he and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars” from donors to an online fundraising effort to build a southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump associates to be indicted or charged.
The “We Build The Wall” fundraiser was headed by men who pushed their close ties to President Trump and raised more than $25 million. They touted their effort to help the president realize his vision of a physical border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, especially after Trump’s effort to redirect millions in government funds, was held up through lawsuits by open-border activists.
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More than 1.1 million American workers filed new unemployment claims last week, a week after the number of claims dropped below the million mark for the first time since pandemic-related shutdowns were put in place in March.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 1,106,000 workers filed new claims on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending Aug. 15.
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Dominion Energy earned $502.7 million in revenues above authorized profit from 2017-2019, and customers’ residential energy bills have increased by 28.81 percent since 2007, the State Corporation Commission (SCC) said.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission released its annual report on the status of implementation of the Virginia Electric Utility Regulation Act, highlighting detailed business figures of Dominion Energy and other electric companies operating in Virginia.
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The first-night Democratic National Convention ratings were down almost 28 percent from their levels in 2016 in what can only be called a massive disappointment for former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in their bid to oust the incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The ratings for CBS, NBC and ABC were down a combined 42 percent to 6.7 million from the 11.6 million who watched four years ago, according to the Hollywood Reporter. On cable news channels MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, the numbers were similarly down 16 percent to about 11.98 million viewers from the 14 million viewers of four years ago.
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The University of Minnesota Medical School application includes an optional question that asks students to share their “lessons learned” about “systemic racism” in the wake of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks’s deaths.
“Right now is a watershed moment in American history and this country’s reckoning with race, racism, racial injustice, and especially anti-black hatred,” the question on the application, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, read.
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President Donald Trump criticized presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s plans to allow 125,000 refugees admittance to the U.S. on an annual basis during a speech in Minnesota on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
“He [Biden] would overwhelm Minnesota with refugees, from terror hotspots, depleting public services, burdening schools, and straining city budgets,” Trump said during a speech on a tarmac in Minnesota, the AP reported.
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Prosecutors say that a woman who pleaded guilty to providing financial support to the Islamic State should face the maximum penalty under law, according to a new report.
Samantha Elhassani of Lake County, Indiana, faces up to 10 years in prison as she was reportedly aware of her actions, court documents say, Fox 59 reported. She is scheduled to be sentenced on August 27.
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Over 20 percent of college students may defer the upcoming academic year, according to a recent Axios poll.
The deferment data comes as prominent universities across the country move from in-person to online classes in response to campus-wide outbreaks of the coronavirus. Of the 21% of students who may not return, most are working full-time in the interim, Axios reported. The statistic comes as 27% of students lost their summer internship, according to the poll.
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Although they operate under the banner of social justice, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and its allies are a pernicious force. The false narratives, the toleration of lawlessness, and the punishment of dissenters have left our society in disarray. Americans of all races and political stripes should reject these tactics.
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On many regulatory issues, the Trump administration moved as fast as bureaucratically possible to overturn excesses of the Obama administration. On issues from labor rules to land use to consumer protection, Trump’s team did what they could to make regulations more fair and less far-reaching.
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To showcase the plight of Black citizens living in Democratic-run Baltimore, Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik took a simple approach: a walk through Baltimore’s downtown.
In a two-and-a-half minute video, Klacik (pronounced “CLAY-sick”) showcased Baltimore’s run-down buildings, asked citizens their thoughts on defunding police, and explained many of the issues facing the city.
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Apple is the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion, just two years after it became the first to reach $1 trillion.
Apple shares have gained nearly 60% this year as the company overcame the shutdown of factories in China that produce the iPhone and the closure of its retail sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is well underway, and while Republicans are busy in Virginia, Democrat delegates seem to be taking a break from political action this week.
That’s according to Ben Tribbett and Danny Barefoot, two political consultants who work with the Democratic Party in Virginia.
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In a boisterous video Wednesday, Virginia’s Republican delegates gathered to formally announce their nomination of Donald J. Trump to a second term in 2020.
All 46 of the delegation’s votes went to President Trump.
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With a $2.7 billion budget shortfall and continued economic uncertainty, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam wants the General Assembly to postpone considerations of higher education spending, teacher pay raises and other spending initiatives he had hoped to include in the budget before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The General Assembly passed a biennial budget in April that gutted about $2.3 billion from the governor’s pre-pandemic budget proposal. The General Assembly was expected to reconsider some of these proposals based on new revenue projections in a special session that convened Tuesday, but Northam proposed a budget that maintained all of the cuts and urged the General Assembly to reconsider the spending initiatives when they reconvene in January.
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Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Nick Freitas, Chris Saxman, and Mark Cole to discuss how House Democrats are abusing their power during Virginia’s special session.
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It was relatively quiet during day two of the Virginia General Assembly special session as the House adjourned after less than an hour of meeting, while the Senate was more lively during member’s points of personal privilege.
Wednesday marked the first day the House held session electronically, with Speaker Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax County) and the House Clerk in the actual chamber of the Capitol building. The Senate, just like on Tuesday, held its session at the Science Museum of Virginia.
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Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Virginia state Senator Bill Stanley to the show to discuss the Virginia General Assembly’s special session and the destruction of downtown Richmond.
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We had #MeToo…#ICan’tBreath…#BLM.
In Portsmouth, Virginia we could have a new social media acronym: #ProtestPrison
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Election season is in full swing, and with the Democratic National Convention (DNC) underway, the Trump campaign and Republican National Convention (RNC) are busy with counterprogramming this week.
Samantha Cotten, the Regional Communications Director for the Trump campaign, said that Republicans are focusing on 17 battleground states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
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To hear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tell it, President Donald Trump’s efforts to reform the Postal Service — which began with an April 2018 executive order appointing a task force to bring USPS into solvency almost two years before there was any COVID-19 pandemic — were intended to undermine increased requests for mail-in and absentee ballots in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
In an Aug. 16 dear colleague letter, Pelosi alleged, “Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, one of the top Trump mega-donors, has proven a complicit crony as he continues to push forward sweeping new operational changes that degrade postal service, delay the mail, and… threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail in the upcoming elections in a timely fashion.”
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Victim after victim lined up on Tuesday to describe Joseph DeAngelo as a “sick monster,” “horrible man” and “subhuman” who stole their innocence and changed their lives during a more than decade-long reign of rape and murder that earned him the nickname Golden State Killer.
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Peter Vlaming has two great passions—teaching and French.
But a Virginia school district stripped the French teacher of the ability to impart these passions in high school classrooms when it fired him for not using pronouns preferred by a transgender student.
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Preliminary estimates show that viewership for the first night of the Democrats’ virtual convention was down compared with the opening of Hillary Clinton’s nominating party four years ago.
An estimated 18.7 million people watched coverage between 10 and 11 p.m. on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the Nielsen company said. Four years ago, opening night drew just under 26 million viewers.
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A judge heard arguments Tuesday but did not immediately rule on whether to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s plans to remove an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue.
An injunction issued in the lawsuit currently prevents Northam’s administration from moving forward with plans announced after the death of George Floyd to take down the bronze equestrian statue of Lee. The figure erected in 1890 is now one of the country’s most prominent tributes to the Confederacy.
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U.S. District Judge David Nye of Idaho ordered a preliminary injunction on Monday temporarily halting a state law that prohibits transgender girls and women from competing in female athletics, The Idaho Statesman reported.
Nye’s ruling will allow transgender girls and women to participate in women’s sports this upcoming fall at colleges and in secondary schools as the lawsuit proceeds, the Statesman reported.
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Amazon plans to create 3,500 new tech and corporate jobs in six cities nationwide, the company announced Tuesday.
Most of the company’s new hires will be located in Amazon’s New York office with the rest being added in Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Phoenix and San Diego, according to a press release. Amazon also announced plans to expand the six offices to accommodate the new hires.
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Each week in the inexorable march to Election Day, it becomes more challenging to believe how the campaign is unfolding and to rationalize it as a serious process for choosing the leader of the world’s greatest nation. After some reflection, it becomes clear that the extreme improbability of this process is the result of it not really being a race between two pairs of candidates for national office. It is surely the last round in the great battle between Donald Trump and the national political media.
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Republican John Kasich, who served as Ohio’s governor from 2011-2019 and ran in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, delivered a speech on the first night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) Monday.
Kasich, who refused to support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, spoke to the current political division in America, saying that “America is at a crossroads.”
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Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Virginia Democratic state Senator Scott Surovell to discuss special session priorities and the emergency powers of Governor Northam.
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Tuesday morning on the John Fredericks Show, host John Fredericks welcomed Steven K. Bannon to discuss the Democrat’s campaign of death and destruction and the road to victory for Trump.
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The Senate and House of Delegates met separately in Richmond on Tuesday, officially kicking off the special session of the General Assembly.
Despite a bevy of bills and promises of swift action, the House and Senate primarily discussed operation and procedural resolutions for the Special Session going forward.
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Ahead of Bill Clinton’s scheduled Democratic National Convention speech tonight, The Daily Mail published explosive, never-seen photos of the former president enjoying a neck massage from an alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim.
Some of the photos published by The Daily Mail show Chauntae Davies, who was 22 years old at the time, giving Clinton, then 56, a back massage. These photos were taken during an African humanitarian event in 2002. Clinton and Davies accompanied Epstein on the visit.
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Over ten inches of rain fell in the western part of the Richmond metro area last weekend, surprising residents and triggering evacuations near two local dams. Northern Prince George County also received rainfall from eight to ten inches.
One volunteer weather spotter reported 11.19 inches of rain at a spot in western Chesterfield from Friday night through Sunday morning. Meanwhile, about 15 miles away, the Richmond International Airport received less than four inches of rain.
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If you are queasy about entrusting the U.S. Postal Service with a vastly expanded role in our electoral system in the midst of a crucial election, the following news will exacerbate your nausea. Last Friday, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) followed the lead of the American Postal…
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A pro-Trump Boat Parade in Clearwater, Florida on Saturday set the record for the biggest boat parade of all time, shattering the previous world record. Organizers of the Clearwater boat parade said that over 1,600 boats signed up for the event, and that didn’t include last minute arrivals and those who joined in along the route. All told, as many as 2,000 boats took part, organizers told Fox 13. The previous record was set in Malaysia with 1,180 boats.
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Ibrahim Bouaichi, an inmate in Virginia who was released on bond from jail due to the Coronavirus pandemic, made headlines last week for allegedly killing his accuser.
At the time of his release, the jail where Bouaichi was held had no recorded cases of COVID-19.
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Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, is an old gag attributed to Mark Twain, but it turns out that if you do try to do anything about it you will get fired, at least if you work at NPR.
NPR affiliate KNKX in Tacoma, Washington fired on-air personality and University of Washington professor Cliff Mass for correctly reporting which way the wind is blowing in Seattle (and elsewhere) on his personal blog.
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Protesters attacked a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, Sunday night around 10:30 p.m., the New York Post reported.
Protesters surrounded the man’s truck before attacking him and a woman, the Post reported. The man reportedly hit a light pole while attempting to drive away from the protesters who chased his truck.
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A report from Virginia’s Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) alleges that the Virginia Parole Board (VPB) acted illegally and violated parole board policies earlier this year.
The report from the Virginia OSIG found the Virginia Parole Board and its former chairperson, Adrianne Bennett, “violated both state law and parole board policies earlier this year in granting parole to the murderer of a police officer.”
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COVIDWISE, an app that alerts users of possible COVID-19 exposure, has been downloaded 356,777 times in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).
The application was launched by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on August 5.
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In an effort to combat possible ballot delays from USPS, the Richmond City General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter is asking voters to apply for and submit mail-in voting forms sooner rather than later.
“If you are getting your ballot through the mail and you apply early on, there should be adequate time for you to get your ballot and return it,” Showalter said in an interview with The Virginia Star.
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The nephew of Vice President Mike Pence will be stumping across Virginia today and tomorrow for the Trump Victory campaign.
John Pence, a senior advisor for the campaign and the nephew of Vice President Pence, will speak at three Trump Victory rallies. He will be joined by Tommy Hicks, co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
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Monday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredericks welcomed Virginia State Senator (R) Dr. Siobhan Dunnavant to discuss limiting Governor Northam’s executive powers and re-opening schools.
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Live from Virginia Monday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream – host Fredericks welcomed Democratic State Senator from Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia Joe Morrissey to the program.
During the show, Morrissey discussed his recent op-ed at The Virginia Star which was initially turned down by the Richmond Times Dispatch appearing to be in retaliation for a pending lawsuit with the Senator. The men later discussed the disastrous ‘education’ mayor Levar Stoney who’s top priority is allowing people to access marijuana legally amidst the civil unrest in downtown Richmond.
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The Virginia legislature is considering laws that would remove qualified immunity for law enforcement officers.
On August 13, Democrats in the House announced a list of items they will introduce into the legislature’s Special Session.
Among these items is the “[elimination of] qualified immunity for law enforcement officers.”
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Rich Anderson is the new chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. On Saturday, August 15, delegates from around Virginia voted in an unassembled election using a drive-through format. The ranked-choice results saw Anderson win round one with 48.80 percent of the votes, where incumbent Jack Wilson was eliminated. In round two, Anderson took 62.28 percent of the votes, defeating Mike Schoelwer.
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Welcome to The Virginia Star!
Thank you for taking the time today to read our inaugural edition of The Virginia Star! We hope you will find us to be a valuable resource for news and information in the Commonwealth!
We are very excited about this new venture: real news in real time.
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