Month: October 2020

Group of Monument Avenue Residents to File Legal Brief Supporting Lee Statue Removal

Jacob Taylor

Roughly 50 or more Monument Avenue residents who live nearby the Robert E. Lee statue intend to file an amicus brief with the Virginia Supreme Court in support of Governor Ralph Northam’s plan to remove the controversial monument, a lawyer representing the group said.

Local residents organized the group called Circle Neighbors after a Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled earlier this week against three plaintiffs, who also live near the monument, seeking to block the Commonwealth from removing the statue.

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Commentary: Obama Can’t Get Past His Grudge Against Trump

Virginia Star Staff

Barack Obama and Joe Biden head to Michigan this weekend to hustle votes in one of the three states that helped elect Donald Trump in 2016. Recent polls show Biden with a comfortable lead in Michigan, but Democrats are taking nothing for granted in the final stretch; Representative Debbie Dingel (D-Mich.) on Wednesday warned Team Biden that the race is tightening. “So many auto workers who I thought were going to go back to Joe Biden were very clear with me…that they were voting for President Trump.”

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Commentary: Will Maximum COVID Fear Keep Democrats at Home on Election Day?

Virginia Star Staff

In the closing days of the presidential campaign, amid a surge in support for President Donald Trump in many battleground state polls, media outlets are reporting rising confirmed Covid cases in states like Wisconsin and New Mexico but also nationally as the cold and flu season kicks into gear.

“Wisconsin faces Covid-19 crisis as coronavirus cases continue to rise, governor says,” reads one headline from CNN.

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Steve Bannon Presents: Biden Family Crime Syndicate

Virginia Star Staff

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

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Biden Vows to Pass ‘Equality Act’ During His First 100 Days in Office

Virginia Star Staff

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden promised to pass the Equality Act during his first 100 days of office if he becomes President of the United States.

The former vice president also vowed in an interview with Philadelphia Gay News that he will make LGBTQ equality a focus of United States diplomacy if he becomes president of the United States, Reuters reported Wednesday.

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Final Georgia Senate Debate Canceled After Perdue Drops Out

The Associated Press

A final debate between Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff has been canceled after Perdue dropped out, saying he would attend a campaign rally with President Donald Trump instead.

The cancellation was announced Thursday night, a day after Perdue and Ossoff met for a bitter second debate in Savannah in which Ossoff slammed Perdue as a “crook” who downplayed the coronavirus pandemic. Perdue, who is seeking a second term, denied the accusation.

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Governor Signs Executive Order Allowing for Return of High School Sports in December

Jacob Taylor

After months of uncertainty in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia high school sports will finally return in December.

On Thursday, Governor Ralph Northam cleared the way for high school sports to resume and for the Virginia High School League (VHSL) to proceed with its Championship +1 schedule when he signed the fourth amendment of Executive Order 67, adjusting statewide restrictions on recreational sports.

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Virginia Mandates Police Receive Anti-Racism Training, Bans No Knock Warrants

Virginia Star Staff

Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed over a dozen police reforms into law, including mandated anti-racism training for law enforcement and a ban on no-knock warrants.

Senate Bill 5030, which was passed Wednesday, “creates statewide minimum training standards” on “awareness of racism” and “biased profiling,” according to a statement from the governor’s office. The ordinance makes the Commonwealth the third state in the nation to ban no-knock raids, and the legislation also forbids local departments from acquiring “grenades, weaponized aircraft and high caliber rifles” in an effort to demilitarize, Northam’s team wrote.

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NY Gov. Cuomo Goes on Self-Congratulatory Book Tour as DOJ Probes COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Virginia Star Staff

As New York Governor Andrew Cuomo embarked on a self-congratulatory book tour this week, the U.S. Department of Justice requested additional data from his administration on coronavirus deaths linked to nursing homes.

According to the New York Post, the DOJ’s inquiry could reveal if the state significantly undercounted the number of COVID-19 fatalities among the residents of more than 1,000 private nursing homes.

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Elizabeth Warren Reportedly Plans to Lobby Biden to be Treasury Secretary

Virginia Star Staff

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren plans to lobby Democratic nominee Joe Biden to be his Treasury Secretary if he wins next week’s election, Politico reported Thursday evening.

“She wants it,” two Democratic officials told Politico, referring to Warren.

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Commentary: Daylight Saving Says It’s Time to ‘Spring Forward’ – But Is It Worth It?

Virginia Star Staff

This weekend, public service announcements will remind us daylight saving time is over. This means you have to set your clocks back an hour later at 2 a.m. on November 1.

This semiannual ritual shifts our rhythms and temporarily makes us groggy at times when we normally feel alert. Moreover, many Americans are confused about why we spring forward in March and fall back in November, and whether it is worth the trouble.

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Earthquake Strikes Turkish Coast and Greek Island, Killing 14

The Associated Press

A strong earthquake struck Friday in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 14 people and injuring hundreds amid collapsed buildings and flooding, officials said.

A small tsunami struck the Seferihisar district south of Izmir, the city in western Turkey that was the worst affected, said Haluk Ozener, director of the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.

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Obama-Biden Administration Denied Only Four Percent of Chinese Acquisitions of U.S. Entities: Report

Laura Baigert

A report that examined Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. revealed that the Obama-Biden administration only denied four percent of those that were subject to review by federal regulators.

In stark contrast, the Trump administration denied nearly half of the Chinese proposed acquisitions.

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Greenwald Pushes Back on Claims He Left The Intercept For Money

Jordyn Pair

Glenn Greenwald is pushing back against the idea that he resigned from The Intercept as a marketing ploy, saying he gave up a huge salary, as well as a team of lawyers and a security detail for a legal fight currently ongoing in Brazil.

Greenwald, the co-founder of The Intercept who resigned on Thursday, said he gave up his job in response to censorship by the outlet’s editorial staff about a story critical of Hunter and Joe Biden. In the piece, Greenwald went after both the Biden family and the media, saying the latter refused to ask important questions and seek the truth due an affinity for the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

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Commentary: Five Reasons We Love Halloween

Virginia Star Staff

When I was a kid, Halloween was for kids only. Adults were there to hand out candy — and monitor the kids to make sure we weren’t enjoying the culture of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins too much. That would be dabbling in evil, and our souls might be corrupted. My mom, for example, banned fake blood from the house. At the age of 15 or so, your Halloween fun was expected to be over.

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Richmond Mayoral Underdog Griffin Attacks Gray in Mailer

Eric Burk

Mayoral candidate Justin Griffin recently sent out mailers arguing for a link between opponent candidate Kim Gray and Richmond For All (RFA), Governor Ralph Northam, and Louis Salomonsky. Griffin only got three percent in the most recent poll, well behind his nearest competitor Alexsis Rodgers who got 15 percent, Kim Gray, who got 16 percent, and incumbent Mayor Levar Stoney, who got 36 percent.

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TRUMPDATE: Latest from the Team Trump Virginia Campaign for October 31

Jordan Bondurant

Welcome to the Saturday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).

It’s officially three days until the election on November 3. Early voting in Virginia closes at 5 p.m. TODAY.

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Parents Submit Letter to Betsy DeVos Requesting Civil Rights Investigation into Loudoun Schools

Corinne Murdock

Parents have submitted a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos requesting a civil rights investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). These parents requested that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to determine whether LCPS violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution, as well as President Donald Trump’s “Executive Order on Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping.” 
The letter alleged that LCPS engaged in discrimination when it excluded non-Hispanic and non-Black parents from federally-funded focus groups; mandated staff training on “implicit bias,” including white privilege, white supremacy, and unconscious bias; restricted disciplinary action on minority students to make data proportional; and excluded staff and student members from opportunities based on race.

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Tony Bobulinski Says FBI Interviewed Him for Five Hours About Bidens, Chinese Business Deal

Virginia Star Staff

Former Biden family business partner Tony Bobulinski said on Thursday that the FBI interviewed him for five hours last week about his business dealings with Hunter Biden in a proposed joint venture with a Chinese energy company.

Bobulinski said in an interview with Sinclair Broadcasting that FBI agents told him in an Oct. 23 interview that he was a material witness in their investigation.

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EXCLUSIVE: NY Post’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Hunter Biden Email 100% Authentic, Forensic Analysis Concludes

Virginia Star Staff

by Andrew Kerr   An email Hunter Biden received in April 2015 from a Burisma executive discussing an introduction to then-Vice President Joe Biden, which lies at the heart of a New York Post investigation, is unquestionably authentic, a cybersecurity expert told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday. The…

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Kamras ‘Not Optimistic’ About Reopening Richmond Schools

Eric Burk

Richmond Public Schools (RPS) Jason Kamras told reporters that he doesn’t expect RPS to reopen even after winter break, unlike Henrico and Chesterfield Counties, according to reporting from WTVR. The two neighboring counties recently announced plans to begin allowing students back into classes as soon as November.

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Three Dead in Church Attack, Plunging France into Dual Emergency

The Associated Press

A man armed with a knife attacked people inside a French church and killed three Thursday, prompting the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

The attack in Mediterranean city of Nice was the third in two months in France that authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher. It comes during a growing furor over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo — renewing vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world over the depictions that Muslims consider offensive but are protected by French free speech laws.

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Zuckerberg: FBI Warned Us to Be on the Lookout For a ‘Hack and Leak’ Op with ‘Trove of Docs’ Before the Election

Virginia Star Staff

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress Wednesday that the FBI warned him months ago that Facebook should be on “heightened alert” about “hack and leak operations” that could be part of a foreign disinformation campaign in the final weeks before the 2020 election.

The Facebook honcho made the remarks during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing where he testified alongside Google’s Sundar Pichai and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

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Michigan: Ground Zero for Biden-Led Chinese Acquisition of Automotive Manufacturer with National Security Implications

Laura Baigert

A key presidential election battleground state of Michigan is also ground zero for a Chinese company’s acquisition of an automotive manufacturer with direct involvement by one of Hunter Biden’s businesses.

The transaction gave Chinese companies direct control of technology with possible military applications and, therefore, has national security implications.

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Boeing Cuts Thousands of Jobs, Prepares for Air Travel Slow Down Amidst Coronavirus Surge

Virginia Star Staff

American aerospace giant Boeing announced a fresh round of job cuts during its earnings call on Wednesday morning as coronavirus cases continued to surge worldwide.

Boeing said it would cut 7,000 jobs by the end of 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal. The job cut, the latest in a series of coronavirus-related cuts, would take the company to 130,000 employees after starting 2020 with 160,000.

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Apple Developing Search Engine as Google Comes Under Antitrust Scrutiny: Report

Virginia Star Staff

Apple has ramped up development of its own search engine technology as antitrust U.S. and European Union regulators scrutinize Google, according to a Financial Times report.

The Silicon Valley tech giant has subtly started the transition away from its reliance on the Google search engine, The Financial Times reported. Apple’s latest software update iOS 14, for example, directs users directly to links when they search for a term on their device’s home screen.

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Commentary: Trump Economy Grows Record 33.1 Percent in Third Quarter Amid Rapid Recovery

Virginia Star Staff

The U.S. economy blew the barn doors off all other past recoveries with a record, inflation-adjusted 33.1 percent gain in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — more than any other quarter in economic history — in the last major economic report before the election in November.

That is great news for the American people, and it certainly bodes well for President Donald Trump in his bid for reelection against former Vice President Joe Biden as the race for 2020 comes down to the wire. It comes as more than 14 million jobs have been recovered since labor markets bottomed in April amid the Covid state-led lockdowns, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Court Order Forced ICE to Release 250 Criminal Immigrants

Virginia Star Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Tuesday that it released 250 immigrants with criminal histories back into communities in response to a coronavirus-related order issued by the Central District of California, Fox News reports.

The news came a week after U.S. Judge Terry Hatter ordered the agency either release or deport detainees at the Adelanto ICE processing center in Southern California in order to halt the spread of coronavirus infections. According to the order, starting from October 19 they must reduce the population at the facility by at least 50 detainees a day, until the population is at or below 475 detainees. At the time of the order, about 750 people were detained there.

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Glenn Greenwald Resigns from The Intercept Over Censoring of Biden Piece

Jordyn Pair

Shortly after resigning from The Intercept on Thursday, Glenn Greenwald published the article whose censoring he said caused him to step down in the first place.

Greenwald announced on Thursday that he would be leaving The Intercept, the publication that he co-founded in 2014, due to censorship from editorial staff over a piece critical of Joe and Hunter Biden.

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Passionately Catholic: The Gift of Family

Virginia Star Staff

Ponder this…

One of the most underrated career choices is motherhood. Being a mother is more than a career. It’s a vocation. It’s actually a calling from God, the author of life. In today’s modern world, motherhood, fatherhood, and family life are often seen as optional choices to be made at the sole discretion of a woman or a man.

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Microsoft Disrupts Trickbot Ransomware, Which Could Pose Threat to Elections

Eric Burk

Microsoft officials announced last week that they disrupted 94 percent of a global ransomware network with a presence in eastern Virginia, according to a press release and court documents. The “Trickbot” ransomware is used to steal data from individuals and organizations, and could threaten U.S. elections.

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Confederate Flag Along I-95 Removed for Highway Construction Project

Jacob Taylor

The Virginia Flaggers have removed their large Confederate flag from its prominent location in Stafford County along Interstate 95 after the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) acquired the land for construction of the Rappahannock River Crossing project.

Measuring at 20-feet tall and 30-feet wide, the controversial flag flew attached to its 80-foot pole since May 2014, nearly six and a half years, and was almost impossible to miss from both sides of the highway.

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Former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani Tells John Fredericks, ‘There Is Something Seriously Wrong with Christopher Wray’

Julie Carr

Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredricks welcomed the former mayor of New York City and President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to the show to discuss Hunter Biden’s hard drive, Christopher Wray, and the dishonest mainstream media.

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TRUMPDATE: Latest from the Team Trump Virginia Campaign for October 30

Jordan Bondurant

Welcome to the Friday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).

It’s officially four days until the election on November 3. Early voting in Virginia closes at 5 p.m. TOMORROW.

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Republican Veteran Joe Collins Talks About His Campaign Against Mansion Maxine for Her Seat in South Los Angeles’s 43rd District

Julie Carr

Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredricks welcomed Republican congressional candidate for the 43rd District in Los Angeles Joe Collins to the show to talk about beating Maxine Waters.

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Democratic Delegate Lee Carter Claims Police Are a Threat to Public Safety

Corinne Murdock

House Delegate Lee Carter (D-Manassas) stated multiple times in the last several days that “police are a threat to public safety in every community.” These assertions coincided with the ongoing riots over the death of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man that Philadelphia police shot for charging at officers with a knife.
Carter issued three tweets in a row, in each post repeating the same mantra that police threaten public safety.

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Non-Colored Students Need Not Apply: Loudoun County Public Schools Initially Barred White Students from Equity Ambassador Program

Corinne Murdock

In the initial draft of a student equity ambassador program informational packet, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) barred students who weren’t colored from admission into the program.

Under “III. Process for Selecting Student Equity Ambassadors” the second process listing guidelines specifically mentioned students’ skin color as a qualifying factor.

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US Economy Surges at Record Rate, GDP Grows 33.1 Percent

Virginia Star Staff

The U.S. economy grew by a record 33.1% in the third quarter of 2020, as employers continue to restore jobs and the country continues to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Commerce figure released Wednesday reflects the rate of decline in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) during the third quarter, from July to September. The economy plunged by 31.4% in the second quarter of 2020, a record drop caused by government measures to combat the spread of coronavirus, according to The Associated Press.

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New Unemployment Claims Fall to 751,000, Beat Expectations

Virginia Star Staff

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims decreased to 751,000 last week as the economy continues to suffer the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics figure released Thursday represented a decrease of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Oct. 17, in which there were 787,000 new jobless claims reported. The figure released on Oct. 22 was the lowest since March, according to CNBC.

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Richmond Judge Sides with Northam on Lee Statue Removal

Jacob Taylor

A Richmond Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of the Commonwealth and Governor Ralph Northam on Tuesday, allowing for the removal of the controversial Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue.

In his decision, Judge W. Reilly Marchant lifted the temporary injunction, ordered by a separate judge back in August, which barred Nortam from taking action, but said the statue could not be removed until a proper appeal process has taken place.

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Commentary: Yes, the Polls Are Shifting

Virginia Star Staff

President Trump’s political obituaries count more reincarnations than a Hindu lifetime. Perhaps, a slate of polls this week show yet another rebirth. 

The president is surging in key battleground states, and at the national level, with 2016’s most accurate pollsters showing Trump en route to battleground victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, and Arizona. 

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Commentary: How to Restrain Big Tech Immediately

Virginia Star Staff

A year ago, University of Georgia professor Cas Mudde took to Twitter and asked: “How do you manage to stay informed about political news and stay mentally balanced?” In his next tweet, he confessed too much time on social media was contributing to anxiety and depression.

With this, Mudde expressed a sentiment many social media users share. As we discuss policy issues tied to social media—tech regulation, free speech, foreign influence—we shouldn’t lose sight of the damaging psychological effects of today’s information environment. You may not want to hear this a week before the election, but social media addiction is a public health issue. Big Tech is the new Big Tobacco.

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20,000 Texas Mail-in Ballots Need to Be Redone Because of Barcode Problem

Virginia Star Staff

Approximately one-third the mail-in ballots in Tarrant County, Texas have been rejected by scanners due to a defect in their barcodes, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Heider Garcia, the county’s elections administrator, attributed the problem to the shop that printed that ballots, but assured that the ballots affected would still be counted, according to the Texas outlet.

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Hurricane Zeta Hits Louisiana with Flooding, Power Outages

The Associated Press

Hurricane Zeta slammed into storm-weary Louisiana on Wednesday with New Orleans squarely in its path, pelting homes and businesses with rain and howling winds, knocking out power to thousands and threatening to push up to 9 feet of sea water inland in a Gulf Coast region already pounded by multiple storms this year.

Roads were flooded near the coast, where forecasters said Zeta made landfall around Terrebone Bay near Cocodrie, an unincorporated fishing village at the end of a highway with a marine laboratory but few if any full-time residents.

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Report: U.S. Colleges Hid More Than $6.5 Billion in Foreign Funding

Virginia Star Staff

Many American colleges and universities failed to disclose more than $6.5 billion in funding and resources from foreign sources including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, The Washington Free Beacon reports.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos unveiled a report last week detailing the massive failure.

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