Day: December 19, 2020

Virginia Legislators Expect to Legalize Marijuana in 2021, but Massive Changes Needed Might Slow the Process

Eric Burk

It’s not quite a nonpartisan issue, but Virginia legislators expect an effort to legalize marijuana will receive enough bipartisan support to pass in the 2021 regular session. The biggest hurdle to the plan is the massive legislative changes that are required. Legislators have to choose how the cannabis business will interact with many sectors of business and government including banking, law enforcement, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Taxation, and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority.

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Commentary: Sorry, Democrats What Goes Around Comes Around

Virginia Star Staff

Democrats who are unhappy that Republicans are skeptical of the 2020 election results have no one to blame but themselves. Democrats cannot understand why Republicans would question the election results in spite of the fact that Democrats sought to undermine anti-voter fraud measures in the run-up to the election; that Republican observers were not allowed to observe vote counting; and that massive numbers of Biden votes were counted in the middle of the night while no Republican observers were present. Of course, in recent years, Democrats have repeatedly disputed unfavorable election results, pushed wild conspiracy theories, and lied about their opponents. A quick review of recent political history seems in order.

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National Guard Preparing for Indefinite Deployment While George Floyd Trial Proceeds in Minneapolis

Virginia Star Staff

The Minnesota National Guard may deploy indefinitely to Minneapolis while the four former police officers involved in the death of George Floyd are on trial in 2021, an ABC affiliate reported Wednesday.

The National Guard’s 12-page plan dubbed “Operation Safety Net” details a worst-case scenario plan where all available state guard forces are deployed for an indefinite amount of time during and after the trials of former Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Keung, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, local outlet KSTP reported.

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Georgia Has Registered 76,000 New Voters Ahead of Senate Runoffs

Virginia Star Staff

Almost 76,000 voters who did not vote in Georgia’s November elections have registered ahead of the state’s dual Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

If those new voters turn out, they could make a sizable difference in a state where the November presidential race was decided by only 12,000 votes.

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Judge Michael Warren Commentary: Defending Lincoln

Virginia Star Staff

San Francisco’s school district has cancelled Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln High School is going to be renamed. Why? “Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties or wealth building,” Jeremiah Jefferies, the chairman of the school district’s renaming committee and a first-grade teacher, virtuously pontificated to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

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Music Spotlight: Lilly Winwood

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennesse-  I am often sent songs to review to see if I want to feature the song(s) and/or artist in my column. When I heard Lilly Winwood’s song “Few More Records” I knew this singer/songwriter was talented. But surely this Nashville girl wasn’t related to the Brit rocker, Steve Winwood.

It turns out, surely, she is. Lilly Winwood is the 25-year-old daughter of famed rock and roller, Steve Winwood.

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Supreme Court Rules Against Counting Illegal Immigrants for Congressional Redistricting

Virginia Star Staff

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to President Donald Trump’s plan to not include illegal immigrants living in the U.S. in the count to determine congressional districts, Reuters reported Friday.

The court ruled 6-3 against a lawsuit attempting to block Trump’s plan to exclude illegal immigrants from the count, Reuters reported.

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Commentary: Praying for Peace in a Biden-Influenced Middle East

Virginia Star Staff

As sane Americans reluctantly resign themselves to the approach of an unimaginable Joe Biden presidency, the unrelenting blitzkrieg of media Trump-hate is occasionally, but each week more frequently, punctured by glimmers of recognition of what the apparently outgoing president has achieved. There seems to be a consensus, even embracing many Democrats, that President Trump has scored a significant success with the Abraham Accords in the Middle East. 

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Steve Bannon Presents ‘War Room: Pandemic’

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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Joe Biden Defends His Son, Who Is Under Federal Investigation, as ‘the Smartest Man I Know’

Virginia Star Staff

President-elect Joe Biden says he is “not concerned” about a federal investigation into his son, Hunter, and accused his opponents of weaponizing the probe for political points.

Biden said that Hunter, who has been involved in a string of high-profile personal and business controversies in recent years, as “the smartest man I know.”

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FDA Grants Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Emergency Authorization

Virginia Star Staff

The FDA approved Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use Friday, making the United States the first country to have approved two safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19.

Its approval follows a key FDA panel’s overwhelming vote Thursday to endorse the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. The Moderna vaccine’s approval means that its distribution could begin within hours, providing hospitals and long-term care facilities across the country thousands of much-needed doses.

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Commentary: Was Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax Falsely Accused?

Virginia Star Staff

At 9:00 am on Monday, February 6, 2019, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax’s meteoric political ascendency could not have been any higher or brighter.  Indeed, Fairfax was on the verge of being elevated to the highest office in the Commonwealth – Governor – due to the political blackface scandal that engulfed Governor Ralph Northam.  Indeed, if Governor Northam were to resigned – which many in the State Democratic Party where calling for – Justin Fairfax would automatically become the 74th Governor of Virginia.  

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Governor Northam Outlines Budget Recommendations with Focuses on COVID-19, Education

Jacob Taylor

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam unveiled his recommendations for the biennial budget on Wednesday with big spending toward the state’s continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public education and other items.

The governor presented his budget proposals to lawmakers during a joint virtual meeting of the House of Delegates and Senate appropriation committees.

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Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton Nominated to Powerful House Appropriations Committee

Eric Burk

After two years in Congress, Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10) has been nominated to the powerful House Appropriations Committee for the 117th session which starts in January. The current session is the first in over a century where Virginia had no representatives on the committee, according to a Wexton press release. She will be able to advocate funding for Virginia priorities like infrastructure and national defense.

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Virginia to Receive Over 100,000 Fewer COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Than Anticipated

Jacob Taylor

Virginia is now expected to receive just under 110,000 fewer COVID-19 vaccine doses from the federal government than originally anticipated.

Operation Warp Speed, the government’s vaccination program, informed the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) late Thursday night, and now the state is preparing to get 370,650 vaccine doses by the end of December instead of the initial 480,000 projection, according to a press release.

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