Day: January 21, 2021

Virginia Senate Committee Passes Censure Resolution on Amanda Chase

Jacob Taylor

The Virginia Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections passed a resolution to censure Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) on Tuesday regarding her conduct and comments on the January 6 Capitol riots in Washington D.C.

Introduced by Sen. John Bell (D-Loudon) and sponsored by nine other Democratic legislators, Senate Resolution 91 was reported out of the committee by a 9-6 vote straight down party lines and will now be considered on the floor in the coming days.

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Commentary: Under Your Pillow, Inside Your Closet, We Trump Supporters Are and Will Be Everywhere

Virginia Star Staff

It is so appropriate that Mike Lindell, founder and CEO of MyPillow — ♪ for the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world, it’s my pillow dot com ♪ — is the latest prominent person to come out yet again, even post January 6, for Donald Trump. Although I disagree vehemently with the “martial law” stuff and although Donald Trump decidedly is not my hero — my late wife Ellen of blessed memory is my hero — I still publicly count myself as a strong supporter of the entire four-year Trump presidency. His presidency was enormously powerful and successful. It was en route to Mount Rushmore until a once-in-a-century pandemic set off inevitable setbacks. None were his fault, and his “Operation Warp Speed” will have saved more lives than the Mainstream Media ever will admit. Indeed, had the COVID impact come during an Obama-quality bleak economy, the plague’s disaster’s catastrophe would have been amplified.

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Biden to Extend Student Loan Payment Freeze Until September 2021

Admin

President-elect Joe Biden will order the Department of Education to extend the student loan payment moratorium through September in one of his first presidential moves.

Joe Biden is set to sign the executive order on Wednesday following his inauguration, extending the current pause on student loan payments, which has been in effect since March, according to CBS News. The order is a fulfillment of Biden’s campaign promise to prioritize the U.S. student loan debt crisis.

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Keystone XL Pipeline to be Scrapped Again

Admin

President-elect Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he would cancel a permit critical to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The move marks the second time that a Democratic administration has effectively killed the $8 billion project. While environmental and conservation groups praised the move, TC Energy, the company behind the pipeline’s construction, argued in an earlier Supreme Court brief that scrapping the project would strip 1,500 construction workers and 300 inspection and management workers of their jobs.

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Commentary: Five Ways Hospitals Can Help Fix Vaccine Rollout Debacle

RealClearWire

Hospitals have come under sharp criticism for their part in the chaotic COVID-19 vaccine rollout. That’s because in the rush to get the vaccine out quickly, many hospitals were shipped more vaccine than anticipated and fewer staff took it than anticipated. As a result, hospitals accrued a vaccine surplus and offered it to their low-risk grad students and young administrative staff working from home and are now scrambling to figure out what to do with the rest. The answer should be simple: give it to older members of your community, but a recent letter from the American Hospital Association cited a number of important barriers to effective vaccine distribution including a lack of coordination and guidance from federal, state, and local governments. 

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Default Settings for Inauguration Flag Donations Sends Money to Planned Parenthood

Admin

The default settings to sponsor inauguration flags sends money to the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s partners — including the Planned Parenthood of America, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee installed an “extensive public art display” that includes 191,500 flags on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Americans may symbolically sponsor flags by donating through ActBlue Charities.

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Over 100 House Republicans Support Removing Liz Cheney from Leadership Role

Admin

Over half of all Republican members of the House of Representatives are prepared to support an effort to remove Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as Chair of the House GOP Conference, according to Breitbart.

It has been reported that approximately 115 House Republicans are committed to voting in favor of a “no confidence” motion on Cheney’s leadership, which could allow for Cheney to be removed and replaced. The position is the third highest-ranking role in House GOP leadership, only behind the House Minority Whip and House Minority Leader.

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Senator McClellan Unveils Universal Child Care and Early Learning Plan as Part of Gubernatorial Campaign

Jacob Taylor

Democratic candidate for governor and Virginia State Senator Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond City) released a plan central to her campaign last Friday that seeks to provide affordable and quality child care for every family with a kid under the age of five by 2025.

Under McClellan’s Universal Child Care & Early Learning Plan, Virginia families that make below or up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level would receive free child care, no matter the family size. While families making above that poverty threshold would have to pay for child care costs, but no more than 7 percent of their annual income.

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Virginia House Republicans Blast Slow COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

Eric Burk

House of Delegate Republicans have repeatedly begun the regular sessions this week by blasting Virginia’s government for the slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

On Monday, GOP Caucus Chairman Delegate Kathy Byron (R-Bedford) said, “Madam Speaker, as we meet today, Virginia’s government is struggling in a critical life-saving mission. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Virginia has received over 850,000 doses of the COVID vaccine, but we have administered fewer than 250,000 doses. That performance ranks us among the lowest of the fifty states.”

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Virginia House Passes ‘Good Apples Bill’ Requiring Officers to Report Misconduct to Supervisors

Eric Burk

The House of Delegates passed Delegate Mark Levine’s (D-Arlington) “Good Apples Bill,” which requires law enforcement officers to report acts of wrongdoing committed by other on-duty officers. It also requires officers to render aid if they witness someone suffering a serious bodily injury, and it expands a ban on biased-based profiling to include profiling by sexual orientation. In a vote Wednesday, HB 1948 passed 57-42, with three Republicans joining Democrats to vote for the bill.

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