Richmond Water Crisis; Gov. Wes Moore, Bobby Scott in Glen Allen; Virginia Dem Votes with MAGA Rs on Immigration
➳ Today the Virginia General Assembly briefly convenes. They will then adjourn and return to session on Monday, Jan. 12, 2025
➳ 5 days until Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivers the State of the Commonwealth on Jan. 13, 2025
➳ 12 days until the Martin Luther King Holiday on Jan. 20, 2025
➳ 12 days until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025
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Richmond Water Crisis Disrupts Government and Business
The previously documented issues around Richmond’s old infrastructure have caused the the Virginia General Assembly and the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address to be moved to Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.
New Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, only a week in to office, is having to deal with a disruptive crisis even before having his first celebratory event as Mayor of Richmond, which is scheduled for Saturday.
Though the Virginia General Assembly will briefly meet today, they will gavel out quickly as suitable water in Virginia’s capitol city is hard to come by. The new General Assembly Building was closed yesterday — a rare break in the work of the legislature known for never missing work because of holidays, weather or thousands of citizens with guns surrounding Virginia’s Capitol Building.
This morning, reporter Tyler Englander of Richmond 8News posted images on social media showing that the water in the General Assembly Building is still off or unusable.
Anti-Due Process Racial Profiling Laken Riley Act: Virginia’s Subramanyam Votes with MAGA Rs on Mass Deportation Bill
MAGA RACIAL PROFILING BILL WINS 48 DEMS... including freshman Virginia Democrat Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Loudoun. The first bill offered by the Republican-controlled 119th Congress was the Laken Riley Act (HR 29). The bill, which is a gateway for racial profiling, passed the U.S. House on Jan. 7, 2025 by a vote of 264-159. MAGA House Republicans were joined by 48 Democrats in support of the legislation. The group included new freshman Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam.
RELATED: Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate (DOJ)
The GOP is once again using a classic southern strategy adjacent messaging strategy on crime: Naming a piece of legislation after a crime victim and then daring Democrats to vote against it. No matter what the data and facts demonstrate it works every time. As Democrats struggle to decide and define their steps forward regarding policy, 48 Democrats in the U.S. joined Republicans. In Sept. 2024, the Department of Justice released stats demonstrating that “illegal immigrants” have a lower crime rate than U.S. born Americans.
The Laken Riley Act gives law enforcement even more power to detain and deport illegal immigrants who have been accused of low level crimes. The bill requires the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with non violent offenses.
Twelve days from the start of the second Trump Administration, the bill, should it become law, would potentially assist in Trump’s previously stated anti-immigrant and anti-due process push for mass deportation. Trump spent the entire 2024 campaign branding Mexican immigrants to violent crime and in every speech vilified Mexican immigrants with various problems facing the U.S. In 2015, as he announced his first run for The White House he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “murderers.”
Above: An NBC headline on Trump’s anti-immigrant comments.
In one of many particularly racist tirades, Trump stated in Dec. 2023 that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” That comment reminded many of the words of 1940s German dictator and racist anti-Semite Adolph Hitler. Trump repeated the same phrase during an interview in March 2024.
Democrats, who remain in a tailspin after losing The White House, the U.S. Senate and failing to recapture control of the U.S. House, appear confused. Perpetually scared of being viewed as “soft on crime'“ and seemingly standing for nothing, Democrats have yet to find a consistent way forward on crime policy — no matter what facts and data have long confirmed. Effective communication on the crime issue has long been a problem for Democrats.
A complicating factor for many on the left has been a hard push against due process in favor of “just believe” or “believe women” as a way to please advocates at the National Women’s Law Center (who ran the now defunct TIMESUP for the MeToo movement). Democrats on the federal level have also failed to embrace any due process measures as related to college Title IX policies. Amicus briefs filed in several federal cases involving exonerated defendants reveal that policy on the left from several groups is anti-due process.
A freshman Senate Democrat, former House member and now U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego, will sponsor the Laken Riley Act in the U.S. Senate. The Senate is set to vote on the legislation on Friday, Jan. 10. Eight Democrats in the U.S. Senate would have to join the GOP for the Laken Riley Act to advance to the President’s desk. Which president will be in office at the time the bill clears both houses if that occurs is unclear.
The second bill House Republicans will offer (HR 8282) this week would protect Israel Prime Minister Ben Netanyahu from being investigated and charged for war crimes.
Carter Honored at U.S. Capitol Before Service at National Cathedral
Yesterday, Vice President Harris, the Carter family, members of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court and members of the military, gathered in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda to honor former President Jimmy Carter. A very long line of people stood out in freezing weather at the U.S. Capitol to walk by Carter’s coffin for a few moments in the Rotunda. Photos this morning, seen below, show Carter’s coffin on the same catafalque used during the funeral of Abraham Lincoln.
Gov. Wes Moore Joined by Supportive Virginians in Glen Allen
Over 60 people attended a weekend fundraiser for Maryland Governor Wes Moore at the home of Lisa Speller in Glen Allen, Virginia. The event was Gov. Moore’s first Virginia fundraiser and raised big. Maryland’s historic 63rd Governor, only the third Black Governor in U.S. history, was joined by a historic Virginian — Rep. Bobby Scott, who was the event’s special guest. Photos from the event reveal a diverse group of Virginia power players including former Gov. Wilder Education Secretary and attorney James Dyke, State Senator and 2025 candidate for Lt. Governor Aaron Rouse, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin and Loudoun attorney Phillip Thompson.
RELATED: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore | Jan 11, 2011
In his first year in office Gov. Moore has been energetic. He introduced 26 pieces of legislation and has passed all 26 with bipartisan support. Gov. Moore can often be seen on social media doing anything from signing legislation to practicing with the Terps — the University of Maryland’s football team.
Gov. Moore introduced a first of its kind service year initiative for high school grads, signed an executive order pardoning over 175,000 misdemeanor cannabis convictions — the largest pardon of it’s kind in U.S. history — and had to handle the enormous recovery effort after the tragic Key Bridge Collapse in Baltimore. Gov. Moore’s approval rating is a striking 65 percent — the highest for any Governor in the U.S. Virginia’s neighbor to the north also won the FBI headquarters in a battle with Virginia over the bureau’s next location.
Though he isn’t pushing it, others keep mentioning Moore, who is a U.S. Army veteran and was a Captain in the 82nd Airborne Division, for a White House run in the near future. But first, the focus is Maryland: The Maryland legislative session kicked off today.
1- Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America Hardcover (1999)
2- Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching Paperback (2009)
3- Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey (Oct. 2024)
4- Positive, Successful, Stylish Black People Coloring Book (2024)
5- When Mayor Doug Wilder Ruled Richmond: Strong-Arm Politics in Virginia's Capital City by Linwoood Norman (Aug. 2024)
6- Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How the Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (Since 1970: Histories of Contemporary America) by George Derek Musgrove
7- Son of Virginia, A Life in America's Political Arena (2015) by L. Douglas Wilder
8- The New Jim Crow (2010) by Michelle Alexander
9- Remaking Virginia Politics by Paul Goldman (Jan. 2022)
10- Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy Hardcover (2024) by Timothy J. Heaphy
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