Wes Moore's First Virginia Fundraiser; Data Centers; Trump Asks SCOTUS to Delay TikTok Ban; Richmond Hippo Needs Name
🚩 This is the second day of Kwanzaa: The principle of Kujichagulia, which is means self-determination
🚩 7 days until the 119th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025.
🚩 12 days until the Virginia General Assembly convenes on Jan. 8, 2025.
🚩 24 days until the Martin Luther King Holiday on Jan. 20, 2025.
🚩 24 days until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025.
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Trump Asks SCOTUS to Pause Ban on TikTok
CNN: In a new legal filing, Trump is asking the Supreme Court to pause a ban on TikTok set to go into effect Jan. 19, saying a pause would allow his admin to "pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok." Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago last week.
In a move that puts him at odds with Trump, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares filed an amicus brief today urging the Supreme Court to uphold the law to ban TikTok in the U.S. if it’s not sold.
First Fundraiser: Gov. Wes Moore is Coming to Virginia
Gov. Wes Moore will be in Glen Allen on Jan. 5, 2025 to attend his first fundraiser in Virginia. The host of the event is the very well connected Lisa Speller. The special guest at the invite only fundraiser will be Congressman Bobby Scott.
Gov. Moore was elected Maryland’s 63rd Governor in 2023. He is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan in the 82nd Airborne Division. Moore is also the author of the bestselling book The Other Wes Moore (2011). He is widely seen as a generational leader who many view as a possible candidate for The White House at some point in the future. Both Gov. Moore and Congressman Scott are members of Alpha Phi Alpha.
The exciting Governor of Maryland has often campaigned to assist candidates in Virginia in Hampton Roads and beyond. He was in Alexandria, Virginia for a fundraiser for State Senator Mamie Locke on Oct. 26, 2023. The lively event was held at the residence of P.J. Johnson and was attended by Rep. Jennifer McClellan, State Senator Adam Ebbin, E.J. Scott and many others.
🚨 HUD: 18% Spike in Homelessness
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today released its 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates, an annual snapshot of the number of homeless people in the U.S.
The report found more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, an 18% increase from 2023.
“This report reflects data collected a year ago and likely does not represent current circumstances, given changed policies and conditions,” the release from HUD on Dec. 27 read.
The HUD release further stated: Through targeted funding and interventions that utilize evidence-based practices, homelessness among veterans dropped to the lowest number on record. There was a nearly 8% decrease – from 35,574 in 2023 to 32,882 in 2024 – in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness. Among unsheltered veterans, the number dropped nearly 11% – from 15,507 in 2023 to 13,851 in 2024. This year, HUD has helped connect nearly 90,000 veteran households to stable, rental homes through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. READ ENTIRE
Baby Hippo at Richmond Zoo Needs Name
A baby hippo born at the Metro Richmond Zoo before Christmas. The hippo needs a name and the zoo is asking the public to help out. Check out the poll and VOTE for your favorite name: https://metrorichmondzoo.com/new.../pygmy-hippo-naming-poll/
We Suspected Data Centers Were Creating an Energy Crisis for Virginia. Now it’s official.
By Ivy Main at The Virginia Mercury. It is a truth universally acknowledged: a politician in possession of elected office must be in want of large economic development projects.
Such is the power of this compulsion that it is proof against all reason. Certainly, it has been proof against everything critics of the data center buildout have said so far: that Virginia is catapulting itself into a costly energy crisis that will raise utility bills for residents; that the public shows no love for this industry; and that the benefits to be gained (mostly in the form of construction jobs) will continue only as long as new projects follow one another in perpetuity until the landscape is consumed by concrete and transmission wires.
RELATED: The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin (2021)
To the credit of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), however, it has tried to sound the alarm. JLARC’s report, Data Centers in Virginia, released December 9, describes the challenges facing the state as a result of the massive, ongoing buildout of this resource-intensive industry. Many of JLARC’s conclusions seem way too sanguine to me, especially around risks to regional water supplies and air pollution from diesel generators, and the policy options it offers don’t always hit the mark.
Tisha Lewis Completes Special Report on Lynching
Local FOX 5 Washington DC reporter Tisha Lewis is doing a multi-part series special report “on 98 lynchings that took place across the Commonwealth and what members of the Loudoun County community are doing to memorialized those murdered and preserve the history. Many lynchings were covered in the local press — often in a matter-of-fact way.
RELATED: Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America Hardcover (1999)
RELATED: Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching Paperback (2009)
As defined by the NAACP, a lynching is the public killing of an individual who has not received any due process. These executions were often carried out by lawless mobs, though police officers did participate, under the pretext of justice. Lynchings were violent public acts that white people used to terrorize and control Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the South.
Reading List
1- Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey (Oct. 2024)
2- Positive, Successful, Stylish Black People Coloring Book (2024)
3- When Mayor Doug Wilder Ruled Richmond: Strong-Arm Politics in Virginia's Capital City by Linwoood Norman (Aug. 2024)
4- 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
5- Son of Virginia, A Life in America's Political Arena (2015) by L. Douglas Wilder
6- The New Jim Crow (2010) by Michelle Alexander
7- Remaking Virginia Politics by Paul Goldman (Jan. 2022)
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