State Senate approves constitutional amendments
for voters' consideration
Posted By: FormerDem, 1/16/2026 4:38:10 PM
The whole of Virginia's General Assembly has approved four constitutional amendments — on abortion and reproductive health care, the automatic restoration of voting rights, marriage equality and mid-decade redistricting — after the state Senate's Friday vote. With the draft amendments passing both chambers in consecutive years, with a House of Delegates election in the middle, Virginia voters will now have the last say in a multi-year process on whether to enshrine in the constitution: A fundamental right to reproductive care, including access to abortion, contraception and fertility treatments
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FormerDem"
The whole of Virginia's General Assembly has approved four constitutional amendments — on abortion and reproductive health care, the automatic restoration of voting rights, marriage equality and mid-decade redistricting — after the state Senate's Friday vote.
With the draft amendments passing both chambers in consecutive years, with a House of Delegates election in the middle, Virginia voters will now have the last say in a multi-year process on whether to enshrine in the constitution:
A fundamental right to reproductive care, including access to abortion, contraception and fertility treatments
The Labour Party chairman has repeatedly refused to rule out delaying the next general election after scrapping council elections next year. Anna Turley MP left Sky News host Trevor Phillips stunned as she was given repeated opportunities to rule out the idea.... Mr Phillips pointed to this week’s move to scrap up to 63 council elections next year, on top of delaying votes on new mayors. Labour has blamed the delays on reorganisations of local government, prompting the interviewer to ask whether Sir Keir Starmer may find an excuse to avoid going to the polls in 2029.
Justice Secretary David Lammy is proposing to massively restrict the ancient right to a jury trial by only guaranteeing it for defendants facing rape, murder, manslaughter or other cases passing a public interest test.
An internal government briefing, produced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for all other Whitehall departments, confirms plans to create a new tier of jury-less courts in England and Wales.
The new courts would deal with most crimes currently considered by juries in Crown Court.
But the MoJ said no final decision had been taken by the government.
The Prime Minister is set to approve plans for a controversial Chinese "super embassy" in central London, Sky News understands.
A final decision on the planning application for the former Royal Mint site near the Tower of London is due on 10 December, after numerous previous delays.
The proposal is highly politically sensitive due to concerns about Chinese espionage activities in the UK, inflamed by the collapse of a recent court case involving two men accused of spying for China.
For 33 days, a wounded Ukrainian soldier lay trapped behind enemy lines; a tourniquet the only thing keeping him alive after a landmine shattered his foot.
Six rescue missions failed. The escape vehicles were destroyed in the “kill zone”, where drones and mines make undetected movement nearly impossible.
But his comrades did not concede defeat.
On the seventh attempt, an armoured unmanned vehicle crawled over 40 miles along enemy lines in a meticulous five-hour-and-58-minute mission – battered by blasts, slowed by a damaged wheel – emerging against the odds.
Two years ago, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani sponsored a bill that would strip away the tax-exempt status of local charities with ties to Israeli settler groups that forcibly occupy the Palestinian West Bank.
When the effort went nowhere, he pushed a revised version of the bill, known as the “Not On Our Dime” Act, the following year. It failed as well.
Now, with Mr. Mamdani considered the front-runner in the New York City mayoral race, he may soon be in a position to use his power to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinians. He has called its actions in Gaza a genocide.
It was a moment that some have compared to Barack Obama’s landmark 2008 speech about race, inequality and unity in American politics.
In the closing weeks of the mayoral campaign, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner, veered off from the economic message he has clung to doggedly for more than a year.
“I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City,” he said.
... tearfully, describing his experiences with his faith, identity and Islamophobia, ...
“No longer will I live in the shadows,” he said.
Scores of people have been killed in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their recent capture of the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region, according to a medical group and researchers.
The RSF, which has been fighting Sudan’s military for control of the country, killed at least 1,500 people over the past three days as civilians tried to flee the besieged city, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Wednesday. The group, which tracks the country’s civil war, described the situation as “a true genocide”.
Good morning. The horrors that unfolded across social media over the past week have laid bare another devastating chapter in Sudan’s civil war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been locked in a brutal conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than two years, seized a key military base in the city of El Fasher over the weekend. After the capture, the RSF was accused of killing more than 2,000 unarmed civilians, with Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab calling the level of violence comparable to the first 24 hours of the Rwandan genocide.
The most audacious anti-government protest inside China for years took months of elaborate planning.
Qi Hong, a former factory worker, first had to source a powerful enough projector to display his message onto a high rise building.
Then he had to install the device, covering his tracks as he prepared to stage the demonstration on the eve of China’s massive military parade, hosted by leader Xi Jinping.
And finally, he had to get to a safe distance.
When the lights flickered on – illuminating in giant letters “Down with red fascism; overthrow the tyranny of the Communist Party” – Mr Qi was somewhere in Britain, hiding with his family.
Peace after conquest
3 replies
The Armenia–Azerbaijan peace summit can be claimed as the most significant achievement of President Donald Trump’s second-term foreign policy. As his administration constantly reminds us, Trump, a man chasing the ever-elusive Nobel Peace Prize, is the “peace president”—so much so that he is seeking peace in the badlands of Eastern Europe/Western Asia, where three Huntingtonian civilizational blocs (Western, Islamic, and Orthodox) clash, and in the chronically bloody Middle East. The admin also reminds us that he has settled wars between Thailand and Cambodia (true), India and Pakistan (debatable), and a variety of African ethnic groups (partially true).
Donald Trump signs executive order allowing
illegal immigrants to book 'free flights
out of US' 18 replies
illegal immigrants to book 'free flights
out of US' 18 replies
Donald Trump has signed a new executive order launching what he called the “first ever self-deportation programme,” allowing undocumented immigrants to leave the United States at no cost, with flights booked via a new government-backed app.
In a video posted on Truth Social, the president said: “Today I signed an executive order to launch the first ever self-deportation program for illegal aliens. We are making it as easy as possible for illegal aliens to leave America. Any illegal alien can simply show up at an airport and receive a free flight out of our country.”
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European troops arrive in Greenland as
talks with US highlight ‘disagreement’
over island’s future 26 replies
talks with US highlight ‘disagreement’
over island’s future 26 replies
NUUK, Greenland — Troops from several European countries continued to arrive in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support for Denmark as talks between representatives of Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. highlighted “fundamental disagreement” over the future of the Arctic island.
Denmark announced it would increase its military presence in Greenland on Wednesday as foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland were preparing to meet with White House representatives in Washington. Several European partners — including France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands — started sending symbolic numbers of troops already on Wednesday or promised to do so in the following days.
President Donald Trump's push to seize Greenland might be the least popular idea in American political history.
Is that hyperbole? If so, that's only because reliable and fast public polling is a relatively recent development within our 250-year experiment in self-governance.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found a staggering 4 percent of Americans favor the idea of seizing Greenland with military force. Among Republicans, the idea is actually twice as popular: 8 percent say taking the island is a "good idea."
Trump advisor Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News, and he reminded the men and women of ICE that the administration had their back, no matter how much Democrat politicians and leftist agitators tried to attack them. (Snip) At this point, Democrats are completely off the rails. We've already seen some of the crazy comments from people like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
But I guess Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) wanted to try to challenge them for the worst possible take. This is truly insane. Democrats have lost their minds.
Governor Tim Walz encouraged Minnesota residents to carry their phones at all times to record federal immigration actions, promising during a statewide address on Wednesday night that "accountability is coming" for abuses by Federal officers. Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution" (snip.) "News reports simply don't do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma the federal government is raining down upon our communities," Walz said.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, has its priorities out of order.
As chaos unfolds due to leftist agitators and rioters harassing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers trying to apprehend illegal aliens, city officials are offering employees healing circles and baby “therapy goats.”
In an email screenshotted and uploaded to social media platform X on Thursday, Minneapolis City Attorney Kristyn Anderson announced that a healing circle would be provided “as a quiet, supportive environment for connection and presence.” After mentioning the goats were also available, she warmly told her colleagues they are “welcome to simply sit, listen, and be in community with another.”
The President Receives a Historic Gift
18 replies
On Thursday afternoon, I wrote about how María Corina Machado visited the White House and had lunch with Donald Trump. While I was writing that article, some rumors were circulating about a big gesture she made, but I couldn't confirm them at the time. Now I can. The Venezuelan opposition leader, on behalf of her people, gave the president her Nobel Peace Prize. Not a replica. The real thing. Since the meeting was purposely kept private, I wasn't sure that a photo would surface, but one got out, and as of late Thursday night, both the White House and Machado have shared it on social media.
Minnesota residents of Somali descent and Hispanic heritage are suing President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to effectively shut down federal immigration enforcement across the state.
On Thursday, the left-wing American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing Somali immigrant Mubashir Khalif Hussen, Mahamed Eydarus, who is American and of Somali descent, and Javier Doe, a Hispanic American, filed suit against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons, among other agency officials.
The lawsuit is asking a federal court to issue a statewide injunction to stop what it calls “unlawful policies and practices” being carried out by ICE agents, including allegations of racial profiling.
President Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act against Minnesota if the state declines to stop rioters from attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Under the Insurrection Act, the president can deploy the military and federalize the National Guard in response to civil disorder or an armed rebellion against the US government.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me,” Trump warned on Truth Social.
Former vice president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff purchased an $8 million mansion in an exclusive oceanside Malibu neighborhood last month. The move came after Harris spent years warning that such communities could be threatened by the "climate crisis."
A real estate listing for the mansion, reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, says the luxury pad is "perched in a prime coastal location" with "breathtaking ocean views." The property sits right near a coastline that—according to climate scenarios endorsed by Harris—is at risk of facing extreme flooding. A climate model issued by the Biden-Harris administration determined that Point Dume State Beach, the beach a short walk
It's no understatement to say that the 2006 documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" changed the direction of public policy. And in fact, that's exactly what failed presidential candidate Al Gore intended the film to do. Fortunately for him, he found a willing audience of Hollywood celebrities and left-wing media outlets to uncritically promote his ideology and activism.
Unfortunately for him, 2006 is now far enough in the past that we can test some of the predictions, claims, and statements of fact he makes in that film. So that's exactly what we did.
Fox News host Griff Jenkins told Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey point-blank on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are in his city to detain illegal immigrant criminals.
Frey called on ICE to “get the f*** out” of Minneapolis in the aftermath of Renee Good’s death, who was shot by an ICE agent after she appeared to accelerate her car toward the officer during an enforcement operation.
Jenkins and Frey sparred on “Fox & Friends” while the host noted that ICE operations have ramped up across the U.S. to arrest illegal immigrants who crossed the border during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Mr. Mayor, you ask ICE to get the
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson managed to completely butcher the English language, leading to widespread mockery online.
As CBS reported, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday on whether laws from Idaho and West Virginia that ban biological males from playing in girls’ and women’s sports violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and the landmark law known as Title IX.
Two bio males, Lindsay Hecox of Idaho and Becky Pepper-Jackson of West Virginia, sued their respective states, claiming they discriminate based on sex and transgender status. They claim the states’ laws ban every ‘transgender’ female from school sports, and treat them worse than others.
This is, of course, not true.
Comments:
The extreme abortion amendment, which will proceed to a referendum for voters to decide later this year, would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed. It would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction. Among numerous other problems, it would severely jeopardize Virginia’s parental consent law, health and safety standards for women, conscience protections for healthcare providers, and restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions. Most tragically of all, the extreme abortion amendment provides no protections whatsoever for preborn children. Parental rights and the health and well-being of minors must be defended. So too must religious liberty. No one should ever be forced to pay for or participate in an abortion. Health and safety should be enhanced, not diminished. Most importantly, human life is sacred. The lives of vulnerable mothers and their preborn children must always be welcomed, cared for, and protected. The proposed abortion amendment will appear on a ballot later this year. So too will a measure we oppose that would repeal the one-man/one-woman marriage provision approved by Virginia voters in 2006, as well as an initiative we support to restore voting rights to all who have completed their prison sentences. That is Knestout's summary and I can't improve on it.