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The percent positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in Virginia dipped below 5 percent for the first time in more than six months.Virginian-Pilot

In Virginia, 2021 was the best chance yet to elect a Black politician and possibly the first Black woman in any state to the governors mansion. But with five weeks until the commonwealths Democratic primary, Terry McAuliffe, its white male former governor, is on track to secure the nomination easily.Politico

Opponents of Del. Glenn Davis in the GOP nomination contest for lieutenant governor are turning to anti-LGBTQ messaging, including anonymous text messages that describe him as a gay Democrat and criticize his support for removing a now-defunct constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.Washington Post

Policing experts are divided on whether police correctly handled a traffic stop in Windsor that went viral after video showed officers pointing their guns at a U.S. Army lieutenant. I understand that they probably got their adrenaline pumped up because he wasnt pulling over right away. But they need to come down off of that high when they get into the gas station.Daily Press

Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, says she plans to reintroduce legislation that would stop local governments from keeping fines collected during traffic stops. Police are incentivized if theyre going to get money from it just to make more traffic stops, and a lot of time Black and brown folks are the people who are bearing the brunt of this.WVTF

Appalachian Power customers could see their monthly bills rise by $22 if it secures approval for a series of future rate hikes.Roanoke Times

Officials at Riverside Regional Jail in Prince George County are disputing a state panels recommendation that the facility be shut down, arguing that inmate deaths are not always preventable for any jail.Progress-Index

A strike at a Volvo plant in Pulaski County ended. Union leaders said workers achieved significant gains toward fair pay, benefits and job security protections, but details of the agreement are not yet public.Associated Press

Researchers from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Forest Service are studying sustainable production techniques for ramps, which are at risk from over-harvesting as their popularity with foragers continues.Roanoke Times

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Statewide percent positivity rate dips below 5 percent, Republican lieutenant gov candidate accused of being 'a gay Democrat,' restoring ramp...

Jonathan Capehart:

What stays with me, Judy, is what I told you Wednesday night, the idea that we have a president of the United States who speaks to the country, doesn't go on about grievance, doesn't go on about personal grievance, doesn't sprinkle his speech with white nationalism, isn't all me, me, me, me, me.

What we saw on Wednesday night was a president of the United States who was focused outward, many times in his speech, because of you, meaning because of you, meaning the American people, because of all of you, the folks in the room. It was about working together, solving the country's problems, or at least trying to.

And that, for me is the enduring image. And, also, you got the sense that, even with the sparse crowd in that room that could hold 1,600, but there were only 200, and socially distanced, at least for me, watching on television, there was still that energy there. There was still this optimism coming from President Biden, who, after, at that point, 99 98, 99 days, had accomplished a lot.

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Brooks and Capehart on Republican ideals, Biden's joint address and agenda - PBS NewsHour

Its the only strategy for a Republican Party that would rather lie than legislate.

That mendacity strategy has reached an insidious pitch. The New York Post, the conservative tabloid owned by Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, recently published a cover story about children at migrant centers receiving copies of Superheroes Are Everywhere, a picture book authored by Harris when she was a senator. Other media outlets fact-checked the story to pieces turns out there was a single copy at a center in Long Beach, Calif., donated at a book drive and Post officials acknowledged the story as fake. The reporter, who claims she was ordered to write it, resigned.

That only came after the GOP Outrage Machine cranked it up to 11. Various Fox News hosts yapped about it on their shows, including white supremacy avatar Tucker Carlson. Republicans including Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana posted angry tweets accusing Harris of profiting from the border crisis with books bought with taxpayer money.

At the same time, Larry Kudlow, Trumps former economic advisor, was spewing lies that Bidens Green New Deal targets would mean that America has to stop eating meat, stop eating poultry and fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and animal-based fats. Overheated and ridiculous, that fake news was kept afloat for days by right-wing media.

Yet even when the lies are debunked, the damage is already done.

And thats the goal. These mistruths have a social media afterlife unencumbered by facts. Its about lies fashioned to reinforce ideology and confirmation biases. Harris didnt put copies of her book into migrant centers for profit, but for those who already dislike her, it sounds like the kind of calculated thing they imagine she would do. Biden isnt taking away meat, seafood, or eggs, but it sounds like the sort of nanny-state nonsense that conservatives often accuse Democrats of concocting to curtail American freedoms and independence.

Taken at face value, it all seems silly, even harmless. Yet that obscures the darker underside of these constant falsehoods.

On Jan. 6, Michael Fanone, a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer, was pummeled by insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to thwart the certification of the 2020 presidential election. He suffered a heart attack and a concussion, but what has happened since the seditious riot has been no less painful.

Its been very difficult seeing elected officials and other individuals kind of whitewash the events of that day or downplay what happened, Fanone told CNNs Don Lemon in an emotional interview. Without mentioning the former president who incited his supporters to go to the Capitol, Fanone called his rhetoric dangerous.

Some Republicans, like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, claim that the insurrection, which killed five people and injured more than 130 police officers, was not an insurrection at all. That misdirection is working. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that about 50 percent of self-identified Republicans say the insurrection was a mostly nonviolent protest or was fueled by left-wing groups to make Trump look bad. And 60 percent are still clinging to the Big Lie that the election was stolen.

Of course, Republican disdain for the truth is nothing new. When Vincent Foster, a Clinton White House staffer and longtime friend of the president and first lady Hillary Clinton, died by suicide in 1993, conservatives accused the Clintons of murder. With Barack Obamas presidential candidacy came the racist birtherism movement falsely claiming that he was ineligible to run because he was born in Kenya. Then came the alarmist lies about so-called death panels, an attempt to derail passage of the Affordable Care Act, President Obamas signature achievement.

Its not an alternative reality. Its anti-reality, a fractured narrative of rumors and conspiracies designed to justify white fear and stoke its attendant rage.

GOP lies will only grow more grandiose and provocative in an attempt to upend the Biden presidency. And the closer we get to the crucial midterm elections next year, what Republicans may do or say to retake majority power in the House and Senate could make the Big Lie look like a dress rehearsal.

Rene Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.

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The Republican Partys big little lies - The Boston Globe

Washington Republican lawmakers were critical of President Biden's first address before a joint session of Congress, arguing that the president did not offer enough bipartisan outreach in his speech. Mr. Biden outlined his ambitious legislative agenda on Wednesday, calling on Congress to allocate trillions of dollars in spending to improve infrastructure, health care and education.

In the official Republican rebuttal to Mr. Biden's speech, Senator Tim Scott said that Mr. Biden "seems like a good man," but argued that his policies were divisive.

"His speech was full of good words. But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership," Scott said. "Our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart."

Republicans have balked at the price tags for Mr. Biden's American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, which he touted in his speech on Wednesday. He also called for raising taxes for the top 1% wealthiest Americans and corporations, which most Republicans oppose.

"There's just a lot of talk about new spending and a lot of talk about new taxes, I worry about the economy being able to handle that. So I just disagree with the president on higher taxes," Republican Senator Rob Portman told reporters Wednesday night.

The president promised on Wednesday that he would not impose any tax increases on Americans making under $400,000 per year, but argued that "it's time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1% of Americans to just begin to pay their fair share." He also proposed raising the top tax bracket for the wealthiest 1% of Americans to 39.6%, noting that this was the rate when George W. Bush became president.

"You have pretty expansive spending on top of spending with the only way to pay for it, is to go after taxes," Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters after the speech. "I think it makes it very difficult for it to be truly bipartisan."

Senator John Thune, the Republican minority whip, praised Mr. Biden's delivery but argued that his proposals for government spending would ultimately be unpopular with the American people.

"You're talking about a speech that's got massive expansive new government programs growth of government and lots in new taxes, so there isn't much in there that I can agree with," Thune told reporters. "But I thought he did a nice job, as he always does, of making his argument in a way that I think probably gives him the best chance of trying to win over the American people. But I think when they see when they drill down on the policies, they're going to discover that there's a lot there they're not going to like."

Republican Senator Mitt Romney told reporters that he thought the speech probably appealed to Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent who caucuses with Democrats and is famously one of the most progressive members of the Senate.

"I'm sure Bernie was happy," Romney said. "I think with the experience we've had with the $1.9 trillion rescue plan, he would like Republicans to vote for his plan. But in terms of meeting in the middle, that hasn't something hasn't been something the administration has shown yet."

Congress used budget reconciliation to pass the American Rescue Plan, allowing Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal to be approved without any Republican votes. Reconciliation is a complicated process that allows legislation to advance in the Senate with only a simple majority of votes, instead of the 60 that is typically required. As Democrats only control 50 seats, it is nearly impossible to garner support from 10 Republicans to advance their biggest legislative priorities. Democrats are considering using budget reconciliation again to pass the American Jobs Plan.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican senators have proposed their own $538 billion infrastructure bill as an alternative to Mr. Biden's plan. In his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Biden encouraged bipartisan action, but said that inaction was not an option.

"Vice President Harris and I meet regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the American Jobs Plan. And I applaud a group of Republican Senators who just put forward their proposal," Mr. Biden said.

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Republican lawmakers critical of Biden's first congressional address - CBS News

Good evening. Im Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina. We just heard President Bidens first address to Congress. Our president seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words. But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. You promise to unite a nation, to lower the temperature, to govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. This was the pitch. You just heard it again. But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that brings us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart. I wont waste your time with finger pointing or partisan bickering. You can get that on TV any time you want. I want to have an honest conversation about common sense, and common ground. About this feeling that our nation is sliding off its shared foundation and how we move forward together. Growing up, I never dreamed I would be standing here tonight. When I was a kid my parents divorced. My mother, my brother and I moved in with my grandparents. Three of us sharing one bedroom. I was disillusioned and angry. And I nearly failed out of school. But I was blessed. First with a praying mom. And let me say this to the single mothers out there who are working their tails off, working hard, trying to make the ends meet wondering if its worth it. You can bet it is. God bless your amazing effort on the part of your kids. I was also blessed by a Chick-fil-A operator, John Moniz. And finally, with a string of opportunities that are only possible here in America. This past year, Ive watched Covid attack every rung of the ladder that helped me up. So many families have lost parents and grandparents too early. So many small businesses have gone under. Becoming a Christian transformed my life. But for months, too many churches were shut down. Most of all Im saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to lose a single day. Locking vulnerable kids out of the classroom is locking adults out of their future. Our public schools should have reopened months ago, other countries did. Private and religious schools did. Science has shown for months that schools are safe. But too often powerful, grown ups set science aside and kids like me were left behind. The clearest case Ive seen for school choice in our lifetimes, because we know that education is the closest thing to magic in America. Last year, under Republican leadership, we passed five bipartisan Covid packages. Congress supported our schools, our hospitals, saved our economy and funded Operation Warp Speed, delivering vaccines in record time. All five bills got 90, 90 votes in the senate. Common sense found common ground. In February, Republicans told President Biden we wanted to keep working together to finish this fight. But Democrats wanted to go it alone. They spent almost $2 trillion on a partisan bill that the White House bragged was the most liberal bill in American history. Only 1% went to vaccinations, no requirement to reopen schools promptly. Covid brought Congress together 5 times. This administration pushed us apart. Another issue that should unite us is infrastructure. Republican support everything you think of when you think of infrastructure. Roads, bridges, ports, airports, waterways, high speed broadband, were in for all of that. But again, Democrats want a partisan wish list, they wont even build bridges to build bridges. Less than six percent, the presidents plan goes to roads and bridges. Its a liberal wish list of big government waste. Plus the biggest job killing tax hikes in a generation. Experts say when all is said and done, it would lower wages of the average American worker and shrink our economy. Tonight, we also heard about a so-called family plan. Even more taxing, even more spending to put Washington even more in the middle of your life from the cradle to college. The beauty of the American dream is that families get to define it for themselves. We should be expanding opportunities and options for all families, not throwing money at certain issues because Democrats think they know best. Infrastructure spending that shrinks our economy is not common sense. Weakening our southern borders and creating a crisis is not compassionate. The president is also abandoning principles hes held for decades. Now he says your tax dollars should fund abortions. Hes laying groundwork to pack the Supreme Court. This is not common ground. Nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than in our discussions of race. I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while Im shopping. I remember every morning at the kitchen table, my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it, I thought. But later I realized he had never learned to read it. He just wanted to set the right example. Ive also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives, by liberals. Just last week, a national newspaper suggested my familys poverty was actually privilege. Because a relative owned land generations before my time. Believe me, I know firsthand our healing is not finished. In 2015 after the shooting of Walter Scott, I wrote a bill to fund body cameras. Last year after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, I built an even bigger police reform proposal. But my Democratic colleagues blocked it. I extended an olive branch. I offered amendments. But Democrats used the filibuster to block the debate from even happening. My friends across the aisle seemed to want the issue more than they wanted a solution. But Im still working. Im hopeful that this will be different. When America comes together, weve made tremendous progress, but powerful forces want to pull us apart. 100 years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic. And if they looked a certain way, they were inferior. Today kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again. And if you look a certain way, theyre an oppressor. From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we havent made any progress at all. By doubling down on the divisions weve worked so hard to heal. You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly. America is not a racist country. Its backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination, and its wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present. Im an African-American whos voted in the South my entire life. I take voting rights personally. Republicans support making it easier to vote and harder to cheat. And so do the voters. Big majorities of Americans support early voting, and big majorities support voter I.D. including African-Americans and Hispanics. Common sense makes common ground. But today, this conversation has collapsed. The state of Georgia passed a law that expands early voting, preserves no excuse mail in voting, and despite what the president claimed, did not reduce election day hours. If you actually read this law, its mainstream. It will be easier to vote early in Georgia than in Democrat-run New York. But the left doesnt want you to know that. that they want people virtue signaling by yelling about a law they havent even read. Fact checkers have called out the White House for misstatements. The president absurdly claims that this is worse than Jim Crow. What is going on here? Ill tell you. A Washington power grab. This misplaced outrage is supposed to justify democrats new sweeping bill that would take over elections for all 50 states. It would send public funds to political campaigns you disagree with and make the bi-partisan Federal Elections Commission partisan. This is not about civil rights or our racial past. Its about rigging elections in the future. And no, the same filibuster that President Obama and President Biden praised when they were senators, the same filibuster that the Democrats used to kill my police reform bill last year has not suddenly become a racist relic just because the shoe is now on the other foot. Race is not a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants. Its far too important. This should be a joyful springtime for our nation. This administration inherited a tide that had already turned. The coronavirus is on the run. Thanks to Operation Warp Speed and the Trump administration, our country is flooded with safe and effective vaccines. Thanks to our bipartisan work last year, job openings are rebounding. So why do we feel so divided? Anxious. A nation with so much cause for hope should not feel so heavy laden. A president who promised to bring us together should not be pushing agendas that tear us apart. The American Family deserves better. And we know what better looks like. Just before Covid, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime. The lowest unemployment rates ever recorded for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. And a 70 year low nearly, for women. Wages for, hear me, wages were growing faster at the bottom than at the top. The bottom 25% saw their wages go up faster than the top 25%. That happened because Republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all Americans. In addition to that, we passed opportunity zones, criminal justice reform, and permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities for the first time ever. We fought the drug epidemic, rebuilt our military, and cut taxes for working families and single moms like the one that raised me. Our best future will not come from Washington schemes or socialist dreams. It will come from you, the American people. Black, Hispanic, white and Asian. Republican and Democrat. Brave police officers in Black neighborhoods. We are not adversaries. We are family. We are all in this together. And we get to live in the greatest country on Earth. The country, where my grandfather in his 94 years saw his family go from cotton to Congress in one lifetime. So I am more than hopeful. I am confident that our finest hour has yet to come. Original sin is never the end of the story. Not in our souls and not for our nation. The real story is always redemption. I am standing here because my mom has prayed me through some really tough times. I believe our nation has succeeded the same way. Because generations of Americans in their own ways have asked for grace and God has supplied it. So I will close with a word from a worship song that really helped me through this past year of Covid. The music is new, but the words draw from scripture. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May his presence go before you and behind you and beside you. In your weeping and your rejoicing. He is for you. May his favor be upon our nation for thousand generations. And your family and your children and their children. Good night. And God bless the United States of America.

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Tim Scott Will Deliver the Republican's Rebuttal to Biden - The New York Times