Some governors balk at Trump request to send troops to DC

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Some governors are rejecting President Donald Trump’s request to send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., for a massive militarized show of force in the nation’s capital after several days of unrest over the death of George Floyd.

Several states, including New York and Virginia, have so far rejected the request, with at least one governor citing Trump’s rhetoric about using troops to “dominate” protesters as a reason why. All of those states are led by Democrats. Meanwhile, several other states around the country are sending troops to Washington with more expected in coming days.

The Trump administration has asked multiple states to send troops to Washington at the same time as the president derided many governors as “weak” for not using the National Guard more aggressively in their own states.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam rejected a personal appeal from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday to send thousands of the state’s National Guard members to Washington D.C., the governor’s office said. Northam said he was concerned that the Trump administration would misuse the troops to escalate tensions.

Read more: https://apnews.com/2c29d763ccf5bceb03700ddf9f87f94d

'Agitators' mar peaceful protests in Fredericksburg, leading to arrests

A day that featured Fredericksburg police officers marching with Black Lives Matter protesters and city officials vowing to address concerns raised by mostly younger residents took a slight turn for the worse Tuesday evening.

City police spokeswoman Sarah Kirkpatrick said a group of “agitators” put a damper on what had been a promising day by blocking city streets, throwing bottles at officers and refusing to obey the 8 p.m. curfew that has been imposed in the city. She said the agitators may not have been the same people who had protested peacefully during the day.

As of Tuesday night, several people had already been arrested or received summonses and police were still trying to get things under control.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Kirkpatrick said. “After a very peaceful protest of 400 people, agitators came in and brought violence to our city.”

Read more: https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/agitators-mar-peaceful-protests-in-fredericksburg-leading-to-arrests/article_9b5a89fb-2e2a-5ef1-a7cc-0b86034e8445.html

Richmond leaders want Confederate monuments removed. A small-town mayor is ready to take them.

As protesters celebrated the state's impending removal of the Robert E. Lee memorial on Richmond's historic Monument Avenue on Wednesday, Col. Greg Eanes made his move.

The outgoing mayor of the tiny town of Crewe, in consultation with his successor, sent a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam offering to take in the Confederate general. He's open to Jefferson Davis, too; anything that could bring in tourism dollars to help the town pay for upgrades to a century-old water and sewer system and keep Crewe from needing to raise taxes on people who can't afford to pay them.

"Green is the most important color," said Eanes, 61, a retired service member who joined the Air Force after 9/11 and ultimately returned to his hometown of Crewe, a 2-square-mile slice of Nottoway County about an hour southwest of Richmond. "If I could get a statue of Lenin or Josef Stalin, I would take it."

Northam on Thursday is expected to order Lee removed from his pedestal and placed in storage. The state-owned statue became the epicenter of protests against police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis after Richmond police tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators there on Monday.

Read more: https://www.richmond.com/news/local/richmond-leaders-want-confederate-monuments-removed-a-small-town-mayor-is-ready-to-take-them/article_a0583665-36f9-5e15-8c81-1fe18c8cfd20.html

Texans could receive up to a year of unemployment benefits under second extension of aid

Texans receiving unemployment could be eligible for a total of 52 weeks of benefits — double the typical amount of time aid is available — as the state triggered an extended benefits period, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

Unemployed Texans have historically received up to 26 weeks of benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor notified the Texas Workforce Commission on Monday that the state triggered what's called State Extended Benefits, which provides 13 additional weeks of unemployment aid. That comes after a federal coronavirus relief bill previously extended some unemployment benefits for 13 weeks under what's called Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

The first week Texans could start receiving these newest extended benefits is the week ending July 4, which is 13 weeks after the PEUC extension took effect in the state. People must first exhaust the standard 26 weeks, plus the additional 13 weeks under PEUC, before receiving the additional 13 weeks of extended benefits, said Cisco Gamez, spokesperson for the commission. Self-employed workers and gig employees — who newly became eligible for unemployment because of the federal coronavirus relief bill — can also receive extended benefits, Gamez said.

PEUC provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits and is available through the week ending Dec. 26. Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation offers an additional $600 in benefits per week and is available until the week ending July 25.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/03/texas-unemployment-coronavirus-extension/

Jimmy Kimmel on Protests, Trump's Bible Photo Op & White Privilege

Nov. 2, 1920: The Ocoee Massacre

In response to an attempt by African Americans to exercise their legal and democratic right to vote, at least 50 African Americans were murdered in a brutal massacre in Ocoee, Florida on Nov. 2, 1920 in what is now called the Ocoee Massacre.

Here is a description from “Ocoee On Fire: The 1920 Election Day Massacre: A quiet Florida citrus town became the scene of a gruesome racial cleansing that purged the entire Black population for over 60 years”:

Black Liberty University alums rebuke Falwell after tweet about Northam blackface mask

NEW YORK — Nearly three dozen black alumni of Liberty University denounced school President Jerry Falwell Jr. on Monday, suggesting he step down after he mocked Virginia’s mask-wearing requirement by invoking the blackface scandal that engulfed Gov. Ralph Northam last year.

In a letter to Falwell, shared with The Associated Press, 35 faith leaders and former student-athletes told Falwell that his past comments “have repeatedly violated and misrepresented” Christian principles.

They said they would stop urging students to attend Liberty, would no longer donate to the university, and would urge fellow people of faith to avoid speaking at the school unless Falwell changes his behavior or steps aside.

“You have belittled staff, students and parents, you have defended inappropriate behaviors of politicians, encouraged violence, and disrespected people of other faiths,” they wrote, advising Falwell that “your heart is in politics more than Christian academia or ministry.”

Read more: https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/black-liberty-university-alums-rebuke-falwell-after-tweet-about-northam-blackface-mask/article_d7255d4b-2329-5e10-9863-f52f1f98c8c6.html

Richmond Is Burning, Again

Protesters in Richmond set fire to the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters and covered Confederate memorials with graffiti during a second night of outrage and violence Saturday that saw one person shot, businesses around the city looted and storefronts torched.

Mayor Levar Stoney condemned the destruction, which has played out in cities across the country following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Stoney announced Sunday morning that Gov. Ralph Northam had granted his request for a curfew and said the National Guard was on standby to help enforce it.

Police said one person in a vehicle was shot by a protester and the victim is in life-threatening condition. In a separate incident, police said protesters set fire to a home occupied by a child and blocked the Fire Department from responding.

“We can not sit here idly and tell everyone here that these actions are productive – because they’re not,” Stoney said. “When you block law enforcement from allowing fire services to get to a home, an occupied home that has caught fire, you are not inspiring change.”

Read more: https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/richmond-is-burning-again/Content?oid=16109298

In Virginia Beach, a protest ended violently. Police and protesters are at odds over who is to blame

When Taniiaah Lewis got to the Oceanfront around 8 p.m. Sunday, she was a little nervous.

She heard there would be a protest happening and was going by herself. It would be her third of the weekend, after ones in Norfolk and Hampton.

Her unease dissolved when she saw how many people were there: enough to span four or five blocks, she estimates.

“I was overwhelmed by how much support I saw,” she said. “It was like, refreshing to know that I wasn’t the only one frustrated. I wasn’t the only one that felt the way I felt, especially seeing the diversity in the crowd.”

Read more: https://www.pilotonline.com/cities/virginia-beach/vp-nw-oceanfront-witnesses-20200601-lapmgybenrburgsc27gfnjdp6m-story.html

Comments by Virginia Members of Congress on Trump's "Betraying the Very Foundation of the Rule of