FXBG Advance Wednesday 7/8/26 Newsletter
Donnie Johnston: You Think THIS Is Hot? Bruce Saller: New Generation of Sailboats Could Revolutionize Global Transport System. Phil Huber: Immunity for Trump, Not for You: A Warning to His Enablers.
You Think THIS Is Hot?
By Donnie Johnston, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
Many people simply do not understand nature.
They stare in unbelieving horror at the TV screen when the weatherman predicts scorching days in July.
“What! Where did all this heat come from?!!?
Apparently, they were absent the day their sixth-grade science teacher talked about the seasons.
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Immunity for Trump, Not for You: A Warning to His Enablers
By Phil Huber, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
A Pardon for Yesterday Is Not a License for Tomorrow
If you are working in or around this administration and you are being asked to cut corners, hide records, rig contracts, falsify reports, pressure investigators, or look the other way, stop and think very hard. Presidential immunity is not your immunity. A pardon, if you ever get one, is not a lifetime shield. The people who help turn government into a protection racket often end up paying the price long after the president leaves office.
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New Generation of Sailboats Could Revolutionize Global Transport System
Bruce Saller, ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
The global transport company Dalsey, Hillblom, and Lynn (DHL) has signed a contract with the French company Vela to produce large sailboats to transport cargo between Europe and the US. The 220-foot-long trimarans (three hulls) will be able to carry 600 European Union pallets weighing up to 458 tons.
The ships are expected to travel at 16 miles per hour with an estimated crossing time of about two weeks. (The typical container ship takes nine days to make the trip). The initial route will be between Caen-Ouistreham, France, and New Haven, Connecticut, with service starting in early 2027.
And that’s not all.
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New News from Around the State
VaNews/Virginia Public Access Project
Court battles leave Virginia’s new assault weapons ban in legal limbo
By MARKUS SCHMIDT, Virginia Mercury
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones joined more than two dozen local officials, clergy members and lawmakers in Petersburg Tuesday to discuss gun violence prevention as Virginia’s new assault weapons ban — barely a week old — remains tied up in a series of legal challenges that have essentially stalled enforcement across the commonwealth. The one-hour roundtable at Good Shepherd Baptist Church came as several firearms restrictions signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Abigail Spanberger and in effect since July 1 remain tangled in overlapping state and federal court fights, setting up what could become a lengthy legal battle over one of the most sweeping gun-control measures ever approved in Virginia.
Could marijuana distribution in Virginia already be legal?
By PETER DUJARDIN AND KATE SELTZER, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
According to the top prosecutor in Williamsburg and James City County, marijuana distribution in Virginia might now be legal — a year earlier than expected — based on what he says is an apparent mistake in the recently passed state budget. But the Virginia Division of Legislative Services — the agency responsible for drafting legislation and providing nonpartisan legal and research services to the General Assembly — disagrees.
Virginia defends tuition assistance for immigrants in federal court
By JOE DODSON, Courthouse News Service
Virginia defended a policy allowing immigrant students to qualify for in-state tuition assistance in a federal court Tuesday as public universities begin preparing for the fall semester. The commonwealth and the Justice Department’s civil division each argued for summary judgment on a challenge to two Virginia laws that provide in-state tuition assistance. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Payne, a George H.W. Bush appointee, did not indicate when he would issue a ruling.
Virginia keeps foot on accelerator as No. 1 for custom talent
By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Subscription Required)
With CNBC soon to reveal the “Best State for Business,” Virginia is keeping its foot on the gas with a customized workforce training program that just won the top ranking by Business Facilities magazine for the fourth consecutive year. Business Facilities announced late last month that the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, now in its seventh year, was again the best in the nation in customized workforce training, with the full report and rankings published in the national magazine this month. The magazine gave Texas top marks for best business climate, with Virginia finishing in the top 10.
Climate cash is about to pour into East Coast states. Here’s why.
By ADAM ATON, E&E News
East Coast states face a surprising opportunity in the midst of the fossil-fuel-focused Trump presidency: hundreds of millions of dollars in new climate funding. Money is pouring in from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the cap-and-trade system for the electricity sector in 11 states. In the first half of 2026, RGGI auctions brought in about $1.3 billion by selling allowances for power plants to emit climate pollution. That’s a 70 percent jump from the same period last year, thanks to soaring power demand, Virginia’s reentry into RGGI and a Trump-shaped bottleneck in renewable energy development.
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