Poke the Bear

  Read Score 79 OKAY   Engagement 97 GOOD   Sentiment 61 POOR     The meeting was a wide-ranging current-affairs briefing touching on local incidents, national politics and policy, international security developments, cultural controversies, and technical and public-health items. Local and state issues included Consumer Energy’s request for about $456 million in rate increases to fund infrastructure and line undergrounding, local service outages and public complaints about outage impacts, a highway mowing accident involving a state employee who was airlifted, a beer distributor strike causing supply disruptions, and a postal worker charged with stealing rebate checks with potential federal mail charges. ICE enforcement at a Mexican restaurant was discussed as an example of rural economic vulnerability to labor shifts. Virginia-specific items reviewed included a fatal shooting among sailors tied to an infant’s death and recent state gun restrictions banning firearms in hospitals while allowing armed private security in certain cases.