Tweet of the Day

Electricity retailer Griddy's unusual plea to Texas customers: Leave now before you get a big bill

Some retail power companies in Texas are making an unusual plea to their customers amid a deep freeze that has sent electricity prices skyrocketing: Please, leave us.

Power supplier, Griddy, told all 29,000 of its customers that they should switch to another provider as spot electricity prices soared to as high as $9,000 a megawatt-hour. Griddy’s customers are fully exposed to the real-time swings in wholesale power markets, so those who don’t leave soon will face extraordinarily high electricity bills.

“We made the unprecedented decision to tell our customers — whom we worked really hard to get — that they are better off in the near term with another provider,” said Michael Fallquist, chief executive officer of Griddy. “We want what’s right by our consumers, so we are encouraging them to leave. We believe that transparency and that honesty will bring them back” once prices return to normal.

Texas is home to the most competitive electricity market in America. Homeowners and businesses churn power providers there like credit cards. In the face of such cutthroat competition, retail power providers in the region have grown accustomed to offering new customers incredibly low rates, incentives and, at least in Griddy’s case, unusual plans that allow customers to pay wholesale power prices as opposed to fixed ones.

The ruthless nature of the business has power traders speculating over which firms might have been caught short this week in the most dramatic run-up in spot power prices they’ve ever seen.

Not all companies are asking customers to leave. Others are just pleading for them to cut back.



https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2021/02/16/electricity-retailer-griddys-unusual-plea-to-texas-customers-leave-now-before-you-get-a-big-bill/

VA-GOV: The Virginia G.O.P. Voted on Its Future. The Losers Reject the Results.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Republican Party of Virginia has voted four times since December to nominate its candidates for this year’s statewide races at a convention instead of in a primary election. But in a sign of the Trumpian times of denial and dispute in the G.O.P., nearly half of the party’s top officials keep trying to reverse the results and get a primary.

The refusal of these Republicans to admit they have lost, or to agree on a set of nominating rules, has fractured a state party already in upheaval: Republicans haven’t won a statewide election since 2009, and they now find themselves with legislative minorities for the first time in a generation. Even the broken windows at the state party’s Richmond headquarters haven’t been fixed for months.

Just a month after former President Donald J. Trump left office, Virginia’s drama is the first state-level boomerang of his legacy. Some state Republicans have internalized the lesson that there is no benefit to accepting results they don’t like, and the result is a paralyzed party unable to set the date, location and rules for how and when it will pick its 2021 nominees for statewide office, including the race for governor.

The intraparty dispute has scrambled longstanding political alliances and left Virginia Republicans in the awkward position of defending stances that were once anathema to a party that has been redefined by the Trump era.




https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/us/politics/virginia-republicans-governor.html

NYC-MYR: NYC's largest union endorses Maya Wiley in mayoral race

New York City’s largest union on Friday threw its support behind the mayoral campaign of Maya Wiley, a former MSNBC analyst and legal counsel for Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), giving her bid a shot in the arm in an unwieldy Democratic primary field.

The endorsement from the union, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), marks one of the first announcements of support by a major labor group in the mayoral race, which has already garnered about two dozen Democratic contenders. The union was a chief endorser of de Blasio’s 2013 bid, which helped burnish his argument for electability in a similarly broad primary battle.

“Maya Wiley has the experience and vision needed to move us forward, and to reimagine what our city can be when working people have access to the tools and support needed to live with dignity,” said George Gresham, president of 1199. “Maya’s priorities are our priorities — from investing in and fairly compensating our caregivers to rebuilding our economy through job creation and training.”

The SEIU chapter’s backing is a major win for Wiley, who is polling in the top tier of the crowd and trying to bolster her progressive bona fides ahead of the June primary. Local 1199 represents more than 200,000 health care workers, including many women of color and essential employees who have continued working through the pandemic.

The union touted the need for Democrats to recognize the impact Black women such as Wiley had on the party’s successes in 2020, including taking back the Senate and winning the White House, a message that can go a long way in a city that has never elected a Black woman as its executive.





https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/539639-nycs-largest-union-endorses-maya-wiley-in-mayoral-race

DCEU Casts Its First Latina Supergirl to Debut in The Flash Film

The Young and the Restless star Sasha Calle will play Supergirl in the upcoming DC Extended Universe Flash solo film.

"I saw more than four hundred auditions. The US,Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia," director Andy Muschietti told Deadline. "The talent pool was truly amazing and it was very hard to make a decision, but we finally found an actress who was destined to play this role." Notably, none of those auditioning were told which role they were trying out for.

Supergirl is just the latest addition to a Flash film that's expected to draw from Flashpoint and feature multiversal elements. This includes multiple Batman in Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck.



https://www.cbr.com/dceu-supergirl-flash-sasha-calle/

REPORT: Star Wars Casts Aladdin's Mena Massoud as Live-Action Ezra Bridger

Disney+ may have found its Ezra Bridger for multiple live-action Star Wars shows on its roster, including Ahsoka. Mena Massoud, best known for 2019's Aladdin, is reportedly the top choice for the character.

Massoud has not yet entered into an official agreement with Disney, and the studio has not made an announcement on the casting; however, he has been in talks for the role, according to the Kessel Run Transmissions YouTube channel.

Ezra Bridger comes from Star Wars Rebels, which one of the franchise's canon animated series set in the timeline before A New Hope. During that series, Ezra is in training to become a Jedi. If Massoud assumes the role, it will mark the first time that the character has appeared in live action, much like Rosario Dawson's portrayal of Ahsoka Tano.




https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-mena-massoud-ezra-bridger/

Pennsylvania cop arrested, charged with pushing police during Capitol riot

Federal authorities are charging a Pennsylvania police officer over his involvement in the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.

Joseph Fischer, a patrolman at North Cornwall Township Police Department, is being charged with obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority, violent entry and conduct on Capitol grounds, and obstruction of justice/Congress.

The charges come after authorities said Fischer posted video of himself on Facebook charging a line of police officers on Capitol Hill during the insurrection, which unsuccessfully tried to prevent Congress’s certification of the Electoral College results.

Fischer wrote in one Facebook comment that “entry into the Capital was needed to send a message that we the people hold the real power.” He added in a private message that he “may need a job” after it was revealed he participated in the insurrection.




https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/539699-pennsylvania-cop-arrested-charged-with-pushing-police-during

Just finished this week's 'Wandavision' (No Spoilers)

Make sure you watch the end credits for Episode 7.

Bonus Tweet of the Day

PA-SEN: State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta Announces Bid for Pa. Senate

North Philly State Rep. and local community activist Malcolm Kenyatta has officially entered the race for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat in 2022.

Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) made the announcement Thursday night while speaking with Joy Reid on MSNBC and later on his Twitter page.

A graduate of Philly public schools and Temple University, Kenyatta, 30, was elected to serve as state representative for the 181st district (Philadelphia County) in 2018.

Kenyatta also serves as vice chair of the Philadelphia House Delegation and is a member of Governor Wolf’s Taskforce on Suicide Prevention.



https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/state-rep-malcolm-kenyatta-announces-bid-for-pa-senate/2710993/