Political Beat: President Biden returned from Europe to shaky political ground with voters not thrilled about the performance of Democrats in office.

  After a Republican won the governor’s office in Virginia, a state Biden won last year, New Jersey’s incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy barely survived the vote which wasn’t called until last night. Murphy won by a single percent.

  Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin deftly handled an endorsement by Donald Trump, getting voters to focus on the new wedge issues, in particular the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” in public school.

  Younkin partnered up with Winsome Sears, who’s now the first woman in Virginia history elected to lieutenant governor and first woman of color elected to state office.

  The Marine veteran issued a campaign ad that featured her stone-faced posing in a dress and blazer bearing an assault rifle.

  Up in Buffalo, NY, incumbent Mayor Byron Brown lost the Democratic primary to India Walton, a Democratic socialist and champion of progressive politics. Brown then turned around and ran a write-in campaign, which he won Tuesday with 59 percent of the vote.

  Walton issued a statement saying, “The hostility and aggression against us were ugly and relentless, in the streets, in the press, and on social media.” She said, “When you take on the corrupt and powerful, you can’t expect them to play fair.”

   She did know she was running for mayor of Buffalo, didn’t she?

Black Lives: After a grueling selection process, only one black juror was chosen in the trial of three white men accused of chasing down and killing the black jogger Ahmaud Arbery last February in coastal Georgia. 

  Judge Timothy Walmsley said, “This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination,” but he allowed the trial to go forward with 11 white jurors.

  In Glynn County, where the trial is being held, more than 26% of the 85,000 residents are Black, and about 69% are White.

  Arbery’s killing has become one of the rallying points of the Black Lives Matter movement.  

Covid Nation: Green Bay Packers quarterback and three-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers has been benched with a case of Covid-19, indicating that he was never vaccinated.

  Pressed by reporters back in August, Rodgers dissembled. He said, “Yes, I’ve been immunized.” Rodgers received homeopathic treatment from his personal doctor before training camp to raise his antibody levels. He petitioned the NFL to have that treatment qualify as equivalent to a vaccine and the league turned him down.

  He can’t return until 10 days after he tests negative.

Carry On: The case before the Supreme Court involving a New York gun law could result in gun owners freely carrying weapons outside their homes. 

 The heart of the question is whether local officials wield too much power in granting permission for gun-carry licenses. New York has strict limits and the case was brought by two men denied licenses to carry a handgun at all times for self-defense without any specific reason.

  It’s the job of justices to challenge everyone’s reasoning, so it’s hard to know which direction they’re leaning, but the court has a conservative majority and gun rights is a hot issue.  

  Chief Justice John Roberts said it was surprising that a constitutional right was subject to the discretion of local officials. But he and other justices also asked whether guns could be barred in subways, at street protests, inside Yankee Stadium, or Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

The Spin Rack: More than a dozen members of Congress have called on President Biden to use executive authority to revoke Medals of Honor awarded in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre of the Lakota Sioux tribe. Twenty of the soldiers who gunned down unarmed men, women, and children were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions that day. — After a drastic decline last year, global fossil fuel emissions have rebounded sharply in 2021 and are now just slightly below their previous record highs, researchers said Wednesday. It’s yet another sign that countries are still far from their goals of avoiding the worst effects of global warming. — NFL star Henry Ruggs III was drunk and driving his Corvette 156 mph when he slammed into the car of a 23-year-old woman in Las Vegas, burning her to death. Ruggs and his girlfriend, with whom he has a daughter, survived with injuries.

The Obit Page: Margaret York, a murder detective who was one of the duo that inspired the police drama “Cagney & Lacey,” and who rose to become the highest-ranking woman in the Los Angeles Police Department, died last month in Los Angeles at 80.

  In the 1970s  she was teamed with Detective Helen Kidder, mostly because the men wouldn’t work with a woman. The men accidentally made it possible for the two women to become historic figures in the department.

  In 2000 York became the first woman named deputy chief, the highest-ranking woman on the force. She retired two years later.

  She was married to Judge Lance Ito, the man who famously, and at times clumsily, presided over the OJ Simpson murder trial.

Dating Apps: The NY Post tracked comedian Pete Davidson’s second public date with celebutante Kim Kardashian in New York. We’ll go on record here and say there’s no future in it.

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