Yemeni Houthi Islamic terrorists strike Saudi Arabia's oil facilities
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/saudi-houthi-attack-ras-tanura-aramco/2021/03/07/77f29148-7f72-11eb-9ca6-54e187ee4939_story.html
At $1.9tn, the American Rescue Plan costs about the same as Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But where TCJA gave most of the $$ to business and the wealthy, the ARP focuses the help where it belongs.
https://twitter.com/SteveRattner/status/1368885945886474245/photo/1
__________________________________
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin-chaos-under-heaven-wuhan-lab-book-excerpt-474322
Diplomats Warned of a Coronavirus Danger in Wuhan—2 Years Before the Outbreak
After seeing a risky lab, they wrote a cable warning Washington. But it was ignored.
By JOSH ROGIN
03/08/2021 04:30 AM EST
Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section at the Washington Post. He is the author of Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century, from which this is adapted.
On January 15, in its last days, President Donald Trump's State Department put out a statement with serious claims about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement said the U.S. intelligence community had evidence that several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) laboratory were sick with Covid-like symptoms in autumn 2019—implying the Chinese government had hidden crucial information about the outbreak for months—and that the WIV lab, despite "presenting itself as a civilian institution," was conducting secret research projects with the Chinese military. The State Department alleged a Chinese government cover-up and asserted that "Beijing continues today to withhold vital information that scientists need to protect the world from this deadly virus, and the next one."
https://web.archive.org/web/20210116020513/https:/www.state.gov/ensuring-a-transparent-thorough-investigation-of-covid-19s-origin/
The exact origin of the new coronavirus remains a mystery to this day, but the search for answers is not just about assigning blame. Unless the source is located, the true path of the virus can't be traced, and scientists can't properly study the best ways to prevent future outbreaks.
The original Chinese government story, that the pandemic spread from a seafood market in Wuhan, was the first and therefore most widely accepted theory. But cracks in that theory slowly emerged throughout the late winter and spring of 2020. The first known case of Covid-19 in Wuhan, it was revealed in February, had no connection to the market. The Chinese government closed the market in January and sanitized it before proper samples could be taken. It wouldn't be until May that the Chinese CDC disavowed the market theory, admitting it had no idea how the outbreak began, but by then it had become the story of record, in China and internationally.
In the spring of 2020, inside the U.S. government, some officials began to see and collect evidence of a different, perhaps more troubling theory—that the outbreak had a connection to one of the laboratories in Wuhan, among them the WIV, a world leading center of research on bat coronaviruses.
To some inside the government, the name of the laboratory was familiar. Its research on bat viruses had already drawn the attention of U.S. diplomats and officials at the Beijing Embassy in late 2017, prompting them to alert Washington that the lab's own scientists had reported "a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory."
But their cables back to Washington were ignored.
When I published the warnings from these cables in April 2020, they added fuel to a debate that had already gone from a scientific and forensic question to a hot-button political issue, as the previously internal U.S. government debate over the lab's possible connection spilled out into public view. The next day, Trump said he was "investigating," and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Beijing to "come clean" about the origin of the outbreak. Two weeks later, Pompeo said there was "enormous evidence" pointing to the lab, but he didn't provide any of said evidence. As Trump and Xi's relationship unraveled and administration officials openly blamed the Wuhan lab, the U.S.-China relationship only went further downhill.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-trump-china/trump-says-u-s-investigating-whether-virus-came-from-wuhan-lab-idUSKCN21Y01B
https://www.foxnews.com/media/pompeo-rips-china-come-clean-accountable
As the pandemic set in worldwide, the origin story was largely set aside in the public coverage of the crisis. But the internal government debate continued, now over whether the United States should release more information about what it knew about the lab and its possible connection to the outbreak. The January 15 statement was cleared by the intelligence community, but the underlying data was still held secret. Likely changing no minds, it was meant as a signal—showing that circumstantial evidence did exist, and that the theory deserved further investigation.
Now, the new Joe Biden team is walking a tightrope, calling on Beijing to release more data while declining to endorse or dispute the Trump administration's controversial claims. The origin story remains entangled both in domestic politics and U.S.-China relations. Last month, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan issued a statement expressing "deep concerns" about a forthcoming report from a team assembled by the World Health Organization that toured Wuhan—even visiting the lab—but was denied crucial data by the Chinese authorities.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa/white-house-cites-deep-concerns-about-who-covid-report-demands-early-data-from-china-idUSKBN2AD0FX
But more than four years ago, long before this question blew up into an international point of tension between China and the United States, the story started with a simple warning.
In late 2017, top health and science officials at the U.S. embassy in Beijing attended a conference in the Chinese capital. There, they saw a presentation on a new study put out by a group of Chinese scientists, including several from the Wuhan lab, in conjunction with the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Since the 2002 outbreak of SARS—the deadly disease caused by a coronavirus transmitted by bats in China—scientists around the world had been looking for ways to predict and limit future outbreaks of similar diseases. To aid the effort, the NIH had funded a number of projects that involved the WIV scientists, including much of the Wuhan lab's work with bat coronaviruses. The new study was entitled "Discovery of a Rich Gene Pool of Bat SARS-Related Coronaviruses Provides New Insights into the Origin of SARS Coronavirus."
These researchers, the American officials learned, had found a population of bats from caves in Yunnan Province that gave them insight into how SARS coronaviruses originated and spread. The researchers boasted that they may have found the cave where the original SARS coronavirus originated. But all the U.S. diplomats cared about was that these scientists had discovered three new viruses that had a unique characteristic: they contained a so-called "spike protein" that was particularly good at grabbing onto a specific receptor in human lung cells known as an ACE2 receptor. That means the viruses were potentially very dangerous for humans—and that these viruses were now in a lab with which they the U.S. diplomats were largely unfamiliar.
Knowing the significance of the Wuhan virologists' discovery, and knowing that the WIV's top-level biosafety laboratory (BSL-4) was relatively new, the U.S. embassy health and science officials in Beijing decided to go to Wuhan and check it out. In total, the embassy sent three teams of experts in late 2017 and early 2018 to meet with the WIV scientists, among them Shi Zhengli, often referred to as the "bat woman" because of her extensive experience studying coronaviruses found in bats.
When they sat down with the scientists at the WIV, the American diplomats were shocked by what they heard. The Chinese researchers told them they didn't have enough properly trained technicians to safely operate their BSL-4 lab. The Wuhan scientists were asking for more support to get the lab up to top standards.
The diplomats wrote two cables back to Washington reporting on their visits to the Wuhan lab. More should be done to help the lab meet top safety standards, they said, and they urged Washington to get on it. They also warned that the WIV researchers had found new bat coronaviruses could easily infect human cells, and which used the same cellular route that had been used by the original SARS coronavirus.
Taken together, those two points—a particularly dangerous groups of viruses being studied in a lab with real safety problems—were intended as a warning about a potential public-health crisis, one of the cable writers told me. They kept the cables unclassified because they wanted more people back home to be able to read and share them, according to the cable writer. But there was no response from State Department headquarters and they were never made public. And as U.S.-China tensions rose over the course of 2018, American diplomats lost access to labs such as the one at the WIV.
"The cable was a warning shot," one U.S. official said. "They were begging people to pay attention to what was going on." The world would be paying attention soon enough—but by then, it would be too late.
The cables were not leaked to me by any Trump administration political official, as many in the media wrongly assumed. In fact, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was angry when he found out about the leak. He needed to keep up the veneer of good relations with China, and these revelations would make that job more difficult. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed during their March 26 phone call to halt the war of words that had erupted when a Chinese diplomat alleged on Twitter that the outbreak might have been caused by the U.S. Army. That had prompted Trump to start calling it the "China virus," deliberately blaming Beijing in a racist way. Xi had warned Trump in that call that China's level of cooperation on releasing critical equipment in America's darkest moment would be jeopardized by continued accusations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/04/covid-trump-xi-josh-rogin/?arc404=true
After receiving the cables from a source, I called around to get reactions from other American officials I trusted. What I found was that, just months into the pandemic, a large swath of the government already believed the virus had escaped from the WIV lab, rather than having leapt from an animal to a human at the Wuhan seafood market or some other random natural setting, as the Chinese government had claimed.
Any theory of the pandemic's origins had to account for the fact that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus—or, by its official name, SARS-CoV-2—first appeared in Wuhan, on the doorstep of the lab that possessed one of the world's largest collections of bat coronaviruses and that possessed the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, a virus known as RaTG13 that Shi identified in her lab.
Shi, in her March interview, said that when she was first told about the virus outbreak in her town, she thought the officials had gotten it wrong, because she would have guessed that such a virus would break out in southern China, where most of the bats live. "I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China," she said.
By April, U.S. officials at the NSC and the State Department had begun to compile circumstantial evidence that the WIV lab, rather than the seafood market, was actually the source of the virus. The former explanation for the outbreak was entirely plausible, they felt, whereas the latter would be an extreme coincidence. But the officials couldn't say that out loud because there wasn't firm proof either way. And if the U.S. government accused China of lying about the outbreak without firm evidence, Beijing would surely escalate tensions even more, which meant that Americans might not get the medical supplies that were desperately needed to combat the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States.
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton seemed not to have been concerned about any of those considerations. On February 16, he had offered a totally unfounded theory of his own, claiming on Fox News that the virus might have come from China's biowarfare program—suggesting, in other words, that it had been engineered deliberately to kill humans. This wasn't supported by any known research: To this day, scientists largely agree that the virus was not "engineered" to be deadly; SARS-CoV-2 showed no evidence of direct genetic manipulation. Furthermore, the WIV lab had published some of its research about bat coronaviruses that can infect humans—not exactly the level of secrecy you would expect for a clandestine weapons program.
As Cotton's speculation vaulted the origin story into the news in an incendiary new way, he undermined the ongoing effort in other parts of the U.S. government to pinpoint the exact origins and nature of the coronavirus pandemic. From then on, journalists and politicians alike would conflate the false idea of the coronavirus being a Chinese bioweapon with the plausible idea that the virus had accidentally been released from the WIV lab, making it a far more politically loaded question to pursue.
After I published a Washington Post column on the Wuhan cables on April 14, Pompeo publicly called on Beijing to "come clean" about the origin of the outbreak and weeks later declared there was "enormous evidence" to that effect beyond the Wuhan cables themselves. But he refused to produce any other proof.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/
At the same time, some members of the intelligence community leaked to my colleagues that they had discovered "no firm evidence" that the outbreak originated in the lab. That was true in a sense. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger had asked the intelligence community to look for evidence of all possible scenarios for the outbreak, including the market or a lab accident, but they hadn't found any firm links to either. But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There was a gap in the intelligence. The intelligence community didn't know either way.
Large parts of the scientific community also decried my report, pointing to the fact that natural spillovers have been the cause of other viral outbreaks, and that they were the culprit more often than accidents. But many of the scientists who spoke out to defend the lab were Shi's research partners and funders, like the head of the global public health nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak; their research was tied to hers, and if the Wuhan lab were implicated in the pandemic, they would have to answer a lot of tough questions.
Likewise, the American scientists who knew and worked with Shi could not say for sure her lab was unconnected to the outbreak, because there's no way they could know exactly what the WIV lab was doing outside their cooperative projects. Beijing threatened Australia and the EU for even suggesting an independent investigation into the origins of the virus.
In May, Chinese CDC officials declared on Chinese state media that they had ruled out the possibility that the seafood market was the origin of the virus, completely abandoning the original official story. As for the "bat woman" herself, Shi didn't think the lab accident theory was so crazy. In her March interview, she described frantically searching her own lab's records after learning of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. "Could they have come from our lab?" she recalled asking herself.
Shi said that she was relieved when she didn't find the new coronavirus in her files. "That really took a load off my mind," she said. "I had not slept a wink in days." Of course, if she had found the virus, she likely would not have been able to admit it, given that the Chinese government was going around the world insisting the lab had not been involved in the outbreak.
A key argument of those Chinese and American scientists disputing the lab accident theory is that Chinese researchers had performed their work out in the open and had disclosed the coronavirus research they were performing. This argument was used to attack anyone who didn't believe the Chinese scientists' firm denials their labs could possibly have been responsible for the outbreak.
But one senior administration official told me that many officials in various parts of the U.S. government, especially the NSC and the State Department, came to believe that these researchers had not been as forthcoming as had been claimed.
What they were worried about was something called "gain-of-function" research, in which the virulence or transmissibility of dangerous pathogens is deliberately increased. The purpose is to help scientists predict how viruses might evolve in ways that hurt humans before it happens in nature. But by bypassing pathogens' natural evolutionary cycles, these experiments create risks of a human-made outbreak if a lab accident were to occur. For this reason, the Obama administration issued a moratorium on gain-of-function experiments in October 2014.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology had openly participated in gain-of-function research in partnership with U.S. universities and institutions. But the official told me the U.S. government had evidence that Chinese labs were performing gain-of-function research on a much larger scale than was publicly disclosed, meaning they were taking more risks in more labs than anyone outside China was aware of. This insight, in turn, fed into the lab-accident hypothesis in a new and troubling way.
A little-noticed study was released in early July 2020 by a group of Chinese researchers in Beijing, including several affiliated with the Academy of Military Medical Science. These scientists said that they had created a new model for studying SARS-CoV-2 by creating mice with humanlike lung characteristics by using the CRISPR gene-editing technology to give the mice lung cells with the human ACE2 receptor — the cell receptor that allowed coronaviruses to so easily infect human lungs.
After consultations with experts, some U.S. officials came to believe that this Beijing lab was likely conducting coronavirus experiments on mice fitted with ACE2 receptors well before the coronavirus outbreak—research that they hadn't disclosed and continued not to admit to. In its January 15 statement, the State Department alleged that although the Wuhan Institute of Virology disclosed some of its participation in gain-of-function research, it has not disclosed its work on RaTG13 and "has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017." That, by itself, did not help to explain how SARS-CoV-2 originated. But it was clear that officials believed there was a lot of risky coronavirus research going on in Chinese labs that the rest of the world was simply not aware of.
"This was just a peek under a curtain of an entire galaxy of activity, including labs and military labs in Beijing and Wuhan playing around with coronaviruses in ACE2 mice in unsafe labs," the senior administration official said. "It suggests we are getting a peek at a body of activity that isn't understood in the West or even has precedent here."
This pattern of deception and obfuscation, combined with the new revelations about how Chinese labs were handling dangerous coronaviruses in ways their Western counterparts didn't know about, led some U.S. officials to become increasingly convinced Chinese authorities were manipulating scientific information to fit their narrative. But there was so little transparency, it was impossible for the U.S. government to prove, one way or the other. "If there was a smoking gun, the CCP buried it along with anyone who would dare speak up about it," one U.S. official told me. "We'll probably never be able to prove it one way or the other, which was Beijing's goal all along."
Back in 2017, the U.S. diplomats who had visited the lab in Wuhan had foreseen these very events, but nobody had listened and nothing had been done. "We were trying to warn that that lab was a serious danger," one of the cable writers who had visited the lab told me. "I have to admit, I thought it would be maybe a SARS-like outbreak again. If I knew it would turn out to be the greatest pandemic in human history, I would have made a bigger stink about it."
__________________________________
U.S. Supreme Court dumps last of Trump's election appeals
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/542082-supreme-court-rejects-final-trump-bid-to-nullify-2020-election
Republican Senator Roy Blunt (Missouri) will not run for reelection, the latest Republican senator to announce he's not running next year.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/politics/blunt-not-running-reelection/index.html
Fracking ban in Delaware River Basin is a historic win, but it's time to look downstream | Fracking is only the first step in the lifespan of natural gas, and is far from the last step that can harm people's health.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/fracking-ban-delaware-river-drbc-natural-gas-lng-exports-20210305.html
Charges permanently dropped against Breonna Taylor's boyfriend for shooting officer
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/03/08/kenneth-walker-charges-dropped-against-breonna-taylor-boyfriend/4629371001/
_____________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/statement-by-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-on-first-ever-papal-visit-to-iraq/
Statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on First-Ever Papal Visit to Iraq
March 08, 2021 • Statements and Releases
Iraq is a country steeped in religious and ethnic diversity. It's also home to one of the oldest and most diverse Christian communities in the world.
Pope Francis' visit was a historic and welcome first for the country. It sent an important message, as Pope Francis said himself, that "fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than death, that peace more powerful than war."
To see Pope Francis visit ancient religious sites, including the biblical birthplace of Abraham, spend time with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, and offer prayers in Mosul — a city that only a few years ago endured the depravity and intolerance of a group like ISIS — is a symbol of hope for the entire world.
I congratulate the Government and people of Iraq for the care and planning that went into organizing this monumental visit, and continue to admire Pope Francis for his commitment to promoting religious tolerance, the common bonds of our humanity, and interfaith understanding.
###
_____________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/statement-by-president-biden-on-international-womens-day/
Statement by President Biden on International Women's Day
March 08, 2021 • Statements and Releases
Women's history is American history — and world history. On International Women's Day, we celebrate the achievements, contributions, and progress of women and girls in the United States and around the globe.
My Administration is committed to honoring women by investing in their opportunity, security, and wellbeing. I was proud to issue an Executive Order today establishing the White House Gender Policy Council, to ensure that every domestic and foreign policy we pursue rests on a foundation of dignity and equity for women. My Administration is also committed to ensuring that women are represented equally at all levels of the federal government. That starts with Vice President Harris, who broke through a barrier that stood for more than two centuries. And it includes a record number of diverse women whom I've nominated to serve in Cabinet-level roles and appointed to senior-level positions.
In our nation, as in all nations, women have fought for justice, shattered barriers, built and sustained economies, carried communities through times of crisis, and served with dignity and resolve. Too often, they have done so while being denied the freedom, full participation, and equal opportunity all women are due. Their contributions have been downplayed. Their stories have been neglected. That is why International Women's Day is also a time for us to recommit ourselves to the cause of equity and equality for women the world over, and to shine a light on the systemic obstacles that fuel gender disparities and undermine women's potential.
Despite persistent obstacles, women are leading every day. Over the past year, women have played a critical, often outsized role in responding to the global coronavirus pandemic. They are our vaccine researchers and public health officials. They are our doctors and nurses. They are our essential workers — so many of whom are women of color — in fire stations and nursing homes, on farms and in grocery stores, in schools and in shelters.
Around the world, we are seeing decades of women's economic gains erased by this pandemic. It's forcing millions more girls out of school, which could impact economic growth for decades to come. Incidents of violence against women in their homes and communities have spiked. And, as is so often the case, COVID-19 is hitting the poorest and most marginalized women the hardest. These global trends damage all of us, because we know that governments, economies, and communities are stronger when they include the full participation of women — no country can recover from this pandemic if it leaves half of its population behind.
Elevating the status of women and girls globally is the right thing to do — it is a matter of justice, fairness, and decency, and it will lead to a better, more secure, and more prosperous world for us all. On International Women's Day, let us recommit to the principle that our nation, and the world, is at its best when the possibilities for all of our women and girls are limitless.
###
_____________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-sign-executive-orders-establishing-the-white-house-gender-policy-council-and-ensuring-education-free-from-sexual-violence/
Fact Sheet: President Biden to Sign Executive Orders Establishing the White House Gender Policy Council and Ensuring Education Free from Sexual Violence
March 08, 2021 • Statements and Releases
Biden-Harris Administration establishes a government-wide focus on uplifting the rights of women and girls in the United States and around the world
The full participation of all people – including women and girls – across all aspects of our society is essential to the economic well-being, health, and security of our nation and of the world. This is a matter of human rights, justice and fairness. It is also critically important to reducing poverty and promoting economic growth, increasing access to education, improving health outcomes, advancing political stability, and fostering democracy.
Today, President Biden will sign two Executive Orders. The first establishes the White House Gender Policy Council to ensure that the Biden-Harris Administration advances gender equity and equal rights and opportunity for women and girls. The second directs the Department of Education (ED) to review all of its existing regulations, orders, guidance, and policies for consistency with the Administration's policy to guarantee education free from sexual violence.
A year into COVID-19, women are still contending with the public health crisis, an ensuing economic crisis, and on top of those challenges, a caregiving crisis. The pandemic has exacerbated barriers that have held back women, especially women of color, forcing many to leave the workforce, manage virtual schooling, and absorb additional caregiving responsibilities. Many women are also on the frontlines of the response to COVID-19 – as essential workers keeping our economy, communities and families going. As the country continues to grapple with the pandemic and reckons with the scourge of systemic racism, President Biden knows that we need a government-wide focus on uplifting the rights of women and girls in the United States and around the world, restoring America as a champion for gender equity and equality.
Today's actions will:
Establish the Gender Policy Council. The first Executive Order formally establishes the Gender Policy Council within the Executive Office of the President, with a role in both domestic and foreign policy development. The Council will work in coordination with the existing policy councils to advance gender equity and equality, including by:
Combatting systemic bias and discrimination, including sexual harassment;
Increasing economic security and opportunity by addressing the structural barriers to women's participation in the labor force, decreasing wage and wealth gaps, and addressing the caregiving needs of American families and supporting care workers, predominantly low-paid women of color;
Ensuring access to comprehensive health care and preventing and responding to gender-based violence;
Promoting equity and opportunity in education and leadership; and
Advancing gender equality globally through diplomacy, development, trade, and defense, and by recognizing the needs and roles of women and girls in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, democratic rights-respecting governance, global health and humanitarian crises and development assistance.
The White House Gender Policy Council will be an essential part of the Biden-Harris Administration's plan to ensure we build a more equal and just society – by aggressively protecting the rights and unique needs of those who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including individuals who are Black, Latina, Native, Asian American and Pacific Islander, people with disabilities, and LGBTQI+.
The Executive Order requires the Co-Chairs of the Council to submit to the President a Government-wide strategy to address gender in policies, programs and budgets, and an annual report to measure progress on implementing the strategy. To prevent and respond to gender-based violence, wherever it occurs, there will be a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor on Gender-Based Violence on the Council staff. The Executive Order also requires engagement with non-profit and community-based organizations, state and local government officials, Tribal Nations, foreign government officials and multilateral organizations.
Ensure education free from sexual violence. President Biden will sign an Executive Order that will direct the Department of Education (ED) to review all of its existing regulations, orders, guidance, and policies to ensure consistency with the Biden-Harris Administration's policy that students be guaranteed education free from sexual violence. It also directs ED to specifically evaluate the Title IX regulation issued under the previous administration and agency action taken pursuant to that regulation, to determine whether the regulation and agency action are consistent with the policies of the Biden-Harris Administration.
###
_____________________________
Prisoners received checks from the Trump-signed, Cotton-backed CARES Act *because nothing in the law said prisoners shouldn't get checks.* Post-signing, the Republican-controlled IRS illegally and unconstitutionally declared No Prisoners Allowed. The judge overturned the illegal and unconstitutional IRS rule because the law didn't say that.
It's begun: 12 Republican state Attorney Generals filed suit today challenging a Biden EO that establishes a working group to calculate the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions. It's one of the first of what will prob be many lawsuits from Republican AGs against the Biden admin
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20507787/3-8-21-missouri-v-biden-complaint.pdf
No-excuse absentee voting was passed by the Republican-led Leg in GA in 2005. It was aimed at getting more Republicans to vote. After 2020 when more Democrats voted absentee, suddenly the Republicans are trying to end it. This is voter suppression under the spurious guise of 'election integrity.': Happening now: The Georgia Senate is taking up SB 241, the omnibus voting bill that would end no-excuse absentee voting, among other provisions.
https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr/status/1368987482881163270
https://livestream.com/accounts/26021522
Former neo-Nazi says Fox News radicalizes people by saying the same stuff he used to say
https://www.insider.com/former-neo-nazi-says-fox-news-radicalizes-people-cnn-2021-3
Authorities arrest Oath Keeper seen with Trump adviser Roger Stone on morning of insurrection
https://abcnews.go.com/US/authorities-arrest-oath-keeper-trump-adviser-roger-stone/story?id=76325480
Biden gives temporary legal status to thousands of Venezuelan immigrants living in U.S.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuelan-immigrants-temporary-legal-status/
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/08/974925014/undocumented-venezuelans-given-protected-status-in-united-states
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/u-s-department-of-homeland-security-secretary-mayorkas-designates-venezuela-for-temporary-protected-status-for-18-months/
_____________________________________
U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Secretary Mayorkas Designates Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status for 18 Months
March 08, 2021 • Statements and Releases
New Designation Allows Eligible Venezuelans to Apply for TPS and Employment Authorization Documents
WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas is designating Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, until September 2022. This new designation of TPS for Venezuela enables Venezuelan nationals (and individuals without nationality who last resided in Venezuela) currently residing in the United States to file initial applications for TPS, so long as they meet eligibility requirements.
This designation is due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela that prevent nationals from returning safely, including a complex humanitarian crisis marked by widespread hunger and malnutrition, a growing influence and presence of non-state armed groups, repression, and a crumbling infrastructure. TPS can be extended to a country with conditions that fall into one, or more, of the three statutory bases for designation: ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinary and temporary conditions.
"The living conditions in Venezuela reveal a country in turmoil, unable to protect its own citizens," said Secretary Mayorkas. "It is in times of extraordinary and temporary circumstances like these that the United States steps forward to support eligible Venezuelan nationals already present here, while their home country seeks to right itself out of the current crises."
Only individuals who can demonstrate continuous residence in the United States as of March 8, 2021 are eligible for TPS under Venezuela's designation. For their own health and safety, individuals should not believe smugglers or others claiming the border is now open. Due to the pandemic, travel and admission restrictions at the border remain in place.
Individuals desiring TPS must file an application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the 180-day registration period. They may also apply for Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and for travel authorization. All individuals applying for TPS undergo security and background checks as part of determining eligibility. More details about the eligibility criteria to submit an initial TPS application and apply for an EAD can be found in the Federal Register Notice (FRN). The FRN also provides information about Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Venezuelan nationals and how individuals may apply for DED-related EADs, based on the January 19, 2021, presidential memorandum establishing DED for Venezuelan nationals for 18 months, through July 20, 2022. Individuals who apply for and receive TPS and who are also covered by DED do not need to apply for Employment Authorization Documentations under both programs. USCIS encourages individuals who believe they are eligible for TPS to apply during the initial registration period announced in the FRN, even if they are also covered by DED, in case they cannot qualify for TPS late initial filing after DED has expired.
Secretario Mayorkas Designa a Venezuela al Estatus de Protección Temporal por 18 Meses
La Nueva Designación Permite que Venezolanos Elegibles Soliciten TPS y Documentos de Autorización de Empleo
WASHINGTON—El secretario de Seguridad Nacional, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, ha designado a Venezuela al Estatus de Protección Temporal (TPS) por 18 meses, hasta septiembre de 2022. Esta nueva designación de TPS para Venezuela permite que los nacionales venezolanos (y personas sin nacionalidad cuya última residencia habitual fue Venezuela) que residen actualmente en Estados Unidos presenten solicitudes iniciales para TPS, siempre que cumplan con los requisitos de elegibilidad.
La designación se debe a condiciones extraordinarias y temporales existentes en Venezuela que evitan que los nacionales regresen a su país de manera segura, entre estas, una crisis humanitaria compleja, marcada por el hambre y la desnutrición generalizadas, una creciente influencia y presencia de grupos armados no estatales, represión y una infraestructura en mal estado. El TPS puede extenderse a un país con condiciones que caigan dentro de una o más de las tres bases estatutarias para la designación: conflicto armado en curso, desastres naturales o condiciones extraordinarias y temporales.
"Las condiciones de vida en Venezuela revelan un país en crisis, incapaz de proteger a sus propios ciudadanos", dijo el secretario Mayorkas. "Es en tiempos de circunstancias extraordinarias y temporales como estas, que Estados Unidos da un paso al frente para apoyar a los nacionales venezolanos elegibles que están actualmente presentes en Estados Unidos mientras su país de origen busca recuperarse de las crisis actuales".
Solo las personas que pueden demostrar residencia continua en Estados Unidos al 8 de marzo de 2021 son elegibles a TPS bajo la designación de Venezuela. Por su propia salud y seguridad, las personas no deben creer en los traficantes u otras personas que afirmen que la frontera ahora está abierta. Debido a la pandemia, las restricciones de viaje y admisión en la frontera siguen vigentes.
Las personas que deseen el TPS deben presentar una solicitud con el Servicio de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos dentro del periodo inicial de registro de 180 días. También pueden solicitar Documentos de Autorización de Empleo (EAD) y autorización de viaje. Todas las personas que solicitan TPS son sometidas a verificaciones de seguridad y de antecedentes como parte de la determinación de elegibilidad. Puede encontrar más detalles sobre los criterios de elegibilidad para presentar una solicitud inicial de TPS y solicitar un EAD en la notificación del Registro Federal (FRN).
La FRN también proporciona información acerca de la Salida Forzosa Diferida (DED) para nacionales venezolanos y cómo pueden solicitar los EAD relacionados con la DED, a base del memorándum presidencial del 19 de enero de 2021 que establece la DED para nacionales venezolanos por 18 meses, hasta el 20 de julio de 2022. Las personas que soliciten y reciban TPS y también estén cubiertas por la DED no tienen que solicitar documentación de autorización de empleo bajo ambos programas. USCIS exhorta a las personas que crean que son elegibles a TPS a solicitar durante el periodo de registro inicial anunciado en la FRN, aún si están cubiertos por la DED, en caso de que no cualifiquen para una presentación inicial tardía a TPS después que la DED haya caducado.
_____________________________________
3,200 unaccompanied migrant children were stuck in Border Patrol facilities today, with nearly 1,400 held beyond the 3-day legal limit (Democrats shrug)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-children-border-patrol-custody-past-legal-limit/
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an illegal and unconstitutional law nearly eliminating voting for all Iowans (Democrats shrug)
https://desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/08/iowa-governor-kim-reynolds-signs-law-shortening-early-voting-closing-polls-earlier-election-day/6869317002/
Brazil's Supreme Court throws out criminal cases against former president Lula da Silva and restores his political rights, clearing the way for a possible 2022 run against President Jair Bolsonaro.
https://nytimes.com/2021/03/08/world/americas/brazil-lula-supreme-court.html
The Kennedy family fought it. Trump held it up. Now the Biden administration is backing the nation's biggest wind farm - which will murder hundreds of thousand of birds and be an eyesore and deliver almost no energy - off Martha's Vineyard
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/03/08/biden-climate-windfarm/
The House had plans tonight to take up 13 suspension bills - essentially non controversial legislation that usually passes by voice vote or unanimous consent. Those plans were shelved when House Republicans forcef roll call votes on all the measures. That meant in order to pass the 13 bills.. which included awarding Congressional Gold Medals to UCP and MPD officers for heroic acts on 1/6... it would've taken up to 10 hours with covid restrictions.
https://twitter.com/ryanobles/status/1369040037480923139
https://twitter.com/ryanobles/status/1369040570224676867
2 Giraffes have died in a fire at a zoo outside DC
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/virginia-zoo-fire-roers-zoofari-fairfax-county-reston/65-9e3a7735-893e-45dd-bf02-f16b6f481365
Cowboys are giving Dak Prescott a four-year, $160 million deal, including a record $126 million guaranteed, source tells ESPN. The first three years average $42 million per year.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1369073897040142336
Idaho Republicans Cancel Federal Grant To Improve Childcare For American Children In Idaho, Defunding Daycares All Over The State, Telling Mothers They Must Stay Home To Raise Their Children
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/mar/03/idaho-house-rejects-federal-grant-aimed-at-improvi/
South Dakota Republican House votes to end impeachment of Republican Attorney General Ravnsborg who sadistically murdered man and tried covering it up.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-south-dakota-ravnsborg-impeach/south-dakota-lawmakers-vote-to-halt-impeachment-against-attorney-general-idUSKBN2B109L
_____________________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/08/statement-by-president-biden-on-the-introduction-of-the-violence-against-women-reauthorization-act-of-2021/
Statement by President Biden on the Introduction of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021
March 08, 2021 • Statements and Releases
I applaud the House of Representatives for introducing today the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), and I urge Congress to come together in a bipartisan manner to ensure swift passage of VAWA legislation in both the House and the Senate. Strengthening and renewing VAWA is long past due. Delay is not an option, especially when the pandemic and economic crisis have only further increased the risks of abuse and the barriers to safety for women in the United States. Domestic violence is being called a pandemic within the COVID-19 pandemic, with growing evidence showing that the conditions of the pandemic have resulted in escalated rates of intimate partner violence, and in some cases more severe injuries.
I was raised to believe that the greatest sin was the abuse of power, and I've spent my life in public office trying to fight those abuses everywhere I see them. That's what motivated me to write and champion the original Violence Against Women Act – even as I was told time and time again that domestic violence was a “family issue" that should be left to families to address in private. VAWA has been reauthorized three times with bipartisan support in the years since we first passed it. Each time, I worked to enhance the legislation to address barriers and to expand access to safety and well being for all survivors, including those from marginalized communities. Studies demonstrated that in the first two decades following VAWA's implementation the rates of domestic violence declined significantly. While there has been significant progress in efforts to prevent and improve the response to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, there is still much work to do.
In 2019, a bipartisan coalition in the House of Representatives passed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019, which included significant improvements and increased pathways to safety that were proposed by advocates, survivors, lawyers, experts, prosecutors, and law enforcement who are in the trenches protecting and supporting survivors. Every single Senate Democrat signed on to the Senate version of the House-passed bill, but Republican Senate leadership refused to bring VAWA to the floor for a vote. This should not be a Democratic or Republican issue – it's a matter of justice and compassion. I am grateful to see the House of Representatives champion ending gender-based violence, and I urge Congress to follow past precedent and bring a strong bipartisan coalition together for swift passage of VAWA.
_____________________________________
Biden Team Tosses Trump-Era Opinion That Gave Industry A Free Pass To Murder Birds
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-scraps-trump-migratory-bird-legal-opinion_n_60463e28c5b6020855607f51
The Worst-Off Minority In The US Has Always Been (And Will Always Be....) Are Native Americans (not Black people....). The American Rescue Bill Is The Biggest Investment In Native Programs In U.S. History. The bill includes more than $31.2 billion for tribal governments and Native communities. The money will go directly to helping American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians focus on economic recovery in their communities devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the money in the relief package targeted at Native communities, or roughly $20 billion of the $31.2 billion, will go straight to tribal governments to help them tackle COVID-19 and stabilize safety net programs. More than $6 billion will go to Native health systems. That includes $2.3 billion for COVID-19 vaccines, testing and tracing at the Indian Health Service, along with another $2 billion for lost third-party medical billing reimbursements. IHS will also get $600 million for health facilities construction and sanitation programs, $500 million for clinical health services, $420 million for mental and behavioral health services, $140 million for improving health IT and telehealth access, and $10 million for potable water delivery. More than $1.2 billion will go to tribal and Native Hawaiian housing programs under the Department of Housing & Urban Development. More than $1.1 billion will go to Native education programs. More than $1 billion will go Native families, in the form of tribal child care programs and assistance to tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grantees. Roughly $900 million will go to Bureau of Indian Affairs programs; $600 million will go to Native communities' economic and infrastructure investments; $20 million will go toward mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on Native languages; and $19 million will go toward combating domestic violence. "The American Rescue Plan goes beyond the assistance that was provided through the previous CARES Act funds, which helped connect over 700 Navajo families to the electric grid, over 300 off-grid solar installations for homes, over 140 broadband improvement projects, water resources, relief for Navajo businesses and entrepreneurs, direct financial and food aid for tens of thousands of Navajo families, burial assistance for over 1,000 families that have lost loved ones due to COVID-19, and much more," Nez said in a Saturday statement thanking Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) for supporting the bill.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-covid-19-relief-tribes_n_6046755ac5b69197db28e025
_________________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/09/statement-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-on-the-14th-anniversary-of-the-abduction-of-robert-levinson/
Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on the 14th Anniversary of the Abduction of Robert Levinson
March 09, 2021 • Statements and Releases
Today, we again mark the tragic anniversary of the abduction in Iran of Robert Levinson — the longest held hostage in U.S history.
After 14 years and repeated, persistent efforts to secure Iran's cooperation in locating Mr. Levinson, we are still without answers. Nevertheless, we will continue to demand answers and to hold Iran accountable for his abduction, detention, and probable death. We will not relent until all of our citizens who continue to be wrongfully detained in Iran and around the world, are returned to their families.
The last 14 years have been heart-wrenching for Mr. Levinson's wife and children. Nothing can bring back the lost years – more than 5,000 days in all –to his family, friends and loved ones.
But the United States will remain resolute in our support to the Levinson family and our commitment to pursuing justice for Mr. Levinson and his family.
###
_________________________________
Leader Schumer has filed cloture on the nomination of Deb Haaland to be Biden's Interior Secretary. "Despite Republican obstruction, Rep. Haaland will be confirmed by the Senate to be Secretary Haaland."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1369407649406619648
The House is poised to approve the most significant expansion of labor rights since the New Deal, advancing a bill that would neutralize 'right to work' laws in 27 states and tilt the negotiating table back toward workers trying to unionize.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/09/us/biden-administration/the-house-is-poised-to-pass-a-major-expansion-of-labor-rights-but-its-likely-headed-for-gop-obstacles-in-the-senate
House Democrats introducing bill to limit transfer of military-grade gear to police
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/542276-house-democrats-introducing-bill-to-limit-transfer-of-military-grade-gear-to
Senators who voted against a $15 minimum wage represent three-quarters of the workers who would benefit
https://www.businessinsider.com/15-minimum-wage-24-million-workers-impacted-senators-vote-against-2021-3
While I strongly maintain that my brother is a furry good boy, I woof like to ask you all to not be pupset at the journalist who broke the Major "incident" news. This is what press are suppawsed to do, it's their job, it's not only their prerogative but also their duty.
https://twitter.com/TheOvalPawffice/status/1369338345264836609
Prosecutors have charged a *second* Oath Keeper associated with Roger Stone for a role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Joshua James was one of the militia members IDed by the Times as a Stone security guard on Jan. 5-6. https://courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.228471/gov.uscourts.dcd.228471.1.1.pdf
There is no Senate filibuster in the Constitution
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/08/chuck-todd/founders-didnt-put-senate-filibuster-constitution/
Woof! Thanks to the pawsome @WaPoSean who just repawrted that "Major nipped agent's hand at WH. Injury was extremely minor. No skin puncture. No bleeding. Agent continued duties", we can now woof it from the rooftops: Major is a good boy, but a puppy still. #Innocent
https://twitter.com/TheOvalPawffice/status/1369446257425584128
Good: The Biden administration will no longer defend in court a Trump-era immigration rule denying green cards to immigrants who use public benefits like food stamps. The move means the rule is eliminated.
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-trump-immigration-case-db42f1db13f8f4f82befdbf880656a6e
In another big move for progressives, Lina Khan, a Big Tech critic, is expected to be nominated to the Federal Trade Commission. | An appointment of Ms. Khan, the author of a breakthrough Yale Law Journal paper in 2016 that accused Amazon of abusing its monopoly power, would be the latest sign that the Biden administration planned to take an aggressive posture toward tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Last week, the administration said Tim Wu, another top critic of the industry, would join the National Economic Council as a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy. Ms. Khan recently served as legal counsel for the House Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee and was among aides who conducted a 19-month investigation into the tech giants' monopoly power. The committee produced a report advocating major changes to antitrust laws. Before that, she served as an aide to a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Rohit Chopra, a champion of her ideas on antitrust policy. Ms. Khan, an associate professor at Columbia Law School, would fill one of three Democratic seats on the five-member F.T.C. In December, the commission sued Facebook, accusing it of antitrust violations, and called for breaking up the company. The agency is also investing Amazon for antitrust violations.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/09/business/stock-market-today/lina-khan-ftc
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/technology/monopoly-antitrust-lina-khan-amazon.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/technology/congress-big-tech-monopoly-power.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/technology/facebook-antitrust-monopoly.html
Despite spending months attacking the safety of mail-in voting, Trump once again relied on mail-in voting to cast his ballot in a Florida municipal election.
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2021/03/08/former-president-trump-requests-mail-ballot-after-2020-fraud-claims/4628538001/
Russia's censorship ministry attempted to throttle Twitter but instead appears to have kicked offline most government websites in Russia, starting with http://Kremlin.ru. Incompetence too hilarious for satire.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/04/19/the-russian-government-just-managed-to-hack-itself/
Obama spent much of his first year in office seeking bipartisan buy-in for the ACA. Biden just slapped the bulk of his healthcare plan on top of a 1.9 trillion relief bill and rammed it through Congress before his administration's two-month anniversary.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/what-is-in-covid-relief-bill-stimulus-checks-biden-progressives.html
The Senate has confirmed Marcia Fudge to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, placing the longtime Ohio lawmaker in charge of the agency just as Congress is poised to pass new benefits for renters and homeowners who have suffered economic losses amid the coronavirus pandemic. Fudge, who has represented parts of Cleveland and Akron in the House since 2008, is a former mayor and a longtime advocate for assistance for the needy. She said at her confirmation hearing in January that her first priority would be protecting the millions of people who have fallen behind on rent or mortgages due to loss of income during the pandemic, telling senators that "we cannot afford to allow people in the midst of a pandemic to be put in the streets."
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-confirmation-hearings-marcia-fudge-coronavirus-pandemic-akron-82a34f792c422a451a6eb4c769f74cf1
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zlj6Jr23D4a-Ajzh1VtC_5HGB55DGO-leVWzQkTc1h8/edit#gid=1830138682
Backing Anti-Erdogan Protesters, Biden Admin Tells Court Turkey's Not Immune for Assaults During Trump White House Visit in May 2017
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/backing-anti-erdogan-protesters-biden-admin-tells-court-turkeys-not-immune-for-assaults-during-trump-white-house-visit/
Dollar General doesn't have pharmacies, but it does have more than 16,000 locations, many of which are located in rural areas, where people don't have easy access to a big box store like Walmart. This would be huge for the rural South. Big pharmacies like CVS/Walgreens are not in smaller Alabama towns, but Dollar General is.
https://usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/09/dollar-general-cdc-covid-vaccines/6925995002/
Prosecutors from Florida, Texas, Utah and even Alaska have been called in to handle Capitol riot cases as the workload has swamped the justice system in DC.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/10/capitol-riot-court-cases-475081
Maine DEMOCRAT House Rep Jared Golden announces he will vote against the COVID19 (for the second time).
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1369721765618982915
President Biden will sign the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on Friday afternoon. Any fucking time now. No hurry at all. The bill text will be rechecked, printed, and signed by the appropriate leaders in the House and Senate. The House coach will then deliver it to the White House for the President's signature. One of the largest bills ever passed will need a day to be rechecked and signed-off on. Biden can sign it today but it will still be held back for several days no matter what because it needs to be rechecked and printed and signed by Congressional leaders etc.
The findings from these projects have ID'd behaviors, motives & triggers of people who engage in various forms of targeted violence including school & workplace violence, terrorism, attacks against gov officials & facilities & mass attacks in public spaces
https://secretservice.gov/protection/ntac
Woof! Once the floof settles, I'll go on Oprah's show to woof my side of the story. On a serious note though, isn't it pawsome that the only negative news coming out of my dad's WH has to do with the extremely minor teefies incident? PS: We'll be back at the WH soon. - Major
https://twitter.com/TheOvalPawffice/status/1369496568576024581
The Manhattan DA's office has issued new subpoenas and requested recordings of local government meetings related to the Trump Organization's failed attempt to create a luxury subdivision at Seven Springs, a 213-acre property Trump bought in 1995.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/manhattan-prosecutors-advance-probe-into-trumps-seven-springs-estate-11615333894
It will be very, very funny when they announce it's Neera: The White House says President Biden will appoint someone to run implementation of the massive coronavirus relief bill, but no announcements on who specifically will do so yet.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1369719904161701897
CISA hasn't completed 57 out of the 94 tasks in the final phase of its stand-up process, GAO says, with 42 tasks past their deadlines.
GAO also found that stakeholders reported challenges interacting with CISA.
https://gao.gov/assets/gao-21-236.pdf
And right after the vote finishes, a clerk reads Fudge's official statement & notice resigning her house seat. The Democrats' majority just got one seat smaller yikes
Not a single Republican voted for the American Rescue Plan
Lauren Boebert Under Fire After Releasing Pelosi Attack Ad with Gunshot Sound Effect Promoting Gunning Down Speaker Pelosi
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/lauren-boebert-pelosi-attack-ad-b1815172.html
Democrats need to start parading around that they saved 340+ million Americans but they won't
YEP: This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/10/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-house-passage-of-the-american-rescue-plan/
Now we move forward with the resources needed to vaccinate the nation. To get $1,400 in direct payments to 85% of American households. To expand coverage and help with lowering health care premiums. To give small businesses what they need to stay open. To expand unemployment insurance, provide food and nutrition assistance. To help keep a roof over people's heads. To cut child poverty in half.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/10/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-house-passage-of-the-american-rescue-plan/
The recent arrests of Rob Minuta and Joshua James mean that five Oath Keepers who did security for Roger Stone now face charges for their part in the January 6 attack on Congress.
https://motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/roger-stones-latest-mess-his-oath-keeper-bodyguards-arrested-in-capitol-attack/
$424 billion | $1400 checks
$350 billion | State and local aid (prevent layoffs and service cuts)
$246 billion | Unemployment Insurance (capped at $300 but extended through Sept 2021)
$219 billion | Tax credits, aid, and child care for families
$178 billion | Reopen schools and higher education
$176 billion | Vaccinations and health care
$109 billion | Farmers, small businesses, and other vital industries
$47 billion | FEMA disaster relief
$45 billion | Other
$40 billion | Renters and homeowners
$25 billion | Restaurant and bars
$17 billion | Veterans
https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1368254040035880963/photo/1
https://messagebox.substack.com/p/heres-how-to-help-sell-the-american
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1368243640787734537
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ev0DxRvU8AUpKbO?format=jpg
U.S. officials along the southern border encountered more than 19,000 migrant parents and children, as well as nearly 9,500 unaccompanied minors, last month, according to government data that was just released.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
Zack Britton said he lost 18 pounds in 10 days after contracting Covid in early January. Said it "wiped me out pretty good and set him back 3-4 weeks in his offseason pitching program.
https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/1369705207718895618
Merrick Garland confirmed as DOJ Attorney General 70-30. Today's Senate vote comes nearly five years to the day after then-president Barack Obama announced he was nominating Garland to the Supreme Court (because Garland was on the Republicans' list of moderate judges to nominate, he was one of their approved moderate judges). McConnell, who blocked that nomination from going anywhere, voted today to confirm Garland as Attorney General. Garland takes the helm at DOJ in the midst of the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. He testified last month that his first briefing would be about the status of that if confirmed.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zlj6Jr23D4a-Ajzh1VtC_5HGB55DGO-leVWzQkTc1h8/edit#gid=1830138682
Something for the Student Loan forgiveness crowd: Sec. 9675. This provision's changes may mean that should some amount of student loans be forgiven, that it would NOT be classified as taxable income and that the debt would be forgiven in the amount granted.
This is a REALLY big win and they could be setting this up for something regarding student loan forgiveness in the future.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319/text#idA843616825BE44EC84566CDDEB521527
The PRO Act would make sweeping, significant changes to labor law, and it'd face a steep challenge in the closely divided Senate. Labor groups are looking to President Biden to push for it.
https://wsj.com/articles/unions-notch-win-with-house-passage-of-bill-opposed-by-uber-lyft-11615382546
Up to 1,000 Christian, Hindu and Sikh girls are abducted in Pakistan every year, then forced to convert to Islam and to marry.
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-56337182
World powers ignoring North Korea crimes against humanity amid nuclear programme focus
http://reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-rights/world-powers-ignoring-north-korea-crimes-against-humanity-amid-nuclear-programme-focus-u-n-expert-idUSKBN2B21WD
China building offensive, aggressive military
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10/asia/us-pacific-commander-china-threat-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
Afghanistan government bans schoolgirls older than 12 from singing
https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-bans-schoolgirls-older-than-12-from-singing-reports/a-56829468
Islamic terrorist Houthis burn down detention center with Ethiopian migrants inside, intentionally murdering at least 180 people.
https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2851881/houthis-accused-setting-detention-center-fire-ethiopian-migrants-inside
Saints are releasing WR Emmanuel Sanders, per source.
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1369685433769226245
Nancy Pelosi was the masterful strategist who persuaded the House to accept the Senate version of Obamacare. She has done it again with the American Rescue Act. She proves RFK's words: "Youth is not a time of life, but a state of mind."
YEP: "Everything in the American Rescue Plan addresses a real need," Biden says, calling the bill "a historic victory.
Bennet (D-Colo.) is the unsung hero of child tax credit/ allowance victory. Has been working to build support among Senate Dems for years. In 2019, co-sponsored a version with the first Republican lawmaker to endorse a fully-refundable CTC (Romney). Got Biden-Harris on board: Today, the next Covid relief package, passed by the Senate last weekend, goes to Pres. Biden's desk to be signed into law. I've been fighting to pass a child tax credit, like the one found in this Covid relief package, since 2015.
https://twitter.com/MichaelBennet/status/1369734232889757702
Good: Jayapal asks for ethics investigation into Boebert, Gosar, Brooks
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/542592-jayapal-asks-for-ethics-investigation-into-boebert-gosar-brooks
While El Paso rolled out makeshift morgues, you sued them for protecting residents. While Texans froze in the dark, you fled the state for warmer weather. Now, you're going out of your way (again) to win political points, even if it costs lives. We'll see you in court.
https://twitter.com/TXAG/status/1369742184258416644/photo/1
https://twitter.com/GregCasar/status/1369752535389659148
Congress just passed the COVID relief bill & it's heading to Biden's desk!
What does it mean for you?
- $1400 checks for you AND adult dependents
- On top of that, up to $3600 per child over several payments
- Cont'd $300 UI for 6 mos
- $10,200 in UI income won't be taxed
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1369745102822912002
She voted for Obama and died for Trump. How QAnon turned Ashli Babbitt, an Iraq veteran, into a domestic 'terrorist.'
https://www.businessinsider.com/ashli-babbitt-profile-capitol-riot-qanon-death-2021-3
______________________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/10/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-house-passage-of-the-american-rescue-plan/
Statement by President Joe Biden on the House Passage of the American Rescue Plan
March 10, 2021 • Statements and Releases
For weeks now, an overwhelming percentage of Americans – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – have made it clear they support the American Rescue Plan. Today, with final passage in the House of Representatives, their voice has been heard.
Now we move forward with the resources needed to vaccinate the nation. To get $1,400 in direct payments to 85% of American households. To expand coverage and help with lowering health care premiums. To give small businesses what they need to stay open. To expand unemployment insurance, provide food and nutrition assistance. To help keep a roof over people's heads. To cut child poverty in half.
This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance.
I want to thank all the members who voted for it, especially Speaker Pelosi, the finest and most capable speaker in the history of our nation. Once again, she has led into law an historic piece of legislation that addresses a major crisis and lifts up millions of Americans.
On Friday, I look forward to signing the American Rescue Plan into law at the White House – a people's law at the people's house.
###
______________________________________
Elizabeth Warren has accumulated a sleeper cell in Biden's administration | Warren's associates hold top posts at the White House and at federal agencies handling issues ranging from financial regulation to national security and climate change. The hires have helped assuage progressives concerned Biden isn't sympathetic to their views, but have set off alarms in the banking and financial sector. The influx of her staffers and allies into Biden's orbit has been part of a conscious, multi-year plan by Warren and progressives to zero in on personnel picks when a Democrat next took the White House – an outgrowth of Warren's belief in the Washington adage that personnel is policy. It is her most tangible imprint on the Biden administration so far, ensuring progressives have seats inside the White House. Both the No. 2 official at Treasury, Wally Adeyemo, and the top deputy at the National Economic Council, Bharat Ramamurti, trace their Washington roots to Warren. Warren's allies also hold posts at the National Security Council and at the Treasury, Education, Health and Energy Departments, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the White House office for climate change policy. | In the early going, Warren can point to some successes. In addition to supporting the size and breadth of Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, she proposed and championed two sections that have received little attention: $40 billion for child care and early learning centers, and a provision that makes student loan forgiveness tax-free.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-10/warren-builds-clout-with-biden-through-pipeline-of-staff-picks
Overwhelming bipartisan support for the American Rescue Plan.
Support: 75%
Oppose: 18%
Dem: 90% Support, 5% Oppose
GOP: 59% Support, 35% Oppose
IND: 71% Support, 20% Oppose
https://twitter.com/JoshDorner/status/1369637725431808000
Independent restaurant operators have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief. This funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.
https://restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/stimulus-bill-29b-direct-restaurant-aid-appears-headed-passage
Wicker voted against the bill and he's now pretending he voted for it and he's taking credit for one part of it
https://twitter.com/SenatorWicker/status/1369770036982915084
New FBI/CISA advisory collects technical details and mitigation advice for the Microsoft Exchange Server situation and describes the targets.
https://ic3.gov/Media/News/2021/210310.pdf
To Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, and everyone who voted for the American Rescue Plan — thank you. This is a historic victory for the American people.
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1369777589267599366
I personally appreciate the Space Force flag in the background. I wonder whether it's the one Trump had placed in the Oval Office.
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1369777589267599366
Roy Blunt only won by 2.8%. Now he's retiring. Missouri is a swing state
.@SenJohnKennedy asks Lisa Graves, Center for Media & Democracy Board President: "Are you alleging that the Federalist Society bribed the President of the United States to nominate Kavanaugh with this dark money?"
https://c-span.org/video/?509728-1/senate-hearing-judicary-branch-special-interest-group-money
Regan confirmed EPA Administrator
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zlj6Jr23D4a-Ajzh1VtC_5HGB55DGO-leVWzQkTc1h8/edit#gid=1830138682
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1369786762743214084
This must be noted: Georgia elections officials felt so threatened that they tape recorded their phone calls with the sitting President of the United States on multiple occasions: Recording reveals Trump called Georgia investigator leading signature match audit https://wsbtv.com/news/local/new-recording-reveals-trump-called-georgia-investigator-leading-signature-match-audit/WEIRQJXKOJFVDGBGATBZOAMSPA
A veteran charged in the Capitol riot once served as a crew chief for the presidential helicopter squadron. The job requires a top secret clearance, including a process known as Yankee White, which is reserved for personnel close to POTUS
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/03/10/capitol-riot-marine-one/
Biden envoy John Kerry and EU discuss further cooperation on climate change
https://wsj.com/articles/kerry-and-eu-discuss-further-cooperation-on-climate-change-11615320423
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke by phone today with Colombian Minister of Defense Diego Molano and Chief of Staff to the Colombian President Maria Paula Correa. Mr. Sullivan underscored the importance of U.S.-Colombia relations and applauded Colombia's commitment to combating climate change. There was a shared commitment to promoting a peaceful and negotiated outcome to the humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela. They also discussed the implementation of the 2016 Peace Accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group, as well as the importance of upholding human rights.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/10/statement-by-nsc-spokesperson-emily-horne-on-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivans-call-with-colombian-minister-of-defense-diego-molano-and-chief-of-staff-to-the-president-of-colombia-mari/
The President and his team are weighing a series of decisions that could expand capacity for the children arriving in the US and ease what is quickly becoming both a humanitarian and political challenge for the new administration.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10/politics/biden-border-strategy-crucial-test-surge-children/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/us/politics/biden-border-migrant-children.html
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: "We are ready to get to work implementing the measures in the Rescue Plan, including economic impact payments, expanded child tax credits, help for struggling renters and homeowners, and support for state, local and tribal governments."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1369815334094401549
Good: Mississippi governor to sign bill banning males from playing on female sports teams
https://www.wjtv.com/news/mississippi-governor-to-sign-bill-banning-transgender-athletes/
Popovich: on LaMarcus Aldridge: "We've mutually agreed for him to work on some opportunities elsewhere." Aldridge will not be back with the Spurs.
https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/1369803126488920074
Spurs are working on trade scenarios with LaMarcus Aldridge and have been engaged on several fronts
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1369804450978729985
Kevin Durant is out tomorrow against the Celtics, the Nets say. It is the 10th consecutive game he has missed with a hamstring strain.
https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1369801890154881025
The League of United Latin American Citizens in Iowa has just sued the state's Republican leadership over the restrictive voting law that just passed. The lawsuit says the restrictions will have a "substantial, severe, and unnecessary" effect.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/03/09/civil-rights-group-sues-to-block-new-iowa-voting-restrictions/
Trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen to 50%; trust in local police and law enforcement has risen to 69%.
https://usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/05/americans-trust-black-lives-matter-declines-usa-today-ipsos-poll/6903470002/
Lawrence Romo, who leads a veterans' civil rights group formed to protect Mexican Americans from discrimination, has been added to a commission tasked with devising a plan to remove Confederate names, monuments, and symbols from military bases and assets
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-civil-rights-leader-will-help-remove-confederate-symbols-names-rcna378
Udonis Haslem on the impact of Meyers Leonard's words on the Jewish community, "We apologize. That won't tolerated here. I felt that. I have a lot of Jewish friends. They call me Udonis Haslem-berg at times."
https://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat/status/1369827658998161408
Free agent guard Quinn Cook is signing a 10-day contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1369822161490305025
If Latin Americans perceive themselves more as white than as a person of color, then they will react to messages about racial injustice and defunding the police as Republicans do
https://nytimes.com/2021/03/10/opinion/democratic-voters-anxieties.html
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert claims she started carrying a gun after a man was beaten to death behind her restaurant. Nobody died behind her restaurant. The blocks away from her restaurant, a man died of a drug overdose.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/12/lauren-boeberts-tall-tale-about-mans-death-that-led-her-pack-heat/
Heat's Meyers Leonard has been fined $50,000 and suspended from all Heat facilities and team activities for one week for an anti-Semitic comment he made Monday.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1370046423329341441
US Army generals say Tucker Carlson 'couldn't be more wrong' on women in the military after he claimed Biden was making it 'more feminine'
https://www.businessinsider.com/senior-us-army-officers-tucker-carlson-comments-military-women-2021-3
Utah agency reverses illegal and unconstitutional energy leases in original Bears Ears monument. A Utah agency that came under fire last year for leasing land in the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument has refunded fees to the two oil and gas companies involved in the deal. Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration Director David Ure approved a refund last month of the leasing bonuses, first-year rental costs and filing fees charged for the nearly 2,000 acres of trust land leased to Kirkwood Oil and Gas and 640 acres leased to John Wolcott.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/03/10/utah-agency-reverses/
In the afternoon, the President will sign the American Rescue Plan in the Oval Office. The Vice President will also attend.
Under Secretary for Domestic Finance – Nellie Liang | Nellie Liang was a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. She also was a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Lecturer at the Yale School of Management, and a member of the Congressional Budget Office's Panel of Economic Advisors. Over three decades at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Liang held a range of positions, including as the first Director of the Division of Financial Stability from 2010 to 2017. In that position, she oversaw the development of financial stability policies related to risks in financial firms and financial markets, and interactions of financial policies with monetary policy. Her recent research has focused on the financial system and macroeconomic growth. Liang received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/president-biden-announces-intent-to-nominate-key-roles-for-the-department-of-treasury/
Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy – Lily Batchelder | Lily Batchelder is the Robert C. Kopple Family Professor of Taxation at NYU School of Law and an affiliated professor at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. From 2014 to 2015, she served as Deputy Director of the White House National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President under President Obama. There, she was responsible for tax and budget issues, including tax reform, retirement policy, and low-income benefits. From 2010 to 2014, she served as Majority Chief Tax Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, where she led Chairman Baucus's work on tax issues, including tax reform and the fiscal cliffs. Batchelder's scholarship and teaching focus on personal income taxes, wealth transfer taxes, business tax reform, retirement savings, social insurance, and the effects of fiscal policy on economic insecurity, income disparities, and intergenerational mobility. Before joining NYU in 2005, Batchelder was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, director of community affairs for a New York state senator, and a client advocate for a small social services organization in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn. Batchelder received an AB in Political Science with honors and distinction from Stanford University, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a JD from Yale Law School.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/president-biden-announces-intent-to-nominate-key-roles-for-the-department-of-treasury/
Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy – Ben Harris | Ben Harris was a research associate professor and Executive Director at the Kellogg Public-Private Interface at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Harris also served as the chief economist with Results for America and the senior economic advisor to the Biden Campaign. During the Obama-Biden Administration, Harris was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Biden and a senior economist with the Council of Economic Advisers. Harris has held research positions at several think tanks, including the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He holds a PhD in economics from George Washington University, masters' degrees from Cornell and Columbia Universities, and a BA from Tufts University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar to Namibia.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/president-biden-announces-intent-to-nominate-key-roles-for-the-department-of-treasury/
Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs – Jonathan Davidson | Jonathan Davidson has worked on Capitol Hill for more than two decades. He has served as Senator Michael Bennet's Chief of Staff since 2011. Previous to that, he served as Chief of Staff to Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative John Sarbanes, and Chief Counsel to Senator Mark Warner. During the transition, Davidson served as the Biden-Harris Transition's Economic Nominations Confirmation team lead. Davidson is also an Adjunct Professor at American University's School of Public Policy, periodically teaching a class on the Legislative Process. Davidson clerked for Judge William Sessions, Chief Judge of the Federal District Court of Vermont.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/president-biden-announces-intent-to-nominate-key-roles-for-the-department-of-treasury/
So far, Joe Manchin has opposed one (1) Biden cabinet nominee.
He voted YES on 16.
He's a YES on two contentious ones coming: Becerra/HHS and Haaland/Interior.
He cast a key vote for $1.9T Covid bill.
For a seat in a Trump+39 state, Dems are getting massive bang-for-the-buck.
Iraq war vet to spur Democratic primary for Madison Cawthorn's House seat
https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2021/03/11/iraq-war-vet-spur-democratic-primary-madison-cawthorn-house-seat/6953959002/
Yeah can't imagine what it would be like if someone in government attacked people on twitter
https://twitter.com/JohnCornyn/status/1370042644043300868
Multiple security failures, including a distracted gate guard, allowed a man to illegally enter Joint Base Andrews last month, where he roamed around 5+ hours before boarding a C-40 military aircraft, per Air Force IG probe into incident.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/11/politics/andrews-air-force-base-incident-ig-report/index.html
The LAPD joined KKK NAZI Aryan site Parler
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-happens-when-cops-like-the-lapd-and-other-police-departments-go-on-parler
Saints departures this offseason so far include: QB Drew Brees (expected retirement), WR Emmanuel Sanders, CB Janoris Jenkins, TE Josh Hill, LB Kwon Alexander, P Thomas Morstead and OL Nick Easton Jameis Winston, Trey Hendrickson, Jared Cook and Sheldon Rankins are free agents.
https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1370007430151757829
Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspend AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over blood clotting
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/542780-denmark-norway-and-iceland-suspend-astrazeneca
Leader Schumer: "For years, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell let the incredibly popular background checks legislation languish in the Senate without a vote. Now, with Democrats in the Majority, the Senate will finally have the opportunity to act on this critical issue."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1370102256842907648
Guam offers Marjorie Taylor Greene cookies and a history book after she falsely claims it's a foreign country unworthy of aid
https://www.businessinsider.com/guam-offers-marjorie-taylor-greene-cookies-over-cpac-gaffe-2021-3
Biden to direct $2.5 billion in funds to address mental health and addiction crisis
https://www.axios.com/biden-funding-drug-mental-health-crisis-310d0250-cb6e-409c-8f30-9d73c3fd94a7.html
Bill Signing: H.R. 1319
March 11, 2021 • Legislation
On Thursday, March 11, 2021, the President signed into law:
H.R. 1319, the "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021," which provides additional relief to address the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, public health, State and local governments, individuals, and businesses.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/legislation/2021/03/11/bill-signing-h-r-1319/
Adam Kinzinger, 7 other House Republicans vote for gun background checks bill
https://www.newsweek.com/adam-kinzinger-7-other-house-republicans-vote-gun-background-checks-bill-1575514
Melanie Egorin, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Legislation | Melanie Egorin has 25 years of health policy experience including more than 15 years with the federal government. She holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Emory University and a Ph.D. from the University of California San Francisco. A nationally recognized expert for breadth and depth of strategic policy knowledge in federal health programs and the American health system, Dr. Egorin currently serves as the Deputy Staff Director for the Health Subcommittee and professional tax staff for the Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to joining Ways and Means, Dr. Egorin was a Senior Analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) focusing on a range of public payer health policy issues, including Medicare managed care programs for dual-eligible beneficiaries, Medicare payment policy for novel technologies, the Ryan White CARE Act, and veteran's health care services. Throughout her career, Dr. Egorin has been recognized for her collaborative workstyle, bipartisan leadership, and mentorship. Originally from Baltimore, M.D., Dr. Egorin lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, 2 children, and dog.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/president-biden-announces-intent-to-nominate-key-role-for-the-department-of-health-and-human-services/
The AFLCIO is endorsing changes to Senate rules, including eliminating the filibuster
https://aflcio.org/about/leadership/statements/senate-rules-cannot-be-used-block-workers-first-agenda
YES: Vote Scheduled: At 5:30pm on Monday, March 15th, the Senate will proceed to a vote on confirmation of Executive Calendar #31 Debra Anne Haaland to be Secretary of the Interior @Interior
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1370118021612765184
The EU is set to target four Chinese officials and one entity for human rights abuses, the first sanctions the bloc has aimed at China since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Our story.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-to-sanction-chinese-officials-over-human-rights-violations-11615493507
"I thought this was my building. ... Everybody in this building should know who the hell I am." Patrick Ewing was upset after he said he got stopped multiple times by security at Madison Square Garden.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1370113729585635330
https://twitter.com/sportingnews/status/1370113729585635330
China's legislature moved to tighten control over Hong Kong by reducing the role of its public in picking the territory's leaders. The National People's Congress voted 2,895-0, with one abstention, in support of the plan to give a pro-Beijing committee power to appoint more of Hong Kong's lawmakers, reducing the number elected by the public. NPC members, who are appointed by the party, routinely endorse party plans by unanimous vote or overwhelming majorities.
https://apnews.com/article/legislature-beijing-hong-kong-china-asia-pacific-e262c41db9da8bd5324b1eb494c54112
Why do we have absolutely no idea how many homeless people have died of Covid? For one thing, housing status is not listed on death certificates. "It's almost like we don't want to know."
https://statnews.com/2021/03/11/the-uncounted-people-who-are-homeless-are-invisible-victims-of-covid-19/
Pro-Life Texas Lawmaker Introduces Bill Imposing Death Penalty For Abortion
https://truthout.org/articles/pro-life-texas-lawmaker-introduces-bill-imposing-death-penalty-for-abortion/
12 protesters killed in Myanmar as military defies call for restraint
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/myanmar-protesters-killed-deadly-violence-1.5946118
JJ Redick underwent a non-surgical procedure to relieve inflammation and soreness in his right heel. He will remain away from the team and continue to adhere to the NBA's health and safety protocols while receiving follow-up treatment. His status will be updated in one week.
https://twitter.com/pelicansnba/status/1370150802015281153
Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic are listed as out for tonight's game against OKC. Doncic with right ankle "injury recovery" and Porzingis with left knee "injury recovery."
https://twitter.com/townbrad/status/1370141150175186946
Biden is set to announce he's directing states, tribes and territories to make all adult Americans eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1. The federal government will launch a website to make it easier for people to find vaccines and find appointments.
https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1370159105692872705
Arizona Republicans want to ban local and state election officials from receiving private grants for any aspect of holding elections. That will result in most if not all voting sites being closed down because they all rely on private donations and federal funding. They literally want to stop all voting to prevent Democrats from voting, even though doing so stops Republicans from voting.
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/11/975746051/private-donations-helped-pay-for-2020-elections-arizona-republicans-say-no-more
Dentists and Veterinarians and Midwives, Optometrists, Paramedics, Physician Assistants, Podiatrists, Respiratory Therapists, medical students, nursing students and other healthcare students, will now be able to administer doses. Pres. Biden will also announce the deployment of more than 4,000 active duty troops to support vaccination efforts, bringing the total to over 6,000 in all. Biden will announce there will be a federally-supported website by beginning of May so people can locate vaccines. For those without access to internet, there will be a call center.
The Senate must be accountable to the voters. If nothing ever changes, what's the point of voting?
Democrats are braced for a slog in the next phase of the Biden agenda, with excellent progressive House bills set to pile up in Senate because Manchin and Sinema repeatedly reject changing 60-vote requirement to allow the winning party's policies to pass. Internal fights loom over immigration, infrastructure, spending.
President Biden to Announce All Americans to be Eligible for Vaccinations by May 1, Puts the Nation on a Path to Get Closer to Normal by July 4th
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Community Health Centers: Today, the Administration announced that over the next six weeks the Administration will deliver vaccines directly to up to an additional 700 community health centers that reach underserved communities, increasing the total number of participating community health centers across the country to 950. These health centers serve low income and minority patients, provide services to rural communities and Tribal communities, and many will utilize mobile vans to deliver services.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Pharmacies: The Administration will double the number of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy program, making the vaccine available at more than 20,000 pharmacies in locations convenient to all Americans. The Administration is directing pharmacies to expand mobile operations into the hardest hit communities to reach more people.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Community Vaccination Centers: The Administration will more than double the number of federally-run mass vaccination centers, run by FEMA, the U.S. military, and other federal agencies in partnership with states, to ensure that we reach the hardest-hit communities in this historic effort. Many of these sites will be the home base for mobile units that will travel into local communities to provide vaccines directly in underserved populations. With these mobile clinics, we'll work with states to make up to one-third of each site's daily vaccinations available directly in the hardest-hit neighborhoods. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, the Administration will also increase support for state and local-run community vaccination centers. As a result of these added investments community vaccination centers will be capable of administering hundreds of thousands of shots a day, building on the nearly 600 centers across the country already operating with federal support.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Increasing the number of people providing and supporting vaccinations. Today, President Biden will announce the deployment of more than 4,000 active duty troops to support vaccination efforts, bringing the total to over 6,000 in all. Tomorrow, the Administration will expand the pool of qualified professionals able to administer shots to include: Dentists, advanced and intermediate Emergency Medical Technicians, Midwives, Optometrists, Paramedics, Physician Assistants, Podiatrists, Respiratory Therapists, and Veterinarians, as well as medical students, nursing students, and other healthcare students in the previously listed professions under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services will launch a new website to help individuals determine whether they are eligible to sign up to volunteer to administer shots.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Find a Vaccination Website: By May 1st, as vaccines are available in more places, the Administration will launch a federally-supported website that will show the locations near them that have vaccines.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
1-800 Number: To offer a tool for those who may lack Internet access, we will launch a call center by May 1st to provide guidance and assistance with finding a vaccine.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Technical Support to Improve Existing State Websites: Since many Americans use their state websites to schedule appointments, the Administration will also deploy technology teams to states who need assistance to improve their websites.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Ensure schools have the resources they need: Now that the American Rescue Plan has passed, the nearly $130 billion to safely reopen schools for in-person instruction will begin to be distributed this month by the Department of Education. These dollars will help schools pay for the critical supplies to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommended mitigation strategies, hire more staff – and avoid laying off current staff – to accommodate the need for smaller class sizes due to physical distancing, and support children's academic, social and emotional needs after a challenging year.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Expand screening testing in schools: We will immediately take steps to help schools implement regular screening testing to assist them in safely reopening classrooms, including through tests and test supplies as well as implementation assistance to make it easier for schools to adopt a testing program. This month, HHS will award $650 million in an initial investment in expanding K-8 school testing and testing in underserved congregate settings through new regional coordinating centers that will identify existing testing capacity, match it up to an area of need and support testing. This effort will begin to bring more testing to teachers, staff, and students and serve as a bridge to the comprehensive testing investment in the American Rescue Plan that is critical to get the pandemic under control.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Provide guidance and support: The Department of Education (ED) will host a national Safe School Reopening Summit this month that will bring together students, teachers, families, community organizations, and state, local, or school leadership to provide assistance in implementing the CDC K-12 operational strategy for in-person instruction and supporting the academic, social, and emotional well-being of students. ED also is launching the "Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse" called for in President Biden's Executive Order. The Clearinghouse will highlight lessons learned and best practices that can help schools and districts identify opportunities to best utilize American Rescue Plan funds to meet their individual needs. Next month, ED will release Volume 2 of its K-12 COVID-19 Handbook for districts, schools, and educators with strategies to address the impact of COVID-19 on students, educators, and staff, especially for historically underserved students and communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Help educators get vaccinated: Throughout March, the Administration will advance our efforts to support educators, school staff and childcare workers getting vaccinated. Last week, the President announced that he is using the Administration's authority to direct states to make Pre-K-12 school staff and child care workers eligible for vaccinations and that the Administration will prioritize educators in the federal pharmacy program. The President challenged all 50 states to get Pre-K-12 school staff and child care workers their first shot by the end of this month. To help meet that goal, the Administration is working with education leaders, advocates, child care providers, community leaders, states and others to help reach educators and to disseminate toolkits and other resources to help amplify the importance of getting vaccinated.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Identify variants by expanding genomic sequencing. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan's $1.75 billion investment, we will dramatically expand our ability to sequence samples to identify, track, and mitigate emerging variants. This will build on the nearly $200 million that the Administration announced last month to grow the number of samples sequenced from 7,000 to approximately 25,000. Growing sample sizes will improve our ability to detect emerging variants and work to mitigate their spread.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/11/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-all-americans-to-be-eligible-for-vaccinations-by-may-1-puts-the-nation-on-a-path-to-get-closer-to-normal-by-july-4th/
Republican who abandoned his constituents to go to Cancun has thoughts about helping Americans.
https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1370085476334440451
Reminder: Trump outright refusing to tackle covid19: "I don't take responsibility at all". In the same speech, he claimed Obama created and spread covid19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOcY3XlzPzs
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/13/trump-coronavirus-testing-128971
"Independence Day: celebrating independence from this virus" is great marketing
So that was basically Biden's version of Bill Pullman's speech in Independence Day. Now it's time to go take down the virus.
Remember when the Republicans said once Biden took office, no one was going to even mention covid again.....LOL
A president humble enough to say "listen to this other guy"!! (Fauci)
Americans CANNOT be counted on to do the right thing, EVER
Vaccine "hesitancy" isn't the biggest challenge but making it convenient to get vaccinated. For too many people it's too hard to sign up, show up. People who work all day or care for families. We need to set up 24/7 clinics with no appointment needed for hard to reach communities
If the virus spikes again the US "may have to reinstate restrictions" notes POTUS. He asks the public to continue wearing masks. Meanwhile, sixteen Governors have already lifted mask mandates in their states or never had them.
Last month, JANET YELLEN sold a bunch of stocks, then appears to have invested the proceeds in Vanguard's 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFIAX), which:
1) is a smart investment, & ...
2) seems like a pretty good way to avoid potential conflicts of interests.
https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1370143112077713410
Biden spent little time of this speech touting his Covid bill, which he signed today. Most of the speech was focused on what's next, and outlined top goals: Everyone eligible for vaccine by May 1, website to help with access, re-open k-8, guidance on what vaccinated people can do
Zion Williamson floats to the rim
https://streamable.com/ila7jx
This Nets vs Celtics game right now is a battle for the worst jerseys in the league.
Democrats Flip Orange County California Supervisor Seat Held By Republicans For 120 Years. Democrats picked up a second seat on the five-member Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday when Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley won a special election to replace a Republican supervisor elected to Congress last year. From the nearly 96,000 ballots cast in the special election, Foley picked up 44.28% of the vote out of a crowded field of five candidates, according to Orange County Registrar of Voters data posted Tuesday. Republican John Moorlach, a former state senator and Orange County supervisor who was backed by the county's Republican party, took second in the race with 30.98% of ballots.
https://www.courthousenews.com/democrats-flip-orange-county-supervisor-seat-held-by-gop-for-120-years/
https://www.ocvote.com/results/current-election-results
Arizona Republican Bill Would Allow Republican-Controlled State Legislature To Illegally And Unconstitutionally Overturn Presidential Popular Vote
https://lawandcrime.com/politics/arizona-gop-bill-would-allow-gop-controlled-state-legislature-to-overturn-presidential-popular-vote/
Rappaport says Brady is going to get at least one year extension . Gronk is also coming back and Antonio Brown is likely back as well according to Rappaport.
https://twitter.com/RichEisenShow/status/1370138543985627138
_____________________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/11/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-anniversary-of-the-covid-19-shutdown/
Remarks by President Biden on the Anniversary of the COVID-19 Shutdown
March 11, 2021 • Speeches and Remarks
East Room
8:01 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Tonight, I'd like to talk to you about where we are as we mark one year since everything stopped because of this pandemic.
A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked.
Denials for days, weeks, then months that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness.
Photos and videos from 2019 feel like they were taken in another era. The last vacation. The last birthday with friends. The last holiday with the extended family.
While it was different for everyone, we all lost something.
A collective suffering. A collective sacrifice. A year filled with the loss of life — and the loss of living for all of us.
But, in the loss, we saw how much there was to gain in appreciation, respect, and gratitude.
Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do. In fact, it may be the most American thing we do.
And that's what we've done.
We've seen frontline and essential workers risking their lives — sometimes losing them — to save and help others. Researchers and scientists racing for a vaccine. And so many of you, as Hemingway wrote, being strong in all the broken places.
I know it's been hard. I truly know.
As I've told you before, I carry a card in my pocket with the number of Americans who have died from COVID to date. It's on the back of my schedule. As of now, the total deaths in America: 527,726. That's more deaths than in World War One, World War Two, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined.
They were husbands, wives, sons and daughters, grandparents, friends, neighbors — young and old. They leave behind loved ones unable to truly grieve or to heal, even to have a funeral.
But I'm also thinking about everyone else who lost this past year to natural causes, by cruel fate of accident, or other diseases. They, too, died alone. They, too, leave loved ones behind who are hurting badly.
You know, you've often heard me say before, I talk about the longest walk any parent can make is up a short flight of stairs to his child's bedroom to say, "I'm sorry. I lost my job. We can't be here anymore." Like my Dad told me when he lost his job in Scranton.
So many of you have had to make that same walk this past year.
You lost your job. You closed your business. Facing eviction, homelessness, hunger, a loss of control, and, maybe worst of all, a loss of hope.
Watching a generation of children who may be set back up to a year or more — because they've not been in school — because of their loss of learning.
It's the details of life that matter most, and we've missed those details.
The big details and small moments.
Weddings, birthdays, graduations — all the things that needed to happen but didn't. The first date. The family reunions. The Sunday night rituals.
It's all has exacted a terrible cost on the psyche of so many of us. For we are fundamentally a people who want to be with others — to talk, to laugh, to hug, to hold one another.
But this virus has kept us apart.
Grandparents haven't seen their children or grandchildren. Parents haven't seen their kids. Kids haven't seen their friends.
The things we used to do that always filled us with joy have become the things we couldn't do and broke our hearts.
Too often, we've turned against one another.
A mask — the easiest thing to do to save lives — sometimes it divides us.
States pitted against one other instead of working with each other.
Vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans, who have been attacked, harassed, blamed, and scapegoated. At this very moment, so many of them — our fellow Americans — they're on the frontlines of this pandemic, trying to save lives, and still — still — they are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop.
Look, we know what we need to do to beat this virus: Tell the truth. Follow the scientists and the science. Work together. Put trust and faith in our government to fulfill its most important function, which is protecting the American people — no function more important.
We need to remember the government isn't some foreign force in a distant capital. No, it's us. All of us. "We the People." For you and I, that America thrives when we give our hearts, when we turn our hands to common purpose. And right now, my friends, we are doing just that. And I have to say, as your President, I am grateful to you.
Last summer, I was in Philadelphia, and I met a small-business owner — a woman. I asked her — I said, "What do you need most?" I'll never forget what she said to me. She said — looking me in the eye, she said, "I just want the truth. The truth. Just tell me the truth." Think of that.
My fellow Americans, you're owed nothing less than the truth.
And for all of you asking when things will get back to normal, here is the truth: The only way to get our lives back, to get our economy back on track is to beat the virus.
You've been hearing me say that for — while I was running and the last 50 days I've been President. But this is one of the most complex operations we've under- — ever undertaken as a nation in a long time.
That's why I'm using every power I have as President of the United States to put us on a war footing to get the job done. It sounds like hyperbole, but I mean it: a war footing.
And thank G-d we're making some real progress now.
On my first full day in office, I outlined for you a comprehensive strategy to beat this pandemic. And we have spent every day since attempting to carry it out.
Two months ago, the country — this country didn't have nearly enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all or near all of the American public. But soon we will.
We've been working with the vaccine manufacturers — Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson — to manufacture and purchase hundreds of millions of doses of these three safe, effective vaccines. And now, at the direction and with the assistance of my administration, Johnson & Johnson is working together with a competitor, Merck, to speed up and increase the capacity to manufacture new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is one shot.
In fact, just yesterday, I announced — and I met with the CEOs of both companies — I announced our plan to buy an additional 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines. These two companies — competitors — have come together for the good of the nation, and they should be applauded for it.
It's truly a national effort, just like we saw during World War II.
Now because of all the work we've done, we'll have enough vaccine supply for all adults in America by the end of May. That's months ahead of schedule.
And we're mobilizing thousands of vaccinators to put the vaccine in one's arm. Calling on active duty military, FEMA, retired doctors and nurses, administrators, and those to administer the shots.
And we've been creating more places to get the shots. We've made it possible for you to get a vaccine at nearly one — any one of nearly 10,000 pharmacies across the country, just like you get your flu shot.
We're also working with governors and mayors, in red states and blue states, to set up and support nearly 600 federally supported vaccination centers that administer hundreds of thousands of shots per day. You can drive up to a stadium or a large parking lot, get your shot, never leave your car, and drive home in less than an hour.
We've been sending vaccines to hundreds of community health centers all across America, located in underserved areas. And we've been deploying and we will deploy more mobile vehicles and pop-up clinics to meet you where you live so those who are least able to get the vaccine are able to get it.
We continue to work on making at-home testing available.
And we've been focused on serving people in the hardest-hit communities of this pandemic — Black, Latino, Native American, and rural communities.
So, what does all this add up to? When I took office 50 days ago, only 8 percent of Americans after months — only 8 percent of those over the age of 65 had gotten their first vaccination. Today, that number is [nearly] 65 percent. Just 14 percent of Americans over the age 75, 50 days ago, had gotten their first shot. Today, that number is well over 70 percent.
With new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC — that came out on Monday, it means simply this: Millions and millions of grandparents who went months without being able to hug their grandkids can now do so. And the more people who are fully vaccinated, the CD [CDC] will continue to provide guidance on what you can do in the workplace, places of worship, with friends, and as well as travel.
When I came into office, you may recall, I set a goal that many of you said was, kind of, way over the top. I said I intended to get 100 million shots in people's arms in my first 100 days in office. Tonight, I can say we are not only going to meet that goal, we're going to beat that goal. Because we're actually on track to reach this goal of 100 million shots in arms on my 60th day in office. No other country in the world has done this. None.
Now I want to talk about the next steps we're thinking about.
First, tonight, I'm announcing that I will direct all states, tribes, and territories to make all adults — people 18 and over — eligible to be vaccinated no later than May 1.
Let me say that again: All adult Americans will be eligible to get a vaccine no later than May 1. That's much earlier than expected.
Let me be clear: That doesn't mean everyone's going to have that shot immediately, but it means you'll be able to get in line beginning May 1. Every adult will be eligible to get their shot.
To do this, we're going to go from a million shots a day that I promised in December, before I was sworn in, to maintaining — beating our current pace of two million shots a day, outpacing the rest of the world.
Secondly, at the time when every adult is eligible in May, we will launch, with our partners, new tools to make it easier for you to find the vaccine and where to get the shot, including a new website that will help you first find the place to get vaccinated and the one nearest you. No more searching day and night for an appointment for you and your loved ones.
Thirdly, with the passage of the American Rescue Plan — and I thank again the House and Senate for passing it — and my announcement last month of a plan to vaccinate teachers and school staff, including bus drivers, we can accelerate the massive, nationwide effort to reopen our schools safely and meet my goal, that I stated at the same time about 100 million shots, of opening the majority of K-8 schools in my first 100 days in office. This is going to be the number one priority of my new Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona.
Fourth, in the coming weeks, we will issue further guidance on what you can and cannot do once fully vaccinated, to lessen the confusion, to keep people safe, and encourage more people to get vaccinated.
And finally, fifth, and maybe most importantly: I promise I will do everything in my power, I will not relent until we beat this virus, but I need you, the American people. I need you. I need every American to do their part. And that's not hyperbole. I need you.
I need you to get vaccinated when it's your turn and when you can find an opportunity, and to help your family and friends and neighbors get vaccinated as well.
Because here's the point: If we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there's a good chance you, your families, and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbeque and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn't mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.
After this long hard year, that will make this Independence Day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.
But to get there, we can't let our guard down.
This fight is far from order — from over. As I told the woman in Pennsylvania, "I will tell you the truth."
A July 4th with your loved ones is the goal. But a goal — a lot can happen; conditions can change.
The scientists have made clear that things may get worse again as new variants of the virus spread.
And we've got work to do to ensure everyone has confidence in the safety and effectiveness of all three vaccines.
So my message to you is this: Listen to Dr. Fauci, one of the most distinguished and trusted voices in the world. He has assured us the vaccines are safe. They underwent rigorous scientific review. I know they're safe. Vice President Harris and I know they're safe. That's why we got the vaccine publicly in front of cameras so — for the world to see, so you could see us do it. The First Lady and the Second Gentleman also got vaccinated.
Talk to your family, your friends, your neighbors — the people you know best who've gotten the vaccine.
We need everyone to get vaccinated. We need everyone to keep washing their hands, stay socially distanced, and keep wearing the masks as recommended by the CDC.
Because even if we devote every resource we have, beating this virus and getting back to normal depends on national unity.
And national unity isn't just how politics and politicians vote in Washington or what the loudest voices say on cable or online. Unity is what we do together as fellow Americans. Because if we don't stay vigilant and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track. And, please, we don't want to do again.
We've made so much progress. This is not the time to let up. Just as we are emerging from a dark winter into a hopeful spring and summer is not the time to not stick with the rules.
I'll close with this.
We've lost so much over the last year.
We've lost family and friends.
We've lost businesses and dreams we spent years building.
We've lost time — time with each other.
And our children have lost so much time with their friends, time with their schools. No graduation ceremonies this — this spring. No graduations from college, high school, moving-up ceremonies.
You know, and there's something else we lost.
We lost faith in whether our government and our democracy can deliver on really hard things for the American people.
But as I stand here tonight, we're proving once again something I have said time and time again until they're probably tired of hearing me say it. I say it foreign leaders and domestic alike: It's never, ever a good bet to bet against the American people. America is coming back.
The development, manufacture, and distribution of the vaccines in record time is a true miracle of science. It is one of the most extraordinary achievements any country has ever accomplished.
And we also just saw the Perseverance rover land on Mars. Stunning images of our dreams that are now a reality. Another example of the extraordinary American ingenuity, commitment, and belief in science and one another.
And today, I signed into law the American Rescue Plan, an historic piece of legislation that delivers immediate relief to millions of people. It includes $1,400 in direct rescue checks — payments. That means a typical family of four earning about $110,000 will get checks for $5,600 deposited if they have direct deposit or in a check — a Treasury check.
It extends unemployment benefits. It helps small businesses. It lowers healthcare premiums for many. It provides food and nutrition, keeps families in their homes. And it will cut child poverty in this country in half, according to the experts. And it fi- — and it funds all the steps I've just described to beat the virus and create millions of jobs.
In the coming weeks and months, I'll be traveling, along with the First Lady, the Vice President, the Second Gentleman and members of my Cabinet, to speak directly to you, to tell you the truth about how the American Rescue Plan meets the moment. And if it fails at any pa-, I will acknowledge that it failed. But it will not.
About how after a long, dark years — one whole year, there is hope and light of better days ahead.
If we all do our part, this country will be vaccinated soon, our economy will be on the mend, our kids will be back in school, and we will have proven once again that this country can do anything — hard things, big things, important things.
Over a year ago, no one could've imagined what we were about to go through, but now we're coming through it, and it's a shared experience that binds us together as a nation. We are bound together by the loss and the pain of the days that have gone by. But we're also bound together by the hope and the possibilities of the days in front of us.
My fervent prayer for our country is that, after all we have been through, we'll come together as one people, one nation, one America.
I believe we can and we will. We're seizing this moment. And history, I believe, will record: We faced and overcame one of the toughest and darkest periods in this nation's history — darkest we've ever known.
I promise you, we'll come out stronger with a renewed faith in ourselves, a renewed commitment to one another, to our communities, and to our country.
This is the United States of America, and there is nothing — nothing — from the bottom of my heart, I believe this — there is nothing we can't do when we do it together.
So G-d bless you all.
And please, G-d, give solace to all those people who lost someone.
And may G-d protect our troops.
Thank you for taking the time to listen.
I look forward to seeing you.
8:27 P.M. EST
_____________________________
Cy Vance, Pro-Trump Manhattan DA currently investigating Trump and who intentionally botched previous investigations of Trump to avoid prosecuting Trump because he's pro-Trump, won't seek reelection this year.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/22/can-cyrus-vance-jr-nail-trump
President Biden and fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific alliance known as the Quad want to expand COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity in India. The plan is being announced at a virtual meeting of the leaders of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan.
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-beijing-global-trade-australia-india-6a0eb7a83a24771bb1f44d2fb6d6e985
DOJ expects at least 100 more to be charged in Capitol attack investigation
https://abc11.com/doj-expects-at-least-100-more-to-be-charged-in-capitol-attack-investigation/10410401/
Patriots are bringing back Cam Newton but it doesn't preclude them from making another QB move in the weeks to come, per league sources. This move locks in a QB heading into free agency.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1370363061446574081
Patriots are finalizing a 1-year deal worth close to $14 million for Cam Newton to return to New England
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1370367181796610049
Tom Brady becomes the FIRST EVER Starting Buccaneers Quarterback to sign a second contract with the team. The Buccaneers have been around since 1976.
https://twitter.com/StevenCheah/status/1370393767006642176
Chiefs just cut both of their starting tackles, took the RB5 in last year's class in the first round and the year before that took Mecole over DK, McLaurin and Diontae and the year before that gave Sammy Watkins $16m/year (more than Allen Robinson in same FA class).
https://twitter.com/IanKenyonNFL/status/1370202620053311492
GOOD: Biden to rescind Trump order on processing young migrants
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/542937-biden-to-rescind-trump-order-on-processing-young-migrants
After undergoing surgery to remove a small mass on his left kidney in late January, guard Caris LeVert will make his Indiana Pacers debut vs. Phoenix on Saturday
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1370405341670862848
Quad partners are working collaboratively to achieve expanded manufacturing of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines at facilities in India, prioritizing increased capacity for vaccines authorized by Stringent Regulatory Authorities (SRA). Quad partners will address financing and logistical demands for production, procurement, and delivery of safe and effective vaccines. Quad partners will work to use our shared tools and expertise, through mechanisms at institutions including the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and, as appropriate, Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), as well as others.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-quad-summit/
The United States, through the DFC, will work with Biological E Ltd., to finance increased capacity to support Biological E's effort to produce at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022 with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL), including the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-quad-summit/
Japan, through JICA, is in discussions to provide concessional yen loans for the Government of India to expand manufacturing for COVID-19 vaccines for export, with a priority on producing vaccines that have received authorization from WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) or Stringent Regulatory Authorities.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-quad-summit/
Quad partners will ensure expanded manufacturing will be exported for global benefit, to be procured through key multilateral initiatives, such as COVAX, that provide life-saving vaccines for low-income countries, and by countries in need.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-quad-summit/
Australia will contribute US$77 million for the provision of vaccines and "last-mile" delivery support with a focus on Southeast Asia, in addition to its existing commitment of US$407 million for regional vaccine access and health security which will provide full vaccine coverage to nine Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste, and support procurement, prepare for vaccine delivery, and strengthen health systems in Southeast Asia.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-quad-summit/
3. Our common goals require us to reckon with the most urgent of global challenges. Today, we pledge to respond to the economic and health impacts of COVID-19, combat climate change, and address shared challenges, including in cyber space, critical technologies, counterterrorism, quality infrastructure investment, and humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief as well as maritime domains.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/quad-leaders-joint-statement-the-spirit-of-the-quad/
4. Building on the progress our countries have achieved on health security, we will join forces to expand safe, affordable, and effective vaccine production and equitable access, to speed economic recovery and benefit global health. With steadfast commitment to the health and safety of our own people, we also recognize that none of us can be safe as long as the pandemic continues to spread. We will, therefore, collaborate to strengthen equitable vaccine access for the Indo-Pacific, with close coordination with multilateral organizations including the World Health Organization and COVAX. We call for transparent and results-oriented reform at the World Health Organization. We are united in recognizing that climate change is a global priority and will work to strengthen the climate actions of all nations, including to keep a Paris-aligned temperature limit within reach. We look forward to a successful COP 26 in Glasgow. We will begin cooperation on the critical technologies of the future to ensure that innovation is consistent with a free, open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific. We will continue to prioritize the role of international law in the maritime domain, particularly as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and facilitate collaboration, including in maritime security, to meet challenges to the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Seas. We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, and also confirm the necessity of immediate resolution of the issue of Japanese abductees. As long-standing supporters of Myanmar and its people, we emphasize the urgent need to restore democracy and the priority of strengthening democratic resilience.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/quad-leaders-joint-statement-the-spirit-of-the-quad/
The President Orders PREP Act Declaration Amendment to Expand COVID-19 Vaccinator Eligibility to Additional Classes of Medical Professionals and Health Care Students | HHS Launches New Portal for Vaccinators to Check Eligibility Status and Volunteer with their State | Ordering an Amendment to the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act Declaration to Allow More Qualified Professionals to Serve as Vaccinators. This action, which was completed by the Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), authorizes additional categories of qualified professionals to prescribe, dispense, and administer COVID-19 vaccines anywhere in the country. Newly eligible vaccinators include: Dentists, Emergency Medical Technicians (Advanced and Intermediate EMTs), Midwives, Optometrists, Paramedics, Physician Assistants, Podiatrists, Respiratory Therapists, and Veterinarians. This amendment also authorizes recently retired members of the above professions, pharmacists and pharmacy interns to serve as vaccinators, if they were in good standing upon expiration of their license. And, this amendment authorizes medical students, nursing students, and students of the other eligible health care professions with proper training and professional supervision to serve as vaccinators. States are encouraged to further expand the categories of persons authorized to administer COVID-19 vaccines in their states, as authorized under the PREP Act, to respond to the local needs and availability of potential vaccinators. This effort is the Biden Administration's third amendment to the PREP Act Declaration. The Administration's previous amendments authorized any health care provider who is licensed or certified in any state to administer COVID-19 vaccines in any other state or U.S. territory; authorized any physician, advanced practice registered nurse, registered nurse, or practical nurse whose license or certification expired within the past five years – and was in good standing – to administer COVID-19 vaccines in any state or U.S. territory; and authorized any member of a uniformed service as well as federal government employees, contractors and volunteers deployed by a federal department or agency to vaccinate in the state or territory to which they are deployed.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-president-biden-expands-efforts-to-recruit-more-vaccinators/
https://www.phe.gov/emergency/events/COVID19/COVIDvaccinators/Pages/default.aspx
Launching an Online Vaccinator Portal. Health care professionals, retirees, and students can now visit https://www.PHE.gov/COVIDvaccinators for information on whether or not they are eligible to administer the COVID-19 vaccine under federal law. The site also includes links to volunteer management portals for every state, for those professionals and students who wish to volunteer as vaccinators. HHS is also conducting a significant outreach effort to health professional associations, schools of health professions, public health and emergency management stakeholders, and state and local health officers and immunization managers to share vaccinator eligibility information and get the word out about volunteer opportunities.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-president-biden-expands-efforts-to-recruit-more-vaccinators/
https://www.phe.gov/emergency/events/COVID19/COVIDvaccinators/Pages/default.aspx
Deploying Federal Vaccinators Across the Country. Departments and agencies from across the U.S. government are contributing their own health care and support personnel to help surge the national vaccinator workforce. The Biden Administration has deployed over 4,200 agency personnel to administer COVID-19 vaccines, including from the National Disaster Medical System and Public Health Service Corps within the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Forest Service. Health care professionals the federal government has deployed include Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurses, Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians, Veterinarians, and EMTs. The federal government has hundreds of additional interagency vaccinators ready to deploy as further needs are identified.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-president-biden-expands-efforts-to-recruit-more-vaccinators/
Other Qualified Vaccinators:
• Licensed health professionals or other individuals authorized under the law of their state
• Health care professionals or other individuals who hold an active license or certification permitting the person to prescribe, dispense, or administer vaccines under the law of another state
• Federal responders, including uniformed services or federal government employees, contractors, or volunteers
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/12/fact-sheet-president-biden-expands-efforts-to-recruit-more-vaccinators/
GOOD: "Let the review proceed. I'm not going to resign. I was not elected by the politicians. I was elected by the people," Cuomo says. He says he is proud that he is not part of the political club and implies that is why others are going after him. (YEP. They're targeting him because he's hardcore pro-Israel and moderate-leaning-conservative). He is now delineating the difference between facts and opinions, implicitly saying that the politicians commenting on him to resign are "reckless and dangerous" because they don't have the facts. He says politicians may be "bowing to pressure" and "bowing to cancel culture."
Cuomo, refusing to resign: "I have taken thousands of pictures. I have never meant to make anyone feel uncomfortable. ... I apologize for people who I have taken pictures with and who after the fact say they were uncomfortable with that picture."
"I never harassed anyone. I never abused anyone. I never assaulted anyone," Cuomo says. "And I never would."
YEP: "I respect any elected officials' right to take a position on anything. My way is know the facts before you have an opinion. A lot of people allege a lot of things for a lot of reasons."
"I have not had a sexual relationship that was inappropriate. Period."
WH National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan concedes the Microsoft Exchange hack is still ongoing, and US gov't doesn't yet know how far it goes: "It is certainly the case that the malign actors are still in some of these Microsoft Exchange systems."
https://twitter.com/EamonJavers/status/1370442852027731969
Biden speech draws almost 700,000 more broadcast viewers than Trump's first TV address
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-coronavirus-ratings/biden-speech-draws-more-broadcast-viewers-than-trumps-first-tv-address-idUSKBN2B42KO
_________________________________
No, Trump Doesn't Deserve Credit For Planning Vaccine Distribution
By Kate Riga and Josh Kovensky
|
March 12, 2021 2:18 p.m.
With the COVID-19 vaccines starting to bring the pandemic to an end, former President Trump has stepped in to take credit for the feat.
What's surprising is that he's been aided in this by the Washington Post and New York Times, both of which have run articles this week arguing that the speed-up in the vaccine rollout under President Biden only builds off of a plan put into place by Trump. In short, they contend that Trump is right: he had a plan to distribute the vaccine that Biden was lucky enough to inherit.
That's flat wrong. A look at what actually happened in the Trump administration's last weeks shows that the White House lacked a plan for the "last mile" of distribution, leaving that to the states while lobbying Congress not to pass much-needed funding that would spur state and local governments to get the vaccine into arms.
On its own terms, the Trump administration did not have a plan to distribute the vaccine to Americans en masse beyond "let the states figure it out."
What the Trump administration left the country with was a partnership with pharmacies to vaccinate nursing homes — the only real footprint of a federal plan to deliver vaccine into people's arms. And even that foundered amid allegations of inefficiency compared to states that opted out.
What's more is that that one plan only covered the first phase of distribution: nursing home residents and hospital workers, who received inoculations from the medical facilities at which they worked. It set the Biden administration up for a "vaccine cliff," an outcome that was avoided in part due to the outcry over the sheer ineptitude of the effort's early stages.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/the-trump-admin-has-a-plan-to-distribute-the-vaccine-that-ends-when-biden-takes-office
No Plan
The question here is simple: what did the administration plan to do to get vaccines into arms? After the vaccines got to the states, what was the plan for the last mile?
The answer is that there was none. The vaccines were dumped onto the states, without any real push to coordinate how they would go from federal custody into the arms of Americans.
That so-called "last mile" is crucial, as the U.S. learned in December and January, when shipments were missed and vaccine sat unused — or ended up in trash bins.
There were two main, limited ways in which the Trump administration used federal power to plan for this so-called "last mile."
One took place in September, when the CDC asked states to provide plans for how they would prioritize distribution. But what to do for the last mile — actually designing and implementing the distribution — was left to the states.
The one program that the Trump administration oversaw to directly deliver vaccine to Americans was its nursing home partnership with CVS and Walgreens. That program did succeed in vaccinating the country's nursing home population — an achievement marred by the program's extreme inefficiency compared to states that rejected it.
Some state governments eventually dropped the program midway through because coordination was so poor.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/states-trickle-out-of-trump-admin-private-partnership-to-vaccinate-nursing-homes
"There was this philosophical difference in approach that hindered vaccine distribution under the Trump administration," Josh Michaud, an epidemiologist at Kaiser Family Foundations, told TPM, adding that some of the "seeds" for more effective distribution had been planted under Trump. "It's been a positive to make a more hybrid approach where you're not just dumping doses at the feet of the states, and you're working more in partnership and giving support."
That didn't stop senior Trump administration officials from boosting the campaign throughout the year.
Paul Mango, chief of staff to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar, told reporters in August that the government would have "hundreds of millions of vaccines, doses, available before year end."
Dr. Matt Hepburn, a Trump administration official detailed to Operation Warp Speed, also told reporters that the military's involvement in the plan would ensure that they would "plan every detail with every contingency."
"I hope the American public can be reassured — I don't see how we can work details more than we have been to address all of those different contingencies," Hepburn said.
The administration reportedly went even further than washing its hands of the distribution effort.
State health officials had been pushing since May for Congress to appropriate money to fund the distribution effort, saying that funds would be needed to plan for vaccinations on the local level and to hire and train vaccinators.
But top Trump administration officials lobbied Congress to deny state governments extra funding for the vaccine rollout even while officials expressed their dire need for more, according to a January STAT report.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/31/trump-officials-lobbied-to-deny-states-money-for-vaccine-rollout/
We Watched It Happen
But as we saw over the winter, the state health officials were right: they did need more money and resources.
While the administration was overpromising and underdelivering — HHS Secretary Alex Azar's October estimation that we'd have 100 million doses by the end of 2020 was soon downgraded to 40 million doses, then to 20 million — the vaccinating process crawled.
Vice President Mike Pence said in December that the country was on track to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the month. Only about 2.8 million people were ultimately vaccinated by that date.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-vaccinations/u-s-vaccinations-in-2020-fall-far-short-of-target-of-20-million-people-idUSKBN29512W
Without any cohesive plan and administrative push to get states more money, historically underfunded state health departments were caught flat-footed, lacking the resources to set up a robust infrastructure ahead of time.
And any planning they could do was routinely thrown into flux by the administration's false promises. That dynamic persisted into the very last days of the Trump administration.
The administration also blindsided states by failing to notify them of when precise amounts of vaccine would be delivered. One mid-December scandal saw some states have their vaccine allocations cut by up to 50 percent with only one day's warning. The Trump administration blamed the states as Pfizer issued a caustic statement complaining that it had "millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but,
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/unsolved-mystery-experts-baffled-by-the-big-shortfall-in-covid-vaccine-doses
Azar announced in January that the federal government would release doses of the vaccine held back for second shots, giving health officials the impression that their stockpiles would grow and allow them to dramatically expand the vaccination effort.
That promise turned out to be entirely hollow — there was no such reserve, as the administration had already been shipping out all the vaccine available, taking second doses right off the manufacturing line.
One enraged health official, director of Oregon Health Authority Pat Allen, wrote a furious letter demanding an explanation and calling the walkback both "disturbing" and putting his plans to expand eligibility at "grave risk."
Azar muddied the waters further by saying that vaccine doses would be allocated based on how fast states have been administering them — a statement that appeared flatly wrong when West Virginia, then moving at the fastest clip, received no additional doses.
As a sign of how undependable the administration's word had become by the end, the CDC did not immediately update its eligibility guidance after Azar urged states to expand their vaccinations to adults 65 and older and people with high-risk underlying conditions, as more supply would soon become available. Some federal officials reportedly even did cleanup, tempering those instructions in conversations with state and local officials.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/15/trump-vaccine-reserve-used-up/
Credit For What?
But Trump himself made the same mistake that the New York Times and Washington Post did in their stories about the subject.
He issued a statement earlier this week saying that he "hope[s] everyone remembers when they're getting the COVID-19…vaccine, that if I wasn't President, you wouldn't be getting that beautiful 'shot' for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn't be getting it at all."
But it's a statement that, apart from being utterly typical of the former president, conflates vaccine development with vaccine distribution.
Those are two separate elements in the campaign to inoculate the country.
"They were so heavily focused on getting the doses out, but there was a vacuum on the planning side," Michaud said of the Trump administration's effort.
While planning for distribution ended with the nursing home federal partnership, the Trump administration did succeed in spurring the development of the three COVID-19 shots being used to vaccinate the country.
Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA's top vaccine scientist and a Star Trek fan, came up with the name for the program and the approach: the federal government would subsidize COVID-19 vaccine development, allowing companies to scale up manufacturing for shots that may not pan out so that if trials confirmed they worked safely, the country would immediately begin to vaccinate en masse.
That's the one area where the Trump administration — or rather the career officials therein — deserve credit. The second half — having a plan to vaccinate people en masse — did not exist.
Marks himself threatened to resign in August after Trump pressured the FDA to authorize a vaccine before the November election.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-fda-exclu/exclusive-top-fda-official-says-would-resign-if-agency-rubber-stamps-an-unproven-covid-19-vaccine-idUSKBN25H03H
That threat succeeded in keeping the vaccine on the timetable of its clinical trials. But when it came time to distribute it to millions of Americans, there simply was no plan.
_________________________________
Tom Brady isn't the only QB providing cap relief to his team; Patrick Mahomes is expected to do the same. Chiefs are expected to convert Mahomes' $21.7 million roster bonus to a signing bonus in the coming days, which would save KC $17 million against the cap
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1370449163855482889
The City of Minneapolis has agreed to the largest civil rights settlement in history with the family of George Floyd. It's 27 million dollars that includes 500,000 to go to the business district of 38th & Chicago near where Floyd's memorial remains.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/city-minneapolis-considering-settlement-george-floyd-s-family-n1260868
The EU has vaccinated only 7% of its population whereas we're at 20%. It's still possible there'll be another surge here. But mostly what that would seem to imply is that it's good we're vaccinating people quickly and the EU screwed up by not doing so. 100,000,000 doses with 60 million fully vaccinated.
Good: National Park Service rejects South Dakota's request for 4th of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/542984-national-park-service-rejects-4th-of-july-fireworks-at-mount
In private meetings, John Kerry is leveraging personal relationships with Wall Street players as well as banks' broad public promises to help fund climate efforts that they made alongside their pledges to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/12/kerry-to-wall-street-put-your-money-behind-your-climate-pr-475565
Rockets guard Eric Gordon has a moderate groin strain and is expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1370475119454384135
As expected, Wall, Oladipo, House, Gordon, Wood, Nwaba, Kurucs, Exum out for Rockets at Jazz tonight.
https://www.twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/1370467042843889669
Deadly complacency that lead to a criminally botched rollout of the vaccine: Truly what on earth is happening with Europe
https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/1370491712028696580/photo/1
The Houston Rockets roster for tonight: KPJ (2nd year), Mason Jones (rookie), Jae'Sean Tate (rookie), Justin Patton (effectively a rookie), KJ Martin Jr (rookie), Anthony Lamb (rookie), Sterling Brown (25 y/o), Ben McLemore (28 y/o)
Senate Democrats Added A Last-Minute Restriction Against States From Using Covid19 Stimulus Money To Subsidize Tax Cuts | The restriction, which was added by Senate Democrats, is intended to ensure that states use federal funds to keep their local economies humming and avoid drastic budget cuts and not simply use the money to subsidize tax cuts. The provision has angered Republicans. Under the new law, $25 billion will be divided equally among states, while $169 billion will be allocated based on a state's unemployment rate. States can use the money for pandemic-related costs, offsetting lost revenues to provide essential government services, and for water, sewer and broadband infrastructure projects. States are prohibited from depositing the money into pension funds and cannot use funds to cut taxes by "legislation, regulation or administration" through 2024. Democrats slipped the new language into the legislation last week after several Senate Democrats were concerned that Republican states would seize on the opportunity to use emergency relief money to subsidize tax cuts. They worked with Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, on language for the amendment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/us/politics/biden-stimulus-state-tax-cuts.html
Four Madison teachers are suing Republican legislative leaders to block them from hiring private attorneys with taxpayer money in anticipation of a legal fight over drawing new congressional and legislative maps.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/10/lawsuit-seeks-block-wisconsin-gop-hiring-redistricting-lawyers/6938208002/
Judge Blocks ICE, Records Administration from Destroying Records of Sex Abuse, Detainee Deaths
https://lawandcrime.com/immigration/judge-blocks-ice-records-administration-from-destroying-records-of-sex-abuse-detainee-deaths/
The Defense Dept's internal watchdog has concluded an investigation into Michael Flynn, sending its findings to the Army in a case that could bring tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for Trump's first national security adviser
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynn-investigation-russia-turkey/2021/03/12/3492549a-8366-11eb-bb5a-ad9a91faa4ef_story.html
Secretary Mayorkas Designates Burma for Temporary Protected Status
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/03/12/secretary-mayorkas-designates-burma-temporary-protected-status
Texas loses at court, Austin's mask mandate to stay in place for at least 2 weeks
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/texas-loses-at-court-austins-mask-mandate-to-stay-in-place-for-at-least-2-weeks/
Oklahoma City is trading guard Hamidou Diallo to Detroit for forward Svi Mykhailiuk and a 2027 second-round pick
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1370542098852757505
All three of these pawdorable former orphan shelter puppers are now enjoying their best lives and contributing to helping other shelter pets by pawrchasing the @PupPresidential book - it donates ALL pawceeds to shelter kitties and doggos. We salute them! Woof! #AdoptDontShop
https://twitter.com/TheOvalPawffice/status/1370546863003340805
Here is U.S. Senator Ron Johnson saying that he wasn't afraid on January 6 because he could tell the terrorists "would never do anything to break the law", but he WOULD have been concerned "if those were Black Lives Matter" supporters.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1370561862128054275
https://twitter.com/Politidope/status/1370561862128054275
52 Days into his presidency, Biden has played zero rounds of golf
https://www.wicz.com/story/43490251/joe-biden-just-cant-quit-delaware-even-as-president
These people wanted to murder lawmakers. They wanted to "hang Mike Pence." They wanted to harm members of the media. They wanted to harm officers. They desecrated one of the most sacred buildings in our country. You do not gotta hand it to them. Ron Johnson's "the White Trumpers hurt nobody and I felt safe with them! Those Black Black Lives Matter people would have killed me!" Tell that to Officer Sicknick. Tell that to Officer Liebengood. Tell that to Officer Goodman. Tell that to Officer Dunn, who was called the n-word multiple times by YOU and your white supremacist terrorists.
________________________________
https://pressrun.media/p/good-grief-new-york-times-credits
Good grief — New York Times credits Trump for Biden's vaccine victory
Both Sides madness
Eric Boehlert
Mar 12
In a wildly misguided attempt at Trump rehabilitation, the New York Times this week suggested Trump deserves credit for the extraordinary success the new Biden administration is having getting Americans vaccinated. Leaning hard into the Both Sides narrative, the Times generously headlined its piece, "Biden Got the Vaccine Rollout Humming, With Trump's Help."
What the article lacked however, was any compelling evidence that Trump deserves vaccine credit, after having spent all of 2020 completely indifferent to the deadly pandemic, and spreading nonstop public health lies. Fully 60 percent of Americans over the age of 60 have received their first Covid vaccine today, compared to just eight percent under Trump. Biden should rightly take bows for that remarkable trend, after the previous administration showcased its vaccine incompetence.
https://twitter.com/aslavitt46/status/1369714525663096833
https://time.com/5932028/vaccine-rollout-joe-biden/
Under Trump, the U.S. vaccine rollout was seen as a national embarrassment. Under Biden, it's become a model for the world, administering nearly 100 million shots. And now the Covid relief bill, which Trump and Republicans failed to pass for ten months, will pump billions into helping communities nationwide vaccinate.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-cdc/us-administers-982-million-doses-of-covid-19-vaccines-cdc-idUSKBN2B32YV
The Times article represents some truly egregious revisionist history, politely positioning today's Mar-a-lago resident as a president who simply ran out of time and wasn't able to get the pandemic job done — who worked hard to create an infrastructure for his Democratic successor. That's a wildly inaccurate retelling of what happened and the almost criminal neglect Trump showed through all of last year in terms of fighting the pandemic and getting Americans vaccinated. Instead, more than half a million died.
Trump wasn't some kind of passive, disinterested bystander during the Covid crisis. He actively made it worse at every possible turn, from the moment he gave the stand down order for the virus invasion last winter ("We have it totally under control"), to lying about testing, telling Americans to ingest cleaning fluids in order to cleanse themselves of the virus, and the complete disregard he showed for mask-wearing right up until his final days in office. In truth, Trump spread more deliberate lies about Covid to a larger audience than anyone else on the planet, according to a study from Cornell University.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intelligence-reports-from-january-and-february-warned-about-a-likely-pandemic/2020/03/20/299d8cda-6ad5-11ea-b5f1-a5a804158597_story.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/18/white-house-seeks-to-block-funds-for-testing-in-coronavirus-relief-bill-report.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-misinformation.html
Trump purposely contradicted established science and willfully endangering Americans. He virtually silenced the government's public health experts and welcomed to the White House Dr. Scott Atlas, the Stanford professor and pandemic crackpot —the virus is overblown, the number of deaths is exaggerated! — whom Trump recruited after seeing on Fox News.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/us/politics/trump-scott-atlas-coronavirus.html
That's the totality of Trump's scandalous and deadly Covid behavior. And no, behind the scenes he didn't create a turnkey vaccine distribution operation that Biden plugged in and is now using to help end the pandemic in the U.S.
Incredibly, the Times wasn't alone in recent days praising Trump's vaccine work and scolding Biden for not giving him recognition. An annoyed ABC News announced that, "Despite calls for national unity and bipartisanship, President Joe Biden and his top aides have declined to give the Trump administration credit on the nation's COVID-19 vaccine rollout." Apparently, pledging "unity" means giving credit to the guy who botched vaccinations for months. The Washington Post also joined in the frantic media effort this week to normalize Trump's negligent behavior.
The ill-advised Times article archly claimed to see through the Biden White House spin. Trying to puncture the Democrat's success, the Times stressed that last week's surprise Biden announcement that American adults would be fully vaccinated by the end of May, was all about "public relations" and "conjured an image of a White House running on all cylinders and leaving its predecessor's effort in the dust." The Times suggested that was a mirage because the new administration had merely "expanded and bulked up a vaccine production effort whose key elements were in place when Mr. Biden took over for President Donald J. Trump."
Specifically, the Times claimed, "Mr. Biden benefited hugely from the waves of vaccine production that the Trump administration had set in motion. As both Pfizer and Moderna found their manufacturing footing, they were able to double and triple the outputs from their factories."
This makes no sense. Trump was responsible for private pharmaceutical companies setting out to produce a vaccine for a once-in-a-century global pandemic? He's the one who set that production in motion? Obviously, those companies did that on their own, and didn't need the President of the United States to prompt them.
Incredibly, that hollow example was the best one the Times could point to for why Trump deserves kudos for Biden's vaccination success. The whole Both Sides framing on vaccinations doesn't work, and for obvious reasons — it's not true.
The only other attempt the Times article made to bolster its claim was to quote from a former Trump aide: "They criticize what we did, but they are using our playbook every step of the way." The newspaper though, made no attempt to verify those claims. Of course, former Trump advisers are going to say they set up an amazing vaccine program and Biden is benefiting from today. But where's the proof?
Note that previously, we saw stunning revelations about how Trump's team aggressively hindered the vaccine rollout.
From STAT News:
https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/31/trump-officials-lobbied-to-deny-states-money-for-vaccine-rollout/
Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn't have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation.
From Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa/trump-administration-accused-of-deception-in-pledging-release-of-vaccine-stockpile-idUSKBN29K2H4
The governors of several states accused the Trump administration on Friday of deception in pledging to immediately distribute millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses from a stockpile that the U.S. health secretary has since acknowledged does not exist.
Denying states money. Boasting about a medicine stockpile that didn't exist. That's the ugly Trump record on his dismal attempt to help vaccine Americans. No amount of media whitewashing will change that.
________________________________
76ers MVP candidate Joel Embiid is expected to miss 2-to-3 weeks with a bone bruise in his left knee
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1370727723061088257
A Navy security contractor was arrested for rioting at the Capitol. Since then, investigators interviewed *44* of his colleagues and found he was widely known as a white supremacist, often expressed Jew hatred and even wore a Hitler mustache to work.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/13/capitol-riot-navy-white-supremacist-475714
Bombshell analysis traces new Ebola outbreak to survivor of West Africa crisis
https://statnews.com/2021/03/12/bombshell-analysis-traces-new-ebola-outbreak-to-survivor-of-west-africa-crisis/
Delegate Stacey Plaskett: Give U.S. territories the full rights of citizenship. Our second-class treatment is not just unfair; it is un-American.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/give-voting-rights-us-territories/618246/
If you're on the market for a more affordable health insurance plan, here are the different deals you could now get thanks to changes in the latest COVID stimulus
https://businessinsider.com/coronavirus-stimulus-obamacare-how-to-save-on-health-insurance
FINE PRINT. You can find all of the details on the $360 billion in state and local aid at this spreadsheet link from the House Oversight Committee. There are four different data sheets. Here are the top states in terms of total aid:
California - $42.63 billion
Texas - $27.62 billion
New York - $23.79 billion
Florida - $20.1 billion
Pennsylvania $13.72 billion
Illinois - $13.71 billion
Ohio - $11.24 billion
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/State%20and%20Local%20Allocation%20Output%2003.08.21.xlsx
BIGGER CITIES. Some of the aid from the COVID relief law goes directly to larger cities. You can find that on the spreadsheet page marked, "Metro Cities." We'll take a few from Alabama as an example here. This is repeated in every state.
Mobile $60.2 million - Mobile County voted 55% for Trump.
Montgomery $42.1 million - Montgomery County voted 65% for Biden.
Huntsville $35.1 million - Madison County voted 53% for Trump.
Gadsden $26.4 million - Etowah County voted 74% for Trump.
Tuscaloosa $20.5 million - Tuscaloosa County voted 57% for Trump.
Auburn $16.1 million - Lee County voted 59% for Trump.
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/State%20and%20Local%20Allocation%20Output%2003.08.21.xlsx
SMALLER TOWNS & CITIES. There are over 26,000 towns and cities around the nation which would get aid under this plan. These are listed as "Other Non-Counties," with many of them mainly in "Red" areas. Let's take a few from Florida:
Alachua $4.16 million - Alachua County voted 63% for Biden.
Bonifay $1.14 million - Holmes County voted 89% for Trump.
Destin $5.99 million - Okaloosa County voted 69% for Trump.
Cocoa Beach $4.91 million - Brevard County voted 58% for Trump.
Winter Park $12.9 million - Orange County voted 61% for Biden.
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/State%20and%20Local%20Allocation%20Output%2003.08.21.xlsx
COUNTIES. In 2020, Donald Trump won the vast majority of the over 3,000 counties in the U.S. And every one of those counties will be eligible for aid - not just counties run by Democrats. Look for the spreadsheet page titled, "Counties." Here are five counties in the Atlanta suburbs - all of them voted for Mr. Trump.
Hall County $39.7 million
Forsyth County $47.4 million
Cherokee County $50.2 million
Bartow County $20.9 million
Paulding County $32.7 million
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/State%20and%20Local%20Allocation%20Output%2003.08.21.xlsx
HOW IS IT USED? The bill spells out that the state and local "funds can be used to replace revenue lost during the COVID-19 crisis, for local economic relief and recovery purposes, including assistance to households, essential workers, small businesses and nonprofits, assistance to hard-hit industries like tourism, travel, and hospitality, and infrastructure investment."
Mississippi Republican Governor Rejects Expanding Medicaid Criteria For Low-Income/No-Income People Under 65 Yrs Who Do Not Have Children.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/mississippi-governor-rejects-medicaid-expansion-for-working-class-constituents/
It's so demoralizing that every week @ABC actively helps Republicans erase their history of pushing the Big Lie
On Jan. 6 we were told history would remember those who spread the lie that Trump won the election
Now they get top TV slots and it doesn't come up
It never happened
https://twitter.com/MattNegrin/status/1371101319159746564
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/climate/outer-banks-tax-climate-change.html
New statement from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce says it opposes "provisions found in both HB 531 and SB 241 that restrict or diminish voter access"
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/14/georgia-activists-pressure-big-corporations-to-oppose-voting-restrictions-.html
Bears are planning to allow Mitch Trubisky to leave and address their QB concerns via free agency or trade
https://twitter.com/brgridiron/status/1371122746835398657
The "Biden hasn't given a press conference" "concern" seems lame. He's obviously working very hard, rather than bragging and waiting for somebody to tell him what to sign, and he has an active press office that isn't full of chuds.
U.S. Has 1,000 More Troops in Afghanistan Than It Disclosed. The undercount complicates President Biden's decision on carrying out a complete withdrawal by May 1, as his administration tries to jump-start peace talks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/world/asia/us-troops-afghanistan.html
_____________________________________
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/climate/outer-banks-tax-climate-change.html
Tiny Town, Big Decision: What Are We Willing to Pay to Fight the Rising Sea?
On the Outer Banks, homeowners in Avon are confronting a tax increase of almost 50 percent to protect their homes, the only road into town, and perhaps the community's very existence.
By Christopher Flavelle
Photographs and Video by Erin Schaff
March 14, 2021, 8:35 a.m. ET
AVON, N.C. — Bobby Outten, a county manager in the Outer Banks, delivered two pieces of bad news at a recent public meeting. Avon, a town with a few hundred full-time residents, desperately needed at least $11 million to stop its main road from washing away. And to help pay for it, Dare County wanted to increase Avon's property taxes, in some cases by almost 50 percent.
Homeowners mostly agreed on the urgency of the first part. They were considerably less keen on the second.
People gave Mr. Outten their own ideas about who should pay to protect their town: the federal government. The state government. The rest of the county. Tourists. People who rent to tourists. The view for many seemed to be, anyone but them.
Mr. Outten kept responding with the same message: There's nobody coming to the rescue. We have only ourselves.
"We've got to act now," he said.
The risk to tiny Avon from climate change is particularly dire — it is, after all, located on a mere sandbar of an island chain, in a relentlessly rising Atlantic. But people in the town are facing a question that is starting to echo along the American coastline as seas rise and storms intensify. What price can be put on saving a town, a neighborhood, a home where generations have built their lives?
Communities large and small are reaching for different answers. Officials in Miami, Tampa, Houston, San Francisco and elsewhere have borrowed money, raised taxes or increased water bills to help pay for efforts to shield their homes, schools and roads.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article222651895.html
https://www.tampa.gov/initiatives/pipes
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/climate/houston-flooding-race.html
https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-announces-first-bond-sale-strengthen-embarcadero-seawall
Along the Outer Banks — where tourist-friendly beaches are shrinking by more than 14 feet a year in some places, according to the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management — other towns have imposed tax increases similar to the one Avon is considering. On Monday, county officials will vote on whether or not Avon will join them.
This despite the reality that Avon's battle is most likely a losing one. At its highest point, the town is just a couple dozen feet above sea level, but most houses, as well as the main road, are along the beachfront.
"Based on the science that I've seen for sea-level rise, at some point, the Outer Banks — the way they are today — are not forever," said David Hallac, superintendent of the national parks in eastern North Carolina, including the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which encompasses the land around Avon. "Exactly when that happens is not clear."
The Outer Banks have a rich past. Hatteras Island, originally home to members of the Algonquin tribe, is near the site of the so-called lost colony of Roanoke. A few miles north and several centuries later, the Wright brothers flew their first airplane.
And it is the vulnerability to the sea — the very threat Avon is wrestling with today — that, in a twist of fate, helped transform the Outer Banks into a tourist spot, according to Larry Tise, a former director of North Carolina's Division of Archives and History.
In 1899 a terrible hurricane all but destroyed the islands, and the state decided not to spend money developing them. Land speculators later swooped in, snapping up property and marketing the curious local history to attract tourists.
Today, tourism dominates Avon, a hamlet of T-shirt shops and cedar-shake mansions on stilts lining the oceanfront. A few blocks inland sits a cluster of modest older houses, called the Village, shaded by live oaks, Eastern red cedars and wax myrtles. This is where most of the remaining lifelong Avon residents live.
Audrey Farrow's grandmother grew up in Avon and met Ms. Farrow's grandfather when he moved to town as a fisherman in the late 1800s. Ms. Farrow, who is 74, lives on the same piece of land she, and her mother before her, grew up on.
Standing on her porch last week, Ms. Farrow talked about how Avon had changed in her lifetime. Vacationers and buyers of second homes have brought new money but have pushed out locals.
And the ocean itself has changed. The water is now closer, she said, and the flooding more constant. The wind alone now pushes water up the small road where she lives and into her lawn.
"If we've had rain with it, then you feel like you've got waterfront property," she said.
From any angle, the reckoning for Avon seems to be drawing nearer.
Over the past decade, hurricanes have caused $65 million in damage to Highway 12, the two-lane road that runs along the Outer Banks and connects Avon and other towns to the mainland. The federal and state governments are spending an additional $155 million to replace a section of Highway 12 with a 2.4-mile bridge, as the road can no longer be protected from the ocean. Hatteras Island has been evacuated five times since 2010.
https://www.darenc.com/departments/emergency-management/hurricanes/hurricane-history
County officials turned to what is called beach nourishment, which involves dredging sand from the ocean floor a few miles off the coast and then pushing it to shore through a pipeline and layering it on the beach. But those projects can cost tens of millions of dollars. And the county's requests for federal or state money to pay for them went nowhere.
So the county began using local money instead, splitting the cost between two sources: revenue from a tax on tourists, and a property tax surcharge on local homes. In 2011, Nags Head became the first town in the Outer Banks to get a new beach under that formula. Others followed, including Kitty Hawk in 2017.
Ben Cahoon, the mayor of Nags Head, said that paying $20 million to rebuild the beach every few years was cheaper than buying out all the beachfront homes that would otherwise fall into the sea.
https://www.pilotonline.com/news/environment/article_f412c310-9dff-502e-a202-75aea6745bac.html
He said he could imagine another two or three cycles of beach nourishment, buying his city 20 or 25 more years. After that, he said, it's hard to guess what the future holds.
"Beach nourishment is a great solution, as long as you can afford it," Mr. Cahoon said. "The alternative choices are pretty stark."
Now the county says it's Avon's turn. Its beach is disappearing at a rate of more than six feet per year in some places.
During the meeting last month, Mr. Outten described Avon's needs. As the beach disappears, even a minor storm sends ocean water across Highway 12. Eventually, a hurricane will push enough water over that road to tear it up, leaving the town inaccessible for weeks or more.
In response, the county wants to put about one million cubic yards of sand on the beach. The project would cost between $11 million and $14 million and, according to Mr. Outten, would need to be repeated about every five years.
That impermanence, combined with the high cost, has led some in Avon question whether beach nourishment is worth the money. They point to Buxton, the next town south of Avon, whose beach got new sand in 2018, paid for through higher taxes. Now, most of that sand has washed away, leaving a beachfront motel and vacation rentals teetering over the water.
"Every bit of it's gone," Michael David, who grew up in Avon and owns a garage in Buxton, said during last month's meeting. "We're just masking a problem that never gets fixed."
Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Outten defended beach nourishment, despite its being temporary. "I don't think we can stop erosion. I think we can only slow it down," he said.
In interviews with more than a dozen homeowners in Avon, a frequent concern was how the county wants to divide the cost. People who own property along the beach will benefit the most, Mr. Outten said, because the extra sand will protect their homes from falling into the ocean. But he said everyone in town would benefit from saving the road.
To reflect that difference, the county is proposing two tax rates. Homeowners on the ocean side of the road would pay an extra 25 cents for every $100 of assessed value — an increase of 45 percent over their current tax rate. On the inlet side, the extra tax would be just one-fifth that much.
https://www.darenc.com/departments/tax-department/tax-rates
Sam Eggleston, a retired optometrist who moved to Avon three years ago from outside Raleigh and bought a house on the western side of town, said even that smaller amount was too much. He said that because Highway 12 is owned by the state, the state should pay to protect it.
If the government wants to help, Mr. Eggleston argued, it should pay people to move their houses somewhere else — a solution he said would at least be permanent. "To keep spending millions and millions of dollars on the beach, to me doesn't make sense," he said.
That view was not shared by people who live on the beach.
When Carole and Bob Peterson bought a house on the ocean in 1997, it was protected from the water by two rows of huge dunes, Ms. Peterson said. Years of storms have washed away those dunes, leaving their 2,800-square-foot home exposed to the water.
Ms. Peterson acknowledged that she and her neighbors would benefit the most from rebuilding the beach. But the rest of the town should be willing to pay for it too, she said, because it protects the jobs and services they depend on.
"People that live over there, on that side, don't understand that the beach is what keeps them alive," she said, pointing across the road. "If you don't have this beach, people aren't going to come here."
Audrey Farrow's son, Matthew, a commercial fisherman, said he worried about the future of the place he grew up in. Between the flooding and the demand for vacation homes, which continues to drive up real estate prices, he said, it was getting harder to make a good life in Avon.
"I'm telling my kids already," Mr. Farrow said, "go somewheres else."
_____________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment