A vigil yesterday. At least 10 children are in intensive care. Mary Mathis for The New York Times
“The suspect in the crash that left five people dead and dozens more injured in Waukesha , Wisconsin, will appear in court Tuesday. The Waukesha County District Attorney's Office said it will file the initial charges against Darrell Brooks Jr. and additional charges at a later date. Brooks will be charged with five counts of intentional homicide, said Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson. Brooks, 39, was fleeing a domestic disturbance with a report of a knife when he rammed into the parade, Thompson said. The dead were four women and a man ages 52 to 81. Thompson said 48 people were injured in the crash.” Read more at USA Today
“The House select committee investigating the January 6 riot issued a new round of subpoenas yesterday to five of former President Donald Trump's allies directly involved in planning ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies, including longtime Republican operative Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The latest batch of subpoenas indicates the committee continues to focus, in part, on organizers and funding of the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies that took place on January 5 and 6, as well as earlier rallies in the months leading up to the attack on the US Capitol. Separately, the Biden administration said in a court filing yesterday that former President Donald Trump's presidential records should be turned over to Congress.” Read more at CNN
“With just a few days to go before Thanksgiving, Covid-19 cases are on the rise across the US. The daily case rate is about half of what it was at this time last year, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, but the current pace -- about 92,000 new cases each day -- is up 16% from just a week ago. The picture is even worse for children, with new cases up 32% from two weeks ago, according to new numbers published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Meanwhile, A federal judge said this weekend that she would not block the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for health care workers while a Florida lawsuit challenging the mandate moves forward.” Read more at CNN
“Federal officials waited months before making all adults eligible for COVID booster shots — meaning millions in America lack the strongest possible protection for Thanksgiving, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports.
Why it matters: The confusing process delayed what has now become a critical effort to stave off another wave of the pandemic.
Where it stands: 41% of vaccinated Americans 65+ have received a booster shot, as have 19% of all vaccinated adults, per the CDC.
‘Some of us were there several months ago,’ David Kessler, chief science officer of Biden's COVID response, told Axios. ‘Some wanted more data. In the end, there’s a convergence of opinions. It's the way an open scientific public health process should work.’
Reality check: Most vaccinated people, even without a booster, still have very strong protection against serious illness or death. But the booster drastically increases defenses against even mild infections.
What happened: Preliminary data released months ago suggested a significant decline in vaccines' effectiveness at preventing infection, although they held up well against severe disease.
Based on that data, the Biden administration had hoped to begin allowing booster shots in September for any American adult who was at least eight months removed from their second dose.
The CDC and the FDA opted instead to only authorize boosters for seniors, people with high-risk medical conditions and people at high risk of infection. Last week, boosters were opened to everyone at least six months after their initial shots.
In the meantime, red and blue states alike decided to ignore the CDC and open up booster eligibility on their own.
Millions of people who weren't technically eligible for boosters got them anyway.
Between the lines: The U.S. drug approval process — with its insistence on high-quality data and careful expert reviews — is the world's gold standard precisely because it moves deliberately. Regulators have been trying to figure out how to adapt that system to a fast-moving pandemic.
Some federal officials, as well as many outside experts, said there wasn't enough data to make a broad booster recommendation earlier.
Early on, many public health experts also argued that it was unethical to give Americans a third shot while much of the rest of the world awaited their first.
Data from Israel, which embraced boosters beginning last summer, has been key to making the case that boosters are needed.” Read more at Axios
“The families of Parkland shooting victims have settled a lawsuit with the DOJ for around $130 million. The families accused the FBI of negligence for failing to act on tips about the shooter.” Read more at NPR
“The District on Monday recorded its 200th homicide this year, the first time that symbolic threshold of deadly violence has been reached in the nation’s capital since 2004.
A man was fatally shot just after 10:15 p.m. in Southeast Washington, becoming the latest victim of months of rising violence that has frustrated and angered city leaders and residents. Police have not yet publicly identified him.
Homicides rose in 29 major U.S. cities through September compared with the same period last year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice, a Washington-based institute.” Read more at Washington Post
“Jurors in the murder trial of the three white Georgia men charged in Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery's killing listened to hours of closing arguments Monday . The nearly all-white panel of 12 jurors and three alternates is scheduled to hear a rebuttal from the prosecution before receiving charging instructions and beginning deliberations. The jury will decide if Travis and Greg McMichael and William ‘Roddie’ Bryan are guilty of murder and other crimes in the death of the 25-year-old. The three men pursued Arbery in pickup trucks after spotting him running in their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. They were arrested two months after the shooting when video of the homicide taken by Bryan was released to the public, sparking protests.” Read more at USA Today
“President Joe Biden is releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices amid a recent spike in gas prices and soaring inflation, the White House announced Tuesday.
Thirty-two million barrels released by the Department of Energy will be an exchange over the next several months, oil that will eventually return to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the years ahead. Another 18 million barrels will be released incoming months, accelerating a sale of oil that Congress had previously authorized.
‘American consumers are feeling the impact of elevated gas prices at the pump and in their home heating bills, and American businesses are, too, because oil supply has not kept up with demand as the global economy emerges from the pandemic,’ the White House said in a statement early Tuesday.” Read more at USA Today
“Global supply-chain woes are beginning to recede, but shipping, manufacturing and retail executives say that they don’t expect a return to more-normal operations until next year and that cargo will continue to be delayed if Covid-19 outbreaks disrupt key distribution hubs.
In Asia, Covid-related factory closures, energy shortages and port-capacity limits have eased in recent weeks. In the U.S., major retailers say they have imported most of what they need for the holidays. Ocean freight rates have retreated from record levels.
Still, executives and economists say strong consumer demand for goods in the West, ongoing port congestion in the U.S., shortages of truck drivers and elevated global freight rates continue to hang over any recovery. The risk of more extreme weather and flare-ups of Covid-19 cases can also threaten to clog up supply chains again.
An easing of supply-chain choke points would allow production to move toward meeting strong demand and would lower logistics costs. If sustained, that, in turn, would help alleviate the upward pressure on inflation.” Read more at Washington Post
“The Republican National Committee is paying some personal legal bills for former president Donald Trump, spending party funds to pay a lawyer representing Trump in investigations into his financial practices in New York, a party spokeswoman said Monday.
In October, the RNC made two payments totaling $121,670 to the law firm of Ronald Fischetti, a veteran defense attorney whom Trump hired in April. According to a person with direct knowledge of the payments, the requests came earlier this summer but were voted on by the party’s executive committee only in recent weeks.
Fischetti has been representing Trump as he faces investigations by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). There has been no indication that either investigation involves Trump’s time as president or any of his political campaigns.” Read more at Washington Post
“POLITICS: Sean Parnell, the leading candidate for the GOP nomination in Pennsylvania’s Senate contest, suspended his campaign on Monday after a judge handed his estranged wife sole legal custody of their children, tossing the race on its head in the process.
A judge’s order gave Laurie Snell sole legal custody and primary physical custody of their three children, saying that he found Snell to be the more credible witness. Parnell was granted partial physical custody on some weekends each month. During a recent hearing, Snell alleged that Parnell attempted to choke her and hit their children.
In a statement, Parnell said that he vehemently disagreed with the order, adding that he can’t move ahead with the campaign given the situation….
Parnell was considered the front-runner after winning Trump’s highly-coveted endorsement. Donald Trump Jr. was among Parnell’s most prominent supporters.”
With Parnell out of the way, the primary to replace the retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has been showered in fresh uncertainty, with strategists expecting the entrants of two potential top tier candidates to shake up the race once again.
David McCormick, a wealthy businessman, is likely to enter the race by the end of the year and is planning to plow between $20 million and $40 million into a potential bid, two sources tell the Morning Report. McCormick, a Pittsburgh-area native, is the head of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s biggest hedge fund, with more than $140 billion in assets, and he served as a top Treasury Department official during former President George W. Bush’s administration.
Also expected to mount a bid is Mehmet Oz, the television personality. According to sources, the TV doctor has begun hiring staff and consultants ahead of a likely campaign, but the GOP strategist indicates that he has not gained much traction with the state’s politicos yet.
‘Not many people are taking Dr. Oz seriously,’ the operative said.
Questions also persist about his residential status and effect that would have on a possible candidacy. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Oz does not own property in the state under his name and that his closest association to the state is his graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. The publication noted that Oz has a non-permanent voter registration in the Keystone State in connection with a property that belongs to his mother-in-law in Montgomery County.
‘We don't need someone to parachute in from another state,’ Rob Gleason, the former Pennsylvania GOP chairman, told the Morning Report in an interview.
The current field is headlined by two candidates: Carla Sands, the former ambassador to Denmark under Trump, and Jeff Bartos, a businessman and the party’s lieutenant governor candidate in 2018. According to multiple sources, Sands is set to spend $12 million in the primary and is considered among the top candidates for the now at-large Trump endorsement, along with McCormick.” [The Hill] Read more at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A long time coming: Four Black men known as the "Groveland Four" have been exonerated of the false accusation that they raped a white woman in 1949.” Read more at USA Today
“A report by the New York State Assembly found ‘overwhelming evidence’ that former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) engaged in sexual harassment and used state workers and resources for his memoir. The report also faulted his administration for undercounting nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo has long denied any wrongdoing, but the results of the Assembly’s eight-month investigation, released Monday, paint a damning portrait of the former governor. Cuomo resigned in August in the face of a likely impeachment by the New York Assembly after a state investigation found that he sexually harassed 11 women and oversaw an unlawful attempt to exact retribution against one of his accusers.” Read more at Washington Post
“The Biden administration is weighing sending military advisers and new equipment including weaponry to Ukraine as Russia builds up forces near the border and US officials prepare allies for the possibility of another Russian invasion, multiple sources familiar with the deliberations tell CNN. The discussions about the proposed lethal aid package are happening as Ukraine has begun to warn publicly that an invasion could happen as soon as January. The package could include new Javelin anti-tank and anti-armor missiles as well as mortars.” Read more at CNN
“The Biden administration is sounding the alarm over the deteriorating security situation in Ethiopia, where the government in Addis Ababa has called on civilians to arm themselves against rebels marching on the capital.
Why it matters: The collapse of Ethiopia — a major African country with a population of 115 million — could cause a massive humanitarian crisis and destabilize the entire region, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.
In the northern region of Tigray, there have been credible reports of ethnic cleansing and the government using starvation as a weapon of war. Now the Tigrayan rebels are on the offensive and reportedly within 200 miles of the capital.
The State Department has issued multiple advisories and held a series of briefings to hammer the same message: There will be no Kabul-style airlift, and U.S. citizens need to get out now while commercial flights are still available.
Non-emergency staff at the U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa was ordered to leave in early November. The embassy has not been fully evacuated, but that could change in instant.
Between the lines: The Tigray People's Liberation Front, an ethnic nationalist group that ruled Ethiopia until 2018, is no Taliban.
But the potential for street violence, arbitrary detentions, supply shortages, and lessons from Afghanistan are driving the Biden administration to take extra precautions.” Read more at Axios
“Chun Doo-hwan, South Korea’s most vilified former military dictator, died at 90.” Read more at New York Times
“South Africa’s ruling African National Congress lost control of cities in the nation’s richest province, including Johannesburg.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Philippine presidential aspirants Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Panfilo Lacson took drug tests after President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that an unidentified candidate used cocaine.” Read more at Bloomberg
“The intense rains and heavy winds that descended last week on British Columbia, the Canadian province known for its mountains, coastline and majestic forests, forced 17,000 people from their homes, emptying entire towns and inundating farms.
Vancouver, Canada’s third-largest city, lost its road and rail links to the rest of the country, cut off by washed-out bridges and landslides.
It was the second time in six months that the province had endured a major weather-related emergency, and experts say the two disasters are probably related to changes in the climate.
British Columbia has been besieged this year by record-breaking heat, wildfires and floods. The disasters have killed hundreds — including three people in the recent rains — and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The impact has rippled across Canada after hobbling the province and the port of Vancouver, which is vital to the country’s economy.” Read more at New York Times
“A far-right, anti-migrant populist who has been compared to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump has taken a commanding lead in the first round of Chile’s presidential election. According to Reuters, Jose Antonio Kast took around 28 percent of the vote with most ballots counted on Sunday, taking the lead over leftist ex-student leader Gabriel Boric on 25.6 percent. The results mean those two polarized candidates will face off against each other next month. Kast, the father of nine children, has denied that he’s from the extreme right of politics—but he rails against marriage equality, abortion, and political correctness. One of his familiar-sounding proposals is to build a ditch to stop illegal immigration into the country. The runoff between Boric and Kast will be held Dec. 19.” [Daily Beast] Read more at Reuters
“NASA will today launch a mission to understand how best to save the world from suffering a catastrophic asteroid impact. The U.S. space agency will launch the spacecraft DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) with the aim of crashing it into the asteroid Dimorphos, 6.7 million miles from earth, and knocking it slightly off course.
NASA’s spacecraft is a far cry from the nuclear space weapons seen in disaster movies, but the agency hopes a nudge from its impact should be enough. ‘DART will only be changing the period of the orbit of Dimorphos by a tiny amount. And really that’s all that’s needed in the event that an asteroid is discovered well ahead of time,’ said Kelly Fast, from NASA’s planetary defense coordination office.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Two Fox News employees resigned from Fox News over Tucker Carlson’s ‘irresponsible’ special on the January 6 insurrection.” Read more at NPR / David Folkenflik
“Kevin Spacey lost his arbitration case against ‘House of Cards’ producers. An arbitrator ruled that the actor breached his contract with the hit Netflix show’s production company, MRC, following sexual-harassment and misconduct claims.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Lives Lived: Robert Bly was a poet and an antiwar leader. He found his greatest fame (and controversy) with the 1990 book ‘Iron John,’ which argued that American men had grown soft. Bly died at 94.” Read more at New York Times
“Los Angeles County has filed a motion for summary judgment against Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Kobe Bryant, arguing that she never saw photos of her dead husband and daughter and that she has no standing to sue the county.” Read more at USA Today
“Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million to Barack Obama’s foundation.” Read more at New York Times
“Albert Einstein typically threw out drafts of his paradigm-shifting work.
But thanks to the Nobel Prize-winning scientist’s friend and collaborator, a rare, working manuscript ‘almost miraculously’ survived to the present — and it’s expected to fetch millions at an auction in Paris on Tuesday, according to Christie’s, which is holding the sale for the Aguttes auction house.
The 54-page document, handwritten jointly by Einstein and Swiss engineer Michele Besso — his lifelong friend and only acknowledged collaborator — documents preparatory work for Einstein’s general theory of relativity, an idea that changed human understandings of the universe and has been described as the most beautiful theory in physics.” Read more at Washington Post
“Target stores will no longer open on Thanksgiving, making permanent a pandemic policy.” Read more at New York Times
A vegan ‘turkey’ Thanksgiving meal. Photo: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
“Vegan bakers and chefs are enjoying unprecedented demand, as households prepare to cater to a growing number of vegans, vegetarians and ‘flexitarians,’ Axios Local reporters found around the country.
Whole Foods told Axios that its research shows 58% of Americans hosted guests who follow a special diet in the past year.
Whole Foods offers a Vegan Meal for 2 — cremini mushroom roast with mushroom gravy, miso-creamed greens, coconut sweet potato casserole, jalapeño cornbread dressing and pumpkin curry soup.
In D.C., Doron Petersan, the owner of vegan bakery Sticky Fingers and vegan restaurant Fare Well, says her locations have gotten twice as many orders for Thanksgiving meals in 2021 than in 2020.
In Minneapolis, The Herbivorous Butcher increased production of its vegan ‘turkey roasts’ to more than 1,000 this year to meet growing demand, co-owner Kale Walch told Axios. The shop, which ships, sold out of its 'turkey-free feast’ packages by early November.
In Chicago, Joanne Lee Molinaro's ‘Korean Vegan Cookbook’ has dominated foodie conversations and bestseller lists this fall.
In Austin, Melissa Morky wrote on the Austin Vegans Facebook group: ‘Anyone know of a store that still has the Tofurky roast? ... It's been out of stock everywhere we have looked so far.’” Read more at Axios