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“The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is on track to pass a number next week that once seemed unthinkable: Half a million people in this country dead from the coronavirus.Losing half a million lives to this disease was unimaginable when the first few people died of COVID-19 in the U.S last February.” Read more at NPR
“The milestone comes with a light, however faint, at the end of the tunnel. New virus cases are down sharply, deaths are slowing, and vaccines are steadily being administered. President Biden said the U.S. could near normalcy by year’s end but warned that new virus variants could slow progress.” Read more at New York Times
“Democrats, who control the House, are preparing to approve President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan by the end of the week, with the Senate aiming to soon follow with its own party-line vote.
With unemployment benefits set to lapse in mid-March, and the rescue plan enjoying strong bipartisan support nationwide, Republicans are struggling to persuade voters to oppose the legislation. The nearly 600-page text for the bill includes billions of dollars for unemployment benefits, small businesses and stimulus checks.
The pandemic is terrible. It can also be tedious. And that tedium is shaping what people buy and how productive they are.” Read more at New York Times
“The Justice Department and FBI are investigating whether high-profile right-wing figures — including Roger Stone and Alex Jones — may have played a role in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach as part of a broader look into the mind-set of those who committed violence and their apparent paths to radicalization, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The investigation into potential ties between key figures in the riot and those who promoted former president Donald Trump’s false assertions that the election was stolen from him does not mean those who may have influenced rioters will face criminal charges, particularly given U.S. case law surrounding incitement and free speech, the people said. Officials at this stage said they are principally seeking to understand what the rioters were thinking — and who may have influenced beliefs — which could be critical to showing their intentions at trial.
However, investigators also want to determine whether anyone who influenced them bears enough responsibility to justify potential criminal charges, such as conspiracy or aiding the effort, the officials said. That prospect is still distant and uncertain, they emphasized.” Read more at Washington Post
“By taking part in the riots at the U.S. Capitol, Pennsylvania officer Joseph W. Fischer did not just break the laws he was tasked with enforcing, the FBI says — he was allegedly at ‘the front of the pack pushing against the police.’
‘Charge!’ yells the person taking a video that Fischer posted Jan. 7, according to the FBI, the day after Trump supporters stormed the building in Washington and halted the democratic process. The recorder ‘had a physical encounter with at least one police officer,’ the agency said.
Now Fischer, a patrolman with the North Cornwall Township Police, is charged with obstructing law enforcement during ‘civil disorder,’ accused of aiding the insurrection that left one police officer dead and many others wounded. More than a dozen off-duty members of law enforcement are suspected of participating in the Jan. 6 riots, raising uncomfortable questions for chiefs and departments around the country. But the allegations against Fischer stand out for how directly they pit him against members of his own profession. Read more at Washington Post
“Thanks to his affinity for Australia, Novak Djokovic keeps closing the gap on the men’s all-time Grand Slam race.
Djokovic, the No. 1 player in the world, won his ninth Australian Open title on Sunday and 18th Grand Slam overall, dusting No. 4 Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in a final that was surprisingly one-sided.
Djokovic is now within two Grand Slam titles of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who each own 20 men's singles championships, making this race the closest its ever been among the three all-time greats.
Medvedev came into the final on a 20-match winning streak and had looked to be in top form throughout the Australian Open. But his relative inexperience in Grand Slam finals was evident. Medvedev, who lost in five sets to Nadal in the 2019 U.S. Open final, struggled to maintain his patience as Djokovic dug in to long rallies and shifted tactics at times, testing Medvedev’s forward movement and physicality.” Read more at USA Today
“President Joe Biden signed a major disaster declaration for Texas, the White House announced Saturday, after a winter storm left much of the state facing power and water shortages, in a move Gov. Greg Abbott characterized as only a ‘partial’ approval of his request for federal assistance.
Abbot requested the disaster declaration Thursday, seeking individual and public assistance for all 254 counties in Texas. Though Biden approved public assistance for all those counties, his declaration provides individual assistance for 77 of them, according to a press release from Abbot’s office.
Individual assistance is given directly to residents who ‘sustained losses due to disasters,’ while public assistance can be used to repair or replace public facilities or infrastructure damaged or destroyed by a disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Read more at USA Today
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
“Power has been restored to most Texans, but millions across the state are facing another dire crisis: a shortage of drinkable water.
The powerful arctic blast this week cracked pipes, froze wells and knocked water treatment plants offline. Officials said restoring water service to hospitals was the first priority. At least 58 people have died in a storm-battered region that stretches to Ohio, and the final tally could be much higher.
The storms have also delayed the federal government’s delivery of vaccines to several states, including Texas, and caused a shortage of food at some grocery stores and food pantries. Here’s the latest.
The continent-spanning storms showed that American infrastructure wasn’t ready for climate change. Extreme weather is placing growing stress on a system that was built decades ago under the expectation that the environment around it would remain stable.” Read more at New York Times
Zach Gibson/The New York Times
“The Senate will hold confirmation hearings this week for Judge Merrick Garland, President Biden’s pick for attorney general.
Should he be confirmed, Judge Garland will take over what prosecutors are calling the biggest, most complex investigation in Justice Department history, of the Capitol assault that led to the second impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. Prosecuting domestic terrorism was formative work for Judge Garland, who oversaw the investigation of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and similar cases.
As federal prosecutors unveil charges in the attack on the Capitol, they have repeatedly highlighted how two militant groups — the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys — had an outsize role the assault. Here’s a look at the small groups that stood out on Jan. 6.” Read more at New York Times
“The Chicago Police Department was blasted in a scathing city watchdog report that describes a plague of communication breakdowns, leadership gaps and indiscriminate uses of force during the massive protests and riots that swarmed the city last spring after the death of George Floyd.
Accountability failures, including a lack of body camera footage and the discovery that many officers obscured their badge numbers and names during the chaos, reveal institutional problems that will only worsen if not taken seriously, Chicago’s Office of Inspector General concluded in the report released this week.
The 152-page report also targets Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D), who has been criticized by activist groups since taking office in 2019, for authorizing the use of pepper spray with limited guidance, which the authors suggest created confusion and helped fuel mass arrests.” Read more at Washington Post
“South Dakota’s attorney general has been charged with careless driving but avoided more serious felony charges like manslaughter in connection with an accident in which he struck and killed a man with his car last September, prosecutors announced on Thursday.
The attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, a Republican, was also charged with using a mobile electronic device and failing to stay in his lane on the night of Sept. 12, Emily Sovell, the deputy state’s attorney for Hyde County, said at a news conference.
All three of the charges against Mr. Ravnsborg are misdemeanors, which each carry a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, Ms. Sovell said.
Mr. Ravnsborg, 44, had been traveling 67 miles per hour when the Ford Taurus he was driving hit Joe Boever on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 14 outside of Highmore, S.D., according to the authorities. Mr. Ravnsborg told the authorities at the accident scene that he believed he had struck a large animal like a deer. It wasn’t until the next day, the authorities said, that Mr. Ravnsborg returned to the accident scene and discovered Mr. Boever’s body.” Read more at New York Times
“Republican-controlled legislatures in almost half the states are advancing bills that would make it more difficult to pass citizen-initiated ballot measures — a backlash to the success progressive groups had in using the initiative process to advance liberal policy priorities.
In Arizona, voters have in recent years approved initiatives legalizing marijuana, raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year and raising the minimum wage.
Now, GOP legislators are pushing to raise the threshold of votes an initiative needs to win to 60 percent for most initiatives, or two-thirds of the vote for measures that propose new or higher taxes.” Read more at The Hill
“Growing up in Minneapolis, Isabella Tunney followed the progress of her older brother with admiration and occasional envy as he worked toward earning the Boy Scouts’ prestigious rank of Eagle Scout.
This weekend, at age 16, Tunney will be one of nearly 1,000 girls and young women honored by the Boy Scouts in a virtual celebration of the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts. It’s a major milestone, given the hallowed stature of a rank that has been attained over more than a century by astronauts, admirals, U.S. senators and other luminaries.
Only in 2018 did the Boy Scouts start accepting girls as Cub Scouts; older girls were admitted into the flagship scouting program in 2019. Overall, more than 140,000 girls have joined.” Read more at Boston Globe