The Dalai Lama gets a Covid-19 vaccine shot over the weekend in India, as shown in this photo provided by his office.
“The CDC has released highly anticipated new guidelines for people fully vaccinated against Covid-19, saying it is safe for them to gather together without masks indoors and to visit with unvaccinated people in certain circumstances. The new guidance was met with joy and renewed hope that a return to normalcy is around the corner. However, ex-CDC chief Dr. Tom Frieden cautioned that we shouldn’t give up on safety measures yet, saying, ‘You don’t declare victory in the third quarter.’ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave a similar worldwide warning, saying, ‘There are no shortcuts’ to recovery. After all, one coronavirus variant is now spreading exponentially through the US, experts say. Meanwhile, it looks like the House will now vote tomorrow on the massive coronavirus relief package.” Read more at CNN
“The House is expected as early as Tuesday to approve President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, his chief legislative priority as he begins his presidency. The plan, which passed the Senate this weekend , includes $1,400 stimulus checks for those earning under $75,000, an extension of unemployment benefits and money for local and state governments, among other measures. Democrats, whose margin in the House is only slightly bigger than in the Senate, must hope their progressive members don't bolt over modifications made to the legislation, particularly the removal of a federal minimum wage hike.” Read more at USA Today
Here's what's in the stimulus package
“All K-12 educators in the U.S. are now eligible for a vaccine.” Read more at New York Times
“Georgia's state Senate on Monday passed an election bill that would repeal no-excuse absentee voting, among other sweeping changes in the critical swing state.
The legislation, which has been championed by state Republican lawmakers, passed in 29-20. It now heads to the Georgia House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass in the coming weeks.
Under SB 241, voters would need to be 65 years old or older, absent from their precinct, observing a religious holiday, be required to provide constant care for someone with a physical disability, or required to work ‘for the protection of the health, life, or safety of the public during the entire time the polls are open,’ or be an overseas or military voter to qualify for an absentee ballot. The bill aims to undo a 2005 Republican-backed law allowing no-excuse absentee voting.
The bill comes as Georgia has become ground zero for election law changes in the wake of the 2020 election. Republicans in the state, citing baseless allegations of voter fraud pushed by former President Donald Trump and other GOP officials, have moved to roll back access to mail-in voting and early voting.” Read more at CNN
“In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that limits early voting days and Election Day voting and makes it harder for voters to return absentee ballots. However, over the weekend President Biden signed an executive order expanding voting access and requiring federal agencies to promote voter registration. Congressional Democrats are also pushing a large ethics and election bill.” Read more at USA Today
“Jury selection was scheduled to begin Tuesday in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin after jurors were sent home Monday as the court grappled with an appeal over the possible reinstatement of a third-degree murder charge — an issue that still has not been resolved. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd last May. Prosecutors contend Floyd, 46, was killed by Chauvin's knee, compressed against his neck for more than 9 minutes while he was handcuffed and pinned to the pavement. Legal experts say bystander video of the incident, as well as two autopsy reports, will play central roles in the trial.” Read more at USA Today
“The number of unaccompanied migrant children detained along the southern border has tripled in the last two weeks to more than 3,250, filling facilities akin to jails as the Biden administration struggles to find room for them in shelters, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
More than 1,360 of the children have been detained beyond the 72 hours permitted by law before a child must be transferred to a shelter, according to one of the documents, dated March 8. The figures highlight the growing pressure on President Biden to address the increased number of people trying to cross the border in the belief that he will be more welcoming to them than former President Donald J. Trump was.
The children are being held in facilities, managed by the Customs and Border Protection agency, that were built for adults. The border agency has been the subject of widespread criticism for the horrific conditions in its federal detention facilities, in which children are exposed to disease, hunger and overcrowding.
Under the law, the federal government is required to move unaccompanied children within three days from the border facilities to shelters managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, where they are held until they are placed with a sponsor. Homeland Security officials have often pointed to delays by Health and Human Services in picking up the children as a reason for the prolonged detention.
Until last Friday, when the government lifted the restrictions, the shelters managed by Health and Human Services were at reduced capacity because of the pandemic. The shelters for migrant children are 13 days away from ‘maximum capacity,’ according to the documents. The data shows the stress on the system designed to hold the migrant children as Mr. Biden tries to make good on a campaign promise to be more compassionate to migrants during a global pandemic.” Read more at New York Times
“Five Republican senators have announced they will not run for reelection next November, deepening the ideological divide between traditional GOP lawmakers and those unfailingly loyal to former President Trump (all the outgoing senators are seen as in the former camp). The latest is Roy Blunt. Chuck Grassley, who has been in the Senate for more than four decades, is also mulling his future. Meanwhile, liberal Democrats are continuing their yearslong push to overhaul the Senate’s hallowed filibuster. Their plan includes changing the 60-vote requirement to break the legislative stalling tactic. But to get anything changed, they’d need unanimity in their ranks, which will take some convincing. For the record, Biden (a former senator) has said he’s not in favor of ending the filibuster.” Read more at USA Today
“On International Women’s Day, President Joe Biden signed two gender-focused executive orders: one to review Title IX guidelines governing campus sexual assault investigations and one to create a Gender Policy Council in the Executive Office of the President.” Read more at HuffPost / Alanna Vagianos
“A man linked by prosecutors to the Oath Keepers and Republican strategist Roger Stone was arrested Monday in New York and charged with criminal involvement in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Roberto Minuta, 36, of Texas is accused of obstructing the formal counting of presidential election votes, trespassing and attempting to cover up his crimes. He was ordered released on a $125,000 bond over the objections of federal prosecutors.” Read more at Washington Post
Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Vice President Harris speaks in the East Room at an International Women’s Day event celebrating the nomination of Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost (left) and Army Lt. General Laura Richardson as four-star combatant commanders. They'll become the second and third women in American history to lead combatant commands. Read more at Axios
“The University of Kansas and head football coach Les Miles have mutually agreed to part ways, the school announced Monday night.
Neither Kansas nor Miles cited a reason for his departure. But the announcement comes just four days after damning reports about his behavior with female students while he was at Louisiana State University prompted Kansas to place him on administrative leave.” Read more at USA Today
“Lives Lived: As a lawyer with a moral compass forged in part by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Priscilla Read Chenoweth spent seven years and tens of thousands of dollars of her own money to exonerate a young stranger wrongly convicted of murder. She died at 90.” Read more at New York Times
“Cornel West, a professor of African-American studies and a progressive activist, is abandoning his quest for tenure at Harvard.” Read more at New York Times
“A Supreme Court justice in Brazil tossed out several criminal casesagainst former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, allowing him to challenge President Jair Bolsonaro in next year’s election.” Read more at New York Times
“Wealthy visitors to Thailand now have the option of spending their 14-day mandatory quarantine on a yacht as part of a new program to boost tourism to the country. Prospective seafarers will be equipped with an electronic wristband that will track the wearer’s vital signs as well as GPS coordinates—even when at sea. Thailand’s tourism minister proposed a separate plan last week to allow tourists to spend their quarantine period in the country’s beach resorts. The need for unique approaches is particularly acute in the southeast Asian nation: Only 6.7 million foreign tourists visited Thailand in 2020, following a record 39.8 million tourists in 2019.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“The Chinese government's alleged actions in Xinjiang have violated every single provision in the United Nations' Genocide Convention, according to an independent report by more than 50 global experts in human rights, war crimes and international law. This is the first independent report into genocide allegations in the region, where up to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to have been placed in a sprawling network of detention centers. The report alleges evidence of China’s ‘intent to destroy’ the Uyghur people. Nations, including the US under the Trump administration, have named China’s actions as genocide, elevating international dialogue about the situation. China has denied human rights abuse allegations, saying the centers are necessary to prevent religious extremism and terrorism.” Read more at USA Today
“$270 million — The approximate cost of the University of Oregon's new track stadium, according to a financial report from the school. The university doesn't actually know how much the lavish new facility costs, however, due to Nike co-founder Phil Knight's preference for privacy when it comes to the size of his financial gifts. Overall, Knight is estimated to have donated more than $1 billion to the university.” Read more in Wall Street Journal
“17.1 million — The estimated number of people who watched Oprah Winfrey’s Sunday night interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The interview, in which the Duchess of Sussex described experiencing racism and mental-health turmoil as a member of the U.K. royal family, was one of the biggest television events of the year so far.” Read more in Wall Street Journal
“3.5% — The percentage of Russians who have received at least one shot of the country's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, compared with more than 18% in the U.S. and more than 32% in the U.K. Even as dozens of countries like Iran and Mexico order millions of doses, many Russians remain skeptical of the shot because of its rapid development, an ingrained distrust of authorities and a widespread belief that the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon.” Read more in Wall Street Journal
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art approved a policy last week that allows proceeds from the sale of works from its collection to be used for salaries and overhead costs associated with the collection’s care. The move follows similar actions by other museums, including ones in Brooklyn, Baltimore and Chicago, and marks the latest development in a debate that has been roiling the museum field and has set some of the country’s leading museum directors against one another.
Deaccessioning — the routine practice of pruning and shaping a museum’s collection by putting works up for sale — has become intensely controversial since the spring of last year, when the field’s membership organization relaxed the rules governing the use of proceeds from art sales. As a result, American art museums hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are wrestling with a vexing problem: To what extent should they use the proceeds from these sales to avoid financial trouble or even to pay for other, program-related goals?
The museum field is on edge after an attempt last fall by the Baltimore Museum of Art to raise $65 million by selling three works provoked a huge backlash, resulting in the works being taken off the market at the last moment. But tensions around deaccessioning predate both the Baltimore controversy and covid-19.” Read more at Washington Post
“And finally ... When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government offered Indian women cooking-fuel subsidies five years ago, it was life-changing: They could use gas cylinders instead of burning cow dung, crops and wood that left a sooty flame and teary eyes. Yet, facing a widening fiscal deficit, New Delhi has slowly cut the size of those handouts — a shift that risks upsetting women voters and potentially exposing millions to heavier levels of pollution.” Read more at Bloomberg
A woman uses dung as a cooking fuel at her village home in Uttar Pradesh.