“The US Food and Drug Administration announced it will grant emergency use authorization for a booster dose of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine in people 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and people whose jobs put them at risk of infection. That last category includes health care workers and also people who work in places like grocery stores, homeless shelters and prisons. Today, vaccine advisers to the CDC will meet to act on the FDA's decision. The CDC must give its stamp of approval before any booster doses can be officially given. (Third doses are already approved for certain immunocompromised people.) A member of the CDC’s vaccine team said yesterday that findings from several studies show vaccine protection against Covid-19 does wane over time, especially for older people.” Read more at CNN
“The Mormon Church said temple visitors and workers should wear masks.” Read more at New York Times
“The Federal Reserve could start reversing its pandemic stimulus programs by November.” Read more at New York Times
“The U.S. is moving in the right direction again, Axios' Sam Baker reports.
New COVID cases are continuing to decline, and some experts are cautiously optimistic that the virus will continue to wane even into the fall and winter.
The U.S. is now averaging 134,000 new cases per day — a 10% drop over the past two weeks.
The pace of new infections, relative to each state’s population, is getting worse in 27 states and improving in 23.
Tennessee has seen the biggest drop in new cases over the past two weeks. Montana has seen the biggest spike.
Vaccinations for kids should help. Children ages 5-11 could become eligible for vaccinations in the next several weeks.” Read more at Axios
“Democrats are nervous about expected Republican pushback in the Senate over the debt ceiling. Instead of facing up to GOP resistance leading up to the mid-October deadline, some Dems are considering lengthy, laborious legislative methods to pass a measure to raise or suspend the debt ceiling without Republican help. If the US were to default, the government would have to limit its spending, and that would spell real consequences for millions of Americans. Social Security payments and the next monthly child tax credits could be delayed, and food stamp recipients could be left waiting for funds. A default also could set off a recession that would wipe out millions of jobs and erase about $15 trillion in household wealth, a report from a financial services company warns.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON — Two former GOP treasury secretaries held private discussions this month with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, hoping to resolve an impasse over the debt limit that now threatens the global economy, according to four people aware of the conversations.
The previously unreported talks involving the GOP economic grandees — Henry Paulson, who served as treasury secretary under former president George W. Bush; and Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary under former president Donald Trump — did not resolve the matter, and the United States is now racing toward a massive fiscal cliff with no clear resolution at hand.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The Biden administration will finalize its first new climate rule Thursday, slashing the use of greenhouse gases warming the planet at a rate hundreds to thousands of times higher than carbon dioxide.
The Environmental Protection Agency regulation, which establishes a program to cut the use and production of chemicals known as hydrofluorocarbons in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years, implements a law passed by Congress last year. There is broad bipartisan support for curbing these super-pollutants, which are short-lived and often used in refrigeration and air conditioning.
White House officials said the new rule tackles global warming while supporting jobs to manufacture new alternatives.
‘It’s a win on climate and a win on jobs, and American competitiveness,’ Gina McCarthy, the White House national climate coordinator, told reporters in an online briefing Wednesday evening. ‘It’s really — frankly, folks — a very big deal.’” Read more at Washington Post
“As the crush of migrants along the southern US border persists, Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, say they had asked their leaders as far back as June for extra help to rapidly process migrants. Agents this summer began to see an increase in people crossing the Rio Grande into the US, at times getting up to several hundred congregating under the Del Rio International Bridge. In recent days, that number ballooned to 14,000. The Biden administration is scrambling to deal with the crisis by ramping up deportation flights and talking with officials in Brazil and Chile about repatriating migrants who'd lived there. Photos of refugees arriving in Del Rio show a dangerous, desperate journey through heat and muddy water to the squalid, tight encampments that have raised alarm bells among health and humanitarian experts.” Read more at CNN
“After months of negotiation, a bipartisan effort to move forward with federal police reform legislation has officially ended without a deal. Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Karen Bass, both Democrats, and Republican Sen. Tim Scott led the talks, but they say complex issues like qualified immunity (a legal doctrine that protects police officers from being sued in civil court) kept them from finding a plan that would garner bipartisan support in the Senate. After the breakdown, President Biden criticized Republican leaders for rejecting even modest reforms and is now considering taking executive action on policing reforms. Meanwhile, a group of former and current Black women officers have filed a class action lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, claiming racial and sexual discrimination.” Read more at CNN
“Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday for the first time since a major diplomatic dispute erupted between the two countries over a trilateral deal among the US, UK and Australia. The fallout of the deal, which includes the provision of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, led to tension during this week’s United Nations General Assembly and inspired unrestrained criticism from some French officials. Macron, however, has been more reserved. A joint statement from the US and France after the call said Macron and Biden ‘agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners.’” Read more at CNN
“The search for Brian Laundrie, the fiancé of homicide victim Gabby Petito, will continue Thursday across a vast, alligator-infested Florida wetland, after a coroner confirmed that human remains found in a Wyoming national park were those of 22-year-old Petito. Police in North Port, Florida, have been searching the Carlton Reserve since the family of Laundrie said last week that he vanished while camping in the 25,000-acre wilderness area. Relatives said Laundrie left Sept. 14 to go hiking in the reserve. They filed a missing person report three days later saying they had found his car but did not find him. Since then, searchers have used dogs, drones and ATV vehicles to aid the difficult manhunt. He still has not been found.
“Thousands of green cards are about to go to waste, leaving Google, Microsoft and other tech companies fuming, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill writes.
Why it matters: Google and Microsoft say they have thousands of employees and their families awaiting green cards.
What's happening: An administration official warned this summer that because of pandemic delays, a 100,000-application backlog wouldn't be filled by the Sept. 30 fiscal year end. Extra green cards that haven't been granted in one year don't carry over to the next.
Google and Microsoft are among companies that have been urging federal officials to find a way to save the roughly 80,000 remaining employment-based green cards set to expire Sept. 30.
Google says only 13% of its candidate applications filed since last October have been approved.
Apple CEO Tim Cook last week wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to press the issue on behalf of the Business Roundtable. (Read the letter.)
Cook, who chairs the Business Roundtable's immigration committee, said officials should eliminate unnecessary document requests and conduct communications by phone or email to speed up processing.” Read more at Axios
“Upcoming FBI data is expected to show 2020 had the highest single-year spike in U.S. murders in at least 60 years.
Experts attribute the surge to job losses, fears and other jolts to society at the start of COVID, Axios' Russ Contreras reports.
The homicide rate would remain far lower than it was through much of the 1980s and 1990s — about one-third below the rate in the early 1990s, The New York Times reports.”
The Times reports that early FBI data shows a 29% spike in murders last year.
That would be the biggest single-year increase since national record-keeping began, in 1960.
Previously, the largest one-year increase was a 12.7% rise in 1968.
Many major U.S. cities, from Atlanta to Albuquerque, reported surgesin violent crime in 2020, including jumps in homicides and gun crimes.
Homicides in Milwaukee doubled from 2019 to 2020, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
The number of homicides in Houston in 2020 was the highest in 15 years, city records show.
California had 5.8 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2020 — the highest rate since 2008, according to preliminary data from the state's Department of Public Health.” Read more at Axios
“NEW DELHI — India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday opened the door for women to pursue military careers at the highest levels, a major milestone in a country where gender inequality is rife and where women have been leaving the workforce in droves.
The court ordered the government to allow women in November, for the first time, to take the entrance exam to India’s premier defense academy, the pipeline for the country’s top army, navy, and air force commanders. While the court allowed the government to continue to exclude women from most combat roles, the ruling could encourage more women to pursue careers in the military.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The Spanish island of La Palma is enduring the fourth day of a massive volcano eruption, which has forced thousands of people from their homes.” [Vox] Read more at Reuters / Borja Suarez and Marco Trujillo
“A rare and ancient tablet which contains one of the world's oldest works of literature will finally be returned to Iraq. In 2014, U.S. arts and craft store chain Hobby Lobby purchased the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet artifact for over $1.6 million. The tablet originated from now modern-day Iraq and features the poem of mythological hero Gilgamesh. In July, after discovering the auction house that sold the artifact did so under false pretenses, the U.S. Justice Department said it should not be owned by Hobby Lobby and it should be in Iraq instead. Hobby Lobby had planned to display the tablet in its Museum of the Bible. The formal handover ceremony of the tablet is scheduled for Thursday at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.” Read more at USA Today
“Godfather of modern Black cinema": Melvin Van Peebles, the icon behind 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,' had died. He was 89.” Read more at USA Today
“College Football Playoff expansion has entered the negotiation stage.
The road to a new format for deciding major college football’s national champion took a detour Wednesday when the CFP management committee — 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director — was unable to come to a consensus on the proposed 12-team format.
Instead of teeing up the university presidents who have the final say for a vote next week in Chicago, members of the committee circled back on the possibility of an eight-team playoff and discussed other issues.
They are set to reconvene in Chicago, with the presidents joining via Zoom, for what CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock called an ‘informational’ meeting.” Read more at AP News
“LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mayim Bialik knew she’d be busy around this time of year, but not this busy.
Besides starting production on a new season of Fox’s sitcom ‘Call Me Kat,’ Bialik was recalled to duty as a ‘Jeopardy!’ guest host — the result of the quiz show’s publicly messy effort to replace the late Alex Trebek.
Mike Richards exited as newly minted host (and producer) in August after past unsavory podcast comments came to light. Bialik and ‘Jeopardy!’ champ Ken Jennings were then brought in by studio Sony while its host search begins anew.
Bialik had already been hired as emcee of ‘Jeopardy!’ prime-time and spinoff series, including a new college championship. She, Jennings and Richards were among the dozen-plus temp hosts who vied earlier this year for the plum job.
While Bialik didn’t speculate on whether she might ultimately be Sony’s pick, she said she considers herself part of the show’s ‘family’ and was glad to help out on the syndicated show around the season-two taping of ‘Call Me Kat.’” Read more at AP News
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