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Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Wake-Up Call: Biden $3.5T Plan Facing Hurdles

President Biden has canceled a planned trip to Chicago today to remain in Washington and continue to work on negotiations trying to reach a deal with holdout moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsrten Sinema, whose votes are need to pass his $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan. While the pressure is on, AP cited an unnamed administration official who said there is a, quote, "strong sense" that progress is being made in the negotiations. Biden met separately with Manchin and Sinema yesterday, who say the $3.5 trillion cost is too high, but haven't said publicly what price tag they'd agree to. Biden has said that the cost would actually be zero because it would largely be paid for with higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
 
➤NORTH KOREA SAYS SUCCESSFUL TEST FLIGHT WAS OF HYPERSONIC MISSILE: North Korea said Wednesday that its missile test early the day before was a successful test flight of a new hypersonic missile that it implied was being developed as nuclear capable. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the missile to be at an early stage of development and said the North Korea would need "considerable time" to be able to deploy it operationally. Tuesday's test was the third missile testing by the North this month. Kim Jong Un's government has so far rejected the U.S. offer to resume nuclear talks that have been stalled since 2019, saying the U.S. must first end what it calls America's "hostile policy," by which it mainly means sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korea military drills.

➤AP..COVID VACCINE FOR UNDER-12 KIDS MAY NOT BE APPROVED UNTIL NOVEMBER: Pfizer said Tuesday that it has submitted its research information on the safety and effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages five to 11 to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Federal regulators and public health officials will now have to review the evidence and consult with their advisory committees before they could recommend the vaccines' use. When that potential approval could come may not be until November, AP reported, citing a person familiar with the process. Pfizer said they expect to request emergency use authorization of the vaccine in children, quote, "in the coming weeks."
➤JOINT CHIEFS CHAIR MILLEY CALLS AFGHAN WAR 'STRATEGIC FAILURE': General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a "strategic failure" during testimony yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said, "Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure . . . that is a cumulative effect of 20 years," adding that lessons need to be learned. Similarly, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, "We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation. The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away . . . took us all by surprise." Milley said about staying past the August 31st withdrawal deadline that it would have endangered troops and other Americans, saying, "On the 1st of September we were going to go back to war again with the Taliban." Milley acknowledged that he'd favored keeping several thousand troops in Afghanistan to prevent a collapse of the government, while refusing to say what advice he gave Biden. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki denied yesterday that Biden had misled the public when he said in an August 18th interview that no senior military commander had recommended against a full troop withdrawal. She said he'd been referring to have gotten a full range of advice and that he'd told ABC his advisers were, quote, "split" on the issue. She added, "Regardless of the advice, it’s his decision, he’s the commander in chief."
 

➤FIVE LIFE TERMS-PLUS FOR MAN WHO KILLED FIVE AT MARYLAND NEWSPAPER: Jarrod Ramos, who shot and killed five people in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 2018, was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole yesterday. The judge added another life sentence for the attempted murder of a photographer who testified that Ramos barely missed him with a shotgun blast. The 41-year-old Ramos was convicted in July, with a jury rejecting his attorneys' argument that he wasn't criminally responsible due to mental illness. Prosecutors said Ramos acted out of revenge after the newspaper published a story about his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of harassing a former high school classmate in 2011.


➤PETITO FAMILY URGES ATTENTION ON OTHER ISSING PEOPLE: The family of 22-year-old Gabrielle Petito, whose story grabbed media attention after she went missing earlier this month while on a cross-country van trip with her boyfriend before her body was found in Wyoming, are urging the news media and the public to give as much attention to helping find other missing people. The overwhelming coverage Petito's story received led some to raise the issue of other missing people who don't get that kind of attention, in particular people of color. Speaking at a news conference yesterday with Petito's parents and stepparents, her father, Joseph Petito, said, "I want to ask everyone to help all the people that are missing and need help. It’s on all of you, everyone that’s in this room to do that," he said, pointing to the reporters and cameras. "And if you don’t do that for other people that are missing, that’s a shame, because it’s not just Gabby that deserves it." The family is forming a foundation named after Gabrielle to work on helping find missing people. Joseph Petito said, "We need positive stuff to come from the tragedy that happened."

🏡U-S HOME PRICES ROSE BY RECORD OF NEARLY 20 PERCENT IN JULY:  Amid the soaring home prices that have been seen across the country during the pandemic, they rose in July by a record 19.9 percent compared to a year earlier, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index. The records date back to 2000. The data also showed that home prices reached all-time highs in 19 of the 20 cities. Prices have spiked as the supply of homes hasn't been able to keep up with the pace of demand from people who want to buy. Factors driving sales include low mortgage rates and wanting more living space during the pandemic. Sales of existing homes are up 16 percent in the first eight months of 2021 compared to last year, and up 12 percent from the same period in 2019.


➤POSTAL SERVICE TO GET SLOWER, MORE EXPENSIVE:  If you've been affected by the slower mail delivery many have seen across the country during the pandemic, it's about to get even worse for some mail, and temporarily more expensive during the holiday season. The U.S. Postal Service said yesterday that starting this Friday, October 1st, first-class mail and periodicals traveling long distances in the U.S., such as from New York to California, will take longer to arrive. Mail within the same region will still have a two-day delivery time. First-class packages will also no longer have the same delivery standards as first-class mail. Additionally, prices will be temporarily increased for the holiday season, from October 3rd through December 26th, on all commercial and retail domestic packages. The changes are being made as part of a 10-year plan announced by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in March which has been heavily criticized by some elected officials.

➤TWO AMTRAK DERAILMENT VICTIMS WERE COUPLE ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY TRIP: Two of three people who died in the Amtrak derailment in Montana over the weekend were a Georgia couple on a 50th wedding anniversary trip. Don and Marjorie Varnadoe, who were 74 and 72 respectively, spent months dreaming of the cross-country trip, with a colleague telling AP Don had called the journey their "trip of lifetime." Don was a realtor on St. Simons Island and Marjorie had retired after career as an educator. The third victim was 28-year-old software developer Zachariah Schneider of Illinois who was headed to Oregon with his wife, who survived. The cause of the derailment is being investigated.

➤OBAMAS BREAK GROUND ON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER IN CHICAGO: Former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama held a ceremonial groundbreaking yesterday for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park. Construction officially began last month. The site is near the Obama family home, in the city where the former first lady was born and raised and where the former president began his political career on the South Side. Barack Obama said he hoped the center would bring an economic boost to the area and inspire a future generation of leaders. It will include Obama's presidential papers in digital form, as well as a museum, public library branch, athletic center, test kitchen and children's play area. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker were among those on hand for the event.

👶FORMER FIRST DAUGHTER BARBARA BUSH GIVES BIRTH TO FIRST CHILD: Former first couple George W. and Laura Bush's daughter, Barabara Bush, gave birth to her first child on Monday, it was announced yesterday, a daughter named Cora Georgia. The 39-year-old Bush and her husband, Craig Coyne, welcomed the little girl in Maine. The former president revealed the news, saying, "With full hearts, Laura and I are delighted to announce the birth of our new granddaughter." It's their fourth grandchild, joining the three children of Barbara's twin, Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager. Jenna shared photos of her niece and wrote in her post, "Dearest Cora Georgia, Today is the day I got to meet my most beautiful, precious, feisty, niece (a bit earlier than we expected!)."

➤ISOLATION DURING PANDEMIC CAUSED PEOPLE TO THINK LESS ABOUT FUTURE, OTHER PEOPLE:  Living through a global pandemic has left many isolated, and it turns out that leads people to think less about others, and the future. Researchers from Britain texted study participants randomly to ask them what they were thinking about during the country’s first lockdown, and found “future thinking was reduced overall during lockdown, and only seemed to occur at pre-lockdown levels when people were actively engaged in work.” Lead study co-author Brontë McKeown adds, “Normally, people spend a lot of time thinking about other people and planning for the future in their daily lives.” Lead study co-author Giulia Poerio says the findings show “how important our external environment and social interactions are for shaping what is going on internally and suggest that changing our external world could be one way of changing the (mal)adaptive thought patterns that make up so much of our waking lives.”

➤STUDY..INTENSE WORKOUTS BEFORE BEDTIME WON’T GUARANTEE A GOOD NIGHT’S REST, NEW RESEARCH SHOWS:  People often associate exercise with better sleep, but it turns out doing intense exercise right before bedtime is not necessarily associated with improved sleep. Concordia University researchers assessed data from 15 other studies, and found that when exercise ended two hours before bedtime there were sleep benefits associated with it, but when it ended less than two hours before bedtime, sleep was actually negatively impacted. Specifically, they found: early evening high-intensity exercise promoted sleep onset and improved sleep duration; high-intensity exercise performed between 30 and 60 minutes also improved sleep onset and duration; cycling exercises were found to benefit participants most in terms of sleep; and high-intensity exercise of all kinds, regardless of timing, contributed to a slight decrease in the rapid-eye-movement (REM) stage of sleep.


⚾CARDINALS WIN 17TH STRAIGHT, CLINCH WIILD CARD BERTH: The St. Louis Cardinals won their 17th straight game last night, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 6-2, and also clinched a National League wild card berth. The winning streak is the longest in franchise history, and the longest in the big leagues since the Cleveland Indians' 22 in a row in 2017.

🏀NBA GIVES TEAMS COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR SEASON: The NBA gave tentative Covid-19 health and safety protocols for the upcoming season to teams yesterday. Under them, unvaccinated players will face frequent Covid testing and many other restrictions that vaccinated players won't. Among them: unvaccinated players won't be able to eat in the same room with vaccinated teammates or staff; must stay masked and at least six feet away from others in team meetings; must have lockers as far away from vaccinated players as possible; and must stay at their home when the team is in their home market. On the road, they'll have to stay on team hotel properties. Unvaccinated players also won't be able to go to places like restaurants, bars, clubs, entertainment venues, and large indoor gatherings. About 90 percent of players are fully vaccinated.

🥊BOXER PACQUIAO ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT: Manny Pacquiao, one of the all-time great boxers, announced his retirement last night, the news from the 42-year-old coming one month after a loss to Yordenis Ugas. It also came soon after Pacquiao, who's a sitting senator in the Philippines, announced that he'd be running for president in next May's election. Pacquiao had a 62-8-2 record with 39 knockouts, won 12 world titles, and is the only eight-division champion in boxing history. He said in a retirement announcement video, "Even me, I'm amazed at what I have done."

⚾DODGERS' HALL OF FAME SPANISH BROADCASTER TO RETIRE AFTER 64 YEARS: The L.A. Dodgers' Hall of Fame Spanish-language broadcaster Jaime Jarrín announced Tuesday that he'll retire after the 2022 season, ending an amazing 64 years with the team. The 85-year-old began calling Dodgers games in 1959 and in 1998 received the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting.
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