In the news today: The southern states are in a COVID-19 crisis, and there’s still no apparent sense of urgency from the Republican leaders who helped cause it. In the meantime, it’s every student and teacher for themselves.

Here’s some of what you may have missed:

• The healthcare system is on the edge of a cliff across the South, and Republicans just keep pushing

• Texas school district gets creative to protect students from Gov.

I used to challenge my friends—usually when we were well into our cups—to come up with the most crass and inappropriate product placement they could for a movie. Product placements are done all the time, of course. If you see a Roman centurion eating Funyuns at the foot of the cross on Golgotha, that’s almost certainly a product placement paid for by Frito-Lay. If Jesus himself tucks into a family-sized bag of Tostitos, you can take it to the bank.

Given that we’re facing a pandemic, that people are concerned about housing and food security, that student loan debt continues to weigh on many, and that families are stressed about sending kids back to in-person school, one would think the collective population has more to worry about than yard signs. But as Dimitri Hepburn told CBS 2 Chicago, a person who seemingly works for the city of Chicago went onto his property and flipped a Black Lives Matter sign face down.

Following months of pleas from advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Biden administration has escalated efforts to vaccinate detained immigrants against COVID-19. CBS News reports that 22,000 people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody have received at least one dose, “a 167% increase from early July, when 8,221 doses had been administered.

Selling fake IDs seems to be a thing of the past. Now, some Americans are instead selling fake vaccine cards. Months after the first case of an American prosecuted for selling counterfeit vaccine cards comes a similar (yet different) case. Instead of selling fake cards, an Illinois man decided to sell real ones—and for cheap.