In the news today: What the heck is up with Rep. Madison Cawthorn? Seriously, Cawthorn’s story about how he met his soon-to-be-ex-wife is so bizarre that it defies description. Cawthorn’s proven willingness to lie about his own life story might explain some of it, but if he’s not lying? Eeeesh.
As 2021 comes to an end, we pay tribute to and remember the lives lost. Texas lawyer Sarah Weddington, who won the landmark court case Roe v. Wade passed away “after a series of health issues” in her Austin home Sunday, former student and friend Susan Hays shared on Twitter. Weddington, who died at the age of 76, fought the historic Supreme Court case at the age of 26, only five years after she graduated from law school, CNN reported.
An Oregon man who took the opportunity to say “Let’s go, Brandon!” to President Joe Biden on Christmas Eve is now playing the victim, claiming he has received numerous threats since. The seemingly innocent phrase “Let’s go, Brandon!” is an offensive catchphrase commonly used by conservatives to tell Biden off. “And now I am being attacked for utilizing my freedom of speech,” the man told reporters.
The New York Democrat is pushing for the president to recognize the day of the insurrection as a “National Day of Healing.
In a rare bit of “good” news, as COVID-19’s omicron variant rapidly takes hold through the country and officials warn that we’re in for a bleak pandemic winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released updated guidelines for how long those who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms should stay isolated, now cutting the recommended quarantine time from 10 days to just five.
“It’s on the table,” he added. “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. I doubt if we’re going to see something like that in the reasonably foreseeable future.
A call from millions of petitioners got an initial answer on Monday in their effort to have reduced a 110-year sentence imposed on a Texas truck driver. In short, that answer will wait a few weeks. During a web-based hearing, Judge Bruce Jones scheduled an in-person resentencing hearing for Jan. 13 to determine the fate of Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, who lived in Texas but was driving in Colorado when his semi-truck triggered a deadly crash.
The president changed his tone after previously going on the defense in response to questions about the lack of testing in the face of the omicron variant.
The reduction follows the CDC’s move last week to shorten its isolation period for infected health care workers, assuming they are asymptomatic and later test negative.
Biden acknowledged the shortages that hit several states ahead of the holidays, conceding that he had not done enough to prepare for the rising demand.
Christmas is over and we have arrived at the most wonderful time of the year—nominally still the holidays, but also the opposite of a holiday, a blank space stretching between Christmas and New Year’s Eve when nothing makes sense and time loses its meaning. For many of us, this is the only time of year when it feels possible, and even encouraged, to do nothing. I look forward to it all year long.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African anti-apartheid icon, has died at the age of 90. In 1984 Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting to end white minority rule in South Africa. After the fall of apartheid, Archbishop Tutu chaired the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where he pushed for restorative justice. He was a leading voice for human rights and peace around the world.
This was a year of too much rain. It rained too much in the Northeast. It rained too much in the Pacific Northwest, where, after a hazy summer of record wildfires, record rainfall temporarily rendered Vancouver impassable by road or rail. On the Gulf Coast and in the mid-Atlantic, the wettest days keep getting wetter. This is one of climate change’s twisted bits of logic: Where it was dry, it was too dry. But where it was wet, it was way too wet.
Every movement contains a range of viewpoints, from moderate to extreme. Unfortunately, Americans on each side of the political spectrum believe—incorrectly—that hard-liners dominate the opposite camp.After the killing of George Floyd last year, for example, liberal protesters across the nation pushed for criminal-justice reform, and many of the specific changes they sought enjoyed a lot of popular support.
Editor’s Note: Find all of The Atlantic’s “Best of 2021” coverage here. We take podcast ranking seriously. Our process starts with a search. We seek shows anywhere we can find them—sometimes hearing about them directly from producers, other times from a friend of a friend’s mother’s uncle, or sometimes through our own secret methods of rooting out gems. Then we dig in.
In September, U.S. officials noted it would take at least $7 billion in 2022 to ensure shots are administered across the globe.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid urged people to “make the booster a part of your Christmas this year.
Its ultimate fate is still tied to uncertainties surrounding the appropriations process and an overdue report on the benefits and risks from HHS’ health information tech office.
Isolation time can be cut to five days, or even fewer, if there are severe staffing shortages, according to the new CDC guidance.
Doug Kuzma posed with supplies of ivermectin, which the FDA and CDC have warned against using to treat COVID-19.
Nearly the entire increase came from the burst of federal spending as the government mobilized to contain the spread of the virus.
The Fed plans to cease its bond buys entirely by March, rather than its earlier target of June to give itself room to begin raising interest rates as early as the second quarter of next year.
Costs for key goods and services soared 0.8 percent for the month and 6.8 percent for the year, the highest since 1982, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The middle class is facing serious economic hardship with little of the workplace flexibility now afforded to the well-off. Here’s how employers — and government — can help.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges discuss mass surveillance, government secrecy, internet freedom and U.S. attempts to extradite and prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. They spoke together on a panel moderated by Amy Goodman at the virtual War on Terror Film Festival after a screening of “Citizenfour” — the Oscar-winning documentary about Snowden by Laura Poitras.
The Pentagon has announced new rules to slow the spread of extremism in the military, one of which will discipline soldiers for liking or resharing white nationalist and other extremist content on social media. The Pentagon announcement comes just two weeks before the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, where more than 80 of the 700 individuals charged with the attack had ties to the U.S. military.
In a major victory for labor rights, 1,400 unionized Kellogg’s workers have ended their nearly three-month strike across four states after approving a new contract that provides a wage increase and enhanced benefits for all. The prior agreement that Kellogg’s tried to bargain only offered wage increases and improved benefits to longtime workers, whereas the new agreement ensures newer workers have a guaranteed option to receive the same improvements.
A new report titled “How The Koch Network Hijacked The War On COVID” reveals how a right-wing network linked to billionaire Charles Koch has played a key role in fighting public health measures during the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, contact tracing and lockdowns. The groups include the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), Donors Trust, the Hoover Institution and Hillsdale College.
Oxfam America has accused Moderna of misleading its investors about an ongoing dispute over whether it needs to share vaccine patent rights with the U.S. government. Oxfam filed a shareholders complaint against Moderna with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the company’s resistance to recognizing the role played by three scientists with the National Institutes of Health in developing the vaccine.
Yeah, Donald Trump also said we’d never see him again if he lost to Joe Biden. We all know how that turned out. After all, Trump is never really gone—as long we remember him. We see his eternal light and essence in every irregular, half-priced Grocery Outlet yam. Every time a bully farts on a weaker kid’s head, he is there—in spirit—gently guiding the bully’s sphincter.