Today's Liberal News
White House knew more than a week ago of J&J contractor vaccine-supply problems
Workers at Emergent BioSolutions ruined 15 million doses by mixing ingredients from two Covid-19 vaccines together.
Whistleblower says FDA minimized safety risks at Merck vaccine plant
The facility in Durham, N.C., is set to help produce Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Biden wants to give the nation hope. But a jump in Covid cases is complicating things.
Inside the White House, there is little consensus that there is a surge, or even that it is worth panicking over.
I Just Found Out Why My Boyfriend Won’t Have Sex With Me, and I’m Devastated
He assures me he still loves me and doesn’t want to leave me.
Dear Care and Feeding: I’m in a Spring Break Travel Standoff With My Pandemic-Flouting In-Laws
Parenting advice on spring break, decluttering, and foster family discord.
‘Crazy things happen’: Biden’s next spending spree fuels a fight over risks
The president’s team is preparing a $3 trillion spending proposal to power through Congress. They’re betting markets and the economy will cooperate long enough to pass it.
Black workers, hammered by pandemic, now being left behind in recovery
Structural inequities in the U.S. labor market that have affected Black and Hispanic workers’ ability to advance out of low-paying jobs, as well as discrimination in hiring practices, are also likely having an effect.
Fed sees U.S. economic growth surging to 6.5 percent this year
Central bank officials now expect the unemployment rate to drop to 4.5 percent by the end of 2021.
Treasury secretary minimizes risk of inflation caused by Covid relief package
Janet Yellen said the greater risk was not strengthening the economy as it recovers from the impact of the pandemic.
Former Stockton Mayor Tubbs joins Newsom as economic adviser
He is best known for his work on a Stockton pilot project that provided $500 a month to a small group of low-income residents.
Aging Former Black Panthers Mumia Abu-Jamal & Sundiata Acoli Got COVID-19 & Could Die in Prison
We get an update on political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Sundiata Acoli, who contracted COVID-19 but have yet to be released. Acoli is a former member of the Black Panther Party who is now 84 years old and has been in prison in New Jersey for nearly half a century, even though he has been eligible for parole for almost three decades. He was denied parole again in February. His crime involved the killing of a state trooper.
Photos of the Week: Worm Moon, Cat Lodge, Red Hearts
A theme park reopening in California, Holi celebrations in India, flooding in Australia, whale watching in Mexico, protests in Turkey, a masked rock concert in Barcelona, a snowy Opening Day in Detroit, China Fashion Week in Beijing, tulip fields in Italy, and much more.
Corporate Criticism Of GOP-led Voting Bills Spreads To Texas
American Airlines, which is based in Fort Worth, came out against restrictive voting measures in Texas.
News Roundup: Infrastructure week; Georgia’s corporate backlash; police knew U.S. Capitol was target
It’s Infrastructure Week, at long last: After four years of Republican stonewalling and inaction, the Biden administration took less than three months to introduce $3 trillion plan to upgrade American roads, mass transit, water pipes, and other neglected public works. Georgia Republicans are under attack from the state’s corporate giants. Meanwhile, investigations of January 6 insurrectionists continue.
Georgia Republicans try to retaliate after Delta Airlines CEO speaks up for voter rights
All across red America, Republicans are promoting COVID-19, trashing democracy, and lying with the same feral abandon that the Abominable Showman himself demonstrated lo these many years.
And because Donald Trump declared by feckless fiat that he actually won the 2020 election in a landslide, Georgia decided they’d like to make it a lot easier for the next right-wing proto-tyrant to steal future elections.
FDA allows Moderna to put more coronavirus vaccine doses in each vial
This change that will likely allow the company to speed up the pace of its shipments.
This Week in Statehouse Action: Can’t Get Fooled Again edition
Yes, I know the headline dates me.
But whatever. It’s that super annoying day of the year when everybody thinks they’re MUCH funnier than they actually are.
But I’m not here for pranks, and the only jokes are the bad ones I make every week.
Frankly, I wish the latest GOP statehouse antics were April Fools pranks.
Alas, they’re all too serious.
How Black Mississippians found their power during Jackson’s water emergency
After the water stopped flowing, a grassroots effort in Jackson is organizing the Black community for future climate and political crises.
By Frances Madeson, for Capital and Main
After two weeks of taking sponge baths, Kalif Wilkes lingered in a long, hot shower with plenty of steam in his Jackson, Mississippi, home. The water had just come back on for this capital city of 160,000.
“The first shower I took, I stayed in there for 45 minutes.
Johnson & Johnson loses millions of doses of vaccine to manufacturing mix-up
On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson issued a statement saying that the company met its commitment to deliver 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine within the United States by the end of March, and still expects to produce an astounding billion doses around the world before the end of 2021. However, there was definitely some bad news mixed with the good. As in millions of doses of vaccine had to be destroyed, and shipments of new vaccine have been temporarily halted.
Matt Gaetz Showed Nude Pics Of Sex Partners To Colleagues: Report
Multiple sources told CNN that the Florida congressman showed photos and videos of nude women he claimed he had slept with.
Listen: No Shirt. No Shoes. No Shots. No Service.
Vaccine passports are almost certainly in our near future. But what are they exactly? And with concerns about vaccine equity now complicated by partisan fear mongering, how should they be implemented?Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist with NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine who’s spent years thinking about vaccine ethics, joins James Hamblin and Maeve Higgins on the podcast Social Distance to explain.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Slammed For Claim That Working Out Is Her ‘Covid Protection’
Twitter users exercised their right to mock the Georgia Republican after she posted a video of herself doing a CrossFit-style workout.
That Other Reason You Might Feel Terrible Right Now
One morning in March, I woke up feeling horrible. Head: pressurized. Limbs: leaden. Nose: runny. Oh no, I thought, as I lay in bed. I rubbed my eyes. They were … itchy! I got up and went to the bathroom mirror. Red, too! Thank God, I thought. Allergies!I don’t usually get so excited about the onset of my seasonal allergies. Most years, it goes something like this: I wake up feeling sick. I assume it’s a cold.
Emergent admits to manufacturing issues with J&J vaccine
The acknowledgment came one day after reports revealed a production mistake that affected 15 million doses.
Jim Clyburn ‘Insulted’ By Joe Manchin’s Position On Voting Rights Bill
The high-ranking House Democrat warned that his party will “pay the biggest price it has ever paid at the polls” if the bill is not enacted into law.
Texas Senate Joins GOP Voter Suppression Push, Passes Restrictive SB 7 Bill
Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed support for the repressive measure designed to curb access to the vote after historic voter participation in 2020.
The Title IX Loophole That Hurts NCAA Women’s Teams
When Sedona Prince, a center on the University of Oregon women’s basketball team, shared a TikTok from the NCAA women’s basketball tournament earlier this month, it went viral. Her video compared the women’s weight room in San Antonio—a single small rack of dumbbells and a stack of yoga mats—with what the men’s teams were provided at their tournament, in Indianapolis: a gym-size room full of squat racks, benches, barbells, and racks of heavy plates.