Sorry, forgot to post these yesterdays. But good, because I'm busy busy busy today.
"Just over a year after Japan's Hayabusa2 mission returned the first subsurface sample of an asteroid to Earth, scientists have determined that the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu is a pristine remnant from the formation of our solar system."
"The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first long-acting injectable medication for use as pre-exposure prevention, or PrEP, against HIV, the agency announced Monday."
"Ten thousand years ago, just after the last Ice Age, a group of hunter-gatherers buried an infant girl in an Italian cave. They entombed her with a rich selection of their treasured beads and pendants, and an eagle-owl talon, signaling their grief, and showing that even the youngest females were recognized as full persons in their society." (Grokked from Deborah Beal, I think)
"Instead, a group of six librarians in this small Central Texas county will be conducting a 'thorough review' of every children’s book in the library, at the behest of the Llano County Commissioners Court. Their mission will be to make sure all of the reading material for younger readers includes subjects that are age-appropriate. A new 'young adults plus' section will be added to separate books written for an older teen audience from those geared toward younger readers." I remember book and record burnings when I was younger.
"The highly transmissible Omicron variant is now dominant in the United States, according to new data released by the CDC on Monday. The variant now makes up more than 73% of new infections, a nearly six-fold increase compared to the week before… Omicron makes up the highest share of new cases in the South, Central Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and the New York area." Jazz hands.
"America's hospitals are in bad shape right now — overwhelmed and understaffed — just as the omicron variant of the coronavirus takes hold across the country and Americans begin traveling and socializing for the holidays."
"The federal government next month will start mailing at-home Covid test kits for free to any U.S. household that requests one, a senior administration official said, as the omicron variant of the coronavirus contributes to a spike in new cases."
"At least 132 employees at the SpaceX rocket factory near Los Angeles have tested positive for COVID-19, making it the site of the largest recent countywide workplace outbreak tracked by local health officials." Waves to Elon Musk.
"Every morning when Christina Preston enters the West Community Opportunity Center, which serves Ohio’s Franklin County, she knows she and her staff are going to be flooded with calls and applications from people in desperate need of help… Their despair could become even more acute next month as the national public health emergency comes to an end. That could lead to millions of people’s losing access to Medicaid and other benefits."
"The company has increasingly tipped off the Justice Department and FBI to investigate Amazon’s own employees and the sellers using its platform, according to a POLITICO analysis and a dozen interviews with Amazon employees, former federal prosecutors and financial crime experts. In addition, it has hired dozens of former DOJ and FBI employees, some of whom are filling out its internal teams aimed at policing its platform."
"Rite Aid announced Tuesday it is closing another 63 stores to save about $25 million year… After years of overexpansion, Rite Aid and other giant American pharmacy chains have struggled. They've been closing hundreds of stores over the past few years, despite the pandemic that has drawn people into pharmacies."
"Mexican drug cartels are turning to bigger, more productive labs to churn out increasing quantities of synthetic drugs like meth and fentanyl, according to seizure figures issued Monday by the country's Defense Department."
"Turkey’s lira has charged back from record lows at breakneck speed, seeing wild swings after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed a plan to support the battered currency and protect local deposits against market moves."
"The leader of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region announced a withdrawal of rebel forces from neighboring areas in the country on Sunday, a move that could signal the possibility of a ceasefire after 13 months of war." The game changer? Drones "lent" to Ethiopia.
"A British court on Tuesday ordered the ruler of Dubai to pay his ex-wife and their children close to 550 million pounds ($730 million), in one of the most expensive divorce settlements in British history."
"A 58-foot-long (18-meter) pedestrian bridge stolen from an Ohio city last month has been found and a man is facing charges, police said."
"Abbott has not said whether he will posthumously pardon (George) Floyd this year for a 2004 drug arrest in Houston by a former officer whose police work is no longer trusted by prosecutors. Texas' parole board — stacked with Abbott appointees — unanimously recommended a pardon for Floyd in October." Yeah, I'm gonna put my marker on "no."
"In a series of stories, The Associated Press has detailed how the U.S. military has a problem with missing and stolen guns and explosives, and how some weapons have been used in domestic crime."
"The US Secret Service is stepping up its efforts to claw back some of the billions of dollars that Covid-19-related fraud has cost the economy by tapping a senior official to work with law enforcement agencies across the country on the issue."
"It's exactly the scenario Democrats had worked for months to avoid -- but now find themselves confronting… Vulnerable members were forced to cast a tough vote in an already daunting election year. And now, they are left with nothing to show for it… With Sen. Joe Manchin effectively wielding a veto over President Joe Biden's agenda, House Democrats are now fuming at the prospects that their vote last month to pass the Build Back Better bill will be all for naught, having made scores of promises to voters only to have them all go unfulfilled."
"That has happened just as predicted, says Dr. Paul Spiegel, who returned in early December from a five-week trip to Afghanistan as part of a WHO team charged with investigating the emergency… Medical staff aren't being paid. Hospitals are running out of medicine. And many hospitals couldn't even heat patient rooms."
"The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has requested that Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania provide information about his involvement in unsuccessfully seeking to install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general of the United States." Things get interesting.
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