February 23, 2021
By Natalie Rahhal

AstraZeneca (click here) expects to get US emergency authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in April, the firm's president told lawmakers on Tuesday.

As soon as it gets the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) greenlight, AstraZeneca will have 30 million doses of the 62 percent effective shot ready to ship to the US, said president of the biopharmaceuticals arm of the company, Dr Ruud Dobber on Tuesday.

He told members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce that the company could deliver 'up to 50 million' doses by the end of April...

The Joe Factor will have the USA end it's own epidemic without vaccines.

All they needed was a SuperStar.

February 23, 2021

Philadelphia’s coronavirus case counts (click here) have decreased by 80% since peaking in late December, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Tuesday.

“It’s a sign that things will be getting better this spring and summer,” Farley said.

The decrease is likely due to the virus following the pattern of most respiratory viruses, which peak in the winter months and decrease as spring arrives, Farley said. Farley said declining case counts cannot be attributed to vaccinations because not enough vaccines have been administered in the city; as of Monday evening there have been 174,092 first doses given in Philadelphia.

February 23, 2021

Chicago’s lakefront, (click here) playgrounds and indoor aquatics centers are starting to reopen after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close nearly a year ago, the Chicago Park District announced Tuesday.

Many people have ignored the city’s playground strictures, and enforcement of the playground ban has been hardly consistent. But Chicago police have continued to enforce the closure of lakefront parks until this week, as first reported by Block Club Chicago, which reported Monday that lakefront aldermen announced the move starting Friday....

Members (click here) of the Philadelphia Police and Fire Pipes and Drum band leads the funeral procession for Philadelphia firefighter John Evans. 

He died of COVID-19.

FERC is investigating price gouging in Texas.

That is probably a new vocabulary word for ERCOT. Price gouging, especially after such a tragedy that cost lives, is not a State's Rights issue. A negligent company that causes it's own price squeeze because it neglected it's responsibility to its customers, doesn't get to exploit them after their own preventable failure.

February 23, 2021
By Catherine Moorehouse

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (click here) on Monday announced it would investigate whether any natural gas or electricity market violations occurred during the recent cold snap that left millions without power in Texas and Oklahoma last week.

FERC's announcement follows its decision, in partnership with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), last week to investigate the mass outages across the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), as well as in the Southwest Power Pool and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator. It also follows calls from Chair Richard Glick for Congress and the Texas legislature to reexamine ERCOT's "go it alone" approach.

The commission also announced it would open a new proceeding to examine the threat climate change poses to electric reliability, following FERC's decision last week to close its resilience docket, originally opened in response to the Trump administration's coal and nuclear bailout proposal....

The vaccine attacks the spikes. As long as a variant has the spikes the person should be safe.

February 23, 2021
By Christine Clarridge

The first known case of the coronavirus variant (click here) discovered in South Africa has popped up in King County, and 19 additional cases of the variant first found in the UK have been identified, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

The B.1.351 variant of SARS-CoV-2, first seen in South Africa in December, was identified through genomic sequencing at the UW Medicine Virology Laboratory. It has been found in 10 states in the U.S.

The B.1.1.7 strain, which was first identified in the UK, seems to spread more easily and quickly than other variants and was first found a month ago in Washington state.

The appearance of the variants in Washington is not a surprise, Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County, said at a news briefing Tuesday.

The virus will continue to evolve and not all variants are worrisome, but those that are — called “variants of concern” — include both the UK and South Africa variants, he said.

Duchin said the new strains should cause people to “double down on their efforts to prevent COVID-19 transmissions.”...

No one used the "Jaws of Life" to extricate Tiger Woods from the vehicle. Retractions are required of every media that wrongly printed that.

As a matter of fact, he was able to use his legs to get out of the car. The vehicle had airbags over every interior surface. The car saved his life and quite possibly serious injury to his legs.

The GOP are headed in the wrong direction. Embrassing Trump will be their down fall.

Trump is a liar and most Republicans don't like it. They were lied to enough all during his time in office and the antics over the election were very obvious.

February 22, 2021
by Julia Terruso, and Jonathan Lai

When Diane Tyson (click here) got her driver’s license renewed Jan. 5, a DMV clerk asked whether she wanted to make any changes to her voter registration. A lifelong Republican, Tyson once ran for local office near Reading. She decided to wait: Supporters of Donald Trump were set to descend on Washington the next day as Congress met to certify his election loss.

“I wanted to see if it would be as ugly as it turned out to be,” she said.

As upsetting as the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack was, Tyson, 68, said watching Pennsylvania congressmen vote to throw out their own state’s election results is what soured her on the GOP.

She changed her registration to independent on Jan. 7.

The government buildings in DC need to be safe for families again.

The Capitol Police and the government of Washington, DC have to have their own national security officer related to the FBI. 

New York City formed their own investigation bureau after 911. It would appear NYC also needs their own international bureau on diseases. It took a horrible toll on that city because airlines from Europe were not shut down.

The health investigators need to answer to the Health Department. The Health Department of any city has the authority needed to declare a health emergency, but, the idea of intelligence is to prevent the health emergency. Health officials will understand a report without any interpretation. Or. At least they should.

It is a worry that North Korea...

 ...is refusing shipments of food. If North Korea has complaints it should speak up so misunderstandings can be cleared up to its people’s benefit.

These shipments go to many countries because the climate crisis is destroying crops. There is no shame in this.

Congratulations to India.

After President Biden took office, China and India now have a disengagement agreement along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. 

National Security includes being more than willing to defend borders regardless of the oppositional power. That is when allies become vital. 

Well done, India.