January 28, 2023

Saturday,January 28, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

To read an article included in this Roundup, click on its blue title. It is hyperlinked so you can read the whole article. Please feel free to share and invite others to subscribe.

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Joe is always busy.

Incoming Presidential Chief of Staff, Jeff Zients (rhymes with CLIENTS) left. Outgoing Presidential Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, right.

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Biden confirms Jeff Zients as new Chief of Staff.

President Joe Biden has named Jeff Zients, a close confidant and his former Covid response coordinator, as his new chief of staff.

Biden in a statement on Friday lauded Zients for tackling “some of the toughest issues in government,” calling him a worthy successor to outgoing chief of staff Ron Klain who would ensure the administration runs smoothly.

“When I ran for office, I promised to make government work for the American people. That’s what Jeff does,” Biden said. “I’m confident that Jeff will continue Ron’s example of smart, steady leadership.”

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From POTUS at 11:21 am yesterday on Twitter-on the House Republicans.

“Today’s data shows my economic plan continues to make progress. Inflation continues to fall and incomes are higher than at the beginning of 2022.

House Republicans want to undo that progress by increasing taxes on families and creating chaos in the economy. I won’t let them.”

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The First Gentleman is always busy.

Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We must never forget the over six million Jewish lives lost as a result of the atrocities, and commit to fighting antisemitism and other forms of religious and racial hatred, in all forms each and every day.

U.S. second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, lays wreaths honoring Holocaust victims at the former Auschwitz site on Friday in Oswiecim, Poland.

Second gentleman Emhoff visits Auschwitz, part of a push against antisemitism.

Officials from various countries are gathering at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to remember victims and honor survivors.

Among them, for the first time, is the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is visiting Krakow, Poland and Berlin this week to promote both Holocaust awareness and the Biden administration's efforts to combat antisemitism.

His trip will include a stop at Oskar Schindler's factory, a Shabbat dinner with a local Jewish community, a meeting with Ukrainian refugees, a roundtable with interfaith leaders and visits to several museums and other historical sites.

In December, Biden created a task force with representatives from more than 20 federal agencies, dedicated to fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bias discrimination.

The group is holding weekly meetings, reviewing actions other countries have taken and working to produce and implement a national strategy, officials said.

On Thursday, Biden issued a statement remembering the Holocaust and reminding people of the hate that exists today.

"Across our country, we are seeing swastikas on cars, antisemitic banners on bridges, verbal and physical attacks against Jewish businesses and Jewish Americans – even Holocaust denialism," he said. "It's vile. It goes against everything we value as Americans. And each of us must speak out against this poison."

(Source. NPR).

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Video of attack on Paul Pelosi. You may not want to watch this. 👇

In a 911 call, Paul Pelosi tries to summon help without angering the intruder.

In the audio released on Friday, Mr. Pelosi’s voice is calm and his words carefully chosen as he tries to convey the danger he is in without angering the intruder, who would go on to brutally attack him. (Source. NY Times).

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What happened to Tyre Nichols.

5 ex-Memphis police officers are charged with murder in Tyre Nichols' death.

What happened to Tyre Nichols? What we know about the Memphis police video.

Nichols was stopped around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 7 for alleged reckless driving in Memphis. “A confrontation occurred, and the suspect fled the scene on foot,” the police report said. Police pursued the suspect, and “another confrontation occurred” while they tried to take him into custody, the report added, and Nichols was admitted to a hospital in “critical condition” after complaining of “shortness of breath.”

“The police detainment at one point became unlawful, Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy said Thursday, when explaining why the five former police officers had been charged with kidnapping.


According to his family, Nichols suffered a broken neck and went into cardiac arrest during the confrontation with police. The family released a photo of Nichols in a hospital bed, eyes swollen shut from bruising.
Family members said Nichols died in the hospital of kidney failure and cardiac arrest on Jan. 10, three days after his encounter with the officers. (Source. Washington Post).

 From POTUS at 9: 40 PM on Friday on Twitter.

“Jill and I extend our hearts to the family of Tyre Nichols – they deserve a swift, full, and transparent investigation.

Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our justice system lives up to the promise of fairness and dignity for all.”

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Here is the Video of the police attack on Tyre Nichols. You may not want to watch this. 👇

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More heat to the Senate Race in California in 2024.

How awesome is this list of Democratic candidates! Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and now, Barbara Lee.

Rep. Barbara Lee Plans To Run For Senate In 2024.

Rep. Barbara Lee told members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday that she intends to run for Senate in 2024.

The California Democrat shared her plans during a closed-door meeting of the caucus, however, she made clear she is still focused on the floods ravaging her state, according to NBC News.

According to Politico, Lee has not officially announced her plans out of respect for Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has yet to declare her candidacy for re-election. 

Lee’s remarks were said to be more of a response to her colleagues’ questions about the race, which has been making headlines this week. Asked later about her plans, Lee told Politico that she would officially announce “when it’s appropriate.” (source. Essence).

A SUCCESSFUL SENATE BID WOULD MAKE LEE THE ONLY BLACK WOMAN SENATOR SINCE VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS RESIGNED TO BECOME VP.

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Meet the new GOP Rep. The same as the rest.

Cory Mills, Republican of FL, sent grenades to all the Freshmen members of the GOP Caucus/Circus.

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Trump complained about the Mueller Russian Inquiry. His grievances proved bogus. But his own criminality became clearer.

How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled.

WASHINGTON — It became a regular litany of grievances from President Donald J. Trump and his supporters: The investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt, they maintained, that had been opened without any solid basis, went on too long and found no proof of collusion.

Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office.

But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.

Moreover, a monthslong review by The New York Times found that the main thrust of the Durham inquiry was marked by some of the very same flaws — including a strained justification for opening it and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would never be charged in court — that Trump allies claim characterized the Russia investigation.

Interviews by The Times with more than a dozen current and former officials have revealed an array of previously unreported episodes that show how the Durham inquiry became roiled by internal dissent and ethical disputes as it went unsuccessfully down one path after another even as Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr promoted a misleading narrative of its progress.

Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Mr. Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Mr. Durham brought no charges over it. (NY Times).

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This happened in Florida. The federal government intervened.

S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe speaks at a news conference in Miami on Wednesday about a network of nursing school operators, centered in South Florida, who allowed students to buy diplomas without the proper training.

A fake nursing diploma scheme brings 25 arrests in Florida.

MIAMI — Federal authorities in Florida have charged 25 people with participating in a wire fraud scheme that created an illegal shortcut for aspiring nurses to get licensed and find employment.

Recently unsealed federal grand jury indictments allege the defendants took part in a scam that sold more than 7,600 fraudulent nursing degree diplomas from three Florida-based nursing schools, federal officials said during a news conference in Miami on Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors said the scheme also involved transcripts from the nursing schools for people seeking licenses and jobs as registered nurses and licensed practical/vocational nurses. The defendants each face up to 20 years in prison.

The schools involved — Siena College, Palm Beach School of Nursing and Sacred Heart International Institute — are now closed.

Some of those who purchased degrees were from South Florida's Haitian-American community, including some with legitimate LPN licenses who wanted to become registered nurses, the Miami Herald reported.

The students paid a total of $114 million for the fake degrees between 2016 and 2021, the newspaper reported. About 2,400 of the 7,600 students eventually passed their licensing exams — mainly in New York, federal officials said. Nurses certified in New York are allowed to practice in Florida and many other states.

Many of those people may lose their certification but likely won't be criminally charged, federal officials said. (NPR).

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Today’s Science Lesson. Really. A Fascinating Must Read.

A nurse enrolls a participant in an HIV vaccine trial in Masaka, Uganda, an African-led project.

Why inventing a vaccine for HIV is harder than for COVID.

Medical advances in AIDS include antiretroviral medications (ART) to suppress the virus and keep the disease under control; and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs to prevent HIV transmission if taken correctly by uninfected people who see themselves at risk. Today almost 29 million of the world's 38 million HIV-infected people have access to life-saving ART drugs, according to UNAIDS.

But access to PrEP medications has been much slower, and in 2020, 97% of the 940,000 worldwide PrEP users lived in just 30 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

And a vaccine against HIV remains frustratingly out of reach. That's in contrast to the under one year it took to develop vaccines against COVID-19 that prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death in most cases.

So, if scientists can do it so quickly for COVID-19, why can't they come up with a vaccine to prevent HIV?

A big part of the reason, says Warren, is the rate at which the AIDS virus mutates. "The world has tracked the variants of COVID," he says. Those variants include Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron and subvariants. But HIV is much more variable. "There are more variants of HIV in one person's body within days after infection than all the variants of COVID." That means that even as a vaccine is being developed to attack HIV, the virus may be mutating out of its reach.

Another factor that helped the rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine, one not seen in HIV, is that the body's immune system, on its own, helps most patients recover. Of the 663.6 million people across the globe who had confirmed cases of COVID-19, 6.7 million have died since the start of the pandemic, according to WHO. Even before vaccines were available, most people recovered from COVID-19. The vaccines have improved their odds of not being infected, or of recovering if infected. "Our current [COVID-19] vaccines teach the body's immune system to do what it does naturally, clear the virus, only faster," says Warren.

"But no one clears AIDS naturally," he says. "With HIV, we're trying to create a vaccine to do something nature doesn't do by itself." People don't get over HIV infection the way they get over the flu or even COVID-19. (source. NPR)

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A new docuseries worth watching.

Nikole Hannah-Jones retells 'The 1619 Project' amid race education pushback.

The new Hulu docuseries, “The 1619 Project,” is giving hope to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.

“There's a great deal of hope in knowing that all of the inequality we see has been constructed,” Hannah-Jones said in an interview with ABC News. “That means it's not natural. It's not innate. It doesn't have to be that way.”

The show, based on the award-winning New York Times long-form multimedia project developed by Hannah-Jones in 2019, looks at American history through the legacy of slavery and how it still impacts the country to this day, centering on the contributions of Black Americans.

The first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown, Va., in 1619, the namesake of the project: "No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed," the NYT project reads.

Hannah-Jones said she doesn't often feel hopeful about America's path toward racial justice. However, she said the series is full of hope, because she has “hope in Black people.”

(Source. ABC news).

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Finally, you earned bawdy and funny Randy Rainbow parody in song at the expense of Kevin McCarthy. 👇

https://fb.watch/ijWa24MN65/?mibextid=j8LeHn