FL Schools Reopened Without Becoming COVID Super-spreaders . . . As school districts around the U.S. continue to grapple with whether to reopen classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, data shows Florida started in-person learning without turning schools into superspreaders. The state was one of the earliest to resume in-person instruction in August, following an executive order by Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran that directed districts to provide families the option of classroom learning five days a week or risk losing funding. The mandate triggered outcry among some teachers and parents who considered it risky. In the seven months since, Florida schools have avoided major outbreaks of Covid-19 and maintained case rates lower than those in the wider community.  Wall Street Journal

 

 

 

Border crossings to be highest in 20 years. But it’s not a crisis! . . . It’s a humanitarian catastrophe. But not a crisis. You understand. “We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday morning. “There is understandably a great deal of attention currently focused on the southwest border,” Mayorkas said. “The situation at the southwest border is difficult. We are working around the clock to manage it, and we will continue to do so. That is our job. We are making progress, and we are executing on our plan.” White House Dossier

Trump blames Biden for border crisis . . . Former President Trump on Tuesday blamed his successor for the burgeoning crisis at the southern border, saying previous progress has been "eroded" under President Biden. In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump argued that his working relationship with Mexico and the partially constructed border wall had acted as deterrents for migrants while he was in office. “We did a lot of things, and all of that is now eroded,” Trump said. “Today, they’re coming in from all foreign countries. ... They’re dropping them off, and they’re coming into our country, and it’s a disgrace. They’re going to destroy our country if they don’t do something about it.” The Hill

Biden, Democrats want to gut filibuster by forcing senators to talk for days . . .  The Democrats don’t want to be accused of eliminating the filibuster. They just want, now that they run the Senate, to eliminate it while pretending to do something positive.

So they’re talking about the old days, when a senator had to stand and talk for hours, days, whatever. It sounds quaint, this move is an exercise in raw power. They just want to get their bills passed with 50 votes instead of the 60 that have long been needed to invoke “cloture” and proceed to a majority vote. Biden offered this “idea” during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. "I don’t think that you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days,” Biden said. “You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking.” White House Dossier

Republicans on Biden’s Covid bill: We bungled this one . . . As President Biden embarks on an ambitious plan to sell his massive coronavirus relief package to the public, conservatives are starting to ask: Did we botch this? The overwhelming sentiment within the Republican Party is that voters will turn on the $1.9 trillion bill over time. But that wait-and-see approach has baffled some GOP luminaries and Trump World figures who expected Republicans to seize their first opportunity to cast newly-in-charge Democrats as out of control. Instead, they fear the party did little to dent Biden’s major victory — a victory that could embolden the administration in forthcoming legislative fights and even the lead up to the midterm elections. "The lack of response to this bill in an organized messaging and aggressive media push back is shown by the fact that Democrats have now gone from $2 trillion to a $4 trillion infrastructure package. If Covid relief was that easy, why not just run the table?” said former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Politico

 

Putin likely directed 2020 US election meddling, US intelligence finds . . . Russian President Vladimir Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, according to an American intelligence report released on Tuesday that sources said would likely trigger U.S. sanctions on Moscow. The 15-page report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, added heft to longstanding allegations that some of Trump’s top lieutenants were playing into Moscow’s hands by amplifying claims made against then-candidate Joe Biden by Russian-linked Ukrainian figures in the run-up to the November 3 election. It also added new findings that Putin either oversaw or at least approved of the election meddling to benefit Trump. Reuters

This "Intelligence Community Assessment" (ICA) was prepared by 6 and coordinated with an additional one out of the 18 IC agencies. A critical US Intelligence Community component, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) did not sign off on this declassified ICA. Russia's covert influence operations, involving election sabotage are run primarily by its military intelligence, the GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye). My former agency, the DIA - which is the leading agency of the entire US military intelligence apparatus - has the primary responsibility for and expertise within the IC for the GRU. The fact that DIA did not participate in the drafting or even coordination of this ICA calls into doubt credibility of the assessments contained in this document. The IC's competence to assess foreign leaders' intent is very limited, due to the analysts' propensity for mirror-imaging and cognitive biases. Sounds like potentially another "Trump-Russia collusion" hoax.

 

China-Backed Confucius Institute Rebrands to Avoid Feds' Scrutiny . . . The China-backed Confucius Institute is rebranding to avoid public scrutiny into its work disseminating propaganda to thousands of American students.  US government oversight and faculty pushback have curtailed the influence of the Confucius Institute, which has dwindled from 103 college branches in 2017 to just 51 today. But the propaganda program is not going away without a fight. Experts say that after host institutions shutter Confucius Institutes, some of the programs continue to operate by adopting new names. The rebranding has allowed the Beijing-backed influence program to continue to shape the education of students from kindergartners to college students. Washington Free Beacon

Pfizer sees ‘opportunity’ to hike price for COVID-19 vaccine, CFO says . . . Pfizer is looking to turn its lucrative coronavirus vaccine into an even bigger cash cow. The drugmaker sees a “significant opportunity” to charge more for the groundbreaking shot once it gets to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, one top executive says. Pfizer set the current prices for the vaccine it developed with its German partner, BioNTech, based on the need for governments to secure doses and get the virus under control, according to chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio.

For instance, Pfizer is charging the US government $19.50 per dose — well below the $150 or $175 per dose it typically pulls in for a vaccine, D’Amelio said on the company’s February earnings call. New York Post

 

US airports have over $115B in infrastructure needs, report finds . . . U.S. airports need $115.4 billion in infrastructure investments over the next five years to address critical needs, an industry trade group found in a report released on Wednesday.
The Airports Council International – North America found that these investments are needed to improve the air passenger experience, increase convenience, enhance security, expand competition and ultimately lower prices for travelers. The report was released as President Biden and congressional leaders are crafting a sweeping infrastructure package and debating how to pay for the spending, which includes conversations about a tax hike. The Hill

 

Three Books of ‘Poison’ on Navy’s Reading List for Sailors . . . Two members of Congress are asking the Navy to pull three books promoting identity politics and wokeness from its official reading list. The books teach young sailors that they’re being asked to fight and possibly die for “a systemically racist country,” the lawmakers say. The books—“How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi; “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander; and “Sexual Minorities and Politics” by Jason Pierceson—are listed as part of the Chief of Naval Operations Professional Reading Program. All Navy personnel pledge to defend the Constitution, yet these books portray America as fundamentally bigoted. Daily Signal

Amazon Won’t Let You Read My Book. Op-Ed by Ryan T. Anderson, Author of 'When Harry Became Sally'' . . . “Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time,” President Biden tweeted in January 2020. We might want to talk about that. What’s causing the surge in the number of girls seeking sex-reassignment procedures in the past decade? Might we want to find that out before we rush to conclude that puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormone therapies—and even double mastectomies for 13-year-olds—are a human right? The sad reality is that very little is known about the causes of gender dysphoria, yet powerful institutions are promoting radical experimental therapies for children. We need to respect the dignity of people who identify as transgender while also doing everything possible to protect young people and foster their healthy development. This will require a better conversation about gender-identity issues, and that’s why I wrote my book. No good comes from shutting down a debate about important matters on which reasonable people disagree. “When Harry Became Sally” addresses the scientific, medical, political and philosophical issues at the heart of our national debate on transgender issues. We should have that debate, and Amazon shouldn’t get in the way. Wall Street Journal