Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
Capitol Police Apology, Push to Reopen Schools & GameStop Skyrockets
All the news you need in 10 min:
Today's episode is brought to you by Ritual.com/newsworthy and BlueNile.com
Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want reading about the latest happenings…
Capitol Police Leader Testifies
For the first time since the Capitol riot three weeks ago, the head of the Capitol Police Department testified before Congress. Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman apologized to lawmakers even though she was not in charge when the riot happened. The former police chief stepped down in the face of criticism. Pittman described the Capitol invasion as a “terrorist attack.” She also said her department knew there was potential the planned protests could turn violent but says her agency was simply outnumbered. Lawmakers are investigating.
Read More: NPR, Politico, NY Times
Most Republicans Reject Impeachment Trial
It’s starting to look more likely former President Trump will be acquitted in his upcoming impeachment trial. Republican Sen. Rand Paul tried to dismiss the trial, arguing it’s unconstitutional now that Trump is out of office. All but five of his Republican colleagues agreed, but Democrats argued President Trump should be held accountable for inciting the Capitol riot. The trial will go on as planned the week of February 8th. Once that’s complete, it will take 17 Republicans to join all Democrats to convict Trump.
Read More: WSJ, WaPo, AP, FOX News
Record Number of Executive Actions
President Joe Biden has now signed more executive actions in his first week than any other U.S. president. He has signed at least 37 of them so far. Some people disagree about whether that’s a good or bad thing. The president doesn’t always need to lean on Congress to get these done and Biden isn’t slowing down anytime soon. He’s expected to issue more executive actions in the next few days.
Read More: NY Post, The Economist
Biden Addresses Racial Inequality
President Biden’s latest executive actions are meant to advance racial equality in the U.S. One tells the Department of Housing and Urban Development to strengthen anti-discrimination housing policies. Another puts an end to new contracts between the federal government and private prisons. A third tells federal agencies to more closely work with tribal nations on issues that involve them. The last one is meant to prevent violence and bias against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, including better data collection and more outreach.
Read More: NY Times, WaPo, NBC News, White House
Biden-Putin Call
President Biden just had his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House said Biden wanted to bring up accusations of Russia interfering in U.S. elections, hacking U.S. government agencies, and poisoning a rival leader. The White House didn’t get into specific details about Putin’s response. The Russian government said normalizing ties between the U.S. and Russia would serve the interests of both countries and the security of the whole world. The two leaders also agreed to extend their nuclear arms treaty.
Read More: AP, USA Today, Politico, White House
CDC Urges Return to Classroom
Top CDC scientists are pressing for more schools to reopen for in-person classes. More than a year into the pandemic, about half of the nation’s students are reportedly still doing all-virtual learning. However, a new CDC report shows in-person classes typically don’t cause big COVID-19 outbreaks. That’s only if certain measures are followed, like everyone wears a mask and students spread apart. The CDC is encouraging all schools to reopen by this summer, but that decision is up to the school districts and local communities.
Read More: WSJ, NY Times, WaPo, CDC, JAMA
East Coast Internet Outages
Millions of Americans on the east coast dealt with internet outages yesterday from New York City to Boston to Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. It all started with a Verizon network failure. People reported problems with Slack, Zoom, Amazon Web Services, and Google’s Gmail, just to name a few. It looks like all the problems can be traced back to Verizon though. It looks like the service is back up and running now, but the company is still trying to figure out what caused the outage. The FCC is investigating too.
Read More: AP, Reuters, WSJ
Reddit Sparks Wall Street Trend
A surging trend is sending stocks once seen as doomed to new highs. Small-time investors have made it their mission to overcome the influence of the short-seller. That’s an investor who bets against a company, thinking it will go down. Rookie investors are collaborating on Reddit and other forums to identify stocks that have been shorted. Then, they invest in them. That causes the stock prices to surge and short-sellers to lose a ton of money. They’ve recently done this with stocks for GameStop, Bed Bath & Beyond, AMC Entertainment, and more.
Read More: Axios, Vox, CNN, CNBC
No One Elected to Baseball HOF
This year, not a single player will be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time since 1960, not even baseball legends Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, or anyone else who was considered a top contender. The issue is no one got enough votes. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America casts ballots every year and players who qualify have to get at least 75% of those votes. This year, no one did. Schilling, Bonds, and Clemens get one more chance next year.
Read More: ESPN, USA Today, MLB, Fox News
First Space Tourists Introduced
The International Space Station is set to welcome a handful of space tourists next year. Three private citizens are paying $55 million each to take a groundbreaking trip to the ISS. It will be the first fully private crew to make the journey. The three people include an American real estate investor, a Canadian investor, and a former Israeli Air Force pilot. They’re set to launch on a SpaceX rocket next January and spend eight days at the ISS before returning to Earth.
Read More: AP, The Verge, Scientific American
Work Wednesday: Pharmacy Jobs Spike
Pharmacy jobs have seen a big boom lately since workers are needed to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines. For example, CVS is hiring thousands of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Walgreens and other smaller chains are reportedly offering signing bonuses and asking laid-off or retired employees to come back to work. In total, job postings for pharmacy positions were up nearly 10% in December compared to a year earlier.
Read More: Axios, CNBC, WSJ