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Friday's Mini-Report, 1.29.21

Today's edition of quick hits.

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Today's edition of quick hits:

* Vaccine news: "A single shot of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine is effective at keeping people out of the hospital and dying from the illness, the company reported Friday. Johnson & Johnson, which made the vaccine in partnership with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, is poised to ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization as early as next week."

* The bomber is still at large: "The FBI disclosed Friday that investigators believe two pipe bombs discovered near the U.S. Capitol were planted the night before the Jan. 6 siege.... The bombs were placed outside the headquarters of both the Republican and the Democratic parties a few blocks apart on Capitol Hill. Investigators said both devices appeared to be fully functional, made out of metal pipe with a common windup timer."

* Capitol Hill: "Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said Friday that she's moving her congressional office away from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's after the Georgia Republican and her staff 'berated' her in a hallway."

* They're right: "President Biden on Friday pushed Congress to act urgently on his proposed economic relief package as the White House scraps to garner bipartisan support.... Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who joined Biden for the meeting, pointed to data released a day earlier that showed 847,000 Americans filed for unemployment claims as the economic recovery lags and the pandemic worsens."

* This relates to the whole "secret science" nonsense: "A federal judge has blocked a last-minute rule issued by the Trump administration to limit what evidence the Environmental Protection Agency may consider as it regulates pollutants to protect public health."

* Walter Reed: "President Joe Biden made his first major foray outside the White House on Friday with a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to meet with wounded soldiers. Biden met with both active duty and retired service members receiving treatment at the facility, before touring the vaccine distribution center there."

* Oh my: "As the first American evacuees from Wuhan, China, touched down at a California military base a year ago, fleeing the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, they were met by U.S. health officials with no virus prevention plan or infection-control training — and who had not even been told to wear masks, according to a federal investigation. Later, those officials were told to remove protective gear when meeting with the evacuees to avoid 'bad optics,' and days after those initial encounters, departed California aboard commercial airline flights to other destinations."

* If you missed it, the New York Times had a striking report on "new scrutiny of the links between members of Congress and an array of organizations and movements that espouse far-right beliefs."

Have a safe weekend.