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Monday's Mini-Report, 8.23.21

Today's edition of quick hits.

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Today's edition of quick hits:

* The unvaccinated are running out of excuses: "The Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's two-dose vaccine Monday for people ages 16 and up, making it the first Covid-19 vaccine to pass this final regulatory hurdle."

* The pace of the evacuations is amazing, but not all of the news out of Kabul is good: "A deadly firefight brought renewed chaos on Monday to the Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans were waiting to flee the country as the Taliban faced down a nascent resistance movement in the north."

* The latest out of Tennessee: "At least 21 people were dead and 40 others were missing after heavy rain and torrential floods overwhelmed parts of Tennessee, damaging homes, toppling trees and upending cars, officials said. Twenty of the deaths were in Waverly, a small city about 75 miles west of Nashville, said Grant Gillespie, chief of the city's public safety department."

* A recipe for an indefinite pandemic: "Across the U.S., religious figures, doctors, public officials and other community leaders are trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 precautions. While proponents of these workarounds say they are looking out for children's health and parents' rights, others say such stratagems are dishonest and irresponsible and could undermine efforts to beat back the highly contagious delta variant."

* It's not just Mississippi: "The head of the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information on Monday advised Oklahomans to avoid self-medicating with drugs intended to deworm livestock in an attempt to prevent or treat COVID-19 in human beings."

* Keep an eye on this one: "A former associate of Rudolph Giuliani is expected to plead guilty in a U.S. campaign finance case, potentially increasing legal pressure on the onetime lawyer for former U.S. President Donald Trump. A 'change of plea' hearing for Igor Fruman, which normally signals a forthcoming guilty plea, is scheduled for Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, court records on Monday showed."

* Bullying in Tallahassee: "Twitter suspended the account of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary for violating rules on 'abusive behavior' after The Associated Press said her conduct led to a reporter receiving threats and other online abuse. The DeSantis aide, Christina Pushaw, saw her account locked for 12 hours, a Twitter spokeswoman said."

* Important research: "The cutoff of federal unemployment benefits in much of the country was meant to bring a flood of workers back to the job market. So far, that flood looks more like a trickle."

* So much avoidable suffering: "A conservative talk radio host who had been a vaccine skeptic until he was hospitalized from Covid-19 has died. He was 61. Nashville radio station SuperTalk 99.7 WTN confirmed Phil Valentine's death in a tweet Saturday."

See you tomorrow.