BLACKHAWK DOWN: An American Eagle passenger jet with 64 people on board collided with an Army Blackhawk helicopter last night, sending both plunging into the Potomac River near Reagan International Airport in Washington. No survivors have been found and responders have already pulled 28 bodies from the water.

  It’s early in the investigation, but authorities say it was a preventable accident.

  The passenger jet was flying from Wichita to National Airport with 60 passengers and four crew. The helicopter with  three service members on board was on a training flight.  Surveillance video captured the moment of the collision and explosion.

 U.S. Figure Skating confirmed that several of its people were on the plane.

 The married former Russian figure skating pair, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, also were on board.

DAZED AND CONFUSED: The Trump administration yesterday withdrew its memo directing a freeze on federal grants and loans that set off fear and confusion for agencies that deal with everything from food for babies to housing assistance in what the President had said was a move to purge “woke” ideology from the government.

  Trump representatives like Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and his personal Robespierre Steven Miller on Tuesday blamed the press for causing the confusion while constituents and organizations peppered their members of Congress for explanations and information. Then a federal judge blocked the order.

  Rescinding the memo is a tacit admission by the administration that they failed to be clear about their intent and did not know the consequences of their own action. The White House however reiterated that Trump’s order about eliminating spending on such things as diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change remains in effect.

CONFIRMATION CONVERSION: Despite years of saying that vaccines are neither safe nor effective, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick to oversee healthcare in the country, yesterday told the Senate Finance Committee that he is not anti-vaccine during a session during which he confused Medicare and Medicaid.

  Under tough questions from Democratic senators, Kennedy dodged, saying he’s not against vaccines, he’s just in favor of good science. But he has spent a large part of his adult life attacking and undermining the science that has established the value and efficacy of vaccines. He has, for instance, claimed that the flu vaccine can give you the flu … it absolutely does not.

  Kennedy has at least one good foothold with the Senators in his campaign against chronic disease, obesity, and unhealthy food. He sits for another hearing today.

TRUMPUCATION: President Trump yesterday signed executive orders promoting “patriotic” education and threatening schools with loss of funding if they recognize transgender identities or teach such things such as structural racism, “white privilege” and “unconscious bias.” 

  The order on patriotic education depicts America’s founding as “unifying, inspiring and ennobling” while explaining how the United States “has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history.”

  A second order encourages federal agencies to find ways to increase use of vouchers to help pay for private education.

  The orders are in line with trends in conservative states that have restricted the teaching of race, gender, and American history while banning thousands of books.

THE JERSEY WAY: Former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez was sentenced yesterday to 11 years in federal prison for selling out his office for gold bars and cash to several businessmen and the government of Egypt.

  Menendez had always claimed innocence and even blamed his wife for stashing wads of cash in the house, but yesterday he stood before Judge Sidney Stein saying that he was a “chastened man” who had had been found guilty and forced to resign from the Senate. “Every day I’m awake is a punishment,” the 71-year-old Menendez said. “I ask you to temper your sword of justice with the mercy of a lifetime of duty,” he added.

  Stein gave Menendez less than the 15 years asked by prosecutors. The judge said; “You stood at the apex of our political system. Somewhere along the way — I don’t know where it was — you lost your way,” he added. “Working for the public good became working for your good.”

ECON 101: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady yesterday, taking a pause after several cuts. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said what they are doing is putting a limiting weight on the economy while still trying to bring inflation to heel.

THE SPIN RACK: Hamas released another eight hostages. Five of them are Thai citizens. — Donald Trump says he will send as many as 30,000 criminal migrants to the military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Gitmo is already used to house migrants intercepted at sea. — Olympic runner Gabby Thomas says a group of men has been following her through airports demanding that she sign stacks of photographs and becoming hostile when she refuses. She presumes the men sell the photographs. Tennis star Coco Gauf says the same thing has been happening to her.  — The Italian ski resort Roccaraso was overrun last weekend with 10,000 tourists who arrived in 260 buses after a TikTok influencer with 1.7 million followers advertised a one-day special.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Kentucky company Big Ass Fans has been hit with a half million dollars in fines for telling the Big Ass falsehood that their industrial-sized fans clear the air of 99.9 percent of the Covid virus.

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