The Chinese Hoax: Scientists reported yesterday that Earth reached its highest temperature ever recorded, setting a record for the third year in a row. Periodic spikes in temperature can happen, scientists say, but a trend becomes alarming.

The NY Times points out in its second paragraph on the story that, “The findings come two days before the inauguration of an American president who has called global warming a Chinese plot and vowed to roll back his predecessor’s efforts to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases.”

In a Senate hearing yesterday Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt, President-elect Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, continued to cast doubt on the reality and effects of global warming.  While he said global warming is not a hoax, “The ability to measure with precision the extent of [human] impact and what to do about it are subject to continued debate and dialogue.”

Advice and Consent: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders went after Trump’s nominee for Secretary Health and Human Services, Tom Price, who said all Americans should have “access” to health care. Sanders said, “I have access to buying a $10 million home. I don’t have the money to do that.” — Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Education, hedged on the question of guns in schools and said they might be necessary in Montana, for instance, to ward off an attack by a Grizzly bear. — Scott Pruitt, who has sued and fought the Environmental Protection Agency that he has been named to lead, said he intends “to return the agency to that core mission of protecting the American people through common sense and lawful regulations.”

Goodbye for Now: In what probably really was his last presidential press conference yesterday, President Obama hinted not so subtly that he might not be a silent former president. He said he could be drawn back to politics if “I think our core values may be at stake.” He went on, “I put in that category if I saw systematic discrimination being ratified in some fashion. I put in that category explicit or functional obstacles to people being able to vote, to exercise their franchise. I’d put in that category institutional efforts to silence dissent or the press. And for me at least, I would put in that category efforts to round up kids who have grown up here and for all practical purposes are American kids, and send them someplace else, when they love this country.”

He finished, as he campaigned nine years ago, on a note of hope. “I believe in this country.  I believe in the American people.  I believe that people are more good than bad.  I believe tragic things happen, I think there’s evil in the world, but I think that at the end of the day, if we work hard, and if we’re true to those things in us that feel true and feel right, that the world gets a little better each time.”

Nation: Former President George HW Bush, 92, and his wife, Barbara, 91, have both been admitted to a Houston hospital; he’s in intensive care with pneumonia. The 41^st president was first admitted over the weekend with difficulty breathing.  Mrs. Bush was admitted as a precaution complaining of fatigue and coughing. — Virginia executed Ricky Gray, who confessed to killing a family of four in a 2006 home invasion.

World: As many as 30 people are trapped or missing today after an avalanche buried a mountainside hotel at a central Italy ski resort. Some of those trapped have been sending out text messages. The slide was triggered by a series of earthquakes.

On the Bench: Retired baseball stars Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, who reached greatness with chemical assistance, were denied entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame for the 5^th year in a row. But for the first time Clemens, a pitcher, and Bonds, the career leader in home runs who played left field bulked on juice, both received more than 50 percent of the vote. They have five more years of eligibility for the Hall.

The Obit Page: Nicky “Little Nicky” Scarfo, an old school mobster who once ruled the rackets in Philadelphia and South Jersey leaving a trail of bodies, has died in prison at age 87. Scarfo siphoned money from the Atlantic City casinos. He was serving 55 years for racketeering that included selling drugs, loan sharking, extortion, gambling, and the murder of nine people. “Little Nicky” was 5-5 and 135 pounds, hence the moniker. We wouldn’t have included his obituary if he didn’t have one of those Mafia nicknames.

Tiny Hands: Singer Fiona Apple has written a protest chant for the women’s march in Washington this Saturday: “We don’t want your tiny hands/anywhere near our underpants.”

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