Son of Virus: The first case of a coronavirus variant  found in Brazil has been identified in Minnesota, putting added pressure on the effort to get Americans vaccinated.

  The more the virus spreads, the more likely it is to mutate, possibly defeating vaccines that are now in short supply. New Jersey closed two giant vaccination sites, Northern Virginia is having trouble, and New York City closed a dozen vaccine hubs while delaying opening 24-hour sites at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. 

  White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday, “We acknowledge that there is some confusion.” She said the confusion “Speaks to a larger problem, which is, what we’re inheriting from the prior administration, which is much worse than we could have imagined.” 

  Pushing toward a minimum of 100 million vaccinations in in his first 100 days, President Biden said he’s hopeful that by spring anyone who needs a vaccine will be able to get one.

  More that 21,000 Americans have died of the virus just since inauguration day.

Game Two: Members of the House of Representatives delivered the second impeachment of Donald Trump to the Senate last night.

  The trial doesn’t start for two weeks, but already Republicans are dodging. The NY Times reports that 16 of 50 Republicans are undecided and seven had no response. Those objecting to the trial are relying on questions of process and national unity rather than Trump’s innocence. 

  “Why are we doing this?” said Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin. “I can’t think of something more divisive and unhealing than doing an impeachment trial when the president is already gone. It’s just vindictive. It’s ridiculous.”

Power Play: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell lost the majority but so far, not the power that goes with it.

  Without McConnell’s cooperation with the Democrats, most Senate committees have been frozen under Republican control and not accepting new members even though Democrats have the majority with the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. 

  Late yesterday McConnell gave up his demand for preservation of the filibuster, the method by which the minority can block the will of the majority, because he won without a guarantee from Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to promise he won’t kill the filibuster.

  Two moderate Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, said they opposed getting rid of the filibuster, thereby giving McConnell what he wanted without getting it from Schumer. 

  Going back to the early 1800s, the filibuster when debate was unlimited, Senators could talk for hours or days on end until everyone in the chamber was asleep or dead. It was used to block civil rights legislation in the 1960s but under the rules now senators don’t even need to speak into the wee hours to exercise a technical filibuster.

  Schumer bravely said on Sunday that, “Mitch McConnell will not dictate to the Senate what we should do and how we should proceed. McConnell is no longer the majority leader.”

  Maybe, but no one who has to say “I’m the boss” is really the boss.

Heavy Weather: One person was killed and as many as 30 injured when a tornado ripped through Birmingham, Alabama last night. The twister partially destroyed a hotel and tore the roof off a church.

  Much of the country west of Chicago is under a winter storm warning today. Heavy snow might turn to rain.

In the Company of Men: Leon Black, the billionaire CEO of Apollo Global management, announced that he’s stepping down after the revelation that he had paid $150 million to the late teenager-molester Jeffrey Epstein. Black had effectively kept Epstein financially afloat after his 2008 guilty plea to a Florida prostitution charge involving a teenage girl.

  Apollo manages $433 billion for its investors. In recent months, Apollo investors questioned the financial ties between Black and Epstein, who committed suicide in jail in 2019.

  Little known outside the financial world, Black is not a guy who made his money as a boy saving quarters from his newspaper route. He was the right hand man to Michael Milkin, the “Junk Bond King,” who was convicted of securities fraud. Milkin, Black, and others in their company paid themselves enormous bonuses before declaring their firm bankrupt, giving Black the seed money for Apollo.

Ordering Up: In his continuing campaign to undo the Trump administration, President Biden signed an order yesterday allowing transgender people to serve in the military. Until Trump banned them, there were an estimated more than 15,000 transgender people serving in the military.

  Biden has already signed at least 30 executive orders. He also is expected today to order federal agencies to determine what should be the extent of a ban on new oil and gas leasing on federal land. It’s part of his fight against climate change.

  He’s also expected to direct the government to conserve 30 percent of all federal land and water by 2030, create a task force for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and issue a memorandum ranking climate change as a national security priority. 

The Bulletin Board: Janet Yellin, former chair of the Federal Reserve, has been confirmed as the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. — Twitter has barred Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, a friend of Donald Trump’s who has promoted the former president’s election conspiracy theories. — For the first time in 37 years, Budweiser beer will not be sponsoring the Super Bowl. No ads with Clydesdale horses. Anheuser-Busch says it will donate it’s ad budget to a campaign fighting the coronavirus.

Comeback Kid: Former President Trump is gone but not forgotten to himself. 

Trump yesterday announced the opening of “The Office of the Former President,” which will “carry on the agenda of the Trump administration through activism, organizing, and public activism.”

  He must have been sleeping on one of Mike Lindell’s pillows. 

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