Electric Shock: Customers of unregulated Texas power companies who signed up for floating price plans have been socked with enormous bills in the wake of the big freeze and power outage. Some customers are paying hundreds of dollars more, some are paying thousands. One couple west of Dallas says their power bill shot up to $10,000. The NY Times profiles a retired 63-year-old Army veteran who owes $16,752. 

  The wholesale power price hit the maximum allowable $9,000 a megawatt hour for five days last week. For a household, that translates to a $9 a kilowatt-hour, compared with a normal 12 cents.

  Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said, “The bill should go to the state of Texas.” 

Viral News: The US will likely cross the line of a half million Covid-19 deaths within the next 24 hours. The toll as of this morning is 498,901.

  New cases are down 44 percent over the past two weeks and deaths are down 32 percent.

  Bit, so many people have died in the pandemic that US life expectancy dropped in the first half of 2020 by a full year, from 78.8 years to 77.8. A surge in drug overdoses also factors in.

The Unpopular Vote: Republican politicians have learned from the November election that the more people vote, the less likely it will be for a Republican to win.

  After an historically high turnout and a spike in absentee voting, as many as 165 new bills restricting, limiting, curtailing, or just making it harder to vote have been introduced in 33 state legislatures.

  According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “These proposals primarily seek to: (1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) slash voter registration opportunities; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges. These bills are an unmistakable response to the unfounded and dangerous lies about fraud that followed the 2020 election.”

  Specifically, some of the bills would limit “no excuse” absentee voting and curtail the use of permanent absentee lists. Bills in New Jersey and Arizona would make it easier for officials to remove voters from the permanent absentee list. Still others would require stiffer witnessing and signature verification requirements for absentee voting as well as voter identification.

Grounded: United Airlines grounded 24 of its Boeing 777 aircraft after the engine on one of its jets flew apart after take-off on Saturday over Denver. Jet engine parts rained down on a residential neighborhood. Some of the fan blades shattered and the rim of the engine nacelle landed in front of someone’s door. 

Burma Road: Throngs of mourners and protesters filled the streets of Myanmar’s capitol Nay Pyi Taw to honor a 20-year-old woman shot and killed while demonstrating against the military takeover of the country. Mya Thwe Khaing, a supermarket worker, had been kept on life support for 10 days before dying on Friday.

The Bulletin Board: Judge Merrick Garland, who was denied even a hearing on his nomination to the Supreme Court under the Obama administration, begins confirmation hearings today to become Attorney general. — Three people were killed and two wounded Saturday in a shooting at a gun store and firing range in Metairie, Louisiana. The shooter was among the dead. — HBO last night premiered the first of a four-part documentary about comedian and movie director Woody Allen, whose daughter Dylan with Mia Farrow accused him of molesting her back in 1992, when she was just four. It’s never been proven, but Allen left Farrow and ended up marrying her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi. — New York City yesterday closed the two ice rinks in Central Park run by Donald Trump’s organization. The city ended its relationship with Trump because of the Capitol insurrection. 

The Obit Page: Arturo Di Modica, the Sicilian sculptor who illegally installed his three and a half ton bronze sculpture “Charging Bull” outside the New York Stock Exchange in Lower Manhattan one night in 1989, died Friday at home in Vittoria, Italy. He was 80.

  “Charging Bull,” quickly became one of the most famous art works in the country and an attraction for tourists to pose for pictures. The bull was hauled away but later installed on a traffic island on the edge of the financial district. It’s still there.

Image Makeover: While his wife and kids flew home from Cancun, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was out over the weekend handing out boxes of bottled water to residents who don’t have running water at home. Message: “He cares!”

  A couple of people who also care are New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Cruz’s 2018 Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke.

  While Cruz got caught sneaking off the Cancun last week, AOC raised $4 million to help Texans and O’Rourke, $1 million.

  Cruz has been the target of uncounted internet memes from pulling his suitcase across the surface of Mars to being the only Hispanic man to seek refuge south of the border.

  His week ended with Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant playing him in a Cancun t-shirt with a frosty drink in hand. Bryant as Cruz described being “in a little bit of hot water — which I’m told no one in Texas has.”

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