Viral News: Enough Covid-19 vaccine will be available for every adult American by the end of May, President Biden announced, although it will take longer to give all the shots. Biden had previously said there would be enough vaccine by the end of July.

  The advanced schedule is the result of a deal with Merck to help produce the new Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine. It will take time for Merck to gear up, but they could end up doubling availability of the Johnson & Johnson shot.

  Although Biden is still encouraging everyone to wear masks out in public, Texas is ending its mask mandate March 10^th and allowing all businesses to fully re-open. Mississippi is ending its mask mandate as well. Acting as a full-blooded Republican, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, “People and businesses don’t need the state telling them how to operate.” 

  Health authorities worry that hasty re-openings will lead to another spike in infections. Americans are still dying at a pretty good clip, 1,956 of them in the past 24 hours.

Home Grown: FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress yesterday that the Capitol insurrection was an act of  “domestic terrorism.”

  Confronting Republican claims that the Capitol insurrection included members of the left-wing Antifa and people pretending to be Trump supporters, 

Wray said that among those arrested, “We’ve got a number who self-identify with the Proud Boys or the Oathkeepers, things like that. We also have a couple of instances where we’ve already identified individuals involved in the criminal behavior who we would put in the racially motivated violent extremists who advocate for, what you would call for white supremacy.”

  Wray said, “We have not to date seen any evidence of anarchist violent extremists or people subscribing to Antifa in connection with the 6th.” 

Reverse Course: The Department of the Interior is moving quickly to undo the loosening of regulations under the Trump administration. 

  They’ve suspended oil drilling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico under an executive order imposing a freeze on new leases on all public lands and waters. The department has also frozen drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and taken the initial moves to restore two national monuments in Utah and one off the Atlantic coast that Trump dismantled. They are also restoring protections for migratory birds.

Death on the Highway: Thirteen people were killed yesterday in southern California near the border with Mexico in a collision between an SUV and a tractor-trailer filled with gravel. Authorities said the SUV with a legal capacity of seven to eight was loaded with 25 passengers believed to be immigrants. Some of the victims were thrown out of the vehicle and others died inside.  

Political Correction: The publisher of the Dr. Seuss children’s books says it will no longer print six titles because they contain either pictures or references that are no longer socially acceptable.

  Gone are “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” the first of the Dr. Seuss books, as well as “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”

  Ted Geisel, creating as Dr. Seuss, did “Mulberry Street” in 1937 when what was culturally acceptable was very different. One character described as “a Chinaman” has lines for eyes, yellow skin, a pointed hat, and a bowl of rice with chopsticks. “If I Ran the Zoo” has two African characters resembling monkeys. Once a foundation of childhood, Dr. Seuss doesn’t quite hold up anymore.

The Bulletin Board: The White House has abandoned the nomination of Neera Tanden as the director of President Biden’s budget office. Republicans didn’t like her criticism of them on social media and they weren’t going to confirm her. — The 279 Nigerian school girls kidnapped last week from a boarding school have been released. The government had negotiated with the gunmen who abducted the girls. — With protections for the gray wolf lifted by the Trump administration, hunters killed 216 of them last week in Wisconsin in the first three days of a one-week season. The quota had been set at 119 so Wisconsin ended the hunt.  

The Obit Page: Vernon Jordan, a business executive, civil rights activist, and adviser to presidents has died at age 85. He was a close adviser to former President Bill Clinton. Jordan rose to prominence as a civil rights activist as president of the National Urban League. While he was closest to Democratic presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama, he also worked with Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, and George W. Bush.

— Bunny Wailer, the last survivor of the groundbreaking reggae group The Wailers, has died at age 74. The other members were Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. The group’s 1973 album “Catch a Fire,” with songs “Concrete Jungle” and “Slave Driver” helped launch the Jamaican music to a genre heard around the world. 

Baby Boom: Actor Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria have announced they have a sixth child together, just five months after the fitness guru gave birth to their son Eduardo. He’s 62. She’s 37. Their other children range from 2 to 7.

 Where the new baby came from, they aren’t saying. Fortunately The New York Post is fixated on the Baldwins so we may find out soon.

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