The Presidential President: Joe Biden, in his first national address as President, last night directed all the states to make a coronavirus vaccine available to every adult who wants one by May 1^st.

  He said Americans may be able to “mark our independence from this virus” by the Fourth of July. It’s ambitious. As of this morning, less that 20 percent of the population has been vaccinated.

  The President said, “If we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th there’s a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.”

  He was somber and brief. “We all lost something — a collective suffering, a collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life,” Biden said. “In the loss, we saw how much there was to gain. An appreciation, respect and gratitude.”

  A year ago Donald Trump promised that “the risk is very, very low” for the virus that brought pandemic to the world. Since then 530,826 Americans have died, and more than 26 million around the world.

  In a touching moment, Biden said, “I carry a card in my pocket with the number of Americans who have died from COVID to date.” Noting the number from yesterday morning he said, “That’s more deaths than in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam war and 9/11 combined. They were husbands, wives, sons, and daughters, grandparents, friends, neighbors, young and old.”

Back to School: Hours after signing the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill, Biden in his televised address also promised to “accelerate a massive effort to reopen our schools safely.”

  The stimulus bill includes $130 billion for schools. “The only way to get our lives back, to get our economy back on track, is to beat the virus,” he said, acknowledging that many people cannot return to work until their children are back in school.

Tick, Tick, Tick: Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who’s serving time in home confinement, was called for a seventh interview with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, a bad sign for #45.

  John Dean, who was White House counsel for disgraced President Richard Nixon, and instrumental in the Watergate investigation, tweeted, “From personal experience as a key witness I assure you that you do not visit a prosecutor’s office 7 times if they are not planning to indict those about whom you have knowledge. It is only a matter of how many days until DA Vance indicts Donald & Co.”

The Spin Rack: Prosecutors in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin succeeded in adding the charge of third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, increasing their chances of winning a conviction. — The New York State assembly has initiated an impeachment inquiry into Gov. Andrew Cuomo after six women have complained that he sexually harassed them. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott sent a letter to all the state governors asking them to reject federal bailout money because “politicians in Congress should quit recklessly spending other people’s money.” He accepted $6 billion in federal money last year and still has a $2 billion budget shortfall.

Missing Man Formation: All the living former presidents, except Donald Trump, are included in a television add urging Americans to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. Trump doesn’t participate in what’s kown as the “Former Presidents Club.” The plan for the spot was hatched among the presidents on inauguration day. Trump wasn’t there and expressed no interest in being part of the public service announcement.

The Obit Page: Lou Ottens, who led the development of the audio cassette for Phillips Electronics, making recorded music portable  and accidentally becoming the father of the mixtape, has died at age 94.

  As the story goes, Ottens was at home one night listening to music on a reel to reel tape when it came loose and unspooled. He went into his office the next day and told his team they had to invent a tape in a sealed container that would fit in a pocket.

  Probably millions of Spotify users who can make lists of songs don’t know they were preceded by people who transferred music from their vinyl record players to cassette tapes song by song by song.

  Ottens also contributed to the development of the compact disc, which killed the cassette tape. 

Do Not Erase: An artwork that exists only as a computer .JPG file by Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, yesterday sold for an auction record beating actual paintings by greats like JMW Turner, Georges Seurat, and Francisco Goya.

  The Beeple piece called “Everydays — The First 5000 Days” is a collage of digital images he has posted online every day since 2007. Bidding in the two-week Beeple sale began at $100 and the digital gavel came down at $69.3 million.

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