Gas Attack: The US would have to make radical changes in energy usage to meet President Biden’s goal of cutting in half the country’s emissions of greenhouse gases to reverse climate change.

  “The signs are unmistakable, the science is undeniable and the cost of inaction keeps mounting,” Biden said in announcing his dramatic goals.

  He wants to do it in 10 years. Biden told a virtual meeting of world leaders that, “I’d like to build, I want to build a critical infrastructure to produce and deploy clean technology, both those we can harness today, and those that we’ll invent tomorrow.” 

  To get there, more than half of new cars would have to be electric. Pretty much all coal-fired power plants would need to be shut down. So much for Donald Trump’s “clean coal.” We would have to grow millions of trees while erecting four times as many wind turbines and solar panels. 

  A lot of things would have to happen for Biden to succeed, including Republican cooperation with making it happen. New buildings would need to be heated by electricity rather than natural gas. Cement, steel, and chemical industries would have to become much more energy efficient. Oil and gas producers would have to slash emissions of methane, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

  Biden said, “We know just how critically important that is, because scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade. This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.”

Viral News: With at least 200 million vaccines injected in the US, the Covid-19 crisis in this country is trending downward. But in India, the pandemic is still running wild. For two days in a row, the country’s health ministry reported record numbers of new infections, today, more than 330,000, the most recorded in any country on a single day.

  Previously the record of 300,669 was set in the United States on Jan. 8^th.

  Another woman has died after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but  Federal health officials say the number of blood clotting cases associated with the vaccine is minimal and the shot is about to be returned to use with a warning label. A committee is expected to meet today to advise on a decision. 

  South Africa has already decided to resume using J&J.

  But here in the US, the vaccination effort is beginning to hit the wall of skeptics. ABC News reports that almost 16 percent of adults might not get the shot.

 ABC says vaccine hesitancy is higher in rural parts of the country, especially in western states including Wyoming, North Dakota, and Idaho, as well as in southern states like Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia. Hesitation is also estimated to be higher where COVID-19 cases are the highest. 

The Russian Front: Russia announced that it is pulling back some of the 100,000 troops that have massed on the Ukraine border in what has looked like a threat of invasion.

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he welcomes the de-escalation, as any sane man would.

  Russia claims it’s all been a training exercise in response to “threatening actions” from NATO. Russia’s defense minister said, “The troops have demonstrated their ability to provide a credible defense for the country.” 

Recycling: Four astronauts are on their way to the International  Space Station this morning aboard a recycled capsule launched with a recycled booster rocket, the first time that’s been done. The astronauts are two Americans, one Japanese, and one French. 

Richie Rich: The Dow Jones slid 300 points yesterday on news that President Biden wants to raise capital gains taxes on people earning $1 million or more a year to pay for child care and education. Biden intends  to propose raising the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 37 percent, the level it was cut to by President Trump’s tax overhaul in 2017. 

Predators: The Idaho Senate has approved a bill to allow contracted to kill up to 90 percent of the state’s to protect cattle herds. Ranchers in the west have long claimed that their interests are endangered by wolves, which have been hunted nearly to extinction in some areas.

  “These wolves, there’s too many in the state of Idaho,” Republican State Sen. Mark Harris, before the vote. The plan calls for the state to maintain a wolf population of at least 150 wolves. The current estimate is that 1,556 wolves roam the state.

Lost: Time is running out for any potential survivors of an Indonesian submarine lost in deep water with 53 crew members on board. If the sub is still intact, oxygen will run out tomorrow. The sub missed a reporting deadline Wednesday and a diesel slick was seen in the area. The US is helping in the search.

 The Spin Rack: In a 6-3 ruling with the conservatives voting as a block, the Supreme court yesterday rejected the notion of limiting the courts from send defendants under 18 to life in prison. — The House voted yesterday for the second year in a row to grant statehood to the District of Columbia. It’s unlikely to pass the Senate. DC would get one member of Congress and two senators, all likely to end up being Democrats. — NASA successfully flew its mini-helicopter on Mars for the second time. In a flight of 59.1 second, the chopper reached a height of 16 feet, moved seven feet sideways, hovered and turned to point its color camera in several directions. They mission’s rover has also succeeded in extracting a hint of oxygen from the planet’s carbon dioxide atmosphere.

The Obit Page: Tempest Storm, one of the most famous strippers of all time who was a celebrity in the 1950s and 60s has died in Las Vegas at age 93. 

    In the mid-1950s she earned what would be nearly a $1 million a year today.

  Noted for her red hair and 40 inch bust that was reportedly insured by Llyod’s of London, she was nicknamed “Tempest in a D-Cup.” She once told an interviewer, “Everything you see is all mine.”

-30-