China Syndrome: A second Chinese spy balloon has been detected flying over Latin America as the US tracks the first floating over this country.

 China claims that its giant balloon is nothing more than a weather instrument strayed off course and this incident is “completely an accident.”  But the US says it’s an “intelligence-gathering balloon” and Secretary of State Antony Blinken consequently postponed his scheduled trip to Beijing.

  The US could easily shoot down the balloon, something China probably would have done if the situation were reversed. The Pentagon has moved F-22 Raptor stealth fighters into position.

  US officials say the balloon has limited intelligence capability, but the incident is aggravating already strained relations with China. Millions of Americans and quite a few television hosts are asking why it has not been shot down. In a comment suggesting the Biden administration is weak, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted, “The Department of Defense would like to know the Balloon’s pronouns.”

  Former network news correspondent Jeff Greenfield tweeted, “With the second Chinese spy balloon, their intention is clear: they are planning to infiltrate the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

  Blinken is reported yesterday to have told China’s top foreign policy official that the balloon is an “unacceptable” violation US sovereignty. Beijing expressed regret and said what it claims is a civilian research balloon has limited steering capability and had “deviated far from its planned course.”

  The balloon is visible from the ground. It crossed Montana, where about 150 international ballistic missiles are based, then travelled southeast over  Nebraska and Kansas before being spotted over Missouri. It’s floating at about 60,000 feet, far above air traffic, and could leave US air space this weekend. 

Econ 101: Employers added an unexpected 517,000 new jobs in January, proof that it’s still a hot economy even while the Federal Reserve is trying to cool inflation with interest rate hikes. Job growth was 260,000 in December.

 The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.4 percent, the lowest since 1969.

  Wage growth slowed slightly to 0.3 percent for the month, but inflation is still running at 7.6 percent, making it hard for workers to keep up with rising prices.

  The Federal Reserve takes its cues from inflation. With incremental hikes, the Fed has brought its interest rate from nearly zero a year ago to 4.5 percent and more increases are likely.

Monkey Business: Authorities in Dallas have recovered two stolen rare emperor tamarin monkeys and arrested a 24-year-old man for the theft. The monkeys were found in an abandoned house and the suspect, Davion Irvin, was identified through security pictures.

  Dallas Police on Thursday got a tip that Irvin was seen at the Dallas World Aquarium near animal exhibits. He is also being investigated in the break-in that freed  a rare clouded leopard that was later recovered.

Office Space: Major corporate offices have returned to about 50 percent occupancy since the pandemic, and researchers say that might be the new normal.

  An operation called Kastle Systems says that last week office occupancy in the country’s top 10 metro areas edged up to 50.4 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Office workers who went remote during the pandemic got to like it. Some have been allowed to keep working from home, and others are taking advantage of the tight labor market to refuse going back to the office.

  Some big companies, General Motors, Starbucks, and Disney among them, have told employees they must come back to the office, at least part time. Disney’s people have to be in the office four days a week by March. 

Cold Snap: It’s chilly in the East; 4 in New York City, minus 6 in Hartford, Connecticut, and minus 15 in Concord, NH. It’s 6 below where we write in the Hudson Valley. 

The Obit Page: Paco Rabanne, the Spanish clothing designer for the space age who in the 1960s made dresses out of metal discs and plastics has died at age 88. Rabanne made the costumes for Jane Fonda in the sci-fi film “Barbarella. He said he preferred pliers over needles for making clothing.

  He also developed a line of scents.

  Rabanne was a figure for the space as well as being a space head. He believed he had seen God three times, that he had been visited by aliens, and that in one previous life he was a prostitute during the reign of Louis XV and that in another life he murdered Tutankhamen. 

The Spin Rack: A 6^th Memphis police officer has been fired following the incident in which 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten. Preston Hemphill used his Taser and could be heard on video saying, “I hope they stomp his ass.” — Two gang members were arrested yesterday, one of them after a gunbattle, in the January massacre of six people including a young mother and her baby at a central California home associated with a rival gang.  — Kari Lake, the former news anchor who claims she’s the elected governor of Arizona despite losing the election, is hinting at a run for senator next year. This doesn’t come as a shock. — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced plans for limiting sugar and salt in school meals while increasing the amount of whole grains eaten by more than 30 million kids every day. — Operators at 911 centers say they are getting swamped with  erroneous emergency calls from skiers wearing Apple watches. Apple has upgraded its programming to make the watches sensitive to falls and crashes. Dispatchers in ski country say they’re getting swamped with false automated notifications.  

Below the Fold: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green is outraged about the Chinese spy balloon. She tweeted, “Biden should shoot down the Chinese spy balloon immediately. President Trump would have never tolerated this.”

  She shouldn’t worry. The balloon will never float over Georgia because there’s no intelligence to be gathered in her district.

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