Bargain Basement: President Biden has offered to drop his proposal for what was originally a $2 trillion infrastructure bill to just $1 trillion so long as Congress appropriates “new” money to pay for it  rather than taking it from other areas of the budget.

 The President also wants to raise new taxes to pay for his plan. But Biden indicated a willingness to drop his original request to raise the corporate tax to 28% from the 21% set in 2017 in order to win Republican support.

  He proposes to help pay for his plan by cracking down on big tax cheats, and imposing an absolute minimum tax on corporations that now pay nothing. The internet shopping giant Amazon, for instance, pays no federal income tax.

  Biden gave his numbers in a meeting with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. It is still four times what Republicans agreed to in their latest infrastructure counteroffer. 

The Intersection: The  city of Minneapolis has cleared the spontaneous memorial established in the intersection where the infamous police killing of  George Floyd took place. City workers hauled away flowers, artwork, and cement barricades. 

  Hundreds of people showed up to protest, saying the removal was disrespectful, but by then most of the memorial in what became known as George Floyd Square was gone. The city said it removed the memorial to improve traffic flow and help local business. They said the memorial objects were going to storage.

Postage Due: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is under investigation for possible campaign finance violations made before he was appointed to office by President Trump.

  DeJoy was a big fund-raiser for Republicans and Trump. The investigation focuses on contributions made by people who worked for New Breed Logistics, the North Carolina-based company that DeJoy led before he was appointed postmaster general. The Washington Post has previously reported that DeJoy pressured employees to give money. 

  A spokesman said DeJoy has always been scrupulous in his adherence to the campaign contribution laws and has never knowingly violated them.

Unfriended: Facebook plans to announce that it will no longer automatically look the other way when politicians break the company’s hate speech rules, a major reversal in policy.

  Since the 2016 election, the company has weighed the newsworthiness of a message against its possible harm. Now the company will no longer consider newsworthiness as a factor, The Washington Post reports.

  In the cases where an exception is made, the company will disclose it publicly, the Post reports.

  This is an extension of the thinking that led to the banning of Donald Trump. The  former president has been suspended from Facebook since Jan. 6th, when the company determined that his posts helped incite the Capitol insurrection. 

Viral News: President Biden has shared plans to send 25 million doses of coronavirus vaccines overseas.

  He’s still struggling to get enough people vaccinated here at home to create national herd immunity. Today, about 63 percent of American adults have received at least one shot and the country is probably on track to hit 70 percent by July 4^th.

  Lagging behind are what we might charitably call the “stupid” states, some of which might take a year to hit 70 percent vaccinated at their current rate.

 They are: Alabama, 46% vaccinated, 1 year+ to 70 percent; Mississippi, 44%, 1 year+; Wyoming, 47%,10 months; Louisiana, 46%, 7 months; Oklahoma, 54%, 6 months; Tennessee, 49%, 6 months; North Dakota, 54%, 6 months; Missouri, 53%, 5 months, North Carolina, 54%, 5 months; Arkansas, 50%, 5 months.

The Spin Rack: The Department of Justice has arrested four more members of the Oath Keepers in connection with the January 6th Capitol insurrection, bringing to 16 the number of people accused of felonies. — The reward for information leading to an arrest in the road rage murder of a 6-year-old boy in Southern California last month has increased to $450,000. Police believe the shooter’s car was  a white 2018 or 2019 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen with non-tinted windows driven by a woman with a male passenger. — United Airlines has ordered 15 new supersonic jets that would travel New York to London in 3 ½ hours. The plane has yet to be built and probably won’t fly until 2025

The Obit Page: The celebrity lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who represented Patty Hearst, OJ Simpson, the Boston Strangler, and the Army commander of the infamous My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War, has died at age 87.

  Bailey always won notoriety, but not necessarily the case. Patty Hearst and the Boston Strangler went to prison. He did succeed in overturning the conviction of Dr. Sam Sheppard, the Ohio osteopath whose case inspired the television series and movie “The Fugitive.” Dr. Sheppard had been convicted in 1954 of bludgeoning his wife but claimed that he had been knocked out in a fight with the killer. 

  Robert D. McFadden writes in The NY Times  that, “Mr. Bailey flew warplanes, sailed yachts, dropped out of Harvard, wrote books, touted himself on television, was profiled in countless newspapers, ran a detective agency, married four times, carried a gun, took on seemingly hopeless cases and courted trouble, once going to jail for six weeks and finally being disbarred.”

Allergic Reaction: With the 17-year population explosion in full bloom, the FDA has warned that if you are allergic to seafood, you shouldn’t eat cicadas. Otherwise, have at it. 

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