BLOOD SIMPLE: Investigators in Arizona confirm that the doorbell camera on the home of Nancy Guthrie was disabled and that drops of blood at her doorstep were hers. They still have no suspects in the kidnapping of the 84-year-old mother of NBC News host Savannah Guthrie.

  The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery.

  Savannah’s brother, Camron, said in a social media video that the family has not heard from the kidnapper. “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,” he said. “We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.”

  Harvey Levin, the founder of the tabloid news outlet TMZ, told CNN he had received a ransom note assuring that the elder Guthrie is alright and demanding a huge payoff in Bitcoin. Levin also said there were indications in the note that the abductor came from the Tucson area.

  Levin said there was a deadline in the note that passed at 5pm Mountain Time yesterday and a “more concerning” deadline on Monday.

YOU’RE FIREABLE: The Trump administration has created a new policy redefining about 50,000 federal job positions as policy-making, stripping them from protections and making people in those jobs fireable. Until now only about 4,000 federal jobs have been under control of the White House. 

  Also because of the change, any whistle-blower complaints by those employees would now be handled inside their agencies rather than by the independent Office of Special Counsel.

  The 255-page rule did not say exactly which positions it covers. It is part of the Trump effort to shrink and kill sectors of the government. In the first year of this term, 352,000 federal employees have left through mass firings, layoffs, pressured resignations, and early retirement.

DIGEST THIS: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted yesterday that the so-call “keto diet” high in fats and low in carbohydrates could cure schizophrenia. His claim is not backed by thorough science but Kennedy often clings to threads of it.

  Kennedy cited the work of a Harvard doctor who had two patients who went into remission from schizophrenia after changing their diet. Travelling in Tennessee on his campaign to get Americans to eat healthier, Kennedy said, “We now know that the things that you eat are driving mental illness in this country.” Speaking to a crowd at the state capitol, Kennedy said, “There are studies right now that I saw two days ago where people lose their bipolar diagnosis by changing their diet.”

  Recognizing that schizophrenia has some roots in inflammation, Dr. Christopher Palmer at Harvard back in 2019 wrote that diet change was a “promising therapeutic approach.”

DR. STRANGELOVE: The US and Russia today are without a nuclear arms deal after a 15-year agreement expired yesterday.

   The nuclear agreement signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limited each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. Russia had said it wanted to extend the existing deal but President Donald Trump says he wants an entirely new agreement.

  “Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network.

FIVE RINGS: The Olympic opening ceremonies are in Italy today but the games have already begun. The US women’s hockey team beat the Czech Republic 5-1, and curling and mountain events are under way.

  The 25^th winter Olympics will be an event spread over much of northern Italy with eight separate locations at venues hundreds of miles apart. So much for the athletes getting to know each other in a single Olympic village. One reason is that the Olympic Committee has pushed for financial moderation and using existing facilities after the wildly extravagant $40 billion Beijing games.

  But The NY Times notes that, “the ‘best route’ from the curling and bobsled events in Cortina, in the Dolomite mountains of northeastern Italy, to the snowboard competitions in Livigno,” is walking between transport points and taking public transportation for a total journey of 18 hours and 6 minutes.

THE REGIME: The Trump administration has launched its “Trump Rx” website for discounted drugs. “You’re going to save a fortune,” President Trump said at the site’s unveiling. “And this is also so good for overall health care.”

THE SPIN RACK:  In a landmark liability case, the rideshare company Uber was ordered to pay $8.5 million to a woman passenger who was raped by her driver.  Uber has more than 3,000 pending sexual assault and misconduct lawsuits that accuse the company of safety failures. Jaylynn Dean, the victim awarded the judgement, said on the witness stand, “I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to other women.” — Iran repairing several ballistic missile facilities damaged in strikes last year, The NY Times reports. Representatives of the US and Iran are expected to meet in Oman today in an attempt to stave off further conflict with the US and Israel. — Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the outspoken, influential and affable man who has been the face and voice of the Catholic Church in America, steps down today having hit the mandatory retirement age of 75. He’s being replaced by Bishop Ronald Hicks. 

BELOW THE FOLD:  President Trump delivered a rambling speech at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel said, “Since Trump retook office, for a lot of us, every breakfast is a prayer breakfast, but this was the official one.”

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