Covid Nation: The Food and Drug Administration has voted to recommend that people who got the one-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine can get a booster shot two months later.

  The FDA might also consider allowing people who got the J &J shot to receive a booster of Moderna or Pfizer.

  The Washington Post reports that hospitals have found vaccine mandates for their staff to be very effective. Houston Methodist fired 150 people who refused and now 98 percent of the staff is fully vaccinated.

  The hospital’s President and CEO Marc Boom told the Post, “I can unequivocally say [it was] the best decision we ever made.” 

  This morning, new cases of Covid-19 in the US are down 23 percent over the past two weeks and deaths are down 16 percent, but nearly 1,600 Americans died of Covid just yesterday. 

Coal for Christmas: Sen. Joe Manchin from the coal rich  state of west Virginia is forcing President Biden to drop from his climate agenda a program to replace coal and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy. Manchin is stiffly opposed to the clean energy program, protecting an industry in his state while preventing the country from moving forward and slowing climate change.

  The White House is left to cobble together a mix of other policies that would cut emissions but not nearly as effectively.

  A spokeswoman for Manchin told The NY Times, “Senator Manchin has clearly expressed his concerns about using taxpayer dollars to pay private companies to do things they’re already doing. He continues to support efforts to combat climate change while protecting American energy independence and ensuring our energy reliability.”

Pleading Out: Nikolas Cruz, who’s accused of shooting and killing 14 fellow students and three faculty members at his high school in Parkland, Florida, is prepared to plead guilty, according to his lawyers.  

  The rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School happened on February 14th, 2018. Cruz was 19 at the time with a history of mental health problems. He was armed with an assault rifle he bought legally.

  After pleading guilty, Cruz would still have to face a jury empaneled to decide whether he gets life in prison or death. Pleading guilty is his best shot at getting life.

Officer Friendly: A 50-year-old US Capitol Police officer has been indicted for obstruction for encouraging a capitol rioter to take down incriminating online posts. Officer Michael Riley wrote, “im a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance,” according to the indictment. “Take down the part about being in the building they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to charged. Just looking out!”

  Evidently Riley is not a cop with the smarts to know that the FBI has been keeping its eye on the rioters.

  In mid-January Riley wrote, “Get off of social media.” According to the indictment he told the person, “Theyre arresting dozens of people aday. Everyone that was in the building, engaged in violent acts, or destruction of property…and theyre all being charged federally with felonies.” 

  Riley has been with the Capitol Police for 25 years.

The Spin Rack: The Justice Department plans to ask the Supreme Court to block the new Texas abortion law that basically bans the procedure. — David Amess, 69, a long-serving Conservative member of Britain’s House of Commons, was stabbed to death as he met with constituents  in Leigh-On-Sea. A 25-year-old man was arrested in the second such fatal attack on an MP in five years and the killing has been declared an act of terrorism.  — Former President Bill Clinton was still in a California hospital yesterday getting antibiotics for a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream.  — Waitresses at Hooters restaurants are unhappy about the new uniform “shorts” that are so small they look like underpants. The outfits were always revealing, but one Hooters employee said in a TikTok post, “Love my job but don’t love wearing undies to work.”  Then again, she did take a job with an employer called “Hooters.”

Laugh Riot: The uproar continues at Netflix over the release of Dave Chapelle’s special The Closer  in which he tells blunt jokes about gays and transexuals.

  Hannah Gadsby, whose 2017 Netflix special, “Nanette” won an Emmy and a Peabody Award, publicly upbraided the Netflix management for featuring the Chapelle monologue. At the same time, Netflix fired a transgender employee who had been organizing a walkout and leaked internal documents to a reporter.

   Ted Sarandos, a Netflix executive, wrote a note to employees saying he didn’t believe Chappelle’s special could lead to violence against transgender people, writing that he had the “strong belief that content on-screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”

  We’ll say this again, The Closer is rough and crude but not hateful. Chapelle is an equal opportunity insulter, but ultimately he conveys a message of love and understanding that a lot of people are too riled up to hear.

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