The Money Pit: Federal authorities stepped in over the weekend to assure depositors in the failed Silicon Valley bank that they would all have access to their money this morning. 

  They also revealed that another lender, Signature Bank, had been closed by New York regulators and that its depositors would also be able to get their money. Signature had recently made a play to get cryptocurrency deposits, a frightening thought. Regulators said keeping Signature open could threaten the stability of the entire financial system.

  A lot of bank shares are down this morning in pre-market trading. President Biden is expected to speak on the subject.

And the Oscar Goes To: In all, the futuristic film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won seven Oscars. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. She said, “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities.” 

–Best Picture: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

–Best Actor: Brendan Fraser for “The Whale”

–Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh for “Everything ..”

–Supporting Actor: Ke Huy for “Everything ..” 

–Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything ..”

  For the first time, the Red Carpet was not red. It was champagne beige. Fashion trend of the year: Dresses open to the hip bone. And The Walt Disney Company exercised its power with the show broadcast on ABC. They injected a trailer for the new “Little Mermaid” as if it were part of the proceedings. 

  The documentary “Navalny,” about the Russian political prisoner Alexei Navalny, won Best Documentary.

  And last, in the memorials to people who died in the past year, the Oscars snubbed the troubled but good actors, Robert Blake, Tom Sizemore, and Anne Heche, as if somehow Hollywood has a morals clause.

It’s Political:  Former Vice president Mike Pence delivered his harshest condemnation of Donald Trump on Saturday at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington. “President Trump was wrong,” Pence said of Trump’s incitement of the January 6^th insurrection. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

  History will have a harder time holding Trump accountable if Pence continues refusing to testify before a grand jury about what he knows from the inside about January 6^th and the days leading to it.

  But Pence told the Gridiron crowd, “Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace. And it mocks decency to portray it any other way.”

  Pence also took some humor shots at Trump. “I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible,” Pence said. “Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”

Downhill Racer: American skier Mikaela Shiffrin on Saturday set the all-time record of 87 World Cup wins, passing the record of Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark that has stood for 34 years. She won the slalom race on Saturday in Are, Sweden, her second win of the weekend.

  For an elite athlete, Shiffrin has had a career free of the pitfalls of scandal and relatively free of injury. On the hill, she pretty much never falls. Retired skier Ted Ligety told The NY Times, “The one thing Mikaela has in excess is technical skills. She doesn’t put herself in risky positions and when she makes a rare mistake she’s so good technically she escapes without a bad fall.”

  Her mother, Eileen, who has coached Mikaela since the age of 15, told the Times “She rarely skis at 100 percent of what she’s capable of doing, more like 80 percent. She’s very calculated that way and always has been.”

The War Room: Reports from the front are always unverified, but Ukraine spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun claims that his country’s forces killed 1,090 Russian troops in fight just on Saturday. He also claimed the destruction of eight Russian tanks, seven armored fighting vehicles, and four artillery systems. 

  They also claim they killed an additional 239 Russians on the frontline near Bakhmut. The Russians are still trying to take the city, but the Institute for the Study of War reports that fighters with the mercenary Wagner Group sappear to be getting bogged down in urban areas and are having trouble advancing.  

  But the Russians are still on the offensive in other areas. As they pour on the shelling, Ukrainian authorities are calling for civilians to evacuate Kupiansk, a town just miles from the front line in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine. Ukrainian troops drove Russian forces out of much of the Kharkiv region in a major counter-offensive in September, but the Russians are trying to claw their way back.

The Obit Page: Bud grant, the coach who took the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl four times with Fran Tarkenton at quarterback — and lost every time — has died at age 95. Those were the days of the famed Purple People Eaters defensive line led by the giants Alan Page and Carl Eller.

  Grant once said, “A good coach needs a patient wife, a loyal dog and a great quarterback, but not necessarily in that order.”

The Spin Rack: Black infants suffered the highest rate of sudden deaths in 2020, dying at almost three times the rate of White babies, according to a federal study. — Another “atmospheric river” is expected to hit California today, bringing still more flooding to the lowlands and feet of snow in the mountains. — Berlin authorities say women can now swim topless in the city’s pools just like men.

Below the Fold: Actor Austin Butler, who played Elvis Presley in the movie “Elvis,” is still speaking with an Elvis accent.

-30-