Post Mortem: His family spoke yesterday about how Tyre Nichols loved skateboarding and photography.

  Vice President Kamala Harris and the Rev Al Sharpton were also among the speakers as mourners marked the death of 29-year-old Nichols at the hands of Memphis cops. In a reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sharpton asked, “In the city where they slayed the dreamer, what has happened to the dream?”

  Speakers talked about how this could be the turning point for police violence, but sadly, that same speech is delivered every time this happens.

   Relatives of George Floyd, Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor, all of them victims of police violence, were in attendance. 

  Nichols’s sister, Keyana Dixon, recalled taking care of him as a child who only wanted to eat cereal and watch cartoons. “I see the world showing him love and fighting for his justice, but all I want is my baby brother back,” she said as she cried. “Even in his demise, he was still polite: He asked them to ‘Please stop.’” She said, “When those monsters murdered my baby brother, they left me completely heartbroken.”

  Possibly most touching was a poem read by a close family friend, LaToya Yizar, who read a poem she written titled with Nichols’ own word to police that night, “I’m Just Trying to Go Home.” 

Politically Corrected: In response to conservative political objections, particularly from Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, the College Board stripped down its high school Advanced Placement course in African American studies, removing topics and themes offensive to conservatives and even adding “Black conservatism” as a theme for a research project.

  Gone are authors on critical race theory, the queer experience, Black feminism, and topics like Black Lives Matter. 

  The College Board had announced the curriculum thinking it was meeting the times and it was, but in more ways than one. They ran into a buzz saw of political conservatism led by DeSantis and Florida education officials who said it was not historically accurate and would violate state law regulating how race-related issues are taught in public schools.

  This is not only a big win for educational conservatives, but for DeSantis, who is considered a potential republican candidate for president. He can point to the crumbling of the College Board as a big win.

Econ 101: In its continuing fight against inflation, the Federal reserve yesterday raised interest rates by another quarter point, its 12^th but smallest hike since March.

  The Fed in its statement suggested that rate hikes may continue in coming months. Chairman Jerome Powell said recent signs of slowing inflation were “early stage” and, “I just don’t see us cutting rates this year.”  But stock prices moved up after Powell said rate decisions will be made “meeting by meeting.”

Cold as Ice: A nasty winter storm has coated much of Texas with ice, cancelling flights, causing power outages and fatal road accidents. Cars are sliding, trees are sagging and cracking under the weight of ice, and news video shows some people skating on the street. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power.

  Parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee also have been affected.

The Shooting Gallery: A Washington transit worker was killed yesterday trying to stop a shooter on a random rampage in which several were wounded. The transit worker, Robert Cunningham, was killed before other commuters took down the gunman.   

Career End Zone: After returning from brief retirement to a disappointing season, Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady announced that he’s retiring for good this time.

  Brady played for 23 years in the NFL with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay winning seven Super Bowls. At age 45 he finished his last season as the oldest player in the league. Brady this season threw for 4,694 passing yards, the third most in the league, even while it was his worst year as a professional, finishing with an 8-9 record and a loss in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

  Brady’s retirement turnaround a year ago and his final season may have cost him his marriage to model Gisele Bündchen and he’s still not going to be home with the kids on weekends. He signed a 10-year $375 million deal to be an analyst with Fox Sports.

The Spin Rack: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will formally announce on February 15^th that she’s running for president in 2024, The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston reports. After Donald Trump, she would be only the second declared candidate. — The FBI said no secret documents were found in a search of President Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Biden’s lawyers said the search was in full cooperation with the President and his legal team. — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said yesterday he had “a good conversation” with President Biden about the debt ceiling and the budget yet it yielded “no agreements, no promises, except we will continue this conversation.” — The FBI is reported to be investigating whether the lying Congressman George Santos stole $3,000 from a GoFundMe raised for the sick dog of a homeless veteran.

Below the Fold: Keith Stonehouse in suburban Detroit let his six-year-old son Mason play with his cellphone Saturday night and it became a case of pay-to-play. About 9pm, food orders started to arrive from Grubhub and they kept coming, about $1,000 worth. Mason Stonehouse had ordered shrimp, salads, shawarma, chicken pita wraps, sandwiches, chili cheese fries, and multiple orders of ice cream. Finally his father got a fraud alert.

  The boy’s father told a reporter that, “I was trying to explain to him that this wasn’t good and he puts his hand up and stops me and says ‘Dad, did the pepperoni pizzas come yet?’”

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