The Long Count: The special grand jury in Georgia that examined efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election issued a report saying “one or more” unnamed witnesses before the panel committed perjury and should be indicted. 

  They also said they found “that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”

  Only five pages of the report were released — for now. Most of it is background and legal boilerplate. The released material does not reveal who or how many people the grand jury recommends for criminal charges.

  The Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, has indicated that decisions about charging people in the case are imminent. 

Aerial Anomalies: President Biden made his first detailed remarks about the unidentified floating objects shot down over North America last week, saying they were most likely connected to private companies, recreation, or research institutions. Oddly though, no one has said “Hey, you shot down my balloon!”

  Despite the cluster of incidents, “We don’t have any evidence that there have been a sudden increase of objects in the sky,” Biden said. “We are just seeing more of them partially because of the steps we have taken to narrow our radars and we have to keep adapting our approach to dealing with these challenges.”

Fox in the Fox House: Filings released in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit against Fox News reveal that major hosts and even Rupert Murdoch himself didn’t believe Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud, yet continued to propagate the lies on air.

  Dominion claims that hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and even Trump’s pal Sean Hannity texted each other that claims by Trump and his allies were nonsense, but that was not reflected in their coverage. “Fox knew,” says Dominion, which is suing for $1.6 billion in damages. “From the top down,” they said, “Fox knew ‘the dominion stuff’ was ‘total bs.’”

  The company claims Fox did it for ratings and money, not pursuit of truth. Dominion says in its depositions: “Fox witnesses have admitted in their own words they knew the allegations about Dominion were false or crazy or reckless or nuts or bs. Yet Fox continued to broad cast them. Repeatedly. Over nearly  three months.”

  In one exchange Carlson wrote to Ingraham, “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” 

 Ingraham responded: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”

  Fox counters that, “the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan.” That’s the landmark says that a successful suit for defamation or libel must include that the new organization must have acted with malice and knowing disregard for the truth.” Dominion may become one of few to clear that bar.  

Toxic: Residents of East Palestine, Ohio who returned home after that chemical train wreck say they are suffering headaches, sore throats, and skin rashes even though officials claim the area is safe. Thousands of fish in local waters and animals in the wild have died. 

  The Biden administration yesterday pledged that the disaster will be cleaned up. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said, “We are absolutely going to hold Norfolk Southern accountable. I promise you that.”

  One area farmer said he’s going to get Regan a glass of water and make him drink it.

The Obit Page: Tim McCarver, the All-Star catcher who played for four professional baseball teams and winning two World Series before becoming a fixture in baseball broadcasting, has died at age 81.

   In his playing days from 1959 to 1980, McCarver did three stints with the St. Louis Cardinals, two with the Philadelphia Phillies and one each with Montreal and Boston.

  Catchers have a view of the game that no other players have, and McCarver’s brain was inside baseball. As an analyst, McCarver had a reputation for knowing the game so well he’d explain what was about to happen before it happened. He was clever, blunt, funny, and sometimes more honest than was appreciated by the teams who employed him as an announcer. He was believed to have been fired by the Mets after 16 seasons in the booth because of his candor about his own team.

The Spin Rack: Pennsylvania’s newly elected Democratic Sen. John Fetterman is in the hospital to be treated for severe depression. Fetterman had a serious stroke last year that hampered his political campaign and made his health an issue. He said going to work in the Senate has been a difficult adjustment. — The family of wisecracking actor Bruce Willis, 67, who’s been known to have a health problem for some time, announced that he has a serious form of dementia for which there’s no cure. —  Five members of the Proud Boys militia facing charges of sedition in the January 6^th insurrection are seeking to subpoena former President Donald Trump as a witness at their trial. The defense lawyers hope Trump would convince the jury that he, not the Proud Boys, instigated the Capitol attack. — Russia has retired the last of its giant Akula class nuclear submarines, the biggest in the world that inspired the book and movie, The Hunt for Red October.

Below the Fold: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute yesterday released 80 minutes of video of the wreck of the Titanic that was taken during the 1986 Robert Ballard expedition. The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the  North Atlantic in 1912.

  The video available on YouTube shows the ship’s rust-caked bow, intact railings, a chief officer’s cabin, and a promenade window. The forward mast is collapsed. The crow’s nest and the captain’s bathtub are gone. There’s one  ghostly moment when the camera zeroes in on a chandelier, still hanging, and swaying in the current. 

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