Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest from California: “Officials said there is ‘significant fire weather ahead of us’ as high winds are expected to fuel through Wednesday. The wind-fed wildfires have killed at least 24 people and swept through 40,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area.”
* Something to keep in mind the next time the president-elect targets our neighbors: “[Canada] is sending air tankers and dozens of its own battle-tested wildland firefighters to Los Angeles, its government said. Air tankers can deliver thousands of gallons of fire retardant or water to wildland firefighters on the ground. … Mexico quickly followed, dispatching a crew of firefighters early Saturday to help the huge deployment already underway.”
* This White House really does take student loan debt relief seriously: “President Joe Biden announced Monday that his administration had approved student loan relief for more than 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number who have had their student debt cancelled under the Biden administration to over 5 million, he said in a White House release.”
* At the border: “Illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border have slowed significantly as President Biden prepares to leave office and as President-elect Donald J. Trump, who promised to crack down on immigration, is days away from retaking power. … Though overall crossings ticked up slightly in December, the daily averages were the lowest since summer 2020, according to a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official who spoke on the condition of anonymity and was not authorized to speak publicly.”
* There’s a scary chart that accompanies this report: “After years of holding steady, American vaccination rates against once-common childhood diseases have been dropping. Nationwide, the rate of kindergartners with complete records for the measles vaccine declined from around 95 percent before the pandemic to under 93 percent last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Immunization rates against polio, whooping cough and chickenpox fell similarly.”
* This is a story worth watching: “The Biden administration will hold off enforcing a requirement laid out in an executive order this month that Nippon Steel abandon its $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, the companies said on Saturday.”
* The results of an overdue investigation: “The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, in which a prosperous Black neighborhood in Oklahoma was destroyed and up to 300 people were killed, was not committed by an uncontrolled mob but was the result of ‘a coordinated, military-style attack’ by white citizens, the Justice Department said in a report released Friday.”
* I’ll be eager to see who, if anyone, pushes back against this effort: “There is no maternity leave for members of Congress. While they can take time away from the office without sacrificing their pay, they cannot vote if they are not present at the Capitol. So [Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado] has taken a lead role in a new push by a bipartisan group of younger lawmakers and new parents in Congress to change the rules to allow them to vote remotely while they take up to 12 weeks of parental leave.”
See you tomorrow.
