With so many crazy things happening, sometimes things fall through the cracks. Here are some headlines that you may find interesting and worth discussing.
Biden Administration:
- Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — a proposal supported by President Joe Biden — would result in the loss of 1.4 million jobs, but would bring nearly 1 million people out of poverty over the next four years, a government study released Monday found.
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that the U.S. is rejoining the United Nations Human Rights Council, reversing yet another of the Trump administration’s moves to exit multilateral organizations and pacts.
Congress:
- Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., announced Monday that he won’t seek re-election in 2022, becoming the fourth GOP senator to announce plans to retire at the end of the current Congress.
- “Today I announce that I will not seek a seventh term in the United State Senate in 2022,” said Shelby in a statement.
- Rep. Ron Wright, R-Texas, died Sunday after being hospitalized for Covid-19, his office said Monday.
- Wright had also been battling cancer.
- Congressional Democrats on Monday will unveil a proposed addition to the developing coronavirus relief package that would provide up to $3,600 per child to families over the course of the year.
- The IRS would distribute the money monthly, totaling $3,600 per child under the age of 6 and $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17, based on a tax filers’ income, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Monday previewing the plan. NBC News also obtained a draft copy of the proposal.
Impeachment:
- Get ready for the Second Impeachment trial of the Worst President Ever. News Views will feature a Live Discussion beginning Tuesday morning and will cover the event each day of the trial. Here is what to expect:
- House managers rebut Trump team’s calls to dismiss impeachment case, say evidence is ‘overwhelming’
COVID-19 Updates:
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will quarantine after a member of his security detail tested positive for the coronavirus, the Department of Transportation announced Monday.
- The rise of more contagious variants of the coronavirus are threatening an encouraging trend of falling COVID-19 cases across the country.
- New U.S. cases of COVID-19 on Sunday dropped below 100,000 for the first time since November, a hopeful sign after a brutal post-Thanksgiving period that saw cases, hospitalizations and deaths spike.
- Pandemic Morons:
Other headlines:
- A Utah School Made Black History Month Optional. Then It Reversed Itself.
- The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Monday started an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the state’s election results, including a phone call he made to Mr. Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss.
