@kylegriffin1:President Biden confirms that, if he runs in 2024, Vice President Harris will be his running mate.

Biden’s first year: A tale of 2 presidencies

Inside the White House, there is still optimism: “President Biden was elected to a four-year term, not a one-year term.”
— (Politico) (January 20)   (Pocket)

‘The scientists, they’re learning more’: A defiant Biden defends the CDC amid mounting criticism

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Wednesday defended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amid mounting criticism of the agency’s repeated struggles to communicate basic public health guidance.
— (STAT) (January 20)   (Pocket)

Biden acknowledges setbacks to domestic agenda in rare press conference

President Joe Biden fielded questions from reporters Wednesday on everything from soaring inflation, to the stalemate on voting rights legislation and Americans' anxiety over omicron. It was his first formal press conference in 10 months. Geoff Bennett joins Judy Woodruff to discuss where the president's agenda stands and what remains to be accomplished.
— (PBS) (January 19)   (Pocket)

President Biden signs memo to help improve military cybersecurity

President Biden is following his executive order on cybersecurity with more concrete action. The leader has signed a memorandum aiming to improve digital security for the Defense Department, the intelligence community and national security systems. The notice sets firmer requirements, both for schedules and for the technology needed to lock down government data.The memo lets the NSA require agencies to take "specific actions" in response to threats and security flaws, and asks the NSA to coordinate with Homeland Security on directives. Agencies will also have to identify their national security systems, report incidents and secure tools that transfer data between classified and unclassified systems. The President's move also sets timelines and guidance for implementing technologies required in the executive order, ranging from encryption to multi-factor authentication.Biden's move complements an order that was initially signed in response to critical infrastructure cyberattacks. In theory, this will tighten security at some of the most sensitive federal government institutions. As with the order, though, the memo can only accomplish so much without Congress' support. Virginia Senat...
— (Engadget) (January 19)   (Pocket)

The Biden Presidency, Year One

President Biden took the oath of office in a moment of deep crisis—the pandemic was in full swing and the Inauguration was just weeks after an unprecedented attempt to overturn the election by violence. Merely a return to normalcy would have been a tall order. But Biden was promising something more: a transformational agenda that would realign American economics and life on a scale rivalling Franklin Roosevelt’s long Presidency. Yet Biden never commanded Roosevelt’s indomitable popularity and electoral advantages. A year into the Administration, Evan Osnos takes stock of its successes, failures, and ongoing challenges, alongside four New Yorker colleagues: Susan B. Glasser on legislation, Jonathan Blitzer on immigration, Elizabeth Kolbert on climate, and John Cassidy on the economy.
— (The New Yorker) (January 18)   (Pocket)

@tribelaw:The recent undersea volcano explosion near Tonga caused a sonic boom heard as far away as Alaska and sent pressure shock waves around the planet twice, clearing the fog in Seattle, according to the National Weather Service. — (h/t) Mother Nature

The Weather Channel is coming to YouTube TV later this year

The Weather Channel will come to YouTube TV sometime in 2022. Google and Allen Media Group, the network’s owner, announced the move as part of a broader multi-year partnership that sees the media company becoming a Google Cloud client. AMG says The Weather Channel is one of several networks it plans to bring to the service in 2022 and beyond. The company also plans to work with Google on streaming apps for Android phones and tablets, as well as Google TV and Android TV devices. The exact timing of when all of that may happen Google and AMG didn’t say. Still, the deal is a significant one for the search giant. It will help it address one of the more notable gaps in its live TV offering.
— (Engadget) (January 19)   (Pocket)

Bonnaroo 2022 Lineup Announced: J. Cole, the War on Drugs, Japanese Breakfast, Tool, and More

Chvrches, the Chicks, 100 gecs, Herbie Hancock, Tierra Whack, Stevie Nicks, the Weather Station, Denzel Curry, slowthai, and others are slated for the Tennessee festival
— (Pitchfork) (January 11)   (Pocket)

The Danger of Leaving Weather Prediction to AI

Humans have tried to anticipate the climate’s turns for millennia, using early lore—“red skies at night” is an optimistic sigil for weather-weary sailors that’s actually associated with dry air and high pressure over an area—as well as observations taken from roofs, hand-drawn maps, and local rules of thumb. These guides to future weather predictions were based off years of observation and experience.
— (Wired) (January 4)   (Pocket)

Netanyahu plea talks enter crunch time

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's opposition leader and former prime minister, is negotiating a possible plea deal over the corruption charges against him, but Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit appears to be toughening his terms.Why it matters: Mandelblit leaves office on Jan. 31. Negotiations could continue beyond that point, but the next attorney general may be less interested in quickly reaching a deal.Behind the scenes: During his secret negotiations with the attorney general, Netanyahu recruited one of his political nemeses — former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak — to lobby Mandleblit in favor of a plea deal.When Barak's intervention came to light it shocked many on the political right, who had been attacking the judge for years for pulling the court in a more activist direction, and many on the left, who couldn't believe Barak would lobby in favor of Netanyahu after his attacks on the Israeli legal system.Mandelblit and Barak have both faced heavy criticism in the press and within the legal establishment over the potential deal.The state of play: According to Israeli press reports, Mandelblit has toughened his position, in part due to pressure from the prosecutors in N...
— (Axios) (January 19)   (Pocket)

The Supreme Court’s Vexing Mixed Message on Vaccine Mandates

On Thursday, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision in the case of Biden v. Missouri, allowed the Department of Health and Human Services to begin implementing a COVID-19-vaccine mandate for workers at health-care facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funds. The Justices signing on to the opinion were Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor—the Court’s liberal nub—plus Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts. The dissenters were Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas. That mandate is expected to cover some ten million workers, and, given the Omicron surge, could hardly come soon enough. (The majority opinion mentions health-care facilities where thirty-five per cent of the workers are unvaccinated.) On the same day, though, in National Federation of Independent Businesses v. the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Court stayed the implementation of a vaccine-or-test mandate, issued by OSHA, that would have covered an estimated eighty-four million people at companies with more than a hundred employees. The decision was 6–3; this time, Kavanaugh and Roberts switched sides. What, one might ask, was the difference?
— (The New Yorker) (January 14)   (Pocket)