There are two new blog posts:
Pandemic
Yasmeen Abutaleb, Sean Sullivan, and Eli Rosenberg, “New CDC guidelines were spurred by worries omicron surge could lead to breakdown in essential services,” Washington Post, December 29, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/28/cdc-isolation-guidelines-rationale/
Joel Achenbach and Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Coronavirus risk calculations get harder as a study suggests rapid tests may be less effective at detecting omicron,” Washington Post, December 29, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/29/covid-test-accuracy/
Quint Forgey, “‘This was the moment’: CDC defends altered guidance amid Omicron surge,” Politico, December 29, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/29/cdc-defends-new-covid-guidelines-526234
Molly Osberg, “The CDC Says We’re All Essential Workers Now,” New Republic, December 29, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/164898/cdc-ads-essential-workers-isolation
Kathleen Foody, “New COVID-19 cases in US soar to highest levels on record,” Associated Press, December 30, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-c69d1521b6411b6b78aae85d95165f5c
Hannah Sampson, “CDC warns against cruise travel after 5,000 new coronavirus cases in 2 weeks,” Washington Post, December 30, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/12/30/cdc-cruise-warning-avoid-omicron/
Amerikkka
Gregory S. Schneider, “Robert E. Lee monument, other Confederate statues could go to Richmond’s Black History Museum under deal,” Washington Post, December 30, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/30/richmond-confederate-statues-black-history-museum/
White supremacist gangs, Ed Gainey
“We’ve seen lots of change, and even trying times together, and hopefully we were able to make a positive difference over these past six years,” Hissrich said Thursday in a statement. “It has been my privilege to serve the city and help work towards a safer Pittsburgh for everyone.”[1]
Just guessing that this level of cluelessness might have something to do with why Mayor-elect Ed Gainey will not be retaining Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich.[2]
Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh public safety leader will not be part of new mayor’s administration,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 30, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-public-safety-leader-will-not-be-part-of-new-mayors-administration/
Century III Mall
Cara Sapida, “Century III Mall named to Pittsburgh’s ‘Top 10 Buildings to Save’ list,” WPXI, December 30, 2021, https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/century-iii-mall-named-top-10-buildings-save-list/TPI7BWWG7NCOTA5GMO2FDDRN6Q/
Student loans
I’ve long expected that student loans will eventually be forgiven. I don’t expect that Joe Biden will be the president who does it.
But I keep seeing stories of people who’ve actually been paying on the student loans (on income-based repayment, I’ve been paying little or nothing) for years, have in fact paid their entire principal, but still owe more than that principal. I’m not a finance guy; I don’t know how that happens. I simply see that it does and I don’t see how it works that people can do this and ever pay off their debts.
Which means that the loans themselves are scams. Being on income-based repayment, my debt will be forgiven in a little less than fifteen more years. Since the powers that be have decided that I will never be gainfully employed, they’re never going to see the money I owe, and frankly, they don’t deserve it. But when even the original loans are scams, they can’t really deserve that money either.
The question, really, is how long it takes for the powers that be to recognize that they’ve been fooling themselves and immiserating a lot of people along the way to a futile end.
Annie Nova, “Student loan payments keep getting delayed. Will the debt ever be forgiven?” CNBC, December 30, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/29/with-payments-paused-again-will-student-loan-debt-ever-be-forgiven.html
- [1]Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh public safety leader will not be part of new mayor’s administration,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 30, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-public-safety-leader-will-not-be-part-of-new-mayors-administration/↩
- [2]Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh public safety leader will not be part of new mayor’s administration,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 30, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-public-safety-leader-will-not-be-part-of-new-mayors-administration/↩