Good morning, CivMixers, and welcome to another day – Wednesday – with big political happenings on tap.
Things are looking good for the Democrats, and by extension, for President-elect Joe Biden, in Georgia.
The Rev. Raphael Warnock has been declared the winner in one of the state’s two runoff elections, defeating Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, (though she hasn’t yet formally conceded), becoming the first Black senator in Georgia history and putting the U.S. Senate majority within the Democrats’ reach.
Warnock, senior pastor of the church where Martin Luther King preached through the height of the Civil Rights movement until his assassination, made history with a surge in Black voter turnout.
All eyes are now on the second race, which the Democrats must also win in order to split the Senate 50-50 and make Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie breaker. (By the way, that has only happened three other times in U.S. history).
That contest is between Democrat Jon Ossoff and incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue, and it’s too close to call, though Ossoff is leading by a narrow margin with some 98 percent of the vote counted.
The Georgia outcomes – thus far – are a nice backdrop for Biden as members of Congress meet to formally count the votes of the Electoral College at 1 p.m. this afternoon.
Lawmakers from the House and Senate will gather in the House chamber with Vice President Mike Pence presiding in his role as Senate president.
Pence’s formal role is to open the sealed certificates of the state’s certified results of the November election, which will be brought into the chamber in two wooden boxes, and hand them to tellers appointed from among the House and Senate members to read.
The outgoing president, Donald Trump, who is making a last desperate attempt to subvert the outcome of the general election and retain his grasp on power, has asserted that Pence “has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.”
This is not true. The Constitution does not give Pence that power, and the vice president reportedly is aware of this and even told the president so. Trump continues to publicly insist that’s not the case, though what he’s thinking or saying behind closed doors might be something entirely different.
Trump called a New York Times report that Pence informed him he doesn’t have the power to block the certification of results today “fake news” and insisted he and Pence were “in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act” to decertify results of the Electoral College.
We already know that dozens of House members from states across the country – including New York’s North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik – will be objecting to the results, and at least a dozen senators are likely to do the same.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, once a Trump opponent, is leading a group of about a dozen senators calling for a 10-day delay to audit unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. Republican loyalists to Trump confirmed they would object to the results of at least three battleground states that Biden won – Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Objections that are endorsed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate must be considered by lawmakers in a two-hour debate, followed by a vote. For an objection to be upheld, a majority in both chambers must vote in favor.
It is unlikely the attempts to challenge the states’ electors will succeed, thanks largely to the Democrats’ control of the House, but it’s going to be quite a show.
Meanwhile, there’s a similar mess playing out on a smaller stage in Pennsylvania, where Republicans in the state Senate blocked a Democratic lawmaker from taking his oath of office and removed the Democratic lieutenant governor from his role overseeing the proceedings.
Republicans refused to seat Sen.-elect Jim Brewster because a legal challenge to his election victory is pending, although his win has been certified and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has sided with him in a dispute over how to count votes in a close race.
As the process plays out on Capitol Hill, there will be pro-Trump protests, and counter protests, taking place outside. Some had already started to gather yesterday. Members of the National Guard are being mobilized at the request of the D.C. mayor.
Here in New York, it’s the first day of school – I mean of the 2021 legislative session – for state lawmakers, some of whom will convene in person at the state Capitol in Albany, though the ongoing pandemic means remote proceedings/voting will continue for some time.
For those of you who absolutely cannot stand this fighting-for-democracy stuff, it’s National Technology Day.
Another typical mid-winter day is on tap, weather-wise, with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-30s.
In the (rest of) the headlines…
Former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush will attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, and former President Jimmy Carter will not.
Eric Trump warned that he will boost primary challengers for every Republican lawmaker who does not object to the Electoral College results today.
A lawyer advising the president in recent weeks has resigned from her law firm after it was revealed that she participated in the call where Trump pressured Georgia officials to help him reverse the state’s election results, the firm said in a statement.
Democratic Capital Region Rep. Paul Tonko backed a resolution to censure Trump for his phone call to Georgia Secretary of the State Brad Raffensperger asking Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”
Trump supporters mocked Sen. Mitt Romney at a Utah airport for not supporting the President ahead of Congress counting the presidential election’s electoral vote results.
Trump should not be prosecuted once he leaves the White House no matter how much evidence has been amassed against him, the former FBI director James Comey writes in a new book.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has had enough of what he described as Trump’s “un-American bull—-.”
Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson tweeted at Trump, asking for a commuted sentence for his childhood friend, rapper Kodak Black, who pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges in Florida in 2019 and now is serving time.
Biden is turning to more veterans of the Obama administration to fill senior positions on his national security team, including two former officials who played crucial roles in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, an agreement the Biden administration will seek to restore.
Russia is likely behind a massive, continuing hack discovered last month that has ripped through various federal government agencies and an unknown number of private organizations, the Trump administration formally said.
The Trump administration launched an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people.
Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, announced that he tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the latest in a growing list of lawmakers to contract the virus.
As the UK has re-entered lockdown, new figures show that one in 50 people had recently been infected with the virus, and officials warned that some restrictions on daily life could still be needed next winter.
Viral mutations may cause another “very, very bad” COVID-19 wave, scientists warn.
The European Union’s medicines agency meets today to consider giving the green light to Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, which would give the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the virus rampaging across the continent.
Vaccine programs in many European countries have been hampered by slow-moving bureaucracies, a lack of nurses and shortages of vital equipment.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman criticized the U.S. rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, calling it a “failure of logistics and mismanagement during the transition” in a series of tweets.
A high-end Florida assisted living facility and nursing home has made vaccines intended for vulnerable residents and staff available to board members and those who made generous donations to the facility, including members of the Palm Beach Country Club.
David S. Mack, a real-estate developer from Long Island and MTA board member, used his influence as a board member of affiliates of the MorseLife system of long-term care homes to obtain the shots.
Arizona, California and Rhode Island are among the hardest-hit places in the world at this stage of the pandemic, with the highest rates of Covid-19 infections per capita.
Almost 7,900 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 in just Los Angeles County alone. And 21% of them are in intensive care units, officials said.
The U.S. could soon be giving at least a million COVID-19 vaccinations a day despite the sluggish start, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, even as he warned of a dangerous next few weeks as the coronavirus surges.
U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer introduced legislation that would designated more federal funds to the vaccination effort.
Many patients who are hospitalized for COVID-19 are discharged with symptoms such as those associated with a brain injury.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a new COVID-19 strain that was detected in the state after it was first identified in the United Kingdom last month “could be a game changer.” He called it “highly problematic.”
“Anyone who was exposed, anyone who was exposed to someone who was exposed, please contact us,” Cuomo said, speaking directly to Capital Region residents. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, this is a virus. It travels, but we have to know. Containment is vitally important here.”
“With news of the more contagious new strain of the virus in the Capital Region, I renew my call for people to stay home when possible and for businesses to have employees work remotely,” Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said.
Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said she expects the region could see peak hospitalizations and infections in the next few weeks.
A day after the new variant of COVID-19 was found in Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County Health leaders announced more information about rolling out the vaccine.
Cuomo defended his plan to accelerate Covid-19 vaccinations from criticism by some local elected officials after a slow rollout of the shots.
County leaders urged the governor to allow them to activate their mass-vaccination plans that have been in preparation for years but were recently set aside in favor of a regional approach run by hospitals.
New York state officials yesterday refused to reveal how many COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the Empire State, as Cuomo and his administration have come under fire for a slow-footed rollout.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he takes “full responsibility” of the city’s initial failure to fast track the distribution of COVID vaccines, as both the city and state implored the federal government to make more available.
To ramp up vaccine capacity, the city is opening more than 100 pop-up vaccination hubs.
Thousands of sites across the state including pharmacies, urgent care centers, the Javits Center and even SUNY and CUNY campuses will be used to distribute vaccine doses for the general public, once available, the governor said.
New York City’s rising virus numbers are once again forcing high-stakes decisions about whether to keep schools open, leaving students, parents and educators with newfound uncertainty.
Educators at more than 230 Catholic schools in the Big Apple want to make sure they’re in the mix when the coronavirus vaccine is doled out to teachers and staff in city public schools.
Nearly a third of New York health care workers so far eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine are taking a wait-and-see approach, eschewing the shots at least for the time being, city and state officials said.
An Orange County nursing home that was expecting all residents and some staff to get the coronavirus vaccine on Monday says many had to go without — because CVS had “lost” doses due to “temperature control issues.”
Syracuse University, Mississippi State and other colleges are delaying their spring semester start dates to avoid post-holiday spread of COVID-19 and increase opportunity for staff to get vaccinated.
The NYPD, other police and fire departments, and large labor unions should develop detailed plans to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to their members once they become eligible, Cuomo said.
Northwell Health, which is the state’s largest health system and is run by one of Cuomo’s closest allies, continued to sue patients over medical debt during the Covid-19 crisis, even after other big hospitals suspended lawsuits.
A massive number of residents have fled the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area amid the COVID-19 pandemic — more than any region in the country, a sobering moving company survey reveals.
New York City’s population shrank significantly even before the COVID-19 pandemic took a bite out of the Big Apple, city data reveals.
The state Legislature will convene for its first day of the 2021 session in Albany, though much of the action will continue remotely as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
Citizen Action of New York, a member of Invest in Our New York, today will host grassroots leaders and state legislators to present a legislative package to raise revenue in the 2021 budget session.
Cuomo will be announcing his third attempt at getting cannabis legalized for adult recreational use in New York.
The governor also plans to make mobile sports betting part of his revenue-generating proposal in next week’s State of the State address.
State Senate Republicans unveiled their Reset New York plan, promising to represent working class New Yorkers and push back against progressive policies that the lawmakers say have prompted people to leave the state and made it less safe.
Queens Democratic state Sen. James Sanders was slapped with a $15,000 fine for accepting free meals and trips from a nonprofit he supported while on the City Council — all of which were paid for by Big Apple taxpayers, according to the city’s ethics watchdog.
A new law will allow people who have had their driver’s license suspended due to non-payment to be able to create a payment plan to have it reinstated.
The husband of a top aide to State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is set to plead guilty in his cocaine trafficking case.
Fast-food restaurants will soon be required to cite “just cause” when firing workers or reducing their hours under two bills that de Blasio has signed into law.
A 22-year-old Massachusetts man has surrendered to police after authorities found a “hoax device” in a car at the Queens Place Mall on Monday morning.
The cop who sodomized Abner Louima with a jagged wooden handle in 1997 wants out of federal prison early because of COVID-19. Louima said he understands, but the decision is up to the criminal justice system.
The white police officer who shot Black man Jacob Blake seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed, will not face criminal charges, Wisconsin prosecutors announced.
Capital Region school superintendents are awaiting further guidance from the state on how and when to test students and staff for COVID-19 in accordance with a new plan mentioned by Cuomo earlier this week.
The Albany City School District will begin testing students and staff for the coronavirus when in-person instruction resumes on Monday, Jan. 11.
A dozen correctional officers and one medical worker at the Albany County jail have tested positive for coronavirus within the past two weeks, Sheriff Craig Apple said.
Hunter Mountain will remain closed today due to COVID-19 illness among ski patrol members.
The 2021 Grammy Awards will no longer take place this month in Los Angeles and will broadcast in March due to a recent surge in coronavirus cases and deaths.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are reportedly headed for divorce.
Rap great Dr. Dre, 55, has been hospitalized after suffering a brain aneurysm.
Veteran journalist Keith Poole, currently editor of the Sun, a U.K. tabloid, will take over the New York Post Group as editor in chief in early March as the news organization seeks to boost its digital presence.
