COVID hospitalizations trend upward in Florida for the first time in months
MIAMI — In the past seven days, Florida has added 3,357 COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths per day, on average, according to Miami Herald calculations of data published by the CDC.
Over the past three weeks, on average, 101 more cases were logged each day in Florida, showing an increase in trends.
As of Tuesday, more than 14,363,750 people have been fully vaccinated in Florida. The state has logged at least 5,911,764 cases and 73,869 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The number of cases is likely an undercount due to positive results from at-home COVID testing. The state also only tracks resident cases and deaths, excluding nonresidents.
—Miami Herald
Conservatives are ecstatic about Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter
With tweets laden with exclamation marks and celebratory hashtags, Republicans on Monday made their mood abundantly clear: They were elated by the news Elon Musk was buying Twitter.
"WELCOME BACK FIRST AMENDMENT!" blared Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., in all caps. A Twitter survey by Sen. Ted Cruz asked if Musk's purchase was a good thing, with the only options to answer being "yes" or "no, I hate free speech." His fellow Texan, Rep. John Carter, signaled his approval with no words at all; three clapping-hands emojis were sufficient.
A pot-smoking, meme-posting evangelist for electric vehicles may be an unlikely hero for conservatives. But the Tesla chief executive's amorphous vow to restore free speech to the social media platform has resonated among Republicans, who see themselves — starting with their de facto leader, former President Donald Trump — as unfairly targeted by Twitter's content moderation efforts.
Conservatives said their euphoric outpouring was bigger than the possible return of @RealDonaldTrump and changes to Twitter's ownership. Rather, they see Musk's takeover as a symbolic, and cathartic, blow against Big Tech, which the right has increasingly viewed with antipathy.
—Los Angeles Times
Reports of aggravated assault and robbery on Philly transit soared during the pandemic as ridership fell
PHILADELPHIA — Robberies and aggravated assaults jumped more than 80% on the Philadelphia region’s public transit system from 2019 to 2021 even as it was at times carrying fewer than half the number of passengers who rode buses, trains, and trolleys in the last pre-COVID year.
And for so many months that it has become a background chorus of life in the city, riders of SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line have complained on social media of rampant disorder: smoking, open use of IV drugs, and human waste and garbage in stations and on trains.
Those are in many ways two separate problems, but they both feed a perception that transit is unsafe, which likely is complicating SEPTA’s efforts to recover from the pandemic. Average ridership is now at 53% of pre-COVID levels — or about 520,000 people on a typical weekday.
“We want to make sure people feel safe on SEPTA, and we’re trying to address their concerns,” Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III said.
He was referring both to violent crime and to the unease some riders have with the people who are homeless, in drug addiction, or dealing with mental illness who have been sheltering in the system’s stations and vehicles.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Iran’s attempts to kill Pompeo, current U.S. officials are real and ongoing, Blinken says
WASHINGTON — Iran’s attempts to assassinate former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are real and ongoing, his successor, Antony Blinken, told Congress on Tuesday.
Testifying before a Senate panel, Blinken acknowledged details made public last month in a sensitive State Department report that outlined a security arrangement for the former secretary involving round-the-clock government protection.
“I’m not sure what I can say in an open setting, but let me say generically that there is an ongoing threat against American officials, both present and past,” Blinken said. “We are making sure and we will make sure for as long as it takes that we’re protecting our people, present and former, if they’re under threat.”
Pompeo, a former U.S. secretary of state and CIA director under President Donald Trump, was one of the architects of the Trump administration’s hardline approach to Tehran, reimplementing sanctions after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal and supporting the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general.
All former secretaries of state automatically receive protection from the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security for 180 days after leaving office.
—McClatchy Washington Bureau
