An attendee of the antivax rally last night was chatting with another attendee. She pauses, clears her throat and looks briefly winded for a moment. She looks up again and says:

“Danny’s in the hospital with covid… I have it too.”

*have* it. Not *had.* Present tense.

The guy didn’t hear her say she currently has covid, instead focuses on why “Danny” (Danny Christman) is dying in the hospital, suggests he take horse dewormer and says he knows a woman who might have some. “They don’t need to know about it.”

You may recognize her from this:

'BAKERY KAREN' Who is Stephanie Denaro and why is she trending?

STEPHANIE Denaro has been identified as the woman in a New York bakery who used racial slurs against one of its employees.

She has a crush on Mitchell Bosch, who has been described to me by those who’ve met him as a violent misogynist. He’s also a Capitol insurrectionist who was identified just last night — and who has not yet been charged or indicted.

Kodiak soared to 67 degrees on Sunday, while other towns experienced record rain

Imagine running a 5K and winning the race by 10 minutes. That’s analogous to what is transpiring in Alaska at the moment. An exceptional slew of records has tumbled in the wake of extreme warmth, with highs up to 45 degrees above average.

The anomalous warmth has also brought record moisture, with top-tier rainfall totals thanks to the air’s capacity to transport more humidity.

The ongoing spate of warmth is tied to a sprawling dome of stagnant high pressure banked southeast of the Aleutians in the northeastern Pacific. Reinforced by unusually warm ocean waters north of Hawaii, that high-pressure “heat dome” is inducing sinking air. That brings about additional warming.

This latest bout of record-shattering warmth caps off a year that has brought a number of high-end climate extremes to North America, including a withering late June heat wave that heated Seattle up to 108 degrees.

Record Warmth

On Sunday, the Kodiak tide gauge station hit 67 degrees at 2:17 p.m. In addition to being a local record, it set a monthly record for the entire state for December.

Nearby, Kodiak Airport recorded 65 degrees and beat its previous daily record by 20 degrees, surpassing the 45-degree record reading last set on Dec. 26, 1984, by leaps and bounds.

Even more remarkable is that the same 65-degree reading would have set a record for November, January, February and March, too; those months haven’t seen readings above 59, 54, 56 and 57 degrees, respectively. The previous December record was 56 degrees, set on Dec. 22, 1984.

Sunday also brought records in Cold Bay, Alaska, where the community hit a high of 62 degrees. The previous record, set in 1990, was 44. St. Paul tied its record at 42 degrees.

Unalaska, Alaska, spiked to 57.3 degrees by noon Monday after bottoming out at 50 degrees overnight. According to Rick Thoman, an Alaska-based climatologist, that morning low was warmer than the average low at any point in the year — even the heart of summer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/12/28/alaska-record-temperatures-climate/

Many stories already have been written about the Democratic leader’s legacy — his legislative and political accomplishments; his colorful past as a boxer, gaming commissioner and Capitol Hill police officer; and his quirky habits — like not saying goodbye before hanging up the phone. But this portrait would be incomplete without a few words about Reid’s accomplishments as an employer — most notably his ability to create an environment that supported and encouraged working parents in an institution that is better known for its long, unpredictable hours and a clubby, male-centric culture.

We were fortunate to enjoy paid time at home with our newborn babies, but as a father of five and grandfather of 19, Reid understood that a generous paid parental- leave policy was neither the starting nor the ending point for a truly family-friendly workplace.

For most of us, workplace flexibility started before our children even arrived. When one of us had an extremely high risk and difficult pregnancy, involving multiple doctor appointments and hospital visits over many months, the senator offered his unwavering support. He said, “You take all the time you need. Go to your doctor’s appointments. Don’t ask, just go. There is nothing more important.”

Another one of us welcomed a baby six weeks early. When that child required weekly physical, occupational and speech therapy on the other side of town, Reid didn’t think twice about scheduling meetings around these appointments, even in the midst of months of intensive health- reform negotiations. Reid valued his staff immensely, and he never questioned the idea that our children should take priority over everything else. He simply worked around our needs as parents.

https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2016/dec/22/family-friendly-workplace-harry-reid-created-is-on/

BREAKING: Harry Reid, probably the most important elected official in Nevada history, has died at 82.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader and Democratic kingmaker, dies at 82

Harry Reid, who rose from abject poverty in rural Nevada to become one of the most influential state and national leaders, died on Tuesday, sources confirmed to The Nevada Independent. He was 82.

Additional details were not immediately available.

Reid was thought to be ending the near of his life when he underwent surgery in 2018 for pancreatic cancer, which has one of the lowest survival rates. Last summer, however, Reid announced that he underwent an experimental surgery and was declared in “complete remission” and cancer-free.

Over more than three decades of service in Congress, Reid earned a reputation for fighting relentlessly to protect his home state and everyday Americans. As Senate Democratic leader for a dozen years, he played an instrumental role in passing the Affordable Care Act and shepherding through Congress pivotal economic recovery legislation in the wake of the Great Recession.

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/harry-reid-former-senate-majority-leader-and-democratic-kingmaker-dies-at-82

Inbox: Donald Trump offers a conditional endorsement of Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, dependent on him not backing Lisa Murkowski for re-election

BREAKING: Michigan redistricting commission adopts a final Congressional map. It's the "Chestnut" map, one of three collaborative maps the commission brought to the final voting round

Michigan's redistricting commission adopts final congressional map for the next decade

Michigan’s redistricting commission voted to adopt new congressional districts Tuesday, creating political boundaries for the state's 13 U.S. House districts for the next decade.

The new map places the hometowns of incumbents in the same districts, eliminates the two majority-Black districts that currently run through Detroit and chips away at the Republican advantage baked into map in place today.

The new map – which the commission referred to as "Chestnut" – was backed by eight out of 13 of the randomly selected voters who serve on the commission, including two Democrats, two Republicans and four independents. Five commissioners voted for a different plan.

The commission was supposed to adopt new districts by Nov. 1, but the group moved forward with its own self-imposed schedule following a monthslong delay in the census data used to draw voting districts.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/12/28/michigan-redistricting-commission-finalizes-congressional-map/9029285002/

‘This F*cking Girl Reporter’: Dr. Oz and His Wife Freaked Out Over Olivia Nuzzi, Who Overheard Everything When They Failed to Hang Up the Phone

Dr. Mehmet Oz did not want to talk to New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi for a profile on his run for Senate. But he ended up providing her with ample comments after trying and failing to hang up the phone when she called.

Nuzzi released a profile on Oz that kicked off with a description of the difficulties she faced in trying to interview anybody from his campaign. Because of the media reluctance of people on Oz’s team, Nuzzi decided to try contacting the television personality directly, along with his wife, Lisa Oz.

To Nuzzi’s surprise, Mrs. Oz did pick up the phone, but she hung up almost instantly. Nuzzi decided to call again to see if that was deliberate, and that led to a tense exchange between the two.

From the article:

“How did you get my number?” she asked sharply. I told her that her number was listed in public records, and this annoyed her too. “Oh,” she said, “I should have gotten rid of that.” I was about to explain that public records don’t work that way, but she cut in. “Have a nice day,” she said, but it sounded like a cross between the way women of the South say “Bless your heart” and men of Brooklyn call some asshole “pal” after being cut off in traffic. Then she hung up.

As it turns out, Mrs. Oz didn’t hang up the phone. Nuzzi said Mrs. Oz “had mistakenly connected her device to what sounded like the sound system of a vehicle, meaning that as they engaged in paranoid conversation and argument for more than four minutes, I remained on the line, hearing every word of it.”

https://www.mediaite.com/print/this-fcking-girl-reporter-dr-oz-and-his-wife-freaked-out-over-reporting-from-ny-mags-olivia-nuzzi-who-overheard-everything-when-they-failed-to-hang-up-the-phone/