Three days from now, January 20, will be a busy day: Donald Trump's inauguration  has been moved indoors , the Capitol rotunda, with viewers being sent to the Capital One Arena.  The last time this happened was in 1985 for Ronald Reagan, when the temperature reached 7F.  Not so bad this year at up to 19F, but the prominent factor was wind chill.  It is very uncomfortable in DC at this time of year. It was on  13January1982  when I was working for the U.S. Senate. This was a particularly cold period for the city, with temperatures dropping to below zero.  Chicago that day was -25F.  Citrus groves in Florida froze. It began snowing, all told, around 6 inches in a few hours.  A fire in the Metro train line made for a particularly traffic nightmare. When the snowfall seemed to be ending, the first plane to take off at National Airport ( later named Reagan International--he first got elected in 1981 ) when visibility was only a sixteenth of a mile...

There are two stories that head a list of newsworthy items, both covered by President Joe Biden in a press conference today: The purpose was to provide an advanced notice of  upcoming peace talks between Israel and the Hamas about the Gaza Strip .  He went on the air as Sabbath began in Israel.  What is noteworthy about this announcement is that the president of the United States first mentioned this process.  This was bold and rare, indicating that he probably was given the go-ahead by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who will either confirm or not this process at sunset tomorrow.  Who knows what the Hamas will say.  One more point in Biden's speech is that hinted were about the prospects of a peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which will certainly not occur this year, but something to work on for the four years after relection. As an opening, he remarked on the Trump guilty verdict, reaffirming  the American principle that no one is above the ...

In a word, yes, you should continue to worry about Covid-19 when you travel.  Although we luckily avoided getting sick on our 53-day world journey, just around the time we returned, three of the residents at 15 Craigside where we live came back from trips and tested positive.  I also learned that we have a resident who traveled outside of Hawaii on three occasions after the pandemic was declared over, and each time contracted this virus while on the road.  They were all up-to-date in every Covid vaccination, including the latest booster.  But because of that, symptoms were mild. As I once devoted Thursdays to this disease, let me today bring you up to date on the latest info. In 2017, the leading causes of deaths in the USA were heart disease, cancer and accidents. During the pandemic, Covid-19 replaced accidents at #3. In 2023: Heart disease:  702,880 Cancer:  608,371 Accidents:  227,039 Covid-19:  186,552 Stroke:  165,393 Respiratory causes...