Abbott...

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Tuesday that he was ending his statewide mask mandate, effective March 10, and that all businesses in the state could then operate with no capacity limits. “It is now time to open Texas 100 percent,” he said.

“To be clear, Covid has not, like, suddenly disappeared,” Mr. Abbott said. “Covid still exists in Texas and the United States and across the globe.”

Even so, he said, “state mandates are no longer needed,” because advanced treatments are now available for people with Covid-19, the state is able to test large numbers of people for the virus each day, and 5.7 million vaccine shots have already been given to Texans.

Habits...

 

HSBC is set to withdraw from U.S. retail banking, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday, as Europe's biggest bank seeks to dispose of a business that has long underperformed.

The exit from the U.S. consumer business seeks to cut costs, boost fee income and continue the lender's shift towards Asia.

HSBC is to close 82 branches in the UK between April and September this year, claiming customers are turning to digital banking.

The company will have 511 branches across the country following the closure program.

Managers said they did not expect to make any redundancies, with staff moved to nearby branches instead.

Coronavirus and changing customer habits have altered the way we bank, but there are concerns over closures.

Delete...

 

As Neera Tanden's hopes for running the Office of Management and Budget fade, media boosters are blaming bipartisan opposition to her nomination on sexism and racism.

Tanden, the president of the liberal Center for American Progress and a Washington mainstay since the Clinton administration, appears unlikely to be confirmed after key swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., announced his opposition over her caustic Twitter history. Tanden deleted more than 1,000 tweets after President Biden nominated her, many of them personal attacks on lawmakers. 

Four senators — Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania — have announced that they will vote against her nomination, citing her past social media behavior. What has also drawn suspicion was her decision to delete more than a thousand tweets after Biden won the US election last year.

Vaccinated...

 

Usually the man is driving the car. This time it is the woman driving the car unless you are in England.

The driver side is reversed  not the relationship. 

We currently have many choices when it comes to vaccines. Johnson and Johnson's vaccine, a one time dose, just been added to the market and it is reasonable for relatively young people.

Take the vaccine.

Fight for you...

 

Data Mining...

 

A second former aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is accusing him of sexual harassment, saying that he asked her questions about her sex life, whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men.

The aide, Charlotte Bennett, who was an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration until she left in November, told The New York Times that the governor had harassed her late last spring, during the height of the state’s fight against the coronavirus.

Ms. Bennett, 25, said the most unsettling episode occurred on June 5, when she was alone with Mr. Cuomo in his State Capitol office. In a series of interviews this week, she said the governor had asked her numerous questions about her personal life, including whether she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships, and had said that he was open to relationships with women in their 20s — comments she interpreted as clear overtures to a sexual relationship.

I think that was data mining and on the second question,  age is just a number.

Retractable...

 

A review of US Capitol security in the wake of the January 6 insurrection is set to recommend a series of sweeping changes next week intended to better protect lawmakers while they are in Washington, DC, and at home, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the findings.

Both sources told CNN that a draft of the proposal recommends adding more than 1,000 US Capitol police officers, establishing a dedicated quick reaction force and building an integrated system of walls and fences around the Capitol complex.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed retired Lt. General Russel Honoré to conduct an independent review of the security presence around the Capitol last month after the embarrassing breached of the capital in January 2021. 

A new retractable immorality.  Just a thought.

Dominance...

 

Speaking at at the Conservative Political Act, Trump’s first major address since the end of his presidency, served as formal notice of his continued dominance over the Republican Party and a return to campaign form for the former president.

For roughly 90 minutes, Trump chastised “top establishment Republicans,” “RINO’s” and other Republicans who have criticized him. Banned from Twitter, he said Big Tech companies “should be punished with major sanctions whenever they silence conservative voices.” And in a wide-ranging critique of Biden’s first month in office.

“None of us even imagined just how bad they would be and how far left they would go,” Trump said, calling the Biden administration “anti-jobs, anti-family, anti-borders, anti-energy, anti-women and anti-science.”

“In just one short month, we have gone from ‘America First’ to ‘America Last,’” Trump said.

Never...

 

Crime...