Leads:
- 1.2 million doses of the COVID Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 5-11 are on their way to California. Health & Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly says they are preparing for the vaccine to be authorized to use on kids that young. The CDC says COVID is the 8th leading killer among children.
- Governor Gavin Newsom nibbled on the In-N-Out Burger controversy during a vaccination event in Oakland, where he told reporters he didn't want to get involved but did say he stands behind the fast-food company. An In-N-Out in San Francisco was closed to in-door dining last week after the Fisherman's Wharf location refused to check vaccination cards. On Monday, a Pleasant Hill Restaurant was shut down for similar violations.
- Nate McGill, the principal of Ethel I Baker elementary, says two families, a total of ten people, have been pulled out of the country by a private rescue organization. The seven children rescued go to school in the Sacramento unified school district. A third family from Sacramento may be getting out soon.
- River City High School students were sent home early Wednesday after an anonymous caller claimed there was a shooting threat toward the West Sacramento campus. School staff immediately contacted West Sacramento police. John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento also was placed on lockdown as a precaution Wednesday afternoon when a parent on campus was behaving aggressively toward a school staff member, which prompted a lockdown that was lifted shortly after. Jesuit High School was also placed on lockdown Wednesday due to a social media post or posts threatening violence at “JHS” or “IHS”, putting high schools starting with those letters across the country on high alert. The campus remained open with added patrols from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
Extra Links:
- Attorney General Merrick Garland defended his memo about assisting local school officials against violence and threats of violence, as Senate Republicans blasted the memo as "shameful" and "intimidating."
- Senator Tom Cotton called on Garland to resign.
- Senator Ted Cruz pressed Garland’s son-in-law’s critical race theory education company and its potential influence over his recent memo involving the FBI in disputes between parents and school boards.
- Senator Joe Manchin says everybody in this country that has been blessed and prospered should pay a patriotic tax.