 The law enforcement response to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol was hindered by a lack of "high-level information sharing" and anticipation of how bad the attack could get, anonymous White House officials told The Washington Post. The Biden administration has privately concluded that intelligence indicating how right-wing groups planned to approach the Capitol that day was not elevated to higher levels, leading to a haphazard response. The White House says its analysis is meant to help prepare for future such events and not to point fingers at the FBI or U.S. Capitol Police. More: - Senior White House officials said they're emphasizing training exercises and consistent interagency meetings between groups to compare details about potential threats.
- The FBI says it has no information suggesting potential threats on the one-year anniversary of the attack on Thursday.
- The Department of Homeland Security says that domestic extremism presents a "very grave" threat to the U.S., but potential attacks can be hard to anticipate. "We are very focused on the lone actor or a loose affiliation of individuals rather than necessarily an organized structure with a set and defined hierarchy," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday said that the Justice Department had charged 725 people with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
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 At-home rapid tests for COVID-19 remain sold out in many areas of the U.S., and White House officials couldn't say on Wednesday if the federal government would renew a deal to keep test prices from rising. An agreement with Amazon, Kroger, and Walmart to sell rapid antigen tests for $14 for a two-pack expired in December. Kroger, CVS, and Walgreens are now charging $24 for the product. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pointed to the administration's purchase of 500 million rapid tests for free distribution (set to begin in the coming weeks) and a requirement that insurance companies start reimbursing customers for the purchase of rapid tests (beginning next week). More: - Walmart says it will raise the price for Abbott's BinaxNOW antigen test two-pack to $20.
- Even as Abbott says it is distributing 70 million tests per month, they remain in short supply at retailers around the country, with many people testing regularly following an omicron infection to see when they are less likely to spread it to others.
- CDC guidance does not require COVID-infected individuals to test before leaving isolation after five days. However, the agency added guidance on Tuesday saying that people who choose to test and still test positive after five days remain in isolation until Day 10.
- About 30% of people remain infectious at least five days after receiving their first positive test, the CDC said.
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 A Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) power line was responsible for sparking the Dixie Fire, which burned nearly one million acres in Northern California from July to October 2021, state investigators found. In a statement detailing the findings of its investigation, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that a tree contacted electrical lines near the Cresta Dam in Butte County, California. The agency has sent its report to the county's district attorney's office. More: - PG&E confirmed that a large tree struck one of its lines in July 2021 and said it is working to bury 10,000 miles of lines to prevent further incidents.
- The utility company estimates there are 8 million trees "within striking distance" of its electrical distribution lines.
- PG&E was fined $125M for its role in starting the 2019 Kincade Fire, which burned more than 77,000 acres.
- It emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2021 and pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter connected to its role in igniting the 2018 Camp Fire.
- The Dixie Fire was the second-largest in California history, scorching a total of 963,309 acres and destroying 1,400 structures. Only the 2020 August Complex, which burned more than one million acres, was larger.
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 GOOD NEWS: Two NHL teams are giving a medical school scholarship to a woman who spotted a cancerous mole on the neck of Vancouver Canucks assistant equipment manager Brian Hamilton. During a game between the Canucks and the Seattle Kraken in October, Nadia Popovici spotted an irregular mole on Hamilton's neck, and showed him a message on her phone telling him to get it checked out. Hamilton did, and a doctor later identified the mole as a malignant melanoma. More: - The doctor told Hamilton that he "wouldn't be here" if he ignored the mole for four or five years.
- "How she saw it boggles my mind," Hamilton said. "She's a hero."
- The Canucks and Kraken are giving Popovici $10,000 toward her medical school studies.
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 An early morning fire in public housing in Philadelphia has killed at least 13 people, including seven children. Two others were sent to the hospital, and officials warned that casualty numbers could grow as 26 people had been staying in the rowhome. Fire officials said that none of the building's four smoke alarms appeared to be functional. More: - Fire crews responded to the blaze at 6:40 a.m. and were able to put it out within about an hour.
- They said the house had been split into two apartments, which made it more difficult to navigate.
- The Philadelphia Housing Authority said the smoke alarms were inspected annually and at least two had been replaced in 2020.
- First Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said it was "probably one of the worst fires I have ever been to" in his 35-year career.
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 Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked tennis player in the world, has had his entry to Australia to play in the upcoming Australian Open delayed due to a visa mistake and a vaccination exemption issue. Djokovic has said he is "opposed to vaccination" and the Australian Open had agreed to give him a medical exemption to allow him to play in the tournament, which he has won nine times. However, his team mistakenly requested a visa that does not permit medical exemptions for unvaccinated people. He is reportedly awaiting a decision from the Australian government at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne. More: - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Djokovic would be refused entry into Australia unless he can prove that he has a legitimate medical reason not to be vaccinated.
- The Australian state of Victoria, like much of the world, is experiencing record COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant, and has endured a number of strict lockdowns going back to the start of the pandemic.
- The state of Victoria says it will not support Djokovic's visa application, meaning it is up to the federal government to determine if the player's reasons for avoiding vaccination are deemed sufficient.
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QUICK HITS - Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving is set to make his season debut tonight against the Indiana Pacers. Irving is unvaccinated, which means he can't play at his home arena due to New York City's vaccine mandate. The Nets are activating him for tonight's road game.
- Seven historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) received bomb threats on Tuesday, though all lockdowns have since been lifted and "all-clear" messages sent to students.
- The oldest World War II veteran in the U.S. (and possibly the nation's oldest man) died on Wednesday at 112. Lawrence N. Brooks was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1940 and served in the 91st Engineer General Service Regiment.
- The B.1.640.2 coronavirus variant, first detected in October in France, is not a cause for concern, according to the World Health Organization, as it has quickly been outcompeted by omicron.
- Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino plans to go through with his sale of NFTs of portions of his screenplay for "Pulp Fiction" despite a pending lawsuit from Miramax, which produced the 1994 film.
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 |  | Jonathan Harris is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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