* Yelm Community Garden built at City Park,* Masks now required on U.S. transportation, federal properties, * The Biden-Harris national plan to beat COVID-19 now public!

May be an image of one or more people and tree — Yelm’s new community garden at Yelm City Park. By Bounty For Families in partnership with the City of Yelm, Thurston Conservation District, GRuB and The Mission Continues, plus considerable financial support from the Nisqually Tribe.
Credit: *Heidi Smith*, Bounty For Families

*** REGIONAL NEWS ***

JOLT News: County health officer Dr. Dimyana Abdelmalek recommends districts “cautiously phase in in-person learning for K-5 and middle school students.”

KOMO-4 TV: Inslee: Amazon opening pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Seattle, goal to vaccinate 2,000

The Olympian: Washington’s capital city is one of the best to live in, report says. Here’s why

South Sound Business: South Sound Home Prices Continue to Climb – Double-digit percentage gains seen in Pierce, Thurston, Mason, Lewis, Grays Harbor counties

KING-5 TV: GOP needs to do some ‘soul searching,’ says Washington Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman

WaPo: Biden signs order requiring masks on planes, buses, trains and at airports [and national parks]

KING-5 TV: Judge says Amazon won’t have to restore web service to controversial social media site Parler

*** SELECT NATIONAL NEWS ***

The White House: The Biden-Harris plan to beat COVID-19 [Ed. note: Finally, one year to the day after the U.S. recorded the first COVID-19 case, a national COVID-19 plan is publicly released from the top!]

The Daily Kos: QAnon watch parties expecting violence dissolve into horror when Biden/Harris inaugurated – “The Storm” never arrived!

KING-5 TV: World leaders hope for renewed cooperation with US under Biden [i.e. China, Mexico, Canada, France, Tibet, European Council, Israel, Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India.]

McClatchey News: Biden moves to fully reimburse states for National Guard, supplies in COVID-19 fight

NBC News: Biden issues executive order expanding LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections

The Daily Kos: Michael Flynn’s brother admits to being part of call where National Guard were delayed on Jan. 6

CNBC: The stock market frenzy feels like 1999 dot-com bubble, global investor Barry Sternlicht warns – “[the] less experienced — staying at home and day trading and buying stocks.”

NBC News: Corporate America lines up to praise Biden — and hopes to bend his ear – After years of rule by tweet, business leaders said they welcome a chance to return to an established way of doing business, including strategic, long-term planning.

Reuters: Attorneys call for Giuliani to lose law license over false claims, mob incitement

CNN: Capitol riot investigators narrow in on extremist groups and military-style coordination

Just Security: Gaps in Trump’s Pardons: How the Biden Administration Can Still Pursue Justice by Andrew Weissmann

NYT: The Problem With Trump’s Odious Pardon of Steve Bannon – It is corrupt and a possible obstruction of justice and should be legally challenged. [Bannon “might otherwise have turned against the former president in a potential criminal, civil or impeachment proceeding.]

Optimist Daily: Pink seesaws at US-Mexico border wins Design of the Year 2020