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| Good morning, Daily Briefing readers. The body of the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who served Nevada for three decades, will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. Chicago students will finally be back in class, more than a week after teachers in the nation's third-largest school district voted to switch to remote learning. And, which Girl Scout Cookie would you be? Take our quiz and find out! |
| It's Steve and Jane, with Wednesday's news. |
| 🦠 The White House announced plans to send an additional 5 million rapid tests to schools each month, at no cost. Tap here for the latest COVID-19 updates. |
| 🚒 Bronx apartment building fire: City inspectors previously flagged issues with self-closing doors. |
| 🧯 Officials confirmed a fire in Philadelphia that left 12 people dead, including eight children, started after a child was playing with a lighter near a Christmas tree. |
| 🗣 Rand Paul vs. Anthony Fauci — again. Fauci says Paul's personal attacks led to death threats and harassment. |
| 😷 From Reviewed: N95 masks are your best mask option — here's where to buy them online. |
| 🐖 The first-ever pig-to-human heart transplant offers hope for thousands in need of organs. |
 | | Bartley Griffith, left, was the lead surgeon for Dave Bennett, who received a pig heart. | | University of Maryland School of Medicine | |
| 🏈 Aaron Rodgers responded to a rumor that he wouldn't play in Super Bowl: "Dumbest (expletive) I've heard." |
| 🍪 Are you more of a Type-A Thin Mint or a quirky Samoa? Take the quiz! |
| 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, health reporter Elizabeth Weise talks about the peak of omicron possibly being behind us. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker. |
| Here's what's happening today: |
Former Senate leader Harry Reid to lie in state at US Capitol |
| Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who died last month at 82, will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. A formal ceremony honoring Reid will also be held but will be limited to invited guests due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The longest-serving senator in Nevada's history, Reid presided over the upper chamber as majority leader from 2007 to 2015. The last person to lie in state at the Capitol was former Kansas lawmaker and decorated World War II veteran Bob Dole, who died in early December at age 98. |
 | | Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid speaks before a Democratic presidential primary debate Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC. | | John Locher, AP | |
Chicago schools set to resume in-person classes |
| Chicago teachers and students were set to come back to the classroom Wednesday after city leaders reached an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on COVID-19 safety protocols amid a nationwide surge of cases fueled by the omicron variant. Classes came to a halt last week after the union's members voted in favor of temporarily shifting to remote learning, and the district reacted by canceling classes entirely. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city and union compromised on a metric that would automatically shift a school to remote learning if a certain number of students and staff test positive. The union's 25,000 members are expected to vote on the agreement this week, the Chicago Tribune reported. |
Just for subscribers: |
| 🛂 Destination USA: A bureaucratic wall blocks droves of asylum seekers in the U.S. Some say the system needs overhaul. |
| 🦠 Omicron hit the USA hard and fast in the past month, but modeling by several universities shows the wave of infections may have crested – and hospitalizations and deaths should follow. |
| 🍪 A cookie and a cause: This is how Girl Scout Cookies went from a cafeteria treat to a national treasure. |
| 🗳 Gobbledygook: What is the Electoral Count Act, how did it play a role in the 2020 election and Jan. 6, and why are there calls to change it? |
| ✈️ Small planes, cheap tickets but no help by phone: The inside scoop on budget-friendly Breeze Airways. |
| These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. Here is all of our subscriber content. |
Newsmakers in their own words: Biden takes on voting rights in Atlanta speech |
 | | President Joe Biden speaks in support of changing the Senate filibuster rules to ensure the right to vote is defended in Atlanta on the grounds of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022. | | Associated Press photo; USA TODAY graphic | |
| During a speech in Atlanta Tuesday, President Joe Biden called for a limited exception to the Senate filibuster to pass federal voting rights legislation, yielding to demands from Democrats and civil rights advocates to take a more aggressive stance on preserving ballot access. |
| In his most forceful plea yet for election changes, Biden endorsed altering the Senate rules to bypass Republican opposition to two voting rights bills in the Senate. The president initially had resisted the rules change even as Republican-led states enacted a spate of new voting restrictions. |
| Biden, who described himself as an institutionalist, said he made the decision with careful deliberation to "protect our democracy." |
Report to show that consumer prices have jumped |
| On Wednesday, the government is expected to report that consumer prices jumped 7.1% over the past 12 months , which would be the steepest such increase in decades, according to the Associated Press. Inflation has become the most serious threat to the economy, a growing worry for financial markets and a major political problem for the Biden administration. With inflation surging, unemployment falling and wages rising, some economists are warning that the Federal Reserve may have waited too long to reverse its ultra-low-rate policies – a delay that could put the economy at heightened risk. Friday's U.S. jobs report for December raised alarms, which showed another sharp drop in the unemployment rate, an unexpectedly large increase in hourly pay and chronic labor shortages. Though lower joblessness and higher pay benefit workers, they can also fuel rising prices. |
House Committee debunks Capitol riot conspiracy theory around rallygoer |
| Two Republican senators – Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas – attacked top Justice Department and FBI officials Tuesday about whether a mysterious protester during the Jan. 6 insurrection was actually a U.S. government informant who incited rioting at the Capitol as part of a conspiracy-laden false flag operation. |
| Within hours, though, the special House Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection debunked the conspiracy theory, disclosing that it had interviewed the Arizona man, Ray Epps, and that he had denied taking part in any such government operation. |
ICYMI: Some of our top stories yesterday |
| 🥬 Lettuce recall: Dole recalls salad sold at Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, H-E-B for listeria risk. |
| 🏚 Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network removes show from lineup after botched renovation claims. |
| 💉 NY breakthrough infections grow sevenfold, but unvaccinated 13 times more likely to wind up in hospital: Tuesday's COVID-19 updates. |
| 🤔 Is this the way to sidestep "cancel culture" and be friends with everyone? Based on Patton Oswalt's recent comments about his friendship with Dave Chappelle, maybe. |
 | | Patton Oswalt, left, faced backlash after he shared a photo of himself with his friend Dave Chappelle, right, whose 2021 comedy special "The Closer" prompted an outpouring of criticism regarding its transphobia. | | Dan MacMedan-USA TODAY NETWORK; Evan Agostini/Invision/AP | |
'Error of judgment': Djokovic clarifies recent movements amid Australian visa saga |
| Novak Djokovic knew he'd tested positive for COVID-19 when he attended an interview and photo shoot at his tennis center in Serbia last month. In a statement posted on his social media accounts Wednesday Djokovic said made an "error of judgment" and should have immediately gone into isolation. He made the admission when he moved to clarify "ongoing misinformation" about his movements after he tested positive last month. He also blamed "human error" by his support team for an error on the travel document he used a week ago to enter Australia, where his visa was revoked and then reinstated in a COVID-19 vaccination saga that has overshadowed the days leading up to the Australian Open. The nine-time and defending Australian Open champion is in limbo before the year's first major starts next Monday, a week after he won a legal battle allowing him to stay in the country. |
 | | Defending Australian Open men's champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia practices at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. | | The Associated Press | |
📸 Photo of the day: Snowy owl sightings mesmerize bird-watchers 📸 |
 | | An American flag flies in the distance as a rare snowy owl looks down from the large marble orb of the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain at the entrance to Union Station in Washington, on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022. | | Carolyn Kaster, AP | |
| A snowy owl apparently touring iconic buildings of the nation's capital is captivating bird-watchers who manage to get a glimpse of the rare visitor from the Arctic. |
| The snowy owl was first seen in Washington on Jan. 3, the day a winter storm dumped eight inches of snow on the city. Since then, it has been spotted flying around the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood, landing on Union Station, the National Postal Museum, various Senate buildings and Capitol Police headquarters. |
| Click here to see more stunning photos of the rare snowy owl appearing in Washington. |
| Contributing: The Associated Press |
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