Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the incoming White House senior adviser for President-elect Joe Biden, has tested positive for COVID-19 and will self-quarantine for 14 days, the Biden-Harris transition team announced in a statement on Thursday.
What they're saying: "Richmond was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with the President-elect. President-elect Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected," per a statement from transition spokesperson Kate Bedingfield. Biden tested negative for the coronavirus on Thursday.
San Francisco will enforce a travel quarantine effective Friday as California struggles to combat rising COVID-19 deaths and hospitalization rates.
Driving the news: Anyone “traveling, moving or returning to San Francisco from anywhere outside the Bay Area” will have to remain isolated for 10 days, Mayor London Breed announced on Thursday. The order will remain in place through at least Jan. 4.
President-elect Biden on Thursday said that a suspected Russian cyberattack on multiple government agencies and U.S. companies "is a matter of great concern" and promised to impose "substantial costs" to those responsible for the attack.
Driving the news: Biden's statement came just hours after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency alerted that evidence suggested that additional malware was used in what it described as “a grave risk to the Federal Government and state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations.”
President-elect Joe Biden will name Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) as Interior secretary, according to a source with direct knowledge of the decision, a history-making move that also will test Biden's resolve on energy policy.
Why it matters: Haaland, 60, would be the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, leading the department that oversees the federal government's relationship with 567 federally recognized tribes and 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
The hastily-built outdoor seating that has kept so many restaurants limping along this fall is now starting to come down, but the fight for survival continues.
Driving the news: This week — amid Gov. Andrew Cuomo's second halt to indoor dining in New York City and a wicked blizzard that suspended outdoor service — workers at the 21 Club in Midtown rallied against the owners' decision to keep the place closed indefinitely.
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Michael Regan, the top environmental regulator in North Carolina, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a source familiar with the decision confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: If confirmed by the Senate, Regan would be the first Black man to head the agency, which will be tasked with strengthening environmental standards after four years of the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to undo Obama-era protections.
Dominion Voting Systems sent a letter to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell on Wednesday night demanding that she retract her “wild, knowingly baseless and false accusations” about the company’s voting machines.
Why it matters: The letter is the first step in possible legal action against Powell, who has made several public appearances claiming, without evidence, that Dominion's machines were involved in an international communist conspiracy to commit voter fraud and rig the election against President Trump.
Initial weekly jobless claims rose to 885,000 last week, an increase of 23,000 and a higher total than the 800,000 claims economists had projected, according to data released by the Labor Department.
Why it matters: The jobless numbers are moving in the wrong direction heading into the holidays. Amid clear indicators that the economic recovery is slowing, Congress looks set to reach a deal on a targeted stimulus package as soon as today.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Taliban negotiators in Qatar on Tuesday and flew to Afghanistan on Wednesday to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to urge a reduction in violence, AP reports.
Why it matters: It's the second time that Milley, the U.S. military's top general, has met face-to-face with negotiators from the militant group that ruled Afghanistan in the early stages of America's longest war. Milley previously met with Taliban negotiators in Qatar in June, a meeting that was not reported until today.
A member of one of Joe Biden’s transition agency review teams is stepping down from his professional CEO role while an independent law firm investigates workplace harassment charges against him, according to a letter obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: As a member of the Arts and Humanities review team, Bob Lynch — head of Americans for the Arts — is charged with making personnel recommendations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation and Smithsonian Institution.
More than 30 candidates — including boldface names like Andrew Yang — are either running or considering a run for mayor of New York, a job that will involve saving a critically wounded city.
Why it matters: Not only will the next leader help determine if Gotham retains its status as the financial, shopping, dining and glamor capital of the world, but the decisions that mayor makes could guide other leaders as they chart courses of recovery.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday, but is "asymptomatic and will continue to work on behalf of the American people while in quarantine," his spokesperson Nicholas Goodwin said in an email.
The big picture: Bernhardt is following CDC guidelines, including identifying close contacts, per a statement. He spent the past two days in meetings with other Trump administration officials and last week attended a portrait unveiling for former secretary Ryan Zinke, along with several GOP senators, reports the Washington Post, which notes that Interior attorney Daniel Jorjani and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Aurelia Skipwith also tested positive for the virus last month.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith has outlined a plan for his body to improve its oversight of cybersecurity, although experts say suspected Russian cyberattacks show the focus is late in coming.
Why it matters: The alleged Russian penetration of the Pentagon and Treasury Commerce, State, Homeland Security and other departments shows the sweep of digital warfare and the need for an all-hands, all-of-government response.
Nancy Pelosi's public endorsement of Rep. Deb Haaland to be Interior secretary alleviates pressure on the House speaker from Native American groups — and throws it right back on Biden to put the New Mexico Democrat in his Cabinet.
Why it matters: The president-elect has been casting about to find an Interior secretary he both desires and adds diversity to a Cabinet he's pledged will resemble the American people. The Democrats' fear about losing their slim majority in the House had given him a reason not to pick Haaland, despite her wide tribal backing.
A leading progressive is sounding the alarm about an "austerity mindset" inside the Democratic Party, suggesting the biggest stimulus package President-elect Joe Biden gets may come during this lame-duck session of Congress.
Why it matters: Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders and the senator's 2020 campaign manager, says Democrats may be embracing a misguided assumption that Biden will get another bite at the stimulus apple next year. Recent history, he argues, shows that won't be the case — which is partly why Sanders has been pushing for the biggest package possible during current negotiations.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says in a new television ad he was wrong to not wear a mask at a September White House event and he ended up in the ICU with COVID-19 because of his decision.
What they're saying: "This message isn't for everyone. It's for all those people who refuse to wear a mask. You know lying in isolation in ICU for seven days I thought about how wrong I was to remove my mask at the White House," Christie says in the ad.
President-elect Biden plans to take the COVID-19 vaccine in public and he could receive a dose as early as next week, his transition team confirmed to Axios Wednesday.
Details: "I don't want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take," Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Wednesday. "When I do it, I'll do it publicly, so you can all witness my getting it done."
