What Happened Was...

A lightning fast recap of the week's biggest events for January 3rd - 9th, 2022

Lawmakers and staff gather for a prayer vigil on the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/via Getty Images)

Below is a catch-up of the significant events of this past week. You can check in with a minimal time commitment, read about the big stuff, and stay in the know before we’re on to the next. Also, I would encourage you to scroll through my Twitter feed for the week for more detail on any essential topics that I don’t mention here. I will discuss the issues in quick snippets with links attached to provide you with more access to information on the subject. 

There have already been ten separate mass shooting incidents in the US in 2022, where 11 people were killed and 31 were injured. I will be documenting all mass shooting incidents for the week every Sunday, so please take a moment to review them and remember to keep up the fight for sensible gun restriction reform. 

1. Saturday, January 1, 2022: South Bend, Indiana

2. Saturday, January 1, 2022: Kenosha, Wisconsin

3. Saturday, January 1, 2022: Dillon, South Carolina

4. Saturday, January 1, 2022: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

5. Saturday, January 1, 2022: Peoria, Illinois

6. Saturday, January 1, 2022: Denver, Colorado

7. Saturday, January 1, 2022: Columbia, Missouri

8. Sunday, January 2, 2022: San Antonio, Texas

9. Sunday, January 2, 2022: Corsicana, Texas

10. Tuesday, January 4, 2022: Jackson, Mississippi

• The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has risen nearly 50% in the United States this past week, and now exceeds 100,000, according to data collected by Reuters, marking the first time that threshold has been reached in a year.

• Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside Democratic National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building — the suspect who planted the bomb has still not been identified.

• Despite claims made by Fox News this week, then-President Donald Trump never requested 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the Capitol on Jan. 6th, instead he threw out a number, in casual conversation, that is now regarded by his supporters as a lifeline to excuse his inaction when a mob inspired by his rhetoric invaded the Capitol.

• The Postal Service is seeking a temporary exemption from President Joe Biden's vaccine-or-testing mandate, just days before the Biden administration's rule is slated to take effect, arguing a waiver would prevent major disruptions to mail delivery.

• As the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations now surpass those during the Delta variant surge, causing mass absences of hospital employees, medical personnel, and troops with the National Guard have been mobilized to assist hospitals with patient care.

  Kyle Clark @KyleClark

  NEW: Colorado activates "crisis standards of care" for EMS due to COVID-19 surge. Ambulances may not be dispatched on as many calls and suspected COVID patients in continuous cardiac arrest will not be transported to hospitals. #COVID19Colorado

• The Chief Medical Officer at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, one of the area's largest hospitals straining to treat an influx of COVID-19, says more than 500 staff employees out of 13,000 are out sick or awaiting test results.

• In his first federal court appearance in the Eastern District of New York on Monday, billionaire Tom Barrack pleaded not guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government and lying to the FBI about it.

• The New York Attorney General’s office confirmed on Monday that former President Donald Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., have been subpoenaed in connection with the investigation into the family’s business practices.

• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidance on the recommended Covid-19 isolation period Tuesday, telling people that if they have access to a Covid-19 test and want to take it, the best approach is to use a rapid test toward the end of their five-day isolation period.

• On Tuesday, former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty on four charges, including one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud. Holmes now faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution on each count.

• The Recording Academy and CBS announced on Wednesday that they are indefinitely postponing the 2022 Grammy Awards due to concerns over the omicron coronavirus variant.

• Election officials in Arizona's most populous Maricopa County found nearly every conclusion in a partisan "audit" of Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election to be misleading or false, according to an official rebuttal released on Wednesday.

  Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule

  Here is footage from a year ago, showing the events in real-time, as the Trump insurrectionists broke into the Capitol and roamed Statuary Hall to get to the Senate.

• Peter Bogdanovich, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of The Last Picture Show; What’s Up, Doc?; and Paper Moon died shortly after midnight on Thursday of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles — he was 82.

• On Thursday, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told reporters that former President Donald Trump "gleefully" watched his supporters violently storm the Capitol on January 6. "All I know about that day was that he was in the dining room, gleefully watching on his TV as he often did, 'look at all of the people fighting for me,' hitting rewind, watching it again — that's what I know," said Grisham.

• Thursday marked the one year anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol, in which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election, that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, and press.

  Chris Murphy @ChrisMurphyCT

  At the moment of silence for the Capitol Police officers who died, there were only two Republicans who showed up. Rep. Lynn Cheney. And her father. The 80 year old former Vice President. An extraordinary image of where this country’s politics are right now.

  

• A strain of Covid-19 that combines delta and omicron was found in Cyprus, according to an interview on Friday with Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology. 

• A special session was held at the US Supreme Court on Friday, where the justices heard expedited arguments in cases challenging two major Biden administration regulations aimed at increasing the number of vaccinated workers.

  Mark Joseph Stern @mjs_DC

  Kagan is such a strong communicator on vaccine mandates. "This is a pandemic in which nearly a million people have died ... This is the policy that is most geared to stop all this. ... So whatever 'necessary' means, whatever 'grave' means, why isn't this necessary and grave?"

• A Michigan judge refused to lower a $500,000 bond for the parents of 15-year-old alleged school shooter Ethan Crumbley on Friday, at a hearing where prosecutors alleged that the teen was “fascinated with guns and Nazi propaganda.”

• On Friday, a Georgia judge sentenced the three men convicted in November of murdering Ahmaud Arbery to life in prison — two of the three men—gunman Travis McMichael and his father Greg McMichael—will not have the possibility of parole.

• Sidney Poitier, the renowned Hollywood actor, director, and activist who commanded the screen, reshaped the culture and paved the way for countless other Black actors with stirring performances in classics such as “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” died on Friday at the age of 94.

• An Australian government request to delay Novak Djokovic's visa hearing by two days has been rejected, according to court documents published on Sunday.

  Djokovic is currently confined to a temporary detention facility in Melbourne as he mounts a legal challenge against the cancellation of his visa ahead of this month's Australian Open.

For more detail on the events of the last few weeks, please read the following articles listed below:

Let's Take Our Temps

How to Create Your Own Vaccine Mandate and Help Protect Us All

Why the CDC Dropped the Pandemic Ball

The Coup at the Capitol (Part 1)

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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.

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