The Government Still Calls Covid an Emergency

The Biden administration said Thursday that the COVID-19 public health emergency will continue through Jan. 11 as officials brace for a spike in cases this winter.

The decision comes as the pandemic has faded from the forefront of many people’s minds. Daily deaths and infections are dropping and people — many of them maskless — are returning to schools, work and grocery stores as normal.

As the U.S. approaches the third anniversary of the original federal declaration—not to mention various state and local pronouncements—voters should ask candidates and especially governors a key question: Are they willing to curtail the emergency powers that have been so abused in this era of mandates, misguided prohibitions and misallocated resources?

Earlier this week the AP’s Cheyanne Mumphrey reported:

Scores on the ACT college admissions test by this year’s high school graduates hit their lowest point in more than 30 years — the latest evidence of the enormity of learning disruption during the pandemic.

The class of 2022′s average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 that the average score was below 20. What’s more, an increasing number of high school students failed to meet any of the subject-area benchmarks set by the ACT — showing a decline in preparedness for college-level coursework.

The test scores, made public in a report Wednesday, show 42% of ACT-tested graduates in the class of 2022 met none of the subject benchmarks in English, reading, science and math, which are indicators of how well students are expected to perform in corresponding college courses.

The political panic that resulted in lockdowns will haunt these kids for years. Let’s at least make sure this disaster is not repeated.

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Gambling on the Midterms
Katie Marriner and Victor Reklaitis report at MarketWatch:

The Republican Party’s chances for taking control of the U.S. Senate after November’s midterm elections are continuing to improve, with betting market PredictIt now favoring the GOP over Democrats.

Republicans reached a 52% chance of winning the Senate on Wednesday and stayed at that mark on Thursday, according to PredictIt data. That’s the highest level since Aug. 1, which was the last time that the GOP was favored.

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Not a Vegan
When fake burgermeister

Beyond Meat

went public in 2019 this column maintained a healthy skepticism. This year the news has not been unconditionally good for the manufacturer of meat-like products. Now the Journal’s Sabela Ojea reports:

Beyond Meat Inc. parted ways with its operating chief, who had been suspended after being arrested for allegedly biting a man’s nose and threatening to kill him…

[Doug] Ramsey’s departure comes as the plant-based meat company cut its full-year revenue outlook further and said it was reducing its global workforce by nearly 20% as it focuses on lowering expenses amid high levels of inflation.

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Kids—They Grow Up So Fast!
Frank Jordans reports for the Associated Press from Berlin:

Climate activist Greta Thunberg says it would be “a mistake” for Germany to switch off its nuclear power plants if that means the country must burn more planet-heating coal…

Thunberg, who inspired a youth climate movement with her solo protests outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, told German public broadcaster ARD that it was “a very bad idea to focus on coal when this (nuclear power) is already in place.”

… Asked whether it would be better for the planet if Germany keeps its three remaining nuclear plants going, Thunberg responded: “If we have them already running, I feel that it’s a mistake to close them down in order to focus on coal.”

Pressed by program host Sandra Maischberger on whether she thought the nuclear plants should be closed down as soon as possible after the current energy crunch passes, Thunberg said “it depends. We don’t know what will happen after this.”

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Who Was That Masked Man and Was He Mostly Peaceful?
Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck at CNN report on congressional candidate Gabe Vasquez:

A Democratic House candidate in New Mexico, campaigning as a moderate in a tightly contested race, deleted tweets attacking the oil and gas industry, rationalizing rioting in summer 2020, and comparing the Trump administration to the Ku Klux Klan…

Vasquez, who has promoted himself in interviews during his campaign as a supporter of the region’s fossil fuel industry… previously called it “extremely toxic”…

The CNN report also notes:

Vasquez has… promoted himself as a supporter of police in advertisements. But he deleted a tweet rationalizing rioting in cities following the murder of

George Floyd

in 2020. Vasquez has repeatedly said he opposes defunding the police, but suggested he supported such a policy while speaking with a local station during a protest in 2020 – while wearing a face mask and without giving his name. “We need serious police reform in this country,” he said in the clip. “It’s not just about defunding police, it’s about defunding a system that privileges white people over everyone else.”

A campaign spokesperson told Politico that Vasquez did not give his name because he wanted the focus to be on the organizers of the protest.

One can certainly understand why he would not want voters to focus on his ideas.

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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”

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(Lisa Rossi helps compile Best of the Web. Thanks to Kindred Powell.)