Biden and Harris call for teachers to be vaccine priority – US politics live | US news

Former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke criticized the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, for falsely blaming renewable energy for the power outages in their state.

The unusual winter storm impacting the central US has caused widespread power outages in Texas, which conservatives have attempted to blamed on renewable energy sources.

Abbott, a Republican, went on Fox News last night and told host Sean Hannity, “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.”

Abbott added, “Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis. … It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”

In reality, most of the power outages have been caused by failures at natural gas and coal-powered plants due to the subfreezing temperatures.

O’Rourke, who has said he is considering a gubernatorial bid in Texas, criticized Abbott for trying to avoid responsibility for the outages by raising doubts about renewable energy.

The former congressman wrote on Twitter, “You’re the governor of a state where millions don’t have power, where people are literally dying of exposure, and you go on Fox news to talk about… the Green New Deal? You are the governor. Your party has run Texas for 20 years. Accept responsibility & help us get out of this.”

Alexandra Villarreal reports for the Guardian:

As a brutal winter storm pummeled much of Texas, Cecilia Corral scoured social media posts written by fellow Austinites. From single mothers and their newborns, others in her city were freezing without heat or desperately needed food.

“Yesterday, I lost count the number of times that I cried from what I was seeing,” said Corral, co-founder and vice president of product at CareMessage, a nonprofit and patient engagement platform focused on medically underserved areas.

Millions of Texans found themselves cold and in the dark on Tuesday, unleashing suffering and death in a state that produces the most electricity in the nation by far, yet somehow lost control of its own power grid amid a harsh winter. Amid the catastrophe, photos of illuminated city skylines circulated on social media, sparking outrage, and revealing how socioeconomically disadvantaged families and people of color shouldered an outsized burden from officials’ bungled management.

“It’s not just today. It’s not just this emergency. It’s every emergency,” said Natasha Harper-Madison, the mayor pro-tem of Austin. “These are the kinds of disparities that we see on a normal basis all the time. They just happen to be amplified because of the emergency.”

Donald Trump’s name is no longer part of the skyline in Atlantic City, after the implosion of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino this morning.

The former president has not owned the casino since 2009, when he relinquished it amid a series of bankruptcy filings. Trump Plaza permanently closed in 2014.

Trump’s two other casinos in Atlantic City, Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Marina Hotel Casino, have also closed, meaning the president’s name is nowhere to be found in the city.

Some were present to witness the implosion, with onlookers being charged $10 to watch the building’s demise from a parking lot.

Jennifer Owen, who paid $575 for a VIP viewing of the implosion, told the New York Times, “It’s an end of a not-so-great era.”

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris are both calling for teachers to be prioritized for the coronavirus vaccine, as the global pandemic approaches the one-year mark.

Speaking at a CNN town hall in Wisconsin last night, Biden said of vaccinating teachers, “We should move them up in the hierarchy.”

Harris echoed that message this morning, telling the “Today” show, “They should be able to teach in a safe place and expand the minds and the opportunities of our children, so teachers should be a priority along with other frontline workers.”

The comments come as some teachers’ unions have clashed with their local leaders about sending educators back to the classroom before they are all vaccinated.

A number of health experts, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have suggested that vaccinating all teachers is not necessary to safely reopen schools, but teachers’ unions have expressed concern that their members are being put in harm’s way.

With so millions of kids still out of school and many American families stretched to the breaking point, it seems there are only imperfect solutions to this vast problem.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.