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Where Things Stand: Washington State Finally Does It — All School Workers Must Be Vaccinated 
Being vaccinated is now a condition of employment in all Washington state schools. And that includes public, charter and private.
Where Things Stand: Election Officials Are Searching For A Plan To Avoid The Next MAGA ‘Audit’ Disaster
The National Association of Secretaries of State is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Where Things Stand: Contender For Worst COVID Governor Gets COVID
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who has distinguished himself with his incredibly lax approach to handling the COVID-19 outbreak in his state, has tested positive for COVID-19.
Where Things Stand: The GOP’s Dramatic Reversal
The Republican Party wants you to forget that just a few months ago the GOP agreed that the move to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which Biden is now being criticized for, was sound foreign policy.
Where Things Stand: Cruz Hops On The ‘Poor Insurrectionists!’ Train
We expected folks like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to offer jailed insurrectionists the victim card. They staged a photo-op protest at the jail where some of them are being held last month to paint the rioters as mistreated political prisoners.
Now Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is joining the whitewashing movement.
Where Things Stand: Greenberg Hands Over Sex-Arranging Texts That Include Pics Of Gaetz
ABC News got its hands on some private messages that it says Matt Gaetz’s buddy Joel Greenberg allegedly sent. The messages, ABC reports, were turned over to federal investigators, and reportedly show Greenberg arranging a meet up between himself, Gaetz, and women who were allegedly paid for sex.
Things are looking increasingly bad — and gross — for the congressman.
Where Things Stand: Biden Sends Ventilators To FL. DeSantis Wants Nothing To Do With It
The Biden administration reportedly sent 200 ventilators and 100 nasal oxygen kits to the state of Florida this week as the state sees an unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases. As we’ve reported, the number of people hospitalized with the virus increased by 1,173 just in the last two days — putting the total number of confirmed hospitalizations in the Sunshine state at 14,787.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis claims he didn’t ask the feds for the life-saving equipment.
Where Things Stand: Mark Meadows, You’re Up
Former White House chief-of-staff Mark Meadows was one of Trump’s top henchmen pushing the DOJ to buy into his conspiracy theory of a stolen election — that is, when Trump wasn’t doing the dirty work himself.
Are We Thinking the Right Way About What Constitutes Infection?
One of the most interesting and clarifying discussions I’ve read in recent weeks is Dr. Monica Gandhi’s discussion of the difference between ‘colonization’ and ‘infection’ in thinking about what counts as a case of COVID. It’s conceptually interesting but also highly relevant both for the choices we make balancing risk as individuals as well as how we approach the vaccine phase of the pandemic in policy terms.
As Gandhi tells it, in many cases a vaccinated individual will be exposed to COVID and have the pathogen briefly colonize their nasal passages. But vaccine-induced immunity will fight and defeat the virus there. Is that an infection or a case? If you take a PCR test, you’ll test positive. But Gandhi says we’re confusing things by treating it as one.
Gandhi is an infectious disease specialist and we spoke with her this morning in an Inside Briefing about this and related topics.
If you’re a TPM member you can watch our full interview after the jump.
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Where Things Stand: On To The Main Course
At TPM, we’ve been harping on the fact that the whole bipartisan back-and-forth that unfolded over the last two months — and that might conclude early tomorrow morning — doesn’t really matter that much. It’s the reconciliation package that matters. If it passes in a form similar to what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined this morning, it would be the most significant progressive legislation in at least a decade.
It might also be the last significant progressive legislation for at least a decade.