Staff Reports
Last Call — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
First Shot
The Washington National Cathedral will remember the more than 700,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States with a bell-ringing ceremony this evening.
Starting at 5 p.m., the Northwest D.C. chapel will ring the Bourdon bell once for every 1,000 Americans who have died from the virus.
With the bell ringing once every 10 seconds, the event is expected to have a 70-minute runtime. The cathedral will livestream the bell ringing on YouTube.
This is not the first time the Washington National Cathedral has memorialized the dead with a bell-ringing ceremony — it did so just a few months ago, with the death toll hit 600,000.
The U.S. has reported 43.8 million coronavirus cases to date as of Tuesday, with an average of 103,785 cases a day over the past two weeks. The rolling average for daily deaths is 1,829.
Of the 703,362 U.S. deaths, 55,619 were reported in Florida.
The state total has increased rapidly over the past three months — approximately 17,000 deaths have been recorded since early July.
Florida’s per capita death rate of 259 per 100,000 people is the ninth-worst among the 50 states and D.C. The state is No. 4 in cases per 100,000 residents, behind only Tennessee, North Dakota and South Carolina.
Florida’s vaccination rate is middling, too, despite the recent surge. As of Tuesday, Florida is No. 22 in the percent of residents who have received at least one shot and No. 26 in residents who are fully vaccinated according to data compiled by The New York Times.
Evening Reads
“A better name for booster shots” via Katherine J. Wu of The Atlantic
“Why people who don’t trust vaccines are embracing unproven drugs” via Dylan Scott of Vox
“COVID-19 made Florida’s opioid problem worse. What will lawmakers do?” via Kirby Wilson and Natalie Weber of the Tampa Bay Times
“Pandora Papers: The disgraced cardinal, his moneyman, an Elton John biopic and Miami condos” via Kevin G. Hall of the Miami Herald
“Education Commissioner: Dock pay from more school boards plus withhold additional state funds” via Danielle J. Brown of the Florida Phoenix
“Gov. Ron DeSantis top donor: End your war on masks” via Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel
“Why past hurricane seasons don’t tell us much about the future” via Anna Wiederkehr of FiveThirtyEight
“Congress moves toward requiring women to register for the draft” via Mark Satter of Roll Call
“Global hunt for looted treasures leads to offshore trusts” via Peter Whoriskey, Malia Politzer, Delphine Reuter and Spencer Woodman of The Washington Post
“The Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen: Does the law protect her?” via Laura Kusisto and Mengqi Sun of The Wall Street Journal
“Alcohol is the breast cancer risk no one wants to talk about” via Michele Cohen Marill of WIRED
“Who is the bad art friend?” via Robert Kolker of The New York Times
“A guide to Urban Meyer’s latest midlife crisis and the mortifying midrestaurant lap dance at its heart” via Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate
Quote of the Day
“Ending this despicable crime is a fight that we must win, and we cannot beat this evil by working alone.” — Attorney General Ashley Moody, opening the 2021 Human Trafficking Summit
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