Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, December 14, 2020:
VACCINES EN ROUTE
The first doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine are fanning out across the country after the FDA gave the greenlight on Friday night. Cargo planes and trucks are taking the first shipments of nearly 3 million doses from Pfizer’s facility in Michigan to distribution sites in all 50 states. The first shots are expected to be given to healthcare workers as early as today. President Trump says a plan to inoculate White House staffers has been delayed after The New York Times reported that West Wing employees were told they’d be among the first to get vaccinated. NY TIMES
COVID-19: 300,000 DEAD
The U.S. is on the cusp of 300,000 coronavirus deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tally. Nearly 1 in 1,000 Americans have died of the virus this year. It is likely that the country will surpass the number of U.S. fatalities in WWII -- 405,000 -- before the pandemic ends, as public health officials don’t see hospitalizations or deaths peaking for at least another few weeks. Overseas, Angela Merkel is putting Germany into a “hard” pre-Christmas lockdown that will last until at least Jan. 10. Businesses affected will be given aid from the government. USA TODAY
ELECTORAL COLLEGE MEETS
Members of the electoral college meet in their respective states today to officially cast votes for president and vice president. The meeting -- typically just a formality -- comes after the Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear a case brought by allies of President Trump that asked the Court to overturn the vote in several states that Trump lost. On Saturday, supporters and opponents of President Trump clashed in the streets of D.C. At least four people were stabbed and 33 people were arrested. NBC WASH
WINTER INCOMING
A major winter storm is being forecast for the East Coast around mid-week. It’s still early, but the worst of it looks to be Wednesday night into Thursday for the I-95 corridor, from D.C. to Boston, with significant snowfall likely from Philly to NYC. TRACK
IPO MARKET
After a week that saw two blockbuster IPOs skyrocket in their public debuts, investors are wondering whether there is something broken with the process by which banks are pricing these stocks. The online gaming company Roblox was planning to go public this month but has decided to delay it until 2021, specifically citing the debuts of DoorDash and Airbnb and saying that it’s too difficult to accurately price their shares. If a company’s shares are priced too low, the founders, early investors and employees miss out on potentially billions of dollars. WSJ
SUSPECTED RUSSIAN HACK
The White House says that hackers -- presumably working for the Russian government -- successfully infiltrated internal computer networks at the Treasury and Commerce Depts. and took control of the agencies’ email systems, possibly as early as the spring. The breach is thought to be one of the most sophisticated cyberattacks yet on the federal government, and the full scope of is not clear. REUTERS
CLEVELAND DROPS INDIANS
The Cleveland Indians will change their name after 105 years. Multiple outlets are reporting the team will announce this week that it is dropping the Indians nickname once and for all after phasing out the Chief Wahoo mascot, the latest sports organization to get rid of its Native American imagery. A new name has not been decided, and Cleveland could stick with the current name through the upcoming season. ESPN
IN MEMORIAM: CHARLEY PRIDE
The Country Music Awards are facing mounting criticism after Charley Pride, the trailblazing Black country musician, died of COVID-19 over the weekend. Pride, 86, made his last public appearance at the CMAs last month and fell ill a couple weeks later, drawing speculation that he may have contracted the virus at the indoor event. The award show said in a statement that all safety precautions were taken and that Pride tested negative after he attended. EW
IN MEMORIAM: JOHN LE CARRÉ
John le Carré, the British literary giant famous for his spy novels, has died. Le Carreé’s most famous work, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, was considered a masterpiece of its time that depicted the gritty world of British espionage without the glamour of James Bond. He was 89 and the cause was pneumonia unrelated to COVID-19, his agent said. OBIT
LEFTOVERS: DECEMBER TO REMEMBER
If you’ve ever watched one of those luxury car commercials in which the husband surprises his wife with a brand new bow-topped Lexus for Christmas and thought to yourself: “that seems like an awfully big purchase to not even discuss first,” SNL has the parody commercial for you: WATCH
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