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| Presented By JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Mar 25, 2021 |
| Happy Thursday! Smart Brevity™ count: 972 words ... < 4 minutes. |
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| 1 big thing ... Scoop: Inside Biden's private chat with historians |
| President Biden meets with immigration advisers in the State Dining Room yesterday. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Hosting historians around a long table in the East Room earlier this month, President Biden took notes in a black book as they discussed some of his most admired predecessors. Then he said to Doris Kearns Goodwin: "I'm no FDR, but … " - Why it matters: He'd like to be.
The March 2 session, which the White House kept under wraps, reflects Biden's determination to be one of the most consequential presidents. - The chatty, two-hour-plus meeting is a for-the-history-books marker of the think-big, go-big mentality that pervades his West Wing.
The big picture: Biden's presidency has already been transformative, and he has many more giant plans teed up that could make Biden's New Deal the biggest change to governance in our lifetimes. - Biden, who holds his first formal news conference today at 1:15 p.m. in the East Room, started his term with the $1.9 trillion COVID bill, with numerous measures tucked in to reduce inequality.
- Vaccines are rolling out, positioning Biden to get ahead of the pandemic. Democrats in Congress are pushing the most sweeping changes in voting rights since the 1960s.
- And he's preparing an infrastructure and green-energy plan that's bigger than the original tab for the Interstate highway system, to be followed by a domestic proposal (free community college, universal pre-K) that brings the pair of packages to $3 trillion, with possible pay-fors that would dramatically rebalance the tax system.
Attendees tell me that the afternoon session with historians was held in a White House that was ghostly quiet, because many fewer aides are working in Biden's COVID-era West Wing than are typical. To some of the guests, it felt like a snow day. - The session was organized by Jon Meacham, the presidential biographer and informal Biden adviser who has helped with big speeches from Nashville, and serves as POTUS' historical muse.
- Besides Goodwin, participants included Michael Beschloss, author Michael Eric Dyson, Yale's Joanne Freeman, Princeton's Eddie Glaude Jr., Harvard's Annette Gordon-Reed and Walter Isaacson.
Biden made it clear to his guests that he knew the gravity of the multiple crises facing America. He knew a lot about Franklin D. Roosevelt, and peppered Goodwin with questions about the World War II leader. - Beyond the icons (Lincoln, LBJ), the conversation got as granular as the Jay Treaty of 1794.
- They talked a lot about the elasticity of presidential power, and the limits of going bigger and faster than the public might anticipate or stomach.
Afterward, Biden told an aide: "I could have gone another two hours." 🗞️ How it's playing ... Today's N.Y. Times leads with Biden-era history: |
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| 2. COVID wakes up Big Tech |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| The flood of online misinformation about COVID and vaccines finally pushed tech companies to take strong action, Axios' Kim Hart writes. - Why it matters: Political misinformation can sway elections. COVID misinformation can kill.
The CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google will testify virtually at noon ET today on "Disinformation Nation" before the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee. - Tech firms are wary of judging the veracity of users' posts. But the significant public health harm wrought by COVID-19 misinformation was a tipping point in pushing them to take stronger action.
Keep reading. |
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| 3. Inflation fears go mainstream |
 Data: CivicScience. Chart: Axios Visuals A survey from data firm CivicScience, provided first to Axios Markets editor Dion Rabouin, shows that more than three-quarters of American consumers are concerned about inflation. - Why it matters: When people expect costs to rise, they behave accordingly — they demand higher pay, raise rents and increase the cost of goods and services. All of those things push inflation higher.
The survey's most intriguing data point is that young people, who have never before experienced runaway inflation, are the most worried. |
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| A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
| Policy is key in designing inclusive pathways to well-paid careers |
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| JPMorgan Chase's PolicyCenter is advancing specific policy recommendations for inclusive, high-quality career pathways. The reason: Current education and training systems are not meeting the existing demand for skilled workers. Learn about the company's policy recommendations. |
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| 4. First steps of summer Olympics |
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| Photo: Kyodo News via Getty Images |
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| Beginning a 121-day journey across Japan, the opening leg of the torch relay for the Tokyo games (July 23 to Aug. 8) today went through this no-spectator zone around the soccer training center in the northeastern Fukushima prefecture, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2011. |
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| 5. Boston's milestone |
| Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Kim Janey was sworn in as Boston's acting mayor, becoming the first Black person and first woman to hold the position, The Boston Globe reports. - Her 6-year-old granddaughter, Rosie, held the Bible. Janey said:
I stand before you as the first woman, and the first Black mayor of Boston, the city that I love, and come to this day with life experience that is different from the men who came before me. |
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| 6. Murder rates rose sharply in 2020 |
 Pandemic-induced fear, economic hardship, domestic discord and racial strife — plus an influx of guns — helped propel the urban homicide rate to a record last year, the great Jennifer A. Kingson writes from New York. - Why it matters: A drumbeat of dire reports about rising crime has left city dwellers justifiably scared.
The data comes from a report released by Arnold Ventures — a philanthropy focused on solving societal problems — and the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice. Share this story. |
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| 7. Cuomo family got house calls |
| Courtesy N.Y. Post As COVID swept through New York early last year, "Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration arranged for his family members and other well-connected figures to have special access to state-administered coronavirus tests, dispatching a top state doctor and other state health officials to their homes," the WashPost reports. - "Among those who benefited from the priority testing program was Cuomo's brother Chris ... The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top New York Department of Health doctor, who visited his Hamptons home."
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| 8. Our weekly map: Cases rise in 19 states, fall in 14 |
 Data: CSSE at Johns Hopkins. Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios New COVID infections rose over the past week in 19 states while holding steady nationwide, Axios' Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon report. - 14 states saw their numbers fall. The biggest improvements were in Arizona and Nevada, both of which saw new cases drop by about 45%.
- Michigan took the biggest step back, with a 50% rise in new cases.
Share this map. |
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| 9. Stuck mega-ship imperils world shipping |
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| Satellite photo: European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-2 Satellite/Maxar Technologies via Reuters |
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| A skyscraper-sized cargo ship — one of the largest in the world — is wedged in Egypt's Suez Canal, blocking 150+ other vessels in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, AP reports. - Efforts to free the quarter-mile-long, 20,000-container ship — including tugs, dredgers, digging and the aid of high tides — have yet to free it, affecting billions of dollars' worth of cargo.
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| 10. ⚽ 1 smile to go |
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| Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA via Getty Images |
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| Margaret Purce (left) and Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women's national soccer team joined President Biden as he signed a proclamation honoring Equal Pay Day. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |
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| A message from JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
| One in three American adults have a criminal record |
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JPMorgan Chase is helping people with criminal backgrounds build in-demand skills and gain access to employment by: - Advancing a policy agenda that reduces barriers to employment; and
- Removing questions about criminal backgrounds from job applications.
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