🥁 Axios PM: Million fewer students

Plus: Swirling ice disk | Thursday, January 13, 2022

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Facebook   Axios PM By Mike Allen ·Jan 13, 2022 Good afternoon: Today's PM — edited by Justin Green — is 492 words, a 2-minute read. 🚨 Breaking: The Supreme Court blocked President Biden's vaccine mandate for big businesses, but it will allow a similar mandate to remain for workers at federally funded health care facilities. Go deeper.     1 big thing: Million fewer college students Data: National Student Clearinghouse; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios America now has 1 million fewer college students than before the start of the pandemic, reports Axios' Erin Doherty. The big picture: Declines are hitting every category, including public and private colleges and two- and four-year schools. Enrollment among first-year students is 9.2% lower than pre-pandemic levels, even as it stabilized this fall. The hardest hit: Public two-year colleges, with a 13.2% drop since 2019, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found. Between the lines: College enrollment has been on a downward trajectory since 2012, driven in part by fewer college-age adults. The bottom line: Omicron is sending colleges back to the behavior of spring 2020. That includes last-minute returns to online classes, The Wall Street Journal reports.     2. 🌎 Our COVID test prices vs. the world's Data: Axios research. (Prices vary within countries. France and Malaysia prices reflect legal price caps.) Chart: Axios Visuals The Biden administration is buying an additional 500 million rapid tests to distribute to people in the U.S. for free. Americans are paying twice as much as the French for at-home rapid tests — and they're already free for our neighbors to the north.     A message from Facebook Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations     Rochelle is one of many experts working on privacy at Facebook—to give you more control over your information. Hear more from Rochelle on why Facebook supports updating regulations on the internet's most pressing challenges, including federal privacy legislation.     3. Catch up quick Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has been arrested and charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Go deeper. The RNC threatens to block future GOP presidential nominees from debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates unless "meaningful reforms" are made. Read the letter. 2021 was the sixth-warmest year on record, according to new, independent data from NASA, NOAA and Berkeley Earth. Go deeper.     4. 🗳️ Dave McCormick announces in Pa. Screenshot: Dave McCormick for U.S. Senate Dave McCormick — trying to preempt the fancy-pants aura of a former hedge-fund CEO — enlisted two high-school buddies to announce today for the Republican U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania. "I shot my first buck right over that hill," McCormick says in an ad, clad in blaze orange. "It was huuuge." One of his beer-drinking friends interjects: "I thought it was a doe." McCormick, 56, is running against TV's Dr. Mehmet Oz for the Republican nomination. McCormick was an Army combat paratrooper and official in the George W. Bush administration before becoming Bridgewater CEO — a job he gave up to run. A top issue: "Time for America's leaders to confront China's Communist Party head on," he writes in an op-ed. Context: Christine Toretti, the state's longtime GOP national committeewoman, backs McCormick. So do fundraisers Pat Deon and Bill Sasso. Former state party chair Rob Gleason told Pittsburgh-based reporter Salena Zito that McCormick "is the guy that will win in a general." Watch the buddies ad ... Watch his announcement with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo.     5. 1 smile to go: This Maine attraction Photo: Robert F. Bukaty/AP This swirling disk of ice on the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine, is drawing gawkers in the heart of winter, AP reports. The disk — formed by currents and vortexes under the ice — first appeared in the river in 2019.     A message from Facebook Facebook is committed to your safety and security online     We've invested more than $13 billion in teams and technology to stop bad actors and remove illicit content. Since July, we've taken action on: 1.8 billion fake accounts. 26.6 million violent and graphic posts. 9.8 million terrorism-related posts. Find out how we're working to enhance safety.   Like this email style and format? Bring the strength of Smart Brevity® to your team — more effective communications, powered by Axios HQ.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: