Today's Takes: Monday, September 20

Good morning, everyone.

We got tons of rain in Middle Tennessee this weekend. Hope you stayed dry.

Headlines

📰 Today's Front Pages

A quick look at this morning's front pages so you know what you're supposed to be mad about.

• Reuters: Special Report: BP gambles big on fast transition from oil to renewables (Read)
• New York Times: Covid Vaccine Prompts Strong Immune Response in Younger Children, Pfizer Says (Read)
• Wall Street Journal: Stock-Market Futures Fall on Chinese Property Fears (Read)
• Fox News: Gabby Petito: Body found likely missing woman; search for Brian Laundrie intensifies (Read)
• CNN: Covid-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds is safe and shows 'robust' antibody response, Pfizer says (Read)
• NPR: Biden Says 'America's Back.' The World Has Some Questions (Read)
• Breitbart: Viewers Rage at Maskless Emmys: ‘But Kids Have to Wear a Mask to School. What the F**k’ (Read)
• HuffPost: Senate Parliamentarian Rules Against Path To Citizenship In Democrats’ Spending Bill (Read)

🏛 From the Hill

• Biden Steps Up Efforts to Advance $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill (WSJ) After bombing in his meeting with Senator Joe Manchin, it appears the the $3.5T price tag will see a significant reduction.
• Media pundits mocked for still trying to make news out of 'dud' rally on Capitol Hill (Fox News) Rumor has it there were more Capital Hill police officers and FBI agents in attendance than actual civilians.
• Pentagon acknowledges Aug. 29 drone strike in Afghanistan was a tragic mistake that killed 10 civilians. (NYT)

🗺 Down on the Borderline

• Virginia and Wisconsin report measles cases among refugees (WMAL) The safe import of refugees trumps health. It's perhaps the only thing that does at the moment.
• Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Amass Under Bridge in Texas (Epoch Times) Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Haiti, are congregating under a bridge in Texas while they wait to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol.
• Stephen Miller's Twitter thread outlining the immigration legislation in Biden's End All Pain And Suffering Bill (@StephenM)

💿 On Technology

• Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead. (WSJ) I'm old enough to remember the days when Facebook changing the alogrithm to mess with people's moods was met with universal condemnation. Now, the narrative has adjusted to something along the lines of "misinformation is the source of all evil" and all measures intended to fight against it (in the name of health of course) are justified. Facebook is optional.
• Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show (WSJ) “Among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram”. Instagram is also optional.
• Delivery Delay Outrage Puts Spotlight on Contested Amazon Expansion (Bloomberg) Amazon allegedly slowed down delivery times to California town that rejected the construction of an Amazon warehouse in its business park.

🔎 Life During Wartime

• Is Carbonated Water Just as Healthy as Still Water? (NYT) The experts weigh in. Without the experts, what would we do?
• Women Are Nearly Half of New Gun Buyers, Study Finds (WSJ) For decades, 10% to 20% of American gun owners were women. However, last year this has jumped up to almost 50 percent. 15% -> ~47% is a pretty notable demographic shift.

Nashville Politics

• Williamson County families sue Gov. Lee, school districts over mask opt-out (Channel 5)
• Memphis Gave IKEA $9.5 Million While Several Smaller Furniture Stores Went Under (Reason)
• Mayor Glenn Jacobs on Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Mandate: ‘Knox County Will Not Comply’ (Star)
• New TNJ edition alert: Could losing 5th District be blessing in disguise for Dems? (TNJ)

Nashville News

• Tennessee sees third monthly drop in unemployment rate in August (Homepage) For the month of August, Tennessee was found to have an unemployment rate of 4.6%, the single-lowest statewide monthly unemployment rate since the pandemic began in April 2020.
• This Is How Many Veterans There Are in Tennessee Compared To Other States (Center Square) Nationwide, veterans account for 6.9% of the adult population. In Tennessee, 422,161 residents, or 8.0% of the 18 and older population, are military veterans -- the 24th largest share among states. Of all veterans in the state, 22.1% served after Sept. 11 2001, 36.9% served during the Vietnam War era, and 1.2% are veterans of WWII.
• Bredesen company brings renewable energy to small companies (Lookout)
• Ingram, Nihill to lead World Cup organizing committee (Post)
• Study reveals how schools spent federal pandemic funds (Channel 5)

Nashville Development

• After 50 years, MetroCenter sees the growth initial developers had hoped for business park (Tennessean)
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center plans $144 million hospital in Murfreesboro (Biz Journal)
• East Nashville building sells for $3.4M (Post)
• Edgehill site eyed for five-story apartment building (Post)
• Wedgewood-Houston land offered for $7M (Post)
• Ascension announces $110M plan to expand Murfreesboro hospital (Post)
• Sylvan Heights Site Cleared For 320-Unit Development On Charlotte Pike (Now Next)
• Antioch apartment complex sells for $71M (Post)

COVID Gutter

Headlines

• Critics of Boosters Still Want Lockdowns (Free Beacon) Of the 18 scientists who criticized boosters, more than half are on record as supporting other, more burdensome interventions since the summer surge. When those scientists were asked why, if boosters aren't necessary, masks and social distancing are. None of them responded.
• Is the delta coronavirus variant more dangerous for children? (New Scientist) No.
• 125 Staff Part Ways With Indiana’s Biggest Hospital System After Refusing Vaccine (Epoch Times)
• Federal Judge Sides With DeSantis on Mask Mandate Ban (Epoch Times)
• FDA Panel Overwhelmingly Rejects Biden’s Booster Shot Plan For All Americans (Federalist)

Information

• Preprint of a study from UW-Madison examining infectious SARS-CoV-2 despite vaccination doesn't look good for mandate advocates (@TyCardon)

Thoughts on Cities

🌆 Why Are There Zero Republican Mega-Cities? (Read)

📝 Metropolitan Majority: The Survey (Read)

Have a great Monday