Of course vaccine distribution would reflect the rampant income inequality in America. OF COURSE.
Of course vaccine distribution would reflect the rampant income inequality in America. OF COURSE. Guillermo Legaria /Getty
Today, Biden's executive actions will focus on health care: He's expected to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to open a special enrollment period on HealthCare.gov from February 15 to May 15 to give Americans a chance to sign up for government health coverage, something Trump refused to do. Biden will also call for a reexamination of Trump era policies that undermined Medicaid and rescind the so-called "Mexico City policy."

Man files lawsuit to remove fencing around the Legislative Building in Olympia: Tyler Miller of "Hazardous Liberty" wants to restore the "aesthetic quality" and reopen the building, despite, you know, the pandemic. Naming Governor Jay Inslee and Director of Enterprise Services Chris Liu as defendants, the suit claims that the continued closure of the Legislative Building "presents grave infringements on the constitutionally protected rights" of Miller and "all Washington citizens." OK, dude.

Parkland shooting survivors call for the censure of GOP/QAnon representative: Video from 2019 showing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Capitol Hill harassing David Hogg, a teen survivor of the school shooting, resurfaced this week. In the video, she called him a coward and cited baseless conspiracy theories while following him on the streets of D.C. Greene is under renewed scrutiny after CNN reported the representative indicated support for executing Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. Fucking scary.

COVID-19 poses greater risk of death, hospitalization for pregnant people: A new study from Washington state shows that pregnant patients are at a higher risk for serious illness and hospitalization if they catch coronavirus. The Seattle Times reports that the COVID-19 mortality rate for pregnant patients is 13 times higher than non-pregnant people of similar ages.

Keep an eye out: Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to announce new adjustments to public-health metrics that will allow for some "additional flexibility" around reopening during the pandemic. Details are vague, but doesn't this sorta sound like we're cheating on a test?

GOP senators are holding up Biden's nominee for Department of Homeland Security secretary: Republican Sen. John Cornyn has confirmed Senate Republicans' plan to filibuster, saying Alejandro Mayorkas has not been properly vetted on immigration issues. According to CNN, the Senate will hold Mayorkas's final confirmation vote on Monday evening after they break the filibuster this afternoon.

Meanwhile: Two more Biden nominees are undergoing confirmation hearings in the Senate right now. Cecilia Rouse is testifying before the Senate Banking Committee for a position to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers. And Marcia Fudge is also testifying before another Senate committee from her home state of Ohio for the position of secretary of Housing and Urban Development. You can watch Fudge's proceedings live:

Eastside hospital that granted vaccine access to rich donors says "sowwwwwwy": Overlake Medical Center issued an apology for allowing certain MONIED eligible patients to jump the line and get the arm jab. "We recognize we made a mistake by including a subset of our donors and by not adopting a broader outreach strategy to fill these appointments, and we apologize." If you care, you can read their full statement here.

847,000 Americans filed first-time unemployment claims this week: And another 426,856 people filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. All together, first-time claims hovered at 1.3 million while continued jobless claims fell slightly to 4.8 million. This data comes as analysts show that 2020 was the worst year for the U.S. economy since 1946, making the case that defeating the pandemic truly is a wartime effort.

Production of Olympia Beer put on indefinite pause: Recently, Olympia Brewing Company announced that they'd halt the production of the iconic PNW beer after 125 years due to reduced sales. In an Instagram post, the company also detailed their struggle to bring back local production of the lager, which moved to California after they were bought by Pabst. Their vodka distillery, however, is still open for business.

Today will be another rainy one: Are you surprised?

Microsoft reduced its carbon emissions by 6% last year: Dropping from 11.6 million metric tons to 10.9 million metric tons, reports GeekWire. The company also paid for the removal of 1.3 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere (I'm imagining someone literally cutting out the layer of carbon from the sky, but I digress). If they can keep it up, Microsoft is on track to reach its ambitious climate goals.

Season three of Shrill will be its last: The Hulu series based off of former Stranger writer Lindy West's memoir of the same name just wrapped up filming its third season in Portland, Oregon. No release date has been announced just yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing where Annie (the wonderful Aidy Bryant) ends up.

HoneyHole gets new owners: And they're bringing back The Corleone. Bless.

Yes, I'm looking right at you, Guy Palumbo: 1 in 5 lobbyists from Washington state come from state service. That's due to the fact that our state does not require any "cooling off" period between serving as an elected official or government worker and yukking it up with Big Money Pants corporations like Amazon. Yesterday, Sen. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle introduced a bill that would "prohibit certain state officials from practicing or getting paid to lobby" for one year after they leave their public position, reports the Seattle Times. He has five Democratic co-sponsors on the measure—fingers crossed our state can now do the bare minimum to prevent Guy Palumbos from Guy Palumbo-ing.

For your listening pleasure: Séxtasy's Boiler Room set. Don't you wish you were in a sunlit room, wearing a gauzy blouse, twirling above Moscow?