https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/nils-lofgren-latest-musician-pull-025321195.html

And now it’s three. E Street Band and Crazy Horse guitarist Nils Lofgren is the latest musician to pull music off Spotify. In a statement posted on Neil Young’s website, he detailed his decision.

“A few days ago, my wife Amy and I became aware of Neil and Daryl standing with hundreds of healthcare professionals, scientists, doctors, and nurses in calling out Spotify for promoting lies and misinformation that are hurting and killing people,” Lofgren said.

“When these heroic women and men, who’ve spent their lives healing and saving ours, cry out for help you don’t turn your back on them for money and power. You listen and stand with them,” the guitarist continued. “As I write this letter, we’ve now gotten the last 27 years of my music taken off Spotify. We are reaching out to the labels that own my earlier music to have it removed as well. We sincerely hope they honor our wishes, as Neil’s labels have done, his. We will do everything possible towards that end and will keep you posted.”

Lofgren joins Young, his friend of 53 years, and Joni Mitchell to pull their music off Spotify mainly to protest The Joe Rogan Experience. Young threw down the gauntlet on Monday declaring that Spotify choose between “Rogan or Young. Not both.” On Wednesday, the veteran rocker had his music taken down. On Friday evening, Mitchell joined Young by having her label pull her music off Spotify.

Spotify Isn’t Really About the Music Anymore
In choosing Joe Rogan over Neil Young, the company has made its new priorities clear to listeners.
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/01/spotify-neil-young-joe-rogan/621396/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/26/us-coronavirus-hospitalizations-omicron/



The winter surge of coronavirus hospitalizations that reached all-time highs in the United States is showing signs of slowing, reflecting sharp declines in states of the Northeast that were the first to be battered by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

But in some corners of the nation, hospitals continue to reel from waves of omicron infections, creating chaos as droves of patients seek care during an already busy season, and front-line workers head to the sidelines in greater numbers than at any point in the pandemic. Some hospitals are finding valuable medical supplies harder to come by, even as the days of widespread shortages of personal protective equipment have passed.

On Wednesday, U.S. hospitals reported treating about 150,000 coronavirus patients, down from a record 160,000 last week. Per capita admissions are starting to decline sharply in the Northeast, to about 50 per 100,000 residents, on par with the South, where hospitalizations are leveling off. Hospitalizations are also falling in the Midwest but rising in the West.

Rick Pollack, president and chief executive of the American Hospital Association, cautioned against declaring victory based on downturns in hospitalizations in parts of the country.

“That’s like going from a crisis to a serious emergency,” Pollack said during a briefing with reporters Tuesday. “It’s not exactly a good situation — hardly out of the woods.”

Deaths also tend to lag hospitalizations, and they continue to rise, averaging more than 2,000 a day.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/01/13/some-grocery-shelves-are-still-barren-heres-a-list-of-stores-with-shortages-around-the-area/

DC:
Giant, H Street Northeast: Limited produce.

Giant, Shaw: No milk.

Giant, Cathedral Heights: “90 percent” stocked

Harris-Teeter, Adams Morgan: No produce but restocking today.

Harris-Teeter, Jenkins Row: Supply is very limited (it’s closing for good in two days).

Trader Joe’s, Foggy Bottom: No limes.

Trader Joe’s, Glover Park: Fully stocked (Even limes!)

Whole Foods, Navy Yard: Fully stocked.

Whole Foods, P Street: Fully stocked.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/11/dc-mail-delays-snow-covid/

Residents across the D.C. region have become increasingly frustrated over delays in mail deliveries, with last week’s snowstorms, a spike in coronavirus cases and long-standing problems with the U.S. Postal Service contributing to a breakdown in services.

Julia Miller, who lives in the District’s Brightwood Park neighborhood, said she did not receive any mail from Dec. 30 to Jan. 9. A birthday card from her mother, who lives across town, took three weeks to arrive, she said. Some mail finally arrived again on Monday.

“It is disappointing that this is happening in the United States of America,” Miller said.

Arlington resident Diana Wahl said she received no mail between Dec. 27 and Jan. 9. She finally received some mail on Monday and Tuesday, but older mail — that she had seen photos of in “informed delivery” emails she receives from the Postal Service — has not yet arrived. One of those Postal Service emails showed a letter from Social Security on its way to her.

Her estimated tax payments are due this month, but she doesn’t trust that the Postal Service will deliver them: “I’m afraid to put them in a mailbox.”

The postal problems were exacerbated by staffing issues due to layoffs and the coronavirus.

An American Postal Workers Union official said more than 250 postal employees in D.C. were let go near the end of the year. Although the union is trying to get more information about the layoffs, officials say similar layoffs have occurred across the country.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/11/economy/chamber-of-commerce-inflation/index.html

New York (CNN Business)The US Chamber of Commerce is calling for doubling the number of legal immigrants into America as a way to ease inflation and the worker shortage.

"We need more workers. We should welcome people who want to come here, go to school and stay," Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday. "That is a place the government could be particularly helpful and we do believe it would be anti-inflationary."

Clark added that ramping up immigration would help to ease the supply chain disruptions that are at the heart of the inflation spike, including the shortage of truck drivers.

"If we can alleviate the worker shortage, it might be the fastest thing to do to impact inflation," Clark said.