1 Nearly Four Feet Of Snow In Northeast Winter Storm
Parts of the Northeast are still digging out from nearly four-feet of snow after being walloped by a major winter storm. Winter Storm Gail dumped the worst on upper New York and Pennsylvania with the most snow, with many towns reporting over 40-inches. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a state of emergency in 18 counties. At it’s peak, the storm left over 50-thousand customers without power Thursday across New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and caused hundreds of vehicle crashes from the Northeast to the Mid-Atlantic, some of them deadly. The powerful storm also produced wind gusts of up to 65 miles-per-hour in Delaware and New Jersey, and pushed a cold front as far south as Florida, where several tornadoes were sighted. As for the Northeast, however, the snowfall was record-breaking.
2 FDA Panel Recommends Moderna COVID Vaccine For Emergency Use
And then there were two....an FDA advisory panel is recommending emergency use authorization for Moderna's coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine is expected to get final approval in the next day or so. Trial studies found the two-dose vaccine around 95-percent effective. As you’ll recall, the FDA approved a COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer for emergency use last week. And for many, the approval couldn’t have come soon enough. The COVID Tracking Project says over 241-thousand new infections were reported yesterday, the most since the pandemic began. Among those in line to get the Pfizer vax? Vice President Mike Pence, who will get the shot this morning at 7am. He's set to do it in front of cameras in hopes of building trust in the vaccine. Second Lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams will also roll up their sleeves.
3 Agency That Handles Nuclear Stockpile Hit By Cyber Attack
The U.S. agency that handles America's nuclear weapons stockpile is reportedly among those hit by a massive cyber-attack. "Politico" reports that research laboratories and other offices of the National Nuclear Security Administration were targeted. A number of governmental agencies have been under attack. Now we’re hearing that several entities under the Energy Department were also hit. The FBI and other agencies are investigating what appears to be a massive cyber campaign by foreign hackers. Perhaps most disturbing? Officials haven’t elaborated on details, but apparently, the hackers have been able to do more damage at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission than any of the other agencies. What they are saying? That there is evidence of highly malicious activity. "At this point, the investigation has found that the malware has been isolated to business networks only, and has not impacted the mission essential national security functions of the department, including the National Nuclear Security Administration," Department of Energy spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes says in a statement. "When DOE identified vulnerable software, immediate action was taken to mitigate the risk, and all software identified as being vulnerable to this attack was disconnected from the DOE network.”