Links for you. Science:

Government-Funded Scientists Laid the Groundwork for Billion-Dollar Vaccines
Cautious optimism: Early vaccine data suggests COVID-19 nightmare really will end some day
These Four-Foot Lizards Will Eat Anything—and They’re Invading the Southeastern U.S. (murder hornets?)
What Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine results mean for ending the pandemic
2 Companies Say Their Vaccines Are 95% Effective. What Does That Mean?

Other:

D.C. Launches Tool That Lets Renters Search Outstanding Housing Violations
The Other America: The New Politics of the Poor in Joe Biden’s (and Mitch McConnell’s) USA
Trump’s Capitol Death Grip Worsens COVID Surge. “We’re going into a very dark winter,” says President-elect Biden. By spring there could be nearly half a million COVID-19 American deaths.
Salad Days Will Take You Out of Your House and Into the Punk Scene
Divided Government Will Doom the Economy. As Washington dithers, the country will suffer.
After excess police overtime topped $40 million, D.C. Council moves to increase oversight
Dr. Céline Gounder, Adviser to Biden, on the Next Covid Attack Plan
White women didn’t desert Trump in the election. Polls show some white men did.
The Pandemic Safety Rule That Really Matters
Ratchet
Amy Coney Barrett’s Faith? Off-Limits. Raphael Warnock’s? Fair Game.
States Need Federal Money to Do the Right Thing
Gerontocracy
Rahm Emanuel Is Pushing for Transportation Secretary Post: Emanuel and Biden’s complicated relationship goes back to tensions around the 1994 crime bill.
The Campaign Against Raphael Warnock Is Already Shot Through With Unreconstructed Racism
Far-right rhetoric around election ratchets into violent threats against political, media figures
40 Years of Republican Politics Came to a Head at the Wayne County Board of Canvassers
The Republican Party Is Dead. It’s the Trump Cult Now.
And Here I Had Some Faint Hope for Biden
A Democracy Needs Imagination as Much as It Needs Elections. The coming collapse of the Arecibo telescope, an icon of The Space Age, feels simply disastrous in the current American moment.
Joe Biden’s Four-Year Plan. It’s deceptively simple: help as many people as you can, as quickly and as transparently as you can. (we’ll see…)
Inheritance, not work, has become the main route to middle-class home ownership