Dr. Nancy Messonnier: Good afternoon, thank you for joining us today. Since I last briefed you, there has been one new case of COVID-19 detected through the U.S. public health system. As has been widely reported, at this time we don’t know how or where this person became infected. This brings the number of confirmed cases of person-to-person spread in the United States to 3. We also have confirmed 2 more people who have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 among U.S. citizens repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. That brings the total number of people with COVID-19 to 44 among this group of people.

Passengers on Cruise Ships: US citizens should reconsider travel by cruise ship to or within Asia. U.S. citizens planning travel by cruise ship elsewhere should be aware that, due to the current public health situation, many countries have implemented strict screening procedures in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This is a dynamic situation and US citizens traveling by ship may be impacted by travel restrictions affecting their itineraries or ability to disembark, or may be subject to quarantine procedures implemented by the local authorities. While the US government has successfully evacuated hundreds of our citizens in the previous weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for US citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities. US citizens should evaluate the risks associated with choosing to remain in an area that may be subject to quarantine and take the appropriate proactive measures.

Justice delayed is not justice denied, is the major conclusion one reaches after reading Jerry Mitchell’s quest to convict the killers of 1960s civil rights activists. But it is a race against time. Many of these killers died normal deaths without serving any time for their misdeeds. But not all. Some lived long enough to be convicted decades later, by juries that could not have existed, let alone convicted, in the 1960s. This book is a good read; both entertaining and informative.

Bills Introduced: Parental involvement leave to participate in or attend their children's and grandchildren's educational and extracurricular activities; transportation career opportunities; “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month,” "Safe to Report" Policy in Armed Forces, Maternal Health Crisis in the US, A bill to reauthorize comprehensive research and statistical review and analysis of trafficking in persons and commercial sex acts; toxic Navy Plume on Long Island, New York  

Braase was an artist’s artist, known and respected among her peers, but like so many other women artists of her time she never achieved wider recognition. In recent years, however, her works have resurfaced and taken on renewed topicality at several artist- curated exhibitions. Still, she remains a relatively unknown figure. Now, SMK (The National Gallery of Denmark) seeks to remedy that situation. The museum is presenting an extensive solo exhibition of Ragna Braase’s works, comprising painting, graphic arts and textiles.

“Alexa is one more way for Amazon to gather extremely valuable data,” Meredith Whittaker, co-director of the A.I. Now Institute at NYU. “And this data collection is extremely important to this business model. It’s extremely hard to do … convincing people to just deploy something like this in their home is — it’s a brilliant trick.” It’s one that’s helping Amazon in a quest to dominate the future — not just of commerce, but also artificial intelligence. “Amazon wants to have the entire environment, essentially miked … All these intimacies, all this insight is being integrated, analyzed and integrated. That is an extraordinary kind of power that has never before existed.”

Nichola Gutgold writes: Elizabeth Warren during the CNN and Des Moines Register Democratic Debate in Iowa, Jan. 14, 2020: “I will do what a president can do all by herself on the very first day.” Amy Klobuchar in her closing statement at the same debate: “...if you want to do something about racial justice and immigration reform and climate change and gun safety, we need a candidate who is actually going to bring people with her.” With “her.” By “herself.” In a year of pronounced pronouns, the pronouns referring to a woman president are especially notable.

Six months before he died in poverty and obscurity, architect and draftsman Jean Jacques Lequeu (1757– 1826) donated more than 800 drawings, one of the most singular and fascinating graphic oeuvres of his time, to the French Royal Library. Lequeu’s donation of more than 800 architectural drawings, letters, manuscripts and physiognomic studies to the Royal Library in Paris created a paper legacy that has confounded scholars ever since.