• A planned “sickout” by SFUSD teachers definitely punched the district in the gut Thursday, but it’s unclear whether this was a labor action or if that many school staff really are legitimately sick. The Chronicle reports that “Nearly 900 San Francisco teachers and aides were not in their classrooms Thursday,” representing an astonishing 20% absence rate. Oh, and Oakland Unified teachers are planning the same thing tomorrow! [Chronicle]
• As we look back on last year’s January 6 insurrection, we learn that the pipe-bomb plot at the DNC headquarters may have been an attempt to assassinate Kamala Harris. Politico reports that “Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside Democratic National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building, according to four people familiar with her movements that day.” [Politico]
• The incredibly controversial plan to make the Great Highway car-free may happen either way on one mile-long sketch of the thoroughfare, because of an obscure erosion remediation plan. Something called the Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project might permanently eliminate vehicle traffic on the Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline Boulevards. [Hoodline]
• The Museum of the African Diaspora is still doing their full slate of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activities, but it’s all going to be done remotely on Zoom. [MoAD SF]
• An Oregon State professor has penned an op-ed about the parallels between this pandemic, the Omicron wave, and the 1918-19 flu pandemic. [Washington Post]
• Former president Jimmy Carter writes in the New York Times that “I Fear for Our Democracy,” and that “Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy.” [NY Times]

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