March 16, 2021
Unnamed/ The White House/ Facebook/ Public Domain
“A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence, and spread unchecked. Denials for days, weeks, then months, that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness,” Biden said during his prime time address on Thursday.
Exactly one year after the World Health Organization declared the spread of Covid-19 a global pandemic, President Joe Biden said that he would make all American adults eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine by May 1. He also announced the government’s purchase of 100 million doses of the vaccine fulfilling promises made during his first week in office.
In his first prime time address, Biden stated that all adults would be able to sign up for their first shot by May 1. Additionally, by this deadline, Biden said that there would be a federally supported website that displays the closest locations with available vaccines.
President Biden also announced the deployment of more than 4,000 active military personnel to help distribute the vaccine and allow dentists, paramedics, physician assistants, veterinarians, and medical/health care students to administer the vaccine.Â
Christie’s recently auctioned off a $69 million digital collage by Beeple to a cryptocurrency investor called Metakovan. This sale broke records in both art and nonfungible tokens(NFTs) markets while also being Christie’s first sale of an entirely digital work.
Beeple, aka Mike Winkelmann, has been creating a new piece of art every day for the past 13 years, which he combined in the now auctioned-off collage, “Everydays: The First 5000 Days.”
Additionally, this collage only exists digitally, and its proof of ownership can only be ascertained through a unique token on a blockchain.Â
Metakovan is the founder of Metapurse, a “crypto-exclusive” investment fund that invested in cryptocurrencies early on, allowing the fund to purchase art for large amounts of money. To purchase the “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” Metakovan used 42,329 units of the cryptocurrency ether.
According to Twobadour, Metakovan’s spokesperson, art has become important to the fund and has compared owning several digital pieces of art as owning a share of the Museum of Modern Art.
The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to the family of George Floyd, settling a civil lawsuit over Floyd’s death in police custody.
Minneapolis city council members privately discussed the settlement before they unanimously voted in favor of the payout in a public session. The Floyd family attorney, Ben Crump, says this is the largest pre-trial settlement ever for a civil rights claim.Â
In 2019, the city of Minneapolis paid $20 million to the family of Justice Ruszcyk Damand, an unarmed white woman who was shot by police after calling 911. This Floyd family settlement sets a precedent for civil rights cases that will hopefully ensure accountability in the future.
Currently, the jury selection for the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck. This is significant because the news of this settlement can inflict bias upon current or potential jurors, making it increasingly difficult to obtain a fair trial.
