It’s Tuesday, January 26th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - The COVID-19 vaccine will be offered to all residents and staff of Florida's nursing homes by the end of January, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
DeSantis made the announcement during a news conference at at River Garden Hebrew House for the Aged in Jacksonville. Florida followed federal recommendations in starting vaccinations first for front-line medical workers plus residents and staff of nursing homes in mid-December. DeSantis said about 22% of the state's seniors age 65 and up have received the vaccine as of Monday, and said about 70% of the state's doses are going to seniors.
No. 2 - DeSantis says the flow of COVID-19 vaccines has been stagnant and the state needs more to meet the increasing demand from residents.
In the same news conference, DeSantis said officials in Washington said the state would start to see its supply increase around this time, but that hasn’t happened. At a White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki pushed back against DeSantis' comments criticizing the federal government, saying Florida has only administered about half of the vaccines it has been given. Data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 53% of the doses the state has been supplied so far has been administered.
No. 3 - House Democrats delivered the impeachment case against Donald Trump to the Senate late Monday for the start of his historic trial, but Republican senators were easing off their criticism of the former president and shunning calls to convict him over the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.
The nine House prosecutors carried the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection" across the Capitol, making a solemn and ceremonial march to the Senate along the same halls the rioters ransacked just weeks ago. But Republican denunciations of Trump have cooled since the Jan. 6 riot. Instead Republicans are presenting a tangle of legal arguments against the legitimacy of the trial and questioning whether Trump's repeated demands to overturn President Joe Biden's election really amounted to incitement. Biden said he didn't think enough Republican senators would vote for impeachment to convict, though he also said the outcome might well have been different if Trump had six months left in his term.
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No. 4 - Vanessa Bryant shared a beautiful message of support that she received on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the death of her husband Kobe Bryant and 13-year-old daughter Gianna.
On Monday, Vanessa took to Instagram to post a letter she was sent earlier that day from a close friend of Gianna's named Aubrey. In her caption, Vanessa reflected on her continued disbelief that Kobe and Gianna died in a helicopter crash that took nine lives on the morning of January 26, 2020. In her caption, Kobe's widow expressed how much she misses the NBA superstar and their second-oldest daughter, adding that she still has trouble comprehending the tragedy.
No. 5 - A South Florida man who was unemployed and spent months looking for a new job came across a work-from-home opportunity that turned out to be a scam.
Alan Walker, of Miami Gardens, lost his job at the Port of Miami at the beginning of the pandemic. He spent months looking for work online and submitted multiple applications. In December, he was relieved to get a job offer. After about 30 days working for the company, Walker became suspicious because he did not get paid. To hear what he did next and what you need to know to avoid getting scammed, click here for the story from NBC 6 reporter Laura Rodriguez.
No. 6 - Weatherwise, warmer temperatures remain across South Florida on Tuesday, but a front moving through in the coming days should bring some relief. Keep your NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
