promoearn: Omicron in the crosshairs

Tuesday, January 11

A family wearing face masks walks through Union Station in Los Angeles, California, Jan. 5, 2022. With the Omicron variant driving a surge of Covid-19 cases, California announced Jan. 5, 2022 that a statewide indoor mask mandate, due to expire on Jan. 15, 2022, will be extended until at least Feb. 15, 2022.

New details are coming out about what Oxford High knew about suspected shooter Ethan Crumbley. It's Tuesday's news.

NFT auction: USA TODAY and iconic artist Peter Tunney are teaming up to benefit charity – and you can get involved.

A vaccine specifically made to target the omicron variant is in the works. We're living in the hottest years in Earth's history. Gen X is getting its own museum exhibit, and we suddenly feel old.

👋 It's Laura. It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday's news.

But first, here's one with a paw-some ending! 🐾❤️ Rescuers saved a dog who was separated from his owner for four months after a skier spotted the pooch stuck in deep snow.

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Pfizer developing vaccine to target omicron

Developing a COVID-19 vaccine specifically designed to target the omicron variant is "the most likely scenario," Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla said as new coronavirus cases exploded to over 700,000 a day on average in the U.S. Bourla said Pfizer is developing an omicron-targeted vaccine, in addition to a shot that includes both the previous vaccine as well the omicron-specific vaccine, or a "hybrid," as he described. Bourla said the pharmaceutical company will have the quantities to launch the vaccine in March. And while he said "no one has a crystal ball," the CEO said he believes the general population will have to receive an annual booster shot to keep COVID-19 at bay. The omicron variant appears to be causing milder illness than the delta variant, but COVID-19 remains a much more dangerous disease for the unvaccinated.

•	Omicron infections may have peaked, but hospitalizations and deaths will still increase for weeks, models show.
•	N95 masks are your best mask option – here's where to buy them online
•	Anti-vaxxer says a new COVID-19 antidote is in 'urine therapy.' Here's why doctors don't agree.

Could school have done more to stop teen shooter?

Nearly three weeks before Ethan Crumbley allegedly shot up Oxford High School, he brought a bird's head to school in a mason jar filled with yellow liquid and left it in a bathroom, according to new claims in a lawsuit. School officials knew the sophomore had done this, the suit states, but told students and parents there was nothing to worry about. On the day before the massacre, Crumbley brought bullets to class, which school officials knew about, the suit claims. "The school was on alert about Ethan," attorney Nora Hanna said. Eleven new counts against school officials were added to a lawsuit, alleging they knew multiple troubling details about Crumbley before the shooting, and that they accelerated the teen's "murderous rampage" through a series of missteps. Read more about the lawsuit here.

•	'Intent to kill': A visual timeline of deadly shooting at Oxford High School.
•	One dark morning: In just 5 minutes, a gunman turned a normal day at Oxford High into a nightmare.

Flowers are attached to the fence outside of the tennis courts at Oxford High School as a memorial in memory of the four students fatally shot.

Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press/USA TODAY Network

What everyone's talking about

•	Is this the way to sidestep 'cancel culture' and be friends with everyone? Maybe.
•	'That's discrimination': Arizona mom rips Delta's zero gender options for nonbinary child.
•	Bob Saget cause of death: Sheriff says actor was found in 'orderly' hotel room, no sign of trauma.
•	Study finds tobacco imagery persists in TV, movies and music videos viewed by young audiences.

The Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.

Biden backs filibuster change to pass voting rights

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for a limited exception to the Senate filibuster in order to pass federal voting rights legislation , yielding to demands from Democrats and civil rights advocates to take a more aggressive stance on preserving ballot access. In his most forceful plea yet for election reform, Biden endorsed altering the Senate rules "whichever way they need to be changed" to bypass Republican opposition to two voting rights bills in the Senate. The president had initially resisted the rules change even as Republican-led states enacted a spate of new voting restrictions. The speech in Georgia is part of a full-throated effort by Democrats to muscle the voting rights bills through Congress, as progressives and activists push the White House to be more aggressive on an issue they view as critical ahead of November's midterm elections.

•	Voting rights groups tell Biden they want action, not 'platitudes,' as he travels to Georgia for speech.
•	'A new American fault line': How new election laws will make it harder for 55 million to vote.

President Joe Biden speaks on voting rights at Atlanta University Center Consortium in Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2022.

Patrick Semansky, AP

It's hot, and it's getting hotter

The past seven years were Earth's warmest on record "by a clear margin," according to new research released this week by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a group affiliated with the European Union. Specifically, 2021 was the planet's fifth-warmest year on record, the group said. The two warmest years, according to the Copernicus group, were 2020 and 2016. And despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane – the main drivers of global warming – continued to increase in 2021. "Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations are continuing to increase year on year and without signs of slowing down," Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said. Check out more details from the report here.

A building burns in the suburb of Superior, Colorado, as a wind-driven wildfire forced evacuations on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 30, 2021.

A building burns in the suburb of Superior, Colo., as a wind-driven wildfire forced evacuations on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 30, 2021.

Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY

Real quick

•	Bronx apartment fire: City inspectors previously flagged issues with self-closing doors.
•	3 children fell into a frozen pond in Colorado. A woman went out and saved all of them.
•	No more NSF fees: Bank of America slashes fees for account overdrafts.
•	A life-enhancing elixir? Olive oil linked to lower death risks from Alzheimer's disease, all causes.
•	Personalized smart guns, which only allow verified users to shoot, may become available in U.S.

The nostalgia is strong with this one

Get ready to walk down memory lane, Gen X. Generation X may be perfectly happy being the "Forgotten Generation" as baby boomers, millennials and Gen Z call each other out on social media, but Illinois State Museum is turning the spotlight on Xers . The museum's Springfield facility will open an exhibition entitled "Growing Up X," in October, dedicated to those born generally from 1965 to 1980, described by the museum as "the last generation to have had an analog childhood." Want to get involved? Dust off that Walkman and get the rollerblades out of the closet. Xers are invited to fill out a survey online about their experiences growing up and to loan the exhibition items from that era.

•	Are you a Xennial? How to tell if you're the microgeneration between Gen X and millennials.
•	Online vs. in-person: Study shows Gen Z and millennials find digital life more memorable.

An employee of the music shop 'Record Collector' holds copies of Metallica's reissued 1982 demo tape 'No Life til Leather' on cassette, for 'Record Store Day', in Sheffield, Northern England on April 17, 2015.

Oli Scarff, AFP via Getty Images

A break from the news

•	👩‍💻 Ask HR: Should I consider turning down a promotion?
•	🏝 7 affordable family bucket-list trips where someone else does all the planning.
•	👩‍⚕️ Looking for a new career? Here's U.S. News & World Report's annual list of best job rankings.

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