News From Around the Web
#10 GOP Warning of 'National Security Threat' is About Russia Wanting Nuclear Weapon in Space - ABC News
The White House's national security adviser and leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill sought to allay public concerns on Wednesday after the House Intelligence Committee chairman warned of a "national security threat" related to a "destabilizing foreign military capability" so serious that President Joe Biden should declassify "all information" about it. Two sources familiar with deliberations on Capitol Hill said the intelligence has to do with Russia wanting to put a nuclear weapon into space. This would not be to drop a nuclear weapon onto Earth but rather to possibly use it against satellites. Still, "it is very concerning and very sensitive," said one source, calling it "a big deal." While not addressing the subject directly, multiple members of Congress quickly described the issue as serious without stoking public alarm... Paramount Global has begun a planned round of layoffs, telling U.S.-based employees that those affected by the cutbacks will be notified by the end of Tuesday. An internal memo from CEO Bob Bakish (read it below) did not disclose numbers. A person familiar with the cutbacks estimated the total number at 800, which is consistent with a Deadline report last month. Bakish had confirmed the planned cutbacks at a “Bob Live” town hall event in January. The scope and details of the staff reductions will come into focus over the course of the day... Two apparently " inoperable" pipe bombs were placed out in the open near the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., one day ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol protests in 2021. The official narrative about the bomb plot has strained under scrutiny in the years since. For starters, Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker confirmed in January — despite persistent hounding by the Biden Department of Justice — that the so-called passerby who discovered the pipe bomb at the DNC happened to be a United States Capitol Police plainclothes officer... It speaks volumes that you pretty much can’t find what GLAAD stands for on the actual GLAAD website. Nominally an acronym for “Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation” (a term GLAAD has since ditched), the LGBT advocacy group now does far, far more than defend against defamation. In an ironic twist, GLAAD now shames (stopping itself just short of defaming) entire industries for not having enough LGBT “inclusion” and “representation.” Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis, a cancer survivor, dedicated this year's Valentine’s Day to the advancement of cancer research. The First Couple hosted a roundtable discussion at the governor’s mansion that included experts from Florida Cancer Connect, a centralized cancer treatment resource hub for caregivers and patients that was created last year. Mrs. DeSantis was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and talked about fighting it in a household where the governor was caretaker-in-chief for her and their three young children. The governor had earlier quipped he was “just window dressing” at the event. “We are at war with cancer,” she said, noting that it seems more and more people are being diagnosed... The IRS collection letters are arriving in mailboxes once again. And if you get one, tax professionals say, please, don't throw it in a drawer and ignore it. The automated reminder notices resumed in January and are set to go out in the regular mail on a staggered basis over the next several months. More than 3.7 million taxpayers in the IRS automated collection system are expected to receive these reminder notices. "Taxpayers are urged to first read the notice carefully, then if there are any questions call the number on the notice itself," said Luis Garcia, a spokesperson for the IRS in Detroit... New sections of a border wall being built in California have an anti-climbing feature, according to reports. The top of the barrier erected at Friendship Park between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, has a "metal wing or wedge, or a comma on its side with the pointy end hanging over the Mexican side of the border like an awning," according to Fox 5. Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee called the additions "techitos," or little rooftops. "It's an anti-climbing feature that's meant to stop people from scaling the border wall," Rios told the station. "It's the first of its kind along the U.S.-Mexico border." People who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid — a group that is generally low-income with complex health needs — are expected to generate billions in profit for health insurers in the coming years, despite being a group that typically racks up expensive health care bills. Why it matters: This is part of a major shift in how insurers make their money, with profits increasingly coming from their provision of government plans like Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care. Driving the news: A recent McKinsey report projected that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — a measure of profitability — from covering the "dual eligibles" population will see a growth rate of greater than 10% between 2022 and 2027, and profits will grow from $7 billion in 2022 to $12 billion in 2027... 2024 is a Leap Year, meaning it has one extra day: Thursday, February 29. If you are — or happen to know — one of the approximately 5 million "leaplings" around the world who were born on Feb. 29, you'll get to celebrate on the actual day for the first time in four years. If not, you're still getting a relatively rare bonus day... NPR wants you to write in and tell them how you are spending your leap day...
#9 Mozilla is Laying Off Around 60 Workers - Kris Holt for Engadget
Mozilla is the latest in a long line of tech companies to lay off employees this year. The not-for-profit company is firing around 60 people, which equates to roughly five percent of its workforce. Most of those who are leaving Mozilla worked on the product development team. The news was first reported by Bloomberg...
#8 Paramount Global Layoffs Begin; CEO Bob Bakish Tells 800 Departing Employees “Your Talents Have Helped Us Advance Our Mission” - Dade Hayes for Deadline#7 Capitol Police Turned Cameras Away From DNC Pipe Bomb Probe - Joseph Mackinnon for Blaze Media
#6 GLAAD Sets Its LGBT Sights on Video Game Industry with New Report - Bryan Chai for The Western Journal
#5 DeSantis Family's Valentine's Day Gift to Florida: Waging a Fight Against Cancer - James Call for the Tallahassee Democrat
#4 IRS Sending LT38 Collection Letters Again After 2-Year Pandemic Pause - Susan Tompor Detroit Free Press
#3 California Building Border Wall With New Anti-Climb Feature - Khaleda Rahman for Newsweek 90 and KUSI News
#2 Pfizer Agrees to Pay $93 Mln to Settle Lipitor Antitrust Lawsuit - Mike Scarcella for Reuters
Pfizer (PFE.N) opens a new tab and has agreed to pay $93 million to settle antitrust claims by wholesale drug distributors that accused it of conspiring with India's Ranbaxy Laboratories to delay sales of less expensive, generic versions of the cholesterol drug Lipitor. Attorneys for Lipitor purchasers, including Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc. and Puerto Rico's Drogueria Betances LLC, disclosed the agreement in a filing on Wednesday in a U.S. court in Trenton, New Jersey...
#1 Major Shift: Health Insurers are Suddenly Coveting Sicker Patients - Caitlin Owens for Axios
And Now for Something Special 
It's a Leap Year. How will you be spending your extra day?
