Good morning and welcome to your weekday morning roundup of the top stories you need to know.
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What's going on today:
- Biden says he'll pay for new infrastructure and healthcare bills by taxing corporations and the wealthy. The prez promised no new taxes for anyone making less than $400,000, and is proposing to raise funds by nearly doubling the capital gains tax and increasing the marginal income tax rate for the country's wealthiest taxpayers.
- Virginia police officer William Kelly was fired for donating to Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse's legal defense fund. So a Christian crowdfunding site stepped in and raised nearly $50,000 on Kelly's behalf.
- A pill to treat COVID could be ready by the end of 2021. The pill could cut down on hospital stays, according to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who said the pharma company is currently conducting clinical trials on the drug.
- It's Britney, bitch: Britney Spears will personally address the court at the next hearing over the conservatorship of her estate. Spears wants her father, Jamie Spears, who was appointed conservator in 2008 after she had a breakdown, to be removed as guardian of her affairs.
- A newly unearthed 2013 video of NRA leader Wayne LaPierre shows him shooting several times at an endangered elephant but failing to kill it. After repeatedly shooting the animal at close range, a guide steps in to make the kill. The video was shot as part of an NRA-sponsored TV show but was shelved after the organization realized it might cause a public relations crisis.
- A New York Post reporter resigned after being "ordered" to write an "incorrect" story claiming copies of Vice President Kamala Harris's children's book being given out at migrant shelters. "The Kamala Harris story - an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against - was my breaking point," tweeted reporter Laura Italiano on her departure from the tabloid.
- The internet's favorite "Disaster Girl" cashes in on the NFT craze. Zoe Roth, the now-21-year-old star of the Disaster Girl meme, sold a non-fungible token of her iconic image for nearly $500,000 in cryptocurrency. She's on fire!
That's all for now. See you tomorrow.