Greetings from lovely Arizona, the town of Chandler specifically, not far from where the San Francisco Giants have started their abbreviated spring training season after Major League Baseball barely averted a season-mangling strike.
But I’m not here to try out for the team, alas; my playing days were over, you might say, before they began, much like all of my youthful athletic fantasies. Although some say that I could hit a pretty mean line drive to the opposite field in my playing days — something some folks say I do with words consistently in retirement.
I always did like that outside pitch.
No I’m here for a more personal reason — my first reunion with my sisters since early 2019.
Arizona was the last frontier in the sense that it was the final piece of the 48-piece contiguous puzzle to be admitted to the continental United States as a sovereign state in 1912. You would say it was our last state except for the annexations of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959.
The state’s name is a Navaho word and fully a quarter of the state is still made up of Indian reservations including the large Navaho population of 300,000. It also is home to the indescribably beautiful Grand Canyon among many other national treasures.
You should visit! The dry climate might be beneficial to your health as you age and you will find among the wildlife many snowbirds here. Which is what me and my sisters are — snowbirds.
And thus concludes my outside pitch for our lovely 48th state.
The news continues unabated and unimpressed as to my precise whereabouts.
Today’s News (40):
Amid new bombings, Ukraine now seen as a war of attrition (AP)
Zelensky to CNN: If talks fail, there will be a wider war (CNN)
As Russia shells civilian targets, Zelensky steps up diplomatic efforts (WP)
Ukraine's Zelenskiy presses Israel for missile defence help, fighting rages in Mariupol (Reuters)
Zelenskyy evokes Holocaust as he appeals to Israel for aid (AP)
Deadly Strike on Ukraine Barracks Punctuates Russian Military Gains (NYT)
Pentagon’s Work With Ukraine’s Biological Facilities Becomes Flashpoint in Russia’s Information War — Moscow has accused Washington of funding weapons work in Ukraine’s biological laboratories. But the Pentagon has been working since 1991 to ensure the security of sensitive materials in the former Soviet Union. (WSJ)
Cheney: Use of chemical weapons is 'red line' for NATO intervention (Politico)
Fierce fighting engulfs Mariupol as Russian forces tighten grip on devastated city (Financial Times)
Mariupol residents forced to go to Russia against their will, city council says (CNN)
Mariupol school sheltering 400 residents is bombed (USA Today)
Mariupol terror will go down in history, Ukraine's Zelensky says (BBC)
‘No city anymore’: Mariupol survivors take train to safety (AP)
In Mariupol, children bear the brunt of Vladimir Putin's war (BBC)
Ukraine rejects Russia's demand to surrender Mariupol in exchange for safe passage (USA Today)
From Leningrad to Kharkiv, a life bookended by war and despair (Reuters)
Russia’s war for Ukraine could be headed toward stalemate (WP)
The Battle for Kyiv Looms as a Long and Bloody Conflict (NYT)
McConnell on Republicans supporting Putin: 'There's some lonely voices out there' (The Hill)
McConnell says "vast majority" of Republicans "totally behind" Ukraine (Face the Nation)
Russian navy commander killed in Ukraine (Reuters)
One thing nuclear power plants weren’t built to survive: War (WP)
US fears Russia could develop 'concentration camps' (USA Today)
Ukraine's foreign ministry claims more than 14,000 Russian personnel killed as of Saturday (CNN)
Russia’s military is incompetent. That makes it more dangerous. (WP)
Ukraine war is backdrop in US push for hypersonic weapons (AP)
Conflict Is Already Taking Its Toll on Global Food Supplies (WSJ)
Ukrainians Are Trickling Into the U.S. to Warm Welcomes (NYT)
The Russians Fleeing Putin’s Wartime Crackdown (New Yorker)
As school resumes in Afghanistan, will all girls be allowed to go? (NPR)
U.S. Capitol riot probe to reveal new details on attack, Cheney says (Reuters)
Surgeon general: No need to panic over latest Covid spike in Europe (Politico)
Climate Change Is Making Allergy Season Even Worse (Atlantic)
How Earth Went From Molten Hellscape to Habitable Planet (SciTechDaily)
Man Has Come Too Far To Turn Back For Grocery Basket (The Onion)
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