Newsweek 9/25/2020

1962 “Equally at home on Broadway, on television, or conducting the Philharmonic, Bernstein’s extraordinary talents have attracted millions of admirers,” said Newsweek. Leonard Bernstein conducted the first televised concert at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to mark the official opening of the new venue. Over a long career, he won two Tonys, 16 Grammys and seven Emmys, and the Kennedy Center Honors. This year, his music will find new audiences through a film adaptation of his most famous musical, West Side Story, currently scheduled for release in December. 1977 Newsweek predicted that the “politically explosive” Bakke case “may have more impact on equality…than any judgment since Brown began dismantling school segregation in 1954.” The case ultimately upheld affirmative action as a tool for diversity—which was again upheld in a 2019…

@SteveFriess “Be a radical for our republic, for which I stand.” IN AN ELECTION SEASON IN WHICH THE progressive ideas of the Squad, Bernie Sanders and other like-minded Democrats are being hotly debated by both conservatives and liberals, Florida Democrat Donna Shalala is determined to carve out space just left of the center lane. The oldest woman ever elected as a freshman to the House of Representatives, Shalala, 79, is a self-described “pragmatic progressive,” who likes to tout her ability to get along with all factions of her own party as well as her work with colleagues across the political aisle. Her opponent, Republican Maria Elvira Salazar, is having none of it. In a series of tweets earlier this year, the popular Cuban American broadcast journalist accused Shalala of not pushing back enough…

IN 2001, STEPHEN MILLER WAS A 16-year-old student at Santa Monica High School near the beach in Southern California when the 9/11 attacks kicked his patriotism into overdrive. Upset that students weren’t saying the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms, the future presidential confidante called into a radio show hosted by Larry Elder, a prominent Black conservative, to complain. “California code required schools to cite the pledge,” Elder told Newsweek while recalling the phone call from Miller. “He demanded that the school abide by the code and created quite a stir. He was bright, funny and passionate.” So much so that Elder took calls on air from Miller 69 times as a high schooler, and the teenager caught the attention of major conservative figures, such as Stephen Bannon, the late Andrew Breitbart and…

“We lost our home. It looks like everything is completely gone.”—NETTIE CARROLL OF BIG CREEK, CALIFORNIA, POP. 200, HIT BY WILDFIRE“WE SIMPLY HAVE TO GET OUR ARTS SECTOR BACK OPEN AND RUNNING… WE ARE AT THE POINT OF NO RETURN, REALLY.”—ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER“I wanted to always play it down.”—PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ON THE CORONAVIRUS IN AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB WOODWARD“It just showed me how tough mums are, if you can birth a baby, you can do anything. You play, you go home and you are still changing diapers.”—SERENA WILLIAMS“THIS SEA OF PEOPLE CANNOT BE STOPPED BY MILITARY EQUIPMENT, WATER CANNONS, PROPAGANDA AND ARRESTS.”—Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova“Every 24 hours, it’s pain—it’s nothing but pain. It hurts to breathe; it hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side.…

THE UNPRECEDENTED SWIFTNESS with which medical science is developing a vaccine for COVID-19 is one of the most inspiring stories in this historic chapter. Vaccine candidates emerged only weeks after scientists identified SARS-CoV-2 and sequenced its genetic code. Universities and Big Pharma formed teams to develop vaccine candidates in short order. But just as quickly, the search for a vaccine became a political issue, and the sad result is that while the chances of an effective vaccine are rising, so is public distrust. That’s too bad, because the medical and scientific task of developing a COVID-19 vaccine is not the only critical ingredient to a successful vaccination campaign. Public buy-in is essential, because a vaccine is only effective when people agree to be inoculated. The political spectacle surrounding the vaccine efforts…

AMERICA’S MOST WIDELY-KNOWN expert on the coronavirus pandemic is no stranger to disease crises and the political turmoil that surrounds them. Fauci’s been head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, through AIDS and Ebola. Now he is contending with a president who is flirting with the idea of rushing the release of a COVID-19 vaccine before the election on November 3. In a Newsweek interview, Fauci was characteristically frank. A presidential edict to force the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine before election day on November 3 “will be blown out of the water publicly by the people who understand what it takes to declare a vaccine safe and effective,” he says. “It would be a public embarrassment.” Here are excerpts: Q. Will political pressure to release a…