Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including California Governor Gavin Newsom released a budget proposal chalked with billions for the state’s Covid-19 response and school reopenings; The decentralized rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in the United States is moving slower than anticipated, but a massive boost in funding could help; Europe and the Americas are setting new grim coronavirus records, and more.

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National

1.) The decentralized rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in the United States is moving slower than anticipated, but a massive boost in funding this week — and a new plan from President-elect Joe Biden — could alleviate some of states’ most pressing concerns about distribution.

Doctors inject sisters Claudia Scott-Mighty, left, Althea Scott-Bonaparte, who are patient care directors, and Christine Scott, an ICU nurse, with their second shot of the Pfizer vaccine at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, in Bronxville, N.Y. The second round of the vaccine increases its efficacy to 95%, according to Pfizer. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen).

2.) In a scathing speech, President-elect Joe Biden called President Donald Trump an embarrassment, unfit for office and said he was glad the current president will not attend the inauguration.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks about jobs at The Queen theater, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

3.) A stalled economic recovery took a backslide in December, as 140,000 more jobs were lost while coronavirus cases surged during the holiday season.

A "Now Hiring," sign is shown in the window of a restaurant, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. America's employers likely cut back on hiring last month, and may have even shed jobs, as the economy suffers from a resurgent virus that has caused many consumers to cut back on spending and states and cities to reimpose business restrictions. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

4.) Caught in the crossfire of the Trump campaign’s 2020 election fraud claims, a voting machine company brought a $1.3 billion defamation suit Friday over the “demonstrably false” allegations from attorney Sidney Powell that it had helped “steal the vote” from President Donald Trump.

Dominion Voting Systems included this screenshot of Sidney Powell repeating baseless election-fraud claims in a federal complaint filed against the ex-Trump lawyer on Friday, Jan. 8. (Image via Courthouse News)

Regional

5.) Taking advantage of an unexpected windfall spurred by overperforming tax receipts at the tail end of 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom released a budget proposal Friday chalked with billions for the state’s Covid-19 response and school reopenings.

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom gestures during an interview in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

6.) The Department of Justice brought illegal-entry charges Friday against a West Virginia state lawmaker who broke into the U.S. Capitol this week during a chaotic and violent attack.

West Virginia House of Delegates member Derrick Evans, left, is given the oath of office Dec. 14, 2020, in the House chamber at the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va. Evans recorded video of himself and fellow supporters of President Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 prompting calls for his resignation and thousands of signatures on an online petition advocating his removal. (Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislature via AP)

7.) In a key test case for the “sharing” economy, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court seemed highly unsympathetic Friday to a car-share app accused of skirting rental-car rules at Boston’s Logan Airport.

International

8.) With the death toll from the pandemic nearing 2 million, Europe and the Americas are setting new grim records as ever more people fall ill and die from the novel coronavirus.

A man wearing a face covering walks past the London Eye in London, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a new national lockdown for England which means people will only be able to leave their homes for limited reasons, with measures expected to stay in place until mid-February. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

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