SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

OLYMPIC DRAMA – FROM USA TODAY:  USA Gymnastics’ status as the sport’s national governing body will be terminated unless it meets six conditions set out by the U.S. Olympic Committee, including the resignation of the entire board by next Wednesday.  USOC CEO Scott Blackmun outlined the conditions in an email sent Thursday to the USA Gymnastics board. While Blackmun had called on the board to resign Wednesday in an open letter to the Olympic community, the email was far more specific in both what the USOC expects from USA Gymnastics and the repercussions if it doesn’t deliver.  The letter comes a day after former national team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing more than 150 girls and young women, including Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber.  It's about time.  The Olympic movement itself has been plagued with corruption, phoniness and exploitation.  It seems the only times they clean up their act are when the media heat gets high.

MAJOR SOCIAL ADVANCE – FROM REASON:   Ian Calderon wants restaurateurs to think long and hard before giving you a straw.  Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California's lower house, has introduced a bill to stop sit-down restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they specifically request one. Under Calderon's law, a waiter who serves a drink with an unrequested straw in it would face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.  "We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans," Calderon explained in a press release.  This isn't just Calderon's crusade. The California cities of San Luis Obispo and Davis both passed straws-on-request laws last year, and Manhattan Beach maintains a prohibition on all disposable plastics. And up in Seattle, food service businesses won't be allowed to offer plastic straws or utensils as of July.  Forget nuclear proliferation.  This is the real challenge.

BARELY NOTICED – FROM BREITBART:  President Donald Trump announced plans for a $1.7 trillion infrastructure investment plan on Wednesday.  “We’re also working to rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure by stimulating a $1 trillion dollar investment, and that will actually probably end up being $1.7 trillion dollars,” he said.  The president revealed the price-tag during a meeting with about a hundred mayors of cities inside the United States. He plans to introduce the plan at his State of the Union address with further details afterward.  “Oh, you like that?” Trump asked as the mayors applauded wildly and cheered. “I can tell we have mayors in the room … only mayors could be that excited.”  He said that he wanted all of the projects funded by his plan to be “on time and under budget.”  A major move, as important as tax reform.  And the mainstream media went out of its way to ignore it.

January 25, 2018