And the brooks still worth reading. Thank you for your time and good nights been a good afternoon. I want to welcome you on the half of humanity tennessee to the southern festival of books. I want to particularly thank our key sponsors, Metro National art commission, and chrome content, tennessee art commission, vanderbilt university. This session is entitled dreaming america. We have a panel of three authors and three books and our first we will read some, but im going to reduce the authors first. I will begin with amra sabicelrayess. She grew up in bosnia. After surviving ethnic cleansing and more than 1100 days under the serbs military siege she immigrated to the United States in 1986. By december, 1999, she earned a ba from Brown University and later obtained to master degrees in a doctorate from Columbia University currently, shes a compass a professor eric on the egg working on understanding how and why societies fall apart and what role education plays a rebuilding decimated cou
Colorado. The fact that you have a virus that spreads more efficiently is something thats important and needs to be taken seriously. Consider this, by new years day, the country could hit a staggering 20 million infections. The numbers going in the wrong direction coast to coast across this country. Hospitalizations in l. A. For instance have stored 1,000 in just two months and with 800,000 people filing new unemployment claims this morning, Mitch Mcconnell dashing hopes for 2,000 stimulus checks but the outstanding question this morning, could that effort be revived in the new congress . Thats where were going to begin. Im joined by Steve Patterson in los angeles and dr. Derek haas. Steve, ill start with you on this one. The numbers surging there, hospitals struggling to keep up. Were learning that california is now the second state confirmed to have this more infectious version, this variant of the coronavirus. What can you tell us . Reporter that variant was found according to San D