Vaccinations start in nursing homes; New Year's resolutions

Note: An old version of This Just In was inadvertently sent earlier this afternoon. Here is the correct version, with my apologies.

Good afternoon and welcome to This Just In. I'm Mike McDermott, managing editor of The Providence Journal. It's a beautiful day, so hopefully you got a chance to go outside for a while. Not to make anyone feel old, but today is Bruins legend Ray Bourque's 60th birthday.

It is another milestone day in Rhode Island's fight against coronavirus, as residents and staff at five nursing homes in the state received their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Nursing-home residents account for 70% of Rhode Island's COVID deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has rejected a petition from the public defender's office that sought to require that nearly all criminal defendants be released on a promise to report to court in the future. The petition was in response to the COVID crisis at the ACI, where two COVID-positive inmates and a corrections officer have died this month. But the attorney general's office argued that prosecutors are already taking COVID-related health risks into account whenever they ask a court to order a defendant held.

Vaccinations began at the ACI over the weekend.

The Rhode Island Department of Health reported new COVID data for the first time in five days. During that time the state has identified 38 deaths and 3,536 additional cases; hospitalization data had not yet been updated by midafternoon. The report showed the number of new cases continuing to decline, although testing was also down over the Christmas holiday.

Eli Dunn is stepping back from the restaurant business. The onetime "Chopped" champion has decided to permanently close Eli's Kitchen in Warren, where guests could sit at the bar and admire Dunn's award-winning technique. Here's the good news: the space won't stay vacant for long, and Dunn will still be preparing delicious food in a different role.

Taylor Swift has been removed from a mural honoring country music legends in Nashville, and the social-media outrage has been predictable.

No one cares about my New Year's resolutions, but we thought you might want to know what some of the state's top politicians are pledging to do in 2021.

Finally, it's going to be some weird role reversal tonight when the Patriots host the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football: Unlike in these teams' December meetings of the recent past, it's the Patriots playing out the string while the Bills look to improve their playoff seeding. And if you were looking forward to seeing Jarrett Stidham make his first NFL start, too bad for you.

Have a peaceful evening, and remember, if you enjoy This Just In, please encourage a friend to sign up.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Vaccinations start in nursing homes; New Year's resolutions

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