Today's edition of quick hits:
* Brutal highs: "The United States, Britain, France, Australia and other countries are shattering records for daily reported coronavirus cases as the highly transmissible omicron upended hopes of a return to some version of normality in parts of the world."
* Racing to keep up: "The federal government is surging personnel and supplies to states as health-care workers race to keep up with soaring infection counts and a corresponding increase in hospitalizations. The Biden administration has deployed more than 13,000 National Guard members to 48 states to support vaccinations, testing and clinical care, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients told reporters Wednesday."
* A significant revision: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the Omicron variant now accounts for roughly 59 percent of all Covid cases in the United States, a significant decrease from the agency’s previous estimate. The update shows how hard it is to track the fast-spreading variant in real time and how poorly the agency has communicated its uncertainty, experts said."
* An update on Denver's mass shooting: "A fifth victim has died after a gunman repeatedly escaped police capture and carried out what authorities described Tuesday as a violent, targeted rampage across the Denver metro area."
* It was Putin who apparently requested the conversation: "President Joe Biden will hold a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, an administration official told NBC News."
* Alaska is breaking temperature records by wide margins: "In a holiday season of extreme weather events, this one stands out: a 67-degree Fahrenheit reading in Alaska the day after Christmas. The reading on Sunday, from a tidal station on Kodiak Island, set a statewide temperature record for December, the National Weather Service reported."
* State Rep. Patricia Morgan's thoughts on race were cringe-worthy: "The contentious culture war over critical race theory played out in many ways in 2021, whether it was at schools, on TV or social media or at the polls. Now a prominent Rhode Island Republican is facing backlash after suggesting it cost her a friendship."
See you tomorrow.