* “We see the cease-fire, not as an end, but as a beginning, something to build on.”–U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after two days of talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab allies.
* “Redouble their efforts.” What President Joe Biden instructed the U.S. intelligence community to do to get “information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion” on the coronavirus’ origins—and report back in 90 days.
* “Many unvaccinated Republicans and minorities have something in common. They are working class. And there is a huge class gap in vaccination behavior.”–David Leonardt, New York Times.
* “We have a mob overtake the Capitol, and we can’t get the Republicans to join us in making historic record of that event? That is sad.”–Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Number 2 Senate Democrat.
* “It was unbelievable that this far along in a democracy we could have this kind of an event occur. It needs exploration.”–Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton, who was vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission.
* “We have an economy that was struck by a very severe and unusual shock. It caused substantial shifts in spending patterns.”–Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
* “There is some bad news out there, but most of it is a temporary byproduct of extraordinary good news: the virus is losing, and the economy is winning.”–Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.
* “On economic policy, Biden pursues a legislative agenda that is nothing less than revolutionary.”–Colin Dueck, American Conservative.
* “There is no such thing as the united States. … Absent history putting a metaphorical gun to our heads, we’ve always been a fractious people, a bunch of competing interests—South vs. North, farm vs. City, hippies vs. hardhats—masquerading as a nation.”–Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald.
* “The year 1492 changed the world, but not by introducing slavery to the Americas. Slavery was already here.”–Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars.
* “President Biden’s budget meets this urgent moment and provides the resources needed to help communities, families, schools and businesses recover and thrive.”–Florida Congresswoman Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.
* “This is a time universities need to lead and not leave it to who can yell the loudest.”–Richard D. McCullough, FSU’s newly-named president.
* “We’re fairly fortunate that we didn’t see a long-lived, widespread effect on that ecosystem.”–Thomas Frazer, dean of USF’s College of Marine Science, on the massive discharge of polluted water from the old Piney Point fertilizer plant site in an area of Lower Tampa Bay.
* “Clearly, our society still has a long way to go.”–Elizabeth Gelman, executive director of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, which recently experienced antisemitic vandalism.
* You know me … I can work with anybody.”–Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
* “We cannot achieve 100 percent sustainability without TECO.”–Whit Remer, Tampa’s chief sustainability and resiliency officer.
* “We’re in the mental health business. Should we be? I don’t know. … But we need to be, and we’re going to be, until somebody else comes in and picks it up.”–Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.