It's been over 10 months since Madonna questionably called COVID-19 "the great equalizer," and her words continue to age like milk.

Nearly 20 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 3.5 million have been fully vaccinated, with healthcare personnel, older adults, and other essential workers among the prioritized groups. But in some cases, all it takes is a little monetary gift to move to the top of the queue.

Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, a hospital outside of Seattle, Washington, found itself with 500 open vaccine slots — and it chose to send emails to its "major" donors offering the jab, The Seattle Times reports. The "by invite" only emails were reportedly sent to those who had given more than $10,000 to the hospital system, and they offered up slots during the last week of January.

Overlake decided to "cut access to the exclusive appointments" following a call from the office of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) Tuesday morning. Inslee later said the prioritization of a "VIP list" for vaccine appointments is "not acceptable for us," adding that "we've got to maintain public credibility in the system."

The appointments were not solely offered to the list of over 100 donors, Overlake said, but were also presented to board members, patients, volunteers, employees, and retired health providers, per The Seattle Times. The medical center's chief operating officer Tom DeBord told The Times "In hindsight, we could certainly look back and say this wasn't the best way to do it."

The snafu at Overlake isn't an isolated event. Vaccine "fast-passes" have been distributed to members of the donor class in Florida, while wealthy non-donors have pestered doctors over whether a donation would boost their priority in the queue. The optics of the Overlake situation only add more fuel to the fire regarding the vaccine's velvet rope. Marianne Dodson

In war-torn Yemen, humanitarian agencies believe that 400,000 children under five are at risk of dying from malnutrition.

In Shabwa province, the number of serious cases of malnutrition increased 10 percent in 2020, and in the town of Abs, serious cases rose 41 percent, The Guardian's Middle East correspondent Bethan McKernan reports. It is estimated that 16 million people, half of Yemen's entire population, are going hungry.

Civil war broke out in Yemen six years ago, with Houthi rebels fighting the Yemeni government. Now, it's also a proxy war between Iran, which backs the Houthis, and Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition that supports the government. Tens of thousands of Yemenis have been killed or injured in the fighting, and with malnutrition, cholera, coronavirus, and dengue fever running rampant, the United Nations says Yemen is experiencing the world's worst humanitarian crisis. One doctor that McKernan spoke to said he fears Yemen is losing an entire generation to war, especially as boys as young as 11 are being recruited to fight and girls under 14 are being married off.

The UN is having a hard time raising enough money for 2021 humanitarian efforts, as several countries aren't donating as much as in years past. The United Kingdom, which supports the Saudi-led coalition, is cutting its aid in half, and this is essentially a "death sentence" for people in Yemen, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. Read more about the crisis in Yemen at The Guardian. Catherine Garcia

Investigators with the Manhattan District Attorney's office are taking a closer look at Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, as they continue a probe into former President Donald Trump and his family business, people with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times.

They are investigating potential financial fraud, and whether Trump and the Trump Organization manipulated property values in order to receive loans and reduce property taxes, the Times reports. Weisselberg, 73, has worked for the Trump Organization for decades, starting at the company when it was helmed by Fred Trump, the former president's father.

Two people familiar with the matter said prosecutors have been asking witnesses about Weisselberg, and spoke with one person about Weisselberg's sons — Barry, the property manager of Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park, and Jack, who works at Ladder Capital, one of Trump's lenders. None of the Weisselbergs have been accused of wrongdoing, and there is no indication Barry and Jack are a focus of the probe, the Times says.

The investigation began more than two years ago, with the district attorney looking into hush money payments made to two women who said they had affairs with Trump. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, arranged the payments, and pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance charges. He testified before Congress that Weisselberg came up with a strategy to hide the fact that the Trump Organization was reimbursing Cohen for making payments to one of the women, pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has called the investigation "a witch hunt." Catherine Garcia

In Alabama, thousands of Amazon workers are voting on whether to unionize — and President Biden wants to make sure they know this "vitally important choice" must be made without any employer "intimidation," "coercion," or "threats."

On Sunday night, Biden released a video about the unionization efforts taking place at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. More than 5,800 workers are voting on whether they should join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. They have until March 29 to vote, and if they decide to unionize, Bessemer will be the first Amazon facility in the United States to do so.

Biden didn't explicitly name Amazon during his remarks, but said that workers in Alabama and across the U.S. "should have a free and fair choice to join a union." America "wasn't built by Wall Street," he continued, it was "built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class. I made it clear when I was running that my administration's policy would be to support union organizing and the right to collectively bargain. I'm keeping that promise."

This is a bold statement, labor historian Erik Loomis told The Washington Post, and one that is "almost unprecedented in American history. We have the sense that previous presidents in the mid-20th Century were overtly pro-union, but that wasn't really the case. Even FDR never really came and told workers directly to support a union."

The Post reports that Amazon is working overtime to try to discourage Bessemer employees from supporting the union — the company is holding mandatory meetings to criticize the union, sending out text messages asking workers to vote no, and putting up anti-union fliers in bathroom stalls.

Biden speaking out during such a tense campaign is a big deal, The New Republic columnist Timothy Noah writes, and should be seen as "a signal that the federal government is shifting away from its decades-old tradition of treating unions with neutrality shading into hostility." Noah believes conservatives will "surely condemn this change," while liberals will likely "praise it and demand more," like the passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.Catherine Garcia

A third woman has come forward to accuse New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) of harassment.

In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, Anna Ruch, 33, said that she met Cuomo at a wedding reception in September 2019. She approached Cuomo to let him know she enjoyed the toast he made to the newlyweds, and Ruch said as they spoke, he placed his hand on her bare lower back. Ruch told the Times she removed his hand, and he responded by saying she seemed "aggressive." He then placed his hands on her cheeks, Ruch said, and loudly asked if he could kiss her.

Ruch told the Times she pulled away, "confused and shocked and embarrassed. I turned my head away and didn't have words in that moment." Ruch said a friend witnessed the incident, and she shared with the Times a photo showing Cuomo's hands on her face. "It's the act of impunity that strikes me," Ruch said. "I didn't have a choice in the matter. I didn't have a choice in his physical dominance over me at that moment. And that's what infuriates me. And even with what I could do, removing his hand from my lower back, even doing that was not clear enough."

Last week, two former Cuomo aides — Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett — accused him of sexual harassment. On Sunday night, Cuomo said in a statement that some of his remarks may have "been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that." An investigation into his behavior is in the early stages, with New York Attorney General Letitia James now working on selecting an outside investigator. Catherine Garcia

With a vote of 97-72, the Georgia state House on Monday passed a bill supported by Republicans that would roll back voting access.

House Bill 531 requires a photo ID for absentee voting, limits weekend early voting days, restricts ballot drop box locations, and sets an earlier deadline to request an absentee ballot. The measure now heads to the state Senate for more debate. State Rep. Barry Fleming (R), the bill's chief sponsor, said it is "designed to begin to bring back the confidence of our voters back into our election system."

Democrats and civil rights organizations disagree, arguing that it would make it much harder for people to vote, especially voters of color. State Rep. Renitta Shannon (D) said it is "pathetically obvious" that the bill is in response to Georgia voters turning out in record numbers for November's presidential election, making the state blue for the first time in decades. Voters also showed up in January for the Senate runoffs, when Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeated the Republican incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

This gave Republicans the message "that they were in a political death spiral," Shannon said. "And now they are doing anything they can to silence the voices of Black and brown voters specifically, because they largely powered these wins."

Demonstrators marched outside the Capitol on Monday to protest the bill, which the Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, called one of the "most egregious, dangerous, and most expensive voter suppression acts in this entire nation, rolling back years of hardball progress and renewing our own reputation for discrimination." Catherine Garcia

The Senate on Monday confirmed Miguel Cardona, Connecticut's commissioner of education, as education secretary.

Cardona, 45, has also worked as a teacher, principal, and administrator, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said he is 
"exactly the leader" needed at the Department of Education during "this moment of crisis." Cardona has "the experience, principles, and perspective that we need in this critical role," she added.

As education secretary, two of the biggest issues Cardona will face is how to best guide schools as they make plans to reopen and managing the government's $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio. During his confirmation hearing, Cardona said he will also focus on inequities in the country's education system, because unless they are "tackled head on," they will "prevent the potential of this great country." Catherine Garcia