Good morning, I'm Allison Michaels from The Washington Post, and this is the Daily

202 for Tuesday, February 16th.

In today's news, a deadly cold snap shuts down the central U.S. with Texas as ground zero.

And parlor is back online, more than a month after a tangle with Amazon knocked it off.

But first, the big idea.

The Washington Post analyzed government data to find that state and local governments

have shed 1.3 million jobs since the pandemic began last year.

That's a loss of more than one in 20 government jobs.

The Post's Alyssa Fowers and Rachel Siegel report that while tax revenue grew in some states

last year, at least 26 states were hit with declines.

New fell by 10% or more in 5 states, including a 43% drop in Alaska and a 10% decline in Florida.

The toll was felt in both Republican-led states and Democratic-led ones.

Rescuing struggling state and local governments has been at the center of Congress's month-long

debate over how to address the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic.

Americans opposed the idea, calling it a quote, blue state bailout that would reward

poor local financial management.

Democrats say that without this help, state and local governments could turn into a drag

on an already slow economic recovery.

The $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package making its way through Congress includes $350

billion in aid to state and local government.

Meanwhile, the financial strain has already forced some local officials to cut services

to weigh tax increases or to find other cost-saving measures in order to balance their

...