10 of our top columns this week: ICYMI

In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— USA TODAY Opinion editors

1. No conviction, but Trump Senate trial provided valuable evidence for possible prosecutions

By Norman Eisen and Katherine Reisner

"Despite the shameful failure of 43 senators to honor their oaths, the outcome of the Senate impeachment trial offered hope for the cause of accountability for former President Donald Trump and others who backed the Big Lie that gave us the Jan. 6 insurrection: that the 2020 election was stolen. The denouement was by far the largest number of Republicans ever to cross party lines to convict a president of their own party in an impeachment trial. Seven did so, as opposed to the single such vote in Trump's prior impeachment."     

2.  Texas winter storms: I went 55 hours without power in freezing Austin. At least I'm alive.

By Jena Heath

"Despite recent evidence to the contrary, I still like to think that we live in a functioning nation, a place where the simple compacts still hold. We’re kind to our neighbors and they reciprocate. We work hard and rewards follow. We elect people whom we trust will look out for us, especially when times are tough, and they do. But I live in Texas, and so all it has taken is some snow to remind me that things fall apart easily — with catastrophic consequences."

3. Hunger Games? COVID-19 vaccine shortages, shoddy distribution have Americans fighting for access to lifesaving shots

By Suzette Hackney

"For weeks, Detroit-area attorney Todd Inniss has been inquiring about when his 84-year-old father, a retired doctor, would receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The elder Inniss lives in a retirement community that also houses assisted-living and skilled-nursing facilities on campus, but he was emphatic that no one on staff had mentioned the possibility of a shot for him."

4. Block Trump from office with the 14th Amendment's aiding an insurrection exclusion

By Chris Deaton

"If Congress lacked accountability mechanisms other than impeachment or censure, it’d be one thing. But it’s not wanting for options. One of them is enforcement of Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which states that no state or federal office holder 'who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.'"

5. Take whatever COVID vaccine you can get. All of them stop death and hospitalization.

By Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Céline Gounder, Michael Osterholm, Luciana Borio, Atul Gawande and Rick Bright

"Our advice is simple: Take whatever vaccine is offered to you. Right now, all of the vaccines are the 'best.' This is what we’re doing for ourselves. The varying 'effectiveness' rates miss the most important point: The vaccines were all 100% effective in the vaccine trials in stopping hospitalizations and death.Waiting for a more effective vaccine is actually the worst thing you can do to lower your risk of getting severely ill and dying of COVID-19."

6.  Trump's two impeachments hold same lesson: Republicans can't be trusted with our democracy

By Jason Sattler

"To be fair, seven is six more Republicans than were willing to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial, which dealt with a lesser crime that also demanded removal, also related to Trump attempting to steal the 2020 election. But the lessons of both impeachments were the same: The Republican Party cannot be trusted with our democracy."

7. Rush Limbaugh taught me to love the conservatism that he betrayed for Donald Trump

By David Mastio

"The fact is that if you talk to any conservative under 50 and they tell you they weren't shaped by Limbaugh, they're embarrassed to admit it or they are unaware of how much Rush shaped the conservative world they inhabit. Nobody since William F. Buckley had been as influential a gateway drug to conservatism except maybe George Will and The Wall Street Journal's editorial page."

8. Spare us: After Trump, seven Republican lectures Democrats never need to hear again

By Jill Lawrence

"There's nothing like a new Democratic administration and a second Trump impeachment trial to clarify where Republicans truly stand on the values and policies they profess to believe. The impeachment verdict, with 86% of GOP senators voting 'not guilty,' is the ultimate confirmation of the party's galactic hypocrisy and the damage it has done."

9. Has Biden learned nothing from Trump not following science? Don't fail reopening schools.

By The Editorial Board

"In January, the CDC said studies found little evidence of COVID-19 spreading in schools in the United States or other countries. This month, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the scientific data indicates that schools can safely reopen even before teachers are vaccinated. The CDC isn't alone in such guidance. Dr. Ruediger Krech, the World Health Organization's director of health promotion, said in December that schools can safely reopen."

Another view: President Biden is ensuring that schools have resources to reopen and stay open safely

By Jessica Cardichon

"The impact this pandemic has had on students is devastating — with more absences, fewer learning opportunities and more social isolation. That is why in the first three weeks of his presidency, President Joe Biden has taken immediate action to address this crisis with a clear goal in mind: Get students back to school, in-person learning five days a week as quickly and safely as possible. This is no easy feat, but an evidence-based, urgent approach like the one we are charting can make all the difference."

10. Republicans who acquitted Trump put their careers over duty, honor and the Constitution

By Tom Nichols

"The second Senate trial of Donald Trump is over. Trump has been acquitted of betraying his oath and his country. He was guilty of these charges, and so is the Republican Party, despite a handful of exceptions in a 57-43 vote that allowed Trump to escape conviction and a permanent ban on holding federal office. The Democratic House managers did a magnificent job, marshaling elegant rhetoric and ironclad logic far beyond what Trump’s obvious guilt required. Their case will stand for years as an example of civic virtue."