Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022
2,000-Mile Storm, Covid Shots for Toddlers & Bye, Brady
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by Rothys.com/newsworthy and StitchFix.com/newsworthy
Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want reading about the latest happenings…
Massive Winter Storm Preview
More than 90 million Americans are now bracing for a major winter storm. Already, before the worst of it hits, airlines are canceling flights, authorities are telling people to stay off roads, and some schools are closing their campuses. Winter weather alerts now stretch for 2,000 miles, across 21 states, from New Mexico to Vermont. Depending on the state, people could be in heavy snow, freezing rain, thick layers of ice, or a combination of the three. Most of this storm system should be out of the U.S. by the end of the week.
Read more: Weather Channel, Reuters, NBC News, CNN, NWS
Traffic Deaths Record
The U.S. Transportation Secretary is now promising to make roads safer in response to grim new government data. It found traffic deaths surged at a record pace last year. Specifically, it estimated nearly 32,000 people died in crashes from January through September of 2021. That’s up 12% from the year before. It’s also the highest percentage increase in history. Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg is calling this a “national crisis.” His department recently released a strategy that calls for better safety standards in vehicles. Grants are also going to encourage states to use speed cameras, lower speed limits, and add bike and bus lanes.
Read more: The Hill, Newsweek, Axios, Daily Mail, NHTSA, UDOT
More HBCU Bomb Threats
Once again, more than a dozen historically black colleges and universities had to close their campuses or cancel classes. They all got bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month. This is the second day this week and the third in the last month that several HBCUs got threats like that. Thankfully no bombs were found. However, no one has been arrested. Several universities have increased police presence on their campuses. The FBI and ATF say they’re also working with local law enforcement to hopefully get to the bottom of these threats.
Read more: Axios, WaPo, ABC News, NBC News
US National Debt Tops $30T
For the first time in history, the U.S. national debt topped $30 trillion. That means the debt burden is now worth more than America’s entire annual economy. The new figure is nearly $7 trillion more than it was in January of 2020, right before the pandemic hit the American economy. However, the national debt was already going up before that. The U.S. budget deficit jumped 26% in 2019, which was the fourth year in a row of increases. Some economists say the large debt load isn’t unnecessarily unhealthy because the economy is growing and interest rates are low for now. Others call it a red flag.
Read more: Fox Business, NY Times, Axios, WSJ, US Treasury
Pfizer Requests Authorization for Young Kids' Vaccines
The very youngest Americans could soon be eligible for Covid-19 vaccines. Pfizer asked the FDA to authorize its shots for kids younger than five, as young as six months old. If the FDA signs off, those kids could get extra-low doses of the vaccine. It’s still not clear if they’ll need two or three shots, though. Two shots turned out to be strong enough for babies but not for preschoolers. Pfizer is still testing whether a third shot might work better. The FDA plans to get a panel together to review the data in a couple of weeks. So, the young age group could start getting shots by the end of the month.
Read more: WaPo, CNN, Fox Business, AP, Pfizer
Tom Brady Retires
The most successful quarterback in NFL history is retiring. Seven-time Super Bowl championship quarterback Tom Brady announced it on social media. In his tweet, he thanked a long list of people and organizations, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he’s been playing the last two years. However, he didn’t mention the Patriots where he had a two-decade career and won six of his seven Super Bowls. Later in the day, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the team congratulated Brady on his retirement. After that, Brady commented, “Thank you, Patriots Nation.”
Read More: ESPN, AP, Fox News, Tom Brady
Ex-Dolphins Head Coach Sues NFL
A former NFL coach is suing three teams and the overall league. Brian Flores says he and other Black coaches have been victims of the league’s racist hiring practices. The former Miami Dolphins head coach even went so far as to say the league is run like a plantation, pointing to only one of 32 teams that has a Black coach and how none of the owners are Black. He specifically called out the Dolphins, saying they retaliated against him for not breaking the rules. He also sued the Denver Broncos and New York Giants for discriminatory hiring practices. All three teams and the league say his claims aren’t true.
Read more: AP, ESPN, NY Times, Wigdor Law, NFL
J&J/Drug Distributors Settlement
Native American tribes reached a landmark opioid deal with Johnson & Johnson and other drug distributors. It’s worth $590 million. It’s to settle a lawsuit that said hundreds of Native American tribes in dozens of states were heavily impacted by opioids. The tribes say the highly-addictive painkillers made by J&J and shipped by the distributors were too easy to get and weren’t clearly marked to show just how dangerous they were. Still, the companies are denying any wrongdoing. If most tribes sign off, the settlement money will go to addiction treatment and prevention programs.
Read more: NPR, WSJ, ABC News, WaPo, J&J
Tesla Recall
Nearly 54,000 Teslas are being recalled because they could roll through stop signs. The problem is with the full self-driving software in the vehicles. Its rolling stop feature lets them go through all-way stops at 5.6 mph, instead of coming to a complete stop. The Governor’s Highway Association says rolling through stop signs isn’t legal in any state. So, U.S. regulators say Tesla will disable the technology in an over-the-internet update starting this month. The recall impacts any Tesla vehicles that have the Beta version of the full self-driving software enabled. The company hasn’t commented about this latest recall.
Read more: Reuters, AP, WaPo, NHTSA
Groundhog Day
It’s Groundhog Day! As the legend goes, if a groundhog emerges from his burrow and sees his shadow, winter will persist for another six weeks. If he doesn’t see his shadow, spring will arrive early. The longest-running Groundhog Day tradition in the U.S. centers around the groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. This year, Phil’s spectators can watch in person after being kept away because of Covid-19 last year. Still, Phil isn’t the best predictor of the weather. NOAA says in the past 10 years, Phil has been right 50% of the time.
Reads more: NY Post, WSJ, WaPo
Work Wednesday: Great Resignation Slowing
The great resignation may be slowing down a bit, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping. New government data shows Americans kept leaving their jobs in December, just not as much as the month before. The Labor Department said 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs. That’s down slightly from a fresh high of 4.5 million Americans who resigned in November. Still, it means hundreds of thousands more workers tend to be quitting now than they were before the pandemic. Meanwhile, people getting fired or laid off is down to the lowest level on record.
Read more: WSJ, Fox Business, CNBC, BLS