Thursday, February 18th, 2021
Rare Power Crisis, Rush Limbaugh Dies & Risky Mars Landing
All the news you need in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by BLUblox.com/newsworthy and Fitbod.me/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 to peruse the latest happenings...
Winter Storm Latest
Millions of Americans are waking up to another day without electricity or heat during unprecedented winter weather. Most of them are in Texas where the power grid is not built to withstand such cold temperatures. Even some warming centers lost power yesterday. More than 30 people have died this week and many of those died trying to find warmth in their own homes. Making matters worse, millions of Texans are also going without clean water. Pipes and water mains busted and water treatment plants lost power.
Read More: USA Today, AP, NPR, Texas Tribune, PowerOutage.US
How to Help: Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Austin Urban League
Biden Admin Expands Testing, Sequencing
More federal funding is going to expand COVID-19 testing. The Biden administration just announced the boost. It’s sending $650 million for COVID-19 testing at schools and underserved communities like homeless shelters. $815 million will go to boost testing supplies around the U.S. Nearly $200 million will go toward genome sequencing to track new versions of the virus. That’s still just a fraction of what the Biden administration says is needed. The president is asking Congress to pass another $50 billion to expand testing and track mutations.
Read More: Politico, NBC News, FOX News, White House
UK Exposes Healthy Volunteers to COVID-19
The UK is set to be the first country in the world to expose volunteers to COVID-19 on purpose. It’s known as a human challenge study. In it, otherwise healthy people are exposed to the virus to closely watch how it infects them and how their immune systems react. The British government just gave this type of trial the go-ahead. The first one will work with 90 volunteers, aged 18-30. Researchers say they’ll be exposed to a small amount of the virus. The goal is to gather data to figure out which vaccines and treatments work best against COVID-19.
Read More: ABC News, CNBC, Reuters, UK Gov
Stock Market Frenzy Congressional Hearing
A group of technology and financial industry executives face a grilling from lawmakers. It’s the first hearing about the stock market frenzy from a few weeks back. Remember, investors came together on forums like Reddit to rally behind GameStop and other struggling companies that more seasoned investors bet against. As a result, some hedge funds lost billions of dollars. Now, executives from Reddit, Robinhood, and the hedge funds Citadel and Melvin Capital are all in the hot seat on Capitol Hill today.
Read More: NY Times, CBS News, Axios, The Hill
Perseverance to Land on Mars
NASA is attempting to land its newest rover on Mars today. The rover, named Perseverance, was launched last July and has spent months heading to the red planet. Now, it’s going to attempt to touch down. The AP says it will be NASA’s most difficult Mars landing yet. NASA wants to land it on the edge of an ancient river delta. The area is filled with cliffs, pits, dunes, and rocks, but it could hold evidence of ancient life. Once landed, Perseverance will analyze and gather rocks and dirt. They’ll be returned to Earth in a decade.
Read More: WaPo, Reuters, AP, NASA
Rush Limbaugh Dies
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has died. He passed away yesterday after a battle with lung cancer. He was 70 years old. For more than three decades, he was a right-wing radio megastar. He reportedly had more than 15 million listeners. That said, Limbaugh was extremely controversial and partisan. He often insulted and mocked people he disagreed with, made sarcastic commentary, and went on rants. Last year, then-President Trump awarded Limbaugh the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Read More: NY Times, AP, USA Today, Rush Limbaugh Website
Naomi Osaka Beats Serena Williams
American tennis superstar Serena Williams came a couple of matches shy of a record. She was hoping to get a 24th grand slam title at the Australian Open. However, Williams was defeated by Japan’s Naomi Osaka at the Aussie semifinals. Osaka hasn’t lost an official match since last February. Now she goes onto the finals. Osaka will play American Jennifer Brady, the No. 22 seed.
Read More: ESPN, CBS Sports, USA Today
Pay for Parking in Google Maps
Google Maps will now let you pay for parking inside the app. The new feature is being rolled out in more than 400 American cities now. It’s thanks to a partnership with software companies Passport and Parkmobile. If it’s available, all you have to do is tap “pay for parking” in the app. Then, enter your parking space or meter number, the color of your vehicle, and how long you plan to stay. You can extend that time too. The new feature is live for Android users now. In a few weeks, it will roll out to iOS users too.
Read More: CNBC, TechCrunch, The Verge, Google
Thing to Know Thursday: Winter Freeze Impacts Gas Prices
Ice, snow, and frigid temperatures are driving up gas prices. That’s because Texas produces more natural gas and oil than any other state in the U.S. and it’s getting hit especially hard by the winter storm. Many oil refineries have been shut down all week and are expected to stay that way through tomorrow. Already, AAA says regular unleaded gas costs about $2.54 a gallon on average nationwide. That’s up 10 cents from last week. One analyst from GasBuddy says the extreme cold could boost prices another 15 cents per gallon in the next week or so.
Read More: NBC News, Reuters, FOX Business, AAA