Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021
Kids Back in Class, Blackouts to Bankruptcy & YouTube’s TikTok
All the news in about 10 min:
This episode is brought to you by BLUblox.com/newsworthy and Noom.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 to read the latest happenings...
More Schools Reopening
A lot more American children are going back to in-person classes this week. Elementary schools physically reopened for students in several states like Ohio, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, and Virginia. For a lot of kids in those states, they haven’t seen their classmates outside a computer screen in nearly a year. However, things are changing. More than 72% of American students are reportedly back in school in person at least some of the time.
Read More: Axios, WSJ, LA Times, AP
Reuniting Separated Families
Hundreds of migrant children and their parents separated at the U.S-Mexico border will be allowed to reunite in the U.S. The U.S. government could also help pay for transportation, health care, legal services, and more for those migrant families. The Biden administration announced the policy changes this week. New leaders at the Homeland Security department say they’re trying to undo the damage done by former President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. Trump and some other Republicans say this is going to encourage more illegal immigration.
Read More: NPR, WSJ, Politico, Reuters, DHS
Christian Agency Allowing LGBTQ Adoptions
One of the largest adoption and foster care agencies in the U.S. says it’s going to start working with LGBTQ parents for the first time. We’re talking about Bethany Christian Services. This is a big shift for the 77-year-old Protestant organization that has offices in 32 states. One of Bethany’s senior executives told the New York Times all potential parents are now welcome. It comes as more cities and states have said adoption and foster care agencies must work with LGBTQ parents or risk losing government contracts.
Read More: NY Times, Axios, The Hill
Texas Power Cooperative Bankruptcy
The oldest and largest electric cooperative in Texas filed for bankruptcy. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative says it was overwhelmed by about two billion dollars in debt from the one week the state was dealing with an energy crisis. The issue is freezing temperatures knocked power plants offline, causing millions of Texans to lose power. Brazos says it had to pay for replacement power sources at excessively high rates. It says filing for bankruptcy was the only way to avoid raising rates for customers.
Read More: WSJ, USA Today, NPR, Reuters
Hurricane Season Dates Could Change
Lately, hurricanes have been popping up earlier than usual on the east coast. Now, meteorologists are thinking about officially changing the dates of the season. Organizations like NOAA might move up the start date of the Atlantic hurricane season. Right now, it’s June 1st. That date could move to May 15th. It comes after the most active hurricane season on record. However, storms have formed in May in each of the past six years. Meteorologists say they’ll decide whether to change the season at a conference this spring.
Read More: USA Today, WaPo, Weather Channel
‘YouTube Shorts’ Rolls Out
Another TikTok competitor launched in the U.S. This time, it’s YouTube Shorts. The new type of videos, called shorts, can be up to one minute long, but they’re made up of 15-second clips and they’re meant for vertical smartphone screens. Also, like TikTok, you can add music, set up a timer, and speed up or slow down the recording. People can find the new feature on the homepage of the YouTube app. However, it’s still rolling out, so not everyone has access to it yet.
Read More: Ars Technica, Distractify, Bloomberg, Google
Twitter Vaccine Misinformation Crackdown
Twitter is rolling out some new rules to try to stop misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines from spreading online. Already, Twitter labels tweets about the nature of the coronavirus, certain restrictions, and more. Now, tweets about vaccines can be labeled too. It will include links to relevant information from science-based agencies like the CDC. The social network will also start enforcing a five-strike system. Consequences will range from just a warning or deleted tweet to permanently locking a user out of their Twitter account.
Read More: WSJ, The Verge, Axios, Twitter
Apple Reopens all U.S. Stores
For the first time in nearly a year, every Apple store in the U.S. is open for business. In certain locations, people can go in and shop for products like usual. Elsewhere, they’re just open for online order pickup or by appointment only. Either way, this is the first time since March 2020 that all 270 American Apple stores are open in some capacity. Even when physical stores were closed, the online store has been open and the company’s revenue went up almost 10% last year as compared to 2019.
Read More: 9to5Mac, CNBC, Axios
Vinyl Sales Surge in 2020
Vinyl records are making a comeback. Last year, for the first time since 1986, records outsold CDs in the U.S. The Recording Industry Association of America says sales of vinyl records were up nearly 30% in 2020 compared to the year before. It’s tough to say what’s behind this, but young adults on TikTok could be playing a part. Vinyl records are getting trendy on the app. TikTok’s #Vinyl tag has been viewed almost 900 million times. Fine Line by Harry Styles was the most popular vinyl album of 2020.
Read More: MBW, Pitchfork, Yahoo!, RIAA
Churchill Painting Sold for $11.5M
A painting by the man who led Britain through WWII just sold for $11.5 million. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill painted it back in 1935, during that war. It depicts a mosque in Morocco. Churchill gave it to American President Franklin Roosevelt as a gift. Roosevelt’s son eventually sold the painting and it got sold a few more times over the years. The last time, it was American actress Angelina Jolie who bought it in 2011 and she just put it up for auction yesterday. It went for nearly four times its estimate. So far, no word yet on who owns it now.
Read More: AP, WSJ, Christie’s
Trivia Tuesday
Q: The moon has how many phases?
Play along on today’s Instagram Stories Quiz. We’ll also have the answer right here next week.
Last Week’s Trivia Tuesday Answer
Q: Which American city is known as the city of brotherly love?
A: Philadelphia
Read More: Philadelphia Encyclopedia, PennLive, Pew Trusts