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📝 Biden Reveals Stimulus Plan

President-elect Joe Biden revealed the details of his proposed $1.9T stimulus package yesterday. The proposal includes:

• Direct payments of $1,400 to most Americans.
• Increasing federal unemployment benefits to $400 per week through September, and extending the federal eviction moratorium until then as well.
• $350B in state and local government aid.
• $170B for K-12 schools and higher education.
• $70B towards increased virus testing, including in schools, a national vaccination program, disaster relief, expansion of the public-health workforce, and other efforts to push to distribute 100M vaccine shots in the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency.

Additionally, the proposal would gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

👨‍🏫 MIT Professor Arrested

Federal officials arrested and charged MIT mechanical engineering professor Dr. Gang Chen with fraud yesterday, alleging he failed to disclose funding from and extensive ties to the Chinese government.

• Authorities said Dr. Chen entered into undisclosed contracts and held roles “expressly intended to further the PRC’s scientific and technological goals” while collecting $19M in U.S. federal grants since 2013 for his nanotech research.

More: In recent years, federal prosecutors have brought more than a dozen criminal cases accusing researchers at American universities of lying about receiving Chinese government funding.

🇰🇷 Presidential Prison Sentence

South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a twenty-year prison sentence for ex-President Park Geun-hye, who was convicted in 2018 on charges of abuse of power, bribery, coercion, and leaking government documents.

• South Korea’s first female president, Park was impeached in late 2016 after prosecutors accused her of sharing confidential documents with a top aide and colluding with her to extort millions of dollars from companies like Samsung and Hyundai.

More: There is some speculation the court’s decision paves the way for a special presidential pardon from current President Moon Jae-in.

🍩 DONUT Holes:

🐅 Siegfried Fischbacher, one half of the famous Siegfried & Roy magician and entertainer duo, died at 81.

⚖️ NY AG Letitia James filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the NYPD over its response to protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death. (Left-Center | Right-Center)

💨 The Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states experienced damaging wind gusts of up to 105 mph in some areas, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without power.

✌️📈 Say It Ain’t So – Two IPOs

• Poshmark priced its IPO at $42 per share on Wednesday. The stock began trading Thursday at $97.50 per share and closed at $101.50 ($7.4B valuation).
• Petco priced its IPO at $18 per share on Wednesday. Shares began trading Thursday at $26 and closed at $29.40 ($6.2B valuation).

More: In a traditional IPO, the investment bank underwriters reap the immediate benefit of a first-day stock jump – the company and its employees, not so much. Learn how IPO underwriting actually works.

🚀 Lucky Number 14

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin successfully completed NS-14, the fourteenth test flight of its New Shepard spacecraft and one of the last remaining steps before the company’s first manned spaceflight, per CNBC. Blue Origin reportedly plans to launch a second test flight within six weeks, followed by its first crewed flight six weeks after that (early April).

More: New Shepard’s test flight had a single passenger – a life-sized test dummy named “Mannequin Skywalker.”

🔔 Taco Bell Goes Above & Beyond

Taco Bell announced a partnership with Beyond Meat to create an “innovative new plant-based protein,” with testing to begin in the next year. The fast food company also announced the return of potatoes to its menus as part of its attempt to provide more vegetarian options.

More: Shares of Beyond Meat rose 13.7% yesterday after the deal was announced.

🍩 DONUT Holes:

📱 Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S21 line of 5G Android phones featuring three models – the full list.

💵 Fed Chair Jerome Powell said interest rates will remain near zero for the foreseeable future.

🐈✉️ Strike a Note

Image via Twitter.

One night during the recent COVID-19 lockdown in London, Olga Shipunova and Zack King discovered a note had been attached to the collar of Billy, their tuxedo cat and a half inside/half outside kinda guy.

• The note was from an unknown neighbor, who wrote, “Your cat likes to come visit us when he is outside. He will sit at the door and meow to be let in. It’s actually hilarious and we love him!!”
• Olga wrote back by similarly attaching a note to Billy’s collar, and the neighbors soon became pen-pals, chatting about recipes and TV shows as Billy carried their messages back and forth.

And that’s not all…

• Unable to visit Disneyland due to the pandemic, Ryan Thomas of Utah brought the theme park to his two toddlers, taking the family’s laundry basket on a magical roller coaster ride. (The video)
• A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $46K for Sean Currey, a man experiencing homelessness in San Rafael, CA, after he found and returned the wallet of 80-year-old grandmother Evelyn Topper.

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