📅 March Madness

🤸 Ex-U.S. Olympics Coach Charged

Former U.S. Olympic gymnastics coach John Geddert was charged yesterday afternoon in Michigan with 24 felonies for alleged human trafficking and sex crimes.

• Police discovered the body of Geddert just a few hours after the charges were publicized. His death was ruled a suicide.

More: Apart from two counts of sexual assault, Geddert was charged with 20 counts of human trafficking stemming from allegations that he profited off the forced labor of young gymnasts.

Even More: Geddert also faced an additional count of lying to police regarding his knowledge of abuses carried out by former U.S. gymnastics doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar. The remaining charge pertains to running a criminal enterprise.

🏛️ Legislative Action

• The Senate confirmed former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as the Secretary of Energy in a 64-35 vote (14 Republicans joined all 50 Democrats). Granholm was sworn in late Thursday. (Left-Center | Right-Center)
• The House passed the Equality Act in a 224-206 vote largely along party lines (3Rs joined all 221 Ds). The bill amends existing civils rights law to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics. (Left-Center | Right-Center)

❄️ Winter Storm Fallout

• President Biden declared a major disaster in Oklahoma due to last week’s severe winter storms. The state joins Texas and Louisiana under an active disaster declaration, which unlocks federal assistance for the affected areas.
• Five out-of-state board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)  - including the chairwoman and vice-chairman - have resigned. There are 16 total board members.

⏰ Catch Up Quick:

• The U.S. carried out a military airstrike in eastern Syria along the Iraqi border last night in retaliation for a recent rocket strike in northern Iraq that injured several Americans, according to the Pentagon. (Left-Center | Right-Center)
• The FDA approved storing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine at standard freezer temperatures (-13ºF to 5ºF) for up to two weeks. This counters previous requirements for storage between -112ºF and -76ºF.

🗽 Live from New York… Manhattan prosecutors officially received former President Trump’s tax documents dating back to 2011 after a SCOTUS decision this week allowed for their release. | A former aide to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo published a Medium post on Wednesday detailing an environment of sexual harassment and bullying fostered by Cuomo among his staff. (Cuomo’s response.)

📝 The Law of the Land

India introduced new regulations yesterday requiring social media companies and digital streaming websites to erase content deemed unlawful by authorities (including content that affects “the sovereignty and integrity of India”).

• The laws also compel social media companies to assist investigations by India’s law enforcement agencies. They are set to take effect within three months.

More: Australia’s Parliament passed the final amendments to its News Media Bargaining Code, effectively forcing Facebook and Google to pay traditional media companies for their content. (The background.)

Meanwhile… EU countries are facing a June deadline to adopt national versions of a bloc-wide law passed in 2019 that allows news publishers to demand payment for reuse of their content.

🐦 Tough Act to Follow

Twitter revealed preliminary details of a potential first-ever paid consumer product yesterday, ‘Super Follow.’

• The service would allow users to pay for subscriptions from their favorite accounts in order to unlock exclusive content, which could include tweets, newsletters, community boards, and more.

More: A timeline for Super Follow’s release has not yet been announced.

Even More: The announcement was made during its annual Analyst Day, where the company also announced plans to double revenue (currently $3.7B) and reach 315M daily active users by the end of 2023.

📁🪙 Toss a Coin…

Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, filed to go public via direct listing on the Nasdaq yesterday.

• In the filing, the company revealed its net revenue more than doubled to $1.1B in 2020. The value of its crypto assets also increased to $316M (from $33.9M in 2019).

More: The exchange was valued at more than $100B in a recent private-market share sale, per Axios.

Even More: Coinbase reported 43M verified users as of the end of last year, with 2.8M conducting monthly transactions.

🏬 Coming Soon to a Store Near You…

🍎 Target will open mini Apple shops inside 17 stores across the country this month, with plans to expand to more locations in the fall. (The initial locations; scroll to the bottom.)

🍸 Pepsi unveiled a line of cocktail mixers under its new Neon Zebra brand; available in stores starting Monday.

☝️ One Last Thing…

🎵 Spotify introduced a new feature allowing users to filter their ‘Liked’ songs by genre and mood.

❤️ An Unlikely Pair

Welcome back to Furry Friends Friday. Our story starts in snowy Canada with an unlikely pair of besties. 🐕💘🐄

Image via CBC

"It just wasn't warm enough. A baby is wet when it’s born, and she was already getting cold and her ears were starting to freeze."

When Bonnie Potoroka made her way out to the barn to check on her expectant heifer, she was shocked to find the newborn calf already waiting for her.

• With temperatures plummeting to a bitter -58°F, Bonnie had to make the quick decision to separate the newborn from her mother and bring her indoors.

Image via CBC.

Once inside, the heater wasn't the only thing helping to warm up the calf. To her surprise, Bonnie’s collie Mickey cuddled right up to the freezing newborn and fell fast asleep.

• Over the past week, the two have become inseparable, spending most of their time sleeping and cuddling near the heater.

"Cows don't usually cuddle with dogs too much, they kind of push them away... [Mickey] is always curious about the cows and the calves, but this one is the same size as him, so he likes it." - Bonnie

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