Dose Of News Useful Today

Monday, March 15th

🏈 The Kickoff

Welcome to the beginning of a new week. Let’s start it with some NFL news:

Saints QB (and future HOF’er) Drew Brees announced his retirement after 20 seasons. He’s 42 years old.
Bucs QB (and future HOF’er) Tom Brady signed a contract extension through at least his 22nd season. He’s 43 years old.

🤔 Serious question: Is Tom Brady actually a human being?

⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.76 minutes to read.

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Daily Sprinkle

“All I ask is one thing… please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism; for the record it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

—Conan O’ Brien’s farewell (2010)

This Week at a Glance

Monday: Academy Award nominations unveiled

Tuesday: Federal Reserve begins two-day meeting

Wednesday: St. Patrick’s Day

Thursday: First high-level in-person meeting between Biden administration & China; The four-hour “Snyder Cut” of Justice League comes to HBO Max; March Madness Day 1

Friday: March Madness Day 2

💉 COVID Vaccine Update

On Friday, the U.S. surpassed 100M COVID-19 vaccines administered, according to data from the CDC.

The milestone came one day after President Biden, in his first prime time presidential address, said he will direct states and territories to make all adults eligible for coronavirus vaccines by May 1.
Alaska became the first state to allow anyone over the age of 16 to receive a vaccine last week, while Utah and Michigan will allow all adults to receive a vaccine starting next month (April 1 & 5, respectively).

🤿 A deeper dive…

Image: Bloomberg

At the current rate, Bloomberg estimates it will take five months to cover 75% of Americans with a two-dose vaccine.

The White House announced plans last week to purchase an additional 100M doses of the recently-approved one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, doubling the company’s previous commitment.
The federal government also has contracts with Moderna and Pfizer to provide 300M doses each of their two-shot vaccines.
As of Friday, over 50.9M doses of Pfizer’s vaccine had been administered, per the WSJ, compared to more than 49.1M doses of Moderna’s vaccine and 870k doses of J&J’s single-shot vaccine.

The White House on Friday expanded the number of people qualified to administer vaccines across the country, with newly eligible vaccinators including dentists, EMTs, veterinarians, and students in professional healthcare fields.

The Biden administration also said it will double the number of pharmacies where vaccines will be available (to more than 20k), and launch a new website and call center to help the public better locate where vaccine supply is available.

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💰 Minneapolis Agrees to Floyd Settlement

Minneapolis city officials unanimously agreed to pay $27M to the family of George Floyd, settling a civil lawsuit stemming from Floyd’s death last May.

Attorneys for the Floyd family called it the largest pretrial settlement ever for a civil rights claim.

More: It’s not immediately clear how the settlement might affect the trial or the ongoing jury-selection process.

Even More: Including the Floyd settlement, Minneapolis will have paid ~$71M over the past two decades to settle officer misconduct claims or lawsuits, including a $20M sum awarded in 2019 to the family of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

LEFT of CENTER → Star Tribune	RIGHT of CENTER → NY Post

❄️ Brrr, It's Cold In Here

A major storm hit the U.S. this weekend.

Parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, & Nebraska received up to four feet of snow (including a two-day record of 25.8 inches in Cheyenne, WY).
Several areas in Texas were struck with tornadoes and heavy storms, with reports of hail the size of baseballs.

⏰ Catch-Up Quick:

The Biden administration mobilized FEMA to support a 90-day effort to help process the growing number of unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border. (Left of Center | Right of Center)
Stimulus checks began hitting bank accounts over the weekend. Check on yours.
Beyoncé became the most-decorated singer in Grammy history last night, taking home four awards to bring her lifetime total to 28. See the full list of winners or watch the highlights.

☝️ 1 Last Thing…

Image: Chicago Sun-Times

In a surprise move, Chicago officials dyed the Chicago River green yesterday to commemorate St. Patrick's Day.

The tradition began in 1962. Learn more.

🏀 Selection Sunday

The 10-member NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee released the official 2021 NCAA Tournament bracket yesterday.

The bracket is headlined by Gonzaga, the overall top seed, with Baylor, Illinois, and Michigan rounding out the #1 seeds. (Full bracket.)

The First Four will be held Thursday, with the first round beginning on Friday.

Even More: The NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee releases the official bracket at 7 p.m. ET tonight.

🎯 Hindenburg Targets Lordstown

Short-seller firm Hindenburg Research published a report Friday targeting Ohio EV startup Lordstown Motors, which went public via SPAC last October.

In the report, Hindenburg disputes that Lordstown has booked 100,000 pre-orders for its electric pickup truck – a stat shared by the EV company in January.

In comments to the WSJ, Lordstown founder and CEO Steve Burns said the report contained “half-truths and lies” and that Hindenburg has a motivation to hurt the stock (which closed down 16.5% on Friday).

More: Hindenburg published a similar report last September regarding EV startup Nikola Motors, which led to an SEC investigation and the resignation of founder and CEO Trevor Milton.

📸 Deepfake News... Or Is It?

A Pennsylvania mother is accused of sending deepfake photos and videos of her teenage daughter’s cheerleading rivals to coaches in an effort to get them kicked off the team.

The woman, who was arrested March 4, allegedly sent fake photos depicting her daughter’s rivals naked, drinking, and smoking, along with anonymous messages urging at least one victim to kill themselves.

🍩 More – DONUT Challenge: Spot the deepfake.

Watch 15 seconds from each of these two videos (#1 & #2): can you spot the difference?

☝️ 1 Last Thing…

TSA officers screened nearly 1.4M people at airports on Friday, the highest number since March 15, 2020 (but still down 20% year-over-year and nearly 38% from 2019).

🚀👽 To Infinity… and Beyond!

“My son was devastated. He loved his Buzz so much... [we] chalked it up as a loss.”

Airline employees find thousands of forgotten items on aircrafts each year.

Last month, one Southwest ramp agent discovered a missing Space Ranger at an airport in Little Rock, AR, with the owner’s name scribbled on its foot.

Images via Facebook

Two-year-old Hagen and his parents didn’t notice the boy’s favorite toy was missing until they were already at their final destination in Dallas. But the plane with his beloved Buzz was already in Arkansas for cleaning.

A few days after their travels, The Davis family received an email from Jason, the ramp agent who had scooped up the toy. Buzz had been rescued and was officially on his way home. ✈️

When Buzz made it back to Hagen, he arrived in a hand-decorated delivery box along with some photos and a scribbled note:

“To Commander Hagen: I am very excited to return to you upon completing my mission,” the note said. “My journey has taught me a lot, but I am so thankful to return to my buddy.”

TOGETHER WITH

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🔭 Taking The Plunge... scientists in Russia submerged a space telescope more than 2,500-feet in the freezing waters of Lake Baikal, where it will observe neutrinos - one of the smallest known particles in the universe.

🥽 X-Ray Vision… the U.S. Army recently developed Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) goggles that access feeds from cameras on the outside of armored vehicles, allowing soldiers to “see” through the walls of the vehicles.

🤖 Autobots, Roll Out… a UT Dallas research group created a team of autonomous robots able to traverse land, water, and sky to rapidly collect data on disaster sites and other hazardous environmental situations unfit for humans.

🌾 Weeding Out the Competition... scholars in Japan found extracts from A. virginicus - a species of grass native to the U.S. but overwhelmingly invasive in Canada and Japan - may be effective at treating type 2 diabetes and blood cancer.