Monday, February 15 top stories
It is Monday, February 15. Here are today’s top news stories.
Is it snowing outside where you are now? Half of America, or 150 million people, are now under winter advisories stretching down from the northern states down to Texas. I have seen on social media many people in Austin, waking up to several inches of snow. Hope all of you are doing okay. News reports said many people in Texas experienced power outages throughout the evening and this morning.
In the Detroit area, but we are expecting 5 to 9 inches of snow starting this evening through tomorrow morning. I already dug up about three inches of snow this morning!
The National Weather Service said there is a “polar plunge” right now with over 50 million people expected to experience temperatures below zero.
Today is President Day, which is a federal holiday to honor all U.S. presidents. President Joe Biden and his family spent the weekend at Camp David in Maryland. His granddaughter Naomi posted images of Biden wearing a presidential hat and playing video games.
One of former president Donald Trump’s impeachment defense lawyers, Michael van der Veen, found his home in Philadelphia vandalized with red spray paint spelling out the words, “TRAITOR” on his driveway. Police said the driveway was sprayed on Friday night and so far, there have been no arrests. There is now private security protecting the home with beefed up police presence in the neighborhood. The lawyer said his family, business, and his law firm are under siege right now.
Musician Nicki Minaj’s father, Robert Maraj, was struck and killed by a motorist who then drove off. He was 64. ABC News said Maraj was crossing a street in Long Island when he was struck on Friday night. He was hospitalized but died of his injuries. There is now an investigation. Minaj was born in Trinidad, an island in the Caribbean Sea, and moved to New York City to join her parents at age 5.
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Parler, a social media network similar to Twitter that is popular with conservative people, is now back online after being down for a month. Parler was suspended by Apple, Google, and Amazon after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol due to violent threats being shared among Parler users. Account holders will see their accounts back online, but all of their previous posts, called “parleys,” are scrubbed — in short, it’s a new, clean start for the platform. “The Verge” reported that Parler is still fighting an ongoing lawsuit against Amazon and that Apple and Google haven't restored its app to their stores.
A NASA rover will be landing on Mars sometime this Thursday. The rover is called Perseverance and is the size of a car. The rover will attempt to land inside of Mars’ Jezero Crater and then look for signs of life and collect samples to send back to Earth. Scientists said the crater, more than 3.5 billion years ago, held a lake about the size of Lake Tahoe. The rover was launched on July 30, 2020. space.com said the landing will very difficult and that over the years only 40% of Mars surface missions have landed successfully. The landing ill use a “sky crane” technique — the probe will parachute near the surface, drop the rover with cables, and then disconnect the rover to leave it on Mars as the probe flies away.
That’s all the top news for today. Check out our other videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/15/winter-storm-texas-power-outages-south-ice-snow/4487366001/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-plays-video-games-family-shows-off-presidential/story?id=75906175
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-impeachment-lawyer-michael-van-der-veens-home/story?id=75893232
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/nicki-minajs-father-killed-hit-run-driver-police/story?id=75900388
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/15/22284036/parler-social-network-relaunch-new-hosting
https://www.space.com/mars-rover-perseverance-landing-explained