The Daily Moth 2-4-2025
Hello, it is Tuesday, February 4, 2025. Here are today’s top stories.
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Waffle House egg charges
Waffle House is now charging 50 cents extra per egg on its menu. The restaurant said it is due to the nationwide rise in cost of eggs.
The egg price increases is blamed on a national egg shortage due to avian flu.
Waffle House said it is monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow.
A CNN graphic shows that the average price of eggs in December was $4.15, which is the highest price since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The USDA said about 17 million egg-laying hens were killed in November and December due to outbreaks of avian flu. This is on top of 75 million laying hens that have been killed since January 2022.
Both the USDA and the American Egg Board said they unfortunately predict that the cost of eggs will increase more this year due to continuing problems with the avian virus.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/food/waffle-house-egg-surcharge/index.html
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Trump releases water in California
On Monday, President Trump said he’s opened up water sources in California to give Los Angeles and the state virtually unlimited water and said it would help with wildfires.
A news report from KTVU in California said two dams carried out an “unscheduled water release” on Lake Kaweah and Lake Success, which is a part of a federal water system called the “Central Valley Project.”
The report said the reservoirs are typically used to release water during the summer or later in the fall when farmers need water to grow crops during hot and dry conditions.
California Sen. Alex Padilla (D) said Trump’s order was “incompetent” because the water flows doesn’t even go to Los Angeles. The senator also said the dams being opened could pose a flood risk to downstream communities.
Here is a map that shows the water flows. It is estimated that over 2 billion gallons of water have flown out since Friday.
ABC 30 Action News talked with farmers in central California who use the water from the reservoirs. One said many farmers were shocked because the water is their spring and summer supply and it’s not their priority right now to irrigate crops. They said farmers usually get a 10-day to two-week heads up when water will become available but the water was released so quickly and they can’t use it.
So, the water released from the dams couldn’t have helped efforts to fight wildfires in Los Angeles, and is actually supposed to be used to benefit farmers. Why did Trump say that the water could have helped the L.A. wildfires?
https://www.ktvu.com/news/president-trump-discusses-unscheduled-water-release-from-california-dams
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/expert-describes-trump-ordered-northern-california-water-release-dumb/
https://abc30.com/post/central-california-farmers-raise-concerns-trump-orders-dam-water-release/15862080/
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State Farm asks for rate increases
News reports said State Farm, the insurance giant, is trying to carry out an emergency procedure to increase its insurance rates for residents in California out of concerns that the company could become financially unstable due to the wildfires in Southern California.
State Farm is asking California regulators to approve rate increases of 22% for homeowners, 15% for condominium owners, and 38% for renters.
KQED News said State Farm is California’s largest insurance group and represents more than a million homeowners in the state. There has been an ongoing property insurance crisis in California with many companies either not offering new property insurance policies or having heavy restrictions.
State Farm said it has paid out over $1 billion to customers who have been affected by the L.A. fires, processing almost 8,700 claims.
If the rate hikes are approved, that will make things more expensive for California residents who use State Farm insurance.
https://www.kqed.org/news/12025436/state-farm-seeks-emergency-rate-hike-california-after-la-fires
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20k federal employees accept buyouts
News reports said at least 20,000 federal employees have accepted the “buyout” or deferred resignation offer from the Trump administration to resign by this Thursday and get eight months of pay and benefits through September.
The offer was communicated to federal employees through a mass email last week. The email warned that most federal departments and agencies would be downsized go through restructuring, and require in-person work. The email was similar in wording to Elon Musk’s offer for many Twitter employees to resign when he bought it and changed it to X. Both emails had the title, “Fork in the Road.”
USAToday said the 20,000 federal employees that accepted the offer represents about 1% of the more than 2 million federal employees, which is below the White House / Elon Musk’s goal for 5% to 10% to accept buyouts.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/04/trump-buyout-offer-federal-workers-deadline/78208851007/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DFqQqSDztWs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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D.C. airport staff arrested
News reports said two employees who worked at the Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) were arrested and accused of leaking surveillance footage of the midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet.
One of the arrested is Mohammed L. Mbengue. He is accused of making an unauthorized copy of records and computer trespass. The second person is Jonathan Savoy. There’s a mugshot of Mohammed but there’s none that I could find of Jonathan. News reports said both were arrested separately so their processes may be different with mugshots.
I’ve seen reactions on social media that criticized the arrests, saying the two men, by releasing the videos, helped the public to understand what happened.
https://cbs12.com/news/nation-world/dc-reagan-national-employees-arrested-airport-computer-trespass-mwaa-midair-collision-plane-helicopter-fatal-videos-graphic-charges-trial-virginia-summons-released
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Canada tariffs paused
Last night, President Trump said he would pause his planned 25% tariffs on Canadian imports for a month.
Canadian PM Trudeau said he had a good call with Trump and would implement their $1.3 billion border plan to increase security and stop the flow of fentanyl.
CNBC said Canada already detailed that border plan on their government website on December 18.
This situation with Canada is similar to what happened with Mexico — Trump threatened 25% tariffs on them but then paused it for a month after the Mexican president agreed to beef up border security and do more to stop fentanyl from going into the U.S.
CNBC said in 2024, U.S. authorities seized 21,100 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border and only 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border.
I’ve seen two different reactions on social media on the tariff drama and their anticlimactic endings.
The first is this meme that Trump constantly makes stupid decisions and then reverses them.
The second is that Trump is doing a tactic against foreign leaders and making them cave.
Although the Mexican and Canadian tariffs are paused, the 10% tariffs on China did take effect this morning. China said they would impose retaliatory 15% tariffs on various U.S. imports. Axios said China’s tariffs won’t go into effect until next week so there’s a window for U.S. and China to pause the tariffs.
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.