Thursday, February 25 top stories

It is Thursday, February 25. Here are today’s top stories.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will review supply chains to major U.S. manufacturing industries such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and clean energy. The order will aim to promote U.S. factory growth and try to curb off China’s economic rise and U.S. reliance on raw materials that come from China or other countries.

CNN reported that Donald Trump’s tax records have officially been turned over to the New York District Attorney Cy Vance in an investigation on whether Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in tax fraud or other criminal financial schemes. The DA’s office got the documents from Trump’s accounting firm Mazars after the Supreme Court declined a Trump request to keep the records private on Monday. CNN explained that the DA now can dig deeper, interview witnesses, and determine if any state laws have been violated.

An American Airlines pilot radioed that he saw an unidentified flying object (UFO) fly above their passenger jet. On Sunday, the plane was flying from Ohio to Arizona and when it was in New Mexico, the pilot reported that he saw a “long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing moving really fast. It went right over the top of us.” The airline company confirmed that the radio call was from their pilot. The FAA said they didn’t see any object on their radar on that day. There is a missile testing site in New Mexico, but military officials said they didn’t do any tests on Sunday and never in the pilot’s particular area. It’s a mystery.

On Tuesday evening in Ohio, a 16-year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother fell through a frozen lake at a state park in Hillsboro. They were apparently walking near some docks when they fell through the ice. The sister managed to get the brother out of the water, but she was not able to get out and was stuck under the ice. Divers pulled out the sister and she was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. The brother was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition.

A second person died — a first responder named Jason Lagore, who worked with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources — had a medical emergency at the scene and died at a hospital. Officials warned to not go out on the ice because of the tragedy.

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A woman from Houston is suing her electricity provider for price gouging because she received a power bill of over $9,000 as a result of the winter storm crisis. The woman said an app called Griddy automatically charged her $1,200 from her bank before she stopped the payments, but she still owes $8,000. There are many others who are reporting high energy bills and they are banding together in class-action lawsuits. CBS News explained that Texas has a deregulated electricity market with variable-rate pricing, and because of this system, the customers will have a tough time to get their bills discharged because it’s in the contract they signed. Usually energy prices are cheaper this way, but it has a negative tradeoff in serious crises such as the winter storm.

In my interview with a deaf master electrician Jason Shaw earlier this week, he explained that the system works similar with gas prices — supply and demand. During the winter crisis, the supply became scarce while the demand skyrocketed, causing energy prices to go wildly up. Shaw said the high bills don't affect everyone, only those who signed up to get wholesale prices. He said most utilities providers keep the prices stable. Now some have suggested that state funds or federal funds be tapped to help customers with the high energy bills.

A sheep in Australia named Baarack was found abandoned in a forest with over 75 pounds of wool on its body. Sheep need yearly shearing to keep their coats light as a result of domestication. The sheep was taken to an animal sanctuary and sheared. The wool that came off was 78 pounds. The sheep had several health conditions, but is expected to recover now that it can walk around and run comfortably.

That’s all the top stories for today. See you later and stay with the light.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/business/biden-supply-chain-executive-order.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/25/politics/trump-taxes-mazars-vance/index.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/02/25/american-airlines-pilot-reports-ufo-flight-to-phoenix/6812802002/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/teenage-girl-dies-saving-younger-brother-fell-frozen/story?id=76100030&cid=clicksource_4380645_3_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-power-outage-lawsuit-electricity-bills/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/02/24/baarack-sheep-australia-over-75-pounds-wool-rescued/4572