It was a dream come true for Philadelphia children when the Eagles soared to a Super Bowl victory Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. Now they’re getting a second wish granted: a day off school to celebrate with the champions at the city’s Super Bowl parade. The School District of Philadelphia said on Tuesday that it would close all of its schools on Friday, freeing up nearly 200,000 students to join what is expected to be a million-strong crowd flooding the city’s streets. Nearly 20,000 school staff members will also get the day off. “We look forward to joyfully celebrating the Eagles’ victory as a community,” the district announced, in what might be a formal way of saying, “Go Birds!” The parade will travel through Center City, starting at 11 a.m. at Lincoln Financial Field, heading north past City Hall and ending by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, according to the city’s map of the route. Parents face the decision of whether to bring their children to a parade that could involve, in some sections, standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers in temperatures expecting to hover in the 30s. Others might opt to take an impromptu vacation, as Philadelphia schools will also be closed on Monday for Presidents’ Day, giving students a four-day weekend. Social media was buzzing with opinions and recommendations about the parade, ranging from optimists booking Airbnbs near the stadium to cautious parents advising others to leave their children at home with a sitter. Philadelphia’s public safety officials issued some precautions for parents who planned to bring children to the parade: make sure they are wearing bright colors; snap a photo of them before leaving; and write their phone number on a bracelet, on their wrist or on a piece of paper in their pocket, in case child and parent get separated. Other educational institutions around Philadelphia jumped on the bandwagon: Temple University and nearby school districts like Gloucester City School District, in South Jersey, and Ridley School District, in Delaware County, all canceled classes. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia Schools, which oversees Catholic schools in the city and its suburbs, also announced that its high schools, parish and regional elementary schools would be closed. Transit officials said that there would be limited train service starting from early morning and congestion in the roads because of the street closures. City officials also said that government offices, city daytime centers and courts would also be shut. The timing of the parade, falling on Valentine’s Day, drew some grumbling from restaurant and flower shop owners in the city, some of whom complained the parade would affect their dinner service and deliveries. Mayor Cherelle Parker of Philadelphia sought to calm those concerns at a news conference on Tuesday. “To all in our restaurant community, we want you to know that we will be prepared,” she told reporters. “Nothing will interfere with our restaurant reservations on that evening. We will be done well before you are to appear for dinner. So don’t you dare touch any of those reservations.” Philadelphia’s school district also closed in 2018 for the celebration of the Eagles’ first Super Bowl victory, against the New England Patriots. Schools were closed during last year’s Super Bowl parade, in Kansas City, Mo., after Kansas City won against the San Francisco 49ers. A shooting at that parade left one person dead and about two dozen others wounded, including nine children.
Republicans in Congress have responded to President Trump’s unilateral moves to freeze federal spending, dismantle programs and fire civil servants with a collective shrug, staying mostly silent and even praising him as he circumvents the legislative branch. But in recent days, as his slash-and-burn campaign to remake the government has begun to affect their states and districts, some Republicans have tried to push back in subtle ways. They have sought carve outs and special consideration for agriculture programs, scientific research and more, even as they cheered on Mr. Trump’s overall approach. Their swift and quiet moves to protect their own pieces of the federal spending pie without critiquing Mr. Trump are an early indication of the political realities that could pose obstacles to the president’s push. Many programs he has targeted for cost-cutting have entrenched constituencies in Congress built up by Republicans over many years. It is one reason that shrinking the size of the federal government will be a mammoth task, despite the G.O.P.’s posture of maximum deference to Mr. Trump. Take Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, the successor to Senator Richard C. Shelby, who retired in 2022 at age 88 as one of the last big-time pork barrel legends in Congress. Mr. Shelby, Ms. Britt’s former boss, was renowned for his record of steering billions of dollars in federal spending to his state over a 36-year career. Ms. Britt was one of the first Republicans to raise concerns at home soon after the Trump administration directed the National Institutes of Health to slash $4 billion in overhead costs for medical research grantees, a move that has since been paused by a federal judge. Ms. Britt, whose state has received more than $518 million in N.I.H. grants for projects currently active there, told a local news outlet that she would press administration officials to take a “smart, targeted approach” to cuts so as to “not hinder lifesaving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions” such as the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In the House, a group of Republicans from farm states and districts introduced legislation this week that aims to salvage a foreign aid program targeted for extinction by Mr. Trump as part of his effort to wipe out the U.S. Agency for International Development. The bill would transfer oversight of the Food for Peace program, which purchases crops at market price from American farmers and distributes them to hungry people abroad, from U.S.A.I.D. to the Agriculture Department. The lawmakers argued that their legislation fulfills the spirit of what Mr. Trump calls his “mandate” to slim down the federal bureaucracy and make it more efficient. “By moving Food for Peace to U.S.D.A., the program can continue to equip American producers to serve hungry people while providing more transparency and efficiency as to how taxpayer dollars are stewarded,” Representative Tracey Mann, Republican of Kansas and the lead sponsor of the House bill, said in a statement on Tuesday. After Mr. Trump ordered a 90-day freeze of foreign aid shipments, Senator Jerry Moran, also of Kansas, was among the only Republicans who publicly urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to quickly resume foreign food aid shipments abroad so American growers, including sorghum farmers in his state, would not lose out on a major market for their surplus product.American growers sold about $713 million of goods to Food for Peace program in the 2023 fiscal year. And in a letter last week to the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the chairwoman of the Indian Affairs Committee, she asked the Trump administration to direct federal agencies not to apply any funding restrictions from Mr. Trump’s executive order targeting diversity programs to American Indian tribes. Not all Republicans are pushing back on Mr. Trump’s efforts to slash federal spending, even when those cuts hit programs in their states. Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, whose state has received more than $1 billion in N.I.H. research grants, said he supported the move to cut overhead costs, arguing that taxpayer money should not be used to cover expenses like lighting, heating and building maintenance. “If you ask the average American, ‘We’re spending a billion dollars to cure childhood cancer, how much of a billion dollars should go toward curing childhood cancer?’ They’d probably say a billion,” Mr. Moreno said. “The idea that 60 percent goes toward indirect costs, overhead, is insane.” The N.I.H. said that less than half of that, about 26 percent of grant dollars it distributed last year, went to such costs. The G.O.P. lawmakers seeking reprieves from Mr. Trump’s cuts are quick to embrace his message that federal spending is out of control, while arguing that their state’s or district’s slice of government funding is critical. Ms. Britt said in an interview that she had recently talked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mr. Trump’s nominee to be health secretary, to impress upon him the importance of protecting vital medical research taking place in Alabama that she said “ultimately saves lives.” “He said he absolutely understood that we need to keep both research and innovation alive and well, and you know that you have to have the best technology and laboratory facilities to be able to do that,” Ms. Britt said, speaking of Mr. Kennedy. “He committed to continuing that conversation and working to make sure that we find a real solution moving forward.” Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, whose state includes two of the largest recipients of N.I.H. grants in Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he agreed with the Trump administration’s move to limit the amount of taxpayer money used for overhead costs. But he conceded that the universities would likely need time to adjust to their new financial reality. “There’s great research being done by all of our institutions; we need to protect that,” Mr. Budd said. “I think the White House wants to protect that.” Still, Democrats are working to capitalize on the potential political impact of Mr. Trump’s spending cuts by attacking Republicans in Congress, especially those from competitive districts, for swallowing moves that harm their constituents. House Majority PAC, the House Democrats’ main political action group, sent out a message this week titled, “Vulnerable House Republicans Hang Farmers Out To Dry,” which noted how the funding freeze was hitting farmers around the country and singled out several Republican lawmakers by name, including Representatives David Valadao of California, Zach Nunn of Iowa and Don Bacon of Nebraska.
Danielle R. Sassoon shot like a laser through the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, with stints fighting violent crime and securities fraud as well as handling appeals before she was elevated, at age 38, to be its interim head. There, just weeks into her tenure running the country’s most prestigious federal prosecutor’s office, she encountered an obstacle that threatened to stall her rapid rise: the desire of President Trump’s administration to drop corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams. On Thursday, Ms. Sassoon resigned rather than carry out the order, setting off several other resignations within the Department of Justice and standing up for the independence that has defined her Manhattan office for decades. “I cannot fulfill my obligations, effectively lead my office in carrying out the department’s priorities, or credibly represent the government before the courts, if I seek to dismiss the Adams case,” she wrote in a letter to the attorney general the day before her departure. Given her experience — and bulletproof conservative credentials as a member of the Federalist Society — Ms. Sassoon seemed ready to lead an office that saw tumultuous times during Mr. Trump’s first term, when he fired two of its U.S. attorneys. In recent days, prosecutors had been watching Ms. Sassoon anxiously to see how she might respond to the Justice Department’s demand that she drop the Adams case, which she had supported in a court filing. Through a spokesman, Ms. Sassoon declined to comment for this article. Before the Adams case vaulted her into the spotlight, Ms. Sassoon’s life had been characterized by achievement that was noteworthy even in environments where achievement is the norm. Born and raised in New York City, she attended Ramaz, a modern Orthodox Jewish school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where she was first in her class and received awards for academic excellence. In high school, she spent hours each day studying the Talmud, an effort that she has said prepared her to study law. Rebecca Kaden, a close friend who met Ms. Sassoon right before they began their freshman year at Harvard University, said she always knew Ms. Sassoon would be a lawyer. The future U.S. attorney was cerebral, a dynamic thinker eager to discuss and debate ideas.She wrote columns about Middle East politics for the student newspaper, one of them in her role as press secretary of Harvard Students for Israel, as well as a soft-focus profile of a classmate for “Scene,” a friend’s magazine project. One of her classes, “Justice,” was taught by the professor Michael J. Sandel, in a packed auditorium of hundreds of students, some of whose comments received enthusiastic applause. In that class, Ms. Sassoon stood and delivered an outspoken argument against race-based affirmative action. “You could argue that affirmative action perpetuates divisions between the races, rather than achieving the ultimate goal of race being an irrelevant factor in our society,” she said. There was no applause when she finished. But if she was unafraid to speak frankly with her peers, Ms. Sassoon could be soft-spoken with the mentors on campus. A family friend introduced her to the law professor Alan Dershowitz, who soon brought her on as a research assistant. Mr. Dershowitz said that Ms. Sassoon understood “all sides of all arguments” but recalled her as “diffident, reserved” and “shy.” “She’ll very politely and very gently challenge you,” Mr. Dershowitz said, adding, “She was always interested in public service.” After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 2008, Ms. Sassoon attended Yale Law School, known for its focus on public interest law. She graduated in 2011 and served in consecutive clerkships for conservative judges. The first, J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the federal appeals court for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., recalled Ms. Sassoon as whip-smart and versatile — equally at home in the higher precincts of appellate law and before a jury. He said he would not comment “in any way, shape or form” on decisions that Ms. Sassoon faced in the Adams case or in others. He added: “All I would say is that Danielle is someone who’s very principled and rigorously honest and plays it straight.” She later clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia, a giant of the conservative legal movement. In an essay after his death in 2016, she wrote, “Justice Scalia was my kind of feminist. “He spared me no argumentative punches and demanded rigor from my work,” she added. “He taught me how to fire a pistol and a rifle, and made me feel like I had grit. He thickened my skin, which was the best preparation for a career in a male-dominated field.” Ms. Sassoon cited her obligation to both Judge Wilkinson and Justice Scalia in her letter to the attorney general, Pam Bondi.The year that she wrote the essay about Justice Scalia, Ms. Sassoon, a registered Republican, began working as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office, where political neutrality is a paramount value. Hired into the Southern District of New York under Preet Bharara, who had been appointed by President Barack Obama, she whisked through the general crimes and narcotics units before focusing on violent crime and securities fraud. She handled eight trials, including two murder cases. In one trial, she won the conviction of Lawrence V. Ray on charges of extortion and sex trafficking related to his abuse of Sarah Lawrence College students. He received 60 years in prison. She was best known for the fraud prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Ms. Sassoon grilled Mr. Bankman-Fried in a four-hour cross-examination, skewering him with a rat-a-tat line of questioning that contrasted his public statements with his private conduct. The columnist Joe Nocera, after observing the back and forth, wrote in The Free Press that Mr. Bankman-Fried was “a dead man walking.” He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2023, under the U.S. attorney at the time, Damian Williams, Ms. Sassoon was promoted to co-chief of the criminal appeals unit, where she most likely would have reviewed the legal particulars of some of the office’s highest-profile cases — including its prosecution of Mayor Adams. That was the position she held last month when the Trump administration elevated her to temporarily lead the office. Her tenure was expected to be relatively brief. She has a baby due in mid-March, and Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the office permanently, Jay Clayton, is expected to sail through the Senate confirmation process. She has been an active leader, attending social gatherings held by the office’s units and recently appearing in court to observe the sentencing of Robert Menendez, the former Democratic senator from New Jersey, on corruption charges. He received 11 years in prison. Shortly after being named the interim U.S. attorney last month, Ms. Sassoon became involved in conversations about the case against Mayor Adams. On Jan. 31, she traveled to Washington, D.C., for an in-person meeting at the Justice Department to discuss the possibility of dropping the charges. To friends, she seemed unfazed: Two days after the meeting, she and her husband, Adam Katz, threw a birthday party for her young daughter. (Mr. Katz is co-founder of the investment firm Irenic Capital Management.) This week, the department’s acting No. 2 official, Emil Bove III, ordered Ms. Sassoon to drop the case in a memo, directing that she dismiss the pending charges “as soon as is practicable.”Ms. Sassoon could not have dismissed the charges herself. She — or a prosecutor in her office — would have had to ask the judge overseeing the case to do so. After Mr. Bove’s memo became public, veterans of the office quickly began to discuss among themselves how Ms. Sassoon might respond. On Thursday, they received an answer. This month, Ms. Sassoon published an essay in The Wall Street Journal in which she criticized President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 “supposedly nonviolent offenders” without consulting the prosecutors or judges involved. Ms. Sassoon wrote: “The lack of a considered decision-making process exhibited a disregard for the work and knowledge of prosecutors and judges. “At this time of transition,” Ms. Sassoon added, “I look forward to doing my part to ensure that prosecutors can resume their noble work unimpeded, outside the limelight and in service of the public.”
President Donald Trump is known to drink many Diet Cokes, but one thing you’re not likely to ever see him using again is a paper straw. “We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump announced after signing an Executive Order on Feb. 10 that declared it U.S. policy to end the use of paper straws. “I’ve had [paper straws] many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode,” Trump said. “It’s a ridiculous situation.” Trump’s crusade against paper straws is nothing new. His 2020 presidential campaign branded them as “liberal” and sold nearly half a million dollars worth of Trump-branded plastic straws. Here’s what to know about the history of—and controversy over—plastic and paper straws. Why do we need straws at all? Humans have historically needed assisting tubes to drink—the earliest indications of straw use were found in an ancient Sumerian tomb dating back to 3,000 B.C. Straws also play a huge role for people with disabilities. The Center for Disability Rights says those with mobility and strength issues may have difficulty lifting glasses to their mouths, and others may need straws to ingest their medication. What’s wrong with plastic straws? Single-use plastics, which are not recyclable, have long been the bane of environmental and public health advocates. Some of the earliest campaigns specifically against plastic straws began in 2011, including nine-year-old Milo Cress’ Be Straw Free and Jackie Nuñez’s The Last Plastic Straw. But the anti-plastic straw movement really took off in 2015 after an eight-minute video from marine researchers showed a sea turtle whose nostril was blocked, prompting one of the researchers to have to use a pair of pliers to bloodily pull out the culprit: a plastic straw. The World Wildlife Fund has warned that straws—and other plastic waste—pose risks to animals if not properly disposed of, with many marine animals mistaking them for food. Plastic pollution has been estimated to kill 100,000 marine mammals yearly, according to the WWF. And nonprofit Ocean Conservancy says it has collected nearly 14 million plastic straws and stirrers on beaches and waterways globally over the last 35 years. Straws and other single-use plastic items can also disintegrate over time, shedding particles known as microplastics into our water and food, which studies say can cause serious health issues like cancers and respiratory disorders. In 2017, Entourage star Adrian Grenier’s foundation Lonely Whale launched the Strawless Ocean initiative, which invited the public and celebrities to commit to stopping the use of single-use plastic straws altogether. How did paper straws come about? The modern drinking straw was invented by American inventor Marvin C. Stone in 1888, and his patented version was actually made out of paper and wax. As plastic became increasingly cheaper to produce after World War II, the 1960s saw a plastic version produced en masse, according to the National Geographic, with variations such as jumbo and crazy plastic straws booming in the 1980s. The paper straw didn’t regain prominence until plastic straws were pushed aside for environmental concerns. In July 2018, Seattle became the first major U.S. city to enforce a ban on plastic straws in food service, offering compostable alternatives upon request. Months later, California signed into law a ban on full-service restaurants automatically giving customers plastic straws. Other U.S. cities and states like Oregon and Vermont followed suit with similar laws restricting plastic straw use. The private sector also pitched in. American Airlines and Alaska Airlines rolled out initiatives in 2018 to phase out plastic straw use, as did Disney and McDonald’s (though the latter admitted that the new paper ones weren’t recyclable). Starbucks removed plastic straws completely from their stores by 2020. Outside the U.S., other countries have also made progress in eliminating plastic straw use. In 2018, Vanuatu made history as the first country to ban plastic straws altogether. In July 2021, the European Union banned the sale of certain single-use plastics, including straws, in E.U. markets. China also enacted a plastics ban in 2021 that prohibited restaurants from providing single-use straws. In 2024, as President Joe Biden’s term drew to a close, his administration announced that the federal government—the world’s largest buyer of consumer goods—would phase out plastic straws and other single-use plastics from federal food services by 2027 and from all federal operations by 2035. The backlash against paper straws “They want to ban straws. Has anyone tried those paper straws? They’re not working too good,” Trump said at a 2020 campaign rally, in large part echoing public sentiment. Even liberals argued against paper straws as early as 2019, raising questions about their efficacy as well as whether they’re actually any better for the environment. A 2020 paper from researchers in Brazil found that plastic drinking straws have “better environmental performance” compared to paper and reusable alternatives, and a U.K. government study said paper straws have greater carbon dioxide emissions when they rot in landfills compared to plastic ones. And a 2023 study published in the journal Food Additives & Contaminants found that “forever chemicals”—also linked to a bevy of health issues—were found in higher amounts in paper straws compared to their plastic counterparts. Trump’s executive order The Trump Administration branded the campaign against plastic straws “irrational” and ordered a reversal of the Biden-era policies regarding their use by the federal government. It directed paper straws to be no longer procured and provided in agency buildings and a National Strategy to End the Use of Paper Straws to be devised within 45 days that would address the elimination of policies against plastic straws nationwide. The plastics industry has welcomed the order. “Straws are just the beginning,” said Plastics Industry Association President and CEO Matt Seaholm. “‘Back to Plastic’ is a movement we should all get behind. We appreciate President Trump’s leadership in recognizing the value of plastics and look forward to working with his Administration to advance our industry.”But environmentalists aren’t so happy. “Once again, President Trump is pretending to be a populist while siding with his Big Oil buddies over the public interest,” said Greenpeace USA’s senior plastics campaigner Lisa Ramsden in a statement. Trump’s move headed in the “wrong direction,” Christy Leavitt, U.S. plastics campaign director of non-profit conservation group Oceana, said in a similar statement. “Trump is announcing executive orders that are more about messaging than finding solutions.”
If the earth is warming, why are we still getting winter storms? Climate change is leading to shorter and warmer winters in North America, experts agree. But that doesn’t mean that winter storms will become a thing of the past. In fact, climate change is making storms more intense. As the Earth’s atmosphere warms, it’s able to collect and hold more moisture—which means more precipitation. “The atmosphere behaves a bit like a sponge, and that means that it can suck up more moisture when it's warmer, but also that when you wring the sponge out, more moisture can fall out of the sky in the form of precipitation, and in the winter, snowfall,” says Daniel Horton, associate professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University. As a result, some areas are beginning to get more precipitation year-over-year. “Winter storms themselves are starting to produce a lot more extreme precipitation totals, freezing rain, sleet, even snowfall, in some of these areas,” says Jason Furtado, associate professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. “This year in particular, a lot of this snow is actually happening in places we don't think about it happening like New Orleans or on the Florida Gulf Coast.” As the Arctic warms, high pressure systems build in the region’s atmosphere, displacing cold fronts and causing them to move south, creating stronger storms. Though the phenomenon has been occurring for years, warming temperatures means these intrusions are occurring more frequently. “We start to get these big, large, high pressure systems that build across the Arctic, and that serves to actually displace and remove some of that cold air and start to surge it more into our latitudes,” says Furtado. Storms feed off of the temperature difference between the cold Arctic air and warmer lower latitudes. The result is two-fold, says Furtado: “Now we will have more energetic storms that are able to also hold more moisture from oceans because the atmosphere is slightly warmer.” Lakeside regions—like New York and Michigan—will also find themselves vulnerable to a phenomenon called “lake effect snow” as the regions see warmer temperatures. “Our lakes are warming, and they stay warm longer through the winter season,” says Horton. Because of that, they don’t ice over as much as they used to, and the warmer water evaporates into the passing cold fronts. “They have more of a capacity to release their moisture when the cold, Arctic air flows over them.” It’s just one example of how, around the United States, winters are no longer looking like they once did. “We've been used to a certain climate regime for the past fifty plus years,” says Furtado. “And we're going through this transition now where things are rapidly changing.”
California is about to get soaked, whipped and dumped on again. A robust storm system will sweep in from Wednesday night into Friday, bringing the threat of strong winds, heavy rain or snow to every part of the state. Officials are especially worried about the risk of flash flooding and mudslides in areas that were recently burned by wildfires in coastal Southern California. But across the entire state, power outages and airport delays as well as road closures from flooding, snow and downed trees are possible as the storm moves through. This system is also churning up the Pacific Ocean and will bring dangerous surf to beaches. Key things to know The heaviest rain and snow are expected Thursday. Some moisture brought modest amounts of rain to the San Francisco Bay Area and Central California overnight and to Southern California on Wednesday morning, but the main event starts Wednesday night and is expected to last until Friday afternoon. In Southern California, this storm is expected to be the strongest of the winter so far, raising the risk of flooding on roadways and streams and especially in wildfire burn scars. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said on Tuesday that he was especially concerned bursts of torrential rain over the burn scars left by the Palisades and Eaton fires in the Los Angeles area could trigger rivers of water, mud and debris. Some evacuation warnings have already been issued. In Northern California, rain is expected to be heaviest around the Bay Area and just south of it. Downtown San Francisco is likely to see at least see an inch of rain, and up to about three inches, which could lead to some nuisance flooding. This storm is on track to be the biggest snow producer so far this winter, with multiple feet of snow expected in the Sierra Nevada. Rain will bring a flash-flooding risk to Southern California. The storm is expected to be the strongest of the season so far for Southern California, which has seen an otherwise dry start to winter, even with the recent rains. The rain is on track to start out light on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and pick up Thursday afternoon, before ending early Friday. Heavy rain could lead to flooding of roads, small creeks and streams along the coast, but the the biggest danger is the potential flow of debris from areas burned by wildfires, which could be life-threatening. Santa Barbara County issued an evacuation warning for people around an area that was burned by the Lake fire last year. Urban flooding is likely, especially in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, but Ryan Kittell, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said it was not expected to be as severe as it was in 2023 when, after storms, the streets of downtown Santa Barbara turned into rivers. “The totals don’t look as high for Santa Barbara as those storms, and the rainfall leading up to those storms is much less for this storm,” Mr. Kittell said. “But with that in mind, we do anticipate lots of road issues in Santa Barbara.” While the rainfall totals will add up across 48 hours, the short, sharp bursts of rain are the main threat. These could cause flash flooding that leads to flows of water, mud, boulders, trees and the ashen remains of debris in areas scorched by wildfires. There’s a 10 to 20 percent chance of thunderstorms in Los Angeles County, and these could bring the heavy rainfall rates that might cause a debris flow. But the heavy localized torrential downpours are possible even without thunderstorms as the most intense periods of the storm, whether that occurs across 15 or 60 minutes, “could be very heavy indeed,” Mr Swain said. The Weather Service said the concern for flash flooding was highest in areas burned by the Palisades and Eaton fires in January and by the Bridge fire in September. The southern half of the state will also get whipped by winds Wednesday through Friday, and the Weather Service warned that delays are possible at airports including Los Angeles International Airport. Northern California gets yet another round of rain. The northern part of the state has received more rain than normal this winter, and it’s about to get more. While this is not the biggest storm of the season for the area, one to three inches of rain is expected at the coast and in the valleys, and more is likely in the higher terrains. While there’s a risk of flooded roadways and streams from the coast across the Central Valley and into the Sierra foothills, the risk is expected to be lower than it was in the last storm that led the Russian River to spill over its banks. Winter storms more commonly deliver the heaviest precipitation to the northernmost parts of the region. This system, however, will be focused to the south — around San Francisco and into the Santa Cruz Mountains, Monterey and Big Sur. While a flood watch was issued for most parts of the Bay Area, “our biggest concern is flooding and landslides in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties and some areas of the South Bay,” said Crystal Oudit, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Monterey. The Sierra Nevada is expected to get a barrage of snow. The storm is on track to bring the biggest snow dump of the winter so far to the Sierra Nevada. Unlike the systems this winter that have delivered a mix of rain and snow, this one is expected to pile up multiple feet of snow. Three to five feet of snow is expected on Donner Pass, one of the most highly traveled passes in the state and a gateway into the Tahoe Basin. Andrew Schwartz, the lead scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, Central Sierra Snow Lab, said the storm would also bring impressive totals to the central and southern portion of the Sierra Nevada that have seen less snowfall than the northern half this winter. “I’m not sure if this will totally get us up to average in those areas, but it should help at least equalize things a little bit,” he said. The northern edge of the storm will brush Oregon and Washington, bringing lower precipitation amounts than in California and delivering a mix of rain, freezing rain and snow.
Google was among the tech companies that donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration. It also, like many other companies, pulled back on its internal diversity hiring policies in response to the Trump Administration’s anti-DEI crackdown. And in early February, Google dropped its pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance, a move seen as paving the way for closer cooperation with Trump’s government. Now, users of Google’s consumer products are noticing that a number of updates have been made—seemingly in response to the new administration—to everyday tools like Maps, Calendar, and Search. Google Maps renames Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America Among Trump’s first executive orders was a directive to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and Alaska’s Denali, the highest mountain peak in North America, to its former name Mt. McKinley. Google announced on Jan. 27 that it would “quickly” update its maps accordingly, as soon as the federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is updated. On Monday, Feb. 10, following changes around the same time by the Storm Prediction Center and Federal Aviation Administration, Google announced that, in line with its longstanding convention on naming disputed regions, U.S. based users would now see “Gulf of America,” Mexican users will continue to see “Gulf of Mexico,” while users elsewhere will see “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).” As of Tuesday, Feb. 11, alternatives Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap still show “Gulf of Mexico.” Google Calendar removes Pride, Black History Month, and other cultural holidays Last week, some users noticed that Google removed certain default markers from its calendar, including Pride (June), Black History Month (February), Indigenous Peoples Month (November), and Hispanic Heritage Month (mid-September to mid-October). “Dear Google. Stop sucking up to Trump,” reads one comment on a Google Support forum about the noticed changes. A Google spokesperson confirmed the removal of some holidays and observances to The Verge but said that such changes began in 2024 because “maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” explaining that Google Calendar now defers to public holidays and national observances globally listed on timeanddate.com. But not everyone is buying the explanation: “These are lies by Google in order to please the American dictator,” wrote a commenter on another Google Support forum about the changes. Google Search prohibits autocomplete for ‘impeach Trump’ Earlier this month, social media users also noticed that Google Search no longer suggests an autocomplete for “impeach Trump” when the beginning of the query is typed in the search box, Snopes reported. A Google spokesperson told the fact-checking site that the autocomplete suggestion was removed because the company’s “policies prohibit autocomplete predictions that could be interpreted as a position for or against a political figure. In this case, some predictions were appearing that shouldn’t have been, and we’re taking action to block them.” Google also recently removed predictions for “impeach Biden,” “impeach Clinton,” and others, the spokesperson added, though search results don’t appear to be altered.
Rep. Nancy Mace, the firebrand South Carolina Republican who is considering a run for governor, made headlines Monday when she gave a highly unusual speech on the U.S. House floor accusing four men—including her former fiancé—of rape, physical abuse, and sexual misconduct. Speaking for nearly an hour, Mace said she was “going scorched earth” to “call out the cowards who think they can prey on women and get away with it,” providing in detail what she said the men did to her and other victims. Mace said she spoke up because the state's top prosecutor, Attorney General Alan Wilson, did not take meaningful action after she allegedly alerted investigators. Wilson—who is likely to be Mace’s opponent if she runs for governor of South Carolina in 2026—said the rape allegations were never sent to his office. Mace, 47, has long positioned herself as a champion of the safety of women and children. She often shares the story of being molested at a swimming pool when she was 14 and raped when she was 16, leading her to drop out of high school. Mace went on to become the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, a military college, and was elected to Congress in 2021. But her political career is one marked by defiance and controversy. The Daily Beast reported last year, based on interviews with her former staff, that Mace prioritizes national media exposure to an unusual degree. Once considered a moderate, Mace has fully embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda, despite him being found liable for sexual abuse. She has been arguably the most vocal figure in the GOP’s crusade against transgender rights, introducing a controversial resolution in November to ban trans women from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol in response to the first openly trans woman being elected to Congress. Mace has since continued to cast anti-trans views on her social media and often uses transphobic slurs, including during a February House committee hearing. Airing sexual assault allegations on the House floor Mace accused her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant and three other South Carolina men of drugging, raping, and filming women without their consent, as well as sex-trafficking. She did not present evidence to back up her allegations but said she had materials to corroborate them. Bryant told the Associated Press: “I categorically deny these allegations. I take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name.” TIME could not independently verify these allegations. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has since confirmed the agency has had an active investigation focused on Bryant since December 2023. Mace said that in November 2023 she “accidentally uncovered some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable” after finding on Bryant’s phone a video of herself undressed and unaware she was being filmed, along with additional videos and photographs of other women. She accused Bryant of physically assaulting her after she found the contents of his phone. “I still have the mark that Patrick Bryant made on me the night that he assaulted me,” Mace said. “I will wear this mark that he made on me for the rest of my life as a badge of honor.” She also claimed that Bryant and his business associates drugged her in 2022, and that she was raped during that incident. “I believe that they purposely incapacitated me. Was anyone else there, was it filmed, was it sold on the dark web? I have no idea, but I know what these men do to their victims,” she said. Mace said she had turned over all the evidence she had against the men to law enforcement in South Carolina, but that Wilson, the state’s attorney general, had failed to act. Wilson rejected Mace’s comments as “categorically false” and added that she “either does not understand or is purposefully mischaracterizing the role of the Attorney General.” “Our office has not received any reports or requests for assistance from any law enforcement or prosecution agencies regarding these matters,” his office said in a statement. “The Attorney General and members of his office have had no role and no knowledge of these allegations until her public statements.” She once claimed to be an LGBTQ+ ally Mace’s views on the LGBTQ+ community appear to have changed since she first took office. In an interview with the Washington Examiner in 2021, she said: "I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality ... no one should be discriminated against." She added that she has “friends and family that identify as LGBTQ” and that “understanding how they feel and how they’ve been treated is important.” In a 2023 interview with CBS News, Mace said “I'm pro-transgender rights” and expressed support for youth who are socially transitioning genders. “If they wanna take on a different pronoun or a different gender identity or grow their hair out, or wear a dress or wear pants, or do those things as a minor—those are all things that I think most people would support. Be who you want to be, but don’t make permanent changes as a child,” Mace said, noting that she supports bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Since November, Mace has been one of the most vocal Republican critics of policies aimed at expanding rights for transgender people. She has faced criticism for misgendering and making derogatory comments about transgender individuals, including a recent exchange during a House Oversight Committee hearing where she repeatedly used a transphobic slur. Despite the criticism, Mace doubled down, posting clips of the exchange on social media and defending her remarks as part of a broader effort to resist what she sees as the overreach of the left. Mace’s hardline stance on transgender rights extends to legislation she has championed, such as her proposal to ban trans women from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in the Capitol and House office buildings. The policy, which was part of a broader conservative push, was not initially included in the House rules package for the 118th Congress but found its way into the 119th after Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, included it in his policies. Mace has framed her anti-trans rhetoric as an effort to protect women and children, though her opponents accuse her of stoking division and perpetuating harmful myths about the transgender community. She voted to oust the former House Speaker Mace was one of eight House Republicans who voted to oust Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October 2023 after he struck a deal with Democrats to pass a stopgap spending bill and avoid a government shutdown. It was the first time in history that the House had voted to remove a Speaker. Mace faced sharp criticism for her vote. She said she voted to oust McCarthy over a “perceived lack of trust,” claiming that he didn’t honor commitments regarding balanced budget amendments and didn’t support two women's related bills she'd worked on. "For me, this was a vote of principle and a vote of conscience," Mace said. "I could not, in good conscience, continue to support a speaker who was unwilling to tell the truth. To me, you have to have honesty and truth, especially [given] how divisive this country is. We had a guy who was telling Conservatives one thing, moderates another, and Democrats something else. This is not the way to lead." Mace made headlines for wearing a red “A” on her shirt after leaving the vote, claiming she felt “demonized” for her choice, in reference to The Scarlet Letter, a 19th century novel in which the protagonist was condemned to wear a red “A” after becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Considering a run for governor Mace told the AP in January that she is “seriously considering” a gubernatorial run in 2026 and will make a final decision in the coming weeks. She added that she plans to ask for Trump’s support, after he backed her in last year’s GOP primary race. “Trump is going to need people in governor seats in ’26,” Mace told the AP. “It’s not going to be an easy election cycle for us. In ’26, we need people who can win, win big, and implement his agenda, and I will do that. I’ve been doing it. I have a great relationship with him, and I will be asking him for his support statewide in South Carolina.” Wilson, the state Attorney General, has also said he is considering a run for governor.
