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Happy Groundhog Day! Today, Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow and saw his shadow, marking six more weeks of winter! However, the groundhog does not have a meteorology degree and is not always accurate. Records show that Punxsutawney Phil has predicted the weather correctly about 40% of the time in the past few years, so there is about a fifty-fifty chance of him being right this year. Now, into today's news: That ice storm is still wreaking havoc across the Eastern US as it dumps freezing rain, ice, sleet, hail, and snow across Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Over 400,000 homes and businesses are without power, and the storm is now moving east toward the coast. Lastly, let's review two more small bits of news: Beyoncé is coming back! She has announced that she is going on a new world tour, and the concert tickets' presale launches on Monday! (Let's hope Ticketmaster doesn't crash again...) Tom Brady has announced his retirement again, for good this time (let's hope). Many fans of the 45-year-old football star are now asking one big question. Why? Did he really divorce with Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen to play football for, like, five or six more months? Hmm...

Today marks the start of Black History Month in the United States, so let's honor all of the important people in the past who sometimes haven't been given enough credit for the amazing things that they did! Okay, onto today's first piece of news: The Federal Reserve is rising interest rates. Again. The Feds jacked the rates by another quarter point today, and they hinted at another rise coming in March to continue to "deflate" the economy which has been subjected to intense inflation over the past few years. President Joe Biden is also having an important meeting today with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to discuss the debt ceiling that the US has recently reached, and the Treasury is trying their absolute best to prevent the US from paying their bills until a solution is reached. On another note, there is also another winter weather system moving through the country, dumping ice, sleet, snow, and rain across Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The bad weather is expected to continue through today, and maybe even the rest of the week. Over 1400 flights have been canceled today, and two people are dead due to the dangerous road conditions. Lastly, if you have a Kia or Hyundai model that was made between 2011 and 2021, you might want to watch out. A user on TikTok has posted videos of how to use hacking to imitate a key fob to unlock these cars, which highly increases the chance of your car getting stolen. In result of this, multiple insurance companies such as StateFarm and Progressive are starting to back out, saying that they will no longer insure these cars. So if you have one of them, watch out!

Today, we start with the massive ice storm. There is a huge winter storm passing through the Deep South today, with ice, hail, snow, and sleet falling in parts of Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi, while parts of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina receive some rain. Over 1,100 flights were canceled today due to the bad weather, and over 38 million people are under winter weather alerts. On another bad-news-note, we address yet another shooting. Ten people were wounded in a shooting in Lakeland, Florida. The shooter drove by, firing his gun out the window, and then fled the scene. Thankfully, no one was killed, but two of the ten people injured are still in critical condition. Lastly, over 95 people were killed in Pakistan on Monday after a bomb was set off inside a mosque. About 80 more people are being treated for injuries, and some are still in critical condition, so the death toll could rise. An investigation by the country's police force is now underway.

The first thing you need to know today is the Federal Reserve is going to increase interest rates again on Wednesday, but we don't know whether it will be a half-point hike or a quarter-point hike. This is part of the extensive measures to stop inflation, and it is definitely working! On a related government note, President Joe Biden is also set to meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday as well, to discuss the ongoing issue of the debt ceiling. The US government has reached its debt limit, and the Treasury Department are doing their best to hold off the US paying its bills as long as possible. Lastly, we have some more weather issues today. A massive winter storm is boring down on over 25 million people today, with heavy rain and snow possible from Texas to Illinois. A huge cold front is also moving in from the north, so wind chills could plunge to up to 45 degrees below zero! Some light rain showers are also in the forecast in the next few days for the Southeast, New England, Lower Mississippi, Tennessee, and Ohio Valleys, and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Today was another terrible day in the West as another mass shooting took place in Beverly Crest, an area near Beverly Hills in Los Angeles County, which was California's sixth mass shooting this month. At least three people were killed and four more injured in the shooting, which took place at about 2:30 AM PST. It all started on January 16th, when six people were killed at a home in Goshen, California, which is a very rural area in the San Joaquin Valley, and the local police have yet to announce any arrests. Then, the horror at Monterey Park on January 21st, where a 72-year-old man named Huu Can Tran was found dead due to a self-inflicted gunshot after he killed eleven people and injured nine others. A day after that, 66-year-old Chunli Zhao killed seven of her co-workers and injured another at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay. Just hours after that, one person was killed and four others injured after a shooting in Oakland, California in a possible gang-related attack at a gas station. The fifth shooting occurred on Friday, January 27, where one person was killed and three others injured at two incidents that took place at two separate San Diego neighborhoods. The suspect, Jaime Gonzalez, is now in custody. So far this year, there have been 48 mass shootings in only 29 days! Now, let's address the tiny news stories in the house: A massive 5.9 magnitude earthquake recently struck Iran, killing three and injuring over 800 more. Novak Djokovic managed to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas to win his 10th Australian Open title, while he was also dealing with the recent fallout he had with his father. In fact, his consistency is so good that in this Australian Open, he only lost one set in the entire tournament. Also, Aryna Sabalenka managed to defeat Elena Rybakina to win the women's final. Lastly, the NFL semifinals took place today, with the Philadelphia Eagles crushing the San Francisco 49ers, 31-7, and the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20. Super Bowl LVII will take place on Sunday, February 12th, which is exactly two weeks from now, with the Eagles facing off against the Chiefs.

This day in history is not a good day: today was the day that the Challenger space shuttle exploded in 1986, killing all seven crew members onboard. Today is a pretty boring day, the only piece of news being that people are gearing up for tomorrow's NFL semifinals. The San Francisco 49ers play the Philadelphia Eagles at 3:00 PM EST, and the Cincinnati Bengals play the Kansas City Chiefs at 6:30 PM.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, so let's all take a minute of silence. Okay, now that we've honored the millions of people who were killed by the Nazis in WWII, let's dive into today's news. Our first piece of news today is about a close call. An asteroid the size of a box truck barely missed the Earth today, being the closest asteroid call in decades. It zoomed over the tip of South America about 2200 miles up, but NASA scientists say that even if it had hit Earth, the space rock would have disintegrated before it hit the ground. On another note, we have some serious bad news. One of the world's leading retail brands, Bed Bath & Beyond, could be shutting down for good soon. They have been struggling these past few years, after the switch to online shopping after COVID. They have now announced that they no longer have the money to pay off their debts, and they are in a major crisis. If the government can't save them, this could be the end of Bed Bath & Beyond.

Today, we once again address gun violence. There have been over 40 mass shootings so far this year, which is more shootings than days this year! They have left over 70 people dead, and pressure is increasing on government officials to increase restrictions on guns like assault rifles, which seem to be the gun of choice for many shooters. On a different note, Former President Donald Trump's social media accounts are coming back. After Elon Musk allowed Trump back onto Twitter, Meta has now announced that they will be restoring his Facebook and Instagram accounts as well. Lastly, Google is being sued by the government, for using unlawful means to monopolize the digital ad market with their big subsidiary, Google Ads. The case will go on soon, and we'll come back in the coming days on future updates on this big lawsuit..

There was some serious severe weather early Wednesday, smashing the southeast. Over a dozen tornadoes were reported across Texas and Louisiana, and over 100,000 people are in the dark after the storm knocked down power lines and stripped the roofs off homes and businesses. Cleanup crews then started working to fix the damage as the storm moved east, hitting Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia with heavy rain and strong winds. It also caused some serious snow farther north, in the Ohio Valley. On a more delicious note, Oreo® has announced that they are having a presale for their new Oreo® flavor! They call it The Most Oreo Oreo®, and it is limited edition! The presale is happening now, but it will be in stores soon for a limited time! Woohoo!

Gun violence needs to stop. This is one of the biggest issues in the country right now, and it seriously has to stop immediately. Two more mass shootings took place in California in the past two days, after the tragedy in Monterey Park. In Half Moon Bay, a 67-year-old suspect killed at least seven people in two confirmed attacks at separate locations in the same area. Just a few hours later, another person was killed and seven others injured after another mass shooting in Oakland. That was California's third mass shooting in three days, which just proves the point that gun violence needs to stop--again and again. On another note: The 2023 Oscar nominations have been released, some of the big nominations including Top Gun: Maverick (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects), Naatu Naatu by M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose (Best Original Song), Lift Me Up by Rihanna, Tems, and Ryan Coogler from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Best Original Song), Hold My Hand by Lady Gaga and Bloodpop (Best Original Song), Turning Red (Best Animated Feature), Guillermo de Toro's Pinocchio (Best Animated Feature), The Sea Beast (Best Animated Feature), Babylon by Justin Hurwitz (Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design), Angela Bassett from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Best Supporting Actress), Steven Spielberg from The Fabelmans (Best Director), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Best Visual Effects, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling), Avatar: The Way of Water (Best Visual Effects, Best Picture, and Best Production Design), The Batman (Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup and Hairstyling). Read the full nominations here.