Your phone may have given you a scare today, but it was only a test. Like a bad sequel, student loan payments are back – although some borrowers had theirs wiped. And who is the fattest bear of them all? It’s Fat Bear Week.
Hello! Laura Davis here. We’re halfway through the week, and we’ve got a whole bunch of news!
But first: Ribbit, ribbit … trouble! Many amphibians are facing extinction, due primarily to rising temperatures from human-caused climate change.
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That was only a test.
Is everybody OK out there? Aside from just about jumping out of my skin when it went off, that National Wireless Emergency Alert test that just screamed out of everybody’s cellphone seems like it was a success.
- In case you missed it: Millions of cellphones, TVs and radios in the U.S. blared distinctive emergency alert tones for about a minute at 2:18 p.m. EDT Wednesday, followed by the message: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency uses these alerts to warn people about emergencies, natural catastrophes, attacks and accidents at the national level. But the test is – naturally – whipping up some conspiracy theories online. Marburg virus turning vaccinated people into zombies? Yeah, not so far. Fingers crossed!
Student debt forgiveness arrives for some – payments for others
As student loan payments return for millions of people after a more than three-year hiatus, 125,000 borrowers will have $9 billion in debt erased, the Biden administration said Wednesday. Those borrowers were already eligible for cancellation through various programs: Public Service Loan Forgiveness for people working as teachers and health care workers, for instance; repayment plans that forgive balances after 20 or 25 years of payments; or discharges for those with disabilities. Some of these borrowers have just now, coincidentally, met all the criteria to have their loans forgiven. But others, because of bureaucratic mix-ups or other obstacles, never got the relief they were entitled to until now. Here’s what we know.
What everyone’s talking about
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Kaiser workers launch 3-day strike in several states
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers and support staff walked off the job Wednesday in several states and Washington, D.C., picketing outside dozens of facilities in a three-day action union officials said would be the largest health care employee strike in American history. Kaiser is one of the nation’s largest insurers and health providers, with 39 hospitals nationwide. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said the walkout is to protest “unfair labor practices and unsafe staffing levels” at hundreds of Kaiser hospitals and facilities. Here’s what the strike means for patients.
Who packing on the most pounds? It’s a fat bear face-off
Hide your groceries! It’s Fat Bear Week. Katmai National Park and Preserve’s annual contest kicked off Wednesday to decide which bear takes the cake (or picnic basket) for flaunting their winter weather gains. Fat Bear Week is a March Madness-style bracket competition that pits some of Katmai’s bulkiest and most beloved bears against each other in the arena of public opinion. But hey! No fat-shaming, please. With winter just around the corner, it’s important for bears to gain extra weight because they won’t be eating for a while during hibernation. Meet the chunky contenders here.
A break from the news
Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Say hello:laura@usatoday.com.This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Support quality journalism like this?Subscribe to USA TODAY here.
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