Random News: February 3, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s February 3, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Things that I may have noticed are below…

• The US is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental United States.
• The Pentagon has been tracking the balloon for several days as it made its way over the northern United States.
• “The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.” - Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder
• Okay then.
• If you’re in the Northeastern US (or Eastern Canada, for that matter), please don’t fuck with this cold. Wind chill temps of -50 (F and C) are possible in places like New Hampshire today. That can and will kill you if you’re not prepared or if you underestimate it.
• Apparently everyone has jobs now. Payrolls increased by 517,000 for January, far higher than the 187,000 market estimate.
• The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest jobless level since May 1969. That’s the lowest in my entire lifetime.
• Thanks President Biden!
• If you’re in Missouri and you want to smoke weed, and I know I would if I was in Missouri, go get yourself some.
• Adult-use, recreational cannabis can be legally sold in Missouri dispensaries beginning today.
• And now, The Weather: “Looking Glass” by Death & Vanilla
• A federal law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a conservative appeals court ruled yesterday.
• To be clear, if your husband beats the shit out of you, the United States 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals says that he is legally allowed to go get a gun that he may use to shoot and kill you.
• The DOJ may ask the US Supreme Court to take up an appeal. I doubt it will help.
• America.
• Speaking of guns and shitheads, here’s some possible good news.
• A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled this week that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a man shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020 can proceed against Rittenhouse, police officers and others.
• The father of Anthony Huber, one of two men shot and killed by Rittenhouse, filed the lawsuit in 2021. John Huber is seeking unspecified damages from city officials, officers and Rittenhouse.
• Get his ass.
• In the “Least Surprising News  of the Day” file, former president Trump would not commit to endorsing the eventual Republican nominee for president in 2024 if it’s not him.
• Please. He’ll be calling for that person’s execution.
• From the Sports Desk… just a heads-up that I’m going to be shifting my focus to basketball now that the NFL season is almost a wrap.
• At yesterday’s Pro Bowl skills competition that was won by outgoing Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, he was asked if he’d ever been that hot before. “Not that hot,” he quipped. “That’s probably why I’m going somewhere else.”
• Today in history… The Portuguese navy defeats a joint fleet of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Sultan of Gujarat, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Republic of Ragusa at the Battle of Diu in Diu, India (1509). The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas (1690). Spain–United States relations are first established (1783). The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress (1809). The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race (1870). The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax (1913). The American entry into World War I begins when diplomatic relations with Germany are severed due to its unrestricted submarine warfare (1917). As part of Operation Thunderclap in WWII, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 and 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000 (1945). Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community (1958). Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash along with the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa, an event later known as The Day the Music Died (1959). The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post (1961). The Soviet Union's Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and the first spacecraft to take pictures from the surface of the Moon (1966). Doctor John Buster and a research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the United States announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth (1984). Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida (1995). 
• February 3 is the birthday of soldier/politician Samuel Osgood (1747), pianist/composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809), physician/educator Elizabeth Blackwell (1821), engineer Hugo Junkers (1859), writer Gertrude Stein (1874), painter Norman Rockwell (1894), gangster Pretty Boy Floyd (1904), author James A. Michener (1907), physician Henry Heimlich (1920), filmmaker Kenneth Anger (1927), musician Johnny "Guitar" Watson (1935), film director Michael Cimino (1939), NFL player Fran Tarkenton, NFL player Bob Griese (1945), guitarist/songwriter Dave Davies (1947), actress Morgan Fairchild (1950), MLB player Fred Lynn (1952), actress Maura Tierney (1965), NBA player Vlade Divac (1968), soldier/lawyer/politician Beau Biden (1969), actor Warwick Davis (1970), and businesswoman/criminal Elizabeth Holmes (1984).

I’m still in the midst of a parent dying. It’s pretty shitty. Since it’s inevitable, it would be my preference that they get it over with as quickly as possible. The current prognosis is one to two weeks. I know it’s hard for some folks to understand, but I’m truly at peace with this, and my only concern is to minimize their suffering and to help their spouse through their grief. But me, I’m okay. Every life, human or other animal or plant or otherwise, has a beginning and an end, and what matters is what you do in between. I intend on having few regrets when I get to the end, whenever that may be. Enjoy your day.