Random News: March 11, 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 March 11, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. Just got up, I’m in a robe, let’s send out a level three probe…

• Today is the 70th day of 2023, in information that is totally meaningless.
• Somewhat more meaningful, to me, anyway: this little news report has passed 275,000 words since I started it last May.
• In world news, it was somewhat surprising yesterday when Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations an a deal brokered by China.
• It’s not totally out of the blue; the two regional superpowers had been in talks to re-establish relations for nearly two years.
• But Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the US has become strained in recent years, while China’s standing has risen. But China has forged good diplomatic relations with countries across the region, driven by strengthening economic ties, without the Western lectures on human rights.
• And of course, everyone just wants their oil.
• Can you imagine how incredibly different the world would be without countries scrabbling to grab energy resources?
• Three women in Texas are being sued for wrongful death by a man who claims they helped his now-ex-wife obtain medication for an abortion.
• In a lawsuit filed late Thursday in Galveston County, Marcus Silva alleges assisting in a self-administered abortion is tantamount to aiding a murder. Silva is seeking $1 million in damages.
• Get ready for more of this shit… men going after women to punish them for wanting to choose their own reproductive plans and having autonomy of their own bodies.
• Republican poster child Rep. George Santos (R-NY) says he is innocent of an allegation that he had orchestrated a credit card skimming operation in 2017 in Seattle that led to the guilty plea and deportation of a Brazilian man.
• His denials came a day after Politico published a sworn statement that the publication said Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha had submitted this week to the FBI and other federal law enforcement officials, alleging that Santos had overseen the skimming operation.
• Ladies and gents, the Republican Party! (claps)
• A New Hampshire state representative seen on video berating a plow driver is now facing criminal charges. State police said they arrested Rep. Jeffrey Greeson (R-Wentworth) yesterday and charged him with disorderly conduct, criminal threatening and simple assault.
• Last Saturday morning, a plow driver recorded Greeson shouting and swearing at him in a loud tirade about how he was clearing snow. "I was trying to do my job. I was mortified and just having somebody treat somebody like that.”
• Ladies and gents, the Republican Party! (claps)
• Here’s a very freaky story for people who put themselves out in the public in any way.
• A Washington state podcast host and her husband were killed early Friday morning by a truck driver from Texas who had stalked the woman.
• The woman and suspect met through a social network app in a group for Farsi speakers.
• "Apparently he got to know her because of a podcast that she was doing and they struck up kind of a friendship, talked," Redmond police spokesperson Jill Green said. "But then he began to just send a lot of messages to the point that she decided to disengage."
• I’ve had genuine stalkers due to my comparatively low-profile celebrity status as an almost unknown musician and social media blabbermouth.
• I guess the point is, always keep in mind that you have no idea about who is listening to you or reading your words or seeing your video, and what their mental state is.
• For anyone who ever confused Joe Biden with a liberal…
• The Biden administration is soon set to approve ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, a major oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope. The decision will apparently be announced next week.
• It’s being said it’s a victory for Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation and a coalition of Alaska Native tribes and groups who hailed the drilling venture as a much-needed new source of revenue and jobs for the remote region.
• And then there’s the reality of it being a major blow to climate groups and Alaska Natives who oppose Willow.
• Biden is a centrist at best. By earlier scales, he’d be considered a mild conservative. Obama leaned a bit more left but was also pretty center-focused as a president. The USA has had maybe 2-3 actual progressive liberal leaders, the only unquestionable one being Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 
• And now, The Weather: “Another Quiet Sunday (Keep Moving On)” by Meltt
• Northern and Central California have once again been dealing with floods and evacuations and power outages. This atmospheric river shit is no joke.
• Just a nice rain down here in the LA region… but don’t go to the beach.
• All Los Angeles County beaches are under advisory for excessive contamination from rainfall. The public is advised to stay out of the water due to heightened levels of “bacteria, chemicals, debris, trash, and other public health hazards from city streets and mountain areas likely to contaminate ocean waters at and around discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers,” said the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
• Gross.
• Don’t forget to surrender an hour of your life to the government tonight. Uh, I mean, to set your clocks forward for no reason at all.
• Side note: it’s called “Daylight Saving Time”. It’s not “Daylight Savings” and especially not “Daylight Saving’s”. Saving. No “s”.
• While parts of Canada tried out DST in 1908, it was really the Germans in 1916 who made it official. They were trying to minimize the use of artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort. Makes sense, I guess.
• You know how some people are like, “Benjamin Franklin invented Daylight Saving!” No, he didn’t, and what did say was meant as a joke.
• Ben wrote a satirical letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris, entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light,” Franklin simply suggested that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting out of bed earlier in the morning.
• So, you lose that hour at 2AM, officially, and then Monday comes and many of us spend our first hour in pitch black darkness. That is a cheery start to the day, said no one ever.
• From the Sports Desk… a draft trade happened yesterday that could change the NFL landscape for many years, as Carolina Panthers agreed to a deal on Friday night with the Chicago Bears to obtain the No. 1 overall pick. 
• To get that pick, which will give them a new franchise QB, the Panthers gave the Bears their No. 9 overall selection this year (obviously), their second Round 2 pick (No. 61 overall), a first-round pick in 2024, a second-round pick in 2025, and wide receiver D.J. Moore. 
• That’s very, very big for both teams. I think it’s good for both of them too, but perhaps even better for the Bears, who got a ton of shit out of the deal and already have a great QB with Justin Fields (thereby not needing the #1 pick as such).
• In other sports news, congrats to American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who set the new record for most World Cup victories with 87 career wins.
• Shiffrin set the outright World Cup record for most career victories by winning a slalom Saturday, breaking a tie with Ingemar Stenmark on the all-time overall winners list between men and women.
• Today in history… Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation (1708). The first performance of ‘Rigoletto’ by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice (1851). In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre (1927). United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan (1941). Hundreds of students protest in the University of Pristina in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia, to give their province more political rights (1981). Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, making Gorbachev the USSR's de facto, and last, head of state (1985). The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague (2003). The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the COVID-19 virus epidemic a pandemic (2020).
• March 11 is the birthday of politician/SCOTUS justice John McLean (1785), mathematician/economist Joseph Louis François Bertrand (1822), bandleader Lawrence Welk (1903), UK prime minister Harold Wilson (1916), businessman Rupert Murdoch (1931), SCOTUS justice Antonin Scalia (1936), singer-songwriter Bobby McFerrin (1950), author Douglas Adams (1952), music producer/businessman Jimmy Iovine (1953), singer-songwriter Nina Hagen (1955), drummer Vinnie Paul (1964), singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb (1968), actor Johnny Knoxville (1971), singer-songwriter Benji Madden (1979), actor Anton Yelchin (1989), and NBA player Anthony Davis (1993).

My plan today? Ummmm… I’ve got various shit to do. I think I will shower and dress and eat breakfast before commencing said shit. Enjoy your day.