Random News: March 14, 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 14, 2023, and it’s a Tuesday. I believe I’ve seen some stuff…

• Happy Pi Day, I suppose.
• Some people memorize pi (π) to hundreds of decimals. I don’t know why someone would do that.
• I know eight decimals. 3.14159265. I’m out. Close enough.
• I do have one fun fact about pi. Just one.
• At the 762nd decimal place, there’s a sequence of six consecutive nines. And the reason for this? Nothing at all. Just a coincidence.
• And now, the news.
• President Biden is here in the LA area today. He’s visiting Monterey Park, where 11 people were killed in a mass shooting earlier this year. Biden is planning to sign an executive order that aims to increase the number of background checks before firearms sales.
• The problem with executive orders, versus actual legislation, is that they’ll likely be undone by a future administration that disagrees with the policy.
• Still, any effort for gun control is better than doing literally nothing at all, which has been the plan thus far most of the time.
• Yesterday in San Diego, CA, Biden met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to announce an agreement for Australia to buy nuclear-powered submarines from the U.S. 
• China’s didn’t like this. 
• “The latest joint statement issued by the U.S., U.K., and Australia shows that the three countries have gone further down the wrong and dangerous path for their own geopolitical self-interest, completely ignoring the concerns of the international community.” - China
• Ah well.
• Sayfullo Saipov, a 35-year-old Uzbekistan man who lived in New Jersey, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the October 2017 New York City bike path attack that killed eight people and maimed others.
• Saipov could have received the death penalty due to the excessive nature of his crimes. However, New York last executed a prisoner in 1963, and it effectively abolished the death penalty in its state in 2007. The jury deadlocked and he avoided execution as such.
• Shrug.
• Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law on Monday that will take effect next year.
• Starting Jan. 1, Illinois employers must offer workers paid time off based on hours worked, with no need to explain the reason for their absence as long as they provide notice in accordance with reasonable employer standards.
• Illinois employees will accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked up to 40 hours total, although the employer may offer more.
• Nice one, IL!
• Indie rock band Yo La Tengo performed in Nashville last night. After a brief intermission following their first set, band members Ira Kaplan and Jesse McNew returned dressed in drag for a furious and relentless second set.
• Kaplan wore makeup, a red dress and a long black wig. McNew had shawl and a sun hat. Drummer Georgia Hurley remained unchanged.
• Fuck Tennessee and their shitty anti-freedom laws.
• Side note: are NFL cheerleaders banned under Tennessee’s new law? It fits the definition of scantily-clad sexualized performances in front of children.
• The Ancient Turtle Being, aka 81-year-old Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, was discharged from the hospital Monday after five days of observation and treatment. He tripped and fell during a D.C. dinner event last week, resulting in a concussion and minor rib fracture.
• Mitch is still getting inpatient physical therapy.
• And now, The Weather: “Party” by Daughter
• More rain, more flooding here in California. The storm that’s hitting us today in SoCal is supposed to be mighty mighty, so I’ll just be staying dry… expect when grocery shopping this afternoon, at which point I will be waterlogged.
• The opposite corner of the country is getting a rapidly intensifying nor’easter that’s expected to bring heavy snow, winds and coastal flooding across the US Northeast. Good luck, friends.
• RIP to former U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO), a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, who died last night. She was 82.
• When she was elected in 1972, women in national politics were rare. “Members of Congress would say to me, are you a fluke? They couldn’t quite believe that I had gotten elected and the Speaker kept trying to swear in Jim [her husband] and everyone kept saying it’s *her*.”
• Among other things, you can thank Schroeder for the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, providing job protection for care of a newborn, a sick child or a parent.

• In the “How To Get Sued” folder, Kristal Trenkamp alleges her minor daughter was asked to reveal her bra in front of another student and Heartland Middle School staff members.
• Trenkamp's daughter was suspected of having a nicotine vape and was searched in room a with an "uncovered window that has a clear view" to general areas of the school.
• School principal Johnson ordered Trenkamp's daughter to lift her shirt and spin and then asked the child about her undergarments. The child was ordered to lift her shirt up high enough so Johnson could view her bra.
• An Oklahoma statute prohibits strip searches of students. The statute says no clothing "except cold weather outerwear shall be removed" during a warrantless search of a student.
• Nothing was found. Trenkamp is suing the district for a minimum of $25,000. Probably a good deal more, I imagine.
• From the Sports Desk… San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is signing with the Las Vegas Raiders.
• Jimmy G agreed to a three-year, $67.5 million deal, including $34 million guaranteed. He will be reunited with Raiders coach Josh McDaniels, who served as the Patriots' offensive coordinator during Garoppolo's three years in New England.
• As most sports fans know, the Raiders released Derek Carr last month, and his former backup Jarrett Stidham is expected to sign a two-year contract with the Denver Broncos to back up Russell Wilson.
• Go Jimmy!
• Also from the sports desk is an RIP to Dick Fosbury, 76 (track and field Olympian who invented the “Fosbury Flop” high jump), and Joe Pepitone, 82 (feisty three-time MLB all-star and Golden Glove recipient for the Yankees).
• Today in history… Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin (1794). ‘The Mikado’, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London (1885). Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt (1903). Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead (1942). A USAF B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weaponscrashes near Yuba City, CA (1961).
• March 14 is the birthday of composer Johann Strauss I (1804), SCOTUS justice Joseph P. Bradley (1813), dentist Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833), US vice president Thomas R. Marshall (1854), railroad engineer Casey Jones (1863), physicist Albert Einstein (1879), race car driver Lee Petty (1914), photographer Diane Arbus (1923), actor Michael Caine (1933), songwriter/music producer Quincy Jones (1933), NBA player Wes Unseld (1946), actor Billy Crystal (1948), MLB player Kirby Puckett (1960), and gymnast Simone Biles (1998).

That seems like enough for now. I’m still annoyed by Daylight Saving Time, but what am I going to do about it? Complain, I guess. For now, I’ll go work out and do my normal Tuesday things. Enjoy your day.