Georgia Voters Head Back to the Polls 🍑
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Description
What are some creative ways to stay in touch with your pals without actually touching them during COVID? 🍑 Why are so many grownups talking about Georgia these days? What's at stake in the Georgia run offs? 🗳️ What's the origin story of the classic Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham? 🏡 How did one kid’s love of Cheetos help his entire family? 🦘 Plus! See if you can guess the answer to the Trivia Question of the Day: In a recent study, what did researchers discover that kangaroos can do?
Links
🍳 Discover the unexpected reason why Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham
🏡 Explore what led 8-year-old Aaron Moreno to start his own business
🦘 Uncover the human behavior researchers say kangaroos can perform
🎇 Join us on Instagram
Transcript
Bethany Van Delt: [00:00:00] Why are so many grownups talking about Georgia? How did one kid's love of Cheetos help his entire family? And what can we learn from kangaroos? I'm Bethany Van Delft, and we'll get into all this and more on today's The Ten News. The show where in the time it takes to think of all the words that rhyme with ham, we find out what's up in the world.
[00:00:26] Okay, let's get into The Ten News.
Various Voices: [00:00:28] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Bethany Van Delt: [00:00:36] Winter break is over and it's time to get back to school. Whether you're going in person, online or a combination of both, social distancing can be tough for kids who just want to get back to hanging with their friends. So here are three ways to stay in touch without actually touching your pals this January.
[00:00:57] Number one: Do a [00:01:00] virtual shared activity. Make something together apart, like a craft project or a baking project. Just prepare the same materials or ingredients ahead of time and work through the steps together via video chat. And maybe you can even exchange your craft projects or your baked goods as long as you remain socially distant.
[00:01:24] Number two: Start a club. Select books, movies, TV shows, or video games to read, watch, or play together and compare notes via phone, text, or video chat.
[00:01:35] Number three: Take it outside. Mask up and meet for some outdoor fun, like a scavenger hunt. Just be sure to maintain six feet of distance and keep those masks on.
[00:01:47] Talk to your grownups to see if any of these will work for your family.
[00:01:53] Have you noticed that the state of Georgia has been getting a whole lot of attention lately? [00:02:00] That's because of two super important runoff elections happening there. But what's a runoff? And why are these such a big deal? Let's go to our correspondent, Pamela Kirkland who's in Georgia and can help us understand what's happening.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:02:17] There's been a lot of talk about some political elections happening here in Georgia, but you're probably wondering why you're hearing so much about them, especially if you don't even live in the state. Well, the results of these two elections will affect the entire country. There are not one but two seats in the US Senate up for grabs in Georgia.
[00:02:40] And on January 5th, Georgians will vote again. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the current Republican senators for Georgia are campaigning to keep their seats. They're running against Democrats, Raphael Warnock, and Jon Ossoff. Back in November none of the candidates received more than [00:03:00] 50% of the vote that meant they would need to hold another election called a runoff.
[00:03:06] All eyes are on Georgia because the party that wins in these elections will be the party that has the majority in the US Senate. Each state has two Senators, so there are 100 seats total in the Senate. Right now, Republicans have 50 seats and Democrats have 48. If Democrats can win both seats. That means there's a 50-50 split between the parties, but Democrats would control the Senate because the deciding vote is cast by the Vice President.
[00:03:39] That would be Vice President Kamala Harris after the Biden administration takes over. If the Republicans win one or both seats, they will remain in control. So you can imagine people are really anxious to see who's going to win. And both parties are spending a ton of [00:04:00] money to make sure their candidates come out on top.
[00:04:02] It's become the most expensive Senate race ever. All I know is that I can't wait for this election to end so I can stop seeing political ads all the time.
Bethany Van Delt: [00:04:16] Thanks Pamela. She'll be back in our next episode with an update of the runoff results.
[00:04:27] While we're on the subject of competition. Did you know that the classic Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham was written on a bet? That's right. Apparently Dr. Seuss's editor bet him that he couldn't write a story in 50 words. Well, he could and he did. The timeless tale of "Sam I am" is told using only 50 words.
[00:04:54] Do you think you could write a story using only ten words? Try it and send [00:05:00] it to us at hello@thetennews.com.
[00:05:04] Do you have a favorite snack? Do you love it so much you'd start a business, just so you could buy more of it. That's pretty much what happened to eight year old Aaron Moreno. Our correspondent Ryan Nerz has more.
Ryan Nerz: [00:05:21] This is the story of a boy who, in a year plagued by a global pandemic, did some truly heroic things and he did it all for the love of
Aaron: [00:05:30] hot cheetos with cheese!
Ryan Nerz: [00:05:31] That's right. If you haven't heard of them, that's spicy hot Cheetos topped with a warm blanket of nacho cheese. Sounds delicious, right? Hmm. Okay. Snap out of it. I'm getting ahead of myself.
[00:05:46] Let's rewind. Back in March of 2020 the COVID pandemic started taking a toll on businesses across the country. Many Americans lost their jobs. One woman in East Los [00:06:00] Angeles, a single mother named Bernice Pacheco lost not one but two jobs. Her eight year old son, Aaron Moreno remembers the moment he knew they were in real financial trouble.
[00:06:12] He saw the ice cream truck and asked his mom for $3 to buy some that's right,
[00:06:17] hot Cheetos with cheese.
[00:06:19] When his mom said she couldn't afford it. He understood. He knew she was struggling. They had even lost their housing.
Aaron: [00:06:26] "We were living in a shed."
Ryan Nerz: [00:06:28] Living in a shed and without Aaron's ten-year-old sister Eileen. Because of their financial struggles, she had been sent to live with her grandparents in Mexico, but Aaron had an idea he could help out by selling something he loved -plants. Bernice gave him her last $12. Aaron used it to buy one of his favorite types of plants.
Aaron: [00:06:50] They're called succulents, they're really small. And I had eight of them.
Ryan Nerz: [00:06:53] Armed with just $12 and a dream, Aaron hit the streets. His neighbors snapped up all of [00:07:00] his plants in a matter of hours. Seeing the potential Aaron and his mom started setting up a table on an East LA sidewalk with all of his favorite plants. He has lots of them.
Aaron: [00:07:11] And my favorite type of plant is an aloe vera. It could heal you from rashes and burns. I have air plants and they do not need soil, sun or water.
Ryan Nerz: [00:07:25] To help customers find his business. Aaron started the Instagram page @Aaronsgarden and just like that, his family's fortunes changed.
Aaron: [00:07:34] People started posting me on Instagram and people coming business.
Ryan Nerz: [00:07:40] Aaron's business went viral. And then one of Bernice's his high school friends started a GoFundMe page to help out the business and their family. That page has raised over $68,000, enough to move Aaron's family into a new apartment, enough for furniture and a car. But believe it or not, that's not even the best [00:08:00] part.
Aaron: [00:08:00] I was able to bring back my sister from Mexico. Her name is Eileen. I have not seen her in two years.
Ryan Nerz: [00:08:07] On the day his sister arrived Aaron's mom blindfolded him for the big surprise.
Aaron: [00:08:11] When I saw my sister, I was really happy and I ran to give her a hug.
Ryan Nerz: [00:08:17] So now together with Aaron's two year old sister Alani, the family is complete. They've gone from sleeping four in one bed to their own version of the American dream.
Aaron: [00:08:27] So now we have a business in our garage.
Ryan Nerz: [00:08:30] And they're going to have a grand opening just as soon as COVID dies down. Aaron wants to have a retail store someday. He even dreams about taking his business to New York City.
Aaron: [00:08:41] Someday. I want to have Aaron's Garden on Times Square,
Ryan Nerz: [00:08:46] But for now Aaron's happy he has school and his business and his family.
[00:08:51] There's just one little thing that might make it even better.
Aaron: [00:08:56] I want a big bag of hot Cheetos [00:09:00] cheese.
Bethany Van Delt: [00:09:03] That is so cool. Thanks Ryan. And thank you, Aaron, for sharing your inspiring story.
[00:09:14] It's time for your trivia question
[00:09:21] In a recent study, what did researchers discover that kangaroos can do? A) ask humans for directions, B) ask humans to be quiet, C) ask humans for help. The answer is...C! Experts from the University of Roehampton in London and the University of Sydney set up something called the "unsolvable problem task".
[00:09:56] Researchers gave kangaroos food inside of a [00:10:00] container they couldn't open and observed that once the kangaroos realized they couldn't reach the food on their own, they looked intently at the humans. In some cases, even nudging them to ask for assistance. This study shows that it's not just domesticated animals like dogs or horses that can communicate with humans, like previously thought. Just imagine the possibilities, koalas asking for directions. Badger's asking for music advice. Okay, maybe not, but the science is exciting, isn't it?
[00:10:35] Time is up. That's the end of The Ten for today, but you can catch new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small, But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts and distributed by iHeartRadio.
[00:10:51] The Ten News writing team is led by Editorial Director Tracy Crooks with contributions from Stephen Tompkins, Pamela Kirkland and Ryan Nerz. The Creative [00:11:00] Producer is Jenner Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Steven Tompkins and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound design by Pete Musto under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Executive Producer Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team. If you have questions about the show, a story idea, or a fun fact you want to share, email us at hello@thetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten News. Now go see if a kangaroo needs some help.
