What's with Groundhog Day? 🎩
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Why did US House of Representatives deliver an article of impeachment to the Senate against former President, Donald Trump? 🎩 Why do we ask a groundhog to predict the weather on Groundhog Day? (correspondents Jacob & Olivia Rozencwaig from the Curious Kid Podcast have the scoop) 🐐 Why did the town of Fair Haven, Vermont elect a dog and a goat as their mayor? 🍑 Special guest Jaime Albright helps us understand the importance of the Georgia Senate runoffs we reported on in January! 🍪 Plus - the Trivia Question of the Day!
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🇺🇸 Be in the know with this helpful impeachment guide
🐐 Discover how this dog and goat serving as mayor raised money for a playground
🍪 Check out the uncanny similarity between this rock and Cookie Monster
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💌 We love email! Email us at hello@thetennews.com
Transcript
Various Voices: [00:00:00] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:07] From presidential impeachments to political pets - don’t you just love alliteration - in the next ten minutes we’ll get the low down on what’s up in the world.
I’m Bethany Van Delft, and this is The Ten News!
On January 25th, the U.S. House of Representatives formerly delivered an article of impeachment to the Senate against former President Donald Trump, based on his involvement in inciting insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. The impeachment trial, set to begin on February 9th will mark the fourth presidential impeachment trial in the U.S. history and will make Trump the first president to face impeachment twice. Oh, geez.
That’s twin-peachment, according to the internet. So what could it all mean? If the Senate votes to convict him, Trump could be barred from ever holding a federal office again.
We’ll keep watching how this historic trial unfolds and The Ten News we’ll keep you updated.
February 2nd is Groundhog Day. Ever wonder why once a year, we ask a groundhog to predict the weather? The most curious father-daughter duo, Jacob and Olivia from the
Curious Kid podcast, certainly have! Let’s hear from them about this wacky tradition.
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:01:33] Ah, Groundhog Day, a tradition like no other. For over 130 years, people have gathered in the small Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney on February 2nd, to see if a Groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil sees its shadow. The way it works is simple, if the Groundhog sees its shadow, because it’s a nice and clear day, that means that it will go back to its den and we can expect six more weeks of winter. But if the Groundhog doesn’t see its shadow because it’s too cloudy, Spring will arrive early.
Male voice: [00:02:02] “The true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:02:06] In recent years, tens of thousands of people have traveled to Punxsutawney on February 2nd, just to see what Punxsutawney Phil will do. So that must mean that the Groundhog is great at forecasting the weather.
Oliva Rozencwaig: [00:02:19] Not so fast, Dad. Punxsutawney Phil has actually done a pretty bad job predicting the weather. You would be much better off just flipping a coin to see if winter will last another six weeks.
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:02:32] And that’s because you can expect to be right about 50% of the time by flipping a coin. According to records kept by the groundhog club that organizes the Groundhog Day event, Punxsutawney Phil correctly predicts the weather only 39% of the time.
Oliva Rozencwaig: [00:02:48] If the Groundhog can’t really predict the weather, why do we keep observing this strange tradition?
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:02:55] Probably because it’s fun and the Groundhog is super cute, but we definitely don’t observe it because Punxsutawney Phil is actually good at predicting the weather. When it comes to animals that can actually be trusted to predict the weather, there are much better animals to turn to than the groundhog.
Oliva Rozencwaig: [00:03:11] If frogs croak verly loudly, it’s a good sign that it’s about to rain.
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:03:20] If you see lots of cows laying down, chances are that rain is coming. We believe cows do this to save themselves a nice dry spot to wait out the rain.
Oliva Rozencwaig: [00:03:29] You can also look to the sky and see what the birds are up to if you want to get a sense for the upcoming weather.
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:03:37] That’s because birds can usually be seen flying lower in the sky, if they sense that bad weather is on the way. They do this because the low pressure that arrives before a storm can make it uncomfortable for birds to fly at high altitudes.
Oliva Rozencwaig: [00:03:51] It’s so cool that there are animals that can actually sense future weather.
Jacob Rozencwaig: [00:03:55] Its really neat and we’re sorry if we exposed Punxsutawney Phil for being a poor meteorologist. Groundhog Day is a fun holiday with lots of long standing traditions, and we should enjoy it whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.
Oliva Rozencwaig: [00:04:11] Just remember not to put your winter clothes away if Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early Spring. Happy Groundhog Day everybody!
Bethany Van Delft: [00:04:20] To learn more from Jacob and Olivia at check out their Curious Kid podcast.
Speaking of animals with unusual jobs, the residents of Fair Haven, Vermont elected both a dog and a goat mayor of their town. But, why? Well, the idea came from a local town manager who thought having “pet elections” could help raise money for the community.
And it worked. Mayor Lincoln the Goat. And Mayor Murphy, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars to rehabilitate a community playground.
In a dramatic twist, the playground has a no dogs allowed sign. Mayor Murphy’s owner says he’ll be taking that issue up with the town.
Remember the Georgia state runoff races we reported on earlier in January, they were historic not only for electing the state’s first Black and Jewish senators, but for their history making turnout, especially among youth and Black voters. Our correspondent Pamela Kirkland spoke to someone with the inside scoop to help us understand this moment in history.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:05:39] They were the final races in the 2020 election cycle. The battle for the two Senate seats in Georgia.
With 4.4 million votes cast, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are the first Democrats to win a U.S. Senate election in the state since the year 2000.
So we wanted to talk to someone who had a front row seat to all of the action happening on the ground, to get the scoop on what made these elections so important.
Jaime Albright: [00:06:16] My name is Jaime Albright. I’m a producer at Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta and Tenderfoot is a. podcast and TV company.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:06:26] Jaime followed the Senate runoffs as a producer for a podcast called Gaining Ground. We asked her what it was like to cover such a closely watched election.
Jaime Albright: [00:06:36] So that was actually really exciting just to actually be on the ground and meet the candidates and experience the excitement and energy in Georgia. I was very lucky to kind of witness history firsthand. Um, and this race was really important because um, in order for President Biden, to be able to pass laws and policies, he needs to have that support of the Senate. And then having two Democratic senators is how he’s going to be able to pass those things. And so it was really an important race and a lot of people didn’t realize the importance, I found that out kind of being on the ground.
Um, and so it was great to be able to see the candidates share that information with young people, all different kinds of people, but especially educating young people about the importance of that race.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:07:29] And now we have the results. Uh, so two Democratic senators from Georgia for the first time in a very long time, and a lot of that seems to be due to the youth vote.
Jaime Albright: [00:07:40] What I loved hearing from the young voters. One young lady said to me, I’m voting, come on, man. I’m tired of people saying our generation doesn’t care about this country. She said it with so much passion, I just loved it. I think that it was just messaging the young people from both sides that their voice matters in every single election.
Um, what I love about some of the organizations too, is they’re telling young people, once you graduate from high school, sign up, be on your local school board, run for office. You don’t have to be 45 or 50 years old for you to make a difference. So just encouraging young people to not only vote, but be part of the process in this country.
Be part of democracy and, you know, do your part. And it isn’t about what side you’re on. It’s just about making that choice for yourself and then casting your vote and maybe running for office.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:08:34] Jaime, thank you so much for joining us.
Jaime Albright: [00:08:37] Thank you. I appreciate it.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:08:40] To hear even more about the historic impact made by voters in Georgia tune into our special episode, featuring lots more of Pamela’s conversation with Jaime Albright on a new episode this Saturday, February 6th.
It’s time for your trivia question of the day!
Recently, a geologist working in Brazil opened up a volcanic rock and found a startling
surprise inside. What was it? A) a portrait of cookie monster, B) a fossilized mosquito, or C) a
creamy filling. Did you guess it answered it?
A! What looked like an ordinary brown volcanic rock on the outside, revealed a cream and blue rock formation on the inside that bears a striking resemblance to the iconic Sesame Street character.
Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. You boys. Seriously. It’s uncanny. You can see a photo at thetennews.com. I checked out the photo and all of a sudden, me want cookie!
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.
The Ten News writing team is led by editorial director, Tracy Crooks with contributions from Stephen Tompkins, Jacob Rozencwaig and Pamela Kirkland. The creative producer is Jenner
Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Stephen Tompkins. Editing and sound designed 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, a fun fact you want to share, or just want to say hi, email us@helloatthetennews.com. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcast, iHeart Radio Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps. That’s how people find out about us. I’m Bethany Van Delft. And thanks for listening to The Ten News. Now go think about whether your pet might have a future in politics. Mayor Mercat entering the room.
