Headlines From The Times

It's Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, meaning his prediction is six more weeks of winter weather. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., the House Rules Committee is meeting on Monday in an effort to fully reopen the government. And Americans are living longer than ever; in 2024, U.S. life expectancy reached 79 years old, the highest mark in country history. In business, the modern day space race is taking over California's Central Coast, raising environmental concerns, and a Palo Alto company is selling flying vehicles that customers can fly within limited airspace and without a pilot's license. Read more at LATimes.com.

Forty years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after taking off at Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center; New Hampshire Public Radio spoke to people who knew Christa McAuliffe, who was going to be the first teacher in space. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, despite heavy pressure from the White House to lower borrowing costs. Also, new data shows median rent in LA dropped to about $2,100 in December, the lowest in four years. And for the first time since the pandemic, California's population has stalled. In business, California Covered enrollees may see higher premiums now that pandemic-era health insurance subsidies have expired, and Amazon says it will layoff 16,000 workers and shut down its brick-and-mortar stores. Read more at LATimes.com.

TikTok agreed to settle a landmark social media addiction case on Tuesday, just before a jury trial against three of the world's biggest tech companies kicked off. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino is expected to leave Minneapolis as early as today, according to the Associated Press. Also, survivors and many others observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Meanwhile, Highway One through Big Sur is fully open for the first time in more than three years, but experts fear climate change could threaten more closures. And, Noma's superstar chef René Redzepi is bringing his food to LA—a tasting menu in Silver Lake that'll go on from March 11th until June 26th—at the cool price of $1,500 for a reservation. In business, Chinese boba giant Mixue opened its first U.S. location in Hollywood. Soon after the opening, it launched more locations in various New York neighborhoods. Read more at LATimes.com.

Hundreds of businesses across Minnesota are expected to close on Friday as part of a general strike against the tactics and actions of ICE. New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen described what she saw in Minneapolis as a "civil war." And after decades of debate, Metro's board unanimously approved plans for a multibillion-dollar underground rail line through the Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, more than 175 million Americans are facing winter weather warnings with a massive storm barreling across the country. And before Ernest Hemingway was discharged in 1961 from St. Marys Hospital in Minnesota, he gave Sister Immaculata his novella "The Old Man and the Sea," inscribing a personal note in it; that book is now in the hands of the Nobel Prize Museum in Sweden for the world to see. In business, an L.A. startup is using SpaceX rocket-engine technology to cool data centers, and the historic Radford Studio Center defaults on its mortgage due to Hollywood's production slowdown. Read more at LATimes.com.

President Trump signs his Board of Peace charter at Davos on Thursday. Also, two updates about ongoing ICE operations. First, ICE is targeting immigrants in what DHS officials are calling "Operation Catch of the Day" in Maine, though state officials there are pushing back on this plan. Meanwhile, California senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff toured, for a second time, California's most recent ICE facility on the books. The detention center is a former prison, and immigrants in a federal class action lawsuit accused DHS of sewage water in showers and foul drinking water. In business, Kim Kardashian's brand Skims pays $200,000 dollars to settle fraud allegations in New Jersey, and Speedo moves its headquarters from Orange County to Long Beach ahead of the 2028 Olympics. Read more at LATimes.com