Medical works operate a testing tent at a COVID-19 mobile testing site, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Thursday, November 12, 2020:
COVID-19: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
The U.S. is back up to 1,400 coronavirus daily deaths, a tally that hasn’t been seen since August, as more states add new restrictions. New York will require bars, restaurants and gyms to close at 10 pm and put a limit on private gatherings. Ohio is the latest state to issue a mask mandate. Nevada’s governor told residents they have two weeks to get the virus under control or he will impose new rules. Texas is the first state to hit one million cases, with California on track to become the second any day. WSJ
PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION
President-elect Biden has made his first senior leadership appointment, naming Ron Klain as White House Chief of Staff. Klain is a longtime confidant of Biden who served as his chief of staff during the Obama years. He was also Obama’s “Ebola czar” during the 2014 outbreak and is widely respected in the medical community. As the White House stalls on the transition, GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma says he will use his authority on the Senate oversight committee to step in and make sure Biden is getting the presidential daily briefing by tomorrow. WASH POST
GEORGIA ON EVERYONE'S MIND
The one outstanding Senate race in Alaska has been called by the AP for the incumbent Republican, Sen. Dan Sullivan. That means that control of the chamber will indeed come down to whatever happens in the runoffs for Georgia’s two Senate seats, scheduled for Jan. 5. Before that, the Peach State will do an audit and hand recount of every ballot cast for president, where Biden is winning by about 14,000 votes. CBS NEWS
THE STORM THAT WON'T GO AWAY
Tropical Storm Eta made its fourth (!) landfall overnight, coming ashore north of Tampa with heavy rain, 50 mph winds and knocking out power to about 30,000 Floridians. Eta has been kicking around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico for two weeks -- strengthening, weakening, strengthening and weakening again as it now moves over the Florida peninsula and then back out into the Atlantic. The Southeast and mid-Atlantic will see heavy rain today into tomorrow. TRACK
STUDENT DEBT FORGIVENESS
Can -- or will -- a Biden administration cancel student-loan debt? Biden has said he’s open to the idea, and Sen. Chuck Schumer has said he believes it would be one of Biden’s first executive actions. The plan reportedly being floated among Democrats is to zero out $10,000 per federal borrower as part of a larger coronavirus relief bill, which wouldn't require Congressional sign off. The majority of borrowers owe less than $20,000. YAHOO FINANCE
RING RECALL
About 350,000 Ring doorbell cameras are being recalled after some of them have caught fire. According to the CPSC, the cameras in question were sold on Amazon between June and October of this year. TECHCRUNCH
MASTERS LIKE NO OTHER
It’s not Augusta in April, but it is still the Masters. The iconic golf tournament starts today, seven months late, from the pristine greens of Augusta National, and without any spectators. Tiger Woods, defending his Masters title, tees off just before 8 a.m. ET. Bryson DeChambeau is the consensus favorite to win the green jacket this year following his U.S. Open victory in September. GOLF CHANNEL
SPOTTED...
...the Bush and Obama daughters, in throwback snapshots shared by Jenna Bush on Instagram, showing her and her twin sister giving Sasha and Malia a tour of the White House during the transition in 2008: SEE PICS
BRITNEY CONSERVATORSHIP
Britney Spears has lost her motion in court to have her father removed as the conservator of her estate. Jamie Spears has been the legal guardian of his daughter’s $60 million fortune for more than a decade, and a judge found that he can continue to control her finances for now. Spears has said she’s afraid of her dad and won’t perform so long as he’s her conservator. AP
LEFTOVERS: MEMES OF THE YEAR
If there was ever a golden age for the meme, 2020 has been it. Four Loko, the boozy drink brand, surveyed Americans in order to rank the top memes of this crazy year. No surprise: 8 of the top ten were pandemic themed: SEE THE LIST
Listen to the N2K Podcast! Looking for more context and analysis on the big stories of the day? Check out our podcast! Hosts Jill and Carlo break down the headlines, every weekday morning Listen on Apple or Spotify, or watch on YouTube, and send us your feedback!
Daniel Madrzykowski, research director at the UL Fire Safety Research Institute, joins Cheddar News to discuss the deadly Bronx fire that killed 19 people and fire safety tips that people need to know about.
Markets closed the day mixed, and well off their lows of the day following a market meltdown earlier in the session. The Nasdaq staged a comeback late in the day, even amid ongoing worries about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Doug Flynn, certified financial planner and co-founder of Flynn Zito Capito, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the markets' close and what's driving the major indexes.
Two companies recently announced a new partnership aimed at addressing the growing demand to borrow against crypto - digital assets capital markets firm CrossTower is partnering with commercial bank, BankProv. The companies are launching a crypto lending platform that will allow Bitcoin miners to receive loans to invest in crypto mining equipment. The companies say the program also addresses the difficulty of breaking into crypto mining due to the high cost. CrossTower research analyst Martin Gaspar joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Next-gen social sports platform Break the Love recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Break the Love's platform and iOS app allows users to discover and book group-based tennis activities, to either learn, train, or compete. The new company has already gotten support from a few big names in the world of tennis, including the coach of Naomi Osaka, as well as the United States Tennis Association and the brand Wilson. Break the Love founder and CEO Trisha Goyal joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the country. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments at the end of this week on whether or not the Biden administration can force private companies to vaccinate or test millions of their employees. In addition, the National Nurses United has spearheaded legal action to protect nurses and health care workers, patients, and the public while on the job. President of the National Nurses Union, Zenei Cortez, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
China's ongoing crackdown of its own entertainment industry has been raising eyebrows for once now. With the ruling Communist Party instructing media companies to boycott immoral and overly entertaining stars. But the country has gone even further. Now experts warn that this could lead to further issues such as gender-based violence. Professor at the Institute of Sociology at National Tsinghua University, Hsiu-Hua Shen, and Associate Professor of Politics at Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame Joshua Eisenman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Today marks one year since the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. The Country watched as supporters of then-President Trump stormed what was assumed to be the most secure building in the country in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 Election. Several lawmakers, including the Vice President, could be seen ducking down as they feared for their lives. Democratic Michigan Representative Dan Kildee, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivered disappointing fiscal third-quarter results for 2022. Shares initially dove more than 9% in premarket trading on the news but finished the day up nearly 8%. Bed Bath & Beyond has been a meme-stock target for online investors in the past -- so was meme-stock mania a factor in the recent stock movement for the company? Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the subreddit WallStreetBets, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more, as his forum helped spark the meme stock phenomena. He also discussed some decentralized finance services and trends for the retail investor to watch for in 2022.
Digital medical care provider Pear Therapeutics rang the closing bell on the Nasdaq Friday and President and CEO Dr. Corey McCann, joined Cheddar to talk about how the company plans to grow the business of software-based therapeutics and how the first FDA authorized prescription digital therapeutics company will go about treating illnesses like insomnia and addiction. "These really are pieces of software. In many cases, they're apps and in the cases of our addiction products, these are based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT," he said. "These products change the patient's brain circuitry to help them be abstinent, to help them stay in treatment, and that's exactly what we see in randomized clinical trials and that's what we see in the real world." He also addressed the ongoing mental health crises brought on by the pandemic. **copy updated to remove IPO information as Pear Therapeutics went public in December**
