Ep. 88: News Roundup Week of 6/14/21

Heart & Home

Juneteenth is now a federal holiday and most federal employees have today off. It’s the first new federal holiday in the United States in almost four decades. One of the top stories this week was the high-stakes meeting in Geneva on Wednesday between the U.S. President Joseph Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. the European Union lifted its ban on nonessential travel for visitors from the U.S. on Wednesday. Americans can now visit the 27-nation bloc, which has been closed since March 2020. Most countries will require tourists to show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test. Yesterday, American President Biden said we had administered 300 million shots of the Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. since he took office. However, health officials warned the Delta variant first identified in India could soon become the dominant variant in the U.S. An earlier than usual heat wave covered the Western part of the United States this week. The National Weather Service documented temperatures in the triple digits on Tuesday. Tucson, Arizona hit 115 degrees, breaking the record of 110 degrees in 1896. In Salt Lake City they hit 107 degrees, which tied the record in 1874. Close to the Arizona, Nevada border, Needles, Calif., hit 121 degrees, breaking the record of 119 degrees in 1940. Compounding the problem, at least half of the West is experiencing one of the most severe droughts on record. Meteorologists expect the heat wave to begin to subside early next week. The Girl Scouts are struggling to sell an extra 15 million boxes of cookies after the pandemic impacted their cookie selling program. Because of the pandemic continuing into the spring selling season, many troops were forced to drop their traditional cookie booths for safety reasons. Finally, I share the story of a 53-year-old man who has jumped into Lake Michigan every day for a year.