Arielle: Hey guys, I am Arielle Hixson, and February is here, so let's not waste any time and jump right into the news.
Now, first up, a train crash in Virginia. The Amtrak train was carrying Republican lawmakers on their way to a retreat, and now investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene trying to figure out what happened.
Republican members of Congress heading to a work retreat in West Virginia were jolted in their seats when the train collided with a garbage truck.
Senator Jeff Flake: Well, we were going at a pretty good speed, and all of a sudden, just, we heard a, obviously a loud crash and felt an impact.
Arielle: The accident happened in the rural area of Crozet, Virginia, about 110 miles southwest of Washington.One person in the truck was killed, and two other people were injured. House Speaker Paul Ryan was on the train with his family. He called the accident a terrible tragedy and tweeted, "We pray for the victims and their families."
On Tuesday night the president put forth several plans during his State of the Union, one of them to rebuild our nation's crumbling infrastructure — old roads and bridges in need of repair.According to a new report, more than 54,000 bridges in this country are structurally weak, and Americans cross those bridges 174 million times a day.
Casey Dinges: America's infrastructure is in dire straits right now.
Arielle: Casey Dinges is from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Last year, the group gave U.S. infrastructure a “D+.” It estimates $2 trillion over the next 10 years needs to be invested to keep American infrastructure from falling apart — things like buildings, utilities and transportation that are under the government’s control.
Dinges: Transportation is a huge need. If you look at the $2-trillion gap over 10 years that we identified, half of that is in roads, bridges and mass transit systems, so that's just three of the 16 categories that we've identified.
Arielle: Of those 16 categories, 12 received some form of a "D," or poor, rating, including roads, schools and the public drinking water system.
President Donald Trump: It is also time to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.
Arielle: On Tuesday night President Trump said he would push Congress to approve a $1.5-trillion infrastructure plan. That plan would include Congress redirecting $200 billion of federal funds from Amtrak and transit programs over 10 years while calling for hundreds of millions more to come from cities, states and the private sector — businesses not owned by the government.
Trump: Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private-sector investment.
Arielle: Those so-called public–private partnerships tend to work in urban areas but require projects that generate revenue, like toll roads and airports. Just 35 states even allow them.
Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio is on the House Transportation Committee. He believes President Trump's infrastructure plan has no hope because the government just doesn't have enough money.And in the future, the money the government gets from taxes is expected to go down because of the tax cuts pushed by President Trump.
Representative Peter DeFazio: Cutting other already underfunded transportation programs to fund a new fanciful program is not going to happen. It's a nonstarter with both sides of the aisle and both houses.
Arielle: The plan is expected to go to Congress in another week or two, so details could change.
And that brings us to Words in the News: Revenue is money that a company or government receives from people. And the government can get revenue from different sources, like taxes or tolls on the road.
Okay, now, moving from the road to the sky. Yesterday morning, if you were up early and had a chance to look up, you probably got quite the view, right, Keith?
Keith: Well, Arielle, to be honest with you, I was sleeping, but across the country many people got the chance to view a rare lunar event that might not come around again for another 20 years, so I guess I should have been up. Anyway, take a look, guys.
In the early hours on Wednesday morning, people around the country had their eyes to the sky for a once-in-a-blue-moon event.
Melinda Hughes: And it was beautiful. It went through so many colors: orange, deep red, a rusty color.
Cindy Lewis: Oh, it was awesome because it was so close, and they had telescopes set up so you could see even closer.
Keith: They are referring to the super blue blood moon. So what is it?Well, it is a combination of three celestial events: a supermoon, when the moon is near its closest point to the Earth; a blue moon, the second full moon in a month — it doesn't actually mean it is the color blue; and a blood moon, a red tint seen during a lunar eclipse, when the moon is in the Earth's shadow.
The last time these things all happened at once was 152 years ago. Andrew Johnson was the U.S. president, and it was just a year after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The Ottoman Empire still existed, and it was decades before the first car was invented.
Here is what the Wednesday morning sky-high spectacle looked like from the NASA time lapse. It was visible in most places across the United States.
Lyle Tavernier: Just like anything that moves closer to you, when the moon moves closer to Earth, it appears slightly larger.
Keith: The moon appeared 14 percent bigger than usual and 30 percent brighter.
Dr. Ed Krupp: Anything that prompts people to think about the world and the universe in which they live and to recognize their part of it is A-OK.
Keith: At the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, hundreds gathered to watch the dazzling display. The celestial phenomenon is even inspiring future astronomers like Ada Vargan, who wants to work for NASA one day.
Ada Vargan: I'm really obsessed with space, so this was, like, an awesome opportunity for me.
Keith: The next time you will be able to see a super blue blood moon is 2037. Keith Kocinski, Channel One News.
Arielle: Man, I wish I’d seen that! That moon was epic.
Okay, now, for more cool space news, just head to ChannelOne.com.
All right, now, coming up, a new focus on the darker side of teen dating.
Arielle: Now, February is Teen Dating Awareness Month, and Azia is here with a look at how dating impacts teens today.
Azia: Yeah, Arielle. So when people think of domestic violence, they mostly think of adults.But many teens say they know another student who has been a victim. Now the state of Wisconsin is trying to put a stop to domestic violence. Take a look.
For many middle and high school students, dating is new and exciting.But for 1 in 3, it will become abusive.
Chase Tarrier:Just last year, 2017, 15 percent of all female students in Wisconsin experienced teen dating violence of a sexual nature, and 9 percent experienced dating violence of a physical nature. So we're talking at least 1 in 10 students are experiencing sexual or physical violence from a dating partner, right here in our state.
Azia: About 1.5 million teens in high school admit to being hit or physically harmed by a romantic partner. Social media opens up another place for bullying and harassment, putting teens at higher risk of eating disorders, dropping out of school and becoming a victim of domestic violence later in life.
And yet eight states in the U.S. don't consider a violent dating relationship domestic abuse, so young people aren't able to apply for restraining orders for protection against abusers. But a bill in Wisconsin is aiming to stop domestic violence by educating students on signs of abuse and what it means to give consent.
The law would require every school district to teach students in seventh through 12th grade about the signs of dating violence and also train school staff on how to respond.
Melissa Sargent:So not only “How do I take care of myself?” and “What signs do I look for?” and “How do I stand up for myself and communicate well?” but “How do I do that for the people around me as well?”
Azia: The goal is to break the cycle of abuse, teaching what is unacceptable from the beginning and stopping teens from becoming harmful adults.
Tarrier: Unhealthy relationship behaviors, abusive behaviors, start as young as 12, 13 years old. So we know that this behavior is not just sort of something that comes from nowhere; these are learned patterns of dangerous behavior that begin in teen years.
Sargent: Many of these kids may have never dated before. Everyone has the first time that they’ve dated, right? And some of these kids come from homes where there may not be healthy relationships, even in their homes.
Azia: If passed, the bill would change the way we treat domestic violence — stopping the issue before it starts.
Azia Celestino, Channel One News.
Arielle: And if the bill gets passed, Wisconsin won't be alone. Twenty states have already passed similar laws.
Okay, guys, now, we are just about out of time, but before we go, here is one more thing.
The Tyrannosaurus rex has been extinct for about 65 million years, but you wouldn't know that from all the recent sightings.
The popular costume has popped up everywhere, from Major League Baseball games to the White House. It was a T. rex takeover in Portland, Maine, recently — a prehistoric flash mob at Monument Square was aimed at spreading smiles.
Luckily, other people were around to snap photos, probz because of T. rex' little arms. Here is a bunch running a marathon and even one kayaking his way down a flooded street. And don't think the T. rex is afraid of a little snow. It comes out in any weather, rain or shine.
And one mom says she wears the costume every chance she gets, even when she walks her kids to school.
Woman: I want them to be uniquely themselves and never question anything that they do because of what people are going to think. So I try to do things like that with them all the time. This one was, I guess, a little bit more extreme, and it got a lot of attention.
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