promoearn: This giant, floating garbage dump has us talking serious trash

Thursday, March 22, 2018

This giant, floating garbage dump has us talking serious trash

A sample of the trash the Ocean Cleanup Foundation

This giant patch of garbage in the Pacific Ocean is why we can't have nice things

What a waste. A collection of plastic, floating trash halfway between Hawaii and California known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has grown to more than 600,000 square miles, according to a study published Thursday. That's twice the size of Texas. The garbage patch includes 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and weighs the equivalent of 500 jumbo jets. Sadly, it's the largest of five known trash collections in the ocean. Here's an unsettling fact: Our trash is harming the deepest fish in the ocean.

Trump and Biden go mano a mano (and other news from Washington)

President Trump responded to what he called a threat from Joe Biden by tweeting Thursday that the former vice president is acting like a tough guy. "Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault," Trump wrote. "He doesn't know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don't threaten people Joe!" Biden, who is considering a run against Trump in 2020, was discussing the problem of sexual assault when he cited the infamous 2005 tape of Trump talking about how he grabbed women. "If we were in high school, I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him," Biden said to cheers from an audience in Miami.

Moving along …

•	Trump announced plans to hit China with new tariffs, sparking further concerns about a trade war. The markets weren't happy, with the Dow plummeting more than 700 points.
•	The shake-up of Trump's legal team continued with Thursday's resignation of attorney John Dowd.
•	The House of Representatives passed a mammoth $1.3 trillion spending bill. It now goes to the Senate, to avoid a government shutdown. Here's what's in it, and what's not.

She wanted a career in movies. Her agent wanted sex.

This is a #mustread USA TODAY investigation: Coming to light with the Me Too movement is that sexual harassment and abuse is rampant in every corner of Hollywood, and not just with powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. The victims are aspiring actresses, as well as directors and producers. They are screenwriters and camera operators, line editors and publicists. Here are their stories.

We polled 1,000 young people. They are terrified of guns.

The threat of mass shootings is the defining fear for the generation that has grown up in the shadow of Columbine, a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds. Nearly one in five respondents, 19%, say they don't feel safe at their school. And more than one in three young people nationwide say they plan to join Saturday's March For Our Lives protests. Just days before the march, Barack and Michelle Obama wrote a letter to students at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School saying they are "inspired" by their resolve after the shooting rampage that killed 17 people last month.

More on Saturday's march ...

•	What to expect at your first protest
•	Here's what you need to know about the marches in major cities throughout the U.S.
•	Big names to take the stage at the Los Angeles rally: Amy Schumer, Black-ish star Yara Shahidi, Connie Britton, Olivia Wilde and Skai Jackson.
•	Survivors of other mass shootings and families of victims also plan to march.
•	Can the March For Our Lives rally avoid the same fate as the Millions Mom March?