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| Mars is looking like a sweet alternate to Earth right about now. We've lost a full year of life expectancy (not just from being cooped up for a year). And it's always sunny in Mexico. Right, Sen. Ted Cruz? |
| It's Ashley, back with power (and Wi-Fi) to bring you the news you need to know. Let's do it. |
| But first, you've got to see these photos: Icicles hanging from a ceiling fan. A frosted cactus. Iced-over hallways. Texas is frozen in surreal places. |
| The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe here! |
One big step for the Red Planet |
| The rover has landed. NASA's Perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars following a 300-million mile journey and a dramatic "seven minutes of terror" descent. The mission? "Searching for signs of ancient life," according to NASA. The nuclear-powered rover is NASA's latest, most advanced hardware for exploring Mars. The $2.4 billion mission will seek signs of life — past or present — in a location known as Jezero Crater, widely believed to have been home to a deep lake fed by rivers of water. "Perseverance is our robotic astrobiologist, and it will be the first rover NASA has sent to Mars with the explicit goal of searching for signs of ancient life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. |
| • | We're already getting photos of Mars from Perseverance. View them here. | |
 | | In this illustration made available by NASA, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover studies a Mars rock outrcrop. The Perseverance Mars rover is due to land on Mars Feb. 18, 2021. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. | | NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP | |
OK, winter, we've had enough |
| Just when we thought this winter torture might be over, another fierce storm brought more snow and ice across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic on Thursday. In Texas, over 400,000 customers were still without power after frigid temperatures kicked large shares of the state's power plants off its grid this week, leaving more than 4 million in the dark. Across the USA, more than 1.1 million people had no electricity: Louisiana, Alabama and Oregon were also experiencing widespread outages. |
| • | Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, traveled to Cancun on vacation as his state faced a major crisis and power outages. Not everyone was thrilled. Cruz was condemned by his progressive critics as winter storms left many Texans without power. | | • | Help is on the way: President Joe Biden declared states of emergency in both Texas and Oklahoma and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide generators and supplies to states impacted by the severe weather. | | • | Stay safe, everyone: As many as 36 people have died this week due to the extreme weather. In Tennessee, rescuers saved a dozen people who were trapped when a dock collapsed under the heavy weight of snow and ice. | |
 | | People waited in line for more than an hour in freezing rain to fill propane tanks Feb. 17 in Houston. | | David J. Phillip, AP | |
What everyone's talking about |
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Former Olympic medalist being investigated over allegations of physical abuse |
| The U.S. Center for SafeSport is investigating Peter Oppegard, the 1988 U.S. Olympic pairs bronze medalist, over allegations of physical abuse , according to emails obtained by USA TODAY Sports and two people questioned by SafeSport. The allegations are something else: They include Oppegard biting a teenage female skater on the arm in a 2013 training session and throwing hot water and coffee at skaters he coached in Artesia, California, where he worked from 2005 until 2018. Oppegard and his former pairs partner Jill Watson hold the distinction of being the last Americans to win an Olympic medal in pairs figure skating with their bronze at the 1988 Winter Games. |
 | | Peter Oppegard, shown coaching in 2006, is the last American to win an Olympic medal in pairs figure skating along with former partner Jill Watson. | | Eileen Blass, USA TODAY Sports | |
The US lost a whole year of life expectancy |
| We seem to be on the decline, folks. During the first half of the pandemic, U.S. life expectancy was at its lowest in 15 years . And it's even worse for Black Americans and Latinos. Data through June 2020 shows life expectancy at birth for the total U.S. population fell from 2019 by a year to 77.8 years, the lowest since 2006, according to researchers at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Life expectancy for Black populations declined the most from 2019 – by 2.7 years, to 72 years – its lowest level since 2001. Latinos experienced the second-biggest decline, falling 1.9 years since 2019 to a life expectancy of 79.9 years, lower than when it was first recorded in 2006. |
Real quick |
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Bob Dole diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer |
| Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, 97, the elder statesman of Kansas Republican politics, has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer , he said in a statement Thursday. Dole, who represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1996 and ran for president in 1996, said he would begin treatment Monday. "While I certainly have some hurdles ahead, I also know that I join millions of Americans who face significant health challenges on their own," Dole said. About 40% of all lung cancer diagnoses fall into the Stage 4 bracket, according to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. The five-year survival rate for those diagnoses is 10%. |
 | | The former presidential candidate and Republican congressman from Kansas will undergo treatment to battle the lung cancer. | | Getty | |
A break from the news |
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| This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for The Short List newsletter here. |
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