promoearn: Batter up!

Thursday, March 10

The gates are locked at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team, on March 2 during the sport's labor conflict.

That asteroid headed to Earth next year? Yeah, not happening. 🙌 It's Thursday's news.

Baseball is coming back. The Kremlin defended its bombing of a Ukraine hospital. And in news that surprises probably nobody: yearly inflation shot up to a 40-year high.

👋 Hey! Laura here. It's Thursday, so here's the news you need to know.

But first, important question: Are there more doors or wheels in the world? 🏎🚪 Think about it. Really think about it. I have. For days. In fact, I can't stop thinking about it. Open this door: Here's what's wheely behind the trend. (I'm still solidly #TeamWheels)

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.

MLB, players association end lockout

Major League Baseball magically made those two weeks of canceled games reappear Thursday, keeping a full 162-game season intact when MLB and the players association agreed to a five-year collective bargaining agreement, ending the league's 99-day lockout. The regular season will start a week late; opening day is tentatively scheduled for April 7, two people with direct knowledge told USA TODAY Sports. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because MLB has not made an official announcement. The regular season calendar will be extended by three days, the officials said, and teams will make up the other games with three of four doubleheaders. It will be at least two days before the CBA is officially ratified, but players are expected to report to their spring training camps by Monday.

•	MLB's lockout is mercifully over. Where do we go from here?

Russia defends attack on Ukraine hospital

The Kremlin defended its bombing of a Ukrainian hospital Thursday while the highest-level talks yet failed to reach agreement on a humanitarian cease-fire aimed at protecting Ukrainian cities battered by fierce Russian assaults. In Poland, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated the U.S. commitment to NATO, saying defense of its members is "ironclad." Harris, during a joint news conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said America is deeply appreciative of Poland's efforts to aid refugees fleeing the carnage in Ukraine. Earlier, the Biden administration rejected a plan from Poland that would involve U.S. involvement in providing fighter jets to Ukraine, a decision drawing questions from some Republican senators. U.S. defense officials distanced themselves from Ukraine's requests for a NATO-backed no-fly zone over the country. Go here for the latest.

•	Oil, gold, trade: Congress looks for options to punish Russia.
•	Ukrainian man discovers wife and children were killed after seeing graphic photo on Twitter.

People cross an improvised path under a destroyed bridge while fleeing the town of Irpin close to Kyiv, Ukraine.

Efrem Lukatsky, AP

What everyone's talking about

•	🥴 What we know about a possible new COVID-19 variant: deltacron.
•	'Run, mom, run!' How a Michigan human trafficking victim got away.
•	Why? They're trying to resurrect an extinct rat now. It's not going so well.
•	Surprise! Grimes and Elon Musk had a secret second baby.
•	2020 census undercounted Latinos, Native Americans and Black Americans at high rates.

The Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.

Inflation reaches 40-year high

Soaring gasoline prices are pouring more fuel on the flames of inflation. Inflation reached a 40-year high in February as pump prices, propelled by the Ukraine war, combined with rent, food and other rapidly rising costs to squeeze Americans already struggling with sky-high costs. The consumer price index jumped 7.9% annually, the fastest pace since January 1982, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's up from 7.5% in January, which was nearly a four-decade high. Gasoline prices leaped 6.6% and made up nearly a third of February's rise. Pump prices were up 38% from a year earlier. Inflation has hit fresh 40-year highs for four straight months. Here's the breakdown.

•	A look at how inflation has spiked over the past century.
•	Are we headed toward a recession? The odds are rising amid soaring inflation, high energy prices.

What happened at these nursing homes during the pandemic?

COVID-19 marched into almost every nursing home in America during last winter's surge, when 71,000 residents died – the most of any wave of the pandemic. Still, at nearly one-third of the nursing homes reporting outbreaks, no one died. The deaths across a scattering of Midwestern nursing homes began surging around Thanksgiving 2020. In the span of a week, the count of the dead nearly tripled in Michigan. Then residents died by the dozens in Ohio and Indiana. By Valentine's Day 2021, the death toll had climbed into the hundreds. An investigation by USA TODAY reporters traced the fatalities back to one nursing home chain, Trilogy Health Services, owned by a real estate venture with a new business plan for the cutthroat world of elder care. Residents at Trilogy's 115 campuses died of COVID-19 last winter at twice the national average for nursing homes, based on figures facilities must file weekly with the federal government.

🕵️‍♀️ USA TODAY reporters spent a year seeking answers in the data and the documents, in interviews with industry experts, government overseers, nursing home workers and families of the dead. Here's what they found.

•	Lives lost to the pandemic from Trilogy nursing homes.
•	Guide to nursing homes: Steps for choosing a home for a loved one.

Photos of some of the 800 people who died at nursing homes operated by Trilogy

Contributed

Real quick

•	Bomb cyclone packed with snow, rain and wind to slam eastern USA.
•	Gas is up 7 cents nationwide. Here's the average price in each state.
•	8-month-old in Missouri unlicensed day care likely died of asphyxiation.
•	Masks required on planes, trains and buses for at least one more month.

☄️ That asteroid? Just kidding

An asteroid wider than a hockey rink that had been projected to hit Earth next year won't after all. In January, asteroid 2022 AE1 was discovered by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona. Not long after that, the European Space Agency noted the 230-foot-wide asteroid was on a collision course with Earth for July 2023. Everybody proceeded to freak out because right after they estimated the asteroid was on a collision course with Earth, it disappeared from the telescope's view. The asteroid's orbit was leading it farther away, so when it became visible a week later, astronomers were able to calculate it was a false alarm by following its orbit. They confirmed that the asteroid would not hit Earth in 2023. 🙌

•	Send your name on NASA's next mission around the moon for free.
•	New research says asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit Earth in the spring.

A bird of a different color! A gorgeous one-in-a-million yellow cardinal was spotted in Florida. Find out why it's yellow and see more pictures here.

A yellow cardinal, which is thought to occur because of a rare one in a million mutation, rests on a branch in a wooded area on the University of Florida campus, in Gainesville, March 1, 2022.

Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun

A break from the news

•	🧼 The FlyLady cleaning method is huge on TikTok. What is it?
•	🍿 What to watch this weekend: Pixar's 'Turning Red,' Ryan Reynolds in 'The Adam Project.'
•	⏰ Don't forget! When is daylight saving time? Who's in charge of it? What to know about the annual March ritual.

🗣 Let's play! USA TODAY launched something really fun. It's a new and improved Crossword App! Check it out!

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.