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A winter storm that has impacted swaths of the eastern Rockies, the Plains and the upper Midwest was expected to continue spreading winter weather across the country, even reaching New England in the coming days.

The winter storm that hit the central plans “will track into the Great Lakes by Thursday with a mixture of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain,” The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said.

Heavy snow was forecast to fall into Thursday, with 4 to 8 inches of snow possible across swaths of Wisconsin.

The heaviest snow totals are expected to be 5 to 8 inches for central and east-central Wisconsin, as well as 5 to 8 inches in Green Bay and Fox Cities. Northern Door County could see up to 10 inches of snow.

—USA TODAY

The Green Bay Packers are donating $100,000 to put the life-saving device used to help resuscitate Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin into 80 schools and recreational sports facilities in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“After seeing Damar Hamlin’s shocking cardiac arrest and witnessing the incredible response from the emergency personnel and medical professionals who treated him, we recognized our responsibility to take action in our own community,” Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement Wednesday.

The life-saving automated external defibrillators (AED) detect if an individual is experiencing an abnormal or fatal heart rhythm. If an individual, like Hamlin, is experiencing a fatal heart rhythm, pads are applied to the torso and the AED provides a shock to the heart. The goal is to jolt the heart cells, which generate electrical impulses, back into a normal heart beat. A heart allowed to beat too fast for too long will eventually stop beating.

Using an AED machine requires training. Bellin Health, the Packers official health care partner, will conduct around 15, four-hour training sessions to make sure each AED recipient has multiple representatives within their organization who are properly trained in CPR and AED use. Annual equipment checks also will be performed by Bellin team members to ensure the equipment is functioning properly.

Emergency personnel used an AED and administered CPR to Hamlin on Jan. 2 during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He was taken by ambulance to a Cincinnati hospital where he received medical care in the intensive care unit. Hamlin now is back at the team’s practice facility.

—The Milwaukee Journal Semntinel

When New York’s first licensed recreational marijuana outlet opened last month, the chief of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, Chris Alexander, proudly hoisted a tin of watermelon-flavored gummies above the crowd.

Outside the Manhattan shop, he displayed another purchase — a jar containing dried flowers of a cannabis strain called Banana Runtz, which some aficionados say has overtones of “fresh, fruity banana and sour candy.”

Inside the store run by the nonprofit Housing Works, shelves brimmed with vape cartridges suggesting flavors of pineapple, grapefruit and “cereal milk,” written in rainbow bubble letter print.

For decades, health advocates have chided the tobacco industry for marketing harmful nicotine products to children, resulting in more cities and states, like New York, outlawing flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

Now as cannabis shops proliferate across the country, the same concerns are growing over the packaging and marketing of flavored cannabis that critics say could entice children to partake of products labeled “mad mango,” “loud lemon” and “peach dream.”

“We should learn from the nicotine space, and I certainly would advocate that we should place similar concern on cannabis products in terms of their appealability to youth,” said Katherine Keyes, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University who has written extensively about the rise in marijuana use among young people.

“If you go through a cannabis dispensary right now,” she said, “it’s almost absurd how youth oriented a lot of the packaging and the products are.”

Keyes added that public health policymakers — and researchers like her — are trying to catch up with an industry and marketplace that is rapidly expanding and evolving.

New York, which legalized recreational marijuana in March 2021, forbids marketing and advertising that “is designed in any way to appeal to children or other minors.”

But New York’s state Office of Cannabis Management has yet to officially adopt rules on labeling, packaging and advertising that could ban cartoons and neon colors, as well as prohibit depictions of food, candy, soda, drinks, cookies or cereal on packaging — all of which, the agency suggests, could attract people under 21.

—Associated Press

Derek Chauvin’s attorney argued Minnesota should throw out his state murder conviction in the death of George Floyd in a Wednesday hearing.

The court has 90 days to make a decision on the appeal.

The former Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in June 2021 after he was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin was found guilty of pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes, resulting in Floyd’s death in May 2020. The death triggered a wave of protests against police misconduct and a racial reckoning nationwide.

Chauvin’s attorney, William F. Mohrman, will argue that pretrial publicity “was more extensive than in any trial ever in Minnesota,” and that publicity, ongoing civil unrest, alleged exclusion of evidence and “misconduct” from the prosecution led to an unfair trial, according to court documents.

—ABC News

Over a million children left public schools in 2020, a migration that came on the heels of school lockdowns and masking requirements, and was hastened by increased parental dissatisfaction with K-12 education.

Enrollment in U.S. public schools declined by 1.4 million students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, dipping to 49.4 million, a loss of nearly 3 percent, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

The decline may be closer to 2 million, according to a report by Education Next showing that traditional public school enrollment as a percentage of all school enrollment declined sharply between 2020 and 2022.

Enrollment in traditional public schools fell from 81 to 76.5 percent of total enrollment during that period, while enrollment in public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling grew by a combined 4.5 percent.

In many cases, the disruption in learning due to COVID-19 policies was the catalyst many parents needed to make the jump away from public schools to charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling.

Based on recent enrollment figures and the comfort many parents express with their decision to opt out of public schools, it appears the missing millions will not return.

Nearly a quarter of Americans, 23 percent, said they were completely dissatisfied with their child’s education.

Parent interviews conducted by The Epoch Times revealed that distance learning during school lockdowns provided a glimpse into the classroom that made parents question their school’s ability to educate their children.

“For a while, [our kids] were getting homework assigned to them by their teachers … but there was no teaching going on,” Matt Mohler of Tallahassee, Florida, said. He moved his children from a highly public school to a classical charter school in the fall of 2020.

“Once a week they’d all get together on a classroom call, and that was the extent of what the teachers were doing. We realized that we weren’t getting a lot of effort out of the teachers.”

The combination of public school mask policies and state vaccine mandates drove some parents to seek alternatives.

Longtime home-schooler Christine Hamman saw an influx of parents to her home-school group during the last two years. “COVID added people who are anti-vax and anti-masking,” she said. “Mostly, parents didn’t want their kids masked for six hours a day.”

Other reasons for leaving public schools included concern over appropriate teaching on social issues like sex, gender, and drug abuse, as well as student safety.

Relatively few students who withdrew from public school in 2020 have returned so far. Public school enrollment rebounded just 0.2 percent in 2021, including first-time enrollees, and remains at its lowest level since 2010.

—The Epoch Times

As the White House flip flops on its narrative for why President Joe Biden had classified documents, including some labeled as “top secret,” stashed in his home and office, Republicans are trying to piece together the controversy regarding the papers and the timing of their release to the public.

Rep. Jerry Carl (R-AL) suggested that Biden was purposely “set up” by his party.

“T]his stuff showing up — and this is the other side of my brain, this is not a Republican thing all of a sudden,” Carl said. “It’s almost like he’s being set up by his own people.”

The Republicans continued to question why the White House waited until after the midterm elections to release the information when Democrats had control of the House.

“They waited until after the election. They waited until after the Democrats lost a majority for this stuff to start leaking out. They knew it was there back in early November,” Carl said, adding “why didn’t they do it then when they had full control? All three houses could say it’s no big deal, whitewash and let’s move on. They didn’t.”

Carl argued against all of the excuses the Biden White House is giving as to why the classified documents may have been in the president’s possession.

“So, it’s almost like his own people are trying to destroy him at this point,” Carl stated. “They had no business being there. He’s wrong. Just forget about everything else. He’s wrong. It should not be there. It was in his garage. It should not be in his house unless it is a known secured facility by the Secret Service agents.”

—Townhall

The Biden administration presented arguments before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to maintain a federal air travel masking mandate that was struck down by a federal judge in Florida last spring. The Justice Department’s argument is that Congress has granted the CDC the authority to protect public health, and therefore it has the power to authorize the masking mandate. Complicating the DOJ’s argument is the fact that last summer Joe Biden declared the pandemic over, and in doing so he even noted that “no one’s wearing a mask.”

Fighting against the air travel mask mandate is the Health Freedom Defense Fund (HDFD), whose founder and president, Leslie Manookian, contends that “the Biden administration is trying to paper over an illegal, sweeping mandate on Americans that is full of massive legal and scientific holes.” HDFD argues that there is no federal statute granting the CDC this kind of authority and that the mandate violates existing law and “suffers from an inconsistent application of sound science.” The travel industry also supports ending Biden’s travel masking mandate. The authority to make laws lies with Congress, not unelected bureaucrats within the executive branch.

—The Patriot Post

Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, pro-life Americans will March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Hundreds of thousands will march, as they have marched since 1973.

But this year, it is different.

This year, the march will take place, for the first time, in an America where Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the land.

With legitimacy to claims that there is a right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution gone, now the battleground is in the states.

A major battle has been won, but the war rages on. At this writing, abortion is prohibited in only 13 states.

Pew Research shows that after years of decline in the number of abortions, it ticked back up in 2020 to 930,160.

And, despite all the claims about caring about racial justice in our nation, my organization CURE reports in a new policy briefing, “The Impact of Abortion on the Black Community,” that in 2020, 39.2% of abortions were on Black women, who represent just 14% of the childbearing population.

The data also shows that 86% of abortions are done on unmarried women, which points to the critical link between this destructive behavior and the collapse of marriage and family, the pillars of a healthy society.

I believe that all the many problems that our nation faces begin with absence of awe for the miracle of life. The other side of the coin of the right to life is the responsibility to protect life and responsibility in the behavior that creates life.

Reverence is the beginning of responsibility, and responsibility is the beginning point for what freedom is all about.

—Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank promoting market-based public policy to fight poverty

My sister-in-law, a nurse on Cape Cod, wants to visit New York City and is struggling to find an affordable hotel.

If she were a Venezuelan migrant who had just arrived in the Big Apple on a bus from the southern border, she’d have a shot at a room at the four-star Row hotel, steps from Times Square. Or a room at a SpringHill Suites by Marriott, a Holiday Inn Express or a Comfort Inn. Free of charge.

Welcome to Hotel America! Newly arriving migrants are also getting three meals a day courtesy of room service, snacks at any time, and at some of the hotels, computer facilities and playrooms for the kids. All courtesy of local taxpayers.

New York, already a sanctuary city, is turning itself into a migration magnet by offering these over-the-top freebies.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who visited El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, complained Sunday that migrants have a “false impression” that they’ll be living in hotels.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor, it’s not a false impression. You can thank yourself for the migrants’ expectations. You inked a contract with the Hotel Association of New York City on Friday, reserving 55 entire hotels exclusively for migrants. News like that spreads like wildfire, all the way to Latin America.

Housing migrants in luxury hotels and providing services Americans can’t afford for themselves is the wrong idea. It will cause resentment.

Hotel America must be replaced with commonsense, bare-bones accommodations. A roof over their heads. Anything more will lure migrants with crazy expectations and make the crisis worse.

—Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

One winning ticket for Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot – a prize of an estimated $1.35 billion – was sold in Maine and tax officials are probably just as excited as the ticket holder, who has not yet been identified.

Depending on choice of payout, the winner may have to wait three decades to become a billionaire, even though the jackpot is the second-largest in the lottery’s history. It’s also the fourth time since October 2018 that winnings have exceeded $1 billion.

The sole winner, however, won’t take home any money without paying substantial taxes on it first. Winnings are reported to federal and state tax agencies, and tax rates are based on taxable income.

The winner can choose to take the full amount in annual payments over 29 years or a smaller lump sum immediately in cash.

The single winner could take the total $1.35 billion in 30 payments over 29 years or go for the one-time cash option ¬– in this case, $707.9 million – which is what most winners choose.

Regardless of which option the player takes, the IRS takes a minimum 24% federal withholding tax upfront on lottery winnings. That’s a big chunk out of either payment choice. If the total $1.35 billion payout is chosen:

• Federal taxes: $324 million

• Take-home: $1.026 billion (by 2051)

If the cash option of $707.9 million is taken:

• Federal taxes: $169.9 million

• Take-home: $538 million

—USA TODAY

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – 88 years ago today, in 1935, the world’s first men’s briefs were sold, called ‘the Jockey’.

Coopers Inc. had been making socks and undergarments for decades, but by the middle of the Great Depression in 1934, the company that was founded by Samuel Cooper in St. Joseph, Michigan was nearly bankrupt. Then, on a snowy night in downtown Chicago, the world’s first briefs were sold in the Marshall Field’s store—and they proved so popular, over 30,000 were sold within three months.

They were designed by Arthur Kneibler after he received a postcard from the French Riviera showing a man in a tight swimsuit. The postcard inspired an underwear style that replaced the common design of loosely-fitted leg sections. The company dubbed the design the Jockey, since it offered a degree of support that had previously only been available when wearing a jockstrap. Later that year, they introduced the Y-shaped overlapping fly that cemented the garment’s popularity. Coopers renamed the company Jockey, and their “masculine support briefs” were exported to rave reviews in Canada, Europe and throughout the world.