New Year's Eve celebrations amid omicron, wildfires destroy Denver homes: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: New Year's Eve celebrations amid omicron
New York City is going ahead with its ball drop. Is your city doing the same? Plus, a man has been arrested after a plot to kill President Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, wildfires destroy hundreds of homes outside Denver, the College Football Playoff is here and more wild weather spreads around the country.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know, Friday the 31st of December 2021. Today, New Year's Eve in the time of omicron, plus a man arrested after a plot to kill the president, and more.
Here are some of the top headlines:
- Another 1,400 flights were canceled yesterday around the country. That brings the total to more than 8,000 since Christmas Eve. Many airlines are citing COVID related staff shortages.
- A 3-year-old North Carolina girl has died after accidentally shooting herself on Christmas Day, Aylee Gordon was playing with her new bicycle when she picked up a pistol and shot herself in the head.
- And the World Food Program has suspended its operations across Sudan's North Darfur province. The move comes after recent attacks on its warehouses and could affect some two million people.
Happy New Year's Eve. It's the second time the world is ringing in a new year during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and while it seemed like we were out of the woods just a few months ago, surging cases have other ideas. Lots of celebrations tonight have been canceled around the US and the world, though New York City is forging ahead with its famous Times Square ball Drop. NOW Reporter Christine Fernando has more.
Christine Fernando:
New York City has decided to go ahead with their ball drop celebration. This year it's requiring revelers to show proof of vaccination, and photo ID, and to wear masks. They also have limited capacity compared to previous years. Typically their New Year's celebration hosts around 58,000 people. This year it's more around 15,000, and they're not allowing entry until 3:00 PM to help mitigate numbers as well, but, yeah, they're going ahead with it.
I know Chicago is also continuing their fireworks celebration. It's actually supposed to be the biggest in Chicago history, their fireworks display. The mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot gave a little bit more insight into their thinking. Basically, they're saying that the fireworks show is outdoors so that will hopefully mitigate some of the spread. But, also plenty of cities are canceling their plans. San Francisco has canceled theirs, Atlanta has canceled theirs, across the world like Paris, London, Tokyo have all canceled theirs.
Taylor Wilson:
If you do plan on going out tonight, check out a list of different ball drops on USATODAY.com, including how some cities get creative with everything from a giant acorn to a giant Hershey's Kiss.
A California man has been arrested in Iowa after allegedly planning to kill both President Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, The Des Moines Register's Andrea Sahouri reports.
Andrea Sahouri:
He allegedly gave investigators his phone, and in the phone there were basically his plans to kill evil people in the White House such as former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Anthony Fauci, and as well as Mark Zuckerberg. And the criminal complaint notes that there were more, but those were the people that they had included in this document. And he allegedly also had ammunition, assault rifle magazines, body armor, medical supplies, dark clothing, a grappling hook, food and cash. And that he wasn't planning to come home into his family because he said that he was going to die killing these people. He additionally allegedly told officers that he wouldn't kill Joe Biden if he had promised to comply with his demands.
A lot of it was interrogation based on the criminal complaint, they had said that he had allegedly given him access to his phone, and on a cell phone there was... White House was on his Google Maps, and then he had a lot of notes, detailed notes, and calendar notifications as well. So there was entries for survive supplies, Safe Life Defense Order which is body armor, Safe Life Fed Defense, rifle pickup, silence order, Save USA.
He was faced with one count of threatening a former president, and I think there's a possibility of more charges, but I haven't seen any yet.
Taylor Wilson:
Check out Andrea's full story with a link in today's episode description.
Wildfires are devastating areas outside of Denver.
[Audio: Wind gusts and flames]
That's the sound as wind gusts yesterday spread a fire around suburban Boulder forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. There are evacuation orders in the towns of Superior and Louisville. And some 600 homes have reportedly been destroyed in the Boulder area, along with a hotel and a Target shopping center. At least one first responder has been injured and a hospital reported treating several burn victims, though there have been no reports of any deaths yet. Colorado Governor Jared Polis has issued a state of emergency.
Jared Polis:
1,600 at least acre fire has destroyed hundreds of homes. This area, for those who don't know this area Boulder County, is right in and around suburban sub-developments, stores. It's like the neighborhood that you live in, it's like the neighborhood that any of us live in. And so 1,600 acres near a population center can be, and is in this case, absolutely devastating. Gusts of 100, 110 miles an hour can and have moved this fire down a football field in a matter of seconds. Very little time to get out, very little time to even get the most important parts of your life.
Taylor Wilson:
Firefighting conditions are expected to improve today with decreasing winds, and a snowstorm could help drench the flames. For more on this developing story, stick with USATODAY.com.
The college football playoff is here, the country's four best teams are in action for a chance to make the National Championship game. First up at 3:30 PM Eastern time, it's No. 4 Cincinnati against the nation's top team, Alabama, in the Cotton Bowl. Cinci is a perfect 13 and 0, but still 13 and a half point underdogs to 'Bama. But is there any path to victory? Paste BN Sports Dan Wilkins says they basically need to be perfect.
Dan Wilkins:
Well, it's going to require really a monumental effort, probably a perfect football game. Cincinnati, even though they're not a Power Five team, they're not necessarily your classic mid major underdog. They've got an NFL quarterback in Desmond Ridder, their secondary is extremely good. So, I think you've seen with Cincinnati this year, and even last year when they played Georgia in the Peach Bowl, it was not a complete physical mismatch. I think that they can probably hang with Alabama physically for at least a half. So I think the key for them is to get the game late in the third quarter, keep it within a touchdown or so, and then hope Alabama maybe gets a little bit tight and makes a mistake, maybe a fluke special teams play. And then all of a sudden they're right there. So I think that's really the formula. Just try to be within seven points as you get to the end of that third quarter.
Alabama's definitely the favorite in this game, they've got better players than Cincinnati. But I do think if you're Alabama, the one thing that you have to commit to in this game, is protecting the quarterback. When you've seen Alabama struggle at times this year it's because of their team up front is just not as strong as you typically expect from Alabama teams in the past. So they don't really run the ball a lot, and they rely on Bryce Young to throw the ball and to get them out of trouble. But you saw in the Auburn game for instance, they really struggled to protect him, and that leads to some shaky decisions and potential turnovers when he doesn't have time. So I really think for Alabama, it's protecting the football and making sure that their quarterbacks got some time to throw. If they do, I think he'll find enough holes in that defense that Alabama should win this game pretty comfortably.
Taylor Wilson:
Next up in the second game at 7:30, things are expected to be much closer. It'll be No. 2 Michigan against No 3 Georgia in the Orange Bowl. Georgia are seven and a half point favorites, but there's an argument to be made for either of these teams moving on.
Dan Wilkins:
I think Georgia's a favorite in this game, I'm not sure they're a huge, huge favorite, but I think it's going to come down to their quarterback Stetson Bennett. Alabama coach Nick Saban said something really interesting about Bennett after the SEC championship game which is, if he understands the picture of what he's looking at at the line of scrimmage, he's got a good shot to make a play, he can make those plays. But when he doesn't quite see the full picture, when he gets rushed, when he gets hurried, when things start to break down on him a little bit, he can make bad decisions, bad throws.
So, this is a Michigan team with great play from their defensive ends, guys who can win one-on-one match-ups and get in the backfield really quickly. And I think for Georgia, they're going to have to rely on Stetson Bennett to play clean football, and when he's under pressure, don't make a bad decision. Just eat it if you have to. Feel like you're the better team, but don't try to fit the ball into tight windows where you're really risking mistakes. Because if he throws a couple of interceptions, that's Michigan's path to win.
Taylor Wilson:
You can tune in to both games on ESPN, and for more, including coverage of other bowl games happening today, stay with Paste BN Sports.
Severe weather is expected to continue around the country to end 2021 and start 2022 later tonight, that includes a massive snowstorm from the Rockies to the Midwest, and intense cold in parts of the Northern Plains, like temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero in some parts of Montana and North Dakota. But it'll be a different story in the Southeast. he region will continue to feel unseasonably warm temperatures, and the chance for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. Cities most at risk today and tomorrow include Dallas, Atlanta, and Nashville.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us right here, wherever you like to find your pods seven days a week. Thanks as always to PJ Elliott for his fantastic work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.