Good morning. It's the 28th and final day of February. Have you wondered why February is shorter than the other months? Turns out, we have ancient Roman superstitions to thank. To make a long story short, Roman king Numa Pompilius tweaked the calendar to sync it with the lunar year, and that included changing every month to 29 days (because even numbers were unlucky at that time). One month, though, needed to have an even number of days, and February was selected since it was when the Romans held rituals for the dead. And so, February was dropped down to 28 days. And despite numerous changes to the calendar over thousands of years, it's (mostly) stuck. —Max Knoblauch, Sam Klebanov, Jamie Wilde, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman | | | |  | Nasdaq | 11,466.98 | | | | | S&P | 3,982.24 | | | | | Dow | 32,889.09 | | |  | 10-Year | 3.918% | | | | | Bitcoin | $23,504.06 | | | | | Union-Pacific | $212.17 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 4:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks started climbing again yesterday after last week's slump as things calmed down a bit in the bond market. Tech stocks led the upward trend, along with Union-Pacific, which jumped after the railroad company said it would give in to investor pressure and replace its CEO this year.
| | | | Francis Scialabba The fate of the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan—and the monthly budget of tens of millions of Americans—rests on oral arguments that the Supreme Court will hear today. Given the court's 6–3 conservative majority, many legal experts see a tough road ahead for the ~$430 billion debt relief program. The conservative SCOTUS has reined in Biden's executive power multiple times already, from throwing out his administration's eviction moratorium and large business vaccination-or-testing requirement, to significantly dampening the EPA's power to fight climate change. So, what's the court expected to hear today? Let's take a look. It's about harm There are two legal challenges to debt cancellation: - One from six Republican-led states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina)
- Another from two Texas borrowers backed by a conservative advocacy group
Before SCOTUS can issue any ruling on the Biden administration's constitutional authority to cancel debt, it must first decide if these challengers have standing to sue—i.e., if any of them are specifically harmed by debt cancellation. So far, lower courts have found that they are. The GOP states have standing thanks to a semi-independent loan servicing company, MOHELA, created by the state of Missouri, a court ruled. Missouri has argued that since MOHELA would lose money if there were fewer loans to service, it would put less money into a state education fund, and the state would be sufficiently harmed. A different court ruled that the two Texas borrowers have standing, as neither fully qualified for forgiveness under the program. The Biden administration is expected to lean heavily on this question, arguing that none of the plaintiffs have sufficient standing to challenge the loan cancellation program. Many experts see this tactic as the administration's best chance to win since it would be easier than convincing the justices of its power to cancel debt. Zoom out: The Biden administration has said that whatever the court's decision is, the student loan payment pause that's been in place for almost three years will end 60 days after the case is resolved (or at the end of August, whichever comes first). SCOTUS is expected to announce its ruling before the court's term ends in late June.—MK | | | Making sure you get all the nutrients you need can feel like a full-time job. But the new Huel Daily Greens makes it easy with a delicious blend of 91 vitamins, minerals, probiotics, adaptogens, superfoods, and all-natural ingredients. It's like taking out a premium insurance policy on your health. You get true complete nutrition and 147 health benefits, like supporting your immune system, reducing fatigue, and boosting gut health with vitamin D, B12, and iron. The best news yet? It's just $1.50/serving. That's almost half the cost of other greens powders, with no concession on what matters most: your health. Try Huel Daily Greens today and get a free shaker + T-shirt with your first order. | | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic  Murdoch admits Fox hosts "endorsed" false election fraud claims. Rupert Murdoch stated under oath that Fox News hosts, including Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, had "endorsed" dubious claims that the 2020 election was stolen, according to a legal filing by Dominion Voting Systems. "I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight," the media mogul said during a deposition. Dominion has a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit pending against Fox over the claims, but Fox maintains they were newsworthy.
 The Supreme Court will decide a financial regulator's fate. The justices agreed yesterday to consider a case challenging how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded. The financial watchdog, which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, gets its cash directly from the Fed rather than from Congress, but the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that scheme unconstitutional. The Biden administration says that calls into question every rule the agency has ever made and every enforcement action it has taken.
 Move over, Mickey. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill yesterday granting him power over the special district where Disney World is located, which Disney has controlled since the 1960s. DeSantis went after the special district when Disney came out against a law he backed, known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics. "Today the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end," the governor, who is expected to launch a presidential run soon, said at the signing ceremony.
| | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Diplomats are cracking a Guinness after making major progress on the peskiest Brexit issue: The United Kingdom and the European Union hammered out a deal over Northern Ireland trade yesterday. Why the deal is a big deal The UK–EU divorce generated the problem of handling the only land border between them, the one separating Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (a separate country that's in the EU). Imposing typical customs controls would've been risky: The open border between them is a legacy of the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of political violence known as "the Troubles." As a workaround, the UK and EU signed the Northern Ireland Protocol in 2019, which preserved the frictionless border status quo between Northern Ireland and its southern neighbor. Instead, customs checks were introduced for goods moving from the island of Great Britain (which encompasses England, Scotland, and Wales) to Northern Ireland. The new agreement builds on this arrangement. What's in the deal? - There will now be minimal customs controls for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, while goods transiting into the Republic of Ireland will be checked normally.
- The Protocol left some EU laws in place in Northern Ireland, but the new agreement pares that number down.
Looking ahead…The agreement isn't a done deal until it passes through the UK Parliament (where there is likely to be opposition from hardline Brexiters and Northern Irish parties) and parts of it get the go-ahead from the EU's 27 member states.—SK Need a refresher on the difference between the UK, Great Britain, and England? Check out this quick explainer. | | TOGETHER WITH RAD DIVERSIFIED | | Tough times call for smarter investments. REITs (aka real estate investment trusts) are ready to handle any economic era, as they're unaffected by the stock market. And RAD Diversified is one that stands out: They invest in real estate properties across the US, with a 35.35% return in 2021 and 122.2% increased stock value since October 2019. Invest smarter with RAD Diversified. | | Hannah Minn Over a million Americans joined the part-time workforce in December and January—and most of them chose the temporary grind over a full-time hustle, according to Labor Department data analyzed by the WSJ. Key word: chose. As of last month, over 22 million part-timers were working fewer than 35 hours per week voluntarily, compared to just 4 million that wanted full-time hours and couldn't get them. That nearly six-to-one ratio is the highest it's been in two decades, per the WSJ. Why the downshift? Early in the pandemic, the number of Americans doing part-time work "for economic reasons," as the Labor Department classifies it, spiked as layoffs rocked the economy, peaking in April 2020. But after that, the vibe shifted: More people started choosing to work part-time "for noneconomic reasons," such as caregiving and personal health. And there may be more 9-to-5ers waiting for the chance to clear their G Cals. "A lot of people want to work part-time, but the options aren't really there," Ernie Park, who left his full-time tech job to take an hourly gig and start a family farm, told the WSJ. "For companies that get on this, they can scoop up some really great talent."—JW | | Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images Stat: This guy has been to Disneyland more than you. His name is Jeff Reitz, and he was recently deemed a world record-holder holder for making 2,995 consecutive visits to the theme park. That's one trip to Sleeping Beauty Castle per day for eight years, three months, and 13 days. We don't know whether he considers himself more of an Anna or an Elsa, but we do know that he started visiting as a way to stay active while unemployed in 2012 and kept returning daily until Covid shut down the park in 2020. Quote: "As with all AI-powered chatbots, My AI is prone to hallucination and can be tricked into saying just about anything. Please be aware of its many deficiencies and sorry in advance!" Snapchat has added a chatbot feature powered by ChatGPT for when you get tired of sending messages to real people you actually know. It's rolling out the add-on for Snapchat+ subscribers this week and plans to eventually offer it to all users. And perhaps having noticed the unhinged conversations everyone's been having with Bing AI, Snap has already pre-apologized for...whatever it's about to unleash. Might not be any weirder than the messages you already get from folks you meet on Tinder, though. Read: The end of the English major? Why humanities enrollment is in free fall. (The New Yorker) | | - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a surprise visit to Ukraine to demonstrate that the US supports the country economically.
- Elon Musk defended Dilbert creator Scott Adams after the cartoon was dropped from several newspapers over Adams's racist remarks. Adams was cut loose by a comics syndicator and a book publisher yesterday.
- TD Bank has agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle claims it aided a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
- Greta Thunberg and other activists are targeting Norway's energy ministry over a wind farm they say gets in the way of indigenous people raising reindeer.
- The Pokémon Company will release a game you play by sleeping later this year.
| |  So satisfying: Watch layers of varnish get sloughed off a 17th-century painting.
Make it a grande: Find out where to get the cheapest coffee with this map of worldwide Starbucks prices. Stay anonymous: A roundup of the clothes you can wear to thwart facial recognition software. Plan a movie marathon: You can use this list of the best films by Black directors. Winner winner: The cash-back contest is over—and this card crushed the competition. It offers up to 5% cash back, no annual fee, and a 0% intro APR for over a year.* *This is sponsored advertising content. | | Brew Mini: Twenty-five seconds is the perfect length for a TikTok and it's also how long it took Neal to complete today's Mini crossword. Try to beat him here. Names of the month We reviewed the most popular baby names of 2021 in the Social Security Administration's database. What month was the most popular baby name? | | Answer: August was the most popular baby name of all the months. It was the 121st most popular name for males, according to the SSA. For females, the most popular was June, coming in 175th place (more than 10 spots above Molly, interestingly). | | |
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