🐤 When it rains it pours

⚔️ Russian Protests: The invasion of Ukraine escalated this week when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of his nation’s reserve military forces. His move was widely denounced on the world stage and sparked protests in his own country — including a rise in the number of Russian men seeking to exit the nation. Nevertheless, Putin remains resolved to increase his military offensive, including a threat to use nuclear weapons if necessary.

🎾 Federer’s Farewell: Days after announcing his impending retirement, pro tennis legend Roger Federer competed in his final match on Friday. The 41-year-old leaves the sport with 20 Grand Slam wins and a spot in the upper echelon of the athletic world. While he didn’t end his career with a win, he will maintain a special place in the hearts of fans around the world. He thanked spectators and took some time out to sign autographs. As for his decision to leave the sport behind, he explained in a recent interview that it was “sad in the moment” but he “came to the conclusion it’s the best decision.”

⛈️ Canadian Warnings: After Hurricane Fiona pummeled Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, knocking out the power grid along the way, the powerful storm continued to make its way up the East Coast of the United States on Friday. Its expected destination is Canada, which was placed under emergency orders and could witness one of the most devastating storms in recent memory.

⚾️ Judge’s Streak: New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is on the cusp of knocking his 62nd ball out of the park this year, which would eclipse Roger Maris’ American League single-season record. If he does, experts say the record-breaking ball could fetch an enormous sum from the right collector. Meanwhile, St. Louis Cardinals hitter Albert Pujols is just short of joining only three other pro players with 700 total homers under their belts. The difference in expected value for those two balls is pretty massive. One expert said Judge’s 62nd home run ball could be valued at $2.5 million — or about 25 times more than Pujols’ record-breaking ball.

The negative impact of climate change is threatening cities across America and around the world. For one community in Washington, however, locals have been dealing with harsh conditions for at least a century.

Residents of Everson made it through the latest major flooding event when the city’s main thoroughfare looked like a raging rapid with five feet of water cascading through the town’s square.

Families were trapped in their homes, motorists couldn’t escape their vehicles, and pipes became backed up to the point that sewage was contaminating buildings in every corner of the city. One man died when his car was washed away by the rising waters.

While this might be a once-in-a-lifetime event for many Americans, Everson residents have been through this scenario too many times to count. In fact, another storm brought devastating floods just a couple of weeks later.

One local retiree explained: “Our family has been here 95 years and gone through a lot of floods. It’s just been getting worse.”

Unfortunately, a growing number of communities across the country are expected to see the same type of extreme weather — including massive floods — in the near future. Areas around Kentucky, Missouri, and elsewhere are recording record rainfall even as droughts plague much of the Southwest. Experts say climate change is the culprit.

Worse yet, coastal areas are seeing floods due to sea level rise even when there’s no rain in sight. Nicole LeBoeuf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the “East and Gulf coasts already experience twice as many days of high tide flooding compared to the year 2000.”

Although President Joe Biden relieved the anxiety felt by millions of borrowers by wiping out billions of dollars in student loan debt, struggling Americans with massive amounts of medical debt received no such amnesty.

That’s where a pair of former debt collectors come in.

Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico leveraged their influential positions on Wall Street to give back. Upon experiencing an awakening after the Occupy Wall Street protests more than a decade ago, they decided to put their money and connections to good use by creating a fund that has gone on to help roughly 3.6 million Americans with sky-high medical bills looming over their heads.

Here’s how their plan got developed from a thought into a full-fledged movement:

• They raised enough funds to pay off $40 million in past-due debt.
• The word got out and more money started pouring in.
• Their organization offered hospitals pennies on the dollar and has now paid off a staggering $6.7 billion!

The duo has been acting as angels of mercy with many of their deeds being done anonymously. Aston and Antico released a statement explaining a simple motivation for everything that they’ve been able to accomplish.

“Millions of people are sitting at the kitchen table trying to decide, ‘Do I buy medication today or do I pay the water bill, or do I pay the debt collector?’” they explained. “We simply decided to take the debt collector out of the equation.”

Few events on television — or in any type of media, for that matter — draw as much attention for advertising as the Super Bowl. This year, one of the biggest companies on the planet has reached a deal with the NFL to sponsor the next halftime show.

Apple has been in talks to carry NFL games, but the two sides haven’t reached an agreement. The NFL wanted a whopping $2.5 billion for the rights to its Sunday Ticket programming. That sum is roughly $1 billion more than the league currently charges DirecTV.

Although they have not been able to make that deal work yet, there was clearly some progress in Apple Music’s bid to replace Pepsi as the big game’s main sponsor. Reports didn’t include any specifics, but insiders said the NFL wanted somewhere in the ballpark of $50 million to secure the coveted advertising spot.

Meanwhile, media rights executive William Mao said the two corporations are still negotiating a pathway toward putting weekly games on Apple’s platform. He said that “the foundations and cornerstones of the deal are in place” but “the devil is always in the details, particularly in a deal that has complex elements that extend beyond the historic Sunday Ticket rights.”

Among the other big ad buyers for February’s Super Bowl are some familiar names: Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Doritos, General Motors, and Taco Bell, to name a few. As for the less recognizable brands with commercials set for the big game, look for spots by eToro, Hologic, and Wallbox