Dwayne Haskins’ wife called 911, said NFL QB was out walking to get gas before his death. And now that masks aren’t required, are filters enough to prevent COVID-19 on airplanes?
👋 It’s Laura. It’s Wednesday. Nothing rhymes with Wednesday, so here’s the news!
But first, meet an awful worm! 🐛 A toxic, carnivorous and nearly immortal worm is invading Louisiana. Is it dangerous?
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A really old chihuahua broke a world record
As the song goes, he “ain’t as good as he once was,” but 21-year-old TobyKeith – that’d be the dog, not the singer – broke a world record for being the world’s oldest dog. Born on Jan. 9, 2001, TobyKeith, of Florida, was 21 years and 66 days old on March 16 when Guinness World Records confirmed he was the oldest dog alive. “People can’t believe how good he looks for his age,” the dog’s owner, Gisela Shore, told Guinness. Two decades after she adopted him from a shelter as a puppy, people started to wonder about TobyKeith – was he the oldest dog alive? He had long surpassed the average life expectancy of a chihuahua, 12 to 18 years. Guinness confirmed that TobyKeith was a world record holder. Shore said good genetics, a healthy diet and a loving home were the secrets to his old age. According to Guinness, the oldest dog ever recorded was an Australian cattle dog that lived 29 years and 5 months.
US aid arrives in Ukraine, more considered as Russia targets mill
Ukrainian forces fought in the besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday after a Russian ultimatum to troops holed up in the Azovstal steel mill to lay down their arms passed without a mass surrender. Oleksiy Arestovych, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a social media post that the Ukrainian forces inside the sprawling steel plant faced attacks from the Russian military. Amid the siege in Mariupol and a shift in the fighting to eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials are considering a new military aid package. Four flights of U.S. arms, including howitzers, arrived in Eastern Europe in the past 24 hours, part of the $800 million aid package approved last week. Russia continues to attack in eastern Ukraine and reinforce its troops in the region for a broader offensive.
👉 More headlines: Ukraine Foreign Ministry wants four-day ‘humanitarian pause’; Janet Yellen walks out of Russia’s G-20 remarks. Wednesday’s updates.
What everyone’s talking about
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Gas prices going up again?
The roller coaster price of gas might be headed up another hill. Gas prices have steadily decreased since reaching record highs in early March, but experts predict the fall won’t last much longer as seasonal demand and the rise of oil prices are expected to increase the price at the pump. As of Wednesday, the national average for a regular gallon of gas is $4.11, according to AAA. Though it’s still a ways to go to the national record – not adjusted for inflation – of $4.33 reached March 11, it is the first weekly increase since the average was $4.07 one week ago.
911 audio released in Dwayne Haskins’ fatal accident
In audio from multiple 911 calls released Wednesday, Kalabrya Haskins, wife of the late Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins, told the operator her husband was stuck on the side of a busy interstate near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was walking to get gas on the morning he died after being struck by a dump truck. Kalabrya Haskins told the operator she was at home in Pittsburgh and was unable to reach Haskins on his phone, so she called 911 so officials could check on him. In addition to the audio of the 911 calls, the Florida Highway Patrol released a traffic crash incident report Wednesday that indicated Haskins was struck by a second vehicle after the dump truck. The incident took place April 9, when Haskins attempted to cross lanes of oncoming traffic on Interstate 595. He was 24.
Real quick
Are filters enough to prevent COVID-19 on airplanes?
Weeks before a federal judge’s ruling led U.S. airlines to drop mask mandates, airline executives argued masks no longer should be required – in part because air filtration systems on planes create “hospital-grade cabin air.” Now that masks are optional on every major U.S. airline, experts said the filters that remove 99% of particles, including viruses, will help keep transmission on flights low but won’t eliminate the risk of spreading COVID-19 that masks helped mitigate. Leonard Marcus, director of the Aviation Public Health Initiative at Harvard University, said the air filtration systems are “remarkable,” but masks provided an additional layer of protection. That is particularly important when sitting next to an infected passenger or during the crush of boarding and deplaning, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech. She expects at least some rise in COVID-19 transmission among airplane passengers and an increase in illness and absences among flight attendants, which could lead to more flight cancellations.
A break from the news
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