Thought of the Day
Don’t judge yourself on other people’s opinion.
February 27th 2025
Pressure Cooker Chili
Pressure Cooker Chili
Pressure Cooker Chili Recipe from The Food Network Courtesy of Alton Brown
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serving size: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 3 pounds stew meat (beef, pork, and/or lamb)
- 2 teaspoons peanut oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer, preferably a medium ale
- 1 (16-ounce) container salsa
- 30 tortilla chips
- 2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
- 1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
Directions
- Place the meat in a large mixing bowl and toss with the peanut oil and salt. Set aside.
- Heat a 6-quart heavy-bottomed pressure cooker over high heat until hot. Add the meat in 3 or 4 batches and brown on all sides, approximately 2 minutes per batch. Once each batch is browned, place the meat in a clean large bowl.
- Once all of the meat is browned, add the beer to the cooker to deglaze the pot.
- Scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the meat back to the pressure cooker along with the salsa, tortilla chips, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, and ground cumin and stir to combine. Lock the lid in place according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When the steam begins to hiss out of the cooker, reduce the heat to low, just enough to maintain a very weak whistle. Cook for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully release the steam. Serve immediately.
Trump administration says it’s cutting 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.
The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in what are ongoing court battles with the administration.
The Trump administration outlined its plans in both an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and filings in one of those federal lawsuits Wednesday.
The Supreme Court intervened in that case late Wednesday and temporarily blocked a court order requiring the administration to release billions of dollars in foreign aid by midnight.
Wednesday’s disclosures also give an idea of the scale of the administration’s retreat from U.S. aid and development assistance overseas, and from decades of U.S. policy that foreign aid helps U.S. interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.
The memo said officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.” More changes are planned in how USAID and the State Department deliver foreign assistance, it said.
President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk have hit foreign aid harder and faster than almost any other target in their push to cut the size of the federal government. Both men say USAID projects advance a liberal agenda and are a waste of money.
Trump on Jan. 20 ordered what he said would be a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs deserved to continue, and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost overnight.
The funding freeze has stopped thousands of U.S.-funded programs abroad, and the administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams have pulled the majority of USAID staff off the job through forced leave and firings.
In the federal court filings Wednesday, nonprofits owed money on contracts with USAID describe both Trump political appointees and members of Musk’s teams terminating USAID’s contracts around the world at breakneck speed, without time for any meaningful review, they say.
“‘There are MANY more terminations coming, so please gear up!”’ a USAID official wrote staff Monday, in an email quoted by lawyers for the nonprofits in the filings.
The nonprofits, among thousands of contractors, owed billions of dollars in payment since the freeze began, called the en masse contract terminations a maneuver to get around complying with the order to lift the funding freeze temporarily.
So did a Democratic lawmaker.
“The administration is brazenly attempting to blow through Congress and the courts by announcing the completion of their sham ‘review’ of foreign aid and the immediate termination of thousands of aid programs all over the world,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had reviewed the terminations.
In all, the Trump administration said it will eliminate 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contract awards, for a cut of $54 billion. Another 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants were being eliminated, for a cut of $4.4 billion.
The State Department memo, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, described the administration as spurred by a federal court order that gave officials until the end of the day Wednesday to lift the Trump administration’s monthlong block on foreign aid funding.
“In response, State and USAID moved rapidly,” targeting USAID and State Department foreign aid programs in vast numbers for contract terminations, the memo said.
Trump administration officials — after repeated warnings from the federal judge in the case — also said Wednesday they were finally beginning to send out their first or any payments after more than a month with no known spending. Officials were processing a few million dollars of back payments, officials said, owed to U.S. and international organizations and companies.
But U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali’s order to unfreeze billions of dollars by midnight Wednesday will remain on hold until the Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in more fully, according to the brief order signed by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Ali had ordered the federal government to comply with his decision temporarily blocking a freeze on foreign aid, ruling in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups and businesses. An appellate panel refused the administration’s request to intervene before the high court weighed in.
The plaintiffs have until noon Friday to respond, Roberts said.
The administration has filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in one other case so far, arguing that a lower court was wrong to reinstate the head of a federal watchdog agency after Trump fired him.
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Gary Fields and Mark Sherman contributed from Washington and Rebecca Boone from Boise, Idaho.
Egg prices could jump another 41% this year, USDA says, as Trump’s bird flu plan unveiled
By JOSH FUNK and JOSH BOAK Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease the cost of eggs.
With an emphasis on tightening up biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the outbreak began in 2022. Officials had hinted at the plan earlier this month.
It’s not clear how much more farmers can do to keep the virus out.
Egg and poultry farmers have already been working to protect their birds ever since the 2015 bird flu outbreak by taking measures like requiring workers to change clothes and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is that the virus is spread easily by wild birds as they migrate past farms.
And the main reason egg prices have soared to hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus after cases are found — with most of those being egg-laying chickens. Last month was the worst yet for egg farmers with nearly 19 million egg-laying chickens slaughtered.
Egg prices will get much worse this year
The USDA now predicts that egg prices will increase at least 41% this year on top of the already record prices. Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20%.
And the average prices conceal just how bad the situation is, with consumers paying more than a dollar an egg in some places. The situation is hurting consumers and has prompted restaurants like Denny’s and Waffle House to add surcharges on egg dishes.
The high egg prices, which have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, cost consumers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to an estimate done by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas.
Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.
When will the Trump plan bring down prices?
Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before consumers see an effect at the checkout counter. After all, it takes infected farms months to dispose of the carcasses, sanitize their farms and raise new birds. But she expressed optimism that this will help prices.
“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said.
Will DOGE layoffs affect the bird flu fight?
Rollins said she believes USDA will have the staff it needs to respond to bird flu even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will,” she said, “as we realign and and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”
Where’s the money going?
The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states.
It’s not clear what the additional aid would be for because USDA already pays farmers for any birds they must slaughter due to the virus, and roughly $1.2 billion has gone to those payments.
The administration is also in talks to import about 70 million to 100 million eggs from other countries in the coming months, Rollins said. But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market.
Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. However, no vaccines have been approved and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots to each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports.
The National Turkey Federation said the plan Rollins outlined should help stabilize the market, but the trade group encouraged the USDA to pay attention to all egg and poultry farmers — not just egg producers.
___
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.
February 26th 2025
Thought of the Day
There are 360 trades; in every trade, there will be masters. – Chinese Proverb
Pistachio Biscotti
Pistachio Biscotti
Pistachio Biscotti Recipe from The Food Network Courtesy of Tyler Florence
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes
Serving size: 24 servings
Ingredients
- 1/2 cups pistachios
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Lay the pistachios on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes or until the nuts are lightly toasted. Remove from the oven.
- In an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. With the mixer running, gradually add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla; mix until creamed. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix the dough until smooth. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the pistachios until evenly distributed.
- Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Roll each half into a log, each 12 inches long by 1-inch high. Place the logs on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 35 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly brown. Let the logs cool for 5 minutes and then place on a cutting board. Slice each log on a diagonal into 12 1-inch thick pieces. Put the cookies back on the cookie sheet and bake 5 minutes. Turn the cookies over and bake the other side for another 5 minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container.
Rare video captures super pod of 2,000 dolphins breaching and playing off California coast
By JANIE HAR Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California boat captain has captured rare video of a super pod of more than 2,000 dolphins breaching off the coast of Monterey Bay, including the more elusive northern right whale dolphin.
Northern right whale dolphins are often spotted farther away from shore and in deeper waters, but Evan Brodsky, a captain and videographer with private boat tour company Monterey Bay Whale Watch, encountered the mammals last week about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the harbor. The dolphins are one of two dolphin species without a dorsal fin.
“They’re all smooth,” said Brodsky and joked, “When they jump, they look like flying eyebrows.”
Brodsky was out around noon Friday with two other crew members conducting research when they spotted a dozen dolphins. They followed the pod until they estimated there were more than 2,000 dolphins, including light gray baby calves, and several hundred Pacific white-sided dolphins.
“We were so excited it was hard to hold in our emotions. We had the biggest grins from ear to ear,” he said, adding that one of his coworkers may have shed a tear at the sight.
Northern right whale dolphins live in pods of 100 to 200 dolphins, according to the nonprofit Whale and Dolphin Conservation. They are gregarious and highly social and often mix with other dolphin species, including Risso’s dolphins, a super pod of which Brodsky captured on drone video last month.
Adults are about 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh over 200 pounds (90 kilograms), Brodsky said.
People come from around the world to try to see a northern right whale dolphin in the bay’s deep underwater canyons, said Colleen Talty, a marine biologist with Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Monterey is about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
She said the dolphins could be clustering to fend off predators, feed on the same food or socialize.
“We don’t always see baby dolphins,” she said, “so that’s pretty nice.”
Tar Heels’ Davis gets 2-year extension through 2030, hires agent Jim Tanner as GM
By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis has two more years on his deal and a new general manager to help the blueblood men’s basketball program deal with the changing landscape of college athletics.
Davis has signed a two-year extension running through the 2029-30 season to lead his alma mater. And on Tuesday, the school announced Davis had hired basketball agent Jim Tanner as the program’s first executive director and GM.
UNC also posted an updated contract for Davis on its official athletics website, with that deal reached in July and signed in December. It pays Davis an average of $3.2 million in base salary and supplemental pay, up from about $2 million on the previous deal reached in July 2022 that ran through the 2027-28 season.
Notably, the base salary increased from $400,000 annually to $1.25 million, more than tripling the amount owed to Davis to buy out the remainder of the deal if UNC ever decided to make a coaching change. It also includes $750,000 in additional pay from an apparel deal with Nike and a media rights deal with Learfield, a $50,000 expense allowance and another $1.25 million in annual available bonuses.
The 54-year-old Davis played for the Tar Heels under late Hall of Famer Dean Smith and spent a dozen years playing in the NBA. He later left an ESPN broadcasting job to work as an assistant to another Hall of Famer in Roy Williams in 2012, then took over as head coach in 2021 when Williams retired.
That change coincided with the arrival of a new era in college athletics with players able to profit from their fame with name, image and likeness deals and move freely between schools through the transfer portal without sitting out. And at UNC, Davis’ tenure has had some wild swings, starting with an unexpected first-year run to the NCAA title game.
His second team won 20 games but became the first preseason No. 1-ranked team to miss the NCAA Tournament. Last year’s group won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season race and claimed a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, while Davis was named ACC coach of the year.
This year, UNC opened the year at No. 9 in the preseason AP Top 25 before falling out amid a series of losses in marquee matchups. But the Tar Heels (18-11) have won four straight and five of six as they fight to end up on the right side of the NCAA bubble.
Perhaps some of those extremes explains why Davis sounded ready to make changes earlier this month, notably when he talked about plans to hire a GM. At the time, Davis said “the old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work,” referring to past infrastructures that leaned largely on coaches, saying that he would add more support staffers.
He’s not alone. Schools have responded by expanding staffs in both football and basketball while taking on the look of mini-professional front offices. It’s a sign of how the job of running major college programs in today’s changing era is more than merely a coaching staff can handle.
Tanner’s hiring follows through on Davis’ plan, bringing on a UNC alumnus who has represented more than 70 NBA players in a 28-year career. The founder and president of Tandem Sports + Entertainment will have duties that include assisting in roster construction and contract negotiations. He also will identify and hire new scouting and analytics staff.
“Jim’s experience and knowledge is needed in helping us navigate contracts, the transfer portal and the advancement of this program,” Davis said in a statement. “His resumé speaks for itself and his commitment to this university and community make him a great addition to the Carolina men’s basketball program.”
Tanner, a 1990 graduate and former Morehead-Cain Scholar at UNC, has represented 40 NBA first-round draft picks and six inductees into the Naismith Hall of Fame: former UNC star Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Tamika Catchings, Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and Dominique Wilkins.
“Both of my kids and I went to Carolina and we owe so much as a family to this university,” Tanner said in a statement. “This is such an exciting opportunity, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Another $500M for Hurricane Helene relief in North Carolina passes key hurdle
By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Another $500 million would be spent toward Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in western North Carolina in legislation the state House unanimously approved Tuesday.
The measure, if enacted, would add to the funds the Republican-controlled General Assembly already approved in late 2024 to spend on disaster recovery activities following the historic flooding in the mountains in September.
But Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who took office in January, requested earlier this month that legislators approve more than double that amount — $1.07 billion. He says those funds can’t wait until conventional state budget negotiations likely would wrap up early this summer and that struggling businesses, displaced residents and public school students need help now.
GOP lawmakers agree more funds need to move fast to the region but say they want to be careful about maximizing federal matching funds and avoiding mistakes after previous storms. They also agree with Stein that more Helene aid will be approved in the months ahead.
“We all hope that that money will start flowing soon, but I fully expect that this won’t be the last,” Rep. Dudley Greene of Avery County, whose property received damage during Helene, said during floor debate. “Western North Carolina will appreciate your vote for this important next step.”
Depending on how it’s counted, the legislature has previously approved from $900 million to $1.1 billion to be available for Helene recovery activities.
Another $225 million already earmarked for Helene aid would help pay for Tuesday’s measure now heading to the Senate, where GOP lawmakers have their own spending ideas. The storm legislation will mark an early test for relations between the legislature and Stein, whose veto stamp carries more weight since Republicans fell one vote short of a veto-proof majority in the November elections.
North Carolina state officials reported over 100 deaths from Helene, which also damaged 74,000 homes and thousands of miles in roads, bridges and culverts. State officials projected the storm caused a record $59.6 billion in damages and recovery needs.
The House bill emphasizes repairs for damaged homes, private bridges and roads and assistance to farmers who lost crops and rebuilding infrastructure adjacent to small businesses.
It lacked provisions from Stein’s spending package to recompense local governments in the mountains for lost or spent revenues and to create a program where a state agency would make payments directly to small businesses harmed by Helene.
House Republicans attempted to address such concerns Tuesday with a successful amendment so $15 million can go to nonprofit organizations that could then offer small business revitalization grants. The amendment would also would permit local governments participating in an already-running state loan recovery program to avoid repaying some proceeds.
Democrats living in the flood-ravaged region were pleased with the adjustments but said locals are fearful that federal money won’t be enough and state funds will come too late. Thousands of displaced residents in the region are receiving rental assistance or temporary housing, piles of debris litter areas and businesses that usually rely on tourism are deciding whether they can remain open.
“I understand that there is more to come and I’m grateful for that,” state Rep. Lindsey Prather of Buncombe County said. “But we are five months out from this storm. We’ve got to move quicker and we’ve got to spend more.”
Stein’s administration projects that disaster relief approved by Congress in December and other federal funding sources may ultimately provide over $15 billion in Helene recovery funds to North Carolina. Stein unveiled another request for Washington last week that seeks an additional $13.1 billion.
A separate House measure scheduled for committee debate Wednesday currently would take an additional $475 million from existing state reserves to create a statewide crop loss program for 2024 disasters.
The full House also preliminarily approved another bill Tuesday that will raise the permanent maximum unemployment benefit in the state from $350 per week to $450.
But the measure also would terminate an executive order from former Gov. Roy Cooper that temporarily increased benefits to a weekly maximum of $600. While the order was issued to assist people who lost work due to Helene, Cooper’s administration said federal law required the elevated payments to apply to workers statewide. That bill should head to the Senate later this week.
February 25th 2025
Thought of the Day
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.