10 things you need to know today: January 22, 2018

(Image credit: Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

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1. Government shutdown enters third day as negotiations continue
2. Patriots and Eagles win spots in Super Bowl
3. Crowds gather for second day of women's marches
4. GOP senator: FBI failed to keep officials' texts early in Russia investigation
5. Afghan security forces kill last of attackers at Kabul hotel
6. California highway reopened after mudslide debris cleared
7. Florida mall evacuated after two pipe bombs detonate
8. Amazon launches first automated grocery store
9. Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman dies at 83
10. Three Billboards wins big at SAG Awards

published 22 January 2018

1. Government shutdown enters third day as negotiations continue

The Senate adjourned Sunday without a deal on ending a partial government shutdown, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers to be furloughed on Monday as the shutdown enters its third day. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) postponed a procedural vote until noon Monday, a sign that Republicans and Democrats were making progress toward an agreement. In a gesture to Democrats, McConnell said he planned to schedule a vote next month on extending protections against deportation for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Democrats are demanding that the protections for the immigrants, known as DREAMers, be included in the plan to end the shutdown, raising the possibility that a Monday vote could fail.

The New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday advanced to the Super Bowl, which will be played Feb. 4. The Patriots came from behind to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-20, and qualify for their 10th appearance in professional football's championship game. Star Patriots quarterback Tom Brady entered the AFC championship game after injuring his throwing hand last week, raising questions about his status, but he went on to complete 26 of 38 passes, with two touchdowns. The Eagles trounced the Minnesota Vikings, 38-7, in the NFC championship game. Backup Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, who has started since Carson Wentz blew out a knee last month, threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns.

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Large crowds of demonstrators participated on Sunday in a second straight day of women's marches that brought together hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. and in Europe. Participants called for greater rights for women, such as equal pay, and many expressed opposition to President Trump. "We have the power to change every policy and make every elected official work for us, but they cannot see division among us, because they will go and do nothing for the people," said Tamika Mallory, co-chairwoman of the national Women's March organization, in Las Vegas. "We must stand up and be loud and be bold." Sunday's marches came exactly one year after hundreds of thousands of women, sporting pink hats, took to the streets shortly after President Trump's inauguration in opposition to anticipated threats by his administration to women's rights.

The FBI failed to preserve text messages exchanged by two senior officials at the agency who were involved in the investigations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the five months immediately before the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. The letter from Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, suggests that the FBI might have turned over more texts between senior FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. They referred to Trump as an "idiot" and a "loathsome human" in previously disclosed texts, which the White House said revealed bias against Trump in the inquiry into Russian election meddling and possible collusion by Trump associates.

Afghan security forces said Sunday they had ended an overnight siege at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel by killing the last of six Taliban militants who attacked the heavily guarded property on Saturday night. About 150 guests escaped by using bedsheets to climb down from high floors. At least 18 people who were in the hotel, including 14 foreigners, were killed. Eleven of the 14 foreigners who were killed work for the private Afghan airline KamAir. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it had planned to attack on Thursday but delayed it because a wedding was being held there that night, and it wanted to avoid civilian casualties.

California authorities reopened the iconic Highway 101 in Santa Barbara on Sunday, two weeks after mudslides covered parts of it with as much as 12 feet of earth and debris. A day earlier, the body of a missing woman, 28-year-old Faviola Benitez Calderon of Montecito, was found, raising the death toll from the torrential rains and mudslides to 21. The state transportation department Caltrans said it had taken a "Herculean effort," with cleanup crews working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, to get the coastal highway reopened. Search and rescue teams continued to look for a two-year-old and a 17-year-old who are still missing.

Two pipe bombs exploded at a Florida mall on Sunday night, forcing authorities to evacuate about 100 shoppers. Nobody was injured. The devices triggered a smoke alarm in a service corridor near the entrance to the JCPenney store in the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, in central Florida. Police found the devices about 10 yards apart. They appeared to be made from flares placed inside PVC pipes that were wrapped in electrical tape. "There is nothing at this time to indicate this act was terrorism," Lake Wales Police Deputy Chief Troy Schulze said. "We don't know what the person was trying to achieve." Investigators are looking over surveillance tapes and searching for a person of interest.

Amazon plans to open its first automated grocery store, Amazon Go, on Monday, after nearly a year's delay. Amazon says the store will have "no lines, no checkouts, no registers." It instead relies on automated "Just Walk Out" checkout technology, scanning a code on the shopper's Amazon Go app, then tracking them using scanning and artificial intelligence technology, and charging them for whatever they take out of the store. Some of the technology has been used in the development of driverless cars. The first 1,800-square-foot mini-market is located in Seattle. It has gone through testing in beta mode, open only to employees, after its original early 2017 launch date was postponed.

Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman has died, The Associated Press reported Sunday, citing confirmation from his wife, Linda. He was 83. Coleman was also the original Good Morning America meteorologist. A controversial figure, he insisted that global warming was a hoax. The Texas native got his first TV job while studying at the University of Illinois. Later, he worked at local stations in the Midwest before joining GMA for its 1975 launch. He helped get The Weather Channel up and running in 1981, serving as its CEO for about a year, then spent the last 20 years of his career as a meteorologist for KUSI-TV in San Diego. He retired in 2014.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, won big at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Frances McDormand taking best actress and Sam Rockwell winning best supporting actor for their roles in the dark comedy. The film also won for best ensemble performance, the top SAG award. The success, coming off Three Billboards' selection as best drama at the Golden Globes, made it the film to beat at this year's Academy Awards. Like the Golden Globes, the SAG ceremony focused on the stories of women in TV and film, with an all-female lineup of awards presenters. Host Kristen Bell said the industry was having a "watershed moment" after sexual misconduct allegations forced out dozens of powerful men in Hollywood, starting with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.