10 things you need to know today: February 2, 2015

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1. Patriots win their first Super Bowl in a decade
2. U.S. considers sending arms to Ukraine as peace talks unravel
3. Obama proposes paying for infrastructure fixes with tax on offshore profits
4. Northeast braces for another massive snowstorm
5. Jordan continues efforts to save pilot after ISIS murders Japanese hostage
6. Parents could face charges after 3-year-old finds gun, accidentally shoots them
7. Egyptian court sentences 183 Muslim Brotherhood backers to death
8. Bobby Brown asks for privacy after daughter Bobbi Kristina found unresponsive
9. Obama tells parents to vaccinate their children as measles outbreak spreads
10. American Sniper breaks Super Bowl weekend record

published 2 February 2015

1. Patriots win their first Super Bowl in a decade

The New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 to win their fourth Super Bowl. The Seahawks appeared to have the game in the bag, driving to the Patriots' five yard line with 1:14 left. Then, on second and goal at the one-yard-line, the Seahawks made a widely criticized choice and tried a slant pass instead of trying to run the ball in for the win. Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted, and the Seahawks' hopes of a second straight championship vanished. Patriots QB Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes and was named MVP.

Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine shelled a strategic rail hub on Sunday after peace talks collapsed. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the negotiations in Minsk, Belarus, came to a halt because rebel representatives would not discuss the implementation of a cease-fire and withdrawal of heavy weapons, two elements considered necessary for any peace process to get underway. The Obama administration reportedly is reexamining proposals to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine's forces.

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President Obama's budget proposal will include a request for $478 billion for a vast six-year public works program, to be funded with a one-time, 14 percent tax on $2 trillion in corporate earnings held abroad. The firms would then pay a 19-percent or higher tax on future foreign profits, and could invest the money at home without paying more taxes. The plan is a more robust version of a policy Obama has proposed in the past. Obama is to unveil his $4 trillion budget on Monday.

Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights on Monday as the Northeast braced for another major snowstorm. The storm forced 2,000 flights to be scrubbed on Sunday as the storm hit the Midwest. The Chicago area faced power outages and 65 million people in 18 states came under a blizzard warning. All Boston Public Schools will be closed Monday as the storm threatens to dump another foot of snow on a region that just dug out from last week's massive snowstorm.

Jordan is vowing to do everything possible to get the Islamic State to release captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, following the posting of a video appearing to show the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, a journalist. Jordan has demanded proof that the pilot is still alive before freeing a failed suicide bomber in exchange for his life. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday called Goto's murder a "despicable and horrendous act of terrorism," and said, "we will never, never forgive" the terrorists.

A 3-year-old boy accidentally shot both of his parents in Albuquerque after finding a pistol in his mother's purse, police said Sunday. The parents could face felony child-neglect charges. Investigators said the boy found the gun while rummaging through his mother's handbag looking for an iPad or iPod. The father and mother, who is eight months pregnant, were wounded by the same bullet. The father was treated and released, but the mother remained hospitalized due to her pregnancy.

Egyptian authorities continue their crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood on Monday as a court sentenced 183 supporters of the Islamist group to death. The defendants were accused of involvement in the killings of 16 police officers in the town of Kardasa in 2013 unrest after the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The Brotherhood dominated elections before the crackdown began. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says the group is a threat to national security.

R&B singer Bobby Brown on Sunday asked for privacy as he spoke out for the first time since his daughter, Bobbi Kristina, was found unconscious and face down in a bathtub at her Atlanta home. Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of Brown and the late Whitney Houston, reportedly remained in a coma 24 hours after she was rushed to a hospital. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 21, reportedly had told friends she was determined not to repeat the "mistakes" of her mother, who was found dead in a bathtub almost exactly three years ago.

President Obama urged parents to get their children vaccinated for measles in the face an outbreak that has infected more than 100 people, most of them in California. "There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not," Obama said in an interview with NBC News airing Monday. "You should get your kids vaccinated." Ninety-one of the measles cases have been in California, and at least 58 of those were linked to infections that started at Disneyland in December.

American Sniper set a Super Bowl weekend box office record on Sunday, hauling in $31.8 million as of Sunday evening, surpassing the old mark of $31.2 million set by Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour on its 2008 debut weekend. The Clint Eastwood biopic about the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle has now brought in nearly $250 million overall. "These are superhero movie numbers," said Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak senior media analyst.

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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.