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The Iditarod begins: Mushers, sled dogs take off on 1,000-mile journey    March 9, 2026

 

Rise up sunshine, happy Monday. I'm Coy Wire here with your 10 minutes of news for March 9th, 2026. Hope that time change didn't disrupt too much of your sleep to wake us up and get us going.

 

We have a robust story count today, so let's get to it.

 

Now we do start with an updateon some of the severe weather across the central and Midwest United States. In recent days, a sprawling series of storms stretching from the Oklahoma panhandle to Michigan spawned a series of deadly tornadoes that hit several communities late last week.

 

In Southwestern Michigan, an EF three tornado with winds of up to 150 miles per hour passed through the three rivers area where bystanders saw pieces of homes and buildings flying through the air.

 

One man and his grandmother narrowly survived after it ripped the roof off of the grocery store as they were shopping inside.

 

narrowly [ˈnærolɪ] adv. 勉强地

 

That's where we were at, grandma.

 

Yeah. See it even ripped the roof off. Oh my gosh. That's where we were, dude.

 

At least eight people were killed in the storms. Communities are beginning to clean up and assess damage.

 

26 tornadoes have been reported in six States across the regions in just the last week. Always monitor and respect your local severe weather alerts and be sure to follow severe weather safety guidelines, which can be found at weather.gov.

 

Pop quiz, hot shot.Which U S state has the longest coastline? Hawaii, Florida, California, or Alaska?

 

If you said Alaska, well done.

 

I'll ask a tougher question next time. Because of its many islands and inlets, Alaska has more than 30,000 miles of coastline more than the rest of all U S States combined.

 

inlet [ˈɪnˌlɛt] n. 水湾；小湾；小港

 

Some of us are going to be snow dog on excited about this next story, including our very own Victor Blackwell, who recently took a trek to Alaska to test his mushing skills.

 

mushing [ˈmʌʃɪŋ] n. 狗拉雪橇运动

 

We see you, Victor. The 54th running of the iconic Iditarod dog sled race kicked off over the weekend in Alaska, following a ceremonial start in the capital of Anchorage teams of dedicated sled dogs and their mushers are now traversing the state's rugged wilderness in a bid to be top dogs.

 

Iditarod [aɪˈdɪtərɑd] n. an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska

musher [ˈmʌʃɚ] n. 赶狗拉雪橇的人

rugged [ˈrʌgɪd] adj. 崎岖的; 起伏的

 

The race is named for the Iditarod trail, a famous route traveled by dog sledders to deliver medicine and supplies to the remote city of Nome during a 1925 diphtheria outbreak.

 

sledder [ˈsledɚ] n. 乘坐雪橇的人

diphtheria [dɪfˈθɪrɪǝ] n.【医】白喉

 

Nome still has lots of just gravel roads and trails for the most part, the race is usually just under 1000 miles, but that changes each year based on conditions.

 

gravel [ˈɡrævḷ] n. 砂砾，碎石

 

Last year's race was the longest ever a whopping 1,128 miles wolf. And get this, the finish line is over three times closer to Russia than it is to the starting point.

 

The treacherous trek sometimes takes more than two weeks to complete, the fastest finish on record was in 2017, a blazing eight days, three hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds. That is phenomenal.

 

blazing [ˈblеzɪŋ] adj. 暴力的；激烈的

 

Now to Chicago where a new piece of presidential history is set to be unveiled. Former president Barack Obama has announced his new presidential center that will officially open to the public this summer on Juneteenth or June 19th, the federal holiday commemorating the effective end of slavery in the U S in 1865.

 

Juneteenth 六月独立日、自由日或解放黑奴纪念

 

The Obama presidential center will feature a library and museum dedicated to the 44th president and first lady, Michelle Obama. The couple broke ground on the project in 2021 on Chicago's South side, they chose the location to pay tribute to the city where they met and began their careers.

 

Chicago is where I found the purpose I'd been seeking.

 

It's where I finally put my ideas about democracy and activism and social change to the test.

 

It will also feature the first fully digitized presidential library. Thanks to a partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration.

 

That administration is responsible for preserving all records at the end of each president's term and also runs more than a dozen other presidential libraries across the nation.

 

Another government has just joined the movement to ban social media for children under the age of 16. In India, the southern state of Karnataka enforced its ban last Friday.

 

Other places in India are expected to follow suit.

 

follow suit 跟着做；有样学样

 

Kids should not be using Instagram and all the influence social media apps, which is better for the future and which will help them to grow better instead of mindlessly exploring like brain dots and all. So according to me, it's really a good decision by the government.

 

brain dots and all 形容大脑变得「点状化」或「碎片化」

 

Concerns surrounding teen social media addiction have ignited a global conversation about what limits should be put in place.

 

Australia was the first country to ban social media for kids back in December, and at least nine other countries are considering similar bans, including Britain, Denmark, Greece, and Indonesia.

 

Solar panels are becoming more common for companies and homeowners who want to harness the energy of the sun, but obstructions like shade, pollen, leaves, even bird do sometimes cover the panels, reducing their effectiveness.

 

One company though, just invented a potential game changer that mimics sunflowers. Check this out.

 

Conventional solar panels have a pretty big weakness.

 

They just sit there, static, losing out on direct sunlight. But one firm saw a solution for that in nature.

 

static [ˈstætɪk] adj. 静态的; 静止的；固定的

 

My name is Jim Gordon and I'm the CEO of SmartFlower Solar.

We looked at Mother Nature. We saw how a sunflower opens its petals at sunrise. The petals are pointed at the sun and they follow the sun across the sky till sunset and they retract back to the stem.

 

petal [ˈpɛtḷ] n. 花瓣

 

So our inspiration for creating this technology that produces more solar energy in a small footprint was we wanted to track the sun across the sky.

 

footprint [ˈfʊtˌprɪnt] n. 脚印，足迹

 

This technology is not just a concept. It's being adopted around the world as far as this wine and cattle estate in Victoria, Australia.

 

estate [ɪsˈtеt] n. 庄园

 

We're able to go and install this system in urban areas, suburban areas and rural areas because the footprint required is much smaller than conventional solar. We pack a lot of power in a very small footprint.

 

pack [pæk] v. 挤（塞，装）满

 

This bed of five smart flowers is in the grounds of Toyota Motor Manufacturing in West Virginia.

 

The Smart Flower technology that we use creates enough energy to power our team member services facilities and our EV charging stations that are in that area.

 

Those smart flowers are symbolic of innovation and creativity with their unique design. Those skills are so important to us in advanced manufacturing that it was just a natural fit to bring that technology here to our plant.

 

natural fit 自然契合; 完美契合

 

The design also helps tackle another big challenge that hinders traditional solar panels.

 

Dust, pollen and grime can blanket fixed panels, thereby blocking sunlight and dragging down their efficiency between 10 and 40 percent, according to a recent study.

 

grime [ɡraɪm] n. 尘垢；污点

 

Brushes sweep the panels clean.

 

Just over 1,000 mountain gorillas remain.They are one of the rarest great apes on the planet. They live in just three countries, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

 

And Uganda offers one of the most unforgettable wildlife experiences in the world, the Uganda Gorilla Trek. Visitors pay for a brief visit, helping to fund conservation, anti-poaching patrols and local communities.

 

We are now going to penetrate the impenetrable.

 

impenetrable [ɪmˈpɛnǝtrǝbḷ] adj. 不能通过的；不能穿过的

 

Are we ready? Gorillas are actually very silent. And it's very calm.

 

We have reached where gorillas are feeding and they are closer to us.

 

That's the most exciting thing about the gorillas. You can be walking, looking for them, thinking, will I ever see them? Then suddenly they're there. And it's such a magical feeling when they just appear out of nowhere.

 

We still need support from the global society to conserve these animals. Their support in that payment and other contributions is very important to us.

 

Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10Girl Scouts trading the cookie booth for the courtroom, building courage, confidence and character along the way.

 

Approximately 40 girls from 24 different local troops stepped into the courtroom for Project Law Track 2026, a mock trial program hosted by the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.

 

mock [mɑk] adj. 假装的；模拟的

 

I've really been thinking about being a lawyer because it sounds fun and I really want to help people.

 

The program invites Girl Scouts grades six through 12 to explore careers in law, pairing them with female attorneys who help them prepare a case and argue it in a real courtroom with actors to make the experience more immersive.

 

immersive [ɪˈmɝsɪv] adj. 沉浸式的；身历其境的

 

This year's mock trial focused on a dispute over trademark infringement.

 

infringement [ɪnˈfrɪndʒmǝnt] n. 侵犯; 违反

 

I like it. It's very interesting and I like how you can learn how to use your voice and be confident.

 

The skills these scouts are learning will help them in all aspects of life, from critical thinking to using their voices with confidence. That is a verdict worth-celebrating.

 

verdict [ˈvɝdɪkt] n.【口】定论；判断；意见

 

Also worth celebrating, you.

 

I have a shout out going to Mr. Robinson at DeSoto High School and Early College in DeSoto, Texas. Thank you for subscribing on our YouTube channel and for all your kind comments. And this shout out goes to Mr. Ermita from Tech Boston Academy in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Rise up. How are you going to make this world a bit of a better place today? Even if it's just making someone smile, I believe in you. I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.