Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
Senate Fails to Pass Plan to Protect Dreamers
On Thursday, the Senate voted on four different plans that would protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, (a.k.a. the Dreamers) from deportation — and voted against every single one. As BuzzFeed News reports, this was likely senators’ last chance to pass anything that would fix DACA and prevent Dreamers from being deported, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that he will not allow further voting on the matter after this week, and the DACA will expire on March 5.
However, two court injunctions currently prevent DACA recipients from being deported for now, so it’s unlikely that the Trump administration would be able to begin deporting Dreamers immediately on DACA’s expiration date.
The bipartisan DACA and border security deal fails in the Senate, putting the immigration bill’s future in doubt https://t.co/kLlefagjQl pic.twitter.com/bmbLVoXttl
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 15, 2018
Florida Shooting Suspect Confesses to Shooting and Killing 17 People
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 17 people were killed, confessed to the shooting shortly after being taken into custody on Wednesday, the New York Times reports. Cruz was reportedly a former student at the high school who had recently been expelled, and multiple students are beginning to come forward with disturbing stories about Cruz, including one in which he posted that he wanted to become “a professional school shooter” on a classmate’s YouTube video. Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
“I’m not surprised that it was him.” Neighbors describe Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz as “weird” and “aggressive,” describing past instances of Cruz shooting chickens with pellet guns and harming other animals. https://t.co/p6DVr9mFlE pic.twitter.com/LA5yGrUDWe
— ABC News (@ABC) February 16, 2018
McDonald’s Plans to Remove Cheeseburgers and Chocolate Milk from Happy Meal Offerings
On Thursday, McDonald’s announced that by June, its “Happy Meal” options will only feature combinations of 600 calories or less, as part of the company’s focus on cutting calories, sodium, saturated fat and sugar from the meals, which are generally aimed at children. As such, Micky Ds plans to take the cheeseburger option away from the Happy Meal altogether, and temporarily remove chocolate milk until the recipe is reformulated with less sugar. The company will also add bottled water as a beverage option and downsize the fries to a kid-friendly portion.
RIP Happy Meal cheeseburger: Why McDonalds is getting rid of a kids’ menu mainstay https://t.co/bC0k7OIHDA
— TIME (@TIME) February 16, 2018
What to look out for…
Black Panther, a.k.a. what may be the longest-awaited Marvel movie yet, hits theaters today — and in case you haven’t heard already, here’s why that’s such a big deal.