Daily Briefing: Wrestling with the future of education

President-elect Donald Trump named his new secretary of education. A powerful winter storm is brewing near the Pacific Northwest. Oregon held its place at the top of the College Football Playoff rankings.
🙋🏼‍♀️ I’m Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. What is the “doomsday” fish?
Trump has tapped former Small Business Administration head and former wrestling executive Linda McMahon to lead the U.S. Department of Education.
The context: The Education Department provides some funding for public schools, administers federal student aid programs and collects data on U.S. education. Trump has vowed to close the department and redistribute most services to state-level education officials.
More Trump picks:Dr. Oz was picked to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Damaging gusts, feet of mountain snow and heavy rain in parts of California, Oregon and Washington could trigger flooding, mudslides and rock slides to the region. The storm, known as a “bomb cyclone,” is dragging an atmospheric river along with it, a plume of moisture-filled air that “will act like a massive firehose of rain at low elevations and a giant snow gun over the high country,” AccuWeather reported. The rapidly intensifying storm is expected to soak the region at least through Friday and into the weekend. If you’re in the area, here’s how to prepare.
What’s the weather today? Check your local forecast here.
The U.S. embassy in Kyiv has received information of a potential significant air attack on Wednesday and will be closed, the U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs said in a post on X. The unusual warning came one day after Ukraine used American missiles to strike Russian territory, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden on the war’s 1,000th day. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks amid the highest tensions between Russia and the West in more than half a century. Read more
As Trump continues to name people to his cabinet and strategizes how to fulfill his many tough-on-immigration promises, including mass deportations, immigrant advocates and attorneys worry that one group will receive an outsized share of the punitive initiatives: children. Whether a return to family separations at the border or breaking up or deporting mixed-status families in U.S. cities, advocates said the incoming Trump administration could unleash a slew of challenges to children in the U.S. Here’s how kids are at risk.
The places at the top of the College Football Playoff rankings, as expected, did not change in this week’s release by the committee Tuesday. No. 1 Oregon maintained its position and was followed by Ohio State for the third consecutive week. Texas held firm at No. 3 with Penn State and Indiana coming next, giving the Big Ten four of the top five teams for the second consecutive rankings. What is the College Football Playoff schedule?
SpaceX successfully completed the sixth test launch of its Starship vehicle Tuesday, but skipped the anticipated “booster catch” maneuver before the rocket and spacecraft splashed down. President-elect Donald Trump joined Elon Musk to witness the launch.
Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at [email protected].