What's the price of community?, New York Times buys Wordle: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: What's the price of community?

Enterprise reporter Mabinty Quarshie has more on infrastructure funding that aims to reconnect minority neighborhoods. Plus, contributor Chris Woodyard talks about regulating cryptocurrency, a winter storm targets 90 million people, Wordle goes to the New York Times and the Washington Football Team announces a new name.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 2nd of February, 2022. Today, reconnecting minority neighborhoods, plus regulating crypto, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. One student was killed and another injured outside a suburban Minneapolis school yesterday in a shooting. The surviving student is in critical condition. The shooting came as two campus officers were shot and killed at Bridgewater College in Virginia yesterday afternoon as well.

2. Pfizer has requested FDA clearance for a low dose COVID-19 vaccine on children aged six months to 5-years-old. The shots could be available for the age group by the end of February.

3. And tickets are now on all for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles, but they're already going for more than any Super Bowl in history. The average amount people are currently paying, $10,237.

More than 60 years ago, Black and Latino neighborhoods across the US were destroyed to make way for the Interstate Highway System. But President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $1 billion to reconnect minority neighborhoods. Enterprise Reporter Mabinty Quarshie has more.

Mabinty Quarshie:

All over the nation, we have these communities that had been thriving and had been doing well, and all of a sudden they get destroyed in order to have this Interstate Highway system. We see in Texas, several Black and Latino communities that are disrupted. We see Black communities in Minnesota and New Orleans that also get disrupted. It's estimated that about 1 million people were displaced because of this. So this isn't just the loss of someone's house, right? This is a loss of businesses, of churches, of communities, of friendships. I mean, this is... one day you have this community that's been built over decades, and then the next day it's gone. And it's devastating, because it's not like you can just rebuild what took decades and centuries to get constructed.

So towards the end of last year, President Joe Biden passes the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. And what's included in that act is $1 billion to reconnect those communities that were destroyed. And let me be clear, $1 billion sounds like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money. But again, 1 million families were displaced. So $1 billion is technically not enough to help reconstruct these communities. It's a good start, that's what a lot of advocates and experts told me. Let me be clear, a lot of the people I spoke with talked about how we need to address the trauma. It's not just you lost your home, but it's the trauma of that. A lot of the experts talked about how the federal government needs to find families who were displaced and see if they can help them and support them now. So again, $1 billion sounds like a lot of money, but when you think about all of the neighborhoods that got destroyed, $1 billion doesn't go quite as far as you think it would.

And again, each neighborhood is different, right? So it's not like, what happened in Texas is what happened in California, is what happened in Minnesota. Each neighborhood is going to need its own solution. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to help rebuild these communities.

Taylor Wilson:

You can follow along with Mabinty's work on Twitter @MabintyQ.

Investors have now sunk an estimated $1.7 trillion into cryptocurrency. But as the space continues to grow, the Biden administration is taking a look at whether to further regulate digital currencies. Contributor Chris Woodyard reports.

Chris Woodyard:

Cryptocurrencies are really getting some new scrutiny that they haven't gotten before. Now the government is interested in regulating them, and it's coming at it from seven different angles. The Biden administration reportedly has some new things they're looking at that could be announced in the next month or so. SEC, some other agencies are taking a look. It's all a sense that cryptocurrencies are just getting so big. There's an estimate there is as much as $1.7 trillion, that's trillion with a T, investments in cryptocurrencies out there. And now is a time to take a fresh look at it.

For investors, this is really another quandary that goes along with cryptocurrencies. The same problem they've had for the last couple of years. Here these things have been advancing, more and more they're being adopted in the mainstream. So you have more financial institutions that are offering them or recommending them to investors. Yet, there's still a lot of questions about cryptocurrencies. There's questions about, do they have any underlying assets behind them? Really, what is this thing? I mean, one of the most basic rules of investing is, never invest in things you don't understand. And there's a lot of reasons not to fully understand what's going on with cryptocurrencies.

Taylor Wilson:

For Chris's full story, check out today's episode description.

Another winter storm is roaring across the country today with some 90 million people in its direct path. 21 States have some kind of winter weather alert, ranging from New Mexico through the Midwest and parts of the Northeast to Maine. Detroit could be hit particularly hard with up to 14 inches of snow expected today and tomorrow. Elsewhere, parts of Texas could see severe ice. Nearly a year ago, a winter storm devastated the State's power grid, causing hundreds of deaths. Frigid temperatures are not expected to be as widespread this time around, but officials are ensuring that last year's tragedy won't happen again. Chair of the Texas Public Utility Commission, Peter Lake.

Peter Lake:

We know that the reforms we have put in place over these last few months ensure that our grid is reliable and ready for this winter weather event. We will continue operating the grid in a conservative fashion by bringing on more reserves for an increased margin of safety and by operating an abundance of caution so that we have more supply sooner rather than later.

Taylor Wilson:

Around the country, more than a thousand flights have been canceled for today.

Well, your favorite word game has a new owner. The popular Wordle game is heading to the New York Times. So is this the end of playing it for free? Tech Reporter Brett Molina, wonders in the Talking Tech Podcast.

Brett Molina:

On Monday, the New York Times confirmed it is buying Wordle. It said it acquired the game from creator, Josh Wardle, for a price "in the low seven figures." The newspaper said, Wordle will initially stay free for new and existing players. If you don't know anything about Wordle, it's a browser based game, you have six tries to guess a five letter word. The letters change depending on what you guess, so if there's a letter in green, that means that it's in the right spot and it's the right letter. If it's in gray, it's not in the word at all. It's been a lot of fun. A lot of the reason it's popular, obviously, is all the social media posts you see of Wordle, people trying to solve it or not solve it. And you see how quickly they did it and what their process was.

The reaction to this, of course, has been mixed, with obviously the biggest question and the biggest concern, will Wordle still be available for free to play? Again, the newspaper and Wardle said that the game will initially stay free for new and existing players. Here's the thing though, one of two things will likely happen. One is, there's a subscription that you might have to pay. They somehow pull it in and you subscribe, and that's how you get to play Wordle. Or they keep it free, but you may have to log in to New York Times, like you get an account and that allows you to play Wordle. So one way or another, I don't expect Wordle to stay as is, where you just go to the site, you play every day, and that's it. You don't have to input your email. You don't have to do anything. It's just really straightforward. I think that's going to go away at some point, it feels like.

Obviously, a lot of people are upset by that. There were some folks though that were very supportive of Wardle, who created this, and was able to cash in on the success of the game. Because, look, there have been a lot of different variations of the game that have popped up on browsers and on apps. It got to a point where Apple had to remove multiple apps that had ripped off the game because it was so popular. The fact that he was able to financially benefit from all this, just making this game as quickly as he did, and to just reap the benefits, a lot of people thought that that was great and they fully support it.

But I think, obviously, the bigger thing is, we've had this great run so far with Wordle and playing it every day, and it's been one of the bright spots of 2022. And the thought of it being acquired and potentially changed, most likely, maybe having to either pay for it or give some piece of ourselves in order to play it, it's bummed some people out. You can read more about the reactions to Wordle, more on the news about the New York Times buying them, as well as any info if you need tips, if you want to learn about similar games like Wordle, you can go to tech.usatoday.com for the latest.

Taylor Wilson:

For more of Talking Tech, subscribe wherever you get your audio.

The NFL's Washington Football Team will officially reveal its new name today. The team will also show off new logos on NBC's Today Show. The franchise temporarily became known simply as Washington Football Team after dropping the name Redskins. The team had used that term since the 1930s before dropping it amid pressure from Native American groups calling it out as racist. The team has given the public hints and a list of finalists ranging from Commanders to Brigade, but Washington defensive end, Chase Young, previously told USA TODAY that he was not a fan of any of the options.

Interviewer:

What about Brigade?

Chase Young:

I mean, do y'all like these names?

Interviewer:

I don't like any of these so far, honestly.

Chase Young:

These are really all Fs. I mean, Brigade? That's not even a D, that's an F.

Interviewer:

All right, what about Commanders?

Chase Young:

F.

Unnamed Player:

Sounds like a movie.

Interviewer:

Yeah, okay. Red Wolves?

Chase Young:

I give it a C-, D?

Speaker 7:

Oh!

Taylor Wilson:

You can find out what the winner is at USATODAY.com/sports later today.

And you can find 5 Things, seven mornings a week, wherever you get your pods. Thanks as always to PJ Elliot for his great work on the show. And I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Winter storm targets 90 million, NYT buys Wordle: 5 Things podcast