Daily Briefing: Why are egg prices soaring?

The average price for a dozen large Grade A eggs in December hit $4.25, up from $1.79 the year before, according to federal watchdogs. Also in the news: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is stepping down and there's still a lot we don't know about President Joe Biden's recently recovered classified documents.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Snowing where you are? Here's what to know about winter storms right now.

Now, here we go with Thursday's news.

Here's why egg prices are soaring across the US

Egg prices continue to skyrocket – up 60% in December from a year earlier. Last year, the average price for a dozen large Grade A eggs in the U.S. was $1.93 in January. By December, when egg demand peaked, the price surged to $4.25. But why? Three reasons: an increase in holiday demand, higher production costs for farmers, and an outbreak of bird flu, a highly contagious virus that can be fatal to poultry such as chickens and turkeys. Read more

• Here are the 2022 US federal tax brackets explained.

• What happens if the US hits the debt ceiling? Lawmakers squabble as nation nears limit.

'I no longer have enough in the tank'

Jacinda Ardern said Thursday she is stepping down as New Zealand’s prime minister and will not contest this year’s general elections. Fighting back tears, Ardern told reporters that Feb. 7 will be her last day in office. "I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” she said. Arden was lauded globally for her country’s initial handling of the coronavirus pandemic after New Zealand managed for months to stop the virus at its borders. Read more

• Scotland vows to challenge the UK government in court after it blocked a new gender recognition law.

• Columbia University named Nemat ''Minouche'' Shafik as the school's first female president.

More news to know now

• 💻 Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 employees, affecting roughly 5% of its workforce.

• 🔴 Mexico's president says he'll consider a request by ''El Chapo'' to serve his prison sentence in Mexico.

• 👀 Six GOP congressmen say embattled Rep. George Santos should resign.

• ✔ Derek Chauvin's attorney asked a court to throw out the former officer's convictions in George Floyd's murder.

• 💲 With no giant Wednesday winner, Powerball jackpot soars to $473 million.

• 🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, USA TODAY White House Correspondent Maureen Groppe looks at low COVID-19 booster rates in nursing homes despite a push from the Biden administration. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker.

🌤 What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Key questions we still don't know about Biden's documents

The revelation of classified documents at the home and former personal office of Joe Biden has turned into a White House crisis, blunting the president's momentum from the midterm elections and handing Republicans new attacks.

Adding to the blowback: The inability – or unwillingness – of the White House to answer several basic questions about the handling of the documents, which date back to the Obama administration when Biden served as vice president.

• Why didn't the White House publicly disclose the documents immediately? Instead, the White House waited until CBS News first reported the discovery on Jan. 9 to confirm that a batch was found Nov. 2 – days before the midterm elections – at Biden's former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

• Have all the documents been discovered? Following the first discovery of classified documents in November at the Penn Biden Center, Biden's attorneys adopted a protocol to suspend the search and notify the Justice Department when future documents are found. As a result, Biden's lawyers can't guarantee that more documents won't turn up.

Human trafficking laws were supposed to help women. Victims’ stories say otherwise.

The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was supposed to help people, many of them new and sometimes undocumented immigrants. But more than two decades after the law took effect, women are still being trafficked all across the U.S. It takes many forms, but one of the most organized – and lucrative – is through massage. A USA TODAY investigation published this National Human Trafficking Prevention Month shows that law enforcement and prosecutors struggle to build cases that lead to convictions. Police often rely on victims to say they’ve been forced and to identify perpetrators – which has proven an unrealistic expectation. Read more

Just for subscribers:

• ❓ You know what fight or flight is. What about fawning?

• 🟡 Ukrainian refugees were quickly welcomed to Wisconsin. Now red tape makes their future uncertain.

• 📰 Katie Baunach's ex-husband killed her, prosecutors say. The justice system let it happen.

• ⚽ Why Arizona State and University of Arizona poured $125.5M into athletics at the height of a pandemic.

These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. 

Attorneys representing Devin Willock's family call press conference to discuss legal action

The parents of Georgia football player Devin Willock are scheduled to appear outside an Athens courthouse on Thursday at a press conference where legal action to be taken will be discussed after their son’s death Sunday in a car crash. The press conference would come four days after Willock and Georgia recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in a single-car crash at about 2:45 a.m. The crash report released by the Athens-Clarke County police cited excessive speed as a contributing factor. Attorney Roy T. Willey IV and members of the legal team will be discussing the accident investigation details. Read more

• Here's what we know about crash that killed Willock and LeCroy.

• Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's recovery continues with daily visits to a team facility.

📷 Photo of the day: Climate change is melting ice in Greenland 📷

The shrinking and melting of Greenland’s ice sheet over the past decade — driven by hotter summer temperatures —  is likely unprecedented over 1,000 years, researchers said in a new study. Greenland's ice sheet plays an important role in the global climate system, storing a huge amount of water, one expert said. If unmitigated carbon emissions continue, researchers believe the ice sheet is projected to contribute up to 19 inches of global mean sea level rise by 2100. Read more about it here and click here to see more photos of the shrinking ice sheet.

One more thing

• 🧤 A glove, ''reddish'' pillow and receipts seized from the Idaho murder suspect's home.

• 🚨 Julian Sands, ''A Room With a View'' actor, is missing after going on a mountain hike in Southern California.

• ⭐ Dua Lupa and Michaela Coel will co-chair the 2023 Karl Lagerfeld-themed Met Gala.

• 🐇 Hop into the Year of the Rabbit with our top 10 style picks for this Lunar New Year.

• 🔪 Season 3 of ''Only Murders in the Building'' is underway – with Meryl Streep.

• 💎 Kim Kardashian bought a famed pendant only ever worn by Princess Diana for almost $200K.

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 NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.

Associated Press contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inflation, Jacinda Ardern, Biden's documents, Devin Willock, Damar Hamlin, Diana: Daily Briefing