(This weeks Top Things you should know)
If it gets dark outside on Monday afternoon don’t panic, the solar eclipse will be seen across the continental US, though the percent of coverage is less impressive the closer you live to the Pacific or Atlantic coastline.
A poultry facility in Michigan and egg producer in Texas both reported outbreaks of avian flu this week. The latest developments on the virus also include infected dairy cows and the first known instance of a human catching bird flu from a mammal. Although health officials say the risk to the public remains low, there is rising concern, emerging in part from news that the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. reported an outbreak.
After initial assessments said the port could be blocked for months, a small amount of shipping traffic is passing out of Baltimore through a channel that has been cleared. It is primarily for vessels involved in the cleanup, but some barges and tugs are moving through the cleared area when it is available.
In California, highway 1 has been closed again as rains are expected towards the weekend. As the cliffside highway has washed partially away it has been determined unsafe for use until further notice.
The cicadas are coming. This spring, an unusual cicada double emergence is about to invade the southern and central parts of the United States in what University of Connecticut cicada expert John Cooley called “cicada-geddon.” The last time these two broods came out together was in 1803, and Thomas Jefferson was president. Both 17 and 13 years cicadas are synched up for a maximum cicada outing when the ground reaches 64° Fahrenheit.
This weekend is college basketball nirvana, with the women’s final four games on Friday, and the Mens on Saturday. The women’s final will be on Sunday the 7th, and the Men crown a champion on Monday the 8th.
Haiti appears to have no government what so ever, and roaming gangs are ransacking the capital. More than 53,000 people fled Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince in the last three weeks of March as conflict between powerful armed gangs wreaked havoc for civilians, with the government largely absent and a path out of the chaos yet to be established by politicians.