Rise up sunshine. Happy Monday. I'm Coy
Wire here with your 10 minutes of news
for March 9th, 2026. Hope that time
change didn't disrupt too much of your
sleep to wake us up and get us going. We
have a robust story count today. So,
let's get to it. Now, we do start with
an update on some of the severe weather
across the central and Midwest United
States in recent days. A sprawling
series of storms stretching from the
Oklahoma panhandle to Michigan spawned a
series of deadly tornadoes that hit
several communities late last week in
southwestern Michigan. An EF3 tornado
with winds of up to 150 mph passed
through the Three Rivers area where
bystanders saw pieces of homes and
buildings flying through the air. One
man and his grandmother narrowly
survived after it ripped the roof off of
the grocery store as they were shopping
inside. That's where we were at,
grandma.
>> Right in the middle of it.
>> Yeah. See, it even ripped the roof off.
>> Oh my goodness.
>> Oh my gosh. That's where we were, dude.
>> At least eight people were killed in the
storms. Communities are beginning to
clean up and assess damage. 26 tornadoes
have been reported in six states across
the regions in just the last week.
Always monitor and respect your local
severe weather alerts and be sure to
follow severe weather safety guidelines
which can be found at weather.gov.
Pop quiz hot shot. Which US state has
the longest coastline? Hawaii, Florida,
California, or Alaska?
If you said Alaska, well done. I'll ask
a tougher question next time. Because of
its many islands and inlets, Alaska has
more than 30,000 miles of coastline,
more than the rest of all US states
combined. Some of us are going to be
snow dog on excited about this next
story, including our very own Victor
Blackwell, who recently took a trek to
Alaska to test his mushing skills. We
see you, Victor. The 54th running of the
iconic IDA rod dog sled race kicked off
over the weekend in Alaska following a
ceremonial start in the capital of
Anchorage. Teams of dedicated sled dogs
and their mushers are now traversing the
state's rugged wilderness in a bid to be
top dogs. The race is named for the
Iditarod Trail, a famous route traveled
by dog sledders to deliver medicine and
supplies to the remote city of Gnome
during a 1925 Dtheria outbreak. Gnome
still has lots of just gravel roads and
trails for the most part. The race is
usually just under 1,000 miles, but that
changes each year based on conditions.
Last year's race was the longest ever, a
whopping 1,128
miles. Woof. And get this, the finish
line is over three times closer to
Russia than it is to the starting point.
The treacherous trek sometimes takes
more than 2 weeks to complete. The
fastest finish on record was in 2017. A
blazing 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes, and
13 seconds. That is phenomenal. Now to
Chicago, where a new piece of
presidential history is set to be
unveiled. Former President Barack Obama
has announced his new presidential
center that will officially open to the
public this summer on Junth or June
19th. The federal holiday commemorating
the effective end of slavery in the US
in 1865. The Obama Presidential Center
will feature a library and museum
dedicated to the 44th president and
first lady, Michelle Obama. The couple
broke ground on the project in 2021 on
Chicago's South Side. They chose the
location to pay tribute to the city
where they met and began their careers.
>> Chicago is where I found the purpose I'd
been seeking.
It's where I finally put my ideas about
democracy and activism and social change
to the test.
>> It will also feature the first fully
digitized presidential library thanks to
a partnership with the National Archives
and Records Administration. That
administration is responsible for
preserving all records at the end of
each president's term and also runs more
than a dozen other presidential
libraries across the nation. Another
government has just joined the movement
to ban social media for children under
the age of 16. In India, the southern
state of Carnotica enforced its ban last
Friday. Other places in India are
expected to follow suit. Kids should not
be using Instagram and all the influence
social media apps which will better for
the future and which will help them to
grow better instead of mindlessly
exploring like brain rots and all.
>> So according to me it's really a good
decision by the government.
>> Concerns surrounding teen social media
addiction have ignited a global
conversation about what limits should be
put in place. Australia was the first
country to ban social media for kids
back in December, and at least nine
other countries are considering similar
bans, including Britain, Denmark,
Greece, and Indonesia. Solar panels are
becoming more common for companies and
homeowners who want to harness the
energy of the sun. But obstructions like
shade, pollen, leaves, even bird dew
sometimes cover the panels, reducing
their effectiveness. One company though
just invented a potential gamecher that
mimics sunflowers. Check this out.
Conventional solar panels have a pretty
big weakness. They just sit there
static, losing out on direct sunlight.
But one firm saw a solution for that in
nature.
>> My name is Jim Gordon and I'm the CEO of
Smartflower Solar. We looked at mother
nature. We saw how a sunflower opens its
petals at sunrise. The petals are
pointed at the sun and they follow the
sun across the sky till sunset and they
retract back to the stem. So our
inspiration for creating this technology
that produces more solar energy in a
small footprint was we wanted to track
the sun across the sky.
>> This technology is not just a concept.
It's being adopted around the world as
far as this wine and cattle estate in
Victoria, Australia.
We're able to go and install this system
in urban areas, suburban areas, and
rural areas because the footprint
required is much smaller than
conventional solar. We pack a lot of
power in a very small footprint.
>> This bed of five smart flowers is in the
grounds of Toyota Motor Manufacturing in
West Virginia. The smart flower
technology that we use creates enough
energy to power our team member services
uh facilities and our EV charging
stations that are in that area. Those
smart flowers are symbolic of innovation
and creativity with their unique design.
Those skills are so important to us in
advanced manufacturing that it was just
a natural fit to bring that technology
here to our plant.
The design also helps tackle another big
challenge that hinders traditional solar
panels. Dust, pollen, and grime can
blanket fixed panels, thereby blocking
sunlight and dragging down their
efficiency between 10 and 40% according
to a recent study. Brushes sweep the
panels clean.
Just over 1,000 mountain gorillas
remain. They are one of the rarest great
apes on the planet. They live in just
three countries, Rwanda, Democratic
Republic of Congo, and Uganda. And
Uganda offers one of the most
unforgettable wildlife experiences in
the world, the Uganda Gorilla Trek.
Visitors pay for a brief visit, helping
to fund conservation, anti- poaching
patrols, and local communities.
We are now going to penetrate the
impenetra. Are we ready?
>> Gorillas are actually very silent and
it's very calm.
>> We have reached where gorillas are
feeding and they're closer to us.
That's the most exciting thing about the
gorillas. You can be walking looking for
them, thinking, "Will I ever see them?"
Then suddenly they're there. And it's
such a magical feeling when they just
appear out of nowhere.
We still need support from the global
society to conserve these animals. Their
support in that payment and other
contributions is very important to us.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.
Girl Scouts trading the cookie booth for
the courtroom. Building courage,
confidence, and character along the way.
Approximately 40 girls from 24 different
local troops stepped into the courtroom
for Project Law Track 2026, a mock trial
program hosted by the Girl Scouts of
Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.
I've really been thinking about being a
lawyer cuz it sounds fun and I really
want to help people. The program invites
Girl Scouts grades 6 through 12 to
explore careers in law, pairing them
with female attorneys who help them
prepare a case and argue it in a real
courtroom with actors to make the
experience more immersive. This year's
mock trial focused on a dispute over
trademark infringement.
>> I like it. It's very interesting and I
like how you can learn how to use your
voice and be confident.
>> The skills these scouts are learning
will help them in all aspects of life
from critical thinking to using their
voices with confidence. That is a
verdict worth celebrating. Also, we're
celebrating you. I have a shout out
going to Mr. Robinson at Dotto High
School and Early College in Dotto,
Texas. Thank you for subscribing on our
YouTube channel and for all your kind
comments. And this shout out goes to Mr.
Hermita from Tech Boston Academy in
Boston, Massachusetts. Rise up. How are
you going to make this world a bit of a
better place today? Even if it's just
making someone smile, I believe in you.
I'm Koi Wire and we are CNN 10.