Good morning, and welcome to Kidd News generously sponsored by the Nicolas B.
Ottoway Foundation and its commitment to quality journalism I'm Kim today is Wednesday March 19th 2025 and we begin with a 14 year old athlete taking another turn in the sports spotlight Over the weekend MacKenna Mack Whitham became the youngest player in National Women's Soccer League history to play in a regular season game The Gotham FC forward jumped into the action in the second half of her team's opener against Seattle with the score tied 1 -1.
She told ESPN standing on the sideline waiting was pretty exciting.
I wanted to be out there and was ready.
But even better was Coach Juan saying, Enjoy the game and just be you and that's what I did.
Mack is no stranger to making history.
She is also the youngest to ever sign with the NWSL after pending a contract through 2028 with Gotham last year, and when she was 13, became the youngest athlete in any sport to sign a name, image, and likeness deal with Nike.
Their eight days in space may have turned into 286, but Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aren't complaining.
They splashed down in a SpaceX Dragon yesterday afternoon off of Tallahassee, Florida with two other returning space station voyagers and were promptly whisked away for medical checkups.
According to The New York Times, this will be the last time a SpaceX vehicle with astronauts aboard lands along the east coast. Future missions will aim for the Pacific Ocean off California to prevent pieces of the bottom from falling on land.
That piece, known as the trunk, has turned up in places like North Carolina, Australia, and Saskatchewan, Canada, because it separates during re -entry but doesn't fully burn up in the atmosphere.
Are your brackets ready?
March Madness for the Men is officially underway.
Last night, the first four play -in games began, with the eight lowest -seated teams vying for a chance to join 64 others in the first round, which tips off on Thursday.
By the time the national champion is crowned, 63 games will be played.
What are the odds of picking EVERY winner?
According to the NCAA, it's never happened, and it puts the chances at 1 in 9 .2 quintillion.
Warren Buffett is hopeful, though.
Every year, the billionaire CEO offers a million dollars to the employee who can produce the perfect bracket.
Since no one has and he says he's getting old, he's making it easier.
This year, he'll fork over the money to any worker who picks the winners of at least 30 of the tournament's 32 first -round games.
Not a bad day's work.
Can a house get you into Harvard?
One seller would like you to think so.
According to screenshots on social media, the recent listing for a home in Palo Alto, California, read, �Success is part of its history.
Since a rebuild in 2017, every owner's children have gone to Harvard or Stanford. Now it is ready to pass on its extraordinary energy to the next family.
The house reportedly went pending in less than 24 hours, despite its nearly $5 million price tag.
Realtor .com reports that shortly after selling, all references to the home success with college apps were deleted, probably due to the scathing backlash on Reddit and X.
Many pointed to the pressures on today's kids.
Others noted that there are plenty of other great schools out there, and some took issue with the 2017 date, which isn't that long ago and likely doesn't include very many families or college -bound kids.
Remember our roving reporter Briggs?
He's back and reporting on the New England Aquarium in Boston, which just rolled out the red carpet for a brand -new Penguin retirement home!
Hikey News! Briggs Costmen Year, with a sea worthy story that is unfolding right up the street from me.
In the wild, African penguins usually live 10 to 15 years, but with protection from aquarium life, they can reach their 30s, which is really old in penguin years.
And often means they struggle with the same things our grandparents do, like arthritis, cataracts, and balance.
The solution, the Boston Aquarium has built an oasis just for them.
The Facilities Penguin Curator, Kristen McMahon, describes it to the New York Times as a country club for older animals that's separated from the aquariums youngsters by a mesh gate in the water.
In the new community, she says there's a little bit more laying down and resting.
And that's just what older penguins like 32 year old Lambert need.
He can roam the island at a slower pace while recovering from his eye surgery with five of his geriatric pals, some of whom even receive acupuncture to help with aches and pains.
African penguins are a critically endangered species, and conservationists say that they could become extinct by 2035.
The aquarium is doing what it can to spearhead efforts to protect them, and even sends trainers to South Africa to help rehabilitate its rescues.
Thanks, Briggs. Next to move to the island, according to The Times, will be the aquarium's oldest African penguin, 35 year old Good Hope, and his mate Saint Croix.
After that, no more additions for a while.
Ms. McMahon says the plan is to let this group live in harmony.
Still to come, how iguanas pulled off a record -setting ocean voyage on a raft. But first today's Kid News Quiz.
How old is McKenna Whitham, the youngest soccer player, to appear in a regular season game with the National Women's Soccer League?
McKenna is 14. Where will future astronaut carrying SpaceX capsules land?
Off the California coast in the Pacific, what are the odds of a perfect March Madness bracket?
1 in 9 .2 quintillion according to the NCAA.
Which facility now has an island just for aging penguins?
The New England Aquarium in Boston In today's Kid News Kicker, have you ever wondered how iguanas, which are native to the Americas, got to Fiji, a remote island in the South Pacific?
Pacific, scientists did, and now they say the reptiles crossed 5 ,000 miles of ocean on a raft. According to the study, millions of years ago, these leaping lizards hopped on a barge of floating vegetation, like fallen trees and plants, and rode the current across the Pacific.
That's apparently how they made it to the Galapagos Islands and into the Caribbean.
But scientists thought Fiji was too far, until they discovered that the genes of Fijian iguanas are most closely related to Iguanas in North America, and now their journey is thought to be a record, further than any other land -dwelling vertebrate has ever traveled on the ocean.
The research is in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It's shout -out time for our kid news classrooms, Ms. West and her Panthers at Beach Springs Middle School in Duncan, South Carolina.
to Montana for Mrs. Blanchard and her West Valley warriors at West Valley Middle School in Kalispell and Mrs. Seydlitz and her Whittier wildcats at Whittier in Bozeman and Mrs. Caugill and her Bruins at Brooke Middle School in Wellsburg, West Virginia.
Thanks for listening.
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Have a great day and we'll see you back here for more kid news tomorrow morning.
Thank you.
