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Good morning and welcome to Kid News.
I'm Tori.
Today is Tuesday, February 17th, 2026.
And we begin with party time in the Big Easy.
Today is Fat Tuesday, the last day of Mardi Gras and the ultimate day of indulgence before Lent begins tomorrow.
And while New Orleans always steals the spotlight with its legendary parades, street parties and beads, so many beads other cities across America also join the fun, from Mobile Alabama, to Galveston Texas, to St
Louis, Missouri.
Purple, green and gold are the colors of the day, and king cakes are the sweet of choice, with over half a million baked specifically for Mardi Gras season.
But today isn't just Fat Tuesday.
It's also the start of the Lunar New Year, which is widely considered the most popular holiday of the year for China and Chinese communities.
This is the year of the horse.
Celebrations and traditions promising good luck and prosperity will last 15 days.
A former president is clarifying comments he made about Martians.
On the No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen podcast Saturday.
When asked about extraterrestrials, Barack Obama said they're real, before quickly adding but they're not being kept at Area 51.
Area 51 is a super secret Air Force facility in the Nevada desert that has long been rumored to house space aliens from a crashed UFO.
Mr. Obama's off-the-cuff comments sparked a huge reaction.
So much so, he had to backtrack.
He issued a statement saying he had just been joking in the spirit of the show, has never seen evidence of extraterrestrials and that, while the universe is so vast, it's improbable we are the only intelligent beings.
It's also improbable we've ever been visited, because of the enormous distance between star systems.
Speaking of space, a crew of astronauts arrived at the International Space Station Saturday to replace the four that left early due to a medical emergency.
They'll spend about eight months in orbit and during that time they'll test cool new tech that can turn drinking water into IV fluids on demand.
As for the space station itself, time is ticking.
It's outlived its intended lifespan, and NASA and its partners Europe, Japan and Canada only plan to operate it for another four years.
After that, it'll be decommissioned and brought back to Earth.
The most famous museum in the world has sprung another leak.
Back in November, a water valve left open at the Louvre in Paris France, damaged as many as 400 books in the Egyptian Antiquities Library.
Last Friday, a pipe burst, damaging a ceiling painted by a French artist in 1819.
Blame may lie with the building's plumbing systems, which critics call outdated and in desperate need of attention.
The Louvre is home to the world's most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
The Olympic figure skater with an overdue homework assignment got her answer.
As we told you about last week, once Madeline Chizis realized she'd mixed up the due date for a sociology paper, she emailed her professor from Milan asking for a few extra days.
The professor's response was pure gold.
He told her to focus on skating and joked about his own athletic peak being a single hockey goal at age 10.
The whole country was behind her, he added.
Even better, the professor had no idea she was an Olympian until that email, and he praised her for not asking for special treatment.
By the way, Madeline returns to the ice for the Women's Single Short Program today.
Still to come, a visit from beyond?
A homeowner in North Dakota gets the shock of his life during a remodel.
But first, we want to thank some of our awesome donors.
Molly Coniglio from Arvada, Colorado.
Alicia Adams of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and to California for Elsa McGeehee of Beaumont and Alexis Barber of Huntington Beach.
We appreciate your generosity and support for our mission.
Now, today's Kid News Quiz.
What two celebrations take place today?
Fat Tuesday marking the end of Mardi Gras, and it's also the kickoff for the Chinese Lunar New Year's Year of the Horse.
Where is Area 51?
In the Nevada desert.
Which famous museum is mopping up after a second plumbing leak?
The Louvre in Paris, France.
Space station astronauts will test technology to turn water into what?
On-demand IV fluid.
In today's Kid News Kicker, it was a common trick back in the 1940s.
Carpenters slid newspaper under floorboards to make floors more even.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when a contractor in Fargo, North Dakota, pulled up the planks of a home recently purchased by Casey Chapman.
Staring back at the new homeowner, a newspaper photo of his own mother.
It came from 1946 when she was named homecoming queen at North Dakota State.
Neither Casey nor anyone else in his family had any connection to the property before buying it, and his mother had passed away many years prior.
I got goosebumps, Chapman told WDAY-TV.
My mother had nothing to do with this house.
And here we open up the floor and all of a sudden here is one of my mom's great life moments.
It's almost as though she was giving me a thumbs up for choosing it.
Before we go, we want to shout out some of our awesome Kid News classrooms.
Mrs. Untalan and Woody the Woodchuck at Bradford Woodbridge in Roseville, California.
Mrs. Bajix Cougars at Crete in Crete, Illinois.
Mrs. Fraga's Sea Turtles at Sunset Palms in Boynton Beach, Florida. and Ms.
Hoff's Wildcats at Western Valley Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona.
Thanks for listening.
If you missed it, please check out our Kid News Convos episode on vaccines with Dr Joel Gator Walsh that ran over the weekend.
His take, the answer, is often in your questions.
We'll see you back here for more Kid News tomorrow morning.
