(upbeat music) (cursor clicks) - Coming up next on "NewsDepth," President Biden proposes a new student loan forgiveness plan.

We visit a recycling plant in this week's Spot on Science.

What flower do you think smells the best?

Not the corpse flower.

And we learn about some of our state parks.

"NewsDepth" is now.

(upbeat music continues) President Joe Biden announced a new initiative aimed at relieving student debt for more than 30 million Americans.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you for joining us.

The president announced his new plan last week.

The plan targets individuals burdened by excessive debt due to interest accrual.

Debt is the money a person owes.

Typically, the person has a limited amount of time to pay back that money with interest.

Correspondent Julia Benbrook has the details.

- I'm proud to announce five major actions to continue to relieve student debt for more than 30 million Americans.

- [Julia] A new push from President Joe Biden to fulfill one of his 2020 campaign promises.

The president traveled to Wisconsin to unveil the details of his new student loan forgiveness plan.

- Too many Americans, especially young people, are saddled with unsustainable debts in exchange for a college degree.

It's not just a drag on them.

It's a drag on our local economies.

- [Julia] The new plan will impact people who have balances bigger than what they originally borrowed due to interest and those who qualify for forgiveness under existing programs but have not applied.

It will also assist those who began repaying their debts at least 20 years ago, those who enrolled in so-called low financial value programs, and those experiencing financial hardship - Over the coming months, the Department of Education will propose and then implement these plans.

- This is Biden's second attempt to implement broad student loan forgiveness.

The Supreme Court struck down his first plan last summer.

The Biden administration has already canceled student loan debt for about 4 million people, mostly using existing programs.

That's more than any other president.

The new proposals must still go through a public comment period.

Then after reviewing those comments, the Department of Education will publish the final version of the rule.

It's a process that could take months and will likely face new legal challenges.

- Thank you, Julia.

U.S. consumers are facing higher prices for essentials like gas and shelter, as indicated by a 3.5% year-over-year increase in the consumer price index in March.

While overall grocery prices remain steady month-to-month, they rose 1.2% from a year ago, and consumers have noticed the difference.

Karin Caifa is in Washington with a breakdown.

- [Karin] U.S. consumers continue to feel the squeeze of higher prices for essentials like gas and shelter.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday that the consumer price index increased at a year-over-year rate of 3.5% in March.

The reading the highest annual gain in the last six months.

- This has definitely been a setback.

This is not good news.

It doesn't necessarily mean that the Fed or anyone else should give up the fight against inflation.

- [Karin] Overall grocery prices stayed flat month-to-month, but they're up 1.2% from a year ago.

- I think consumers continue to feel the pinch.

I think consumers continue to compare prices to sort of pre-COVID or two or three years ago.

- [Karin] Purdue University professor of agricultural economics Joe Balagtas says that comparison, in addition to increased costs in other areas, could shade how consumers feel about their grocery tabs.

- The things that we pay for outside of the grocery store also affect the money we have left to spend on groceries, right?

So if we have to spend more on gasoline, if our auto insurance becomes more expensive, if our housing becomes more expensive.

- [Karin] Gas prices ticked up 1.7% from February to March, and the cost of auto insurance was up 2.6% last month, up a whopping 22% from one year ago.

- Thank you, Karin.

Back in October of last year, the country of Israel declared war against militant organization Hamas after they attacked from the Gaza Strip.

(air whooshes) The Gaza Strip is a small piece of land located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

The majority of its population is Palestinian, and the area is often at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since then, 70% of the population of Gaza has been displaced, about 1.7 million people.

The war in Gaza has overshadowed the festivities of Ramadan.

Ramadan is a month-long religious holiday celebrated by those of Muslim faith.

It is celebrated with prayer and fasting.

This year, Ramadan was from March 10th to April 9th, and the holiday of Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the month-long fasting.

Families celebrate with food and gathering.

But as Nic Robertson reports, this year Muslims in Gaza have not been able to celebrate like in years past.

- [Nic] Eid's joys are scarcer in Gaza this year.

(Farah speaking in foreign language) Farah crying as she recounts finding her beloved Eid clothes in the rubble of her home, then realizing she won't get to wear them.

Her family's festivities forgone this year.

(person chanting in foreign language) In the ravaged enclave, millions are clinging to what is unbreakable tradition.

(Mostafa speaks in foreign language) "We insisted on praying inside Rafah's Farouk Mosque so all the world knows that we are holding onto our mosques, to our land, to our country," Mostafa Alhelou from Gaza City says.

(people speaking in foreign language) Eid's spirit also being kept alive in makeshift kitchens.

Ingredients of everyone's Eid memories, donated by charities outside of Gaza, lovingly crafted into date, sesame, and caraway cookies.

(Ahlam speaks in foreign language) "We're trying to make our kids happy, remind them of the smell of Eid," Ahlam Saleh says.

"They didn't get the traditional new clothes.

There is no joy for Eid.

No balloons, no sweets."

There is no going back.

A generation here growing up with new memories of Eid, a long time before the joys shared by about 1.9 billion other Muslims around the world become universal in Gaza again.

- Thank you, Nic.

Now it's time to turn over a new leaf because it's Earth Day.

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd every year.

It is dedicated to raising awareness about environmental issues that our planet is facing.

The first Earth Day was held in 1970.

Since then, it has become a global event that is celebrated by millions of people in more than 190 countries around the world.

Earth Day is meant to promote environmental protection, conservation, and sustainability.

Recycling is one of the pillars of sustainability because it helps conserve resources and energy and it reduces the amount of waste that goes into landfills.

To recycle means to convert waste into reusable material.

But have you ever wondered what happens to your recycling after it leaves your curb?

Follow Margaret on a journey to the Kimble Companies Recycling Center in Twinsburg, where more than 100,000 tons of materials are processed annually.

In today's Spot on Science, we discover how conveyor belts and machines sort everything from cans to plastic with the help of infrared lasers and magnetic currents.

(upbeat music) (rocket whooshing) (light music) - [Margaret] When you take that last sip of milk, you toss the jug.

No, not in the trash, in the recycling bin!

There, it joins cans, bottles, and newspapers that are destined for another life as recycled products.

But how exactly do these materials go from a bin on your curb to sorted out materials ready to be reused?

Well, to start, they're brought to places like this: Kimble Companies Recycling Center in Twinsburg.

- We handle about 100,000 tons of material a year through this facility.

95% of what is gonna come through here is going to be bottles, cans, aluminum, tin cans, plastics, newspaper, cardboard.

- [Margaret] Your recycling is probably somewhere in this mountain of garbage.

And soon, it's loaded on a series of conveyor belts.

In fact, most of the plant consists of these conveyor belts.

They're everywhere.

That's because this material has to be sorted.

Paper, glass, and the different types of plastic and metal have to be separated because they're all recycled into different things, and the conveyor belt brings them to machines that help with the sorting.

One uses a magnetic current to collect cans.

- [Kevin] So, cat food cans that are tin and any type of tin cans, it'll take it and it will reverse magnet and toss it into a bin, so it self-sorts itself.

- [Margaret] Another uses infrared lasers to separate different kinds of plastic.

- The optical sorter will use infrared to detect pop bottles, milk jugs, any type of plastics that you might use at home and separate it into different categories.

- [Margaret] And gravity helps too.

Glass is heavy, so it sinks to the bottom, where it's broken up into little bits before it's recycled.

And paper is light, so it rises to the top on a conveyor belt.

But much of the sorting of materials is done by people.

They're called sorters, and they're at every stage working with the machines to separate materials.

They're even at the very beginning of the process, taking out weird things that shouldn't even be in a recycling bin.

- [Kevin] So they'll be taking out any type of metals, car parts, Christmas lights, yard waste, things that really shouldn't be put into the system.

- [Margaret] And that includes plastic bags.

- [Kevin] Plastic bags are recyclable, but we do not recycle them at our facility because there's no end consumer for them at the moment.

- [Margaret] The last sorter at the plant rescues recyclables that manage to sneak through the system without being properly sorted.

Finally, all of the separated materials are crushed into these giant cubes like bales of hay.

These cubes are stacked all around, waiting to be taken to their final destination, where they're cleaned and given another life.

It's for this reason that plant manager Kevin Eidens has a recycling tip.

- Recyclables should be as clean as possible when entered into the recycle bin.

We would like for you to rinse all the containers out before recycling.

- [Margaret] But even if you can't scrape out that last bit of peanut butter, Kevin says you should still go ahead and toss it in the recycling bin.

(air whooshes) (graphics crinkling) (air whooshes) (globe boinging) - Those are some great recycling tips.

Thank you so much, Margaret.

And that brings us to our writing question for the week.

What do you do to reduce, reuse, and recycle?

You can send us your answers using our inbox form online or by sending us an email to newsdepth@ideastream.org.

Last week, we wanted you to imagine your classroom won an award, like a Classroom of the Year Award, and we asked you to write an acceptance speech for that award.

Let's see what great things you had to say about your class by opening up our inbox.

(air whooshes) (cursor clicks) Andrew from Firelands Elementary School in Oberlin really appreciates their school.

"Dear NewsDepth, if my class won an award, I would say I appreciate my class and my teacher, and my school, because they were a big part of my life and always told me to keep going, and they were always on my side whatsoever."

Fatima from Strongsville Middle School in Strongsville knows how important working as a team is.

"I would first start by saying that we would like to thank the teachers who helped us understand every step of the way, and then I would also like to thank all my classmates because we all work together as a team.

This award encourages us to work harder and get more awards in the future.

Lastly, I would like to thank the staff who trust us."

Adam from Ayer Elementary in Cincinnati got a little emotional writing this speech.

"Dear NewsDepth, I would like to thank everyone that helped me, pushed me to this.

I am so thankful for my teachers, parents, and friends.

I would've never gotten this award without you guys.

I was working so hard for this, (sobs) days and nights, 24/7.

(sobs) This just makes me wanna push myself even more to get even better."

Keira from Harding Middle School in Lakewood is proud of their entire class.

"I would say thank you so much for this award.

I would also say I am very proud of my whole class.

Lastly, I would say I am very grateful for this and very proud that we did this and accomplished all that we have.

And Dathan from Rushwood Elementary in Northfield wants to recognize all the hard work put in by their classmates.

"If my class won an award, I would say that I would be very happy because we have worked very hard the entire year.

I also would be happy because school is fun and it is very cool to win an award."

I would like to thank all of you, our viewers, who watch our show every week and engage with us online, telling us how much we've made an impact on your lives.

You have all made this the best job I've ever had.

Thank you so much.

Now let's move on.

This next student might be a good candidate for Best Friend of the Year Award.

People find inspiration in all kinds of places.

Some people are inspired by athletes, others are inspired by books.

I'm inspired by movies, and I'm not alone.

Recently we met Nicholas, who is a fourth grader at Central Trail Elementary in Sylvania, and he told us about how the movie "Ron's Gone Wrong" inspired him to help his classmates feel welcome.

(air whooshes) In the movie, Barney gets a robot named Ron, and it has a bit of a malfunction.

Well, we have a no-spoiler policy here at "NewsDepth," so that's as much as we're going to say about the film.

Anyway, Nicholas told us that he realized that a lot of kids at recess were playing by themselves and he was feeling inspired by Barney and Ron to come up with a plan to help his classmates make new friends.

That's when it hit him.

He came up with the idea for a buddy bench.

A buddy bench is a bench where kids who are looking for friends to play with at recess can sit and other kids will invite them to play.

I think that's a really good idea and would've loved to have a buddy bench when I was in school.

Nicholas realized that it wouldn't be as simple as just buying a bench and putting it on the playground.

He first shared his idea with Ms. Blakeman, his school counselor.

She loved the idea and suggested they have lunch with the school's principal, Mr. Blust, to share his plan and get permission.

Nicholas was ready for the conversation with Mr. Blust.

He had a fundraising plan ready to go, and he knew that he'd have to motivate his classmates to donate money.

He also knew that the bench had to meet the safety requirements for it to be allowed on the playground.

Nicholas proposed that the classes in the school participate in a penny war to earn money.

He told us that his classmates earned more than $2,000, which is enough money to buy the bench they need.

While we're talking about the penny war, we want to send our congratulations out to Ms. Sulewski's kindergarten class for being the champions and earning a dance party with ice cream as their prize.

Nicholas told us that he's excited for the ribbon cutting for the bench, which will take place this spring.

He's really proud that his hard work will help his classmates make new friends.

When he's not planning fundraisers for new playground equipment, Nicholas told us that he likes to play Fortnite and Roblox and that he really enjoys tennis.

He shared that watching "NewsDepth" is his favorite thing about school.

We sure hope so, buddy.

This week's A+ Award goes to Nicholas at Central Trail Elementary School for helping his classmates make new friends.

Congratulations and keep up the great work.

If your school has something similar to a buddy bench, why don't you go visit this week, maybe make a new friend and take in the sun (birds chirping) and the smells of all the flowers blooming?

(sniffs) Wait, what kind of flower is that?

That doesn't smell very good.

Is it a corpse flower that I'm smelling?

Some people are flocking to Dexter, Michigan, to get a whiff of this unique smell.

A corpse flower in this Michigan man's yard is now in bloom.

It is believed to be the first-ever corpse flower to bloom in a private residence.

Mike Duffy checked things out to experience what it really smells like.

- A compost pile.

- Throw in some dirty gym sock.

- There's a a dead deer.

It's like that times 10.

- [Mike] There was a stream of people, like Josh Tye, who came to Dexter to catch the sight and the stench of the rare 24-hour bloom of the corpse flower.

- The flower is much bigger in person.

I mean, you look at it, and you just look up, and you're just like, oh my gosh, it's so big.

And then you get the smell and you just get to admire the beauty of it.

- I caught up with people like Larry Parish and his wife as they got their first impression.

All right, so we are seeing this for the first time, smelling it.

- Smelling it.

- Tell me a little bit about what you smell.

(Larry chuckling) - [Larry] Smells a little pungent.

- Admittedly, I was a bit giddy myself.

I did not expect to actually get to see something like this in my lifetime, so I am so excited.

(sniffs) Ooh, stinky.

- Even people like Lisa Murphy, greenhouse coordinator at Michigan State Plant Biology, had to come see it for themselves.

- Nasty.

- And I learned the stench wasn't just in our heads.

- Their poor house here.

There's turkey vultures circling the house outside right now, and the house is full of flies.

- But you can see all the branches all- - [Mike] For Kevin Hauser, getting to this day has been a labor of love.

He has nurtured the plant from its start seven years ago as an underground stem called a corm.

- It is the largest flower that's bloomed in Michigan.

We think globally it's the first to actually happen in a private residence, and it's the second this year in the U.S. - [Mike] Impressive to be sure.

Surprisingly, for its rarity, he didn't act like getting the plant to flower was a herculean effort.

- I've told people that ask, you know, "You must be some master gardener."

And I'm like, "This plant actually has been a lot easier to take care of than a lot of the other plants back here."

- [Mike] So what advice does Kevin have for an aspiring corpse flower grower like me?

- Have a really tall roof in your house (laughs) and a lot of sunlight.

- Ah, thank you, Mike.

Maybe the West Coast might smell a little bit better because California is experiencing a super bloom of poppies and lavender.

Experts are noticing the peak of this year's bloom, with vibrant poppies and lavender dotting the landscape.

While it may not rival last year's super bloom, it's still expected to be quite spectacular, with blooms starting later and lasting longer.

Leslie Brinkley takes us there.

- [Leslie] The buzzword is biodiversity.

The Bay Area is blessed, and this spring's showy wildflower display is now exploding in the sunshine after late-season cool rainfalls.

- We're really starting to see kind of this peak of the bloom right now.

I think the sun that's helping this week is really starting to make those colors pop.

- [Leslie] Poppies are popping up everywhere along with lavender lupine.

Experts say it won't rival last year's super bloom, but it will be a pretty spectacular season.

- This year too is very similar to last year, and we're seeing a lot of blooms start kind of a little bit later again this year, which is honestly a little bit better too because we're noticing the blooms to be longer lasting, which is nice.

- When you have a nice year like this, it's a real, it's kind of a race between the wildflowers and the grasses.

- [Leslie] This UC Davis ecologist says this year, the tall grasses might beat out the blooms in many places.

- If you were here 150 years ago (chuckles) and you had a weather year like this year, you'd probably see wonderful wildflowers all over the place.

But now a lot of what you see are these very tall grasses, which aren't natives.

And so when you go to the desert, what you're seeing is just pure wildflowers responding to a nice rainfall year.

- [Leslie] Just don't trample the flowers.

- Stay on established trails and only take photos of flowers, don't take flowers themselves.

- We can have more places for bees to be pollinating and spreading the flowers, and, you know, it only does good things visually and environmentally.

- Thank you, Leslie.

You don't have to go very far to visit a beautiful park this spring because Ohio has 83 state parks, thousands of city parks, and a national park.

Lace up those hiking boots because Mary is taking us to the great outdoors of the Buckeye State.

(upbeat country music) - Lace up those hiking boots and get your compass out 'cause I'm about to take you out on the trails of Ohio's pride and joy, our diverse and beautiful parks.

Let's begin, shall we, with Ohio's only national park?

The Cuyahoga Valley National Park, just south of Cleveland, is frequently cited as one of the most visited national parks in the country.

Last year, over 2 million visitors enjoyed its lush native plants, deep forests, and rolling hills.

But unlike many national parks, much of this park is made up of donated land, which was used originally for farming or mining or even as junkyards.

Like the Beaver Marsh, now it's a diverse wetland teeming with life.

But in the 1980s, it was just the polluted remnants of the Ohio and Erie Canal.

The current habitat was created by an unusual collaboration of humans and beavers.

Park workers and volunteers cleaned up and preserved the land, and then beavers moved in, built their dams, and restored natural water levels.

From there, wetland plants returned, creating a habitat for the diverse wildlife visitors see today.

But some Ohio parks actually look very close to the way it did when the land was donated, like Malabar Farm State Park near Mansfield.

This park continues to be a working farm, as it has been for generations, but there's a bit more to this farm than meets the eye, and it involves a bit of old Hollywood glamour.

That's because the previous owner of this farm was Louis Bromfield, a famous author and screenwriter in the 1930s and '40s who hosted big Hollywood stars of the time.

In fact, two of the biggest, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, were actually married on this farm, Hocking Hills State Park in Logan doesn't exactly have any star power, but located in the rolling hills of Appalachia, it certainly has the power to mesmerize visitors with its stunning rock formations and waterfalls.

These rocks were formed over millions of years by the oceans and glaciers that once covered Ohio.

And the most popular area of the park, Old Man's Cave, gets its name from a hermit, Richard Rowe, who actually lived in the cave in the 1700s.

But there are so many beautiful and interesting parks throughout the Buckeye State, so get out and explore some this summer.

Just don't forget the bug spray.

(air whooshes) (graphic crinkling) (air whooshes) (globe boinging) - And don't forget your sunscreen.

Thank you, Mary.

Okay.

Now, I want to know which state park would you most like to visit?

Jump over to our poll page to let us know.

You can choose between Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Malabar Farm State Park, Hocking Hills State Park, a different park, or all of them.

I bet NewsHound would say all of them.

But for me personally, I think Cuyahoga Valley National Park has so many great spots, and I don't live too far.

Anyway, last week, we talked about the allocation of taxes and how residents of Kansas City, Missouri, did not agree with the city's proposal to rebuild their baseball and football stadiums.

So we wanted to know if you thought taxpayers should fund stadiums.

We got more than 2,000 responses for the poll this week, and the results are pretty close.

About 58% of you said that you think taxes should pay for stadiums because it benefits the whole city, and another 42% of you said the team should pay for their stadiums.

All right, it's finally time to check in on our cuteness correspondent, NewsHound.

Let's see what he has for us in this week's petting zoo.

(upbeat music) (NewsHound barking) Hey, NewsHound!

What are you doing?

Just enjoying the sun?

It's nice to relax in the sun, but I hope you got your work done early.

So what do you have for us today?

Oh, it's a story about animals at a Texas zoo that missed the sun because of the total eclipse last week.

A lot of them were confused and thought it was bedtime.

- [Reporter] Just before the moon covered the sun for almost four minutes, a young giraffe and its mother galloped around the enclosure.

Here and around the country, elephants grouped together and appeared to head back to the area where they sleep.

Primates apparently also thought it was bedtime.

Animal experts say the sudden darkness triggered a natural reaction among many of the animals.

- At nighttime, predators go out a lot more, and so they have to kinda huddle together to be safety in numbers and in case something's coming, so they went into that instinct pretty quickly.

- [Reporter] At the Toledo Zoo, a polar bear didn't seem to care about all the fuss, nonchalantly dove into the water before the sun disappeared.

- To see what the flamingos, the giraffes, and the gorillas did during totality, click the petting zoo thumbnail at the bottom of this episode page.

(air whooshes) (graphic crinkling) (air whooshes) (globe boinging) Cool story, NewsHound.

Thank you so much.

Well, that's all the time we have for today.

But you can keep the conversation going, and there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us, we're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, our zip code here is 44115, or you can send us an email at newsdepth@ideastream.org.

Plus, you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit Subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer, we'll see you right back here next week.

(air whooshes) (lighthearted music) (air whooshes) (globe boinging) - [Narrator] "NewsDepth" is made possible by grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

(bright music)