(upbeat music) - Coming up next on "NewsDepth".

Where has all the cheese gone?

Costco customers wanna know.

Mary's got the history of Ohio's ancient animals.

No joke, this guy's second book of jokes is for sale.

And when can a kid get a COVID vaccine?

We'll tell ya.

"NewsDepth" is now.

We've passed the one year mark.

Hello, everybody, I'm Rick Jackson.

Thank you for joining us.

It was this time last year that everything changed, when the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.

Businesses and schools across the nation, and the globe, shut their doors, and we all had to figure out a whole new way of living.

Here at "NewsDepth", we scrambled to figure out how to keep this show coming to you.

Remember when I was talking to you from my living room?

But the outlook now is a lot brighter than it was in 2020, and that's what President Joe Biden wanted the nation to know in his prime-time televised address last Thursday.

He gave the speech just hours after signing a $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill into law.

Karin Caifa has details from Washington.

- Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do.

- [Karin] President Joe Biden marking a somber occasion, one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

- A year filled with the loss of life and the loss of living for all of us.

- [Karin] In a nearly 25 minute speech, Biden reflected upon more than half a million US lives lost, praised Americans' resilience and prepared the nation for more challenges ahead.

- The only way to get our lives back, to get our economy back on track, is to beat the virus.

- [Karin] And talked about how he believes the nearly $2 trillion COVID relief package he signed into law Thursday afternoon is going to help restore normalcy to American life.

- If we do our part, if we do this together, by July the fourth, there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together.

- [Karin] The speech, the kickoff of a campaign by the White House to let American voters know what they're getting.

- A new website that will help you, first, find the place to get vaccinated, and the one nearest you.

We can accelerate massive nationwide effort to reopen our schools safely.

- [Karin] The effort will see Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and cabinet members travel to multiple States to highlight federal aid programs funded by the bill, and bat back in to Republican criticism.

- Thanks, Karin.

President Biden also called on states to make the vaccine available to all adults by the 1st of May.

Right now, the three COVID 19 vaccines available in the US are for adults only.

You must be 18 or older to get Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and 16 or older to get the vaccine made by Pfizer, but trials are underway for younger children and adolescents.

An adolescent is a young person, usually between the ages of 10 and 19.

Now, we know a lot of you have asked us when you'd be able to get a shot.

Mandy Gather has more for us on that.

Mandy?

- [Mandy] Three COVID 19 vaccines, millions of doses, going into the arms of Americans, but these shots are not yet authorized for children.

- Right now, we project that the clinical trials will give us information, that by the time we get to the Fall, that high school students will be able to be vaccinated.

- [Mandy] Johnson & Johnson announced its plans to study their vaccine in adolescents.

Children who have a very low chance of becoming severely ill from COVID-19 were not part of the initial tests in the rapid approval process of the vaccines.

The company's CEO says it will begin testing in people ages 12 to 18, and go down from there.

It says Johnson & Johnson is likely to have a COVID-19 vaccine available for those under 18 by September.

Both Pfizer and Moderna are already undergoing clinical trials, studying their vaccines in adolescents, Moderna planning to study the vaccine in children six months to 11 years, and what it called the near term.

Pfizer says it's expecting to start vaccine studies in children ages five to 11 in the next couple of months.

- Children who are elementary school, six to 12, that group of individuals, those individuals likely will not be able to get vaccinated until their trials are finished, which will likely be at the earliest the end of this year.

- [Mandy] In a recent letter to the White House, the American Academy of Pediatrics is urging the Biden administration to prioritize vaccine authorization for youth, saying, "We cannot allow children to be an afterthought "when they have shared so much burden "throughout this pandemic."

- Thanks, Mandy.

Well, speaking of kids and COVID, we asked you to vote last week on whether you were comfortable with pandemic restrictions being rolled back.

It was a pretty close call too.

53% of you saying you were okay with the rollback.

Remember a year ago, when those restrictions first started to be put in place?

Folks were going crazy at the stores, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, both hard to come by, thermometers, hand soap, disinfectant wipes.

People were stocking up on whatever they could find, and those things made a lot of sense, but throughout the pandemic, there have been other, more perplexing, hot ticket items.

There was a shortage on flour and yeast, when everybody tried to make their own bread at home.

Remember that?

Then roller skates and scented candles started selling fast.

What's missing from some store shelves now?

Apparently it's cheese.

Big box chain, Costco, is running out of certain cheeses.

Part of the problem is that consumers have been buying more, in general, since January.

A consumer's someone who buys goods or services for their own use.

Now, those purchases have led to a shortage of shipping containers and jams at ports, like the one in Los Angeles.

It's not just cheese that's hard to come by either.

Stacy Butler has that story.

- I've had trouble finding certain products.

- [Stacey] Just when we thought we had pandemic shopping down, suddenly finding your favorite imported cheese or all of their patio furniture at Costco seems impossible.

The executive director of the port of Los Angeles says he knows why.

- This is the change in the American consumer.

- [Stacey] Eugene Seroka says the Port of LA can hardly keep up with a surge in consumer spending since July.

They're now moving 900,000 containers through the port a month.

- [Eugene] Since COVID-19 emergency orders came down about a year ago, we've been buying more retail goods, home improvement products and exercise equipment than ever before.

- [Stacey] Imports, he says, are up a whopping 50%.

The Port of LA used to see maximum 10 cargo ships in its port at a time, and now there's 15 every day, with 30 more waiting outside, to unload containers full of goods.

- I've been in this business over 30 years, and this is the biggest surge that we've seen of imports to the United States ever.

- [Stacey] Seroka says, for the first time, the 2 billion square feet of warehouse space from here to the Mojave isn't enough, but he's hopeful that cargo will be moved, as hundreds of workers, who were out with COVID, are now returning to work and getting vaccinated.

- [Eugene] Everybody out there in the docks is hustling, but we've got cargo behind it and cargo behind it.

We've got to do our jobs.

- Thanks, Stacy.

Even when shipping is going smoothly and store shelves are full, many families have felt the strain of the pandemic on their incomes, making help, in the form of food and basic necessities, crucial to them, but undocumented immigrants may be especially scared to reach out when they're in need.

An immigrant is someone who moves to another country to live but undocumented means they may not have done so legally.

That's why a food pantry in Connecticut is reaching out, to show it's okay for them to ask for help.

Poppy Harlow has that story.

- What's your favorite food?

- Pizza.

- Six-year-old Alejandro and eight-year-old Anthony love pizza, especially pepperoni.

Cheese?

Pepperoni?

- Pepperoni.

- But their mother struggled to feed them as the pandemic hit.

Did your children ever go hungry earlier in the pandemic?

- Yes, sometimes.

- Alejandrina Ortez Miralis tells us she worked cleaning bathrooms and floors at a department store, until it closed.

(Alejandrina speaking in foreign language) - I cleaned the whole center, where people walk, and the glass, and the bins, where they put the trash, and the bathrooms.

- [Poppy] She tells us she came to the United States from Guatemala when she was 16 years old.

She says she came alone, looking for work, her parents unable to support their family.

(Alejandrina speaking in foreign language) - I worked in the fields, in tobacco, picking apples or pears, and a tomato factory too.

- [Poppy] She's been the United States 15 years.

Now, she volunteers at this food bank, but she also relies on it for survival.

- I heard on the street that she was helping people with food.

(Alejandrina speaking in foreign language) We didn't have food and she's the one who helped me with food, and now that she's moved here, I come to help her.

- [Poppy] She is Xiaomi de la Cruz.

At seven months pregnant, Xiaomi and her partner, Ingmar, are giving food to their hungry neighbors.

- Baby girl or baby boy?

(Xiaomi speaking in foreign language) - [Poppy] When Xiaomi came to the US just over a year ago, seeking asylum, she could barely get by.

(Xiaomi speaking in foreign language) - When I came here to the United States, I was starting from zero.

I didn't have the economic support to buy diapers, formula.

I didn't know how to feed my kids.

- She fled Peru, she says, after severe violence from a family member.

Is it a better life here?

(Xiaomi speaking in foreign language) - It's okay.

What is bringing the tears?

(Xiaomi speaking in foreign language) - Because it's hard.

A lot of things happen in my country.

It's hard to be here, to be an immigrant, to be a single mom, but I don't regret it, because I can live well, with dignity and happiness.

- You live with dignity now.

- Yes.

- [Poppy] What she didn't know is how hard life would be for her and her children, seven-year-old Diego and one-year-old Maia.

(Xiaomi speaking in foreign language) - I walked more than two hours to go to the food pantry, to get diapers, food.

- [Poppy] That need resurfaced when the pandemic hit and her hours working at a fast food restaurant were cut.

Once again, she had to rely on food banks.

Out of her need grew an idea that would become a source of support, she says, for nearly 1000 mostly undocumented immigrants in Hartford, Connecticut, many of them children.

In her own living room, she started La bodeguita de la gente, the Peoples' Little Market, supported by donations, and now run from this basement below a mattress store.

- The families are coming with three, four kids.

Some of them have seven or eight kids.

You might see a lot of this, but this right here, in one day, can just go out.

- In a day?

- In a day.

- It's cold and damp, no extra money to pay for heat.

Could you ever imagine it would become this?

- No, no, never, that's why sometimes I enjoy spending a lot of time here, because I can see everything that I've achieved.

- My mum used to put me in different programs, but would frequently she didn't have enough money to support me, so I remember telling her one time, I was like, "When I grow up, I want to help people too."

- [Poppy] La bodeguita serves primarily Latin-X families, many undocumented and scared to raise their hands for help.

- The landlords that they had, they were threatening them.

- Threatening them with what?

- if you don't pay any rent, they might call immigration on you.

(Xiaomi speaking in foreign language) - We have many families that have chosen to pay the rent and don't have anything to eat, and when Ingmar and I visit their homes, they tell us, "If you hadn't come, it's already been three or four days "that we haven't eaten."

They're afraid to ask for help from the government, or to receive it from other places, that they wouldn't get their papers.

- Xiaomi is speaking about public charge, a Trump-era rule that makes it harder for people to change their immigration status if they have access to public benefits, including food assistance.

President Biden has ordered his administration to review the rule, and that leaves so many of these families leaning on each other to make it through each day, in a pandemic that is already disproportionately hitting this community.

- Thanks, Poppy.

You heard her mention a policy that makes it difficult for undocumented immigrants to become citizens if they ask for food or medical assistance from the government.

Well, just last week, President Biden put an end to that policy.

His administration has promised several changes to how immigration will be handled, but that's a story for another time.

Right now, let's see what you all had to say about where you want to be headed, because we asked you what kind of pioneer you would like to be last week.

Let's see what you had to say by opening up our inbox.

Izzy from Dewitt Elementary in Cuyahoga Falls, wrote, "When I grow up, I want to be the kind of pioneer "that does things that people think women can't do.

"It doesn't matter if you're a girl.

"Girls can do everything, just the same and maybe better, "as men can do.

"For example, when I grow up, I want to be the president, "even though I'm a girl.

"That is what pioneer I want to be."

Addison from Ross Middle in Hamilton has big dreams.

"I either want to be the first person to explore Saturn "and get to know what it feels like to float around Saturn "and explore it, or be the first person to make a car "that flies and can turn into a rocket ship, "by just hitting a button, "but my dream is to fly around Saturn "and be the first person to explore it."

Ben from Nord Middle School in Amherst is also looking to space.

"I would want to be the first kid "to orbit our home planet, earth.

"If I were able to do this, I would be able to prove "that the earth is round to my friends.

"I will also be able to experience space for the first time, "and that is why I would want to orbit earth."

Here's one from Emily at Memorial Elementary in Brunswick.

"When I grow up, I would like to be the first person "to make shoes that help you dance, because then, "for people that don't know how to dance, it can help them.

"Also, because it would help many people, "and maybe because I want to get better at dancing..." Ah, there's a secret there.

"Lastly, because I could help people in ballet "to dance swifter than the wind."

Finally, there's Mason from Central Intermediate in Wadsworth, who wrote, "I want to be the youngest interior designer.

"I have always loved design and becoming the youngest "would be a huge honor.

"I feel that when people experience design, "it makes them feel better, especially kids.

"That is why I would want to be "the youngest interior designer."

Wow, those are some great aspirations, everybody, and I really have to say, your letters are getting better and better every week.

It's getting harder for us to just pick five to share in the show.

So don't forget to check online to see if your letter was shared on the inbox page instead, and thank you.

Okay, we did get a couple of letters from you about becoming authors, including Matthew from Jackson intermediate in Hebron.

He wants to be the first person to write 1000 books, so this next story is all for all of you aspiring authors.

It's about a California teen who used his downtime during the pandemic to write a joke book, that's now in 2000 stores.

In fact, through sales of his book, he saved up enough money to pay for college.

Leticia Ordaz has this inspiring story.

- Is that amazing, son?

You're on store shelves.

- [Leticia] It's a dream come true for Sheldon High School junior, Josiah Johnson.

CVS stores nationwide are now selling his new joke book.

He got to see it for himself at his neighborhood store in Elk Grove.

- It's really crazy, still thinking about it, that it's in the store, but I think it could inspire kids to just know that you can do whatever you want.

- [Leticia] The book is called "Jo's Joking Jokes."

It's featured in the Easter section of more than 2000 stores.

The teen says this deal means he now has enough money in the bank to pay for four years of college.

- Knowing that I can pay for my college tuition and it's not my parents having to pay, I'm able to pay for my own college tuition for four years, I don't know a lot of people that can do that.

- [Leticia] Filled with kid-friendly jokes, it's selling for $5.

- Why do fingers want peace?

- Why?

- To stop the thumb war.

- [Leticia] We first met Josiah when he was just 13.

That's when he wrote his first joke book.

It was a big hit at his school and on Amazon.

Fast forward four years, and his second joke book has turned him from author to young entrepreneur.

- I never would've thought I'd be an author of my own joke book, but having the idea, it really helped me, and then seeing it in the store, as African-Americans, yeah, we're (indistinct) mostly as athletes, but you got entrepreneurs, authors, doctors, whatever.

We're way more than just athletes.

- [Leticia] The Sheldon High School junior has been getting a lot of great business advice from his dad, Chris Johnson, who is the founder of Rapid Brands, and encouraged his son to jot down the jokes he was sharing with his family.

- Just imagine what he thinks is possible, from him writing jokes in his phone, to you look up one day, and now you're in this many stores, to seeing the wire into your bank account at only 17.

- Why did the boxer lose his job?

- Why?

- He forgot to punch in.

- [Leticia] Through his jokes and his vision, Josiah is breaking barriers, earning his own money, and looking forward to paving the way for others.

- We're a strong, amazing race, and I think that anybody can do anything, regardless of race, so I feel really great, knowing that I'm a African-American and an author that created a book.

- Thanks, Leticia.

CVS, the drug store chain, they loved Josiah's joke books so much, they've already asked him to create another one, this one for Christmas, and he says he's busy working on it already.

Now, for this week's write in, we want you to send us your best joke.

Now, we're going to be headed on spring break for a couple of weeks, so you have plenty of time to come up with some really good ones.

Now, sticking with impressive students, how about we announce this week's NewsDepth A+ winner.

It's 14-year-old Bree Obhoff, a St. Francis Xavier student in Medina.

She combined her love for paleontology with a can-do attitude to do something really inspirational.

Bree helped Ohio Senate Bill 123 get passed.

It named the Dunkleosteus Terrelli, or the dunk, the state fossil fish.

The dunk was a huge prehistoric fish, that lived during a time when Ohio was covered in water.

Prehistoric, of course, means coming from a time before there were written records.

The dunk was as long as a school bus, weighed a ton, and was the fiercest predator in the water.

Some of the best and most complete fossils of the dunk in Ohio were discovered when highway crews were digging into the ground, back in the 1960s.

Now, because Bree has such an interest in paleontology, she loves going to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, to see all the exhibits there, and the one fossil Bree always loved was a Dunkleosteus Terrelli.

One day, Bree was talking to Fran Buchholzer, who's a museum board member, about paleontology, and Fran and Bree got this idea.

Let's get the dunk named the Ohio state fish fossil.

But how do you go about getting a bill passed?

As Bree was about to learn, it can take a lot of steps and a lot of time, but fortunately, Bree's dad, maybe you recognize the last name, is Larry Obhoff.

He was the State Senate President at the time, so he was able to help guide her through the political process.

Ohio Senate Bill 123 was introduced two years ago, sponsored by Senators Matt Dolan and Nathan Manning.

Bree had to testify before a senate committee to explain more about the dunk and why this prehistoric fish is so important to Ohio, and that's not an easy thing for a 12 year old, or a 60 year old for that matter.

So giving a speech in front of a number of state senators could make people nervous.

Her mom, Nicole, said once Bree testified before the senate committee, she, quote, "hit it out of the ballpark."

Bree said testifying was exhilarating, and the whole process was really exciting, because she says she was creating something for Ohio.

Senate Bill 123 was signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine this past December, and here's a picture of Bree, holding the pen the governor used to sign the bill and officially named the Dunkleosteus Terrelli the state fish fossil.

How cool is that?

No surprise, Bree wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up, but she also wants to write books and graphic novels, and who knows, maybe she'll run for office one day, like her dad.

Congratulations, Bree, for all that you've accomplished and for following your passions, and we are proud to award you this week's NewsDepth A+.

Now, the dunk wasn't the only fascinating prehistoric creature to call Ohio home.

Mary's got the details in this week's "Know Ohio."

Take a look.

(upbeat music) - I don't know about you, but I've met some pretty fierce predators in my neighborhood, like once I saw a squirrel that was this big.

Terrifying.

Oh, and there was a spider in my basement that was huge, sort of hairy, and don't get me started about this ferocious beast I found in my living room.

I really have to watch myself around here, but, okay, I will admit that the animals that live among us today are probably not as big or bad as the creatures that roamed Ohio in prehistoric times.

Take, for instance, the Castoroides, also known as the giant beaver.

It looked a lot like today's cute little beaver, that we all know and love, but as the name suggests, the giant beaver was much, much larger.

In fact, it could grow as large as seven feet tall and weigh up to 276 pounds, about the size of a black bear, making it the largest rodent in North America during the Ice Age.

We know about this animal, because its fossils were first discovered in a swamp about 50 miles west of Columbus.

By looking closely at the fossils, scientists have figured out that these beavers had much larger teeth, and since they're shaped differently, some scientists say they may not have built dams, like today's beavers, and another thing scientists discovered, giant beavers did not have giant brains.

Their brains were proportionally smaller than modern beavers, so giant beavers were not only big, they were big and kind of dumb.

These big dumb beavers shared Ohio with some hairy elephants.

You've likely heard of wooly mammoths, and we found a few mammoth fossils, but even more common in Ohio is a very close relative, the Mastodon.

Mastodons called Ohio home 20,000 years ago, and they're known for their shaggy haircuts and long tusks that could extend to over 16 feet long.

They were also on the menu of Ohio's first native tribes, and one of these guys could feed a lot of people.

Mastodon bones have been found all over the state, including a number of complete skeletons, like the Conway Mastodon found in 1887, and the Johnston Mastodon found in 1926 and displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

But these are far from the oldest fossils that have been found in Ohio.

In fact, we've uncovered animal fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old, and there's something interesting about these old fossils.

They are all of aquatic animals.

That's because Ohio was once covered in a shallow sea.

Some of the oldest are these guys, trilobites.

They lived at the bottom of Ohio Sea and had segmented bodies and exoskeletons, like crabs and lobsters.

We've found so many trilobites here, that it's Ohio's official state fossil.

But many animals that shared Ohio Sea were not nearly as friendly.

I'm thinking about the Dunkleosteus.

It doesn't exactly look warm and cuddly, does he?

Well, he wasn't.

You're looking at likely the meanest, scariest predator to ever swim in the ocean.

Their heads were covered in thick bony armor, which extended into sharpened fangs in the front of the mouth.

These fangs, combined with an amazingly powerful jaw, made them the most feared predator in the ancient ocean, capable of chomping nearly every other species in their habitat.

If you're getting freaked out, let me remind you.

The Dunkleosteus has been gone a long time.

They went extinct about 360 million years ago and left no true descendants, so let's all go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief.

(Mary exhaling) - Thank you, Mary.

For this week's poll, we want to know which of the prehistoric creatures you think is the coolest.

Head to our online poll to choose from the Dunkleosteus, the giant beaver, the Mastodon or the trilobite, and speaking of creatures, let's see what News Cat has pawed up for this week's "Petting Zoo".

(dramatic music) (cat meowing) Hey, News Cat, are you ready for spring break?

Must be, because she's off to the computer.

What'd she find?

Oh, it's a story about a special Zoom call for seniors and pets to keep each other company.

That's pretty sweet.

- It is really special for a bunch of reasons.

She's a bantam, which means she's a miniature chicken.

This is as big as she'll get.

All of it designed to provide much needed social interaction for the elderly, who've been largely isolated at home - To find out about the creature conference call, click the Petting Zoo button on our website.

Thank you, News Cat.

Now, one last reminder, we are headed on spring break.

Teachers, the full season's schedules up on the "NewsDepth" website, or sign up for our weekly e-newsletter, and we'll send you a reminder when the show's coming back on.

students, that gives you extra time to write on in, especially with those jokes, 'cause we always want to hear from you, and there are plenty of ways to stay in touch.

You can write to us.

We're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code, 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org, or you can tweet us.

Our handle is @NewsDepthOhio, plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube, and if you're old enough, hit subscribe, so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Rick Jackson.

We'll see you right back here in April.

(upbeat music) - "NewsDepth" is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.