7pm-2021-03-15

7pm-2021-03-15

American rescue plan.

We'll tell you how they plan to use the money.

And, is it worth investing in bitcoin?

We look at all of the hype, and why people are divided over its actual value.

"prime news at 7.

Your news starts now."

Good evening, i'm andrew harrison.

Good evening, i'm andrew harrison.

And i'm emily cassulo.

Welcome to prime news at 7.

The biden administration is deploying fema to the mexican border to help care for thousands of unaccompanied migrant children.

They're packing detention cells and tent shelters.

Now an immigration legal expert from chattanooga is weighing in.

Brittany faith says this is nothing new.

"there have been several times where this has happened previously so in 2014 this happened with the obama administration but this also happened in the trump administration in 2018 and 2019.

And a lot of that surge doesn't necessarily come from our political process, but a lot of it comes from what's happening in their home countries."

The house plans to vote this week on a measure to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the u.s. as children, and provide legal status to farm workers.

Local business owners are reacting to president biden's american rescue plan.

The law includes $14-hundred dollar stimulus checks for individuals making up to $75-thousand dollars a year, $350 billion in aid to local and state governments, and $14 billion for vaccine distribution.

A key component of the law is $25 billion in relief for small and mid-sized restaurants, something that proof incubator owner mike robinson says will be a big help for restaurants in chattanooga.

"the city and county collectively i think received around 110 million of funds that'll also be deployed.

I think the biggest challenge will be figuring out how and where some of these funds are in these small businesses to find the time each day to apply for grants and apply for you know the additional ppp which does close march 31st so time's ticking."

If you want to see when your stimulus check will arrive, the i-r-s has a tracking tool on its website.

More education leaders are weighing in on a law that would allow teachers to permanently remove students from their classroom.

The proposal would require a series of steps the teacher or school must exercise before making the permanent removal.

The hamilton county education association says the goal of the bill is to find an alternate solution for students.

Sometimes you have personality conflicts or there are other issues going on in the classroom.

The major thing that we have to look at is what does the student need.

What needs are not being met when their behaviors are acting up and looking at restorative practices and looking at their basic needs.

The education association would like to see students or parents be able to appeal the removal before the bill goes into effect.

Chatanooga's mayoral runoff race is picking up steam with less than one month from election day.

Dr. elenora woods is now the latest candidate to publicly endorse tim kelly.

Dr. woods credits kelly with being able to work with diverse communities in the past.

Kim white however is endorsed by chattanooga police officers and wants to attract and keep more first responders.

I'm fortunate to be the candidate left in the race for the runoff that is representing the rest of the candidates.

It's about us.

It really is about the vision that we share.

I've been a strong proponent since day one that we need to make sure that we pay our first responders competitive wages.

We're losing so many of them right now and we need to make sure that we provide more resources so we can have the best trained.

Election day is april 13th.

Early voting for that runoff election starts next wednesday, march 24th.

There are 3 locations where you can vote early: the brainered rec center, election commission, and hixson community center.

The brainerd rec and hixson community centers will be open from 10 to 6 monday through friday.

The election commission will be open from 8 to 6.

All locations will be open from 10 to 4 on saturday.

In additioin to the mayor's race, jenny hill and thomas lee are in a runoff for the district 2 city council seat.

Dennis clark and isaiah hester are vying for the district 5 seat.

Investing in cryptocurrencie s like bitcoin can be a wild ride.

News 12's brian armstrong finds out what's special about cryptocurrencies, and why people are so divided over their actual value.

The only question is what's the price?

Using digital currency is nothing new, that's done when we use a credit card or buy something online.

A vast majority of the money we spend a day is not physically a paper dollar, it's a digital representation.

Cryptocurrency's big difference is there is no physical coin.

The most well-known cryptocurrency is bitcoin.

Over the weekend bitcoins's price passed 61 thousand dollars according to coindesk 20.

Since this time last year, it is actually up in dollar terms 900%.

But we've also seen periods of time, where it's fallen 80 or 90%.

Despite its currently high trading value hopkins says it's not stable enough to be an official currency.

The value of our dollars remains relatively stable.

That's because it's backed by the us government.

With cryptocurrencies, it's not backed by anything.

Quite literally it's only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

Hopkins says although it's unlikely cryptocurrency will become our new currency, companies such as tesla do agree to accept bitcoin as payment.

Suppose i signed a contract to buy a tesla two weeks ago and then i go to pick it up today.

I have to go turn my dollars into bitcoin, the price of that car went from $60,000- $80,000 because of the change in bitcoin value.

Some financial experts say cryptocurrency is the way of the future.

Others say investing in cryptocurrency is similar to gambling in vegas.

You can talk to a lot of people who are real bitcoin proponents who will definitely disagree with that.

They see the future of bitcoin as replacing currency and in my opinion, it's gambling.

You've had a pretty nice run how much higher going to go is anyone's guess.

Brian armstrong news 12 now hopkins says if you are interested in investing in cryptocurrency, view it as a small part of your portfolio, that you're willing to lose due to the high risk.

Hopkins also adds a major success from cryptocurrency is with block chain technology, which helps keeps information secure.

Volkswagen is undertaking a massive expansion of battery production to cut the price of electric cars and get an edge on the competition.

Volkswagen says it plans to build six "gigafactories" in europe by 20-30.

The german car maker is shooting for a total production capacity of 240 gigawatt hours per year.

V-w says that's enough juice to power nearly four million of its i-d-three electric vehicles.

Company officials say the cell design they're working on will cut battery costs by up to 50 percent compared to today.

Volkswagen is also adding a large number of new electric vehicle charging points across europe, the u-s, and china time now to meet news 12's pet of the week, frankie flower!

And he could be yours if you'd like to adopt him from the humane educational society of chattanooga.

Frankie flower is a laid back four-year-old who enjoys attention, tolerates being held, and doesn't mind other cats.

Whenever he wants more attention from you, he will boop your head with his face, which is just absolutely adorable.

Frankie is not only sweet, but he is also super cute, and has some of the prettiest cat eyes ever.

If frankie flower sounds like he's a good fit for your family, contact the humane educational society.

All dogs and cats there are up to date on vaccinations.

==== her'es meteorologist bekah birdsall with a first look at your forecast.

A well rain showers have finall returned to the tennessee valle and good news is not really seen a whole lot of lightning with the system to some brief heavy downpour that are continuing to move northeastward now 15 minutes ago were tracking some lightning and thunder with this is done by the latest updates are showing this is weakening out but some heavy downpour is heading into hamilton county as of now expect more rain showers and maybe a rumble of thunder t us actually into early tuesday morning as we are expecting som heavy rainfall is actually for north alabama and north georgia counties it is been breezy old days still got in upwards of 20 mph out there with mild temperatures except for right now in chattanooga's xt six and dalton feels like 63 over in somerville overnight temperatures will only be dropping likely to the low to mid 50s by tomorrow morning so it is going to be way cool for the start of tuesday and wednesday more storm chances return all the l a southern california mother and her baby are finally home together this morning, after they both nearly died from covid-19.

Kristine lazar has more on their emotional reunion, in tonight's health watch.

Yvette camacho is all smiles under that mask..

As she wheeled her newborn daughter emery out of the hospital nats it marks the end of this family's months-long battle with covid-19.

And the beginning of their life together..

I am exctastic, we have been waiting for this moment for quite some time now.

Yvette came to san antonio hospital in upland, california in january with covid.

At just 30 years old, she had no pre-existing conditions other than her pregancy.

She was so sick, she was airlifted to cedars sinai-medical center in los angeles.

By the time she came to us, she was really struggling yvette was put on a life support system that does the job of here lungs.

Her baby needed to be delivered immediately at only 26 weeks.

If she had not come to us or if we had delayed transfer for whatever reason, i don't think neither her nor the baby would have survived this.

Yvette was on a ventilator- her body so weak it needed to be paralyzed, so she wasn't aware of the delivery.

She woke up a week later.

Her only contact with emery for days was over face-time.

Those first moments of her life.

It's the most bonding time and i didn't get to experience that.

Yvette was discharged after 18 days.

Emery was transferred back to san antonio hospital's nicu to be closer to home.

One month and two pounds later, emery was strong enough to leave the hospital.

Both mom and baby are doing well.

It's really a miracle that we both made it.

This new mom says she is going to enjoy every minute of it.

Kristine lazar, cbs news.

Coming up next on prime news at seven... in this week's tech byte, we'll look at the benefits of 5g cell network coverage.

But first...here's bekah with another look at your forecast.

Here's a live look from our c-h-i memorial camera in soddy daisy from the e-p-b fiber optics weather cam network.

"you're watching prime news at 7.

Your news now."

We've heard a lot about 5g network coverage, but what exactly is it?

Area is going to be encompassed in the software is the most western counties is actually for north alabama nor georgia that are under that enhanced that slight risk we will be watching for the potential for strong to severe storms all update workouts right after the break but local weather when you get always in is your favorite outside picture via email will have peace and twitter are the #my cocoa window today's commission is from angel sharon sunset photos taken at chester ross campground last wednesday beautiful unsay angel be right and what's so great about it?

Let's take a look at some of the benefits of 5g.

I'm emily cassulo, and this is tech byte.

Smartphone users have a lot to look forward to.

Best buy's nathan roach says 5g gives you the speed to do anything you want.

Roach : "5g internet is actually going to be about 10 times faster than the current 4g that the majority of people are using.

It's going to be a huge advantage.

It allows for a really seamless transfer of data, and it's going to make really just a much, much quicker, easier user experience on the end."

Roach says it'll be a huge benefit once it's everywhere.

Roach : "if your internet at home was 10 times faster, would it make a difference for you?

Absolutely it would.

You think about the speed of not only being able to communicate with friends, family, relatives, and especially if they're overseas, 5g enables really that instantaneous communication that really allows things to go flawlessly."

It's not in many cities right now, but that will change.

Roach : "5g is ever evolving, so they're always adding more towers.

It's a rollout.

They start obviously with major metropolitan cities, and then roll out from there to highways and other areas, but you're going to see every day you have 5g towers going up, so every day it's an improvement over yesterday."

As 5g coverage continues to expand over the next few months, roach expects it to be just about everywhere within a year.

So how do you prepare for it now if you're in the market for a new phone?

You want the right tech that's compatible.

Especially if you're spending a lot of money.

Roach : "so when you're looking at a new cell phone, whether it be an apple, samsung, anything like that, make sure that you're looking at the 5g technology.

Not only will you be able to take some advantage of it now, it really sets you up in the future when the technology is really fully in place to be able to take advantage of it, so i think it's a great thing to go ahead and do, and it prevents you from being behind when everything's fully rolled out."

Roach says all new iphones are fully 5g, but with some unlocked phones, you'll still see 4g capabilities.

Roach : "if you get a 5g phone, it is backwards compatible with all of the other carriers, so you're not losing anything, you're really just making sure that you are set up for the future."

Even though 5g technology isn't widespread just yet, apple is already working on 6g tech!

We likely won't see that though for about another 10 years.

I'm emily cassulo, and that's this week's tech byte.

Here's a live look from our c-h-i memorial camera at covenant college on lookout mountain from the e-p-b fiber optics weather cam network.

Now, from the epb weather center, your storm team 12 forecast.

Here's a live look from ou at cloudy and foggy start with timber tours right near the mid- 50s in the afternoon late morning it's going to be pretty quiet will have some fast approaching rain showers starting to develop just after : 03 pm so if you do have any land wednesday afternoon if you're just going home from work or school it is going to be ver wet but i think our best shot for possibly some potential strong to severe thunderstorms will be pushy later on that night and continue all the way into thursday morning now wednesday is st.

Patrick's day' if you do have any evening overnight plans deftly want to keep an eye on the radar and again this will be continuing o into early thursday morning as well to weather headlines going into wednesday strong to beer storms are possible no threats will be left outside including the possibility for tornadoes large-scale strong to damaging winds timing wise it can be around a two day events are starting just after 2 pm when they and continuing on into early thursday so what you as they place in your home to shar that plan with family members o people that live in your household have the kids ready t turn a weather application on notifications on and change batteries in your weather radio if you don't have a good one for weather makes you download are brief news 12 now i will give you the latest on any watches warnings or advisories follow the soils will be saturated so do have the possibility of some flooding by wednesday and thursday but current temperatures across the region x86 right now over knoxville xt in nashville in avenue for over in memphis taking a 24 hour temperature change in cooler and the tennessee valley that due to some rain showers that are currently happening right now but x degrees cooler in chattanooga 11 over in atlanta next five days average for this time of year is about 630 were to do about the mid to upper's six teeth are the next several days before we get down to the lowest 60 by our friday and first saturday something you look at the seven day forecast wednesday is a holiday enjoy st patrick's day however may want to bend it indoors it is looking to be very wet possibly with some strong to severe storms is actually towards the overnight hours into thursday friday will have a little but of leftover moisture but that will clear ou quickly and it looks like we ar going to be dealing with lots o sunshine cooler weather for this first for this first weekend of drink lots of in china expected could even reach the mid to upper 30s the buyers monday though while we do have very springlike conditions labs so can be dealing with little bit cooler weather by next weekend and leaning to the little chilly you little cold there is a part of the double console on right now i'm i want that rainbow ... would be the regulators lisa robinson was of the thathow long has it been woulsince you went to bed,sa laid down, and your brain actually cooperated?

Well, i don't sleep well.

So, i'm always looking for great ideas to help me.

And i have two today that you're gonna love.

One of them's called dodow.

This is a brand new sleep device, and it's a sleep aid device.

Super easy.

It has this light and it goes up on the ceiling.

And it kind of goes brighter and dimmer, and brighter and dimmer.

And you pace your breathing, your inhale and your exhale by the light, focusing on that and controlling your breathing actually takes your brain from an active state to a resting state so that you can go to sleep.

By the way, if you just have anxiety at 3:00 in the afternoon, and you wanna use this to center yourself for a few minutes, you can do it that way, too.

We also have the hoomband.

And this is this flat, breathable, wonderful band with the ear phones built in.

So, the ear phone is here and you can literally sleep right on it.

This goes by bluetooth to the hoom app, and it's actually gonna have sleep stories, meditation, and soothing sounds and music and everything you want whether you're on a plane, or whether you're at home, or, again, whether you just want to relax a little bit in the middle of a very anxiety-ridden day.

I love the fact that we have two great ways for you to sleep.

And two really great gift ideas if anyone else that you love is having a hard time sleeping, as well.

So, localsteals.com right now.

This dodow is 33% off.

This is 30% off.

Two great ways to sleep without having to take anything.

Sign me up!

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