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Start your Monday smart: Shutdown, Parkland, Virginia, Venezuela, Valentine’s Day

Posted at 4:47 PM, Feb 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-10 18:47:17-05

Here’s what you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.

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TODAY

• Grammys honor music’s best. It could be a big night for Cardi B, Janelle Monáe, Drake and others at the61st annual awards in Los Angeles. Here’s everything you need to know about the ceremony. Coverage begins at 8 ET on CBS.

• Alpine skiing marks the end of an era. The last race for Lindsey Vonn, considered the greatest female skier ever, happensin Sweden at the Alpine World Ski Championships.

• Some 3,000 dogs sniff fame at Westminster. Top purebreds compete in the iconic kennel club event. Best-in-show honors get dished out late Tuesday. Here’s how to watch, starting at 2 p.m. ET on Fox.

MONDAY

• Trump rallies at the border as another shutdown looms. The President heads to Texas to rally support ahead of the expiration Friday of the law that reopened parts of the government last month. His demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall triggered that shutdown, and he’s said he may preventanother closure by using executive powers to pay for one. The debate is sure to suck up this week’s political oxygen.

• Pitchers and catchers report. They’re some of the happiest words in baseball. Workouts begin this week. Opening Day is March 28.

TUESDAY

• An accuser of Virginia’s lieutenant governor is due to speak out. Vanessa Tyson, one of two women who’ve accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, will take questions at Stanford University. Fairfax, who denies the allegations, is among three top Democrats in his statefacing pressure to step down.

• Malaysia’s trial of the century is set to begin. This case has a $250 million yacht, a Picasso and a Lindsay Lohan link. Prosecutors will begin detailing chargesof abuse of power and money laundering against an ex-Prime Minister and other top officials accused of embezzling $3.5 billion from a state fund called 1MDB. They deny the allegations.

WEDNESDAY

• US vice president heads to Poland and Germany. Mike Pence heads to Europe for four days of meetings on global security, including NATO and stability in the Mideast and Latin America. Keep an ear out for what he says about Iran and ISIS in Syria; Trump and his top intelligence advisersrecently clashedon those topics.

• Colombia’s President visits the White House. Iván Duque Márquezis in Washington as chaos continues to rock his nation’s neighbor, Venezuela. More protests there are expected this week after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blocked aid trucks at a checkpoint set by opposition leader and self-declared president, Juan Guaido.

THURSDAY

• Parkland marks a grim milestone. Suddenly, they were gone: 17 students and educators, gunned down a year ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. The massacresparked a youth movementand ushered in what one advocacy group called a “remarkable increase in new gun safety legislation.”

• Valentine’s Day is for lovers. If outlandish shows of affection are your thing, you’ve got a few more days to come up with the perfect surprise.

FRIDAY

• The federal government may close again at midnight. Another partial shutdown could begin if lawmakers can’t strike a deal on how to secure the US-Mexico border. Negotiators are still billions of dollars apart as 800,000 federal employees hold their breath over whether they’ll be forced again to work — or stay home — without pay.

• ‘Grandma was a suffragette.’ Some states celebrate a holiday marking Susan B. Anthony‘s birth, 199 years ago. If you don’t think her spirit of disruption lives on today, just watch and listen.

SATURDAY

• Nigerians will choose a president. Corruption and the fight against the Islamist terror group Boko Haram are top of mind as voters head to the polls. Legislative seats in the nation with Africa’s largest economy are also up for grabs less than a year after the#NotTooYoungToRun billreduced age limits for candidates.