Looking Ahead

Feb. 4

College football fans will be holding their breath today as high-school standout seniors have their first opportunity to sign letters of intent with colleges that have offered them athletic scholarships. In recent years, top high-school players have used the interest to put on press conferences at their high schools announcing their decisions.

Feb. 8

The AMC network will bank on remaining Breaking Bad fans when it debuts a new series today called Better Call Saul. The new drama is a spinoff of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad series that ended its five-season run in 2013. Bob Odenkirk will reprise his role of Saul Goodman, a shady lawyer in the original series.

Feb. 11

The European Space Agency is set to launch its experimental spaceplane on a suborbital trajectory from a base in French Guiana where the vehicle will travel nearly across the world before parachuting into the Pacific Ocean. Scientists with the ESA hope the Feb. 11 launch will help them to design better re-entry vehicles in the future.

Feb. 14

Rising demand in China and crop diseases in West Africa have economists predicting chocolate shortages and a rise in prices as Valentine’s Day approaches. West Africa typically produces 70 percent of the world’s cocoa.

Feb. 14

The political future of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan will be put to the test today as Nigerians head to the polls for the nation’s general election. Nigerian elections have resulted in bloody violence in the past. And trouble during a recent election in Anambra State have many sounding alarms that the 2015 election could be problematic.