These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
CALIFORNIA TO FORCE NCAA TO PAY ATHLETES
California state senator Nancy Skinner [D] has cosponsored the The Fair Pay to Play Act, which entitles California college athletes to get paid for “the use of their name, image and likeness.” The bill — popular with both labor activists and free market ideologues — passed the Assembly on Monday 72-0. Governor Newsom is expected to sign the bill in the next 30 days, and it would go into effect in 2023. The colleges say it spells the end of California’s participation in collegiate sports, predicting that California teams will be excluded from national play (they don’t mention the possibility that other states will pass legislation similar to California’s).
[SOURCE: boingboing.net]
SOUTH KOREA MILITARY SAYS NORTH LAUNCHES 2 PROJECTILES
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the North Korean projectiles fired from its South Pyongan province on Tuesday morning flew toward the waters off its east coast. It gave no further details. The reported launches came hours after North Korea said it is willing to resume nuclear diplomacy with the United States in late September but that Washington must come to the negotiating table with acceptable new proposals.
[SOURCE: apnews.com]
PENN’S HEAD OF COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES DIES BY SUICIDE AT CENTER CITY BUILDING
Gregory Eells, 52, came to Penn six months ago to lead the department that counsels students with mental health problems. He had come from Cornell University, where he had worked for more than a decade and was an expert on resilience. Eells’ mother, Jeanette Eells-Rich, said he had been down in recent months, saying the job was harder than he anticipated and had kept him from his wife and three children, who were still living in Ithaca, N.Y.
[SOURCE: inquirer.com]
“NO BOMB” FOUND IN VAN WITH 1,000 GALLONS OF GAS IN DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE PARKING GARAGE, PRECAUTIONARY SWEEPS CONTINUE – BALTIMORE SUN
The widespread evacuation of T. Rowe Price Group and other firms in several high rise buildings downtown snarled traffic, sparked Sept. 11 anxiety and transformed the heart of the city’s business and tourist district into a crime scene tied off with yellow tape. But a police robot that entered the 15-passenger van with blacked out windows did not discover a bomb. Instead, it found a device used for stealing diesel fuel and two bins full of possibly stolen fuel, police said. Several city officials said they were told the van contained approximately 1,000 gallons of gasoline and Fire Chief Roman Clark repeated the line during a news conference around noon.
[SOURCE: baltimoresun.com]
WILBUR ROSS THREATENED TO FIRE TOP NOAA STAFF AFTER OFFICE CONTRADICTED TRUMP ON DORIAN
Trump faced pushback from meteorologists last week after stating that Alabama would potentially feel the effects of Dorian. The warning, which came via tweet, prompted the National Weather Service’s Birmingham branch to emphasize on Twitter that the state would not be affected by the storm. Trump adamantly defended his position throughout the week and at one point displayed a map in the Oval Office that appeared to show a marker-drawn addition to indicate Dorian would hit Alabama. Ross contacted acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs two days later and asked him to fix issues related to the perception that the agency had contradicted Trump, the Times reported Monday, citing three people familiar with the discussion. The newspaper said that Jacobs initially objected.
[SOURCE: thehill.com]
TENNESSEE STATE GOP LAWMAKER SAYS GETTING RID OF HIGHER EDUCATION WOULD “SAVE AMERICA”
State Sen. Kerry Roberts made the remarks while speaking on his conservative talk radio show last week. He addressed his problems with the higher education system while discussing a recent legislative hearing focused on abortion legislation. Roberts argued that an activist’s public testimony in favor of abortion rights was a “product of higher education,” adding that abolishing the system would “save America.” The comments gained attention on Monday after the website Tennessee Holler shared a shortened clip of Roberts’ remarks on Twitter. The video had accumulated 27,000 views as of Tuesday afternoon.
[SOURCE: thehill.com]
ANNOUNCER DURING USA-BRAZIL FIBA GAME FELL SILENT WHEN CAMERAS CUT TO STUNNING FEMALE FAN
Focus on the game, guys! While the FIBA World Cup isn’t the most entertaining tournament, it’s still a worldwide event, and USA vs Brazil actually provided a captivating matchup for a good portion of the game. That is, until this female Brazilian fan decided to take over when the cameras cut to her. Let’s check in with the announcers…not a peep from those guys when listening to that audio.
[SOURCE: 12up.com]
POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN TO REGISTER VOTERS ON 20-STATE TOUR
The Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the campaign, said Monday at a news conference in Washington, D.C., that the tour begins Sept. 16 in El Paso, Texas, and will culminate on June 20 with an assembly on the National Mall in Washington. Three stops are planned in at least 22 states, with Day 1 focusing on the communities and their stories; Day 2 on voter registration and Day 3 on a march and rally. The original Poor People’s Campaign was established by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in December 1967, four months before he was assassinated. Barber revived that campaign in 2017, four years after he had started the “Moral Monday” movement, which organized protests about issues including gerrymandering, voting rights, LGBTQ rights and unions.
[SOURCE: apnews.com]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of a weekend.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Wrap-Up Show with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
To ‘participate’ in the rankings of the headlines for this newsletter or the podcast, follow the Conversation Project on social media and engage with the posts to give them more ‘votes.’ The Conversation Project can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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