These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 84-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past weekend.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
MISSING CLARK ATLANTA STUDENT ALEXIS CRAWFORD FOUND DEAD
In a news conference on Friday afternoon, Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said Crawford was found dead in a park in DeKalb County off of Columbia Drive. Police said they were led to her body by one of the suspects. Officers secured warrants against and later arrested Barron Brantley. They were also securing warrants for Jordyn Jones – Crawford’s roommate and Brantley’s girlfriend, police said. She was arrested on Saturday and charged with malice murder. Brantley waived his first court appearance on the same day. His preliminary hearing before a Fulton Superior Court judge has been scheduled for November 22. He remains in the Fulton County Jail without bond. Friday night, Fulton County jail records showed that Brantley had been booked for a murder charge. Other charges listed were for probation violations and one for hindering person making emergency telephone call. Records show Brantley has several prior arrests.
[SOURCE: 11alive.com]
FLU SHOTS THAT WERE INSULIN IN OKLAHOMA LEAVE 10 HOSPITALIZED
Ten people at a care facility for people with intellectual disabilities were hospitalized Wednesday after they were injected with insulin rather than the flu vaccine. The incident took place at the Jacquelyn House in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, about 40 miles north of Tulsa, after multiple people were found unresponsive, said Bartlesville Police Chief Tracy Roles. Eight residents and two staff members were all hospitalized following the incident, but have since been released or will be soon. Roles said that a licensed pharmacist was contracted by the facility to administer the vaccine. The pharmacist is cooperating with police and state officials, but investigators believe it was an accident. Jamie Dukes from the Oklahoma State Department of Health told USA TODAY in an email that the pharmacist supplied the medication from a third-party pharmacy, and that staff at the facility are not responsible in any way for the error.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
JAMES WISEMAN, MEMPHIS STAR FRESHMAN, RULED INELIGIBLE BY NCAA
Wiseman arrived at FedExForum at 5:17 p.m., less than 45 minutes before Memphis was scheduled to tip off its second game of the 2019-20 season, and was announced in the starting lineup. Wiseman scored 17 points in Memphis’ 92-46 win over UIC. The NCAA responded to the court’s injunction, issuing the following statement: “The University of Memphis was notified that James Wiseman is likely ineligible. The university chose to play him and ultimately is responsible for ensuring its student-athletes are eligible to play.” According to Blake Ballin, another member of Wiseman’s legal team, the NCAA sent a letter deeming Wiseman ineligible just before he took the court for the Tigers’ season-opening win over South Carolina State on Tuesday night. At issue, Blake Ballin said, is coach Penny Hardaway’s status as a university booster and thousands of dollars the NCAA alleges Hardaway gave to Wiseman’s mother, Donzaleigh Artis, for moving expenses when Wiseman relocated from Nashville to Memphis in the summer of 2017.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
CELEBS COME OUT AGAINST CGI CASTING OF JAMES DEAN IN NEW FILM
The production company behind the movie, Magic City Films, has obtained rights to Dean’s image via his estate. Having died in a car crash in 1955, the company will recreate the star using CGI technology, including actual footage and photos of the “Rebel Without a Cause” actor, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. Several big names have come out against the move, including Captain America himself, Chris Evans, who tweeted, “I’m sure he’d be thrilled” with an eye-rolling emoji. He went on, “This is awful. Maybe we can get a computer to paint us a new Picasso. Or write a couple new John Lennon tunes. The complete lack of understanding here is shameful.” “Lord of the Rings” star Elijah Wood agreed, reposting the report on Twitter with the added caption, “NOPE. this shouldn’t be a thing.” “Finding Jack” co-director Anton Ernst told THR that the casting department “searched high and low for the perfect character to portray the role of Rogan, which has some extreme complex character arcs, and after months of research, we decided on James Dean.
[SOURCE: pagesix.com]
KSI VS. LOGAN PAUL 2 PURSES: YOUTUBE STARS EACH GUARANTEED $900,000
The California State Athletic Commission has put down $900,000 each for both headliners for this six-round cruiserweight bout. If we’re being completely realistic, they’re making a lot more money than that through their personal sponsorships and (at least from KSI’s side) perhaps a cut of the pay-per-view from Sky Box Office in the United Kingdom. When these two fought in an amateur bout last year, they reportedly sold over a million pay-per-views and made millions of dollars. One can only assume history will repeat itself for Saturday. As for the actual established boxers on the undercard, WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney is getting a $1 million purse, which is one hell of a feat at just 20 years old. His opponent, the unheralded Alfredo Santiago, is getting a decidedly paltry $90,000, although it might be more than what’s listed given how often foreign fighters have underreported payouts for tax reasons.
[SOURCE: bloodyelbow.com]
2 DEAD AFTER CRASHED PORSCHE ENDS UP LODGED IN SECOND FLOOR OF BUILDING
A speeding driver lost control of his red Porsche convertible and struck a median in New Jersey on Sunday — sending the car flying into the second floor of a commercial building and killing both himself and a passenger, cops said. The driver, Braden DeMartin, 22, and his passenger, Daniel Foley, 23, were pronounced dead at the scene in Toms River, authorities said. Police said DeMartin was driving at “a high rate of speed” at around 6:30 a.m. when the 2010 Porsche Boxster hit a center median, plowed into an embankment and “went airborne.” The sports car flew at least 15 feet in the air before crashing into a real-estate office on the second floor of the brick building at Hooper and Beatrice avenues.
[SOURCE: nypost.com]
WEATHER FORECAST: ARCTIC BLAST NEXT WEEK TO HIT MIDWEST, EAST, SOUTH
This week’s cold snap is only an appetizer compared with the main Arctic blast that’s coming next week, meteorologists said. That freeze could be one for the record books. “The National Weather Service is forecasting 170 potential daily record cold high temperatures Monday to Wednesday,” tweeted Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman. “A little taste of January in November.” The temperature nosedive will be a three-day process as a cold front charges across the central and eastern U.S. from Sunday into Tuesday. The front will plunge quickly through the northern Plains and upper Midwest Sunday, into the southern Plains and Ohio Valley Monday, then through most of the East Coast and Deep South by Tuesday, the Weather Channel said.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
GAP’S OLD NAVY SPINOFF PLANS IN DOUBT WITH CEO ART PECK OUT
The San Francisco-based apparel retailer announced Thursday evening that Peck has stepped down from the position he had held since 2015. Peck has been replaced temporarily by Robert Fisher, son of Gap’s founders Donald and Doris Fisher. With Peck’s abrupt departure, analysts are doubting a looming split of Old Navy and Gap will go through, especially with the Old Navy brand in such poor shape. Gap shares were down around 7% by Friday morning, shaving more than $450 million off the retailer’s market cap from Thursday. The stock as of Thursday’s market close had tumbled nearly 30% this year. Gap is valued at roughly $6.32 billion. Gap, however, told CNBC in an emailed statement that its board “continues to believe in the strategic rationale for the planned separation, and the preparation for separation continues as planned.”
[SOURCE: cnbc.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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