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:
EX-SECURITY GUARD RELEASES DOZENS AFTER HOSTAGE SITUATION IN PHILIPPINES SHOPPING MALL
Officials said a recently dismissed security guard released his hostages and walked out of a shopping mall, ending a daylong hostage crisis in an upscale commercial district near the police and military headquarters. The man, identified by police as Archie Paray, a former guard at the complex, left the V-Mall in suburban San Juan city Monday evening with his hostages, who were secured by police. The suspect was allowed to speak to reporters and authorities to outline his grievances against his former superiors, whom he accused of corruption and abuse, before police approached and subdued him. Police said the man shot a security officer in the morning before rushing to the second floor of the complex, where he held dozens of people, mostly employees, hostage in an office. The number of hostages wasn’t immediately clear.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
JAMES LIPTON, ‘INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO’ HOST, DEAD AT 93
Lipton launched his career as a soap opera writer and actor on “The Guiding Light,” where he worked for a decade. He was best known for launching the interview series “Inside the Actors Studio” at the New School. That program was initially intended as a class at the Actors Studio Drama, where, in 1994, Lipton began taping interviews with actors, directors and writers, beginning with Paul Newman. Over the years, Lipton hosted a bevy of Hollywood A-listers, including Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Bradley Cooper, who once sat in the audience as a student.
[SOURCE: nydailynews.com]
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR SUSPENDS HER PRESIDENTIAL BID
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, suspended her campaign Monday following an underdog third place finish in the New Hampshire primary and two sixth place finishes in Nevada and South Carolina — two states with substantially more diverse electorates. The Klobuchar campaign confirmed to ABC News that the senator is flying to Dallas to join former Vice President Joe Biden at his rally Monday night where she will suspend her campaign and endorse him. Hours before news of her dismal finish in South Carolina, Klobuchar told reporters following a Super Tuesday rally in Richmond, Virginia, that her campaign had been approaching the race “state by state” because of lack of funding.
[SOURCE: abcnews.go.com]
‘HARDBALL’ HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS RESIGNS AFTER ACCUSATIONS OF SEXISM AND HARASSMENT
Longtime MSNBC host Chris Matthews announced on air Monday night that he was resigning following a slew of on-air fumbles and allegations that he made sexually inappropriate remarks to a political columnist in 2016. Over the past several weeks, the cable news veteran has been under increasing scrutiny due to allegations about previous offscreen conduct, as well as a number of eyebrow-raising on-air statements. Observers took note when Matthews, normally a staple of election coverage, did not appear on air on Saturday during the South Carolina primary. In an article for GQ, published Friday, freelance political columnist Laura Bassett wrote that when she appeared as a guest on Matthews’ show, he repeatedly made inappropriate remarks about her appearance while off-camera. In one instance, she recounted, Matthews asked, “Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” and urged the makeup artist to “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.”
[SOURCE: thedailybeast.com]
FIRST CASE OF NOVEL CORONAVIRUS CONFIRMED IN NEW YORK
The first novel coronavirus cases were reported in Florida and New York on Sunday while officials in Washington state confirmed the second US death from the outbreak. The New York patient is a woman in her late 30s, who contracted the virus while traveling in Iran and is currently isolated in her home, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The New York State Department of Health said the patient went to a hospital in Manhattan after contracting the virus. Cuomo said approval for state testing was granted Saturday and the positive test was confirmed by New York’s Wadsworth Lab in Albany. Disease detectives in New York have already identified close contacts of the patient, according to New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot.
[SOURCE: cnn.com]
PUBLIC ENEMY IS ‘MOVING FORWARD WITHOUT FLAVOR FLAV’ AFTER BERNIE SANDERS RALLY DISPUTE
The hip-hop group confirmed it would be “moving forward without Flavor Flav” after the longtime hypeman slammed Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and former bandmate Chuck D, claiming that the campaign is using his old group’s name for an endorsement he didn’t sign off on. The statement noted that Public Enemy Radio, made up of Chuck D, DJ Lord, Jahi and the S1Ws, would perform as planned at a Sanders rally Sunday evening in Los Angeles, featuring celebrity appearances by “Sarah Silverman and Dick Van Dyke with a special performance by Public Enemy Radio.” Flavor Flav expressed disappointment with Chuck D’s decision to break up the group “and fracture the movement more than three decades in the making” in a statement provided to USA TODAY by his lawyer, Matthew H. Friedman of Ford & Friedman.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
JACK WELCH, MUCH-IMITATED MANAGER WHO RESHAPED GE, DIES AT 84
He died Sunday evening in his New York City apartment, his former assistant said Monday. The cause was renal failure. The former GE chairman and chief executive officer, whose blunt style and ceaseless cost cutting earned him the sobriquet “Neutron Jack,” mentored proteges who went on to run some of the world’s best-known companies. Named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine in 1999, he presided over a stock surge of almost 3,000% during a two-decade tenure before his legacy was dented in retirement by questionable accounting methods that surfaced recently and an ill-fated push into finance that later almost destroyed the company. Known simply as Jack to even low-level employees, Welch became the youngest CEO in GE’s history in 1981. He created a leaner company, yet one whose dependence on finance would eventually prove to be a threat. Along the way, he molded GE’s culture to reflect his demanding personality, one larger than his 5-foot-7-inch (1.7-meter) frame.
[SOURCE: bloomberg.com]
NYC UBER DRIVER CLINGING TO LIFE AFTER PASSENGERS ATTACK HIM
Cops on Friday released surveillance video of the Feb. 5 attack on the corner of Second Ave. and E. 62nd St. The 54-year-old victim had picked up three men and two women around 2:45 a.m. from the Privileged Gentlemen’s Club in Queens, then got into an argument with the passengers, cops said. The fight escalated as the group arrived in Manhattan around 4:30 a.m., then spilled out onto the sidewalk. Surveillance video shows several men tussling with each other, though it’s unclear who is the victim. Police said one of the passengers punched the victim in the face, knocking him to the ground. Cops are investigating whether the fight was over the fare, police sources said.
[SOURCE: nydailynews.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 the past day.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Weekly Wrap-Up with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
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