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.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER | BECOME A SUPPORTER VIA BUY ME A COFFEE
The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT SAYS VIDEO OF ADAM TOLEDO’S FATAL SHOOTING BY POLICE ‘INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO WATCH’
Mayor Lori Lightfoot choked back tears Thursday as she discussed the video footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo in a Little Village alley two weeks ago. Lightfoot called for peace and urged people to withhold judgment on the shooting, which was graphically captured on police bodycam footage. She also bemoaned the nation’s gun laws and the city’s endemic gun violence. Toledo was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer in the early morning hours of March 29 after a foot pursuit, touching off protests and demonstrations in the neighborhood. A seventh grader at Gary Elementary School in Little Village, Toledo is the youngest person fatally shot by Chicago police in years. Thursday’s release of the video footage by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates all shootings by police, had been highly anticipated throughout the city. And when it was made public, politicians were quick to react with opinions ranging from condemnation of Chicago police for Toledo’s death to an ardent defense of the officer’s split-second decision to shoot.
[SOURCE: chicagotribune.com / ENGAGEMENT: 21.88%]
BROOKLYN NETS CENTER LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE ABRUPTLY RETIRES DUE TO HEALTH SCARE
Brooklyn Nets center LaMarcus Aldridge announced on Twitter on Thursday that he is retiring from the NBA after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during his final appearance with the team. Aldridge, 35, said he experienced the irregular heartbeat during the Nets’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, after which his condition worsened. Aldridge had missed the Nets’ past two games with what the team called a non-COVID-19 illness. In 2007, Aldridge was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, “an extra electrical pathway between your heart’s upper and lower chambers that causes a rapid heartbeat,” according to the Mayo Clinic. It is not clear if Aldridge’s recent scare is related to that condition.
[SOURCE: espn.com / ENGAGEMENT: 20.53%]
WOMAN DUPED INTO THINKING SHE WAS ENGAGED TO PRINCE HARRY SEEKS LEGAL ACTION
An Indian lawyer was duped into believing that she was in a relationship with Prince Harry — and then attempted to seek legal action against the red-headed royal for breaking a supposed promise to marry her, a report said Tuesday. Palwinder Kaur alleged that she had been contacted by the Duke of Sussex on social media and that he had told her that he wanted to marry her, the Independent reported. But when their royal nuptials never happened, Kaur filed a plea in Haryana High Court seeking legal action, complaining that he hadn’t fulfilled his promise. She called for the court to instruct police to arrest Prince Harry so they could wed “without any further delay,” the outlet reported. The lovelorn woman even claimed she sent messages to Prince Charles informing him of his son’s engagement to her, the Independent said. The plea, however, was dismissed by Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan, who called the woman’s tale “nothing but just a daydreamer’s fantasy about marrying Prince Harry.” The court instead found that her “Prince Harry” was operating out of an internet cafe in a village in the northern Punjab state, the outlet reported. He was likely “looking for green pastures for himself” and his correspondence appeared to be a catfishing scheme, according to the court. The real Duke of Sussex, 36, has been married to Meghan Markle since May 2018.
[SOURCE: pagesix.com / ENGAGEMENT: 7.29%]
DISNEYLAND RESERVATION SYSTEM OPENS, WITH LONG WAIT TIMES ONLINE
With Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park set to reopen on April 30 after a yearlong closure, the reservation system to enter the parks opened at 8 a.m. Thursday — with long wait times online. Because the state is requiring theme parks that reopen to limit capacity, the Anaheim theme park is requiring all guests ages 3 and older to make a reservation to enter, in addition to having a ticket. By 8:10 a.m., the page was displaying a message that due to high demand, the visitor should remain on the page and is “in a waiting room.” After that short wait, guests can sign up for an account and log in to the site, where they will see the options to “make a reservation” and “select tickets.” Both options prompt the guest to wait for more than an hour due to high demand, but many reported the wait lasting several hours more. Around 11 a.m., many people were seeing a “recalculating” message after joining the virtual queue. The queue reopened around 12:30 p.m. Most guests were given an estimated wait time of “over an hour.” Californians who score tickets and visit Disneyland once it reopens in two weeks will see the beloved theme park changed by the pandemic. Most noticeable will be the smaller crowds — Disneyland Resort theme parks are currently limited to 25% capacity, but that will increase once the county moves to the least-restrictive tier of the state’s four-phase reopening blueprint.
[SOURCE: ktla.com / ENGAGEMENT: 5.81%]
BAYLOR MEN’S BASKETBALL COACH SCOTT DREW REFUSES TO ACCEPT A PROMOTIONAL VEHICLE AFTER CAR DEALER’S INSENSITIVE REMARK ON TV
Baylor head coach Scott Drew has refused to accept a vehicle wrapped with the school’s national championship logo after an insensitive remark made by the dealership’s general manager when discussing it during a live TV interview. The customized Jeep Wrangler was driven in the team’s championship parade through downtown Waco on Tuesday night, and was then going to be given to the school for Drew to use for the next year. When talking about the vehicle with KWTX-TV before the parade started, Ted Teague, GM of the Allen Samuels dealership in Waco, said Drew could enjoy the Jeep and “use it to recruit, pull some people out of the ‘hood.” Based on his own changed facial expression as the reporter started to ask another question, Teague knew immediately that the remark was inappropriate. Teague issued a statement of apology on Wednesday, asking for forgiveness and the opportunity to seek redemption. He said he misspoke in using the word “‘hood.”
[SOURCE: espn.com / ENGAGEMNT: 4.93%]
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LOCKS OUT MORE THAN 700 STUDENTS FOR NOT TAKING REQUIRED WEEKLY COVID-19 TESTS
The University of Michigan deactivated the campus access cards of more than 700 students this week over their failure to take the required coronavirus tests, the school announced in a news release Monday. The move effectively locks out the students from campus as the cards are needed to enter all nonresidential school buildings. The penalty was reportedly handed down Monday morning to 718 undergraduate, professional, and graduate students who allegedly failed to comply with the school’s coronavirus health and safety guidelines. The university requires all students who live, work, or learn on campus to undergo weekly coronavirus testing as a part of its “Community Sampling and Tracking Program.” According to the Detroit Free Press, the majority of the penalized students live off-campus and only attend class virtually. However, many students must physically go to campus at some point or another if they are enrolled in courses that require in-person instruction or research. A similar action was made against 375 undergraduate students in March, the news release noted.
[SOURCE: theblaze.com / ENGAGEMENT: 4.12%]
JENNIFER LOPEZ AND ALEX RODRIGUEZ ANNOUNCE SPLIT
On Thursday, the couple announced in a statement that they have called off their engagement and ended their relationship. Lopez and Rodriguez had been together since 2017; they announced their engagement in 2019. Rumours had been reported as early as March that the couple had split, but sources at the time told “Today” that they had “never officially broke up.” Reports had suggested that the couple “hit a rough patch,” exacerbated by working apart from each other during the pandemic. Rumours about a split gained traction once again earlier this week when fans noticed that Lopez wasn’t wearing her engagement ring in photos posted to Instagram from the set of her new movie “Shotgun Wedding”. Lopez has previously been married three times. She shares twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony. Rodriguez was previously married to Cynthia Scurtis with whom he shares two daughters.
[SOURCE: etcanada.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.85%]
WARRIOR RENEWED FOR SEASON 3; FORMER CINEMAX SERIES MOVING TO HBO MAX
Warrior is still alive and kicking. The martial arts drama, which aired its first two seasons on Cinemax, is relocating to HBO Max for Season 3, TVLine has learned. This news comes more than a year after Cinemax confirmed that it was ceasing production on original programming. “Warrior introduced viewers to a distinct world from the past, executed with dynamic action and relevant storytelling, with a brilliant cast led by Andrew Koji. We can’t wait to see what [executive producers] Jonathan [Tropper], Justin [Lin] and Shannon [Lee] will bring to the next chapter of this series on HBO Max,” Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer for HBO and HBO Max said in a statement. Based on the writings of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, Warrior is set during the Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 19th century. The first two seasons are now available to stream on HBO Max.
[SOURCE: tvline.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.51%]
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.
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.
Connect with us directly by emailing us at theconversationinbox@gmail.com or by simply visiting thisistheconversation.com.
