LISTEN TO TODAY’S NEWS | SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER | BUY ME A COFFEE
The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
INSTAGRAM MODEL MULAN HERNANDEZ SAYS SHE TURNED DOWN $5K FROM HER NBA PLAYER BOYFRIEND BOL BOL BECAUSE SHE TRULY LOVES HIM
Instagram model Mulan Hernandez wants everyone to know she’s not dating NBA player for his money. For the past few months, Hernandez has been linked to the Denver Nuggets’ big man after he posted a photo of her rocking his jersey on his Instagram story. Over the weekend, Hernandez revealed that she had turned down a $5k “bribe” from her boyfriend because she truly loves him. It seems like Bol Bol has himself a keeper on his hands.
[SOURCE: brobible.com / ENGAGEMENT: 15.09%]
ARIZONA’S MARICOPA COUNTY TO REPLACE ALL VOTING MACHINES AFTER GOP AUDIT
Arizona’s Maricopa County announced Monday that it plans to replace all of the voting machines that were turned over to the state Senate and other officials overseeing the audit of 2020 presidential election results. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors released its response to a May letter from Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (Democrat), in which she expressed concerns “regarding the security and integrity of these machines, given that the chain of custody, a critical security tenet, has been compromised and election officials do not know what was done to the machines while under Cyber Ninjas’ control.” In response, the county told Hobbs it “shares your concerns” and added that the board acknowledges the secretary of state’s “authority as Arizona’s Chief Election Officer to determine what equipment is acceptable for use in Arizona’s elections.” In a press release announcing the decision, the county vowed to “never use equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections.” The announcement comes after the Arizona Senate in April acquired the voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems, in addition to nearly 2.1 million ballots and voter information from the Nov. 3 election through a court-approved subpoena as part of its election recount. The Arizona Senate turned over the voting machines to Cyber Ninjas, the firm contracted to oversee the audit, to determine if any of the equipment had been hacked or manipulated. A previous independent audit ordered by Maricopa County has already found that there were no irregularities or issues with the voting machines or their tabulation of votes. The Cyber Ninjas audit was spurred by Republicans in the state who expressed concerns on the validity and integrity of the county’s election results after repeated unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election that have been advanced by former President Trump and his allies.
[SOURCE: thehill.com / ENGAGEMENT: 14.98%]
SERENA WILLIAMS OUT OF WIMBLEDON AFTER STOPPING WITH INJURY
Serena Williams bit her upper lip. She held her left hand over her mouth and tried to hold back tears while getting ready to serve. It was the first set of her first-round match Tuesday at Wimbledon, and Williams knew this stay at a tournament where she has won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles was about to end because she hurt her right leg when she lost her footing behind a baseline. Moments later, her legs buckled as she tried to change directions to chase a shot by her opponent, 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus. Williams dropped to her knees, her head down on the grass. She used her racket to help her stand, but only so she could limp to the net to concede — just the second mid-match retirement at any Grand Slam tournament of her career and first since 1998. “I was heartbroken to have to withdraw today,” Williams said in a statement released by the tournament. “Feeling the extraordinary warmth and support of the crowd today when I walked on — and off — the court,” she said, “meant the world to me.” Said Sasnovich: “She’s a great champion, and it’s (a) sad story.” Williams was serving while leading 3-1 at Centre Court — where the retractable roof was shut because of rain that forced the postponement of two dozen matches until Wednesday — when her left shoe seemed to lose its traction while she was hitting a forehand. Williams winced and stepped gingerly between points, clearly troubled. After dropping that game, she asked to visit with a trainer and took a medical timeout. She tried to continue playing. The crowd tried to offer support and encouragement. Eventually, the 39-year-old American couldn’t continue. The chair umpire climbed down to check on her, and they walked together up to the net; the score was 3-all, 15-30 when Williams stopped. Williams, who began the match with her right thigh heavily taped, raised her racket with right arm and put her left palm on her chest. Then she waved to the spectators. Officially, this goes in the books as only the second first-round Grand Slam exit of Williams’ career. The other came at the 2012 French Open, where she was beaten by Virginie Razzano. Shortly after that, Williams teamed up with coach Patrick Mouratoglou and began accumulating majors to eclipse Steffi Graf’s professional era record of 22 and move within one of Margaret Court’s all-era mark of 24.
[SOURCE: apnews.com / ENGAGEMENT: 8.51%]
LAVA FIRE EXPLODES IN SIZE TO MORE THAN 13,000 ACRES
California’s Lava Fire exploded in size Monday afternoon into the overnight hours Tuesday and has grown to 13,330 acres. Strong, erratic winds and dry conditions continue to hamper firefighting efforts, according to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The massive fire burning to the northeast of Weed is still just 20% contained. Mandatory evacuation orders remain in place for Carrick Addition, Highway 97 from Weed to Macdoel, Lake Shastina, Juniper Valley, the Mount Shasta Subdivision, and surrounding areas. All evacuation orders are still in place at this time,” the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office wrote in an update Tuesday morning. “We do not know what structures have burned down and the status of many areas. Flames jumped Highway 97 on Monday and the fire raced to the north– burning the area just to the east of Lake Shastina. Highway 97 remains closed from the junction of Highway 265 in Weed north to the town of Dorris, which is just south of the Oregon border. The Lava Fire is the largest of three blazes burning in Siskiyou County. Mandatory evacuations were ordered Tuesday for the Tennant Fire, which has burned 1,700 acres off Highway 97 around 30 miles to the northeast of the Lava Fire. Containment on the blaze has dropped to just 5%, according to the Klamath National Forest. A third fire called the Beswick Fire has burned at least 30 acres to the north near Montague and is 20% contained.
[SOURCE: krcrtv.com / ENGAGEMENT: 6.36%]
AMERICAN AIRLINES CEO: PASSENGERS BRINGING THEIR OWN ALCOHOL IS A BIG PROBLEM
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees he understands their frustrations over the growing trend of passengers slipping their own alcohol on a plane or coming aboard already drunk. But Parker admitted that American’s policy of not selling alcohol on board to coach passengers has contributed to the problem. Speaking at an American Airlines employee question and answer session earlier this month, a recording of which was reviewed by the aviation blog View From The Wing, Parker was asked by a flight attendant about passengers bringing alcohol onboard themselves. Between the booze and the face mask policy, it has contributed to an all-time high in physical altercations on flights and a record number of complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration – prompting `. Parker admitted American has “more customers bringing on alcohol than they should have,” adding that “Intoxicated passengers … nothing has changed. They’re not allowed on the airplane, they’re a safety risk. No one should be on the airplane that’s intoxicated.” Parker said that bringing your own alcohol on board is not an American Airlines ban, but a federal regulation. He told crew members that policy should be to confiscate the alcohol if they see it – easier said than done, of course. Brady Byrnes, American’s executive in charge of inflight services, agreed that it’s a growing problem but also said he’s baffled by it because there’s a limit on how much liquid you can bring through security. Unless, Byrne said, passengers are consuming mass quantities at restaurants and bars on the other side of security or, worse, getting to-go cups filled with an alcoholic beverage.
[SOURCE: travelpulse.com / ENGAGEMENT: 6.25%]
NEVADA PAGEANT WINNER TO BECOME 1ST TRANSGENDER MISS USA CONTESTANT
Kataluna Enriquez, who was crowned Miss Nevada USA on Sunday, will become the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Miss USA pageant. With a platform centered on transgender awareness and mental health, Enriquez, 27, beat out 21 other contestants at the South Point Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. “I didn’t have the easiest journey in life,” she said, according to KVVU-TV. “I struggled with physical and sexual abuse. I struggled with mental health. I didn’t have much growing up. I didn’t have support. But I’m still able to thrive, and I’m still able to survive and become a trailblazer for many.” After her win, Enriquez thanked the LGBTQ community on Instagram, writing, “My win is our win. We just made history. Happy Pride.” The Miss Nevada USA organization congratulated Enriquez for her historic win on social media and shared the hashtag #bevisible. In March, Enriquez, who previously competed in trans-specific pageants, became the first transgender woman crowned Miss Silver State USA, the main preliminary for Miss Nevada USA. During the pageant’s question-and-answer segment, Enriquez said being true to herself was an obstacle she faced daily. “Today I am a proud transgender woman of color. Personally, I’ve learned that my differences do not make me less than, it makes me more than,” she said, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. “I know that my uniqueness will take me to all my destinations, and whatever I need to go through in life.” Enriquez, who is Filipina American, designs her own outfits, including a rainbow-sequin gown she wore Sunday night in honor of Pride Month “and all of those who don’t get a chance to spread their colors,” she posted on Instagram. “Pageantry is so expensive, and I wanted to compete and be able to grow and develop skills and create gowns for myself and other people,” Enriquez said, according to the Review-Journal. She will represent Nevada at the 2021 Miss USA pageant, being held Nov. 29 at the Paradise Cove Theater at the River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Miss Universe pageant system, of which Los Angeles-based Miss USA is part, began allowing transgender entrants in 2012. If she is crowned Miss USA, Enriquez will be the second trans contestant in a Miss Universe pageant, after Spain’s Angela Ponce in 2018. Miss America, a separate organization headquartered in New Jersey, did not immediately reply to an inquiry about whether transgender women or nonbinary individuals are allowed to compete in its annual competition. As of 2018, the pageant was reportedly only open to “natural born women,” according to the Advocate. In February, a federal judge upheld the right of another organization, Nevada-based Miss United States of America, to bar transgender contestants from its pageant.
[SOURCE: msn.com / ENGAGEMENT: 5.39%]
AMAZON OPENS COOLING CENTER AT SEATTLE HEADQUARTERS AMID RECORD-BREAKING HEAT WAVE
Amazon is turning part of its Seattle headquarters into a public cooling center as the Pacific Northwest grapples with a record-breaking heat wave. The air-conditioned cooling center is set up at the Amazon Meeting Center, which is part of the company’s South Lake Union campus in downtown Seattle. The site has room for up to 1,000 individuals, according to the city of Seattle’s website. Many homes in the area lack air conditioning, as Seattle’s climate is usually temperate. The meeting center is a stone’s throw from the Amazon Spheres, or the glass orbs that anchor its downtown Seattle campus. Amazon previously converted the meeting center into a pop-up clinic to administer Covid-19 vaccines earlier this year. Unprecedented heat waves are sweeping the Pacific Northwest, pushing daytime temperatures into the triple digits and causing power outages in some parts of the region. Temperatures in Seattle ticked above 100 degrees on Monday, marking the first time on record the city has had three consecutive triple-digit days, according to the National Weather Service. Prior to this week, the city only had three days in the last 126 years where the temperature hit 100, according to an National Weather Service spokesperson quoted by Scientific American. Scientists say that climate change is making such extreme high temperatures more common. Even with the intense heat, Amazon warehouses in Kent, Washington, remained open, The Seattle Times reported on Sunday. One facility in the Kent warehouse complex ran “power hours” in some departments, where workers were asked to move as quickly as possible for an hour, in order to juice productivity, the Times reported, citing workers at the facility. Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti denied that the company ran power hours at that facility.
[SOURCE: cnbc.com / ENGAGEMENT: 4.20%]
CLARENCE THOMAS SAYS FEDERAL LAWS AGAINST MARIJUANA MAY NO LONGER BE NECESSARY
Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices, said Monday that because of the hodgepodge of federal policies on marijuana, federal laws against its use or cultivation may no longer make sense. “A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” he wrote. His views came as the court declined to hear the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that was denied federal tax breaks that other businesses are allowed. Thomas said the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2005 upholding federal laws making marijuana possession illegal may now be out of date. “Federal policies of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning,” he said. “The federal government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.” Thirty-six states now allow medical marijuana, and 18 also allow recreational use. But federal tax law does not allow marijuana businesses to deduct their business expenses. “Under this rule, a business that is still in the red after it pays its workers and keeps the lights on might nonetheless owe substantial federal income tax,” Thomas said. The Department of Justice has instructed the nation’s federal prosecutors not to pursue cases against marijuana businesses that follow state law. And since 2015, Congress has prohibited the Justice Department from spending federal money to prevent states from carrying out their own laws. But the IRS continues to enforce its own rules against growers and dealers. The federal government’s “willingness to look the other way on marijuana is more episodic that coherent,” Thomas said.
[SOURCE: nbcnews.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.99%]
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.
