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:
MULTIPLE DEAD AFTER WWII B-17 PLANE CRASHES, ERUPTS INTO FLAMES AT BRADLEY AIRPORT
Seven people aboard a vintage World War II plane were killed Wednesday when it crashed shortly after takeoff, erupting into flames at Bradley International Airport, just outside of Hartford, Connecticut, authorities said. State Police Commissioner James Rovella told reporters at an evening news conference that the families of all but three of the victims had been contacted. The flight took off at 9:45 a.m. before reporting five minutes later that it was having difficulties, authorities said. The plane tried to return to the airport when it crashed at 9:54 a.m., officials said.
[SOURCE: nbcnews.com]
FIRST CANNABIS CAFE IN THE UNITED STATES OPENS IN LOS ANGELES
The first cannabis cafe in the United States opens Tuesday in Los Angeles. Called Lowell Farms: A Cannabis Cafe, it will be the first farm-to-table restaurant that highlights cuisine and cannabis. West Hollywood created eight cannabis consumption licenses and of more than 300 applicants, Lowell Farms was granted the first one, the restaurant says. That makes it the first business in the United States to be granted a fully legal cannabis consumption license, it says. Head chef Andrea Drummer was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Los Angeles. In 2012, she launched her cooperative, Elevation VIP. There, she became known for creating THC- and CBD-infused cuisine and has hosted celebrities like Miguel and Wiz Khalifa.
[SOURCCE: cnn.com]
HARVARD DEFEATS SUIT SEEKING TO BAR RACE-CONSCIOUS ADMISSION
A federal judge on Tuesday said the nation’s oldest college doesn’t discriminate against Asian-Americans and that its consideration of race as one criterion among many in its admissions decisions is lawful. The suit, brought in 2014 by Students for Fair Admissions, claimed that Harvard illicitly engaged in “racial balancing” by artificially limiting Asian-Americans’ numbers and favoring African-American, Latino and white applicants. The decision will be appealed. Students for Fair Admissions is led by Edward Blum, a persistent and vigorous critic of race-conscious admissions who has led multiple legal challenges to affirmative action. For just as long, the Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action in student selection, but the court has grown more conservative in recent years and in a new review may look less favorably upon the practice.
[SOURCE: bloomberg.com]
WORKER INTERVENES AFTER AIRPORT CATERING TRUCK SPINS OUT OF CONTROL
Dr. Kevin Klauer captured video of a catering cart that had no driver and was literally spinning out of control near an American Airlines airplane. Klauer told WGN News a case of water fell off the seat of the cart and landed on the gas pedal. A third worker begins to operate a nearby motorized vehicle and plows into the out-of-control cart to stop it. No serious injuries were reported and the cart was stopped before it appeared to damage the nearby plane.
[SOURCE: wgntv.com]
PRINCE HARRY AND MEGHAN SUE BRITISH TABLOID FOR PUBLISHING PRIVATE LETTER
When Prince Harry released a statement Tuesday announcing that he and his wife, Meghan, were suing the Mail on Sunday over the publication of a private letter the Duchess of Sussex had sent to her estranged father, the British press was divided. While some journalistic quarters have accused the prince of being “sanctimonious” and “playing the victim card,” others have defended the right of the Sussexes to protect their privacy. But whatever you think of the lawsuit, it’s clear that public opinion has never really been on Meghan’s side. Indeed, ever since Harry and Meghan announced their engagement in November 2017, the American actress-turned-duchess has faced a constant barrage of criticism in the British press and from much of the British public. There have been stories about feuds with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, reports of diva-like behavior in the runup to her wedding, accusations of hypocrisy and profligacy. But it is the estrangement from her father, Thomas Markle, which has attracted much press attention, and which has been the cause of substantial criticism toward her.
[SOURCE: nbcnews.com]
OKC POLICE TO ENFORCE LOCAL LAW AFTER FEDERAL COURT RULES WOMEN CAN GO TOPLESS IN PUBLIC
Oklahoma City police officials said officers will enforce local laws after a federal appeals court ruled that women in the Sooner State and five other states can be topless in public. Last week, Fort Collins, Colorado, officials enacted an ordinance that prohibited women from being topless in public. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February upheld a lower court decision that the ordinance was unconstitutional. The ruling, however, only became binding this month when Fort Collins officials decided not to pursue further appeals.On Monday, Oklahoma City Police Department officials said local officers will continue to enforce the law “as outlined by city ordinance and state law.” Part of the public indecency ordinance defines the term nudity as “the showing of the female breasts with less than a fully opaque covering of any part of the nipple. Oklahoma City attorney Noble McIntyre told KOCO 5 on Thursday that women who go topless in Oklahoma could still be arrested and would have to argue the ruling as their defense.
[SOURCE: koco.com]
MORE THAN A DOZEN INDIANA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HOSPITALIZED AFTER MISTAKENLY INJECTED WITH INSULIN
Sixteen Indiana students were rushed to the hospital Monday after they were mistakenly injected with insulin during a tuberculosis skin test at their local high school, according to school officials. The students from the McKenzie Center for Innovation & Technology in Indianapolis were taken to local hospitals for observation after being injected with a “small dosage” of insulin by Community Health Network personnel, according to the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township. All 16 were transported to the hospitals with either a high school or district staff member. Parents were also notified, Indianapolis’ Fox 59 reported. When insulin is injected into a non-diabetic person, depending on the size of the dosage, that individual can become hypoglycemic — a state at which blood sugar drops to abnormal levels. It causes sweating, nervousness, fainting and, in extreme cases, seizures. District spokeswoman Dana Altemeyer said in a statement that they’re working to determine the cause of the error and “have full confidence that the events of today are isolated in nature and will be addressed swiftly by the Community Health Network.”
[SOURCE: .foxnews.com]
JUDGE TEMPORARILY BLOCKS GEORGIA’S SIX-WEEK ABORTION BAN
Georgia’s six-week abortion ban was just blocked by a federal judge from going into effect, according to Barbara Ann Luttrell, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Southeast. As of today, every so-called “heartbeat” bill has now been stopped from being implemented. Emily Nestler, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the court recognized that the law is “blatantly unconstitutional and a clear attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade.” Nestler continued in a statement. “Georgia is one of nine states that passed abortion bans this year, all of which have been blocked by courts. Instead of passing laws that restrict the rights of pregnant women, Georgia lawmakers should be implementing policies that help pregnant women. Georgia has the worst maternal mortality rate in the country. Black women in Georgia face the highest risk-they are more than three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.”
[SOURCE: cbsnews.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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