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:
THOUSANDS EVACUATED AS TAAL VOLCANO SPEWS ASH IN THE PHILIPPINES
Ash began falling in nearby areas on Sunday, with residents advised to wear masks. The Philippine institute has urged people living around the volcano, located on an island in the middle of Taal lake, and two nearby “high-risk” municipalities to evacuate. Taal is one of the world’s smallest volcanoes. It has recorded at least 34 eruptions in the past 450 years.
[SOURCE: bbc.com]
MOTHER CHARGED WITH MURDER IN 11-MONTH-OLD SON’S BATHTUB DROWNING
Lindsee Leonardo, 32, of Knox County is charged with first-degree murder as well as aggravated child abuse after emergency responders rushed to her home to find the infant unresponsive Wednesday night. Leonardo told authorities she had left the boy in the bathtub in 4-6 inches of water along with her 23-month-old child, then “went outside to smoke a cigarette and have some ‘me time,'” according to an arrest warrant. She reportedly found the 11-month-old floating on his back, not breathing, and the toddler standing in the tub.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
THE CLEVELAND BROWNS HAVE HIRED KEVIN STEFANSKI AS THE NEW HEAD COACH
Stefanski will replace Freddie Kitchens, who was fired after just one season following the team’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 29. Stefanski becomes the 10th full-time head coach the Browns have had since 1999, joining Kitchens, Hue Jackson, Mike Pettine, Rob Chudzinski, Pat Shurmur, Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Butch Davis and Chris Palmer. Team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam said during their search for a head coach they were looking for a smart, strong leader with good football acumen who is a continuous learner and works well within the organization. According to Jimmy Haslam’s plan he laid out in a press conference, Stefanski will help in selecting the new general manager to replace John Dorsey, who the team “mutually parted ways with” at the end of the Browns season.
[SOURCE: news5cleveland.com]
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE ON BRIEF LOCKDOWN AFTER REPORT OF ARMED SUSPECT
MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, was briefly put on lockdown Friday morning after a report of an armed suspect outside the base. The base was put on lockdown after local authorities notified the base there was an armed suspect near one of the base’s gates, a news release said. MacDill first responders were on the scene and isolated the response to an area outside one of the base’s gates. Base officials were assisting local law enforcement in searching for the suspect, Lt. Brandon Hanner, a spokesman for MacDill said. Earlier the base confirmed to CBS News that it sent out an alert Friday morning and was assessing the situation.
[SOURCE: cbsnews.com]
TOWN EMPLOYEES ASKED TO STOP SHOOTING SQUIRRELS
Viewers brought concerns to News 5 last month when a Town of Excel, Alabama employee was seen shooting squirrels from a town water truck. Excel is a small town located in Monroe County. We reached out to Mayor Jenny Countryman at the time who confirmed her employees have been shooting squirrels in the town over the last couple of years. She says a pellet gun is used. Countryman told News 5 her employees had shot hundreds of squirrels during that time and she said a lot of residents support the hunt. But, not everyone seemed to like the idea. Some residents were concerned this was dangerous for children and for others who might be in the line of sight.
[SOURCE: wkrg.com]
SEATTLE MAN KILLS HIMSELF AFTER OFFICER FALSELY SAYS HE CRITICALLY INJURED WOMAN IN CRASH
The unidentified man got into a minor fender-bender in May 2018 and fled the scene. Two officers with the Seattle Police Department investigating the crash were sent to an address connected with the man to get a statement, according to a report from the Office of Police Accountability, an independent office within the Seattle Police Department. The report states that both officers knew that the hit-and-run was a minor crash and no one was injured. But when they arrived at the home one of the officers told a woman who answered the door that they were looking for the driver because he was involved in a hit-and-run that left a woman in critical condition. The officer said the injured woman might not survive, the report says. The report states the driver had been a drug addict for 20 years and had prior legal trouble. The friend told investigators that the man said he was not high at the time of the crash.
[SOURCE: nbcnews.com]
TRICK DADDY ARRESTED FOR COCAINE POSSESSION AND DUI
According to the arrest report, cops say they found TD asleep behind the wheel early Saturday morning and asked him where he was going/where he was coming from. The officer says he told them he’d come from a club and had just dropped someone off. Sure enough, the police say they asked Trick Daddy if he’d had anything to drink that night — and they say he told them he’d had a few drinks hours ago. Cops say they saw him with bloodshot eyes and using slurred speech, so they conducted field sobriety tests. The responding officers suspected he was driving under the influence, so they placed him under arrest. The cops say they transported him to a nearby jail, where he allegedly refused to offer a breath sample to determine how much booze might’ve been in his system. And, lastly, the cops say when they conducted a search of Trick Daddy’s belongings … they claim they found a dollar bill with what they believed to be cocaine residue on the inside. He was ultimately booked for DUI and cocaine possession.
[SOURCE: tmz.com]
MEGHAN MARKLE REPORTEDLY SIGNS DEAL WITH DISNEY FOLLOWING ROYAL SPLIT
Markle will be doing voiceover work for Disney, according to the U.K. newspaper The Times. What she makes will be donated to Elephants Without Borders, a charitable organization dedicated to saving the animals from poachers. There are little details on what exactly Markle is working on, but we’ll probably find out in the coming months. People Magazine has shed light on a video that has surfaced showing Prince Harry trying to coerce Disney CEO Bob Iger into securing voiceover work for his wife Meghan Markle. The clip dates back to July when the couple attended the London premiere of The Lion King.
[SOURCE: today.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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