2/16/2024: “Cold is Gold” 🍺
PLUS: Murder in Alaska; Protecting Sharon Stone; and Met Gala Details
Today is Friday, February 16, 2024.
It is the 47th day of the year.
319 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
Find out which U.S. city is the loneliest in HIT LIST.
ROD STEWART is the latest musician to sell his song catalog. More in SHOWBIZ.
“The Umbrella Academy” is set to return this fall. Details in CASTING CALL.
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HIT LIST
The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey has determined the loneliest city in the country is Washington D.C. -- for the second year in a row.
According to the data, nearly half of the households in D.C. are people who live alone -- a 3% increase from 2021.
Rounding out the top three loneliest cities are: Birmingham, Alabama and St. Louis, Missouri.
Across the country, there are approximately 37 million Americans living alone.
To find the city where the most people live alone, the Chamber of Commerce analyzed housing data across more than 170 cities that have a population of at least 150,000. [via CNBC]
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A new bill working its way through the Tennessee legislature is hoping to decrease DUIs in the state.
SB2636 says that “a person or entity holding a beer permit…shall not sell refrigerated or cold beer at retail.”
While politicians pushing for the bill have cited the number of fatal traffic accidents in the state in which alcohol is a factor, business owners are concerned about their bottom line.
“There’s a saying in beer sales: Cold is gold,” Andy Ashby, co-owner of Memphis Made Brewing said.
The bill has passed the Senate twice and is now on its way to a committee. [via NY Post]
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A 23-year-old woman from Alaska was sentenced to 99 years in prison this week for her role in a murder-for-hire plot.
In June 2019, Denali Brehmer killed 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman after being bribed by 21-year-old Darin Schilmiller from Indiana.
Schilmiller pretended to be a millionaire named “Tyler” and convinced Hoffman, who was 18 at the time, to “rape and murder someone in Alaska” and send photos of the crime. If she did that, Schilmiller said he would pay her $9 million.
According to court records, Brehmer and her alleged accomplices lured Hoffman on a hike, where they duct-taped and shot her in the back of the head. They then sent photos of their crime via Snapchat to Schilmiller before pushing Hoffman’s body into the Eklutna River.
Schilmiller was extradited to Alaska and also sentenced to 99 years for soliciting a murder. [via Alaska Daily News]
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POLL RESULTS: On Wednesday we asked who you think should get the credit for the high Super Bowl viewership. Both Taylor Swift and Usher received 33% of the votes, while 17% felt The Chiefs/49ers or “All of the above” deserved the credit.
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DEATHS
Baseball player DON GULLETT has died.
He passed away Wednesday, according to a statement from his former team, the Cincinnati Reds. No cause of death was shared.
Gullett was a three-time World Series champion pitcher for the Reds.
He was 73.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW added 348 points (0.91%) to close at 38,773 on Thursday. The S&P increased 29 points (0.058%) to close at 5,029 and the NASDAQ increased 47 points (0.30%) to close at 15,906.
🛢 WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $78; BRENT CRUDE at $82.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.27.
₿ BITCOIN climbed again on the day, up over 0.07% and trading over $51.970.
🛩 There were more than 3,536 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States and more than 90 such cancellations.
💰Tonight’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $457 million jackpot or a $216.8 million cash payout. Saturday night’s POWERBALL drawing will be for a $306 million jackpot or a $147.8 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
New Music Friday
Bloom, “Maybe in Another Life”
Chromeo, “Adult Contemporary”
Crawlers, “The Mess We Seem to Make”
Daniel Noah Miller, “Disintegration”
Elliot Moss, “How I Fell”
Jason Derulo, “Nu King”
Jennifer Lopez, “This Is Me…Now”
Mother Mother, “Grief Chapter”
The Requiem, “A Cure to Poison”
Solar Eyes, “Solar Eyes”
William Doyle, “Springs Eternal”
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ROD STEWART is selling his publishing catalog, recorded music, as well as some names and likeness rights to the Iconic Artists Group.
According to Deadline, the deal is worth around $100 million. [via Deadline]
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Actress SHARON STONE says she was so famous in 1994 that when OJ SIMPSON went on his low-speed chase in Los Angeles, cops showed up at her home to protect her.
Despite having zero connection to the former football star, Stone tells InStyle Magazine that her “fame exploded” following her 1992 film “Basic Instinct” and because of that, authorities felt she needed their protection.
Stone recalls officers showing up at her home, telling her to pack a bag and then whisking her away to a hotel, where they stood guard. She also remembers one of the officers telling her about Simpson, saying “He’s dangerous. And we don’t know how dangerous, and we don’t know what this is.”
The question still remains why officers decided to grab Stone, especially as there were lots of other celebs living in the area at the time. [via TMZ]
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JENNIFER LOPEZ, BAD BUNNY, ZENDAYA and CHRIS HEMSWORTH will serve as co-chairs for the 2024 Met Gala.
The theme for this year’s event will be “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The official dress code is, “The Garden of Time.”
The Met Gala is set for May 6. [via Vogue]
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KEVIN COSTNER and CHRISTINE BAUMGARTNER’s divorce is settled.
According to legal docs, the pair recently signed a Marital Settlement Agreement -- nine months after Baumgartner filed to end the marriage.
Details of the agreement have not been shared -- especially regarding the prenup, which was a huge hiccup in the whole thing. [via Daily Mail]
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CASTING CALL
The fourth and final season of “The Umbrella Academy” will premiere later this year.
Returning for the final season are ELLIOT PAGE, TOM HOPPER, DAVID CASTANEDA, NICK OFFERMAN, MEGAN MULLALLY and DAVID CROSS.
The season will drop August 8 on Netflix. [via Deadline]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National No One Eats Alone Day
Innovation Day
National Almond Day
National Do a Grouch a Favor Day
National Tim Tam Day
National Tartar Sauce Day
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ON THIS DATE
1923 - The barrier into the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen is first unsealed.
The passage leading into it had been excavated the preceding November. Once inside, it was evident that the room had been broken into at least twice, though it had likely been hundreds of years since.
The tomb was a multi-room complex that took years to carefully catalog and investigate. A year later, the sarcophagus was opened.
Further study has suggested Tut was a young King, beginning his reign at 8 or 9 years old and serving for 10 years as the son of the Egyptian god Ra.
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1960 - USS Triton begins its underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
The submarine departed on the premise of doing a shakedown cruise. Once underway, Captain Edward L. Beach explained to the crew the real mission.
They used a grouping of rocks in the Atlantic called Saint Paul and Peter Rocks as the starting point for the official mission. The voyage took 60 days and 21 hours.
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1961 - Explorer 9 launches from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
The satellite took measurements and readings from the upper and lower reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere.
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1985 - Muslim clerics form the political group Hezbollah in protest of Israeli occupation of Lebanon in 1982.
Translated from Arabic, the name means “Party of God.”
While the organization has gained political clout across the Middle East, it has also proactively built and trained an army. Its official flag even includes an arm holding a gun. Today its focus is on the pushback and eradication of Israel. It believes much of the violence in Syria and Lebanon over the last years is part of a larger Zionist plot.
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2005 - The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, an international agreement regarding carbon emissions that some argue cause global warming.
Signers of the agreement had to acknowledge that global warming was an imminent threat and that such warming is caused by man-made emissions of carbon dioxide. Signers of the treaty took the obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their country over a multi-year time frame. Meanwhile, industrial producers like China and India were exempt from the rules.
It was signed by President Bill Clinton in the United States in 1998, but the Senate unilaterally rejected its ratification.
Ultimately, the project was pointless. It expired in 2012 to little fanfare.
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2005 - National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces that the remainder of the 2004-2005 NHL season would be canceled.
The Players Association and League had failed to reach an agreement on pay cuts and revenue shares, which were at stake in the ongoing negotiations.
This marked the first time a professional sports league in North America had to cancel a season due to labor disputes, and the first time since 1919 that the Stanley Cup wasn’t awarded.
That following summer, players ended a 310-day lockout with a new agreement.
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2021 - Denver records its lowest temperature in 70 years with minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
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BIRTHDAYS
Chloe East - actress, “Liv & Maddie” - 23
Coby White - basketball player - 34
Ava Max - pop singer - 30
YFN Lucci - rapper - 33
The Weeknd - R&B singer - 34
Elizabeth Olsen - actress, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” - 35
Lupe Fiasco - rapper - 42
Anthony Alabi - actor, “Raven’s Home” - 43
Amanda Holden - actress, “Shrek The Musical” - 53
Christopher Eccleston - actor, “Doctor Who” & “Gone in 60 Seconds” - 60
John McEnroe - tennis player - 65
Ice T - rapper & actor - 66
Janice Dickinson - model - 69
Born On This Date
Lisa Loring - actress, “The Addams Family” - 1958 (d. 2023)
Kim Jong-il - Supreme leader of North Korea - 1941 (d. 2011)
Margot Frank - older sister of Anne Frank - 1926 (d. 1945)
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