8/18/2022: Planned Parenthood’s Record Midterm Spending

PLUS: Cheney 2024; Snoop Loopz; and Ye’s Garbage Bag Gap Line

Aug 18, 2022

Today is Thursday, August 18, 2022.

It is the 230th day of the year.

135 days remain.

HIT LIST

Lolita the killer whale may soon be set free.

For decades, activists have been urging the Miami Seaquarium to release the 56-year-old Orca, who was pulled from the wild in 1970, according to The Guardian.

There are obvious concerns about releasing an animal that has been in captivity for so long, but whale researcher Howard Garrett told Newsweek that Lolita “appears to be in good shape.”

###

Americans will soon be able to purchase hearing aids without a prescription.

The FDA announced that new regulation allows for the creation of a new class of hearing aids that don’t require a medical exam, prescription and/or other speciality evaluations.

The devices -- mostly for adults with mild to moderate hearing problems -- will be sold over-the-counter at pharmacies and other retail stores beginning this fall.

No word on whether insurances will cover the devices or the cost of said devices.

###

NASA’s new moon rocket arrived at the launch pad early Wednesday.

The 322-foot rocket is scheduled to blast off on August 29 for the lunar test flight -- a first for NASA's Artemis program. Three mannequins covered in sensors, measuring radiation and vibration, will be inside the capsule atop the rocket.

The plan is for the capsule to fly around the moon in a distant orbit before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. If all goes to plan, the entire flight should last six weeks.

###

ELON MUSK is rumored to be looking into purchasing the Manchester United soccer team.

The Tesla CEO caused quite the stir after tweeting that he wanted to buy the English team on Tuesday.

When a follower asked if he was serious, Musk replied, “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams.”

###

Another American has died at the same Sandals resort where three others died earlier this year.

According to the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the man, who was in his 70s, was “experiencing COVID-related issues prior to his death.” An official cause of death will be noted after an autopsy is performed.

Many may remember that last May, three American tourists died from carbon monoxide poisoning at the resort.

###

BY THE NUMBERS

📈 The Dow was down 158 points (0.46%) on Wednesday, to close at 33,993. The S&P 500 lost 29 points (0.69%) to close at 4,275 while the Nasdaq lost 164 points (1.25%) to close at 12,938.

🛢 West Texas Intermediate remains under $90 a barrel, at $87. Brent Crude is just over the $90 mark, at $93.

⛽ The national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.94 on Wednesday.

₿ Bitcoin tumbled Wednesday, losing more than $563 and trading around $23,294.

🛩 There were 2,253 flights delayed within, into, or out of the US on Wednesday and 93 such cancellations.

###

CHARTS

TikToker @ryanhmimen shared a video of a path of destruction her toddler left after getting into some leftover chocolate cake.

She attached #troublemaker #sleepingtoddler #cakemonster to the video, which has over 36 million views.

###

BREAKUPS

Actor LIAM HEMSWORTH, 32, and model GABRIELLA BROOKS, 26, have called it quits on their three-year relationship.

The couple broke things off a few months ago because Hemsworth reportedly wanted to get back to work “without any distractions,” a source told In Touch.

Brooks is “heartbroken,” the insider added.

###

THE SWAMP

Planned Parenthood is putting a record $50 million toward this year’s midterms.

The pro-choice organization announced its massive spending plan, called “Take Control,” on Wednesday. The plan is aimed at supporting, promoting and electing pro-choice candidates this November.

To start, a portion of the funds will go toward pro-abortion ads in nine key states: Georgia, Nevada, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin.

###

LOTTERY

No winner for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing. Friday night’s drawing will be for a $99 million jackpot or a $56.5 million cash payout.

###

SHOWBIZ NEWS

A new trailer for Netflix’s upcoming comedy “Wednesday” dropped yesterday.

The new take on the spooky Addams Family follows Wednesday Addams, played by JENNA ORTEGA, who has just been expelled from yet another school for terrorizing the other students. Running out of options, Wednesday’s parents Mortia (CATHERINE ZETA-JONES) and Gomez Addams (LUIS GUZMAN) enroll her in the Nevermore Academy.

ISSAC ORDONEZ plays Wednesday’s brother, Pugsley Addams.

The series premieres on Netflix this fall.

###

SNOOP DOGG is releasing his own cereal, called “Snoop Loopz.”

Made up of different colored wholegrain loops and marshmallows, the cereal also contains Vitamin D and fiber, according to a social media post announcing the new breakfast food.

The cereal is the latest edition to Snoop’s Broadus Foods’ line, which also includes oatmeal, grits, pancake mix and syrup.

###

Blink-182 rocker MARK HOPPUS contemplated ending his life during his cancer battle last year.

“I was in our living room crying and telling my wife, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’” he revealed in the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine. He credits his wife with helping him to “snap out of the depression.”

Hoppus announced he was cancer-free last September.

###

Several outlets reported that MACHINE GUN KELLY and MEGAN FOX had ended their engagement, but sources now say that is “fake news.”

TMZ reports that multiple sources confirmed to them that the couple is “doing just fine” and are “completely solid.”

When asked where the rumors could have started, the insiders suggested that the lack of photos of them together in recent weeks led some to believe they had split.

###

Rev. AL SHARPTON says he only eats one meal a day that consists of a “kale salad with boiled eggs, tomatoes [and] cucumbers.”

Speaking to Page Six, Sharpton said that he started eating one meal a day “about four years ago.”

“At my height -- maybe 15 years ago -- I weighed 305 pounds. Today, I’m 132 pounds. I just made up my mind, and I just did it. Cold turkey,” he added.

###

CASTING CALL

ROBERT DE NIRO will star in Warner Bros’ new mob drama “Wise Guys.”

The movie follows Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, a pair of Italian Americans running two separate crime families during the 20th century.

According to Deadline, De Niro will be playing both roles.

###

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS’ youngest son, CHARLIE, has joined the cast of “Sex Lives of College Girls.”

According to Deadline, he will play an Essex College student named Andrew in the upcoming second season of the HBO Max show.

Louis-Dreyfus shared her excitement on Instagram, gushing “That’s my boy!”

###

KALEY CUOCO and PETE DAVIDSON’s rom-com, “Meet Cute” will hit Peacock next month.

The story follows Sheila (Cuoco) and Gary (Davidson), who experience love at first sight, until they realize -- thanks to Sheila’s time machine -- they have fallen in love over and over again.

The movie will premiere on September 21.

###

MARK WAHLBERG will star in Apple’s recently acquired film “The Family Plan.”

The movie tells the story of a suburban dad who must take his family on the run when his past catches up to him.

No further details were shared.

###

Fox Nation will release its first in-house movie next month.

“The Shell Collector,” is a heartwarming story about a widow named Amanda and her two children who befriend some unique characters in their small seaside town.

CAITLIN CLARK, CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL and JENNIFER HIGGIN star in the film.

The platform has plans for three other original movies over the next year.

###

CRIB NOTES

The California home of famed children’s author DR. SEUSS, real name Theodor Seuss Geisel, has hit the market for the first time in 75 years.

The La Jolla pad is owned by the University of California San Diego, who was gifted the home by Seuss’ late wife.

Made up of four parcels totaling more than four acres, the hillside compound features amazing views of the ocean, coastline and mountains. Potential buyers have the option of buying the whole setup for $19 million or individual sites for anywhere between $4 and $12 million, according to the listing.

Proceeds from the sale are expected to go into the newly created Geisel Fund of the UC San Diego Foundation to be used for campus projects.

###

THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS

KANYE WEST is being slammed online for selling his latest Yeezy GAP clothing collection out of garbage bags.

An eyewitness told Page Six that a Gap sales associate said, “Ye got mad when he saw they had [his clothes] on hangers” because “this is how he wanted it,” referring to the items shoved into trash bags.

“They won’t help you find [your] size. You just have to just dig through everything,” he added.

One Twitter user called out Ye for his “fetish” with using homeless people as “muses.” Another pointed out the irony of “fishing a $240 hoodie out of a garbage bag.”

###

WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS

PRINCE ANDREW is reportedly taking steps to weasel his way back into The Firm.

Royal expert NEIL SEAN told The Sun that Andrew is planning a “long and lengthy chat” with QUEEN ELIZABETH, hoping she will allow him to return to public life.

The idea of the chat is concerning to PRINCE CHARLES and PRINCE WILLIAM, who think Andrew is “dangerous” for the institution, according to Sean.

RIGHT TIMING: Andrew is likely hoping to get welcomed back before his older brother takes over the throne.

###

SPORTS

Have you ever wondered what former New York Giants QB ELI MANNING’s favorite sports movie is?

It should come as no surprise that it is “Little Giants.”

Eli is nothing, if not brand loyal.

###

DAY OF THE YEAR

National Bad Poetry Day

National Fajita Day

National Mail Order Catalog Day

National Ice Cream Pie Day

###

ON THIS DATE

1590 – European settler John White returns to the Roanoke Island colony from England to find it deserted.

None of the 100 original colonists could be found. Strangely, there was no sign of an attack of violence of any kind. White's daughter and granddaughter were among the missing.

There was one clue left behind: the word "Croatoan" carved onto the palisade fence. White thought this meant they had left for Croatoan Island about 50 miles away, but further investigation revealed that island, too, was empty.

The disappearance of the Roanoke colony remains a mystery today.

###

1795 - George Washington signs the Jay Treaty into law.

The treaty was primarily negotiated by John Jay, Washington's appointee to the Supreme Court.

It forced British troops to abandon pre-revolutionary war outposts near the American borders, and for America to peacefully trade with other British colonies.

Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson vocally opposed its signing.

###

1868 – Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

He had been observing a solar eclipse, and noticed a strange yellow line through his equipment. Janssen realized it had a unique wavelength.

Janssen had no explanation for it, and concluded it was a new element not yet discovered on Earth.

His contemporaries ridiculed him, since no element had ever been found in space before first being detected on Earth.

But it turned out Janssen was right. Later an English chemist would name the element after the Greek word for "Sun," helios.

###

1877 – Astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, one of Mars' moons.

It is uncharacteristically close to Mars, and moves around the planet faster than Mars rotates. This means it rises in the west and sets in the East almost twice each day, about every 11 hours.

###

1920 – Tennessee ratifies the 19th amendment, thereby granting the two-thirds majority of states to enact a Constitutional amendment.

From then on, women were allowed to vote, too.

The vote was the culmination of more than 70 years of hard work by suffragists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

###

1958 - Vladimir Nabokov's creepy novel “Lolita” is published in America.

The story is about a man's infatuation with a 12-year-old girl. Scores of publishers rejected the tale, but it was finally published by G.P. Putnam's Sons publishing.

The novel became an instant bestseller; affording Nabokov the luxury of retiring from his job as a college professor.

###

1992 - Larry Bird retires from the Boston Celtics and professional basketball.

Bird started suffering severe back pain toward the end of his career, which had been inhibiting his performance on the court.

Before his retirement, Bird did play in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, as part of the fabled Dream Team, which also included Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley.

He would later become head coach of the Indiana Pacers and then the team's president of basketball operations in 2003, before stepping down in 2017.

###

2017 – Researchers discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface.

The ship sank 72 years prior during WWII after being struck by Japanese torpedoes. Of the 1196 men on board, 800 made it into the water. The remaining men began a horrendous 4-day ordeal in the water being picked off by sharks and suffering from heat, thirst and exhaustion. On the fourth day a US naval plane spotted the survivors. By then only 300 survived.

###

2020 - Joe Biden is formally nominated as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.

The nomination came during the second night of the first ever virtual (due to COVID-19) convention.

###

BIRTHDAYS

Josephine Langford - actress, “After” films - 25

Parker-McKenna Posey - actress, “My Wife and Kids” - 27

Madeline Petsch - actress, “Riverdale,” - 28

Maia Mitchell - actress, “The Fosters” - 29

Francis Bean Cobain - daughter of Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love - 30

Eniko Hart - model - 38

Andy Samberg - actor, “SNL” & “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” - 44

Christian Slater - actor, “Mr. Robot” - 53

Edward Norton - actor, “Fight Club” & “The Illusionist” - 53

Robert Redford - actor, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” - 86

Born On This Date

Patrick Swayze - actor, “Road House” & “Dirty Dancing” - 1952 (d. 2009)

Roberto Clemente - baseball player - 1934 (d. 1972)

###