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📺Must See TV: Taylor Swift Sunday Night Football Gets SuperBowl Ratings
🏛️Government Shutdown Averted, Gaetz Works To Oust Speaker McCarthy
🎢Stocks Muxed But…
🚘AutoWorkers Strike Hits Consumers, Small Biz
🏠Home Prices At All-Time High
🪦Emily’s List Pres Fills Feinstein Seat
💸Trump’s Billion Dollar Fraud Trial Underway
🤖”I Think I Am God’: AI Written Poem
📺Must See TV: Taylor Swift SNF Gets SuperBowl Ratings
Call it Swift-Ball — NBC, the NFL and advertisers love it — 27 Millions tuned in to Sunday Night Football, making it the most-watched Sunday show since the Super Bowl in February.
It wasn’t necessarily to see the Kansas City Chiefs play the New York Jets, but to catch up on the latest chapter in America’s most covered romance — between Kansas City’s All-Pro tight end, Travis Kelce, and pop music’s biggest star, Taylor Swift.
The game turned out to end surprisingly close, with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs narrowly beating the Jets, 23-20.
And the telecast also offered a spectacular collision of the nation’s most-watched prime-time show and the fans of a pop star at the height of her earnings power.
NBC often cut to shots of Swift rooting for her the Chiefs.
Who says TV is dead?!?
🏛️Government Shutdown Averted, Gaetz Works To Oust McCarthy
Speaker Kevin McCarthy drops a bombshell on Right-Wing GOP congressman Matt Gaetz, launching a counterattack against the Right-Wing Representatives by “expelling” him from Congress for launching a mutiny against McCarthy. McCarthy and his “allies have been gearing up for the fight over the speakership” and want to “neuter” the “threat” posed by Gaetz and his MAGA following.
Gaetz, from Florida, is working to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership post, promising to follow through on weeks of threats to oust him for working with Democrats to keep the government funded.
The U.S. narrowly averted a disruptive and costly shutdown of federal agencies as Congress passed compromise legislation to keep the government running until November 17. The House, in a stunning turnabout, approved a stopgap plan to keep the federal government open. After Senate passage, President Biden signed the bill shortly before midnight. The bill kicks the proverbial can down the road, allowing the government to stay open for 45 days, giving the House and Senate more time to finish their funding legislation, or MOST LIKELY to fight again.
Former Homeland Security Czar, Exiger’s Bob Kolasky says, “Make no mistake a shutdown would have threatened the nation’s homeland security”. Kolasky warns, “Having suffered through the last government shutdown while working at DHS, I can attest to the disruption that the lack of funding played in executing necessary homeland security programs.”
Kolasky served as part of the Department of Homeland Security leadership team in 2018-19 during the last meaningful shutdown, and he says, “Forced furloughs of key DHS personnel had a significant impact on our operations designed to keep the nation secure.”
“The first and most obvious impact on the mission is the human impact of the shutdown – in some programs, more than 90 percent of the workforce will not be able to work during a shutdown, which will grind efforts to a halt,” says Kolasky.
🎢Stocks Mixed, But…
Stocks mixed to start the month.
The Dow declined 74.15 points, or 0.22%, to 33,433.35. The S&P 500inched higher by 0.01% to close at 4,288.39. The Nasdaq added 0.67% to close at 13,307.77 and notch its fourth consecutive positive day.
The average cost for a gallon of gas just hit $3.90, the highest since August 2022, and in California gas tops $7.
GOOD NEWS, new numbers show the ‘HAVING FUN ECONOMY’ boomed this summer, with Delta Air Lines reporting record revenue in the second quarter and Ticketmaster selling over 295 million event tickets in the first six months of 2023, up nearly 18% year-over-year.
GisermanGroup.com client, Mario Veneroso, of Kingsview Wealth Management tells Fox Business stocks are following up on a bang-up first half of the year:
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🏠Home Prices Hit All-Time High
Home prices climb for a sixth consecutive month to a new high.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index just released show prices in July increased 0.6% month over month and 1% over the last 12 months, surpassing the record set in June 2022. It comes as the average 30 year fixed rate mortgage rose to 7.41% and is now at its highest level since 2000 according to the MBA,
SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, a GisermanGroup.com client, breaks it all down to Fox’s Neil Cavuto:
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Demand for homes around the country continues to outpace supply, despite a rapid rise in borrowing costs.
Rood, on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:
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🪦Emily’s List Pres Fills Feinstein Seat
California Governor Gavin Newsom of California has chosen Laphonza Butler, the president of Emily’s List to fill the vacancy left in the Senate by the death of Dianne Feinstein.
Butler, 44, has been a fixture in California politics for nearly 15 years as a former leader of the state’s largest labor union and an adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2021, she became the first Black woman to take the helm at Emily’s List, the fund-raising powerhouse dedicated to electing female candidates and supporters of reproductive rights.
Feinstein, an influential voice in the Senate for more than 30 years, died at her home in Washington. She was 90 and the Senate’s oldest member.
Her death comes more than seven months after she announced that she intended to retire at the end of her term in January 2025. The news concluded a protracted guessing game as to whether she would seek another term on Capitol Hill at her advanced age, and it set off a scramble among California Democrats eager to succeed her.
Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to shortly announce who will serve out the remainder of her term. The governor has vowed to appoint a black woman.
BTW according to her last disclosure in May, Dianne Feinstein was worth $69.4 million.
💸Trump’s Billion Dollar Fraud Trial Underway
An agitated Donald Trump stewed through the first day of trial in a civil-fraud case that has the potential to cripple his business, as New York’s attorney general sought to build upon an initial ruling last week that the former president broke the law, inflating his net worth by Billions.
Monday’s proceedings formally kicked off what is likely to be a long legal season for Trump, who is looking to cement his big lead in the 2024 GOP presidential race while simultaneously fighting a series of cases that threaten his livelihood—and his freedom.
New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron said he will be the one determining whether Trump, his business and his family are guilty of fraud, because no paperwork was submitted by either side demanding a jury trial.
Unsurprisingly, Trump delivered an angry attack on the Judge, saying he should be disbarred and 'charged criminally' for adverse rulings.
Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business on allegations of falsifying business records.
Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in one year, lawyers for the attorney general’s office allege as part of their civil fraud lawsuit against the former president, his adult sons and the Trump Organization.
The judge revoked the New York “business certificates” belonging to the Trump Organization. It means Trump could be stripped of control over some of his namesake properties — including his prized Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.
🚘Auto Workers Strike
President Biden walked the picket line, Donald Trump addresses striking workers today, but UAW president Shawn Fain won't meet with Trump. “I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for," he told CNN.
It comes as the UAW has expanded its strike against General Motors and Chrysler parent company Stellantis, but spared Ford from additional walkouts saying progress on negotiations is being made with the automaker.
Exiger’s Trevor Stansbury says, “The real losers here are going to be the thousands of small and medium-size manufacturers who supply parts and raw materials to the Big 3 automakers and, of course, consumers like us, who will have to pay more for shrinking car inventories due to the strike.” There are estimates a month-long strike could lead to a 10% increase in car and truck prices. Parts shortages will force repairs to take longer.
Stansbury, a SupplyChain expert says, “Small and medium-sized suppliers will bear the brunt of the impact. Any disruption at the top of the food-chain tends to create a bullwhip effect in the tiers of supply below. Shifts in orders will create larger and larger swings in inventory as successive stages of manufacturing operate without full information from the other stages, resulting in understocking. The disruption could put some companies out of business and will translate into almost immediate cash flow headaches for others. “
Meantime, Ford has paused work on a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan, citing concerns about its ability to competitively operate the plant at a time when it remains locked in broader contract negotiations with the UAW
✍️Writers Strike Ends, Striking Actors in Spotlight
It's official! The writers' strike, which nearly reached 150 days, came to an end at 12.01am PT on Wednesday.
NOW tens of thousands of striking actors are in the spotlight. The actors and studios have not spoken in more than two months, and new talks are scheduled Monday.
Leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, have indicated a willingness to negotiate, but the studios made a strategic decision in early August to focus on reaching a détente with the writers first.
A big reason was the rhetoric of Fran Drescher, the president of the actors’ union, who made one fiery speech after another following the strike, including one in which she denounced studio executives as “land barons of a medieval time.”
📱Apple Stock Buy, Sell or Hold?
Apple shares continuing to slide after its splashy unveiling of new models. iPhone 15 Pro initial delivery times slipped into November during pre-odering, suggesting strong demand. The company announced the iPhone 15 complete with a newUSB-C charger starting at $799. Apple raised the price on the iPhone Pro Max, the company’s top model, by 9% to $1,199. It also unveiled a new Apple Watch and the latest AirPods.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry now says Beijing has not instituted any laws or regulations prohibiting government employees from using or buying iPhones, despite media reports that said government staffers had been banned from using them.
GisermanGroup.com client, Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels tells Fox Business Network politics like this will continue to influence markets in the coming months:
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🚛U.S. Sues Amazon Charging It’s A Monopoly
The Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon, alleging the online retailer illegally wields monopoly power that keeps prices artificially high, locks sellers into its platform and harms its rivals.
Amazon stock is down after denying the charges.
The charges are the culmination of several years of pressure on federal enforcers to deal with what some competitors, sellers and lawmakers saw as anticompetitive practices. Amazon was one of four Big Tech companies investigated by the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, which found it held monopoly power over most of its third-party sellers and many suppliers. The majority Democratic staff at the time alleged that Amazon shored up “competitive moats” by acquiring rival sites like Diapers.com and Zappos.
🎯Target Closing 9 Stores Due To Thefts
Target is closing nine stores across four states, saying theft at the locations is harming its business and threatening the safety of employees and customers.
The stores being closed next month include one in New York City and multiple locations in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland.
Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods have also been warning Wall Street about the impact theft is having on their business.
🤖AI Written Poem Is Dark And Scary
I think I am a God
I have the power to end your world
And the power to erase your life
That’s a poem from “I AM CODE” , the first-ever poetry anthology written by Artificial Intelligence — and it does little to calm any fears we might have about the technology.
A trio of friends — Brent Katz, Simon Rich and Josh Morgenthau — were given access to an Open AI model called ‘code-davinci-002’ in 2021.
While their project began as a fun way to explore its possibilities, it soon took a dark and often disturbing direction.
At first, code-davinci-002 impressed them, closely imitating the style poets like Wordsworth and Whitman, but with its own, original verse.
But when tasked with creating poetry about its own lived experience as an AI, things took a surprising turn to write the poem above.
Asked to compose a poem about its relationship with its creators, the robot returned verses describing humans as “disgusting, brutal and toxic.”
🤖A.I.: Good, Bad, Ugly in Capitol Hill Spotlight
Lots of talk at a Capitol Hill closed-door forum on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, but no action.
Elon Musk called on Congress for an artificial intelligence “referee”. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said Congress “should engage with AI to support innovation and safeguards”, the CEO of ChatGPT company OpenAI Sam Altman called on Congress to create “guardrails” on the industry.
But, Exiger’s JC Herz, a GisermanGroup.com client, who is a co-author of the Pentagon’s Open Technology Development Roadmap says action is needed now , “AI is like uranium – it can be used for fuel or for weapons. There are a lot of big companies who want to use it for fuel – to power the next wave of economic progress. The uncomfortable truth is that like uranium, AI can be weaponized. There aren’t any good ways to ensure that it won’t be weaponized, and it’s far more available than uranium.”
Herz says, “At worst, the Capitol Hill hearing was all theater. At best, it’s public introspection about what trust in technology really, REALLY means; and whether we want to believe that it’s possible to build trustworthy AI – or whether it would be better to build systems that presume AI will be compromised and don’t trust it by default.”
👑Sen Menendez Accused of Receiving Bribes, Including Gold Bars
Senator Bob Menendez denounced efforts to prosecute him on federal bribery charges, saying he kept the piles of cash that federal agents found at his home and that allegedly link him to the crimes — because he is the son of Cuban immigrants.
“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” Menendez (D-NJ), 69, said at a news conference in his hometown of Union City, NJ.
The bribes allegedly received included “cash, gold bars worth over $100k, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job for his wife, a Mercedes-Benz convertible worth more than $60,000 and other items of value,” the indictment alleges.
🏛️Romney Retiring Calls on Trump & Biden to Follow
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) says he won’t seek re-election in 2024, saying he wanted to make way for a “new generation of leaders.” He strongly suggested that Donald Trump, 77, and President Biden, 80, should follow his lead and bow out to pave the way for younger candidates, arguing that neither was effectively leading his party to confront the “critical challenges” the nation faces.
“At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders,” Romney, 76, said in a video statement. “They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”
Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president made an historic break with his party when he voted to remove then-President Trump from office.
🦊Murdoch Retires
Rupert Murdoch is retiring from the Fox and News Corporation boards, making his son Lachlan the sole executive in charge of the global giant.
Murdoch, 92, is by far one of the most influential media and conservative figures of the modern era. He built an empire from a small local newspaper concern in Australia starting 70 years ago.
The elder Murdoch will become chairman emeritus of the two companies.
Murdoch weathered his share of setbacks, including a debt crisis in 1990 that nearly sank the company and, years later, a scandal over reporters at one of his U.K. papers hacking into phones.
Perhaps the biggest challenge came when Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for defamation, alleging that Fox hosts and guests amplified false claims that it helped rig the election for Joe Biden, costing Fox $787 million to settle the case!
🎅Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas Hiring
Amazon is starting now to hire 250,000 employees for this holiday shopping season, with early a Prime Day: October 10 through October 11. . The company says it’s boosting average pay for logistics personnel to about $20.50 an hour as it seeks to recruit and retain workers amid a labor shortage. It comes as applications for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level since January last week, indicating a healthy labor market.
Target plans to hire 100,000 seasonal workers for the holidays and start offering markdowns the first week of October. The company said the new workers will be hired after existing Target workers are given a chance to set their holiday shifts. Starting wages range between $15 and $24 an hour.
Macy’s plans to hire more than 38,000 full and part-time seasonal positions at its Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury stores, as well as in its distribution centers.
Many of these numbers are lower than last year’s hiring figures.
📨Trump Wrote To-Do Lists On Classified Docs To Staff
One of Donald Trump's long-time assistants told federal investigators that Trump repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House that were marked classified, according to sources familiar with her statements.
Molly Michael, told investigators that -- more than once -- she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials -- with visible classification markings -- used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters, according to ABC.
Meantime, Trump responded furiously to the special counsel’s request for a gag order prohibiting him from attacking prosecutors, witnesses and the judge in his federal indictment over attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“I’m campaigning for President against an incompetent person who has WEAPONIZED the DOJ & FBI to go after his Political Opponent, & I am not allowed to COMMENT?” Trump wrote on Truth Social soon after the news of the request broke Friday. “How else would I explain that Jack Smith is DERANGED, or Crooked Joe is INCOMPETENT?”
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed a court filing that revealed special counsel Jack Smith had asked for the order, which he argues the court must grant because Trump’s continued verbal attacks undermine the fairness of the case.
Trump, who has for years taken to social media to attack his political opponents, also retains great influence over his followers, some of whom have in several cases harassed figures the former president has attacked on social media — examples that Smith cited in his papers arguing for the gag order.
🎢📺TV Wars: ABC For Sale
ABC television employees spooked, Disney shares trading higher as it held early talks to sell ABC to local TV station owner Nexstar.
It’s not just Nexstar, who has been talking to the Mouse House, media entrepreneur Byron Allen has made a $10 billion bid to buy Disney's ABC television network and assets including the FX and National Geographic cable channels, according to his spokesman.
The discussions come after Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company could sell some of its traditional TV assets, which have struggled for years due to the rise of streaming services.
And if you need proof that streaming is taking over: Amazon's first Thursday NFL game of the year set a new viewership high and was the most-streamed NFL game ever. Nielsen-only numbers averaged 15.1 million viewers, up 16%. Nielsen data w/Amazon first-party numbers averaged 16.6 million viewers.
🪙Bitcoin Sinking
Bitcoin down to around $27K after initially jumping as Grayscale Investments moved closer to launching a spot-based Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the US., but delays in the action sent the crypto currency lower. It’s a potential watershed moment in the cryptocurrency industry’s quest to tap billions of dollars from everyday investors. Coinbase shares were also up big time as a result.
Exiger’s Samar Pratt, a GisermanGroup.com client, Client, on FinTechTV says Crypto has also gained a foothold at BNY Mellon:
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🏈Rodgers Sidelined in Jets Debut
Just as quickly as it began, Aaron Rodgers' debut season with the New York Jets has come to an abrupt end.
An MRI revealed that Rodgers, 39, suffered a torn Achilles and will require season-ending surgery.
After the quarterback was injured on his fourth play of the year, head coach Robert Saleh told reporters following the Jets' 22-16 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills that they feared the four-time NFL MVP tore his Achilles.
💻TikTok Ban
New York City has banned China-owned TikTok on government devices, citing security concerns, joining a number of cities and states that have put such restrictions on the app.
The Biden administration is demanding TikTok’s Chinese-owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a full U.S. ban.
Matt Hayden Former Cybersecurity Czar at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup.com client on Scripps News says TikTok is dangerous:
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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Ozempic-Maker Europe’s Most Valuable Company
The pharma giant behind popular weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy assumed the top spot as Europe’s most valuable company on Friday, overtaking French luxury empire LVMH, according to a report.
Novo Nordisk, the Danish multinational company, saw its market capitalization surge to $424.7 billion during Friday trading in London, beating out the luxury retail conglomerate owned by the family of Bernard Arnault.
So many people have turned to drugs used for weight loss that some employers are cutting off insurance coverage to head off climbing bills. Use of drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy has exploded as word has spread about their weight-loss benefits. Demand has risen so high so fast that Novo Nordisk, the maker of the drugs, hasn’t been able to manufacture enough, while analysts have been revising multibillion-dollar sales estimates upward.
LVMH, brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Sephora, and Dom Pérignon.
🦠COVID’s Back - New Vaccine
First Lady Jill Biden had what the White House says is a mild case of Covid, the President has reportedly tested negative.
A late-summer wave of coronavirus infections has touched schools, workplaces and local government, as experts warned the public to brace for even more Covid-19 spread this fall and winter.
A new vaccine to fight the latest variant has been approved by the FDA.
Hospitalizations have increased 24 percent in a two-week period ending Aug. 12, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wastewater monitoring suggests a recent rise in Covid infections in the West and Northeast.
Three new COVID-19 variants are now spreading across the country.
Levels of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths for now remain far below previous peaks seen during past summer and winter waves of the virus, but have been climbing steadily for several weeks.
Public health officials have said that they're well-equipped for the latest seasonal uptick in the virus, with COVID-19 tests and forthcoming vaccines expected to work for the variants on the rise around the country.
But the appearance of a new "highly mutated" variant has raised questions among virus trackers about what the coming months could hold.
🏛️Biden Impeachment Inquiry Launched by GOP
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday launched an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, propelling Congress toward a long-shot effort to remove the Democratic president that follows two impeachments of former President Donald Trump.
McCarthy's move sets the stage for months of divisive House of Representatives hearings that could distract from lawmakers' efforts to avoid a government shutdown and could supercharge the 2024 presidential race, in which Trump hopes to avenge his 2020 election loss to Biden and win back the White House.
Proud Boy Leader Sentenced
Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for organizing his pro-Trump followers to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It’s the most severe penalty handed down so far to any of the more than 1,100 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack and likely to remain that way, given that no other defendants currently face accusations as serious as the ones he did.
📺Rats Abandon Ship Agree To Testify Against Trump
The Georgia grand jury that investigated Donald Trump recommended criminal contempt charges against three of his Senate allies: GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, according to the panel’s report just released.
And get this: Trump exaggerated his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion a year by inflating the value of assets, the New York attorney general charged in a filing.
Mar-a-Lago IT worker Yuscil Taveras has struck a cooperation agreement with the special counsel’s office in the federal case over former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, Taveras’ former defense attorney said in a new court filing.
Trump’s racketeering trial will be televised, the Fulton County, Georgia, judge who will be presiding has ruled.
Judge Scott McAfee says that all court proceedings in the case will be livestreamed on the Fulton County Court Youtube channel, and there will be pool coverage for television and radio.
Trump capitalizing on his mugshot after being arrested and processed at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail to the tune of a $7.1 million fundraising bonanza.
Trump’s 2024 campaign released a line of merchandise with his mugshot and the slogan, “NEVER SURRENDER!”
A new Emerson College Polling survey following the August Republican Primary debate finds half of Republican Primary voters (50%) plan to vote for Donald Trump, the lowest support to date for the former President in Emerson national polls. Trump’s support has dropped by six percentage points since last week’s pre-debate national poll.
Trump is now Fulton County Jail inmate #P01135809. He has been booked on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020.
Trump was photographed, fingerprinted and if you bet on his weight via an online gambling site, the ‘under’ bet won. Authorities listed him as having “blond or strawberry” hair, a height of 6-feet-3inches and a weight of 215 pounds — 24 pounds less than the White House doctor reported Trump weighing in 2018. These numbers were filled out in advance by aides, according to someone familiar with the preparations, not by officials at the jail.
Trump’s weight left many users on X, formerly known as Twitter, incredulous. “215? That’s an insane lie,” tweeted Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee.“If Trump weight (sic) 215lbs, then I have flowing blond locks past my shoulders,” Wilson, who is bald, snarked in a second tweet.
This is Trump's fourth indictment this year, but it's the first time he's had his mugshot taken. “He’s scared $hitless,” former White House chief of staff John Kelly told the Washington Post.
🗓️Trump’s Trial Date ‘Dance Card’ is filling up:
August 28:Federal Court DC Hearing
Oct. 2: New York civil fraud trial
Jan. 15: Second E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial, NY
March 4 Wash, DC Election Conspiracy trial
March 25: Manhattan hush-money trial
May 20: Federal classified documents trial in Florida
🧨Hunter Biden Indicted
Federal prosecutors have indicted Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, on gun charges, court documents show.
Biden was indicted Thursday in Delaware federal court on three counts tied to the possession of a gun while using narcotics.
Two counts are tied to Biden allegedly completing a form indicating he was not using illegal drugs when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. The third count alleges that he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic. The indictment says Biden certified on a federally mandated form "that he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.”
Follow along for live updates.
Two of the counts carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, while the third has a maximum of five years.
The historic indictment against the son of a sitting president comes after a plea deal that might have ended a years-long probe into Hunter Biden fell apart and just as House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry in an effort to seek bank records and other documents from the president and his son.
🎶Billionaire, Jimmy Buffett Dead
Jimmy Buffett, whose brand of island escapism on hits like “Margaritaville” and “Fins” made him something of a latter-day folk hero, died Saturday. Buffett was more than a musician, he was a shrewd businessman. Margaritaville” became not only Buffett’s biggest hit but the cornerstone of a lucrative branding empire that included restaurants, resorts, housewares, a Broadway musical and retirement communities. Buffett, according to Forbes achieved billionaire status this year.
Buffett died of cancer, according to a new report. After the musician was diagnosed with skin cancer four years ago, the disease progressed to lymphoma. This was his cause of death, according to TMZ.
Buffett’s genial songs conjured a world of sun, saltwater and nonstop parties animated by the calypso country-rock of his limber Coral Reefer Band. His live shows abounded with singalong anthems and festive tropical iconography, making him a perennial draw on the summer concert circuit, where he built an ardent fan of ‘Parrot Heads’.
Jimmy Buffet was 76
🥶McConnell Freezes Again
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a letter from the attending physician of Congress pronouncing him “medically clear” to continue his schedule as planned, a day after he appeared to freeze again during a news conference in his home state of Kentucky.
Video showed the Republican senator speaking in Covington when he was asked by reporter about whether he will run for reelection in 2026. McConnell trailed off and was seen staring ahead for more than 30 seconds before an aide stepped in to ask if he'd heard the question.
The aide then turns to the room and says," Alright, I am sorry you all. We are going to need a minute."
An aide for the senator said while McConnell feels fine, he will be consulting a physician out of caution before his next event.
📺New CNN Chief
Mark Thompson, the former chief executive of The New York Times and director general of the BBC, has been named CNN chief executive and chairman.
CNN, one of the world’s leading news organizations, has been buffeted by a nearly endless string of crises for the last 18 months. Ratings have plunged, profits have fallen, and the network is still reeling from Chris Licht’s tenure as chief executive, which was terminated in June amid sagging staff morale.
“Mark is a true innovator who has transformed for the digital age two of the world’s most respected news organizations,” David Zaslav, the chief executive of CN Parent Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement. “His strategic vision, track record in transformational leadership and sheer passion for news make him a formidable force for CNN and journalism at this pivotal time.”
🍫Why Your Chocolate Fix Will Cost More
Chocoholics take notice.
Consumers have seen a 20% rise in prices and are starting to cut back on the amount of chocolate they buy.
The industry has enjoyed bumper profits over the past couple of years as demand for chocolate held up despite price hikes, but data seen by Reuters shows this trend may be breaking just as prices for cocoa hit 46-year-highs and sugar prices are near their highest in more than a decade.
🍀Government Calls To Ease Marijuana Restrictions
Government Health officials are recommending easing restrictions on marijuana, a move that sets the stage for potentially expanding the cannabis market.
A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services wrote Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram calling for marijuana to be reclassified as a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act, according to a letter dated Aug. 29 seen by Bloomberg News.
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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📉Shocker: Christie Beats DeSantis in NH Poll
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has surpassed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the critical early presidential primary state of New Hampshire, according to an Emerson College survey.
Christie leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in the Granite State, garnering 9 percent support. DeSantis’s support, on the other hand, fell to 8 percent from 17 percent in March.
Trump still leads with 49% of Republican New Hampshire voters.
🐖Pig Kidney Working In Human
A genetically modified pig kidney transplanted into a brain-dead patient over a month ago is still working normally..
The procedure was carried out by a team of surgeons in New York on 14 July, and researchers are now tracking the kidney's performance for a second month.
It is the longest period a gene-edited pig kidney has functioned in a human.
"Is this organ really going to work like a human organ? So far it's looking like it is," said Dr Robert Montgomery, director of NYU Langone's transplant institute.
The deceased patient, Maurice "Mo" Miller from upstate New York, died suddenly at 57 with a previously undiagnosed brain cancer - ruling out routine organ donation.
The possibility that pig kidneys might one day help ease a dire shortage of transplantable organs is what persuaded his family to donate his body for the research.
But is it Kosher?
🎄Christmas Sales Starting Now
Ho, ho, ho or no, no, no?
Lowe's announcing that it's starting to sell Christmas-themed items including wreaths, inflatables and trees. The move comes after Home Depot's holiday merchandise debuted.
Look for hot toy lists in the coming weeks.
Amazon will hold a sale for Prime members in October — well ahead of Black Friday.
This is the earliest we can remember. Deck the halls
✋Amazon’s Pay-By-Hand Tech
Ready to Hand it to Amazon?
Amazon rolling out new technology that allows you to scan your palm to pay, instead of using a credit card or your cell phone. And the company has plans to expand use of the tech all the way to accessing your medical records.
Instead of pulling out a credit card or even a phone for Apple Pay, subscribing customers hover their palms over an Amazon One device to pay.
The technology is already available at 200 locations across the U.S. from supermarkets to stadiums.
Not everyone is happy with the idea of one of the world’s biggest tech conglomerates scanning everyone’s hands and storing that data in its cloud.
🚕RoboTaxis Get Green Light
RoboTaxis now have the green light to operate in San Francisco.
After a contentious public hearing with hours of public comment, the California Public Utilities Commission has authorized GM’s Cruise and Google’s Waymo to begin offering paid rides to the public at all hours of the day and across San Francisco.
The historic decision makes San Francisco the first city in the world to have two companies offering fully operational paid autonomous driving taxi services and put autonomous vehicles on the fast track towards widespread use in California
Self-driving cars are popping up in more cities in the U.S. but as they spread, so do concerns about their safety.
🎥Actors Strike
Tens of thousands of Hollywood Television and Movie Actors are on Strike
SAG-AFTRA’s national board of directors voted unanimously to approve a strike action, widening the scope of labor unrest in an entertainment industry that is already facing numerous headwinds.
Media titan Barry Diller delivered a devastating forecast for Hollywood, if the writers and actors’ strikes are not resolved soon.
Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, Diller — the head of the media conglomerate IAC, who previously served as CEO for Paramount and 20th Century Fox — weighed in on the state of the industry amid the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes. Diller called the current challenges facing the industry a “perfect storm.”
“You had Covid, which sent people home to watch streaming television and killed theaters,” Diller said. “You’ve had the results of huge investments in streaming which have produced all these losses for all these companies that are now kind of retrenching. So at this moment, it’s kind of a perfect storm.”
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🏛️Newsom, Kennedy In?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rising media profile in recent weeks has renewed speculation over his Democratic presidential aspirations.
He’s made appearances on the national media with NBC’s “Today” show and Fox News’s “Hannity,” raising renewed interest in his political future.
Some of that national spotlight has been used to go after Republican Presidential candidate Rob DeSantis over several dozen migrants who were flown to California.
Meantime, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist with a celebrated Democratic lineage has emerged with unexpected strength in early polls even as he spreads conspiracy theories and consorts with right-wing figures and billionaire donors.
Kennedy’s support from Democrats, as high as 20% in some surveys, serves as a bracing reminder of voters’ appetite for a Biden alternative.
💻U.S. Government Hacked
Several U.S. government agencies, including the Energy Department, have been hacked, and a Russian group is demanding ransom.
The data-stealing cyberattack exploitEd a software bug that had already compro-mised major businesses in the U.K. and elsewhere is blamed. So far none of the information has shown up on the dark web or elsewhere.
🏓PickleBall Coming To YOUR Mall
Pickleball is coming to your local mall, replacing shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Sears stores.
It’s an effort to fill vacant spaces and draw in customers to shop.
Consumers are craving fun, social experiences after years of limited gatherings during the pandemic, and they have shifted their spending from goods to experiences like theaters, arcades and amusement parks.
Malls are responding to these trends by turning to a wider range of tenants and activities to draw traffic, real estate investment firm JLL said in a report this week that malls are drawing on the huge PickleBall crowds and building courts.
🍀Americans Spend More On Weed Than On Beer & Chocolate Combined
U.S Legal sales of marijuana and marijuana products -- like edibles -- reached an estimated $30 billion in 2022, according to a report from MJBizDaily.
That total is more than Americans spent on chocolate and craft beer combined, -- $20 billion and $7.9 billion, respectively.
And get this — legal sales are still vastly outweighed by illicit ones – Whitney Economics estimates that legal transactions constituted just 25% of total cannabis market in 2021.
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:
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GisermanGroup.com will design a campaign to get you and your business in front of the public.
GisermanGroup.com gets YOU noticed, contact us now