GisermanGroup.com #BreakingNews
🚨TRUMP CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY VIDEO EVIDENCE🚨
💸#Stocks Sink On #Fed Hike
🏠New #Home Sales Fall
❓McConnell Freezes Mid-Sentence, Health Questions
👧Barbie & Taylor Swift Pump Economy
🔥CannaBIZ Cash Only
TRUMP NOW CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY VIDEO EVIDENCE
Federal prosecutors have just added major accusations to an indictment charging Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents after he left office, saying he told a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago that he wanted security camera footage there to be deleted.
The new accusations were revealed in a superseding indictment that named the maintenance worker, Carlos De Oliveira, as a new defendant in the case.
The charges broaden a sweeping indictment brought by a Florida grand jury in June alleging the former president held on to sensitive military secrets he knew he shouldn’t have retained access to, shared them with others and directed his staff to help him evade authorities’ efforts to get them back.
Trump’s Trial Date ‘Dance Card’ is filling up:
Oct. 2: New York civil fraud trial
Jan. 15: Second E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial
March 25: Manhattan hush-money trial
May 20: Federal classified documents trial in Florida
And expect more as Donald Trump’s latest indictment is imminent after being told he is a target in the Jan. 6 criminal investigation by special counsel Jack Smith. It would be the third indictment against the former President.
“He’s scared $hitless,” former White House chief of staff John Kelly told the Washington Post.
The purpose of notifying a target of the status is "to afford him an opportunity to testify before the grand jury," according to the Justice Department.
A federal judge has set former Trump’s trial on charges of mishandling classified documents to start May 20, 2024.
The former president had kept reams of classified documents in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida until federal agents raided it last year and seized the records. The ex-president said he’s innocent and ripped the case as a “hoax.“
🐂Stocks Sink
Stocks sink the Dow down over 200, Nasdaq off about 0.5%.
The Fed raises interest rates to their highest in 22 years — And Wall Street is hinging on what’s next. This morning a report the economy grew at a 2.4% annual rate last quarter, remaining well clear of a recession despite higher rates
Ford shares higher after hours as it raised 2023 guidance as second-quarter earnings significantly beat Wall Street expectations on strong pricing and demand for the automaker’s trucks.
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:
It comes as the creator of ChatGPT is calling for heavy regulation on artificial intelligence technologies. “My worst fear is that we, the technology industry, cause significant harm to the world,” OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
Elon Musk launched his long-teased artificial intelligence startup xAI on Wednesday after warning about AI’s potential for “civilizational destruction,” arguing that a race among companies such as Google and Microsoft to develop the technology should be halted to allow time for drafting regulation for the sector.
🏠New #Home Sales Fall
Sales of new homes declined slightly in June, showing that the housing market is still feeling the weight of higher mortgage rates despite signs of life in recent months. Although, sales were 23.8% higher than in June 2022.
Rood, 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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🔥CannaBIZ Cash Only
Mastercard moving to block cannabis purchases using its debit cards.
The payments giant told banks to bar such transactions, citing the illegality of marijuana on a federal level. It’s a further blow to the cannabis industry.
Many weed businesses placing ATM’s in their stores to smoke Mastercard’s move.
McConnell Freezes Mid-Sentence
Republican Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell froze mid-sentence during an appearance at his weekly news conference in the Capitol on Wednesday and was briefly escorted away from the microphones to recover.
The situation was just the latest reminder of the advanced age and frail condition of the top Republican in the Senate, raising questions about his future and that of his party.
McConnell returned 12-minutes later to take reporters questions, saying he was ‘just fine.’
McConnell, who became the longest-serving Senate leader in history at the beginning of the year, has moved more slowly and struggled with hearing loss since he fell at a Washington hotel sustaining a concussion. His allies have rejected any suggestion that his abilities have declined, saying he remains in charge in private sessions. They expressed confidence again on Wednesday.
🧑⚖️What’s the Deal With Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to tax charges on Wednesday, in a stunning reversal after a judge said she wasn’t yet prepared to accept a deal he had reached with prosecutors to plead guilty.
Lawyers for President Biden’s son at first clashed with prosecutors over a dispute about the potential for future charges. After a break in which the two sides clarified their agreement, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she needed more information before deciding whether to sign off on it.
💸The Taxman Cometh No Longer
The IRS is immediately ending the practice of sending agents to make surprise visits to homes and businesses to collect unpaid taxes. It comes amid political backlash and increasing threats to IRS agents.
It also coincides with increased scrutiny of the tax collection agency, which has faced criticism from Republicans over perceptions of political bias and from taxpayers who claim that IRS tactics are overly aggressive.
👧Barbie BoxOffice
Movies haven’t taken in this much since before Covid!
“Barbenheimer” delivered the strongest box office weekend of the year.
“Barbie” grossed $155 million in the U.S. and Canada between Friday and Sunday, while Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” brought in $81 million.
🎤Taylor Swift Economics
Wherever she goes Taylor Swift’s fans are following, bringing big bucks to cities hosting her concerts
The Eras Tour, which started in March and ends in the U.S. on Aug. 9, is on track to become the biggest in concert his-tory, potentially grossing $1 billion. It’s filling football stadiums that hold more than 70,000 people, and Swift is often staying in town for several days, giving local businesses time to soak up the Swiftie money.
Her fans have been filling hotels, packing restaurants and crowding bars during Swift’s 20-city tour which has helped them recover from the economic toll of the pandemic by bringing back tourists.
👅Sympathy For The Devil: #Jagger Turns 80
And so we give you our favorite Stones Song:
“X” Marks Twitter
Twitter overnight began rebranding itself as X, replacing its longtime logo with a stylized symbol that was projected onto its San Francisco headquarters.
The move underscored Elon Musk’s ambition to make the social network a key part of his longtime goal of creating an “everything app.” But it is also another risky gamble to reinvent a business that has struggled since he paid $44 billion for it last year.
Musk and the chief executive he brought aboard just a month ago to run Twitter say the social media network will ditch the bird logo, rebrand the platform with the name ‘X’ and move quickly into payments, banking and commerce.
Shares of Facebook parent Meta down after hit a 52 week high.
New data from Similarweb finds that app engagement with Threads has decreased by roughly 75% since its peak on July 7, two days after it officially launched.
Meantime, TikTok is taking on Twitter and Threads with a new feature that lets users add text posts. “With text posts, we’re expanding the boundaries of content creation for everyone on TikTok, giving the written creativity we’ve seen in comments, captions, and videos a dedicated space to shine,” the company said in announcing the new feature.
🇹🇩Beware: Kissinger’s China Diplomacy
Henry Kissinger again trying his hand at Chinese diplomacy. The surprise visit of the 100-year-old former US secretary of state comes as relations between the two superpowers have been spiraling downwards for months.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed Richard Nixon’s secretary of state to Beijing lavishing gratitude on the 100-year-old for his role in normalizing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China half a century ago.
China’s enthusiastic reception for Kissinger is the latest example of how Beijing is reaching outside official diplomatic channels to broaden the reach of its message and try to influence Washington’s thinking.
China expert GisermanGroup Client Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exiger says beware:“In the last couple of months, China has amped up intimidation tactics by: threatening Taiwan blockades, throttling exports of chip-manufacturing materials to the U.S. and substantially increasing their draconian states secrets laws to allow for unrestrained seizure or corporate data on Chinese soil; and hacking U.S. government officials, these are not the motions of progress.”
According to a readout from the Chinese defense ministry, Li Shangfu, who met with Kissinger, said “friendly communication” between China and the US had been “destroyed” because “some people in the United States did not meet China halfway”. Kissinger said he was a “friend of China”, according to the readout.
“Neither the United States nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary. If the two countries go to war, it will not lead to any meaningful results for the two peoples,” the Chinese statement reported Kissinger as saying.
⏰TikTok Ban
China-based TikTok has filed suit seeking to block Montana’s ban 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:
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🎤Tony Bennett Dead His Music Says it All
Tony Bennett learned he had Alzheimer’s in 2016. He continued to perform and record despite his illness; his last public performance was in August 2021, when he appeared with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in a show titled “One Last Time.”
Bennett’s career of more than 70 years was remarkable not only for its longevity, but also for its consistency. In hundreds of concerts and club dates and more than 150 recordings, he devoted himself to preserving the classic American popular song, as written by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others.
Tony Bennett was 96
🏈$6-Billion For A Football Team!
The NFL approves the sale of Washington Commanders for a record $6 billion.
The deal is the largest ever for a pro sports team and ends the Dan Snyder era that included more scandals than playoff wins.
The new owner is Josh Harris who owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. NBA great Magic Johnson is also an investor.
NFL owners met at a Minneapolis-area hotel for a special league meeting to ratify the record-setting $6.05 billion. The deal could close as soon as Friday, officially completing the once-proud franchise’s first ownership change since Snyder bought the team from the Jack Kent Cooke estate in 1999 for $800 million.
🪙Bitcoin Takes Off
Bitcoin near its highest level in a year, around $30k.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Coinbase, alleging the U.S.’s largest crypto platform violated rules that require it to register as an exchange and be overseen by the federal agency.
It comes after the S.E.C. accused Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, of mishandling customer funds..
Exiger’s Samar Pratt, a GisermanGroup Client, on FinTechTV says Crypto had recently gained a foothold at BNY Mellon:
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💸Billion Dollar Lottery
Yep $1 Billion Dollars Winner
The winning ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market convenience store in downtown Los Angeles, according to the California lottery.
The newest billionaire will be able to choose from the $1.08 billion payday or a lump sum payment estimated at $558.1 million.
Three ticket holders won a $2 million prize for matching each of the white balls and the Power Play
🥵It’s So HOT Electric Power Grid Threats
How hot is it?
Extreme heat has blanketed other parts of the West and South, with temperatures soaring above 110 degrees in Phoenix for more than 20 consecutive days
The punishing heat wave is pushing electricity demand to record levels but the power grid has held up.
Arizona Public Service, which provides electricity for much of the state, saw a record 8,191 megawatts of electricity demand on July 15. The company offered customers en-ergy-saving tips to reduce costs and support grid reliability.
The heat wave is testing the aging electric grid, which is being asked to deliver more power for running air conditioners without much of a break for routine maintenance. A forecast from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit that monitors the health of the bulk power system, says large portions of the U.S. could face blackouts this summer.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association estimates home energy bills will rise 11.7% to an average of $578 this summer, up from $517 last summer.
Even the hottest place on Earth, California’s Death Valley, could reach rare highs, with 130 degrees possible. It has only happened a handful of times, one of which isthe all-time global record high temperature of 134 degrees.
North of Philadelphia, emergency crews are still searching for a 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister after flash floods hit.
🎥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.”
📺ABC For Sale?
Disney CEO Bob Iger has opened the door to selling the company’s traditional TV assets.
Disney owns a portfolio of TV networks, broadcast stations, the ABC network, and cable TV channels like ESPN.
Disney is going to be “expansive” in its thinking about the traditional TV business, leaving the door open to a possible sale of the networks. “They may not be core to Disney,” Iger said on CNBC, adding the creativity that has come from those networks has been key for Disney.
It comes as the linear TV business struggles during the media industry’s transition to streaming and digital offerings.
🕊️Meta Stock @ 52 Week Hi as Musk-Zuckerberg War Gets Elon Musk-owned Twitter, meanwhile, had about 107 million users on July 14, according to Similarweb, which tracks usage only on the social media platform’s Android app.
Elon Musk is letting the personal insults fly as the social media feud with Mark Zuckerberg heats up.
Musk Tweets:
“Zuck is a cuck,” the Twitter chief writes on Twitter…he goes on:
“I propose a literal dick measuring contest.”
Zuckerberg says his new sight ‘Threads’ hit 100 million sign-ups less than a week after launching, but usage is way down from the peak.
Twitter’s lawyer wrote a letter to Meta accusing the company of “systematic” and “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets following the launch of Threads.
🛒Amazon’s Biggest Shopping Day Ever
Amazon shares at a 10 month high on these Headlines
*AMAZON: FIRST DAY OF PRIME DAY SINGLE LARGEST SALES DAY EVER
* AMAZON PRIME MEMBERS BOUGHT OVER 375M ITEMS WORLDWIDE
The first day of Amazon’s two-day Prime Day event saw U.S. sales rise nearly 6% year-over-year to $6.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics Data. The number represents the single biggest e-commerce day so far in 2023 and what Amazon calls its single largest sales day ever.
💻Oops! Russia Gains Access To US Military Email Due to Spelling Mistakes
Millions of US military emails have been getting sent to Mali, a West African country allied with Russia, due to a typo. Instead of appending the military’s .MIL domain to their recipient’s email address, people frequently type .ML, the country identifier for Mali, by mistake.
Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur contracted to manage Mali’s domain, tells the Financial Times that this has been happening for over a decade despite his repeated attempts to warn the US government. When Zuurbier began noticing requests for nonexistent domains, like army.ml and navy.ml, he set up a system to catch these misdirected emails, which the Financial Times reports “was rapidly overwhelmed and stopped collecting messages.” Zuurbier won’t be able to intercept these emails for much longer, however. Once his 10-year contract with Mali ends on Monday, authorities in Mali will be able to gain access to the emails. Russia established a presence in Mali last year through the Wagner Group, thevRussian state-backed paramilitary organization that recently staged a rebellion against President Vladimir Putin
💊BirthControl: Over-the-Counter Pill Approved
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter birth-control pill, significantly expanding access to contraception.
The FDA on Thursday followed the advice of expert advisers who recommended in May that the agency grant nonprescription approval to the pill despite questions over some data on its proper use. Medical societies and advocacy groups have called for years for birth control to be available over the counter.
The push intensified last year after the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, leaving decisions on abortion’s legality to the states.
💉Ozempic Suicide Probe
If it seems too good to be true, it’s usually not (true).
Drug-safety regulators are probing popular weight-loss drug Ozempic after patients report the medicine triggers thoughts of suicide and self-harm.
The European Medicines Agency says that a safety committee is investigating Novo Nordisk-made weight-loss drugs — including Ozempic, Saxenda and Wegovy — after Iceland’s health regulator flagged three cases of patients on the meds having suicidal and self harm-related thoughts.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration there have been at least 60 reports of suicidal ideation since 2018 from patients on the drug, or from their health care providers.
As the saying goes: there’s no free lunch.
⚾️All Star Game Scores Low Ratings
The 2023 MLB All-Star Game scores record-low ratings.
The Fox broadcast was watched by 701 million viewers, down 7% from last year's record-lows of 4.21 and 7.51 million, according to Sports Media Watch. The MLB All-Star Game has now set a record-low in ratings with five of the past seven games (2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023).
This year's edition of the game saw the National League snap a nine-game losing streak against the American League with a 3-2 win at Seattle's T-Mobile Park. The heroics came in the eighth inning, when Colorado Rockies catcher Elias Díaz hit a two-run homer to give the NL a 3-2 lead.
🚀How Elon Musk Controls Outer Space
Elon Musk’s Tesla is tops in the EV business, his Twitter has a commanding role in social media, now his rocket ship company has few alternatives.
SpaceX has cornered much of the rocket-launch market, with a proven fleet of reusable rockets that can fly at a pace that rivals can’t match—and at lower prices.
The company’s rockets powered 66% of customer flights from American launch sites in 2022, and handled 88% in the first six months of this year, according to launch data compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks space activity.
On Friday afternoon, Musk said that other companies and countries aren’t setting out big enough objectives for space, and drew a con-trast with what he said is SpaceX’s mission to make life multiplanetary. “Even slightly succeed-ing in that goal results in crushingly good perfor-mance to Earth orbit,” he said in a tweet.
🕶️Biden Loses His Cool In Meetings
According to reports, the nice President Joe Biden we see is not the same as the Joe Biden with his staff. When he gets mad in meetings, some of his admonitions include:
“God dammit, how the f**k don't you know this?!," "Don't f**king bullsh*t me!" and "Get the f**k out of here!" …reports Axios.
Biden tries to conceal his temper in public but occasionally has shown flashes of it — and some former aides have written about it. In January 2022, he was caught on a hot mic calling Fox News' Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch."
🧑🏭Russian Revolution
The leader of the Russian coup Yevgeny Prigozhin head of the Wagner mercenary group , is in St. Petersburg or Moscow, not in Belarus according to President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus. Prigozhin has not been seen for two weeks.
They’re calling it the beginning of the end of the Russian President’s rule.
Vladimir Putin tried this week to show he was firmly in control after the dramatic attempted mutiny by mercenary commander Prigozhin.
But among the Kremlin and business elite, many powerful players aren’t buying it.
A banana republic was the phrase one former senior official who still maintains close government ties used to describe the spectacle of Prigozhin leading his column of tanks and fighters to within 125 miles of Moscow.
President Putin said the organizers of an armed mutiny will be “brought to justice.”
In an audio recording of his own, Prigozhin taunted Russia’s military, calling his march a “master class” on how it should have carried out the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Wagner chief also mocked the Russian military for failing to protect the country, pointing out security breaches that allowed Wagner to march 500 miles inside Russia without facing resistance and blocking all military units on its way.
The White House, U.S. Military and spy agencies are watching closely.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is cheering-on the Wagner Group
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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🕶️’Summer of Fun’ Heats Up Inflation
Call it ‘Fun-Flation’
This summer consumers are splurging on through-the-roof airfare, expensive concert tickets, soaring hotel prices and pricey meals.
Some call the phenomenon “revenge spending,” the zeal to indulge in experiences now that Covid lockdowns are far in the past. It helps that many still have pandemic savings to draw on, or have seen their wages surge in the past year.
We’ll probably pay for it down the road, but what the heck —have fun!
🎵Madonna’s Health Scare
Madonna’s family is worried her illness was triggered after trying to compete with younger stars like Taylor Swift and Pink.
The 64-year-old legend had reportedly been pushing herself to her physical limit ahead of her much-anticipated “Celebration” tour, which led to her sudden collapse.
Madonna is recovering from a "serious" health scare after landing in the ICU over the weekend. As a result, the 64-year-old singer's highly-anticipated world tour is rescheduled.
Guy Oseary, the icon's longtime manager, released a statement and revealed that Madonna developed a bacterial infection.
🎤Billion Dollar Concert Tour
Taylor Swift's 106-night "Eras Tour" could become the first to rake in over $1 billion in revenue — potentially breaking an industry record held by Elton John.
Its success — which industry executives compared to Beatlemania, with reports of "post-concert amnesia" — could reset expectations for blockbuster tours by other major artists.
She's also playing 54 international dates, which could push her over the $1 billion mark for ticket sales, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal's napkin math puts Swift's possible profit at over $500 million when accounting for merch and expenses.
☸️Ryan Seacrest’s Wheel Of Fortune
Ryan Seacrest has been named the next host of “Wheel of Fortune,” succeeding Pat Sajak.
Sajak announced he would step down next year after more than four decades on the job.
Vanna White is in negotiations to stay.
The show has demonstrated remarkable durability and ratings, even as traditional television has declined in the wake of streaming entertainment.
Now here’s a gig if you can get it: Sajak will work as a consultant on the show for three years after he retires.
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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.
👨⚖️Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty
Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, has reached an agreement to plead guilty to charges he willfully failed to pay federal income taxes, heading off what would have been a politically explosive prosecution while his father campaigns for re-election. Biden will plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay income tax and one firearm offense as part of the deal.
👵GOP Push To Raise Retirement Age
Republicans are pushing to raise the retirement age to collect Social Security, handing Democrats damaging political ammunition ahead of the 2024 election.
The proposal by the 176-member House Republican Study Committee would gradually increase the retirement age, ultimately hitting 69 years old for those turning 62 in 2033 or after. The current retirement age for full benefits now is 66 and rising gradually to 67.
Democrats successfully used similar proposals from fiscal conservatives to their advantage in the 2022 midterm election. Their message that the GOP was targeting old-age benefits resonated with voters and was credited with limiting Democrats’ losses in the House.
🚨Piling On Trump
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced his Republican candidacy for president. Christie a one-time close Trump ally now calls the former president a "coward" and "puppet of Putin." Christie has cast himself as the one candidate unafraid to give voice to the frustrations of Republicans who have watched Trump transform the party and have had enough.
Christie calls Trump a loser because of his 2020 defeat, and said that he was unfit to return to the White House after inciting a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He says that if Trump is the nominee, he will not vote for him.
Nikki Haley says, “ If charges are true, Trump was reckless with national security.”
Ron DeSantis says, “I would’ve been court-martialed for taking classified documents.”DeSantis was supposed to announce he is running for president during an audio only discussion with Twitter CEO Elon Musk at 6pmET….BUT the announcement was plagued with glitches. Not a good beginning for the start of DeSantis’ run for President.
Mike Pence declared his candidacy as well, saying he has no interest in pardoning the January 6th conspirators.
💻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.
🍗Tastes Like Chicken
For the first time, US regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.
The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the US to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.
🏌️PGA Commissioner ILL-Crucial Time
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is “recuperating from a unspecified medical situation,” and won’t be leading the organization’s day-to-day operations, just a week after announcing the stunning merger agreement he brokered with Saudi-backed LIV Golf to call a truce in the battle that divided golf. And as the U.S. Open gets underway.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the Saudi-upstart that sent the industry into a tailspin, have agreed to a merger that ends the divide that has dominated the sport for the last year.
The new company came together so quickly that it does not yet even have a name and is referred to in the agreement simply as “NewCo.” It would be controlled by the PGA Tour but significantly financed by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund. The fund’s governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, will be the new company’s chairman.
Shocked *not* Saudi money we don’t care
📺 Licht’s Out
Chris Licht is out at CNN.
David Zaslav, CEO of CNN’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, informed staff he met with Licht and the CNN Chief was leaving, effective immediately.
“For a number of reasons things didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate,” Zaslav said, “It’s really unfortunate, and ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”
Licht's 13-month tenure has been disastrous: Ratings have declined to the point at which CNN now trails even Newsmax, in primetime.
An attempt to turn former CNN primetime anchor Don Lemon into a morning-show personality failed and a decision to provide a town-hall forum for Donald Trump, with a partisan crowd undermined Licht's credibility.
Then to top it off there was his decision to give Atlantic writer Tim Alberta unprecedented access over a period of months, including to Licht’s gym workouts, which seems to have provided the fatal blow.
It’ll be a long road back for anyone willing to take the reins. Zaslav may turn to an executive on CNN’s interim leadership team. They are Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development, Virginia Moseley, executive vice president of editorial, Eric Sherling, executive vice president of US programming and David Leavy, chief operating officer.
📺Tucker’s Twitter Show
Fox News notified Tucker Carlson's lawyers that the former prime-time anchor violated his contract with the network when he launched his own Twitter show on Tuesday, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.
A breach of contract claim sets Fox News up to explore potential legal action against Carlson. Carlson’s lawyers told Axios that any legal action by Fox would violate his First Amendment rights.
🏓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.
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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GisermanGroup.com will design a campaign to get you and your business in front of the public.
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🍀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.
💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions
What price beauty?
An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.
Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!
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Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:
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