Today is Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
It is the 107th day of the year.
259 days remain.
WHATâS ON TAP
Layoffs hit TESLA and investigators pursue leads in the Baltimore bridge disaster. Details in HIT LIST.
DAVE PORTNOY wins again and âCowboy Carterâ remains at the top. More in SHOWBIZ.
There is a âHousewivesâ shakeup at Bravo and prop tanks from âFuryâ hit the auction block. Details in CASTING CALL. KHLOE
PRINCE HARRYâs team is back in court in ROYALS.
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HIT LIST
Layoffs have hit TESLA. The company announced on Monday a 10% reduction in its global workforce in an all-hands email from ELON MUSK. He said the cutbacks âwill enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth cycle.â [via Elektrek]
MEANWHILE, AT X: Musk said the social media platform is preparing a system that requires new users to pay a small fee in order to comment and engage with other posts. He called it the âonly way to curb the relentless onslaught of botsâ â automated accounts that typically promote junk products, p*rn, or help to spread lies and propaganda. [via @elonmusk]
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After initially ruling out terrorism or foul play, the FBI is now investigating last monthâs bridge collapse in Baltimore.
In particular, investigators will determine whether the crew of the ship knew the ship had problems before it got underway. This investigation parallels a probe underway conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Reps for the Bureau so far will only acknowledge that investigators are actively on board the ship looking for evidence. [via New York Post]
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While mainland Americans grapple with bizarre situations of squatters living in unoccupied homes, a landowner in Hawaii is battling it out in court with a developer who built a three-bedroom house on the entirely incorrect lot.
Annaleine Reynolds bought a one-acre lot at auction a few years ago in the Hawaiian Paradise Park development. For indeterminable reasons, a home construction company broke ground and began construction of another customerâs project on Reynoldsâ lot.
By the time she got wind of the project, it was well underway. Attorneys for the developer and homeowner have since proposed a land-swap arrangement, essentially offering Reynold a plot of land, so the new homeowners can keep their house. But Reynolds, rightly, doesnât want the other lot; she wants the one she bought.
A judge will hear arguments for how to proceed at the end of the month. [via KITV]
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Greeceâs government is preparing an action plan to arrest the nationâs plunging birth rate.
Reuters reports that in 2022, Greece recorded the lowest total number of births â not just lowest birth rate â in 92 years. Officials blame the recent debt crisis triggering emigration and souring attitudes about families among young people for the decline.
While the official plan will roll out next month, components will include cash and tax incentives for families and new programs to attract immigrants from abroad â but even then thereâs a difficult road ahead. Fifteen years after the 2007-08 debt crisis, Greeceâs unemployment rate remains around 25% and largely affects young people in their prime child-bearing years, who say soaring inflation and unaffordable rental prices make living in Greece impossible. [via Reuters]
WORTH NOTING: Letâs sure hope the American government doesnât oversee policies that inflate the dollar and price young Americans out of homes!
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There is a new No. 2 on the list of the worldâs busiest airports.
Jumping up from No. 5, Dubai now sits in the second spot after having served around 87 million passengers in 2023 -- a 31% increase from 2022.
Atlantaâs Hartsfield-Jackson International airport is holding on strong at No. 1 -- which it has done so for more than two decades -- with over 104.7 million passengers passing through last year.
Rounding out the top five busiest airports are: Dallas/Fort Worth (81.8 million passengers), London Heathrow (79.2 million), and Tokyo Haneda (78.7 million). [via CNN]
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BABY NEWS
Actors EMILY VANCAMP and JOSH BOWMAN welcomed their second child, a daughter last month.
Vancamp announced the news on Instagram, with a photo of the newborn, who they named Rio Rose.
The couple are also parents to 2-year-old daughter, Iris.
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BY THE NUMBERS
đ The DOW lost 248 points (0.65%) to close at 37,735 on Monday. The S&P lost 61 points (1.2%) to close at 5,061 and the NASDAQ lost 290 points (1.79%) to close at 15,885.
đ˘ WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $85; BRENT CRUDE at $90.
â˝ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.63 on Monday.
âż BITCOIN fell again after a brief recovery on Monday, down nearly 4% and trading just over $63,000.
đŠ There were more than 2,620 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Monday and more than 50 such cancellations.
đ°Tonightâs MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $148 million jackpot or a $67.8 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
OJ SIMPSONâs infamous white Ford Bronco is for sale.
The three owners of the SUV -- Simpsonâs former agent Michael Gilbert, and two friends of Al Cowlings, the guy who was behind the wheel on June 17, 1994 â told Clict that they plan to âcash inâ on the renewed interest in the case.
In addition to the recent passing of Simpson, this year marks 30 years since the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, which the trio hopes will help them get more money for the car -- around $1.5 million.
WHATâS MORE: The SUV only has about 32,000 miles on it. [via Clict]
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DAVE PORTNOY landed another big sports betting win, with golfer SCOTTIE SCHEFFLERâs Masters win over the weekend.
Portnoy placed a $300,000 bet on Scheffler to win at +450 odds, taking home $1.35 million.
The winnings come after Portnoy scored over $2.1 million when UConn won the NCAA Championship. [via NY Post]
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BEYONCEâs âCowboy Carterâ is holding strong atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, staying at No. 1 for the second week in a row.
The album has the most weeks at No. 1 for any Beyonce album since her self-titled set spent three weeks at the top in December 2013 and January 2014. [via Billboard]
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âRustâ armorer HANNAH GUTIERREZ-REED was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison -- the maximum possible punishment for her involuntary manslaughter charge.
âYou alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,â Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said ahead of the sentencing.
Gutierrez-Reed showed no visible reaction to the ruling, before being taken from the courtroom.
WORTH NOTING: Actor ALEC BALDWIN, who was the one holding the gun that fatally shot cinematographer HALYNA HUTCHINS, also faces an involuntary manslaughter charge. He will stand trial this July. [via CNN]
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âTed Lassoâ star HANNAH WADDINGHAM called out a photographer at the Olivier Awards who asked her to âshow legâ while she posed on the red carpet.
âOh my God, youâd never say that to a man,â she snapped. âDonât be a dick otherwise Iâll move off. Donât say âshow me leg.â No.â
Waddingham was on hand to host the awards show at the London theatre. [via Deadline]
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CASTING CALL
âReal Housewives of Potomacâ star ROBYN DIXON revealed that she was not asked to return for Season 9 of the Bravo show.
âThe network did not invite me back. I was fired, for lack of better words,â she shared on her âReasonably Shadyâ podcast.
Dixon was one of the franchiseâs original cast members when the show premiered in January 2016. [via People]
MEANWHILE: Housewife KENYA MOORE announced that she will be returning to âReal Housewives of Atlantaâ for the upcoming Season 16. The move makes her the longest-standing housewife of âRHOA.â [via Deadline]
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MTVâs âSiesta Keyâ may be over.
Insiders told TMZ that there are no plans to film a sixth season of the Florida-based reality show, though the network is leaving the door open for something potentially down the road.
The first four seasons were a hit for MTV, but Season 5 proved to be less interesting for viewers.
Also, many of the cast members are moving on from their day-drinking shenanigans, getting married and having babies, which doesnât leave much room for the drama reality TV thrives on. [via TMZ]
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DUA LIPA will serve as both host and musical guest for the May 4th episode of âSaturday Night Live.â
It will mark her first time as host and third time as musical guest on the show.
Also, the gig comes a day after her third studio album, âRadical Optimism,â drops. [via Variety]
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âCivil Warâ had the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated flick year to date, surpassing earnings expectations with $25.7 million in domestic ticket sales.
The flick stars KIRSTEN DUNST, WAGNER MOURA, and CAILEE SPAENY as front-line journalists in the near future covering a devastating conflict in the U.S. and trying to make their way to Washington, D.C.
It currently has an 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes. [via AP News]
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Auction platform Tracks & Trade has listed prop tanks from the 2014 war film âFury,â starring BRAD PITT and SHIA LABEOUF.
The two tanks -- one called âShermanâ and the other âTigerâ -- were used in place of actual WWII vehicles during filming to prevent potential damage to the authentic ones.
The current owner purchased the tanks in 2015 and added them to his private collection, which he keeps on display at a museum called House of Tank in Wichita, Kansas. No word on why he is parting with them.
They are expected to fetch between $26,000-$53,000 a pop. [via TMZ]
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
KHLOE KARDASHIAN is being trolled on social media following the death of OJ SIMPSON thanks to the longstanding conspiracy theory that he is her biological father.
Despite both Simpson and Khloeâs mom KRIS JENNER denying there was ever a relationship between them, the theory has remained active.
While most of the comments simply (jokingly) were followers expressing their condolences, one X user egregiously wrote: âThis technically the third time khloe lost a dad,â -- referring to her dad, ROBERT KARDASHIAN, then BRUCE JENNER who is now CAITLYN JENNER and Simpson. [via Miami Herald]
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WEâLL NEVER BE ROYALS
PRINCE HARRY got mixed results from a British court on Monday, following his attempt to appeal a decision that does not require police to provide security for him when he is in-country.
The court did grant him a 10% reduction in legal costs after the judge ruled that attorneys for the government took too long to provide documents in the initial case. His attorneys had petitioned to cut those costs by up to 60%.
The court also rejected his petition to appeal the decision in a lower court. Harry will still have the option to plead his case to the Court of Appeal.
WORTH NOTING: The Court of Appeal functions in England and Wales. Its authority is only superseded by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. [via The Times of London, @KateMansey]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
Selena Day
National Orchid Day
National Librarian Day
National Eggs Benedict Day
National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day
Save The Elephant Day
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ON THIS DATE
1818 - The Rush-Bagot Treaty is ratified by Congress.
It set the political borders between the U.S. and what is today Canada -- at the time it was called British North America. It also outlined how strongly either nation could fortify its common maritime borders. For example, the U.S. and Canada were each afforded one cannon on Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain.
They were also allowed only certain ships to patrol common waterways.
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1943 - A Swiss chemist discovers the groovy effects of LSD.
He was researching lysergic acid compounds as a drug to aid circulation when he accidentally absorbed the drug through his fingertips. A week later he journaled about the experience, talking about a "stimulated imagination" and a continual "dreamlike state" that lasted 2 hours.
To be certain it was the drug that induced his trip, he took it again ⌠just to be sure.
In 1968 it would become illegal to possess LSD in the U.S.
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1947 - Bernard Baruch is the first to use the term "Cold War" to describe the international relations between the USA and USSR.
He said it in a speech during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Baruch was a lifelong politician and later a businessman.
The term was quickly picked up by the American media.
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1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King pens his famous letter from Birmingham Jail.
The correspondence is a rallying cry for civil rights activists to this day.
He was only able to slip out sections of the letter at a time, through his lawyers. They later pieced it all together.
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1972 - Apollo 16 blasts off, en route to the moon.
It was the fifth lunar landing mission. The astronauts later spent three days on the face of the moon and would return with more than 200 pounds of rock.
The next mission, Apollo 17, would be the last mission to the moon.
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2007 - A shooting rampage occurs on the campus of Virginia Tech.
The gunman, 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 people and injures 23 others before turning the gun on himself.
It is the deadliest school shooting in US history.
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2020 - Over 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past four weeks, wiping out nine-and-a-half years of job gains.
It is the largest and most dramatic rise in claims since the Labor Department started tracking the data in 1967.
Of those 22 million, 5.2 million were first time filers.
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BIRTHDAYS
Sadie Sink - actress, âStranger Thingsâ - 22
Teâa Cooper - basketball player - 27
Anya Taylor-Joy - actress, âSplitâ & âThe Menuâ - 28
Liliana Mumy - actress, âCheaper by the Dozenâ - 30
Chance the Rapper - rapper - 31
Nate Diaz - MMA fighter - 39
Claire Foy - actress, âThe Crownâ - 40
Gina Carano - actress, âThe Mandalorianâ - 42
Tom Segura - comedian - 45
Akon - R&B singer - 51
Vickie Guerrero - wrestler - 56
Martin Lawrence - actor, âBad Boysâ & âBig Mommaâs Houseâ - 59
Bill Belichick - football coach - 72
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - basketball player - 77
Born On This Date
Selena Quintanilla - singer - 1971 (d. 1995)
Pope Benedict XVI - religious leader - 1927 (d. 2022)
Charlie Chaplin - actor, âThe Great Dictatorâ - 1889 (d. 1977)
Wilbur Wright - co-inventor & co-pilot of the first successful airplane - 1867 (d. 1912)
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