An Eggsplanation For Rising Egg Prices
Plus: Storms described as biblical pound the West Coast, leading to death and destruction. Republicans struggle to define 'woke.' And will UFC's Dana White ever face consequences for hitting his wife?
Thanks for rising up with me on this Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. Alexander Hamilton was born on this day in 1755 (Did you read his name in singsong? I wrote it that way! Thanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda). The late, great Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band would be 81 today. And the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige, is 52 today! If it’s your birthday, too, Happy birthday!
Here now the news
CALIFORNIA’S CLIMATE CATASTROPHE: At least 17 people have died in a series of atmospheric rivers that have slammed into California in the last two weeks, from San Bernardino County in the south to Mendocino County in the north. A spokesperson for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services., Brian Ferguson, said the majority of deaths are from trees’ falling on people and from vehicles getting overwhelmed by floodwater. California hasn’t seen this much rain since the 1990s, he said. Evacuation orders have been lifted in Montecito but 34,000 people remained under evacuation orders across the state. More from NBC News
“I don’t know what’s in the documents”
BIDEN SPEAKS TO REPORTERS: The president said he was surprised to learn of several potentially classified documents discovered last fall in his old office, said he didn’t know what they contained and that he is cooperating fully with the Justice Department's review. "Let me get rid of the easy one first," Biden told reporters at the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City. "People know I take classified documents and classified information seriously." He said his personal lawyers found them while cleaning out his former office in Washington, D.C.
"They did what they should have done. They immediately called the [National Archives]… turned them over to the Archives, and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office," the president said. "But I don't know what's in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were." Watch Biden’s remarks here via ABC News:
WHAT DOCUMENTS WERE FOUND? Quoting a source, CNN reports the items found in Biden’s former office include 10 classified documents including U.S. intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom. The documents were dated between 2013 and 2016, according to the source.
DEFENDING THE PRESIDENT: "This is not Mar-a-Lago," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told Fox News. "This is not the refusal of hundreds and hundreds of documents. There is no comparison. They were in a locked closet. They were not accessible. And that's why the appropriate process was followed… I don't think it compares at all."
ATTACKING THE PRESIDENT: “President Biden has been very critical of President Trump mistakenly taking classified documents to the residence or wherever and now it seems he may have done the same,” said House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who sent letters on Tuesday to the National Archives and the White House Counsel’s Office. The Kentucky Republican set a deadline for documents and other information to be turned over no later than Jan. 24 and requested Archives General Counsel Gary Stern and Director of Congressional Affairs John Hamilton be interviewed by committee staff no later than Jan. 17. —Fox
Politicukoos
HOUSE GOP GETS TO WORK: Republicans won approval of a new panel to investigate the “weaponization” of the federal government, making good on their vow to look into a broad swath of issues. Those range from Hunter Biden’s business dealings to the Mexican border to the origins of Covid-19 to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Also on their agenda is to examine Democratic-led investigations into former President Donald Trump, Russia and to investigate whether federal law enforcement agencies and Twitter’s former management were politically-biased against conservatives. - CNN
McCARTHY’S REVENGE: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) confirmed he will make good on his pre-midterm pledge to remove three high-profile Democrats — Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — from their House committees. It's payback for Democrats booting Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and transphobe Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from their panels during the last Congress. — NY Post
BUHBYE, NATURAL GAS? Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) announced during her state of the state address Monday a plan to ban gas heating in the construction of new buildings over the next several years. "I’m proposing a plan to end the sale of new fossil powered heating equipment by 2030 by calling for construction of — all new construction needs to be zero emission — starting in 2025 for small buildings and 2028 for large buildings," said Hochul. "And we’re taking these steps now because climate change remains the greatest threat to our planet but also to our children and our grandchildren." — Fox
PORTER RUNNING FOR SENATE: California Democrat Rep. Kate Porter, 49, announced she’s running for the seat currently occupied by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, whose term does not end until 2024. Porter is famous for using whiteboards in House panel committee hearings and for asking tough questions in a way that earned her the ire of Rep. Maxine Waters as well as accusations that she is performative and a showboat; Others have expressed admiration and praise for her brash, no-nonsense style.
In an exclusive interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, Porter hailed Feinstein as a trailblazer and deflected criticism for making her announcement during a cataclysm and before Feinstein herself has announced whether she will be running again. Questions have been raised in recent months about the senator’s health and whether she is now mentally unfit to continue serving. Watch the interview on MSNBC by clicking here.
Banning Assault Weapons
NEW LAW SIGNED: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines Tuesday night, after the state Senate and House approved the legislation. — CBS News
Dumbass Celebrities Update
ANDREW TATE WILL STAY BEHIND BARS: Buzzfeed News reports a judge in Romania upheld the 30-day detention of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother on charges of human trafficking, rape, and organized crime. Police arrested Tate and brother Tristan on Dec. 29 along with two women. Tate’s lawyers made an appeal Tuesday in a Bucharest courtroom, claiming the brothers have small children in Romania to tend to. But the judge wasn’t buying it, calling them a flight risk, according to the Associated Press.
UFC BOSS DANA WHITE ON THE ROPES? The California Legislative Women's Caucus is calling for the removal of Dana White as UFC president following the viral video showing White slapping his wife, Anne, at a nightclub in Mexico on New Year's Eve. In its letter to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, the group says: "The head of a major sporting organization cannot claim to be for the safety of women while a video of him striking his wife continues to circulate online without a response from you," the letter reads. "The hypocrisy is astounding. Enough is enough."
FALLOUT FROM THE SLAP: Although he went on TMZ to apologize for his behavior, which he attributed to both he and his wife being drunk, there have been some repercussions: TBS postponed tonight’s scheduled debut of Dana White's Power Slap League until Jan. 18. And the stock price of UFC parent company Endeavor has been on a roller coaster ride ever since the slap, at first plunging nearly 6%, according to CNBC.
AND YET, NO CONSEQUENCES: Jemele Hill writes in a paywalled essay for The Atlantic that there’s really been no accountability for what is clearly an incident of domestic violence caught on video. Click here for the story.
Golden Girl
CONGRATULATIONS, MICHELLE YEOH! Actress and martial arts legend Michelle Yeoh took home the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a musical or comedy Tuesday night. She won for her incredible performance in Everything, Everywhere All At Once, my favorite film of 2022. In her acceptance speech, Yeoh called out the ageism and racism she’s faced in her 40-year career. Watch how she handles the producers trying to play her off with piano music, at about 2 minutes in: “Shut up! I can beat you up, okay?”
“I’M HERE BECAUSE I’M BLACK:” Host Jerrod Carmichael opened the awards show with some serious talk before getting to the funny stuff, like mocking Tom Cruise for returning his three Golden Globes. Details here.
TRANS AND GAY ICONS HONORED: The Carol Burnett Award, honoring career achievement in television, was presented to producer Ryan Murphy, who used his speech to recognize out gay and transgender performers with whom he worked. Calling such stars signs of “hope and progress,” he singled out MJ Rodriguez, Jeremy Pope, Niecy Nash, and Billy Porter. “Use them as your north stars,” Murphy told viewers who might not see themselves reflected often on screen or who might feel under attack because of their race, gender identity or sexual orientation. Read the complete list of winners compiled by Variety by clicking here.
Trans World
KANSAS GOP ATTACKS ‘SEXUALIZED WOKE AGENDA:’ Republicans announced at a news conference Tuesday they are working to implement a student transgender athlete ban this year and to adopt legislation that would give parents more say over education, including a “parental bill of rights.” But as the Kansas Reflector reports, GOP leaders had a hard time defining what they meant when they vowed to end the “sexualized woke agenda:”
“Woke means the focus on identity and dividing us up into different groups and causing fractions,” Senate President Ty Masterson said. “That’s the woke agenda. Woke has all kinds of meanings to different people. That’s what it means to me, is this focus on somebody’s individual — your innate characteristics, about somehow you’re different than everyone else.” When House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins was asked to explain the term, the Wichita politician responded: “You don’t know what woke ideology is? Go and Google it.”
News You Can Use #1: Don’t Put Baby In These
RECALL RE-ANNOUNCED: Fisher-Price is reminding consumers not to use the company's once-popular Rock 'n Play sleepers, which were recalled in 2019 but have continued to lead to infant deaths. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the company re-announced the recall of 4.7 million of its Rock 'n Play sleepers. Kids2 of Atlanta also re-announced the 2019 recall of 694,000 of its Rocking Sleepers. So far, at least 12 children were reported to have died in the recalled products after the recalls were announced — eight in the Rock 'n Play sleeper and four in the Kids2 Rocking Sleeper.
#2: Don’t Believe Everything You Read
HANDS OFF THIS STORY: A fake news report about a man who raised his hands on the Space Mountain ride at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and subsequently suffered a terrible injury, has gone viral, with the false headline that Disney would now only operate the indoor rollercoaster ride with the lights on. It didn’t happen. It’s all bullshit, according to Inside the Magic. NGL, it had me going there until I checked with my favorite ex-castmember, Melody Maia Monet.
#3: Don’t Know Why Eggs Cost So Much?
LET ME EGGSPLAIN: If you’ve seen egg prices triple in the last year, CBS News has the reason why: Demand has grown while production has slumped. That’s because of the ongoing bird flu, AKA "avian flu” epidemic. As of Jan. 6, early 58 million birds have been infected with avian flu according to the USDA. It’s the deadliest outbreak in U.S. history. All infected birds must be slaughtered, causing egg supplies to fall and prices to surge.
HOW BAD IS IT? In California, the average price for a dozen eggs reached $7.37 last week, compared with $2.35 a year ago. The national average egg price per dozen wholesale is now $3.30, says the USDA.
WHEN WILL PRICES DROP? Not until new chickens are born without the infection and grow to egg-laying age. More than 300 flocks of farm-raised poultry have been hit by the outbreak as of last Friday, according to USDA.
Read more from CBS News by clucking here. Oops, clicking. I meant clicking.
Thanks again for rising up. Back tomorrow with more! Until then, may your news be good news!
© 2023 EnniBuddy Productions - All Rights Reserved