A Heart That's True: RIP Lisa Marie Presley
A Heart That's True: RIP Lisa Marie Presley
The only daughter of Elvis and Priscilla died at the age of 54. Also: the search for Biden documents leads to... his Corvette! And WAIT, is that Ben Affleck working the drive-through window?
Thanks for rising up this Friday the 13th of January. Watch out for black cats!
Here Now the News
She was the only daughter of the King of Rock ‘N Roll, Elvis Presley, heir to Graceland, the ex-wife of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson (as well as the ex of actor Nicholas Cage, musician Danny Keough and guitarist Michael Lockwood). Lisa Marie Presley died Thursday following what’s described as a “medical emergency” and brief hospitalization. TMZ reports she suffered cardiac arrest in the Calabasas, Calif. home she shared with Keough, who performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Presley, whose famous father died when she was 9, was a singer in her own right, and had just appeared at the Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday.
BILLY BUSH KNEW ‘SOMETHING’S OFF:’ Extra's Billy Bush interviewed Presley at the award ceremony and told KTTV he noticed some early warning signs from her. "She was very uneven in her balance, her speech was slow, and definitely when the interview was over, I turned to my producer next to me and said 'something's off here'. So it was apparent to me that something was going on with her at that time," said Bush.
MOTHER ISSUES STATEMENT: It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us," Priscilla Presley said. "She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known."
A LIFE OF GRIEF: In addition to her mother, Presley leaves three children. Her son, Benjamin Keough, died in 2020 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Presley wrote an essay for People in August about "the horrific reality" of her life of grief, compounded by failed marriages and secret struggles with opioid addiction and other painkillers. "I've dealt with death, grief and loss since the age of 9 years old,” she wrote. “I've had more than anyone's fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I've made it this far.” Lisa Marie Presley was 54.
Wait, What? Joe Biden Kept Classified Documents… In His Garage With His Corvette?!?
OK, ENOUGH! GO GET A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR ALREADY: This story gets weirder by the day. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel yesterday to investigate how three batches of classified documents wound up where they’re not supposed to be.
The first folders were found in a Washington, D.C. office previously used by President Biden after serving as Barack Obama’s vice president. Biden’s lawyers discovered those a week before the midterm elections, but we didn’t learn about them until a report by CBS News this week.
Second, his attorneys found more secret papers inside the garage of Biden’s Delaware home, where he keeps his prized 1967 Chevy Corvette under lock and key; We’ve only now learned that was in December.
Then on Wednesday, one more document was found inside his home, in a room near the garage. What’s next? Will investigators exhume Champ only to find Biden hid classified documents in the dog’s grave? Has anyone checked the magazine rack next to Biden’s toilet?
WHAT’S BIDEN SAYING: “My Corvette is in a locked garage. OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out in the street,” he told reporters. “But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.” More details in The New York Times
WHAT REPUBLICANS ARE SAYING: "It's always one set of rules for President Trump — they literally raided his home 91 days before the midterm election — and a different standard it seems with President Biden," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) who is set to take over the House Judiciary Committee.
OKAY, BUT CAN WE REALLY COMPARE THIS TO THE MAR-A-LAGO RAID? No! Well, it’s not a good thing, but what Biden did is not even remotely similar to Trump, despite what angry Republicans claim. Read all about it in Vox.
WHO’S THIS SPECIAL COUNSEL? Robert K. Hur has years of prosecutorial experience. He was President Trump’s pick to run the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, where The New York Times reports he earned bipartisan praise for his handling of violent crime and public corruption cases. He spent 11-months as the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein during the Mueller investigation of Trump’s dealings with Russia.
“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” said Garland, who unlike Trump’s A.G., Bill Barr, has been appointing prosecutors by reaching across the aisle, instead of picking party loyalists and cronies.
MORE ABOUT HIM, I MEAN, HUR: He is a registered Republican in Maryland, received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and graduated from Stanford Law School, After serving as clerk for the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and a federal appellate judge, Hur took a job as a top aide to the current FBI director, Christopher Wray.
Politicukoos
FOLLOW THE MONEY: An investigation by The New York Times uncovers shady campaign fundraising to help elect lying liar Rep. George Santos (R=N.Y.).
BUTTIGIEG UNDER ATTACK: The GOP and Fox News have been hammering Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in recent days as crises continue to mount, from the Southwest Airlines meltdown to the historic computer glitch that shut down air travel nationwide this week. Axios asked Rill Zuckman, a public relations expert, for her take. Republicans are attacking Buttigieg because he is a potential presidential candidate, she said: "That’s not how past transportation secretaries were treated," said Zuckman.
REPUBLICANS WON’T LIKE THIS: The federal budget deficit fell to $1.4 trillion for the 2022 calendar year. Why is that bad news for the GOP? Because they’re clamoring to cut “entitlements” like Social Security and Medicaid by hyperfocusing on the ballooning national debt, which of course is still way too high. Well, sorry Republican guys and gals, as pandemic emergency spending slowed, the economy reopened and tax revenue rose, the budget deficit is down from $2.6 trillion a year ago. Prediction for 2023: Oh, it’ll go up alright. Again. Count on it. —NYT
TURNING UP THE FLAME: The natural gas stove debate rages on in Washington, D.C. If you want to read more, click here for the latest from Politico. As for me, nah… put a fork in it, I’m done.
OMG News
‘TIME THEFT’ IS NOT SCIENCE FICTION, IT’S REMOTE WORK REALITY: A Canadian woman has been ordered by a court to pay back her former employer after she was caught lying about how many hours she worked. Karlee Besse, who worked remotely as an accountant in British Columbia, was found to have committed “time theft” after getting caught by tracking software.
Beese initially claimed she was fired from her job without cause last year and sued for lost wages. But the company, Reach CPA, told the court Beese had logged more than 50 hours that she “did not appear to have spent on work-related tasks,” reports the Guardian. The employee-tracking software is called TimeCampon and the company had installed it on Besse’s work laptop after discovering she was both over budget and behind schedule.
News From Spaaaaaaaaace
IT’S NOT A RESCUE MISSION: NASA calls the empty Soyuz spacecraft they’re planning to send to the International Space Station a “replacement” not a “rescue” Soyuz. This is to provide a lifeboat back to Earth should anything go wrong. I should have said, should anything ELSE go wrong; The Soyuz that was supposed to take cosmonauts and astronauts aboard the ISS home in March sprung a leak. And sending up an empty Soyuz means this crew will now have to circle the planet until September before they can come home. It’ll take that long for Russia to build another Soyuz for the replacement crew that was supposed to launch in March. Do svidaniya!
STRANGE NEW WORLDS: Scientists discovered two new, Earth-like planets outside our solar system this week. Read about LHS 475 b, the first planet to be seen by the new James Webb Space Telescope, by clicking here. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS mission, was actually first to grab a glimpse of that world. TESS also found TOI 700 e. Read about that planet by clicking here!
BOLDLY COUNTING UFOS: The Office of Director of National Intelligence told Congress in an unclassified report that they’ve logged 366 new cases of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP is the new word for UFO) since March 2021. Those cases have been added to a catalog of 144 cases that have been documented over the previous 17 years. The total record of UAP now sits at 510. According to the report, aviators spotted flying objects that “demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities.” Where’s Agent Mulder? — CNBC
LGBTQ Review
POTENTIAL HONOR FOR FIRST LESBIAN IN SPACE: If Florida passes a new law sponsored by State Rep. Tyler Sirois of Merritt Island, and championed by the Brevard County Commission, the NASA Causeway will be renamed the Sally Ride Memorial Bridge. Repairs to the causeway and construction of a new bridge spanning 4,025 feet over the Indian River Lagoon are underway. If all goes as planned, the two new bridges will form the east- and westbound lanes of the causeway when complete sometime in 2025. — Florida Today
Trans World
EX-MARINE TURNED LAWMAKER GOES TO WAR WITH SCHOOL BOARD: The Daily Beast has the long, sad saga of what happened when State Sen. Chris Trakel, Ret. USMC, spoke before his local board of education about the issue of transgender students. After pro-inclusion students spoke and several adults who are opposed quoted the Bible, Trakel got angry at the all-volunteer board members and went full Colonel Jessup (C’mon, I’m referring to Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men!). For full details, click here.
Mmmm... Donuts! And Ben Affleck!
THAT GUY SURE LOOKS FAMILIAR: We knew Cambridge native Ben Affleck loves Dunkin’ Donuts, but this week the actor thrilled customers at a store in Medford, Mass., when he worked the drive-thru window:
New wife Jennifer Lopez was spotted there, too, as was a film crew. The story from NBC Boston is here.
Thanks for rising up with me today! I’ll be back on Monday with more stuff. Until then, may your news be good news!
© 2023 EnniBuddy Productions - All Rights Reserved