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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Aug 30, 2013
August 30, 2013
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Labor Day Weekend:
Labor Day weekend marks the traditional end of summer and beginning of fall (even though fall doesn't begin for almost three more weeks).
The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on Sept 05, 1882, in New York City. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the federal marshals and military troops during the Pullman Strike.
President GROVER CLEVELAND made reconciliation with the labor movement a top political priority and as a gesture of good faith, pushed legislation to make Labor Day a national holiday. The legislation was unanimously approved by Congress (a tradition of bipartisanship that continues even today!)Triple-A (AAA) is projecting that just over 34 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over this Labor Day weekend. That's better than a four percent increase over last year, and the most since 2009 when analysts found some 31 million Americans took a break in the middle of the recession. (Kaye)
MDA Telethon:
As you remember, the annual MDA Labor Day Telethon is no longer a 21 and a half hour show with JERRY LEWIS as the host; instead it's now called the "MDA Show of Strength" and no longer a telethon, with this year's 48th annual show originating from Los Angeles instead of Las Vegas and only running for two hours, beginning at 9 pm (Eastern and Pacific), 8 pm (Central) on ABC.
RYAN SEACREST, LUKE BRYAN, BACKSTREET BOYS, DARIUS RUCKER, PAULA ABDUL, ENRIQUE IGLESIAS, "Glee" star MATTHEW MORRISON, KENNY LOGGINS, hip-hop dance crew JABBAWOCKEEZ and teenage pop sensation AUSTIN MAHONE are among those scheduled to appear on the two-hour broadcast.
Also this year, even though Jerry Lewis is no longer involved, the MDA is encouraging supporters visiting its official website to vote for their favorite telethon "viewing experience." Nine clips are posted on the MDA site, three of which showcase Jerry, including the moment in 1976 when FRANK SINATRA brought DEAN MARTIN onstage for a Martin-and-Lewis reunion . The voting runs through Labor Day, so the top clip won't be used in the show but will be announced on the MDA website and through its social media channels.Grace notes:
A new PAUL McCARTNEY single leaked on Wednesday night, but by yesterday morning, it was officially released. The song is called "New," and that's also the name of Sir Paul's new album. How cheeky! Standard and deluxe editions will be out on October 15th. It's Paul's first album of all new material in six years and it was produced by MARK RONSON who twiddled the knobs for the late AMY WINEHOUSE, along with ETHAN JOHNS, son of BEATLES engineer and record producer in his own right, GLYN JOHNS; PAUL EPWORTH; and GILES MARTIN, son of Beatles record producer, Sir GEORGE MARTIN. (Marino)
Chocolate, Caffeine, Alcohol:
Americans are drugging themselves to sleep more than ever.
A five-year government study, the first ever to track use of sleeping pills in the U-S, says about 8.6 million Americans take prescription drugs like Lunesta and Ambien to get to sleep, about four percent of the adult population over 20. That's in addition to a Thomson Reuters study that found sleeping prescriptions had tripled among people under 45.
The new study found that drug use started increasing with age, with people in their 40s and 50s more likely to start medicating to get sleep.
Editor's note: Any time I have trouble sleeping I just turn on CNN. (Maiman) -
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