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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Sep 22, 2014
September 22, 2014
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Anniversaries:
The Band Aid was invented (1921).
--First Farm Aid concert (1985) with WILLIE NELSON, NEIL YOUNG and JOHN MELLENCAMP.
--20 years ago, in 1994, "Friends" debuted.The White House:
A full security review is underway at the White House after a pair of embarrassing security breaches:
--A man carrying a knife was able to get inside the front door of the White House Friday night after jumping a fence and sprinting more than 70 yards across the North Lawn, the first time anything like that has ever happened. Within seconds, 42-year-old OMAR J. GONZALES --who his public defender said served three tours in Iraq, reportedly as a sniper-- got to the front double doors of the North Portico, turned the brass knob and stepped inside the vestibule. That's where he was grabbed and subdued by an officer standing post inside the door.
Gonzales had a folding knife with a two-and-a-half-inch serrated blade. He got into the White House just ten minutes after PRESIDENT OBAMA and his daughters lifted off the south grounds in his helicopter for Camp David. The front door on the North Portico of the mansion was unlocked at the time.
--Then, a man in a car tried to enter a barricaded entrance to the White House grounds and refused orders to stop. The man didn't hit the barricades or cause any damage, but was arrested on a charge of unlawful entry. Streets surrounding the entrance were briefly closed. (Pacelli)Filling a need:
A new company in Los Angeles is delivering marijuana pizzas to locals.
Stoned Oven Gourmet Pizzas makes six-inch personal pizzas that contain 250-milligrams of THC. Customers who have a valid medical marijuana card can get the pizza delivered right to their door. The company claims to bake the "strongest medicated pizza" in the world. They also offer a variety of other baked cannabis-infused treats. (Still)Broadcast, cable and video news:
JIMMY FALLON and company are headed to the Windy City. The comic revealed the good news on "The Tonight Show" last Thursday that he was ready to pay up on a friendly bet with Chicago mayor RAHM EMANUEL after high school students in the city read 2.4-million books over the summer. The biggest challenge will be getting the entire crew halfway across the country --Jimmy admits they'll be traveling with about 200 people who would love to "hang out" at the civic leader's pad. (Lee)
Grace notes:
The iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas over the weekend was on fire... literally! E! Online says USHER pulled a JIMI HENDRIX during his set. Instead of setting a guitar on fire, Usher lit up his shoes! He was performing the song "New Flame" with CHRIS BROWN, and after a dance off, Usher pulled off his Air Jordan 5's and set them on fire.
FYI: You'll get to see highlights from the festival over two night on the CW, September 29th and 30th. (Marino)Tampering with Mother Nature:
Yick, talk about a creepy crawler. It's high season for the venomous furry puss caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) in the southeast. It looks like a small, crawling version of Donald Trump's hair but is actually a lot meaner. Emergency rooms from Florida to North Carolina are reporting young kids coming in with excruciating pain after trying to pet the nasty thing, or because the bug fell onto them from trees.
The "fur" on the caterpillar contains toxic spines that break off and lodge in your skin. University of Florida entomologist Don Hall tells National Geographic Newswatch it "feels like a bee sting, only worse. The pain immediately and rapidly gets worse after being stung, and can even make your bones hurt," Hall says. "How bad the sting hurts depends on where you get stung and how many spines are embedded in your skin. People who have been stung on the hand say the pain can radiate up to their shoulder and last for up to 12 hours," Hall said.
The puss caterpillars become female flannel moths, and Hall says those spines protect their eggs from ants and other predators.
And just to be totally the weirdest bug EVER, puss caterpillars also fling their poop away from their bodies. Hall thinks that's to keep parasites away, and some entomologists actually refer to it a "scatapulting." (Scat! Har!).
The caterpillar is commonly found in elm and oak trees, and you can see it HERE. (Kaye) -
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