Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jul 26, 2011

Anniversaries:

20 years ago today: PAUL REUBENS, better known as "Pee Wee Herman," was arrested in a Sarasota, Florida, adult theater for exposing himself during "Nancy Nurse Turns Up The Heat" (1991).

I'm a Poll Man:

A new CNN poll says that Americans are more pessimistic about where the economy will be a year from now than they have been at any time in almost the last 15 years. Some 59-percent of those surveyed said they expect U-S economic conditions to be poor a year from now, while 40-percent expect conditions to be good.
That "poor" figure is the highest since CNN began asking the poll question back in October of 1997. In addition, 29-percent said they expect the economy to be "very" poor a year from now. (Pacelli)

Which cities have had the worst heat so far this summer? Lubbock, TX, topped a list compiled by the Daily Beast website. In Lubbock, 49 of the last 50 days have been, on average, 7.6 degrees hotter than normal. But Lubbock is just one of seven cities in Texas that made a list of this summer's 30 hottest cities. All summer, blistering heat has hammered Texas, where at least three quarters of the counties are under heat advisories and water restrictions.
The hottest city rankings are based on the total number of days between Jun 01 and Jul 20 in which "the high temperature was recorded as higher than normal, as well as the average number of degrees higher than the normal temperature" (according to National Weather Service records --Maiman).

Ten hottest cities:

10. Memphis, TN
9. San Antonio, TX
8. Wichita, KS
7. Dallas, TX
6. Colorado Springs, CO
5. Austin, TX
4. Tulsa, OK
3. Raleigh, NC
2. Oklahoma City, OK
1. Lubbock, TX

Tabloids:

What's hot from Star magazine:
--La-Z-Boy Madison chair in velvet(la-z-boy.com)
--Loving Sex from DR. LAURA BERMAN (amazon.com)
--Bare More Ouch Less Bikini and Body Wax kit (completelybare.com)
--love, Africa handwoven Kenyan bags with proceeds going to Nakuru, Kenya (fashionloveafrica.com) (Myers)

Parent(s) of the Day:

A Chinese couple is accused of selling their kids to buy video games.
According to the Sanxiang City News, couple LI LIN and LI JUAN are both under 21. But, they already have three kids together. Authorities say their first and third child were sold for around 46-hundred bucks. The second child was sold for less than 500-dollars.The couple was turned in by the children's grandmother.
Cops say they showed no remorse. But, at least they were honest. In fact, the mother allegedly admitted they only had the kids in the first place in order to sell them. (Still)

Grace notes:

A MICHAEL JACKSON tribute concert is in the works for this fall. His mother KATHERINE and four of his brothers announced yesterday that "Michael Forever: The Tribute Concert" will be held on October 8th at Millennium Stadium in Wales. None of the performers were revealed.
JERMAINE and RANDY JACKSON are against the concert because it will happen during the trial of Dr. CONRAD MURRAY who has been charged in Michael's death. That involuntary manslaughter trial is scheduled to begin on September 8th and last four to six weeks. (Marino)

Meanwhile, Deadline.com reports the judge in Murray's trial has decided that jurors will not be seeing unreleased footage of "This Is It" so they can judge for themselves the state of Michael's health shortly before his death. After watching several hours of the footage, Superior Court Judge MICHAEL PASTOR said that "there is absolutely nothing in those materials that could have been of assistance to the defense."