Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Sep 7, 2011

Guilty Pleasures:

No winner in Saturday night's drawing for the Powerball Lottery. That means tonight's drawing is valued at $107 million ($64.2 million cash value). Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington DC and the U-S Virgin Islands. Chances of winning the grand prize (all five numbers plus the powerball) are 1 in 195.2 million.

Filling a need:

By now most kids in the U-S are back to school, and chances are Mom couldn’t have pulled off all that school shopping without some kind of list.
Thank God for lists, right? Not just back to school shopping lists and grocery lists, but moving lists, packing lists and holiday shopping lists. And that’s not all of ‘em.
Mama Love Lists is a website that offers free printable lists for Moms on the go. Hospital bag lists, diaper bag lists, disaster preparedness checklist. Mama even offers a section just for moms, with lists showing you dozens of ways to tie a scarf, a list of the 100 greatest novels and a list revealing 100 fashion essentials. (Page)

Sucking the life out of the wire services:

The Buckingham Palace exhibit of DUCHESS KATE’S wedding dress is raking in the big bucks. The Daily Mail says more than 354-thousand people have stopped by to see the Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen dress since the display opened July 23rd. Ticket sales are estimated to top about $12.7 million U-S dollars (in British bucks, that’s equal to about eight million pounds.) Most of the proceeds will benefit Kate and PRINCE WILLIAM’S wedding charity fund and to fund maintenance of the Royal Collection. (Bartha)

Collegiate Capers:

Sure, Groupon can get you a 2-for-1 deal on dinner or an evening of bowling, but what if it could get you the same steep discount on college classes?
National Louis University intends to find out, as the private university in Chicago is now the first university in the country to offer one of Groupon's daily deals in an effort to boost enrollment.
The deal is for a graduate-level introduction to teaching course and is only valid for new students. Cost: $950, which is almost a 60-percent discount on the usual $2,232 price tag for a three-credit course at the school.
The class was custom-made for the Groupon audience --a weekly three-hour seminar covering everything from political influences on education to developing a personal approach to teaching.
Those considering enrolling must have some sort of undergraduate degree, but the course is designed for those with little or no background in education. Completing the course does not guarantee admission to a degree-earning program at the university, and those who do go on to pursue a graduate degree at the school will still need an additional 33 credit hours at the usual price.
As of yesterday afternoon, Groupon's website says at least 15 people purchased the offer. You have until Saturday night at midnight (Central Time) to sign up. Only 25 of the deals were being offered. The deal expires Sep 14 and the first class is Sep 26 (and continues through early December --Maiman).

TV Briefs:

Good news for all you slobbering guys in the audience who love the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show -CBS will be airing the show once again this fall. It’s slated for Tue, Nov 29, and will include models MIRANDA KERR, ALESSANDRA AMBROSIO, ADRIANA LIMA and more, with musical performances to be announced.