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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Mar 29, 2013
March 29, 2013
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State Politics:
Could legalized marijuana be a savior for cash-strapped states? Could be, especially in states that recently passed some sort of legalization measures, like Washington State and Colorado.
CO Democratic Congressman JARED POLIS tells Politico, "I've seen some estimates in the high tens of millions, as much as $100 million (for Colorado) ...(that could put a) substantial dent in needed school improvements, particularly in poorer districts."
Editor's note: Hey, forget pot. You wanna see extra revenue flood into states and feds? Try legalized sports betting. Numerous countries do it, and it rakes in BIG bucks. (Pacelli)All About Peeps:
All the peeps fit to eat! Easter always brings out the peeps, those teeth-corroding marshmallow balls of sugar, and there's a ton of peep news to go with it. A Google News search for "peeps" will dump hundreds of stories in your lap, just from the last week or so. That's way more than usual though not quite as many as the 700 million peeps we were collectively supposed to have eaten this Easter season.
The Washington Post has said that the average person eats 2.3 peeps each spring without explaining the math.
There are peep fanatics out there maintaining websites featuring everything from Peep erotica (which has nothing to do with the old "peep show"), to an inventive online movie called "Lord of the Peeps." There's a clearing house of Peep websites: geekbabe.com/peeps. And yes, there's an official site (and it's pretty obnoxious): MarshmallowPeeps.com.Getting up to speed:
A group of office workers who hit a Powerball lottery last Saturday have decided to share the winnings with the one officer worker who didn't play.
JENNIFER MALDONADO had just started with the Florida realty company, didn't have $20 bucks to spare to join the office pool and said she wanted to wait until she had gotten her first paycheck.
Her 12 colleagues did a quick pick and had a winning ticket among the 120 they purchased. It had five matching numbers but not the correct Powerball, making them one of 13 $1 million winners. After taxes, the 12-way split comes to just over $83,000 each; split 13 ways, it's around $77 grand.
Bonus: The worker who bought for the group got the winning ticket after letting an impatient man cut in front of her in line at 7-Eleven.
C'mon: The difference between $83k and $77k? You'd give her the full share or not?Fashion Emergency:
You know how JON HAMM wants everyone to stop talking about what he's got going on in his pants? Two words: Ain't happening. TMZ says the "Mad Men" star's distracting anatomy is such a big problem that not one but two underwear companies have offered to help. Both Jockey and Fruit of the Loom are offering Jon a lifetime supply of underwear. (Bartha)
Locked Up for their own good:
A Greenwood, South Carolina woman is accused of stabbing her boyfriend and throwing his prosthetic legs across the yard so he wouldn't chase her.
MICHELLE THOMAS called police to say the argument with her drunk boyfriend turned scary so she grabbed a kitchen knife. When the boyfriend continued to come toward her, she swung at him with the knife. Then, she removed his prosthetic leg and threw it --and a spare leg-- out the door so he couldn't chase her.
Police later found the prosthetic legs and charged Thomas with "criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature." (Still)
Editor's note: She did it wrong. For good measure, you throw out the spare leg. For extra good measure, you challenge him to a butt-kickin' contest.
--I'll bet she had this guy PEGGED from the start.
--Was he HOPPING mad or was he just STUMPED?
--Have no fear, I'm sure he'll come crawling back to her now. (Maiman)Brain dead:
A new trend known as the "Escalator Helicopter" is reportedly taking video sharing sites by storm (video). And, it already cost one man a ton of money.
Works like this: a person lays down on the handrails at the top of an escalator, distributing their weight evenly between the "up" and the "down" railing. The force of the moving handrails then turns the person in a circle --like a helicopter blade. Get a friend to video the stunt and --voila-- you have an instant viral video.
Unfortunately, one man's Escalator Helicopter attempt failed miserably. The unidentified and somewhat pudgy dork fell between the railings at a department store, shattering the glass and destroying the handrails (video). He was later forced to pay $4-thousand dollars in damages. (Still) -
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