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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Apr 30, 2015
April 30, 2015
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Mother's Day:
The National Retail Federation predicts total Mother's Day spending to reach $21.2 billion this year, the highest in the 12 years it has tracked the holiday.
About 80 percent tell the NRF they'll buy Mom a greeting card, and 67 percent plan to buy flowers. It's predicting a surge in maternal jewelry gifts, with 34 percent planning to buy Mom bling, up from 31 percent last year. That could amount to $4.3 billion in jewelry sales, also a record for the survey.
The NRF reports that online shoppers intend to spend more, about $252 on average. ( Kaye)Big Money, Big Problems:
The riots in Baltimore will have a huge economic impact beyond the immediate physical and emotional damage: lost revenue to cancelled Orioles games, declines in tourism, and a scar on the city's efforts to become an appealing brand for investment. The Baltimore Business Journal predicts the city will suffer economic consequences for years to come, citing a 2004 study on the 1992 Los Angeles riots that showed a cumulative loss of at least $3.8 billion in taxable sales in LA over the next 10 years. ( Kaye)
Sucking the life out of the wire services:
SCARLETT JOHANSSON is shining the light on a dirty little secret --millions of American children are going hungry every day! The " Avengers" beauty filmed a new public service announcement revealing that her own family relied on public assistance to provide food growing up. She calls child hunger a "real and often overlooked problem" that "we can fix."
16-million children are struggling every day and the A-lister urges everyone to "do something about it" because billions of pounds of good food goes to waste every year. ( Lee)Totalitarian Teacher:
A mom in Colorado says a teacher banned her 4-year-old from eating the cookies she packed in her lunch.
LEEZA PEARSON's daughter NATALEE attends The Children's Academy in Aurora. Pearson packed her daughter a lunch last Friday that included a ham and cheese sandwich, string cheese, and a pack of Oreo cookies. But, when Natalee came home after school, she still had the cookies --and a note from the teacher. Pearson says the teacher told Natalee she couldn't eat the Oreo's because they're not "nutritious." Pearson says, "What the school thinks is healthy for her is not what I think is healthy for her. That's between me and her and our doctor." The school district says they're looking into the matter. ( Still)TV Briefs:
MICHELLE OBAMA will make her fifth and final appearance as First Lady on tonight's "Late Show With DAVID LETTERMAN." HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH will also be making their final visit to the show tonight as well --their first visit was back on Sep 02, 1994.
Taking everything much too seriously:
A man in Chicago used the McDonald's " Create Your Taste" kiosk to make the largest burger possible.
MOSHA TAMSSOT posted a video demonstrating how he used the build-your-own-burger kiosk to create what he calls a "Big Max" burger. The sandwich features two quarter-pound patties and ten each of every possible condiment. That means 10 slices of American cheese, 10 slices of pepper jack cheese, 10 strips of bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, guacamole, tortilla strips, jalapenos, grilled mushrooms --and the list goes on. The cost of such a burger? The kiosk rang it up at $890.80. But, the cashier later adjusted it to $24.89. Tamssot says the finished burger weighed nearly four-pounds.
According to McDonald's, the "Create Your Taste" promotion is all about making your very own gourmet burger with over 30 delicious ingredients to choose from. ( Still) -
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