Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Mar 20, 2018

Pushing up daisies:

The world's last male northern white rhino has died at a conservation site in Kenya, leaving only two females left to save the species from extinction.
The 45-year-old rhino named Sudan had been in poor health and was being treated recently for age-related issues and multiple infections. A conservancy member told CNN, "He was a gentle giant, his personality was just amazing and given his size, a lot of people were afraid of him. But there was nothing mean about him."

Spring begins:

With the first day of Spring comes the freebies...
--Rita's Water Ice: Rita's is celebrating its 26th annual first day of spring with a free regular size serving of Italian ice. With more than 600 locations in 31 states, they expect to give away more than a million cups of free Italian ices.
--Dairy Queen: DQ is celebrating its fourth annual "Free Cone Day," with participating Dairy Queen and DQ Grill & Chill stores nationwide giving out free small vanilla soft-serve cones with the signature curl on top while supplies last. There are more than 4,400 U.S. locations. Mall locations are not participating. The event also serves as a fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and participating stores will collect donations for local hospitals.

Going Chapter 11:

Your daughter's favorite mall jewelry store is closing.
The NY Timesreports Claire's jewelry chain, has been a shopping mall favorite, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware yesterday. A spokesman for the chain says they are in 99 percent of American malls, but are $1.9 billion in debt and want to close some under-performing stores.
Claire's also says they have the distinction of piercing more than 100 million ears as well. The company began piercing ears in 1978. Last year alone, in the U-S, they did 3.5 million ears.