Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Feb 18, 2022

This year's Record Store Day is coming up April 23rd and various record companies will be celebrating with special releases, including vinyl exclusives from Prince, Mariah Carey and others. For example, Prince’s 1995 album, "The Gold Experience" was issued along with Mariah’s 1998 greatest-hits collection. There was also The Foo Fighters' “Reversions,” a couple of David Bowie albums, Madonna‘s “Who’s That Girl” soundtrack, a special vinyl edition of Kacey Musgraves' “Star-Crossed,” and lots more.

Buying a new car? Be prepared for much higher prices at the dealer. Edmunds.com reports 82-percent of car buyers are paying above sticker price for their new vehicles. Duh! Part of the problem is a shortage in computer chips for new cars being built at factories around the world, making the average cost for a car up 12-percent year over year. The good news --your old car is worth much more to a dealer --with J.D. Power stats saying the trade-in value is up around 88-percent from a year ago.

You probably haven't noticed this unless you live by the shore, but a new survey by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says by 2050, sea levels along US coastlines will be about a foot higher than they were back in the year 2000. And the Northeast US will see the biggest rise --16 inches instead of just 12. It's apparently due to global warming, and scientists say it's gonna get worse --by 2100, they believe sea levels could go up by 2 feet --or more.

Choo-choo! Over in Saudi Arabia, thousands of women are now looking for jobs after gender segregations rules were lifted, giving women the ability to work in other occupations than teachers or nurses. As a result, 28-thousand women applied this past week for just 30 jobs as a driver for the Haramin high-speed railway between the holy sites of Mecca and Medina.

Casting call: Show biz dailies say actress Kate McKinnon will be joining the cast of Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Barbie” movie, along with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, who will play Barbie and Ken. No word yet on what doll Kate will be playing.