The New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square is one of the holiday's most cherished traditions, and this year might be its best one yet. Fiskars Living's Tom Brennan joins Cheddar to reveal what makes this year's Waterford New Year's Eve Ball so special. The master artisan explains the painstaking process of creating the iconic scene as the clock strikes midnight.
Brennan reveals why Waterford chose "Gift of Serenity" as this year's theme. He says it represents the spirit of balance and composure heading into the new year. The ball features 288 new crystals that make up the pattern representing the theme.
Finally, Brennan shows off some of the other ways that Waterford is celebrating the holidays. The crystal company is using the New Year's ball as inspiration for some new products including champagne flutes. He says it's a creative way to bring the spirit of the Times Square celebration into your own home.
Airline passengers are facing long security lines as unpaid TSA officers have begun calling in sick due to the government shutdown. Staffing shortages led to the closure of an entire terminal at Houston's George Bush International Airport. Local Houston TSA President, Freddie Cuellar, says closing the terminal is the best way to utilize the staff who are able to come to work.
Fashion designer Rachel Roy and daughter Ava Dash noticed that very few young adult novels featured Indian narratives. So they decided to write one themselves. "We realized there have been so many retellings of Greek myths, so we decided that we wanted to be the first," Dash told Cheddar. "So we went through and found a story that really spoke to us."
The 2017 Fyre Fest, which scammed thousands of millennials out of thousands of dollars, is still creating drama.
Nearly two years later, the disastrous event has caused a scuffle between Netflix and Hulu, both producers of rival tell-all docs on the subject. But according to the director of Netflix's "Fyre," there's really no contest, largely because Netflix attracts "a much bigger audience."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019.
As NBCUniversal, Disney, and WarnerMedia prepare to launch streaming services, Netflix is raising subscription prices to ensure it has the budget to tighten its stronghold and expand its reach in the content wars. Netflix announced on Tuesday it will raise its prices 13 to 18 percent, just as NBCUniversal confirmed it was entering the streaming business with its own subscription service.
Canopy Growth is planning its entry to the U.S. on the back of the new Farm Bill ー and aims to establish a hemp "hub" in New York, according to CEO Bruce Linton."New York is setting up a pretty progressive approach and we have an earlier first license under that system so we can actually create a hub," Linton told Cheddar on Tuesday.
As the government shutdown drags on, calls from some conservative corners have increased for President Trump to declare a national emergency in order to get federal employees back to work while diverting funds to build a border wall. However, conservative radio show host Erick Erickson is cautioning the president against doing just that.
The National Retail Federation trade show, held this week in New York City, has long been a place for industry players ー merchants, retailers, payment providers, marketing execs ー to gather and preview the latest innovations in commerce. And while Amazon, the world's largest retailer, was conspicuously absent from this year's event the presence of the e-commerce behemoth could be felt across the vast expanse of the Javits Convention Center.
Disappointing quarterly earnings from JPMorgan Chase weighed on the Dow and other major indexes Tuesday morning even though investors seemed optimistic about a new stimulus plan from China. NBC disclosed more details about its ad-supported streaming service which is scheduled to launch in 2020. Plus, Harlem Capital's John Henry joins Cheddar to talk about Gary Vaynerchuk's Agent2021 conference, his new Viceland series, and Harlem Capital's first fund for underrepresented entrepreneurs.
In an era when superheroes reign supreme at the box office, M. Night Shyamalan's "Glass" is ending a trilogy that began before the genre fully entered the mainstream."When 'Unbreakable' came out, I think a lot of people were questioning Night, especially studios and stuff, \[saying\], 'really?' A comic book movie? I'm not sure that's the best idea,'" star Spencer Treat Clark told Cheddar.
