This photo provided by General Motors Co. shows the 2022 GMC Hummer EV. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, the company's GMC brand introduced the new electric Hummer pickup, with a high-end version due in showrooms sometime in the fall of 2021. (Courtesy of General Motors Co. via AP)
Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Wednesday, October 21, 2020:
CHEDDAR POLL
Joe Biden is maintaining a 10-point national lead against President Trump with less than two weeks until Election Day, according to a new Cheddar/SurveyUSA poll out this morning. The poll finds Biden growing his lead among key groups like women while the president is underwater with seniors. LIkely voters rank the pandemic and the economy as their two most important issues. CHEDDAR
STIMULUS SHOWDOWN
Just as the House Speaker and Treasury Secretary appeared to be nearing a breakthrough on a new $2 trillion-ish stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told the White House not to accept a new bill before the election, as it would disrupt the Senate’s plans to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court next week. McConnell would need to bless any deal for it to have a shot of becoming law before Election Day, and that’s looking extremely unlikely, even though President Trump has urged Congress to “go big.” WASH POST
COVID-19: SILVER LINING
Even as new cases continue to surge in the northern hemisphere, two new peer-reviewed studies show that there’s been a sharp drop in mortality for hospitalized COVID patients across age groups. One study out of NYU and another out of the UK suggest that doctors and hospitals are getting much better at standardizing treatment for the virus. The NYU study found that hospitalized patients had about a 26 percent chance of dying at the start of the pandemic, and about an 8 percent chance of dying now. That still makes COVID more deadly than the flu, but it’s a significant improvement. NPR
UNITED STATES V. GOOGLE
The U.S. government has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing it of antitrust violations related to its dominance in search. This is the most significant action taken against a tech giant by the federal government since President Clinton’s DOJ sued Microsoft. The government is arguing that Google is protecting its advantage in search by striking deals with Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on iPhones and other devices. Google is likely to argue that there’s plenty of choices for consumers on the internet. THE VERGE
SOCIAL MEDIA & ELECTION
Twitter has implemented a change to how users “retweet” that the company says will stay in place until at least the week after Election Day. Now, when you want to retweet something, you are prompted with an encouragement to write about whatever it is you’re retweeting. The hope is that by adding some friction to the retweet process, it will cut down on the spread of misinformation. Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that platform may ease up its content restrictions after the election. Both Twitter and Facebook continue to face criticism from Republicans that they are censoring or “throttling” conservative content. FOX BIZ
ELECTRIC HUMMER
Tesla has some new competition in the market for high-end electric cars. General Motors debuted the new all-electric Hummer in a commercial during the World Series, officially entering a market that has been dominated by Elon Musk and Tesla. GM is marketing the GMC Hummer EV as an electric “supertruck” that will be available in a year, just before Musk’s Cybertruck. Starting price: $80K. CAR & DRIVER
WORLD SERIES
The Dodgers easily took Game 1 of the World Series, beating the Rays, 8-3, on the back of a dominant outing from pitcher Clayton Kershaw. The MLB is allowing 11,500 fans to attend the games at the brand new Globe Life Field in Texas. ESPN
FASTER & FURIOUS..ER
The Fast & Furious “core” franchise will come to a close after the 11th film. Universal is reportedly in talks with director Justin Lin, who is in post-production on the ninth installment of the series, to wrap up the story over two final movies. Fast & Furious is now Universal’s most successful franchise ever, eclipsing Jurassic Park. DEADLINE
FINAL ACT
Chadwick Boseman’s final performance will be memorialized on Netflix. The streaming giant will premiere Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Dec. 18. The drama has the late Boseman starring opposite Viola Davis, who plays the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey. Boseman’s turn as her ambitious trumpet player already getting buzz as a contender for a posthumous Oscar. WATCH THE TRAILER
LEFTOVERS: CALL FOR CIVILITY
The two opposing gubernatorial candidates in Utah appear together in a new commercial calling for civility ahead of Election Day. The Republican, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, and the Democrat, Chris Peterson, ask Utah residents to “show the country that there’s a better way.” (Cox is way up in the polls, for what it’s worth.) SEE THE AD
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Hinge users who have children can opt-in to a $100 stipend up to $25,000 for childcare. Logan Ury, the director of relationship science for the online dating platform, noted the issue as an obstacle for single parents who want to go out on dates. "We have heard that singles with children have a hard time going on dates for one of the reasons being that it's just hard to find childcare and it's hard to be able to afford it," she said. Ury also said that the hot topic among Hinge's users is mental health and the prioritizing of mental health.
Dolly Parton, Eminem, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon are just a few of the nominees announced for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2022 induction. Results of the voting will be released in May, however, the ceremony date has yet to be announced.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of HereAfter AI discusses how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed; Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover' explains how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'The Humboldt Current.'
According to the Federal Reserve, the investment gap between Black and white Americans has remained substantial, with only 34 percent of Black households joining in on the historic rise in the markets. Stacey Tisdale, the first Black woman to have reported from the NYSE and the CEO and president of Mind Money Media Inc., said that the data might not be as disheartening as it seems. "I think that number is very deceiving. That Federal Reserve study is actually from 2019, and it's very important that we all look beneath that number and look beneath the surface because there is nothing short of an investing revolution going on in the Black community," Tisdale said.
James Vlahos, Co-Founder and CEO of HereAfter AI, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed.
Ava Rathenberg, Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover,' joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community.
An award-winning performance by the LSU Tiger Girls dance team is going viral on TikTok, but like many other viral tiktoks, this one had a larger story to tell. The story goes back to 2021 when for the first time in 22 years, the LSU dance team was informed it could not compete at Universal Dance Association Nationals. The team made their anticipated return to UDA Nationals this year with a performance that delivered a strong and clear message to their university. The LSU Tiger Girls walked away from the competition with their first national championship title in 12 years, redemption against the university that held them back, and of course- millions of new fans and friends on TikTok.
Solid-state battery maker Factorial Energy recently raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Factorial says the funding will be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment of its solid-state battery technology, which the company says is safer, and offers up to 50% more driving range than current lithium-ion technology. Factorial also has joint development agreements (announced in late 2021) with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai, three of the top 10 global automotive manufacturers, to commercialize its batteries. Factorial CEO Siyu Huang joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Former Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the NFL over racial discrimination, exposing a long-running problem the NFL has had with diversity in its top coaching and management positions. Eric Mitchell, the president and CEO of public relations and communications company LifeFlip Media, joined Cheddar News to delve into the scandal rocking the pro football world just before the Super Bowl. "There is a problem. If you look at who owns teams in the NFL, it's right, it's a good old boys club, it's a bunch of old white guys," he said. "So, it's exposing something that's been around for ages and now that we're sitting in 2022 has come up."
This April, Madison Square Garden will be hosting the first-ever women's boxing match to headline at the arena in its 140 years of history in boxing. Undisputed lightweight champion, Katie Taylor, and seven-division champion, Amanda Serrano, will go head-to-head for a career-high guaranteed seven-figure purse for both of them. The pair joined Cheddar News to talk about the upcoming "fight of their lives." "I mean, this is the first step I believe," said Serrano. "Unheard of, two women headlining the Garden, we get in the biggest paydays of our career, I hope it continues to break down barriers."
