Workers board up shops in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020, in advance of Hurricane Marco, expected to make landfall on the Southern Louisiana coast. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, August 24, 2020:
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
TONIGHT: Behind in the polls, the Republican Party will try to jumpstart President Trump’s reelection campaign this week, and the president himself will be the main attraction. Trump is expected to speak in primetime every night of the RNC, with a former Celebrity Apprentice producer working behind the scenes and members of the Trump family making up half the featured speakers. Tonight, speakers include: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Donald Trump Jr. giving the keynote. NPR
CONWAY OUT: Ahead of the convention, Kellyanne Conway announced that she’s leaving the White House at the end of the month for family reasons. Conway has been one of the president’s closest and longest-serving advisers, while her husband and daughter have been some of his fiercest critics. WASH POST
COVID-19: PLASMA APPROVAL: President Trump announced that the FDA would issue an emergency use authorization for convalescent blood plasma in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The treatment had already been approved on a “compassionate use basis,” and the FDA was planning an emergency approval before Dr. Fauci and others urged it to pull back and gather more data. The president asked patients who have recovered to donate their plasma. Trump’s announcement came after he accused the FDA, without evidence, of being part of the “deep state” and intentionally slowing down approvals until after the election. BI
ONE-TWO PUNCH: The Gulf Coast is preparing for the extremely rare event of back-to-back tropical landfalls. Marco was downgraded overnight to a tropical storm and is tracking toward the coast of Louisiana, where it will make landfall tonight. Tropical Storm Laura is directly behind Marco -- and has the potential to be a bigger problem as the system is expected to strengthen significantly as it approaches the warmer Gulf waters. Laura’s path is less certain, but she’s tracking more westward, with Houston and the Louisiana coast in the cone. FORECAST
CALIFORNIA FIRES: The second- and third-largest fires in California history are still growing to the north and south of San Francisco. Firefighters will be hindered this week by thunderstorms that are expected to bring the worst possible combination of gusty winds, dry lightning and little rain. Progress was made over the weekend thanks to favorable weather conditions, but the next few days look grim. This month, 1.3 million acres have already burned -- about five times the acreage lost in all of 2019. Smoke from the fires has reached as far as Kansas. SFGATE
HERO FIREFIGHTER: A veteran Detroit firefighter lost his life when he jumped into the Detroit River to save three girls who were drowning. Sgt. Sivad Johnson, 48, was off duty when he heard the young girls screaming for help and raced toward the water. Authorities believe he was sucked under by a rip current. All three girls were safely rescued. DETROIT NEWS
BLACKBERRY: RESURRECTION: A new BlackBerry smartphone is in development, on schedule for a release in the first half of 2021. The handset will come with a physical keyboard, 5G capability and run on Android. TECHRADAR
NBA PLAYOFFS: The NBA postseason in the bubble is heating up. In the East, the Celtics and Raptors have advanced after sweeping the 76ers and Nets, respectively. The Heat look to do away with the Pacers today. In the West, Luka Doncic of the Mavericks is having a breakout performance in his first-ever playoff series. The 21-year-old from Slovenia scored the winning three-pointer in OT to even the series with the Clippers in one of the bubble’s most exciting moments yet: WATCH
BATMAN TEASER: Warner Bros. and DC Comics held their first ever virtual fan convention over the weekend, which included new trailers for Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and the first look at Robert Pattinson as the new Batman: WATCH
SPOTTED...the new White House Rose Garden, unveiled by First Lady Melania Trump after a redesign and renovation: SEE IT
LEFTOVERS: FITTING END TO THE YEAR: An asteroid is set to pass just by Earth on November 2, the day before the presidential election. Fortunately for us, the space rock is just 6.5 feet long, and poses no threat even if it were to hit us head-on -- which it has about a 1 in 250 chance of doing, according to NASA. The asteroid is small enough that it would break just up in our atmosphere. INDEPENDENT
Listen to the N2K Podcast! Looking for more context and analysis on the big stories of the day? Check out our podcast! Hosts Jill and Carlo break down the headlines, every weekday morning Listen on Apple or Spotify, or watch on YouTube, and send us your feedback!
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of Achieve Life Sciences discusses a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction; President & CEO OF DiaMedica Therapeutics explains a new ischemic stroke treatment option that expands the window for effective therapy for stroke patients; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Asteroid Rush.'
Catching you up on today's entertainment headlines with the Tribeca Film Festival has kicked off in NYC, "Black Adam," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dropped its first full trailer, the musical "Come From Away" based on a true story set during 9/11 will be closing on Broadway this October, and more.
Survivors of Larry Nassar, including Olympian Simone Biles, are seeking $1 billion in damages from the FBI due to its failure to investigate the former gymnastics team doctor convicted of committing years of serial sexual abuse of minors. Jack Queen, a senior reporter at Law360, joined Cheddar News to break down the legal grounds of this case. "This is one of the biggest black eyes that the Bureau has faced in generations, quite frankly, and the FBI has taken full responsibility and admitted that it completely botched this investigation," he said. "So, there's a lot of pressure to settle."
The Elevate Prize Foundation is donating $10,000 to different grassroots organizations based on a theme every month to help scale their work, focusing on a different theme each time. Upcoming prizes will help uplift an organization supporting the LGBTQ community and one mobilizing to help end gun violence. The foundation's CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram joined Cheddar to discuss the initiative and why it's important to uplift these grassroots organizations. "We are identifying social entrepreneurs around the world to help them scale their work. but the ultimate purpose of that is to create the first-ever fanbase for good," she said. "We're trying to make good famous and by inspiring people to think about the role they can play in doing good in the world."
With real estate being a largely male-dominated industry, Stephanie Shojaee, vice president and chief marketing officer at development company Shoma Group, joined Cheddar News to discuss how she took on the gender gap for women to achieve leadership roles, starting at her own company. “It's been very important to teach all the women that work here, especially the younger ones, that they shouldn't change themselves," she said. "You need to be happy with who you are and just keep breaking barriers."
We are already starting to feel the effects of summer. Heat waves in Texas and California are already sending temperatures soaring. That could spell trouble for the nation's power supply. there are new concerns about outages in many areas of the country. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier explains the two main causes of blackouts, and what states are doing to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running.
If you have been on the road this past year, you've probably seen more accidents on the road than you ever have. You're not wrong. Traffic fatalities are not only increasing they are hitting historic highs. Almost 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2021. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier investigates - and finds out why.
U.S. stocks close Tuesday at session highs after a subpar start to the trading day. Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at the wealth advisory firm, Girard, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. 'We're starting to see the moderation of three core things -- we've seen the moderation of prices, we've seen the moderation of wage growth we've seen in the labor market, and we've also seen a moderation of job openings,' he says.
The victims from the USA gymnastics sexual abuse scandal continue to seek justice. Survivors of Larry Nassar are seeking more than one-billion dollars from the FBI for failing to stop the convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations. According to a report released by the Justice Department's Inspector General, FBI agents knew
in July of 2015 that Nassar was accused of abusing gymnasts; however, Nassar wasn't arrested until December of 2016. The group that filed the claim includes Olympic medalist Simone Biles and around 90 other women. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Tattoo artist Katrina "Kat Tat" Jackson, famous for starring in the VH1 hit series "Black Ink Crew: Chicago," is also the first Black woman to own a tattoo shop in Beverly Hills. She joined Cheddar News to discuss her trailblazing work, the stigma BIPOC tattoo artists face in the industry, and the way the space has changed for artists of color since her start. "In the beginning, I remember walking into a tattoo shop just like, hey, I wanna learn, I wanna be a tattoo artist and kind of just being laughed at, not taken seriously," she said. "Even with the tattoo conventions, a lot of African American tattoo artists were almost scared to go to conventions because it's not a welcoming environment."
