Matt Lauer may be out at the Today show, but his salary*still looms large. Despite being named his permanent replacement, Hoda Kotb won't match her predecessor's record-setting paystubs. Sources tell Page Six Kotb will make seven million dollars a year - around 18 million less than Lauer. A show insider says Hoda isn't complaining. She landed the big job she always dreamed of, and Matt's salary reflected the 25 years he'd been at the show.
There's one country where the Today show's pay gap may be considered illegal. Iceland became the first country to enact a law making it illegal to pay men more than women. The law went info effect on January 1, and requires businesses to obtain an official certification on the new policies. One key reason the law passed is that almost half of Iceland's members of parliament are women. It's all part of the island nation's plan to erase the pay gap by 2022.
Beyonce is back at Coachella. After cancelling on the festival last year due to her pregnancy, Queen Bey will headline the festival this spring. She'll be joined by The Weeknd, Eminem, with other big acts including cardi b, haim, sizza, and post and mroe. Fans will descend on the desert over two weekends this April. It's one of the biggest music events of the year, and last year's festival grossed over $114 million dollars per weekend.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
