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NEWS
A glorious farewell to the Paris Olympics
Au revoir to the Paris Games.
The Games culminated in a spectacular closing ceremony. More than 10,000 athletes paraded through the Stade de France, with gold medalists Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead representing Team USA as its flag bearers. Tom Cruise accepted the handover of the Olympic flag to Los Angeles with true Hollywood panache, rappelling down into the stadium and speeding away on a motorcycle.
The commanding performances and stunning victories helped turn this year’s Games into a worldwide cultural phenomenon, satisfying a hunger for escapism and enthusiasm after the pandemic years.
Ledecky lapped up four medals, becoming the most decorated American woman in Olympic history. Simone Biles, Suni Lee and the rest of the U.S. women’s gymnastics squad dazzled on their “redemption tour.” Sha’Carri Richardson led the U.S. women to Olympic relay gold. Noah Lyles took on a new title after winning the men’s 100-meter: fastest man in the world.
Team USA collected a staggering 125 medals, including 40 golds.
The U.S. and China each won 40 gold medals in the first Summer Games draw in Olympic history.
If American women were their own nation, they would have won the third-most medals, only behind the U.S. and China.
Gymnast Jordan Chiles lost her bronze medal because an appeal was filed 4 seconds too late. The case is a rare instance of an athlete having to return a medal for reasons other than a doping violation.
—NBC News
Wisconsin has a little-known GOP primary for US Senate Tuesday
For months now, Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race has been framed as a battle between Republican business executive Eric Hovde and Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin. But there are two other GOP candidates in Tuesday’s primary election.
Hovde faces Rejani Raveendran of Stevens Point and Charles Barman of the Village of Sharon in Walworth County.
Both have their work cut out for them. Hovde has spent millions of dollars on his race and has endorsem*nts from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and former President Donald Trump.
—WI Public Radio
Hovde campaign sues Democratic group, TV stations over ‘rigged the system’ ad
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde (has) filed a defamation lawsuit against a political action committee aligned with Democrats and several media companies that operate television stations in Wisconsin.
The lawsuit, filed in Brown County Circuit Court, cites an advertisem*nt that says Hovde, who is CEO and chairman of the board for Sunwest Bank (the primary subsidiary of the California-based business H Bancorp), “rigged the system to rake in $30 million in government subsidies and loans” and now is “sheltering his wealth in shady tax havens around the world.”
The ad cites those claims as reasons Hovde became “a multimillionaire California banker” — an attack line that has dogged the candidate throughout his campaign as he stresses that he has not been a resident of California, and grew up and lives in Madison.
Attorneys representing Hovde and his campaign say the bank has never received any federal government subsidies, and argue the word” rigged” implies the candidate engaged in illegal, fraudulent or unethical behavior.
They also argue that, while Hovde has companies incorporated in Delaware and Nevada “due to their favorable legal protections for corporate entities, none of his companies are incorporated in foreign countries.”
On June 14, lawyers representing Hovde and his campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to Wisconsin TV stations requesting they stop airing the ad, and if they continued to air it, “it would be done so with reckless disregard of the Advertisem*nt’s falsity.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
President Biden admits pressure from Democrats contributed to decision to drop out
President Biden offered some more insight into why he dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday during an interview with CBS News, and said his Democratic colleagues told him his campaign would hurt members of the party down-ballot.
“A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought that I was going to hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic, you’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say -why did – and I thought it’d be a real distraction,” Biden told CBS News’ Bob Costa.
Biden announced at the end of July that he would be bowing out of the presidential race and quickly endorsed Vice President Harris. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other Democrats reportedly called on Biden to drop out in private in the weeks following his first debate with Donald Trump.
“The polls we had showed that it was a neck-and-neck race, it would have been down to the wire,” Biden added.
Pelosi recently revealed that she and Biden have not spoken since he dropped out of the race.
The former House speaker also continues to deny she told the president to drop out. She told reporters during a recent interview that the president didn’t have a path to victory.
—FOX News
Top Biden adviser ‘absolutely’ blames Nancy Pelosi for tanking prez’s campaign
A top adviser to President Biden is “absolutely” blaming House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi for tanking his re-election campaign — and accusing Democratic donors of ignoring the will of their party’s primary voters in swapping him out for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Anita Dunn, a White House senior adviser on communications who has since departed for a Harris super PAC, inveighed against Biden’s doubters in Congress and elsewhere in her first interview since the 81-year-old president dropped out of the 2024 race.
“You know, clearly there were leaders of the party who decided to go ahead and go very public. And that gave permission to other people to go public,” Dunn told Politico of the growing chorus of Democrats calling on Biden to abandon his run after his debate flop June 27.
Asked whether she was referring to “senators and House members” as well as “when Nancy Pelosi goes on TV twice when things feel like they’re dying down and reopens the debate,” Dunn shot back, “Absolutely.”
—NY Post
DNC speakers
President Joe Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been confirmed as speakers at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The convention, which is scheduled for Aug. 19-22 takes place weeks after Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.
—NBC News
Democrats launch first paid ad campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket in battleground states
The Democratic Party is targeting seven critical battleground states with paid advertising for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The Democratic National Committee announced the Harris-Walz advertising push on Monday, which includes more than 70 billboards across the key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s the ticket’s first paid advertising blitz since Walz joined the campaign — and the first of many to come in areas that are poised to determine the outcome of the presidential election in November.
—Associated Press
Harris campaign seeking to limit celebrity appearances at DNC: Report
Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign is seeking to avoid overstuffing the Democratic National Convention with celebrities to avoid making it seem like a “Hollywood liberal elite” event.
The four-day event, scheduled to begin Aug. 19 in Chicago, will be selective over which celebrities it chooses to invite. The report comes after the party has had a history of doing events with major celebrities, including one in June with actors George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack Black while President Joe Biden was still seeking reelection.
“We are living in the most personalized media environment ever, so it’s crucial we are leveraging the unparalleled excitement around this historic ticket by doing everything we can to break through to the voters who will decide this election,” the Harris campaign’s senior spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod told TMZ.
—Washington Examiner
$1 million starter homes are common in more than 100 towns in America
(That’s) according to new data from Zillow, another sign of the ongoing affordability challenges in the housing market.
“When affordability gets strained, people want the cheapest thing,” Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow, told Yahoo Finance in an interview. “And as people wanted more and more starter homes, the growth rates in the price of starter homes basically skyrocketed.”
According to Zillow, the average starter home nationwide is priced at $196,611, within reach for a median-income household. Zillow defines starter homes as those in the lowest third of home values in a given region.
However, starter home prices have soared 54.1% over the past five years, exceeding the 49.1% rise in the price of all homes during the same timeframe.
At least thirteen states nationwide now have at least one city or town that has a starter home worth $1 million or more. California leads with 71 cities, New York with 11 cities, and Washington with eight expensive housing cities. Florida, Maryland, and Virginia also made the cut with at least one high-cost housing town.
—Yahoo Finance
Shoplifting is more common than you think
What do Britney Spears, Megan Fox and Hugh Jackman have in common?
All three have been accused of, or said they were involved in, shoplifting. And they are not alone.
Nearly one-quarter of American adults have shoplifted, according to a new survey from LendingTree, the personal finance site. Roughly 1 in 20 consumers have shoplifted within the past year.
Shoplifting is a complicated crime. The motive can range from adolescent rebellion to adult thrill-seeking to hand-to-mouth poverty. Many of us steal things we don’t need and won’t use.
“I’ve learned that a lot of people have given shoplifting a try for lots and lots of reasons,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
“Some people did it for kind of the cliché reasons that you would think: They were young and they were just seeing what they could get away with,” he said. “And there was unquestionably a group of folks who are doing it because they need to.”
Here’s what the LendingTree survey found:
• Nearly all recent shoplifters (90%) said they steal because of inflation and economic hardship.
• Shoplifters are more likely to steal from large chain stores (52%) than mom-and-pop shops (28%).
• Nearly half of shoplifters (48%) have been caught in the act.
• The most-shoplifted items are food and, counterintuitively, nonalcoholic drinks.
“This isn’t people stealing thousand-dollar purses or things like that,” Schulz said. “For the most part, we’re talking about stealing things that are staples of life.”
The inspiration, Schulz said, came from an earlier survey about self-checkout, a millennial retailing phenomenon with which many consumers sustain a love-hate relationship.
In the self-checkout survey, 69% of shoppers said they thought the technology made it easier to steal – and, as if to prove the point, 15% said they had shoplifted at self-checkout.
—USA TODAY
Michigan man hits lottery jackpot day after just missing big win by one number
What a difference a day makes.
A Michigan man who recently won nearly $800,000 in the state’s Fantasy 5 lottery daily drawing also won $100 the previous day playing the same game, missing the jackpot by one number.
The man, who chose to remain anonymous, won the July 27 Fantasy 5 jackpot from the Michigan Lottery, according to an Aug. 8 news release on the lottery’s website.
His winning numbers of 2-5-17-21-30 netted him the jackpot of $795,905. The day before, he matched four numbers to win $100.
—FOX News
OPINION
A Question Every Voter Should Consider
Preacher Andy Stanley did a whole series on the most important question we must ask in every decision we face:
On the basis of your past experience, in light of the current circ*mstances, and with awareness of your dreams and hopes for the future, what is the wise thing for you to do?
His focus was on helping Christians discover God’s will in every decision they make.��In this critical election year, a variation on this question could prove useful for those still trying to determine their vote:
On the basis of your past experience, in light of the current circ*mstances in America, and with awareness of your hopes and dreams for the future of this great country and your family, what is the wise vote to make in November?
Both parties have a history to compare, both face the challenge of leading America in perilous times, and both will have competing visions for the future of America. When you look to the past, you have both the promises made and what they delivered when in office. As to the present circ*mstances, there are glaring realities that have and are impacting the lives of every citizen. Trump has been very clear about his policy promises; Harris has yet to have her positions statements posted on her website and has refused interviews that could provide more clarity. Assuming that Harris will continue with the Biden/Harris policies, what the candidates promise for the future are vastly different. There are four top issues worth exploring to understand those differences: energy to drive the future, border security and handling Illegal Immigrants, the economy and inflation, and law and order in our cities.��
In light of what the candidates are likely to do, what is best for your family, your community, and for America? Look at what both parties have delivered in the past, what they promise to do if elected, and what best ensures a promising future for America.
The media is not demanding that Democrats even define their positions. Harris is playing Biden’s past strategy from any press conferences: avoid tough questions, stay with the teleprompter, and attack Trump. Trump has laid out his policy promises, has taken interviews from even hostile groups, and is calling for three debates. Demand the same from Harris/Walz.
Now, let’s revisit that initial question: On the basis of your past experience, in light of the current circ*mstances in America, and with awareness of your hopes and dreams for the future of this great country and your family, what is the wise vote to make in November?
Now, be prepared to vote proudly with that answer in mind!
—Terry Paulson is a PhD psychologist, author, and professional speaker
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – In 1939 The Wizard of Oz film starring Judy Garland was first previewed in two test markets – Kenosha, Wisconsin and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
