I AM LIVE FROM WINTER PARK TODAY! Because it is time for the coolest event I get to do all year, the Wells Fargo Cup to benefit the National Sports Center for the Disabled. Find out more and I'll be telling you about it and the NSCD while also introducing you to some amazing athletes along the way. Find out more or get a calendar of events if you want to come up this weekend here.
THIS IS A HORRIBLY SAD STORY A family is grieving the loss of their 12 year old son who was killed driving a stolen car. The family is angry that the man who owned the car and eventually tracked the car down and eventually killed the boy will not be charged. I believe that losing a child is hell on earth and would wish it on no one. It saddens me to see this family blaming everyone but themselves for this child's death though. It saddens me because if they had come out and begged other parents to keep their children home, to discipline them when they need it, to be a good role model to their kids, maybe his death wouldn't be in vain. Maybe other parents would have taken note and done better by their kids. This is just a tragedy in so many ways.
I'M GONNA BET TEN BUCKS THE ROCKIES WIN THE NL WEST Number one, I can afford to lose it. Number two, check out those odds!
WHY ISN'T JUDD APATOW FUNNY ANYMORE? Our friend and media critic Christian Toto asks that question here but the short answer is: woke sucks the funny out.
AND HERE COME THE DOWNTOWN BUILDING FORECLOSURES I've been waiting for this. Not because I hoped it would happen, but because I know vacancy rates downtown are BAD and when no one is in your building you can't pay the mortgage and here we are. Five massive office buildings downtown have now been handed over to their lenders because the owners can't make those payments. From the Denver Business Journal:
Five office buildings with a collective $617.3 million owed to lenders — among them the famed “Cash Register Building,” Republic Plaza, which is Denver’s tallest building, and the Writer Square mixed-use property — are casualties of rising office vacancy rates caused by the shift to hybrid and work-from-home styles and the departure of oil company headquarters.
The buildings’ owners have fallen behind on loan payments and some have been unable to make balloon payments as the properties’ loans matured and financing came due, according to their most recent financial filings.
I am afraid this is just the beginning.
THE HOMEWORK WARS ARE BACK And these battles about homework are constantly being fought but the pandemic brought everything into sharp focus. First is the question: does homework help? From this article:
Researchers disagree even on how much research exists on the value of homework. Kathleen Budge, the co-author of Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools and a professor at Boise State, told me that homework “has been greatly researched.” Denise Pope, a Stanford lecturer and leader of the education nonprofit Challenge Success, said, “It’s not a highly researched area because of some of the methodological problems.”
Experts who are more sympathetic to take-home assignments generally support the “10-minute rule,” a framework that estimates the ideal amount of homework on any given night by multiplying the student’s grade by 10 minutes. (A ninth grader, for example, would have about 90 minutes of work a night.) Homework proponents argue that while it is difficult to design randomized control studies to test homework’s effectiveness, the vast majority of existing studies show a strong positive correlation between homework and high academic achievement for middle and high school students. Prominent critics of homework argue that these correlational studies are unreliable and point to studies that suggest a neutral or negative effect on student performance. Both agree there is little to no evidence for homework’s effectiveness at an elementary school level, though proponents often argue that it builds constructive habits for the future.
I am not anti-homework but I'd love it if the 10 minute rule was in effect for my daughter. The problem is her teachers always assume the other teachers are assigning less. I guess anyway.
CHINA IS BRINGING A UKRAINE PEACE PLAN And I can hardly wait to see how closely this resembles what they hope to get from Taiwan. This all feels like the US and China are playing a high stakes game of RISK. Read more here. Mmm, it seems the plan has already fallen flat by US standards.
SANCTUARY COUNTRY CANADA WANTS LESS PEOPLE WANTING SANCTUARY Remember back in 2017 when Canadian Prime Minister sent out this tweet:
It was right as Trump suspended migration from Middle Eastern countries with a propensity for calling for "Death To America" and Trudeau couldn't wait to virtue signal his little frozen tush off by tweeting that out. Those were the good old days. Now Trudeau wants a word with Joe Biden because apparently too many Mexicans and other from Central and South America saw his tweet and took him up on it. Heh. Be careful what you wish for, Minister.
STUDENTS RAISE MONEY SO THEIR JANITOR CAN RETIRE This is what crowdfunding was made for. Mr James had to go back to work when his rent got raised $400 a month so the kids at the school where the 80 year old works started a GoFundMe for him. They have raised over $260,000 so far and plan on taking it down tomorrow to give him the money. I love these kids and their crazy technology!
AH BLESS, MARIANNE WILLIAMSON IS BACK The former candidate and spiritualist is back for another bite at the apple, announcing her candidacy for the Democratic ticket. Bless her heart.
TEN YEAR OLD WRITES MUSIC AND THE INTERNET PLAYS IT. Ya'll this story is just the best. A mom of a ten year old girl posted her first musical composition to TikTok and asked if any musicians thought it could be played. The internet responded in the best way. Please enjoy little Olive's masterwork:
KANSAS LOOKS TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE: DEFINE A WOMAN This should be fun. After a Supreme Court Justice could not answer the simple question "What is a Woman" it has sparked a push to do just that to protect women from being erased by the trans movement. If everyone is a woman, no one is a woman. From the Washington Times:
The Kansas Senate on Thursday became the first chamber to pass the Women’s Bill of Rights, a measure that defines “woman” and “man” in state law. The distinction is central to the push to preserve single-sex areas such as public restrooms, school sports, prisons and shelters.
“What this does is simply codify in the law the definition of sex,” state Sen. Renee Erickson, a Republican, told The Washington Times.
Thank you for protecting my gender and my identity, Kansas.
OUR DENVER MAYOR FUNDRAISING IS ABOUT THE SAME Since the last report with Kelly Brough pulling away from the pack and Andy Rougeot sitting in second with a big personal loan plus several hundred thousand dollars he's raised without taking government money. Find more here.
FIFTEEN LOW ENROLLMENT DENVER SCHOOLS ARE FACING CLOSURE Of some other type of consolidation after the Board made a list last night. Find the list here, but expect parents to go into a fury as some of those are neighborhood schools that no longer have enough kids to support them. They did manage to discuss how to pay themselves more but tabled that discussion as they decided that was tacky to talk about while discussing closing schools over lack of money. Okay, they didn't think it was tacky but it was.
DID YOU BUY THIS AIR FRYER? Two million of them were sold and now they are being recalled because they are setting things on fire. Check it here.
POLYGAMY MAY BE LEGAL THIS CENTURY SAYS A NEW POLL And this is a bad, bad idea wherever it's been tried. A new poll showed that Americans are less concerned with monogamy and more are engaging in some kind of polyamory but let's be real, it's still a very small number. What I find funny is that a lot of people think we're headed to a society where polygamy will be recognized. Polygamy fundamentally shifts the dynamic in societies by taking potential female mates and making them more scarce which leads to high number of disaffected celibate not by choice young men and that leads to disaster. You think some men view women as property now...
JOY BEHAR SHOWS HOW AWFUL SHE IS AS SHE SAYS OHIO RESIDENTS DESERVE WHAT THEY GOT
NOTED DEMOCRAT PUT TO DEATH FOR MURDER IN FLORIDA And I can only assume based on his final statements before he was put to death for murdering a woman many years ago that this great man was a staunch Democrat. Read more here. He probably should have apologized to his victims or asked forgiveness but I'm sure a political statement is better. I'm sure.
WHERE ARE THE "EAST PALESTINE IS BIDEN'S KATRINA" HEADLINES? And I'm being serious, as every time Trump dealt with any sort of emergency badly we were told THIS IS HIS KATRINA. Obama never faced such headlines because he was perfect (sarcasm) and I'm sure Biden won't although if there were ever a comparison this might be it. TheHill.com is now saying this train derailment and it's botched aftermath could mean a "political threat" to Biden in his bid for re election. I don't know about that, but Mayor Pete has damaged his brand beyond repair.
FEELING BLUE? HAVE A JOY SNACK I absolutely love this entire concept about how to use little moments to build overall happiness. And the term "joy snack' is one I'll be incorporating into my lexicon. Read more here.
ANOTHER EPISODE OF KIDNAPPING A PEOPLE PLEASER But in this case, you've been kidnapped by a people pleaser. Still funny. Watch below or click here.
THIS SEATTLE FREEWAY EXIT IS A NIGHTMARE FOR DRIVERS Watch below or click here.
IF YOU'RE GONNA BE STUPID YOU BETTER BE TOUGH, PRANK EDITION What an idiot. Watch below or click here.
WELP, I'M GONNA DIE EARLY I honestly hate these articles where some doctors says "you have to prioritize getting great sleep" or some such idiocy that simply ignores HOW MUCH TROUBLE some people (me) have getting good sleep. Maybe I need more sleep before I read this article about how good sleep can help you live longer.
IF THIS WERE TRUE I'D BE A SUPERMODEL. Again, see my comments above about how I feel about this bit of nonsense. Watch below or click here.
THIS WOMAN PUT HER BOYFRIEND ON A PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PLAN And at first I hated this but when I read her boyfriend is an engineer I think it's genius. She met him where he is in a way he could understand. I just wouldn't have put it on the internet so my boyfriend looked like a total beta male but whatever.
HOLLYWOOD HAS NO NEW IDEAS Which is the only reason we are now going to have a Lord of the Rings reboot just twenty years after the masterworks of Peter Jackson. What director would even take this on?
I WOULD TAKE BACK THE EIGHT DOLLARS I hope DoorDash fires this woman. She could have decided to not pick the order up in the first place and this is inappropriate. Watch below or click here.
COPS USE TECH TO FIND BAD GUYS AND I'M HERE FOR IT Can you imagine??? Watch below or click here.