Sneakers designed in honor of Obama to go on sale for $25,000
(CNN) — They’re not the Air Obamas, but one sneakerhead with a lot of cash will have an opportunity this week to purchase an exclusive pair of basketball kicks made in honor of the 44th President.
The unique pair of Nike Hyperdunks will be sold on the website of Sotheby’s auction house Friday at 4:44 p.m. ET, a nod to Barack Obama’s status as the 44th President, for $25,000.
The pricey white sneaks feature a dark blue signature Nike “swoosh” with dark blue detailing and the presidential logo on the tongue flap. The numbers “44” in blue and red stitching are also embroidered on the inner side of each shoe. Graphics including bald eagles and “1776” are engrained on the insoles.
The Hyperdunks also resemble the “United We Rise” collection of USA Olympic sneakers worn by Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, according to Sotheby’s. Nike partnered with late NBA star Kobe Bryant to launch the shoe in April 2008, and the auction house says the shoes have a production date coding of “20091022” for October 22, 2009.
Sotheby’s wouldn’t reveal on Tuesday who provided the shoes to the auction house, but when asked how the pair were authenticated, Brahm Wachter, the director of eCommerce development for Sotheby’s, said the company is confident they were produced by Nike.
“Through our research, due diligence and consultation with the consignor, we have every confidence that the sneakers are an authentic confirmation sample produced by Nike,” Wachter said Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Obama declined to comment to CNN about the shoes. CNN has reached out to Nike for comment.
Although Obama, a basketball enthusiast since youth, is no longer in office, he has remained an influential fixture on social justice reform among athletes and the Hyperdunks aren’t the first shoe designed with the former President in mind.
NBA star Steph Curry, who has partnered with Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, which aims to mentor boys and young men of color, sported his custom Curry 4 sneaks bearing the Obama “O” logo during a Golden State Warriors game in 2018. They were later auctioned off.
via: https://www.kmov.com/sneakers-designed-in-honor-of-obama-to-go-on-sale-for-25-000/article_78baff17-a670-599d-a500-a124c21818bb.html
Photo Credit: Sotheby’s
Europe’s oldest person, a 116-year-old French nun, survives Covid-19
(CNN) — Europe’s oldest person has survived Covid-19 after testing positive just a few weeks before her 117th birthday.
Sister André, a nun who was born in 1904, tested positive for the virus on January 16, according to David Tavella, communications director at the Sainte Catherine Labouré nursing home in Toulon, southern France, where she lives.
André, who was born Lucille Randon, showed no symptoms, Tavella told CNN Wednesday.
“I didn’t know I had it,” André said in an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV. “No, I wasn’t scared because I wasn’t scared of dying.”
André is preparing to celebrate her 117th birthday on Thursday. Although visitors aren’t allowed at the home, she will receive video messages from her family and the local mayor, as well as taking part in a video Mass, Tavella said.
“We’re doing all we can to make her happy,” he said.
André’s birthday meal will feature her favorites: foie gras, baked Alaska and a glass of red wine, Tavella added.
“She drinks a glass of wine every lunchtime,” he said.
“Sister André’s birthday is taking place at a good time — it couldn’t be a better time, because it will mark the beginning of big festivities that will be organized around this relaxing of our restrictions,” Tavella told BFMTV. “Our residents will be able to get out of their rooms, eat together, participate in activities.”
André worked as a governess and a teacher, teaching the children to be “very polite,” she told French TV station CNEWS. She became a nun in 1944 and moved to the nursing home in Toulon in 2009, Tavella told CNN.
She has lived through two world wars as well as the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic — she told CNEWS she didn’t catch the deadly virus — and remains philosophical about the coronavirus.
“It will come and go,” she told BFMTV. “I don’t know.”
André is the second-oldest person alive today, after Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who was born on January 2, 1903, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).
André became the oldest living person in France in October 2017 following the death of Honorine Rondello, and is the second-oldest French person ever, following Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122.
via: https://www.kmov.com/europes-oldest-person-a-116-year-old-french-nun-survives-covid-19/article_24054b14-a572-562f-af32-7f18e1114585.html
Photo Credit: Gerard Julien/AFP
Lawyer hilariously can’t turn off cat filter during Zoom court hearing: ‘I’m not a cat’
(CNN) — A livestream of a virtual court proceeding in Texas took an “appawling” turn when a lawyer appeared as a cat on screen.
Judge Roy B. Ferguson of the 394th Judicial District Court in Texas kindly addressed the cat in the virtual room, suggesting that attorney Rod Ponton adjust his Zoom settings. The mishap on Tuesday was posted by the court’s YouTube channel.
“Mr. Ponton, I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings,” the judge said.
The small, white kitten looked sad with its concerned eyes darting back and forth. The kitten opened its mouth to speak.
“Can you hear me judge?” Ponton said, appearing in the cat filter.
“I’m here, live, I’m not a cat,” he said a few seconds later.
Ferguson confirmed the Zoom mishap happened on Tuesday.
“It did actually happen. There was no joke involved,” Ferguson told CNN via phone.
The Zoom filter was removed within seconds of that moment, Ferguson said. He added that he walked the lawyer through how to turn it off.
“When a child had been using the computer, (the child) turned on a filter,” he said. “Of course, the lawyer would have no reason to even know that feature exists.”
CNN reached out to Ponton, the county attorney for Presido County, but did not hear back. A person who answered the phone at his office said the office was receiving a lot of calls.
Virtual hearings have been a mainstay during the pandemic and it’s no different in Texas. Ferguson said Texas judges have held more than a million virtual hearings at this point.
While it may have looked very “un-purr-fessional,” the judge was proud of how all sides handled the situation.
“If you watch carefully, no one mocked him or laughed at him,” Ferguson said. “It just showed the professionalism and the dignity that these lawyers bring to virtual hearings.”
Ferguson used his Twitter account to give the world a public service announcement about using Zoom.
“If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the Zoom Video Options to be sure filters are off. This kitten just made a formal announcement on a case in the 394th (sound on),” he wrote on Twitter and posted a link to the video of the hearing.
This tale of cat fun isn’t the only video mishap to happen during the pandemic.
Even the famous are known to make the casual Zoom slipup. Comedian Tiffany Haddish had to use the restroom during a video call and did not realize other callers could see her.
So please, heed this advice: Check your filters first, then Zoom on, my furry friends.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/lawyer-hilariously-cant-turn-off-cat-filter-during-zoom-court-hearing-im-not-a-cat/article_f1dee5aa-d32b-5892-85da-4166c08a052c.html
Photo Credit: kmov
Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt dies at 78
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Larry Flynt, who turned Hustler magazine into an adult entertainment empire while championing First Amendment rights, has died at age 78.
His nephew, Jimmy Flynt Jr., told The Associated Press that Flynt died Wednesday of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles.Jimmy Flynt said his uncle had been in frail health and died of heart failure.
As the founder of one of the most explicit adult-oriented magazines, Larry Flynt constantly challenged the establishment and became a target for the religious right and feminist groups.
His publishing and financial successes were offset by tragedy. He was shot by a sniper and left paralyzed from the waist down in 1978. His life was depicted in the Oscar-nominated 1996 film “The People vs. Larry Flynt.”
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/hustler-magazine-founder-larry-flynt-dies-at-78/article_4b3fdda8-ef1a-53b2-b37d-21ccc3c4ab1a.html
Photo Credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP
Popeyes rolling out new fish sandwich nationwide
CNN) — Popeyes wants to build off the success of its wildly popular fried chicken sandwich with a fish version that it hopes will attract as many fans in the pandemic.
The sandwich, which features a flaky flounder served on a brioche bun with pickles, will be available at restaurants nationwide for a limited time starting Thursday. The fish sandwich is sold at $4.49 a pop, a slight premium to the $3.99 chicken sandwich.
It comes at a time when sales at Popeyes locations are performing well for the brand’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International. In the three months that ended on September 30, sales at restaurants open at least 17 months jumped 17.4%.
That’s in part thanks to the chicken sandwich. When Popeyes introduced it in summer 2019, the product sold out within two weeks. The chain eventually brought the sandwich back in November of that year.
With the chicken sandwich “we raised the bar for what a best-in-class, high-quality sandwich should taste like,” said Sami Siddiqui, president of the Americas at Popeyes. “We wanted to do the same with fish.”
To draw in customers who loved the chicken sandwich, Popeyes is using the same bun and pickles combination in the fish version. It’s also offering “sandwich insurance” on the launch day. For an additional 15 cents, people who buy the fish sandwich and don’t like it can swap it out for a chicken sandwich.
Popeyes tested out the sandwich in Chicago around this time last year, where “it did incredibly well,” Siddiqui noted.
He added that if the sandwich is as successful as its chicken counterpart, the chain will consider making it a permanent addition.
It remains to be seen whether Americans will have the same appetite for fish as they do for Popeyes chicken. The number of fish sandwiches on US menus fell 8% from 2017 to 2019, according to market research firm Mintel.
But at grocery stores and other retailers, seafood is growing in popularity during the pandemic. Seafood sales jumped 28% to $16.7 billion in 2020, compared to the year before, according to Nielsen.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/popeyes-rolling-out-new-fish-sandwich-nationwide/article_6d893d96-c7be-516e-a6e1-6b57ec3e0e61.html
Photo Credit: Popeyes
TikTok star Dazhariaa Quint Noyes died by suicide
TikTok star Dazhariaa Quint Noyes’ cause of death was suicide, her parents have confirmed.
The rising influencer, who was also known as Dee, died at 18 Monday. In a Facebook post, her mother confirmed that she had hanged herself, according to the Daily Mail.
On Wednesday, a GoFundMe account was set up that included a message about what happened, reportedly from her father, which read in part, “I only wish she would have spoken to me about her stress and the thoughts of suicide.”
The tribute also said she was his “little best friend” and “my little jelly bean,” adding, “Now I come home and your [sic] no longer gonna be there waiting for me. I have to let you fly with the angels. Daddy love you.”
He posted a video montage Tuesday on TikTok, along with a caption that read, “I just want to thank everyone for their love and support of my daughter. Unfortunately she is no longer with us and has gone to a better place.”
The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, teen had nearly 100,000 Instagram followers, as well as a YouTube page that chronicled her life, as well as her attempts at doing viral challenges.
After her death, fans sent condolences to comments on her YouTube page.
“Rest In Peace gorgeous, this makes me so sad to hear that this happened,” read one tribute. “Your we’re definitely my favorite YouTube, tiktoker. It breaks my hurt so much to hear that this happened. it’s going to take me a while to get over that fact that this happened. This honestly broke my hurt so much.”
“I can’t believe u gone I always watch you you always make me laugh with ur videos,” another fan shared on Instagram.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/tiktok-star-dazhariaa-quint-noyes-died-by-suicide-parents/
Photo Credit: Instagram
‘Worst Cooks in America’ winner charged with killing daughter tweeted about kids’ white privilege
The “Worst Cooks in America” winner charged with killing her three-year-old daughter had tweeted about her adopted kids’ “white privilege” days earlier — and how she would “protect” them from “the evil of this world.”
Ariel Robinson, 29, and her husband Jerry, 34, are both charged with homicide by child abuse over little Victoria Rose Smith, who died from multiple blunt-force injuries in their home in South Carolina on Jan. 14.
Robinson — who won season 20 of the Food Network show — repeatedly posted pictures of the young girl, one of three white children she and her husband adopted almost a year ago.
“We go together like ketchup & MUSTARD!” she wrote of her “Mini Me” in an Instagram post Jan. 11 — just three days before her death.
Little Victoria and her two brothers were described by Robinson as “the perfect addition” to her family, joining them in their Simpsonville home along with the two biological sons she already had.
“They are the missing puzzle pieces and they will complete our family,” she wrote on the day last February when she finally got to meet them.
Robinson then addressed the white privilege her adopted children
in a series of Jan. 6 tweets sparked by watching the Capitol riots.
“In my house, my black children get treated the same as my white children, and my white children get treated the same as my black children,” she wrote.
“It’s a shame that when they go out into the real world, that won’t be the case,” she wrote — along with the hashtags #whiteprivilege and #BlackLivesMatter.
“I will never have to worry about my white sons and that makes me happy,” she wrote, saying she was “sad” that “every worry I don’t have for them will be multiplied for my black sons.”
“It’s a shame that as a proud mom to 4 beautiful boys, I can’t protect them from the reality and evil of this world once they leave the house,” she wrote.
“I’m a Mama Bear, & I’ll do anything to protect my children,” she wrote.
She vowed to “make sure their futures are equally bright bc they have the same opportunities & are treated as equals the way God made them.”
“There should be no #whiteprivilege only American privilege,” she wrote, again including a Black Lives Matter hashtag.
Police were called to the family’s home in Simpsonville after Victoria was unresponsive, and she was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The Robinsons were charged after the Coroner’s Office and Simpsonville Police Department determined that Victoria’s death was the direct result of physical abuse, officials told the Greenville News.
The Food Network’s winner told officers about something that happened the previous day that could have caused the girl to lose consciousness, but the specifics were redacted in records, the outlet said. Victoria’s two brothers were immediately removed and placed in foster care, the report said.
The Robinsons are both being held without bail, records show.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/02/08/worst-cooks-in-america-winner-charged-in-murder-tweeted-about-white-privilege/
Photo Credit: Instagram; Simpsonville Police D
Aunt Jemima brand gets a new name: Pearl Milling Company
Quaker Oats said Tuesday that its Aunt Jemima brand pancake mix and syrup will be renamed Pearl Milling Company. Aunt Jemima products will continue to be sold until June, when the packaging will officially change over.
Quaker Oats, a division of PepsiCo Inc., had announced last June that it would retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.” The smiling Aunt Jemima logo was inspired by the 19th century “mammy” minstrel character, a Black woman content to serve her white masters. A former slave, Nancy Green, became the first face of the pancake products in 1890.
Quaker Oats bought the Aunt Jemima brand in 1925 and had updated the logo over the years in an effort to remove the negative stereotypes. But in the cultural reckoning that followed last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, Quaker decided to change the name altogether. Other brands, like Uncle Ben’s rice, followed.
Quaker said Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of self-rising pancake mix. While the brand will be new to store shelves, the boxes and bottles of syrup will still have the familiar red packaging of Aunt Jemima.
Quaker said it sought input from customers, employees and external cultural experts as it developed the new brand name.
Quaker said it is also donating $1 million to groups that empower Black women and girls as part of the Pearl Milling Company rollout.
via: https://fox2now.com/news/national/aunt-jemima-brand-gets-a-new-name-pearl-milling-company/
Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk
13-year-old Kansas girl dragged by stolen vehicle dies
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 13-year-old girl in Kansas died after being dragged for several miles by her family’s SUV that had been stolen outside of a restaurant, police said.
The girl was sitting in the back seat of the running vehicle while her family went inside to get food on Saturday when Kevin Palmer, 34, got into the driver’s seat and took off, Wichita police said in a news release.
The teen tried to get out of the vehicle while it was moving but was caught in the seat belt and dragged, police said. Someone saw the SUV, called 911 and followed the vehicle.
Palmer stopped the SUV and ran away, then was captured by arriving officers. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
“This is one of the saddest cases I have been associated with in my over 28 years of law enforcement,” Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said in the release.
The girl was not immediately identified.
Palmer is charged with felony murder. It was unclear whether he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/police-13-year-old-kansas-girl-dragged-by-stolen-vehicle-dies/article_3359cb94-9e6c-5586-9694-0608712da328.html
Photo Credit: nypost.com
UK boy, 12, undergoes lifesaving six-hour surgery after swallowing 54 magnets as a science experiment
A science-crazed 12-year-old British boy had to undergo a six-hour lifesaving surgery — after swallowing 54 magnets as an “experiment,” according to his mom.
Rhiley Morrison, from Manchester, ate the small magnetic balls to see if metal objects would stick to his stomach and to see how they looked when he pooped them out, DailyMail.com said.
He told mom Paige Ward, 30, when they failed to emerge four days later — and she rushed him to a hospital for the lengthy keyhole surgery.
Ward said she was “just speechless” when doctors told her they had removed 54 magnets, twice the number they had expected from pre-surgery X-rays.
The schoolboy then spent 10 days vomiting green liquid caused by his bowels leaking, which led to him being tube-fed and having a catheter inserted as he recovered in Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, his mom said.
“The surgeon said that if Rhiley didn’t tell me that day he’d swallowed the magnets, he could have died,” she told the UK paper.
“It was heartbreaking watching him go through all that, just horrible,” she said, noting it was “especially difficult” because her son could not have visitors because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe all this is happening because of magnets.’”
The youngster — who has autism and ADHD — swallowed the magnets because he is “massively into science” and “loves experiments,” his mom said.
His mom, who also has three younger children, has since removed magnets from her home and is using her “really traumatic lesson” to highlight the dangers for other parents.
“When he did it, I thought it was just him, he’s just been silly and done it, but the surgeon said they see this all the time,” she told the Mail.
“Rhiley was lucky but some kids aren’t and won’t be,” she warned.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/02/08/boy-undergoes-lifesaving-surgery-after-swallowing-54-magnets/
Photo Credit: nypost.com