Category: News

The Los Angeles Lakers made a potentially savvy transaction this week, adding Patrick Beverley in a swap with the Utah Jazz involving Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson. While the loss of Horton-Tucker could potentially ding the Lakers in the future if he can rekindle some of the upside from earlier in his Los Angeles tenure, Beverley brings valuable defense and shooting to a team that desperately needed both.

However, an immediate question from Beverley’s arrival is how he might fit with Russell Westbrook, as the two veteran guards have famously enjoyed a toxic relationship. While nothing is official by any means, a report from Jovan Buha of The Athletic points in the direction of a potential resolution in the next few weeks.

Citing a source, Buha writes that, “Beverley’s arrival makes it more likely that Westbrook will be off the active roster by the start of training camp, either through a trade or the team sending him home a la the Rockets with John Wall last season.” Of course, this is easier said than done given Westbrook’s massive $47 million salary and apparent lack of trade value.

There is a potential partnership with the Indiana Pacers on an oft-rumored swap involving Myles Turner and Buddy Hield but, aside from a possible pursuit of Kyrie Irving, the Lakers don’t have obvious trade options. As Buha notes, Los Angeles could simply decide to pay Westbrook to stay home, instead seeking a trade between October and the trade deadline in February. That can be taxing as well, however, and the Lakers don’t exactly have a roster overflowing with talent outside of the top tier of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

It isn’t impossible that Westbrook and Beverley could share the backcourt in Los Angeles, and many players who have clashed as adversaries have cooperated in team settings — the Lakers recently made a situation like this work with Rajon Rondo and LeBron James. Still, many in the league immediately commented or joked about the relationship now including the teammate dynamic, and Buha’s report doesn’t come as a shock.

For the third year in a row, Dish Network is looking for someone to numb their butts and raise their heartrates for the sake of science and $1,300. They’re looking for someone to take on the Stephen King Scream Job, tackling 13 of the horror God’s films and living to tell the tale.

And, unlike most job listings these days, this one lists the payrate. From their announcement:

“Movie buff? Scaredy cat? Adrenaline junkie? All of the above? This job is not for the faint of heart, but it could be for you. The ideal candidate has to be detail-oriented enough to track their experience. They could even share their scares on social media and vlog every time they jump out of their seats. . . We also want to know everything about your experience. You will track your heart rate and jump scares. You’ll let us know who joined in on the scares with you. You’ll let us know what you thought before watching certain movies, and if your feelings changed after you completed them. You’ll even log your sleep—if you can sleep.”

So it’s part movie marathon, part social media chronicle with a little dose of medical monitoring thrown in for good measure. Not a bad gig.

Whoever gets the job will be watching Carrie, Christine, Creepshow, Cujo, Doctor Sleep, Firestarter, It (both parts), Misery, The Mist, Pet Sematary, Salem’s Lot, and The Shining. If you want to earn money for doing something you were already planning on doing, get in your application by September 16th.

Earlier this month, during the shake up caused by the Warner Bros. Discovery merger which killed Batgirl and a slew of animated favorites, it seemed like fans would have to wait a while before getting Elvis in their living rooms via HBO Max. The Baz Luhrmann biopic-ish celebration of the iconic King of Rock spent the month available as a 20-dollar rental on some PVOD platforms as Warner Bros. Discovery ditched its 45 day theater-to-streaming pipeline.

Now, 70 days after it first bowed in theaters, the film will land at HBO Max September 2nd.

That’s great news for everyone clamoring to watch or rewatch Austin Butler shake his hips through an existential crisis brought on by the heavy toll of fame. For those who aren’t fully sold on checking out, our own Carrie Whitmer recently penned 5 reasons to get hyped (Tom Hanks in a fat suit, people!). Speaking of which, Hanks is going through kind of a phase right now, huh? First Elvis and now the strange mustache and prosthetics for the new Pinocchio. At any rate, now you’ll be able to compare both looks if you’ve got HBO Max, a profound love for Elvis, and about three hours of your life to spare.

(via The Wrap)

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Taurean Prince was arrested on Thursday at the Miami airport on a “fugitive warrant” from the state of Texas, per the Miami Herald.

Prince, 28, who recently signed a two-year $16 contract extension with the Timberwolves, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Thursday evening. What charge he’s wanted on in Texas remains unknown. It was also unclear if he had retained a defense attorney.

Prince, who is from San Antonio, Texas and went to school in Waco at Baylor, is coming off of his first season in Minnesota after stints in Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Cleveland. According to Andy Slater the warrant from Texas is for drug charges, although there are not specifics known about those charges.

Prince is supposed to head into his seventh season in the NBA when training camp starts next month, but now his presence on the Wolves roster for the start of the season has to be in at least some doubt as he faces upcoming legal troubles. Once details emerge about the charges he faces in Texas, we should also get a better understanding about what kind of punishment he faces from both the legal system and from the league.

The Timberwolves released a brief statement on Thursday night that they are aware of the situation and are, like everyone else, trying to gather more information.

Karol G and Maldy, one half of the duo Plan B, are here with the sensual video for “Gatúbela.” The record, which translates to “catwoman,” is a vibrant reggaeton record fit for any lengthy summer function. Whether dancing alone or with a partner, there’s an undeniable urge to move your hips once the beat drops.

The video matches that energy, with incessant scenes of couples grinding on one another or women twerking by their lonesome. Many men are shirtless, exposing glistening abs and the “Don’t Be Shy” artist makes sure to share the wealth with a few of them. Maldy opts for a more calm approach to the dance floor, but he is definitely enjoying the ambiance.

The video closes with a man showing scratch marks on his obliques, followed by a transition to a scene where Karol G is running away from something. She finally ends up on a beach covered in blood, and the video finally ends by showing a number of cats walking on a patio.

This video is also the debut of Karol G’s fiery red hair, ushering in a new era of her career in addition to the 2022 single “Provenza.”

Check out the video for “Gatúbela” above.

According to Deadline, Dan Lin is the favorite for an impossible job. The producer of massive blockbuster IP hits like Sherlock Holmes, The LEGO Movie, and the live-action Aladdin may become the new shepherd for DC Films, overseeing the attempted connected universe of expensive superhero movies.

This move comes during a great reset for the superhero universe, set into motion by the new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, who has been transparent about his desire to copy the Marvel/Kevin Feige model. That requires a Feige of their own.

Is there really anyone who can pull off the once-in-a-lifetime miracle feat that Feige did with Marvel? A calculated gamble that owes an equal amount of its success to luck as it does to shrewd motion picture business savvy? Deadline notes that Lin is potentially favored by Zaslav because he’s a Harvard MBA grad, but could that possibly matter when trying to build a conveyor belt of connected blockbusters? Feige got his start thanks to a TV producer grandfather and a job as a production assistant on You’ve Got Mail! One of the main reasons he was so successful with turning Marvel into a movie juggernaut (sorry) was because he cut his teeth as a producer for Marvel and knew the company’s characters inside and out. Lin’s pedigree as a blockbuster producer is undeniable and laudable. Maybe that’s exactly the right blend of talents to make the DCU truly rival the MCU.

But whoever takes the job is effectively volunteering to be the second person to climb Everest. Meanwhile, they’re holding “funeral” screenings for the shelved Batgirl, and the Joker sequel is the only thing that’s safe under Zaslav’s reign.

Speaking of which, that same Deadline piece mentions that Todd Phillips also made the shortlist, is beloved by Zaslav, and won’t be taking the job because he’s spending all his energy on the new Joker. Thankfully, this rumor gives us the opportunity to close our eyes and imagine 10 DC movies in a connected universe brought into existence under Phillips’ creative umbrella.

(via Deadline)

I don’t come from money. In fact, I come from the stark opposite. My mother was one of nine children who grew up in an abusive household that was well below the poverty line and her mother grew up poorer than she did. This cycle of poverty goes back as far as I can trace, so it’s no surprise that I also grew up poor. There were days when the only thing we had to eat was peanut butter on a spoon during the day to keep us satiated until dinner because it was the only meal that day.

That’s not for lack of trying on my parent’s part. My stepdad worked a full-time job and lived the hustle life before it became coined by millennials and slapped on a mug. The one thing that was consistently impressed upon me by my parents was the importance of going to college so I could do better than the generation before me. But there wasn’t a roadmap for me to follow. Neither of my parents had gone to college at the time and really didn’t know the requirements to get in nor the process of applying for financial aid. Since this was before Google, there was no information readily available at my fingertips. There was no financial literacy to pass down to their children when their only goal was survival.

The Biden Administration has done something unprecedented in the history of the United States by forgiving $10,000 of student loan debt for Americans making under $125,000 a year (under $250,000 if married or head of household). If you received Pell Grant assistance while in college, you qualify for up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness. In order to qualify for the Pell Grant you have to be in great financial need, which means I also received this money to assist with college expenses. But contrary to what some believe, the Pell Grant isn’t a large sum of money so loans are still necessary, even for people like me that worked while in school. Escaping poverty is expensive and exhausting and a program like this will help others break the cycle.

While most are focused on the loans being forgiven, there’s a piece of information being overlooked that could make a big impact on people’s lives. Under the new plan, people who are on an income based repayment plan can now cap their monthly payments at 5% of their income. Previously the repayment amount was capped at 10% of a persons income.

Obviously such a big move has set off a firestorm of conversation around who should and shouldn’t get it, or if it should be done at all. But the conversations around student loan forgiveness seems to be missing this integral piece of information; everyone doesn’t start from the same place at the starting line. It’s easy to say people should know what they’re getting into when signing up for student loans if you grew up with a different set of circumstances.

But for people like me, student loans were the only way out of poverty and I’d do it again. Because I took out debt to pay for a college education, my children won’t have to do the same. They will now have a financially literate parent to walk them through the process, explain complicated forms and help them find more cost effective alternatives. My own children have never experienced coming home to no lights or running water. They will never have to escape from poverty because they don’t come from it and I don’t know that I’d be able to say the same if I didn’t make the choice to accept student loans.

While forgiving $10,000 to $20,000 worth of student debt for a select group of people isn’t ideal, this could open up the door for future borrowers. The awareness around predatory lending to students, the continuously growing cost of college attendance and the stagnation of wages could lead to real policy change that could impact everyone. No student should be saddled with insurmountable debt just for getting an education and this could be the first step to ending this practice.

We’ve all been there. Standing in line to be seated at a fairly busy restaurant while your stomach growls in protest. But when two women left a concert August 22 in search of food, they had no idea they’d find themselves taking orders and cooking food. Sylvia Arrendondo and her mother Idalia Merkel went to a local Denny’s in Texas and were seated by another customer before realizing the restaurant was extremely short-staffed. Instead of taking their business elsewhere, they decided to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

Arrendondo wrote about the unique experience on her Facebook page where she explained that only two people were working. One was serving tables and the other was the cook. As for the man that was acting as host, seating new guests, he had no idea what he was doing because he didn’t work there. He told Arrendondo and Merkel that his wife used to work at Denny’s so she started helping to serve tables and he decided to help get people seated.

The service industry has been hit hard by the pandemic and the subsequent “great resignation.” Complaints about low wages, poor management and rude customers that abuse staff members are just a few of the reasons cited by people who have left the industry. It may be surprising for some to learn that the federal minimum wage for tipped employees like servers and bussers is just $2.13 an hour. The rest of the wage is supposed to be made up of tips, which, depending on where you work, may be split at the end of the night between other workers. This act of splitting tips is called “tip pooling” and is calculated by number of hours worked.

Splitting tips after a long day of work dealing with customers who may not have been so kind would understandably make some people upset. But it didn’t take a deep dive on the treatment of restaurant employees for Arrendondo and the other customers who helped out. They saw two seemingly college-aged kids doing their best to keep the place running and they didn’t hesitate to jump in to help, completely unpaid.

When asked why she didn’t just leave, Arrendondo said, “We just looked at each other and it wasn’t even a question. We both knew what we had to do.”

“This was probably the most beautiful act of American unity that I have personally encountered,” Arrendondo told Upworthy. She added that the sole paid server would occasionally start to cry before being comforted by the cook, only to return the favor when he would get overwhelmed.

Talk about community.

These two kids had exhausted all of their resources, including calling their manager multiple times. And instead of customers getting angry, demanding better service or walking away, Arredondo and Merkel stepped up. The kindness of this group of strangers will surely stick with these employees and the people who were involved.

“The strength, courage and integrity by these two workers was beyond admirable. My mom and I have never been so proud and happy to help,” Arrendondo told Upworthy. “After all, we have all been there.”

Eventually after some convincing, the two employees shut the restaurant down and Arrendondo and Merkel went home much more tired than anticipated. Still hungry, but full of gratitude and pride.

At a time when news about the environment generally stirs up feelings of anxiety and fear, there is one bright spot that can change your stripes: Tigers are making a major comeback away from extinction.

Over the past seven years, tiger numbers have increased more than 40% across Asia, according to the latest International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species Assessment. Another report released on July 29 revealed that in Nepal, tiger populations have doubled.

Yes, both figuratively and literally, 2022 is the Year of the Tiger.

Rawr

Giphy

Counting tigers might sound like a dream job (at least for big cat lovers like myself), but it can be a daunting and costly task. Rather than traverse rugged terrains in search of the notoriously elusive beasts, scientists used to instead count in smaller areas and extrapolate the results to larger areas of similar environments.

Technological advancements in data tracking have made counting much easier, but it’s hard to be absolutely certain that tiger populations have increased as much as these reports indicate.

Still, even with that caveat, there’s much to be optimistic about.

Upworthy spoke with Abishek Harihar, Ph.D., a deputy director for the tiger program at global wildcat conservation organization Panthera. For humans to live peacefully alongside tigers, Dr. Harihar explained that systemic changes need to be “developed with community participation” and “inclusive decision-making.”

That’s why Panthera specifically partners with national governments and local communities to deter potential poachers. It also works with judiciary members to increase penalties for poaching. This includes an anti-poaching ranger training program, which is made up in part by former poachers.

Of all the threats tigers face, hunting and poaching are the most critical, he noted. Tigers are normally killed in retaliation to preying on livestock, to be sold for assumed medicinal purposes, or for their skin to display status.

Because habitat loss is the second biggest obstacle, Panthera also helps communities build sustainable livelihoods that require less hunting and wood harvesting, leaving tigers with a more resource-rich habitat.

By addressing the problems that both tigers and humans in the area face, conservationists have been able to make steady progress. And although future assessments will need to be certain of accuracy, even Dr. Harihar is hopeful that the likelihood of tigers eventually being reclassified from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable” is quite high. That means one step closer to being off the IUCN Red List entirely.

That being said, the work is obviously far from over. Not every tiger is faring well—Malayan and Sumatran subspecies are currently listed as “Critically Endangered” after losing 93% of their habitat. In the last century, numbers have plummeted from 100,000 to potentially 4,500 today.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to help implement change.

Panthera’s Tigers Forever program aims to increase tiger numbers by at least 50% over the next 10 years by working with governments and local NGOs to:

• Identify, protect and connect key tiger habitats and corridors
• Train and outfit law enforcement patrols to secure protected areas
• Use cutting-edge technology to prevent poaching, including the use of Panthera’s PoacherCams
• Train government and NGO staff to use the best scientific methods to monitor tiger and prey populations
• Work with local communities to reduce human-tiger conflict and improve livelihoods while reducing dependency on tiger habitats
• Monitor tiger populations every year to measure success

Throughout history, tigers have been a living symbol of strength, power and luck. Perhaps it’s time that humans help repay those attributes. The majestic creatures bring so much magic to the world, and it would truly be a tragedy to lose them.

Here’s hoping tigers keep landing on their feet in the global effort to keep them among us.

Afrobeats superstar Rema is turning up the heat with a remix of his single, “Calm Down.” Joining him on the updated track is Selena Gomez, adding a bit of seductive flavor.

Driven by a bouncy drum and a dreamy guitar, the song features Rema finding a woman who stands out in the crowd, as he sings, “I see this fine girl, for my party, she wear yellow / Every other girl they dey do too much, but this girl mellow.”

Gomez comes in, giving into his affections, singing, “Don’t you ask, you know you’re allowed / When it’s you, I can’t say no.”

In an interview with Complex UK, Rema talked about becoming an Afrobeats sensation and helping popularize the genre in the US at just 22 years old.

“…I want to thank God for getting me this far,” he said. “Being able to travel from territory to territory and share my music with people, that’s a big thing for me, my generation and Afrobeats. I’m just playing my part in this whole movement; I’m making my impact the best way I can. Most of all, I’m just grateful to see people appreciate my hard work and ambition.”

Check out the lyric video for “Calm Down” above.