Part of our “News That Matters“ Series, “Weekend Update” is a weekly feature that offers brief overviews of important news that might have been overlooked in the course of a busy weekend. Here’s what you may have missed in the period January 10 through January 13, 2025.
@PASSINGS
Anita Bryant, Who Founded the Modern Antigay Movement, Dies at 84
Anita Bryant, the former beauty queen and spokeswoman for Florida orange juice as well as an all-American entertainer who also crusaded against gay rights, died on December 16 at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma. She was 84.
Ms. Bryant, who called homosexuality an “abomination,” went on to destroy her career when she became the face of the Save the Children movement. By doing so, she conveniently gave the nascent gay rights movement the sort of bogeyman it needed, enabling activists to build a nationwide network of their own.
She was already a national icon with her Florida orange juice commercials for the Florida Citrus Commission – they featured her children, a cartoon bird, and a lilting jingle about the “Florida sunshine tree” – when her Baptist pastor told her that Miami-Dade County commissioners had prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. The commissioners’ act was far from an equal rights amendment, but Bryant was outraged, and her subsequent indulgence in anti-gay politics put the brakes on her burgeoning career as a singer and entertainer. Adding to the squeeze, her Florida Citrus Commission contract was canceled in a few years as a result of her new hobby.
Orangers left a bitter taste in some peoples’ mouths with Bryant as their spokeswoman=
Her granddaughter, Sarah Green, said in an interview with Slate that her parents had always told her that her grandmother didn’t personally hate gay people, and she accepted this explanation until she realized that she was gay and came out to her grandmother on her 21st birthday. Ms. Bryant then told Sarah that homosexuality was a delusion invented by the devil.
“I don’t regret it, because I did the right thing,” Ms. Bryant recalled in a 1990 television interview. “Sometimes you have to pay a price for what you believe is right.”
@DEADLINE
How Hollywood is Starring and Faring in its Own Disaster Movie
The wildfires burning in and around Los Angeles have made for a surreal and tragic image on the evening news.
Los Angeles is a city of contrasts. As Sgt. Joe Friday says in the opening of each episode of “Dragnet:” “This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I am a cop.” Had an episode of Dragnet included the Palisades fire, he would have contineud thursly: “Strong winds are coming,” the National Weather Service Los Angeles said Monday night. It’s a particularly dangerous situation and my captain told me the next morning that there already had been reports of small fires in many parts of the city.”
The so-called City of Angels nonetheless has 45,000 homeless people. The majority of the population comprises middle-class workers, and then there are examples of extreme wealth. Some are so wealthy that they hired private firemen, a move that triggered public indignation. But all of the hand-wringing was to no avail. None of the $6 million mansions that stood on Sunset could be saved, nor their churches and cafes. In this part of the City of Angels, the bank balance of the victims could not save them.
Just under 2,000 structures have been destroyed by the Palisades fire, among them the historic ranch house that belonged to Hollywood legend Will Rogers. It was among multiple structures destroyed at both Will Rogers State Historic Park and Topanga State Park. The iconic Topanga Ranch Motel, built by William Randolph Hearst in 1929, also burned down.
Over 130,000 people from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena are currently subject to evacuation orders, a number that continue to grow.
The names of those who have lost their homes in the region is a veritable who’s who of Hollywood: Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jeff Bridges, Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore, Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Candy Spelling, widow of the late producer Aaron Spelling. Naturally the fires led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events.
Awards ceremonies that were scheduled for the coming week, including the American Film Institute Awards, the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, and the Critics Circle Awards, have all been postponed, as has next week’s announcement of Oscar nominations.
Cheapest Way to Purchase an EV is Leasing
Vehicle leasing has been declining in popularity since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Approximately 20% of vehicle transactions in 2022 were leases, compared to 34% in 2017. Still, for some vehicles, such as those made by BMW, Audi, Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen, leasing remains surprisingly popular. Indeed, some 77% of all transactions BMW concluded were leases in 2023, as were 70% of Audi’s, 69% of Land Rover’s, 67% of Mercedes-Benz’s, and 63% of Volkswagen’s, according to data from Cartelligent.
During the early 2010s, some quirks in leasing provisions allowed for the possibility of hiring a unicorn, such as a 36-month lease price of $635 per month for a BMW ActiveHybrid 7 (it should have been almost twice as much absent the quirk) when opting for European delivery, but such deals soon became even rarer than the rarest of the unicorns.
Meanwhile, 46% of electric-vehicle transactions in the third quarter of 2024 were leases, compared with 24% for the industry as a whole, according to Experian. Tesla, the current EV market leader, typically leases its products at a lower rate than do its rivals, but it, too, experienced a surge in leasing last year, Experian said.
The good news is that these cheap leases have made EVs available to buyers who previously could not afford battery-powered electric vehicles. In addition, new leased vehicles qualify more easily for the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act subsidies, which makes it easier for EVs than for traditionally financed vehicles to qualify for a subsidy of up to $7,500. Other arcane bureaucratese applies as well, putting leased EVs into the class of commercial vehicles when in the process of qualifying for the subsidy.
The lease rules and EV subsidies could be at risk as President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress take over this month. Trump and his close adviser, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, have been critical of electric-vehicle subsidies.
Cheap leases, however, are the underbelly of the auto industry. Resale values for EVs have also fallen precipitously, something that can weigh heavily on automakers’ balance sheets if prices remain depressed.
An exam room at a doctor’s office in New York City
‘You only have yourself to blame. Actions have consequences.’
The Kansas senator who will lead the new Make America Well Again congressional caucus wants Americans to know that, if they are unwell or even dying, they only have themselves to blame.
Speaking on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures show, Senator Roger Marshall, who practiced as an obstetrician before embarking on a political career, he told Maria Bartiromo:
“Look, about 70% of your health outcomes are determined by you. It’s determined by what you eat and what you’re surrounded by. By the time you come to my office as a doctor, I can impact maybe 10 or 20 percent of your health outcomes.”
After Catastrophic Palisades Fire, Sunset Boulevard Lies in Ruin
A major swath of Pacific Coast Highway, its palatial homes, cozy cottages, not to mention iconic landmarks between Will Rogers State Beach just north of Santa Monica and Carbon Beach in eastern Malibu lay in ruin as the week came to an end. Charred remains of smoldering automobiles lined Sunset Boulevard in the Palisades, a stark reminder of the chaos that ensued after frantic evacuation orders were issued.
Meanwhile, the Santa Monica Police Department released the identities of nearly a dozen attempted burglary suspects within Palisades Fire evacuation zones in Santa Monica,. Not surprisingly, not one of the suspects lives in the town, police said, and six of the ten were in posession of “burglary tools.” So far, the department has arrested 39 people in evacuation zones since the start of the Palisades Fire, SMPD told reporters.
@BRIEFLY NOTED
The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ Was Written in Pacific Palisades That Burnt Down
The hit single “Light My Fire,” written in 1967 by Bobby Krieger, the guitarist for the band The Doors, in his parents’ living room. The song is considered to be one of the earliest examples of psychedelic rock and its erotic lyrics have made it synonymous with the sexual revolution. The home on Alma Real Drive has been owned for the last 24 years by an unrelated family, Claudio and Kathleen Boltiansky.
Cruz’ Commandment: Thou Shalt Fly to Israel
Speaking on his “Nothing but the Truth” podcast, Senator Ted Cruz, the incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said he plans to urge U.S. airlines to resume their flights to Israel. United Airlines, Delta Airlines and American Airlines have all suspended service to Israel, but some non-U.S. airlines have resumed service into the country.
Controversial and Deadly Hydroxychloroquine Study Retracted
A long-discredited survey that caused interest in some circles to use an anti-malarial drug – hydroxychloroquine – to treat SARS-Cov-2 has been officially retracted. The International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, which is owned by Elsevier and the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, as well as three of the study’s 18 authors, although not the lead scientist, virologist Didier Raoult, issued a retraction. The French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics said the paper constituted a clear example of scientific misconduct, which was marked by manipulation and bias to “falsely present” the drug as effective against Covid-19. “This controversial study was the cornerstone of a global scandal,” the society said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
(Photos: Accura Media Group)
