Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Monday, August 17, 2020:
DNC: DAY 1: Joe Biden is carrying a nine-point lead over President Trump into the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off today. This year’s DNC was supposed to be in Milwaukee but will now be a virtual event billed as “The Convention Across America” with programming across four nights, scheduled from 9-11 pm ET. The full lineup will be livestreamed and aired on cable news, with the broadcast networks planning to take the 10 pm hour. Tonight’s keynote speeches: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama. ABC NEWS
USPS LATEST: Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to call the House of Representatives back from vacation this week to vote on a bill to protect the Postal Service. A number of Democrats are calling for Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and Trump mega-donor, to testify about recent cost-cutting policies that they say could threaten the integrity of the election. The USPS recently warned states that an avalanche of last-minute ballots could hamper its ability to get them delivered in time to be counted. AP
COVID-19: LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: New coronavirus cases appear to finally be on the decline across much of the country, down from an average of more than 60,000 a day in late July to about 51,000 over the last week. The CDC says the rate of cases in children has been “steadily increasing” ahead of school reopenings. Meanwhile, the FDA over the weekend approved an emergency authorization for a new and cheap kind of saliva test developed by researchers at Yale in partnership with the NBA. The test, called SalivaDirect, can process dozens of samples at a time. It’s thought to be less accurate than the nasal swab, but could still help widen access to rapid testing. STAT
ROBERT TRUMP: 1948-2020: Robert Trump, the younger brother of President Trump, died on Saturday. He was 71. Known as the “quietest Trump,” Robert shunned the spotlight and didn’t join the family business until later in life. President Trump went to visit his brother in the hospital on the eve of his death. The White House released a statement to announce Robert’s passing, in which the president said: “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend.” A cause of death was not given. OBIT
CALIFORNIA HEAT WAVE: An historic heat wave is baking California, where residents have been warned to expect rolling blackouts through Wednesday -- the first since the Enron-manipulated blackouts of 2001. The Bay Area saw a rare summer lightning storm, the NWS issued its first-ever “firenado” warning associated with one of the two major wildfires currently burning in the state, and Death Valley saw one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth on Sunday: 130 degrees Fahrenheit. LA TIMES
PEPPERONI SHORTAGE: Purell. Toilet paper. Coins. Now, pepperoni. There’s a shortage of America’s most popular pizza topping, leading to higher prices at pizza joints across the country. A combination of a huge demand for takeout pizza amid the pandemic and supply-chain snags at meat processing facilities is to blame. Pepperoni is also evidently complicated to make, and some suppliers have decided the low margins aren’t worth it. BLOOMBERG
NBA PLAYOFFS: Four months later than normal, the NBA postseason is finally set to begin. The Trail Blazers beat the Grizzlies to earn the final playoff berth in the West, and the first-round matchups start today with the Nuggets and Jazz kick tipping off at 1:30 pm ET. The Clippers and Bucks are favorites to face off in the Finals, though the title race this year is wide open. PREDICTIONS
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: In the most significant weekend for Hollywood since the pandemic began, two new releases made a combined $1.5 million at the Canadian box office. The SpongeBob Movie took in about $900,000, while Unhinged made a little less than $600,000 at 300 theaters a piece. Studio executives are plenty happy with those takes -- as they indicate at least some people are willing to step foot in a theater -- and expect the numbers to rise in the coming weeks as U.S. theaters slowly reopen. THR
SPOTTED...
...Phoenix Suns phenom Devin Booker leaving Nobu in Malibu just behind Kendall Jenner, after the pair’s flirty Instagram exchange went viral: SEE PICS
...Ellen DeGeneres and Kevin Hart having lunch in Santa Monica. Hart has defended DeGeneres amid her talk show scandal -- and DeGeneres famously backed Hart amid his own scandal over homophobic tweets: SEE PICS
LEFTOVERS: TIPPING THE SCALES: A restaurant in the Chinese city of Changsha has apologized for weighing customers before allowing them in to eat. The beef restaurant had put two large scales at its entrance and asked diners to enter their measurements into an app, which would then suggest which menu items to order based on their weight. The policy was in response to a national campaign against food waste that’s been endorsed by President Xi. AFP
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