RefBan

Referral Banners

Monday, December 2, 2013

Cheat Sheet - Amazing Grace in the Bronx

Today: Is the HealthCare.gov Fix Too Late to Save Obamacare? , Black Friday Sales Disappoint , Bezos Reveals Delivery Drones
Cheat Sheet: Morning

December 02, 2013
DERAILMENT

Four were dead and dozens injured in an early-morning New York City train derailment, and firefighters needed help extricating the wounded. There was only one place to turn: the surviving victims of the Metro-North derailment. "It's very hard to ask a civilian who was just involved in an accident to help us," FDNY Capt. James Ellson of Rescue 3 told The Daily Beast's Michael Daly. "They had just been involved in a very bad train accident, and now I'm saying, 'I need your help, I need you to help people who are in worse shape.' I asked everybody, 'Listen, look at the people next to you, and if they need help, help them.' And they did it."

FINALLY FIXED

HealthCare.gov finally works: the troubled site apparently now works 90 percent of the time. That should be good news for President Obama—unless the website's failures have already fatally undermined consumer confidence in Obamacare as a whole. The Daily Beast's Ben Jacobs breaks down the flurry of numbers released by the Department of Health and Human Services—and examines whether the fixes came in too late.

NOT WORTH IT

Does this mean it wasn't worth it for all those employees to have to work on Thanksgiving Day? Consumers spent around $1.7 billion less on Black Friday compared with last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The chief executive of the federation blamed "economic challenges," saying "many are intending to be a little bit more conservative with their budgets." More than 141 million people shopped online or in stores between Thursday and Sunday, but the average each consumer spent went down, dropping to $407.02 from $423.55. But due to the shorter-than-average sale time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, many stores began their sale blitz early, and many retailers had already been warning of a weak holiday season to begin with. That probably didn't make it any less disappointing, though.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE

Is this the nail in the coffin for the USPS? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the online marketplace is planning a drone delivery service called Prime Air that will deliver small products to your doorstop within 30 minutes of ordering in the next four or five years. Speaking to 60 Minutes host Charlie Rose, the futurist explained the drones would be autonomous and move packages weighing less than 5 pounds. "I know this looks like science fiction—it's not," he told Rose.

BONANZA

Remember in high school, when you did nothing all semester and then did a ton of work at the end, hoping your teacher wouldn't notice? That's what the House of Representatives is doing right now, as it prepares to take on a flurry of last-minute bills to cap off a historically unproductive year. On their docket right now: a House-Senate conference report on the budget, a farm bill, and a water projects bill. Aides say it's unlikely that all of them will be finished by the end of 2013. Not content to fail at just these bills, House Republicans are also taking up a number of other bills, including the Kids First Research Act, Majority Leader Eric Cantor's legislation that will redirect $126 million from presidential nominating conventions to the National Institutes of Health.


R.I.P.
Walker's Body Can't Be ID'd
Due to damage.
NEW JOURNALISM
'New York' Cuts Back to Biweekly
Magazine is down 9.2 percent in ad pages.
RED HOT
'Catching Fire' Wins Box Office
Breaks records along with "Frozen."
COMING OUT
Diver Tom Daley: I'm Dating a Guy
Says "I still fancy girls" as well.
SCOTCHY SCOTCH
Ron Burgundy Co-Anchors Real News
To the surprise of TV viewers in Bismarck, N.D.
Sign Up and Share

Invite Friends Sign Up
GET The Cheat Sheet
A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors.


GET Culture Beast
Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast.





More from The Daily Beast

Saban's Folly
by Stuart Stevens
Exercise Is the New Coffee
by Gregory Ferenstein
Key & Peele Laugh at Racism
by Sujay Kumar


Around the Web

Facebook Twitter
Visit The Daily Beast


If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, click here to view this email in your Web browser.

To ensure delivery of these emails, please add thedailybeast@e2.thedailybeast.com to your address book.

If you have changed your mind and no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error,
you can safely unsubscribe here.

No comments: