Sunday in a Sip

Welcome to Sunday in a Sip. It’s December 8th, 2024, and boy, do I have a week of News to review with you. Here’s a cozy roundup of the most buzzworthy stories and my heartfelt thoughts. So, grab your favorite cup of coffee, snuggle in, and let’s dive in together.

The Buffalo Bills had fun slipping and sliding. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, a significant snowstorm blanketed parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Nearly 2 feet of snow fell in parts of New York, Ohio, and Michigan, with 29 inches recorded in Pennsylvania's northwestern tip. The storm affected the Great Lakes, Plains, and Midwest regions. What a way to wake up on a Monday, you think…

President Joe Biden issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. In his statement from the White House, President Biden wrote, “It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.” He also wrote in this statement, “Just tell the American people the truth.” What a way to start the week.

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in New York City. Police are searching for a person of interest who is believed to have left the city. He was shot outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

The FBI announced Friday night it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters. Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, he said.

Kenny said the ammunition had the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” scrawled on it, one word on each of the three bullets. A law enforcement official previously told The Associated Press the words were “deny,” “defend,” and “depose.” The messages mirror the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which is commonly used by lawyers and critics of insurers that delay payments, deny claims, and defend their actions.

In October, UnitedHealthcare, along with Humana and CVS, was named in a Senate report detailing how its denial rate for prior authorizations for some Medicare Advantage patients has surged in recent years.

Daniel Penny's manslaughter charge was dismissed after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. A jury deadlock has led prosecutors to drop the manslaughter charge against Daniel Penny in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway. Jurors will now decide on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, carrying a maximum sentence of four years.

The USDA is coming for your milk. I’m serious. The USDA announced this week a federal order where they’re like, “Hey, let’s test all the raw, unpasteurized milk for bird flu.” Because apparently, birds and cows are hooking up now? I don’t know what’s happening on farms these days, but over 700 herds in 15 states are dealing with this H5N1 thing. And scientists are like, “Yeah, this could be bad for humans,” which, honestly, feels very on-brand for 2024.

So now, if you’re in the raw milk biz—like trucking it around or processing it—guess what? You’re part of the USDA’s new science project. Testing starts December 16 in states like California, Colorado, and Mississippi, because if there’s one thing we needed, it’s the government making raw milk even weirder.

TikTok—the app that’s got your teenagers dancing, your aunt learning recipes, and your dog going viral—just got served a big fat no from the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. A unanimous decision, no less. They upheld a law that could see the beloved app banished from American phones by January. Yep, you heard me. Buh-bye, TikTok.

The drama? Oh, it’s juicy. The law says TikTok’s gotta cut ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face the axe. TikTok threw a Hail Mary, crying First Amendment violations. But the court? They weren’t buying it. Not even a nibble. Now TikTok’s fighting for survival, and trust me, this one’s gonna keep the lawyers busier than a Hamptons caterer on Memorial Day weekend.

“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”

South Korea served us drama fit for a K-drama late Tuesday when President Yoon dropped the bombshell: Martial law. Yes, martial law, folks. Less than three hours after this shocking decree, 190 lawmakers scrambled to the National Assembly in a frenzy and unanimously voted to cancel it. The result? Yoon was forced to backpedal faster than a New York City rickshaw driver after not getting a tip, lifting the order just six hours after it started.

Meanwhile, the president’s impeachment vote fizzled. Why? The ruling party boycotted it. And here’s the kicker: even his own conservative party is against him on this martial law move. Apparently, they’re more terrified of liberals taking the presidency than the fallout of a nationwide crackdown. The whole scene? A political circus, South Korea-style. Stay tuned...

The labor market’s back on its feet, strutting around like it owns the place. November gave us 227,000 new jobs, like some kind of unemployment fairy sprinkling paychecks everywhere. And this after October’s pathetic showing of 12,000 jobs—oh wait, sorry, they revised it to 36,000—big deal. It looked like the economy had one too many hurricanes and strikes, so workers decided to call in sick.

But don’t worry, the experts are here to tell us, “Relax, it’s fine, it’s not a trend!” Sure, sure. Anyway, now they’re saying this bounce-back pretty much guarantees the Fed will slash interest rates again in December. You know, nothing screams “strong economy” like the central bank pulling out its toolkit to prop everything up. Nice Holiday gift, don’t you think?

Bitcoin hit over $100K this week. Remember the programmer who paid for two Papa John’s pizzas with 10,000 BTC shortly after the currency launched in 2009? He would be sitting on over 1 billion dollars. That’s a lot of pizza.

Oh, hi. It’s me, Marcel. I hope you’re enjoying this little newsletter—it’s small, but it’s got a lot of heart. Um, I was thinking… maybe you’d want to become a VIP? No pressure, just putting it out there.

If you do, you’d get behind-the-scenes videos, guest appearances, and all kinds of special stuff, like deeper dives and hidden gems. There are even early access events and giveaways, which I think are pretty exciting, but not too exciting because, you know, balance is important.

Anyway, it’s like a meaningful sip of knowledge, inspiration, and entertainment every Sunday. So, um, yeah. Think about it, okay? I’ll just be here… waiting… Get 50% OFF my VIP Holiday ALL ACCESS. Use Code VIP50

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I just wanted to wish everyone reading this newsletter a great week ahead. And by "great week," I mean I hope all your socks find their matches, your coffee stays hot, and nobody accidentally sits on you.

So, yeah, go out there and crush it—or, um, gently tap it, if you’re fragile.