GOP Debate Preview; Biden Walks the Picket Line; A Sleeping Method That Could “Save a Marriage” – Mo News Rundown

Hey, everyone. It is Wednesday, September 27th and you're listening to the Mo news podcast. I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. We read all the news and read between the lines so you don't have to. Good morning, everyone. Hope you are doing well this morning. If you're in the New York area, the forecast is finally calling for no rain today. It feels like it's been a month with no sun. It hasn't obviously been that long, but I'm very happy for a little vitamin D. A lot of news to get to today. A lot of politics, actually. So let's get to the headlines. We're going to start with a Republican presidential debate preview. Who is in? Who is out and why it matters, even with Donald Trump pulling so far ahead. Speaking of which, Donald Trump and Joe Biden visit Michigan, porting union voters and Joe Biden making some history while he's at it. Meanwhile, he's already in legal trouble. But now a judge has ruled that Donald Trump has defrauded banks and insurers while building his real estate empire and Joe Biden's dog commander biting another secret service agent, the 11th known incident in business news targets has will be closing nine stores, and it is not because sales are slow. We'll tell you why. Plus the deaths of FDNY responders from 9-11 related illnesses have reached a somber milestone. Shakira Shakira charged with tax evasion again. And why some say these Scandinavian sleep method could save marriages. And the moon news community weighs it. Plus, I'll have on this day in history. Okay, let's start with politics. Tonight is the second GOP presidential debate. And the stage is shrinking a bit from the last time around. The Republican National Committee announced that seven candidates met the heightened polling and fundraising threshold for this second debate. That is one less than the last time around. So on the stage tonight, we've got Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former VP Mike Pence, former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, and North Dakota governor Doug Burgham, as for who did not meet the criteria, former Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, he will not be on stage tonight despite appearing in the first Republican presidential primary. Like the first debate, former president Trump, the heavy front runner for the GOP nomination, skipping the event. I will have more on that in a bit. Tonight's debate is at 9 p.m. Eastern time 6 p.m. Pacific. It is hosted by Fox Business Network and Univision Fox News Media's Stuart Varney and Dana Perino and Univision's Ilya Calderone will moderate the debate. It will be taking place at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California. As I mentioned, Donald Trump is the heavy favorite here. He's up by about 40 points in the most recent polls. Ron DeSantis is a far second. So the question that a lot of analysts have been asking, is this debate anything more than a race for second place? But as the New York Times puts it, the performances of Trump's rivals tonight are still expected to be deeply consequential. Forecasting whether the 2024 field of Republicans will consolidate around a single Trump alternative. In fact, the most important audience tonight might be the Republican donors, many of whom are still waiting to put their money behind the candidate who can take on Donald's Trump. For months, Florida governor Ron DeSantis had bid that main challenger to Trump, but he just hasn't picked up steam, particularly in early voting states like New Hampshire and South Carolina. So is there an opening for someone else, particularly as Trump currently faces for criminal indictments? Now, those indictments have not slowed his momentum. And if anything, he has gained in the polls, but yet some of the biggest Republican donors have yet to back any candidates. And the last major public fundraising deadline before primary voting starts is at the end of September. So again, there is still a lot on the line tonight. As for Donald Trump, he's already got his eyes on the general election, skipping tonight's debate. And instead, he is scheduled to hold a rally at an auto supplier in Clinton Township, Michigan. On Tuesday, it was Joe Biden's turn to court auto workers. He joined striking general Motors workers on the picket line, making him the first modern president to join a picket line. He was seen fist pumping workers. He encouraged them to stick with the strike. Take a listen to what he had to say. The fact of the matter is that you guys, UAW, he saved the automobile industry back in 2008 and before made a lot of sacrifice. He gave up a lot. And the companies were in trouble. But now they're doing it incredibly well. And guess what? You should be doing it incredibly well too. When asked if UAW members deserve a 40% raise, which is one of their demands, he said yes. Trump, again, will be speaking tonight notably though at a non-union shop. He is trying to siphon off union voters from Biden. And polls show that it might just work. The former president could see an opening when it comes to electric vehicles. The UAW has criticized the Biden administration for giving federal money to automakers who are shifting jobs to southern states where unions are weaker. Some workers also concern that it takes fewer workers to build electric vehicles than gas powered ones. In fact, Trump has been blaming the Biden administration's EV incentives for the strike. He's also accused Biden of taking bribes from China. And looking to move manufacturing there, he wrote on Truth Social. Quote Crooked Joe sold them down the river with his ridiculous all electric car hoax. To be clear, there is no evidence of that. It comes though as Trump's support among union members has increased in recent months. And Biden's support has fallen. According to a Michigan polling company, Trump led Biden 46 to 43 percent among union members in a survey in August compared to June when Biden led Trump 51 percent to 42 percent. Those are not insignificant numbers. This Biden Trump double header in Michigan also shows the importance of Michigan voters in the presidential election. They helped both Biden and Trump when the White House during the past two presidential elections in 2020 and 2016 respectively. Another piece of Trump news that I do want to mention in a civil case, a judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building his real estate empire. And he ordered some of the former president's companies removed from his control and dissolved. The AP is reporting that judge Arthur and Gauron ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York's Attorney General, Leticia James, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers, and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans. All right, before we get to the rest of the news, let's thank some of our sponsors. We have talked about how we only want to endorse things on this podcast that we really love. Well, bowl and branch bedding and sheets is definitely one of those things. I've had them in my house for about six months now. And we have absolutely been loving them. Even though we're in the fall, bowl and branch certainly made the summer of record heat a bit easier. They've got very breathable sheets, bowl and branch that is BOL and branch sheets are made with organic cotton. And they don't have some of the harsh chemicals that are used by other brands. The sheets genuinely get softer with every wash. Right now, bowl and branch is offering a very special deal to the Monews community. You can get 15% off your first order when you use the promo code Monews at bowlandbranch.com. That is bowl and branch. B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch dot com. The promo code is Monews M-O-N-E-W-S. There are some exclusions. So make sure you see the site for details. And now to athletic greens, I am trying to keep my energy up here on this podcast without mosh. And perhaps I should thank athletic greens. It is just one scoop with a glass of water in the morning. It is easy and quick. And it lets you get on with your day knowing that you've gotten over 75 important ingredients, including tons of vitamins and minerals. It also has pre-end probiotics to support digestion and gut health with your first purchase of AG1. Athletic greens is giving Monews listeners a free one year supply of their vitamin D in five free travel tax of AG1. Visit drinkag1.com slash Monews to take advantage of this offer. You can get a discounted monthly subscription or try it just one time for a month. Again, that is drinkag1.com slash Monews. That is M-O-N-E-W-S for this special deal and really start to take ownership of your health. All right, time now for the speed read. Let's start with some business news from CNBC. Target said it will be closing nine stores in major cities across the country because of violence, theft, and organized retail crime. So the company is going to be closing one store in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, two locations in Seattle, three stores in the San Francisco, Oakland area, and then three more in Portland, Oregon. Target saying in a news release, we cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests and contributing to unsustainable business performance. Target is about 2,000 stores in the United States and has really been outspoken about organized retail crime. It has said theft has driven higher levels of what they call shrink. It is an industry term used to describe losses from goods that were damaged, misplaced, or stolen. When the company reported its recent earnings in May, the CEO, Brian Cornell, said that shrink overall is expected to reduce targets profitability by more than $500 million compared to the same period a year ago. At the same time, he said they were trying not to shut stores. He said he knows that these stores create local jobs and generate taxes and are really important for those local shoppers. He also said they play a critical role in communities across the country. His comments had led other companies to also speak out about the problem and to advocate for legislative reform, one piece of legislation, the Inform Act, requires online marketplaces to disclose the identities of certain high-volume sellers. This is supposed to deter the sale of stolen and counterfeit products. Now some retailers are pushing for the passage of another bill. It is called the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. This bill proposes stiffer penalties for theft defenses and calls for a change in the threshold that prosecutors must meet before bringing federal theft cases. From the New York Times, JP Morgan Chase has agreed to pay $75 million to the US Virgin Islands to settle claims that it facilitated the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide back in 2019. The bank also said it reached a confidential settlement with James Staley, that is a former top banker who had been one of the biggest advocates for keeping Epstein as a client. The US Territory saying it was seeking up to $190 million in compensation from the bank. The bank agreed to settle with the Virgin Islands where Epstein had a private island residence for roughly two decades after months of disclosures about how top executives continued to keep Epstein on as a client despite numerous warning signs that he was paying large sums of money to teenage girls and young women without any good explanation. Much of the money the bank is paying to the Virgin Islands will go toward funding charities that support local victims of sex crimes. From USA Today, the number of New York City Fire Department workers who have died from World Trade Center-related illnesses has reached a morbid milestone, equalling the number of responders that were killed on September 11, 2001. The FDNY Commissioner, Laura Kavanaugh, announcing the deaths of two Fire Department workers, an EMT, Hilda Venata, and a retired firefighter, Robert Fulco, as a result of the time that they had spent working in the rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center. So their deaths brought the number of FDNY responders that have died from illnesses related to the site to 343, that is the same number of FDNY workers killed on the actual day of the attack. You may remember John Stewart has become a fierce advocate for making sure that the government pay for health care for emergency personnel, many of whom spent months at the site breathing in toxic fumes. Well, after years of fighting for funding, with Stewart basically scolding Congress back in 2019 lawmakers did pass a bill that permanently reauthorized the September 11 victim compensation fund, which pays out claims for deaths and illnesses related to the attack that bill signed by President Trump. From CNN, Joe Biden's younger dog, Commander, fit another US Secret Service agent at the White House Monday evening. According to CNN, it is the 11th known biting incident involving the two-year-old German Shepherd. The injured officer is reportedly doing okay. But Commander has now been involved in at least 11 biting incidents at the White House and in Delaware, including a November 2022 incident where an officer was hospitalized after the dog clamped down on their arms and thighs. Back in July, White House officials had said that the Biden's were working through new training and leashing protocols for the family pet following those incidents. Another of Biden's dogs, Major, was involved in biting incidents at the White House. He is also a German Shepherd. He was later moved out of the White House and Commander arrived in 2021. A CNN contributor and former Secret Service agent telling CNN, this isn't a Secret Service thing. This is a workplace safety issue. From CBS News, Spanish prosecutors have charged pop star Shakira with failing to pay $7.1 million in taxes on her 2018 income. Shakira is alleged to have used an offshore company based in a tax haven to avoid paying the money. Shakira is already due to be tried in Barcelona on November 20th in a separate case that hinges on where she lived between 2012 and 2014. Prosecutors have alleged that Shakira spent more than half of that time period in Spain. And therefore, she should have paid taxes in the country, even though her official residence was in the Bahamas. Tax authorities in Spain have over the past decade or so really been cracking down on this. For example, they crack down on soccer stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their full due in taxes. And from the New York Post, some couples are swearing by these so-called Scandinavian sleep method to help them get some shut eye next to their blanket hogging spouse. I may or may not be known as a blanket hogger myself. Okay, so this practice is popular in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Scandinavian sleep method involves using two twin-confidence instead of one large-confidence. One influencer who tried it says it is an absolute game-changer and potential marriage saver. And the sleep foundation agrees saying that one spouse could have a higher or lower body temperature than the other leading to a mismatch in sleep needs. Under this method, each person can regulate their temperature at night, plus sharing a blanket could lead to more wake-ups during the night or one partner taking all the comforter for themselves. We did talk about this on the Mona's Instagram feed a while ago and heard from people who swear by this method and others who say that they just sleep in separate bedrooms altogether. I posted about this on my Instagram account, Jill R. Wagner, and I asked people what they thought of the Scandinavian sleep method. 70% of respondents said, yes, please separate blankets are the way to go. 30% said no way it is total chaos. I got a lot of private messages from people who were like, I have never heard of the Scandinavian method, but yeah, we've been doing this for years. Where have you been? One person writing, I've been married for 30 years. We started doing this during our first year of marriage because one of us would wake up angry because we fought for the blankets all night. It is the one piece of marriage advice I give to newlyweds. They usually look at me like I'm nuts, but I don't know, you know? Another writing, nothing new over here we've been doing this for years, seems odd to share. I run cold, he runs hot, so I like a nice warm blanket and he just uses a sheet. All right, perhaps I need to try this in my house. All right, time for on the stay in history. On this day, September 27th in 1920, in what has become known as the black socks scandal, eight members of the Chicago white socks baseball team were indicted by a grand jury on charges that they had thrown the 1919 world series to the Cincinnati Reds in return for a bribe. On the stay in 1954, the landmark late evening talk show, the tonight show premiered. It was known just as tonight, the host Steve Allen. All right, this one has me sad that Moche isn't here on the stay in 1989. Billy Joel released his song, We Didn't Start the Fire. And in 1993, Time Magazine's cover read, Attack of the Video Games, bigger than movies, better than reality, soon to zap a kid near you. I feel like they could run this cover in 2023 and just say, Attack of Tik Tok, soon to zap a kid near you. But for now, that is it for me. A big thank you for listening to the Mo news podcast. If you like what you hear, share this with your friends. It will help us grow. Follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode and review us in the app store and give us a call 1-800-711-Moche that is MOSH. And of course, give us a follow on Instagram at MOSH. That's it for me. See you guys tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Mo news podcast. you