What If China’s Money Stream Stops Flowing to Hollywood?
Beijing begins monitoring “irrational” investments in entertainment companies (even while Alibaba pledges $7.2 billion) as one deal falls apart and all eyes focus on Trump. Chinese companies poured record amounts of capital into Hollywood in 2016 — a trend eagerly embraced by the U.S. film industry. Among the deals: Dalian Wanda Group acquired Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion and Dick Clark Productions for $1 billion; Alibaba made a major investment in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment; and Beijing-based Perfect World Pictures put $500 million into 50 films from Universal. But tighter regulatory scrutiny and rising protectionism in the U.S. and China now have the industry questioning whether the deal flow could dry up in 2017. Already, there have been casualties. Please click on the link to read the rest of the story from the Hollywood Reporter magazine.
Edwards explains reasons for ending career
Monopoly Is Letting You Decide If They Should Change the Classic Tokens
If you’ve ever wondered why there’s still a wheelbarrow token in the Monopoly board game, now’s your chance to ensure that the game pieces for the next version of the game are the ones that truly deserve to be there. From January 10 through January 31, Monopoly is asking the Internet to vote for the game pieces that they deem worthy to be the next eight tokens, ranging from current classic pieces like the thimble and top hat to more than 50 new options that include a rubber duck and a penguin. Some of the tokens that more accurately represent modern times are a wireless phone, a computer, a kissy face that bears a striking resemblance to an emoji, and a sports car. This isn’t the first time that Monopoly game pieces have been updated; in fact, the most recent update was the replacement of the iron token with Hazel the Cat in 2013. Please click to read the rest of the story from Time magazine.
Bullying prevention
I came across this story going through the Evansville Courier-Press website. In my opinion, cyber-bullying has made it so much harder to detect when a child is being bullied. Just read through this piece as a reminder of what some kids go through on a daily basis, and what we can do as adults to help or stop. Please click on this link to read the full story. sd
Liberal is very conservative
Norman sets coaching record
NOTE: I came across this searching for a story on Chester-Z-R this morning. I remember Coach Norman as a player at Dongola. I would try to make an appearance at the Crab Orchard Thanksgiving tournament to watch Thompsonville play. He has been gracious with his time since I have been writing for over a year now. Please click to read the story from Pete Spitler of the Randolph County Herald-Tribune






