News Articles Written by Hasita Goel
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THE POP TOPIC News Articles Written By Hasita Goel Table of Contents 1. Elon Musk Adds ‘Technoking of Tesla’ To Title ........................................................................... 2 2. Matthew McConaughey Considering Running for Governor of Texas................................ 4 3. $15 Minimum Wage Loses Eight Democratic Votes .................................................................. 7 4. Seth Rogen Brings His Weed Company To America ............................................................... 10 5. Prince Harry Says He and Meghan Left U.K. Due to “Toxic” Press .................................... 14 6. Ted Cruz In Cancun Amid Texas Power Failure ....................................................................... 17 7. Case Against Amy Cooper Dismissed ............................................................................................ 19 8. Power Outages in Texas Brought On By Record Low Temperatures .............................. 21 9. Donald Trump’s Defense Cites Madonna, Johnny Depp, Other Democrats’ Rhetorics to “Fight” ................................................................................................................................................... 23 10. “HOLLYBOOB:” LA’s Hollywood Sign Reads As Activists Attempted to Raise Breast Cancer Awareness ................................................................................................................................. 26 11. BREAKING NEWS: Jeff Bezos Stepping Down as Amazon CEO ........................................... 28 12. Elon Musk: World’s Richest Person, Passing Jeff Bezos ........................................................ 33 1 Photo Credit: AP Photo Photo Credit: AP Photo CULTURE | TECHNOLOGY Elon Musk Adds ‘Technoking of Tesla’ To Title Hasita Goel March 15, 2021 2 min read In a recent regulatory filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and CFO Zach Kirkhorn added ‘Technoking of Tesla’ and ‘Master of Coin’ to their titles respectively. They will still hold their positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Although the reason behind the addition of these titles remains unclear, the tongue-in-cheek titles come not long after the company bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, back in February of this year. Tesla also announced that 2 they will start accepting payments in the form of Bitcoin soon, an event that went viral and became the catalyst that shot up the price of the cryptocurrency by as much as 20%. Some speculate the title ‘Master of Coin’ to be a Game of Thrones reference. Elon Musk has recently become famous for his bizarre stunts, from launching an EDM dance track on Spotify, selling flamethrowers, and discussing plans to colonize Mars, to tweeting eccentric, potentially controversial memes. Just yesterday the carmaker’s CEO mocked woke culture by tweeting a proposal for a game called Woketopia. The sarcastic tweet garnered mixed reviews from followers. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1370880599641231360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7 Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1370880599641231360%7Ctwgr%5E%7C twcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepoptopic.com%2Felon-musk- adds-technoking-of-tesla-to-title%2F Past tweets have also gotten Musk into trouble. Back in 2018, his tweet suggesting that he might take the company private cost him and his company a total of $40 billion dollars in a settlement with the SEC, half of which was paid by Musk himself. On Monday, a Tesla investor filed a lawsuit against the company on account of Musk’s “erratic” tweets, and that those tweets allegedly violate their deal with the SEC. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026872652290379776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7 Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1026872652290379776%7Ctwgr%5E%7C twcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepoptopic.com%2Felon-musk- adds-technoking-of-tesla-to-title%2F In a separate filing on Monday, the company announced Jerome Guillen, who has been president of automotive since September 2018, transitioned last week to president of Tesla heavy trucking, a prototype of which was revealed by Musk in December of 2017. Production was then said to start in 2019. The company now plans to start deliveries by the end of 2021. 3 Photo Credit: AP Credit: AP CULTURE | POLITICS Matthew McConaughey Considering Running for Governor of Texas Hasita Goel March 12, 2021 2 min read Matthew McConaughey is “seriously considering” running for governor of Texas. The actor shared this news with Rania Mankarious on a recent episode of Crime Stoppers of Houston’s The Balanced Voice podcast on Wednesday. 4 If McConaughey launches his campaign, he will face incumbent Republic Greg Abbott who will run for his third term. The state elections will be on November 8, 2022, While on a promotional tour for his book, Greenlights, McConaughey aired some of the first comments about his potential run for governor. In November, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt interviewed McConaughey. The actor called politics a “broken business.” He later said that he would be more interested in the job “when politics redefines its purpose.” “It’s a very honorable consideration. So am I considering that? Sure. It’s a great thing to and an honorable thing to be able to consider,” McConaughey told Al Roker, co-host of NBC’s Today show, in an interview yesterday morning. McConaughey is currently assisting with relief efforts in Texas as a result of last month’s storm. He is also organizing a virtual benefit “We’re Texas Virtual Event.” The program will air on his YouTube Channel and exclusively on Spectrum New 1 on March 21 at 7:00 pm CST. Is McConaughey a Democrat or Republican? That remains a bit ambiguous. In October, McConaughey appeared on the popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. He said in the interview that some people in Hollywood went “left so far… that is so condescending and patronizing to 50% of the world that need the empathy that the liberals have.” During the same interview, McConaughey gave a careful response when questioned about his views on defunding the police. “It’s almost like it should have been renamed,” he 5 said. “Because ‘defund’ does not sound anything like there’s been money reallocated to different areas of handling some police exercise,” the actor commented. Early in the pandemic, McConaughey filmed PSAs to promote masking and interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci on Instagram. 6 Photo Credit: Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP Photo Credit: Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP POLITICS $15 Minimum Wage Loses Eight Democratic Votes Hasita Goel March 5, 2021 2 min read 8 democratic members along with 50 Republicans rejected the $15 minimum wage proposal. Thereby, bringing the total votes in favor to 42 when it needed 60 to pass. Democratic Senators Tom Carper of Delaware, Chris Coons of Delaware, Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire, Joe Manchin from West Virginia, New Hampshire’s Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, 7 Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, and Montana’s Sen. Jon Tester, all voted against the proposal. Sen. Angus King of Maine, who is an Independent but has long supported Democrats also voted against the idea. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough last week ruled against the measure of including the $15 minimum wage in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. Despite this, a group of progressive senators led by Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment and forced a vote on the policy change anyway. Progressives were understandably upset about the result of the events. “At a time when millions of people are working for starvation wages … when the President of the United States and the House of Representatives support it, it is absolutely imperative that the Senate approve an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who also chairs the Budget Committee said in response to the news. The minimum wage, last raised on July 24, 2009, when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, has not changed since. Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who is running for the Senate in 2022, said that “every single senator who voted against a $15 minimum wage today should be forced to live on $7.25 an hour so that they can demonstrate to all of us how it’s possible.” Opposing democrats assert, the amendment doesn’t belong in the $1.9T COVID fund relief bill 8 Democrats that voted against feel that the measure should not be included in the COVID relief bill. Instead, the Senate should hold an open debate and amendment programs for the issue separately. After voting nay, Kristen Sinema took to Twitter to call the raise a “no-brainer” https://twitter.com/kyrstensinema/status/443584873048309760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf w%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E443584873048309760%7Ctwgr%5E %7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepoptopic.com%2F15- minimum-wage-loses-eight-democratic-votes%2F Arizona’s Sen.Kyrsten Sinema, who voted against the measure, said, “Senators in both parties have shown support for raising the federal minimum wage and the Senate should hold an open debate and amendment process on raising the minimum wage, separate from the Covid-focused reconciliation bill.” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, another democrat against the raise said in a Friday statement that he would work “on legislation to raise the minimum wage and index it annually,” saying a minimum wage of $7.25 “is too low and has been for too long.” 9 Photo Credit: @sethrogen/Twitter; @houseplantcanada/InstagramPhoto Credit: @sethrogen/Twitter; @houseplantcanada/Instagram CULTURE | LIFESTYLE/ENTERTAINMENT