Entertainment

How Talking Animal Books is bringing a love of reading to Texas

Feb. 07, 2025

Independent bookstores are the heartbeats of their communities. They provide culture and community, generate local jobs and sales tax revenue, promote literacy and education, champion and center diverse and new authors, connect readers to books in a personal and authentic way, and actively support the right to read and access to books in their communities.

Entertainment

Kenny Chesney will release his first book in November

Feb. 07, 2025

How did Kenny Chesney go from the soil of East Tennessee to the sandy shores of No Shoes Nation? Fans will find out directly from the source when Chesney releases his first book, "Heart Life Music," due Nov. 4. Preorders can be made on Harper Collins website. "This is not my memoir, but something far better," Chesney said in a statement. Rather, the book is "a love letter to people who shaped and inspired me, the fans who've been there from tiny bars, radio stations who believed when nobody else did, a team who just kept coming back, legends who gave me wisdom and opportunities and all the friends who’ve been there along the way.

Entertainment

I can't stop thinking about 'This is a Love Story' by Jessica Soffer: Here's why

Feb. 07, 2025

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a crier. But you've got to get me in the right moment. I get misty-eyed at a nostalgic song and as the credits roll on a beautifully shot movie. I cry when I'm happy as much, or perhaps more, as I do when I'm sad. The sentimental girls get it. A well-written book scratches that itch. There's something special about that cathartic feeling of letting it all out when you reach the acknowledgments. Reading is, after all, a journey. It takes time and concentrated effort. You become part of the world built with nothing but words. The characters become part of you. Finishing a well-written book can be an overwhelming experience – you did it! How

Entertainment

Nielsen says Christmas had more viewing on streaming services than any day ever

Feb. 07, 2025

Christmas marked a milestone in media history: more streaming than any day ever before, according to the Nielsen company. Netflix streamed two NFL games on that day, with Beyonce appearing as the halftime entertainment when the Houston Texans hosted the Baltimore Ravens. Roughly half of all viewing in the United States that holiday was on streaming services, said Nielsen, the measurement service which has followed the rise of streaming in relation to traditional TV viewing over the past decade. It was the first day Nielsen has measured where streaming services exceeded 50 billion viewing minutes. While the football games were dominant, other services did well with holiday movies like “Elf” and “Home Alone.” The second most-streamed day ever came two weeks later, when Prime Video showed an NFL Wild Card game on Prime Video.

Entertainment

Exes make good competition on HGTV’s ‘The Flip Off’ with the El Moussas, Christina Haack

Feb. 07, 2025

There’s conscious uncoupling and then there’s conscious collaborating. Exes and TV personalities Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack have reunited for a new reality competition show, “The Flip Off,” on HGTV. El Moussa and Haack (then known as Christina Hall) were first introduced to viewers in 2013 as married co-stars of the HGTV series “Flip or Flop,” which aired for 10 seasons. When their marriage ended in 2017, they continued to film together — with some tension — until the series finale in 2022. Now, El Moussa has teamed with his new wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, a real estate agent also known for Netflix’s “Selling Sunset,” to compete against Haack on “The Flip Off.” Each side scouts a house to buy, redo and sell. One room is tackled at a time and is critiqued by a guest judge. In the end, the winner with the larger flip profit gets a paid vacation and bragging rights.

Weather

Possible tornado kills at least 2 and causes widespread damage in Tennessee

Feb. 07, 2025

At least two people were killed and three more injured when a possible tornado ripped through communities near Knoxville, Tennessee, Thursday night causing widespread damage. Morgan County Emergency Management confirmed the deaths to NBC affiliate WBIR of Knoxville early Friday. Morgan County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency said in a statement on its Facebook page that a "possible tornado" touched down at 8:27 p.m in the Deer Lodge and Sunbright areas, about 60 miles west of Knoxville.

Weather

Weekend winter storm to drop snow and freezing rain from Midwest to Northeast

Feb. 07, 2025

A weekend winter storm will bring biting temperatures and dump several inches of snow on areas from the Midwest to Northeast. Forty-two million people are under winter alerts ahead of the storm that will move from west to east, with snow totals accumulating from Minneapolis to Massachusetts. The storm, forecast to be colder and create more snow than Thursday's storm system that swept across the Northeast, will see snow and freezing rain hit the Midwest, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and Northeast on Saturday.

Entertainment

Princess Anne admits hospital staff had to fill in the blanks after suffering concussion memory loss

Feb. 07, 2025

King Charles III's sister spent 5 days at Southmead Hospital in Bristol after being struck by a horse

Entertainment

Movie Review: ‘Kinda Pregnant’ is kinda good

Feb. 07, 2025

We have by now become accustomed to the lengths some movie characters will go to keep a good comedy lie going. But it’s still a special kind of feat when Amy Schumer, playing a baby-mad single woman who fakes a baby bump in “Kinda Pregnant,” is so desperate to maintain the fiction that she shoves a roast turkey up her dress. You might be thinking: This is too ridiculous. The stuffing, alone. But if we bought “Some Like it Hot” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” I see no reason to quibble with the set-up of “Kinda Pregnant,” a funny and often perceptive satire on motherhood, both real and pretend. “Kinda Pregnant,” which debuted Wednesday on Netflix, is a kinda throwback comedy. Like “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Wedding Crashers,” you can basically get the movie just from its title. But like any good high-concept comedy, “Kinda Pregnant” is predominantly a far-fetched way for its star and co-writer, Schumer, to riff frankly on her chosen topic. Here, that’s the wide gamut of pregnancy experience — the body changes, the gender reveal parties, the personal jealousies — all while mixing in a healthy amount of pseudo-pregnant pratfalls.

Business

Southern California Edison acknowledges videos suggest link between equipment and Eaton fire

Feb. 07, 2025

Southern California Edison acknowledged Thursday that videos have suggested a possible link between the utility’s equipment and the devastating Eaton Fire in Los Angeles. But the company has not identified evidence to confirm this, according to a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission. The Eaton Fire, which is now contained, burned about 14,000 acres, destroyed thousands of buildings, killed at least 17 civilians and injured nine firefighters. “SCE is undertaking a careful and thorough investigation and does not know what caused the ignition of the fire,” the utility said in its filing. The company has not found broken conductors, arch marks, or evidence of faults on energized lines in the area where the Eaton Fire started.