Your weekly recap for Politics, Entertainment, Business, Sports and Global Events.

Politics

• The Mueller Report

The Mueller Report was actually released. All 400+ pages. Most was visible to the public, since only some was redacted. Everyone, even those in the Trump camp, agrees that the information was not kind to our nation’s 45th President. He is hardly unscathed in the process. The optics are horrific. However, the pure conclusion is most relevant. Russia and the Trump campaign did not collude. Trump certainly did try to influence and persuade individuals to paint him in a flattering light when being investigated by prosecutors. He also provided a written testimony to Mueller that certainly avoided a presentation of the complete story. Trump kept on doing what he does best. He took to social media and spiked the football.

It is important to understand that despite the negative appearance, Mueller did not feel there was enough to actually pursue an obstruction of justice charge, or a subpoena for additional information. However, Mueller certainly did feel there was enough there that he could not rule out obstruction of justice. It is important to note that there were at least ten instances of potential wrongdoings mentioned in the report. These will be heavily scrutinized in coming months.

All of this means two things. One, the infamous Mueller Report is hardly behind us. Two, the chance Congress furthers the investigation, and possibly pursues impeachment, is on the table. Also, a third mention is relevant. Is anyone going to dig into how this happened, and in particular, what did Obama and his camp do to stop it?

America, the story of the 2016 election has not and will not end. We will be discussing this through November of 2020, and likely beyond. 

• Bernie Town Hall

Bernie Sanders surprised many by taking part in a Town Hall on Fox News. The move is unlikely to garner up considerable voters from the historical right wing network. That isn’t necessarily a loss for Bernie. The viewership totals were astounding, and most on both sides agreed that the move makes Sanders look good by speaking to all voters. Trump didn’t hide his displeasure.

---

Entertainment

• Jeopardy & Ken Jennings 2.0?

Jeopardy has a new, and far too early to crown, version of Ken Jennings. James Holzhauer has won twelve straight contests. However, his single day and accumulated win totals are quite eye opening. See for yourself. Holzhauer is a Vegas resident, hence the huge wagers. Check out this amazing piece on ESPN if you want to read more about the man.

• The Beehive

Beyoncé took the Internet by storm, like she always does. She debuted a live album, and her fellow supporters were head over heels for the new sound.

• Adele

The only person anyone kind of roots for to have bad things happen to her is Adele, because at least we get good albums afterwards. Selfish, right? Anyways, her marriage has come to an end as she and her husband split up. Expect a Grammy award winning album soon! 

• The Endgame is upon us

The directors of Avengers: Endgame took to social media to make a desperate plea. The four-hour finale of the epic Avengers saga comes to an end this week, and the directors don’t want fans to spoil the ending for the rest of us. The plea asks those who see the movie early to not take to social media and ruin the details for those who see it days later. The highly anticipated conclusion debuts Thursday.

• Couch Potatoes

Game of Thrones and Tiger Woods contributed to a Sunday of epic proportions. The numbers regarding viewership totals from each event show that a jaw dropping amount of Americans stayed home on Sunday. HBO said 17.4 million viewers watched the Season 8 premiere of Game of Thrones. CBS had the highest-rated morning golf broadcast in 34 years.

• Star Wars – Episode 9

The title and first official trailer was debuted for the conclusion of the Star Wars trilogy. Director JJ Abrams is back and it appears he will save the saga from the near destruction Episode 8 director Rian Johnson nearly did to the historic franchise.

The movie, titled The Rise of Skywalker, broke the Internet when released. The tally of views and traffic shows that Star Wars is undoubtedly the most popular movie franchise in America. Check out what happened on Twitter immediately after the trailer was dropped. It was LITERALLY the only thing that mattered.

• Coachella

Ariana Grande surprised her fans while closing out Coachella by bringing up *NSYNC on stage. Well, not all of them. Justin Timberlake was not part of the impromptu reunion. It didn’t stop fans from celebrating the move.

---

Business

• Mobile Mergers

The US Government has struck down a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile on the grounds of maintaining competition in the mobile phone and network space. American consumers will still have their choice of four big carriers.

• Chips & Drama

Qualcomm and Apple have engaged in a brutal, years-long dispute over patented chip technology. Qualcomm alleged Apple wasn’t properly paying a fair royalty for use in their popular iPhones.

Apple is in dire need of providing 5G coverage on their phones or run the risk of missing out on potential market share to Samsung. China’s Huawei offered up their 5G chips to Apple. However, it was highly unlikely the US Government would allow the marriage.

This put Apple between a rock and a hard place. To make matters worse, had the dispute moved to the courts, both CEOs would have been forced to take the stand. This was obviously something neither company wanted. The two companies shocked everyone by suddenly agreeing to a settlement and decided to work together to build out the iPhone’s 5G presence. Intel subsequently left the chip space soon after the announcement.

• Netflix Numbers

Netflix announced their quarterly earnings this week. The company has shown a slight slowdown in subscriber growth. However, most agree the company will remain a staple in American and global consumers lives.

• Lyft Still Struggling

Lyft continued to fall on the third week of their disastrous IPO. First, the optics and fallout from their lawsuit against their underwriter has continued to appear embarrassing and painted the company in a negative light. Second, the company runs bike-share programs in NYC and had to pull its fleet of electric bikes when the front brakes experienced issues. The stock continues to fall.

• Boeing… Week Five

Boeing fallout has finally appeared to slow to a trickle. The stock didn’t make many headlines this week. Trump suggested the company rebrand their jets, and the FAA is nearing an agreement with necessary fixes.

United announced earnings and told investors that their canceled flights because of the crashes is impacting their bottom line. Also, American Airlines is still missing out on over one hundred flights daily.

• The US Stock Market is HOT

Take a look at these numbers from the US Market. Your 401k is likely going to show you a very nice number right now.

---

Sports

• Tiger Woods … and was there really anything else that mattered?

Tiger Woods did the incredible. He won the Masters. It was absolutely amazing. Take a look at some of these stats and marvel in the accomplishment. The victory is nearly unprecedented. The man was all but down and out, and rose back to the top. It is an incredible story of overcoming adversary. A story that most Americans appreciate, and likely resulted in you tearing up a bit while watching him hug his children and mother. This is truly why we love sports. Moments like this are the ones you will never forget.

The news also unearthed two interesting bets. First –

And second –

• Boston Marathon

This year’s touching story from the Boston Marathon was quite incredible. A Marine who lost two of his comrades ran the race in their honor. He experienced excruciating cramps at the very end and was unable to walk. However, that didn’t stop him. The man crawled past the finish line to complete the race. What an amazing moment.

• Baseball Moments

Last week, Yasiel Puig created what seemed to be the picture of the year during his brawl against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This week, a Tigers pitcher appeared to enter The Matrix dodging a fastball that was immediately returned right back at him. The pictures are quite impressive.

• Puig Returns to LA

Speaking of Puig, he made his return to La La Land this week. During his first at bat, he hit a home run. Only Puig.

• Hockey Losers

The Pittsburgh Penguins have somewhat fallen back a bit from their Stanley Cup campaigns, but the fact that they were swept out of the first round of the playoffs this week was quite surprising nonetheless.

Even more shocking, the 62-win Lightning were historically good and were swept out by the Columbus Bluejackets. Columbus had never won a playoff series until this moment, and lost both regular season games against Tampa. Also, Tampa Bay had only lost two consecutive games three times all year, yet lost four straight in the playoffs. The Bluejackets did the unthinkable.

Hockey doesn’t get much press, but this would be like the 72-win Warriors being swept out of the first round of the NBA playoffs, or the 16-0 Patriots losing in the first round. Instead, it’s similar to the 116-win Seattle Mariners who lost in the first round of MLB’s playoffs back in 2001.

The bleeding didn’t stop there. The No.1 Calgary Flames in the Western Conference lost in five games. This means the NHL number one seeds won ONE game in the playoffs, yet combined for 112 regular season wins. Unreal!

• Basketball Playoffs

The Golden State Warriors lost their second playoff game at home against the Clippers. The shocking loss came at the hands of an epic comeback, or incredible meltdown depending on how you’d like to phrase it. They proceeded to bounce back and beat LA by almost thirty in Los Angeles for game three.

• Russell Stays In Seattle

Russell Wilson has been rumored to consider leaving Seattle, and the rumors are officially dead. He signed an incredible extension just before his self-imposed deadline.

• The Drake Curse

It seems the Internet is onto something. Every time Drake appears at a sporting event in the team’s gear the team proceeds to lose. The Internet had a heyday when he showed up at the Toronto Maple Leafs game earlier in the week… and, well you know … lost.

---

Global Events

• Peruvian Suicide

A guilty leader from Peru appeared to have taken his own life instead of going to jail for crimes he committed. The former leader killed himself rather than turn himself in.

• Notre Dame Fire

Notre Dame caught fire and was nearly a few minutes away from certain destruction.

The photos from the fire were absolutely stunning. Here it is as it happened –

A vantage from afar –

The Washington Post compiled an excellent info-graphic to explain the damage

The aftermath –

The Cross still standing

• WWII Bomb

A bomb was discovered in Frankfurt Germany. The relevance is the bomb was from WWII. The development resulted in an evacuation of an area of Frankfurt and an ensuing detonation.

---

National Events

• Arson Attempt

A deranged individual tried to strike fear into Catholics on their holiest of moments. The lunatic apparently tried to set St. Patrick’s Cathedral on fire. The fire at Notre Dame in Paris earlier this week appears to be an accident. However, this man was obviously trying to copycat the horrible fire from France. Church security stopped the man before he was able to inflict any harm on the church.

• Assisted Suicide

New Jersey became the eighth state allowing people of their state access to medically-assisted suicide. Also, the Garden State has yet to pass a legalization of marijuana, as the bill continues to be held up. So, New Jersey will allow you to kill yourself, but not permit you to get high. Weird flex, but OK?

• Florida Man

The Florida Man saga has hit a fever pitch. Don’t know what this is? Well, the Internet has begun having a field day with wacky stories that begin with ‘A Florida man…’

Please review the list of thirty infamous Florida Man moments here.

---

‘Entirely Scientific’ Prediction Meter

Because, why not?

1. Chance of Impeachment = 2%

Up 2% from last week

2. Chance Trump wins reelection in 2020 = 45%

Down 15% from last week

3. Most likely Democrat contender = Joe Biden

Unchanged

4. Chance Howard Schultz runs as an Independent? = 90%

Unchanged

5. Chance the Golden State Warriors repeat = 10%

Unchanged

6. Chance the Washington Capitals Repeat = 15%

Up 5% from last week

7. Chance that Captain America dies in Avengers: Endgame = 100%

Unchanged (We’re losing Iron Man, as well)

8. Chance of a US Recession in 2019 = 15%

Unchanged

9. NBA Champ

Toronto Raptors over Portland Trailblazers

10. NHL Champ

Islanders over Vegas Golden Knights (Changed from Jets)

---