On Today’s Show

The website Wallet Hub looks at about 200 cities each year, and ranks them according to how STRESSED OUT people are.  They factor in 39 different metrics, like work hours . . . job security . . . traffic . . . debt . . . mental health . . . divorce rates . . . and childcare costs.

The most stressed-out city again this year is Detroit, just edging out Cleveland for the top spot.

The LEAST-stressed cities of the 182 they looked at were Fremont, California (just outside Silicon Valley) . . . Bismarck, North Dakota . . . and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

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Animal lovers in Lithuania have created a Tinder-style mobile app to match up dogs in shelters with owners.  “GetPet” was launched last month and is attracting hundreds of new users daily.  Users scroll through profiles of “eligible” dogs, which stare at you from the screen with…well, puppy-dog eyes.  If you decide you are interested, you swipe right.  If you swipe left, another dog profile appears.  GetPet has already made a few matches.

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ENTERTAINMENT

• “Shazam!” (PG-13, Action/Adventure):  We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s case, by shouting out one word – SHAZAM – this streetwise fourteen-year-old foster kid can turn into the grown-up superhero Shazam.

(Zachary Levi, Mark Strong)

• “Breakthrough” (PG, Drama):  When her 14-year-old son drowns in a lake, a faithful mother prays for him to come back from the brink of death and be healed. (Topher Grace, Josh Lucas, Chrissy Metz)

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Selena Gomez is the third most-followed person on Instagram, but doesn’t even have Instagram on her phone anymore.  She says it wasn’t good for her, so she has it on a friend’s phone when she needs it.

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TODAY IS……………….

• “Fresh Spinach Day”, an occasion to make use of some healthful leafy greens in your favorite recipes. Spinach & sharp cheese omelet, anyone?

• “World Snake Day”, an annual celebration by wildlife enthusiasts of the age-old fascination with these beautiful but misunderstood creatures.

1935 [84] World’s 1st parking meter, the ‘Park-O-Meter #1’, is installed in Oklahoma City OK

1969 [50] Apollo 11 is launched, carrying the first men to land on the Moon (July 20)

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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE

Alabama hit #1 with “The Closer You Get” in 1983.

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Officials Warn Alien Seekers Not to Try Their Luck at Area 51

More than half a million Facebook users have signed up to storm Area 51 to “see them aliens” at the U.S. Air Force base in southern Nevada that’s long been shrouded in mystery for those who believe it’s a holding site for otherworldly creatures.

It all may be a joke or a lark for many of the supposed UFO seekers. But federal officials aren’t laughing about the possibility of people actually showing up at the classified military base, which is a remote detachment of California’s Edwards Air Force Base.

An event page called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” had garnered nearly 670,000 recruits. Almost 620,000 others have indicated they’re “interested.”

But Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews warned anyone seriously intending to follow through with storming the site to think twice. ″[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces.

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RANDOM REPORT

1. Ty Warner, the guy who created Beanie Babies, only got into the toy business after his acting career failed.

2. San Francisco had its own Statue of Liberty on a hill in the middle of the city starting in the 1880s.  But it became so dilapidated that it was taken down in the 1950s.

3. In 2007, a man named Jeremy Harper counted to one million. He did not leave his apartment or shave until he finished, and it was all broadcast live on a webcam. It took him 3 months.
4. Only one pro football team has been playing since the 1800s without taking a single season off . . . the Arizona Cardinals, believe it or not.  They were founded in Chicago in 1898 and have been playing ever since.

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TODAY’S GOOD NEWS

Finally, after all these years, Popeye has been totally vindicated.

Scientists in Berlin, Germany say they’ve found a chemical in SPINACH called ecdysterone.

And they say that chemical is close enough to STEROIDS that spinach should be a banned substance for athletes.  Seriously.  They think spinach belongs on the list of doping supplements.

The scientists ran a test where some athletes ate almost nine pounds of spinach a day and some didn’t . . . and the ones who ate the spinach increased their strength up to three times more.

The researchers say, quote, “Our hypothesis was that we would see an increase in performance, but we didn’t expect it to be that big.”

The World Anti-Doping Authority says it’s planning to look more into spinach and ecdysterone based on the results of this study.

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BIRTHDAYS

[56] Phoebe Cates, actress (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, “Gremlins”)

[52] Will Ferrell, actor

[48] Corey Feldman, actor (“Goonies”, “The Lost Boys”, “Stand By Me”)

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Woman Does Her Own Detective Work Tracks Down the People Who Stole Her SUV

There’s a woman named Danielle Reno in Kansas City, Missouri.  And last Tuesday night, she stopped at a convenience store and left her SUV running.  She was only inside briefly . . . but three women stole her SUV and drove off.

Danielle filed a police report . . . but decided to also handle things herself.  Instead of canceling her credit cards that were in the SUV, she left them open . . . so she could monitor how the thieves were using them and through a clerk at a gas station overheard them saying they were going to an Applebee’s. So she sat down, and waited.  And eventually, the thieves drove up in her SUV and walked in.

Danielle stole back her SUV . . . then called the cops.  And she live streamed all of it on Facebook. The cops went to the Applebee’s, and the women were arrested.

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A Man Was Pulled Over for Speeding . . . and Had 179 Pounds of Marijuana

If you’ve got a little something illegal in the car, you shouldn’t speed.  This guy didn’t just have a “little something” illegal.

A 25-year-old guy named Manuel Torres from Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, was pulled over last week for speeding in his minivan in Queensbury, New York.

When the cop came up to the car, he thought he smelled some weed.

And when he searched the vehicle, he found 179 POUNDS of marijuana in a bunch of duffel bags. Manuel was arrested on two felony counts, for criminal possession of marijuana and conspiracy.

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28% of Us Are Too Embarrassed to Join a Gym and Want to Get in Better Shape First

A new survey found a lot of us would LIKE to join a gym to get in better shape.  But we’re too embarrassed to walk in there and get judged by everyone.

So we won’t join a gym UNTIL we get in better shape.62% of people said they’ve worked out to prepare for a gym membership before. But 45% of those people admitted it was because they were too embarrassed to show up at the gym SO out of shape.

If you do the math, that means 28% of Americans wouldn’t join a gym until they were in somewhat decent shape.  So there’s a chicken-or-the-egg dynamic going on.

The survey also found two-thirds of us have tried to get in shape for a vacation before.  And over a quarter of people would have skipped a vacation in the past if they hadn’t lost weight first.

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Four Ways You’ve Been Eating Chocolate Wrong

Apparently we’ve all been eating chocolate wrong our whole lives.  According to experts, here are four ways to make it taste even better . . .

1. Stop chewing it so much.  You’ll taste it more if you press it up on the roof of your mouth, and let it dissolve by sucking on it.

2. Stop eating it in huge chunks.  Breaking it up into smaller pieces releases the aromas.  So you taste it more, especially if it’s good chocolate.  Rubbing it with your thumb also helps, but sounds kinda messy.

3. Smell it before you eat it.  Just like wine, experts say you should smell your chocolate before you pop it in your mouth.  It primes your taste buds, so you get more of the flavor.

4. Stop washing it down so fast.  The taste of chocolate lasts a fairly long time if you let it linger.  So you keep getting the flavor without eating more, which also saves calories.

TUESDAY JULY 16^TH                                           

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

[56] Phoebe Cates, actress (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, “Gremlins”)

[52] Will Ferrell, actor

[48] Corey Feldman, actor (“Goonies”, “The Lost Boys”, “Stand By Me”)

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1. MLB

Boston             10        Toronto           8

Cleveland        8          Detroit             6

2. Today is the 20th anniversary of the shocking deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette. The light plane they were flying in crashed into the Atlantic in fog off Martha’s Vineyard. Kennedy Jr. was 38, his wife was 33, and her sister was 34. American TV is well aware of the anniversary, so get ready for “specials” devoted to the tragedy, just as TV reacted in 1999 when this latest horror struck the Kennedy family.

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THOMAS RHETT CREDITS HIS DAD WITH HIS CAREER

Thomas Rhett has been basically following in his dad, hit songwriter and artist Rhett Akins’, footsteps since he was a kid. In fact, Thomas tells us that he credits him with shaping him into the vocalist he is today.  [“You know, when I think about who taught me to sing in the first place it was my dad.  And still to this day I think my dad is one of the best songwriters, best performers that I’ve ever gotten to witness. And so being able to just kind of watch him write songs at eight years old and go on the road with him at 9 years old and get to go sing in his encores on the road, I feel like dad has been the main influence on me vocally and me as a songwriter and as a performer, and so I owe dad a lot of credit for being here today.”]

Thomas tapped his dad to join him on his current headlining Very Hot Summer Tour, along with Dustin Lynch and Russell Dickerson.

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JUSTIN MOORE HEADS TO HIS ‘ZEN PLACE’ AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE

After his shows this weekend, Justin Moore will have a couple of weeks to spend with his family and chances are they will be headed to their beach house in Florida. Justin tells us that’s the one place he can actually relax and recharge. [“Outside of my home in Arkansas, it’s kind of like my Zen place.  And it’s hard for me to turn my brain off from work and just different responsibilities and for some reason I do down there and can down there. It’s one of those things you can’t really explain. I don’t really know why that is but it’s beautiful first and foremost. The sound, the air’s different and the kids love it too. And so rather than take a big vacation in the summer we go stay at our house.”]

His upcoming studio album, Late Nights and Longnecks is due out on July 26th.

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JORDAN DAVIS AND WIFE EXPECTING FIRST BABY

Jordan Davis is going to be a first-time dad! The singer and his wife, Kristen, are expecting their first child later this year. He tells us: [“I’m so thankful and so blessed. This is a really, really special moment, and I’ve been trying to drink it in and just kind of enjoy the entire process. I’m looking forward to meeting him or her.”]

The happy news coincides with the People.com premiere of Jordan’s music video for his latest single “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot.” The clip follows a young boy through various life moments that all happen to take place in a parking lot, from playing hockey with friends to dancing with his girlfriend after a football game.

Davis is currently on tour with Old Dominion and is set to hit the road again to tour with Rascal Flatts beginning in Mountain View, California, on July 25th.

Categorised in: Mornings

This post was written by Dave Palmer