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Trump card: Billionaire mongrel — sorry, mogul — Donald Trump, announced he is endorsing Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination. This is a huge boon for Romney, since it ties him with opponent Newt Gingrich in the “endorsements from semi-wealthy pompous blowhards with no feasible grasp of how the economy works” category. Here’s looking at you, Herman Cain.
And the mural of the story is: David Choe, an artist from Los Angeles, has millions of reasons to love Facebook. In 2005, he was commissioned to paint murals in the first-ever Facebook corporate offices. As compensation, he was offered up-front payment or stock options when Facebook became a publicly traded company. He chose to rock out with his stock out, and now he could potentially be worth as much as $200 million. All in a day’s work.
There’s danger afoot-ball: Following a soccer match, 73 people were killed in Egypt during a brawl. The fracas was ignited immediately after the match, in part because fans stormed the field and chased members of one of the teams, Al Ahly, with knives and rocks. Well, that should settle the debate once and for all. American football fans may get drunk and boorish from time to time, but at least they’ve never turned into an impromptu militia following a win. Let this be a reminder, kids; no Super Bowl party is complete without chips, dip, beer and Kevlar vests.
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They Komen and they go: The powers that be in the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure, a conglomerate dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer, have decided to discontinue funding to Planned Parenthood. While it remains unclear why the decision was made, it is evident that many women are not particularly pleased with it. And if women are mad at a foundation dedicated to breast cancer research and outreach, chances are that you messed up pretty bad.
Groundhog the spotlight: Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania’s favorite son this side of Benjamin Franklin, predicted a longer winter on Thursday. This is despite the fact that most of the nation has seen higher-than-normal temperatures all throughout winter. Isn’t it time we all just admitted that we’ve had our Punxsutawney fill of this prognostication sensation gripping the nation every year?
Turning the timetable: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a specific timetable for the United States and its allies to give Afghanistan forces the dominant role in their country by next year. U.S. and allied forces will now assume a more advisory role in training Afghan troops, similar to the approach in Iraq. Well, since everyone’s in the mood, here’s some advice to Mr. Panetta: Look at what’s happening in Iraq right now. Is that really the blueprint you want to follow?
