Monday, November 26, 2012

CYBER MONDAY SHOPPING
Aren't you dying to go online today and see what the sales are at your favorite stores? All the talk about Cyber Monday shopping apparently works: more places than ever before are offering online deals, including TPAC and other events sites. More than one in three of us are expected to shop online today. More than 2 in 3 of us went shopping over the long weekend.

MORE PEOPLE CYBERSHOPPING OVER THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
With the growth in high speed Internet access and the wide use of smartphones and tablet computers, people are relying less on their work computers to shop than they did when Shop.org, the digital division of trade group The National Retail Federation, coined the term "Cyber Monday."
    As a result, the period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday has become busy for online shopping as well. Indeed, online sales on Thanksgiving Day, traditionally not a popular day for online shopping, rose 32 percent over last year to $633 million, according to comScore. And online sales on Black Friday were up 26 percent from the same day last year, to $1.042 billion. It was the first time online sales on Black Friday surpassed $1 billion.

HOW TO FIND THE REAL BEST DEALS ONLINE

USING ONLINE COUPON CODES TO SAVE EVEN MORE
Once you find the best prices, and you're thinking of buying, go to a site like www.retailmenot.com and enter the store, and see if there's a coupon code that can save you up to 30% MORE on the price. Even if one store has a better price, if there's a coupon code for another store that offers a bigger discount, or free shipping, the overall price could be lower. 

CONGRESS BACK TO WORK TODAY
Congress is back to work today as well. Not sure whether they're spending their time shopping online, too, but they're supposed to be working on budgets to try and reach an agreement before the December 31st so-called fiscal cliff deadline. That's when tax hikes and budget cuts go into effect.

POWERBALL JACKPOT AT RECORD $425-MILLION
The Powerball Jackpot for the next drawing -- next Wednesday-- is at a record high 425-million dollars! However, the odds of you winning the grand prize -- right now, before more people buy tickets -- are roughly one in 175-million. (The previous record of 365-million was set nearly seven years ago.)

TENNESSEE TEACHERS INVOLVED IN TEST-TAKING FRAUD
There may be thousands of Tennessee students, maybe yours, who've been taught by teachers who cheated to get their licenses.
Investigators say longtime educator Clarence Mumford Senior ran a scheme where he'd take up to 3000 dollars from an aspiring teacher, they'd give him their social security number, and he'd use it to print out fake ids for ringers to go take the tests. Mumford got away with it for 15 years, with teachers in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

65 DOGS REMOVED FROM LARGEST DOG FIGHTING RESCUE IN HISTORY
There's been another animal rescue locally. Animal Rescue Corps and the Cheatham county Animal Control rescued 65 dogs from a suspected dog fighting operation in Ashland City, mostly pit bull terriers and beagles, none with access to food or fresh water, and all in need of medical attention. Officials say it's the largest dog fighting rescue in Tennessee history. (The dogs were discovered when firefighters responded to a brush fire.)

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS MAY HAVE CAUSED HOUSE FIRE
PLEASE be careful when you're plugging in those christmas lights. Some of them come with stackable plug-ins, where you could plug in twenty strings of lights, but firefighters say that doesn't mean you should plug in that many.
Christmas decorations may have cost one Nashville couple their home this weekend. A house in the Pennington Bend area burned down about 1a.m. Saturday, and the woman who lives there said she had just started hanging Christmas lights. Fortunately, neighbors spotted the flames, rushed over, woke her up and got her outside to safety. 

TITANS FALL TO 2-9 JAGUARS 24-19
The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Tennessee Titans 24-19 yesterday.... which helped the Jaguars break a seven game losing streak. The Titans, who now have 4 wins and 7 losses for the season, play the Houston Texans Sunday at LP Field.

UT DEFEATS KENTUCKY IN FINAL GAME OF SEASON
And Tennessee beat Kentucky 37-17 in the season finale for both teams.

CHOLESTEROL DRUG RECALLED OVER CONTAMINATION CONERNS
A popular cholesterol-reducing drug is being recalled. It's a generic version of the widely-prescribed anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor... The Generic may be contaminated with tiny particles of glass.

LARRY HAGMAN BEING REMEMBERED
Friends, family and fans are remembering actor Larry Hagman today. Whether they loved him as lovable astronaut Tony Nelson on "I Dream of Jeannie," or as the nasty J.R. Ewing from the TV show, "Dallas," there are lots of comments posted online, and from fellow actors. Two of his Dallas co-stars, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, were by his bedside when he passed away this weekend. Hagman was 81. (He had already taped several more appearances on the revived version of Dallas on TBS, that'll air next year.)  

BEST-EVER THANKSGIVING AT THE BOX OFFICE
This was the biggest ever Thanksgiving holiday for movie theaters: $288M for the 5 days of domestic box office, smashing 2009's record of $258.6M. It also beat the previous all-time 5-day moviegoing record set in 2009 of $270.5M.

"TWILIGHT" TOPS AT BOX OFFICE THIS WEEKEND
The final "Twilight" installment leads the box office again.  "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" topped the weekend at movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada.  The latest James Bond film "Skyfall" was second.  Stephen Spielberg's "Lincoln" came in third, followed by two new films, "Rise of the Guardians" and "Life of Pi."

"DANCING" FINALE TONIGHT, FIRST-EVER ALL WOMEN
Shawn Johnson, Melissa Rycroft, Kelly Monaco and their partners are heading to the finale of "Dancing With The Stars: All Stars."  It's the first-ever all-female finale tonight. Olympic gymnast Shawn is a front-runner between the three. (The finale of "Dancing With The Stars: All Stars" starts Monday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on ABC.)

CHEERLEADERS SHAVE HEADS TO SUPPORT COACH WITH CANCER
And this is such a great story: a couple of the Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders shaved their heads during the team's game this weekend to support their coach, who has cancer, and has lost his hair to chemo. The team MASCOT had challenged them to shave their heads if he could raise 10 thousand dollars for leukemia research. He did, and they did. You can see the video HERE.

PEDIATRICS GROUP SUPPORTS EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION FOR TEENS
A leading pediatrics group says emergency contraception should be easily available for teenage girls. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it's safe and effective and agrees that pediatricians should push for more access to that birth control method over the counter. 

BOUNCE HOUSE INJURIES WAY UP, STUDIES SAY
Inflatable bounce houses that are so popular at kids' birthday parties are leading to a soaring number of injuries. Each day, 30 children are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts, and concussions from bounce house accidents.  Most injuries result from kids falling inside or outside the inflatable playthings, and many happen when two or more youngsters collide.  A report on the study is published online today in the journal "Pediatrics."