Weekend Digest: The Super Bowl 50 edition

TV PREVIEW
On this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock, which airs Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Channel 7 in Central Arkansas and now in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m.

New polling numbers – and the first polling numbers – on Arkansas’ Presidential primary landscape. Who would win Arkansas if the election were today in the Democratic and GOP primaries?

Political columnist John Brummett joins the show to dissect the poll and offer his insight on the state of the national races here in Arkansas. We’ll talk politics.

And Sen. Tom Cotton joins us from Washington, D.C. In addition to the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire’s primary, does he have an endorsement to make for President? Also, Cotton weighs in on the possibility of anything bipartisan passing Congress this year.

Tune in to Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock in Central Arkansas on KATV Ch. 7, Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and now in Northeast Arkansas on KAIT-NBC, Sundays at 10 a.m.

10 ADS YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS DURING SUPER BOWL 50
Adweek posts, “Once again, the anticipation around ads in the Super Bowl rivals that of the game itself—and brands are looking to capitalize on that excitement by rolling out their spots, or at least teasers, early.

Already, several commercials – including Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen for Bud Light, Marilyn Monroe for Snickers and Wix’s tie-in with the forthcoming film Kung Fu Panda 3 – have people talking.”

Despite the record $5 million price tag, brands are lining up to be part of the event for the first time – among them, Amazon, LG Electronics and Apartments.com. Advertisers like Snickers and Kia that had big hits last year are betting that lightning will strike a second time. And as always, celebrities will have a starring role.

Want to sneak-peek “a look at 10 ads already generating plenty of chatter” and also find out who some of those big stars are? Go to this link.

NEW MAJOR RULE FOR NFL EXECUTIVES WITH A TWIST
The New York Times reports, “In an effort to diversify leadership in the upper ranks of the N.F.L., Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Thursday that the league would now require at least one woman be interviewed for any executive position openings in the league office.id on Thursday that the league would now require at least one woman be interviewed for any executive position openings in the league office.”

The announcement – in front of a group that included his wife, Jane Skinner Goodell; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; the tennis champion Billie Jean King and others – came at the N.F.L.’s first Women’s Summit, days before the Super Bowl on Sunday and in the wake of a series of domestic violence cases involving some of its biggest stars that threw the league into crisis last year.

For more on this story, including how this new requirement expands on the Rooney Rule, click here.

FACEBOOK DELETING PAGES OF LEGAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES
Fast Company says, “Facebook has started taking down the pages of businesses that legally sell marijuana for medical purposes in New Jersey, according to local news site NJ.com. The state is one of 23 across the country where medical marijuana dispensaries are permitted by law.”

Three dispensaries in New Jersey said their Facebook pages were seemingly deleted, as did a number of medical marijuana suppliers across the country, reports NJ.com. The Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center and the Breakwater Treatment and Wellness Center – both of which are located in New Jersey – found on Tuesday that Facebook had shut down their pages without warning. Instead, they were greeted with the following message …

Find out what it is, and also learn whether this shut down meets Facebook’s Community Terms and Standards, at this link.

COLLECTING PRODUCTIVITY DATA
“What counts most in promoting professional success?” asks Harvard Business Review.

“Quantifying the “business self” is an essential precursor for enterprise networks that empower people to manage their strengths and weaknesses better, faster, and cheaper.”

The personal productivity future is clear: Anybody and everybody who wants to succeed in tomorrow’s 21st Century organizations will have to commit to levels of self-monitoring, self-surveillance, and self-quantification that makes Orwell read like Pollyanna. The reason isn’t post-industrial intrusiveness or invasiveness but an imperative for professional self-preservation and self-improvement.

Don’t think Big Brother, think Big Data-Driven Coach.

Connect to this link for the complete story.

SOMETHING SMELLS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
“In a strongly worded editorial on Thursday, The Des Moines Register called on the Iowa Democratic Party to move quickly to prove that Monday’s results are correct,” reports POLITICO.

The piece titled “Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party,” starts out: “Once again the world is laughing at Iowa.”

It gets sharper from there. “What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy,” the DMR reads. “The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

All this of course in lieu of Hillary Clinton’s “razor-thin victory as too close.”

Get the complete story here.

PORTRAIT OF A TRUMP TOWN
Politico Magazine posts, “During a campaign stop January 9, Donald Trump told supporters in Ottumwa, Iowa that he embraced greed. “I’m a greedy person. I’ve always been greedy. I love money,” Trump told an audience of several hundred southern Iowans. Just ten days after that speech, a report ranked Wapello County – of which Ottumwa is the county seat – the poorest county in Iowa. In other hands, it would have seemed like a misfire. But the crowd laughed, cheered and later stood in applause as Trump exited the stage.”

Trump didn’t win Iowa on Monday, but he won Ottumwa – easily, with 592 votes to Cruz’s 494, with a record Republican turnout to boot. And if his strange insurgent candidacy stays aloft, it will be because of towns like this: Places where the robust promise of America has been replaced by the prospect of a long, bleak slide, and which have thrilled to the message that it’s possible, as the baseball hat says, to make America great again.

“Politico Magazine turned a lens on why.” Take a look at this link.

PEYTON MANNING’S SECRET INVESTIGATION OF AL JAZEERA DOCUMENTARY
The Washington Post reports, Five days before a documentary alleged that quarterback Peyton Manning and other star athletes had used performance-enhancing drugs, two men hired by Manning’s lawyers visited the parents of the documentary’s key witness. Both men wore black overcoats and jeans and, according to a 911 call from the house that evening, one initially said he was a law enforcement officer but didn’t have a badge.”

After they told their daughter to call 911 the night of Dec. 22, Randall and Judith Sly stepped outside to talk to the strangers, who clarified they were private investigators, not cops. They had come to this red brick house with a well-manicured lawn looking for the Slys’ 31-year-old son, Charlie, a pharmacist who was the primary source in the upcoming documentary.

“The revelation of the visit to the Slys’ home in this rural, upper middle class suburb is another in what has been a series of strange twists and turns since the Al Jazeera documentary, “The Dark Side: The Secret World of Sports Doping,” first aired. In the documentary, Sly boasted about helping pro football and baseball players cheat. In one scene, Sly implied that Manning took human growth hormone prescribed by an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic and shipped to Manning’s wife, Ashley.”

Sly has since recanted his accusations. But that hasn’t stopped investigations by the NFL and Major League Baseball, as some baseball players also were implicated.

For more, go inside this intriguing story by following this link.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS STILL HIDING ABOUT THE JFK ASSASSINATION
POLITICO posts, “The National Archives, for the first time ever, released a list of documents related to the assassination that are still shielded from public view.”

“More than five decades after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, thousands of government files detailing the activities and testimony of shadowy spies, long-deceased witnesses and others with possible knowledge of the events remain shielded from public view.”

The government gave a first-ever peek to what’s still out there Thursday, as the National Archives released a list of the 3,063 documents that have been “fully withheld” since JFK’s murder in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The documents listed – released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from POLITICO, other news organizations and researchers – were collected by the Assassination Records Review Board, an independent panel created by the 1992 JFK Records Act.

“That same act requires that all the document on the list be released by October 2017 unless the next president decides to keep them classified.”

Could there be anything relevant about Kennedy’s murder or other government secrets that are being withheld?

POLITICO has a snapshot “of what is still being hidden from the public about key figures, probes and other events that the Archives has deemed relevant to the JFK investigation,” at this link.

A FOOTBALL HELMET THAT COULD STOP THE CONCUSSION PROBLEM
It’s called The Zero1 helmet and unlike the hard helmets used today, this one actually buckles on contact.

“After two years of development and just shy of $10 million in funding, VICIS launched its Zero1 helmet last month in collaboration with the University of Washington. Whether the helmet will effectively address the concussion quandary remains to be seen, but for VICIS’ credit the helmet is unlike any other on the market.”

Dominated by a couple of major players for decades (think: Riddell), the football helmet market was in need of a catalyst to spark innovation according to Dave Marver, CEO of the fledgling startup. Likening the company to both Nike and Tesla, Marver says VICIS is just what the helmet market needs. From its inception, VICIS threw traditional helmet technology out the window and started from scratch.

“Current helmets were never intended to deal with concussion,” explained Sam Browd, chief medical officer of VICIS. “To take a product that is built for one purpose and to try to retrofit it to address concussion is a very challenging task.”

Find out how it works, how much it costs and who will first use it, at this link from Forbes.

EX-PROSECUTOR’S JOB: FLAG NFL PLAYERS
The New York Times reports, “In the rarefied world of professional sports, the dispensing of justice in a manner both fair to the employee and protective of a game’s integrity is a continuing challenge. Should a league rely entirely on local law enforcement? Should dictatorial rights be granted to its commissioner? Should there be an arbitration panel in which both the league and the players’ union are represented?

The stated option chosen by the NFL, which has added its fair share to the annals of player misconduct, is no longer to defer to law enforcement but rather to conduct professional internal investigations that are not designed to please the head office, yet dispel the impression that its biggest stars seem above reproach.

And who is in charge of that for the NFL? Find out here.

MAN NAMED BEEZOW DOO-DOO ZOPITTYBOP-BOP-BOP ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT
Say what? That’s right his legal name is Beezow Doo-doo Zopittybop-bop-bop. Was that his given name?  Of course it wasn’t.

So what did Mr. Zopittybop-bop-bop do to get in trouble, besides making the cops in Olympia, Washington spell his name correctly?

Mashable has the post at this link.