Trump files appeal after Illinois judge orders name removed from primary ballot

Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump have filed an appeal after an Illinois circuit court judge ruled that his name should be removed from the state’s primary ballot because of violations of the “insurrection clause” in the 14^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling, issued by Circuit Court Judge Tracie Porter on Wednesday, agreed with arguments made by Colorado’s Supreme Court when it kicked Trump off the ballot in that state.

Porter’s ruling followed a determination by Illinois’ State Board of Elections in January that Trump’s name should remain on the ballot, but also recommended that a court make the ultimate decision in the case.

Trump’s attorneys filed two separate motions in the case, including an appeal of the ruling. They have asked the Illinois Appellate Court to reverse Porter’s decision and to reinstate the Board of Elections’ ruling in the case.

A second motion was also filed to clarify the terms of Porter’s stay in the case. The ruling had been placed on hold pending the expected filing of the appeal, but Trump’s attorneys are arguing that the ruling should be stayed until the appeal is decided upon, or until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a ruling in a similar case in Colorado.

That Colorado case, in which Trump’s name was removed from that state’s primary ballot on the same grounds, is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Porter said in her ruling that the order would be put on hold if the Supreme Court’s ruling was “inconsistent” with hers.

The Illinois Republican Party issued the following statement in reaction to Porter’s Wednesday ruling.

“As we’ve stated repeatedly, the Illinois Republican Party believes the people, not activist courts or unelected bureaucrats, should choose who represents them in the White House. This decision to remove President Trump from the ballot without due process is an affront to democracy and limits the voting rights of Illinois citizens,” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said.

The former president’s spokesperson Steven Cheung also issued a statement.

“Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot,” the statement read. “Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions. This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal. In the meantime, President Trump remains on the Illinois ballot, is dominating the polls, and will Make America Great Again!” 

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the Colorado case in early February, and according to legal experts cited by The New York Times and other publications, there was skepticism in the arguments made to keep the former president off the ballot.

The Illinois ruling repeatedly cited findings from the Colorado case, saying that Trump’s actions in the lead-up to, and on the day of Jan. 6, 2021, should be construed as insurrection, making him ineligible to hold the office of president.

Colorado’s Supreme Court concluded “that because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section Three, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the secretary to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”

Trump’s attorneys have disputed that characterization in appeals, saying that his actions fell well short of the 14^th Amendment’s definition of insurrection. They cited tweets the president had sent calling for peace in Washington amid the chaos at the Capitol, but Porter dismissed those remarks as “plausible deniability” of potential crimes.

“This tweet could not possibly have had any other intended purposes besides to fan the flames. The hearing office determines that these calls to peace via social media, coming after an inflammatory tweet are the product of trying to give himself plausible deniability,” the ruling read.

She argued that the Capitol riot’s purpose was “the furtherance of the president’s plan to disrupt the electoral count taking place before the joint meeting of Congress,” and therefore qualified as insurrection under the Constitution.

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Chick-fil-A recalls Polynesian sauce dipping cups over allergy concerns

Chick-fil-A is recalling its popular Polynesian sauce after the dipping cups were found to contain a different condiment, sparking concerns of undeclared allergens.

The Atlanta-based fast-food giant said in a message posted on it’s website, that customers who took home its Polynesian Sauce dipping cups between Feb. 14 and Feb. 27 should throw them away because they may contain an entirely different sauce that includes wheat and soy allergens.

Customers with questions about the recall can contact Chick-fil-A CARES at 1-866-232-2040.

While the message did not disclose what sauce the Polynesian sauce cups mistakenly contained, the only sauce with wheat and soy allergens listed on its website is their Sweet and Spicy Sriracha.

Chick-fil-A’s Polynesian sauce is described as “a delicious sweet and sour sauce with a strong, tangy flavor” on their website. It first debuted in 1984 alongside Honey Mustard and Barbeque, according to the company’s website.

Thought it’s a fan favorite among customers, the Chick-fil-A sauce remains the most popular condiment made by the restaurant, which began selling 16-ounce bottles in 2020.

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Supreme Court appears divided over bump stock ban in high court's latest gun case

The Supreme Court appeared divided on whether to strike down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory used in a Las Vegas massacre that was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

During over two hours of arguments Wednesday, the high court’s conservative and liberal justices indicated in their questions that they believed an almost 100-year-old law aimed at banning machine guns could plausibly be interpreted to include bump stocks, NBC News reported.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, told Brian Fletcher, the Biden administration lawyer defending the ban, that while she’s “entirely sympathetic” to the government’s argument, she expressed concerns that Congress had not clearly covered the devices in previous laws restricting access to machine guns. Accessories like bump stocks that had not been invented at the time of the initial regulation.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, also a conservative, said while he understand “why these items should be made illegal,” he suggested doing so was Congress’s responsibility.

Meanwhile, liberal Justice Elena Kagan appeared incredulous that a weapon that can fire “a torrent of bullets” could not be defined as a machine gun, according to NBC News.

A Texas gun shop owner argues the Trump administration didn’t follow federal law when it reversed course and banned bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns.

The Biden administration is defending the ban, saying regulators were right to revise previous findings and ban bump stocks under laws against machine guns dating back decades.

Federal appeals courts have been divided over the bump stock rule, which marks the latest gun case to come before the Supreme Court. The case offers a fresh test for a court with a conservative supermajority to define the limits of gun restrictions in an era plagued by mass shootings.

The justices are weighing another case challenging a federal law intended to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders, stemming from a landmark 2022 decision in which the six-justice conservative majority expanded gun rights.

The bump stock case, however, is not about directly Second Amendment gun rights. Instead, the plaintiffs argue that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority in imposing the ban.

“If Congress had passed this law, the NCLA would not be bringing this lawsuit,” said Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. His group represents Michael Cargill, a Texas gun shop owner and Army veteran. He bought two bump stocks in 2018, during the rulemaking process, then turned them over and sued after the rule became final the following year, according to court documents.

The ban was a switch for the ATF, which had previously decided bump stocks should not be classified as machine guns and therefore not be banned under federal law.

That changed, though, after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault-style rifles, many of which were equipped with bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. More than 1,000 rounds were fired into the crowd in 11 minutes, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds more.

Marisa Marano, 42, survived the shooting at the show she attended with her sister, but still struggles with the massacre’s lasting effects on her life and community. “I will never forget the sound of a machine gun firing into the crowd that night as Gina and I ran for our lives,” said Marano, who is now a volunteer for the group Moms Demand Action and hopes the Supreme Court upholds the ban.

“The bump stock rule is simply common sense,” said Billy Clark, an attorney with the gun safety group Giffords.

Bump stocks are accessories that replace a rifle’s stock, the part that rests against the shoulder. They harness the gun’s recoil energy so that the trigger bumps against the shooter’s stationary finger, allowing the gun to fire rapidly.

They were invented in the early 2000s, one of a growing number of devices that came onto the market after the expiration of the 1994 measure known as the federal assault weapons ban and were designed to “replicate automatic fire … without converting these rifles into ‘machineguns,’” the Justice Department wrote in court documents.

Between 2008 and 2017, the ATF decided that while bump stocks allowed a gun to fire faster, it didn’t transform them into machine guns. The agency revisited the issue at the urging of then-president Donald Trump after the Las Vegas shooting and decided that the rapid-fire they enabled did make guns into illegal machine guns.

The plaintiffs argue that rifles with bump stocks are different from machine guns since the shooter still has to exert pressure on the weapon to keep the rapid-fire going and the trigger keeps moving, so the accessories don’t fall under laws against machine guns.

The government, on the other hand, pointed out that traditional machine guns also require pressure from the shooter. The Justice Department also argues that since the shooter’s finger stays still while the gun fires multiple shots, guns with bump stocks fall in the legal definition of machine guns.

There were about 520,000 bump stocks in circulation when the ban went into effect in 2019, requiring people to either surrender or destroy them, at a combined estimated loss of $100 million, the plaintiffs said in court documents.

Federal appeals courts have come to different decisions about whether the regulation defining a bump stock as a machine gun is constitutional.

A panel of three judges on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld the ban, finding that “a bump stock is a self-regulating mechanism that allows a shooter to shoot more than one shot through a single pull of the trigger.”

But the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the ban, finding that the definition of machine guns under the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act does not apply to bump stocks.

The Supreme Court took up an appeal of the 5th Circuit’s decision.

The case also comes at a time when the 6-3 conservative majority has been increasingly skeptical of the powers of federal agencies. This term, the justices also are weighing challenges to aspects of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A decision is expected by early summer.

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Leap years are more important then you may think. Here's why we have them, and why they matter

Note: The video in the player above is from a previous report.

This year, there’s an extra day in the calendar: February 29, 2024.

That’s because 2024 is a “leap year,” an occurrence that happens every four years…sort of.

But why is exactly is that? According to experts, it has to do with the fact that 365 is a rounded number.

Now, with 24 hours to go, here’s are all your leap year questions, answered.

What is a leap year and why do we have them?

A leap year means there’s an extra day in the calendar.

“A calendar year is typically 365 days long,” an article from Smithsonian Magazine titled “The Science of Leap Year” reads. “These so called ‘common years’ loosely define the number of days it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. But 365 is actually a rounded number. It takes Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the Sun, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds.”

The article goes on to say that the extra time known as a “sidereal” year must be accounted for somehow. Otherwise, seasons could be impacted.

“If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift,” the article goes on to say. “This would be annoying if not devastating, because over a period of about 700 years our summers, which we’ve come to expect in June in the northern hemisphere, would begin to occur in December.”

What is a leap day?

During a leap year, the month of February has an extra day added to it. So this year, there will be 29 days in February, rather than 28. That 29th day is also referred to as a “leap day.”

When are leap years, and why don’t they happen every four years exactly?

Leap years happen almost every four years. That means 2024 and 2028 will both be leap years.

But still, there are some exceptions to the once-every-four-years rules.

“Some simple math will show that over four years the difference between the calendar years and the sidereal year is not exactly 24 hours,” the article goes on to say. “Instead, it’s 23.262222 hours.”

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If we added a “leap day” every four years, we’d actually make the calendar longer by over 44 minutes, Smithsonian said.

“Over time, these extra 44+ minutes would also cause the seasons to drift in our calendar,” the article goes on to say. “For this reason, not every four years is a leap year.”

How do you calculate a leap year?

The rule is that if the year is divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400, leap year is skipped, the magazine says.

“The year 2000 was a leap year, for example, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not,” the article states. “The next time a leap year will be skipped is the year 2100.”

Why is it called a ‘leap year’?

A typical year is 52 weeks and one day long. “That means, if your birthday were to occur on a Monday one year, the next year it should occur on a Tuesday.”

But, an extra day during a leap year means your birthday now “leaps” over a day, Smithsonian said.

What if you are born during a leap year?

It’s not that those birthdays are celebrated only every four years. Rather, those born on a leap day typically celebrate on March 1, the magazine said.

According to the Almanac, people born on a leap day during a leap year are known as “leaplings.” Some cultures see the birthday as a sign of good luck.

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Netflix will no longer accept subscription payments from Apple's App store

Netflix subscribers who pay their monthly bill through Apple’s App Store will now be required to pay Netflix directly, or their account will be booted.

In recent weeks, Apple reportedly began to notify grandfathered customers that it will no longer be accepting Apple Pay through iTunes Subscriptions. According to CNN, a Netflix spokesperson said “if a new payment isn’t added by the monthly subscription renewal date, the member will not be able to use their Netflix account until a new payment method is added.”

Apple has faced years of pushback from varying apps in its App Store for taking up to a 30% cut from in-app purchases. In 2020, Apple said it planned to reduce that charge to 15%.

The move comes after Netflix stopped accepting new subscriptions through Apple’s App store payment system in 2018. However, customers could still download the Netflix app in the Apple App store, and log-in with their account sign-in. Subscribers with accounts before the change was made were allowed to continue to pay their monthly bill through Apple’s App Store, flying under the radar and avoiding Netflix’s subscriber price hikes.

Some years-long members with grandfathered accounts have taken to social media to complain, saying they’ve already been booted from their accounts with apparently no warning.

Those subscribers, who paid $9.99 a month for their subscription won’t be able to keep that rate, and are now subject to a nearly $6 increase if they want to continue their subscription without ads after the company ended it’s $10 basic plan option last year. According to Netflix’s pricing page, the standard plan without ads is $15.49 and the premium plan is $22.99 a month. There’s also a $7-a-month plan for the ad-supported option.

“Apple billing for Netflix is not available to new or rejoining Netflix customers,” the streaming giant’s support page says. “If you are trying to sign up on your Apple mobile device, you can go to Netflix.com on a mobile browser and use a different payment method.”

The support page advises subscribers to check if their subscription is billed through Apple by clicking the “Membership and Billing” section of their account page. The page also lays out steps to update Apple billing information for another form of payment.

In addition to the change in billing, Netflix said no promotional offers can be redeemed on Apple-billed accounts. 

“If you are billed through Apple, you will be prompted to accept the new price and/or currency change in order to continue your membership,” their support page said. 

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Could Missouri's ‘stand your ground' law apply to the Super Bowl celebration shooters?

The man accused of firing the first shots at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally told authorities he felt threatened, while a second man said he pulled the trigger because someone was shooting at him, according to court documents.

Experts say that even though the shooting left one bystander dead and roughly two dozen people injured, 23-year-old Lyndell Mays and 18-year-old Dominic Miller might have good cases for self-defense through the state’s “stand your ground” law.

Missouri is among more than 30 states that have adopted some version of stand your ground laws over the past two decades, said Robert Spitzer, a professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Cortland, whose research focuses on gun policy and politics. While earlier laws allowed people to use force to protect themselves in their homes, stand your ground provides even broader self-defense rights regardless of the location.

Now, the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration could be a new test of those expanded protections, and comes as self-defense already is at the center of another high-profile Kansas City shooting that left Ralph Yarl wounded.

“This illustrates in a dramatic way the fundamental problem, especially when it’s a public gathering where there are thousands and thousands of people, and even a highly trained police officer often cannot avoid injuring others in a gunfire exchange in a public place,” said Spitzer, who wrote the book “Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights.”

Trial attorney Daniel Ross described the stand your ground law as a “formidable defense” that he and many other Kansas City defense attorneys anticipate will be used in Mays’ and Miller’s cases. He said the law puts the onus on the prosecution to disprove claims that a shooting is lawful self-defense.

“Collateral damage under Missouri law is excused if you’re actually engaged in lawful self-defense and there’s other folks injured,” he said.

There are limits to the defense, however, said Eric Ruben, a law professor at the S.M.U. Dedman School of Law in Dallas who has written on stand your ground and self-defense immunity.

“Even though Missouri has robust stand-your-ground laws, that doesn’t mean you can spray bullets into a crowd in the name of defending yourself or others,” Ruben said.

The barrage of gunfire Feb. 14 outside Kansas City’s historic Union Station happened as the celebration that drew an estimated 1 million fans was concluding. A woman died while watching the rally with her family, and nearly two dozen others — more than half of them children — were injured and survived.

Kansas City already was grappling with the shooting of Yarl, a Black teenager, who survived a bullet wound to the head when he went to the wrong house in April 2023 to pick up his brothers. Andrew Lester, an 85-year-old white man, is planning to claim self-defense when he goes to trial in October. His attorney said the retiree was terrified by the stranger on his doorstep.

While the Super Bowl celebration shooting was a far different scenario, it raises anew questions about how far people can go to protect themselves and what happens when the innocent become victims.

Mays and Miller are each charged with second-degree murder and other counts.

Probable cause statements suggest that both men felt threatened. Mays said he picked out one person in a group at random and started shooting because they said, “I’m going to get you,” and he took that to mean, “I’m going to kill you,” the statement said.

Miller said under questioning that he fired four or five times because someone was shooting at him. His friend, Marques Harris, told WDAF-TV that Miller was only trying to protect him after he was shot in the neck.

Miller’s attorney didn’t return phone and email messages seeking comment. No attorney was listed for Mays in online court records.

Two juveniles also face gun-related and resisting arrest charges.

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Missouri has few firearm regulations, and two of its cities — Kansas City and St. Louis — annually have among the nation’s highest homicide rates. Missouri’s current Republican lawmakers have largely defended the state’s gun laws, instead blaming prosecutors and other local elected officials in the two cities.

And Republican Gov. Mike Parson, speaking to reporters last week, cited societal problems — not guns — as the reason for the violence. “I believe it’s much more than a gun,” he said.

When Republican lawmakers in 2016 expanded the state’s already-extensive self-defense protections by enacting the current stand your ground law, Black Missouri lawmakers raised concerns. The law also allowed most adults to carry concealed guns without a permit.

Racial disparities are rife among those who invoke the defense, with an Urban Institute study showing white shooters are more likely to benefit than Black defendants.

The issue was raised when Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teen, was acquitted of killing two people and wounding a third during a 2020 protest against racism and police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after testifying he acted in self-defense. Rittenhouse’s actions became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the U.S.

The 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a Black 17-year-old, by George Zimmerman also spurred a landmark case involving Florida’s stand your ground law. Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watchman who thought Martin looked suspicious, was acquitted.

In Georgia, which also has a stand your ground law, three white men accused of fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 claimed self-defense. Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan claimed they chased Arbery, who was Black, because they thought he was a burglar. All three were convicted of murder.

In 2022, Wichita, Kansas, area district attorney Marc Bennett was critical of the state’s stand your ground law when he announced that he wouldn’t file charges over the death of Cedric Lofton, a Black 17-year-old who was restrained facedown for more than 30 minutes at a juvenile detention center. Bennett said the law prevented him from bringing charges because staff members were protecting themselves.

With the Chiefs parade case unfolding, it is time to look anew at these laws, said Melba Pearson, a former homicide prosecutor who is now the director of prosecution projects at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University.

“What are truly the limits in terms of stand your ground and what really falls into the category of self-defense?” she asked. “Do we need to revisit what stand your ground looks like?”

---

Ballentine reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

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What time does the Chicago River get dyed green for 2024?

One of Chicago’s most iconic and colorful traditions is coming up: The 2024 Chicago River dyeing.

It’s one of Chicago’s most recognizable and iconic traditions, with crews taking to boats and dyeing the Chicago River a gorgeous shade of green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

That tradition, which sees the Chicago River dyed a shade of bright green, will continue this year thanks to the efforts of Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local 130. It will coincide with the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, on Saturday, March 16, according to officials.

The Chicago Plumbers Union, Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local 130, says its been dyeing the Chicago River green in honor of the city’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations for decades, with this year marking 63rd time they’ve done so.

Officials do remind the public that the lower level of the Riverwalk will be closed on that date, with no access available via public stairwells in the area. Instead, revelers are asked to watch the festivities on Upper Wacker Drive, with the best views available between Columbus and Fairbanks.

What time is the river dyed green?

According to Choose Chicago, the river dying begins around 10 a.m.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade will begin at approximately 12:15 p.m. on March 16, with route information to come. Typically, the route moves along Columbus Drive from Balbo to Monroe Street, allowing access to numerous downtown attractions before and after the parade.

How is it dyed green?

For those who have never seen the process in person, each year the Chicago Plumbers union embarks on boats that putter along the Chicago River, with a rather curious concoction that sprays dye out of plumping pipes and spout pumps.

But the mysterious mixture doesn’t come out green.

“If you were watching this for the first time you would think this is a mistake or a bad joke,” the post goes on to say. “You see the dye is orange, and its initial color on the surface of the river is orange, and you would think to yourself what ‘heathen would do something like this.'”

However, once the dye sets in, the color in a stroke of luck changes to green, and the “true color magically appears,” the union says.

WATCH: Behind the Scenes: Creating Chicago’s Iconic Green River Dye

According to Local 130, other cities have attempted similar feats, but never found success. It’s that, the union says, and the magical color transformation that perhaps plumbers may have had some additional help with.

“We believe that’s where the Leprechaun comes in,” Local 130 says.

“As the late Stephen Bailey has said, the road from Chicago to Ireland is marked in green,” the post regales. “From the Chicago River to the Illinois River, then to the Mississippi, up the Gulf Stream and across the Atlantic you can see the beautiful green enter the Irish Sea, clearly marking the way from Chicago to Ireland.”

Why do they dye the river green?

The story goes, in 1961, a man by the name of Stephen Bailey — the business manager of the plumbers union — was approached by “one of his plumbers who was wearing some white coveralls,” a post by Local 130 says. It was then the union says, that Bailey noticed the overalls had been stained or dyed with “a perfect shade of green,” or “an Irish green to better describe it.”

When wondering how the coveralls could have turned such a tint, the tale continues, Bailey and his plumbers discovered that it was from to the dye used to detect leaks in the river.

“That’s when Mr. Bailey bellowed,” the Union declares, “Call the mayor … we will dye the Chicago River green!”

And there you have it.

What’s in the dye?

Sorry to say, we don’t have an exact answer, and we won’t get the secret from the plumbers’ union themselves.

The plumbers union, Choose Chicago says, “still holds the river-dyeing honors today.” But you won’t be able to find their recipe anywhere. “Their environmentally friendly dye formula remains a closely kept secret,” Choose Chicago says.

How long does it stay green for?

Not long.

According to Choose Chicago, the green color lasts only for “a few hours.”

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Ricki Lake shows off her 30-pound weight loss in new pic: ‘I feel amazing'

Ricki Lake is giving fans a firsthand look into her health journey.

Lake shared on Instagram on Feb. 24 that she and her husband, Ross Burningham, had both lost over 30 pounds in the last four months after committing to getting “healthier” toward the end of 2023.

In the post, Lake shared several photos documenting their journey, starting with a snap of the couple taking their daily hike. She also shared two photos of herself taken at the start of their journey, followed by a photo posing in the mirror in workout attire to show off her weight loss.

Ricki Lake reflected on her health journey on Instagram and showcased her weight loss after four months. Ricki Lake / Instagram

Lake shared more about her journey in the caption, writing to her followers, “I’ve been wanting to share with you what I’ve been up to these last 4 months.”

“On October 26th, 2023 I made a commitment to myself to get healthier,” she added. “My husband, Ross joined me in this effort. Together we have each lost 30+ lbs.”

Lake wrote that she and Burningham “did this without relying on a pharmaceutical,” likely referring to the rise in celebrities using medications including Ozempic to aid in weight-loss. 

“Not that there is anything wrong with that,” she noted. “But neither of us were pre diabetic and both of us felt like we wanted to at least try and do it on our own.”

She said that she was “a bit worried” that she wouldn’t be able to lose weight like she had in the past. She cited her age, 55, as a factor as well as experiencing perimenopause, which is the time before a person enters into menopause.

“I am so so proud of us. I feel amazing. I feel strong,” she wrote. “I will go in depth in another post of what I did exactly, but suffice to say this is the healthiest way I’ve lost weight in all of my years.”

Lake has been on a “self-love and self-acceptance” journey since New Year’s Eve in 2019 when she shaved her head after revealing she suffered from hair loss. She shared the “raw video footage” of the moment for the first time three years later on Instagram.

“In this video, you can see me come to a place of peace, liberation, and most importantly, self-love and self-acceptance,” she wrote in part. “May all of you struggling with whatever also come to a place of peace and acceptance. Life is too damn short.”

She celebrated the four year anniversary of shaving her head at the end of 2023, writing on Instagram, “My transformation was so much more than physical.”

“I faced one of my greatest fears that day,” she added. “I will always acknowledge this anniversary and reflect on the growth and self love that came from my taking this huge leap of faith.”

Prior to the start of her health journey, Lake celebrated herself au naturale in an Instagram post shared in June 2023. In the post, in which she poses nude in an outdoor tub, the former talk show host said she was feeling “grateful.”

“Hands down, these days are the best of my life,” she wrote at the time. “Grateful for all that had to happen for me to get to here. A place of complete self-acceptance and self love.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Have a look at the whos, whats and whens of leap year through time

Leap year. It’s a delight for the calendar and math nerds among us. So how did it all begin and why?

Have a look at some of the numbers, history and lore behind the (not quite) every four year phenom that adds a 29th day to February.

The math is mind-boggling in a layperson sort of way and down to fractions of days and minutes. There’s even a leap second occasionally, but there’s no hullabaloo when that happens.

The thing to know is that leap year exists, in large part, to keep the months in sync with annual events, including equinoxes and solstices, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

It’s a correction to counter the fact that Earth’s orbit isn’t precisely 365 days a year. The trip takes about six hours longer than that, NASA says.

Contrary to what some might believe, however, not every four years is a leaper. Adding a leap day every four years would make the calendar longer by more than 44 minutes, according to the National Air & Space Museum.

Later, on a calendar yet to come (we’ll get to it), it was decreed that years divisible by 100 not follow the four-year leap day rule unless they are also divisible by 400, the JPL notes. In the past 500 years, there was no leap day in 1700, 1800 and 1900, but 2000 had one. In the next 500 years, if the practice is followed, there will be no leap day in 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500.

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Still with us?

The next leap years are 2028, 2032 and 2036.

The short answer: It evolved.

Ancient civilizations used the cosmos to plan their lives, and there are calendars dating back to the Bronze Age. They were based on either the phases of the moon or the sun, as various calendars are today. Usually they were “lunisolar,” using both.

Now hop on over to the Roman Empire and Julius Caesar. He was dealing with major seasonal drift on calendars used in his neck of the woods. They dealt badly with drift by adding months. He was also navigating a vast array of calendars starting in a vast array of ways in the vast Roman Empire.

He introduced his Julian calendar in 46 BCE. It was purely solar and counted a year at 365.25 days, so once every four years an extra day was added. Before that, the Romans counted a year at 355 days, at least for a time.

But still, under Julius, there was drift. There were too many leap years! The solar year isn’t precisely 365.25 days! It’s 365.242 days, said Nick Eakes, an astronomy educator at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Thomas Palaima, a classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said adding periods of time to a year to reflect variations in the lunar and solar cycles was done by the ancients. The Athenian calendar, he said, was used in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries with 12 lunar months.

That didn’t work for seasonal religious rites. The drift problem led to “intercalating” an extra month periodically to realign with lunar and solar cycles, Palaima said.

The Julian calendar was 0.0078 days (11 minutes and 14 seconds) longer than the tropical year, so errors in timekeeping still gradually accumulated, according to NASA. But stability increased, Palaima said.

The Julian calendar was the model used by the Western world for hundreds of years. Enter Pope Gregory XIII, who calibrated further. His Gregorian calendar took effect in the late 16th century. It remains in use today and, clearly, isn’t perfect or there would be no need for leap year. But it was a big improvement, reducing drift to mere seconds.

Why did he step in? Well, Easter. It was coming later in the year over time, and he fretted that events related to Easter like the Pentecost might bump up against pagan festivals. The pope wanted Easter to remain in the spring.

He eliminated some extra days accumulated on the Julian calendar and tweaked the rules on leap day. It’s Pope Gregory and his advisers who came up with the really gnarly math on when there should or shouldn’t be a leap year.

“If the solar year was a perfect 365.25 then we wouldn’t have to worry about the tricky math involved,” Eakes said.

Bizarrely, leap day comes with lore about women popping the marriage question to men. It was mostly benign fun, but it came with a bite that reinforced gender roles.

There’s distant European folklore. One story places the idea of women proposing in fifth century Ireland, with St. Bridget appealing to St. Patrick to offer women the chance to ask men to marry them, according to historian Katherine Parkin in a 2012 paper in the Journal of Family History.

Nobody really knows where it all began.

In 1904, syndicated columnist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, aka Dorothy Dix, summed up the tradition this way: “Of course people will say … that a woman’s leap year prerogative, like most of her liberties, is merely a glittering mockery.”

The pre-Sadie Hawkins tradition, however serious or tongue-in-cheek, could have empowered women but merely perpetuated stereotypes. The proposals were to happen via postcard, but many such cards turned the tables and poked fun at women instead.

Advertising perpetuated the leap year marriage game. A 1916 ad by the American Industrial Bank and Trust Co. read thusly: “This being Leap Year day, we suggest to every girl that she propose to her father to open a savings account in her name in our own bank.”

There was no breath of independence for women due to leap day.

Being born in a leap year on a leap day certainly is a talking point. But it can be kind of a pain from a paperwork perspective. Some governments and others requiring forms to be filled out and birthdays to be stated stepped in to declare what date was used by leaplings for such things as drivers licenses, whether Feb. 28 or March 1.

Technology has made it far easier for leap babies to jot down their Feb. 29 milestones, though there can be glitches in terms of health systems, insurance policies and with other businesses and organization that don’t have that date built in.

There are about 5 million people worldwide who share the leap birthday out of about 8 billion people on the planet. Shelley Dean, 23, in Seattle, Washington, chooses a rosy attitude about being a leapling. Growing up, she had normal birthday parties each year, but an extra special one when leap years rolled around. Since, as an adult, she marks that non-leap period between Feb. 28 and March 1 with a low-key “whew.”

This year is different.

“It will be the first birthday that I’m going to celebrate with my family in eight years, which is super exciting, because the last leap day I was on the other side of the country in New York for college,” she said. “It’s a very big year.”

Eventually, nothing good in terms of when major events fall, when farmers plant and how seasons align with the sun and the moon.

“Without the leap years, after a few hundred years we will have summer in November,” said Younas Khan, a physics instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Christmas will be in summer. There will be no snow. There will be no feeling of Christmas.”

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Murder charges filed in Aug. 2023 Bishop Ford shooting

Illinois State Police revealed that charges have been filed in the shooting death of 30-year-old Travon Mackie, who was killed in an expressway shooting on the Bishop Ford freeway last year.

According to authorities, 32-year-old Calvin Woods was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 28, 2023 shooting.

Police were called to the scene of a multi-vehicle crash at approximately 7:27 p.m. on the inbound side of the Bishop Ford near Dolton Road.

Upon arrival, troopers found two crashed vehicles. Mackie was inside one of those vehicles, and was found to have suffered multiple gunshot wounds. He was later pronounced dead, police said.

Another vehicle was also located at the scene, but there was no one inside.

After several months of investigation, agents with the Illinois State Police determined that Woods had been in the vehicle at the time of the shooting, and identified him as a suspect in the killing.

Those agents, along with assistance from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, took Woods into custody Thursday.

He will face multiple charges of first-degree murder in the shooting, and is expected to appear in court for a pretrial detention hearing on Sunday.

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Missing Wisconsin boy was left with man for ‘disciplinary reasons,' prosecutor says

The search continues for a 3-year-old boy who was reported missing from a Wisconsin home last week, while prosecutors say that the boy’s mother has provided misleading information to authorities.

According to an AMBER Alert issued this week, Elijah Vue has been missing from Two Rivers, Wisconsin since Tuesday.

Authorities are continuing to search rivers and waterways in the area for his whereabouts in Manitowoc County, and local landfills and properties are also being searched.

Katrina Baur, identified as Elijah’s mother, allegedly left the child at the home of Jesse Vang for “disciplinary reasons,” according to prosecutors.

According to WTMJ in Milwaukee, the charging documents in the case remain sealed, but prosecutors read portions of the documents in open court Friday.

“She intentionally sent that child for disciplinary reasons for more than a week to the residence,” Jacalyn Labre, district attorney for Manitowoc County, told the court. “She was aware of the tactics used and the lack of care provided. This was an intentional thing by her.”

Prosecutors also allege that Baur made misleading statements to police about her whereabouts since Elijah went missing. Both Baur and Vang have been charged with child neglect, with more charges possible in the case.

Vue is described as having sandy-colored hair and brown eyes. He stands 3-feet tall and weighs 50 pounds. He was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a long-sleeve dark-colored shirt, red and green dinosaur shoes, and has a birth mark on his left knee.

Searches of rivers and waterways are underway in Manitowoc County in Wisconsin. Local landfills are being searched as well.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 911, or to call Two Rivers police at 844-267-6648.  

Police also say that there has been a “fake video” showing the recovery of a minor by officers, but that the video does not depict Elijah.

As a result, officers are warning the public not to fall victim to financial scams surrounding the case.

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See the best red carpet looks from the 2024 SAG Awards

The 30th Screen Actors Guild Awards has rolled out its glamorous red carpet at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

It is the perfect awards night weather in Los Angeles and your favorite stars are out and about flashing their fashion choices as they walk the 2024 SAG Awards red carpet.

This is the first time the ceremony will be streamed live on Netflix to celebrate and recognize outstanding performances in the movie and prime-time television.

As the celebrities continue to roll in, we will keep updating, so be sure to refresh often.

SAG Awards Jan 10

Nominations announced for the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Taylor Swift Jan 27

SAG-AFTRA slams digital fakes of Taylor Swift and George Carlin

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Chicago police continue search for gunman who killed security guard at Family Dollar in Austin

Chicago police detectives returned to the Austin neighborhood Saturday afternoon investigating a shooting inside a Family Dollar that killed 43-year-old Loyce Wright on Friday.

“He was a good guy, he was cool, he would talk to you, ask you how you’re doing, made jokes,” customer Marquis Markey told NBC Chicago.

The father of four was working security at the store Friday afternoon when police said a gunman walked in and shot him multiple times. Police haven’t said what led to the shooting. Witnesses telling police the gunman said something before opening fire.

“He can’t even work. He lost his life. The kids lost their father,” Markey said. “It’s kind of like pointless violence.”

The Family Dollar remains closed Saturday. Customers stopped by to find the doors locked and remnants of police tape.

“I was really surprised because as far as I know, he was a really nice guy,” customer Bernard Reese said.

Reese works across the street at New Greater True Light Missionary Baptist Church.

“People need more God and less violence,” Reese said. “But that’s up to them.”

He’s been to the Family Dollar many times before and would often see Wright working at the front door. He said he’s hurting for Wright’s family and praying for the killer to be caught.

“If they don’t know God, I wish they would get to know God,” he said. “Because they’re really going to need him.”

A person of interest has not been identified. Detectives are still investigating.

Family Dollar issued a statement to NBC Chicago about the incident: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic incident that occurred at one of our Family Dollar stores in Chicago on Friday. We are cooperating with local authorities as they investigate the crime. Out of respect for the family’s privacy, no further comment will be offered at this time.”

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Illinois judge who reversed rape conviction removed from bench after panel finds he circumvented law

An Illinois judge who sparked outrage by reversing a man’s rape conviction involving a 16-year-old girl has been removed from the bench after a judicial oversight body found he circumvented the law and engaged in misconduct.

The Illinois Courts Commission removed Adams County Judge Robert Adrian from the bench Friday after it held a three-day hearing in Chicago in November on a compliant filed against Adrian.

Its decision says Adrian “engaged in multiple instances of misconduct” and “abused his position of power to indulge his own sense of justice while circumventing the law.”

The commission could have issued a reprimand, censure or suspension without pay, but its decision said it had “ample grounds” for immediately removing Adrian from the bench in western Illinois’ Adams County.

In October 2021, Adrian had found then 18-year-old Drew Clinton of Taylor, Michigan, guilty of sexual assaulting a 16-year-old girl during a May 2021 graduation party.

The state Judicial Inquiry Board filed a complaint against Adrian after the judge threw out Clinton’s conviction in January 2022, with the judge saying that the 148 days Clinton had spent in jail was punishment enough.

The complaint said Adrian had acknowledged he was supposed to impose the mandatory four-year sentence against Clinton, but that he would not send him to prison. “That is not just,” Adrian said at the sentencing hearing, according to court transcripts. “I will not do that.”

Clinton was accused of sexually assaulting Cameron Vaughan. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.

Vaughan told The Associated Press in November, when she was 18, that Adrian’s reversal of Clinton’s verdict left her “completely shocked” but determined to oust the judge. She attended the November commission proceedings with family, friends and supporters.

After Adrian threw out Clinton’s conviction, Vaughan said that the judge told the court “this is what happens whenever parents allow teenagers to drink alcohol, to swim in pools with their undergarments on,” she recounted in an account supported by a court transcript of the January 2022 hearing.

Adrian’s move sparked outrage in Vaughn’s hometown of Quincy, Illinois, and beyond, with the prosecutor in the case saying that her “heart is bleeding for the victim.”

Vaughan told the Chicago Tribune following Friday’s decision removing Adrian that she was “very happy that the commission could see all the wrong and all the lies that he told the entire time. I’m so unbelievably happy right now. He can’t hurt anybody else. He can’t ruin anyone else’s life.”

When reached by phone Friday, Adrian told the Chicago Tribune that the commission’s decision to remove him is “totally a miscarriage of justice. I did what was right. I’ve always told the truth about it.”

Adams County court records show that Clinton’s guilty verdict was overturned because prosecutors had failed to meet the burden of proof to prove Clinton guilty.

But in Friday’s decision, the commission wrote that it found Adrian’s claim that “he reversed his guilty finding based on his reconsideration of the evidence and his conclusion that the State had failed to prove its case to be a subterfuge — respondent’s attempt to justify the reversal post hoc.”

Clinton cannot be tried again for the same crime under the Fifth Amendment. A motion to expunge Clinton’s record was denied in February 2023.

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Elmhurst woman sheds light on experience with Stiff Person Syndrome as Celine Dion's battle raises awareness

An Elmhurst wife and mom of three teens, Moira Papp can says she has something in common with global icon Celine Dion. They both suffer from Stiff Person Syndrome or SPS, a rare chronic autoimmune neurological disorder.

For Papp, SPS impacts how she moves.

“I’m a fall risk. I’m on a walker 24/7,” Papp said. “It takes me probably tripled the amount of time to do anything.”

Papp also suffers from slurred speech, another side effect of the disorder. What hasn’t been impacted is Papp’s sense of humor.

“The slurring is a new gift. I’m gonna call it a gift, but it happens. It’s neurological,” said Papp.

Papp was one of many people stunned on Feb. 4, 2024, when Celine Dion appeared on stage to present one of the Grammy Awards.

“It was a big secret. But I kind of know why. Because she might have had a bad day and had to cancel,” Papp said.

Papp said she was in awe of how Dion looked on stage, but she says some in the SPS community were also concerned Dion’s appearance did not convey the seriousness of the disease.

“Right now, look at me. I mean, I’m happy. I’m out and about. People probably say, ‘She looks fine.’ But the amount of effort it takes me to shower, it takes me to get to sleep at night,” Papp said.

Coinciding with the Grammys appearance came the news that an upcoming documentary capturing Celine Dion’s daily life with SPS will be released in the future.

“Having that documentary air, people are just going to know and learn this disease,” said Dr. Amanda Piquet, Autoimmune Neurology Program Director at the University of Colorado.

Called “Stiff-man Syndrome” when it was first described by doctors in 1956, it was renamed after doctors recognized if affects more women than men.

Some estimates say SPS impacts one in a million people, but the exact number is unclear, as SPS is difficult to diagnose.

We need to, as a field, define the disease better, diagnose this disease better. And with the recognition now that this disease is getting, that will help and that will move the field forward with clinical trials,” Piquet said.

Since her diagnosis in 2021, Papp has worked with The Stiff Person Syndrome Research Foundation to help create a patient registry to help turn data into research.

“The rare disease world is fascinating. So I’m learning. It’s not like I’m sitting back just waiting for someone to do it. There isn’t anyone to do it, so I’ll do it,” Papp said.

Physical therapy and weekly infusion have helped tamper Papp’s muscle spasms. Set to celebrate her 56^th birthday in March, she remains optimistic.

“There can be a cure for this if we get the right information in the right hands,” Papp said.

Papp created an organization called “Moira’s Mission” to raise awareness. The group is hosting an inaugural fundraiser in Elmhurst on March 3, 2024.

“A Fight to Find a Cure for SPS” benefit and fundraiser will be held from 12 to 5 p.m. at Stage 119, located at 119 Commerce Avenue in Elmhurst.

For more information, click here.

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Welcome to ‘WcDonald's': New menu items, ‘immersive dining' and manga-inspired art

Your local McDonald’s might look and feel a little bit different over the next few weeks — from the “Mc” in “Donald,” all the way down to the packaging on menu items.

Starting this month, participating McDonald’s locations around the world will be getting a mini-makeover inspired by anime lovers, a press release from the Chicago-based burger chain says. The manga-inspired takeover, cheekily called “WcDonalds” — with upside-golden arches — alludes to how the chain is seen in some of anime’s most iconic movies and shows, the release added.

“Anime is a huge part of today’s culture, and we love that our fans have been inviting us into the conversation for years,” McDonald’s USA Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Tariq Hassan, said in the release. “The WcDonald’s universe is a reflection of what fans have created. It honors their vision and celebrates their creativity, while authentically bringing it to life in our restaurants for the first time ever.”

The transformation begins Feb. 26, officials said. It will last through March 18.

WcDonald’s new menu items and an ‘immersive dining experience’

Some new menu items will be part of the pop-up, including “Savory Chili WcDonald’s Sauce,” meant to be paired with WcNuggets (also known as Chicken McNuggets), the release said.

At one McDonald’s location, an “immersive dining experience” will be held, the release said, inspired by the “isekai anime subgenre.”

According to officials, the “WcDonald’s Immersive Dining Experience” will be held March 9 and 10 in Los Angeles. The dining experience will be “multi-sensory,” and “a genre-bending fusion of entertainment and food,” the release added.

“Guests will be transported into the WcDonald’s universe through 360 projection mapping and immersive tabletop projections inspired by the four WcDonald’s anime episodic shorts – all while enjoying a set menu of WcDonald’s items,” the release said. Reservations can be made on OpenTable, beginning Feb. 28.

What will look different

As part of the transformation, McDonald’s teamed up with Japanese magna artist/illustrator Acky Bright, to create and design customer WcDonald’s packaging on menu items. Additionally, for a limited time, customers will receive manga-inspired packaging featuring WcDonald’s Crew characters, sketched by Acky himself, the release said.

McDonald’s has also partnered with animation house Studio Pierrot to produce the first official WcDonald’s anime — four episodic shorts about WcDonald’s Sauce and WcNuggets.

Each Monday, starting Feb. 26 until March 18, the following shorts — which honor Action, Romance, Mecha and Fantasy, four of anime’s biggest subgenres — will drop on WcDonalds.com or via the code on the WcDonald’s bag:

• The Race to WcDonald’s: Dropping Feb. 26, this short covers a rivalry strong enough to withstand the test of time as our two heroes embark on an epic race to WcDonald’s.
• Love from Across the Booth: Dropping March 4, the two protagonists discover that WcDonald’s Sauce and WcNuggets aren’t the only perfect pairing.
• WcNuggets Space Frontier 3000: Dropping March 11, this short covers a team of WcDonald’s pilots who must protect the last WcNugget against an ominous force.
• The Wisdom of the Sauce: Dropping March 18, this short is about three women who are transported to a distant land to unravel a mystery surrounding WcDonald’s elusive sauce before it’s gone forever.

McDonald's Feb 4

McDonald’s is promising its ‘Best Burger.’ Now the chain will see if diners buy more of them

McDonald's Dec 8, 2023

New McDonald’s spinoff restaurant CosMc’s officially opens in a Chicago suburb

McDonald's Feb 5

McDonald’s announces return date for iconic Shamrock Shake, Oreo Shamrock McFlurry

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