Sat: Americans Seem to Be Sadder, Budweiser

Americans Seem to Be Sadder, Budweiser

It wasn't just Bud Light.

The past year saw the lowest level of beer consumed in the U.S. in a generation, according to industry group Beer Marketer's Insights, as consumers shifted away from traditional favorites to other forms of alcohol — and in a growing number of cases, avoiding alcoholic beverages altogether.

"It was a tough year for beer," said David Steinman, BMI vice president and executive editor.

For the first time since 1999, he said, beer shipments were on track to fall below 200 million barrels.

Leading the decline, Steinman said, was Anheuser Busch. But while the Bud Light-maker caught headlines over a sponsorship agreement with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that subsequently led to a boycott among some longtime drinkers, the protest does not explain why overall consumption still managed to fall, Steinman said.

Instead, Anheuser Busch was at the forefront of an acceleration in the long-term decline of so-called domestic-premium brands, which include Bud Light and rivals Miller Light and Coors Light, Steinman said. Anheuser Busch, owned by global conglomerate AB InBev, also suffered from a decline in hard seltzers — a category in which it has long dominated.

If You're a Republican Today, You Have No Brains and No Heart

More than 13 million people lost Medicaid coverage this year, with Texas an epicenter of the 'unwinding'

As of Dec. 20, at least 13 million people had been disenrolled from Medicaid in 2023, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit group focused on health policy. Net enrollment in the program (given that some people were newly enrolled or have re-enrolled) has dropped by around 7.8 million, according to an analysis by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

"This is huge. We’ve never seen a decline like this," said Joan Alker, the center’s executive director.

Just over 70% of Medicaid disenrollments in states with available data were for procedural reasons, such as missing paperwork, the KFF analysis found.

Losing coverage can have life-or-death consequences, even if it is eventually restored.

Putin Has a New Year's Message for Ukraine Written in Blood.  The QOP Will Ignore It.

Russia has launched the biggest air attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian military told CNN, with an unprecedented number of drones and missiles fired at targets across the country, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 150 others.

The wave of attacks began overnight into Friday and struck nationwide, with blasts reported in the capital Kyiv, as well as at a maternity hospital in the central city of Dnipro, the eastern city of Kharkiv, the southeastern port of Odesa, and the western city of Lviv, far from the frontlines.

The strikes continued Friday afternoon, Ukraine’s air force said, as a barrage of missiles targeted the northern Cherkasy region, with one hitting the city of Smilla. Other missiles were detected from Russia’s Kursk region heading towards the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy.

“It’s been a long time since we have seen so many enemy targets on our monitors in all regions and all directions,” Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, told national television. “Everything was being fired.”

Google Sees You When You're Sleeping.  They Know When You're Awake

Google has agreed to settle a $5 billion privacy lawsuit alleging that it spied on people who used the “incognito” mode in its Chrome browser — along with similar “private” modes in other browsers — to track their internet use.

The class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 said Google misled users into believing that it wouldn’t track their internet activities while using incognito mode. It argued that Google's advertising technologies and other techniques continued to catalog details of users' site visits and activities despite their use of supposedly “private” browsing.

Plaintiffs also charged that Google's activities yielded an “unaccountable trove of information” about users who thought they'd taken steps to protect their privacy.
The settlement, reached Thursday, must still be approved by a federal judge. Terms weren’t disclosed, but the suit originally sought $5 billion on behalf of users; lawyers for the plaintiffs said they expect to present the court with a final settlement agreement by Feb. 24.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.

Judge denies bail for activists known as the 'Justice 8'

A group of California activists, arrested following a sprawling multi-agency investigation into their alleged actions at protests, are seeking justice after a judge recently denied bail to a number of them -- a move that sparked outcry from the community.

Officials alleged that the group, dubbed by supporters as the "Justice 8" after they were arrested, were responsible for a "brutal assault" on a motorist at a Victorville protest in September "and other violent acts during protests in San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties." Attorneys for the activists deny the allegations.

San Bernardino County officials allege that instead of social justice, the group used manipulation and racism to stage videos for clicks and profit. The activists face several charges including assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and conspiracy.

Those being charged are David Chavez, Edwin Peña, Stephanie Amesquita, Fernando Lopez, Vanessa Carrasco, Gullit Acevedo, Wendy Lujan, and Edin "Alex" Enamorado. Their next court appearance is Jan. 3.

Enamorado became known as a social media influencer, gaining hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram for helping street vendors in Los Angeles who were targets of racism, hate and violence. The seven other activists are also known in the community for their support of street vendors.

In a press conference following the arrests on Dec. 14, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon D. Dicus painted a different picture of the activists.

"What this group does is not protected by the First Amendment. It's illegal to assault someone who doesn't agree with you," Sheriff Dicus said.
But civil rights attorney Christian Contreras said at a conference on Dec. 18 that the group is being targeted for its activism. Protests in support of the activists have also been growing.

"San Bernardino County and these law enforcement agencies are criminalizing First Amendment activity. They are criminalizing the right to protest," Contreras said.

ABC News station KABC in Los Angeles reported that the Victorville protest took place on Sept. 24 after public outrage over a video showing a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputy allegedly using excessive force on a teenage girl.

Leslie Espina, who is married to activist Peña, said she was at the protest and witnessed a "car driving super recklessly ... almost [running] over a handful of the protesters," she said.

Seven of the activists have been accused of assaulting the motorist.

When asked by ABC News about the driver of the vehicle, Mara Rodriguez, a San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Public Information officer, responded: "The driver and passenger in the vehicle you are speaking of are victims in this case and were not arrested or cited."

Nicholas Rosenberg, the criminal defense attorney representing Enamorado, told ABC News that the criminal report by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department is "not very specific" when it comes to detailing the alleged "assault." "I can tell you that the sheriff's report is written from the point of view that the driver of the car did nothing wrong, and that's really concerning," Rosenberg said.