Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Jimmy Kimmel makes a move, a picnic table gets a motor

Mary Dooe Aug 22, 2012
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One Canadian man recently decided to add a motor to an everyday picnic table like the one pictured here. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Mid-day Update

PODCAST: Jimmy Kimmel makes a move, a picnic table gets a motor

Mary Dooe Aug 22, 2012
One Canadian man recently decided to add a motor to an everyday picnic table like the one pictured here. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

After nearly two decades of negotiations, Russia is now officially a member of the World Trade Organization. It’s an economic boon for Russia.

Greece has officially asked for more time to make financial reforms required by its bailout agreement with Europe. European markets closed down around a percent across the continent. Asian markets fell as well: In Japan, falling exports to Europe and China pushed the country into a much-larger-than expected trade deficit.

RBS is the latest British bank to face questions about violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. According to the Financial Times, RBS itself brought the concerns to U.S. and U.K. regulators.

This morning, clean-air regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency are confronting a court decision that went against them. A federal appeals court has rolled back new EPA rules designed to cut emissions from coal-based power plants.

You’ve come a long way, baby — and apparently, it’s really stressing you out. A new study from the University of Sheffield in the U.K. found women get four times more stressed out than men on their daily commutes. Women were more likely to add errands on the way to and from work like food shopping and picking up children. But even the single ladies with flexible hours suffered more mental anguish than their male counterparts.

Publicly-supported Amtrak has been financially off the rails for years. So how is it that a purely private rail line is steaming ahead with a route from Miami to Orlando? Florida East Coast Industries aims to get its one billion dollar rail line, All Aboard Florida, running by 2014.

Late night TV is about to go where it’s never gone before. ABC says starting in 2013 it’s moving Jimmy Kimmel Live a half hour earlier, to compete head-to-head with Letterman and Leno. For decades that slot has been held by Nightline. The news show will move to Kimmel’s old, later slot — though there will be a new Nightline primetime show as a sort of consolation prize. For more on the move we’ve got Marc Berman, editor in chief at TV Media Insights. Good to talk with you.

Someone whose love of beer got him into a bit of trouble. One guy in Canada strapped four wheels and a lawn-mower engine to his picnic table, and take it for a spin through town. It’s not strictly illegal, at least not in London, Ontario. Just don’t go picnic-table joyriding with an open container of booze in your hand. They can get you for that.

 

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