Dem debate recap

Twelve Democratic presidential candidates faced off on a debate stage in Ohio last night – if you’re in need of a recap just click on the links below. There are just two debates left before the end of the year and six more in 2020, with increasingly difficult thresholds for candidates to qualify.

Impeachment inquiry update

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, said yesterday that he would not comply with a congressional subpoena requesting Ukraine-related documents. Vice President Mike Pence’s attorney also sent a letter to the House Intelligence Committee yesterday saying he will not turn over documents requested by the committee.

Russian deployment

Russian troops moved into Northern Syria yesterday, patrolling the line between Turkish and Syrian troops in the border region. This comes a day after the United States announced a full withdrawal from the area.

All bets are on

Barring any last minute setbacks, the Oregon Lottery will launch Scoreboard, a mobile sports betting app for in-state users, later today. This makes Oregon one of 12 states that offers legal sports betting via an app, and lottery officials are predicting the platform will bring in $5 million in gross revenue on $300 million in bets placed its first year.

Special delivery

Walmart’s InHome Delivery service launched in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Vero Beach (FL) yesterday. First announced in June, the service will allow Walmart delivery drivers to enter the customer’s home and place groceries directly in the fridge.

A new chapter

Following Fortnite’s season ending in-game event Sunday, Epic Games launched ‘Chapter 2’ of its battle royale game yesterday. Per Reuters, the game has 13 new locations as well as new places to hide, characters can swim, fish and ride motorboats, and a host of new avatars and guns are available.

Casinos Royale

MGM Resorts is offloading two of its Las Vegas casinos in two separate deals amounting to a little over $5 billion. The entertainment giant is selling the Circus Circus for $825 million to an associate of Phil Ruffin (Treasure Island owner) and the Bellagio to private equity firm Blackstone Group for $4.2 billion cash – as part of the deal, MGM will retain a 5% stake and continue to operate the hotel and casino, as well as lease the venue from Blackstone for $245 million per year.

Game of Life

At 24 years old, Lual Mayen is the CEO of his own gaming company that raises money to support refugees. That fact alone is impressive – but the road he’s taken to get there is more complex than most of us can ever imagine.

When a massacre decimated Lual’s hometown in Sudan in the early 1990s, his parents were forced to flee. Despite being displaced for years in a refugee camp, Lual’s mother was dedicated to her children’s education, and was able to save up for a laptop for Lual. He made a three-hour trek each day to charge the computer and teach himself to use it, and before long, he’d built the first prototype for a game his company hopes to have up and running by December of this year.

The game, called Salaam, allows users to experience the complications of life living as a refugee. By allowing in-game purchases of food or other supplies, it also raises money for nonprofits that support refugees. Lual hopes that through the game, people will begin to understand peace in a new way – creating a new generation that can overcome the kinds of conflicts that he grew up in the midst of. “Peace is something that is built over time,” Lual said. “It’s a change of mindset. It’s a change of attitude toward each other.”

The Race to Space Mountain

The Ocean City High School cross country team’s trip to Orlando for the Disney Cross Country Classic was two years in the making when their flight last weekend was delayed for three hours, and then canceled. Desperate to make it in time for a meet that the team had tirelessly fundraised for, the team’s coaches ran around the Philadelphia airport looking for an airline – any airline – to help them out.

Meanwhile, some of the 79-member team of athletes took to Twitter to look for help. And just when the coaches were ready to give up, a Delta representative approached the team. They’d seen the team’s tweets and had a plan to get them to the competition.

It wasn’t an easy feat – TSA had to reopen for the team’s 3:30am flight and Delta had to send a plane exclusively for them from Atlanta. But in a logistical miracle, the team made it to Orlando. Just seven hours after landing in Florida, the boys and girls varsity and junior varsity teams raced – and came away with two first-place finishes, one second-place finish, and a fourth-place finish.