1.That Will Be a No for 2026

The plebiscite vote for the 2026 Olympics went down yesterday and at the end of the day the vote came back 43.6% for and 56.4% against. The vote isn’t binding but the decisive results show what Calgarians want, or don’t want in this case. Now that they have the voter’s opinion, Calgary’s council will likely formally halt the city’s bidding process on Monday. Due to the financial burden that the Olympics bring to the host city as well as the awareness of past failures.

This time around with only a few cities left in the bid, the IOC Committee put more effort into selling the Games. Representatives visited Calgary numerous times in recent months, visiting town halls and media interviews. Now that Calgary is out, there are only two bids left: Stockholm and a joint Italian bid. Both of those bids are facing significant internal political hurdles. The backup if both of those cities drop out is Salt Lake City. They hosted the Olympics in 2002 and Utah has the genuine enthusiasm to do it again, unlike the other bid cities. The Utah governor has already signed off on it. It is now just a waiting game to see where the 2026 Games will land.

2. Northern California Fire

The death toll has climbed to 48 in the Northern California fire as forensic teams comb through the destroyed landscape. The wildfire disaster has already been ranked as the most deadly and destructive in the State’s history. 100 National Guard troops and cadaver dogs have combined through the Sierra foothills about 280km north of San Francisco for human remains. The amp up in search crews was an effort to locate victims on the sixth day of the fire which destroyed more than 7,600 homes and almost 900 other buildings and most of Paradise. There are still 50,000 area residents are under evacuation orders. A lawsuit has been filed against Pacific Gas & Electric Co for causing the massive blaze. The lawsuit accuses the utility of failing to maintain its infrastructure and properly inspect and manage its power transmission lines.

In Southern California, firefighters have made progress against a massive blaze that has killed two people in Malibu and destroyed more than 400 structures. 100,000 people have been evacuated in that area.

3. Stan Lee Forever

Fans were shocked and saddened by the passing of Stan Lee, 95, earlier this week The driving force behind Marvel and all our favourite Avenger movies, he will also be remembered for his many cameos in various Marvel films and TV series. Apparently, he has already shot his cameo scenes for the upcoming Avengers movie that will be released in May. Captain Marvel finished filming in early March which means he will also have a cameo in that film when it comes out. Lee died early Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family representative told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created,” Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “A superhero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart.”

4. Amazon HQ2

Amazon has announced that it chose its location for its HQ 2.0 after a year of hype. It chose not one, but two locations: Long Island City in New York City’s Queens borough and National Landing (a new name for the Crystal City neighborhood) in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, DC. Each place is expected to land 25,000 well-paid jobs. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. Two locations will be less straining on local infrastructure, traffic, rent and provide a big economic benefit for both locations.

Amazon also announced that they are opening a 5,000-person “center of excellence” for its operations business in Nashville. All three locations are offering Amazon money for job incentives so that each position opening with a salary of $150,000. The HQ2 is another step in the expansion plans for Amazon including retail into entertainment, health care, cloud computing, robotics and artificial intelligence.

5. JUUL

The CEO of Juul, Kevin Burns announced on Tuesday that they will be eliminating some of social media accounts and halt most retail sales of flavor products as part of a plan to restrict access to minors. This comes after the FDA announced in September that it will begin investigating major e-cigarette makers and review their sales and marketing practices to limit the youth market. “To remove ourselves entirely from participation in the social conversation, we have decided to shut down our U.S.-based social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram,” he wrote. “Our presence on Twitter will be confined to non-promotional communications only.”

Juul has vowed to stop selling flavoured pods to all 90,000-plus retail stores. Even though the restrictions will be put in place, how your people will respond. The problem that authorities are having with Juul is it is so small and sleek that people can use it anywhere, even where vaping is not allowed. Research shows that this is happening all the way down to elementary schools.

Kevin Burns said he believes his company and the FDA have a common goal: “We want to be the off-ramp for adult smokers to switch from cigarettes, not an on-ramp for America’s youth to initiate on nicotine.”