The marquees along the iconic Las Vegas Strip will go dark Monday night to mark the first anniversary of a gunman’s rampage that killed 58 people at an open-air country music festival.

The solemn event is one of several scheduled to mark the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history that saw more than 400 other people wounded by bullets fired from a high-rise hotel room. Hundreds more were injured while fleeing the chaotic scene.

“A lot of people have probably put it out of their minds,” said Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who led a fund drive that raised millions for victims. “The anniversary is going to bring up a lot of feelings, good and bad.”

Thousands of music fans were gathered on the Strip for the Route 91 Harvest Festival, listening to Jason Aldean wrapping up the night’s show. Stephen Paddock was holed up in a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino complex.

At 10:05 p.m. Paddock began firing down on the crowd. The next 10 minutes were a blur of fear and panic as victims tumbled while survivors scrambled to elude the onslaught.

The shooting stopped at 10:15. More than 1,000 rounds of ammunition had been fired. It would be more than an hour later that officers swarmed the room, finding Paddock dead on the floor of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

More: Doctor faces discipline over Las Vegas shooter’s drug records

More: Outrage over MGM Resorts’ decision to sue victims of massacre

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, following a 10-month investigation, announced that authorities could not determine a motive for the carnage. The FBI is still trying to find one.

“A lot of the feeling among people is more, ‘Let’s move on,’” community activist Pauline Ng Lee said. “We don’t have a lot of long traditions here. You can see it with buildings. Casinos come up, casinos get knocked down. People tend to look forward, not back.”

But for now the city is looking back. The police department is hosting a sunrise remembrance ceremony Monday, and a few hours later a prayer vigil is set for City Hall. On Monday evening a new remembrance wall will be dedicated. Later, the Strip will go dark at 10:01 p.m., and other areas of the city are expected to turn out their lights as well.

At 10:05, a somber reading of the names of victims will take place at the Community Healing Garden, a memorial site downtown.

Gov. Brian Sandoval ordered flags across the state to fly at half staff on Monday.

“The people of Nevada will never forget this tragic day, and hold the victims of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in their thoughts and prayers,” Sandoval said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

 

 

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The restaurant industry is battling to keep kitchens full and tables served as chains struggle to find people willing to work.

“I do believe moving forward the biggest challenge in the industry is going to be the war for talent,” Gene Lee, the CEO of Olive Garden parent company Darden, said in a recent call with investors.

Lee isn’t alone in his concerns. Dunkin’ Donuts executives have been discussing the problem for years, with former CEO Nigel Travis saying that a franchisee told him he could only fill 60% of the positions he needed.

Analysts are also calling a lack of employees one of the biggest problems in the restaurant industry today.

“You’ve got an environment where, really, the economy is strong,” BTIG analyst Peter Saleh told Business Insider. “People are trading up into better jobs. There aren’t as many employees or capable employees to do the jobs these companies need.”

Unemployment is low, at 3.9% in August. Despite the tight labor market, restaurants still rely on workers to wait on customers, make food, clean locations, and much more. If positions cannot be filled with qualified employees, it is difficult for executives’ big-picture strategies to actually succeed.

“For some brands, it’s actually capping their sales potential,” said John Hamburger, the founder of industry trade publication Franchise Times Corp.

“If you can’t find enough people to fill a shift, you just can’t possibly do the potential volume of what some of these restaurants are supposed to be doing,” Hamburger continued. “There’s a lot of brands that are having a lot of trouble trying to find workers.”

‘If you want a job, you have a job.’

Jeff Chiu/AP Images

In 2018, workers have the option to simply opt out of fast-food jobs instead of being stuck flipping burgers at minimum wage.

“For the first time in the history of the world, if you want a job, you have a job,” Mizuho analyst Jeremy Scott said, referencing Uber drivers specifically.

The gig economy may not provide health care, but it can be an appealing alternative for people choosing between working in a fast-food kitchen and having the freedom of picking their hours and driving their own vehicle. And, with retail giants like Macy’s, Target, and Walmart desperate for seasonal workers, there are also plenty of more traditional options for people who are dissatisfied at fast-food jobs.

“The labor market is getting tighter and tighter,” Saleh said. “There are less folks willing to take those, call it, ‘starter’ jobs or ‘lower-end’ jobs.”

The brands that will likely be hit hardest by the war for talent are the chains where workers are already unhappy, UBS analyst Dennis Geiger wrote in a February note to clients.

UBS Evidence Lab’s analysis of Glassdoor data found that Wendy’s, Sonic, and KFC had the lowest employee satisfaction ratings in 2017. McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Brands were also poorly rated.

These chains are scrambling to find solutions. A number of companies used tax breaks earlier this year to give workers bonuses or provide new benefits, such as training and education opportunities.

Another solution is to simply cut the positions that chains are struggling to fill. When it is almost impossible to hire competent workers, replacing roles such as cashiers with robots likely becomes not only appealing, but necessary.

“The only way to truly deal with this is to reduce the number of labor hours that are required to run your concept,” Saleh said.

Image: warner bros

Everyone has a friend who knows not to run upstairs when they should be running out the front door.

I’m talking the horror movie fan in your life, who’s so similar to Randy Meeks from Scream or Marty Mikalski from Cabin in the Woods they’ll never, ever investigate a basement or deep, dark forest with you. 

This is the friend who knows “the rules” — they will tell you not to pick up the phone, not to have sex (“sex equals death”), never drink or do drugs, and never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, say “I’ll be right back.” 

You won’t be back.

So they’ve saved your ass a few times from a rampant serial killer during a senseless bloodbath. Time to get ‘em a gift! Here are a few ideas that’ll make them happier than a creep calling from inside the house.

A red balloon

Leave that floating sucker near a storm drain and your horror-loving friend will absolutely love It.

A Hereditary-style dollhouse

Want to really impress your modern horror-loving pal? If they’ve seen the unforgettably disturbing Hereditary, why not scare the hell out of them with a creepy dollhouse? You can pick up dollhouses from toy stores, both online and off, and take the opportunity to fashion a little true-to-life scene or two within its haunted halls. 

A Ouija board

OK, so Ouija boards have single-handedly kickstarted countless nightmares from The Exorcist to Paranormal Activity, so why not bring those demonic, murderous pals into your own existence? 

A good, old-fashioned security camera

Want to catch ghosts blasting through your cupboards, leaving little witch crosses outside your tent, and possessing your girlfriend? Nothing better than the gift of a security camera to record your own supernatural demise. Keep them going all night long — you won’t want to miss the moment when one of your family members gets dragged into a cellar by an unseen shadowy thing. Right? Action!

A television set that doesn’t ever find reception

Hey, everyone loves a flickering television screen, especially fans of The Ring. So why not find an old television set that doesn’t quite get reception, except for when you hit play on a mysterious, freaky, arthouse-looking VHS tape that’s been left here. Weird. Put both of your hands on the screen for a real Poltergeist of a ride.

A cup of tea

Cheapskates can make their giftee a lovely cup of tea. Just keep stirring it, and stirring it, and stirring it, and stirring it until boom — the Sunken Place.

A mysterious book. It’s just a book, right?

Gather ye round for a whale of a tale, that’ll probably result in you being impaled! But seriously, a mysterious book, say, of a fun-loving pop-up romp starring your ol’ pal The Babadook, will float any horror lover’s boat. Just don’t let them read the last page, or you might find a less than happy ending.

A weekend away in a cabin in the woods

Breathe in that fresh air, enjoy that lack of phone signal, and relish the fact that no one will hear you scream! Book your stressed out giftee a casual weekend away in a quaint, isolated cabin in the woods, where the chances of prime relaxation, a flesh-eating virus outbreak, a homicidal spirit attack, or a machete-wielding hockey mask-wearing killer visit are super high. It’s the gift of a clear mind, and brain! Seriously, their brain may not make it back home.

A tricycle

Most efficient way to roll around hotel hallways, avoiding freaky twins and blood-filled elevators.

A creepy, old-timey doll

They’ll be your giftee’s friend forever and ever and ever and ever …

Three Bloody Marys, requested looking into a mirror at midnight

You know how this ends.

A Goosebumps board game

This is just a really good gift, guys.

The United Nations’ latest attempt to bring the warring sides in the Yemen conflict to the table failed last week when Houthi rebels did not make it to Geneva, blaming travel restrictions.

But the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has refused to give up and is hopeful that a new round of talks can now take place.

The UAE, which backs the Yemeni government, says it will “fully support” Griffiths’ efforts, with Yemen’s foreign minister saying his government is willing to recognise the Houthis as a political entity.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since the war began in 2015 and tens of thousands more are suffering from hunger and disease.

Presenter: Adrian Finighan 

Guests: 

Hussain  Al Bukhaiti – journalist based in the Yemeni capital Sanaa

Andreas Krieg – assistant professor at the King’s College London’s Defence Studies department 

Sabah Al-Khozai – lecturer at City of Bristol College, UK

Source: Al Jazeera News

In the end, dressing up as a bottle of Perrier sparkling water may not have been the biggest risk Kanye West took on “Saturday Night Live.”

As he wrapped up his “SNL” appearance, the rapper donned a red “Make America Great Again” hat and defended President Donald Trump, who said he heard that Kanye was “great.”

“He’s leading the charge!” Trump tweeted.

West capped off his curious musical guest gig, where he subbed for Ariana Grande, with a rambling rant after NBC’s broadcast ended. The impromptu speech was captured by Chris Rock, who posted it to Instagram Stories.

“Black man in America, supposed to keep what you’re feeling inside right now,” West sang softly. “All those Democrats. You know, it’s like the plan they did, uh, to take their fathers out the home and promote welfare. Does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan.”

Cast members stood behind him, stone-faced and looking at the ground, as a chorus of boos and a smattering of applause emanated from the audience.

In another video circulated on Twitter by hip-hop producer Mike Dean, West suggested the show’s producers didn’t want him to wear the MAGA hat on stage. “They bullied me backstage. They said, ‘Don’t go out there with that hat on.’” 

West noted that white people ask him, “‘How could you like Trump, he’s racist?’ Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”

“We need to have dialogue, not a diatribe,” West said, claiming that 90 percent of the news media, the TV industry, rappers and musicians are liberal. “It’s easy to make it seem like it’s so, so, so one-sided.”

He also reminded the crowd of his intention to run for president in 2020 – when Trump presumably intends to seek re-election.

On Sunday afternoon, Kanye tweeted: “there is no such thing as one sides. There’s infinite sides.”

Before tweeting appreciatively about West, Trump reminded his supporters that, “Like many, I don’t watch Saturday Night Live (even though I past hosted it) – no longer funny, no talent or charm. It is just a political ad for the Dems.”

More ‘SNL’: ‘Saturday Night Live’ taps Matt Damon to play an angry Brett Kavanaugh

Also: ‘Weekend Update’ unloads on Brett Kavanaugh, Republican senators

More: Kanye performs on ‘SNL’ as a Perrier bottle; Twitter has thoughts

 

 

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A steady trickle of revelations over the weekend indicates that the FBI’s supplemental background check into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is much more limited than previously known.

The original parameters, Republican lawmakers said, were that the inquiry should be constrained to “current credible” allegations against Kavanaugh and that it should be completed within one week.

But NBC News and The New York Times reported on Saturday that in addition to those limitations, Republicans and the White House gave the FBI a list of just four witnesses to interview.

Investigators have also reportedly not been permitted to scour certain records that could be critical to ascertaining the credibility of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

The FBI will probe aspects of sexual misconduct allegations made by all three women who have come forward against Kavanaugh, but it does not reportedly plan to directly question the third, Julie Swetnick, about her claims.

The White House counsel Don McGahn, who is in charge of guiding Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, is also directing the FBI on the scope of its background check.

“That seems like a clear conflict of interest,” said Carl Tobias, the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond and an expert on federal judicial selection.

Norm Eisen, who served as the Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform under President Barack Obama, said he helped vet “hundreds” of presidential nominees when he worked at the White House.

“Every one got an FBI background check,” he added. “We never told the FBI which witnesses they could and could not interview. It’s not just [Democrats] who want an investigation–so do Flake, Collins & Murkowski. But it must be a real one.”

He was referring to GOP Sens. Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, all of whom have expressed concerns about Kavanaugh’s nomination in light of the allegations against him. All three backed a one-week delay in the final vote in order for the FBI to investigate the claims.

But the way the investigation is currently being conducted, said Susan Hennessey, the managing editor of the national-security blog Lawfare, is a “sham.”

President Donald Trump disputed some of the reporting on Saturday night, tweeting that he wants the FBI “to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”

‘The FBI will do what the committee didn’t’

Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images

The four witnesses the FBI has been permitted to question so far are Deborah Ramirez, Mark Judge, Leland Keyser, and PJ Smyth.

Ramirez has accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a dorm-room party at Yale during the 1983-1984 school year.

And Ford said Judge, Keyser, and Smyth were present at a high school gathering in 1982 during which she alleges Kavanaugh assaulted her.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Ford said she was pushed into a bedroom from behind and that an inebriated Kavanaugh pinned her down on the bed, groped her over her clothes, and covered her mouth when she tried to yell for help. She said she was able to escape before things escalated.

Ford added that Judge, Kavanaugh’s longtime friend, was an eyewitness to the attack and was also intoxicated at the time. Keyser and Smyth say they do not recall such a gathering. Judge denies the incident occurred, and his and Keyser’s lawyers said this week that their clients are ready to fully cooperate with the FBI.

“The FBI will do what the committee didn’t and work to corroborate aspects of what Dr. Ford said,” said Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor in Chicago.

One of the first things the FBI will do, Cramer said, is talk to Judge, who was the only other eyewitness to the alleged assault.

Experts said that while the night of the alleged attack is etched in Ford’s memory, for other witnesses, it may have been like any other night, which could be why Judge and others who Ford says were there say they don’t recall the gathering.

But Ford testified to the committee that six to eight weeks after the assault, she ran into Judge at the Potomac Safeway, a local supermarket where he worked, and that Judge was uncomfortable and “looked a little bit ill” when he saw her. She added, during her testimony this week, that she believed she could be “much more helpful” in providing details about her alleged assault if she knew the exact date or time period that Judge worked at the supermarket.

NBC News reported that the FBI has not been authorized to pull Judge’s employment records.

“That is crazy,” Cramer said of the constraint. “If he worked at the store where Ford says she saw him, it would corroborate one part of her testimony. Albeit, that is not a critical element, but it adds to the mix. The flip side is also true: if Mark Judge never worked at the store, then it calls into question one part of Ford’s story.”

Ford’s allegation is at the center of the FBI’s background check, but Cramer said it’s critical for investigators to talk to witnesses in addition to the four people currently on the list, because it would help them establish a fact pattern about Kavanaugh’s behavior in high school and college.

“Drinking habits are something that are regularly explored as part of routine background checks (along with drugs),” said the former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa. “It probably came up in one of his earliest checks, but without indications that it resulted in harm to others would not have been pursued. Now that has changed.”

For instance, if the FBI spoke to multiple witnesses who said they frequently saw Kavanaugh drink heavily or black out, it could undercut a key part of his defense against the allegations. Specifically, Kavanaugh says he is certain he did not assault anyone, and does not ever recall doing so, because he never drank so much that he could have forgotten his actions.

But his high school yearbook appears to contain multiple references to partying and drinking that seem to contradict some of Kavanaugh’s statements, many of which were made under oath.

Saul Loeb/Getty Images

He said during his testimony that the term “Devil’s Triangle,” which shows up on his yearbook page and is slang for sex between two men and one woman, was a reference to a drinking game. Kavanaugh added that another comment in his yearbook that reads, “Judge — have you boofed yet?” referred to flatulence.

Kavanaugh also faced questions about two other yearbook entries, one that read “Georgetown vs. Louisville — Who Won That Game Anyway?” and another tha read “Orioles vs. Red Sox — Who Won Anyway?”

In both cases, Kavanaugh told Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, he didn’t know which team won each game not because he was drunk, but because he was having too much fun with his friends.

“By explicitly denying under oath that he ever drank to excess, which goes to his veracity and credibility with regard to Dr. Ford, he himself has made it a central issue,” Rangappa said. “Had he been transparent about it, that would likely not be the case.”

Many of Kavanaugh’s former classmates have since come forward to the media and said what Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee does not square with what they witnessed when they knew him in college.

None of those people are on the list of witnesses the FBI has been permitted to question.

Rangappa suggested this was a deliberate move on the part of Senate Republicans and the White House.

“This is why the [White House] doesn’t want the FBI to inquire about [Kavanaugh’s] drinking at Yale,” she said. “[Because] there are classmates ready to directly contradict him, which would open him up to perjuring himself to the Senate (and therefore a disqualifier separate and apart from the Ford allegation).”

Cramer agreed.

“There isn’t a finder of fact in the country that would hamstring investigators like this,” he said. “It would be comical if it wasn’t so important.”

Welcome, fall!

Autumn means lots of things, but most importantly for Hot Stuff, it means we can trade books on the beach for cozy reads snuggled under blankets (shhh, we’re pretending we don’t live in Southern California). It also brings a major milestone for this column: Next week marks the first anniversary of Hot Stuff. So happy birthday to us, and thanks to all of you who have stopped by every month for our top picks in romance-landia. We hope you enjoy spending time with these happily-ever-afters as much as we do.

This month’s selections offer a wide array of heroes, including football players, zookeepers, and vampire pirates (or vampirates!). There’s a healthy mix of angst, hilarity, and steaminess in the pages of all our picks, so read on for more.

Intercepted
By Alexa Martin
Review: Alexa Martin scores a touchdown of a debut with Intercepted, a witty rom-com set in the world of professional football players and their wives. Marlee Harper has been dating Chris Alexander since high school, doing her part as a WAG despite bitchy treatment from many other women for not having a ring on her finger. When she discovers Chris’ infidelity around the same time that former mind-blowing hook-up Gavin Pope comes into town as the new quarterback, Marlee’s life is upended as she tries to both find herself and form a new connection with a man she can’t resist. Martin is a hysterical writer, with a punchy, contemporary voice rife with pop culture references and belly-laugh-inducing hashtags. With Marlee, she has built an ambitious, self-confident woman who will inspire anyone looking for the inner strength to stand up for herself when the moment calls for it. Gavin is a hunky gift of a hero, tailor-made for readers who can’t resist a man in football pants (shout-out to Martin for calling particular emphasis to the general sexiness of that clothing item). Martin is married to a former NFL player, and she infuses her real-life experiences into everything from WAG lingo to the more sober realities of how trades, free agency, and CTE can affect not just players but the ones they love most. It’s this sense of insider knowledge that makes this sports romance sparklingly genuine. The drama between Marlee and Gavin feels slightly contrived and blown out of proportion, particularly given its rather abrupt resolution, which slightly lessens the delight of the happily-ever-after. And yet, Intercepted is so utterly charming, engrossing, and funny, it almost doesn’t matter. Reading Intercepted is like watching your football team win a blowout — there might not be a lot of emotional ups and downs, but overall, it’s still a pleasant, engaging experience. Spending time in Martin’s world is like having a heart-to-heart with your bestie, offering up plenty of moments for giggling with someone who just gets you, whether they’re trying to make you smile or build you up after a hard day. With its breezy sense of humor, you won’t be able to hide the grin this feel-good debut inspires.
Heat Rating: 
Grade: A-

Last Night With the Earl
By Kelly Bowen
Review: Award-winning author Kelly Bowen continues her Devils of Dover series with Last Night With the Earl. After Waterloo, Lord Eli Dawes was presumed dead, so when he returns to claim his inheritance unexpectedly and is discovered in the dead of night in Rose Hayward’s art studio, he leaves a lot of questions in his wake — not least of which is how Rose should handle her attraction to a man she believes once helped betray her. Bowen goes heavy on the angst here, never shying away from the emotional and physical damage her characters have faced. While historical romances set in this era have often ignored the effects of war, Bowen dives in, giving her hero an unsightly injury that has turned him from handsome duke to a man who believes his reflection is horrific. Dawes has conquered his PTSD in the years since Waterloo, but Bowen is still not afraid to take a hard look at the impact of war on our heroes. In contrast, Rose has suffered a devastating public humiliation, and Bowen similarly leans into the very real cost of reputation and gossipmongers on women’s lives in this time. With those high stakes, she builds a beautiful tale of two broken individuals who help each other find their way back to being whole. Rose and Dawes’ shared interest in art and painting leaps vividly off the page, and Bowen expertly crafts Rose’s skill as an artist and Dawes’ love of collecting as a powerful emotional through-line for them to build from. If you’re in any way a lover of Renaissance art, this book will feel unbearably romantic and sexy. Bowen’s ensemble offers a feminist character study in how to build a cast that is bursting with complex, nuanced women and men who are not only noble, but outright allies. Even her smallest supporting characters are engaging and well-drawn — if there’s not a future book featuring Ophelia and Lewis Linfield, I will be extremely dismayed. The only complaint is that for the vast emotional subtext she’s lent her characters, sometimes the biggest moments of conflict or reconciliation ring slightly hollow. Still, Last Night With the Earl pulses with a lush romanticism, and its central characters’ deep wounds give the text a palpable yearning that will sweep you up into Bowen’s world of compassionate souls who drop lines from Shakespeare and lose their s— at the sight of a Titian painting.
Heat Rating: 
Grade: B+

Wild on My Mind
By Laurel Kerr
Review: Laurel Kerr’s first book in the Where the Wild Hearts Are series is a quirky, heartwarming tale of love found in a local zoo. Katie Underwood is helping her father recover from a shooting, while attempting to restart her life as a freelance social media guru and graphic designer, when she runs into the last guy she ever wanted to see again — Bowie Wilson, her high school bully. A former foster kid, Bowie has long set aside his rebellious ways to become a single parent and keep his family zoo afloat — a zoo desperately in need of Katie’s creative marketing ideas. The tale is a sweet one, but Kerr maintains such an even-keeled writing style that even the biggest emotional moments fail to pack the punch they should. Given how horribly Bowie treated Katie in high school, it can be difficult to root for their happy ending — but Kerr does an admirable job of showing his growth, and the wounds he unexpectedly shares with Katie crucially soften him. A subplot about Katie’s blooming relationship with Bowie’s bullied daughter, Abby, also provides some much-needed emotional resonance. The real fuzzy-feeling-inducing stars of the book are the various animals that inhabit the Sagebrush Flats Zoo: the adorable cougar cubs whose Harry Potter-inspired names are a twinkly delight, the lovelorn camel Lulubelle, the curmudgeonly grizzly bear Frida, and the mischievous honey badger Fluffy. Kerr does something slightly offbeat, sprinkling in passages from Fluffy’s point of view, as the honey badger works to set Katie and Bowie up. It will depend on your love of animals and your mood whether you find this gratingly distracting or charmingly quirky. But that aside, the animals all make for winning supporting characters — in fact, I found myself wishing for their (and by extension, the zoo’s) happily-ever-after almost more than the romantic one. Kerr has built herself a delightful world to play in, with a motley assembly of animals you won’t be able to get enough of, even if her human characters occasionally leave something to be desired.
Heat Rating: 
Grade: B

Vampires Like It Hot
By Lynsay Sands
Review: Many romance authors revel in angst, pushing characters into predicaments that inspire connection and empathy. And then there are those who just want to have a good time. With Vampires Like It Hot, Lynsay Sands offers up her 28th Argeneau novel, a vampire romance so outlandishly hilarious you’ll find yourself snorting with laughter. Jess is busy playing babysitter to her bratty cousin at her relative’s destination wedding when she inadvertently finds herself at sea with a crew of vampire pirates(!). She jumps overboard to swim to safety and unwittingly finds herself in the arms of Raffaele Notte, unable resist the chemistry between them (it helps that she doesn’t know he’s a vampire).  Sands even cites her writing’s tendency to induce “uncontrollable fits of laughter” in her author bio, and her desire to help readers have a good time bursts off every page. Some of the scenarios, like a seafaring vampirate captain who uses sexual slang older than Shakespeare, or pleasure so intense it causes fainting spells, are ridiculous, but Sands revels in this and plays them for laughs. Both Jess and Raffaele are in the Dominican Republic for an island getaway, but it’s the readers who are granted the true escape with this bubbly, funny, engrossing confection of a novel. Paranormal romances are often laden with anxiety and dread, but Sands hits a refreshing comedic note in contrast, while still building a compelling mythology and landscape for her immortal heroes and villains. The piratical aspects lend the book an old-world charm, while providing tantalizing glimpses of island escapes to tempt any modern reader. Sands delivers a rip-roaring adventure with plenty of steamy interludes in a story that should make fans of even the most virulent anti-vampire readers. It’s hard to resist her witty dialogue, off-the-wall scenarios, sexy moments, and tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, all of which combine for a deliciously fun romp in this absolutely bonkers read.
Heat Rating: 
Grade: A-

One in a Million
By Lindsey Kelk
Review: Kelk’s delightful rom-com is a cozy read, as soul-warming as curling up with a cup of tea. It’s My Fair Lady for our times. Annie Higgins is a social media maven with a growing startup; competitive by nature, she accepts a bet to make a random stranger Instagram-famous in one month. But the task proves harder than anticipated when the stranger in question is social-media-averse historian Dr. Samuel Page — particularly when Annie starts falling for the considerate, funny man hidden under layers of insecurity and disregard for his appearance. Kelk may take the underlying Pygmalion story as her inspiration, but she improves upon it by significantly reducing the Higgins character’s narcissism and making the story about two people coming to appreciate each other’s imperfections, rather than forcing anyone into a box of “self-improvement” or “betterment.” Her prose reads like a breezy romantic comedy, easily carrying you away into Annie’s world of social media promotions, professional ambition, and deep-seated yearnings. Samuel Page is a dreamy, bookish hero, so wrapped up in the dead men who fascinate him that it takes some careful prodding to see what’s right in front of him. And yet, Kelk strikes a careful balance, making Page never boorish or inconsiderate, but merely oblivious — so good-natured you can forgive him for burrowing himself in his work and not bothering to come up for air until he’s dragged there. One quick note on an editorial decision here: Often when British books are brought to America, they’re sanitized of their Britishness, vocabulary and turns of phrase adjusted to make them more digestible. Here, Kelk’s Britishisms are left intact, blooming off every page and giving a distinct sense of place and space that makes this rather universal love story utterly specific and entertaining in its idiosyncrasies. Kelk’s voice shines through in what is, ultimately, a lighthearted, warm romance about the unlikely connections we forge because of, or really in spite of, the digital age.
Heat Rating: 
Grade: B+

Some iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max owners are having trouble charging their devices.

Owners across the web are complaining that some of Apple’s latest iPhones are not charging properly when plugged in, MacRumors pointed out Saturday. The problem seems to occur when users plug in their phones while they are in sleep mode and the screens are off.

YouTuber Unbox Therapy was alerted to this problem and performed a test where he plugged in a bunch of iPhone XS and XS Max devices to test whether they charge while asleep, and found that several XS and XS Max phones didn’t start charging until after he woke up the phone. Not only that, one iPhone XS Max was stuck in sleep mode while plugged in and he couldn’t take the phone out of its frozen state until he unplugged it.

Here’s how it looks:

Unbox Therapy tested all of the phones using a regular wall charger and noted in the beginning of the video that he hasn’t had a problem with a wireless charging block.

The issue may stem from a security feature introduced before iOS 12 came out that prevented iPhones from connecting to devices like computers if they haven’t been unlocked recently. That way a phone can’t be compromised as easily.

This shouldn’t be occurring when plugging a phone into a wall charger.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment or a question about whether a fix will be coming soon. Hopefully it’s a software issue that can be fixed with an update.

In the meantime, make sure your iPhone XS or XS Max is not in sleep mode when you plug it in or else you may not actually be charging it.