Last year, I got my first mammogram. The initial finding that I have dense breast tissue was not surprising because both my mom and aunt have it. When the technician recommended I come back to get an ultrasound so they could get a better look, she warned me that my insurance may not cover anything beyond the standard mammography. I called them with the diagnosis and billing codes the office had given me and thankfully, it was still covered. Unfortunately, this isn?t the case for many women. Despite the FDA requiring providers to let women with dense breast tissue know that they could need further testing in order to detect cancer, some insurances are not covering these diagnostic screenings.

A familiar story: When Molly Smith went for her first mammogram in 2021, she had reason to be wary. Her grandmother, mother, sister and another family member have all been diagnosed with breast cancer. The mammogram detected abnormal tissue ? said Smith, 46, a mother of two from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina ? and more testing was necessary. To her great relief, Smith received a clean report following an ultrasound, MRI and biopsy. But she incurred bills of more than $1,000 that her insurance didn?t cover.

Why additional screenings may be necessary: Smith is one of millions of American women who are at high risk for breast cancer but whose insurance does not cover the costs of follow-on screenings needed to detect the disease. Breast cancer can be hidden in mammograms for many women, so doctors recommend additional screenings, which include ultrasounds, MRIs and tomosynthesis, a kind of 3D mammogram. ?With ultrasounds you find cancers that are not evident on mammograms,? said Dr. Madhavi Raghu, a radiation oncologist in western Connecticut. ?If tomosynthesis is normal and the ultrasound is normal, the likelihood a patient has underlying cancer is quite low.?

Dense breast tissue is common, but some women have to pay OOP anyway: Women with dense breast tissue, a condition affecting roughly half of women over 40, are at special risk for breast cancer, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The condition makes it harder to spot cancer on a mammogram, so last year the FDA began requiring mammogram providers to notify women with dense breast tissue that they could need further evaluation and screenings to rule out cancer. But such screenings cost money, out of pocket, for most women. While one mammogram per year is typically covered by private health insurance plans, they don?t generally reimburse fully for additional screenings.

The Medicare Issue: And last year, doctors in Connecticut, New York, North Carolina and Texas say Medicare stopped reimbursing for the same breast cancer ultrasound screenings it had reimbursed for in 2023. Raghu provided NBC News with several redacted patient records showing Medicare declining reimbursements in 2024 for ultrasound breast screenings it reimbursed in 2023. The lack of coverage puts women with Medicare and those with private insurance in a terrible bind. ?You know you need to go back,? said Smith, who has private insurance, ?and there?s always that looming question: Am I a ticking time bomb, and what is it going to cost me??

A spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a statement that ultrasound or MRI scans are only covered by Medicare when provided as a diagnostic test. ?If the scans were provided as a screening test, then Medicare is unable to cover those by law,? she said. Screening is considered a routine form of testing for patients with no symptoms, while diagnostic testing investigates symptoms or abnormalities found during a screening. The CMS spokeswoman said the agency?s ?coverage policy? had not changed.

This sounds sketchy: Ultrasound screenings for women with dense breast tissue, under the CMS interpretation, would not be investigating symptoms. Physicians question this explanation because there is only one reimbursement code for a breast ultrasound, regardless of whether it is proposed as a screening or a diagnostic test. The recent denials by Medicare appear to place all breast ultrasounds into the category that is not covered.

Private healthcare companies follow Medicare?s lead: Physicians say there is another problem with Medicare not reimbursing for ultrasound and other screenings: Private insurers often follow CMS? lead on reimbursement decisions. Limiting reimbursement for cancer screenings translates to higher out-of-pocket costs for women who need them.

The healthcare version of the trolley problem: Unreimbursed expenses are rising, research published in the journal Radiology shows, as more women sign up for high-deductible insurance plans to reduce their health care costs. The study also confirms a fear many doctors express: Faced with additional costs for necessary screenings, many women just won?t get them. Some 21% of the women surveyed for the Radiology study said they would decline additional screenings if they had to pay for them.

The earlier the catch, the cheaper to treat: ?The fact that mammograms are not always a good standard or indicator is a problem we have to raise awareness on,? said Doris Cardwell, a survivor of inflammatory breast cancer in Spearfish, South Dakota. Because inflammatory breast cancer doesn?t typically show up in mammograms, Cardwell has MRIs annually. This year, she said she expects to pay $1,200 out of pocket. ?It feels like you shouldn?t have to struggle to get the extra screening you need for early detection. The earlier you catch cancer, the cheaper it is to treat. This should be easy.?

Money is a barrier to staying healthy: ?Out-of-pocket cost sharing is a significant barrier for those individuals who need access to multiple early detection services in order to find cancer at an earlier stage when treatment is more effective,? said Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. ?Removing cost sharing for each intervention in the screening process is a critical step toward ending cancer as we know it, for everyone.?

?I just know there are other women out there not getting the screening because of the cost,? Emslie told NBC News. ?You?re going to have people who have a mammogram and need additional screening, but they?re not going to go back in.?

[From NBC News]

This sucks for a whole host of reasons beyond the obvious question as to why we are even paying for healthcare that denies coverage for potentially life-saving tests and procedures. Isn?t that the entire point of the system? I hate that we get so focused on who ?deserves? something like good healthcare. While Republicans are busy trying to cut billions in Medicaid, no one ever stops to consider that perhaps if we all had better access to healthcare, *some* of the issues that end up causing people to need more expensive care or even have to stop working could have been prevented if they only had good, affordable healthcare to begin with. One of the great things about the Affordable Care Act was that it made wellness visits and preventative care free and allowed people with pre-existing conditions to get insurance without having higher premiums. If you really want to make America healthy again, you can start by making healthcare even more accessible to everyone.

Rant over (for now) because there is some ?good? news on the breast cancer screening front. There are laws in states like Iowa, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts that require private insurers to cover the cost of additional breast cancer screenings. Similar bills have been introduced in other states like Virginia, Florida, Hawaii, and South Carolina. If you want to know where your state stands on requiring private insurers to cover the cost of additional screenings, this website is a good guide.

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Photos credit: National Cancer Institute on Pexels and via Instagram

Here are a couple of photos of Robert Kennedy Jr. at President Elon Musk?s cabinet meeting this week. Kennedy is head of Health and Human Services, which gives him broad oversight over the Centers for Disease Control, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (in case of emergency health crises), the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Global Affairs, and the Food & Drug Administration. That?s just a fraction of HHS?s purview, but those are some of the biggest parts of Kennedy?s job. One of the first items on Kennedy?s agenda was mass layoffs at the CDC, NIH and FDA.

Just this week, there?s been an abundance of Kennedy wingnuttery all around vaccines. The Trump administration wants to pull funding for Moderna?s development of a bird flu vaccine. Kennedy also paused a multimillion-dollar project to develop a Covid-19 vaccine which could be taken orally. But nothing is stupider than this: Kennedy is f?king with the development of this year?s flu shot.

The scheduled meeting to begin planning this fall?s flu vaccine has been canceled by the Food and Drug Administration. Members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), who advise the FDA on expected flu strains to be targeted by the vaccine, said they were told the meeting was canceled, the New York Times reports.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says VRBPAC ?makes the final decision about which vaccine viruses to include in the composition of domestic flu vaccines,? using research on which flu strains are ?most likely to spread and cause illness.?

Formulating the vaccines takes time, committee member Dr. Paul Offit of the Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the NYT. ?It?s a six-month production cycle. So one can only assume that we?re not picking flu strains this year.?

The reason for the cancellation was not given. The news has sparked concern about the fate and effectiveness of the upcoming vaccines, given Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversial statements criticizing vaccines, likening vaccine schedules to ?Hitler?s Germany.?

[From People]

The whole reason why ?annual flu shots? are a thing is because every year, the CDC and FDA work for months to tailor the flu shots to the different strains of influenza going around that year. It?s literally one of the best parts of modern medicine ? people can get a little shot once a year and they won?t die of influenza. For most people, the flu shot is even free! The reality that Kennedy?s unhinged anti-vaxx wingnuttery extends to FLU SHOTS is beyond immoral. Also: it really feels like the Trump administration has decided to pursue a plan of action which will kill off as many seniors as possible as quickly as possible. Seniors are the ones who most need an annual, updated flu shot. They?re the ones most at risk of dying from the flu.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

I?m still chuckling to myself over Prince William and Kate?s hilarious jam skit this week. Fresh from their Mustique holiday, William and Kate traveled to Pontypridd, Wales for some events. They showed up 90 minutes late, ?baked? some treats at a cake shop (take that, Meghan!) and then Kate told people that she would send them her plum jam recipe for free, UNLIKE MEGHAN! William even contributed to the skit, swearing that Kate?s jam is the best, UNLIKE MEGHAN! It?s easy to forget that Meghan actually gave away her jam for free last year ? those were gifted jam-baskets and Meghan still hasn?t put one jar of jam up for sale to this day. In fact, Meghan?s jam-baskets were the start of all of this, a now-year-long ?Jam War? with the Windsors openly beefing with Meghan over jam and trying to say that jam belongs to them, or their jam is better, or their jam is free. Are you hungry for more Jam Discourse? Of course you are.

Royal commentator Charles Rae has claimed a ?jam war? is brewing between the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex. Speaking to GB News, Rae highlighted the stark contrast between Princess Kate?s recent offer to share her plum jam recipe for free and Meghan Markle?s plans to sell premium-priced preserves.

The comments come after Kate promised to send her recipe to young volunteers during a visit to Wales earlier this week. Meanwhile, Meghan is preparing to launch strawberry jam through her rebranded ?As Ever? lifestyle venture, with prices reportedly set to reach between ?25 and ?30 per jar.

Royal commentator Charles Rae told GB News: ?I think she knows exactly what she?s doing here, especially as she makes her own plum jam. And she?s now giving that recipe for free to a well-wisher. I suspect that Kensington Palace are going to get flooded with requests for that recipe. Now, contrastingly, you?ve got Meghan, who?s now producing some jam. I think it?s a strawberry jam. And that is going to cost you ?25 to ?30 a pop. That is four times more than a pot of jam that you could buy at the Highgrove Royal shop. That?s Prince Charles?s estate. So he?s selling jam as well. We?ve got jam wars going on.?

During their visit to a community garden in Wales, Kate offered her recipe to young volunteers who were growing plums and making jam.

?I?ll send you my plum jam recipe so you can try it,? the Princess of Wales said. Prince William was quick to praise his wife?s preserves, describing her jam as ?amazing?.

[From GB News]

So, we?ve gone from ?Charles makes jam too, the royals made jam first? to ?Charles?s royal-branded jam is better than Meghan?s gauche American jam? to ?if you support the Windsors, you?ll buy their overpriced jam and not Meghan?s? to ?Kate is giving away jam recipes for free, and Meghan is probably going to charge thousands of dollars for her jam.? These people have lost their ever-loving minds. The only thing I agree with in this commentary is that Kate ?knows exactly what she?s doing here.? It?s true. William and Kate have exposed themselves as complete lunatics who are obsessed with copykeening every single thing Harry and Meghan do.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

This week, we learned of the passing of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. Hackman was a towering figure in the film community, a real movie star with an ?everyman? quality. Everyone has their favorite Hackman movie, Hackman performance or Hackman story. But I would not have predicted that Prince William would post a tribute to Gene Hackman. He signed his tweet with a ?W? so you know it?s from William directly. I guess Kate does not share in William?s sadness over Gene Hackman?s passing.

So sad to hear the news of the death of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy. Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality. W https://t.co/qcqmMsHs1f

? The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) February 27, 2025

Again, I?m not complaining that Hackman had fans around the world, even in Kensington Palace. I just think it?s odd that William (alone) paid tribute to one of the greatest actors ever on social media. It?s a weird precedent to set too, because if William is paying tribute to American actors now? Michelle Trachtenberg also passed away this week. Is William going to do this for every major celebrity now?

I guess you could argue that William made the statement as BAFTA President? but again, he failed to acknowledge Michelle?s passing. And he also skipped the BAFTAs this year because he wanted to be vacationing in Mustique.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

It?s been amazing to see the outpouring of love for Gene Hackman, one of the greatest American actors of all time. He left behind an incredible body of work which will stand the test of time, and all of that happened before he retired in his mid-70s. By all accounts, he and his wife Betsy Arakawa lived peacefully and quietly in their New Mexico home, the same home where their remains were found this week. Alongside the lovely tributes to Hackman are the pressing questions of what the hell happened in that home and how Gene, Betsy and their dog all died. At first, people assumed it was something like carbon monoxide poisoning. At first, the local sheriff shrugged off concerns that there could be foul play or a need for an investigation. That changed over the course of the day on Thursday as journalists began asking more questions.

The actor Gene Hackman was found dead in a mud room in his New Mexico home and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead on the floor of a bathroom on Wednesday, according to a search warrant affidavit. An open prescription bottle and scattered pills were discovered near her body on a counter in the bathroom.

A dead German shepherd was found between 10 and 15 feet away from Ms. Arakawa in a closet of the bathroom, the affidavit said. There were no obvious signs of a gas leak in the home, it said, and the Fire Department did not find signs of a carbon monoxide leak.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff?s Office said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that ?there were no apparent signs of foul play.?

Autopsies on Mr. Hackman and Ms. Arakawa were performed on Thursday, the sheriff?s office said. There was no initial sign of external trauma to either of them. Carbon monoxide tests and toxicology tests were requested for both of them, it said, but the results were still pending and the causes of their deaths had not been determined.

?This remains an open investigation,? the sheriff?s office said. Detective Roy Arndt wrote in the search warrant affidavit that Ms. Arakawa was found lying on her side on the bathroom floor with a space heater near her head, the affidavit said. The deputy who found her said he suspected that the heater could have fallen with Ms. Arakawa, the filing said.

Ms. Arakawa?s body showed signs of decomposition, the affidavit said. The dead dog was found near her in a closet, and two other dogs were found alive on the property.

The deputies were called to the scene after a maintenance worker who had gone to the home to perform some work on Wednesday afternoon grew concerned when no one answered the door, the sheriff?s office said in a statement. The worker asked local security officers to conduct a welfare check, and when they arrived and saw unresponsive bodies through the window they called 911.

A pair of deputies arrived and found Ms. Arakawa in the bathroom and then discovered Mr. Hackman lying in the mud room, with his body in a similar condition to his wife?s, the affidavit said. He was found in gray sweatpants, a blue long-sleeve T-shirt, brown slippers and with a cane, the affidavit said. A pair of sunglasses was found to his left. One of the deputies on the scene said that it appeared he had ?suddenly fallen,? the affidavit said.

[From The NY Times]

I?m glad the sheriff?s office has stopped minimizing whatever this is and they?re now committed to a full and thorough investigation. I?m also glad that the sheriff?s office is revealing more about what they do know, like the fact that Hackman and Arakawa?s bodies were found in different rooms, and that there ?were no obvious signs of trauma to the bodies and that no note had been found.? Gene?s daughter Elizabeth told the press that she believes that carbon monoxide poisoning is the most likely explanation, but it?s clear that full autopsies will have to be conducted (and are already underway). Another possible clue: a space heater was found near Arakawa?s body, and one of the surviving dogs was inside the house and found near Arakawa?s body. I really hope the death of a great actor doesn?t turn into a Dateline episode.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

Netflix dropped a new teaser/sneak peak for the Duchess of Sussex?s new show, With Love, Meghan. We got the trailer in early January, but Meghan delayed the show because of the California wildfires. I wonder if we were always going to get this sneak peak or if it was something Netflix did for WLM because of the delay. In this clip, Meghan is cooking ? or preparing a charcuterie platter, I think ? with restaurateur Roy Choi. He shocks her by saying that he listens to death metal while cooking:

Choi says: ?I listen to a lot of lyrical hip hop, jazz, sometimes speed metal, death metal.? Meghan asks, ?No, you don?t. What?s speed metal?? He responds, ?It?s just, like, dark.? He also jokes that death metal is ?good for when you?re butchering.? She had never heard such a thing! Death metal while cooking and butchering! When I cook, I like the TV on in the background, usually tennis, but I?m not opposed to some chill music playing in the background either. Definitely not death metal. I also like when they?re talking about dancing. I honestly can?t wait for this show, I hope she cooks some good stuff.

PS? How long before the other couple references this? They?re about to send Kate out there with a charcuterie board while William tells someone that Charlotte loves to listen to death metal on the school run.

Photos/screenshots courtesy of Netflix and Meghan?s IG.

Season 48 of Survivor premiered with a two-hour episode on Wednesday night. After this week?s premiere, two players in particular really stood out as people to root for, and that was Eva Erickson and Joe Hunter. There have been a lot of ?firsts? in this new era of Survivor, and the very-inspirational Eva is the first openly autistic contestant to play the game. Eva, who is a 24-year-old PhD student at Brown University, was diagnosed when she was a year old. Doctors told her parents that she would never live on her own, have a job, or even marry anyone who wasn?t also on the spectrum. Eva and her parents fought hard to overcome some of her more extreme diagnoses, and now she?s not only on Survivor, but also has the honor of having been the first and only female player on the Georgia Tech men?s hockey team. To quote a former Survivor player, she?s basically a bad ass.

A Brown University student is making television history as the first openly autistic person to compete on ?Survivor.? Eva Erickson will be trying her hand at the $1 million grand prize in Season 48.

?When I finally got the call, I was running around the room like a dog,? she said. ?Just jumping off the walls, like, oh my God, I?m going to be on ?Survivor!??

The 24-year-old was diagnosed with autism when she was just a year old.

?The first doctors were telling my parents that I would never hold a job, I would never live independently, that at most they could hope that I would marry someone else also on the autism spectrum,? she told 12 News.

Now, Erickson is living thousands of miles away from her home in Minnesota. She is also getting her PhD in engineering at Brown University, where she is the captain of the club hockey team. Not to mention, she is competing in one of the most cutthroat reality competition shows on television.

?Knowing that ?Survivor? is a game of lying, people are always going to be lying, and I might not pick up on the same cues as everyone else,? she said. ?That was something that I was very concerned about but that?s where I knew I wanted my strategy to involve having really strong alliances.?

Erickson has now embraced her autism as a gift. She hopes by sharing her story on ?Survivor,? other people on the spectrum can do the same.

?Autism can be a benefit to you, you don?t have to see it as something wrong with you, accept who you are and that?s how you can be your best self,? she says.

Erickson is selling merchandise with a portion of the proceeds benefitting Minnesota Special Hockey.

[From WPRI]

Eva is incredibly inspirational. I?m in a Survivor fantasy league and put her high on my rankings list. I?m rooting for her so hard! While Eva was very open about her autism in her pre-season interviews and during her talking heads, she admitted that her lack of ability to understand when someone was lying to her would cause her fellow castaways to take advantage of her. So, she decided to confide in just one teammate, Joe. Joe, who is a fire captain and dad-of-two, was already vibing with fans because in his pre-season press, he shared that he?s playing the game in honor of his late sister, Joanna. Joanna always wanted to be on the show, but was the victim of domestic violence in 2011. Eva sensed that he was a safe space and opened up to him. It resulted in an incredibly moving scene that left Joe and basically all of the viewers in tears. He even said that if it came to it, he?d sacrifice his own game for her. Same, Joe, same. I?m rooting for both Eva and Joe to go really far into the game.

Here?s the scene where Eva confides in Joe about her autism and asks him to help keep her grounded in the event that she gets overstimulated. It?s really moving, so grab your tissues.

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Tatum O?Neal covers the latest issue of Variety. I didn?t realize that Tatum is in such poor health these days. She overdosed in 2020 and suffered a stroke, and five years later, she?s still walking with a cane and she has noticeable memory lapses. She?s 61 years old, and she has three adult children ? all with her ex-husband John McEnroe ? and she?s surprisingly close to all of them, even though she had major substance abuse issues throughout their childhoods. This Variety piece is, at times, a real downer. Tatum is clean, she?s been drug-free since 2020, but she admits to drinking alcohol several times since her stroke, like on Election Night last year (I feel her on that). Some highlights from this Variety piece, including her conversation about being cut out of her abusive father?s will:

Her parents: Her parents were both actors, and addicts ? they were careless with her, abusive and neglectful. She was given alcohol at age 6 at her mother?s house, then endured years of physical and verbal abuse from Ryan O?Neal after he gained full custody of her in 1970. He punched her, for instance, after learning she was nominated for ?Paper Moon? and he wasn?t. O?Neal, who died in 2023, openly did drugs in front of her when she was a child. ?Pills and painkillers, cocaine,? she says, ticking them off on her fingers. ?And then, of course,? she says of the procession of women who came and went from their home, ?girls, girls, girls.?

Her 2020 overdose: Pills nearly ended her life in May 2020, when she overdosed in her Century City apartment, causing a severe stroke. During the lockdown period of COVID, while suffering from chronic pain from rheumatoid arthritis, O?Neal had been prescribed morphine by a doctor who either didn?t know or didn?t care about her addictions. Isolated, she remembers not wanting to be here anymore, even for her kids. ?I love them so much, but I?d already given so much,? she says. ?Part of me just didn?t want to make it, you know??

The stroke changed her: ?Now I don?t want to hurt myself. Now I don?t want to f?king take drugs again ? I really don?t.?

Ryan O?Neal cut her out of his will: She never did get an apology from her father ? in fact, his coup de gr?ce was when she learned after his death that he?d cut her out of his will. But he has given her something after all, something priceless: She?s now free from the malignant shadow he cast over her life.

Starring alongside Richard Burton when she was in her early teens. ?He was brilliant ? and the movie we did was terrible,? O?Neal says. Through today?s lens, the whole enterprise was utterly repellent ? just wrong on every level. She had to appear topless in it (?I was horrified?), and says that Burton, a famous drinker, offered her booze and then propositioned her with the salvo, ?Would you like to have a kiss?? O?Neal was always treated like a little adult. ??Yikes? is the right word,? she says. ?I loved Richard Burton, but I was like, nah, I ain?t going to do that.?

She visited her father three times after her stroke: After years of bitter fighting and estrangement, Tatum had actually seen him three times after her health crisis, including a visit to the Malibu house right before his death. He had been in poor health for years, and she didn?t know that he was dying, though ?he didn?t look well at all.? During her final visit, he offered her drugs. ?I know he was drinking, smoking a lot of pot, and he was like, ?Here, take a pill,?? she says. ?I was like, ?No, thank you.?? [Her son] McEnroe, who is also sober and intent on accountability, says: ?She drank that day though. Every single time she?s seen her dad my entire life, something happens.?

She thinks Ryan cut her out of his will after she wrote her first memoir: ?The first book that I wrote was just a f?king honest book. And that?s what got him.? Naturally, O?Neal was devastated to find out she wasn?t in her father?s will. Yet she soon felt a steely resolve emerging out of Ryan O?Neal?s final fuck-you from beyond the grave: ?Keep it, motherf?ker.?

Sobriety remains a struggle: Her birthday, Nov. 5, was election night, and when it became clear that Donald Trump was going to win, she began drinking. ?I was with my gay friends, and was like, ?I?m going to have a glass of wine ? maybe two,?? she says. ?And then I was like, ?OK, damn: I have one day of sobriety.??

[From Variety]

The concern, I?m sure, is that it?s a slippery slope for so many addicts who have issues with multiple substances. While I believe Tatum when she says she?s done with drugs, if she continues to drink a couple of times a year, you never know what else she might feel like doing or taking when she?s one bottle of wine into the night. I wish her peace though, and I?m glad that she?s finally done with the drugs and that she?s managed to salvage her relationships with her kids. The sh-t with Ryan O?Neal though? he was such a piece of sh-t to all women throughout his life. What a completely slimy thing to do, cutting the daughter he abused out of his will.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid, cover courtesy of Variety.

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I follow a lot of political news throughout the day, and Jason and Kylie Kelce are a nice palate cleanser. When I see a Kelce-centric headline, I know I?m usually going to either cheer them on or laugh at something they?ve said. So, what darndest thing has Jason said this time? He has his own personal conspiracy theory that one of the best, most famous sports mascots, the Philadelphia Flyers? Gritty, was modeled after him. And yes, he is willing to die on that hill.

Jason Kelce wants credit where credit is due. The retired Philadelphia Eagles center is sharing his theory that the famed Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty was actually based on his likeness.

?I will take this to my grave. Gritty was started the year after the [2018 Super Bowl] parade,? Jason, 37, told his younger brother Travis Kelce on the Wednesday, Feb. 26 episode of their New Heights podcast. ?That thing looks f?? just like me.?

After Travis tried to change the subject, Jason doubled down, declaring, ?Tell me that thing is not my likeness!?

?Shut the f? up,? Travis told his brother, laughing it off.

?Dude, they stole it. Look at those eyebrows,? Jason joked.

But Travis insisted that Gritty ?looks nothing like? his big brother.

?You mean to tell me after the parade, the Flyers just so happen to come out with a mascot that looks like that?? Jason questioned.

Travis wasn?t convinced, quipping, ?Your eyebrows are aggressive, but they?re not that.?

Jason was firm in his stance, claiming, ?They?ll never admit it. This thing, they f?? modeled this thing after me.?

A longtime Flyers fan, Jason has regularly repped the hockey team?s orange jersey and attended games. He also played hockey in his youth ahead of his football career.

Gritty was first introduced as the team?s mascot in 2018, quickly going viral for its wild antics and look. The mascot was introduced after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl.

Christine Mina, the senior manager of digital media for the Flyers, shared that after the Eagles? 2018 win and subsequent parade, they realized they were the only Philadelphia team without a mascot.

?We were noticeably absent,? Mina told The Bleacher Report in 2021. ?And I think that was sort of the last little push we needed to to get serious about it. So, summer of 2018 was when we really got to work on the concept.?

[From AOL]

LMAO at Jason?s proof being in the eyebrows. Personally, I think it?s more of the beard than the eyebrows, haha. I honestly had not seen the facial similarities before he pointed them out, but now I can?t unsee it. It?s a compelling case, that?s all I?m saying. He could have a decent chance in a Gritty look alike contest. Jason should be thanking the Flyers marketing department because he has a built-in, go-to Halloween costume.

Also, I had no idea that Gritty has only been around since 2018. He?s so popular that I just assumed he?s been around for decades. Regardless of whether or not Jason inspired any part of Gritty?s appearance, they really need to give whoever comes up with Gritty?s whole schtick a raise because it is usually really funny (the lemonade stand one absolutely slayed me) or meets the moment. I mean, Gritty is no Dragon McFartFartButtButt, but, really, who is?

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When a Memphis newspaper ran a foreclosure notice last May announcing that Graceland ? the Memphis home of Elvis Presley turned tourist site ? was being put up for auction, it set off a wave of suspicious minds. One of those was Riley Keough, Elvis?s granddaughter. Riley sued to stop the auction, and eventually the whole sordid story was unraveled. Con artist Lisa Jeanine Findley of Missouri assumed three identities and forged two signatures in her plot to extort $2.85 million from the Presley family, claiming that Elvis?s daughter (and Riley?s mom) Lisa Marie Presley had taken a $3.8 million loan, with Graceland as collateral, that was unpaid at the time of Lisa Marie?s death in 2023. Findley was charged last August on counts of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, and pleaded not guilty. But I guess the prospect of a 20-year jailhouse rock had Findley all shook up, because this week she accepted a plea deal of guilty for the mail fraud charge, while the other charge was dropped:

A Missouri woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge accusing her of concocting a brazen plot to defraud Elvis Presley?s family by trying to auction off his Graceland mansion and property before a judge halted the mysterious foreclosure sale.

During a hearing in front of a Memphis judge, Lisa Jeanine Findley pleaded guilty to a charge of mail fraud related to the scheme. She previously pleaded not guilty to the two-count indictment, which also includes a count of aggravated identity theft that will now be dropped.

When asked by the judge if Findley was admitting guilt and accepting responsibility, she said ?Yes.?

Findley will be sentenced on June 18. She would have faced up to 20 years if convicted, but she is expected to receive less than that under the plea deal.

Findley, of Kimberling City, falsely claimed Presley?s daughter borrowed $3.8 million from a bogus private lender and had pledged Graceland as collateral for the loan before her death in January 2023, prosecutors said when she was charged in August 2024. She then threatened to sell Graceland to the highest bidder if Presley?s family didn?t pay a $2.85 million settlement, according to authorities.

Findley posed as three different people allegedly involved with the fake lender, fabricated loan documents, and published a fraudulent foreclosure notice in a Memphis newspaper announcing the auction of Graceland in May 2024, prosecutors said. A judge stopped the sale after Presley?s granddaughter sued.

Experts were baffled by the attempt to sell off one of the most storied pieces of real estate in the country using names, emails and documents that were quickly suspected to be phony.

?After the scheme fell apart, Findley tried to make it look like the person responsible was a Nigerian identity thief, prosecutors said. An email sent May 25 to the AP from the same email as the earlier statement said in Spanish that the foreclosure sale attempt was made by a Nigerian fraud ring that targets old and dead people in the U.S. and uses the internet to steal money.

[From AP News]

As I said back when Findley was charged six months ago, I just can?t get over how involved and time consuming this scheme was. This is why I could never be a con artist, I?m too lazy! Sure, I?d be great with the details. But even just reading about Findley?s intricate plot leaves me exhausted. At the end of the day, wouldn?t an honest, legal job have taken less effort? And before you say ?But the money wouldn?t be the same,? remember ? she didn?t get away with it! She got caught in a trap and she can?t walk out.

Like many of you commented when this story first broke last year, I too am eagerly looking forward to the inevitable tv-or-film adaptation, which I nominate to be titled The (un)Talented Mrs. Findley. And if it?s not too distressing for her, I think it?d be a nice karmic touch if Riley Keough acted as producer. I like the idea of Riley making money off the woman who tried to scam her family out of millions, plus their legacy. Riley could find a way of doing it that won?t be cruel.

SW-MO woman makes national news. Pleads guilty of scheme to steal Elvis Presley family?s ownership interest in Graceland https://t.co/q9oKjco3hV ? Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, Kimberling City, attempted a fraudulent sale of Graceland ? using a fake company, forged docs, & false?

? Joplin News First (@JoplinNewsFirst) February 26, 2025

Photos credit: Mike Carrillo / Avalon