WFTV Channel 9 anchor Martha Sugalski interrupted on air by her 6-year-old son Well, someone’s grounded. WFTV Channel 9 anchor Martha Sugalski’s Thursday 5:30 p.m. newscast was interrupted by her 6-year-old son, Heaton, running into the room behind her, screaming, just as a segment about a Daytona Beach restaurant was ending. Heaton dashed by Sugalski before she could introduce the next story, also about the coronavirus pandemic, but she didn’t miss a beat. “Sorry about that,” said Sugalski quickly, before continuing with barely a pause. “The Department of Labor issued new safety tips today for taxi cabs and ride share companies to help reduce the risk of exposure to the coronavirus ...” Heaton continued screaming in the background as Sugalski listed off the new safety guidelines, her voice growing slightly more agitated from the noise. When she read the final tip, the phrase “crack open the windows for better air flow,” came out as if she were desperate for someone to please crack open the room and let these kids out. Later in the broadcast, Sugalski hugged Heaton on-air, to show viewers he’s still alive and well. “I was scared,” said Heaton from his mom’s arms. Her other son, Maxwell, took the blame online, tweeting his mom to say, “Hahahahaha @MarthaSugalski sorry for knocking on the door and scaring Heaton.” Sugalski joked back that he’s now “out of the will.” The clip was posted on Twitter by WFTV reporter Lauren Seabrook, who wrote “Ohhhh man, @MarthaSugalski just had the most REAL LIFE mom moment on tv,” before later posting the clip and the message, “Hilarious! Shoutout to all the working moms doing it all right now!” Viewers on Twitter were appreciative, praising Sugalski for her composure, and because it was one of the cutest and most hilarious unscripted news interruptions yet of These Times. “I watched it a few times, I sighed of relief I’m not alone AND shed a few tears bc this is the new normal and being a work from home parents is not easy!!” wrote one Twitter user. “My son did the same while I was on a virtual conference & I had to hold back lol.” “@MarthaSugalski we all appreciate you keeping it real, in the very real work from home environment so many families [are] in right now. Lol. Love it,” wrote another. “Working moms – we got this!” Sugalski wrote back. – Dave Plotkin
North America’s first drive-in music festival will happen in Orlando in June About a month after Germany’s World Club Dome held its first drive-in rave, which went viral on social media, American artists are taking a crack at it – and Orlando’s Central Florida Fairgrounds will play host to the first one on June 6. Orlando-based DJ and producer Carnage, already a festival pro with his Rare fests held here in the City Beautiful, announced Road Rave on his Facebook page on Thursday as “THE FIRST EVER NORTH AMERICAN FESTIVAL IN CORONA HISTORY!” Road Rave’s lineup will feature Carnage, Riot Ten, Blunts & Blondes, Nitti Gritti and Gravedgr. The four-hour event in June will have “a full festival main stage production,” according to a press release. Road Rave is already garnering notice in international outlets like Pitchfork and NME. In order to maintain social distancing precautions, there will be a maximum capacity of 500 vehicles, with a limit of six and a minimum of two passengers per vehicle. On-site food trucks will provide concessions and “roaming golf-cart vendors” will take orders. Festival attendees are encouraged to wear face masks, and “social distancing will be heavily enforced with strict guidelines and restrictions on when attendees are allowed to safely leave their vehicle,” according to the Facebook event page. Carnage says he will donate a portion of money from the event to the ANF COVID-19 Relief Fund (anfnicaragua. org), which assists vulnerable communities in Nicaragua. – Christopher Cann
‘Tiger King’ star and Florida Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin is selling cloth masks with her tagline Big Cat Rescue, a Hillsborough County animal sanctuary featured prominently in Netflix’s Tiger King documentary miniseries, is selling CEO Carole Baskin’s cloth masks to raise funds. “Hey all you cool cats and kittens!” wrote the group in a Saturday Facebook post. “Be one of the first to get your very own mask featuring Carole’s favorite tagline!” The dual-layer masks come in black and leopard print, with proceeds benefiting the organization. They’ve been soliciting donations online since closing the park in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2011, Big Cat Rescue filed a lawsuit against Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka “Joe Exotic,” who ran GW Exotic
Animal Park in Oklahoma. Exotic had fixated on big-cat sanctuary rival Baskin, alleging frequently that she killed her husband and fed him to her tigers. In 2013, Baskin prevailed in a trademark lawsuit against GW Exotic Animal Park, and Maldonado-Passage was ordered to pay Big Cat Rescue $1 million. Maldonado-Passage later hired a hitman to kill Baskin, a scheme that failed, and was imprisoned on two counts of murder-for-hire, eight violations of the Lacey Act and nine violations of the Endangered Species Act. The attention hasn’t been all bad for Baskin, who is slated to be played by SNL’s Kate McKinnon in an upcoming docuseries, as she continues to leverage her fame to raise funds. – Dave Plotkin
Orlando housing sales drop and prices rise as coronavirus slows closings The Orlando Regional Realtor Association released new numbers last week showing the effects of coronavirus on home sales in Central Florida. Orlando’s median home price in April rose by 12 percent, while the number of sales dropped by 28 percent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report. The changes come as the inventory of available houses for sale stays steady, down just 3 percent from last year. Despite the slowdown, the real estate association remains optimistic. “Orlando Realtors anticipate listings and buying activity will eventually resume, especially given our history of demand versus low supply, along with the record low mortgage rates that increase buyers’ purchasing power,” said ORRA president Reese Stewart in a statement. The median price for all types of homes sold in Orlando in April is $263,750, up 12.2 percent from the April 2019 median price of $235,000. That’s 4 percent above the March 2020 median price of $253,500. The sale price of singlefamily houses increased by 9 percent over last year, and condo prices increased by 5 percent. The price increases are due to the ongoing housing shortage, says Stewart. ORRA members participated in 2,393 sales of all home types combined in April, which is 28.1 percent lower than the 3,329 sales in April 2019 and 25.3 percent lower than the 3,204 sales in March 2020. Sales of existing houses within Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties in April were 32.4 percent lower than in April of 2019. There have been even deeper drops in the number of existing-house sales, with Orange County experiencing the largest local decline, down 35.8 percent below April 2019. – Dave Plotkin
orlandoweekly.com
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MAY 20-26, 2020 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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