In Other News: Last call: Dodge unveils last super-fast gasoline muscle car; Reborn Ringling Bros. circus to leap on tour — minus animals

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Last call: Dodge unveils last super-fast gasoline muscle car

The last gas-powered muscle car from Dodge isn’t leaving the road without some squeals, thunder and crazy-fast speed. The 2023 Challenger SRT Demon 170 will deliver 1,025 horsepower from its 6.2-liter supercharged V-8. The automaker says it will be the quickest production car made. Stellantis says it can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in a scary 1.66 seconds, making it faster than even electric supercars from Tesla and Lucid. It’s what the performance brand from Stellantis is calling the last of the rumbling cars that for decades were a fixture of American culture on Saturday night cruises all over the country. Stellantis will stop making gas versions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger by the end of this year.

Reborn Ringling Bros. circus to leap on tour — minus animalsThe Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus has been reimagined and reborn without animals as a high-octane family event with highwire tricks, soaring trapeze artists and bicycles leaping on trampolines. Feld Entertainment, which owns the “Greatest Show on Earth,” revealed to The Associated Press what audiences can expect during the show’s upcoming 2023 North American tour kicking off this fall. The 75 performers from 18 countries will include performers on a triangular high wire 25 feet off the ground, crisscrossing flying trapeze artists, a spinning double wheel powered by acrobats and BMX trail bikes, unicycle riders and skateboarders doing flips and tricks. The tour kicks off in Bossier City, Louisiana, from Sept 29-Oct. 1 and then goes to Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana and ends the year in Oklahoma. It restarts in 2024 in Florida, home to Feld Entertainment. The show is a complete rethink of a modern circus. Feld Entertainment has been working on everything from how to integrate clowns, the branding and the merchandise over the past four years.

Superbug fungus cases rose dramatically during pandemicU.S. cases of a dangerous fungus tripled over just three years, and more than half of states have now reported it. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote about the infections. They say the COVID-19 pandemic is likely part of the reason for the spread. Hospital workers were strained by coronavirus patients, and that likely shifted their focus away from disinfecting some other kinds of germs. The fungus is called Candida auris. It’s a form of yeast that is usually not harmful to healthy people but can be a deadly risk to fragile hospital and nursing home patients. Some strains are so-called superbugs that are resistant to antibiotic drugs.