In Other News: EXPLAINER: Why is insulin so expensive and difficult to cap?; ‘Stray’: How a virtual orange tabby is helping real cats

Published 3:48 pm Friday, August 5, 2022

‘Stray’: How a virtual orange tabby is helping real cats

A new video game sensation that features an adventurous feline has resonated with cat lovers and some of them are using the game to raise money for real cats. The game called “Stray” from Annapurna Interactive launched in July. Gamers are playing the game live and using online fundraising platforms to benefit cat rescue and adoption organizations. The company also partnered with two shelters to raffle off copies of the game. Brendan Gepson of the Nebraska Humane Society said they raised $7,000 through the raffle and many of the donors were new to them. He said the whole culture of the game is about a love of cats.

‘Golden Girls’ LA pop-up restaurant has the golden touchPicture it: A vacant Beverly Hills bistro has been transformed into the set of a 1980s sitcom about four women living in Miami — but it’s also a working restaurant. Reservations have been going fast at the newly opened The Golden Girls Kitchen. Some patrons have come from out of state to see the pop-up eatery. Joe Saunders, of Cranston, Rhode Island, his two teenage children and their mother were visiting Northern California when they learned about the pop-up. So they made a special trip south just to see it. “I was a little hesitant about coming but my kids’ mom really wanted to come,” said Saunders, who was wearing a T-shirt referencing the sitcom’s fictitious Shady Pines retirement home. “It’s been a good time… the lasagna, the strawberry daiquiri and I’m going to have a piece of cake with ice cream, too.” Thirty years after “The Golden Girls” ended on NBC, fans still can’t let go of the sitcom about four housemates — Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia — bonding over aging, dating and cheesecake. It’s just the latest example of the comedy rising to pop culture relevancy again. In just the past few months, the first ever Golden-Con fan convention was held in Chicago and a pilot for an animated, futuristic “Golden Girls” series is being shopped around.

EXPLAINER: Why is insulin so expensive and difficult to cap?Reining in the soaring prices of insulin has thus far been elusive in Congress, although Democrats say they’ll try again — as part of their economic package that focuses on health and climate. The price of the 100-year-old drug has more than tripled in the last two decades, forcing the nation’s diabetics to pay thousands of dollars a year for the life-saving medication. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said some language that limits the price of insulin will be added to the economic bill, but it’s not clear what that price point will be and who will be protected by that price cap.