Aug. 06--CBS says it already has sold a 30-second Super Bowl 50 commercial slot for an unprecedented $5 million. That's an 11 percent increase over NBC's top price this year, pending an NFL investigation into whether the figures have been properly inflated.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said there will be no special deal to bail Chicago Public Schools out of its money crisis. Besides, CPS wouldn't be in this mess if all parents simply made $250,000 donations to the schools that admitted their children.
Angry Orchard is recalling some Crisp Apple Hard Cider because of batches that may be refermenting in the bottle, increasing the carbonization and pressure inside. The choice was either to recall the stuff for fear the bottles might burst or relabel it Explosively Angry.
The U.S. hospital industry's largest lobbying group wants antitrust regulators to investigate whether top health insurer Anthem's acquisition of No. 5 Cigna will increase health care costs. Insurers can usually thwart potentially costly examinations that hospitals request, but it's going to take more than simply denying coverage this time.
Discovery Communications cited TLC dropping the scandal-scarred Duggar family's "19 Kids and Counting" in reporting a notable impairment charge last quarter, similar to the hit it took axing "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo." Shows are like tattoos. Before getting a particularly tawdry one, consider how expensive removal will be.
Activist investor Bill Ackman picked up a 7.5 percent, $5.6 billion stake in snack-maker Mondelez. He may shake things up, but the biggest threat to the Deerfield-based shepherd of brands such as Oreos, Chiclets, Chips Ahoy, Toblerone, Ritz crackers and Triscuit probably remain nutritionists.
ABC's Peter Jennings died 10 years ago Friday. A high school dropout, he became worldly and urbane on the job. "If you listen to television, you'll always find your attention arrested by good writing," he once told me, then confessed. "I used to be an appallingly bad writer."
philrosenthal@tribpub.com
