This fruity and bubbly two-ingredient summer cocktail tastes great whether you make individual glasses fresh or mix up a pitcher ahead of time.
Food Republic – Restaurants, Reviews, Recipes, Cooking Tips
Day: May 28, 2026
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A video has gone viral after an influencer and athlete shared bodycam footage of her traffic stop.
The bad news — or, at least, the weird news is that she’s accused of something that’s physically impossible.
In the video, the officer accuses her of scrolling through her phone with her right hand while driving. But she doesn’t have a right hand.
She’s an amputee. Instead of apologizing, the officer still issued the ticket, nearly forcing her to come to court months later.
She had a rock-solid alibi
On February 11, a Palm Beach County police deputy pulled over Kathleen Thomas.
Katie is a 36-year-old adaptive athlete. She is also an influencer.
She does not have a right hand. Like many disabled folks, she is still able to do many things — such a drive. She just does it a little differently than someone with two hands might.
Back in February, the deputy explained that his department was doing extra enforcement surrounding distracted driving. He claimed to have seen her holding a phone in her right hand.
Someone holding a phone in their right hand would likely be distracted. However, Katie had a pretty good alibi.
As you can see from the bodycam footage — first released to Katie as discovery, then distributed on social media to widespread laughter — the officer walks up to issue the citation.
Even though Katie shows that she does not have a right hand, the officer was undeterred.
Now, this could have gone worse. Some traffic stops end in deadly shootouts, after all.
But the deputy persisted, issuing a citation — a $116 ticket, under Florida law.
He even bizarrely asked her to swear “hand to god” that she had not been holding a phone. That was a poor choice of words.
I have been uncontrollably wheezing at this all morning https://t.co/o8BLtH7Lcd pic.twitter.com/PkVDApE95D
— Grip Skylark 💕✨ (@talleyberrybaby) May 27, 2026
Case dismissed!
CBS12 has confirmed that Katie will not, in fact, have to pay a fine for a traffic violation that would only be possible through telekinesis.
(Point of order, Florida law doesn’t actually outlaw holding a phone. She would have had to have been using it, such as to text someone, to run into legal trouble.)
As it turned out, she did not even have to make her argument in court.
The officer who made the traffic stop requested that the charge be dropped.
Katie would have had to show up to court this week. Instead, her citation has been dismissed without issue.
Distracted driving does endanger — and end — lives.
That didn’t start with the invention of the cellphone, but mobile devices definitely make it a more widespread phenomenon.
But, obviously, Katie wasn’t endangering anyone. (And if she was distracted, it’s very unlikely that it could be proven in court.)
Changing driver behavior requires publicity and education. Otherwise, an enforcement blitz just looks like a cash grab from a police department.
Katie’s case wasn’t really about driving safety or disability rights. It came down to a particularly absurd example of someone refusing to back down in the moment. That’s a very human thing to do, but it’s also very funny.
Case Dismissed Against One-Handed Woman After Traffic Stop was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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E-cigarette products, also called vapes, are advertised in the windows of a tobacco shop in Midtown Anchorage, seen May 26, 2026. Lawmakers have passed a bill that would impose Alaska’s first state tax on e-cigarette products. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Four years after Gov. Dunleavy vetoed a similar measure, lawmakers passed a bill imposing state’s first tax on electronic cigarettes and related products.
The legislature’s approval of Senate Bill 24 was a victory for Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. It was the third such bill sponsored by Stevens, who is retiring this year.
“This bill is about protecting our children from becoming addicted to nicotine,” Stevens said in testimony to the House Finance Committee on May 7.
The bill is intended to counter the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry’s efforts “to addict young people to these substances” in the face of declining use of traditional cigarettes, he said.
E-cigarette products use battery-operated devices to produce vapors that are inhaled, a contrast with traditional tobacco that is burned. They were not widely marketed in 2006, the last time Alaska’s state tobacco tax was adjusted. While many Alaska municipalities have updated their tax systems to include e-cigarette products, the state had not.
If it becomes law, the bill would impose a 25% tax on retail products, as well as prohibit purchases by anyone under 21, the same legal age for traditional tobacco purchases.
Supporters of the bill said the tax and the age restriction would discourage youth use of the product, just as higher taxes and other restrictions contributed to a reduction in youth smoking.
“We know that tobacco and nicotine are highly addictive drugs. The younger you start, the more severe your addiction is likely to be, and if we can delay your introduction to the product, the less likely you are to become addicted. Young people are also price-sensitive,” Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, who carried Stevens’ bill in the House, said in floor debate on May 19, the second-to-last day of the session.
Opponents objected to the idea of a new tax, and they also argued that vaping should be treated as more benign than smoking.
“My concern is that this isn’t a tobacco bill. This is a tax bill. This is tax, tax, tax,” said Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River. She added that she believes 18- and 19-year-olds should have the right to smoke or vape.
“My point about this whole thing is freedom. They’re not doing anything wrong, and now you’re imposing a law to take people’s freedom away that doesn’t impair them. So, what’s next? We need to stop. These are adults,” she said.
The bill passed the House 24-16, and the Senate concurred the next day by a vote of 15-5.
Evolution of the bill
During public testimony on the bill, some opponents said that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking, an argument that the industry has made.
Health experts take issue with the claim. While e-cigarettes expose users to fewer toxic chemicals than cigarettes do, they also pose health risks. Along with leading to nicotine additions, they are associated with a dangerous lung condition called EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury.
Stevens’ first bill on the subject passed in 2022 by wide margins, but Dunleavy vetoed it, citing his desire to avoid new taxes. Another version died in 2024 after members of the House, then with a Republican majority, stripped the e-cigarette tax provisions from it and added a reduction in marijuana taxes.
A key difference between the 2022 bill and the new bill is the way the tax is applied. The previously passed bill would have imposed a 45% tax at the wholesale level. The newly passed bill applies a 25% tax on the retail level.
The change reflects the varying types of e-cigarette products. While some are sold as complete units, others are not supplied to retailers as finished products. Instead, they are assembled by retailers from liquids and other components, and it would be very difficult to track down all those suppliers to impose a wholesale-level tax, bill supporters said.
Senate Bill 24 underwent other changes on its way to final passage.
The most controversial was an amendment that allows indoor smoking at designated cigar bars. It was added by Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, during House floor debate on May 19, the second-to-last day of the session.
He said it would help local economies by allowing for specialty cigar bars that can be operated separately from any other food or beverage establishments. He pointed to successful cigar bars operating elsewhere in the nation.
“Frankly, Mr. Speaker, some adults just want a nice quiet place to go enjoy a nice premium cigar,” McCabe said in floor debate.
While anti-tobacco organizations advocated for Senate Bill 24 and previous versions of it, they said the cigar amendment undermines protections for smokefree environments.
“The scientific evidence is clear: there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and cigar smoke is no exception. Cigars produce large volumes of toxic smoke that damage the heart and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and lung disease—for workers and patrons alike. The only safeguard against secondhand smoke is not to allow it,” said a statement issued by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the American Lung Association.
A different amendment, approved during the committee process, added synthetic nicotine products to the tax program. Those products are generally sold in pouches and deliver nicotine that is derived through a lab process rather than from tobacco.
Another change dropped the maximum fine for a minor possessing tobacco or nicotine products from $300, as proposed in the original form of the bill, to $100.
Federal policy
The federal government, like Alaska, currently imposes no excise tax on e-cigarette products, even though most states do. Democrats in Congress have tried to impose a federal e-cigarette tax since 2019 through a bill called the Tobacco Tax Equity Act, but the bill has yet to pass.
Among those who opposed it is Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. In a 2022 message, Sullivan said he opposed increased tobacco taxes, “even if done to curb tobacco use,” arguing that they are unfair to low-income consumers. And he said e-cigarette use should not be discouraged through taxation. “If taxes are raised on these products, I worry that it could exacerbate smoking issues by disincentivizing the use of these safer products,” he said in his message.
Legislative opponents of Senate Bill 24 cited Sullivan’s position on federal legislation in their arguments against a state tax.
The Alaska legislation comes as the Trump administration is loosening restrictions on e-cigarette products.
President Donald Trump has positioned himself as an ally of the industry. During the 2024 campaign, he pledged to “save vaping.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on May 5 authorized the use of four types of flavored vapes, including mango and blueberry, over public health advocates’ objections. Days before the FDA announced its decision, a subsidiary of tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump political action committee.
The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, welcomed the FDA decision allowing fruit-flavored products back on the shelves and lauded Trump for it. But the group said it was only a “first step.”
The e-cigarette industry has lost some customers in recent years. Youth use of the products is down from a peak reached in 2019, both nationally and in Alaska, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Alaska Department of Health.
Researchers attributed the decline in part to past bans on flavored products. And the CDC cited education campaigns to discourage youth vaping. The Alaska Division of Public Health is among the agencies involved in such campaigns; it has a youth-focused program called “Not Buying It.”
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For a generation of R&B fans, Forever My Lady is forever. This year Jodeci will celebrate their landmark debut album, released in 1991 at the height of the new jack swing era, with a new expanded vinyl reissue for its 35th anniversary.
The 2LP set will feature the original Forever My Lady tracklist plus five bonus tracks, including “Forever My Lady – Live From Uptown MTV Unplugged/1993,” the Swing Mob radio mix of “I’m Still Waiting” (as heard in the song’s music video), the radio remix of “Come And Talk To Me,” a previously unreleased a cappella version of “Stay,” and the hip hop version of the Fried Green Tomatoes soundtrack favorite “Cherish.”
Forever My Lady established Jodeci as hit-makers on the vanguard of R&B. The group’s pioneering mixture of traditional gospel-rooted vocals and synthetic production—spearheaded by Jodeci member DeVante Swing and young R&B peer Al B. Sure—became a dominating force at R&B radio. The forward-thinking sound was mirrored by the Charlotte quartet’s adoption of hip hop wardrobe and styling, which contributed to their status as game-changers.
Forever My Lady debuted atop the Billboard R&B chart, went 3x Platinum, and sent four singles to the Billboard Hot 100, including “Forever My Lady,” “Stay,” “I’m Still Waiting,” and the album’s biggest hit, “Come And Talk To Me.” In addition to its commercial success, Forever My Lady was a critical sensation. Critics praised the album for its innovative approach and masterful execution, including Entertainment Weekly’s Arion Berger, who called it a “forceful and assured debut,” “sophisticated beyond the band members’ years.”
“I was impressed with the fact that they were so young, but they knew who they were musically,” recording engineer Paul Logus later told Okayplayer. “They were so damn good at what they did. It was just unbelievable. The thing that blew me away instantly about DeVante was how musical he was and what a virtuoso he was with whatever he picked up.”
Listen to the 35th anniversary edition of Jodeci’s Forever My Lady here.
Discover more about the world’s greatest R&B artists | uDiscover Music
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She and Oprah Winfrey are not and have never been an item.
Sorry, folks.
In addition to revealing how she once caught her now-ex and his mistress (her former close friend), Gayle King also opened up about the longstanding gay rumors.
When tabloids first began claiming that the two were secret lovers, Gayle begged her bestie to quash the claims. Oprah declined.
‘If we were gay, we would tell you’
During the Wednesday, May 27 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Gayle told host Alex Cooper how the gay rumors used to get under her skin.
“I tell you this, it used to really bother me,” the iconic broadcast journalist admitted.
It all started in 1993, when she — famously — caught her ex-husband, William Bumpus, cheating with a close friend. The two divorced.
At the time, a tabloid ran a nonsensical story claiming that Gayle and longtime bestie Ooprah were “secretly gay.” And it got to her.
“Number one, if we were gay, we would tell you because, believe me, there’s nothing wrong with it,” Gayle emphasized. “It’s just I prefer a man. I prefer a man.”
“And then I would say to her, ‘You’ve got to say something on your show because it’s hard enough for me to get a date on a Saturday night, and now people think I’m a lesbian,’” Gayle recalled telling Oprah.
“‘You’ve got to say something.’ And she said, ‘No, we should just leave it be,’” she recalled. “‘No, I’m just going to leave it alone. Leave it alone.’”
Oprah was, for 25 years, one of the most watched and influential people on the planet. She still falls into the latter category.
“So, well, that’s fine for you to say. You have somebody. I don’t,” Gayle remembered grumbling at the time.
“So, it used to really bother me,” she reiterated. “And now even today there are still people that say, ‘Well, you know, the truth is. …’”
‘I’ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me’
Time has taught Gayle to care less about what others imagine her life to be like.
“I don’t care,” she bluntly admitted.
“I’ve now gotten to the point in my life that very few things get to me,” Gayle shared.
She explained that this is “because, you know, when you go on social media, it is an accelerator on hate.”
Gayle expressed: “As long as I feel good about what I’m doing … Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself nuts. So now I really don’t care.”
Oprah has been with Stedman Graham since 1986. She and Gayle met when both worked for WJZ-TV Baltimore.
Some people respond to gay rumors — in person or from tabloids — with explicit homophobia. Notably, Gayle is decidedly not doing that.
Incidentally, Gayle did not limit her commentary on relationships to clarifying that she likes men. She told Alex that she prefers younger men.
Honestly? Good for her. And, for what it’s worth, it’s pretty reasonable to be annoyed at people speculating that you and your bestie are secret lovers.
Gayle is a legendary broadcast journalist. She signed up to report the news. She never wanted to be the news.
Gayle King: I BEGGED Oprah to Quash the Gay Rumors! She Refused! was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
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Over Memorial Day weekend, Amanda Conner was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
Now, the wife of former Teen Mom star Ryan Edwards is opening up about her relapse.
Days after being arrested in Tennessee on charges that included DUI, child neglect, and driving on the wrong side of the road, Conner took to social media to address what happened and to acknowledge that she has fallen off the wagon.
“I relapsed. I fell hard,” Amanda said on TikTok.
Conner has long been open about her struggles with addiction and recovery.
As first reported by The Ashley’s Reality Roundup, Amanda said she had been doing well for a long period of time before everything unraveled, describing the relapse as both devastating and humbling.
And perhaps most painfully, she admitted that her choices affected the people she loves most.
Conner reportedly acknowledged the disappointment she caused her family, including her children, while also emphasizing that she intends to take accountability rather than run from what happened.
“I’m not proud of myself,” she reportedly shared, adding that she is determined to move forward and regain stability.
While social media reactions have been mixed — especially given the seriousness of the allegations tied to her arrest — some followers praised Amanda for publicly owning her mistakes instead of denying or minimizing them.
Amanda was arrested in Hamilton County, Tennessee, and booked on charges including DUI, child abuse/neglect and driving left of center.
Authorities reportedly alleged that a child was present during the incident.
Court records also indicate restrictions were put in place following the arrest, including limits regarding contact with the alleged child victim pending future legal proceedings.
The day after the arrest, Amanda called the cops and alleged that Ryan had been abusive to her.
As longtime Teen Mom fans know, Ryan spent years battling his own highly publicized addiction struggles, including arrests, rehab stints, and periods of estrangement from loved ones.
He met Amanda while they were both in early recovery, and for a while, it looked as though they might be good influences on one another.
Now, the couple finds itself facing another painful chapter. But Amanda appears determined to get back on the wagon.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Amanda Conner, Wife of Ryan Edwards, Admits to Relapse Following DUI Arrest was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip