Compiled by
Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
• The party was a little more intimate than the king-size concert he threw in Detroit a decade ago. But there was a big dose of goodwill as Kid Rock marked his 50th birthday Sunday night during an online event, raising about $200,000 for a fund supporting restaurants and bars imperiled by the covid-19 pandemic. Streaming live for fans during a digital hangout, Rock was joined in person by a few dozen family members and friends -- including Motley Crue's Vince Neil, country stars Jake Owen and Jon Pardi, and former Detroit Red Wing Chris Chelios -- for a celebration at his Cowboy Town ranch north of Nashville. "I wish we were all rocking at Ford Field again. That was such a special time," Rock said, citing the 40th-birthday show he staged for 60,000 people in 2011. "I can't believe 10 freaking years have passed. Forty turned into 50 really fast." Two weeks after contributing $100,000 of his own to the Barstool Fund, a Barstool Sports campaign that has generated more than $27 million for ailing establishments, Rock encouraged viewers Sunday to donate if they had the means. Toward the end of the 75-minute stream, he said the evening's total was closing in on $200,000. Sunday's birthday show was a last-minute affair, Rock said -- conceived and quickly arranged in about a week. He warned early on the virtual event might be "a train wreck" as he confessed to being nervous and navigated a handful of technical glitches. He had just made what he described as "the most politically incorrect entrance of all time," arriving in a "Dukes of Hazzard"-inspired General Lee Dodge Charger with a Coors Light beer in hand. But Kid Rock stressed he wouldn't be talking politics on a night that ought to be focused on the "people have been struggling during this damn pandemic, this whole mess," he said.
• U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has found a new publisher after his book was dropped by Simon & Schuster in the wake of the assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. The conservative publisher Regnery announced Monday that Hawley's "The Tyranny of Big Tech" will come out this spring. "Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn't be more urgent," Regnery President and Publisher Thomas Spence said in a statement. Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, has been widely condemned for his encouragement of the Jan. 6 protest that ended with a violent mob rampaging through the Capitol. Thousands had gathered that day as Congress voted to formally certify Joe Biden's win over Trump. Hawley and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also a Regnery author, led objections in the Senate to Biden's victory, citing doubts about the election's validity.