Praying for Joe Frazier

Good Morning Qcity. It’s Monday, and for most of us that means it’s time to get back to business. How was your weekend? Did you take advantage of any of the “Super Saturday” deals?
Today, the weatherman is calling for partly cloudy skies and a high around 69°. Tonight, expect areas of patchy fog and lows in the mid 30s.
Here’s what’s brewing in the news
Praying for Joe Frazier
This weekend it was announced that former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier is under
hospice care. Frazier, 67, was diagnosed with liver cancer about four or five weeks ago, said his manager Leslie Wolff. Wolff said doctors have not given Frazier a prognosis and treatment options are limited.
Wolff said she is keeping her fingers crossed and hoping for a miracle. “I’ve got everybody praying for him,” she told the Associated Press.
Known as Smokin’ Joe, Frazier was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali, in what became known as the Fight of the Century. Over the weekend, Ali released a statement to CBS News saying that he is pulling for Frazier.
"The news about Joe is hard to believe and even harder to accept,” said Ali. “Joe is a fighter and a champion and I am praying he is fighting now. My family and I are keeping Joe and his family in our daily prayers. Joe has a lot of friends pulling for him, and I'm one of them."
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Most of unemployed no longer receiving benefits
The percentage of unemployed Americans receiving benefits dropped from 75 percent at the beginning of the year to 48 percent, reports the Associated Press. The trend points to a shift in the growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more. The percentage receiving aid will fall further if Congress decides not to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. That decision is expected to come before year’s end. According to the U.S. Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as $22,314 for a family of four. A record number of people, 46 million, received food stamps in August.
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What about your friends?
You may have hundreds of online “friends” and “followers” on social media networks, but in real life the average person has only two true friends, according to a recent study. Matthew Brashears, assistant professor of sociology at Cornell University surveyed more than 2,000 adults and found the average number of confidantes was two, down from three friends 25 years ago. The study also found that the number of people reporting they have zero confidantes, or the socially isolated, has not increased over these decades.
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