MetroNews Hotline

Germain Lussier of Gizmodo joins Dave Weekley to cover a packed entertainment slate. Lussier shares his review of Mortal Kombat 2, calling it action-packed fan service that course-corrects several decisions from the 2021 original — including a conversation with the film's writer about why those changes were made. The discussion moves to Melissa Barrera's absence from Scream 7, with Lussier recapping how her firing over social media posts led to a wave of cast and crew departures, eventually forcing the studio to bring her back, and whether her continued public commentary is helping or hurting her standing in Hollywood. The segment closes with Disney's better-than-expected quarterly earnings and Lussier's firsthand account of the chaotic ticket sale for Star Wars Celebration 2027 in Atlanta — the first U.S. edition in five years and the 50th anniversary of the franchise — which sold out over the course of roughly six hours.

Sports injury analyst Will Carroll of Injury Territory joins Dave Weekley to break down several notable baseball injuries. Carroll diagnoses Reds reliever Emilio Pagan's hamstring injury as a grade two strain — explaining the three-grade muscle tear scale and why the 15-day IL designation reflects roster management rather than an expected return timeline. The conversation moves to Jackson Holliday, whose hamate bone recovery has stalled due to lingering wrist complications, with Carroll noting the wrist's complex anatomy and limited blood flow make it one of the most difficult areas to fully rehabilitate. Carroll closes with an update on Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, who faces loose body removal surgery on his elbow — a procedure Carroll frames as treating a symptom rather than the underlying cause — and argues the timing, while unfortunate ahead of free agency, is unlikely to significantly damage Skubal's earning potential.

Tech reporter Abrar Al-Heeti joins Dave Weekley for their latest tech news segment, opening with Apple's $250 million settlement over unfulfilled Apple Intelligence promises made during the iPhone 16 launch — with eligible device owners able to claim between $25 and $95 per device. The conversation moves to a UK study finding that roughly half of children surveyed said age verification tools on social platforms are easy to bypass, including with something as simple as a drawn-on fake mustache, leading to a broader discussion on the privacy trade-offs of AI-based age detection tools like Meta's proposed bone structure analysis. The two close with the Academy's new rule barring AI actors and AI-written screenplays from Oscar consideration, debating what the decision says about the evolving definition of art, and touch on OpenAI's new ChatGPT platform designed specifically for clinical use by healthcare providers.

Dave Weekley and craft beer correspondent Pat Strater cover the latest from West Virginia's brewing scene on Beer Friday. The segment opens with a barrel talk on Short Story Brewing's Fell Asleep Like This, currently aging in Smooth Ambler bourbon barrels, with a breakdown of how white oak barrel aging imparts flavor and why spent bourbon barrels have spawned an entire secondary broker market. Pat also highlights the final kegs of Cobra Chicken IPA at Brewkeepers in Wheeling, Fox Hops Brewing's 9.7% double IPA Heartless Challenge in Elkins, and Amani Brewing's annual Beekeeper honey lager made with honey harvested on-site in Martinsburg. The show closes with a preview of Picklefest at Greenbrier Valley Brewing and the Elkins Ramp Festival, where the newly opening Brustel Brewing is also welcoming visitors.

Dave Weekley, Coop, Ryan Nicholson, and Matt work through four Buy/Sell topics. Ryan opens with a curated selection of actual graffiti from ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum, asking whether graffiti is a fundamental part of the human condition worth celebrating. Coop brings the Prego Connection Keeper, a $20 offline dinner table recording device made in partnership with StoryCorps that captures family conversations with no cloud connection or AI. Matt puts the NFL Draft's staggering spectator costs under the microscope — hotels topping $2,000 a night, Airbnbs running $24,000 for five days — and asks whether it qualifies as the most expensive spectacle built around athletes who may never pan out. Dave closes with a report on a humanoid robot shattering the half marathon record in Beijing and Sony's table tennis robot Ace, asking whether robot athletic achievements are becoming genuinely alarming.

Germain Lussier of Gizmodo joins Dave Weekley from New York ahead of the NFL Draft to cover a full slate of entertainment stories. Lussier makes the case against a Project Hail Mary sequel, arguing the film's specific emotional and narrative elements are too singular to replicate — though he puts the odds of one happening at around 30 percent. He also covers Battlestar Galactica's return to streaming on Paramount Plus and Pluto TV starting May 1st, the reveal of the first trailer for DC's hard-R horror film Clayface, and the upcoming home release of Disney's Hoppers. The conversation closes with Lussier's firsthand account from Citi Field the previous night as the Mets snapped a 12-game losing streak, with Soto back in the lineup and Lindor leaving with an injury.

Ryan Nicholson returns with the Video Game Report to break down West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey's $11 million settlement with the Roblox Corporation over child safety and moderation failures. Nicholson applauds the settlement as a meaningful win for the state but raises broader concerns about whether the deal addresses the root problem — arguing that Roblox and similar platforms have a financial incentive to avoid self-moderation and would prefer to push enforcement responsibility onto the federal government. He draws a contrast with early 2000s children's platforms like Club Penguin, Neopets, and Webkinz, which maintained safer online environments through active content moderation, and questions whether Roblox's promised AI age verification tools represent a genuine solution or a corporate deflection.