NBA playoffs, Amazon prices and cicadas: Your week in review

USA Today

03-05-2025

NBA playoffs, Amazon prices and cicadas: Your week in review
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Social media faces reality of long Real ID lines as deadline looms
Department of Motor Vehicles offices are overwhelmed as people scramble to get their Real ID before the deadline on May 7.
It's bugout time for the cicadas
The cicadas are coming. Tennessee and North Carolina have reported the first sightings of what will soon become a 13-state swarm of the noisy (but harmless) insects, according to the tracking site Cicada Safari. They're known as Brood XIV and emerge every 17 years, and soon they'll be impossible not to notice in much of the eastern United States. They're sometimes known as the Pilgrim's Brood − sightings were first recorded in 1634 in Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts. The settlers "didn't know about periodical cicadas," said Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert at Ohio's Mount St. Joseph University. "They're unique to the eastern part of the United States. The Pilgrims didn't realize they would return in 17 years."
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Trump calls head of Amazon's complaint department
A report that Amazon planned to list the costs of President Donald Trump's tariffs next to its product prices lit a fire under the White House, which declared it "a hostile and political act." The report on Punchbowl News, citing an unidentified source, also sent Trump, who was celebrating his 100th day in office, to the phone to dial up Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. An Amazon spokeswoman later denied the report, telling USA TODAY that "this was never approved and is not going to happen." As for the phone call, Trump told reporters: "Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly."
No, Martha Stewart doesn't do takeout
Leave it to Martha Stewart to not let anyone do anything for her she could do herself − and probably better. In an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" with fellow celebrity chef José Andrés to discuss their new cooking competition show, "Yes, Chef!", Stewart, 83, revealed she had never, not once, ordered takeout food. "You've never been like, 'It's a Taco Bell night.'?" an incredulous Clarkson asked. Andrés could only shake his head, but later he demanded, "Prove it."
The Heat went cold, and it was a hot mess
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn't just deliver a thumping to the Miami Heat in their first-round NBA playoff series − it was a thumping for the ages. The Cavs' 138-83 win to sweep the series capped off some extraordinary numbers: Over four games, Cleveland outscored Miami by 122 points. The Heat lost Games 3 and 4 by a combined 92 points. And at one point late in Game 4, the Heat were down 60. "This is quitting at its finest right here," Charles Barkley declared on "Inside the NBA," never one to mince words. "I bet if we went to their house, all their stuff is already packed."
Opinion: Sorrow and joy for LGBTQ+ Catholics
After the death of Pope Francis, DignityUSA held a gathering for LGBTQ+ Catholics, friends and allies to share their grief. Andrés Merino-Restrepo, a bisexual man living in Canada, said, 'It always felt as if we had a room in the pope's heart.' In his 12 years as pope, Francis embraced LGBTQ+ people in ways unimaginable before his papacy. No matter who is chosen the pope, LGBTQ+ Catholics have been empowered. We will continue to work toward full inclusion ‒ and for recognition that we are no more and no less than who we were created to be. − Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director, DignityUSA
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Compiled and written by Robert Abitbol, USA TODAY's copy chief