Former president Donald Trump and several allies charged in the Georgia election interference case asked the presiding judge to let them appeal his ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) to stay on the case.

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In a Monday court filing, Trump and eight co-defendants requested that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee grant them a “certificate of immediate review” of his order last week denying defense motions seeking to disqualify Willis over claims that she had an improper romantic relationship with an outside prosecutor she had appointed to lead the case.

The certificate, if approved, would allow defendants to appeal McAfee’s order before the Georgia Court of Appeals.
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On Friday, McAfee ruled that Trump and the others had “failed to meet their burden” in proving that Willis’s romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade and allegations that she was financially enriched by trips the two took together were enough of a “conflict of interest” to remove her from the case. However, McAfee also found a “significant appearance of impropriety” and said either Willis and her office or Wade had to leave the case. Wade resigned later Friday.



In their Monday motion, Trump and the others argued that Wade’s resignation was “insufficient to cure the appearance of impropriety the Court has determined exists.”
“The Court found that District Attorney Willis’ actions had created an appearance of impropriety and an ‘odor of mendacity’ that lingers in this case, as well as the continuing possibility that ‘an outsider could reasonably think that District Attorney Willis is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences,’” the defense motion stated, quoting McAfee’s ruling.
“Defendants believe that the relevant case law requires dismissal of the case, or at the very least, the disqualification of the District Attorney and her entire office under the facts that exist here,” the motion added.

Trump and others had also argued that Willis should be disqualified because of comments she made in a Jan. 14 speech at a historic Black church in Atlanta where she suggested that the criticism of her and Wade was racially motivated.


McAfee ruled Friday that defendants had not proven that Willis’s comments had tainted the potential jury pool, partly because it was too early to know. He also said case law on forensic misconduct by prosecutors was too vague to determine whether Willis’s remarks met that standard. But the judge was deeply critical of Willis’s speech, describing it as “legally improper.”

Trump and the others pointed to McAfee’s opinion about the speech as they argued that a higher court should review his ruling.

“Whether District Attorney Willis and her Office are permitted to continue representing the State of Georgia in prosecuting the Defendants in this action is of the utmost importance to this case, and ensuring the appellate courts have the opportunity to weigh in on these matters pre-trial is paramount,” the defense motion stated.


The defense motion was initially filed by attorneys for eight co-defendants who originally sought to disqualify Willis, including Trump, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Trump campaign aides Mike Roman and Harrison Floyd, former Trump campaign attorney Robert Cheeley, former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer and Trump Georgia elector Cathleen Latham. Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark joined the motion a short time later, a delay caused by a “paperwork mistake,” according to his lawyer Harry MacDougald.
A spokesman for Willis declined to comment.

Steve Sadow, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement that McAfee’s ruling on Willis “is ripe for pretrial appellate review.”
McAfee has given no hints about whether he will grant defendants the right to appeal his ruling on Willis. In a separate order last week dismissing six counts of the original 41-count indictment, the judge included language informing prosecutors he would approve an appeal if they requested one. No such language was included in Friday’s order on Willis — an omission that surprised some involved in the case.


Defendants had 10 days from last Friday to seek a certificate of review. There is no timetable for McAfee as he considers whether to allow an appeal to move forward. If McAfee grants a review, Trump and others would have another 10 days to file their case before the state Court of Appeals, which then has 45 days to determine whether to take the case. If the appellate court declines to take the case, Trump and the other could ask the Georgia Supreme Court to hear it.

Netflix put out a QUARTERBACK series last year that was supposedly good. Haven't seen it. This one will feature George Kittle.
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This is the kind of "legal scholar" you get when you do that. Nice work libtards.

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West Liberty Foods has announced it will lay off 260 workers — about a quarter of its workforce — at the turkey processing plant this year, beginning April 29.



The company also is temporarily suspending matching contributions to workers’ 401(k) accounts in an effort to conserve cash.


Dan Waters, the company’s chief legal officer, said the West Liberty plant is discontinuing its ready-to-eat slicing operation and its second-shift fabrication unit.




The farmer-owned cooperative is moving some of the turkey-slicing operation to its plant in Bolingbrook, Ill., a Chicago suburb, the Des Moines Register reported Monday.


Rapid growth in demand for West Liberty's ready-to-eat sandwiches, produced at the Illinois plant, is driving the move, the company told the Register.


The news comes at the same time Tyson Foods has announced it will close its Perry pork processing plant, laying off nearly 1,300 workers in June — news that is figuring in Iowa lawmaker discussions about decreasing the rate companies must pay into the state’s unemployment fund.


“As a resident of this community, the decision to reduce production capacity in West Liberty was difficult and painful,” said Brandon Achen, president and CEO of West Liberty Foods. “We value the contributions of all team members and deeply regret the need for layoffs. We are committed to connecting each affected person with new employment opportunities and support.”





West Liberty, with a population of around 4,000, became Iowa’s first Latino majority city in the 2010 census, with 52 percent of its residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino. It has a Latino-majority City Council, and a number of Latinos work at West Liberty Foods.


Waters said the plant — which has 865 workers — will provide on-site re-employment and support services for employees losing their jobs.


The announcement said the layoffs will occur in stages, in April, May, June and November. The layoffs will mainly impact the West Liberty plant.


The announcement follows a smaller round of layoffs in November 2023 when the company laid off 25 employees at the West Liberty plant, 17 in the Bolingbrook, Ill., plant and 12 in the Tremonton, Utah, plant due to scaled-back production.


In October 2022, the company closed its Mount Pleasant plant.


At the time, Waters said West Liberty Foods had to scale back production during the COVID-19 pandemic and the labor shortage that followed, allocating available products among existing customers and turning away new business. That left the business with more supervisory, clerical and sales positions than were needed to support the reduced production.


West Liberty Foods, founded by turkey growers in 1996, raises and slaughters about 5 million turkeys annually.


Iowa ranks seventh in the nation in turkey production, and West Liberty Foods provides 40 percent of those turkeys. The West Liberty plant has a $55 million payroll, according to earlier reports.


In regard to the company’s 401(k) program, Waters said employees still are being allowed to make contributions to their retirement accounts.


“We don't know how long the employer match will be suspended,” he said in an email to the Muscatine Journal. “The timing will depend on our company's financial performance.”

When Larry Silverberg and his colleague Chau Tran began studying the science of the basketball shot in the early 2000s, Iowa star Caitlin Clark was just a toddler but had yet to walk to the 3-point line, let alone pull up from 5 feet behind the arc. But even with Clark, Stephen Curry and the explosion of the 3 still years away, the jump shot became among the academic focuses for Silverberg and Tran, both of whom are basketball fans and professors in North Carolina State’s mechanical and aerospace engineering department. “Basketball,” Silverberg says, “is highly predictable.”

Formulas that predict whether a pull-up will go through a 10-foot hoop with an 18-inch diameter take into account factors such as release height, launch angle, release speed and backspin. It’s why for years now, robots capable of shooting like top-tier basketball players have developed. Although Clark is no Cue6, her proficiency from deep often looks automatic.

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In dissecting the shooting skills of Clark, who broke the women’s Big Ten, NCAA and major-college career scoring records this season, Tran picks up on the 6-foot guard’s high release point. Silverberg notices the arc on her jumper and how her 3-pointer appears to travel on an ideal trajectory. “She’s shooting an optimal shot,” Silverberg says. In the video below, watch Clark’s similar release on four different shots.


For Clark, however, her success season after season, jumper after jumper is not a direct result of any scientific review. Instead, Iowa assistant coach Abby Stamp says, “It’s about reps.” Whether intentional or not, the two concepts align in Clark’s jumper. “When you watch the really good shooters, they all practice the principles that we see in the math,” Silverberg says.

This is what fans will see throughout March as Clark leads No. 1 seed Iowa, which begins the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. After drawing the toughest region in the brackets, Clark will need her shot to go in now more than ever to lead the Hawkeyes back to the Final Four.

Long before any possible March Madness heroics, Kevin O’Hare began working with Clark the summer before her junior year of high school. In their workouts, the most important numbers they track are how many of Clark’s attempts she makes and from which locations they are attempted. He says they write everything in her phone’s notes app.

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Nowadays, Clark’s private shooting sessions generally consist of the following: She spends five to eight minutes around the basket, working on her form, gradually taking a step back and adding her guide hand. Then, she goes into a 300-shot routine, which consists of 100 free throws with a goal to make 90, followed by 100 mid-range jumpers with a goal of hitting 80 and finally 100 3-pointers with a goal to make 70. From there, they move into off-the-dribble combination shooting, where Clark tries to make 70 to 75 shots out of 100. Clark then attempts to make 50 of 100 logo 3s. That’s all within just over an hour, with ballhandling and defensive slide drills weaved between the shooting sets. Time devoted to defensive work is often greater when Clark doesn’t hit her shooting goals. “Every kid hates (it), but obviously it is really good for you,” O’Hare says.


O’Hare and Clark have made only small mechanics adjustments over the years. For instance, O’Hare says that as Clark has gotten stronger, she has tinkered with how she catches passes, working to receive the ball on her side, instead of at her stomach. The change allows her to get into her shot faster, by catching it closer to her shooting pocket. It keeps the basketball in motion. “You’re able to get more force on the ball, because the ball moves constantly,” says John Fantanella, a professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy and the author of “The Physics of Basketball.”

O’Hare, who is also a coach at Clark’s high school alma mater, Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines, Iowa, downplays his impact on Clark’s success. Her shot mechanics have been honed since she began playing the sport as a child. “Through a ton of coaches her whole life, through her dad and mom, and with practice and repetition,” he says. “When we got together, it was all really good.

“You could get a monkey to train her, and you’d get the same results at the end of the day,” he added.

This year, those results have consisted of Clark averaging a career-high 31.9 points per game. She led the nation in above-the-break 3-pointers (11.9 per game) — nearly three more than any other player — while shooting 38 percent on such attempts, according to CBB Analytics. Elite at multiple facets, she ranked first nationally in assists per game, too.

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“She has a good clean shot pocket and good clean release, seemingly always,” says John Carter, CEO of Noah basketball, a company whose shot-analyzing technology is used by nearly every NBA team and countless major men’s and women’s college programs.

Carter acknowledges that top shooters, such as Clark, Curry and New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, might have variations in form and body type. Yet in analyzing his company’s research, he says, “They do certain things the same, every single one, without fail. … They all shoot with a trajectory that comes into the rim very close to 45 degrees. That’s where you get the best control.” Consider that if a shot’s entry angle varies, it could create a “spray effect” at the rim and is more likely to rattle out.

In the elite shooters he’s studied, Carter, like Silverberg and Tran, also says they aim deep in the basket and launch shots that travel to the rim in a straight line. O’Hare confirms that he and Clark discuss not missing short on shots. Like Curry, he observes, Clark’s 25-foot 3-pointer looks just like her 22-foot 3-pointer.

Iowa installed the Noah system in its practice facility. But Stamp says the Hawkeyes coaching staff uses it primarily to map players’ shooting strengths and weaknesses. They don’t often relay minutiae, like where the ball literally passes through the hoop, to players, especially not to Clark, who appears to be doing just fine without the possible information overload. Plus, whether you’re a coach now looking to slow her in the NCAA Tournament or a professor in aerospace engineering, the conclusions about Clark’s game are the same.

“She’s phenomenal,” Tran says. “You can’t stop her.”

It's not clear which cars he was referring to, so if anyone can add context to clarify that, that would be helpful. Meanwhile, here's what WaPo reported:

Statehouse Republicans have approved two different proposals to overhaul the operation and funding of Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies, which provide special education services and other supports to K-12 schools.



Meantime, separate coalitions of K-12 superintendents reached out to state lawmakers over the weekend to express their respective support for and opposition to the proposals.


Iowa Senate Republicans passed their version of AEA changes Monday at the Iowa Capitol. This proposal is similar to one presented by Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this year, but significantly different from one that Iowa House Republicans passed last month.

Superintendents convey support for, opposition to AEA proposals​

Last weekend, a group of 32 K-12 Iowa superintendents made their feelings on both proposals clear when they emailed all state legislators to express their opposition to the plan.


“Our message is clear: we are deeply concerned about the proposed changes to the AEAs, especially the shift towards a ‘Fee-for-Service’ approach,” states the emailed letter from the superintendents who oppose the plans.




“The value of the AEA system as designed is that it is a cooperative that ensures that every school district, regardless of size or location, has access to the services it needs to serve students,” the letter continues. “Rural school districts, in particular, rely heavily on AEAs for critical support. Disrupting a model that has largely worked over the past 50 years will have grave consequences for the students we serve.”


Another group of 18 superintendents signed a letter to legislators in which they expressed support for the legislative effort to change AEA operations and funding.





“We advocate for AEA reform in this session,” that letter says. “We recognize the valuable role that AEAs play in supporting our schools and educators. Also, as advocates for the well-being of our students, we believe it is essential for educational systems to continually evaluate their effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.”

Both bills would create new division for AEA oversight​

Currently, state and federal funding is sent directly to the Area Education Agencies, which provide services to school districts in their region. The AEAs are most prominently used in supporting special education students — those who have an individualized education plan, or IEP. AEAs also provide professional development for teachers, crisis response programs, and media services, among others.


Under the Senate’s bill, which is much closer aligned with Reynolds’ proposal, AEA funding would be transitioned to a fee-for-service model, through which AEAs would provide special education and other services only if requested by a school district. That annual uncertainty, critics of the proposal say, would jeopardize the entire AEA system.


Both proposals create a new AEA oversight division in the Iowa Department of Education.


The House version keeps the current funding structure largely in place; state funding for special education services would go to the school districts, and they would be required to use that funding with the AEAs.

Six Republican senators join Democrats in opposing bill​

Senate Republicans approved their proposal, an amended version of Senate File 2386, on Monday. Only Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while six Senate Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against it: Sens. Waylon Brown, Mike Klimesh, Mark Lofgren, Charlie McClintock, Sandy Salmon, and Jeff Taylor.

All the info available in the attached tweet here.
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Seems like a mixed bag on Twitter. What would you prefer?

Created by Guy Ritchie runs 8 episodes ~45 minutes each. Pretty good show and I would say likely to be picked up for a second season down the road.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

She was held at gunpoint and then executed via gunshot to the head.

So should we blame the gun or the people? I reference this because when the father shot his son it was a gun control debate….many blamed the gun.


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I think Iowa, Ohio St, Indiana and Nebraska can beat any team in the country. IMO the BIG was the best conference in the country top to bottom. We have better three point shooters in this conference, and now more depth with the emergence of Feurbach and McCabe. Hopefully, Molly comes back by the Sweet 16

As much as this sucks this team still exceeded expectations this season. Solid young core with 2 nice additions. Hopefully Perkins comes back for a 5th year and they land a BIG and or Guard in the portal this team will be top 5 in BIG and Dancing again.

i see he's 70/75% for the clowns. hawks have a chance??????

If you're not a Boomer or early X'er, keep scrolling.

Go to this concert if you can at all make it happen... we saw him in Atlanta in July 2019 and it was a fantastic concert. They sounded amazing... Even if you aren't a Boomer or early X'er, go see it... I knew you wouldn't keep scrolling.

What are a couple of top-notch restaurants in Orlando that are a Uber ride away from Universal.

The NIT/NCAA is like the kids table/adult table at Thanksgiving. You think you’re important, but really not. Eat your chicken fingers and go to bed Billy!

Likes to pee?

$15 for tickets? Really?!!! I wonder if NCAA sets that price. They should make them like $5 and free for students/kids, and challenge the Hawkeye fans to give those two teams a great environment for that game - but $15/ticket is too high of price for that to work

Not sure if this has been discussed in the past, but the forthcoming “Masters of the Air” miniseries on Apple looks great. It’s a sequel to Band of Brothers… but in the air. Has some big names acting and directing. But, little leery about it cuz looks like they wrapped filming a couple of years ago and there have been delays which usually means it won’t turn out well. Sounds like it could be released in September or October.