Super exciting! And I can honestly say I never really got mad about our losses. We were always going to lose a game or 2. We know why we lost and in every instance we came back and won the next game except IU and we did smoke them early….

Elephant in the room….interior size and deficiencies.

Yes, I have no doubt we wanted more of an interior presence. Yes I think we chased some players, but it appears at the end of the day who we wanted didn’t materialize and we decided to move forward…we can speculate all day &/or lay blame but how we responded is infinitely more important…

We responded by turning these girls into a NASCAR team. A big girl like Laren Betts, Cameron Brink (watched her the other day) and the like would bring along some skills & versatility, but they would impact the speed and flexibility in a big way…

We currently at almost any given time on the court, have 4 girls who can grab the ball and go…

We almost always have 4 girls on the court who shoot the three.

We are way more athletic and by the way, I think there’s an element out there that because several of these teams, especially down south are primarily black that “we” have a tendency, meaning people or “humanity” have a tendency to suggest they are more athletic….

Running into a more athletic team really isn’t much of a concern of mine.

Foul trouble and physicality is….

But those ultra physical big teams will have difficulty keeping up with us. And no USC & LSU aren’t wildly more athletic than we are & in fact with their size they may be less so…

Kate Martin, Feurbach, CC & Affolter and great athletes!!

The way LB brought this team along while keeping everyone engaged has been masterful.

for me.
muddy waters
SRV
Jimmy Dawkins
blessed to have seen this guy before he passed.

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Signed, sealed, Deal-ivered.

"Arkansas-based Tyson Foods says it’s permanently closing its Perry pork packing plant, a move that will leave the 1,200 workers at the city's largest employer without work."

Des Moines Register

125 California Baptist Elijah Griffin Big 12
125 Oregon State Brandon Kaylor Pac 12
125 Rider Tyler Klinsky MAC
125 Ohio State Brendan McCrone Big Ten
125 Northern Colorado Stevo Poulin
125 Harvard Diego Sotelo EIWA

133 Ohio State Nic Bouzakis Big Ten
133 Pennsylvania Michael Colaiocco EIWA
133 Northern Iowa Julian Farber Big 12
133 Missouri Kade Moore Big 12
133 Minnesota Tyler Wells Big Ten

141 Gardner-Webb Todd Carter SoCon
141 Cornell Vince Cornella EIWA
141 Virginia Tech Tom Crook ACC
141 Maryland Kal Miller Big Ten
141 Columbia Kai Owen EIWA
141 West Virginia Jordan Titus Big 12

149 Rutgers Michael Cetta Big Ten
149 South Dakota State Alek Martin
149 Pittsburgh Finn Solomon ACC
149 Pennsylvania Jude Swisher EIWA

157 Virginia Tech Bryce Andonian ACC
157 Little Rock Matty Bianchi Pac 12
157 Minnesota Michael Blockhus Big Ten
157 Northern Colorado Vinny Zerban

165 NC State Derek Fields ACC
165 Michigan State Caleb Fish Big Ten
165 Pittsburgh Holden Heller ACC
165 Bucknell Noah Mulvaney EIWA
165 Ohio Garrett Thompson MAC

174 Pittsburgh Luca Augustine ACC
174 Northern Iowa Jared Simma Big 12
174 Penn State Carter Starocci Big Ten
174 Navy Danny Wask EIWA

184 Gardner-Webb Jha`Quan Anderson
184 Iowa State Will Feldkamp Big 12
184 Pennsylvania Maximus Hale EIWA
184 Campbell Caleb Hopkins SoCon
184 Arizona State Tony Negron Pac 12

197 Northwestern Evan Bates Big Ten
197 Utah Valley Evan Bockman Big 12
197 Franklin & Marshall John Crawford
197 Virginia Tech Andy Smith ACC

285 Maryland Seth Nevills Big Ten
285 Pittsburgh Dayton Pitzer ACC
285 Minnesota Bennett Tabor Big Ten
285 Cal Poly Trevor Tinker PAC 12

Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) is set to shut its pork packing plant in Perry, Iowa — culling about 1,200 jobs in the process — as the meat packer looks to cut costs amid a slump in the demand for its products.

The plant closure was scheduled to close by the end of June. Tyson, which still employs about 9,000 people in Iowa, said it would encourage employees to apply for other positions within the company.

"While this decision was not easy, it emphasizes our focus to optimize the efficiency of our operations to best serve our customers," said a company spokesperson.

Tyson, which is the largest U.S. meatpacker, has shuttered about nine processing facilities since the start of 2023, in an effort to streamline its operations. Its plant locations in Florida, Arkansas, Columbia, and Indiana were among some that were closed down last year.

In its recent quarterly results in February, the Arkansas-based company posted topline and bottom-line numbers that were ahead of expectations.

"Going forward, we will continue to prioritize our liquidity and financial health, our focus on operational excellence, and our relentless pursuit to win with customers and consumers," the CEO had said.

Looking ahead, Tyson Foods guided for FY24 revenue being relatively flat with FY23 revenue of $52.8B vs. $53.1B consensus and saw full-year capital expenditure spending of $1.0B to $1.5B.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...S&cvid=e9eebc0f774844b6aae1488b2869357d&ei=23

The GOP has gone full loony tunes and GQP...

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Here is how I predict the rest of the season to play out

A majority of Iowans oppose a Republican-led bill that would allow state agencies to outsource their annual audits to private CPAs, circumventing the state auditor, a position held by a Democrat, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds.

Fifty-one percent oppose the proposal, compared with 43% who are in favor. Seven percent are not sure.

Senate File 2311 would allow Iowa’s state agencies to hire a nonpartisan, certified CPA for their annual audit in lieu of the state auditor’s office. It passed the Senate in February on a party-line vote and has not yet been considered in the House.

The bill comes a year after Republicans passed a law curbing the investigatory powers of State Auditor Rob Sand, Iowa’s only statewide elected Democrat.

Sand and legislative Democrats have called the new bill a political ploy to “kneecap” the auditor’s authority, while its Republican supporters say it’s a “good government” bill that will better suit a short-staffed auditing field.

Iowans’ opinions on the proposal vary along partisan lines.

Among Republicans, 49% are in favor, with 42% opposed. More Democrats dislike the bill, with 24% in favor and 72% opposed.

Independents are closely split, with 47% in favor and 49% opposed.

Penn St 10
Minnesota 10
VA Tech 10
NC State 10
Okie St 10
Missouri 10
Cornell 10
Iowa 9
Michigan 9
Nebraska 9
Ohio St 9
Iowa St 9
Rutgers 8
South Dakota State 8
Lehigh 8
Penn 8
Arizona St 8
Pitt 7
UNI 7
Indiana 6
Army 6
Campbell 6
Wisconsin 5
Purdue 5
Michigan St 5
Maryland 5
North Carolina 5
West Virginia 5
Oklahoma 5
Navy 5
Bucknell 5
Rider 5
Oregon St 5
Stanford 5
Cal Poly 5
Little Rock 5
App St 5
Virginia 4
Columbia 4
Binghamton 4
Illinois 3
Northwestern 3
N Colorado 3
Wyoming 3
Air Force 3
Harvard 3
Princeton 3
Lock Haven 3
Central Michigan 3
George Mason 3
Ohio 3
Cal Baptist 2
Franklin & Marshall 2
Cleveland St 2
Buffalo 2
Chattanooga 2
Gardner-Webb 2
North Dakota St 1
Utah Valley 1
American 1
LIU 1
Brown 1
Hofstra 1
Northern Illinois 1
Clarion 1
SIU-Edwardsville 1
The Citadel 1
VMI 1
Duke 0
Drexel 0
Sacred Heart 0
Bloomsburg 0
Kent St 0
Edinboro 0
CSU Bakersfield 0
Davidson 0

Glazier is one of my all time favorite Hawks.

The poll aggregation and evaluation site 538, part of ABC News, dropped the right-wing polling firm Rasmussen Reports from inclusion in its polling averages and forecasts.
The decision comes after months of consideration that broke into public view in June. At that point, G. Elliott Morris, ABC News’s editorial director of data analytics and 538 lead, presented Rasmussen with questions meant to evaluate its objectivity and methodology. Rasmussen published the letter on its website, triggering backlash against 538 in right-wing media — and by Nate Silver, the founder of what was then called FiveThirtyEight. No change was implemented.


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As time passed, though, Rasmussen’s inability to meet the standards set by 538 — and two dubious polls conducted for right-wing organizations — eventually led 538 to make the change this week.



Last month, Rasmussen’s assessment of President Biden’s approval rating was included in the site’s average; it no longer is. Searching for “Rasmussen” on 538’s pollster rankings returns only pollster Scott Rasmussen, not the firm he founded and then left.

“It’s a good thing 538 is irrelevant,” Rasmussen Reports vice president of operations Mark Mitchell said in an email to The Washington Post when asked about the change.
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For years, Rasmussen’s results have been more favorable for Republican candidates and issues. During the Trump administration, though, the site’s public presence became more overtly partisan, with tracking polls sponsored by conservative authors and causes and a social media presence that embraced false claims that spread widely on the right. At times, Rasmussen’s polls actively promoted those debunked claims, including ones centered on voter fraud.



Last March, for example, Rasmussen released data purporting to show that Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) had won her gubernatorial election in November 2022. The route it took to get to that determination was circuitous and, to put it mildly, atypical. On behalf of the group College Republicans United, Rasmussen asked Arizona voters who they voted for in Lake’s race and, after weighting the results to exit polls — which is unusual — declared that, contrary to the certified tally, Kari Lake had won her race by eight points.
An election of 2.5 million voters is a better indicator of an election outcome than a retrospective question offered to 1,000 Arizonans four months later from a Republican-leaning pollster that is adjusting its results to a metric, exit polls, that is itself weighted to the election results. But Rasmussen trumpeted this revisionist look at the race loudly — including on Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast — as did Trump allies.
This was one trigger for the questions Morris sent to Rasmussen in June.



“[D]oes Rasmussen Reports believe the results of the 2022 Arizona Governor election, as certified by the state’s department of elections, to be fraudulent,” one question asked, “based on the results of a 2023 survey conducted by Rasmussen reports and sponsored by College Republicans, as it stated for Mr Bannon on his programming in April of this year?”
Morris, who had been publicly critical of the pollster previously, asked Rasmussen to respond to several questions about their methodology, including some centered on the Arizona results. (For example: “Since the outcome of the poll does not match the observable election result … [h]ow are you addressing that methodological problem?”) Apparently, instead of answering, Rasmussen made the requests public.
Silver, whose departure from the site was announced in April, took issue with Morris’s approach. He noted in July that Rasmussen’s results were generally average and objected to what he described as a “political litmus test” to which Rasmussen was being subjected. Silver argued that dropping Rasmussen would be warranted had the pollster violated established rules but that Morris was, instead, engaged in what “looks like a fishing expedition.” Morris replied indirectly on social media, arguing that “asking pollsters detailed methodological questions is not (or shouldn’t be!) controversial.”



In November, 538 and ABC News updated its polls policy in advance of a January update to its pollster rankings. Written by Mary Radcliffe and Morris, the new policy stipulated, among other things, that:

“[p]ollsters must also be able to answer basic questions about their methodology, including but not limited to the polling mode used (e.g., telephone calls, text messages, online panels), the source of their sample, their weighting criteria and the source of the poll’s funding. In most cases, a detailed written methodology statement is sufficient to satisfy this criterion, but we may contact pollsters directly to clarify methodological details and follow up occasionally to ensure the pollster is still meeting our standards.”

Click to expand...

A few weeks later, Rasmussen again published dubious poll results on behalf of a right-wing organization. This time, the findings alleged to have uncovered rampant fraud in 2020, including that 1 in 12 Americans had been offered “pay” or a “reward” for their vote. Trump and his allies celebrated the poll; again, the results do not comport with the reality of there being no demonstrable wide-scale vote-buying scheme at the state or national level.
“538 has a clear and thorough set of polling criteria which is published on the website,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Post. “When pollsters do not fit the criteria outlined in our policy, they can no longer be included in the statistical model.”
Since 2009, more than a dozen pollsters have been removed from 538′s aggregation. And there are other partisan pollsters still included in 538’s analysis, like Trafalgar Group. But Rasmussen, already viewed with skepticism by 538, failed to meet the standards formalized in November. Their results will no longer be included in the site’s aggregation of research findings it considers reliable.

This one cracks me up every time.

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Very close second

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Worth a listen. -1 for "undocumented migrants" but still the best presentation I've seen between the "big 3" to date. Any thoughts or response?

Per CBS, the OT thriller between Iowa-Nebraska on Sunday was "the most-watched women’s college basketball conference tournament game ever on any network."

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The Caitlin Clark Effect continues to roll on and command huge viewership numbers.

I noticed the NFL Iowa guys getting 2 year deals.

A 4 year deal used to be a standard "multi-year contract", but these days it seems like that's more of a "long-term contract", relatively speaking.

Are these guys getting the best they can get? Strategically are they playing it smart and banking on being healthy in two years, then re-upping at a higher price?

Eric Carmen, whose plaintive vocals soared above the crunching guitars of the 1970s power-pop pioneers the Raspberries before his soft rock crooning made him a mainstay of 1980s music, has died. He was 74.
His death was announced on his website by his wife, Amy Carmen. She did not give a cause or specify where he died, saying only that he died “in his sleep, over the weekend.”
The Raspberries, which formed in Cleveland, burst onto the American rock scene in 1972 with their debut album, titled simply “The Raspberries,” featuring a raspberry-scented scratch-and-sniff sticker and their biggest hit, “Go All the Way,” a provocative song for its day, sung from the point of view of a young woman.
Dave Swanson of the website Ultimate Classic Rock called it “the definitive power pop song of all time,” as the emerging style, known for grafting bright ’60s-era vocal harmonies onto the heavy guitar riffs of the ’70s, would come to be called.
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“The opening Who-like blast leads into a very Beatles-esque verse, before landing in some forgotten Beach Boys chorus,” he wrote. “Thus was the magic of the Raspberries song craft. They were able to take the best parts and ideas from the previous decade, and morph them into something new, yet familiar.”

The Raspberries’ second album, “Fresh,” also released in 1972, would be its highest charting, at No. 36. It featured two Top 40 hits, “I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Pretend.”
How The Times decides who gets an obituary. There is no formula, scoring system or checklist in determining the news value of a life. We investigate, research and ask around before settling on our subjects. If you know of someone who might be a candidate for a Times obituary, please suggest it here.
Learn more about our process.
The band, known for its matching suits and clean image, was dismissed by some as passé.
“Almost every band had hair down to their waist and beards and ripped jeans and they looked like a bunch of hippies, and I wanted to get as far away from that as I could,” Mr. Carmen said in a 2017 interview with the Observer.
The band did earn some critical acclaim and cachet: John Lennon was photographed wearing a Raspberries shirt. Its influence on rock music would only grow over time.
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After the band broke up in 1975, Mr. Carmen went solo. He swerved into soft rock, quickly scoring a hit single with “All by Myself,” which peaked at No. 2.

In the 1980s, two of his biggest hits came from soundtracks. For 1984’s “Footloose,” he co-wrote “Almost Paradise,” which was recorded by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson, and he wrote and sang “Hungry Eyes,” from 1987’s “Dirty Dancing.” “Make Me Lose Control” reached No. 3 in 1988.
Mr. Carmen’s songs would be covered by artists as varied as Shaun Cassidy (“That’s Rock ’n Roll”), Celine Dion (“All By Myself”) and John Travolta (“Never Gonna Fall in Love Again”). In 1989, he began appearing with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band.
The Raspberries reunited in 2004. A show from that tour was featured on a 28-song live album in 2017, “Raspberries Pop Art Live. The liner notes were written by the filmmaker Cameron Crowe, who featured “Go All the Way” in his 2000 movie “Almost Famous.”
Mr. Carmen was sanguine about the impact of the Raspberries.
“Rock critics got it and 16-year-old girls got it, but you know, the 18-year-old guy who liked Megadeth was never going to like the same record his sister did,” he said in the 2017 interview, before recounting the first time he met Bruce Springsteen.

​

​

“I walked in his dressing room before a show and he was writing out the set list and we both looked at each other for a couple of minutes — I was very uncomfortable being on the fan end, so I felt a little stupid. But Bruce looked at me and he goes, ‘You know, while I was writing “The River” all I listened to was Woody Guthrie and the Raspberries’ greatest hits.’”

Evidently he was at 60-40 that it would get done but now is down to 50-50. On one hand, if something isn't passed to regulate college sports then I'm not sure it will survive the decade. On the other hand, Ted Cruz and I seem to be on the same side of an issue here and now I feel like I need to take a shower and then go to church.

Does anyone have any details?

With a second key deadline looming at week’s end in the Iowa Legislature, there remain many significant proposals with work still to do in just a few days if they are to remain available for further consideration in this year’s session.



Defining “man” and “woman” in state law; helping schools arm teachers and other staff; creating legal penalties for causing a pregnancy to end, which could also impact fertility treatments — these are among high-profile proposals needing at least a little more legislative approval if they are to remain on the track to become law this year.


Even the one issue that has dominated the 2024 session like no other — Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal to overhaul the way the state’s nine area education agencies are operated and funded — still needs legislative attention by the end of this week.




All of these proposals and hundreds more face the second legislative deadline of the 2024 session: the second funnel. By the end of this week, legislation must be approved by one full chamber — either the Iowa House or Senate — and at least a committee in the opposite chamber in order to remain eligible for consideration moving forward.


Any bill that fails to garner that much legislative support will be considered “dead.” However, leaders in the majority party have the ability to resurrect the “dead” bills through multiple legislative tools. And sometimes they do.


The funnel deadline does not apply to bills that deal with tax policy, the state budget or other spending measures. So bills that deal with, for example, increasing the salaries of public school teachers and support staff, Reynolds’ proposed streamlining of the state’s mental and behavioral health systems, or statehouse Republicans’ plans to further decrease state income taxes, are not subject to this week’s deadline.


The following bills and topics are among the many that state lawmakers must advance at some point this week if the bills are to survive this second funnel:

Area education agencies​

In her Jan. 9 Condition of the State address to the Iowa Legislature, Reynolds set the tone for the next four months when she called for dramatic changes to the operating and funding structures of Iowa’s area education agencies.


Since that day, Reynolds has unveiled her proposal and offered changes after hearing feedback from educators and parents, and majority party Republicans in the Iowa Senate and Iowa House have introduced their own proposals.


Instead of allowing state funding to go directly to the AEAs, as is currently the case, Reynolds has proposed giving school districts more direct control over special education funding, and moving oversight of AEAs to the state education department instead of local boards.


Senate Republicans’ proposal is similar to the governor’s, but keeps some of that state funding moving straight to the AEAs and calls for the Iowa Department of Education to work with the AEAs on a new oversight structure.


House Republicans went a completely different route. The House bill keeps AEAs as the sole provider of special education support. While state funding for special education services would go to the school districts, schools would be required to use that funding on services provided by the AEAs.


House Republicans passed their plan out of the chamber — barely, on a 53-41 vote with nine Republicans voting against it. Shortly after the House’s passage, the Senate was scheduled to debate the bill. But in an unusual move, it was pulled from the debate calendar and has not been seen since.

Gender identity​

Legislation proposed by Reynolds that would define “man” and “woman” in Iowa Code based on a person’s sex assigned at birth has yet to advance out of the House.


House Republicans passed the bill out of committee last month over the protests of transgender Iowans and civil rights activists who called it discriminatory, arguing it would lead to the "erasure" of transgender and nonbinary people from Iowa Code. But lawmakers have yet to take up the bill on the House floor and send it off to the Senate.


House File 2389 defines “man” and “woman” and several other terms in Iowa Code based on a person’s sex assigned at birth. The bill would also allow transgender people to be excluded from sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms and women’s shelters.


It would also require transgender Iowans to list both their sex assigned at birth and their post-transition sex on their birth certificate.


Reynolds and Republicans said women and men possess unique biological differences, and that the bill was necessary to protect the health, safety and rights of women in spaces like domestic violence shelters and rape crisis center.


However, both the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence are registered opposed to the bill.


LGBTQ and civil rights advocates said the bill is another attack on transgender Iowans, and its use of pro-segregation language should raise alarm. It says the term “equal” does not mean “same” and that “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.”