since this is Portal Season as much as it is Christmas season, thought I would post this. I usually am the last to know, but I just noticed he is in the portal.

He looked somewhat effective last year, though not really overly impressive. About all we have coming back with experience is Moulton and Jaz Patterson. of course either or both of those guys might turn out well.

what do you guys (and gals) think?

First the toy stores and not Party City. Once Amazon is all we have, the prices will go through the roof.

Party City is going out of business​

A Party City in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
New YorkCNN —
Party City is closing down all of its stores, ending nearly 40 years in business, CNN has learned.
CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees Friday in a meeting viewed by CNN that Party City is “winding down” operations immediately and that today will be their last day of employment. Staff were told they will not receive severance pay, and they were told their benefits would end as the company goes out of business.
“That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” Litwin said at the meeting, which was held on a video conference call.



Party City’s “very best efforts have not been enough to overcome” its financial challenges, he added, resulting in the company’s collapse. Litwin said the company struggled to contend with inflation, which sent the company’s costs higher and dragged down consumer spending.
“It’s really important for you to know that we’ve done everything possible that we could to try to avoid this outcome,” Litwin said. “Unfortunately, it’s necessary to commence a winddown process immediately.”
Also on Friday, some of Party City’s store employees received letters that the company would close down stores on February 28, at which point store staff would be terminated.
“Although Party City believes these closings are in the best interest of the company, we regret that we have had to take this step and thank you for your valued contributions and service to the company,” the letter stated.

Bankruptcy and collapse​

The New Jersey-based company announced Litwin as its new CEO just four months ago. In a LinkedIn post he wrote when he was hired, he said the company’s “main priority is to strengthen our financial health, and there is work ahead of us.”
Party City exited bankruptcy a month after Litwin’s arrival. It had declared bankruptcy in January 2023. The company had struggled to pay off its $1.7 billion debt load, and it was able to cancel nearly $1 billion in debt by going bankrupt. It also managed to keep most of its more-than 800 stores open, although it closed more than 80 locations between the end of 2022 to August 2024, according to its most recent financial documents.
But it still had more than $800 million in debt to overcome, which strained earnings this year.

An emotional ending​

The news of the company’s impending collapse began to trickle out among the company’s corporate staff over the past couple weeks.
Party City’s product development team was recalled two weeks ago from its yearly trip with vendors and told to return home immediately, according to a former Party City corporate office employee, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The team was told the company believed the trip posed a safety risk, because Party City had stopped paying its suppliers.
All corporate employees were sent home on December 10. Security at corporate headquarters locked the doors to the front entrance. In an email sent to staff on December 11, the company’s security team told employees they needed to provide a one-day heads up to gain access to the building, and they were instructed: “Do not allow anyone to tailgate when entering the building” to avoid letting people in the door who did not have badge access.
On internal Microsoft Teams chats shared with CNN, employees Thursday expressed fury at the lack of communication as news spread of the recalled product development staff. Others had learned that notifications were sent out to store managers that all Party City locations’ doors would be shut in February.
Employees were caught off guard, because management hadn’t mentioned any potential financial trouble at recent town hall meetings. The employee said management had expressed optimism about Party City’s overall business.
On the call with staff Friday, Litwin apologized for the lack of communication.
“We recognize the flow of communication has not been how we typically handle sensitive matters like this,” Litwin said.
Detailing corporate employees’ benefits and severance, Party City’s Chief Human Resources Officer Karen McGowan broke down in tears several times on the short video conference call.
“I certainly know this is a lot to take in,” McGowan said before she paused and teared up. “My apologies.”

Party’s over​

Party City is the largest party supply store in the United States. The company had approximately 6,400 full-time and 10,100 part-time workers as of 2021.
The company, which sells balloons, Halloween costumes and other party goods, has stumbled in the face of growing competition from e-commerce sites and pop-up concepts like Spirit Halloween. Competition from big-box retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Costco and others also crushed smaller chains.
It also had to contend with rising costs during the pandemic and a helium shortage, which hurt its crucial balloon business.
The chain joins a growing list of retailer bankruptcies this year as customers cut back on discretionary spending amid the rising cost of living. Notably, Big Lots announced Thursday it was starting “going out of business” sales at all of its locations after a plan for a private equity firm to rescue the bankruptcy retailer failed.
Major chains are on track to close the highest number of stores in 2024 than in any year since 2020, according to Coresight Research.

I should start by saying I'm 100 percent in favor of Matt Gaetz becoming the next AG. I'm actually hoping MTG and Boebert are nominated to tiny's cabinet as well. After all, it was a "mandate."

But I just read where Speaker Johnson doesn't want Gaetz Ethics report released. Why not?

This election taught us that the American public are more than ok with adjudicated rapist and convicted felons holding the highest seats in government. Why not add a pedophile?

Serious question.

The planes, trains and automobiles thread made think this had to happen. When do you go to this one? Is this weekend too soon?

Fresh off hip replacement surgery, Nancy Pelosi, 84, secured another victory. House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon decided that 74-year-old Gerry Connolly—who announced his throat cancer diagnosis in November—will serve as ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, besting 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a closed-door caucus vote. "Gerry's a young 74, cancer notwithstanding," said Virginia Democrat Don Beyer, a Connolly ally. Pelosi had opposed the 35-year-old's run for the role, "approaching colleagues urging them to back Connolly over Ocasio-Cortez," Axios reported last week.

Connolly will join fellow septuagenarians in top committee spots next year. Richard Neal, 75, will lead Democrats on Ways and Means while Frank Pallone, 73, will be the party's top representative on Energy and Commerce. Eighty-six-year-old Maxine Waters will be the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee, and Rose DeLauro, 81, will helm the Democrats' presence in Appropriations.

The elderly are not too old to govern. But they may, in this case, be too attached to a failed way of doing things. The job of the Oversight Committee, for instance, is to "ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies," including the Pentagon. Connolly this past cycle accepted $118,500 from political action committees linked to the defense sector. Ways and Means is the House's top tax-writing committee, with jurisdiction over the revenue-related aspects of Social Security and Medicare, among other programs. Neal is a top recipient of donations from the insurance industry, having accepted $412,000 from insurance industry PACs during the 2024 campaign cycle, plus generous six-figure donations from HMOs and pharmaceutical companies. Frank Pallone has gotten more than $1 million from electric utilities since joining Congress in 1998.

In other democracies, the leaderships of parties that have endured humiliating defeats like the one Democrats saw in November—or even just regular defeats—resign. That kicks off a process by which members determine a new, ideally more successful direction, represented by different people. But the Democratic Party isn't really a "party" of the sort that exists in other democracies, with memberships and official constituencies, like unions, who have some say over how it's governed. Members mostly make decisions based on their own interests rather than to drive some shared, democratically decided agenda forward.

But the Groundhog Day of it all adds a special layer of dread: Once again, Pelosi and AOC are fighting a proxy battle over the future of the Democratic Party. In 2020, Pelosi squashed AOC's bid to join Energy and Commerce over a perceived lack of loyalty. Now Pelosi has gotten her way again.

Here's the 29 MINUTE replay of the KF Press Conference:

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Friday that the House would vote on a new spending plan without President-elect Donald Trump’s demand to suspend the debt limit. Emerging from a two-hour GOP meeting, Johnson said he was finalizing the details. “I’ve got one more little detail to work out, but we should be having a vote here soon.” he said, adding, “We will not have a government shutdown.” The bill would require the support of Democrats and it was unclear whether they were in agreement. The legislation would extend current fiscal levels until mid-March, provide $110 billion relief bill to help natural disaster survivors and aid farmers and grant an extension for the farm bill which must be reauthorized. At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lashed out at Republicans who had agreed to a bipartisan deal and then abandoned it. “This is a mess that Speaker [Mike] Johnson created, that is his mess to fix,” she told reporters at the daily briefing, adding that there was “still time” for Republicans to “do the right thing.” The Office of Management and Budget alerted federal agencies Friday morning to prepare for an imminent government shutdown.

I doubt that all of those laid-off D voter government workers who go without a paycheck during the holidays will be happy.

"How long do we have?"

Kirk Ferentz opened up on a host of hot-button topics on Friday, including:

* the transfer portal (and its problematic timing)
* Iowa's NIL positioning
* the impending 105-man roster limit

and much more. Lots of interesting stuff from KF here:

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Caitlin Clark at 0:58 mark.

Surprised Google even put some Trump victory moments in there. They know who can butter their bread with this upcoming anti-trust trial.

I think my favorite was the nixing of $110,000,000 for tampons for trannys; no doubt a salute to timm AWOLz!

The Monkees weren’t exactly the poster children of the anti-Vietnam War movement in the late 1960s, but the pop-rock band was still the subject of an FBI file. In it, an agent reported seeing “subliminal messages” on a screen at one of their concerts, depicting racial-equality protests and “anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam.”


That heavily redacted file from 1967 was declassified about a decade ago. But now, the last surviving member of the American rock group, Micky Dolenz, wants to know more. On Tuesday, Dolenz, 77, sued the Justice Department to release information the FBI gathered on the band and its members from that time period.
“If the documents still exist, I fully expect that we will learn more about what prompted the FBI to target the Monkees or those around them,” attorney Mark Zaid, who is representing Dolenz, told The Washington Post.






The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post about Dolenz’s lawsuit, which was first reported by Rolling Stone.
The Monkees were put together in 1966 by television producers for a sitcom that ran for two seasons. Their style largely mimicked British-invasion bands likes the Beatles, and the Monkees put out numerous hits, including “I’m a Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville.” The band broke up in 1970.
In the 1960s, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI infamously surveilled and harassed civil rights and counterculture figures, as The Post and other news outlets revealed at the time. That surveillance sometimes centered on pop-culture icons who spoke out against the Vietnam War, like John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix.

The Monkees were also caught up in the government’s surveillance. In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Dolenz said that his band’s 1966 hit “Last Train to Clarksville” was an antiwar song about a man going to an Army base and not knowing when he’d return to his girlfriend. But exactly what caught the FBI’s attention about the band — aside from what the agent called “left-wing” images during the 1967 concert — is unclear.










Much of the seven-page memo released by the agency is redacted, though Zaid told The Post it’s possible other files exist based on what’s shown on the declassified document.
“It’s pretty obvious that there are other linked files,” he said. “Now, it may not be directly on the Monkees — it could be peripheral — but these files are connected to other files.”

It was Zaid who suggested that Dolenz, whom he met through a mutual friend in April, demand more information about his band’s FBI’s files, he told The Post. The Washington-based attorney has represented government whistleblowers, including the one who filed the complaint that ultimately set off President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.
But the 55-year-old lawyer has a personal interest in the Monkees case. When he was a kid, his babysitter from across the street gave him all of her Monkees albums, and when the band went on its reunion tour in 1986, Zaid was there. He saw them live about eight more times, he told The Post.










“I mean, literally, this is fun for me,” Zaid, who is working on the case pro bono, said of filing the lawsuit for the FBI files.

With Zaid’s help, Dolenz filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the documents with the FBI in June. He requested the agency review the redacted document and provide other possible files relating to the band and its members, according to the lawsuit.
The government has 20 business days to respond to FOIA requests, barring “unusual circumstances.” Dolenz has so far only received acknowledgments of his requests, the lawsuit says.
“Any window into what the FBI was up to can lead to the opening of another window,” Zaid said. “That’s the beauty of gaining access to these types of files — because there are little nuggets and pieces within them that can lead to a bigger picture in understanding what was going on within the FBI at the time.”

Got some great stuff from Jaidyn, his mom and his head coach yesterday.

One of the top prospects in Iowa, Coon is looking for a family when he commits. In that respect, Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeyes have gotten off to a solid start.

STORY:

Does anyone remember Iowa recruiting this kid? Iowa was his only division one scholarship offer out of high school but he turned it down to play lacrosse at Notre Dame.

Well, he’s the current starting WR at Notre Dame as a Sophomore.

Crazy. Tyler Barnes really does know what he’s doing.

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From the libtards! Vice President Trump will be there to back him up!

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I’m a couple hours away from being on vacation for rest of the year. Might check in a little Monday, but nothing big. Much needed break. It’s probably my favorite time of year for a staycation as they call it. It seems more acceptable to just stay in your pajamas and sleep in during the holidays than it does any other time of year. I’ve tried it. On a Tuesday in July, it just feels wrong and I feel guilty. Not this time of year so that is what I’m going to do.

How about you? You getting some time off? What are your plans?

The development of Schmitt Island is moving forward.
https://www.kcrg.com/2024/12/21/sch...-more-than-300-million-possible-improvements/

First year of the 12 team playoff! Feels a little like March Madness.

Who ya got?

Outside LB prospect.

He was previoiusly committed to UNI and also had an offer from South Dakota State.
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It is far better for one van to deliver hundreds of packages instead of hundreds of cars driving to stores to get the things they need and want.

Prove me wrong.

My goodness. Has it just taken this long for shock to wear off after the election for the real meltdown to begin? It's crazy. This board lost its mind (what mind it had) all of a sudden.

The true story behind America's biggest military surrender is now told.

President Biden was so mentally fatigued that he skipped out on a phone call from the chair of the powerful House Armed Services Committee ahead of the US’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a report.

Biden, the oldest president in US history, was incredibly hard to reach — even for lawmakers in his own party — as his aides attempted to keep Biden’s evident mental and physical decline under tight wraps, a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed.

That inaccessibility proved to be immensely consequential for one of the administration’s biggest snafus that would mar the remainder of Biden’s presidency.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, had tried to contact the president in 2021 to share his concerns about the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Smith said he was worried about the administration’s optimistic comments about pulling out from Afghanistan — which, after working extensively on the issue, the congressman believed would be significantly more difficult than White House officials were letting on and wanted to share his findings.

“I was begging them to set expectations low,” Smith told the Journal — but he couldn’t get the commander-in-chief on the phone.

Thirteen US service members and more than 170 Afghans were killed in the chaotic evacuation in August 2021, which ended the longest conflict in US history and left the Taliban victorious and in charge.

The US also abandoned some $7 billion in weapons and other military equipment.

In the aftermath, Smith commented to the Washington Post that Biden’s administration lacked a “clear-eyed view” of the toppled US-backed government’s durability.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, enraged over Smith’s remarks, called the congressman to chew his ear— but Smith ultimately ended up giving it back to Blinken, according to the Wall Street Journal. Blinken would later accept responsibility for the Afghanistan catastrophe.

Soon afterward, Smith also received an apologetic call from Biden — the only call Biden made to Smith in his four years in the White House.

“The Biden White House was more insulated than most,” Smith said. “I spoke with Barack Obama on a number of occasions when he was president and I wasn’t even chairman of the committee.”

Biden would alter or cancel scheduled meetings depending on whether he appeared up to the task beginning almost as soon as he was in office, the Journal reported.

A national security official told an aide in the spring of 2021 that the president “has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day so we’re going to address this tomorrow.”

Meetings were often scheduled for later in the day — a fact first revealed after Biden’s awful debate performance against former President Donald Trump, when staff admitted the then-Democratic nominee had difficulty functioning outside a six-hour window that closed around 4 p.m. daily.

The Afghanistan blunder would be a glaring stain on Biden’s record for the remainder of his tenure and was a major talking point for his now-successor, President-elect Trump, on the campaign trail.