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Iowa women 9-1 with only 4 home games; a couple of big wins like last night

The Tenn game showed a weakness against that press and quickness. But overall, after losing Clark, the team is doing very well. They do need to shore up some ball handling.

A lot of the top teams play a lot of non conf games at home, the hawks are invited to play in tourneys and on the road and they go do it.

Ogrady and Heiden at center are very positive from the highlights and game segments I have watched. Hannah is adapting and playing well facing the basket and dribbling more.

They play some good defense overall. I havent looked at their team stats for shooting and FT %, turnover and rebounding numbers especially compared to the opponent but I assume they are above avg.
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DeJoy Covers Ears During Blistering Rant By GOP Rep

This is 100% accurate... I certainly won't send a check by mail. Except I did and fingers crossed it gets there. It was either mail a check or pay over $200 fee to pay my Key West property taxes via electronic methods.

DeJoy has been a disaster for the Post Office...

DeJoy Covers Ears During Blistering Rant By GOP Rep​

December 10, 2024

“Almost every single business I know that wants to send a check out won’t use the U.S. Postal Service anymore. I won’t use the U.S. Postal Service anymore. That’s on your watch. The two major decisions I’ve seen you make, which is on the distribution centers and on employee rate hiring, have done nothing to mitigate this in real-time ways.
“I don’t understand why you give yourself an A Grade, as you just stated when it comes to the delivery we have. Your reputation is done. Whether you admit it or not, in the military, if I have a skipper who things are going bad for, they’re a good military officer.
“But you know what we do when things go wrong repeatedly? We relieve them. You know what you do when a CEO repeatedly fails in that business model falls apart? Nobody wants to use that business anymore, and it becomes non-profitable. You fire them.” – Freshman GOP Rep. Rich McCormick, during which Postmaster General Louis DeJoy covered his ears.

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IowaLaw's 2024 Post Season Awards

The Hawks came in to the season as a darkhorse playoff contender. After beating up on some cupcakes and losing to all the teams they played with a pulse, they finished a disappointing 8-4, leaving fans wondering what could have been. The one point loss to ISU can be forgiven considering it was a fluke and ISU wound up in the Big 12 championship game, but getting humiliated at Ohio State and inexplicable close losses to inferior teams like Michigan State and UCLA will haunt the seniors for years to come. So how did the coaches do this year?

Coach of the Year: LeVar Woods. What a performance Woods put in after being passed up in the coaching promotion ranks first by Brian and then by Seth Wallace. Woods was named special teams coordinator in 2017. Why he's stuck around for 7 years at the same position is beyond me, but it's great for the Hawks. Woods was tasked with replacing last year's 1st team All-American punter Taylor with a true freshmen. All that freshmen did was average a whopping 44 yards per punt, including some fantastic directional punting. Woods was also tasked with replacing last year's Big 10 return man of the year / 1st team All-American DB in DeJean...so he turned to a walk-on who finished 3rd in the Big 10 in both punt returns and kick returns, often providing Iowa with a jolt of momentum in games. Finally, Woods was tasked with fixing a struggling kicker who was benched at the end of last season. All that kicker did was go 19-22 this year with more 50+ yard field goals than anyone in the Big 10. Elite special teams yet again for the Hawks and they did it without any highly touted super star recruits.

Disappointment of the Year: Phil Parker. The reigning Broyles Award winner for 2023 assistant coach of the year returned a stacked defense filled with returning all-Americans, 6th year seniors, a 5 star safety, and depth. To say that the defense underperformed this year would be an understatement. The defense was expected to be the best in the Big 10, yet somehow finished 8th in the Big 10 in pass defense and 8th in total defense. Perhaps even more painful, they finished 7th in first downs given up (way too many long drives where we couldn't stop an opponent) and 15th in time of possession (thanks in part to an inept offense). What a waste of so much talent on this side of the ball.

Coaches on the Chopping Block: Jon Budmyer & Abdul Hodge. Unfortunately, neither were qualified for their jobs when they came to Iowa, and neither has shown the ability to coach their positions now that they've arrived. Budmyer's ability to fail upward has been well documented by IowaLaw. This year, he was promoted to WRs coach, a position he had never coached. He was handed last year's top WR, a 4**** Ohio State transfer, who had 22 catches in the last half of last season. Under Budmyer's tutelage, we were mystified watching Brown ride the bench behind 0 star freshmen and total just 1 catch before smartly electing to leave the team halfway through the season to be coached by a real WRs coach. Bud also had the benefit of several other portal investments in Gill & Anderson, as well as some young talent. Welp...let's just say it didn't work out too well, as Jacob Gill, Iowa's top WR this year, finished 45th in the Big 10 in yards per game at just 31. Unacceptable by any standards. Then there's Hodge, who was handed the opportunity to coach TEs at TEU...including a pre-season all-Big 10 TE in Luke Lachey. That too did not end well. Lachey, who was injured for a few games, was not even among the Big 10's top 10 tight ends this year in either catches or yards. Worse yet, Iowa, a team that normally dominates with 2 TE sets, struggled to find a decent second option. Zach Ortworth finished the year as the #2 tight end...but he only managed 10 catches in 12 games for 133 yards.

Redemption Award: George Barnett. Many, including IowaLaw, thought Barnett should have been fired after his OL's 3rd straight abysmal season last year. However, Kirk kept him around because he's loyal to a fault, and the OL seemed to finally gel. The coaches named Conner Colby 1st team All Big 10. Logan Jones & Gennings Dunker were named to the 2nd team. If the Hawks had simply kept Proctor, this could have been the top OL in the conference and Johnson would probably be at this year's Heisman Trophy ceremony.

Overrated Coach of the Year: Tim Lester. Despite unanimous disappointment when the Hawks spurned overtures from better known or better recruiting young offensive coordinators in favor of someone Kirk could control in Lester, a mediocre fired MAC coach who was hanging on in football as an "analyst," Hawk fans seem to have unjustifiably rallied around Lester this year simply because he was better than Brian Ferentz, the worst OC in college football last year. Sadly, Brian Ferentz is not the benchmark for evaluating offensive play callers. And while Kirk has come out and said "the offense is entirely Lester's offense," that doesn't explain Iowa's refusal to get with modern college football. Still far too many runs up the middle on 3rd and 7 for no gain. Still far too many punts from the opponent's 48 yard line on 4th and inches. Most concerning, still far too little effort and creativity to get the best players the ball (all American RB Johnson finished with just 22 catches this year; pre-season all Big 10 TE Lachey had just 27 catches; and Big 10 special teams player of the year Wetjen had just 1 freaking catch). Sure, the Hawks ran a man in motion a little more than last year...but what does that prove? The team still finished 14th in the Big 10 in total offense and 18th (last) in passing offense...despite all that razzle dazzle of doing what every other team does. The last place pass offense was in spite of playing behind a million dollar portal QB from Michigan and an all-American RB who took tremendous pressure off the passing game. Like everyone, I want Lester to be a great hire...but to those who say "in Lester we trust," I ask why? What has he done to merit such trust? He wasn't great in his previous stints and he underutilized Iowa's best weapons (i.e. Wetjen, Brown, Lachey) this year. He seems every bit as conservative as Kirk & Brian and certainly hasn't proven any recruiting chops.

Underrated Coach of the Year: Ladell Betts. Although Ladell evaluated Kaleb Johnson as Iowa's 3rd string RB following spring practice, which is a monumental talent evaluation miss, the Hawkeye rushing offense improved greatly this year. Not only did Johnson lead the Big 10 in rushing with over 1500 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 6.4 yards per carry, but the team as a whole finished 2nd in rushing behind only Penn State. Was this a product of coaching or was it simply the luck of having a great OL and an elite RB? Hard to say, but Moulton still managed to average 5.4 yards per carry as a freshmen and Patterson averaged 4.4 yards per carry (all are better than usual at Iowa). The future is bright at the running back position (although Betts still hasn't proven to be much of a recruiter, landing mostly MAC level RB recruits so far). Betts certainly deserves at least some of the credit for this year's rushing resurgence. Let's see if we can sustain it next year.

Randy of the Year: Kirk Ferentz. Steady, conservative, stubborn, and incredibly loyal to coaches but not players are all words that accurately describe Kirk. He's a model of consistency, beating the teams he should beat and getting blown out by the blue bloods. There are many programs out there thrilled with 8 win seasons...but given Iowa's weak schedule, 8 wins doesn't make many people optimistic for next year. Was coaching the difference in a couple of this year's losses? Sure. The Iowa State game was squandered by ultra conservatism and bad clock management. Michigan State as well. So does Kirk have a Kirk 3.0 in him that will innovate and get with the times (i.e. mobile QBs, taking chances down the field, and going for it on 4th and inches)? If 25 years of history are any indication, NO. Kirk is who he is. An above average coach who will likely never step foot in the playoffs. Good enough to beat the Northwesterns of the world but probably not meant for the new NIL pay to play age of college sports.

Missing 91 year old Wyoming man spotted by his wife as she watches TV coverage of a homeless shelter feeding the needy on Thanksgiving.

Interesting, and heartwarming story, but I have questions. Michael Black left his home in Wyoming, and somehow made it several hundred miles to Salt Lake City. Police believe he went up into Idaho, then down to SLC by hitchhiking. Black suffers from dementia, so wouldn't someone have called the police after encountering him? He must have been in distress. The final person he interacted with at least got him to the homeless shelter. Also, it's quoted by the local PD that this isn't the first time he's gone wandering. Is his wife capable of handling him, and wha are the larger implications about how we handle our elderly and vulnerable citizens?
https://people.com/missing-man-with...e-spots-him-on-tv-over-200-miles-away-8756519
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Economic fallout from Trump mass deportations could eclipse Great Recession: Report

President-elect Trump’s mass deportation proposals threaten to gut the U.S. economy, shrinking growth and the labor force while juicing inflation, according to a report released Thursday by Democrats in the Congressional Joint Economic Committee (JEC).

Sourcing data from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the report found that deporting 8.3 million immigrants in the country illegally would reduce GDP by 7.4 percent and reduce employment by 7 percent by 2028, likely resulting in zero overall growth throughout Trump’s second term.




Trump has proposed deporting all such immigrants in the United States — currently an estimated 11 million — and millions more currently protected by humanitarian programs such as Temporary Protected Status, who could lack legal status if those programs were cut.

According to an American Immigration Council (AIC) estimate sourced by the JEC report, deporting at a clip of 1 million people per year — echoing a proposal by Vice President-elect JD Vance to “start with 1 million” — could generate a 4.2 percent to 6.8 percent loss in GDP. The U.S. economy shrank by 4.3 percent during the Great Recession, the report’s authors noted.

“Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants does absolutely nothing to address the core problems driving our broken immigration system. Instead, all it will do is raise grocery prices, destroy jobs, and shrink the economy. His immigration policy is reckless and would cause irreparable harm to our economy,” JEC Chair Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said.



'Mass deportation will crash US economy': Senators clash on Trump’s illegal migration curb plans

Beyond the economic fallout of mass deportations, the AIC estimates Trump’s plan would cost upward of $88 billion, about four times the budget of NASA.

And the JEC report cites multiple studies that mass deportations are likely to reduce employment for U.S.-born workers by virtue of reducing the country’s customer base, removing a population that’s on average more entrepreneurial and gutting a labor force uniquely qualified to work in certain industries.

Between 4.4 percent and 5.4 percent of the overall labor force is made up of workers who are in the country illegally, and industries such as construction, agriculture, health care and hospitality depend on their labor, according to the report.

Many of those jobs, though categorized as unskilled labor, require specialized training and physical stamina that is not readily available in the existing U.S. workforce.




Livestock farmers, for instance, have long fought to expand the visa process to keep their existing, specialized workforce of immigrants lacking legal status.

“The labor shortages that result from mass deportations would raise costs for all Americans. With unemployment near a historic low, employers in sectors like agriculture and construction would produce less, resulting in shortages and higher prices,” the JEC report reads.

“Economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimate that deporting 1.3 million immigrants would raise prices by 1.5% by 2028, while deporting 8.3 million immigrants would raise prices by 9.1%. Additionally, mass deportations would reduce consumer spending, as undocumented workers are not just workers but also consumers. If demand for certain goods and services slows enough, demand for workers in those sectors may also slow, and some businesses may be forced to lay off workers.”

Yet Trump’s rationale for mass deportations, as explained to Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, is that the immigrants “are costing us a fortune.”

The JEC report contests that logic, citing a Brookings Institution report that found foreign-born people pay on average $1,300 more in annual taxes and over a lifetime pay $237,000 more in taxes than they receive in services from federal, state and local governments.

And a New American Economy study cited by the JEC Democrats found that, between 2012 and 2018, the average immigrant contributed $166 more to the Medicare Trust Fund than they received in return. Over that time, U.S.-born residents cost the fund $51 on average.

Immigrants in the country illegally who work pay into Medicare and Social Security but are not eligible to withdraw benefits, a factor in driving the programs’ surplus among the group.


Heinrich, who has pushed for immigration reform, won reelection to a third term in November.

“As a son of an immigrant, I know how hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country, and how much they’re willing to give back. They are the backbone of our economy and the driving force behind our nation’s growth and prosperity,” he said.

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The Atlantic: The Democrats Need an Honest Conversation on Gender Identity

Man point: they couldn't or wouldn't distance themselves from unpopular far lefty progressive viewpoints.

The party went into an election with policies it couldn’t defend—or even explain.
By Helen Lewis

One of the mysteries of this election is how the Democrats approached polling day with a set of policies on gender identity that they were neither proud to champion—nor prepared to disown.

Although most Americans agree that transgender people should not face discrimination in housing and employment, there is nowhere near the same level of support for allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports—which is why Donald Trump kept bringing up the issue. His campaign also barraged swing-state voters and sports fans with ads reminding them that Kamala Harris had previously supported taxpayer-funded gender-reassignment surgery for prisoners. The commercials were effective: The New York Times reported that Future Forward, a pro-Harris super PAC, found that one ad “shifted the race 2.7 percentage points in Mr. Trump’s favor after viewers watched it.” The Harris campaign mostly avoided the subject.

Since the election, reports of dissent from this strategy have begun to trickle out. Bill Clinton reportedly raised the alarm about letting the attacks go unanswered, but was ignored. After Harris’s loss, Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts went on the record with his concerns. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” he told the Times. The recriminations go as far as the White House, where allies of Joe Biden told my colleague Franklin Foer that the current president would have countered Trump’s ads more aggressively, and “clearly rejected the idea of trans women competing in women’s sports.”

One problem: Biden’s administration has long pushed the new orthodoxy on gender, without ever really explaining to the American people why it matters—or, more crucially, what it actually involves. His officials have advocated for removing lower age limits for gender surgeries for minors, and in January 2022, his nominee for the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, refused to define the word woman, telling Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, “I’m not a biologist.”

On sports—an issue seized on by the Trump campaign—Biden’s White House has consistently prioritized gender identity over sex. Last year, the Department of Education proposed regulations establishing “that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are.” Schools were, however, allowed to limit participation in specific situations. (In April, with the election looming, this part of the Title IX revision was put on hold.) Harris went into the campaign tied to the Biden administration’s positions, and did not have the courage, or strategic sense, to reject them publicly. Nor did she defend them.

The fundamental issue is that athletes who have gone through male puberty are typically stronger and faster than biological females. Rather than contend with that fact, many on the left have retreated to a comfort zone of claiming that opposition to trans women in women’s sports is driven principally by transphobia. But it isn’t: When trans men or nonbinary people who were born female have competed in women’s sports against other biological females, no one has objected. The same season that Lia Thomas, a trans woman, caused controversy by swimming in the women’s division, a trans man named Iszac Henig did so without any protests. (He was not taking testosterone and so did not have an unfair advantage.) Yet even talking about this issue in language that regular Americans can understand is difficult: On CNN Friday, when the conservative political strategist Shermichael Singleton said that “there are a lot of families out there who don’t believe that boys should play girls’ sports,” he was immediately shouted down by another panelist, Jay Michaelson, who said that the word boy was a “slur,” and he “was not going to listen to transphobia at this table.” The moderator, Abby Phillips, also rebuked Singleton, telling him to “talk about this in a way that is respectful.”

A few Democrats, such as Colin Allred, a Senate candidate in Texas, attempted to counter Republicans’ ads by forcefully supporting women’s right to compete in single-sex sports—and not only lost their races anyway, but were attacked from the left for doing so. In states such as Texas and Missouri, the political right is surveilling and threatening to prosecute parents whose children seek medical treatments for gender dysphoria, or restricting transgender adults’ access to Medicaid. In this climate, activists believe, the Democrats should not further jeopardize the rights of a vulnerable minority by legitimizing voters’ concerns. “Please do not blame trans issues or trans people for why we lost,” Sam Alleman, the Harris campaign’s LBGTQ-engagement director, wrote on X. “Trans folks have been and are going to be a primary target of Project 2025 and need us to have their backs now more than ever.”

Gypsy Rose Blanchard says her cellmate liked playing with her own poop ‘as if it were Play-Doh’

(Gray News) – Gypsy Rose Blanchard is revealing new details about her life in her new memoir “My Time to Stand.”

The new book details the painful abuse she suffered at the hands of her mom, discusses the night her mom was killed, and offers new insight on Blanchard’s time in prison.

According to People, Blanchard writes in her book about how years in prison nearly cost her sanity.

She said her various cellmates all had strange ticks of their own – one howled at the moon, one talked to the wall, and one would hit her own head against the wall while cursing to herself.

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Has anybody had good experiences with their medical insurance?

I had a 150k surgery to remove a benign nerve (schwannoma) tumor from my neck (on the vagus nerve near skull base) at Vanderbilt and only paid about a thousand out of pocket.

Blue cross blue shield of Illinois. (United kicked in a bit; was double insured at the time)

Wasted hardly any time worrying about insurance; was able to get one of the top doctors in the nation for this within BCBS network.
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Who's Buying a Car from Amazon?

Just Hyundai for now.

I like the way they display info on the car and the financing. Pick a specific car and you can see what I'm talking about. They even show you how your interest rate changes based on your credit rating.

I can see people printing off those pages when negotiating with other car dealers.

ASU, Arizona to lose 140 athletes

Can’t find the correct thread to post this but Iowa is not alone in suffering effects of the settlement requiring programs to shed spots.

LAS VEGAS — Arizona and Arizona State are expected to lose 140 combined roster positions across their sports teams if the settlement terms of a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against the NCAA are approved this spring.

Wildcats athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois and her ASU counterpart, Graham Rossini, revealed the downsizing moves on Wednesday during a seminar in Las Vegas.

Each stated their department would lose 70 participants — not scholarship athletes but participants. That’s an important distinction competitively but doesn’t make either athletic director feel better about the situation.

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