Spencer Lee must be on Iowa's coaching staff!!!

This one for sure

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He is back LFG

Great pick up for Iowa!

lol

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Honest question here about the highest touted two sport athlete to come through Iowa in the past twenty years.

FOOTBALL

Brecht came in as a highly rated 6'4, 210 lb WR prospect with offers from Kansas State, Nebraska, Iowa State, etc. He was expected to come in and make a difference right away on a roster that desperately lacked WR talent at WR. Unfortunately, after two years in the program, Brecht was perhaps best known for racking up a total of 0 yards after catch in his entire career...due to his strange habit of jumping and falling to make every catch, regardless of whether he was covered or not. It's almost like he received no coaching at all. Brecht finished his much anticipated Hawkeye football career with just 9 receptions and no touchdowns before giving it up to focus on what he hoped would be a lucrative baseball future.

BASEBALL

Brecht, with his 100+ mph fastball, was rumored to be a top draft MLB prospect coming out of high school. He is one of the highest ranked recruits ever to play baseball for Iowa's up and coming team. While he showed flashes in his first few years in the program, control was a major issue. Going into the 2024 season, however, Brecht was clocked throwing 103 mph and touted as a 1st round draft prospect in this year's MLB draft. With those kinds of accolades, he was a pre-season 1st team all-American (the nation's top pitcher) and was poised to have a breakout season. Well, we are 2/3 of the way through his final season. Surely the pre-season all American has been mowing down inferior college opponents, right? Nope. In 9 starts as Iowa's #1 pitcher, Brecht is just 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA. In 40 innings, he's given up a whopping 32 walks and 34 hits. No doubt he throws a mean fastball, but based off ERA, he's just the 7th best pitcher on Iowa's roster. More importantly, he's still waiting to notch his first win of the season vs mediocre college opponents.

To me, he was a bigger disappointment in football. The Hawks desperately needed a WR with size and he's been the only 6'4 guy out there since Brandon Smith (6'3) left in 2020.

Does anyone have accurate (as much as is available) regarding status of the Ferrari brothers?

And he advised “go to your basement and COVER your head!”

I’m coachable!!


God Bless you Weather Alarmists! You keep us safer than we deserve!!

Uggghhh. This is so bad.

President Joe Biden erroneously claimed on Sunday he was still serving as vice president during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at a dinner for the NAACP in Detroit, Michigan, Biden went on a tangent proclaiming he was on the ground in the state to help out as the virus raged on, at the request of former President Barack Obama.

“And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic,” Biden said. “And what happened was, Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit, and help fix it.’ Well the poor mayor, he spent more time with me than he thought he was ever going to have to. God love you.”


Biden was referring to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who took office while Biden was still VP back in 2014.


I REALLY wish he'd bow out. There are certainly many younger, more energetic options for the dems.

Link

Former University of Florida recruit Jaden Rashada sued head football coach Billy Napier, a millionaire donor and others on Tuesday, claiming that they lured him into abandoning a commitment to rival University of Miami last year with the promise of a $13.85 million payday that never materialized.

Rashada, now a quarterback for the University of Georgia, claims in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Pensacola that UF donor Hugh Hathcock promised him the massive payday, including a $500,000 signing bonus, and that Napier and another UF official pressured him to commit to the university with promises that he would be immediately financially set for life. According to the lawsuit, Hathcock even suggested he could secure Rashada’s father a job if his son committed to UF.

“All of these promises ultimately proved to be lies,” reads Rashada’s civil complaint.



Litigation between an active quarterback and a head coach adds a highly unusual chapter to the rivalry between UF and Georgia. And the lawsuit escalates what was already one of the most prominent scandals in the nascent era of NIL — or “name, image and likeness” — in which college athletes have for the first time been able to earn branding income related to their sports.
The NCAA opened an investigation into Rashada’s commitment to UF earlier this year, after it publicly unraveled. Rashada’s attorney, Texas-based Rusty Hardin, said that the investigation has since been shelved following a recent federal ruling that essentially allowed universities to dangle NIL deals as recruiting enticements, a practice that had previously been forbidden, if an open secret.
In an interview, Hardin said Rashada’s lawsuit was intended as a cautionary tale of what happens when university athletic officials and the boosters that surround them recruit elite athletes with little to no guardrails. “The big goal here is to shine daylight into what’s really going on here for people to decide,” Hardin said, "‘Are we so bothered by what’s going on here that we’re willing to take some action?’”



UF was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Napier, Hathcock and the university did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The NCAA also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When he graduated from high school in Pittsburg, Calif. in 2022, Rashada was the seventh-ranked quarterback entering college in the country. College athletes had only recently been allowed to profit from their likenesses, following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.
That sea change in college sports moved to the forefront figures like Hathcock, who after making his fortune in the automotive industry donated millions to his alma mater UF, where a basketball complex and a tower at a stadium now bear his name. According to Rashada’s lawsuit, he encountered Hathcock on a recruitment visit to UF, where the donor promised him that he “would make happen” whatever Rashada needed to come to UF — including a job for his father, former Arizona State football player Harlen Rashada, in the security industry.



Hathcock ran a “collective” — a booster group facilitating payments for athletes — called Gator Guard. He ultimately promised Rashada $11 million to commit to UF, according to the lawsuit. But by then, Rashada had already verbally committed to play in Miami, where he agreed to a $9.5 million NIL deal, the lawsuit states.
But that didn’t deter a UF official named Marcus Castro-Walker, who was the school’s director of player engagement and NIL — believed to be the first with that job specialty in university athletics. According to the complaint, in Oct. 2022 Castro-Walker texted Rashada’s two young agents, one of whom was a college student himself: “You already know what we need to do over the next few days!! Get us the QB👀🤣.”


“We need to lock down Jaden!” Castro-Walker texted a few days later, adding that they wanted Rashada “to flip this week.” (Castro-Walker did not respond to a request for comment.)



The following month, according to the lawsuit, Hathock finalized the terms of an offer to Rashada, including $5.35 million from his company, Velocity Automotive, and $13.85 million from Gator Guard. Hathcock seemingly alluded to the ongoing negotiations with Rashada when he tweeted, “Tomorrow will be a Great Day Gator Fans!!!”
But then Hathcock “balked,” according to the lawsuit, citing an impending sale of his company in stating that he didn’t want to directly fund the payments to Rashada. Instead, another group, the Gator Collective, got involved. Its CEO, Eddie Rojas, assured Rashada that the deal would still be financed, according to texts cited in the lawsuit.
“Tell Jaden we look forward to setting him up for life,” Rojas texted. “Need to set up his brokerage accounts asap. Dude is rich and we just got started.”



Rojas wrote that by nabbing a star recruit from UF’s downstate rival, “We are going to have to dodge the freaks in Miami[.] I hate Miami. This is going to be fun to watch.”
Rashada claimed that Gator Collective attorney Jennifer Grosso pressured him to publicly commit to UF. “I might go to sleep if I had $500K headed my way in two weeks,” Grosso wrote his agent late on the night of Nov. 10, 2022, according to the lawsuit. “But we need a commitment to get there!!!”
Rashada obliged, posting online a statement announcing his decision to commit to UF, along with a video of himself stepping out of a Lamborghini at UF’s football stadium. But Rashada’s lawyers now claim that his recruiters at UF “had neither the ability nor the intention of honoring their promise to pay him $13.85 million.”

According to the lawsuit, the Gator Collective failed to pay Rashada his $500,000 bonus, and the day after it was due then sent him a letter “purporting to terminate” his NIL contract. But Castro-Walker told Rashada’s agents that Gator Guard, Hathcock’s collective, would pick up the tab, and Hathcock ultimately wired Rashada $150,000 — the only payment Rashada actually received that is mentioned in the lawsuit.


Four days before Christmas 2022 was signing day for recruits like Rashada. Napier, who himself signed a $52 million, 7-year coaching contract the previous year, allegedly called Rashada and his father to convince them to go forward, saying that upon signing, Rashada would receive $1 million towards the money owed.
“Coach Napier said [Hathcock’s] on a plane and that he will wire 1 Mil,” Harlen Rashada texted his son’s agents, according to the suit. “He wants the paper work and I’m sending it if you are good.”

Castro-Walker assured Rashada’s agents that Napier would “get it done,” according to the suit, but that if Rashada delayed the coach may pull his scholarship offer.

Rashada signed his letter of intent for UF, but after what the lawsuit describes as more “unfulfilled” promises of NIL agreements, the quarterback “was left with no faith in the UF football team’s leadership and the individuals who had constantly lied to him.” Rashada transferred to Arizona State in early 2023.


The NCAA then opened an investigation into Rashada’s debacle at Florida. Days after the NCAA announced it was investigating, Castro-Walker — who also played a central role in another disputed NIL deal involving lineman Gervon Dexter that is now the subject of a lawsuit — was reported to no longer be working at UF.

Hardin, Rashada’s attorney, said in an interview that NCAA investigators interviewed Rashada for hours, and made plans to do the same with his father and agents. But after a federal judge in Tennessee ruled that the NCAA can no longer prevent players from negotiating NIL deals before enrolling at a school, Hardin said that the investigators informed him they were pausing the investigation.
Last month, Jaden transferred to Georgia, a move which Hardin said was inspired by a desire for the toughest competition in order to prepare for a planned career in the NFL.
“Jaden’s decision to attend Georgia this year was not in response to any promises, assurances, or offers connected to NIL money,” Rashada’s complaint reads. “He had learned his lesson.”

Caught up with Maguire late last week before I had to pick up and head to Indy. Some thoughts from him on the idea of following Mason to Iowa, potentially joining the other two linebackers in the class, what he thinks of Coach Wallace, and more.

STORY:

Pretty easily.

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From the creators of

President Biden declared Sunday that things got “kind of bad” when he was vice president during the COVID-19 pandemic — even though the virus hit more than three years after he left office.

The 81-year-old Biden, who finished his eight years as Barack Obama’s veep in January 2017, suggested he was still in post at the time of the outbreak during a campaign event with the NAACP.

“When I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic and what happened was, Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit! Help fix it,'” Biden said.

“Well, the poor mayor, he’s spent more time with me than he ever thought he’s gonna have to!” the president added.

It is unclear what event Biden was actually referring to in his remarks, though the then-VP claimed in 2011 the Obama administration had saved America’s auto industry from “the brink of extinction” following the 2008 financial crisis.

Biden’s most recent blunder followed his commencement speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he was caught on camera applauding the valedictorian who called for an “immediate and a permanent cease-fire” in his speech.

Ahead of Biden’s remarks, some faculty and students at the historically black, all-male institution vowed not to attend the ceremony in protest.

Others turned their backs to the commander in chief as he spoke.

Biden’s weekend events took place as polls suggest he is losing support among black Americans.

A recent survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that only a slim majority (55%) of black voters approve of his job performance, while in 2020, 95% of black women and 87% of black men voted for Biden, according to Pew.

Latin America labels ultra-processed foods. Will the US follow?​

Latin America is leading the world in a movement to print nutritional warning labels on the fronts of food packages. Currently, the labels warn when a food product exceeds a consumer’s daily recommended value of any “nutrient of concern” – namely, sugar, salt or saturated fat (some countries have added trans fats, artificial sweeteners and caffeine). But research led by scientists across the continent is increasingly pointing towards another factor consumers may want to consider: how processed a food is.

Ultra-processed foods make up an increasingly large share of the average Latin American consumer’s diet. These industrially formulated products, which are often high in fats, starches, sugars and additives (like flavorings, colorings and preservatives), were first named and studied by Brazilian researchers in the early 2000s. Today, many Latin Americans get 20% to 30% of their daily calories from ultra-processed products (in the United States, the average is even higher – upwards of 60%).
more here

A lot are on NBA -tv not a NBA watcher so is this offered through a paid channel ? thanks

When does it officially open? What happens to the old facility? Why did they not think to put some windows in the new one, it looks like a dungeon.

5th grader???

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For more than two decades, through two wars and domestic upheaval, the idea that al-Qaeda acted alone on 9/11 has been the basis of U.S. policy. A blue-ribbon commission concluded that Osama bin Laden had pioneered a new kind of terrorist group—combining superior technological know-how, extensive resources, and a worldwide network so well coordinated that it could carry out operations of unprecedented magnitude. This vanguard of jihad, it seemed, was the first nonstate actor that rivaled nation-states in the damage it could wreak.

That assessment now appears wrong. And if our understanding of what transpired on 9/11 turns out to have been flawed, then the costly policies that the United States has pursued for the past quarter century have been rooted in a false premise.

The global War on Terror was based on a mistake.

A new filing in a lawsuit brought by the families of 9/11 victims against the government of Saudi Arabia alleges that al-Qaeda had significant, indeed decisive, state support for its attacks. Officials of the Saudi government, the plaintiffs’ attorneys contend, formed and operated a network inside the United States that provided crucial assistance to the first cohort of 9/11 hijackers to enter the country.

The 71-page document, released in redacted form earlier this month, summarizes what the plaintiffs say they’ve learned through the evidence obtained in discovery and recently declassified materials. They allege that Saudi officials—most notably Fahad al-Thumairy, an imam at a Los Angeles mosque and an accredited diplomat at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in that city, and Omar al-Bayoumi, who masqueraded as a graduate student but was identified by the FBI as an intelligence operative—were not rogue operators but rather the front end of a conspiracy that included the Saudi embassy in Washington and senior government officials in Riyadh.