Penix time!

Another walk on entering the portal. Freshman TE Cole Marsh. One of the better athletes in the eastern part of the state as a senior for Waverly Shell-Rock last year.

I believe @RossWB is working on a "Transfer Tracker" article to keep all these portal entries straight. There will be more.

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For those that don't know he took some time last night to shit talk CC. Super Neanderthal stuff, "she looks like a caveman" level.

Dude is in a free fall.


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This guy is just killing it on Twitter:

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Going to do some tonight. Whatcha got? Only ever do champagne straight up

Y'all more-or-less already knew, but Ethan Hurkett confirmed with Todd Brommelkamp this morning that he will be back next season.

He led Iowa in sacks and TFLs this season. Big win for the Iowa DL.

STORY:

The guy driving the big truck into the crowd in New Orleans was a Biden donor. The other guy who rented the Telsa was obviously an anti-Trump and Musk guy.

Speaking of, has anyone seen jo or his hairball lately?? >

Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in the northernmost part of Gaza on Friday, forcing many of the staff and patients out of the facility, the territory’s health ministry said.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, according to staff. The ministry said a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed five medical staff.

Israel’s military said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and fighters in the area of the hospital, without providing details. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters were operating inside Kamal Adwan, though it provided no evidence.

Hospital officials have denied the accusations.

The Health Ministry said troops forced medical personnel and patients to assemble in the hospital yard and remove their clothes amid the winter temperatures. They were led out of the hospital, some to an unknown location, while some patients were sent to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which was knocked out of operation after an Israel raid earlier this week.

The ministry said troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan, including the hospital’s lab and surgery department. It said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital out of 75 patients and 180 staff who had been there. The ministry’s account could not be independently confirmed, and attempts to reach hospital staff were unsuccessful.

“Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified member of the staff said in an audio message from the hospital posted on the social media accounts of its director Hossam Abu Safiya. The staffer said some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” she said.

In raids, Israeli troops frequently carry out mass detentions, stripping men down to their underwear for questioning in what the military says is a security measure as they search for Hamas fighters. Although the AP doesn’t have access to Kamal Adwan, armed Hamas security men in civilian clothes have been seen in other hospitals in Gaza, controlling access to certain areas or the distribution of supplies.

Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the north Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and levelled large parts of the districts. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out, but thousands are believed to remain the area, where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located. Troops raided Kamal Adwan earlier in October, and on Tuesday troops stormed and evacuated the nearby Indonesian Hospital.

The area has been cut off from food and other aid for months, raising fears of famine. The U.N. says Israeli troops had only allowed four humanitarian deliveries to the area from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23.

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The Israeli rights groups Physicians for Human Rights-Israel earlier this week petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice seeking a halt to military attacks on Kamal Adwan. It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon thousands of residents in northern Gaza.” Before the latest deaths Thursday, the group documented five other staffers killed by Israeli fire since October.

Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and offensives in Gaza have devastated the territory’s health sector. A year ago, it carried out a wave of raids on hospitals in northern Gaza, including Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and nearby al-Awda Hospital, saying they served bases for Hamas, though it presented little evidence.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been driven from their homes, most of them now sheltering in sprawling, squalid tent camps in south and central Gaza.

Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Homicide and most other violent crimes have dropped to or slightly below levels seen before the onset of the COVID pandemic and nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, according to a new analysis of crime trends in 39 cities released today by the Council on Criminal Justice.

Examining patterns for 12 crime types in cities that have consistently published monthly data over the past six years, the study also found that levels of 11 of those offenses were lower in the first six months of this year compared to the first half of 2023. (Shoplifting was the exception.) The number of homicides in the 29 cities providing data for that crime was 13% lower, representing 319 fewer homicides in those cities. Nineteen of the 29 study cities recorded a homicide decrease during the first half of the year, ranging from a drop of 71% in Chandler, AZ, to an 8% decline in Austin. Nine cities experienced increases, ranging from 5% in St. Louis to 26% in Buffalo.

Motor vehicle theft, a crime that had risen sharply since the summer of 2020, reversed course during the first six months of this year, falling 18% below the first half of 2023. Residential burglaries (-14%), nonresidential burglaries (-10%), larcenies (-6%), and drug offenses (-2%) all decreased during the same period.

But shoplifting was a different story. A crime that has received extensive attention from the media and policymakers, reported shoplifting incidents increased by 24% in 23 study cities during the first six months of 2024. The report’s authors cautioned that it was unclear how much of the change may reflect an actual rise in incidents or increased reporting of incidents to law enforcement.

“Especially with homicide, the continuing downward trends we’re seeing so far this year are heartening, as every killing prevented is a life saved,” said CCJ Senior Research Specialist Ernesto Lopez, co-author of the report. “But crime is heavily influenced by local factors, and despite the national trends, many U.S. cities continue to face intolerably high levels of violence.”

Looking at trends over a longer period, the study found that there were 2% fewer homicides during the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2019, 15% fewer robberies, 8% fewer domestic violence incidents, and 0.2% fewer aggravated assaults. Gun assaults were 1% higher during the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2019, while carjacking, a crime that is relatively uncommon but began to spike shortly after the onset of the pandemic, was 68% higher.

Property crime trends have been more mixed over the last five years. There were fewer residential burglaries (-39%) and larcenies (-9%), but more nonresidential burglaries (+14%) and more shoplifting (+10%) in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2019. Motor vehicle thefts more than doubled (+66%) during that timeframe. Drug offenses were 28% lower.

New fact sheets also released today provide additional details on trends in burglary, robbery, larceny, and assault.

“It’s wonderful to see the overall trends bend back in the right direction, but the progress is very uneven and being driven by large drops in a handful of high-homicide cities,” said CCJ President and CEO Adam Gelb. “Policymakers and community leaders can accelerate the momentum by doubling down on crime-prevention strategies that are backed by evidence and are delivering measurable results.”

The report’s authors had a similar message, noting that to achieve long-term reductions in crime, local, state, and federal governments, along with communities and industries, must adopt research-based public safety strategies. CCJ’s Task Force on Policing and Violent Crime Working Group highlight numerous reforms to improve policing and strengthen the overall effectiveness of violence reduction efforts in the U.S., including the Working Group’s Ten Essential Actions, which was the foundation for the Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap adopted by the Department of Justice in December 2023.

The mid-year study comes on the heels of a report by CCJ’s Crime Trends Working Group which lays out a plan to improve the nation’s crime data infrastructure to better equip policymakers with the information critical to effectively address community violence and other public safety challenges. The group’s report and the mid-year trends will be discussed at a live web event Thursday, July 25, at 12ET.

Support for the mid-year crime analysis comes from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Arnold Ventures, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Southern Company Foundation, Stand Together, and CCJ’s general operating contributors.

About the Report and Data

Co-authored by Lopez and Doctoral Candidate Bobby Boxerman, the new analysis updates a series of a dozen earlier reports with new data through June 2024. It examined crime rates for 12 violent, property, and drug offenses in 39 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, St. Louis, Baltimore, Seattle, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Detroit. The smallest city in the sample was Syracuse, NY, with about 142,000 residents; the largest was New York City, with more than 8.4 million residents. The 39 cities were selected because they have consistently published monthly crime data over the past six years, allowing researchers to examine longer-term patterns as well as changes within the past year. The study cities are not necessarily representative of all jurisdictions in the U.S., and not all cities reported data for each offense.

The data for this report were obtained within days of the end of the study period in order to provide a timely snapshot of crime across the nation. As a result, these figures may and likely will differ from data subsequently published by individual police departments. For the most up-to-date information for a specific city, please visit its website.

About the Council on Criminal Justice

The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) is a nonpartisan think tank and invitational membership organization that advances understanding of the criminal justice policy challenges facing the nation and builds consensus for solutions based on facts, evidence, and fundamental principles of justice.

One of the lasting memories of the 2024 Chicago Bears season will be fans chanting “Sell the team!” in the final two minutes and as they exited Soldier Field on Thursday night after the team’s 10th consecutive loss.


The Bears still had the ball. They had crossed midfield. They still had the ability to stop the clock and they were trailing the Seattle Seahawks just 6-3 when the disgruntled crowd picked up on what White Sox fans did at Rate Field during a record-setting season of futility. There was no mistaking what the message was as the Bears offense tried to engineer a game-winning drive.


The opportunity fizzled out. The Bears lost 6-3 to fall to 4-12 with one game remaining before the team launches headfirst into its coaching search. Quarterback Caleb Williams took seven sacks in what was another lousy performance by the offense. The Bears are now 98-3 since the start of the 1950 season when they limit the opponent to six points or fewer.

Great information! If you added and updated a section for who is visiting would be appreciated!

As his former attorney Michael Cohen once explained, Donald Trump often doesn’t need to tell his loyalists precisely what he expects them to do. He hints at it, nudges them and expects that they understand what is intended.


In March, for example, he said that former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) should “go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee” — a reference to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Cheney served as vice chair of the panel.

He was responding to a preliminary report compiled by the House Administration oversight subcommittee, which Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) leads. That report, a review of the Capitol riot investigation, suggested that the select committee had withheld evidence. This triggered Trump’s recommendation of criminal charges for its members.


Loudermilk is a Trump ally whose subsequent claims that the select committee had also failed to adequately preserve evidence evolved into a Trumpworld insistence that evidence had been destroyed. This has been debunked, but Trump nonetheless referred to that idea during an interview with NBC News this month in which he again suggested that Cheney should “go to jail.”
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“They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony,” he falsely claimed, referring to the select committee. “I think those people committed a major crime.”
On Tuesday, the final report from Loudermilk’s subcommittee was made public. In it, the subcommittee does recommend criminal charges against Cheney, as Trump had repeatedly demanded. But — probably in recognition that the “destroyed evidence” claim was a canard — the recommendation centers on Cheney’s alleged “tampering” with one of the committee’s key witnesses.


The report’s conclusion summarizes the claim:

“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge. This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates 18 U.S.C. 1512. Such action is outside the due functioning of the legislative process and therefore not protected by the Speech and Debate clause.”
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation must also investigate Representative Cheney for violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury.”

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Trump, predictably, celebrated this determination, paraphrasing the vaguest snippet of that allegation on social media: “Numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.”
It’s an endorsement of a fishing expedition, a demand from Loudermilk and Trump that the FBI use this pretext to find something to pin to Cheney. But it sits alongside two actual allegations — both of them flimsy to the point of transparency.
At issue is the testimony of Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s last chief of staff when he previously served as president, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson, you will probably recall, offered shocking testimony at a June 28, 2022, hearing about Trump’s behavior on the day of the riot, including allegations about his dismissiveness about the threat posed by the crowd at his speech outside the White House that morning, Trump’s insistence on driving to the Capitol after the speech and how he responded to reports about the threat posed to Vice President Mike Pence.


That testimony, though, came about only after Hutchinson went through an internal struggle described in her 2023 book “Enough.” Hutchinson was a loyal Trump supporter and, as such, was provided by Trump’s team with an attorney, Stefan Passantino, when the select committee first subpoenaed her in January 2022.
She sat for two depositions with committee staffers in February and March of that year. Following Passantino’s advice, she didn’t volunteer information that would cast Trump in a negative light. But she began to have qualms about this approach, later reaching out to her former colleague Alyssa Farah for advice on how to proceed. Farah helped orchestrate a third deposition, in May 2022, during which Hutchinson was able to speak more freely. Her attorney was not pleased, and neither was Trumpworld.
In early June, Passantino recommended that Hutchinson stop complying with the committee’s efforts, including an anticipated fourth interview. In her book, she writes that she expected but “dreaded” Passantino forcing the issue, worried that she would be putting herself at risk of contempt charges. So, soon after, she contacted Cheney directly. Two months ago, Loudermilk’s subcommittee released some information about this communication, framing it in ethical, not legal, terms.


In a phone conversation with Cheney recounted in Hutchinson’s book, Hutchinson indicated that she intended to represent herself moving forward. Cheney recommended against doing so. When Hutchinson indicated that she’d previously had trouble identifying and affording counsel, Cheney said she would consult with her colleagues and get back to her. The next day she did, offering “contact information for multiple attorneys.” Hutchinson spoke with a number of them, ultimately deciding on attorneys Jody Hunt and Bill Jordan.
Later that month, she sat for another deposition. Freed from the constraints Passantino had encouraged, she offered much more detail on what she’d seen and, more explosively, what she’d been told about Jan. 6, 2021. The select committee quickly scheduled the aforementioned public hearing for June 28. Hutchinson would sit for recorded interviews twice more in September 2022.
The report from Loudermilk’s subcommittee twists Cheney’s role into criminal activity in two ways. The first is that her interactions with Hutchinson are described as “tampering,” citing federal witness-tampering statutes. But those are focused on inhibiting testimony (particularly through force), not on enabling it. What’s more, the report’s important claim that Hutchinson retained Hunt and Jordan “at the recommendation of Representative Cheney” ignores the nuances of the interactions both women describe in their respective books.


Much of Loudermilk’s report centers on discrepancies between Hutchinson’s testimony and the testimony of others, discrepancies that are often in part because (as Hutchinson always represented) her testimony included secondhand information. But because the subcommittee presents Hutchinson’s testimony as intentionally false, the second recommended charge against Cheney proposes that she intentionally orchestrated Hutchinson’s testimony so that the witness could provide that false information.
In a statement offered in response to the Loudermilk report, Cheney wrote that “[n]o reputable lawyer, legislator or judge would take [the allegations] seriously.” And that’s probably true. But the report’s recommendation for an FBI probe will most probably be taken seriously by the incoming head of the FBI — if not Trump first choice, fervent loyalist Kash Patel, then whoever ends up being confirmed by the Senate.
Trump sent his Capitol Hill allies an unsubtle signal: Cheney must pay, even beyond her Trump-orchestrated ouster from the House. Loudermilk and his subcommittee were no doubt cognizant of that signal when they upgraded their allegations against Cheney from ethical to legal ones. And now Trump’s incoming FBI director has a trivial predicate, in case he even sought one, to start the fishing expedition that Loudermilk and Trump endorse.