MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Tua Tagovailoa threw for 317 yards and four touchdowns, including two scores to running back De'Von Achane, and the Miami Dolphins routed the New England Patriots 34-15 on Sunday. The Dolphins (5-6) have a thin margin for error the rest of the season but have kept themselves afloat with a three-game winning streak. With their win at New England (3-9) in Week 5, the Dolphins have swept their division rivals in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1999-2000. Tagovailoa, who moved to 7-0 in his career against New England, entered the game with a league-high 73.4% completion rate and went 29 for 40. Backup Skylar Thompson replaced Tagovailoa with about 11 minutes left in what was already a blowout, but a bad handoff on his first play resulted in a fumble that was recovered by cornerback Christian Gonzalez and returned 63 yards for a touchdown. It cut New England's deficit to 31-15, and Tagovailoa returned the next drive. Miami's defense held the rest of the way. Linebacker Tyrel Dodson intercepted rookie quarterback Drake Maye on New England's penultimate drive, then Miami stopped the Patriots on fourth down on the next. Jaylen Waddle caught eight passes for a season-high 144 yards and a 23-yard touchdown that stretched Miami's lead to 31-0 entering the fourth. Achane scored on a 9-yard screen pass and then walked into the end zone for an 11-yard TD in the first half. Jonnu Smith finished with 87 yards on nine catches to continue his strong first season as a Dolphin. One week after catching two touchdowns with a career-high 101 yards receiving, Smith found the end zone for a 7-yard TD catch on the Dolphins' second drive. New England was shut out until tight end Austin Hooper got behind the Dolphins defense for a wide-open 38-yard touchdown catch from Maye to make it 31-7 with 13:43 left. Maye completed 22 of 37 passes for 221 yards with 26 yards rushing. But he couldn't overcome an overall sloppy performance by the Patriots in which they got nothing going offensively until the final quarter. New England's best drive of the first half lasted 12 plays and covered 80 yards but included three accepted offensive penalties and ended in a missed 45-yard field goal by Joey Slye. The Patriots forced a Dolphins punt and moved down the field again on the opening drive of the second half, with Maye completing an improvised 10-yard throw on third down to receiver Kendrick Bourne. New England then tried a double pass with Bourne, whose cross-field throw fell short of Rhamondre Stevenson on 3rd-and-17. DeMario Douglas led the Patriots with 61 yards receiving. Antonio Gibson had six rushes for 30 yards. Dolphins: LB Anthony Walker Jr. sustained a noncontact hamstring injury in the second quarter. He was helped slowly off the field by trainers and did not return. Patriots: Host Indianapolis next Sunday. Dolphins: At Green Bay on Thursday. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLDanaher had a disappointing 2024. Its path to success next year goes through Wall Street
Golden State Valkyries select Iliana Rupert with first pick in WNBA expansion draftWesmen’s rise a bit of a surprise
By JILL COLVIN and STEPHEN GROVES WASHINGTON (AP) — After several weeks working mostly behind closed doors, Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill this week in a new, more visible role: Helping Donald Trump try to get his most contentious Cabinet picks to confirmation in the Senate, where Vance has served for the last two years. Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday with former Rep. Matt Gaetz and spent the morning sitting in on meetings between Trump’s choice for attorney general and key Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The effort was for naught: Gaetz announced a day later that he was withdrawing his name amid scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations and the reality that he was unlikely to be confirmed. Thursday morning Vance was back, this time accompanying Pete Hegseth, the “Fox & Friends Weekend” host whom Trump has tapped to be the next secretary of defense. Hegseth also has faced allegations of sexual assault that he denies. Vance is expected to accompany other nominees for meetings in coming weeks as he tries to leverage the two years he has spent in the Senate to help push through Trump’s picks. Vice President-elect JD Vance, still a Republican senator from Ohio, walks from a private meeting with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., center, and Vice President-elect JD Vance, left, walk out of a meeting with Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, departs the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, March 15, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, center speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, speaks with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, before testifying at a hearing, March 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a classified briefing on China, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a vote on Capitol Hill, Sept. 12, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance R-Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) Vice President-elect JD Vance, still a Republican senator from Ohio, walks from a private meeting with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Vance is taking on an atypical role as Senate guide for Trump nominees The role of introducing nominees around Capitol Hill is an unusual one for a vice president-elect. Usually the job goes to a former senator who has close relationships on the Hill, or a more junior aide. But this time the role fits Vance, said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s first director of legislative affairs as well as chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, who spent more than a decade in Congress and led the former president’s transition ahead of his first term. ”JD probably has a lot of current allies in the Senate and so it makes sense to have him utilized in that capacity,” Short said. Unlike the first Trump transition, which played out before cameras at Trump Tower in New York and at the president-elect’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this one has largely happened behind closed doors in Palm Beach, Florida. There, a small group of officials and aides meet daily at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to run through possible contenders and interview job candidates. The group includes Elon Musk, the billionaire who has spent so much time at the club that Trump has joked he can’t get rid of him. Vance has been a constant presence, even as he’s kept a lower profile. The Ohio senator has spent much of the last two weeks in Palm Beach, according to people familiar with his plans, playing an active role in the transition, on which he serves as honorary chair. Mar-a-Lago scene is a far cry from Vance’s hardscrabble upbringing Vance has been staying at a cottage on the property of the gilded club, where rooms are adorned with cherubs, oriental rugs and intricate golden inlays. It’s a world away from the famously hardscrabble upbringing that Vance documented in the memoir that made him famous, “Hillbilly Elegy.” His young children have also joined him at Mar-a-Lago, at times. Vance was photographed in shorts and a polo shirt playing with his kids on the seawall of the property with a large palm frond, a U.S. Secret Service robotic security dog in the distance. On the rare days when he is not in Palm Beach, Vance has been joining the sessions remotely via Zoom. Though he has taken a break from TV interviews after months of constant appearances, Vance has been active in the meetings, which began immediately after the election and include interviews and as well as presentations on candidates’ pluses and minuses. Among those interviewed: Contenders to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray , as Vance wrote in a since-deleted social media post. Defending himself from criticism that he’d missed a Senate vote in which one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees was confirmed, Vance wrote that he was meeting at the time “with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director.” “I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” Vance added on X. “But that’s just me.” Vance is making his voice heard as Trump stocks his Cabinet While Vance did not come in to the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. find roles in the administration. Trump ended up selecting Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence , a powerful position that sits atop the nation’s spy agencies and acts as the president’s top intelligence adviser. And he chose Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services , a massive agency that oversees everything from drug and food safety to Medicare and Medicaid. Vance was also a big booster of Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who will serve as Trump’s “border czar.” In another sign of Vance’s influence, James Braid, a top aide to the senator, is expected to serve as Trump’s legislative affairs director. Allies say it’s too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take on in the White House. While he gravitates to issues like trade, immigration and tech policy, Vance sees his role as doing whatever Trump needs. Vance was spotted days after the election giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol and was there the day of leadership elections. He returned in earnest this week, first with Gaetz — arguably Trump’s most divisive pick — and then Hegseth, who has was been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to an investigative report made public this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing. Vance hosted Hegseth in his Senate office as GOP senators, including those who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, filtered in to meet with the nominee for defense secretary. While a president’s nominees usually visit individual senators’ offices, meeting them on their own turf, the freshman senator — who is accompanied everywhere by a large Secret Service detail that makes moving around more unwieldy — instead brought Gaetz to a room in the Capitol on Wednesday and Hegseth to his office on Thursday. Senators came to them. Vance made it to votes Wednesday and Thursday, but missed others on Thursday afternoon. Vance will draw on his Senate background going forward Vance is expected to continue to leverage his relationships in the Senate after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have longer relationships with Trump himself. Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said that Trump was often the first person to call him back when he was trying to reach high-level White House officials during Trump’s first term. “He has the most active Rolodex of just about anybody I’ve ever known,” Cramer said, adding that Vance would make a good addition. “They’ll divide names up by who has the most persuasion here,” Cramer said, but added, “Whoever his liaison is will not work as hard at it as he will.” Cramer was complimentary of the Ohio senator, saying he was “pleasant” and ” interesting” to be around. ′′He doesn’t have the long relationships,” he said. “But we all like people that have done what we’ve done. I mean, that’s sort of a natural kinship, just probably not as personally tied.” Under the Constitution, Vance will also have a role presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes. But he’s not likely to be needed for that as often as was Kamala Harris, who broke a record number of ties for Democrats as vice president, since Republicans will have a bigger cushion in the chamber next year. Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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New York Giants star rookie wideout Malik Nabers (toe) missed practice Thursday and termed himself a game-day decision. He also is unsure if he will be able to participate on Friday. The Giants host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. "I'm hoping so, it all depends on how it feels tomorrow, that's really it," Nabers said Thursday. Nabers, 21, has been one of the few bright spots for the Giants and leads the team with 97 receptions for 969 yards and four touchdown catches in 13 games (12 starts). Selected sixth overall out of LSU, Nabers has caught 10 or more passes on three occasions but has just one touchdown catch over the past 10 games. Though the Giants (2-13) are mired in a franchise-worst 10-game losing streak, Nabers isn't down about the situation. "We're happy where we're at," Nabers said. "Continue to grow every day. A lot of things to fix, a lot of things we can look back on in our rookie year and continue to try to get better for next year." In addition to Nabers, running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (ankle), center John Michael Schmitz (ankle), linebacker Micah McFadden (neck), cornerbacks Greg Stroman (shoulder/shin) and Dee Williams (toe) and safety Raheem Layne (knee) sat out practice Thursday. Quarterback Drew Lock (right shoulder) was a limited participant. --Field Level Media
Governor Seyi Makinde has acknowledged plans to inaugurate a Sharia Court in Oyo State but insists the initiative must comply with the Nigerian Constitution. The move, set to be inaugurated by the Supreme Council of Shari’ah in Nigeria on January 11, 2025, has drawn criticism from Southwest youths Makinde reiterated his commitment to upholding the law, emphasizing that any initiative violating constitutional provisions would face opposition CHECK OUT: Education is Your Right! Don’t Let Social Norms Hold You Back. Learn Online with LEGIT. Enroll Now! Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has acknowledged plans to inaugurate a Sharia Court in the state. However, the governor emphasized that such a move must comply with the Nigerian Constitution. As reported by The Guardian, the Supreme Council of Shari’ah in Nigeria (Oyo State chapter), will inaugurate the court by January 11, 2025. This development has sparked mixed reactions, with some Southwest youths opposing the initiative, citing concerns about extremism and questioning its benefits for the region. Read also "Switch off the light": Tinubu urges Nigerians to learn how to manage electricity bill, video trends PAY ATTENTION: Follow us on Instagram - get the most important news directly in your favourite app! In a video shared by his Senior Special Assistant on New Media, Olorundare Olamide Wilson, Makinde clarified his stance. He stressed that while he respects citizens' rights to advocate for initiatives, any attempt to establish a Sharia Court must align with the law. “I said that people may try, but for me, the law and Constitution of Nigeria are what I’m sworn to. If they are within the law, fine. But if they are not, they should expect that I will insist that the law must be followed,” Makinde stated. Southwest youths have voiced concerns over the potential inauguration, arguing that Sharia law has not significantly benefited northern states that practice it. They called for investments in education and economic development instead of religious courts, The Punch reported. The event's legality remains a key issue, with Makinde reiterating his commitment to upholding constitutional provisions. Read also Christmas: Christians warned against pilgrimage to Israel, major reasons emerge PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy! Source: Legit.ngFirst Quarter Ind_FG Gay 27, 8:53. Drive: 12 plays, 61 yards, 6:07. Key Plays: Richardson 10 run; Richardson 11 pass to Downs; Richardson 17 run on 3rd-and-1. Indianapolis 3, Detroit 0. Second Quarter Det_Gibbs 1 run (Bates kick), 12:07. Drive: 9 plays, 60 yards, 4:12. Key Plays: Goff 27 pass to Patrick; Gibbs 17 run on 3rd-and-8. Detroit 7, Indianapolis 3. Ind_FG Gay 29, 8:16. Drive: 10 plays, 65 yards, 3:51. Key Plays: Goodson kick return to Indianapolis 24; Richardson 10 pass to A.Mitchell on 3rd-and-3; Richardson 39 pass to Pierce. Detroit 7, Indianapolis 6. Det_Da.Montgomery 6 run (Bates kick), 3:34. Drive: 10 plays, 70 yards, 4:42. Key Plays: Goff 10 pass to Patrick; Goff 21 pass to Williams; Da.Montgomery 13 run on 3rd-and-6. Detroit 14, Indianapolis 6. Third Quarter Det_Gibbs 5 run (Bates kick), 2:19. Drive: 11 plays, 61 yards, 5:22. Key Plays: Goff 15 pass to Williams; Goff 12 pass to St. Brown; Goff 12 pass to St. Brown on 3rd-and-9; Goff 14 pass to Da.Montgomery; Gibbs 16 run. Detroit 21, Indianapolis 6. Fourth Quarter Det_FG Bates 56, 6:21. Drive: 7 plays, 21 yards, 3:47. Key Plays: Gibbs 3 run on 3rd-and-2; Goff 9 pass to LaPorta on 3rd-and-14. Detroit 24, Indianapolis 6. A_66,696. INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING_Detroit, Gibbs 21-90, Montgomery 8-37, Reynolds 1-6, Williams 1-4, Goff 2-0. Indianapolis, Richardson 10-61, Taylor 11-35. PASSING_Detroit, Goff 26-36-0-269. Indianapolis, Richardson 11-28-0-172. RECEIVING_Detroit, St. Brown 6-62, Williams 5-64, Patrick 4-55, Montgomery 3-36, LaPorta 3-19, Gibbs 3-9, Wright 2-24. Indianapolis, Pittman 6-96, Downs 3-27, Pierce 1-39, Mitchell 1-10. PUNT RETURNS_Detroit, Raymond 2-30, St. Brown 2-15. Indianapolis, Downs 2-4. KICKOFF RETURNS_Detroit, None. Indianapolis, Goodson 1-25. TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS_Detroit, Rodriguez 7-1-0, Campbell 4-4-0, Branch 3-1-0, K.Joseph 2-2-0, Vildor 2-1-0, Robertson 2-0-0, Paschal 1-2-0, Davis 1-0-0, McNeill 1-0-0, Reader 1-0-0, Z.Smith 1-0-0, Turner 1-0-0, Niemann 0-1-0, Nowaske 0-1-0. Indianapolis, Franklin 8-5-1, Cross 6-8-0, Speed 6-5-0, Paye 3-0-0, Buckner 2-5-1, Womack 2-5-0, Latu 2-2-1, Blackmon 2-2-0, Odeyingbo 2-2-0, Stewart 1-4-0, Jones 1-2-0, Moore 1-2-0, Stuard 0-3-0, Bryan 0-2-0. INTERCEPTIONS_Detroit, None. Indianapolis, None. MISSED FIELD GOALS_None. OFFICIALS_Referee Shawn Hochuli, Ump Terry Killens, HL Patrick Holt, LJ Tim Podraza, FJ Jason Ledet, SJ Jim Quirk, BJ Jimmy Russell, Replay Jamie Nicholson.Former Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott passed away at the age of 86 yesterday (November 20) after a battle with Alzheimer's. In a statement, his family said: "We are deeply saddened to inform you that our beloved husband, father and grandfather, John Prescott, passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 86. "He did so surrounded by the love of his family and the jazz music of Marian Montgomery. "John spent his life trying to improve the lives of others, fighting for social justice and protecting the environment, doing so from his time as a waiter on the cruise liners to becoming Britain’s longest serving Deputy Prime Minister." Reminded of Prescott's hilarious appearance on Top Gear. Fearlessly goes up against the live audience to bat for the M4 bus lane. pic.twitter.com/7CiCSLTcEa — max tempers (@maxtempers) November 21, 2024 An experienced politician known for his fiery temper and no-nonsense attitude, Lord Prescott frequently clashed with those on the other side of the political spectrum. After the news of his death spread, an interview with former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson resurfaced on X, formerly known as Twitter. Back in 2011, Prescott was a guest on the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment of the popular BBC2 show. Prescott was booed when he made his entrance and on more than one occasion got to his feet to remonstrate with the Top Gear audience following Clarkson's provocation. "Punching a protester and calling it “connecting with the electorate” is quality" Largely, the M4 lane that Prescott created in 1999. Known to some at the time as Prescott's Folly. "What in the name of all that's holy were you thinking when you said 'let's put a bus lane on the M4'," asked Clarkson. To which Prescott replied: "I'm going to introduce you to a revolutionary thought. You can go slower and you can get there quicker and that's to do with flow." Throughout the interview, Prescott and Clarkson butted heads continuously, even to the point where the former said: "Hold on, just give your b***** brain a chance," to Clarkson's annoyance. Users in the comments were impressed by the interview. Recommended reading: Tony Blair leads tributes to John Prescott after his death aged 86 Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott dies aged 86 Alastair Campbell issues emotional tribute to John Prescott One said: "What is interesting about this clip is even though he and @JeremyClarkson plainly disagree and the audience are largely with Clarkson there is none of the toxicity which is the legacy of Brexit, Johnson and 14 years of Tory chaos. We must re learn how to disagree without hatred". Another recalled a Prescott quote: "Punching a protester and calling it “connecting with the electorate” is quality". Whilst someone else commented: "A great video and actually just a sensible chat between the two - feisty but also fair. Current government would benefit from some of the more common sense direct communication Prescott brings to manage some of the misinformation that currently does the rounds."
Giants release quarterback Daniel Jones just days after benching him EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The Daniel Jones era in New York is over. The Giants quarterback was granted his release by the team just days after the franchise said it was benching him in favor of third-stringer Tommy DeVito. New York president John Mara said Jones approached the team about releasing him and the club obliged. Mara added he was “disappointed” at the quick dissolution of a once-promising relationship between Jones and the team. Giants coach Brian Daboll benched Jones in favor of DeVito following a loss to the Panthers in Germany that dropped New York's record to 2-8. Conor McGregor must pay $250K to woman who says he raped her, civil jury rules LONDON (AP) — A civil jury in Ireland has awarded more than $250,000 to a woman who says she was raped by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor in a Dublin hotel penthouse after a night of heavy partying. The jury on Friday awarded Nikita Hand in her lawsuit that claimed McGregor “brutally raped and battered” her in 2018. The lawsuit says the assault left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. McGregor testified that he never forced her to do anything and that Hand fabricated her allegations after the two had consensual sex. McGregor says he will appeal the verdict. Week 16 game between Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers flexed to Thursday night spot The Los Angeles Chargers have played their way into another prime time appearance. Justin Herbert and company have had their Dec. 22 game against the Denver Broncos flexed to Thursday night, Dec. 19. Friday’s announcement makes this the first time a game has been flexed to the Thursday night spot. The league amended its policy last season where Thursday night games in Weeks 13 through 17 could be flexed with at least 28 days notice prior to the game. The matchup of AFC West division rivals bumps the game between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals to Sunday afternoon. NBA memo to players urges increased vigilance regarding home security following break-ins MIAMI (AP) — The NBA is urging its players to take additional precautions to secure their homes following reports of recent high-profile burglaries of dwellings owned by Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis and Kansas City Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. In a memo sent to team officials, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the NBA revealed that the FBI has connected some burglaries to “transnational South American Theft Groups” that are “reportedly well-organized, sophisticated rings that incorporate advanced techniques and technologies, including pre-surveillance, drones, and signal jamming devices.” Red Bull brings wrong rear wing to Las Vegas in mistake that could stall Verstappen's title chances LAS VEGAS (AP) — Max Verstappen is suddenly in jeopardy of being denied a fourth consecutive Formula 1 title Saturday night. Red Bull apparently brought the wrong rear wing to Las Vegas and GPS data showed its two cars to be significantly slower on the straights than both McLaren and Mercedes, which led both practice sessions. Red Bull says it doesn’t have a replacement rear wing in Las Vegas to fix the issue and little chance of getting two flown in from England ahead of the race. Caitlin Clark to join Cincinnati bid for 16th National Women's Soccer League team WNBA star Caitlin Clark has joined Cincinnati’s bid for an expansion National Women’s Soccer League team. Major League Soccer franchise FC Cincinnati is heading the group vying to bring a women’s pro team to the city. The club issued a statement confirming Clark had joined the bid group. NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman has said the league plans to announce the league’s 16th team by the end of the year. The league's 15th team will begin play in 2026 in Boston. Aaron Judge won't be bothered if Juan Soto gets bigger contract from Yankees than his $360M deal NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge won’t be bothered if Juan Soto gets a bigger deal from the New York Yankees than the captain’s $360 million, nine-year contract. Speaking a day after he was a unanimous winner of his second MVP, Judge says “It ain’t my money” and adds "that’s never been something on my mind about who gets paid the most.” Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. Soto batted .288 with 41 homers, 109 RBIs and 129 walks in his first season with the Yankees, then became a free agent at age 26. In a 'Final Four-type weekend,' two top-6 clashes put women's college basketball focus on West Coast LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two games featuring four powerhouse teams has put the focus in women's college basketball on the West Coast this weekend. JuJu Watkins and No. 3 Southern California host Hannah Hidalgo and No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday. Top-ranked South Carolina visits Lauren Betts and fifth-ranked UCLA on Sunday. Both games are nationally televised and the arenas are expected to be packed. WNBA scouts will be on hand to check out some of the nation's top talent. Two teams will come away with their first losses of the season. USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb calls it “a Final Four-type weekend.” A documentary featuring Watkins will air on NBC ahead of USC's game, which leads into the Army-Notre Dame football game. Noodles and wine are the secret ingredients for a strange new twist in China's doping saga Blame it on the noodles. That's what one Chinese official suggested when anti-doping leaders were looking for answers for the doping scandal that cast a shadow over this year's Olympic swim meet. Earlier this year, reports that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned heart medication emerged. None were sanctioned because Chinese authorities determined the swimmers were contaminated by traces of the drug spread about a hotel kitchen. In a strange twist, the leader of China's anti-doping agency suggested this case could have been similar to one in which criminals were responsible for tainting noodles that were later eaten by another Chinese athlete who also tested positive for the drug. Athletes see climate change as threatening their sports and their health. Some are speaking up BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Pragnya Mohan has been a professional triathlete for nearly a decade, but summers in her native India are now so hot that she can’t train there anymore. And she worries about a day when heat around the world kills her sport entirely. She was among athletes who spoke at the United Nations climate summit in Azerbaijan about the threat global warming poses to them, to fans and to sport itself. They described how extreme weather is making training and competing difficult or impossible. With billions of fans worldwide, some athletes and leagues are trying to get more people to care, and act, on climate change.Santa Rally Kicks Off On Wall Street: Stocks Gain, Tesla Soars, Bitcoin Hits $98,000“How does it feel?” is one way by which to measure a movie. But if you’ve seen “ A Complete Unknown ,” the Bob Dylan biopic that opened on Christmas Day, you may have left the theater singing to yourself (to the tune of “Like a Rolling Stone”): How much is reeeaaallll? The short response is: A lot. But the long answer involves acknowledging director James Mangold ’s film taking liberties in terms of a condensation of timelines, the conjoining of separate incidents, fictional character names in a couple of cases, and moments of sheer imagination and fictionalization. It’s certainly possible to enjoy “A Complete Unknown” without stressing too much over which parts are fact and which are fanciful. But for those who want to take a deep dive into how much the movie aligns with the known historical record, we looked to several Dylan experts to help sort it out. Our primary guide is Elijah Wald, who literally wrote the book on this subject — as in, the 2015 book that was optioned and gets a “based on” credit at the beginning of the film: “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties.” He’s very high on the film, even though he’s independent enough from it to point out areas where the screenplay deviated from his source material. We also talked with David Browne, author of the recently released “Talkin’ Greenwich Village: The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capitol,” who is similarly a fan of the film, even if it sketches the folk scene in shorthand. Finally, we discussed it with Ian Grant, a Dylan buff who is the co-host of two Dylan-centric podcasts, one of which, “Jokermen,” last week featured a heated discussion of the movie’s accuracy and one sticking point in particular that Grant couldn’t get past. Mangold recently told Variety that the film is “not a Wikipedia entry” and he didn’t feel a fealty to a documentary level of facts — but also pointed out that, besides relying on Wald’s book and other historical source material, he based his version of the script (co-written with Jay Cocks) on many hours he spent personally talking with Dylan. In any case, many of those who’ve been in Dylan’s orbit over the years have given it high marks. Kevin Odegard, who played guitar on “Blood on the Tracks,” wrote, “We loved every minute... Critics who pick apart the imaginative world of composite characters and compacted historical footnotes are the dogs who caught the car. They miss the emotional punch of James Mangold’s poignant Hollywood movie.” And Ronee Blakley, a veteran of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, wrote, “I am happy for Bob to be so carefully portrayed that his legacy stirs excitement today just as it did then, his magic and greatness self-evident and timeless. And we get a glimpse of what it cost him. Timothée Chalamet deserves an award, as does the picture.” Here are some burning questions viewers might have after seeing the film, followed by some burning answers. At the Newport Folk Festival of 1965, did a dismayed fan yell out “Judas!” — to which Dylan replied, “I don’t believe you... you’re a liar”? No... not there. But as most hardcore Dylan fans will know, that exact exchange with the audience did happen a year later, at a 1966 U.K. gig in Manchester that was widely distributed as a bootleg and eventually officially released. So Mangold has combined two incidents in which at least some of the audience was rebelling against Dylan transforming himself into a rock ‘n’ roller. Podcaster Grant, who has a few other problems with the film, doesn’t think this conflation counts as one. “Ultimately, that’s just sort of nerdy fan trivia-type stuff, so I don’t really think that has a fundamental impact one way or another on the quality of the movie,” he says. How accurate, otherwise, is the climactic depiction of Dylan’s appearance at Newport in 1965 ... especially the crowd reaction, booing included? Says Browne, “If any moment in music history was born to be a scene in a biopic, it’s Dylan plugging in at that Newport — from (Pete) Seeger and the ax to the crowd reactions to Dylan returning to the stage with ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ (as a comment to the crowd ... or not). Overall, I thought the film did a good job recreating that explosion at Newport, even if the crowd shots seem a bit over the top.” In his “Dylan Goes Electric” book, Wald devotes thousands of words to recounting that fateful day, based on first-hand accounts... many of which substantially differ from others. “There were 17,000 people there,” the author points out. “Depending on where you were standing, I’m sure there were people who were surrounded by people booing, people who were surrounded by people cheering, people who heard a bit of both, people who thought everyone was just confused. Those are all accurate memories of the people around you, in a crowd of 17,000, right?” The problem in coming up with any kind of accurate consensus reaction, he says, is that “during the electric set, the microphones were turned way down because the amps were so loud on stage, so there’s no record recorded of what was happening in the audience. But critic Robert Shelton was in the audience, covering it for the New York Times. He was keeping a notebook at the time, and after ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ he writes in his notebook: ‘Some booing.’ He was writing that as things were happening, so that’s not hindsight. But none of that’s on tape. Once the band got off stage and Peter Yarrow came up to try to quiet the crowd, the microphones were turned up and then you can hear the crowd. And there are people yelling for Dylan to come back. There are also people yelling, ‘Bring back Pete Seeger.’ There are people yelling for (Dylan) to get ‘a wooden box,’ which I take to mean an acoustic guitar. There are people yelling at the other people to shut up. I mean, it was a very confusing scene.” Wald adds, “The best example I have of that is a friend of mine who was there, who has absolutely clear memories of how much he loved Dylan’s electric set — and also absolutely clear memories of coming back from Newport with a picture of Dylan on the inside of his guitar case, which he’d crossed out because he was so angry about Dylan’s electric set. And I think that’s not atypical. There were a lot of people who were upset in the moment and very quickly fell in love with the electric stuff.” A complicating factor in telling this story: Prior to the contentious Sunday electric set, Dylan had done an acoustic performance at the festival, on Saturday ... during which some people attending Newport for the first time were unhappy he wasn’t doing his new electric material! “When he went on for his acoustic set on Saturday afternoon, you can hear the audience (on tape) — there are all these people yelling for him to play ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ because that was the hit on the radio right then. There were a lot of people who had come to Newport just to hear Bob Dylan, the friend of the Beatles, play ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and who were being really obnoxious about the other acts. Some of the people at his afternoon set were yelling at the people on the banjo stage to quiet down so they can hear Bob Dylan. So there was already a lot of irritation at the festival before he ever got on stage the next night.” Did Pete Seeger really think about taking an ax to cut the cables as Dylan was alienating some festivalgoeers with his electric set? In the film, this legend is given a nod just by Seeger (played by Edward Norton) glancing at an ax, but not actually picking it up. “I thought how they handled the ax thing in the film was pretty goddamn smart,” says Wald, even though his book goes to great lengths to discredit the idea that Seger was ever in danger of picking one up. Even Seeger eventually “said that ‘if I had an ax, I’d have cut the sound cable’ — which is just an invention. I mean, the whole ax thing was just because Peter Yarrow said (on the microphone to the crowd), ‘He’s gone to get his ax,’ when Dylan went to get a guitar” to perform the solo acoustic encore festival producers were begging for. Some heard the “ax” comment and believed Yarrow was referring to Seeger and a literal blade. One thing Wald says is completely accurate in that moment: “I love that they show that Toshi (Seeger’s wife) is the one who calms him down, which, according to their daughter, is exactly what happened — that Pete was really upset and was trying to shut things down and Toshi said, ‘Hey, cool it.’” Were Dylan and Johnny Cash devoted pen pals? Yes, this is completely accurate. “The scenes in the airplane with them writing letters back and forth, those are direct quotations, in fact, from their letters,” Wald says. He quoted some of them in his book, and as Variety noted in its coverage of the opening of the Bob Dylan Museum in Tulsa, some of those handwritten mutual fan letters are on display for fans to see up close. Did an intoxicated Cash urge Dylan on in the latter’s desire to do a rock ‘n’ roll set at Newport ’65? No, this particular meeting of rebellious minds is an invention of the screenplay. Cash wasn’t even at Newport in 1965, although he did famously play there the year before that. As for whether their scene together in a parking lot captures the spirit of the relationship... “Some of it feels real, some of it’s overdone,” says Wald. “With the Cash character, I think they overdo the goofiness a little bit. I don’t think he was destroying a lot of cars at Newport, and if he had, he’d have been more apologetic about it. I mean, Cash was very high on pills, as I believe probably Dylan was too. But although Johnny Cash was rowdy, he was not destructive in that particular way, and particularly at Newport, which was very important to Cash. He was very concerned with making a good impression at Newport because he was trying to break into the national, that is to say northern, college market. Everybody at Newport only got $50, so Johnny Cash was losing a lot of money by playing Newport, and he was there because he had the vision, which very few people in country music did, to see this potential audience for him, and he was recording Peter La Farge’s ‘Ballad of Ira Hayes’ out of (folk publication) Broadside Magazine. That’s one of the funny parts about all of this is, people positioning him as outside the folk scene. He was very much appreciating and trying to be recognized within that. That said, it isn’t a movie about Johnny Cash — Mangold already did that (with ‘Walk the Line’).” Which completely fictional scene in the movie did Dylan make up and ask James Mangold to add to the screenplay? The answer to that is completely unknown; Mangold is keeping that as a secret he holds close to his vest. But Wald is willing to hazard a hunch. “There’s this story that we’ve all heard that Dylan suggested that they add a completely fictitious scene, and nobody’s saying what it was. If I had to guess, I would guess it was the ‘Now, Voyager’ (recurring motif), just because it’s the only thing in that movie that I can easily imagine Dylan coming up with and can’t imagine someone else inventing as a part of his story.” The Dylan character and the one based on real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo go see a revival movie early in their courtship, then reenact a moment from it in a bittersweet farewell at the climax of this film. “Because Dylan is an old movie fan, I can imagine him imagining acting out the Bette Davis/Paul Henreid scene from ‘Now, Voyager’,” Wald supposes. “It seems so unlikely to me that someone else would come up with that. When I see that, I go, ‘That’s cute.’ Did it happen? I have no idea.” Going back to the beginning: Is the film’s portrayal of Dylan’s arrival in New York and quick integration into the folk scene accurate? And how about the quick sketches of the players on that scene circa 1961? Browne, whose new “Talkin’ Greenwich Village” book lays out that folk scene in great detail, is perhaps naturally disappointed the movie skips glancingly through that period and its key figures. “As someone who spent a lot of time researching Dylan’s fellow Villagers of the time, and also meeting with and interviewing those still with us. I was struck by how few were depicted in the film,” Browne says. “Where are Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Len Chandler, Carolyn Hester and Terri Thal, Dylan’s first manager? From what I can tell, Dave Van Ronk — a towering figure even then, and someone Dylan respected, someone on whose couch he often crashed — is only in two fleeting scenes, and barely identified even then. Obviously one can’t make room for all of them in a movie like this, but without more of those characters, we don’t get as strong a sense of how disruptive Dylan was in the Village, and not just nationally. His rapport with Ochs could have made for a few meaty scenes; their rivalry embodied the topical-vs.-personal, acoustic-vs.-electric debates of the time.” Besides his “Dylan Goes Electric!” book, Wald also published a biography of Dave Van Ronk, but he isn’t bothered that that influential singer is only identified in the end credits and not even referred to by name in the film. “Van Ronk is basically non-existent in the movie, and that’s fine. I’m not cranky about that,” Wald says. “Neuwirth has a slightly larger role that I think is handled rather nicely.” Grant was thrown off by the congregation of boldface names right at the beginning. “Literally the first building he walks into in the entire city, Dave Van Ronk just comes up to him and starts talking to him, and then two hours later he’s out in New Jersey and he’s met both Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, all within about six hours of his arrival to New York. That had me rolling my eyes a little bit, even understanding that they’re gonna have to make exceptions to reality and abbreviate things for the dramatic arts’ sake.” Did Dylan’s first performances galvanize audiences from the get-go? Not as much as depicted in the film. Browne’s “Talkin’ Greenwich Village” book says that early Dylan gigs found him “awkward and out of place one moment, assured and in command the next,” with a co-manager of the Gaslight saying he was initially “disastrous” and a Daily News reporter saying he “left the stage to the sound of perhaps one hand clapping.” Certainly Shelton, Albert Grossman, Joan Baez, et al. were never in the same room on the same night, as portrayed. Says Browne, “In talking with people from the scene and reading first-hand accounts from those who have since passed, I was struck by how jarring Dylan’s voice, guitar playing and early repertoire were to so many in the Village at the time. His approach wasn’t as formal as some of the area folk singers who’d come before him in the ‘40s and ‘50s; with his phrasing, humor and energy, he injected a far more rock ‘n’ roll sensibility onto those tiny stages. That roughness captivated some and caused others to bristle, and we don’t get much of that sense in the film. It wasn’t love at first sight or sound for everyone.” Robert Shelton of the New York Times wrote that he was “bursting at the seams with talent” only upon seeing him a second time at Folk City — a notice that made a big difference in Dylan’s career. So Browne was happy to see him portrayed in the movie. “In terms of the local press, Shelton practically had the folk club to himself, and in the New York Times to boot. He also championed everyone from Buffy Sainte-Marie to Eric Andersen, helping with their careers. Speaking as a journalist myself, one of my takeaways from my research was the power of the press in those days. Even in the ‘70s, newer Village acts like Steve Forbert, the Roches and Willie Nile landed record deals right after they were praised by Times critics John Rockwell and Robert Palmer. How often does that happen now?” Did his first encounter with Joan Baez involve insulting her from the stage after following her at a NYC folk club? That’s invented. In fact, Baez wasn’t hanging around New York at all. “Joan did not like New York. She was from Cambridge, which as a group considered themselves the purists and the New York people to be running after the money. Joan was the prime example of that, turning down Columbia Records and Albert Grossman and staying in Cambridge and then going off to Carmel, California. Bobby Neuwirth was also Cambridge, not New York. But you have to simplify stuff like that, and I think it was a good choice for the movie.” Says Browne, “As Baez told me in an interview for the book, she and Dylan first met outside Gerde’s Folk City in 1961. She’d driven from Boston to the city to attend a protest in Washington Square Park (the infamous “Beatnik Riot”) and just missed it – but, since she was there, decided to check out this kid she’d already started hearing about. She was struck by his stage presence right away, and he introduced himself to her outside the club and sang her a song, but there’s no record of any initial cutting remarks. She also didn’t realize he was more, um, intrigued by her sister Mimi than her at the time.” How about the portrayal of Joan Baez in general? “I was utterly blown away by (Monica) Barbaro’s singing,” says Wald. “Going in, I had thought a good actor can act Bob Dylan singing, because Bob Dylan singing is all about the phrasing, but acting Joan Baez’s voice, which is all about the instrument — I thought Barbaro did an astonishing job. She doesn’t sound exactly like Joan, but boy, she sure as hell sounds good.” Says Grant, “I think that she’s given a relative fair shake in the movie. The film paints her in a more fair and attractive light than someone like Joan Didion did. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Joan Didion’s writings about Joan Baez, but it’s a brutal dressing-down, unfairly. in many cases. But I think she’s fairly drawn, and is more interesting and comes across as more of a real human being than the Suze Rotolo character, or Sylvie Russo as she’s called in the movie.” Grant also liked the way a Halloween 1964 interchange between Dylan and Baez on stage at a New York Philharmonic show was portrayed. “They end up almost getting into this fight up there on stage — that’s a fun and, I think, a well-drawn scene. That’s one of the great early solo acoustic performances by Bob, right before he’s about to go into electric mode the following year — and the relationship dynamic, I think, between him and Joan is one of the best parts of that performance.” How about the Sylvie character, who everyone agrees to assume is meant to be Suze Rotolo? Says Wald, “They changed Suze’s name and fictionalized her a good deal. But honestly, I had been afraid that they would just make her the nice girl next door, who he left for the mysterious Joan, rather than being the political conscience who got him into political music. So I was really pleased that they have her working for CORE and getting Dylan out to political things. And I was pleased that they have her leaving him rather than vice versa.” Grant says that the movie accurately indicates that “she is the one that introduced Bob to political songwriting in the first place, by kind of bringing him into a lot of the student actions and rallies and meetings and stuff that she had already been attending by the time Bob showed up. They do gesture at that in the movie, but I think she’s really just turned into wallpaper by the end of the picture.” Was there a love triangle that was still unfolding by the time of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival between Dylan, Baez and Suze Rotolo? No. The movie is ambiguous about why Dylan offers to drive Rotolo to the festival on his motorcycle and then leaves her to tearfully witness his chemistry with Baez — whether there is lingering romantic interest there. In any case, Rotolo did not attend the festival and was long out of his life romantically by then. So was Baez, for that matter, though they still shared some stages. The “triangle” there is played more for symbolism about two different ways of beings Dylan is simultaneously casting aside, even as the focus moves toward his artistic changes. Is there any potential major character that’s left out completely? It’s funny you should ask that. Grant’s big beef with the movie (one that was also expressed by New Yorker critic Richard Brody, whom Grant amplified on social media and in a Jokermen podcast): the lack of any mention of Sara Lownds, who was soon to become Sara Dylan. Lownds and Dylan first got together romantically in 1964, and by the time Newport ’65 transpired, they’d already taken a lengthy vacation together. He married her just a few months after Newport. But she’s not mentioned in the movie. “She doesn’t exist in this reality, basically,” says Grant. “Meanwhile, Joan Baez and Suze, or Sylvie, are two characters meant to stand for two different ways of being in the world, positioned against one another. Bob obviously is drawn to elements of each, but ultimately decides that neither of them is as important to him as his ability to continue to follow the muse. But in reality, he does find the perfect person for him, a romantic partner that works with his creative life, and with whom he actually strikes up a very rich and rewarding family life just after this movie ends — and was already involved with at the time — in Sara. It tells a false sort of a half-truth at best, if not an outright fabrication, about Bob’s relationship to romantic partners in his life. The movie does nail aspects of that, certainly, with these characters and kind of the dirtbag way he treated some people early on. But to present this as sort of the defining holistic picture of this man, when obviously he is fundamentally a different human being at this moment in time, to say nothing of the ways that he’s going to change in the months and years to come, just sort of strikes a downward note to me.” Grant adds, “The Suze character in the picture is representative of kind of the civilian way of life, or the non-arts way of being in the world. The character paints and she’s active in the left student movement, but she’s fundamentally just kind of like a ‘normal person’ as opposed to someone like Bob Dylan or Joan Baez, who are these generationally talented celebrity artists. The Suze Rotolo character is unsatisfactory for him, because he’s too big, too brilliant, too brash to settle down with someone like that. In reality, he does settle down with someone like that. Obviously Sara is a very different person than Suze herself. But I think on that basic understanding level of someone who isn’t running in the scene, someone who isn’t obsessed with celebrity, someone who isn’t out to make a name for themselves, that’s exactly the kind of person that he ends up spending the next 10 years being married to.” Because so much of Dylan’s music over the next 13 years was inspired by Sara, both in romance and ultimately in divorce, Grant says “that to me is such a ‘Rosebud’ type of thing, to borrow ‘Citizen Kane’ terminology, in Bob’s life. That is the single source which so many decisions are made out of and so many songs written from. So, I think that kind of why I’m so hyperfocused on that element of things here.” As for why Dylan’s then-romantic partner and future wife isn’t portrayed in the final stretch of the film, it may be because a romantic quadrangle was a bridge too far for the scriptwriters. Or, in Grant’s view, because Dylan is committed to keeping his former wife out of things, since she has chosen to live a private life and not comment publicly on their relationship, as Suze Rotolo finally did before the end of her life, with a memoir. (Even then, Dylan was protective in insisting she be fictionalized for the film.) Grant counters that by noting that the Dylan/Lownds relationship was dramatized in the Heath Ledger segment of Todd Haynes’ 2007 “I’m Not There” movie, albeit with everyone in that portion — the Dylan character included — being identified by pseudonyms. On a more mundane note... how accurate are some of the studio moments portrayed in the film? Like Al Kooper playing the organ part on “Like a Rolling Stone” spontaneously, as a non-organ player? There are a lot of what might be considered Easter-egg moments for Dylan fans to latch onto. For example, when “Like a Rolling Stone” is being recorded, the musician Al Kooper comes to the studio, announces himself as the guitar player, and is informed that they already have one of those, so he places himself at the organ instead, playing what becomes a world-famous part, despite his discomfort with the instrument. As a whole, that’s true, although it didn’t happen in the matter of virtual seconds it does on film, and the band wa a few takes in before those famous licks started up. On the other hand, Kooper gets short shrift as the actual purchaser of the police whistle heard on the “Highway 61 Revisited” album; the movie shows Dylan being inspired to pick that up from a street vendor on his own. Moving back to Newport ’65... did manager Albert Grossman and folk music legend and festival mainstay Alan Lomax really get in a physical struggle? Yes, although not during or about Dylan’s performance. Wald doesn’t mind that the fight got transferred from one moment to another, since he’s pleased about the portrayal of Lomax generally. “I think they got some things right about Lomax that everybody gets wrong and that nobody will notice that they got right except me,” Wald says. “Everybody has Lomax as being anti-electricity, and that’s absolutely wrong. Lomax was, in fact, I think the first folklorist ever to record a band with an electric guitar back in the ‘40s. Lomax thought rock ‘n’ roll was great! What set him off at Newport was the Paul Butterfield Band, and it was not that they were playing loud electric music. It was that he was the guy who had discovered Muddy Waters, and he was upset that the first electric band invited to Newport was a bunch of white college kids. They have exactly that scene in the movie with him complaining about them being a white band who is fake and being brought in because Grossman is managing them. Which wasn’t quite true; he was still courting them. I do think everybody will see the film and walk out still thinking that Lomax hated electricity, even though they don’t say that, because that has become the myth. His fight with Grossman was real, but had nothing to do with Dylan.” Adds Wald, ”The funny thing about Lomax is, Lomax had no more time for Dylan as an acoustic singer-songwriter than as an electric singer-songwriter. He liked folk music as the music of the peasantry and the proletariat, and he thought people like Dylan and the New Lost City Ramblers and Dave Van Ronk were fake — and it had nothing to do with electric and acoustic... which, as I say, the movie actually got right, but not in a way that anybody but me will notice. I also don’t think that scene ever happened in the board meeting, where he blows up and Peter Yarrow walks out. I don’t think that’s ‘real,’ but it’s true — it’s completely accurate to the people.” Did Dylan really sit in on an episode of Pete Seeger’s TV show with the host and a blues player? No — that scene is fictional, and so is the character name of the bluesman, although he’s based on Big Bill Morganfield. And yet Wald is delighted by the scene because it illuminates a versatility and curiosity that the author thinks Seeger doesn’t get enough credit for. “I’ve never been in rooms with Dylan, so I can’t speak to that, but I knew Seeger, and Ed Norton as Seeger... both I and people who knew Pete much better than I did are blown away. Even more than that, they got the music right from beginning to end, and there’s so much music, and not just Dylan’s music. That scene where Dylan and Big Bill Morganfield are playing blues together and Seeger starts playing banjo along with them — now, that didn’t happen, but that’s exactly the way Seeger played banjo when he was jamming with blues people. And most people aren’t even aware that Pete Seeger could jam on a blues, including a lot of people who were pretty deep in the scene. That’s absolutely accurate, except that particular meeting didn’t happen in that particular place.” What about the portrayal of Seeger generally — does he get a fair and accurate shake? And is the film really about folk versus rock? Says Wald, “I’m so used to people who are doing the Dylan story being interested in Dylan and casting Seeger as one of the boring old folkies. What I was trying to do in my book was suggest that he was as complicated and in some ways as difficult a person as Dylan, and that they just were on different paths — sometimes the same, but at that moment, at Newport, very much not. But then again, after that, (they remained friends), which is another thing I liked about the movie.” And even if it was concocted, Wald loves having the movie end with a scene of Dylan back in Woody Guthrie’s hospital room playing harmonica along with “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You” — an indication that the newly minted rocker really isn’t leaving folk behind at all, at least hardly for good. “The way that story was told in the ‘70s always was from a rock point of view,” Wald says, “written by people who had never liked folk music and never liked Pete Seeger, and felt like the story was Dylan liberating himself from the boring old folkies and proving the rock ‘n’ rollers were right. By now, though, we all think of Dylan as deep Americana, someone who has remained very true to that tradition. And so I just think that that whole incident looks very different, not just in the film, but pretty much to anyone younger — it makes perfect sense to think of that moment as Dylan trying to break away from the folk scene , but not from folk music . Which is true. “I mean, ‘Maggie’s Farm’ is sort of exhibit A. When Dylan is singing ‘Ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more’ at the beginning of the Newport ’65 performance, it’s absolutely a declaration of independence from that scene. But it’s based a song about sharecroppers, ‘Penny’s Farm,’ from the 1920s, which Pete Seeger had recorded in 1950! “At the time, Seeger was really upset by what he heard as the aggression. What you see in the film, with Dylan and the guys with him being sick of being stuck in this box, and ‘we’re gonna show the goddamn folkies,’ I think that’s accurate. And there’s a thing I quote in my book that he wrote that very week where he said he felt it was angry and destructive. But he was a man given to a great deal of soul-searching. And he rather quickly decided that he had misunderstood, and that ‘Maggie’s Farm’ was in fact a brilliant song, and that Dylan had indeed been sort of crushed into a box and had to escape. And they made up and they continued to get together over the years.”
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Maverick McNealy finally became a winner on the final tournament of his fifth year on the PGA Tour, hitting 6-iron to 5 feet for birdie on the 18th hole at Sea Island for a 2-under 68 and a one-shot victory in the RSM Classic. He picked the right time to end nine holes without a birdie, even as so many others were making them to create a four-way tie for the lead. The victory came in his 134th start as a pro, and it sends him to Maui to start the year at The Sentry and to the Masters in April for the first time. Daniel Berger missed a 20-foot birdie attempt on the 18th that preceded McNealy's winner. He tied for second with Nico Echavarria and Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton, both of whom missed par putts from inside 8 feet on the final hole that created the four-way tie. Berger got a small consolation prize, moving inside the top 125 to keep a full PGA Tour card for 2025 when the fields will be smaller and only the top 100 will keep cards. Henrik Norlander, who was No. 126 in the FedEx Cup last year, had a 63-68 weekend and joined Berger as the two players who moved into the top 125. For Joel Dahmen, it was a matter of staying there. He was at No. 124 coming into the final tournament, had to make a 5-foot par putt just to make the cut on the number and then delivered a tee-to-green clinic — along with holing a 113-yard sand wedge for eagle early in his round — for a closing 64. It was enough to stay at No. 124 with nine points to spare. “Two of the biggest pressure moments of my career I showed up, and I can take that going forward,” Dahmen said. Clanton was a shot away from joining Nick Dunlap as amateur winners on the PGA Tour this year. Clanton, who has taken over as the top-ranked amateur in the world, now has two runner-up finishes and four top 10s in the seven PGA Tour starts the last five months. He had the look of a winner, especially with McNealy stuck in neutral, when he poured in birdie putts on the 14th and 16th holes to tie for the lead. But he tugged his approach to the 18th into bunker, blasted out nicely to 7 feet and stooped over in disbelief when he missed his par putt and had to settle for a 66 . “It’s going to be a tough one to definitely take, for sure, after bogeying the last,” Clanton said. “But I think it’s proven to me that out here I can win, so I’ll be training for that.” Echavarria, who won in Japan a month ago, had not made a bogey all day until going long on the 18th, chipping to 9 feet and catching the lip with his par putt. Michael Thorbjornsen was poised to move into the top 125 until he pulled his approach into the water on the par-5 15th hole and made bogey, closing with three pars for a 69. He tied for eighth and finished at No. 129. Thorbjornsen still has a full card next year from being No. 1 in PGA Tour University, but his status won't be as high. McNealy, son of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, had been doing some of his best work outside the ropes, particularly effecting a change in FedEx Cup points distribution to make it more equitable. Missing was a victory, and this one came down to the wire. He went out in 33 and led by two going to the back nine, and then it became a grind. He holed a 15-foot par putt from the fringe on the 11th to stay in the lead, and saved par after going bunker-to-bunker on the 13th. But he dropped a shot with an errant drive on the 14th, and when Echavarria birdied the 15th ahead of him, McNealy was out of the lead for the first time all day. He answered at just the right time, a 6-iron that covered the flag and settled just over 5 feet away. The victory gets him into three $20 million events over the first two months of the year, along with his first trip to the Masters. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf(BPT) - The new year is a good time to reset. From a fresh start on lifestyle choices, hobbies or pursuits, to the less exciting — but no less important — aspects of life, like memberships, contracts and even health insurance. Health insurance deductibles reset in the new year, so it's a good idea to keep that in mind as you plan for healthcare expenses. Any changes made to your health insurance plan during open enrollment go into effect as well. "Even if you spent hours researching your health plan before making a selection, there's always a possibility for the occasional surprise once coverage kicks in, which is why it's important to assess your healthcare coverage and address any gaps before January 1," said Doug Armstrong, Vice President of Health Products and Services at AARP Services, Inc. "AARP members can take advantage of benefits available to them to help find the coverage and savings information they seek." 1. 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Additional benefits for AARP members include home delivery, deeper discounts on medications, coverage for dependents and more. 3. Confirm your primary care With a new health insurance plan, you might find that your primary care physician is no longer in-network or that they no longer accept your insurance. Perhaps you have relocated and are in the market for a new doctor. Whatever the case, there's no time like the present to search for a new primary care physician who meets your needs. If you're on Medicare, Oak Street Health can be a great resource. The only primary care provider to carry the AARP name, Oak Street Health provides primary care for adults on Medicare and focuses on prevention with personalized care to help keep you healthy — physically, mentally and socially. Benefits include same-day/next-day appointments where available, convenient locations, a dedicated care team and a 24/7 patient support line. AARP membership is not required to visit an Oak Street Health location. 4. Protect your smile Optimal dental care includes daily brushing and flossing and a visit to the dentist every six months. During your visit, the dentist can monitor for and treat any issues, such as cavities or gum disease. However, not all plans include dental insurance, which means you might end up paying out of pocket for your cleaning and other procedures. To avoid that, take a look at your coverage. If needed, explore information on dental insurance options that offer individual or family coverage for the most common dental procedures. Dental insurance generally pays for regular check-ups, so many people who purchase protection will benefit from it immediately. 5. Clarify your hearing coverage Hearing loss is a common age-related ailment. According to the National Institute on Aging , one-third of older adults have hearing loss, and the chance of developing hearing loss increases with age. Hearing aids can be an enormous help, improving socialization, boosting confidence and even helping to increase balance. However, many insurance plans do not include coverage for hearing aids. AARP ® Hearing SolutionsTM provided by UnitedHealthcare ® Hearing provides savings on hearing aids and hearing care . Members can save an average of $2,000 per pair on prescription hearing aids and 15% on accessories — no insurance needed. Plus receive a hearing exam and consultation at no cost and personalized support through a large nationwide network of hearing providers. 6. Consider physical therapy Often, the only times that people consider whether their health insurance covers physical therapy is if they already participate in it or after the doctor has prescribed it. As we age, though, physical therapy can be a useful tool in improving balance or recovering from an injury or procedure to help you remain active. Fortunately, the question of coverage or finding an in-network location doesn't have to derail you. AARP ® Physical Therapy At HomeTM by Luna accepts most insurances and Medicare and is available to members and non-members alike. Plus, Luna's experts come to you, so you can receive quality care from the comfort of your home. If you're creating an end-of-year to-do list, consider adding an assessment of your healthcare coverage. After all, the best time to realize you have a gap in coverage is before you need it. To learn more about AARP member benefits, visit aarp.org/benefits . AARP and its affiliates are not insurers, agents, brokers or producers. AARP member benefits are provided by third parties, not by AARP or its affiliates. Providers pay a royalty fee to AARP for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. Some provider offers are subject to change and may have restrictions. Please contact the provider directly for details.
NEW YORK: Law enforcement in the US state of New York on Friday released “devastating” footage of prison guards beating a Black inmate shortly before he died. The body-worn camera footage, recorded the night of December 9, shows Robert Brooks, 43, brutalized by multiple prison guards, with his face bloodied and neck held. Brooks, an inmate at a northern New York prison serving a 12-year sentence for assault, was pronounced dead later that night. Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, said the video was released to provide “transparency and accountability.” In a statement, Brooks’ relatives said they found “watching the horrific and violent final moments of Robert’s life was devastating for his loved ones.” “We will not rest until we have secured justice for Robert’s memory,” the statement added. The footage shows Brooks restrained on what appears to be a hospital bed with several guards holding him down and beating him. Brooks is later seen sitting up and gets dragged off the bed by his collar. A preliminary autopsy reported in local press said the cause of death was “asphyxia due to compression of the neck,” though full autopsy results remain pending. The footage lacks audio, which James said was because the guards “did not activate” their body-worn cameras despite them being on, leading to the soundless recording. New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the incident in a statement. “We have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse,” she said. Evidence of police brutality has been a galvanizing political force in the United States. Footage of the 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black American, under the knee of a police officer sparked widespread outrage and led to racial justice protests across the country. — AFPPelicans vs. Thunder Injury Report Today – December 7
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Shane Bieber is headed back to Cleveland. The right-handed starter and the Guardians agreed to a one-year deal with a player option for 2026 on Friday, according to The Post’s Jon Heyman . Bieber will earn $10 million in 2025 with a $16 million option for the year after. The deal includes a $4 million buyout, meaning he could earn $14 million this coming season and enter free agency next offseason. Heyman added that Bieber turned down more money from other teams to stay with the Guardians. Bieber, who made just two starts in 2024, underwent Tommy John surgery in April. He’s expected to return to the big league mound in the middle of the 2025 season. Despite some injury troubles throughout his seven-year career, Bieber has proven to be one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy. Since his sophomore season in 2019, Bieber’s 3.02 ERA ranks sixth in the majors among pitchers with at least 600 innings on the mound. A two-time All-Star, the 29-year-old hurler has also finished top 10 in the American League Cy Young voting three times. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Bieber won the award, finishing with an MLB-best 1.63 ERA and 122 strikeouts over 77 1⁄3 innings. With Bieber sidelined for nearly the whole season, the Guardians somewhat surprisingly won the AL Central and made the ALCS before falling to the Yankees in five games. Aside from perhaps Blake Snell, who signed a five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers in late November, Bieber is the biggest name to come off the board during the winter’s MLB free agency period.