super ace try out
NEW YORK — There's a Christmas Day basketball game at Walt Disney World, featuring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Wemby. An animated game, anyway. The real game takes place at Madison Square Garden, where Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs face the New York Knicks in a game televised on ABC and ESPN and streamed on Disney+ and ESPN+. The special alt-cast, the first animated presentation of an NBA game, will be shown on ESPN2 and also stream on Disney+ and ESPN+. Madison Square Garden is a staple of the NBA's Christmas schedule. Now it merges with a bigger home of the holidays, because the "Dunk the Halls" game will be staged at Disney, on a court set up right smack in the middle of where countless families have posed for vacation photos. Why that location? Because it was Mickey Mouse's Christmas wish. "Basketball courts often have the ability to make a normal environment look special, but in Disney it can only turn out incredible," Wembanyama said in an ESPN video promoting his Christmas debut. The story — this is Disney, after all — begins with Mickey penning a letter to Santa Claus, asking if he and his pals can host a basketball game. They'll not only get to watch one with NBA players, but some of them will even get to play. Goofy and Donald Duck will sub in for a couple Knicks players, while Mickey and Minnie Mouse will come on to play for the Spurs. "It looks to me like Goofy and Jalen Brunson have a really good pick-and-roll at the elite level," said Phil Orlins, an ESPN vice president of production. Walt Disney World hosted real NBA games in 2020, when the league set up there to complete its season that had been suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those games were played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. The setting for the Christmas game will be Main Street USA, at the entrance of the Magic Kingdom. Viewers will recognize Cinderella's castle behind one baseline and the train station at the other end, and perhaps some shops they have visited in between. Previous alternate animated broadcasts included an NFL game taking place in Andy's room from "Toy Story;" the "NHL Big City Greens Classic" during a game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers; and earlier this month, another NFL matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys also taking place at Springfield's Atoms Stadium as part of "The Simpsons Funday Football." Unlike basketball, the players are helmeted in those sports. So, this telecast required an extra level of detail and cooperation with players and teams to create accurate appearances of their faces and hairstyles. "So, this is a level of detail that we've never gone, that we've never done on any other broadcast," said David Sparrgrove, the senior director of creative animation for ESPN. Wembanyama, the 7-foot-3 phenom from France who was last season's NBA Rookie of the Year, looks huge even among most NBA players. The creators of the alternate telecast had to design how he'd look not only among his teammates and rivals, but among mice, ducks and chipmunks. "Like, Victor Wembanyama, seeing him in person is insane. It's like seeing an alien descend on a basketball court, and I think we kind of captured that in his animated character," said Drew Carter, who will again handle play-by-play duties, as he had in the previous animated telecasts, and will get an assist from sideline reporter Daisy Duck. Wembanyama's presence is one reason the Spurs-Knicks matchup, the leadoff to the NBA's five-game Christmas slate, was the obvious choice to do the animated telecast. The noon EST start means it will begin in the early evening in France and should draw well there. Also, it comes after ABC televises the "Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade" for the previous two hours, providing more time to hype the broadcast. Recognizing that some viewers who then switch over to the animated game may be Disney experts but NBA novices, there will be 10 educational explainers to help with basketball lingo and rules. Beyond Sports' visualization technology and Sony's Hawk-Eye tracking allow the animated players to make the same movements and plays made moments earlier by the real ones at MSG. Carter and analyst Monica McNutt will be animated in the style of the telecast, donning VR headsets to experience the game from Main Street, USA. Other animated faces recognizable to some viewers include NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who will judge a halftime dunk contest among Mickey and his friends, and Santa himself, who will operate ESPN's "SkyCam" during the game. The players are curious how the production — and themselves — will look. "It's going to be so crazy to see the game animated," Spurs veteran Chris Paul said. "I think what's dope about it is it will give kids another opportunity to watch a game and to see us, basically, as characters." Get local news delivered to your inbox!Government refuses to rule out more tax increases next year after figures show the economy was flatlining
The Ducks will ring in December by hosting the Ottawa Senators on Sunday in a matchup of teams that are an eyelash under .500 with designs on gaining some upward momentum. They’ll enter the clash with identical .477 points percentages that situate them near the bottom of their respective divisions but not far behind a crowded pack of middling clubs. The Ducks have had more of a defensive inclination while the Senators have shown more scoring pop to date. Ducks coach Greg Cronin said his team hadn’t “had too many stinkers” of late, and that’s been reflected by their 5-3-1 record across their past nine games, with four of their five-plus-goal games this season arriving in that span. “Since we got back from that New York trip, I think we’ve been on a pretty good path in terms of playing with an identity and competing,” Cronin said. They had to grind hard on Black Friday, when they played what Cronin described as something of a postseason-style game against the Kings at Honda Center. Though they fell 2-1 to what veteran forward Ryan Strome described as a “mature, veteran team” that they couldn’t quite edge past despite playing a “disciplined, structured and north-south” game, the Ducks still felt they carried forward some positive indicators from their recent play. “It was a good hockey game. We competed hard. I thought we dictated a lot of the game. We played similar to the way we’ve been playing,” Strome said. Kings coach Jim Hiller concurred. With teams frequently playing the Southern California franchises back to back, he and Cronin get constant looks at one another’s teams during pre-scouts, and Hiller assessed the Ducks’ performance quite favorably. “I thought – we’ve played them this year, I’ve scouted them this year – I thought that’s the best game they’ve played this year. I thought they played very well,” Hiller said. Time will tell if Sunday’s match elicits similar plaudits from Ottawa coach Travis Green, who spent parts of two seasons with the Ducks as a player and is in his first year as the Sens’ head coach after previously guiding the Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils briefly. Though Brock McGinn has made some progress in his return, he and Robby Fabbri remained unavailable. So, too, did Leo Carlsson, whose upper-body injury has kept him out of the Ducks’ past two matches. Cam Fowler will be a game-time decision. Related Articles Troy Terry has four points across his three-game scoring streak, while Trevor Zegras just snapped a four-gamer that saw him compile six points. For Ottawa, forwards Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson each have seven points in the Sens’ past five outings. Captain Brady Tkachuk, whom Cronin suggested could be a model for his own power forward Mason McTavish, has racked up five points during a three-game surge. Those are the three Senators scoring above a point per game this season, with Stützle’s 28 points in 22 games leading the way. When: 5 p.m. Sunday Where: Honda Center How to watch: Victory+
Nexa Resources Announces Closing Transaction of Chapi Mine Sale to Quilla ResourcesA Florida insurance company is scrambling to explain why it denied 77% of claims after Hurricane Debby . NOTUS reported in September that a significant number of insurance claims were denied. Months later, NOTUS said the company has scrambled to justify those denials. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation announced it would conduct an “independent audit” into the claim denials. After increased scrutiny, the denied claims fell from 77% to 74%. However, according to industry-wide data, it's still much larger than the average of 68%. ALSO READ: Your tax dollars are funding a $64 billion scam That means that, on average, insurance companies deny 68% of residential property claims, and policyholders receive no payment. Citizens CEO Tim Cerio told lawmakers that he hopes the audit will help bring back public trust, but he still believes the low approval rate is legitimate. “To the 77% denial story that’s out there,” Cerio began, “Although I do stand behind the data I presented — our Citizens data that we’ve gathered — it is important to maintain public trust and confidence of our policyholders and stakeholders ..." According to the company's spokesperson, Michael Peltier, that number is significantly higher than the real number. The company only closed claims "because of lack of coverage or because of flood damage are formally deemed 'denied,'" the report said. Other denied claims fell under the policyholder's deductible or if the claim was withdrawn. Those aren't considered "denied." Cerio told the Board of Governors that this calculation means they've only denied 13% of claims. Insurance critic Martin Weiss, who runs an independent watchdog group, told NOTUS number is nothing more than fuzzy math. “If I file a claim and I get a letter back saying your claim has been closed with no payment, whether they use the word denial or not, they’re denying my claim,” Weiss said. “We look at it from the perspective of the average consumer’s actual experience.” Still, state lawmakers were furious. “I’m not going to sit idly by if legitimate claims get denied while rates continue to rise. Period," said Republican state Sen. Ben Albritton. “Floridians have been paying faithfully their insurance premiums for years, sometimes decades, and now they expect their insurance company to keep up its end of the bargain. I want to make sure that impacted Floridians and insurance companies hear me loudly and clearly — we are watching,” Albritton added. Weiss warned last month that Florida insurers are "on the brink of collapse." Read the full report here. A former official in Donald Trump’s first administration , who online sleuths allegedly caught on camera at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, is back at work for his former boss, according to a new report. Pete Marocco, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for African Affairs, has been spotted at Trump’s transition headquarters in Florida, where he is at work with the president-elect’s transition team on “national security personnel matters,” sources told Politico on Monday. That includes interviewing candidates this week to fill administration positions, including in the State Department, the report added. ALSO READ: The Medicare Advantage trap: What they don’t tell you Marocco found himself a controversial figure during his stint in Trump’s first administration. He drew “international fire ” for his work in the first term and has since emerged as a conservative activist in Dallas, Politico reported. He was also identified, along with his wife, by the online sleuth group Sedition Hunters as allegedly being among the Trump-inspired rioters inside and outside of the Capitol on Jan. 6 , the report said. But Marocco told the publication that the allegations were nothing more than “petty smear tactics and desperate personal attacks,” and neither he nor his wife have been charged . In a statement, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt praised Marocco’s “valuable knowledge on national security policy” and added that he “has been a tremendous benefit to the Trump-Vance transition effort.” “Democrats and their allies in the media who think they are going to obstruct our ability to deliver on this mandate by going back to the same January 6 playbook of smears and faux outrage that was soundly rejected by the American people will be disappointed,” Leavitt told Politico. Florida state Rep. Susan Valdés announced Monday she is defecting to the Republican Party — immediately after being re-elected as a Democrat. Valdés, a Cuban-American lawmaker who was raised by immigrants in New York, represents a Tampa area district. "I have spent my adult life fighting to give a voice to the people of my West Tampa home," she wrote. "I have done so as a Democrat partly out of habit — I come from a family of Democrats — and partly because I believed the Democrats were the party most concerned with the working families I represent." However, she added, "I will not waste my final two years in the Florida Legislature being ignored in a caucus whose leadership expects me to ignore the needs of my community." "I will continue to fight every day to benefit the people of West Tampa, Hillsborough County and the state of Florida," she concluded. "And in my heart, I know the best way to do that is to stand with Speaker [Daniel] Perez and join the Republican supermajority in the Florida House of Representatives. ALSO READ: The Medicare Advantage trap: What they don’t tell you Valdés did not explicitly list a reason for abandoning Democrats in her statement. However, it comes just a week after she lost a campaign to chair the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee. Furthermore, last year, she was one of a small handful of Democrats who crossed the aisle to support a massive school voucher program championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis . This was also a precipitating issue cited by North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham , who also infamously defected to the GOP last year, giving the party there a supermajority in the legislature that they narrowly lost this year , as well as Georgia state Rep. Mesha Mainor , who was defeated after defecting in the election last month. Critics have said school voucher programs, touted as giving parents "choice" to move their tax dollars to private education, consistently worsen education outcomes while enriching a small group of wealthy parents already outside the public school system. Last week, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) appeared to be against Donald Trump's announced nominee for the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth . But on Monday, Ernst met with him again and now pledges her support . “Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks," she writes in a statement. ALSO READ: 'It's offensive': Multiple senators object to Trump's plan to usher in Pete Hegseth Ernst is a survivor of sexual assault who has tried to stop sexual assaults in the military. She is also reportedly a top contender for the role should Hegseth's nomination fail. Hegseth's nomination has been plagued by revelations he was accused of rape in 2017 and amid accusations he has a drinking problem. He has also advocated against having women in combat roles. Hegseth claimed that the sexual encounter was consensual. His attorney, Tom Parlatore, has said his client entered into a confidentiality agreement with the accuser. "As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources," Ernst said. Other lawmakers have demanded that he swear not to drink while under the position after concerns that he was an alcoholic from former and current Fox colleagues. Ernst, a former Army National Guard member and a retired lieutenant colonel, indicated Thursday she wasn't ready to support Hegseth. A spokesperson for Ernst told Newsweek: "As Senator Ernst has said, she is not seeking to be secretary of defense, there is no 'campaign' against Pete, and is continuing the vetting process." Her comments led to social media backlash from MAGA allies, including Charlie Kirk, the founder of the nonprofit conservative Turning Point USA. "People in Iowa have a well-funded primary challenger ready against her. Her political career is in serious jeopardy," he threatened on X. Read the full statement here.