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7-777 The Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers both have won four in a row and eight of their last 10 games. One Pacific Division power will continue its ascent at the other's expense on Saturday afternoon when they meet in Edmonton. Ivan Barbashev scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season -- and the first in overtime of his career -- to lead Vegas to an inspiring 3-2 win in Winnipeg on Thursday night. Barbashev also had three assists in the Golden Knights' 4-2 victory over the Oilers on Nov. 6 and scored the lone goal in a 1-0 triumph over Edmonton on Dec. 3. Keegan Kolesar, who is from Brandon, Manitoba, scored in a homecoming of sorts to help Vegas complete its rally over Winnipeg an improve to 8-1-2 in its last 11 road games. "(We were) able to tie it up, then go down again, we stayed with it right to the very end," Kolesar said. "We didn't let it waver in any way in our play, played right to the whistle and we were able to come up two points." The Knights likely have goaltender Adin Hill to thank for that. Hill made 18 saves on Thursday night to improve to 11-2-2 in his last 15 starts. That includes turning aside 27 shots in the first encounter against the Oilers and all 28 he faced in the rematch earlier this month. Hill once again will be tasked with slowing down superstars Leon Draisaitl and captain Connor McDavid. Draisaitl scored a goal and set up three others while McDavid notched two assists in Edmonton's 7-1 romp over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. To be fair, 13 of the Oilers' 18 skaters picked up at least one point in the lopsided victory. "Everyone was really good, but Leon really was at another level," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said of Draisaitl, who has 10 points (four goals, six assists) during a four-game point streak. "His two linemates really helped out, (Vasily Podkolzin) and (Kasperi) Kapanen. Those three have been playing well. But Leon in the last week or so has been on top of his game." McDavid hasn't been too shabby in his own right. The three-time Hart Trophy recipient also is riding a four-game points streak (two goals, seven assists) and has dented the scoresheet in 13 of his last 15 games. Edmonton could be without workhorse defenseman Evan Bouchard on Saturday after he exited with nearly 3 1/2 minutes remaining in the third period following a hard hit from rugged Ryan Hartman. Bouchard, who was in a vulnerable position, collided head-first with the net before crashing into the end boards. "We'll fly home and get it checked out," Knoblauch said. "Hopefully it's something minor." Per Daily Faceoff, Bouchard was seen sporting a "slight limp postgame and (had) soreness but otherwise seemed to avoid the worst of it." Bouchard has played in all 29 games this season and has missed just two contests in the previous three campaigns. --Field Level Media

A federal judge in New York on Friday denied former New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez's bid for a new trial. Menendez was convicted of charges accusing him of corrupting his office but he argued the evidence failed to support those charges. The judge disagreed. "The jury's guilty verdicts were readily supported by the extensive witness testimony and extensive documentary evidence admitted at trial, and there is no manifest injustice requiring a new trial," Judge Sidney Stein decided. MORE: Sen. Bob Menendez found guilty on all counts, including acting as foreign agent, in federal corruption trial A Manhattan federal jury found the New Jersey Democrat guilty on all charges, including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction, in July following a two-month-long trial. Federal prosecutors said he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator's political clout. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month and faces decades in prison. Menendez resigned from office in August following the conviction.Mark Hounsell: Rule of Law — Part OneNBA Cup elimination means Lakers get valuable rest and time for physical practiceJoel Dahmen has handled the pressure of closing out a PGA Tour victory, but even that didn't equate to the emotional weight he felt standing over a 5 1/2-foot putt in Georgia on Friday. Miss it, and Dahmen was assured of missing out on fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for 2025. Make it, and he would get to live to fight another weekend. The 37-year-old steadied his hands to drain the putt and make the cut on the number at 1-under par at The RSM Classic on Sea Island, Ga. Dahmen enters the weekend projected to finish 126th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings -- only the top 125 earn fully exempt status for next year. "It was a great putt. I was very nervous," he admitted after the round. "But there's still work to do. It wasn't the game-winner, it was like the half-court shot to get us like at halftime. But without that and the way I played today, I wouldn't have anything this weekend. "I'm hoping I play great this weekend and I hit 36 greens and I just kind of plod my way around and it's super easy, but that's not the way golf is. Really proud of myself today, but there's still work to do." Nothing has come easy this season for the winner of the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Ranked as high as 58th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Dahmen has plummeted as low as 240th this year while posting a lone Top 10 finish against 10 missed cuts in 28 events. This week marks No. 29, including all eight during the FedEx Fall swing as Dahmen has attempted to improve his FedEx Cup ranking. He finished T14 in Mexico two weeks ago, but hasn't managed better than a T40 in the other six. That included a missed cut in Bermuda last week, which ratcheted the pressure up that much more. "You can't get away from anything. The room's a little more quiet around you. Like a pitcher throwing a no-hitter this week, it's a little different," Dahmen said. "Once I missed the cut in Bermuda last week, stress has been high. "You lay in bed, try to go to sleep, but it's like you're sleeping on the lead of a major every night. That's kind of what it feels like, but a little more stressful than that." Dahmen's chances of securing exempt status appeared bleak after opening with a 73 on Thursday. He fell to 2 over with an opening bogey on No. 1, then managed three birdies over his next 15 holes to set up the all-important putt on 18. When the putt dropped, Dahmen hugged his wife, Lona, and playing partner Mark Hubbard said the all the drama during a Friday round in November caused him to "stress drink." "I'm sorry for them, I'm sorry that they're feeling the way I'm feeling," Dahmen said. "I know my wife has been stressed. I have a lot of great people around me and so it's hard on them, but it's just because they love me and they care about me. "I mean, job's not done. ... We have two more steps to go." If Dahmen doesn't improve his standing at least one spot by the end of the weekend, he will still retain conditional status in the Nos. 126-150 category. Either way, Dahmen -- who gained "every man" fame along with caddie Gino Bonnali in the Netflix documentary "Full Swing" -- said his professional golf story is far from done. "I still got more to write this weekend, for sure, but without having the opportunity to play this weekend, my story would be a lot shorter this year," he said. "What happens this weekend, my story's still not done. I have a lot left in me and I'm going to give my all. "But this weekend's big, for sure." This article first appeared on Field Level Media and was syndicated with permission.

‘The Last Of The Sea Women’: Oscar-Contending Doc Goes Deep With “Bad-Ass” Guardians Of Ancient TraditionPDP BoT’s Decision Timely, Patriotic, Commendable – Ologbondiyan

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of commentary online and in print each day. To contribute, click here . ••• “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence which should be true in all situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ “How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depths of affliction!” — Abraham Lincoln, 1859 ••• Weary and wary, Americans have emerged from yet another “most important election in the nation’s history.” By my count it was at least our 17th consecutive most-important-campaign-ever. (Dwight Eisenhower’s re-election in 1956 was something of a snoozer, particularly for us 4-year-olds.) Anyhow, we’re now fully engaged on at least our 17th consecutive post-vote debate over the causes and consequences of the most seismic political realignment in generations (or something like that) — an outcome the estimable Ross Douthat of the New York Times recently labeled “a real turning point in history, an irrevocable shift from one era to another.” Well, maybe. Donald Trump’s restoration might mark a watershed in American culture and governance. We have reached such moments before, and will again. And surely the president-elect’s comeback against an utterly unprecedented grand alliance of establishment institutions determined to stop him by almost any means (two impeachments, four indictments, untold investigations, trials and lawsuits, petitions to banish him from ballots, etc., etc.) does constitute the most astounding personal vindication in the annals of American rabble-rousing. And yet, it’s also quite possible that Trump’s hair-raising triumph remains at bottom a mere continuation of our decadeslong age of indecision and serial upheaval. Republicans have now won two of the last three presidential elections. But Democrats have won three of the last five. The parties have evenly split the last eight. And Republicans hold a one-election edge in the last 12. This is hardly an epoch in which political shifts, however striking, can safely be assumed to be “irrevocable.” The electorate’s affections weren’t always so fickle. Between 1896 and 1928 Republicans won seven of nine presidential contests. Democrats then won seven of the following nine (1932 to 1964) — after which the GOP took five out of six (1968 to 1988). According to Bruce Mehlman’s “Age of Disruption” Substack , the 2024 vote also was the sixth in a row, including off-year elections, to change party control of at least one of Washington’s three elective power centers — presidency, House and Senate. It’s the longest such streak of instability in American history. Meantime, Trump’s margins were shallow, if respectably widespread. And as a lame duck who can never be on the ballot again, he will have to defy historic norms once more to achieve transformative policy change in his final term. One hesitates in his case to say anything is impossible just because it’s unheard of — but still. All this being said in the somewhat forlorn hope of chastening MAGA end zone dancers and consoling afflicted progressives, the 2024 election actually may have revealed that on one big issue a turning point has already been reached. The results suggest that America may at long last be on its way toward a compromise on abortion. Perhaps “settlement” would be a better word for making a hard and bitter peace with differing state-by-state resolutions on legal access to abortion. But if any one public policy choice was squarely before voters this year, it was whether America would continue to tolerate being a “house divided” on abortion. Returning abortion regulation to the separate states was the essence of the Supreme Court’s landmark “Dobbs” decision in 2022, overturning nationwide legal abortion guaranteed for a half century by the Roe vs. Wade ruling. This year’s election was the second in which a vow to restore abortion rights coast to coast was the Democrats’ central, almost single-minded campaign theme. Kamala Harris and company also were foursquare for “Democracy,” of course. But it wasn’t clear what that meant beyond keeping Trump out of office. Otherwise, it was easier to list bold progressive positions Harris had abandoned than ones she championed. She had more to say about small-business subsidies than climate change. But restoring “reproductive freedom” — while preventing Republicans from imposing abortion bans on every state — was a clarion battle cry. Trump helped sharpen the issue when he declared that he did not favor any kind of federal one-size-fits-all policy. In the 2022 off-year election, Democrats’ abortion-centered campaign had enjoyed considerable success, blunting GOP gains in Congress. Along with voter approval of several state ballot measures favoring abortion rights — including one in Republican-leaning Ohio in 2023 — this led to high hopes that the anti-Dobbs backlash could boost Democratic prospects again in 2024. No fewer than 10 states had referenda guaranteeing abortion rights on their Nov. 5 ballots, measures pushed not least in hopes that they would fuel progressive turnout and provide “reverse coattails” for Democratic candidates from Harris on down. It didn’t turn out that way. The abortion rights ballot measures did well; seven out of 10 passed . But Trump carried four of those seven states, including two battleground states (Arizona and Nevada). And of course Trump also carried Ohio, along with Kentucky, Kansas and battleground Michigan, all states whose voters had earlier approved referenda protecting abortion rights. This could be evidence that as the state-by-state abortion debate has unfolded, more voters have accepted the idea of supporting abortion rights in their own states while letting other states go their own way. Or at least that fewer feel they must let the cause of nationwide abortion rights override other considerations in their votes for president and Congress. While 27% of voters in 2022 told exit polls that abortion was their most important issue, barely half that, 14%, said that Nov. 5 . Reinforcing this interpretation, an analysis for KFF Health News shows that in all 10 states with abortion referenda on the ballot, abortion rights polled significantly more votes than Harris did, “indicating that many people voted both to elect Donald Trump and to protect access to abortion.” In Arizona and Nevada, abortion rights outpolled Harris by 14 and 17 percentage points, respectively. If support for or opposition to legal abortion is becoming disconnected from partisan allegiances, at least at the national level, that’s a realignment of some note, with at least some potential to lower the ideological temperature in America. But it won’t necessarily please fevered advocates on either side of the issue. Following this year’s votes, 19 states across the South and Great Plains — what used to be called the Bible Belt — will have abortion bans or limits in place beyond what Roe permitted. The other 31 retain Roe-era laws or have enacted more spacious abortion rights. Hence America now enforces far too much restriction on reproductive freedom for some, and far too little protection for the unborn for others. Doubtless state-level battles will continue. In the near term it’s anti-abortion forces who will feel tempted to reimpose uniformity – to use the GOP’s trifecta control of Washington to enact a nationwide restriction. Despite Trump’s disavowal, I warned of this among other hazards in a recent column making an ill-fated wish for post-election gridlock . Clearly the sentiment that human rights cannot properly differ from one state to another is potent and pungent on both sides of the abortion divide. In “The Party of Lincoln Resurrects the Corpse of Stephen Douglas,” in the Claremont Review of Books, conservative essayist and novelist Mark Helprin denounces Trump and other Republicans who would disinter the pre-Civil War doctrine of “popular sovereignty,” which held that each state was free to decide the issue of slavery for itself. America, Helprin argues, must not again tolerate “two contradictory answers to a fundamental question that demands only one.” Is abortion that kind of question? Or is there some irreducible moral uncertainty, some room for different social settlements, about where to draw the line between a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and a fetus’ right to live? If nothing else, the 2024 election suggests America is irrevocably grappling with that question. D.J. Tice is a retired Minnesota Star Tribune commentary editor.NASSAU, Bahamas — Scottie Scheffler brought a new putting grip to the Hero World Challenge and felt enough improvement to be satisfied with the result, a 5-under 67 that left him three shots behind Cameron Young on Thursday. Young was playing for the first time since the BMW Championship more than three months ago and found great success on and around the greens of Albany Golf Club, chipping beautifully and holing four birdie putts from 15 feet or longer for his 64. He led by two shots over Justin Thomas in his first competition since his daughter was born a few weeks ago. Thomas ran off four straight birdies late in his round and was a fraction of an inch away with a fifth. The big surprise was Scheffler, the No. 1 player in golf who looked as good as he has all year in compiling eight victories, including an Olympic gold medal. His iron play has no equal. His putting at times has kept him from winning more or winning bigger. He decided to try to a "saw" putting grip from about 20 feet or closer — the putter rests between his right thumb and his fingers, with his left index finger pointed down the shaft. "I'm always looking for ways to improve," Scheffler said. Scheffler last year began working with renowned putting instructor Phil Kenyon, and he says Kenyon mentioned the alternative putting grip back then. "But it was really our first time working together and it's something that's different than what I've done in the past," Scheffler said. "This year I had thought about it from time to time, and it was something that we had just said let's table that for the end of the season, take a look at it. "Figured this is a good week to try stuff." He opened with a wedge to 2 feet and he missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 third. But he holed a birdie from about the same distance at the next par 5, No. 6, and holed a sliding 6-footer on the ninth to save par. His longest putt was his last hole, from 12 feet for a closing birdie. "I really enjoyed the way it felt," he said. "I felt like I'm seeing some improvements in my stroke." Young, regarded as the best active player without a PGA Tour victory, is treating this holiday tournament as the start of a new season. He worked on getting stronger and got back to the basics in his powerful golf swing. And on this day, he was dialed in with his short game. He only struggled to save par twice and kept piling up birdies in his bogey-free round on an ideal day in the Bahamas. "The wind wasn't blowing much so it was relatively stress-free," Young said. Patrick Cantlay, along with Scheffler playing for the first time since the Presidents Cup, also was at 67 with Ludvig Aberg, Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala. Thomas also took this occasion to do a little experimenting against a 20-man field. He has using a 46-inch driver at home — a little more than an inch longer than his regular driver — in a bid to gain more speed. On a day with little wind, on a golf course with some room off the tee, he decided to put it in play. "Just with it being a little bit longer, I just kind of have to get the club out in front of me and get on top of it a little bit more," Thomas said. "I drove the hell out of it on the back, so that was nice to try something different and have it go a little bit better on the back." Thomas said the longer driver gives him 2 or 3 mph in ball speed and 10 extra yards in the air. "It's very specific for courses, but gave it a try," he said. Conditions were easy enough that only four players in field failed to break par, with Jason Day bringing up the rear with a 75.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The acting director of the Secret Service said Thursday that the agency is “reorganizing and reimagining” its culture and how it operates following an assassination attempt against Donald Trump on the campaign trail. Members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the attempt on Trump's life pushed Ronald Rowe on how the agency’s staffers could have missed such blatant security vulnerabilities leading up to the July 13 shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. At one point, the hearing devolved into a shouting match between Rowe and a Republican congressman. Rowe promised accountability for what he called the agency’s “abject failure” to secure the rally in Butler, where a gunman opened fire from a nearby building. Trump was wounded in the ear, one rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded. Another assassination attempt two months later contributed to the agency’s troubles. That gunman waited for hours for Trump to appear at his golf course in Florida, but a Secret Service agent thwarted the attack by spotting the firearm poking through bushes. The task force has been investigating both attempts, but it was the July shooting that dominated Thursday’s hearing. Its inquiry is one of a series of investigations and reports that have faulted the agency for planning and communications failures. The agency’s previous director resigned, and the Secret Service increased protections for Trump before the Republican won the November election. Rowe was repeatedly asked by flabbergasted lawmakers how problems so obvious in hindsight were allowed to happen. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, said it was “just wild to me” that at a time of tech advances, the Secret Service was using text messages and emails to communicate in real time about threats. He also asked Rowe why so many things went wrong that day “yet nobody said anything.” Rowe said the agency used to have a culture where people felt comfortable speaking up. “I don’t know where we lost that,” he said. “We have to get back to that.” Rowe said the agency is putting a much stronger emphasis on training — something previous investigations found was lacking — and on doing more regular reviews of events to see what went right and where improvements can be made. “We are reorganizing and reimaging this organization," Rowe told lawmakers. He said the agency needs to identify possible leaders much earlier in their careers instead of just promoting people to command positions because they have been around a long time. The hearing was largely cordial, with members of Congress stressing the bipartisan nature of their work and praising Rowe for cooperating with their investigation even as they pushed him for explanations. But at one point, Rowe and Rep. Pat Fallon, a Texas Republican, faced off — shouting over each other as other members pleaded for order. Fallon pulled out a photo of President Joe Biden, Trump and others at this year's Sept. 11 ceremony in New York and asked Rowe why he was at the event, suggesting it was to burnish his prospects at getting the director job permanently. Trump has not yet named his pick to lead the agency. “I was there to show respect for a Secret Service member that died on 9/11. Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes!” Rowe shouted. “You wanted to be visible because you were auditioning for this job that you’re not going to get!” Fallon later shot back. Rowe roared back: "You are out of line, Congressman. You are out of line!” “You're a bully,” Fallon said. This was the task force’s second public hearing and the first time that Rowe has addressed its members in public. The panel has until Dec. 13 to release its final report. Rep. Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, said the agency’s conduct during the July shooting seemed almost “lackadaisical.” He said some of the issues that went wrong that day were ”really basic things.” “It speaks of an apathy or a complacency that is really unacceptable in an organization like the Secret Service,” Green said. The task force conducted 46 transcribed interviews, attended over a dozen briefings and reviewed over 20,000 documents. Members also visited the site of both assassination attempts and went to the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, to look at evidence. Rowe said Thursday that the agency's internal investigation , whose findings were released last month, identified failures by multiple employees. He noted that the quality of the advance work — the people who scope out event locations ahead of time — did not meet agency standards. He vowed accountability for those who fell down on the job. Many of the investigations have centered on why buildings near the rally with a clear line of sight to the stage where Trump was speaking were not secured in advance. The gunman, Thomas Crooks, climbed onto the roof of one of them and opened fire before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper. Rowe pointed to the failure to protect the building as the most glaring oversight that day. He also was asked about the morale of agents and new hires. Rowe said applications are actually up this year — the agency made a net gain of about 200 agents during the past fiscal year, meaning both new agents were hired and veteran agents retained. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Nick Kyrgios has hit out at “disgusting” doping scandals that have rocked tennis as a storm builds around Aussie doubles champ Max Purcell. Kyrgios on Saturday took another swipe at ATP Tour world No. 1 Jannik Sinner over the Italian’s doping rule breach — and the controversial three-month ban he was gifted. Kyrgios’ comments ahead of his return to tennis at the Brisbane International came after Aussie star Jordan Thompson earlier criticised tennis’ doping authorities for the ban his doubles partner, Purcell, received. Thompson on Saturday said Purcell’s provisional punishment was a “joke” after his Davis Cup teammate volunteered information which led to him accepting a ban earlier this month. Purcell was found to have breached the rules around “use of a Prohibited Method”. Watch every ball of Australia v India LIVE & ad-break free during play in 4K on Kayo | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer . Specifically, the reigning US Open doubles champion “unknowingly received an IV infusion of vitamins above the allowable limit of 100ml”, according to his own social media post. Kyrgios, however, continued to argue against the short-term bans handed down in recent cases — headlined by the scandals surrounding Sinner and former women’s world number one Iga Swiatek. Sinner twice tested positive for the banned steroid clostebol in March. However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted his argument that the steroid entered his system due to contamination from his physiotherapist and opted not to suspend him. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) subsequently appealed the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with a verdict pending. Nick Kyrgios has come out swinging again. Kyrgios has been scathing about the ITIA decision in the past and didn’t hold back in a press conference ahead of his return to the game at the Brisbane International after an 18-month injury lay-off. “Tennis integrity right now, and everyone knows it, but no one wants to speak about it — it’s awful,” said the Australian. “It’s actually awful and it’s not okay. I know that people don’t like it when I just speak out about things, be honest about things. “For a kid that grew up playing tennis, I enjoyed the competition, I enjoyed playing. “I can get emotional, I can throw a racquet, but that’s nothing compared to cheating and taking performance-enhancing drugs.” Asked whether he was accusing Sinner of cheating, Kyrgios told journalists to look at the facts. “He did fail two doping tests at separate times, as well,” Kyrgios said. “It wasn’t one after the other — they were a different time frame, so I mean, if you think that that’s the way that it got in his system, if that’s how you think it’s happened, then. “But, I mean, if he didn’t do anything wrong, then why did they take his prize money and points away? Obviously they found something wrong with it.” Kyrgios said the sport’s image has been tarnished as a result of the Sinner and Swiatek suspension. Nick Kyrgios was not part of Australia’s 2024 Davis Cup campaign. Pictured: Matthew Ebden, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Alexei Popyrin, Captain Lleyton Hewitt, Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell. Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images for ITF. The ITIA accepted that Swiatek’s violation was not intentional and she received only a one-month ban. “I just think that it’s been handled horrifically in our sport,” he said. “Two world number ones both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport. It’s a horrible look.” Kyrgios also showed some support for Purcell, noting the differences in the Wimbledon doubles champions’ case. “There’s not fair treatment for every single player,” Kyrgios said, as reported by Code Sports . “We’ve seen that with Max Purcell. The reason that’s different is because he went to the authorities first, he admitted he had done something that was on the prohibited (method) list. “That’s how it should be, rather than all this sweeping under the rug, not knowing, question marks.” Purcell is expected to miss the Australian summer swing with Thompson, who is on track to be seeded in singles for the Australian Open, lashing out ahead of a lead-up tournament in Brisbane. “It wasn’t great news for me and Maxy – and especially Max. I think it’s a bit of a joke, but there’s not a lot I can do about it,” Thompson said on Saturday. “I don’t think he’s quite happy, and neither am I, to be honest. “Obviously, he took too much in an IV bag, but to get suspended for that, when there are other people who are doing far worse and sometimes just get a slap on the wrist, a bit of a joke, I think. Thompson (right) has slammed the ruling. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) “But it’s not up to me to decide what happens. “When you look at guys testing positive, then you have Max taking too much in an IV bag, it’s a head-scratcher.” Thompson further explained: “It’s a stitch-up. I mean, the guy took too much saltwater in an IV bag in Bali. “He was unwell, that’s why he went there. He went to the hospital. “I have no good words for it. It’s a joke. I mean, guys are testing positive (for) performance enhancers and he’s (Purcell) gone out and taken too much saltwater (and) they’ve suspended him. “Take of that what you will. Anyone looking at it goes, ‘it’s so unfair’.” Purcell said last week he was devastated by the development. “I was fully convinced that I had done everything to ensure that I had followed the WADA regulations and methods,” he shared on Instagram. “But the records show that the IV was over that 100ml limit, even though I told the medical clinic that I was a professional athlete and needed the IV to be below 100ml. “This news was devastating to me because I pride myself on being an athlete who always makes sure that everything is WADA safe. “I volunteered this information to the ITIA and have been as transparent as possible in trying to put this whole situation behind me. I look forward to being back on the court soon.” Thompson will begin his Brisbane International campaign against Italian Matteo Berrettini, with Kyrgios returning to the court against big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetschi Perricard. Kyrgios has been out of the sport since suffering knee and wrist injuries at the 2022 US Open. Kyrgios has had wrist reconstruction and said while it was a success, he was unsure how the wrist would cope with tournament play. “I’m just not going to take anything for granted,” he said. “I’m going to go out there and play. It’s literally going to be a day-by-day symptomatic injury moving forward. “If I play a long match, jam it the right way, who knows how it’s going to pull up the next day. That’s the type of injury it is.” — with AFP More Coverage ‘Unacceptable’: Aussie greats trade TV sledges Fox Cricket ‘You’re kidding me’: Mad incident rocks BBL Originally published as ‘Disgusting’: Storm erupts over ‘joke’ ban handed to Aussie Tennis Don't miss out on the headlines from Tennis. Followed categories will be added to My News. More related stories Tennis Fit again Demon a scary sight for rivals The hip injury that ruined his Wimbledon dreams appears long gone after Alex de Minaur dominated his singles match, only for Australia to lose their United Cup tie to Argentina. Read more Tennis Kyrgios: Why I won’t be silenced about ‘disrespectful’ Sinner Nick Kyrgios has lit the fuse for an explosive return to tennis, taking aim at Jannik Sinner and declaring he will “not shut up” about the world No.1 dodging a ban after twice testing positive to a banned substance. Read more

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Greg McGarity had reason to be concerned. The Gator Bowl president kept a watchful eye on College Football Playoff scenarios all season and understood the fallout might affect his postseason matchup in Jacksonville. What if the Southeastern Conference got five teams into the expanded CFP? What if the Atlantic Coast Conference landed three spots? It was a math problem that was impossible to truly answer, even into late November. Four first-round playoff games, which will end with four good teams going home without a bowl game, had the potential to shake up the system. The good news for McGarity and other bowl organizers: Adding quality teams to power leagues — Oregon to the Big Ten, Texas to the SEC and SMU to the ACC — managed to ease much of the handwringing. McGarity and the Gator Bowl ended up with their highest-ranked team, No. 16 Ole Miss, in nearly two decades. People are also reading... OSU football: A prediction gone badly wrong Philomath driver suspected of DUII in Corvallis pileup Corvallis police seek grinches who stole Christmas As I See It: Six reasons why Trump won again OSU men's basketball: Beavers hope blowout wins pave the way for bigger things Corvallis Samaritan hospital has new CEO 2025 to bring rate increases, new fee for hauling Corvallis waste Graduate employees reach deal with OSU to end strike The real reason Corvallis' Pastega Lights moved to Linn County Why did Trump win? Election debrief hosted by Corvallis group Graduate strike at OSU continues. What's the holdup? Corvallis woman cuts hair for homeless: 'The Lord gave me a calling' OSU football: Beavers add 18 players as signing period opens Albany man pleads to numerous sex crimes Molestation victim’s mother tampered with court case "It really didn't lessen our pool much at all," McGarity said. "The SEC bowl pool strengthened with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma. You knew they were going to push traditional SEC teams up or down. Texas ended up pushing just about everyone down." The long waiting game was the latest twist for non-CFP bowls that have become adept at dealing with change. Efforts to match the top teams came and went in the 1990s and first decade of this century before the CFP became the first actual tournament in major college football. It was a four-team invitational — until this year, when the 12-team expanded format meant that four quality teams would not be in the mix for bowl games after they lose next week in the first round. "There's been a lot of things that we've kind of had to roll with," said Scott Ramsey, president of the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee. "I don't think the extra games changed our selection model to much degree. We used to look at the New York's Six before this, and that was 12 teams out of the bowl mix. The 12-team playoff is pretty much the same." Ramsey ended up with No. 23 Missouri against Iowa in his Dec. 30 bowl. A lot of so-called lesser bowl games do have high-profile teams — the ReliaQuest Bowl has No. 11 Alabama vs. Michigan (a rematch of last year's CFP semifinal), Texas A&M and USC will play in the Las Vegas Bowl while No. 14 South Carolina and No. 15 Miami, two CFP bubble teams, ended up in separate bowls in Orlando. "The stress of it is just the fact that the CFP takes that opening weekend," Las Vegas Bowl executive director John Saccenti said. "It kind of condenses the calendar a little bit." Bowl season opens Saturday with the Cricket Celebration Bowl. The first round of the CFP runs Dec. 20-21. It remains to be seen whether non-CFP bowls will see an impact from the new dynamic. They will know more by 2026, with a planned bowl reset looming. It could include CFP expansion from 12 to 14 teams and significant tweaks to the bowl system. More on-campus matchups? More diversity among cities selected to host semifinal and championship games? And would there be a trickle-down effect for everyone else? Demand for non-playoff bowls remains high, according to ESPN, despite increased focus on the expanded CFP and more players choosing to skip season finales to either enter the NCAA transfer portal or begin preparations for the NFL draft. "There's a natural appetite around the holidays for football and bowl games," Kurt Dargis, ESPN's senior director of programming and acquisitions, said at Sports Business Journal's Intercollegiate Athletics Forum last week in Las Vegas. "People still want to watch bowl games, regardless of what's going on with the playoff. ... It's obviously an unknown now with the expanded playoff, but we really feel like it's going to continue." The current bowl format runs through 2025. What lies ahead is anyone's guess. Could sponsors start paying athletes to play in bowl games? Could schools include hefty name, image and likeness incentives for players participating in bowls? Would conferences be willing to dump bowl tie-ins to provide a wider range of potential matchups? Are bowls ready to lean into more edginess like Pop-Tarts has done with its edible mascot? The path forward will be determined primarily by revenue, title sponsors, TV demand and ticket sales. "The one thing I have learned is we're going to serve our partners," Saccenti said. "We're going to be a part of the system that's there, and we're going to try to remain flexible and make sure that we're adjusting to what's going on in the world of postseason college football." Get local news delivered to your inbox!WASHINGTON — FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau workforce Wednesday he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. Wray said at a town hall meeting that he would step down “after weeks of careful thought,” three years short of the completion of a 10-year term marked by high-profile and politically charged investigations, including that those led to two separate indictments of Trump last year. Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that Trump settled on Patel to be director and repeatedly aired his ire at Wray. By stepping down rather than waiting to be fired, Wray is trying to avert a collision with the new Trump administration that he said would have further entangled the FBI “deeper into the fray.” Wray was put in the job by Trump and began the 10-year term — a length meant to insulate the agency from the political influence of changing administrations — in 2017, after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Pitt, who worked as assistant manager to Angelo Harrop from the summer of 2022 to his departure at the end of 2023, has taken charge of the National League club. He has taken over from Harrop, who parted company with Braintree last week. Chairman Lee Harding told the club's website: "When we approached Steve about the job he was about to take another role in the game. "We talked at length about what had happened and were impressed with his honest assessment of where the club is at and his thoughts on turning our season around. "We all know there is work ahead of us but we know Steve well. "It's good to see him back at our club. "He played a pivotal role in our progress in the past two seasons and I am confident that we can look forward to the remainder of the season with optimism." Braintree are currently 19th in the National League table.Staten Island firefighter, former Army Ranger to be honored as N.Y. Jets Veteran of the Game

Bowls miss out in 4 CFP teams in latest postseason twist

Events taking place at Clearview and High Plains library districts, Loveland Public Library for Dec. 1-6

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner , father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker." Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. Jared Kushner is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Charles Kushner arrives July 20, 2022, for the funeral of Ivana Trump in New York. Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation. Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to Kushner's own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said. Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison — the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, sought. Christie blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Trump’s transition team in 2016, and called Charles Kushner’s offenses “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney.” Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. William McGinley, White House counsel McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign. In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda, while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.” Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump's lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his hush money conviction, balking at the prosecution's suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea "absurd." The Manhattan district attorney's office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to "pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful," Trump's lawyers wrote in a 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump's lawyers filed paperwork this month asking for the case to be dismissed. They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won't include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn't sentenced and his appeal wasn't resolved because of presidential immunity. Former President Donald Trump appears May 30 at Manhattan criminal court during jury deliberations in his criminal hush money trial in New York. Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined comment. It's unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump's request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution's suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump's parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution's suggestions. Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the "ongoing threat" that he'll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. The prosecution's suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they contend. Attorney Todd Blanche listens May 30 as his client Donald Trump speaks at Manhattan criminal court during jury deliberations in his criminal hush money trial in New York. Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump tapped for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution's novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump died. Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to "fabricate" a solution "based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump" who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September "and a hypothetical dead defendant." Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what's already a unique case. "This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding," prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn't "precipitously discard" the "meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers." Prosecutors acknowledged that "presidential immunity requires accommodation" during Trump's impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury's verdict, which came when he was out of office. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. Other world leaders don't enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation's wars in Lebanon and Gaza. President-elect Donald Trump attends a Dec. 7 meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Trump has fought for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies. Trump's hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith ended his two federal cases, which pertained to Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in each case. Trump was scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November, but following Trump's Nov. 5 election win, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president's sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. FILE - Former Rep. Doug Collins speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China, saying in a social media post that the former CEO “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.” Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Perdue pushed Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for governor. A Republican congressman from Michigan who served from 1993 to 2011, Hoekstra was ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term. “In my Second Term, Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice. “He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role.” Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump's 2020 campaign and became engaged to Don Jr. in 2020. Trump called her “a close friend and ally” and praised her “sharp intellect make her supremely qualified.” Guilfoyle was on stage with the family on election night. “I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,” Don Jr. posted. The ambassador positions must be approved by the U.S. Senate. Guilfoyle said in a social media post that she was “honored to accept President Trump’s nomination to serve as the next Ambassador to Greece and I look forward to earning the support of the U.S. Senate.” Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Rodney Scott led during Trump's first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country's borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump's policies. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration agenda. He appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He's also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Trump says he’s picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world. Lake endeared herself to Trump through her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that both she and Trump were the victims of election fraud. She has never acknowledged losing the gubernatorial race and called herself the “lawful governor” in her 2023 book, “Unafraid: Just Getting Started.” Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Ron Johnson, Ambassador to Mexico Johnson — not the Republican senator — served as ambassador to El Salvador during Trump's first administration. His nomination comes as the president-elect has been threatening tariffs on Mexican imports and the mass deportation of migrants who have arrived to the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson is also a former U.S. Army veteran and was in the Central Intelligence Agency. Tom Barrack, Ambassador to Turkey Barrack, a wealthy financier, met Trump in the 1980s while helping negotiate Trump’s purchase of the renowned Plaza Hotel. He was charged with using his personal access to the former president to secretly promote the interests of the United Arab Emirates, but was acquitted of all counts at a federal trial in 2022. Trump called him a “well-respected and experienced voice of reason.” Andrew Ferguson, Federal Trade Commission Ferguson, who is already one of the FTC's five commissioners, will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior. “Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.” Jacob Helberg, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment Dan Bishop, deputy director for budget at the Office of Budget and Management Leandro Rizzuto, Ambassador to the Washington-based Organization of American States Dan Newlin, Ambassador to Colombia Peter Lamelas, Ambassador to Argentina Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.It seems like years, but it was just one month ago that the media effort to stop Donald Trump reached its final, most desperate phase in the closing days of the 2024 presidential campaign. The Atlantic published an article quoting two unnamed sources who said they heard Trump say, sometime during his first term in office, that “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” That led the virulently anti-Trump publication to speculate about what it called Trump’s “evident desire to wield military power, and power over the military, in the manner of Hitler and other dictators.” The article set off days of fevered Trump/Hitler speculation in some media outlets. And then the Hitler talk broadened with discussion of Trump’s upcoming rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden, scheduled a few days later on Oct. 27. Many commentators compared the event to the infamous Nazi rally held at the Garden in 1939. For example, after calling Trump a fascist, former rival Hillary Clinton said Trump would be “reenacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939.” During its coverage, MSNBC intercut footage from the old Nazi rally with video of the Trump rally. The network’s Jonathan Capehart called the scene “particularly chilling, because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader — Adolf Hitler — packed the Garden for a so-called ‘pro-America rally.’” Late-night host Stephen Colbert noted positive coverage of the rally on Fox News and said: “Wow, how would they have covered Nuremberg? High-five enthusiasts thrilled by superstar Austrian painter’s tiny mustache?” Such Trump-is-Hitler observations were quite common. In reality, the rally was an epic event, “living, breathing proof of former President Donald Trump’s success in broadening the appeal of the Republican Party.” But when a comedian speaking hours before Trump told an unfunny and poorly received joke about Puerto Rico and garbage, the critics found a new reason to pounce. The New York Times called the rally “a closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.” And it just might, many speculated, cost Trump the election. The Hitler charge, so white-hot just a few days before, was refined a bit; in some media accounts, the Madison Square Garden rally became a festival of anti-Hispanic hate. Many anti-Trump voices in the media found that idea particularly appealing because polls had shown for months that Trump support was growing among Hispanic voters. Perhaps this could stop that progress and help Vice President Kamala Harris. Politico reported that “Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania,” which had a significant Hispanic population and was, of course, considered the swing state that could determine the entire election. “To have this closing message at this stage is disastrous,” declared CNN’s Alyssa Farah Griffin. At the Daily Beast, the headline was “Trump in Denial Over Disastrous Latino-Bashing MSG Rally.” And Fortune reported, “Trump just blew a huge lead, and the Madison Square Garden rally started the drop.” Suddenly, Trump’s opponents sensed momentum. Top Harris adviser David Plouffe told CBS the rally was “the worst closing argument in the history of American politics.” Everyone looked for a backlash. Hopes rose when a Latin entertainment star, Nicky Jam, who had endorsed Trump, withdrew the endorsement in a message to his 43.5 million Instagram followers. Was a reaction building? No. A planned protest in majority-Hispanic Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Trump held his first rally after Madison Square Garden, went nowhere. A few protesters showed up, chanted a bit and left, while thousands attended the Trump event. Polls suggested that Trump’s support among Hispanic voters was basically unaffected. And then, on Election Day, exit polls showed that Trump won a stunning 46% of the Latino vote — a huge improvement over Republican performances in years past and one of the many factors contributing to his decisive victory over Harris. What is striking, after Trump’s victory in both the popular vote and the Electoral College, is how quickly the Hitler talk disappeared. Before the election, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, two of Trump’s most aggressive critics, called Trump a fascist and described the Madison Square Garden rally as “Nazi-like.” After the election, they traveled to Florida for an audience with Trump, saying they wanted to “restart communications.” With a Nazi? The Hitler moment turned out to be a final convulsion rather than the new normal. Trump’s victory, rather than ignite more fiery protests, brought at least a moment of relative peace. “While President-elect Trump’s 2016 win sparked shock, outrage, and massive protests, the response to his 2024 has been more muted,” Axios reported in “The Resistance goes quiet.” One longtime Trump antagonist noted that “exhaustion is real” among those who have been protesting Trump for nearly a decade now. Of course, there might be another Hitler moment at any time; the final days of the campaign were certainly not the first time Trump’s adversaries have called him a Nazi. But the intensity of the rhetoric of Oct. 27 and the relative tranquility of Nov. 27 presents a striking contrast. In early 2025, unlike early 2017, Trump might, perhaps, have at least a brief opportunity to govern. This content originally appeared on the Washington Examiner.

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