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Providence, Oklahoma hope key players are back in Bahamas
Super Bowl champion and forgotten Miami Dolphins star finally cut by team after just nine catches all seasonHID AWOLOWO FOUNDATION WEBINAR: Welcome address by Ambassador Dr Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu convener, HID Awolowo Foundation
Version Control: What’s the Best ‘Nosferatu’ to Watch?Drexel secures 83-71 win over Chicago State
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nico Iamaleava threw for 209 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 10 Tennessee to a 56-0 victory over UTEP on Saturday. The Volunteers (9-2) overcame a sluggish start to roll up the impressive win. Both teams were scoreless in the first quarter, but Tennessee found its rhythm. Grad student receiver Bru McCoy, who hadn't caught a touchdown pass this season, had two. Peyton Lewis also ran for two scores. Tennessee's defensive line, which had no sacks in last week's loss to Georgia, had three against the Miners. UTEP (2-9) struggled with two missed field goals and three turnovers. Tennessee's offense came alive with 28 points in the second quarter. In the final four drives of the quarter, Iamaleava completed 11 of 12 passes for 146 yards and touchdowns to Squirrel White, Ethan Davis and McCoy. UTEP was the dominant team in the first quarter. Tennessee managed just 37 offensive yards and, thanks to an interception near the end zone and a missed field goal by the Miners, both teams were scoreless after 15 minutes. POLL IMPLICATIONS Tennessee’s convincing victory, coupled with losses by Mississippi and Indiana, should put the Volunteers in a good position when the next College Football Playoff poll is released. The Vols were ranked No. 11 going into this week’s games. THE TAKEAWAY UTEP: The Miners will head into a very winnable game against New Mexico State having won two of their last five games. First-year coach Scotty Walden will try to build on that success in the offseason to help enhance his roster. Tennessee: Even a lopsided win won’t carry much weight where it means the most — in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Vols will have to rely on a convincing win against Vanderbilt next week, a team that has shown a lot of improvement this season, to help their standing for those coveted spots. UP NEXT UTEP: The Miners will finish their season at New Mexico State Saturday. Tennessee: The Vols will finish their regular season at Vanderbilt next Saturday. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up . AP college football: and Al Lesar, The Associated Press
Washington, as it turns out, moved to the right in the 2024 presidential election, just like every other state. In the days immediately after the election, it appeared Donald Trump had underperformed in Washington compared with 2020, the opposite of what happened across the rest of the nation. A number of news outlets, including The Seattle Times, reported Washington had bucked the national trend and moved to the left in 2024. It was true at the time, but it didn’t hold. Trump’s percentage in the state increased a little as more votes were counted. As of Tuesday, he won about 39% of ballots cast, outperforming his 38.8% result in 2020. Of course, that’s a tiny change, and Kamala Harris easily won Washington with around 57.3% of the vote. As far rightward swings go, this one was minuscule. Some local Democrats, I imagine, may have taken pride in reports that the state was an outlier in this national swing to the right, so the fact that it turned out not be true will come as a disappointment. But for what it’s worth, many Washington counties did shift left, even though the state overall did not. Analysis of election results as of Tuesday shows in 17 of the state’s 39 counties, Trump did worse this year than he did in 2020. Nearly half of WA counties shifted leftward in 2024 In 17 of Washington’s 39 counties, Donald Trump got a lower share of the vote in 2024 than he did in 2020. In the other 22 counties, Trump outperformed his 2020 numbers. The largest shift to the left was in Jefferson County and the largest to the right was in Franklin County. Source: Analysis of data from Washington secretary of state (Reporting by Gene Balk, graphic by Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times) King County isn’t among those 17, but the improvement in Trump’s performance in the state’s most populous county this year was negligible. In 2020, Trump got about 22.2% of the vote in King, only a fraction lower than the 22.3% he won in 2024. In fact, this change in Trump’s percentage was the smallest of any county in the state. Snohomish and Pierce counties also shifted right in 2024, both by less than 1 percentage point. In Kitsap County, though, Trump did worse this year by more than 1 percentage point. Among the counties that moved to the left, the biggest change was in Jefferson County, where Port Townsend is located. This year, Trump only won 25.2% of the vote in Jefferson, which is one of the bluest counties in the state. In 2020, Trump got 28% of the vote, meaning Jefferson County swung away from the Republican ticket by nearly 3 percentage points. Adjacent Clallam County, home to Port Angeles, had the second biggest shift to the left among Washington counties. Clallam is also a reliably Democratic county, though not nearly as blue as Jefferson. This year, Trump won 44.5% of the vote in Clallam, down from 46.8% in 2020. Another Puget Sound county rounds out the top three: Island, which includes Oak Harbor, moved to the left by more than 2 percentage points. In 2020, Trump won 42.2% of the vote, but only managed to get around 40% in 2024. The majority of the state’s counties — 22 of them — moved to the right in this year’s election, and for a few on the eastern side of the state, the shift was quite large. Franklin County, where Pasco is located, had the state’s most dramatic shift to the right. While Trump handily won Franklin in 2020 with 55.7% of the vote, he improved his performance here by more than 4 percentage points, winning 60.1% this time. Adams County also moved to the right by a little over 4 percentage points, with Trump increasing his share of the vote from 66.6% in 2020 to 70.7% in 2024. Yakima ranked third by this metric, with a rightward swing of 3 points. Trump won 52.6% in 2020 and 55.6% this year. Trump only won 22.2% of the vote in San Juan County, which comprises the San Juan Islands, the lowest percentage of any county in the state. That was down about 1 percentage point from 2020. In that election year, Trump’s lowest share of the vote in Washington was in King County. This year, after its leftward swing, San Juan holds that distinction. The state’s reddest county is Lincoln in Eastern Washington, and it got a little redder this year. Trump won 73.8% of the vote, up a little more than half a percentage point from 2020.
Trump’s lawyers rebuff DA’s idea for upholding his hush money conviction, calling it ‘absurd’
Rich nations raise COP29 climate finance offer to US$300bil as developing nations fumeCity planners are going to rethink their proposal to build a new transit maintenance facility near the existing public works yard after neighbors in the adjacent residential area urged the Tracy Planning Commission to reject the proposal. The city had considered turning a long-vacant 9.88-acres on four parcels along Beechnut Avenue into a transit maintenance yard, which would be across Tracy Boulevard from the Boyd Service Center, the city’s main public works yard. City of Tracy Project Planner Craig Hoffman reported that the property would have to be rezoned from medium-density residential to light industrial before the city could apply for Federal Transit Administration money to pay for construction of the facility. Following a discussion before the Planning Commission on Dec. 4, with planners unanimously rejecting the rezoning, and consideration of the neighborhood protest, city planners will seek out an alternative site. The project would include three buildings, including a maintenance building and administration building along Tracy Boulevard, and a public works building on Forest Hill Drive. It would also include parking lots for the city’s TRACER buses, with photovoltaic panels as a canopy, and fueling areas, including a hydrogen fueling station and electric vehicle charging stations. The facility would be used only by city staff and contractors. The property is owned by Chevron. It previously had been the site of an oil pipeline/pump station that transported crude oil through the area until the mid-1960s. All equipment associated with that operation has since been removed, and as of 2018 the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board had issued “no further action required” letters to Chevron, affirming that the land is suitable for commercial/industrial uses, with some parts of the property also suitable for residential development. City Transit Manager Ed Lovell told the planning commission that the city doesn’t have a facility sufficent for maintenance of large vehicles, adding that as the city transitions its TRACER buses to zero-emission operation, like hydrogen and electric, it will need to add infrastructure for that technology. Hoffman added that the main question for the commission – which was asked to approve a general plan amendment, rezoning and approval of the environmental review -- was whether the development of a transit maintenance facility was compatible with neighboring uses. Neighbors told the commission that the presence of the Boyd Service Center nearby gives them an idea of what they could expect, with bright lights from the center and the noise of vehicles coming and going already a constant presence. Some also expressed concern about the flammable nature of hydrogen gas. Neighbors also noted that because the land is presently zoned for residential development, they expected it would eventually have more homes, possibly even a park. When commissioners had a chance to comment, Commissioner Gurtej Atwal asked planning staff if the city owns other sites suitable for industrial development around town, and if had they been considered. Forrest Ebbs, Director of Community and Economic Development, replied that there are, including a 52-acre city-owned property on Chrisman Road just north of 11th Street. He added that in order for homes to be built on the Beechnut Avenue site the city would require a more intensive review of the condition of the soil there, and possibly further cleanup. Commissioner Nasir Boakye-Boateng made a motion to approve the project, with Atwal seconding the motion, but all five commissioners voted against the motion. City Planning Manager Scott Claar noted that while city staff could have taken the project to the Tracy City Council, given the planning commission’s rejection and neighborhood opposition planning staff will seek out another site that’s more likely to meet with approval. • Contact Bob Brownne at brownne@tracypress.com , or call 209-830-4227.Pure Storage Announces Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 Financial Results
Lead Plaintiff Deadline in The Toronto-Dominion Bank Class Action is Quickly Approaching – Contact Shareholder Rights Law Firm Robbins LLP for InformationDown to the wire: Soo d-man Chase Reid made his OHL debut on Wednesday night against the Sudbury Wolves
Travel trends for 2025: Where to go and what to do in the new yearNone of us like higher prices, but that’s exactly what we could be in for next year. I’m going to be analyzing the impact of Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on the price of PC hardware in the future, using not only some estimates that are available now, but also the historical context of tariffs during Trump’s first administration. My point is not to say anything political in nature, but instead to take a serious look at just how much these tariffs will affect PC hardware pricing. The target of these tariffs is the world’s second-largest economy in China, and the latest reports indicate the tariffs could be as high as 40% come early next year . That will undoubtedly impact the price of PC components, as both chips and hardware are largely manufactured in China. Some background We’ve been here before. During the first Trump administration, tariffs ranging from 7.5% to 25% were imposed on various goods imported from China. Graphics cards and other PC components were originally spared from the import tax. However, as the pandemic started to peak, supply chains were disrupted, and the GPU shortage got underway , tariffs on China’s largest semiconductor firm, SMIC, went into effect. The original tariffs that were supposed to go into effect in 2019 didn’t manifest at first, thanks to an exclusion that was offered as the pandemic ramped up. In early 2021, however, the exclusion expired . Not only did the tariffs keep GPU prices high, but Asus, at the time, also said that it would be raising the prices of its motherboards, and other companies followed suit. The context of the pandemic is very important here, as the tariffs imposed in 2019 largely didn’t impact PC hardware until the supply chain was already disrupted. Because of that, it’s hard to attribute the rise in GPU prices — and PC hardware prices overall — solely to the tariffs. Regardless, they made an already bad situation worse. If you lived through the GPU shortage of 2020, you already know how rough it was. The prices of PC components were sometimes double what they normally sold for, and you’d have to camp out in long lines outside of retailers to even have a chance of scoring something at list price. Even as the supply chain recovered, the prices of some GPUs only truly dropped in early 2022. A big reason why is that the tariffs were lifted. In late 2021, a group of companies spearheaded by Nvidia asked the Biden administration to remove the tariffs, and they were joined by HP and Zotac in asking for the exclusion that was applied in 2020. In 2022, the tariffs were lifted, and immediately Asus said it would be lowering its prices by up to 25% — the same amount as the tariff. Just days before, prices on GPUs dropped significantly , barreling back toward list price. We don’t have a pandemic to contend with this time around, nor a sudden rise in the price of cryptocurrency. However, the upcoming Trump administration has signaled that tariffs could climb up to 60% on goods imported from China, which could have a devastating impact on the price of PC hardware. Projecting projections Fast-forward to today. The proposed tariffs are 60% on Chinese goods and either 10% or 20% on goods imported from all other countries. This won’t all happen at once — that’s why I cited the 40% number earlier on — but that’s what’s been suggested. According to a study by the Consumer Technology Association (or the CTA, who’s behind the annual CES event), prices on smartphones would rise by 26% and prices of video game consoles by 40%. Laptops and tablets? 46%. Those numbers alone show how big of a role tariffs on China play in the price of PC components (and video game consoles, which are using largely the same hardware). Although PC component manufacturing is focused in the Asia-Pacific region overall, including countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, and Korea, nearly all hardware touches Chinese-made components in some form. There are PCBs, fans, MOSFETs, capacitors, and a slew of other components that go into PC hardware that come from China. On video games, one analyst told Digital Trends that the cost of something like the PlayStation 5 could jump from $500 to as high as $800 under the tariffs. We don’t have any specific estimates for GPUs and other PC components, but there’s plenty of historical context given the — relatively minor — tariffs we saw during 2021 and 2022. Last time around, major tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Sony were able to carve out a temporary exclusion , and they likely will try again. That doesn’t mean they’ll be successful, however. Earlier this year, the tariffs lifted in 2022 were reimposed, and at the time, the CTA told PCMag that “they’re not getting rid of anything. There are only tariff increases.” The CTA doesn’t have any estimates for PC hardware in particular. However, there are some parallels. For laptops, the CTA says China currently represents 79% of all U.S. imports of laptops and tablets, and 87% of imports for video game consoles. Prebuilt desktop computers are a bit different, representing only 2% of imports — though that’s largely because these PCs are assembled and imported through Mexico. Understanding the cost of PC hardware PC hardware is complex. Most components are truly a result of global manufacturing, which makes them highly sensitive to tariffs placed on any country, let alone China. “China remains the major manufacturing base of video graphics cards and personal computers in the industry,” computer hardware company Zotac wrote to the U.S. Trade Representative in 2021. “The major reason is due to the upstream supply chain remaining mostly in China.” The supply chain for PC components isn’t solely in China, so you shouldn’t expect prices to suddenly jump by 60% across the board. However, the jump could still be signficant. Even if chips are made in, for example, Taiwan by TSMC, final packaging usually takes place elsewhere. AMD, for instance, has facilities in both China and Malaysia for final packaging. Tariffs are meant to encourage domestic purchasing of goods made locally instead of the goods from the country on which the tariffs are imposed. The problem is that the U.S. doesn’t have much capacity for PC hardware manufacturing. Even looking to other countries like Malaysia and Vietnam, it’s unlikely that PC hardware companies will be able to pull completely out of China. We saw this in action in 2021 when the original tariffs went into effect. Even a U.S.-based company like EVGA raised prices on its graphics cards across the board at the time, with some GPUs going up by as much as $100. That was only with a 25% tariff, as well. With a 60% tariff, or even a 40% one, that number could climb quite a bit. Although it’s worrying for the price of building a PC, it’s important to remember that nothing has actually happened yet. The increased tariffs aren’t in place, and it’s still possible that the tariffs on PC components could either be lower or completely removed when the time comes. But the signs right now just aren’t promising.“We don’t have enough time,” I had said to my daughter as she ducked into the gift store on Toronto’s Bloor Street – just to look, of course. I had a million things to do after her ballet class, and Christmas shopping with a four-year-old was not on the list. But then I saw it, and time stopped. The ceramic tree behind the counter was a near replica of the one my grandma owned – hers, one she had made with her bridge ladies decades before I was born. I could hear her calm voice and feel her soft hands guiding me away from the tree’s bright bulbs, each nestled in a pocket of painted snow, and always too hot to touch. I could feel the comfort of sitting on her lap in the wingback chair, admiring her ceramic tree in the front window of the fancy sitting room, off limits to her grandkids any other time of year. The Victorian furniture. The plush floral carpet. If I closed my eyes long enough, I could see her eyes twinkle as we spoke; I could hear her shoulder-shaking laugh. “Mama, why are you crying?” It’s nothing, I told my daughter as she bolted down another aisle. My mind has gone back to that tree, those moments with my grandma, every Christmas. The sadness I feel that she – and so many others – aren’t with us is a rite of passage into December. The missing and the magic mixed into one bittersweet, forlorn feeling that is somehow festive to me. The hurt is not just about personal loss – it’s about injustice, too. The guilt of living in abundance here, and not clinging on to life there, feels more palpable. What right do I have to be overwhelmed about a Christmas holiday, when so many children have been torn from their homes this year, never to return – or worse? How can I sigh at my husband for playing the worst Christmas music – yes, of course the people in Africa know it’s Christmas – when so many loved ones aren’t with us any more, and so many are fighting for basic survival? The melancholy and guilt and nostalgia are all wrapped up together like Christmas lights I’ll never untangle. And though I don’t want my kids to feel unhappy – in fact, I go to great lengths to ensure this is their most wonderful time of year – I do want them to feel some of these less-bright parts of Christmas: gratitude, reflection and, okay, maybe feel a bit sad for others who don’t have as much, instead of simply seeing Christmas as an opportunity to ask for more, more, more. I wish my kid would put down the toy catalogue and understand a deeper meaning of the season; is that too much to ask? “Gratitude is actually the opposite of entitlement, and you can absolutely teach your kids to know there is nuance and sadness at Christmas,” says Dona Matthews, a developmental psychologist in Toronto, and author of Imperfect Parenting – a handbook on creating kids who are, among other things, grateful and understanding of the world around them. She says parents need to be honest about why Christmas brings us all down sometimes, and name our complicated feelings out loud. If, for example, your child sees a person asking for money on the street, Matthews says, “it’s okay to tell them that person doesn’t have what he needs by way of food and shelter. We are so lucky [to] have a warm house and food to eat.” She says we can teach kids about the cruelty and injustice of the world by speaking about our good fortune in contrast with the less fortunate, and then encouraging kids – even at 4 – to try to do something about it: donate to a food bank, give money or gift cards to a person on the street, or take their too-small clothes to a shelter. “They can learn firsthand that they can make the world a better place – that’s the next step in the gratitude project,” Matthews says. Gratitude and reflection – the things I’m needing most for my kids – are also achieved, she says, by saying no and not giving them the most things at Christmas – even when we all want to make merry. “If you want Veruca Salt for a child,” she says, “just give them everything they ask for.” I won’t tell her about my daughter, hands full of knick-knacks in the toy store, begging for a bejewelled reindeer and gingerbread chapstick. I told her to put it all back, though she’s grown up in a world where materialistic overconsumption is the norm, and she understands anything she wants can theoretically arrive at her doorstep the next day. It’s no wonder, then, that she views Christmas as an endless fire hose of stuff, when all of her parents’ holiday packages keep multiplying in our entranceway. And yet, if TikTok is to be believed, “underconsumption core” is actually having a moment: that is, the Gen Z aesthetic trending on the social-media app shows carefully curated young people showing off how they live with less, buy very little and reject messaging from big corporations that you need more stuff. It’s a message millennial parents – and their kids – seemingly haven’t heard. In the U.S., holiday spending has steadily increased every year – with 2024 expected to top US$989 billion , and millennials – specifically, those with young kids – leading the spending charge. According to a Harris poll, Gen Z may be watching those “less is more” videos but their holiday spending is extraordinary: A Gen Z shopper spends an average of US$1,638 – more than double their boomer counterpart. How can anyone expect to sit with the sadness of the season when we are all consuming too much – myself (and my daughter) included? “Mama, can we go home?” A Gen Z trend that is truly making a comeback is colourful, vintage décor – or so the store clerk told me as she wrapped up my purchase, with my impatient daughter pulling at my coat. “I got us something,” I said to my daughter when we got in the door. “I thought you said no more stuff,” she wisely observed, as she climbed into my lap to unwrap our new, old, sad, wonderful tree.