Matt Gaetz says he won't return to Congress next year after withdrawing name for attorney general WASHINGTON (AP) — Matt Gaetz is not coming back to Congress. The Florida Republican said Friday he has no intention of serving another term in the House now that he is no longer President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general. Gaetz withdrew as the nominee this week amid growing fallout from the allegations of sexual conduct against him. Gaetz denies the allegations. Gaetz didn't lay out his plans now that he's out of office, saying only, “I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch." After Gaetz's withdrawal on Thursday, Trump named former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.
The college football transfer portal swung wide open Monday. With it, seven University of Massachusetts football players have put their names into the portal, looking for a new home next fall. The names that probably stick out are quarterback Ahmad Haston and running back Jalen John, both of whom went into the portal along with tight end Matt Smith, defensive linemen Tyson Walker, Zukudo Igwenagu and Aaron Beckwith, along with wide receiver Anthony Simpson. Simpson had left the team early in the season. "Portal open! Need them dogs. #Flagship" UMass quarterback A.J. Hairston wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Hairston seems to be staying put in Amherst, so it remains to be seen if his recruiting efforts will bear fruit. The now former Minutemen will leave while four incoming freshmen signed national letters of intent last week. Hitting the portal is all about recruiting, and new football head coach Joe Harasymiak broached that subject during his introductory press conference Friday morning in Amherst. "I think it starts where you are. Home is where your feet are. We'll have a detailed plan for that," he said. "I think what I realized at Maine is the first part about recruiting is you have to get people who believe in what you believe in. With everything that's going on in college football, I think that gets lost a little bit. "We're going to make sure, and we've already started in the last few days, we're going to make sure the people that are here believe in what we believe in." The biggest name that went into the portal on Monday belongs to Haston. The quarterback, recruited to UMass out of high school, became now former offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery's running quarterback in the two-quarterback plan. Haston and Hairston, a true freshman, stepped into the breach when Taisun Phommachanh was injured in the loss at Mississippi State. The two alternated in losses to Liberty and UConn at home and at Georgia. Montgomery's plan was predicated on an injury keeping Haston from really letting the ball fly. Haston finished the season by running 18 times for 174 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 9.7 yards per carry. Haston was also 8 for 9 for 39 yards. "I am truly grateful for all the memories, growth and battle-testing experiences I was able to share with my teammates," Haston posted on social media. "I am officially entering the transfer portal with 3 years of eligibility and ready to work." Jalen John, who followed former coach Don Brown from Arizona to UMass, carried the ball 111 times for 583 yards and five touchdowns in 2024. He averaged 5.3 yards per carry. John also had 17 receptions for 119 yards. "I also want to thank the UMass coaching staff and administration for giving me the opportunity to play football," John wrote on social media. "These last two years have been transformative for me as an athlete and an individual. After thoughtful conversations with my family, I will be entering the transfer portal with 1 year of eligibility left." As of this writing, redshirt junior Brandon Campbell and sophomore C.J. Hester lead the running back room. Hester transferred from Western Michigan and was the No. 2 rusher for the Minutemen. He ran the ball 119 times for 529 yards and caught 14 passes for 58 yards. Campbell, was a late arrival this summer from the University of Houston. Campbell had 239 yards rushing on 64 carries. Beckwith, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound redshirt junior had been at UMass for four seasons and had 32 tackles from the nose position in the last two seasons. Igwenagu is the cousin of former UMass fullback Emil Igwenagu, who spent three years in NFL training camps. Zukedo Igwenagu and Tyson Watson both transferred to UMass from Big Ten schools, Igwenagu from Rutgers and Watson from Michigan State. Neither had any tackle statistics in 2024. Smith is a 6-5, 245-pounder who transferred from Duke. The tight end had three catches for 38 yards. Simpson was UMass' leading receiver in 2023, catching 57 passes for 792 yards. The transfer from the University of Arizona was "no longer on the team" in a late-September announcement. Teams in the Mid-American Conference, UMass' home next year, have also felt the sting of players entering the portal. Five teams, led by Ball State with 13 and Akron and Northern Illinois with 12 each, had the most players in the portal as of midday Monday. MAC champion Ohio had yet to have a player enter the portal. There are four incoming freshmen who signed on the Dec. 4 early signing day. Two are defensive backs, one is a running back and one is a quarterback. The signal caller is Zach Lawrence, a 6-foot-1, 3-star recruit out of Charlotte, N.C. He played at Butler High School and was the No. 35 recruit in the state according to Rivals.com He had career numbers of 213 for 340 for 3,377 yards and 37 touchdowns. Dajoure Hollingsworth was listed as 247Sports' No. 19 recruit in Pennsylvania. The 5-8, 175-pound back ran for 2,565 yards on 277 carries in 32 high school games, scoring 38 touchdowns. Eighteen of those came as a senior at Salisbury School in Connecticut. He started at Cathedral Prep in Erie, Pa., the high school alma mater of former UMass linebacker Jerry Roberts Jr., and Roberts' younger brother Jyree, a redshirt freshman. "It starts off with being real, showing them who I am and how I'm going to run the program," Harasymiak said the day he was introduced. "Anybody that believes in that and wants to be a part of that will be here. That's okay. The transfer portal, you don't like it and you want to go somewhere else, that's awesome. If you want to be here and change something that's hard and be something that's going to be special. Stick around. That's my message to the team in the first two team meetings. A lot of things are going to change, a lot. That's evident that it needs to happen. "We're going to keep pushing forward and whoever is here, whoever believes in it, that's when we'll become as strong as we can be."The sudden and substantial drop in oil prices can be attributed to a variety of factors, including decreased demand due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and increased production by major oil-producing countries. The combination of these factors has created a surplus of oil in the market, driving prices down to levels not seen in years.
The Onion's bid to buy Infowars goes before judge as Alex Jones tries stopping sale
One of the key factors contributing to the island's success is its government's forward-thinking policies and investment in infrastructure. Supportive measures such as tax incentives, streamlined regulations, and access to research and development funding have attracted both domestic and international companies to set up shop on the island.