Syracuse, Albany each hoping to get right at expense of the otherSwimmer Emma McKeon, Australia's most decorated Olympian and an eight-time world-record holder, retired from the sport on Monday aged 30. McKeon won 14 Olympic medals, six of them gold, over the Rio, Tokyo and Paris Games this summer. "Today I am officially retiring from competitive swimming," she said on Instagram, along with a collage of clips showcasing her many career highlights. "Leading into Paris I knew it would be my last Olympics and the months since have given me time to reflect on my journey and think about what I wanted my future to look like in swimming," she added. It was at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 that McKeon really made her name, winning an unsurpassed seven medals to join the all-time swimming greats. Her four gold and three bronze bettered the six won by East German Kristin Otto in 1988 and American Natalie Coughlin in 2008. It also matched the record for most decorated woman athlete at a single Games, tied with Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya in 1952. A versatile and tenacious freestyle and butterfly racer, her career looked in jeopardy after failing to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic team. Instead, she went on to become her country's most honoured Olympian -- a field with plenty of competition given Australia's swimming prowess. "I am proud of myself for giving my swimming career absolutely everything, both physically and mentally," she said on Monday. "I wanted to see what I was capable of – and I did." Born in Wollongong in New South Wales, McKeon, whose excellence was matched by her humility, had heritage in the pool with her father Ron swimming at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. McKeon's mother Susie swam at the 1982 Commonwealth Games while her brother David competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, with Emma and David becoming the first brother and sister to swim for Australia at the same Games in 56 years. "She was and will continue to be a great role model for younger athletes," said Australian swim team head coach Rohan Taylor. "She always carried herself with dignity and while we all saw her grace the public can not truly appreciate how tough she is." (AFP)
The federal government's decision to direct the Future Fund to invest more in housing and green energy was always going to ruffle feathers. Specifically, Liberal feathers. The fund is a legacy of former treasurer Peter Costello, who is fiercely protective of his brainchild, even more so after a decade as its chair. Treasurer Jim Chalmers insists it is a refresh, not a redesign. He spent a large part of Thursday's press conference downplaying the significance of the change. "I pay tribute to treasurer Costello for setting up the Future Fund. I see it as one of the big, national, economic advantages that we have ... I want to make it really clear that we are not changing [its] fundamental focus." But he has broken a bipartisan practice that had lasted 18 years: resisting the temptation to ask the fund to do anything other than chase financial returns. It opens up a debate about what Australia does, and should do, with the hundreds of billions of dollars it has squirrelled away. What exactly is the Future Fund? It's Australia's rainy day fund. Costello set it up in 2006 at a time when the budget was in surplus and had little debt. A few years earlier, Treasury had published the first Intergenerational Report, telling a story about future pressures on the budget from an aging population, which would see a smaller pool of workers funding greater care needs. The government put $60.5 billion into a fund, the Future Fund, in part to ensure it could meet financial obligations like the payment of public service pensions, but also broadly so that it would have money saved to help future... Tom Crowley
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(The Center Square) – Of the many costly security missteps uncovered at the rally site in Butler, Pa. where a would-be assassin nearly killed Donald Trump, one deterrent may have been relatively affordable. Rep. Pat Fallon said the U.S. Secret Service could have fashioned a rudimentary fence made of caution tape, signs, posts and stakes around the AGR building on July 13 for roughly $410. The agency’s decision to unman the outside of the building and exclude it from an overall security perimeter around the Butler Farm Show Grounds that day has drawn much criticism from lawmakers on the task force assembled to investigate both attempts on Trump’s life, the second occurring at a Mar-a-Lago golf course in September. During a heated seven-minute exchange with Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr., the Republican congressman from Texas said the agency’s $2 billion funding increase seemed far in excess of what it would have cost to have functioning drones, more coordinated radio communications, agents on a nearby water tower and security deterrents available in Butler. “What sticks in our craw is when we report to our constituents, we have to say, ‘Hey, this federal agency failed epically, and then they wanted to almost double their budget,’” Fallon said. The conversation devolved into a shouting match after Fallon then accused Rowe of showing up at a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City for political purposes only.AP Sports SummaryBrief at 5:38 p.m. EST
JuJu Watkins and No. 3 USC can't hold back No. 6 Notre Dame in first loss