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LAS VEGAS — Players Era Festival organizers have done what so many other have tried — bet their fortunes in this city that a big payoff is coming. Such bet are usually bad ones, which is why so many massive casino-resorts have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard. But it doesn't mean the organizers are wrong. They're counting on the minimum of $1 million in guaranteed name, image and likeness money that will go to each of the eight teams competing in the neutral-site tournament that begins Tuesday will create a precedent for other such events. EverWonder Studios CEO Ian Orefice, who co-founded Players with former AND1 CEO Seth Berger, compared this event to last year's inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament that played its semifinals and final in Las Vegas by saying it "did really well to reinvigorate the fan base at the beginning of the year." "We're excited that we're able to really change the paradigm in college basketball on the economics," Orefice said. "But for us, it's about the long term. How do we use the momentum that is launching with the 2024 Players Era Festival and be the catalyst not to change one event, but to change college basketball for the future." Orefice and Berger didn't disclose financial details, but said the event will come close to breaking even this year and that revenue is in eight figures. Orefice said the bulk of the revenue will come from relationships with MGM, TNT Sports and Publicis Sport & Entertainment as well as sponsors that will be announced later. Both organizers said they are so bullish on the tournament's prospects that they already are planning ahead. Money made from this year's event, Orefice said, goes right back into the company. "We're really in this for the long haul," Orefice said. "So we're not looking at it on a one-year basis." Rick Giles is president of the Gazelle Group, which also operates several similar events, including the College Basketball Invitational. He was skeptical the financial numbers would work. Giles said in addition to more than $8 million going to the players, there were other expenses such as the guarantees to the teams. He said he didn't know if the tournament would make up the difference with ticket sales, broadcast rights and sponsorship money. The top bowl of the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be curtained off. "The math is highly challenging," Giles said. "Attendance and ticket revenues are not going to come anywhere close to covering that. They haven't announced any sponsors that I'm aware of. So it all sort of rests with their media deal with Turner and how much capital they want to commit to it to get these players paid." David Carter, a University of Southern California adjunct professor who also runs the Sports Business Group consultancy, said even if the Players isn't a financial success this year, the question is whether there will be enough interest to move forward. "If there is bandwidth for another tournament and if the TV or the streaming ratings are going to be there and people are going to want to attend and companies are going to want to sponsor, then, yeah, it's probably going to work," Carter said. "But it may take them time to gain that traction." Both founders said they initially were met with skepticism about putting together such an event, especially from teams they were interested in inviting. Houston was the first school to commit, first offering an oral pledge early in the year and then signing a contract in April. That created momentum for others to join, and including the No. 6 Cougars, half the field is ranked. "We have the relationships to operate a great event," Berger said. "We had to get coaches over those hurdles, and once they knew that we were real, schools got on board really quickly." The founders worked with the NCAA to make sure the tournament abided by that organization's rules, so players must appear at ancillary events in order to receive NIL money. Strict pay for play is not allowed, though there are incentives for performance. The champion, for example, will receive $1.5 million in NIL money. Now the pressure is on to pull off the event and not create the kind of headlines that can dog it for years to come. "I think everybody in the marketplace is watching what's going to happen (this) week and, more importantly, what happens afterwards," Giles said. "Do the players get paid on a timely basis? And if they do, that means that Turner or somebody has paid way more than the market dictates? And the question will be: Can that continue?" CREIGHTON: P oint guard Steven Ashworth likely won’t play in the No. 21 Bluejays’ game against San Diego State in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Ashworth sprained his right ankle late in a loss to Nebraska on Friday and coach Greg McDermott said afterward he didn’t know how long he would be out. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Family of Murdered Woman Unleashes on Biden Over Killer's Commutation: 'Absolutely Disgusting'
In agony, Simon begged for water 19 times. Guards mocked him – then found him dead49ers: Brock Purdy throws without pain, while it’s wait-and-see for Bosa, WilliamsSuchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————-- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.
Trump wants pardoned real estate developer Charles Kushner to be ambassador to FranceCHICAGO — On quiet nights during the Christmas season, Ed O’Malley enjoys visiting the Nativity scene he helps set up every year in an Arlington Heights park. He’ll check whether the wind has blown over a statue, or whether any lights have gone out. On relatively warm evenings, many families will be out and about, O’Malley said. Usually, they’ll end up in front of the depiction of infant Jesus. “Many times, you’ll see the little children will look in and they’ll touch the statues,” said O’Malley, 64, of nearby Prospect Heights. “A few times, you see a father or a mother just get down on a knee, and you can see that she’s explaining to them what this is.” Despite some misconceptions — stemming from the First Amendment’s separation of church and state — private groups can put up Nativity scenes on public property as an expression of free speech after a federal judge ruled in 1988 that religious exhibits could be erected if maintained by private groups. Private groups can put up Hanukkah menorahs on public property to celebrate the Jewish holiday. Likewise, private groups can put up atheist, satanic, artistic, political, apolitical, eco-modernist or anarcho-pacifist displays on public property, if they so desire. The right to erect religious displays on government land wasn’t always clear — especially in December 1987, when government workers in Chicago began dismantling a Nativity scene in the Loop’s Daley Plaza, almost throwing the statue of the baby Jesus into a trash bin at one point and prompting members of the public to shield what was left of the display with their bodies. O’Malley said he’s learned much about the First Amendment as president of American Nativity Scene, a group that has helped put up more than 200 Nativity scenes on public property across the country. The group was founded in 2012 by O’Malley and his father-in-law. They believe that erecting Nativity scenes on public property is a good way to help keep the birth of Jesus at the center of a Christmas season that they say has become far too commercialized. “Christ is the reason for the season,” O’Malley said. With the backing of an anonymous donor of Nativity sets and conservative public interest law firm Thomas More Society, American Nativity Scene has helped put up scenes at public libraries, parks and courthouses. The group’s main goal is to display them in the country’s 50 statehouses. When O’Malley and his father-in-law created American Nativity Scene 12 years ago, about six or seven state capitol buildings, including the one in Springfield, had regular Nativity displays, O’Malley said. Since then, under American Nativity Scene’s watch, 43 state capitols have put up Nativity displays at least once. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, American Nativity Scene will make “an all-out push” and try to have a Nativity scene on display at every state capitol during the 2026 Christmas season, O’Malley said. Adding a state to the tally isn’t an exact science. American Nativity Scene needs to find people in that state willing to form a local committee that will approach local officials about putting up a Nativity scene on capitol property. O’Malley said he has used friends and the Thomas More Society’s network to identify people who might be interested in forming a local committee in states lacking displays in their capitols. He’s also called random churches and local religious organizations like Knights of Columbus chapters, he said. “We want to be able to say that someone has a Nativity up in every state capitol,” O’Malley said. “I mean, we got Alaska and Hawaii — we got them one. They were interesting. You talk to a lot of great people.” Steven Melia, a Wyoming resident involved with local religious groups who has helped put up a Nativity scene at the statehouse in Cheyenne for the past four years, said he doesn’t remember how exactly O’Malley got in touch with him. After Melia agreed to help advance American Nativity Scene’s mission, O’Malley sent Melia a Nativity set and Melia’s rancher friend built a wooden structure to house it, Melia said. It’s fairly easy to schedule blessings of the Nativity set at the Wyoming statehouse and get permission to leave it up during the season, Melia said. He said the capitol hosts all sorts of school, religious and community gatherings throughout the year. “The capitol belongs to everybody ... I didn’t really know that at the beginning,” Melia said. Other than finding people to attend the blessing, pretty much all Melia has to do is buy insurance for the event and fill out a few forms, he said. One optional form is for inviting the governor, who showed up to the Nativity blessing the first three years, Melia said. O’Malley said he and his father-in-law decided to start American Nativity Scene after facing pushback while trying to erect a Nativity scene in 2012 in North School Park in Arlington Heights. O’Malley’s father-in-law brought in the founder of Thomas More Society, Tom Brejcha, who wrote a “strongly worded” letter to the park district about the pair’s right to put up religious displays on public property, according to O’Malley. Brejcha said he considers the 1988 ruling that protects the right of private groups to put up religious displays on public property as forms of free speech a “landmark” ruling. In summer 1987, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Nativity scene in Chicago’s City Hall violated the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion. Judge Joel Flaum wrote that City Hall visitors would be left with the unavoidable impression that the city tacitly endorses Christianity. In December 1987, a group put up a Nativity scene in Daley Plaza without posting a $100,000 bond demanded by the Public Building Commission of Chicago, which administered the plaza. The commission demanded the bond to cover the cost of defending itself against possible First Amendment lawsuits. After government workers began tearing down the plaza Nativity scene — almost throwing the statue of the baby Jesus into a trash bin at one point — members of the public intervened, shielding what was left of the display with their bodies. In a case stemming from the bond dispute and Nativity scene dismantling, federal judge James Parsons in November 1988 ordered the building commission to allow the Nativity group to put up a display without posting a bond. Parsons wrote that the commission had misplaced fears that allowing religious displays could violate the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion. He deemed the plaza a public forum and wrote that “religious expressive conduct in a traditional public forum enjoys the same protections afforded political, artistic, or other types of protected speech under the First Amendment.” O’Malley, who is also part of the group that continues to put up a Nativity scene on Daley Plaza every year, said that after the Arlington Heights park Nativity scene was successfully erected thanks to Brejcha’s letter, he and his father-and-law started to think about how they could expand. The idea of placing Nativity sets on other government land, especially state capitols, “clicked,” O’Malley said. Thomas More Society Executive Vice President Thomas Olp said the firm supports efforts to put Nativity scenes on public property and has a standard letter it sends to public officials explaining why religious displays on public property are allowed. Olp said the firm hasn’t had to file any lawsuits on behalf of American Nativity Scene. “Not to say there’s anything wrong with the free exercise of religion, but the free speech rationale cut through a lot of the opposition to this,” Brejcha said. ©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
In their Week 12 win over the Los Angeles Rams, the Philadelphia Eagles played 73 snaps on offense and 64 on defense. Let's just get right to the snap counts, and some notes. Quarterback • 71 snaps: Jalen Hurts • 2 snaps: Kenny Pickett Notes: Hurts didn't have to do much with Barkley running wild through the Rams' secondary,. He finished 15 of 22 for 179 yards and a TD. Running back • 50 snaps: Saquon Barkley • 23 snaps: Kenny Gainwell • 5 snaps: Ben VanSumeren Notes: I've been asked quite a bit recently about Barkley's heavy usage this season, and whether or not he can continue to play at a high level into December and January. Barkley has 250 touches on the season. He is on pace for 386 regular season touches, plus whatever he does in the playoffs. That is a lot of wear and tear to put on a running back in one season, and in the past we have seen running backs around the league have down years after that level of usage. I think the Eagles have tried to get Barkley off the field whenever appropriate, but the reality is that he is their best player right now, and he is winning them games. It's hard to take a player off the field when he is playing at an otherworldly level like Barkley is. Do you lean toward preservation, or the best record possible? The Eagles are trying to achieve both, but winning game is the priority. As the season has progressed, Barkley only appears to be getting stronger. As long as he doesn't suffer some kind of injury that will hamper him (the odds of which increase with a continued heavy workload, obviously), I think he'll still play like the elite player he is the rest of the way. I do think that the wear and tear he is taking on this season could affect him in 2025 and 2026, though. Wide receiver • 65 snaps: A.J. Brown • 51 snaps: Johnny Wilson • 50 snaps: Jahan Dotson • 7 snaps: Ainias Smith • 3 snaps: Britain Covey Notes: Hurts only attempted 22 passes, and Brown still caught 6 balls for 109 yards and a TD. If this game didn't turn into The Saquon Barkley Show, it could have very well been The A.J. Brown Show, as the Rams didn't have any corners capable of covering Brown man-to-man. The rest of the Eagles' receivers combined for 1 catch for 4 yards on 2 targets. DeVonta Smith missed this game with a hamstring injury. They'll need him Week 13 against the Ravens. Tight end • 55 snaps: Dallas Goedert • 40 snaps: Grant Calcaterra • 16 snaps: C.J. Uzomah Notes: There isn't much to say about the tight ends from this game. Goedert had 4 catches on 5 targets for 19 yards. Offensive line • 73 snaps: Jordan Mailata and Cam Jurgens • 71 snaps each: Landon Dickerson, Mekhi Becton, and Lane Johnson • 2 snaps each: Jack Driscoll, Fred Johnson, and Tyler Steen Notes: The Eagles' offensive line dominated in the run game, and only allowed one sack to a good, young Rams defensive line. Edge defenders • 39 snaps: Nolan Smith • 36 snaps: Josh Sweat • 29 snaps: Brandon Graham • 24 snaps: Jalyx Hunt Notes: Graham said that his season is over with a torn triceps. More here . This was a new high snap count for both Smith and Hunt. They're going to have to play a lot more with Graham out. Sweat has 7 sacks in the last 7 games, and has quietly had a very good season after the team shopped him this past offseason. Interior defensive line • 54 snaps: Jalen Carter • 24 snaps: Milton Williams • 23 snaps: Moro Ojomo • 15 snaps: Jordan Davis • 11 snaps: Thomas Booker Notes: Carter had a heavy workload yet again, until the outcome was decided, at which point he got some rest. Williams had a pair of sacks and a forced fumble. He now has 5 sacks on the season after posting 0.5 sacks in 2023. Linebacker • 53 snaps: Zack Baun • 52 snaps: Nakobe Dean • 9 snaps: Oren Burks • 5 snaps: Jeremiah Trotter Notes: Dean had 8 tackles and a sack. Baun only had 3 tackles, but he made a really nice pass breakup while in coverage on Cooper Kupp. His play against the pass has been shockingly good. Cornerback and safety • 64 snaps: Quinyon Mitchell • 62 snaps: Cooper DeJean • 57 snaps: Reed Blankenship • 56 snaps: Chauncey Gardner-Johnson • 28 snaps: Darius Slay • 13 snaps: Avonte Maddox • 8 snaps: Tristin McCollum • 6 snaps: Sydney Brown Notes: DeJean had a couple of pass breakups. PFF had him down for 6 catches allowed on 9 targets for 49 yards. That's 5.4 yards per attempt. The Eagles landed two of the best players in the 2024 draft in DeJean and Mitchell. I thought it was interesting that Tristin McCollum — and not Sydney Brown — filled in for Blankenship when Blankenship was banged-up for a few plays. Three stars 🤩 Eagles game ball 🏈 Season game balls Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed readerChandigarh: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday hit out at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government for what he alleged, meting out step-motherly treatment to the farmers by not even giving them an opportunity to air their demands. In a statement, the chief minister alleged that Prime Minister Modi appeared to be more worried about intervening in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine but was indifferent towards the farmers. Mann further alleged that despite the immense contribution of farmers, the Union government appears to have adopted a hostile attitude towards them and held that it is strange that the Union government is not ready to talk to farmers sitting 200 km away from the national capital. ਕੇੰਦਰ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੂੰ ਆਪਣੀ ਪੁਰਾਣੀ ਜ਼ਿੱਦ ਛੱਡ ਕੇ ਕਿਸਾਨ ਜਥੇਬੰਦੀਆਂ ਨਾਲ ਗੱਲ-ਬਾਤ ਦਾ ਰਾਹ ਖੋਲਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ...ਕਬੂਤਰ ਦੇ ਅੱਖਾਂ ਮੀਚਣ ਨਾਲ ਬਿੱਲੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਭੱਜਦੀ..ਸੈੰਟਰ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਪਤਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੁਣ ਕਿਹੜੀ ਤਪੱਸਿਆ ਕਰ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ ?? ਜੇ ਮੋਦੀ ਜੀ ਰੂਸ ਤੇ ਯੂਕਰੇਨ ਦੀ ਜੰਗ ਰੁਕਵਾ ਸਕਦੇ ਨੇ ਤਾਂ 200 ਕਿੱਲੋਮੀਟਰ ਤੇ ਬੈਠੇ ਅੰਨਦਾਤਿਆਂ ਨਾਲ ਨਹੀੰ ਗੱਲ... Urging the Union government to shun its haughty attitude and open way for dialogue with the agitating farmers, Mann said that the centre should not wait for any special moment to talk to the farmers, rather it should hold talks with the farmers and redress their grievances immediately. Earlier in the day, Mann also posted on X: `` The central government should abandon its old stubbornness and open the way for talks with the farmers' organizations... A cat does not run away when a pigeon winks.. I don't know what penance the central government is doing now?? If Modi ji can stop the war between Russia and Ukraine, then can't he talk to the breadwinners sitting 200 kilometers away? What time are you waiting for..’’ It may be recalled that a large number of farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders of Punjab and Haryana under the aegis of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha since February 13 last and had repeatedly attempted to take out their ``Delhi chalo’’ foot-march towards Delhi but were stopped by the Haryana police by lobbing teargas shells and using water cannons which left several farmers injured. Also, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, 70, a cancer patient, has also been on a fast-unto-death at the Khanauri border since November 26 last to press for farmers’ various demands including MSP for crops and debt waiver. The doctors attending on him have also expressed their concerns about his worsening health.Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died
Greg Cote's Christmas Day and Thursday night NFL picksNo. 17 Clemson 51, The Citadel 14
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.Unemployment rate falls to 4.3% in Nigeria - reportAUSTIN, Texas -- Any Texas or Texas A & M player has heard the lore of the rivalry between the two schools, a grudge match that dates to 1894. But for more than a decade — two generations of college football players — that's all it has been: Ghostly memories of great games and great plays made by heroes of the distant past. That changes this week when one of college football's great rivalries is reborn. Third-ranked Texas (10-1, 6-1) and No. 20 Texas A & M (8-3, 5-2) meet Saturday night for the first time since 2011, with a berth in the Southeastern Conference championship game on the line . “Guys that have been in my position and bleed burnt orange, they have not gotten to play this game,” said Texas fourth-year junior safety Michael Taaffe, who grew up in Austin. “Remember them when you step on Kyle Field.” For Aggies fans, who have carried the misery of Texas' 27-25 win in 2011, getting the Longhorns back in front of a frenzied crowd in College Station is a chance for some serious payback. “I was born and raised an Aggie, so I’ve been dreaming about playing in this game my whole life,” Texas A & M offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III said. Zuhn played high school football in Colorado, but his parents and grandparents attended A & M. At SEC media days back in August, Zuhn said his family would turn Texas gear upside down in stores. He keeps a picture of a longhorn in his room, hanging upside down, of course. “It should be the most amazing atmosphere that I’ve ever experienced,” Zuhn said. "I can’t wait for that, and I feel bad for Texas having to play in that." Texas players said they are ready. “That place is going to be rocking,” Texas senior cornerback Jahdae Barron said. “It's good to go on the road and play in hostile environments.” The Longhorns have overcome big and loud road crowds before. They won at Alabama in 2023. They won at Michigan and Arkansas, another old rival, this year. The Longhorns have won 10 in a row on an opponent’s home field. “When the hate is on us, we love it. We enjoy it,” Taaffe said. But some former Texas players say the current group has faced nothing like what awaits them in College Station. Playing at Texas A & M is more than just noise and a lot of “Horns down” hand signals. The “Aggie War Hymn” fight song calls for Aggies to “Saw varsity’s horns off." Beating Texas is their passion, said former Longhorns All-American offensive lineman Dan Neil, who won at Texas A & M in in 1995. He calls that win one of the best of his career. “I was done showering and getting ready to leave, and their fans were still standing outside the locker room screaming and throwing things,” he said. “The (Texas) players have no idea what they are walking into. They have no clue. No one on that team has walked into that stadium in burnt orange.” The rivalry broke up when Texas A & M left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012. The Aggies have twice finished tied for second but have otherwise found little success there. Texas is in its first year in the SEC and has smashed its way to the top. Texas is the only SEC team with one loss this late in the season, which would make beating Texas that much sweeter for A & M. “The hype is definitely saying it's a rivalry. History says it's a rivalry, but for us, it's the football game we have this week,” Texas senior center Jake Majors said. “It's important for us to not let the environment, the game, get the best of us. ... I get to go out there and play not only for me and my team, but for the guys who came before me, so that's a true honor to have.” Even though the game hasn't been played since 2011, there has always been an element of the rivalry simmering under the surface, Texas A & M coach Mike Elko said. Elko is in his first year as the Aggies' coach, but he was the Texas A & M defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher from 2018-2021. “Even though it hasn’t been played, it just doesn’t feel like it’s ever really left the fabric. I really don’t think it’s as removed from the psyche as maybe it feels,” Elko said. “I think our kids are very much aware of what this is all about.” ___ Rieken reported from College Station, Texas. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. 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