Oklahoma sophomore quarterback Jackson Arnold will enter the transfer portal, according to multiple reports on Wednesday. A five-star recruit in 2023 out of Denton, Texas, Arnold began this season as the starter, lost his spot and later regained it as the Sooners went 6-6. Monday is the first day that underclassmen can transfer during the winter portal window. Arnold completed 154 of 246 passes (62.6 percent) for 1,421 yards, 12 touchdowns and three interceptions in 10 games. He also ran the ball 150 times for 444 yards and three TDs, including 25 attempts for 131 yards in the Sooners' 24-3 win over Alabama on Nov. 23. As a freshman last season playing behind Dillon Gabriel, Arnold appeared in seven games and was 44 of 69 (63.8 percent) for 563 yards, four TDs and three picks. A former Gatorade Texas Player of the Year, Arnold started for Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl last December, when the Sooners lost 38-24 to Arizona. He was QB1 for the 2024 campaign, but three early turnovers caused him to be pulled in a 25-15 defeat to Tennessee on Sept. 21 and replaced by true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr. Arnold came off the bench to replace Hawkins in a 35-9 loss to South Carolina on Oct. 19, and head coach Brent Venables afterward fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. Co-offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley became the interim play-caller. Venables filled the position permanently on Monday by hiring Washington State OC Ben Arbuckle, who could bring Cougars QB John Mateer with him to Norman, Okla. --Field Level MediaAncient Native Americans Had Mysterious Use for Lethally Toxic Fish
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Some tech industry leaders are pushing the incoming Trump administration to increase visas for highly skilled workers from other nations. Related Articles National Politics | Trump threat to immigrant health care tempered by economic hopes National Politics | In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families National Politics | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National Politics | New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire guns National Politics | Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen The heart of the argument is, for America to remain competitive, the country needs to expand the number of skilled visas it gives out. The previous Trump administration did not increase the skilled visa program, instead clamping down on visas for students and educated workers, increasing denial rates. Not everyone in corporate America thinks the skilled worker program is great. Former workers at IT company Cognizant recently won a federal class-action lawsuit that said the company favored Indian employees over Americans from 2013 to 2022. A Bloomberg investigation found Cognizant, and other similar outsourcing companies, mainly used its skilled work visas for lower-level positions. Workers alleged Cognizant preferred Indian workers because they could be paid less and were more willing to accept inconvenient or less-favorable assignments. Question: Should the U.S. increase immigration levels for highly skilled workers? Economists Caroline Freund, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy YES: Innovation is our superpower and it relies on people. Sourcing talent from 8 billion people in the world instead of 330 million here makes sense. Nearly half our Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Growing them also relies on expanding our skilled workforce. The cap on skilled-worker visas has hardly changed since the computer age started. With AI on the horizon, attracting and building talent is more important than ever. Kelly Cunningham, San Diego Institute for Economic Research YES: After years of openly allowing millions of undocumented entrants into the country, why is there controversy over legally increasing somewhat the number having desirable skills? Undocumented immigration significantly impacts lower skill level jobs and wages competing with domestic workers at every skill level. Why should special cases be made against those having higher skills? Could they just not walk across the border anyway, why make it more inconvenient to those with desirable skills? James Hamilton, UC San Diego YES: Knowledge and technology are key drivers of the U.S. economy. Students come from all over the world to learn at U.S. universities, and their spending contributed $50 billion to U.S. exports last year. Technological advantage is what keeps us ahead of the rest of the world. Highly skilled immigrants contribute much more in taxes than they receive in public benefits. The skills immigrants bring to America can make us all better off. Norm Miller, University of San Diego YES: According to Forbes, the majority of billion-dollar startups were founded by foreigners. I’ve interviewed dozens of data analysts and programmers from Berkeley, UCSD, USD and a few other schools and 75% of them are foreign. There simply are not enough American graduates to fill the AI and data mining related jobs now exploding in the U.S. If we wish to remain a competitive economy, we need highly skilled and bright immigrants to come here and stay. David Ely, San Diego State University YES: Being able to employ highly skilled workers from a larger pool of candidates would strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. companies by increasing their capacity to perform research and innovate. This would boost the country’s economic output. Skilled workers from other nations that cannot remain in the U.S. will find jobs working for foreign rivals. The demand for H-1B visas far exceeds the current cap of 85,000, demonstrating a need to modify this program. Executives Phil Blair, Manpower YES: Every country needs skilled workers, at all levels, to grow its economy. We should take advantage of the opportunity these workers provide our employers who need these skills. It should be blended into our immigration policies allowing for both short and long term visas. Gary London, London Moeder Advisors YES: San Diego is a premiere example of how highly skilled workers from around the globe enrich a community and its regional economy. Of course Visa levels need to be increased. But let’s go further. Tie visas and immigration with a provision that those who are admitted and educated at a U.S. university be incentivized, or even required, to be employed in the U.S. in exchange for their admittance. Bob Rauch, R.A. Rauch & Associates NO: While attracting high-skilled immigrants can fill critical gaps in sectors like technology, health care and advanced manufacturing, increasing high-skilled immigration could displace American workers and drive down wages in certain industries. There are already many qualified American workers available for some of these jobs. We should balance the need for specialized skills with the impact on the domestic workforce. I believe we can begin to increase the number of visas after a careful review of abuse. Austin Neudecker, Weave Growth YES: We should expand skilled visas to drive innovation and economic growth. Individuals who perform high-skilled work in labor-restricted industries or graduate from respected colleges with relevant degrees should be prioritized for naturalization. We depend on immigration for GDP growth, tax revenue, research, and so much more. Despite the abhorrent rhetoric and curtailing of visas in the first term, I hope the incoming administration can be persuaded to enact positive changes to a clearly flawed system. Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health YES: But it should be based upon need, not politics. There are several industries that have or could have skilled workforce shortages, especially if the next administration tightens immigration as promised and expected. Over the years, there have been nursing shortages that have been met partially by trained and skilled nurses from other countries. The physician shortage is expected to get worse in the years to come. So, this visa program may very well be needed. Jamie Moraga, Franklin Revere NO: While skilled immigration could boost our economy and competitiveness, the U.S. should prioritize developing our domestic workforce. Hiring foreign nationals in sensitive industries or government-related work, especially in advanced technology or defense, raises security concerns. A balanced approach could involve targeted increases in non-sensitive high-demand fields coupled with investment in domestic STEM education and training programs. This could address immediate needs while strengthening the long-term STEM capabilities of the American workforce. Not participating this week: Alan Gin, University of San DiegoHaney Hong, San Diego County Taxpayers AssociationRay Major, economist Have an idea for an Econometer question? Email me at phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com . Follow me on Threads: @phillip020Chargers rule out RB Gus Edwards (ankle) vs. PatriotsElon Musk visits US Congress to discuss plans to dramatically cut federal spending
NoneHARRISBURG (AP) — The drubbing Democrats took in Pennsylvania in this year's election has prompted predictable vows to rebound, but it has also sowed doubts about whether Pennsylvania might be leaving the ranks of up-for-grabs swing states for a right-leaning existence more like Ohio's. The introspection over voters' rejection of Democrats comes amid growing speculation about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a contender for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination. Widely expected to seek reelection in the 2026 mid-terms, Shapiro was considered a rising star in the party even before he garnered heavy national attention for making Vice President Kamala Harris' shortlist of candidates for running mates. Some Pennsylvania Democrats say 2024’s losses are, at least in part, attributable to voters motivated specifically by President-elect Donald Trump. Many of those voters won't show up if Trump isn't on the ballot, the theory goes, leaving Pennsylvania's status as the ultimate swing state intact. “I don’t think it’s an indicator for Pennsylvania,” said Jamie Perrapato, executive director of Turn PA Blue, which helps organize and train campaign volunteers. “I’ll believe it when these people come out and vote in any elections but for the presidency.” Pennsylvania's status as the nation's premier battleground state in 2024 was unmistakable: political campaigns dropped more money on campaign ads than in any other state, according to data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Plenty of that money was spent by Democrats, but their defeat was across the board. Democrats in Pennsylvania lost its 19 presidential electoral votes, a U.S. Senate seat, three other statewide races, two congressional seats and what was once a reassuring advantage in voter registration. Some of those losses were particularly notable: Democrats hadn’t lost Pennsylvania's electoral votes and a Senate incumbent in the same year since 1880. The defeat of three-term Sen. Bob Casey is especially a gut-punch for Democrats: the son of a former governor has served in statewide office since 1997. An echo of what happened everywhere The same debate that Democrats are having nationally over Harris’ decisive loss is playing out in Pennsylvania, with no agreement on what caused them to be so wrong. Some blamed President Joe Biden, a Pennsylvania native, for backtracking on his promise not to run for reelection. Some blamed the party’s left wing and some blamed Harris, saying she tried to woo Republican voters instead of focusing on pocketbook issues that were motivating working-class voters. In Pennsylvania, finger-pointing erupted in the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia — where Trump significantly narrowed his 2020 deficit — between the city's Democratic Party chair and a Harris campaign adviser. The nation’s sixth-most populous city is historically a driver of Democratic victories statewide, but Harris' margin there was the smallest of any Democratic presidential nominee since John Kerry's in 2004, and turnout there was well below the statewide average. Rural Democrats suggested the party left votes on the table in their regions, too. Some said Harris hurt herself by not responding forcefully enough in the nation’s No. 2 natural gas state against Trump's assertions that she would ban fracking. Ed Rendell, the former two-term governor of Pennsylvania and ex-Democratic National Committee chair, said Trump had the right message this year and that Harris didn’t have enough time on the campaign trail to counter it. Still, Rendell said Pennsylvania remains very much a swing state. “I wouldn’t go crazy over these election results,” Rendell said. “It’s still tight enough to say that in 2022 the Democrats swept everything and you would have thought that things looked pretty good for us, and this time we almost lost everything.” That year, Shapiro won the governor’s office by nearly 15%, John Fetterman was the only candidate in the nation to flip a U.S. Senate seat despite suffering a stroke in the midst of his campaign, and Democrats captured control of the state House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years. Bethany Hallam, an Allegheny County council member who is part of a wave of progressive Democrats to win office around Pittsburgh in recent years, said the party can fix things before Pennsylvania becomes Ohio. But she cautioned against interpreting 2024 as a one-time blip, saying it would be a mistake to think Trump voters will never be heard from again. “They’re going to be more empowered to keep voting more,” Hallam said. “They came out, finally exercised their votes and the person they picked won. ... I don’t think this was a one-off thing.” The ever-changing political landscape Shapiro, assuming he seeks another term in 2026, would likely benefit from a mid-term backlash that has haunted the party in power — in this case, Republicans and Trump — in nearly every election since World War II. The political landscape never stays the same, and voters two years from now will be reacting to a new set of factors: the state of the economy, the ups and downs of Trump's presidency, events no one sees coming. Rendell predicted that Trump’s public approval ratings will be badly damaged — below 40% — even before he takes office. Democrats, meanwhile, fully expect Republicans to come after Shapiro in an effort to damage any loftier ambitions he may have. They say they’ll be ready. “He’s on the MAGA radar,” said Michelle McFall, the Westmoreland County Democratic Party chair. “He’s a wildly popular governor in what is still the most important battleground state ... and we’re going to make sure we’re in fighting shape to hold that seat.” In 2025, partisan control of the state Supreme Court will be up for grabs when three Democratic justices elected a decade ago must run to retain their seats in up-or-down elections without an opponent. Republicans have it marked on their calendars. Democrats will go into those battles with their narrowest voter registration edge in at least a half-century. What was an advantage of 1.2 million voters in 2008, the year Barack Obama won the presidency, is now a gap of fewer than 300,000. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that, since the 2020 presidential election, Republican gains weren’t because Republicans registered more new voters. Rather, the GOP’s gains were from more Democrats switching their registration to Republican, a third party or independent, as well as more inactive Democratic voters being removed from registration rolls, the researchers reported. Democrats have won more statewide elections in the past 25 years, but the parties are tied in that category in the five elections from 2020 through 2024. Daniel Hopkins, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said it is hard to predict that Pennsylvania is trending in a particular direction, since politics are evolving and parties that lose tend to adapt. Even when Democrats had larger registration advantages, Hopkins said, Republicans competed on a statewide playing field. Hopkins said Democrats should be worried that they lost young voters and Hispanic voters to Trump, although the swing toward the GOP was relatively muted in Pennsylvania. Trump’s 1.8 percentage-point victory was hardly a landslide, he noted, and it signals that Pennsylvania will be competitive moving forward. “I don’t think that the registration numbers are destiny,” Hopkins said. “That’s partly because even with Democrats losing their registration advantage, whichever party can win the unaffiliated voters by a healthy margin will carry the state.”
Affordable pockets under 11km from the CBD are still able to be found. Photo: iStock While rent price growth has slowed in the past year, the cost of renting remains significantly higher compared with pre-pandemic times. Renters are facing tough conditions, however, there are still suburbs close to the city with affordable rental properties available. National weekly rents rose by 7 per cent in the past year, reaching $620 in November, according to recent data from PropTrack. This was just half the growth rate of the prior year, marking a slowdown in market conditions. RELATED: Blues footy boss makes multimillion-dollar Hawthorn move Saints legend ‘Aussie’ Jones selling entertainer’s paradise with putting green Portelli slammed: Block is dud investment In Melbourne, the easing is even more apparent. Annual rent growth was only 6 per cent from November 2023 until November 2024, which was well below the 17 per cent recorded in the same period a year earlier. While the slowing of growth offers some relief for renters in the city who have had to endure substantial rent rises, weekly rents are still about 35 per cent higher than February 2020. Finding an affordable property has become more difficult, but homes in a number of inner-ring suburbs, those within the closest third in terms of distance to the CBD, still offer reasonably priced options. For suburbs within 11kms of the Melbourne CBD, Brooklyn, Heidelberg West and Avondale Heights had the cheapest rental houses, where weekly median rents were $550, $550 and $570 per week, respectively. Braybrook and Coburg North were also affordable with median house rents less than $600 per week. Level 4, 3/12 Powlett Street, Heidelberg is up for rent for $470 per week. MORE: Melbourne has most homes for sale in the nation Gardenvale, Caulfield East and Kingsville topped the list for the most affordable rental units among inner-ring suburbs. The cost of renting a unit was $390, $410 and $420 per week respectively. Units in Fairfield and West Footscray had weekly rents below $450 as well. The increase of rental stock has been one key factor easing rental conditions. Since November 2023, total rental listings have risen by 7.1 per cent. This is likely due to a return of investors and more people opting to purchase their first home instead of renting. However, on a historic basis, demand is high and supply remains low. As cost-of-living pressures mount and rent growth continues to outpace wage growth, more people will seek out cheaper rentals which could result in stronger price increases in budget-friendly areas. This will further decrease the availability of affordable rentals. To ensure that all Australians have access to affordable housing, it is crucial that the government prioritises building more well-located homes to meet the demands of our growing population. Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox. RELATED: ‘Man from Snowy River’ high country haven gets international interest Trick that got family into home for $35k less than they thought Bailey Smith splashes $4m on Surf Coast hinterland homeMontenegro To Extradite 'Crypto King' To U.S. After Long Legal Battle
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