Number of women who are state lawmakers inches up to a record high17 years after I gave blood an unexpected email changed my life
Jharkhand election results 2024: ‘Infiltration’ rhetoric falls flat, BJP-led NDA loses 27 of the 28 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in JharkhandThe Detroit Lions will play without two high draft picks in rookie cornerbacks Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw Jr. while getting back veteran Emmanuel Moseley against the host Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Arnold was downgraded Saturday from questionable to out because of a groin injury. He was limited at practice on Thursday and participated in a full practice on Friday. The Lions drafted Arnold with the 24th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Alabama. Arnold, 21, has started all 10 games and has 38 tackles and six passes defended. Rakestraw (hamstring) was placed on injured reserve after not practicing all week. He already had been ruled out for Sunday's game. Detroit picked Rakestraw in the second round (61st overall) out of Missouri. He has played in eight games and has six tackles. Rakestraw, 22, has played on 46 defensive snaps (8 percent) and 95 special teams snaps (42 percent). Moseley had full practice sessions all week and was activated from injured reserve on Saturday but was listed as questionable for Sunday. The 28-year-old is in his second season with Detroit and appeared in one game last season before going on IR in October 2023. He was placed on IR on Aug. 27 with a designation to return. Moseley played from 2018-22 for the San Francisco 49ers and had 162 tackles, four interceptions -- one returned for a touchdown -- and 33 passes defensed in 46 games (33 starts). Detroit elevated linebacker David Long on Saturday for game day. Long, 28, signed with the practice squad on Tuesday after the Miami Dolphins released him on Nov. 13. He had started six of eight games for the Dolphins this season and had 38 tackles. In other Lions news, the NFL fined wide receiver Jameson Williams $19,697 for unsportsmanlike conduct for making an obscene gesture during a touchdown celebration in last Sunday's 52-6 home win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL Network reported Saturday. Williams, 23, scored on a 65-yard pass from Jared Goff with 12:55 remaining in the third quarter. This article first appeared on Field Level Media and was syndicated with permission.
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Hail Flutie: BC celebrates 40th anniversary of Miracle in MiamiWomen will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling just over third of legislative seats. Races in some states are still being called. "We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal," said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. As of Wednesday, at least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP. The number of Republican women, at least 851, will break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers set in 2024. "But still, Republican women are very underrepresented compared to Democratic women," Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP, said. From left, House Maj. Whip Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, Rep. D. Wonda Johnson, D-Church Rock and Rep. Cristina Parajon, D-Albuquerque, talk July 18 before the start of a special session, in Santa Fe, N.M. By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado, where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers. In New Mexico, voters sent an 11 additional women to the chambers. Colorado previously attained gender parity in 2023 and is set to tip over to a slight female majority in the upcoming year. The states follow Nevada, which was the first in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Next year, women will make up almost 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada, far exceeding parity. Women in California's Senate will make up the chamber's majority for the first time in 2025 as well. Women also made notable gains in South Dakota, increasing its number by at least nine. Four of South Carolina's Sister Senators, from left, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Walterboro, Sen. Mia McLeod, I-Columbia, Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, and Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, stand in front of the Senate on June 26 with their John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award in Columbia, S.C. At least thirteen states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina. This year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Next year, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate. No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper chamber, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of the state's registered voters. Half the members in the GOP dominated state were elected in 2012 or before, so it will likely be the 2040s before any Republican woman elected in the future can rise to leadership or a committee chairmanship in the chamber, which doles out leadership positions based on seniority. A net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only about 13% of South Carolina's lawmakers, making the state the second lowest in the country for female representation. Only West Virginia has a smaller proportion of women in the legislature. West Virginia stands to lose one more women from its legislative ranks, furthering its representation problem in the legislature where women will make up just 11% of lawmakers. Many women, lawmakers and experts say that women's voices are needed in discussions on policy, especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades. Walsh, director of the CAWP, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will turn even more policy and regulation to the states. The experiences and perspectives women offer will be increasingly needed, she said, especially on topics related to reproductive rights, healthcare, education and childcare. "The states may have to pick up where the federal government may, in fact, be walking away," Walsh said. "And so who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever." November 7, 2024: Trump Victory Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani won his third Most Valuable Player Award and first in the National League, and Aaron Judge earned his second American League honor on Thursday. Ohtani was a unanimous MVP for the third time, receiving all 30 first-place votes and 420 points in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second with 263 points and Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte third with 229. Judge was a unanimous pick for the first time. Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. got all 30 second-place votes for 270 points, and Yankees outfielder Juan Soto was third with 21 third-place votes and 229 points. Ohtani was unanimously voted the AL MVP in 2021 and 2023 as a two-way star for the Los Angeles Angels and finished second to Judge in 2022 voting. He didn't pitch in 2024 following elbow surgery and signed a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers last December. Ohtani joined Frank Robinson for Cincinnati in 1961 and Baltimore in 1966 as the only players to win the MVP award in both leagues. He was the first player to twice become an unanimous MVP. He had combined with Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023 for the first year both MVPs were unanimous. Ohtani hit .310, stole 59 bases and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs exclusively as a designated hitter, becoming the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. He helped the Dodgers to the World Series title, playing the final three games with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. "The ultimate goal from the beginning was to win a World Series, which we are able to accomplish," he said through a translator. "The next goal is for me to do it again and so right now I'm in the middle of rehab and working out and getting stronger." When Ohtani returns to the mound, could he win MVP and the Cy Young Award in the same year? "That would obviously be great, but right now my focus is just to get to get back healthy, come back stronger, get back on the mound and show everybody what I can do," Ohtani said. Ohtani became the first primary DH to win an MVP in a season that started with the revelation his longtime interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, had stolen nearly $17 million from the star to fund gambling. Ohtani is the 12th player with three or more MVPs, joining Barry Bonds (seven) and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout (three each). Balloting was conducted before the postseason. Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers, 144 RBIs and 133 walks while hitting .322. Witt topped the big leagues with a .332 average, hitting 32 homers with 31 stolen bases and 109 RBIs. Soto batted .288 with 41 homers and 109 RBIs. When Judge won his first MVP award in 2022, he received 28 first-place votes while Ohtani got the other two. Judge had discussed the MVP award with Philadelphia's Bryce Harper, the NL winner in 2015 and '21. "I was telling him, `Man, I'm going to try to catch up to you with these MVPs here, man,'" Judge recalled. "He'd say, hopefully, he could stay a couple ahead of me, which I think he'll do." When Judge won his first MVP award in 2022, he received 28 first-place votes while Ohtani got the other two. He is the Yankees' 22nd MVP winner, four more than any other team. Judge was hitting .207 with six homers and 18 RBIs through April, then batted .352 with 52 homers and 126 RBIs in 127 games. "March and April were not my friend this year." Judge said. "Just keep putting in the work and things are going to change. You can't mope. You can't feel sorry for yourself. Especially in New York, nobody's going to feel sorry for you. So you just got to go out there and put up the numbers?" ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The St. Petersburg City Council reversed course Thursday on whether to spend more than $23 million to repair the hurricane-shredded roof of the Tampa Bay Rays' ballpark, initially voting narrowly for approval and hours later changing course. The reversal on fixing Tropicana Field came after the council voted to delay consideration of revenue bonds for a proposed new $1.3 billion Rays ballpark. Just two days before, the Pinellas County Commission postponed a vote on its share of the new stadium bonds, leaving that project in limbo. “This is a sad place. I'm really disappointed,” council chair Deborah Figg-Sanders said. “We won’t get there if we keep finding ways we can’t.” The Rays say the lack of progress puts the new stadium plan and the future of Tropicana Field in jeopardy. “I can't say I'm confident about anything,” Rays co-president Brian Auld told the council members. The Trop's translucent fiberglass roof was ripped to pieces on Oct. 9 when Hurricane Milton swept ashore just south of Tampa Bay. There was also significant water damage inside the ballpark, with a city estimate of the total repair costs pegged at $55.7 million. The extensive repairs cannot be finished before the 2026 season, city documents show. The Rays made a deal with the Yankees to play next season at 11,000-seat Steinbrenner Field, New York's spring training home across the bay in Tampa. The initial vote Thursday was to get moving on the roof portion of the repair. Once that's done, crews could begin working on laying down a new baseball field, fixing damaged seating and office areas and a variety of electronic systems — which would require another vote to approve money for the remaining restoration. The subsequent vote reversing funding for the roof repair essentially means the city and Rays must work on an alternative in the coming weeks so that Tropicana Field can possibly be ready for the 2026 season. The city is legally obligated to fix the roof. BRIEFLY PIRATES: Pittsburgh hired Matt Hague as its hitting coach, bringing him back to the team that drafted him in 2008. Hague replaces Andy Haines, who was fired after Pittsburgh finished in the bottom 10 in the majors in every significant statistical category last season, including runs (24th) and home runs (25th), while also striking out a club-record 1,504 times, second-most in the National League behind Colorado. The 39-year-old Hague spent last season as an assistant hitting coach with the Toronto Blue Jays. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Article content The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH) held a rally Saturday while the snow fell and the temperature dropped, with a goal of spurring action to develop more social housing to help more than 4,000 people experiencing homelessness in the city. “We’re all dressed nice and warm, of course, but the people who we’re here for are not, and they don’t have the luxury of going home afterwards,” said ECOHH chairwoman Nadine Chalifoux at the beginning of the event. A crowd of more than 50 people were bundled up in tarps and blankets at the North Plaza of the Legislature Grounds — experiencing a just fraction of what thousands experiencing homelessness endure throughout the winter. ECOHH’s rally was just one among 15 other cities across Canada to recognize of National Housing Day, aiming to raise awareness and to encourage action from municipal, provincial, and federal governments to invest in social housing for vulnerable Canadians. Attendees of the rally were given postcards addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created by Social Housing & Human Rights Canada , calling on the federal government to create a “minimum of 50,000 net new rent-geared-to-income social housing units each year for 10 years, starting now.” ECOHH’s rally comes on the heels of a deadly two-weeks for Edmonton which saw four people found dead in bus shelters across the city as the weather has gotten colder and the snow began to fall. The four people were believed to be homeless, which president of transit union ATU Local 569, Steve Bradshaw, believed was weather related. “ They are coming out of their encampments and back onto the system, it’s a seasonal shift,” said Bradshaw to Postmedia. Safety response In response to the changing weather, the City of Edmonton activated its winter safety response plan to support Edmonton’s thousands of people experiencing homelessness. The initiative rolls out a variety of resources, including a free nightly shelter shuttle bus (which the city just added one more of for the winter), wound care pop ups, and warm public spaces, among others. Edmonton’s Hope Mission hit a new milestone since the change in the weather, providing shelter for more than 1,000 people for the first time ever. The organization said the demand for shelter was met with similarly increased demand for hot meals. Tim Pasma, director of programs and homelessness with Hope Mission, thanked the Alberta government for its financial support. “ We are so grateful that the province has helped us to open these additional shelter spaces. They have helped enable us to meet this growing need,” said Pasma in a release. For its part, the Alberta government said it increased funding for shelters in Edmonton to more than $42 million, bringing the total provincial budget for homelessness in 2024-25 to nearly $210 million. But funding for shelters wasn’t enough for the chanters at Saturday’s rally, which made clear by their collective voices echoing off of the surrounding provincial buildings in the quiet, cold, afternoon. “Build houses — not shelters,” the crowd shouted during a call-and-response segment of the rally. “I think this is honestly an appropriate day to be doing this and thinking about us being here together in solidarity with over 4000 people that are also outside today and unhoused or homeless,” said University of Alberta researcher Rylan Kamara to the bundled-up crowd in the plaza. “With those kind of numbers, it just shows how market approaches to this housing crisis, they don’t work, and they haven’t for a long time.” The crowd listened to several speakers and performers, including drumming from members the Enoch Cree Nation, and a performance by Martin Kerr of his song “ God Rest Ye Merry Billionaires ,” which was released last year. Juno award-winning songwriter Maria Dunn also performed a song specifically about the unfolding homelessness crisis, calling on Canadians to put the same effort into helping support the homeless as is put into hockey. “I think about how much our society values and seems to assemble lots of resources and money to celebrate hockey, which is wonderful to celebrate with joy, but why can’t we do that for people who are out on the street?” asked Dunn prior to beginning the song. “No matter what’s happened to you, no matter what you’re going through, you deserve a decent place to live. Without housing first, where does healing begin?” sang Dunn, as the crowd joined in for the final chorus. “Bring them home. Bring them home. Leave it all on the ice. We need everyone bring them home.” With files from Lauren Boothby.
Coote was sacked earlier this month after the emergence of a video in which he made derogatory remarks about Liverpool and their former manager Jurgen Klopp. Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said that a thorough investigation had concluded he was “in serious breach of the provisions of his employment contract, with his position deemed untenable”. “Supporting David Coote continues to be important to us and we remain committed to his welfare,” PGMOL’s statement on December 9 added. Coote had the right to appeal against the decision but PA understands the Nottinghamshire referee has decided not to. The video which triggered PGMOL’s investigation into Coote’s conduct first came to public attention on November 11. In it, Coote is asked for his views on a Liverpool match where he has just been fourth official, and describes them as “s***”. He then describes Klopp as a “c***”, and, asked why he felt that way, Coote says the German had “a right pop at me when I reffed them against Burnley in lockdown” and had accused him of lying. “I have got no interest in speaking to someone who’s f****** arrogant, so I do my best not to speak to him,” Coote said. Later in the video, Coote again refers to Klopp, this time as a “German c***”. The Football Association opened its own investigation into that video, understood to be centred on that last comment and whether Coote’s reference to Klopp’s nationality constituted an aggravated breach of its misconduct rules. The investigation by PGMOL which led to Coote’s contract being terminated is also understood to have looked at another video which appeared to show Coote snorting a white powder, purportedly during Euro 2024 where he was one of the assistant VARs for the tournament. European football’s governing body UEFA also appointed an ethics investigator to look into the matter.Asking Eric: Nephew only wants to play video games on family vacation
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No. 17 Clemson 51, The Citadel 14Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings has admitted his recovery back from a long-term knee injury was “awful” and led to doubts as to whether he would ever return to play. Mings sustained a second career Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury in August 2023, during Villa’s opening day season fixture away to Newcastle United . Recovery was arduous, with the England international also suffering cartilage damage. Advertisement The extent of the injury was severe as Mings suffered noticeable muscle atrophy in his right leg and, given it was his second ACL after the first was at Bournemouth and took 473 days to recover from, caused psychological challenges. This time, the 31-year-old was out of action for 445 days, only returning in October’s Carabao Cup defeat against Crystal Palace . Mings made his first Premier League start on Wednesday evening, in the 3-1 victory at Brentford, marking an impressive and extensive turnaround, especially during stages of recovery, which Mings expressed the difficulty of. “It was (the journey back) awful, absolutely awful,” said Mings, speaking in the mixed zone after the game against Brentford . “But I’ve done it before and I did it again. I was always wondering what was keeping me going, whether it was nights like tonight, family, or personal pride. It was a little bit of everything. When times get tough, you ask, what am I still doing this for? “The messages I had from them (supporters), was really heartwarming and played a big part. I thank the Villa fans for that because the roar when your name is called out and all of those things add up to my journey back. Tonight was a good feeling.” As The Athletic has detailed in a separate piece, Mings’ rehabilitation was broken down into stages, owing to the sheer length of tthe imescale. He flew to Philadelphia for three weeks and worked with an ACL specialist — someone he had spent time with during his previous injury at Bournemouth. Sources close to the situation, who, like others in this piece, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, describe the facility as “top class”. “You have good days, bad days, good hours, bad hours,” added Mings. “But I am a big believer in visualisation. I played tonight over in my head many, many times before, so when you step back out there I feel very comfortable and like I have never been away because of the mental work I have done before. Advertisement “It also means I have seen way worse in the last 16, 17 months than bad days in football, which means I can contextualise it a little bit and means I am very calm after a loss or bad performance. “Like (there were) times when I genuinely did think I would not be able to recover from this knee injury, such was the severity of it and the complications with it. When I think of where I have been, bad days in football don’t seem too bad. “I did not conclusively think “this is it” but there were definitely days when I thought I have been banging my head against a brick wall for a few months and I have not seen any progress. When is something going to change? I never thought: ‘I am never going to play football again’. But there were certainly days when I thought, will I? If that makes sense.” Mings had three stints in the U.S., including at the start of the year, as well as a period in Qatar, continuing to work. Progress was not straightforward; there were periods when he felt ahead of schedule — Unai Emery’s long-standing prediction was that he would be available to train in September — running on the grass and gently increasing his workload. At other times, optimism would fracture after frustrating setbacks. “I think probably around April of this year (was the low point),” he said. “The journey was very stop-start, stop-start. Right up until October and November of last year, I was still having operations to get the knee right, so the rehab didn’t really start until that point. “There were a lot of setbacks so it was probably April I was thinking, I have pretty much exhausted all avenues of what I can do here. Honestly, the only thing you do in that situation is keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. That is why I say you have to draw on every part of internal and external motivation you have. There are different days and different things. “Sometimes when you are away from home, away from family – I had a lot of time in America – you think if the family think I can do this, then I sure as hell will keep turning up every day and doing the work.” GO DEEPER Inside Tyrone Mings' 445-day road to recovery (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
