STARTING GRID | YOUR GUIDE TO THE WEEK ON THE NASCAR CIRCUIT It seems everyone except champion Joey Logano is ea-ger to see to a change to the NASCAR playoff format. How to fix it remains up for debate. Logano won his third Cup Series championship earlier this month, re-igniting the conversation about whether the current playoff format is the best way to determine a worthy champion. Logano wound up winning four races this season, but only had 13 top 10 finishes in 37 races and clearly didn't have one of the best cars over the course of the season. Logano, it seemed, did just enough to get by. He got his share of breaks, too, using what amounted to a Hail Mary win in Nashville — stretching his empty fuel tank through five overtimes — to qualify for the postseason. He was actually eliminated from playoff contention in the second round, only to be reinstated after a competitor's car was ruled to be illegal. Logano's run to the title has left some drivers wanting to see the system altered, with suggestions ranging from minor tweaks to major changes. "I think the message we are trying to send is: Make the regular season matter more," said Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing and a co-owner of the 23XI Racing team. He suggested increasing the bonus points a driver gets during the regular season. "The (Christopher) Bells, (Kyle) Larsons, they deserve to have a really good buffer there to make it through the (playoff) rounds," Hamlin said. "We're in a sport where you can get caught up in so many wrecks and different things that can happen. ... There are 26 (regular season) races and they are proving to be not that substantial to winning a championship and that's not something you want." Hamlin suggested that over the past three years the Team Penske champions — Logano twice and Ryan Blaney once — "didn't have to do much" during the regular season. "And that's probably not good," Hamlin added. NASCAR likes the current playoff system because of the emphasis it places on each race heading down the final stretch of the season in its never-ending quest for Game 7 moments. Stock car racing's governing body remains open to tweaking the format — if it improves the sport. "I love that aspect of it," Bell said of the emphasis on the playoff races, "but maybe adjusting the points systems to make sure we get the right cars into the championship event would be awesome." Blaney said it's up to drivers to adapt the rules in place. But he said in his "ideal world" he'd like to see the top 16 drivers on points in the regular season qualify for the playoffs. He said race winners should get 10 or 15 points instead of five, and that the regular-season champion should get an additional 30 points. Blaney's final suggestion involves fewer elimination races. He suggested the 16-car field should be cut to eight after five playoff races, with the remaining eight drivers competing over the final five races for the championship. "I would like to see a group of races to end the year where you are not going to have anyone run away with it and you're going to have three to five races and you're still going to have some really good competition going on," Blaney said. Logano just shakes his head and offers a sarcastic smile at all the tweak talk. He was emphatic about the system not needing to be changed after his clinching win at Phoenix and didn't stray from that conviction at last Friday's annual awards ceremony in Charlotte. When asked if there are any changes that need to be made, Logano replied, "Nothing, personally. I wouldn't change a thing," adding that he thinks the format is "super entertaining." Of course, if you've won three championships since 2018, why would you want to change? "I think we all need to understand why we changed it in the first place, it's because the fans said they didn't like the way it was, so we changed it," Logano said. "And then everybody loved it. And it was great. And now, oh, we're going to complain about it again? C'mon, guys. Geez." Get local news delivered to your inbox!Then Wednesday's targeted fatal shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk thrust the executive and his business into the national spotlight. Thompson, who was 50, had worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group Inc for 20 years and run the insurance arm since 2021 after running its Medicare and retirement business. As CEO, Thompson led a firm that provides health coverage to more than 49 million Americans — more than the population of Spain. United is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, the privately run versions of the U.S. government’s Medicare program for people age 65 and older. The company also sells individual insurance and administers health-insurance coverage for thousands of employers and state-and federally funded Medicaid programs. The business run by Thompson brought in $281 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest subsidiary of the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. His $10.2 million annual pay package, including salary, bonus and stock options awards, made him one of the company's highest-paid executives. The University of Iowa graduate began his career as a certified public accountant at PwC and had little name recognition beyond the health care industry. Even to investors who own its stock, the parent company's face belonged to CEO Andrew Witty, a knighted British triathlete who has testified before Congress. When Thompson did occasionally draw attention, it was because of his role in shaping the way Americans get health care. At an investor meeting last year, he outlined his company's shift to “value-based care,” paying doctors and other caregivers to keep patients healthy rather than focusing on treating them once sick. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts “Health care should be easier for people,” Thompson said at the time. “We are cognizant of the challenges. But navigating a future through value-based care unlocks a situation where the ... family doesn’t have to make the decisions on their own.” Thompson also drew attention in 2021 when the insurer, like its competitors, was widely criticized for a plan to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms. “Patients are not medical experts and should not be expected to self-diagnose during what they believe is a medical emergency,” the chief executive of the American Hospital Association wrote in an open letter addressed to Thompson. “Threatening patients with a financial penalty for making the wrong decision could have a chilling effect on seeking emergency care.” United Healthcare responded by delaying rollout of the change. Thompson, who lived in a Minneapolis suburb and was the married father of two sons in high school, was set to speak at an investor meeting in a midtown New York hotel. He was on his own and about to enter the building when he was shot in the back by a masked assailant who fled on foot before pedaling an e-bike into Central Park a few blocks away, the New York Police Department said. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said investigators were looking at Thompson's social media accounts and interviewing employees and family members. “Didn’t seem like he had any issues at all,” Kenny said. "He did not have a security detail.” AP reporters Michael R. Sisak and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report. Murphy reported from Indianapolis.milyon88 milyon888 。

It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. "The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more," Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. "There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie," said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction." In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation, did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the "no-fault findings," as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report, Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist "saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities." But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's "decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable." A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug "then entered the market through illegal channels," he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles," Li said. "The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice." This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. "Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated," he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. "It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. "Which clearly it has not." Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from a Spotify spokesperson. Explicit content has been discovered in Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT search results, sparking user outrage over apparent moderation loopholes. What Happened: Over the weekend, a Reddit user shared a screenshot showing a pornographic video appearing in search results for British rapper M.I.A. One account, known for erotic audio, has recently begun posting sexually explicit videos, noted The Verge. Another account, identified by a random alphanumeric name, has been uploading similar content as podcasts since mid-November. See Also: Iran Turning Soft? Reformist Government Lifts WhatsApp, Google Play Ban — Promises ‘This Path Will Continue’ The content in question has been removed due to violation of our policies,” a Spotify spokesperson told Benzinga in an emailed statement. This issue is not new; previous Reddit posts and a 2022 Vice article have pointed out similar explicit content, including graphic nudity in playlist cover art. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s X , formerly Twitter , faced criticism for a surge in pornographic content , attributed to reduced content moderation. Meta Platforms, Inc.'s META Instagram has also been under scrutiny for suggesting sexualized content of minors to adult users. In November, Spotify reported quarterly revenue of $3.99 billion , which missed the projected $4.02 billion but marked an increase from last year’s sales of $3.65 billion during the same period. Price Action: Spotify’s stock has risen 141.78% year-to-date, according to data from Benzinga Pro . Analyst reports from Canaccord Genuity and Goldman Sachs have set a consensus price target of $525 for SPOT, suggesting a potential upside of 15.01%. Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link . Read Next: Nio’s Death Cross Meets Tesla Competition: Could Onvo L60 SUV Spark A Bullish Comeback? Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.A role reversal doomed the No. 22 Xavier Musketeers in their only loss of the season, against Michigan at the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Wednesday. Normally a team that avoids committing turnovers and pressures its opponent into making them, Xavier (6-1) will try to recapture its early-season winning form when it hosts South Carolina State on Sunday in Cincinnati. Through their six wins, the Musketeers had just 58 turnovers while forcing 82 by their opponents. But against the Wolverines, they lost the turnover battle 19-10 and the game 78-53. The Musketeers committed 14 turnovers in the first half and fell behind 41-30. Xavier head coach Sean Miller credited his team for typically playing an up-tempo style while avoiding mistakes, while also acknowledging that the turnover bug really bit them against the Wolverines. "We lost to a really good team; no shame in that," Miller said. "We, on top of that, didn't play well." "And that (avoiding turnovers) is something you (usually) do well? That's going to be hard to overcome against a quality team like Michigan." Leading scorer Ryan Conwell (17.6 points per game) gave the Musketeers a boost with 19 points. Zach Freemantle, second on the team at 15.4 ppg, added 14 points and 10 rebounds. Problematically, however, they also contributed to the turnover problem with three apiece. "We didn't play well enough to win the game," Miller said. "The game got out of hand. It's not like our guys quit. Their depth just continued to wear on us." The Musketeers also get 11 points and a team-high 4.4 assists per game from Dayvion McKnight. The guard had just one turnover against Michigan, but he also made just one of his eight shot attempts. Xavier may have an opportunity get right in the turnover area against the Bulldogs (4-4), who are No. 207 in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.11. South Carolina State is fresh off an 82-53 road loss to Marshall on Wednesday, in a game in which turnovers weren't a huge problem. But assists and made shots were hard to come by for the Bulldogs. Leading scorer Drayton Jones (12.0 ppg) again paced his team in points with 10 vs. Marshall, but the Bulldogs as a team managed just six assists and shot terribly at the 3-point (18.8 percent) and the free-throw (47.1 percent) lines. Jones is also the team's leading rebounder with 5.1 a game, but no Bulldogs player is averaging more than two assists. It's all part of the learning process for coach Erik Martin, whose first team went 5-26 in 2022-23. The Bulldogs improved to 14-18 last season, including 9-5 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. "The only way you can grow sometimes is by failure or by struggling," Martin said this offseason. "You have to fail in order to learn how to deal with failure and move on and become the person you're supposed to be." --Field Level Media

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