The News

 In a season oozing with breakout potential, NaLyssa Smith is finding her stride alongside her trio of co-stars. Though she found herself outside of the starting lineup early in the season, Smith’s return to the first five has helped her reach a new gear.

The No. 2 pick in the 2022 WNBA draft is a top-16 rebounder in the league, grabbing seven rebounds per game. That trails Indiana’s team-leader Aliyah Boston by less than one rebound per game.

“I want to keep rebounding hard,” Smith said. “I know I can be one of the best rebounders in this league.”

She sits among the top-14 in the WNBA in field goal percentage, too, sinking 50.3 percent of her shots. She is the Fever’s highest ranking player by this metric, and has recorded nine games with 50 percent or greater field goal percentage.

“We just really keep talking about paint touches,” coach Christie Sides said. “You’ve got to get paint touches…If you get a paint touch, it just collapses the defense. Especially with the way [Boston] and [Smith] are playing down there. You’ve got to play through your posts, and that’s not saying you just beat it in expecting them to get every shot. They just create wide open looks.”

Smith’s offense has been a major piece in Indiana’s successes this season – she’s scored in double figures in six of Indiana’s seven victories. Her synergy with rookie guard Caitlin Clark is boosting the efficiency of Indiana’s offense, as she thrives off of Clark’s ability to draw multiple defenders to the perimeter. As a result, Smith is the beneficiary of increased post touches, hitting 72 percent of her shots at the rim and 59 percent of her shots within 10 feet of the basket.

“It’s been a focus for us as a group,” Clark said. “We want to be able to play inside-out. We want to get our posts touches, and the more we can do that the better for [NaLyssa]…That’s the highest percentage shot in basketball. That’s the shot you want to get.”

Smith’s three double-doubles this season tie Clark for second-most by a Fever player, behind Boston’s five. She’s been an efficient weapon on the offensive side of the ball, but Smith pulls her weight on the defensive end as well.

“I’ve been challenged a lot this year defensively,” Smith said. “I took it as a challenge…I started taking defense a lot more seriously.”

She averages just over a block per contest – a mark that’s seen improvement following her first two years in the league. Smith’s block total for the entire 2023 season was just 10. She’s already doubled that mark with 21 blocks through just 19 games in the 2024 season. Smith has swatted 10 shots over the Fever’s last seven games – a stark contrast from her block totals just one season ago.

As she continues to ascend, Smith looks to play her way onto the court in Phoenix with the 2024 WNBA All-Stars. If she continues her efficient play, she has a case to be included in the All-Star frontcourt.

SOURCE 

 Dave Richards and the Versatran / BlueBird Funny Car team have been working around the clock to improve their on-track performance entering this weekend’s Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park.

Richards and his Versatran / BlueBird team have had a busy couple of weeks doing everything they can to get their hot rod to perform at its best. After front-halving their Funny Car ahead of the last weekend’s Virginia Nationals, Richards qualified the Versatran / Bluebird entry in the No. 16 spot before having a first-round exit to Bob Tasca III. The team then stayed Monday to test at Virginia Motorsports Park.

“Coming into Norwalk this weekend, we’re feeling pretty good. We front halved the car ahead of Richmond and we took some time to get a handle on it. Qualifying was a struggle, but we left competition on a good note. We lost first round, but we made a clean pass,” Richards said. “At testing on Monday, it went really well. We’re happy with the work we’ve done. It’s got us excited for this weekend. I’m glad it was a quick turnaround. I’m excited to get back in the car

Richards and the Versatran / BlueBird team want to continue to make a habit of qualifying for national events. Now at the halfway mark of the 2024 season, Richards has qualified for seven race days picking up his first-round win at the Charlotte Four-Wide event. The Versatran team will be looking to qualify for their eighth straight race day at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. With their extra efforts, they’ll look to turn on a few win lights on race day as well.

Competition at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals begins with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eliminations will be Sunday at 11 a.m. Television coverage of the event will begin on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with a qualifying show Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET followed by the first round of eliminations at 4:00 p.m. ET. The rest of eliminations will air on FOX Broadcasting Network (FOX) at 5:00 p.m. ET.

SOURCE 

 On June 27, 2024, the racing world lost one of its brightest stars, Lizzy Musi, after a year-long courageous battle with breast cancer. 

According to a statement made by her dad, renowned engine builder Pat Musi, Lizzy was surrounded by family in her own home when she passed.

Lizzy Musi was more than just a racer; she was a trailblazer and an inspiration. From a young age, she was drawn to drag racing, following in the footsteps of her legendary father. Lizzy carved out her own legacy in the racing world, becoming a fierce competitor and a beloved figure in the community.

Her accomplishments on the track were numerous and impressive. From her early days in the ADRL and to the PDRA, Lizzy most recently found success in the Discovery show Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings. She has also been featured numerous times in Drag Illustrated for her accomplishments and was the cover star of DI #84, the Hottest issue, in February 2014. But beyond the accolades, Lizzy was known for her unwavering determination, infectious enthusiasm, and genuine love for the sport and its people. 

Lizzy was also known for her incredible strength and courage off the track. In April 2023, she was diagnosed with triple-negative stage 4 breast cancer, which had spread to her lymph nodes and liver. 

Despite this challenging diagnosis, Lizzy remained open about her journey, sharing her story with honesty and bravery. She underwent various treatments in the United States and, most recently, announced that her final-round NPK appearance at Empire Dragway would be her last for at least the next few events as she traveled to Germany for a special cancer treatment.

Lizzy’s impact extended far beyond her racing achievements. Her kindness, humility, and generosity of spirit made her a cherished friend to many in the racing community and beyond.

This story was originally published on

 I'm not a big fan of our current political landscape. Take what you will from that, but of the myriad of issues on the table, the one I can lend my voice to and, hopefully, shine a little light upon, is the issue of public lands. 

If you haven't guessed based on my previous coverage, I'm firmly pro public lands. I use them all the time to hike, fish, hunt, dirt bike, and ride both ATVs and UTVs. As do millions of Americans each year.

But lately, we've become out-gunned by developers, so-called conservation groups, and vulture mining and logging capitalists that don't give two shits about the world's natural beauty and why we should keep things pristine and accessible to the public. These groups would rather starve state and federal land agencies of resources and then sell those lands off to the highest bidder. 

And recently, the folks behind the 'Project 2025' Republican playbook stated that they truly, truly, truly hate the idea of public lands by proposing that both the federal and state governments around the country sell off all its public land to "solve the housing crisis." 

Now, that's wrapped in a pretty understandable and neat-sounding bow, right? Who doesn't want to solve an issue that's seen millions of Americans unable to find housing? And I'm not here aiming for the Republican jugular on this, as the Democrats have sold their fair share of land to conspicuous actors, too, and have contributed to said housing crisis. But there's just one problem with the Project 2025 conceit.

It wouldn't solve anything.

Do you know what it would do? Probably make it worse, all while lining the pockets of folks who already have more money than God. It's a scam, plain and simple. A fleecing of the American people and their accomplishment of preserving the world around us for future generations. 

The most recent statements were made by William Perry Pendley, who wrote the Department of the Interior section of the Project 2025 playbook, and was featured in The Washington Examiner detailing his thoughts on how to solve the housing crisis. 

The article, titled "Solve the housing crisis by selling government land," hopes to paint a picture where our public lands are just sitting there, being unused, and ready to wrap its arms around America's hopeful with new housing. "It surprises most people outside the American West to learn that fully one-third of the nation’s land mass is owned by the federal government," Pendley writes, adding, "we should change that ownership pattern."

Pendley then goes on to cite that much of the land the public owns—yes, the American taxpayers—could be sold to housing developers which then could get sold to you and me. He quotes former President Trump's call to release more public land to developers to expand the West and build new "Freedom Cities" within the confines of formerly held public lands. All of which is, again, wrapped in the language of how this would help the average American purchase a home. 

But it's all bullshit. 

The housing issue we currently face isn't for the lack of space for developers to build new homes. No, the driving force for lackluster home availability is due to a couple of big factors, including corporate buy-ups of single-family homes, inflation driven by corporate greed, and employers not improving wages to keep up with said inflation.

There are other factors, too, with personal, educational, and medical debt being chief among them. But the biggest drivers are the three above, which the sell-off of our public lands wouldn't solve. 

Investors have been on a tear in purchasing homes across the country and trying to flip them for staggering profits. About 26% of single-family homes were purchased by investors in 2023, a number that's stayed around that area each year since 2019 according to CoreLogic. During that period, the median home price increased by 54%. 

It's the same for renting, too, as it's seen massive increases. A 30.4% increase—to be specific—to pricing in that same period. And aside from the corporate buy-ups of rental buildings across the US, it's now coming to light that the feds are looking into whether or not landlords colluded in price-fixing schemes to raise those rents and line their pockets.  

All of these price increases on both homes and rental units have occurred as wages have stayed stagnant and haven't kept up with inflation. To that end, I forgot to mention how corporations raised the prices of everything, surpassing inflation, in order to just make out like bandits in terms of corporate profits. So not only are homes and rental units more expensive, but literally everything is more expensive and you aren't getting paid as much as you once were. 

Where does that leave Project 2025's conceit then? Well, even taking away the investors buying up homes to flip for a profit, as well as those landlords looking to bleed you dry, what all of this means is it's become harder and harder for the average American to even afford a house.

So you'd think more homes would be good, right? Wrong. 

As you dive further down the rabbit hole of actual reality, you find that a whopping 15.4 million homes remained unoccupied. That's right, there are 15 million homes that just don't have people living in them. Now, some are vacation homes and others probably need a good amount of work. But a lot of these homes are just being sat on because homeowners, investors, and flippers just want more cash and aren't willing to face reality. It's cheaper for them to have them sit than for them not to make as much on their investment as they'd like. 

So what do you think more unregulated housing projects would do? Do you think it'd make this problem just disappear? Or do you think that selling off our public lands to the same folks who have caused all these issues would make it worse? Would those same investors holding onto those 15 million homes just buy these new homes up and cause further inventory issues as they price these new homes out of people's budgets? Of course they will. 

And not only will the inventory still be owned by greedy investors holding onto it until they can bleed you dry, but we'd all lose our public lands. It'd be worse in every conceivable way.  

There are a few bills and proposals within the halls of Congress at present looking to address these vacant home issues and investor-led price-gouging, but if you've paid any attention to politics in the last two decades, you'll be as cynical as I am about those getting any sort of traction. Both parties doing something to actually help the American public? Yeah, right. 

And I'm not even getting into the environmental disaster that would be this sell-off, because this is from the same folks that wanted to strip mine a lot of Alaska's pristine wild areas. It's also worth noting that Pendley was forced out of the Department of the Interior under Trump because he held the job illegally and wasn't confirmed by the Senate.

As you'd expect from my prior columns, and this long opposition, I find Pendley's beliefs and argument utterly reprehensible. Not only does it do nothing to solve the housing crisis Pendley supposedly is in opposition to, but it would remove tarnish this nation's long-standing tradition of preserving our nation's wild places. 

Gone would be our access to rivers for fishing, woods for hunting, deserts for riding, and vast open landscapes for enjoying. Instead, we'd have more strip malls, more unoccupied single-family homes, more parking lots, and toxic mining operations. And the few that'd benefit from this plan would see maybe a few extra dollars in their already heavy pockets. 

I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, because at the end of the day, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, undecided or apathetic, they're coming after the places we all love to use.

It's on us to protect our wild places from vultures like Pendley. 

SOURCE 

Brooke Mueller  is best known for her marriage to ex-husband Charlie Sheen, though she had also made headlines for her past arrests and legal issues. How many times has Brooke been arrested?

She called the cops following an altercation with then-husband Charlie in December 2009, claiming he had assaulted her after they started drinking on Christmas morning. Brooke then alleged that the Two and a Half Men star became violent and grabbed her around the throat before he pushed her.

Both Brooke and Charlie were given blood alcohol tests upon the police officers’ arrival, according to TMZ. Charlie claimed that Brooke was the aggressor and he was simply defending himself, though he was taken to Pitkin County Jail and remained behind bars for eight hours.

His first court appearance in the case was in February 2010, while he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge in August 2010. Charlie was ordered to spend 30 days in rehab as part of the plea, and his other two other charges were dropped in exchange. Additionally, the Machete Kills actor was also sentenced to three months’ probation and was ordered to complete 36 hours of domestic violence counseling.

Brooke Mueller Was Arrested for Assault and Drug Possession in 2011

The Witchouse actress was arrested in December 2011 on charges of assault and cocaine possession in Aspen, Colorado, the Aspen Police Department confirmed at the time.

Local authorities found Brooke at Escobar night club shortly after she assaulted a woman at another nearby bar called Belly Up, according to the police report obtained by Reuter

READ FULL ARTICLE 

 Consumers looking to cool off this summer are advised to avoid popular ice cream products from brands including Friendly’s, Hershey’s and Chipwich due to possible Listeria contamination, according to a recall announced Monday.

For the past two years, the death of Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, the subsequent discovery of his body outside of a Canton home on Jan. 29, 2022, and the investigation and trial that followed have captured public attention.

And at the center of that has been Karen Read, the woman who was dating O'Keefe at the time of his death and who was arrested days afterward on charges of manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.

Two narratives have emerged since the arrest. The state alleges that Read killed O'Keefe by backing into him with a car and leaving him to die. Read's defense team argues that the police and other parties have colluded to frame Read for O'Keefe's murder.

Here's what to know and Karen Read.

Who is Karen Read?

Read is from Mansfield, Massachusetts. The 44-year-old was an adjunct professor at Bentley College, teaching finance, but was fired from her job after she was arrested.

Read and O'Keefe were dating for two years, according to Court TV. In the trial, the relationship has been painted as tumultuous, with arguments about "what Read fed O’Keefe’s two adopted children, and that he witnessed a 2021 fight the couple had in Cape Cod over how O’Keefe treated her," according to the Associated Press. A witness also testified that Read became angry after she thought O'Keefe had kissed another woman during a vacation to Aruba.

Prosecutors say Read and O’Keefe had been drinking at a Canton bar with friends and acquaintances before they got into an argument. They say she hit him with her SUV outside the home of Brian Albert, who was hosting an after-party, shortly before 12:30 a.m.

Why did the Karen Read trial go viral?

The intrigue and scandal the case has generated gets the attention of the online world, as true crime YouTubers, TikTokers and internet sleuths begin following the Read case.

Aidan Kearney, the Holden blogger known as Turtleboy, covered the case extensively, and was part of drawing attention to the trial. Kearney is facing multiple counts of witness intimidation tied to allegations he harassed witnesses in Read’s case. He has accused some of the witnesses who testified – including Brian Albert, the Boston officer who owned the home – of being true culprits in the case. Kearney has publicly posted his attempts to contact some of the witnesses, spoke of many of them using crude language and brought followers to “protests” outside their homes.

Who is Michael Proctor?

Another person to know in the case is Michael Proctor.

The defense team has focused scrutiny on Proctor, a state police trooper who led the investigation of O'Keefe's death, accusing him of planting evidence at the crime scene.

Karen Read trial:How to watch Karen Read trial closing arguments live

During the trial, Proctor was asked to read text communications he had with others regarding Read. These communications revealed what the defense said is a bias against Read in the midst of the investigation. Proctor was also revealed to have made crude jokes, including about searching for nude pictures of the defendant when going through her phone.

Source 

 Seth Binzer, the lead singer of Los Angeles rap-rock band Crazy Town – who had a US No 1 hit with Butterfly in 2001 – has died aged 49. The LA medical examiner certified that his death took place on 24 June 2024 but gave no cause.

Binzer, also known as Shifty Shellshock, founded Crazy Town in 1995 alongside Bret Mazur. The band released their debut album, The Gift of the Game, in 1999.

It initially failed to find success, with two singles failing to chart. The band’s prospects looked dim, particularly after they withdrew from the travelling Ozzfest festival in 2000 after Binzer was arrested for throwing a chair out of a window while drunk.

However in autumn 2000, they released a third single, Butterfly, which sampled Pretty Little Ditty by Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom they had previously toured. The song climbed the US charts to reach No 1 the following year; in the UK it peaked at No 3.

The band had been hesitant to release the song as the album’s first single, they said, because they knew it would come to define them. Binzer said: “A song like Butterfly is a no-brainer, everyone seems to love that no matter how hard they are, it’s very radio friendly, the female audience loves it and at the same time I think we kept our integrity with it.”

They had made the correct assumption: when they toured with Ozzfest in 2001, Binzer told Rolling Stone the band had “a lot to prove” because of the single – namely that they were “aggressive punk kids – a real band and not a pop act”. Nevertheless, they received mixed reviews and were dismissed as “the Butterfly boys”, MTV reported.

They released a second album, Darkhorse, in 2002, which failed to reach the same heights, prompting the band to go on hiatus from 2003 to 2007.

In 2002, Binzer collaborated with Paul Oakenfold on the single Starry Eyed Surprise. In 2004, he released a solo album, Happy Love Sick, under the Shifty Shellshock alias.

The band reformed in 2007; a year later, Binzer would participate in the VH1 reality show Celebrity Rehab and a followup programme, Sober House, during which he relapsed.

In 2015 they released their third album, The Brimstone Sluggers, which failed to chart. After Mazur left the band in 2017, Binzer renamed the group Crazy Town X, and toured until 2023. The band were kicked off a tour that year with nu metal band Hed PE after a fight between their frontman Bobby Reeves and Binzer.

Binzer was born to Rollin Binzer, who directed the 1974 concert film Ladies and Gentlemen: the Rolling Stones, and former model Leslie Brooks. He was raised in Boston and LA and discovered rap by travelling to New York City to buy cassette tapes, where he also embraced skateboarding culture.

Binzer spoke openly about having spent time in jail as a young man following incidents including assault with a firearm, as well as selling and using drugs and struggling with addiction.

Around the turn of the 2010s, his engagement to British model Jasmine Lennard was marked by allegations of battery and drug use. In 2022, he was arrested in Los Angeles for driving under the influence.

Binzer’s death follows those of previous Crazy Town members Rust Epique, in 2004, and DJ AM, in 2009.

SOURCE 

 In 1497, the first recorded sighting of North America by a European took place as explorer John Cabot spotted land, probably in present-day Canada.