Tenth-seeded Creighton made its first round of 16, and did it with late-game drama befitting the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball tournament.
Lauren Jensen, a sophomore who is in her first year playing for Creighton after transferring from Iowa, shut the door on her former team on its home court in Iowa City with a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute to help seal a 64-62 victory over the second-seeded Hawkeyes.
“I honestly didn’t know if it was going to go in,” Jensen said after the game. “It kind of rattled off the back rim there. It wasn’t super clean, but I’m just glad it fell.”
Iowa was a popular pick to make the Final Four, mostly thanks to the eye-catching play of sophomore guard Caitlin Clark. Clark entered the game as Division I’s leading scorer, averaging 27.4 points per game. Creighton held her to just 15 points on 4-of-19 shooting, although, with 11 assists and eight rebounds, she nearly had a triple-double.
“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses for how I played,” Clark said. “I think just coming back and working harder than I ever have is really all I can do.”
Dive Deeper Into the N.C.A.A. Tournaments
Iowa junior Gabbie Marshall’s 3-pointer put the Hawkeyes ahead with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter — a lead that briefly made it look like Iowa had finally found its footing after trailing by as many as 12 points, a lead Creighton only reclaimed when there were 12 seconds left in the game on Jensen’s 3-pointer.
The basket gave Jensen 9 points in the final quarter.
“Those last few minutes had to be magical and special, and we’re super proud of her and we’re super proud that she’s part of our program,” Creighton Coach Jim Flanery said.
The Hawkeyes had a few looks at a close last-second shot, but none went in. “I’ve shot a million hook shots in my life and that one happened to not go in,” Monika Czinano, who led Iowa with 27 points, said after the game.
The Hawkeyes, typically so prolific on offense, made just 35.7 percent of their shot attempts from the field to record their lowest point total at home since 2016.
In 2021, they were able to ride Clark’s shot to the round of 16, where they lost to Connecticut, a No. 1 seed. This year, their postseason ended in the second round, at the hands of a young group of Creighton players who held onto the lead for nearly 29 of the 40 minutes.
The Bluejays’ upset win, played before a sold-out had more Carver-Hawkeye Arena, was one of just a few first- and second-round games airing on ABC — mostly because of the buzz surrounding Clark, a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy for national player of the year.
“That was the most special environment that I’ve ever played in by far,” Creighton senior Payton Brotzki said.
Creighton strong-armed Iowa, collectively outrebounding the Hawkeyes by 15 and making it miserable for them to shoot. It was a balanced, collective effort that, in some ways, mirrored Creighton’s first-round victory over No. 7 Colorado. In that game, the Bluejays were also in control almost from the tip-off, and didn’t get flustered when their opponents showed signs of life.
This is Flanery’s 20th season as Creighton’s head coach, and the team’s fifth N.C.A.A. tournament appearance under his leadership. In the round of 16, the Bluejays will play the winner of No. 3 Iowa State’s game against No. 6 Georgia on Sunday night.
It was the shock of a loud whistle that almost caused Doctor Gregory Poland to veer off the road as he was driving home after getting his second COVID-19vaccine.
“It startled me,” said Dr Poland, who is 66 years old.
“I thought it was a dog whistle going off right next to me.”
Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >>
It was not a dog whistle; it was a piercing sound his brain conjured up for an unknown reason.
Dr Poland suspects it may have been a side effect of the vaccine.
That was one year ago. The noise, he said, has been unrelenting ever since.
For the record, neither Dr Poland nor the medical community at large can prove that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that he received had anything to do with his sudden onset of tinnitus, a condition that is often described as a ringing, buzzing or hissing noise in one or both ears. It can be constant or intermittent.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and vaccine manufacturers, have investigated anecdotal reports of tinnitus through programs such as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, following COVID vaccination, but have found no evidence of cause and effect.
And Poland’s tale might not carry much weight if he weren’t Dr Gregory Poland — a globally respected physician who has dedicated his career to vaccine study and development as founder and director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr Gregory Poland. Credit: Mayo Clinic/ NBC
What’s more, Dr Poland is a paid scientific adviser for Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Global Services, and acts as a consultant on vaccine development for Moderna, as well as other pharmaceutical companies.
Given Dr Poland’s interests and the uncertainty of a true link between the vaccine and tinnitus — not to mention a strong anti-vaccine movement — why would he publicise his condition and suspicion that a vaccine could be involved?
“As a physician who’s taken an oath to first do no harm, I think about these things,” Dr Poland said.
His day-to-day focus, he said, is to help patients work through the potential risks and benefits of any treatment, including vaccines.
“I refuse to be anything less than transparent,” he said.
“I refuse to cherry-pick the information that should be presented to people to make good decisions.”
What does the science say?
There is no known cause of tinnitus, though it is often associated with “acoustic trauma”, such as what is experienced by active duty military personnel.
There is some evidence that COVID-19 itself may worsen the condition in people who have previously suffered from ringing in their ears.
When it comes to potential auditory side effects of vaccination, research is sparse.
A study published last month in the medical journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, analysed reports of hearing issues following COVID-19 vaccines. The reports had been submitted to VAERS.
Such reports raise the issue of unexpected problems following any vaccine.
A gloved doctor or health care professional applies a patch or adhesive bandage to a girl or young woman after vaccination or drug injection. The concept of medicine and health care, vaccination and treatment of diseases. First aid services. Credit: Aleksandr Zubkov/Getty Images
Scientists are then tasked with reviewing the reports, looking for patterns of unusual side effects.
The JAMA study, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, analyzed 555 VAERS reports of hearing loss possibly associated with any of the three COVID vaccines in use in the US between mid-December 2020 and mid-July 2021.
But the analysis found that hearing loss or other auditory issues were no more prevalent after vaccination than would be expected in the general population.
Up to 10 per cent of the US population is estimated to have experienced tinnitus from any cause.
In fact, having a COVID infection has been linked to hearing loss or severe, even unbearable, tinnitus.
The most notable example was the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain’s chief executive officer, Kent Taylor.
The 65-year-old entrepreneur died by suicide one year ago, his family said, following COVID illness, including relentless tinnitus.
Another study, out of Israel, also published last month in the same JAMA publication, found a slight increase in hearing problems following administration of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Such reports overall, however, were minimal.
Vaccine manufacturers respond
In a statement to NBC News, Pfizer said the company takes reported adverse events “very seriously”.
“Tinnitus cases have been reviewed and no causal association to the COVID-19 vaccine has been established,” the statement read.
A statement from Johnson & Johnson said that tinnitus was identified as an adverse event in its phase 3 clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine but also maintained that it was impossible to “establish a causal relationship to vaccine exposure”.
Moderna did not respond to several requests for comment.
The challenge, Dr Poland said, is “trying to discern what is real and what is coincidental.”
That is, are such hearing problems so common they would be expected regardless of vaccination?
It was the shock of a loud whistle that almost caused Doctor Gregory Poland to veer off the road as he was driving home after getting his second COVID-19 vaccine. Credit: Getty Images
The CDC also acknowledged reports of tinnitus following COVID-19 vaccinations, specifically the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
A statement from the agency, however, said that “currently, the data from safety monitoring are not sufficient to conclude that a causal relationship exists between vaccination and tinnitus”.
At Stanford Medicine Molecular Neurotology Laboratory in California, director Dr Konstantina Stankovic, an otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon, is leading preliminary research to determine the potential impacts of both COVID and its vaccines on auditory function.
While the scientific process should ultimately determine any true links between the virus, vaccines and potential hearing issues, Stankovic said tinnitus may be an under-recognised side effect of the vaccine.
“My email is being bombarded by people from across the world who really feel that they don’t have a voice,” she said.
“They feel that they’re being dismissed, that people don’t take them seriously, and yet they tell me in very moving ways how they can tie it to the vaccine.”
Dr Stankovic is quick to acknowledge that personal stories do not prove causality.
“You cannot make big claims based on individual patients,” she said. “But they should not be ignored.”
Dr Poland’s experience with tinnitus has been borderline traumatic. He’s had previous bouts with ringing in his ears, but nothing as lasting or as intense.
“I sat one night looking at the stars and tears came to my eyes when the thought occurred to me out of the blue: I may never hear silence again,” he said. He wakes up in the middle of the night, unable to ignore the blaring whistle in his ears.
In addition to medicine, Dr Poland is also a minister. He even finds the sound of church music intolerable.
Still, he got his booster and would “not hesitate for a millisecond to recommend the vaccine”.
“Nobody should be afraid to get a vaccine because of the possibility of some sort of auditory side effect,” Poland said, citing the well-established risks of complications from COVID.
“A wise person looks at the balance of risks and benefits and says, ‘well, there are some known risks to the vaccine, but they are far lower than the risks of getting the disease,’” he said.
Germany has sought to reduce its energy dependence on Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Germany and Qatar have reached a long-term energy partnership, a German official has said, as Europe’s biggest economy seeks to become less dependent on Russian energy sources.
Russia is the largest supplier of gas to Germany and German economy minister Robert Habeck has launched several initiatives to lessen Germany’s energy dependence on Russia since it invaded its neighbour Ukraine.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Habeck on Sunday and the two discussed ways to enhance bilateral relations, particularly in the energy sector, the Emiri court said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the German economics ministry in Berlin confirmed on Sunday that a deal had been clinched.
“The companies that have come to Qatar with (Habeck) will now enter into contract negotiations with the Qatari side,” the spokesperson said.
In a statement, Qatar said that for years it had sought to supply Germany but discussions never led to concrete agreements.
Qatar said it agreed with Germany that “their respective commercial entities would re-engage and progress discussions on long term LNG supplies”.
Habeck also met Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida al-Kaabi in Doha, where they discussed energy relations and cooperation between Qatar, one of the world’s top natural gas exporters, and Germany, and ways to enhance them, according to a statement from al-Kaabi.
In late February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the construction of two new terminals for liquefied natural gas in response to what some critics said was Germany’s over-reliance on Russian gas. The terminals are to be located in Brunsbuttel and Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany put on hold the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project designed to bring Russian natural gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Germany intends to phase out its nuclear power production by the end of this year, leaving observers questioning how Europe’s biggest economy will fulfill all of its energy needs.
Spring is almost here, making it the perfect time to breathe fresh life into your home with updated technology. Best Buy’s latest flash sale features price cuts on a ton of top tech across the store. Find big savings on everything from laptops to TVs, small appliances, tablets, headphones and more. You can shop the entire selection of deals at Best Buy. This sale is only available for this weekend, making today your last chance to take advantage of these great discounts. The sale is set to expire tonight at 12:59 a.m. ET (9:59 p.m. PT).
Finding the best deals in a sale so expansive can take time and feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. That’s why we’ve gone through Best Buy’s current offers to pick out some of the best deals available. Whether you’re upgrading your laptop or television, getting the latest in smart home technology, snagging a great pair of noise-canceling headphones or something else altogether, now is a great find bargain prices. Check out some of our favorite picks below and take advantage of these deals before they disappear.
This Chromebook will handle all your basic computing, work and entertainment needs with ease. It features a 14-inch 1920×1080 display. It also has thousands of apps available, built-in virus protection and cloud backups. Many schools use Chromebooks, so it can be an ideal candidate for students. It also includes a built-in HD webcam and microphone so that you can video chat and teleconference without issue. This laptop has 32GB eMMC storage and 4GB of memory (RAM), so you won’t be able to do heavy gaming or video editing, but for everyday tasks and video streaming, this is a great budget computer.
Google will continue to provide updates for this model through June 2024.
The Farenheit Flare is a smokeless, stainless steel, portable fire pit. At just over 10 pounds, this fire pit is light enough to take with you on any outdoor adventure and is ideal for camping or the beach. It is also a great addition to any backyard. It is a wood burning fire pit, so you’ll need wood pellets or small logs for the fire. The design reduces smoke to make the experience of sitting around the fire pit more enjoyable. The stainless steel construction is durable and rust resistant.
Clean smarter, not harder. This robot vacuum has a powerful, deep-cleaning suction to pick up large and small debris, including dust, dander, allergens and pet hair. With this Shark EZ Robot, you can set up a cleaning schedule and then forget about vacuuming. It will automatically clean your floors and then return to the base when it needs to recharge. Plus, it has smart technology to know where it left off, so when it is charged it will resume in the right place to keep every area clean. The self-emptying base holds up to 30 days of dirt and debris, meaning you only have to do maintenance once a month.
Secure what matters most with the Arlo Pro 4 Security Bundle. This bundle includes 3 Pro 4 indoor/outdoor cameras, 4 rechargeable batteries, a dual battery charging station, 3 anti-theft mounts and a security yard sign (an $800 value when purchased separately at full price). Each of the cameras have a wider, 160-degree view and auto image correction as well as color night vision for better identification in any lighting. There is also an integrated spotlight, 2-way audio and it works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings. Your purchase comes with 3-months of Arlo Secure, which comes with 30-day cloud recording, advanced object detection, activity zones, a siren, quick-dial to emergency services and more. Plans start at $3 per month per camera thereafter.
The Surface 4 is great for streaming movies, gaming with friends and jumping on video calls. It has HD video and Studio Mics to make sure you come through perfectly clear no matter where you are. Plus, the speakers support Dolby Atmos audio, allowing a cinematic experience right from your lap (or desk). This particular model has 512GB of storage on a solid state drive and 16GB of memory, which is enough to power all your everyday computing tasks and entertainment needs, as well as intense multitasking, video editing, gaming and other big projects. The 13.5-inch display makes it ultra-portable. Plus, this laptop comes with a free upgrade to Windows 11, the latest Windows OS. And with Fast Charging, you can get up to 80% in an hour, giving you more flexibility to stay connected and productive, wherever the day takes you.
Check out other great deals on TVs, tablets, headphones and more:
Created by executive producers and showrunners Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello, the eight-episode limited Apple TV+ series WeCrashed tells the story of Adam (Jared Leto) and Rebekah Neumann (Anne Hathaway), a power couple that started with the best of intentions, only to quickly become so power-hungry that it led to the dramatic crash-and-burn of one of the world’s most valuable startups. As the CEO of WeWork, Adam’s natural charisma partnered with Rebekah’s spiritual lifestyle sold a brand that people bought into and that skyrocketed to success until greed led it to spectacularly blow up in their faces.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Hathaway talked about why she was immediately fascinated by Rebekah, how she approached learning more about the woman under the surface and apart from the media representation, collaborating with the showrunners to build the character, the partnership she formed working with Leto, and how she loved the experience of making this series so much that she’d be interested in doing another TV project, if she finds herself drawn to another character.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
Collider: Phenomenal work in this. This is a fascinating woman and a compelling couple to watch. When this project came your way, what was your first impression of Rebekah, and what ultimately sold you on wanting to play her?
ANNE HATHAWAY: Thank you so much for your kind words about it. It was an incredible experience, making it. I was fascinated by Rebekah, right off the bat. I didn’t know the WeWork story. I wasn’t familiar with it. I’d never heard of anybody involved. I guess my area of interest didn’t line up with that. So, I met Rebekah through the pilot episode of what I read, and then I Googled her and I met her through the media reaction. And then, I realized that I knew someone that also knew her and I called that person, and the person that they described wasn’t quite like either of those people. I thought, “There’s something really interesting here, about someone who comes off differently, depending on who’s talking to her.”
So then, I started working with (show creators) Lee [Eisenberg] and Drew [Crevello] and I said, “I think that what you have here is really promising and really quite good, but maybe we could focus on this and drop this a little bit deeper, and see where her story goes.” In the process of getting to know them better as collaborators and building this character, I realized that they were people I could trust, that weren’t there to humiliate or drag anyone, and that they actually were very interested in the complexity and nuance of who she is, as person, and her story. And then, the cherry on top was getting to work with Jared Leto. So, it all just lined up to be a yes.
How did you handle playing a character whose life is a drama, but is seen as a comedy to the outside world? How did you figure out what she was feeling, as she was experiencing each moment, separate from how everyone else was viewing her?
HATHAWAY: One of the key things that I found out by talking to people that knew her was everyone kept saying, “Oh, she’s so sweet. She’s such a sweetheart.” I thought, “Oh, that’s really interesting,” because that adjective never made it into the press coverage of her. That was just very interesting to me, in terms of adding a layer to her. I looked at everything and thought, this thing that’s happening, that seems like it’s not very nice from the outside, what if it was a sweet person doing it with good intentions, but it just went wrong? It just added a dimension to it that I was really interested in. But in terms of the comedy and the drama at the same time, that’s how I experience life anyway. That part came easily to me because that’s the way I just see things anyway.
It sounds like you didn’t meet Rebekah, but that you clearly studied her. You had material to watch and read, and you spoke to people in her orbit. Would you have wanted to meet her? Are there questions that you would’ve wanted to ask her, or does it feel like it worked more to your advantage to figure her out on your own?
HATHAWAY: Just given the approach of Lee and Drew, the creators, I didn’t think it was gonna be that helpful. And just being slightly conscious of this part of the process, which I’ve lived through several times, I just thought it would keep it cleaner, if we’d never met. This was just my interpretation of an experience, as opposed to this being the exact observations I made about someone I met.
Which makes, especially with someone like this. She seems so layered and, at the same time, while I feel for her, I also feel like she’s still a complete mystery.
HATHAWAY: I think she’s a person. At the end of the day, I just wanted to treat her with the same level of respect and grace that I would hope I would be treated with, if somebody was playing me, which is to say that she is a human being. We are all just human beings. Nobody’s better than anybody else. I find human beings to be a mixture of admirable traits, but also there are aspects of us that are developing. We’re not always the most idealized version of ourselves, at any given moment. That interested me, all of that, and exploring that, and playing a character who is, to me, very, very human.
Image via Apple TV+
What was it like to have this partnership with Jared Leto, throughout the making of this series? Your performance is so intertwined with his.
HATHAWAY: Yes.
It really feels like this was a real collaboration between the two of you.
HATHAWAY: Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I work very, very hard and I take what I do very seriously, but any part of my performance that you enjoyed, would not have been there without him. We were total partners in this. I was so inspired by him. He sets such a high bar for himself. It’s thrilling. It really is. Just given the nature of our character’s relationships and how much they mean to each other, we really opened ourselves up to just representing their love. We treated each other with respect and gratitude, and it was a beautiful experience. It was wild, and it was really fun to just throw down and be ready for anything. I hope I’m not flattering myself, but I think we complemented each other, in ways that were very meaningful to me.
How do you think Rebekah viewed Adam, during all of this?
HATHAWAY: I think she saw him, but she didn’t see him like you see him and she didn’t see him as I see him. She saw him as she sees him. Certainly, in the beginning, she saw greatness in him, right off the bat. And I don’t know that other people had seen that yet.
You haven’t really done a TV series since Get Real, which is when I first became aware of you and I loved that show.
HATHAWAY: Oh, wow.
I loved that show and was crushed when it got canceled.
HATHAWAY: You must have been two.
Image via Apple TV+
You’ve done an episode or two, here and there, and I love the episode you did of Solos.
HATHAWAY: Thank you.
You’re really getting to live in a character for a longer period of time with this. Is that something you’re open to doing again, if you find yourself attracted to a character whose story can’t be told in the length of a film?
HATHAWAY: Absolutely. I loved the experience of this. I loved getting to spend six months with a character, just shooting it, let alone the prep that you do with it, developing that level of intimacy and feel for it. Plus, I just loved the people that I worked with on this one, so it was a real joy to do. When I was coming up as an actress, I always observed that British actors weren’t film actors, and they weren’t TV actors and they weren’t theater actors, they were actors. Someone like Helen Mirren, and there are no actual adjectives to describe Helen Mirren because she’s just Helen Mirren, she would do limited series, she would do film, and she be on stage. That always seemed to me to be the most exciting way to be an actor, so I’m just very excited now that that seems to have found its way to America.
WeCrashed is available to stream at Apple TV+.
Every Major Death on Netflix’s ‘You’, Ranked From Least to Most Deserving
Read Next
About The Author
Christina Radish (5199 Articles Published)
Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter at Collider. Having worked at Collider for over a decade (since 2009), her primary focus is on film and television interviews with talent both in front of and behind the camera. She is a theme park fanatic, which has lead to covering various land and ride openings, and a huge music fan, for which she judges life by the time before Pearl Jam and the time after. She is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association.
EVIDENCE of ancient alien life could be lurking on one of our nearest space neighbours: Venus.
These days, it seems like everyone is talking about celebrities going to space on private shuttles or Elon Musk getting man to Mars.
1
Earth has striking similarities to Venus despite our sister planet’s present inhabitability
Venus has become somewhat of a forgotten planet, despite being closer to us than Mars and, arguably, more like Earth than the red planet in key ways.
Venus is roughly the same size and density as Earth. It is indeed closer to the Sun, but that doesn’t fully explain its toxic atmosphere and hellish surface.
Two Nasa-led missions to Venus – dubbed DAVINCI+ and VERITAS – are scheduled to trek to the planet next door and break through its violent atmosphere at the end of this decade.
With the information, data and images mined from the missions, researchers may get an answer as to whether Venus once looked like Earth.
“That quest for habitability is part of our search for signs of life in the Nasa framework,” Dr. James Garvin, the principal investigator for the DAVINCI+ mission to Venus, told The Sun in an exclusive interview. “We can all dare to hope.”
The DAVINCI+ mission will be equipped with special cameras to see through the thick atmosphere and additional technology to measure the chemical content of that atmosphere.
“We expect to discover a whole new catalog of chemistry,” Dr Garvin said.
The DAVINCI+ team does not expect the probe that will touchdown to last long – Dr Garvin predicts just 12 to 18 minutes of stable communication – but much will be achieved by mapping the planet from above and tracking the chemistry of the Venusian atmosphere.
“We can meet every one of our science objectives and others without ever touching the ground,” Dr Garvin said.
Set to launch in 2029, DAVINCI+ will forge through space for six months until arriving at our planetary neighbor.
When DAVINCI+ arrives, VERITAS will already be orbiting Venus on a mission of its own.
“VERITAS will look for water vapor in volcanic plumes – if it detects any that will mean water can still be found in the interior of Venus,” Dr Anthony Freeman, a program manager at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory told The Sun in an email.
“The verified discovery of volcanic activity would rewrite history for our sister planet,” Dr Freeman wrote.
Dr Garvin said the DAVINCI mission was designed to have “excess capacity” so after data has been harvested from Venus, the ship can continue to operate in space and potentially lead to more discoveries.
Both projects are many years in the making and will, among other things, answer whether Venus was once habitable or not.
The annual St. Patrick’s Day breakfast returned to an in-person event in South Boston Sunday, breaking a pandemic pause with jokes, music and awkwardness from some of Massachusetts’ most prominent political figures.
Returning to normal was a recurring theme for speakers at the breakfast, organized by state Sen. Nick Collins, holder of “the Southie seat” that typically hosts the event.
“It’s great to be back in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center here in South Boston, live and in-person without masks, and some of us, self respect,” the senator quipped before launching into a rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” with lyrics inspired by Gov. Charlie Baker’s pandemic response. (“We don’t need no vaccination cards / Whatever happened to local control?”)
In his final head table appearance as governor, Baker, who is not seeking re-election, poked fun at the idea of nepotism in state government.
“There will be a new governor and lieutenant governor here in Massachusetts, and I’m sure one of the things they’ll do when they take office is start flipping through the payroll,” Baker said, pointing to the 40,000 employees in the executive branch. “You’re probably going to find a lot of ‘Collinses’ in there. They’re all qualified, they came by it honestly, there’s nothing going on there, so just leave those ones alone,” the governor said to laughter.
The outgoing executive also said he was proud of the people of Massachusetts for their compassionate, community-driven response to the pandemic.
“Despite the brutality and the trauma and the disruption and the isolation and all the other stuff that came with this very challenging — and at times, tragic — time, folks were good to each other,” Baker said.
Senate President Karen Spilka landed laughs by presenting Baker with an inflatable duck in honor of his “lame duck” status and laying out a mock schedule for the man seeking to be his successor, Republican Geoff Diehl.
“9 a.m., anti-science rally. 11 a.m. Capitol insurrection,” she said to laughter. “2 p.m. — and don’t worry Geoff, you’ll make this — you’ll make it to your book burning at 2 p.m,” Spilka said.
In her first turn at the head table, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu landed a few laughs by making light of the consistent protests in front of her Roslindale home over the COVID-19 vaccine measures implemented when she became mayor.
“I am proud to be the first mom elected to this office in Boston. It comes with the good and the bad,” Wu said to applause. “This morning, I woke up, once again to the sound of children throwing a tantrum. Thankfully, [my sons] Blaise and Cass usually sleep right through it, but those protesters do get loud.”
Perhaps the riskiest joke of the afternoon came from At-Large Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty, who attempted a wisecrack about Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s absence from the event.
“Someone told me she’s on a vacation with her dear friend Monica Cannon-Grant,” Flaherty said, referencing the prominent local nonprofit leader recently indicted for fraud. “They’re the Boston version of Thelma and Louise,” he said to a collective groan.
Norfolk County Treasurer Michael Bellotti scored the most laughs of the afternoon with a range of jokes, including a bit with intercepted mock letters.
“Dear Mayor Wu, thank you so much for courageously adhering to the strictest COVID restrictions possible for the city of Boston and putting public health before all other selfish interests. Please don’t cave in. Signed by Mayor Tom Koch and the Quincy restaurant association,” Bellotti said.
“Dear Boston Globe, I told you I was a better choice for Bostonian of the Year. Signed by everybody in Boston,” Bellotti said, referring back to Cannon-Grant and her recent indictment.
State senator and gubernatorial candidate Sonia Chang-Díaz played on work-from-home habits in the pandemic, putting a laundry basket and children’s toys around the event podium. “Now we can begin,” she said.
Chang-Díaz also joked about her opponent’s large war chest. Attorney General Maura Healey, who’s currently leading in polls, is sitting on $4.2 million, according to the latest state political finance figures. Chang-Díaz has about 8% of Healey’s total.
“You could use that money to endear yourself to our esteemed elected leaders, you could spring for some sound-proofing for Michelle’s house, you could take on an even bigger challenge and buy Nick Collins some singing lessons…you could do President Spilka and Speaker [Ron] Mariano a favor and fund that training to finally teach members of the state Legislature how to use the mute button on Zoom,” she said.
Notable absences included U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Congressmen Stephen Lynch, who is leading a bipartisan, seven-member delegation to Poland that has called for more military aid to Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian invasion.
After U.S. stocks staged a rebound last week in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s much-anticipated monetary policy decision, investors this week will look ahead to a somewhat quieter slate of corporate earnings and economic data releases.
One of the most closely watched earnings reports will come after market close on Monday from Nike (NKE). As one of the few companies to report earnings that cover performance for this year, Nike’s fiscal third-quarter results will provide an update as to how the multinational corporation performed in the first months of 2022 against a backdrop of an ongoing pandemic and war in Ukraine.
Nike shares have dropped by more than 20% for the year-to-date through Friday’s close, underperforming the S&P 500’s more than 6% decline over the same period. Investors have grown wary of the stock heavily exposed both to international headwinds and to ongoing supply chain issues. Nike joined a number of other U.S.-based companies earlier this month in announcing it would pare back its business in Russia, amid the country’s war in Ukraine, saying it would no longer take online orders and would close stores in Russia.
“We expect the focus in 3QF22 to be on: 1) supply chain, including inventory on hand vs. in transit; 2) China, where political backlash and COVID-19 lock downs persist; 3) wholesale distribution, and plans to streamline it further; and 3) demand, which has stayed elevated in NA [North America] and EMEA [Europe, the Middle East, and Africa],” wrote Telsey Advisory Group analyst Cristina Fernandez in a note Friday.
“Although the near-term for Nike is choppy until inventory flow normalizes, Nike should continue to benefit from enhanced connections with consumers through its membership program, high full-price selling, greater use of data across the organization, and a more integrated strategic wholesale model through the One Nike Marketplace initiative,” she added.
Nike basketball shoes worn by Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe (12) in the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, in Denver. The Nuggets won 130-128 in overtime. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Back in December during Nike’s last earnings day and call, the company said it expected to see third-quarter sales grow by a low-single digit percentage, and for full-year sales to grow by mid-single digits. Fernandez said she expects Nike to reiterate this guidance on Monday.
Overall, Nike is expected to deliver sales of $10.6 billion for its quarter ending in February, according to Bloomberg consensus data. This would represent growth of 3%, compared to the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are expected to reach 72 cents a share, compared to 90 cents per share last year.
Sales in Greater China, one of Nike’s key markets, are anticipated to rise back above $2 billion after dipping below that threshold in the fiscal second quarter, as COVID-19 cases in China impacted consumer mobility and spending. Still, the country is grappling with a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus, which may present some downside risks to both sales and supplies for Nike’s latest and future results.
In December, Nike Chief Financial Officer Matthew Friend said the company was growing “increasingly confident that supply will normalize heading into fiscal ’23.”
For many other major companies, however, supply chain concerns have remained top of mind. According to a report from FactSet, 358 S&P 500 companies cited “supply chain” during earnings calls for the fourth quarter, with that figure coming in well above the five-year average of 187.
“This is the second-highest number of S&P 500 companies citing ‘supply chain’ on earnings calls going back to at least 2010 (using current index constituents going back in time),” FactSet’s John Butters said in a note. “The current record is 362, which occurred in the previous quarter (Q3 2021).”
Consumer sentiment
On the economic data front, this week’s consumer sentiment report due out from the University of Michigan on Friday will offer an updated snapshot on the state of the consumer amid soaring inflation and the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine.
The institution’s revised Surveys of Consumers index is expected to come in unchanged from the preliminary March index at 59.7 — the lowest since 2011. Such a result would solidify the deterioration in consumers’ assessments of current and future conditions amid surging prices and turmoil abroad. It would also suggest whether inflation expectations are getting reset and embedded at historically high rates: Earlier this month, consumers said they expected inflation to rise by 5.1% in the next year, marking the highest expected rate since 1981, according to the University of Michigan.
And more importantly, the consumer sentiment index will serve as an indicator of whether declining optimism may ultimately lead to a tangible drop in consumer spending, thereby putting the brakes on U.S. economic activity. U.S. consumer spending comprises more than two-thirds of overall economic activity, and already, early signs have suggested rising prices are curbing at least some demand. Retail sales rose just 0.3% in February, Commerce Department data showed last week, to miss Wall Street’s expectations. And when stripping out gas and vehicle sales — which were primarily boosted by higher energy prices — retail sales actually declined for the month.
“Consumer sentiment, the Treasury yield curve, economists’ growth expectations and investor sentiment all show signs of fatigue and underscore the possibility of a recession looming on the horizon,” Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist for Ally, wrote in an email Friday. “According to the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment has been on the decline since August and in February it recorded its lowest reading since 2011 at 62.8. Readings at 65 or below often coincide with recessions.”
“To be sure, we will need to keep an eye on the consumer as their confidence has been dinged,” Bell added. “But I believe given their still strong financial position, and the strength of the job market, it’s possible this could be a temporary blip in confidence. As we can put some of these near-term concerns behind us, the hope is that the second half of 2022 features a steadier global economy and easing inflationary pressures.”
Economic calendar
Monday: Chicago Fed National Activity Index, February (0.69 in January)
Tuesday: Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, March (2 expected, 1 in February)
Wednesday: MBA Mortgage Applications, week ended March 18 (-1.2% during prior week); New home sales, February (815,000 expected, 801,000 in January)
Thursday: Initial jobless claims, week ended March 19 (211,000 expected, 214,000 during prior week); Continuing claims, week ended March 12 (1.481 million expected, 1.419 million during prior week); Durable goods orders, February preliminary (-0.5% expected, 1.6% in January); Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, February preliminary (0.5% expected, 1.0% in January) Non-defense capital goods shipments excluding aircraft, February preliminary (0.5% expected, 1.9% in January); S&P Global U.S. Composite PMI, March preliminary (54.2 expected, 55.9 in February); Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity Index, March (29 in February)
Friday: Pending home sales, February (1.0% expected, -5.7% in January); University of Michigan Sentiment, March final (59.7 expected, 59.7 in February)
Danielle Gibson might seem to have everything, to those looking from the outside – married to a former Manchester United footballer and living in a big mansion in Cheshire. But it was her vast wealth that made her feel like she couldn’t reach out for help when she and husband Darron most needed it.
Realising that things had to change in her life, Danielle decided to take her own steps to help – by training for five years to become a psychotherapist to help others who are struggling with their emotional or mental health. For Danielle knows exactly how it feels when you don’t feel that you “have the right” to complain or speak up when you are struggling, the Manchester Evening News reports.
Danielle opened up about her experiences at an event for inspiring women on International Women’s Day in Manchester. Speaking to a crowd of businesswomen and friends, including a host of fellow former Manchester United footballers’ wives and girlfriends, Danielle spoke openly and honestly about the reality of life married to a professional footballer.
She is planning to launch her own psychotherapy business The Heard Hub this year, to help others who have been in a similar situation with face-to-face and online therapy sessions. She has trained for five years and has worked for the past year in a women’s prison and also for a substance abuse service.
Danielle Gibson (centre) at the International Women’s Day event at Menagerie in Manchester (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Danielle grew up in Wythenshawe, living with her mum and sisters in a high-rise flat, and knows only too well the struggles of life when you have little money. But being catapulted into the ‘lavish Cheshire lifestyle’, as she calls it, brought with it its own problems.
She met Darron, who is originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, when they were teenagers and he had moved to Manchester to follow his footballing dreams at Manchester United. They swiftly fell in love and, in the ‘buzz’ of their early years together, she says they were living their best life.
But, in the precarious world of football, when Darron got injured it put an emotional strain on their relationship – and that led to years of Danielle feeling she had to bottle up how she felt.
“I felt like I didn’t have a right to complain, I didn’t have a right to moan because I lived in a big house in Bowdon, my kids go to private school, so I didn’t say anything to anybody, I just carried on.
“I felt like I couldn’t tell anyone how difficult it was because I was rich, and rich people aren’t supposed to have problems.”
Now Danielle’s hoping that through years of her own training, she can help make changes in the sports industry – having experienced for herself a lack of mental health support for sportspeople and their families. She told the audience at the event, organised by Julie Perry Events, that she has seen life from two very different perspectives.
“I’ve lived the lavish Cheshire lifestyle for 16 years – but I was born into a single parent family in Wythenshawe, with me and my sisters in a tenth floor flat watching my mum struggling up and down the stairs with shopping bags. I had a really simple life,” Danielle said.
“But at the age of 16 I was catapulted into a new world, and everything that it brings. It’s really important to say I’m so grateful to everything this life has given me. I have two kids in private school, I’ve flown around the world, I’ve had the absolute dream wedding.
“But I want to use this platform to validate those experiences, it still feels tricky sat here in my designer outfit saying this, but I want to be honest and say that there have been years and years where I didn’t feel thankful or grateful of any of it – I just wanted to be Danielle from Wythenshawe.”
When Danielle and Darron first got together, it was in an era before social media, and Darron had left his family in Northern Ireland at the age of just 14 to follow his dreams of playing for Manchester United.
Danielle said: “He was living every footballer’s dream, but I didn’t know anything about football so he was living this dream I knew nothing about. That buzz lasted for years, don’t get me wrong, we lived our absolute best life. We bought our first house at 19, we had an all-singing all-dancing wedding – but it’s not as easy as you think.
“At 24 he signed for Everton on a massive contract with massive money, and it felt like at times he was paying for half of Ireland. He was paying for people’s car insurances, people’s mortgages, people’s rent, everything, the list didn’t stop, the phone was non-stop all the time – this was all OK because we were loaded right? Until he got injured.”
Danielle recalls watching on TV as Darron suffered a horrific cruciate knee ligament on international duty that could have ended his career right then. In the years that followed, he would continue on a treadmill of surgeries, long recoveries and then succumbing to injuries again. It would take a huge emotional toll on them both.
Danielle said: “Shortly after the wedding was his first injury – he was playing for his country, I was pregnant with baby number two and I was watching from home.
“To see basically your husband’s leg fall in half on the pitch when I felt like a million miles away was not a pleasant experience. He snapped his cruciate knee ligament, it made such a mess that they had to shave his thigh muscle and create two new ligaments behind his knee – only 20 years ago that would have written off his career.
Darron Gibson in 2017 during his spell at Sunderland (Image: PA)
“He was young, he was at a really good team in Everton, they provided lots of physical care for him, he was in the best hands but it meant a year out of football. Physios would come for an hour in the morning, but for the other 23 hours he was at home with me.
“We had to make him a bed downstairs, he had to sleep in a metal cast, I had to take him to the toilet, to bathe him, this was for 12 months – and that was the start of a very slippery slope. He got back fit eventually, but the manager who signed him had left.
“They’d signed other midfielders, there was no place for him in the team anymore, he’d get the few minutes here and there but that’s not what he wanted. He just wanted to play football. He was fighting to make the team, that was the first time I saw him lose his confidence.
“That happened for the next five years, he was constantly injured, constantly fighting to get fit. But this story isn’t just about him, it’s about me. I struggled, I felt helpless in a very chaotic world. I felt there was nothing I could do. He withdrew, rather than talking about it.”
Danielle sought support from her mum, while feeling the weight of responsibility to get Darron better. She said: “I couldn’t control how many times he got injured, I couldn’t control if the managers were going to pick him at the weekend, I couldn’t control how many surgeries he was going to have, the poor guy is held together by nuts and bolts.
“I felt we were always on the train going down to London to see specialists. My point is there was loads and loads of physical care, it feels bizarre saying this today in this billion dollar industry which is what it is, but I didn’t feel like we had any emotional support whatsoever, yet we were getting flown to Germany, to Spain to have all these surgeries by specialist surgeons – bare in mind a therapy appointment is £70 an hour.
“He felt like he wasn’t good enough to make the team, he was constantly trying to get fit. I was a mum of two one with a poorly baby and I felt like my husband was disappearing.
“All of this while social media blew up. Internally he felt like he wasn’t good enough anymore, but externally that was being validated by comments all over social media, on news sites, like none of them were nice what they were saying, they were saying things like ‘he’s stealing a living getting a wage not playing for a year’, ‘this guy is made of glass what you doing signing him’.
“It’s alright for us to sit here and say “don’t read the comments” but when you’re in bed 23 hours a day, you’re going to read the comments.
“So all I kept thinking was my mates’ husbands don’t have these problems, my mate’s husband who is a builder goes to work, comes home and has his tea, job’s a good’un, my mate’s boyfriend who works in a call centre doesn’t get verbally attacked like this.
The football contracts would get shorter, and Danielle says they’d constantly worry what the future held. In 2017 Darron signed for Sunderland which meant he moved away from the family, leaving Danielle increasingly isolated – and her worrying how he would feel on his own too.
“Again I just internalised it all and kept everything in. I never felt like I had the right to say anything other than to be grateful for this life I was living.
” I wasn’t only a mum of two kids, one being poorly, I was a wife, a cook, a cleaner, a taxi driver, a therapist even then before I was even qualified, a mental health nurse… no one EVER asked how I was – no football manager, no football agent, ever asked how I was.”
Danielle and Darron Gibson (Image: Manchester Evening News)
A fateful moment would lead Danielle to finally have to face head on the issues she was so desperately trying to hide away from – when Darron crashed his car on the way to training and was found to be over the drink drive limit, for which he went on to receive a community service order in 2018.
She said: “Fast forward 14 months Gibbo gets injured again. But this time, he’s four and a half hours away in the North East. He couldn’t drive home because he had a leg cast on, it was hard enough him being injured at home let alone four hours away but I still had a poorly baby, I felt torn and helpless and he was feeling alone and useless.
“Saturday morning, 9am the phone rings, Darron had crashed his car on his way to training, still over the limit from the night before. I didn’t go to the police station, or travel the four and a half hours to the North East, I stayed at home in that big fancy kitchen in that big house in Bowdon with my two kids.
“I looked around and thought ‘what is this?’ And that’s when I thought I need to change this narrative, where are those football managers and agents now because that kitchen felt very quiet?
“We needed more than a therapist, I needed to become a therapist. All the professional people in football could help us with knee injuries, contracts, groin strains, investments, but who could help me with this?
“Who could help me save my husband and ultimately save my family? I knew I couldn’t control what the papers were going to write or the whispers at the school gates. But I needed to take life back into my hands because I was living in a world that was feeling out of my control.
“I wasn’t allowed to make any important decisions. Our bills, our finances, our holidays were booked by somebody else, always in someone else’s hands and I was just the wife and mum at home – well not any more.
“My husband is more than the number on the back of his football shirt. And now here we are four years later and I’m a qualified therapist.”
Danielle has spent the past year working in a women’s prison with ‘lifers’ while also spending time helping people to address substance abuse issues. But the next stage is to launch her own therapy business.
She said: “My hopes and dreams are to work for people in this industry who feel they can never pick up the phone because they have all of this. So I’m in the process of opening my own business, The Heard Hub, in September and I want to help anyone and everybody.”
Darron has just retired from professional football, which Danielle describes as a “massive relief” but says: “I’m just a very proud wife for everything that he has achieved in his career.”
Though there were four finalists for QB Deshaun Watson before the Browns and Texans completed the blockbuster trade that sent Watson to Cleveland, as many as 10 teams were reportedly interested in Watson’s services. In remarks he made following the trade, Houston GM Nick Caserio would not say exactly how many teams made inquiries, but he did note that the interest went beyond the Browns, Saints, Panthers, and Falcons.
“I would say there was a fair amount of teams, but what we tried to do was bring the teams that had a legitimate interest, and that was based off the compensation that was presented,” Caserio said (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk). “I don’t want to get into the exact number, but there was a few more, however many teams than what everybody was reporting towards the end.”
Caserio’s comments confirm what had been reported all along: only clubs that were willing to meet the Texans’ steep asking price (three first-rounders and more) were granted permission to have an in-person meeting with Watson. While that seems like the only logical move in hindsight, it was quite a masterstroke by Caserio. Had he allowed Watson to meet with all interested clubs, regardless of proposed compensation, Watson may have decided to waive his no-trade clause for only one team, thereby undermining Caserio’s leverage. But as Florio observes, by having a “pre-qualifying” process, Caserio guaranteed that he would get what he wanted before Watson truly got a say in his next destination.
Per Florio, the Colts put feelers out to the Texans, but Caserio was not willing to deal Watson within his division. Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network reports that the Eagles remained interested throughout the process, but Watson was unwilling to waive his no-trade clause for Philadelphia, largely because he is friends with Eagles QB Jalen Hurts and did not want to take away Hurts’ starting job. Wilson adds that the 49ers also placed a call to the Texans last year.
Caserio suggested that reports on the Texans’ being interested in players as well as picks in a Watson swap were at least somewhat overstated, saying, “I would say other than three first-round picks, I would say probably the rest of it was a little bit of speculation.” Still, Wilson reports that if Houston swung a deal with the Falcons, Atlanta CB AJ Terrell would have been intriguing to Caserio, and if the Saints had been able to acquire Watson, New Orleans OLs Erik McCoy and/or Cesar Ruiz might have been a part of the package heading back to the Texans.
In the end, the Browns, who were initially believed to be out of the running for Watson, were able to acquire the three-time Pro Bowler because they were willing to give him a contract — five years for a fully-guaranteed $230MM, which Wilson reports includes a $45MM signing bonus — that other teams were not comfortable matching. We heard at the time the Cleveland-Houston deal was consummated that the financial side of the equation became untenable for the Falcons and Panthers, and Wilson confirmed in a separate piece that Carolina was resistant to a fully-guaranteed pact.
Cleveland may have felt compelled to make such a bold strike because of an unsalvageable situation with Baker Mayfield. Mayfield requested a trade while the Browns’ courtship of Watson was on-going, and when it appeared that Watson would not waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a move to northeast Ohio, the Browns indicated they would not accommodate the request. However, as Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com writes, Mayfield had no intentions of playing for the Browns in 2022 even if the club had not acquired Watson, and that reality could have forced Cleveland’s hand.
According to Cabot, the Browns had made it clear to Mayfield’s camp that they would pursue a top-flight QB this offseason, but that they were content to run it back with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 draft if such a pursuit were unsuccessful. Because it had been upfront with him about their intentions, the organization believed it could eventually smooth things over with Mayfield. As we heard last week, though, Mayfield declined owner Jimmy Haslam‘s offer to fly out to Mayfield’s home to discuss the situation, which was a clear indication that there was trouble in paradise.
Cabot further reports that the Watson situation and the team’s comments that it was looking for an “adult” at the quarterback position — thus implying that Mayfield is not, in fact, an adult — merely represented the final straw. Mayfield was said to have issues with HC Kevin Stefanski‘s play-calling and scheme, and as Stefanski will retain play-calling duties in 2022, Mayfield was prepared to skip the Browns’ offseason program and minicamp in an effort to force a trade to a team that has an offense more conducive to his skill-set. As Mayfield is eligible for free agency in 2023, the upcoming season is obviously critical for him, both from a financial and on-field perspective.
We recently learned that Mayfield would prefer to be traded to the Colts. Cabot suggests that, if Indianapolis GM Chris Ballard is interested, he may require the Browns to pay at least some of Mayfield’s $18.9MM salary, and since Cleveland has no choice but to deal Mayfield at this point, the team’s leverage in that regard and in terms of trade compensation is fairly limited.
Both Cabot and Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times confirm that the Seahawks may be interested in Mayfield but are genuinely excited by Drew Lock, who recently came to Seattle in the trade that sent Russell Wilson to the Broncos. As for the Texans, Caserio was non-committal when asked if Davis Mills, who started 11 games as a rookie in 2021 and who showed marked improvement down the stretch, would remain Houston’s QB1. Nonetheless, Mills is expected to open the 2022 campaign as the starting signal-caller, despite Caserio’s comments that the team is “starting from scratch” at the most important position in sports.
