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The Mirage hotel is closing in July, ending a 34-year run as a landmark on the Las Vegas Strip.
Hard Rock International said the hotel, which it bought in 2022, will close July 17, according to ABC.
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas will take the place of The Mirage.
“The property will be reimagined and developed into a new integrated resort featuring a nearly 700 ft. guitar-shaped hotel prominently in the center of the famous Las Vegas Strip,” the company said, noting that the new hotel is scheduled for opening in 2027.
The signature design of the new Hard Rock Las Vegas will be a 660-foot-tall hotel tower shaped as guitars, which will be built on the site of Mirage’s iconic volcano that has been a popular attraction since the hotel opened in 1989.
READ MORE: https://t.co/njOqdZkddO pic.twitter.com/vTHtfIxP3o— Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) May 15, 2024
“We’d like to thank the Las Vegas community and team members for warmly welcoming Hard Rock after enjoying 34 years at The Mirage,” Chairman of Hard Rock International Jim Allen said.
In April, the Strip lost another icon when The Tropicana Las Vegas closed just before its 67th anniversary. The Tropicana is supposed to be the site of a baseball stadium that will be the future home of the Oakland A’s.
END OF AN ERA: The iconic Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip will shut its doors this summer, the end of an era for a property credited with helping transform Sin City into an ultra-luxury resort destination. https://t.co/Xbrj2IL5XT pic.twitter.com/c3H83SrdxW
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) May 15, 2024
The Mirage was opened in 1989 by casino mogul Steve Wynn, according to CNN.
MGM Resorts bought the hotel from Wynn in 2000. In 2022, Hard Rock International bought the property for over $1 billion.
The closing will cost more than 3,000 people their jobs, according to the Associated Press.
The Culinary and Bartenders Union accounts for about 1,700 workers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Union members will have a choice between taking a severance package of $2,000 for every year of service plus six months of pension and health benefits or a lower payout that preserves seniority rights for new jobs in the new hotel.
“Culinary Union members at The Mirage have a strong union contract, ensuring that workers are protected, even as the property closes its doors entirely for three years from July 2024 – May 2027,” said Ted Pappageorge, Culinary Union secretary-treasurer.
The new hotel expects to hire almost 7,000 people.
Resort President Joe Lupo told the staff Wednesday about the closing, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“We really are encouraged about not only the future of Las Vegas, but how Hard Rock and Seminole Tribe can play a role in helping to develop that and grow the market,” Lupo said. The Seminole Tribe owns Hard Rock International.
“But today is a tough day for a lot of people. Our priority is the well-being of those individuals,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Landmark Las Vegas Casino Closing, Demolition Scheduled for This Year appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
After a Nashville hotel got cold feet and sought to cancel a pro-Israel event, Christian finance expert and syndicated radio host Dave Ramsey stepped in to be sure the event went on.
The Sonesta Nashville Airport hotel was scheduled to host the pro-Israel event until an anti-Israel group made noise. The group Palestine Hurra Collective Nashville claimed on Instagram that the purpose of the event was to “celebrate the death of civilians and recruit new Zionists!”
“Call relentlessly until this event is shut down!” the post urged.
The pressure worked. The hotel canceled the event.
“I think that the hotel jumped the gun and decided that they were going to just sort of dump this Israel event a week before it was going to happen, which is very unfortunate for the hotel because that’s in violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act as well as Tennessee state law,” Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel at First Liberty Institute, said, according to Fox News.
But Ramsey, who runs Ramsey Solutions in nearby Franklin, is not among those giving in to fear.
“Dave Ramsey reached out and said, ‘You’re going to have it at my place and we’re going to take this event to a whole new level and make it 10x what it was before. All of the details have come together and the event is skyrocketing in numbers.” Joshua Waller, a host of the Israel Guys podcast said, according to The Daily Wire.
The podcast and HaYovel, a ministry that connects Christians who want to volunteer with farmers in Judea and Samaria, are among the sponsors of the event.
“Ramsey Solutions is proud to stand beside our friends from Israel by providing them a safe place to hold their event as our gift to them,” Ramsey Solutions said in a statement.
“We will move forward with this event at a different venue and show these thugs that they will not be rewarded for their unconstitutional, hateful actions,” HaYovel announced, according to the Daily Wire.
NEW: Dave Ramsey Steps In To Rescue Pro-Israel Conference After Nashville Hotel Cancels
“You’re going to have it at my place and we’re going to take this event to a whole new level”https://t.co/4vD967l8zX
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) May 16, 2024
“Now, more than ever, it is important that America stands unconditionally with Israel and that we publicly show that we cannot be intimidated by pro-Hamas thugs.”
A news release on the First Liberty website said the hotel told HaYovel, “We have received credible threats regarding the safety of your group, our guests and employees, our hotel and sister property, and to businesses in our neighborhood. Those threats were confirmed by law enforcement officials in the last 24 hours.”
The release said hotel officials said police told them the cancel the event.
Nashville police said that is not true, according to WZTV-TV.
“The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department did not advocate, in any shape or form, for the cancellation of the conference at the Sonesta Hotel. Any inference to the contrary is false. Equally false is the assertion in an on-line article that this police department voiced concerns about persons being in physical danger,” the statement said.
“In fact, members of the police department did, indeed, meet with hotel management at its request to talk about the conference. We let it be known that we were absolutely prepared to help the hotel create a safety and security plan, as we would with any of our city’s hotels, and offer additional support if needed.
“At the same time, I am aware that the Sonesta was receiving a number of external messages urging that it not host the event. In the end, the Sonesta Hotel made a corporate decision to cancel. This police department was in no way a party to that decision,” the statement said.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville sent a statement saying “Harassment and intimidation are unacceptable and have no place in our community. We have registered our concerns and are in close contact with our law enforcement partners and continue to focus with determination and vigilance on keeping our community safe.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Dave Ramsey Saves the Day When Venue Pulls the Rug Out from Under Pro-Israel Conference appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas on Sunday accused President Joe Biden of taking the side of Hamas in an effort to end the war in Gaza, which was started by Hamas when it slaughtered Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.
“Joe Biden’s position is de facto for Hamas victory at this point. Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas, which committed the worst atrocity against Jews since World War II. Hamas’s goal is to survive,” Cotton said on the CBS show “Face the Nation.”
“If Israel does not go into Rafah and destroy Hamas in Rafah, Hamas will survive,” he said.
Biden has said he would go so far as deny Israel the tools of war needed to attack Rafah.
Cotton denounced the current policy comments of the Biden administration on Hamas as a “bunch of weaselly, mealy-mouthed politics.”
Comments from Secretary of State Antony Blinken that paint both sides as having done wrong are “some magic talisman to help them walk the political line they want between the pro-Hamas wing of their party and the vast pro-Israel majority of the American people.”
Cotton said despite international condemnation for bombing the terrorists of Hamas, “Israel is doing more than any military in history, in all likelihood, to prevent civilian casualties.”
“If Hamas did not hide behind and under civilians, there would no – there would not be civilian casualties. For that matter, if Hamas simply surrendered and turned over all these hostages, there would be no more civilian suffering in Gaza,” he said.
Cotton accused Biden of imposing “a de facto arms embargo on Israel and sanctions on Israelis, noting that he just said last week that he’s not going to send offensive weapons.”
“We have no idea what he’s going to withhold,” he said.
Cotton noted that if America changes presidents after the November general election, the nation’s policy toward Israel would change as well.
“President Trump said just last night that he would absolutely provide Israel with the weapons they need to finish the job. This would have never happened on President Trump- Trump’s watch, it didn’t happen on his watch,” he said.
“And if he were president, this war would have probably already been over with much less civilian suffering in Gaza because he would have backed Israel to the hilt from the beginning,” Cotton added.
A report in The Washington Post said that U.S. intelligence agencies are working with Israel to pinpoint the locations of key Hamas leaders as a way to avert a broad-based attack.
A report in the Times of Israel quoted Biden as saying if the hostages taken Oct. 7 are released, there could be a cease-fire.
“There would be a ceasefire tomorrow if Hamas would release the hostages,” Biden said at a fundraiser.
“Israel said it’s up to Hamas; if they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow. And the cease-fire would begin tomorrow,” Biden said.
Last week, Hamas admitted that in offering to exchange 33 hostages as part of a deal, not all the hostages exchanged would be alive, according to The New York Times.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Tom Cotton: Biden’s Position Is for a ‘Hamas Victory’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Staying in the middle class takes a lot of work, according to a new analysis.
A look at the numbers from the website GOBankingRates.com found that it took a nearly 42 percent increase in income to remain in the middle class from 2012, the midpoint of the Obama administration, to 2022, the middle of the Biden administration.
The site published a state-by-state listing of what it takes to be in the middle class, defining the term as people with an income no less than two-thirds of the median income and no more than double that figure.
Although the national minimum to be in the middle class was $50,099 as of 2022, the numbers vary widely. For example, a Mississippi household earning $35,323 is considered middle class. In Maryland, however, the qualifying income is $65,641, according to the site’s calculations.
The middle class is shrinking. In 1971, 61% of American households were considered to be middle class. That number has dropped to 50% three decades later, a Pew Research found.
“The creation of the middle class was based on factories and jobs.” Grant Cardone told GOBankingRates.… pic.twitter.com/uZIXcPAAEU
— Grant Cardone (@GrantCardone) March 3, 2024
Over the decade-long period, Alaska had the smallest increase in income to stay in the middle class at almost 23 percent.
In Oregon, however, the bar to call oneself in the middle class rose by over 53 percent.
A report from Investopedia published in February said the middle class is shrinking, equating middle class with middle income.
That meant annual incomes of between $30,000 and $90,000 per year for single Americans, as well as $42,430 to $127,300 for a couple and $67,100 to $201,270 for a family of four.
What? The economy has already crashed, and it has not finished crashing either. The middle class is shrinking again, as opposed to expanding during the Trump era. Biden is returning to the Obama era, in which the middle class was decimated, and growth was slowed to a crawl: pic.twitter.com/R3juAgj3yh
— Jatslo (@Jatslo) January 28, 2023
As of 2021, the report said 50 percent of Americans were in the middle class, a drop from 1971 data that put the figure at 61 percent.
A study by SmartAsset found that in a large American city, a middle-class income can fall anywhere between $52,000 and $155,000.
That analysis listed New Jersey, with a minimum middle class income of at least $64,224, as the state with the highest income needed to be in the middle class, followed by Maryland at $63,321 and Massachusetts at $62,986.
At the other end comes Mississippi, where $35,142 is required to be in the middle class. Mississippi is followed by West Virginia at $36,216 and Louisiana at $36,940 as the states with the lowest incomes necessary to be middle class.
Some cities have sky-high upper limits for placement in the middle class. For example, in Sunnyvale, California, a household earning $339,562 is at the upper bound of middle class income, followed by Fremont, California; San Mateo, California; Santa Clara, California; Bellevue, Washington and Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
On the low end, there is Detroit, where a household making $24,299 would be middle class.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Revealed: How Much You Have to Earn to Be ‘Middle Class’ in Your State appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
It’s not quite to the point where the hashtag “OscarsSoBroke” will be trending, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is passing the hat around the globe.
A $500 million fundraising campaign was launched Friday with the goal of reaching the target by the 2028 Oscars, which would mark the 100th Academy Awards.
This news comes just a few months after a generally poorly received 2024 Oscars, as well.
Although Academy officials talked about its global future in announcing the drive, it comes at a time when TV viewership of the annual awards show has been trending downward, according to an Agence-France Presse report posted on Barron’s.
The Academy’s contract with ABC to broadcast the show is up for renewal, and the show will face the reality that ratings are down from historic levels.
This year, for example, viewership of the show was about 21 million people, down from about 40 million viewers a decade ago.
The “global revenue diversification and outreach campaign” is dubbed Academy 100, according to Deadline.
“The future of the Academy is global, and Academy 100 will deepen our worldwide reach and impact,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer said.
“The Academy will soon enter its second century, and we want to ensure that we continue to be the preeminent leader of our international film community. Like all healthy organizations, the Academy needs a sustainable and diverse base of support, and we are deeply grateful to Rolex and all of our partners for helping us launch this important and forward-looking initiative.”
The Academy said it has commitments for more than $100 million from sponsors that include Rolex and Delta Air Lines.
The Academy said the money will “endow and fund programs that recognize excellence in cinematic artistry and innovation; preserve our film history; enable the creation of world-class film exhibitions, screenings, and publications; train and educate the next generation of diverse global film artists; and produce powerful digital content.”
The aim of the event, held in Rome, was to highlight the Academy’s global purpose in its campaign, according to the Associated Press.
Writing for USA Today, Kelly Lawler noted that the 2024 show “started five minutes late, and it was only downhill from there.”
“The Oscar broadcast didn’t feel like anybody’s biggest night. It felt small, unimportant, skippable. It didn’t get anywhere close to the urgency or relevancy of the nominated films,” she wrote.
Lawler opined that “90 percent of Sunday’s broadcast could have happened at any Oscars (or really, any awards show) any year. The gently jabbing jokes, the expected winners, the overlong and overwritten bits, the dull speeches − they are so generic as to be soporific.”
“For some producers and hosts, a boring Oscars is far preferable to a bad one, and especially better than a trainwreck of a ceremony with say a slap or a wrong best picture winner announced,” she wrote.
“But as ratings for awards shows dwindle, it’s worth trying just a little harder to try to persuade people to spend their Sunday nights watching the rich and famous hand each other golden trophies,” Lawler continued.
She added: ‘This is Hollywood, after all. These people are supposed to know how to put on a show. Otherwise, why are we watching?”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Bad News Delivered After Oscars, Motion Picture Academy Forced to Launch $500 Million Fundraising Drive appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
An Israeli businessman who also held Canadian citizenship has been murdered in Egypt.
Some media accounts said that a terrorist group that had been previously unknown claimed credit for the attack, video of which was widely shared on social media. There were also reports the incident began as a robbery.
The Times of Israel reported that Egyptian authorities had taken a man into custody.
Ziv Kipper was shot to death Tuesday in Alexandria.
His widow, Oksana Kipper, said she was told the attack took place because her husband was Jewish.
“He wasn’t robbed,” she said.
Israeli-Canadian businessman murdered in Egypt in apparent antisemitic attack https://t.co/1tofxqAsS6
— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) May 8, 2024
Reuters reported that an Egyptian security source claimed the incident was a robbery, not a terrorist attack.
Egypt has launched a criminal investigation into the shooting, the BBC reported.
Kipper was the CEO of the Egypt-based OK Group LLC, which exports frozen fruits and vegetables, according to the Times. The company has offices in Israel and Ukraine.
A post on Telegram from a group calling itself the Vanguard of Liberation Group for Martyr Mohamed Salah said it killed Kipper because he was a Mossad agent, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“Wait for the next,” the group said in a statement. “Shalom from the children of Gaza.”
Reuters reported that Egyptian security sources said they had nothing to share about the group.
Kipper’s death was “a step on the path of the Egyptian people’s struggle against the Zionist enemy,” the group said, according to the Times.
A group calling itself “Vanguards of Liberation – Martyr Mohammed Salah Groups” claims it murdered an Israeli “agent” in Egypt today.
Mohammed Saleh was an Egyptian police officer who murdered three IDF soldiers near the Israel-Egypt border in June 2023. pic.twitter.com/K7ucUbrLlo— Aleph א (@no_itsmyturn) May 7, 2024
Mohammed Salah Ibrahim killed three Israel Defense Forces soldiers in a June 2023 attack along the Egyptian border.
Global Affairs Canada said that it was “aware of the reports of the death of a Canadian Citizen in Egypt,” according to the Post.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Islamic Terror Group Says It Has Murdered Israeli-Canadian Businessman as Revenge for Gaza appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
A public health emergency has been declared in Long Beach, California, due to a tuberculosis outbreak.
A declaration from Dr. Anissa Davis, Long Beach’s health officer, said one person has died and nine people have been hospitalized, according to Live Science.
Fourteen people with active TB had been identified as of April 29. All cases have been linked to a single-room-occupancy hotel. Officials are not naming the hotel in what they said was an effort to protect patients’ privacy.
“People who were staying at the hotel at the time or could have otherwise been exposed have been or will be contacted by the Health Department,” a Health Department statement said.
“Why this city has declared a public health emergency”
Lack of medical screening for immigrants – they’re bringing in a wave of diseases we eradicated decades ago.
— Beersaint (@USMC_Razorback) May 6, 2024
“Through the course of this investigation, staff have identified approximately 170 people who have likely been exposed to TB,” the statement said.
The emergency declaration, which was issued Thursday, is expected to be ratified by the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday, according to Newsweek.
The declaration allows the Health Department to take expanded intervention efforts.
I believe the name of the hotel SHOULD BE DISCLOSED in the interest of traveler safety. OR does this mean the hotel is used to house illegal aliens invading our border? Long Beach declares public health emergency after deadly tuberculosis outbreak https://t.co/jTe7fpuR2R
— Judy Holiday (@msjudyholiday) May 3, 2024
TB has been rising in California. California’s 2023 cases were 15 percent higher than its TB caseload in 2022, according to the Los Angeles Times. That is the highest year-over-year increase since 1989, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Live Science said that the microbe that causes tuberculosis can be dormant in a person, without any symptoms. Between 5 percent and 10 percent of the people with the bacteria develop TB.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
Click here.
— City of Long Beach (@LongBeachCity) May 2, 2024
“The outbreak is currently isolated to a distinct population,” the Health Department statement said.
“The population at risk in this outbreak has significant barriers to care, including homelessness and housing insecurity, mental illness, substance use and serious medical comorbidities,” it said.
Tuberculosis passes from person to person through airborne particles, although it usually takes extensive exposure to a person who has active TB and spreads most easily in poorly ventilated environments.
Do you know the symptoms of #TB disease?
CDC’s new “Questions and Answers About TB” booklet has helpful info on how to diagnose and treat tuberculosis disease, and is now available in English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese: https://t.co/nLCpacw9cm. pic.twitter.com/Q4ROhwUKMu
— CDC (@CDCgov) September 27, 2021
“You can catch tuberculosis if someone is coughing or sneezing or in close contact, the bacteria from those particles gets into the air and anybody nearby will breathe that in — and that’s how they pick it up, and that’s how they catch it,” Dr. Janette Nesheiwat of New York City said, according to Fox News.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post State Declares Public Health Emergency After Tuberculosis Outbreak: 1 Dead, 14 Infections Confirmed – 170 Likely Exposed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
A Border Patrol agent who was hung out to dry by the Biden administration for months on false charges of whipping illegal immigrants at the southern border has now received a Border Patrol achievement award.
In September 2021, images circulated of Border Patrol agents on horseback trying to round up illegal immigrants from Haiti. The images were initially interpreted by some as showing an agent whipping the illegal immigrants.
The incident was denounced by President Joe Biden, who promised to punish the agents responsible.
However, a subsequent investigation revealed that the horses’ reins were the objects that, at the angle some images were taken, appeared to be whips. Despite that, the agents under investigation were found to have used “unnecessary” force, with one agent found to have maneuvered his horse “unsafely” and used “denigrating and inappropriate language,” according to the New York Post. Biden has never apologized to the agents.
The agent was among the many members of Customs and Border Patrol to receive an award, according to the Post.
The agent’s name has never been released, but the Post said a source it did not name at the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the agent was among those awarded.
“I find it hilarious and ridiculous that almost three years later, a Border Patrol agent who was accused of being racist and so vilified by this Biden administration now wins an achievement award for his efforts in preventing smuggling, before he gets a public apology,” the Post quoted its DHS source it did not name as saying.
The agent was initially taken off the border and banned from working with illegal immigrants.
Instead, he was assigned to intelligence work to combat human smuggling. His work in that area led to his award, the DHS source said.
He eventually was permitted to return to working along the border and allowed to interact with illegal immigrants, according to the DHS source.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was among those vilifying the agents.
However, in a 2022 report, the Heritage Foundation noted that even as agents were being condemned for what they did not do, evidence had emerged that the outcry against them was wrong.
“We got some communications that were sent to Mayorkas right before he went up and gave that really heated speech at the White House,” said Mike Howell, Director of Heritage’s Oversight Project.
Howell said the Heritage Foundation sued to get the documents that told what went on behind the scenes.
“One such communication that we found was an email from his top press staffer, a woman by the name of Marsha Espinosa. She had forwarded to Mayorkas an article. In this article was a comment from the photographer that was there, the one source that was neither border patrol or a Haitian, illegal alien. The photographer said there was no whipping, ‘I saw no whipping,’” Howell said.
“Marsha Espinosa highlighted this part for Secretary Mayorkas, and Mayorkas went up and gave his press conference and did not make use of this information that would’ve cleared the border patrol agents in light of this public outcry and these false accusations being levied at them from media, Democrat congressmen, and even the president of the United States,” he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Border Agent Biden Falsely Accused of Whipping Migrants Is Given a Major Award: Report appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
For $90,000 a year, parents of some elite school students expected more than hate.
A report in The Wall Street Journal says some parents are calling for tuition refunds and rethinking future enrollments.
“They are not getting the education they expected and paid for,” Zev Gewurz, a Boston real-estate lawyer whose daughter is a senior at New York City’s Barnard College. Barnard was founded as a women’s college adjacent to Columbia University. The cost of attendance at Barnard tops $90,000
Gewurz said Barnard gave an “inadequate response” to hate speech.
“I try to tell her that this is not her fault, and that she is living in a moment in history and needs to keep her head high,” he told the Journal.
Debra Lynn Eden, whose daughter is a junior at Princeton, complained, “It’s all a giant distraction to the students who are trying to complete their studies in a high-stress environment.”
Christopher Rim, founder and CEO of Command Education, which helps students complete applications, said parents of Columbia and University of California – Los Angeles students are calling for refunds.
“Physically blocking their child from attending class or a lecture hall is 100 percent not what they signed up for,” he said. “They are beyond upset at what’s going on.”
“I’ve had so many parents emailing, calling, asking me what they can do,” Rim told the London Times.
“There’s been protests, encampments and physical violence that has interrupted their education and they’re not happy. Fees at these sorts of schools are phenomenally high; parents want to feel like they are getting what they pay for and right now they don’t,” he said.
The lack of a commencement also galls parents.
Lana Shami’s daughter will graduate from the University of Southern California without a ceremony due to protests.
“There will be no celebration at the university where we paid an exorbitant amount of tuition for the past four years. It’s a huge letdown,” Shami said.
“This is not the experience that my freshman daughter should be having, that any of the students of any year should be having,” Amy Gallatin, whose daughter attends Barnard, said, according to Fox News.
Gallatin said her daughter took a final exam Tuesday as protests were raging.
“My daughter is also frustrated [and] understandably so,” she said. “She had a final exam yesterday at 6 o’clock that she was taking from her dorm only to have the protesters on the street banging and clanging and chanting.”
Hearing chants interpreted as seeking the death of Jews was “a very unsettling experience,” Gallatin said, and “walking through all of those people is a scary thing.”
CNN reported that one Jewish high school senior, whose name was not used, ditched Barnard due to the protests.
The student chose Brandeis University in Massachusetts, in part due to its A rating from an Anti-Defamation League list of colleges that ranked their support for Jewish students.
“Barnard was my top choice. I was so dead set on going,” the student said. “But after seeing what is happening on campuses, I feel so glad I am going to Brandeis. I feel really happy and safe knowing they got an A.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Elite Universities Are Now Getting Hit with Yet Another Problem: Furious Parents appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office on Thursday urged Judge Juan Merchan to slap former President Donald Trump with four contempt charges for comments Trump made about his trial on charges of falsifying business records.
Under a gag order issued by Merchan, Trump is barred from talking about the witnesses and jurors in the trial. Merchan fined Trump $9,000 earlier this week for violations of the order and mused about whether jail would need to be the answer to stop the violations.
On Thursday, a hearing took place concerning four other comments for which the prosecution wants Trump punished, according to CBS.
Two of the comments concerned Michael Cohen, who was Trump’s lawyer at the time of the 2016 payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and will be a witness. One comment concerned former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who testified last week. The fourth comment prosecutors cited was a remark about the jurors.
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy said Trump violated the order in commenting that Pecker was “very nice.”
“The defendant knows what he’s doing. He talks about the witness, says nice things, does it in front of cameras,” Conroy said. “The [question] he answered was about the witness who was testifying. It was deliberate and it was calculated.”
Attorney Todd Blanche, who was representing Trump, said the remark was a “very fair and neutral answer” to a question.
“When you have President Trump saying something completely neutral about the witness, that’s not a violation,” Blanche said. Merchan said he was “not terribly concerned” about the comment.
Blanche said Cohen has been “inviting and almost daring President Trump to respond to everything he has been saying” through “personal attacks, mocking him for being on trial and comments about his candidacy.
“This is not a man that needs protection from the gag order,” Blanche said.
Blanche also responded to a comment from Trump that the jury was “95% Democrats.”
The dig “absolutely, positively” did not violate the order because no single juror was cited, Blanche argued.
Merchan did not issue an order on Thursday.
As he left court, Trump vented his frustration with the trial.
“We’re seeing all of the crime that’s going on outside, and to be sitting in this courtroom is just ridiculous. It is election interference at the highest level that’s never been done before in our country. And I shouldn’t be campaigning right now,” Trump said, according to Fox News.
“He has me under an unconstitutional gag order. Nobody’s ever had that before. And we don’t like it, and it’s not fair. Other people are allowed to do whatever they want to us, and I’m not allowed as … the Republican Party nominee, and the one who’s leading Biden by a lot, I’m not allowed to talk,” Trump said,
“There’s never been an abuse like this before, this conflicted judge should get out of this case, he should not be having this case. He gives us nothing. It’s such a rigged court. So I’m not allowed to testify. Because of an unconstitutional gag order. We’re appealing the gag order,” Trump said, according to NBC.
Earlier, Trump shared his anger on Truth Social.
WE CANNOT LET THIS RADICAL LEFT, CORRUPT AND HIGHLY CONFLICTED NEW YORK DEMOCRAT JUDGE INTERFERE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2024 — THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. THE USA IS TRULY A NATION IN DECLINE! REMOVE THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL GAG ORDER,” Trump posted.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Alvin Bragg’s Team Begs Judge to Pile Even More Punishment on Trump appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Riding high after a wave of Clark-mania that accompanied the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, Caitlin Clark has signed a megabucks shoe contract with Nike.
The eight-year deal will be worth up to $28 million, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources it did not name. The Journal summed it up as the “most lucrative and attractive shoe deal in women’s basketball—and yet another record for her collection.”
The endorsement deal dwarfs the controversial contract Clark signed with the WNBA team the Indiana Fever, which will pay her over $330,000 over four years.
Nike had Clark under contract in a deal that expired at the end of the season, but as she was climbing the pinnacle of achievement in an unrivaled spotlight, in the shadows there was some hard bargaining taking place.
The Journal report said that on Feb. 15, after Clark poured in 49 points, her agents were raising the stakes with Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Puma.
Country star Tim McGraw dons Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever jersey at concert in Indianapolis https://t.co/eIullFWi3p
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2024
Their proposal: Nothing under $3 million a year.
“Some of the brand reps were shocked by the number. It was a huge sum for a women’s basketball player, few of whom ever receive deals worth more than six figures,” the Journal reported.
Amid the bargaining, some shoe company executives were conditioning deals on Clark staying in college another year on the grounds that as a college phenomenon, she was more attractive to consumers than as a professional, the Journal reported.
Clark is set to graduate May 14, according to CNN. However, she has an extra year of college ball eligibility under an NCAA COVID exemptions, according to The Sporting News.
But Clark changed the conversation as she soared to new levels of achievement – and ratings.
“She played herself into a position where it wasn’t even contingent on staying in college,” a source told the Journal. “People just wanted her.”
Not Puma. It dropped out.
Adidas had its turn.
“While some athletes let their agents ask the questions or wade through details, this was one more area where Clark, an honors student in marketing at Iowa’s business school, liked to have the ball in her hands. Adidas executives were surprised by how engaged, curious and well-prepared she was on the call,” the Journal wrote.
The offer clanged on the rim: $6 million for four years.
Under Armour offered $16 million over four years along with a signature shoe. Close, but not enough.
Nike started with $3.5 million per year. The deal would last through the next three Olympic Games. But it took one more piece — a signature shoe – to close the deal, the Journal reported.
Diana Taurisi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, said all the hype has been fun, but it is in the past.
The Women’s NBA season begins next month, and Clark is expected to see playing time right off the bat, according to USA Today, but the game she’ll be playing could be much different from her college competitions.
“You look superhuman playing against some 18-year-olds, but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time,” Taurasi told sports columnist Jay Mariotti for a Substack post.
“There’s a period of grace that you have to give rookies when they get to the league. We’ve had some of the greats to ever play basketball, and it takes two or three years to get used to a different game (against) the best players in the world. As long as everyone has expectations that are realistic, they should be fine,” she said.
But WNBA analyst Rebecca Lobo said judging Clark by anyone else’s norms sells her short.
“There’s no comparison that I can find on the women’s side, and I’ve been in this league since the very beginning,” she said.
“We haven’t seen a player drive ticket sales like this. We haven’t seen a player drive ratings like this. Look at the ratings, the last four or five games she played. I’ve never seen anything to this degree, and to me, what’s special is that she’s staying in the Midwest and going to Indiana. It’s such a perfect fit,” she said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post Caitlin Clark Lands Historic Nike Shoe Deal Worth Millions Just Before Her Rookie Season Kicks Off appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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