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In Driver’s Eye with James Hinchcliffe, the six-time INDYCAR winner will bring you inside the mind of a racer while breaking down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans. INDYCAR is smack in the middle of a two-week break. And while that means you won’t watch on-track action and I won’t be in the INDYCAR on FOX booth for two straight weekends, the drivers and teams aren’t off. Far from it, actually. Calling it a two-week “break” is a bit misleading. I promise you that these days away from the track are anything but a vacation. It’s more like a valuable opportunity. After four races in the first five weeks of the season, the paddock packed up following Alex Palou’s checkered flag at Barber Motorsports Park, and teams and drivers were staring at a two-week break before heading to the streets of Long Beach for the Acura Grand Prix. So what are they doing in these couple “off” weeks? Let’s zoom out briefly. Back-to-back races are grueling for INDYCAR teams. Typically, the mechanics, engineers and drivers will fly into a race market on a Thursday for what we call Set Up Day. This is when the tents are put up, the cars get unloaded and final prep happens. Drivers and engineers sit and go over the weekend plan, which usually includes a track walk. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we practice, qualify and race, and then teams will rush to get home Sunday night. The trucks and trailers often don’t roll in until early hours on Monday, when the mechanics and engineers are in the shop tearing down and rebuilding the car, as well as pouring through the data from the weekend. Tuesday, the cars get finalized and put back on the truck, so they can leave Wednesday — sometimes earlier for the West Coast races — to be at the track Thursday for Set Up Day. What that all means is that there is generally very little time between consecutive race weekends for the engineers and drivers to deep dive into what has happened the previous weekend. These cars have so many sensors and collect so much telemetry data that when you only have one day at the shop in between races, there is no way a team can sift through it all to find every little detail that will make them faster. So this two-week pause in the schedule gives everyone time to do a proper postmortem on the races so far. We’ve already had races on a street course, a road course and an oval, so the entire gambit of INDYCAR track types has been covered. Teams already have a sense of where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Now, they’ve got the time to find out why. Remember: It’s just as important to understand why you’re fast at some tracks (so you can try to replicate it) as it is to understand why you’re slow at some tracks (so you can fix it!). Teams can analyze 100 different things about the car and driver, but a few seem pretty simple. For example, engineers know what impact changing a certain setup should have. If a driver complains of X balance problem, an engineer knows that Y setup change should fix it. But that doesn’t always happen! So the engineers will look at moments when the race car didn’t perform as expected and try to figure out what caused that. Another thing that will be very common in this stretch is drivers getting into the simulator. With relatively little track time in the weekend’s practice sessions, you never have enough time to get through everything on your list. Jumping into the sim allows teams to keep experimenting with other setup changes that they didn’t have a chance to try on the race weekend. Maybe there are a couple silver bullets for lap times that they missed. Maybe there’s an unexpected lesson learned or an innovative opportunity born out of a light-bulb moment. The sim is as much a tool for working through solutions from the last race weekend as it is a preparation tool for the next race. Personally, during multi-week breaks like this, I always loved getting in the simulator to keep sharp. It’s also a great time to get back into a good training routine. With how much travel you have in the back-to-backs, it is tough to keep that training routine, but this stretch lets you reset physically and that always feels good for drivers. SOUND LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT We talk a lot about INDYCAR’s versatility in track types, but we don’t often look too closely at what different tracks require from a setup standpoint. So let’s break it down. Let’s look at street courses first. Street courses are temporary tracks over city streets that tend to have many different surface types, bumps and generally a lack of high-speed corners. This usually puts the most emphasis on mechanical grip, which you achieve with damper settings and softer springs. Putting it simply, softer springs means more grip. Another common setup trait is higher ride heights, which you need to avoid the bottom of the car slamming into all the bumps on this type of track. Road courses may seem similar but are the opposite in a lot of ways. Take Barber as an example. It’s a uniform surface, very smooth and has a lot of long, high-speed corners. That means that Barber has more of a reliance on aerodynamic grip, or downforce. Downforce is generated by the big wings on the front and rear of the car and by the floor. On this type of track, you typically run much stiffer springs to support the car through the fast corners and maximize the downforce potential. The stiffer springs also allow lower ride heights, which helps the aero grip. It’s a tougher, more direct feel from behind the wheel than a street-course car, but you have to be an inch perfect when driving it. Ovals are a completely different beast all together. There are generally different aerodynamic rules for ovals, so first and foremost, the wings will look different. Obviously, on ovals you only turn left, so the cars are set up very asymmetrically. Things like cambers (the vertical tilt in the tire) and toes (how straight the tire is relative to the centerline of the car) are set up in a way that means the car naturally wants to turn left. So much so that you have to physically turn the wheel a bit right on the straights! The car naturally wants to turn left. If you just let go of the wheel, the car will careen into the inside wall, so you have to fight that by turning right to go straight. Needless to say, the things that make you quick on one type of track do not always — in fact, rarely — translate to speed on a different type of track. That’s why there is so much information to digest, process and apply to be better from one week to the next. 1 FOR THE ROAD As for me and the rest of the INDYCAR on FOX team, the break is a welcome thing for the TV crew. Not unlike race teams, we like to do thorough breakdowns of each broadcast to look at what we did well and what we can improve on. With consecutive races, it’s tough to get into too deep an analysis. So these weeks are spent rewatching the first races of the season, talking regularly between myself, my co-commentators, my director, producers — you name it! The end result is hopefully that you see a broadcast that gets just a little better every time you watch. MORE DRIVER’S EYE:Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
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Every part of this story is a horror.
In early 2021, two young teens became parents.
Logan Kruckenberg Anderson took the newborn into the snow-covered woods and ended her life.
He was convicted of the unthinkable homicide. And now, he has received a life sentence.
Every part of this is so upsetting
In 2021, Logan Kruckenberg Anderson was 16 years old.
When an unnamed 14-year-old gave birth to his newborn daughter on January 5 of that year, the teens knew that they were not ready to be parents.
According to investigators, Kruckenberg Anderson told his then-girlfriend that he was going to take their baby, Harper, to a better home.
(Apparently, his story was that he’d found someone on Snapchat who could help with an adoption.)
Four days after the birth, he took the baby in a backpack and walked into the woods.
According to reports, Kruckenberg Anderson placed his 4-day-old daughter, Harper, inside a fallen tree in the woods.
The alleged plan was for her to die of exposure in the freezing cold.
(It is believed that this was solely Kruckenberg Anderson’s plan, with no others having any knowledge of it.)
However, he heard her crying, and opted for something that may have, in some twisted way, seemed less cruel to him at the time.
Authorities say that Kruckenberg Anderson shot his newborn twice in the head, ending her life.
This grisly ‘plan’ fell apart immediately
Harper’s maternal grandfather, however, called the police when he learned that the baby’s father had taken her from the home.
When authorities first questioned the teens, Kruckenberg Anderson insisted that Harper had been taken to an adoption agency by the anonymous Snapchat friend.
(Snapchat is considered fairly anonymous and posts on it are ephemeral. That must have made this story sound plausible to a 16-year-old. It did not work.)
Eventually, Kruckenberg Anderson relented and led police to Harper’s body.
No one believes that Harper’s 14-year-old mother had any knowledge of his plans. No charges have been filed against her.
Anderson was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and of hiding the corpse of a child.
In March 2026, the now-21-year-old Kruckenberg Anderson received a life sentence.
On the charge of first-degree intentional homicide count, he’ll be eligible for extended supervision in 45 years.
He received a 4-year sentence for hiding his baby’s body, followed by 3 years of extended supervision.
These sentences are concurrent. So, unless the homicide conviction is entirely voided, the other is moot.
Horrors like this are preventable
As a society, we need to make sure that access to safe adoption is universal.
No one likes the idea of someone dumping a newborn at a safe dropoff without responsibility. But it is better than infanticide.
Meanwhile, access to comprehensive sex education and contraceptives should be universal, too. Everyone should have a choice before they become pregnant, before they give birth.
No teens should become parents.
And, at the risk of sounding controversial, we’d strongly prefer that no teens become murderers, either. Harper wasn’t the only life that ended in this story — she was just the most innocent.
Logan Kruckenberg Anderson Sentenced to for Lethally Shooting Newborn Daughter, Burying … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
You might think that the state that has the largest population or where the chain is headquartered might have the most Chick-fil-As, but no.
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The Alaska State Capitol seen on the first day of the second session of the 34th Alaska State Legislature on Jan. 20, 2025 (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
At the Alaska Beacon, we’re constantly trying to figure out where we should put our attention. There’s always more news than there are people to report it.
Every Thursday, the Alaska Legislature publishes its committee schedule for the coming week. Public notices alert us to meetings and events. The governor’s office occasionally lets us know ahead of time that something’s coming down the pike, too.
Here’s what we know about for the coming week. If you know of something that’s coming up that you should think we should pay attention to, email us at info@alaskabeacon.com.
We can’t cover everything on this list, but we’re interested in them and we think you should know about them in case you’re interested in them, too.
This list is ripped from our notebooks, and it is likely to change over the course of the week. We’ll update it when we can.
Are you trying to keep track of when to testify on a bill? The Legislature has a website for that.
Monday, April 13
*The House continues debating the operating budget for next year, so House committee meetings are contingent on that schedule
8 a.m. – House Education hears a that would mandate civics education
9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill related to an occupational therapy licensure compact
12 p.m. – Lunch & Learn with Alaska Youth for Environmental Action
1 p.m. – House Judiciary hears bills related to consumer data privacy, to maintain sibling relationships for youth in foster care, and a bill to increase criminal penalties for selling fraudulent airbags
1 p.m. – House Resources hears the governor’s bill to provide tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line
1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a bill to establish criminal penalties for mail theft, and a bill to authorize pharmacists to prescribe certain medications
1:30 p.m. – Senate Judiciary considers the governor’s appointees for the Alaska Parole Board and the Human Rights Commission, and a bill to increase criminal penalties for hit-and-runs
1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill related to the right to repair digital devices, and a bill related to allowable charges by health insurers
1:30 p.m. – House Labor and Commerce hears bills related to benefits for emergency dispatchers, telehealth reimbursement rates, damages limits for personal injuries or wrongful death, and to close a tax loopholes for C-corporations
3:30 p.m. – Senate Education hears a presentation on the history of the state’s Regional Education Attendance Areas
3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources hears a bill proposed by the governor to provide property tax breaks for the proposed 739-mile Alaska LNG gas line project
Tuesday, April 14
8 a.m. – House Community and Regional Affairs considers “right to repair” legislation and hears bills that would make it easier for unhoused youth to get birth certificates and regulate autonomous vehicles
9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill that would increase access to retirement benefits for disabled veterans and a bill that would support the civil legal services fund
9 a.m. – Senate Resources continues considering the governor’s bill to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line
12 p.m. – Lunch and Learn presentation on delivering health care to Southeast Alaska
1 p.m. – House Energy hears a presentation on geothermal energy
1:30 p.m. – House Finance hears a a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to establish an education fund
3:15 p.m. – House Health and Social Services hears a bill that would expand early education services, and a bill to establish an opioid litigation settlement fund for the state to record and better manage opioid settlement proceeds
3:15 p.m. – House State Affairs hears a presentation about how other states regulate artificial intelligence
3:30 p.m. – House Health and Social Services hears a resolution in support of the Rural Health Transformation Fund
3:30 – Senate State Affairs hears a presentation on disaster management
Wednesday, April 15
Arctic Encounter Summit takes place in Anchorage
8 a.m. – House Education hears a bill to require CPR training in schools and a bill to fund free school breakfast and lunch
9 a.m. – House Finance hears a bill related to expand funding for the special education services agency
9 a.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill to allow the transfer of inmates serving long sentences to out-of-state facilities and another to allow the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to provide loans to build workforce housing
12 p.m. – Documentary film screening: “Talking to the Tundra: How a Yup’ik Village Heals Together” by Indie Alaska
12 p.m. – Lunch and Learn presentation on the Alaska Fentanyl Response Project
1 p.m. – House Judiciary hears a bill that would allow the surrender of infants in so-called infant safety devices, a bill that would lower the legal blood alcohol limit for driving to 0.04 from 0.08, and a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to define that corporations do not have the same rights as people to donate to political campaigns
1 p.m. – House Resources hears a companion bill proposed by the governor to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line
1:30 p.m. – Senate Finance hears a bill related to regulating cryptocurrency
1:30 p.m. – Senate Judiciary considers governors nominees for the Commission on Judicial Conduct — Aldean Kilbourn, Donald McClintock III and Jane Moore — and a bill related to AI-generated child sexual abuse material
1:30 p.m. – Senate Labor and Commerce hears a bill that would allow municipalities to set local property tax caps
3:15 p.m. – House Labor and Commerce considers a bill that would regulate LNG gas import facilities3:30 p.m. – Senate Resources hears a bill related to state policy and oversight of the proposed Alaska LNG gas line project
3:30 p.m. – Task Force on Education Funding hears a presentation on national assessments, and holds a demonstration for lawmakers to take a state standardized test
Thursday, April 16
Arctic Encounter Summit continues in Anchorage
Native Youth Olympic Games begin at the University of Alaska Anchorage Alaska Airlines Center and run through Saturday.
8 a.m. – House Community and Regional Affairs continues consideration of “right to repair” legislation
9 a.m. – House Finance considers a bill that would establish paid parental leave program for parental leave up to 26 weeks and increases unemployment insurance maximum weekly benefit amount through the Alaska Department of Labor, and create a new parental leave fund
9 a.m. – Senate Resources continues considering a governor’s bill to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line, and a bill to establish state policy for regulating and oversight of gas line construction
10 a.m. – House Fisheries considers a bill that would cap annual fees, streamline the permitting process and create exemptions from certain health and sanitary requirements for small commercial fishing vessels
10:15 p.m. – House Military and Veteran Affairs considers a bill that would create options for veterans who are exposed to service-related trauma and commit crimes to be able to access therapeutic services and avoid incarceration
12 p.m. – Lunch and Learn presentation on the science of child development
1 p.m. – House Energy hears a presentation on Alaska’s Sustainable Energy Corporation
1:30 p.m. Senate Community and Regional Affairs considers a bill that would require contracts for new data centers account for energy needs, prioritize renewable energy, and ensure other energy customers’ costs do not increase, and another bill that would expand the number of seats on the Board of Fisheries
3:30 p.m. House Health and Social Services considers governors’ appointees to several boards
3:30 p.m. – Senate State Affairs reviews the voter initiatives that have been certified to appear on the state ballot in November
Friday, April 17
Arctic Encounter Summit closes in Anchorage
1 p.m. House Resources continues hearing a companion bill proposed by the governor to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line
3:15 p.m. House Labor and Commerce considers a bill that would require insurance to cover evaluations and treatment for certain pediatric neuropsychiatric disorders, and another bill to reclassify emergency dispatchers to be included in “protective services occupations” and eligible for the state’s public employees’ defined benefit retirement system
3:30 p.m. Senate Resources continues considering a governor’s bill to provide property tax breaks for the proposed Alaska LNG gas line
Fans have commented on Melissa McCarthy’s recent public appearance, commending her for a weight loss regimen that appears to have been the result of hard work.
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“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Napoleon Bonaparte’s maxim may well have been in the minds of policymakers in Moscow and Beijing these past weeks, as the U.S. war in Iran dragged on. And now that a 14-day ceasefire between Tehran and Washington is in effect – with both sides claiming “victory” – Russian and Chinese leaders still have an opportunity to profit from what many see as America’s latest folly in the Middle East.
Throughout the weekslong conflict, China and Russia struck a delicate balance. Both declined to give Iran – seen to a varying degree as an ally of both nations – their full-throated support or sink any real costs into the conflict.
Instead, they opted for limited assistance in the form of small-scale intelligence and diplomatic support.
As a scholar of international security and great power politics I believe that is for good reason. Beijing and Moscow were fully aware that Iran could not “win” against the combined military might of the United States and Israel. Rather, Iran just needed to survive to serve the interests of Washington’s main geopolitical rivals.
Below are four ways in which the U.S. war in Iran has damaged Washington’s position in the great power rivalries of the 21st century.
1. Losing the influence war in the Middle East
As I explore in my book “Defending Frenemies,” the U.S. has long struggled to balance competing objectives in the Middle East. During the Cold War, this meant limiting the Soviet Union’s influence in the region, while contending with the development of nuclear weapons by two troublesome allies, Israel and Pakistan.
By the 2020s, the priorities in Washington were aimed at restricting the influence of the U.S.’s great power rivals – China and to a lesser degree Russia – in the Middle East.
Lintao Zhang/Pool Photo via AP
Yet under Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, China and Russia have sought to increase their footprint in the region through a variety of formal alliances and informal measures.
For Russia, this took the form of aligning with Iran, while also partnering with Tehran to prop up the now-ousted regime of President Bashar Assad during the Syrian civil war. Meanwhile, China increased its diplomatic profile in the Middle East, notably by acting as a mediator as Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic ties in 2023.
The irony of the latest Iran war is that it follows a period in which circumstances were unfavorable to Russian and Chinese aims of increasing their influence in the Middle East.
The fall of Assad in December 2024 deprived Russia of its one reliable ally in the region. And Trump’s May 2025 tour of the Gulf states, in which he secured major technology and economic deals with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, was aimed at countering China’s growing economic and diplomatic influence in those countries.
With Washington perceived as an increasingly unreliable protector, the Gulf states may seek greater security and economic cooperation elsewhere.
2. Taking US eyes off other strategic goals
In expanding military, diplomatic and economic ties in the Middle East, Russia and China over the past two decades were exploiting a desire by Washington to move its assets and attention away from the region following two costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump’s decision to wage war against Iran directly contradicts the national security strategy his administration released in November 2025. According to the strategy, the administration would prioritize the Western Hemisphere and the Indo-Pacific, while the Middle East’s importance “will recede.”
In co-launching a war in Tehran with Israel, without any prior consultation with Washington’s other allies, Trump has shown a complete disregard for their strategic and economic concerns. NATO, already riven by Trump’s repeated threats to the alliance and designs on Greenland, has now shown further signs of internal divisions.
That offers benefits for China and Russia, which have long sought to capitalize on cracks between America and its allies.
The irony, again, is that the war in Iran came as Trump’s vision of the U.S. as the hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere was making advances. International law and legitimacy concerns aside, Washington had ousted a thorn in its side with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and replaced him with a more compliant leader.
3. Disproportionate economic fallout
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where some 20% of the world’s oil passes, was as predictable as it was destructive for U.S. interests.
But for Russia, this meant higher oil prices that boosted its war economy. It also led to the temporary but ongoing easing of U.S. sanctions, which has provided Moscow an indispensable lifeline after years of economic pressure over the war in Ukraine.
While a prolonged closure and extensive damage to oil and natural gas infrastructure in Iran and the Gulf states no doubt hurts China’s energy security and economy, these were risks Xi appears willing to accept, at least for a time.
And by building up a domestic oil reserve and diversifying energy sources to include solar, electric batteries and coal, China is far better positioned to weather a prolonged global energy crisis than the U.S. Indeed, Beijing has made strides in recent year to encourage domestic consumption as a source of economic growth, rather than be so reliant on global trade. That may have given China some protection during the global economic shock caused by the Iran war, as well as push the economy further down its own track.
The more the U.S. loses control over events in the strait, the more it loses influence in the region – especially as Iran appears to be placing restrictions on ships from unfriendly nations.
Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP
4. Loss of global leadership
Trump’s willingness to abandon talks to go to war, and the contradictory rhetoric he has employed throughout the Iran conflict, has weakened the perception of the U.S. as an honest broker.
That provides a massive soft power boost for Beijing. It was China that pressed Iran to accept the 14-day ceasefire proposal brokered by Pakistan. Indeed, China has slowly chipped away at America’s longtime status as global mediator of first resort.
Beijing has successfully mediated in the past between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and it attempted to do the same with Russia and Ukraine and Israel and the Palestinians.
In general, the Iran war adds weight to Beijing’s worldview that the U.S.-led liberal international order is over. Even if China benefited at some level from the war continuing, its decision to help broker the ceasefire shows that China is increasingly taking on the mantle of global leadership that the U.S. used to own.
And for Russia, the Iran war and the rupture between Trump and America’s NATO allies over their lack of support for it, shift world attention and U.S. involvement from the war in Ukraine.
Jeffrey Taliaferro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Politics + Society – The Conversation