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Day: May 7, 2026
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The NCAA announced Thursday that it will expand its two March Madness tournaments by eight teams each next season, a move that will drop more early-round games into the first week of the highly popular and lucrative showcase without substantially changing its overall form. The new 76-team brackets will jam eight extra games — for a total of 12 games involving 24 teams — into the front half of the first week of the men’s and the women’s tournaments, turning what’s now known as the First Four into a bigger affair. It is the first expansion of the tournaments in 15 years, when they were bumped to 68 teams each. The 12 winners will move into the main 64-team bracket that will begin, as usual, on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women. Most of the eight new slots are expected to go to teams in the power conferences that were already commanding the lion’s share of entries in thebracket. Two years ago, the SEC placed a record 14 teams in the men’s bracket. Last season, the Big Ten had nine. The move is a product of the times, which include massive expansion — the ACC, for instance, has grown from nine to 17 teams since 1996 — and the reality that mid-major schools with top-notch players will often see those players plucked away by programs with bigger budgets and the ability to pay them through revenue sharing. Cinderella? There will still be room for those, though not a single mid-major advanced past the first weekend of either tournament the last two seasons. This hardly registers as a concern of the decision-makers anymore, who will point to the TV ratings that traditionally spell out fans’ preference for Duke and North Carolina over St. Peter’s and San Diego State, especially once the Sweet 16 starts. What matters more to the biggest schools is that their teams have a chance to compete in what remains the best postseason in college sports and that they aren’t iced out by lower conference champions who earn automatic bids. “You’ve got some really, really good teams who are going to end up in that 9, 10, 11 [seed] category that I think should be moved into the” 64-team bracket, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last year in discussing how he favored expansion. There is also money at stake: Conferences earn “units” — which amounted to about $350,000 per unit for the men’s tournament last season — for placing teams in the bracket and then for every round those teams advance. The Big Ten made nearly $70 million from both tournaments, won by conference members Michigan (men) and UCLA (women). Leaders in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all acknowledged that the smaller teams help make March Madness what it is, all the while steadily expanding their own power in NCAA decision-making. That brings with it the tacit threat of fracturing the single thing the NCAA does best — the basketball tournament. This move might forestall that. What it isn’t expected to do is generate much more revenue. The current deal for the men’s tournament is worth $8.8 billion and runs through 2032. Adding a few extra games between mid-level Power Four teams on Tuesday and Wednesday won’t change that much. One reason this took as long as it did was the NCAA negotiations with CBS and TNT, which themselves have been in negotiations over their own ownership. The more drastic option of expanding the tournament to 96 teams or beyond would involve adding an extra week to a tournament that has thrived in part because of the symmetry of a six-round bracket that gets whittled down over three weeks. That basic shell began in 1985, with only slight tweaks, the latest of which came in 2011 when it was upped to 68. Reporting by The Associated Press.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
Ted Turner, who died on April 6, 2026, was bright, shrewd and, most of all, lucky. The cable TV visionary proved to be in the right place, at the right time, to change television and video news forever.
Most of his big gambles, on things such as the MGM studio and library, which led to the creation of the Turner Classic Movies channel, paid off handsomely.
But Turner will be remembered mostly for the creation and development of the Cable News Network – CNN – which launched in 1980 and made our knowledge of distant events instantaneous and our world more comprehensible. In this sense, Turner’s legacy extends beyond television. He changed our conception not only of journalism but also of our world.
Turner’s obituaries note his record-setting philanthropy, his impressive conservation efforts and his campaign to make the world safer by securing post-Soviet Union era nuclear weaponry. Over the course of his 87 years, Turner proved an outstanding yachtsman, an active and involved sports team owner and a quotable maverick in the business world.
Yet as a scholar of broadcast history – and a former CNN employee – I think Turner’s ultimate legacy is a bit more atmospheric than measurable.
He changed the media ecology in profound and lasting ways. CNN’s arrival disrupted an established media environment, in which broadcast journalism routines and audience viewing habits had become standardized by the ABC, CBS and NBC TV networks.
The ramshackle early CNN, with its farcical “world headquarters” housed in a former Atlanta-area country club, was derided as the “Chicken Noodle Network” by veteran network journalists. But by the mid-1980s it had established profitability, and by 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War, it assumed a singular position in America’s – and the world’s – information environment.
CNN had matured to respectability, and Turner was recognized as a visionary by Time magazine, which named him 1991’s Man of the Year. His idea had blossomed into a new arena for global information sharing, and his cable network fully competed with the established broadcast channels on big stories throughout the 1990s.
Right place, right time, right team
Turner’s cable TV news revolution required significant collaboration. The fulfillment of his vision needed luck, inherited money, innovative new technologies, supportive partners and even federal regulatory intervention.
For example, had Newton Minow’s Federal Communications Commission not pushed Congress to pass the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962, American TV manufacturers would likely never have placed the UHF dial on their sets. That UHF dial made additional local TV competition possible by allowing more stations to broadcast.
In 1970, Turner purchased UHF Channel 17 in Atlanta, which he named WTGC for “Turner Communications Group,” and UHF Channel 36 in Charlotte, North Carolina, which he named WRET for “Robert Edward Turner,” and began building his broadcasting empire.
By the mid-1970s, the cost of satellite distribution to cable system operators had decreased to such an extent that Turner realized – and seized – an opportunity to nationally distribute his local station. He worked with satellite and cable system operators, building early relationships that would prove beneficial to everyone in the cable industry as it developed over the 1980s and ’90s.
In 1979 and 1980, he used these relationships to build the first 24-hour TV network, but it was his internal hires that made the original channel function. To launch CNN, Turner hired veterans of the TV news business, including Robert Wussler, who had previously been president of CBS Sports and the CBS Television Network. And he hired Reese Schonfeld, who had previously founded the Independent Television News Association, a national syndicator of pooled local TV programming.
AP Photo
It was Turner’s vision, investments and established partnerships that made CNN possible. But the creation of the network proved a team effort requiring managerial competence and veteran television production experience.
CNN’s success was never assured. The channel continually lost money in its initial years. But the idea of 24-hour TV news being delivered to paying subscribers, through their cable system operators, proved so valuable that as early as 1981, two CBS executives secretly jetted to Atlanta to meet with Turner and Wussler about purchasing the network.
“I’ll sell you CNN,” he told them. But the deal floundered when the CBS executives would not accept anything less than 51% ownership – and control – of the channel. “You want control? You don’t buy control of Ted Turner’s companies,” he explained. “Forty-nine percent or less.”
Only four years later, Turner would turn the tables and attempt to take over CBS.
Turner came very close to living long enough to see CBS and CNN under a single ownership. CBS’ parent company, Paramount Skydance, is closing in on the purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, the corporation that owns CNN.
Yet today, these two once hugely profitable news operations have been subsumed within massive multinational corporations, with their legacy brand equity providing as much value to their ownership as their journalism. Turner had long bemoaned the managerial fate of his cable news channel, which he sold to Warner Bros. in 1996.
Success invites criticism, establishes a legacy
Turner is one of the few figures in American media history who left a clearly identifiable legacy. There was a media world that existed before CNN and the one that came after. CNN’s success gave rise to competitors such as MSNBC, Fox News and others.
These channels simultaneously differentiated themselves from CNN while constantly measuring themselves against their older rival. But Turner’s original vision was distinct from the panel programs and punditry that’s now replaced original reporting from around the world.
AP Photo/Dennis Cook
Turner wanted to own and operate a global news organization where the news would always be the star, and where, like the classic wire services, professional reporting would be instant and accurate. And he wanted to make a fortune while doing it.
When he finally succeeded, critics began to complain about what journalist and academic Tom Rosenstiel called “The Myth of CNN” in a cover story in The New Republic in 1994. Scholars bemoaned CNN for its privileging good visuals over context and depth. They argued that its foreign coverage failed to maintain sufficient independence from the U.S. government.
Dictators and terrorists around the world learned to exploit CNN to get their messages across to the American public. In this sense, CNN’s neutrality, once a source of respect and credibility, could also undermine it by making the channel easily exploitable.
Billions of people around the world now take for granted the profusion of news access to anywhere on earth, at any time of day or night. That world was unimaginable before Turner’s work to make CNN conceivable and then real.
His legacy is not simply a series of cable channels but an entirely new way of thinking about information retrieval and access. Think about that the next time you scroll past video clips from London, Tokyo, Beirut or Mexico City, or check out breaking news videos from Ukraine or Tehran. And thank Ted for making such a world possible.
Michael J. Socolow 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
Dozens marched in Juneau to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples on May 5, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
A group of Juneau residents linked arms around a small fire pit outside Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Tuesday evening, concluding a ceremony to honor lost loved ones and hold space for grief and healing. At the center, the fire burned cedar chips with dozens of names of those lost.
May 5 is recognized as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples, recognizing the disproportionate rates of violence, murder and disappearance among Alaska Native and American Indian communities nationwide and globally.
The day highlights Alaska’s high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous people, particularly Alaska Native women and girls, the ongoing efforts and gaps in law enforcement response, and efforts to address violence prevention and justice for families.
Marches and events were held in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, Juneau and across the country on Tuesday.
In Juneau, the day was marked with dozens gathering for a rally and march through downtown, a dinner and panel discussion with community leaders, and a space for grieving for those who’ve lost loved ones or are still seeking answers from law enforcement on open investigations.
A mother and daughter, Lyric and Melody Ashenfelter of Juneau, took a moment to rest on the curb after the march. They said it felt empowering to be a part of the demonstration, and want to see more events and public attention paid to the crisis of violence and missing Alaska Native people, especially Alaska Native women.
“It was good to see the amount of people that showed up. It was powerful,” Melody Ashenfelter said. They both said they are always thinking of Lyric, who is 20, and her safety. “It’s on my mind, always being careful,” she said.
During the march, demonstrators held signs to commemorate missing or murdered people, including Tracy Day, who went missing in 2019 in Juneau whose family is still searching for answers, and Benjamin “Benny” Stepetin, who went missing last June. At a dinner and panel discussion at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, a table displayed photos of more than a dozen people killed or missing going back to 1993.
According to new FBI data released Tuesday, rates of Alaska Native or American Indian people reported missing declined slightly to 9,687 people nationwide in 2025. The majority were minors. Roughly 55% of the total were women, and 45% were men.
In Alaska, the Department of Public Safety releases quarterly reports of missing people, but not annual reports. Numbers fluctuate as cases are resolved and people are found, officials said, but approximately one third of cases in 2025 involved Alaska Native people missing, while Alaska Native people represent roughly 16% of the state’s population.
The non-profit Data for Indigenous Justice has established an independent database to provide updated case numbers and resources for family members. In 2025, the group reported adding 170 new names and counted the total number of documented MMIP cases in Alaska at more than 1,250 people.
Alaska ranks fourth in the nation with the highest number of cases, and Anchorage has the third highest of all cities in the nation, according to a 2018 report.
Paulette M. Moreno, vice president of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, which helped organize the Juneau event, said each data point represents a life and someone’s family and community affected.
“These are relatives, our sisters, our daughters, our aunties and our family members. So this issue is not abstract. It’s not something that’s happening elsewhere, it’s something that’s happening in Alaska, in our communities,” she said.
Alaska Native and American Indian women and girls experience disproportionately higher rates of violence, and are murdered at rates ten times the national average, according to federal data.
Federal and state officials say addressing MMIP is a top priority
Also on Tuesday in Anchorage, federal officials and advocates gathered for a roundtable focused on MMIP hosted by Cook Inlet Tribal Council. Participants represented tribes, law enforcement agencies and the state and federal government. U.S. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, as well as two Department of the Interior officials, Bryan Mercier, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Billy Kirkland, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, attended.
“We can’t lose momentum,” Murkowski said, and applauded the announcement of a new national Task Force to Combat Violent Crime in Indian Country.
“We are here to work with the administration, hand in glove, on these initiatives to ensure that women in this state, women across the country, do not fear in their own homes,” Murkowski said. “So we have work to do, but we have many, many good and willing partners.”
Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Cockrell said the biggest barrier for state law enforcement response is timing, particularly in rural Alaska. “Getting to a place in time to either save the person or be able to do a good investigation, to hold the person accountable for their actions,” he said.
“So we need to continue to focus on prevention and really timing investigation, and we need people to help us,” he added. “We need people to step up and say, ‘this is what happened.’
Cockrell said growing the Village Public Safety Officer program has been an ongoing priority of the department, and he sees those officers as essential to be on the frontlines in responding to incidents. “Our goal is to have a VPSO in any village that wants a VPSO. Currently, we have VPSOs in 57 villages, and again, they’re the boots on the ground,” he said.
Cockrell emphasized that investigations for missing people are most successful when launched quickly. “If you know somebody’s missing, tell somebody right away. Don’t wait 24 hours. Don’t wait 48 hours. We have to have information as quickly as possible. The more information we get, the better chances are we’ll find this person.”
Austin McDaniel, communications director with the department, said in an interview Wednesday that the department responds to missing persons investigations as homicides until they are proven otherwise. “So that’s certainly our priority, is aggressively and quickly investigating new homicides that come in regardless of the area of the state or the race or gender of the person involved,” he said.
McDaniel said the state is focused on investigating both new cases and unresolved cases, or cold cases. He said the state has five investigators, including four focused on MMIP cases. He said those investigations include new uses of forensic science, like DNA testing, and also rely on new information or witnesses coming forward.
Following legislative action in 2025, Alaska established a new nine-member MMIP Review Commission to review unsolved cases and submit a report to the Legislature every three years with its recommendations and findings. McDaniel said the commission began meeting last year and is continuing to prioritize cases to review.
But the state does not respond to cases in local law enforcement jurisdictions, unless called upon to assist, McDaniel said.
Advocates, families and supporters have raised concerns and criticisms at local police departments they say have failed to respond in a timely manner, lack communication with families and lack transparency in the process of investigations.
McDaniel said families can’t petition the state directly, but can urge their local police department to request assistance with investigations. “We recognize and understand that some, especially small police departments, don’t have the resources, training or equipment to do highly complex technical investigations, and we always will come in, and whether it’s providing maybe some crime scene response or specialized forensics or digital forensics, we do that,” he said.
Isolation, lack of trust and support services driving factors
Moreno echoed the issue of isolation as one of the biggest driving forces behind the extent of missing and murdered people in Alaska, which she called a human rights crisis.
“I think that one of the things that really, really makes this such a high number in Alaska is that there are patterns that then have been able to develop. And these patterns have set up systems, unhealthy systems, to allow there to be the ongoing cases, the ongoing people and families that go missing,” she said.
She said the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes is working with community partners and other tribal governments and organizations to raise awareness and support for resources and community support services for people experiencing violence, or for situations that may make them vulnerable to going missing, as well as for grieving families.
“And some of the reason for that, may be that there hasn’t been an establishment of trust or awareness that these services exist,” she said.
Moreno said that more public awareness, law enforcement and media attention is important. “A lot of times they either go undetected, unreported or unresolved, and the treatment of that has caused, I think, a higher number of cases,” she said.
“Our people, Alaska Native people from all the different tribes, are the original inhabitants of this land, and we need to be treated with the respect that that brings forward on our own ancestral homeland,” she added.
Moreno said the Central Council is planning to hold future events to support grieving families of those missing or murdered.
“Space where families can come together and talk with each other and have that safe space that’s uniquely created, even though it’s your tragedy, that’s created to help each other, the person right next to you, with healing.”
Yereth Rosen contributed reporting to this story from Anchorage.
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Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature approved a new congressional map Thursday that dismantles the state’s majority-Black district and will likely secure them an all-GOP federal delegation.
The redraw comes as Republican-led Southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and opened the door to states blowing up blue districts drawn to protect the voting power of racial minorities.
The new map aims to draw the state’s lone Democratic congressional representative — Rep. Steve Cohen — out of his Memphis-area seat by splitting up majority-Black Shelby County. It also divides Maury County, likely delivering a more favorable district to Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s target list.
“The Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind,” said Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton in a social media post. “The decision indicated states can redistrict based off partisan politics.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, is expected to sign the map into law imminently. He called the legislature into a special session last week to pass the map.
“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said in a statement Friday. “After consultation with the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to review the map and ensure it remains fair, legal, and defensible.”
Tennessee is the first state to finalize a new congressional map after last week’s Supreme Court decision. Louisiana’s GOP-controlled legislature is expected to unveil a new map as soon as this week, and Republicans in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama are pushing to do the same.
Andrew Howard contributed to this report.
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It’s more tragic when it’s unexpected, as is the case with these country singers who died before their time. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
It’s more tragic when it’s unexpected, as is the case with these country singers who died before their time. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Morgan Wallen recently shared a deeply meaningful moment with a Michigan family whose 8-year-old son, Jameson, was battling multiple forms of aggressive cancer and often turned to Wallen’s music as a source of comfort and support. The country superstar has impacted the family’s life in multiple ways over the past year, including helping them honor and remember Jameson following his recent passing.
Jameson and his parents, Amanda and Josh, first got to meet Wallen while attending his concert at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin last summer. Prior to attending the show, Jameson had been diagnosed with midline high grade glioma and high-grade glioma in his brain and spine as well as Osteosarcoma, a form of cancer that appears in the bone in his arm.
They were just a normal family preparing to send Jameson off to 2nd grade when he started to get sick periodically over the summer. At first, there was nothing too alarming, but his symptoms persisted and the family was eventually informed he had just weeks to live.
Thanks to the efforts of Make-A-Wish and the “I Got Better” singer, the young boy and his family had a night to remember at the concert. Along with enjoying the concert, they got to meet Wallen backstage, received several signed gifts, were set up with everything they needed throughout the night, and even got to ride home in a limo.
According to a post by Amanda at the time, Wallen was a kind and comforting person who felt more like a longtime friend than a celebrity. She says he even prayed over the family before taking the stage.
“We were all so nervous at first the thought of talking to a celebrity, however that was not the case at all. Talking to Morgan Wallen was like talking to someone back home. He was so nice and genuine,” she wrote. “We had some laughs, Jameson got to tell him how much his music has helped him through cancer. Jameson even gave Morgan Wallen a JAMESONSTRONG bracelet for him and his son. Which he wore throughout the entire concert! The most amazing thing that he did for us was he prayed over Jameson! We all huddled together and he led a prayer over him. My Mama heart couldn’t have been happier.”
Amanda admitted that she did get emotional midway through the show realizing that her son got everything he wanted in the end of his life.
“I quit filming and taking photos and I looked around at that lit stadium. I took it all in and I just cried. This day couldn’t have gone any more perfect,” she continued. “This was Jameson’s wish and it’s something Josh and I will treasure forever! They took us back to the hotel in a limo. We just can’t be more grateful to Morgan Wallen, his foundation, his team and Make A Wish of course for just letting this happen. I’m still shocked we were able to do this!”
Unfortunately, Jameson lost his battle in August of 2025. His family continues to honor his memory by keeping his legacy alive through the Jameson Strong nonprofit, which aims to provide “comfort, support, and spiritual resources to families impacted by pediatric cancers, through thoughtfully curated faith based care packages, fostering hope and spiritual well-being during their cancer journey throughout the United States.”
The family now reveals that Morgan Wallen’s support didn’t end the night of the concert. He also quietly covered Jameson’s funeral expenses.
In a letter to her late son, Amanda opened up about the lasting impact of his journey and the memories that she will always hold close to her heart. She also made sure to let him know that she will “forever be a Morgan Wallen fan” after the tremendous kindness he offered the family during that time.
“Going to see your favorite artist Morgan Wallen this summer and even though you’re in Heaven I know you have the best seat in the house and just know we are taking you with us.I’m very blessed and thankful that you were able to meet him and go to his concert. I will forever be a Morgan Wallen fan! The fact that he quietly paid for your funeral there just are no words to how amazing that is. You listened to his music to get through fighting cancer and now Mama listens to it to get through each day without you.”
This July, the family will attend Morgan Wallen’s Ann Arbor show as part of his Still the Problem Tour 2026.
To learn more or to contribute to the nonprofit, visit https://www.jamesonstrong.org/.
The post Morgan Wallen Quietly Covers Funeral Expenses for 8-Year-Old Fan He Met Backstage Before Tragic Loss appeared first on Country Now.
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