Five years after saying “I do,” Dog the Bounty Hunter is looking back on the love he and Francie Frane found after both experienced devastating loss. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Month: September 2026
Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.
The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.
Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.
“The congressional districts the General Assembly established in 2022 remain in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election, and HB 1 will not take effect unless and until approved by the voters at the November 2026 general election,” Judge Ginger K. Gooch wrote in the court’s 7-0 opinion.
The surprising decision creates an unprecedented set of electoral circumstances for Missouri voters and election administrators. The state’s primaries took place under the new lines while Hoskins delayed a decision on the referendum, but the general election will now rely on the previous maps.
President Donald Trump was quick to condemn the decision, which could help determine whether Democrats can take control of the House in the midterms and put a check on his agenda.
“The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America! ” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect just a couple of months ago, in the Primary. This is a Dark Day for “Justice” in Missouri!”
For months, Missouri Republicans had signaled their intention to delay a ruling on Democrats’ referendum petition as long as possible while implementing the new maps in the primaries. Hoskins waited to declare the referendum insufficient on the day of the primaries last month. Republicans argued during hearings this week that changing the congressional lines months before an election could cause chaos.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a social media post she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the decision.
Republicans across the country kicked off an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting gambit in 2025, starting with Texas, that has seen 10 states enact new maps. The Supreme Court’s decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, coupled with the Virginia Supreme Court striking down Democrats’ voter-approved gerrymander there, gave Republicans an edge of up to 10 seats.
But as Americans continue to sour on Trump and Republicans, it’s unlikely the GOP will notch as many wins as they first hoped, though they still have an overall advantage from the redistricting.
November’s referendum marks an early frontier in the looming 2028 redistricting battle, as leaders in both parties have signaled their intent to press for new lines to be drawn in favorable states. Both parties have already poured millions into Missouri’s redistricting fight.
People Not Politicians, the Democratic group organizing the referendum, celebrated the court’s decision.
“This is what democracy looks like, the people of Missouri demanded a voice, and the court just confirmed what we’ve been saying all along. People, not politicians, will have the final say,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of the group, said in a statement. “This victory reaches beyond Missouri. In a year when map-drawing has become a national weapon, courts across the country are watching what happens here.”
Politics
Blue Bunny makes a variety of ice cream flavors (or, to be more accurate, frozen dairy desserts), but which one reigns supreme? We tried 19 to find out.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
Former President Donald Trump prepares to speak in front of a crowd at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage on Saturday, July 9, 2022. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
President Donald Trump said Wednesday in Washington, D.C., that he will travel to Alaska to campaign on behalf of incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who appears to be facing a close race against Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.
“I will go to Alaska to help Dan Sullivan get elected. … Dan Sullivan’s a great senator,” Trump said.
Because most U.S. Senate seats are in states controlled firmly by Republicans or Democrats, control of the U.S. Senate as a whole will be decided by a relative handful of races nationally, including the one this year in Alaska.
A spokesperson for Sullivan’s campaign did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Thursday.
In the just-completed August primary election, Peltola had 49.5% of the vote; Sullivan had 41.4% of the vote.
Despite that performance, a recent poll of voters likely to participate in November indicates a race that’s in a virtual dead heat. That poll is similar to others conducted earlier this year.
On Wednesday at the Oval Office, one reporter asked Trump why the race is so close.
“I don’t know. Well, it’s close for one reason that they have a phony Dan Sullivan,” Trump said. “This guy’s a phony and he was put up by the Democrats and they don’t admit it, but it’s been so proven.”
The third person in Alaska’s four-way race for U.S. Senate is Dan J. Sullivan, a Republican from Petersburg who earned 2.5% of the vote in the August primary.
Many of Dan J. Sullivan’s votes in the primary came from Democratic-leaning districts, and both he and people representing Peltola’s campaign have said that there has been no coordination between the two.
Despite that, the president, the incumbent and other Republicans have accused Dan Sullivan of nefarious actions without providing evidence.
On Wednesday, Dan J. Sullivan told Alaska Public Media that he was out picking mushrooms and hadn’t heard the president’s remarks.
When reached by the Alaska Beacon on Thursday, he declined comment.
Trump incorrectly said Dan J. Sullivan had never voted.
“He hasn’t voted for years. A totally pretty nonpolitical person, I guess, but never had any thought of running,” Trump said.
State records show Dan J. Sullivan is a “supervoter” who has cast ballots in 17 state and local elections since 2017.
“That guy got two and a half percent in the recent primary. And that’s — two and a half percent is a lot when it comes to winning elections. And it’s a disgrace,” Trump said.
Trump also criticized Alaska’s ranked choice general election system, saying it amounted to picking a name out of a hat.
Under the Alaska system, voters are asked to rank the four candidates (and any write-ins) in order of preference. If one candidate receives more than half of the first-preference votes, they win.
If no one has more than half the votes, the lowest finisher is eliminated, and their votes go to voters’ second choices. The process repeats until only two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.
It isn’t clear how much Trump’s influence would help the incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Alaska has voted for Trump each time he has run for president. In 2024, 54.5% of participating voters picked Trump for president, putting him 13 percentage points ahead of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
“It’s a long trip. I love Alaska. You know, I won Alaska by a landslide,” Trump told reporters attending a gathering of travel industry officials.
But since that election, Alaskans’ opinion of Trump appears to have soured. Public opinion polling conducted in August found that more than 56% of Alaskans have a negative view of Trump.
In 2022, Trump visited the Alaska Airlines Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage to boost the campaigns of U.S. Sen. candidate Kelly Tshibaka, U.S. House candidate Sarah Palin and governor candidate Mike Dunleavy.
Tshibaka and Palin lost their races that year; Dunleavy won his.
As of Thursday, no one representing the president had booked the Alaska Airlines Center, a UAA official said.
Trump also visited Anchorage last year to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though highly promoted as an opportunity to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the event resulted in little more than a photo opportunity.
Sullivan has been a mostly reliable vote in the Senate for Trump’s agenda since the president was re-elected in 2024. In 2025, Sullivan voted along with Trump on every major topic before Congress. This year, Sullivan has only occasionally voted against Trump’s goals, including once against the President’s plans to distribute $1.8 billion in public funds to supporters, including those convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump said he is in regular contact with Sullivan.
“He would call me all the time because I think — no, I definitely know — nobody has helped Alaska like Donald Trump. We’ve invested billions and billions of dollars and created trillions of dollars in value,” Trump said, exaggerating trends on the ground in the state.
According to Federal Reserve data, Alaska’s gross domestic product rose by about $3.5 billion between 2024 and 2025, continuing a trend that started in 2020.
He also exaggerated the importance of Alaskan oil internationally.
“You have Japan, you have South Korea, you have all of these people now going to Alaska to load up with fuel, load up with oil, build pipelines, everything else,” Trump said.
Only about 5% of Alaska North Slope crude has been exported internationally this year.
Trump said his trip to Alaska will be one of several that he intends to take before Election Day on Nov. 3.
“I will be going to Alaska. I’m going to be going the last 30 days before the election. I’ll be making a lot of stops,” Trump said.
“I’m going to be campaigning for numerous people, both Congressmen — a few governors, I love the governors — but we’re interested in the Senate, and we’re interested in the House. So I’ll be campaigning for the House members and I’ll be campaigning for senators,” he said.
Indiana hasn’t lost a football game since December 2024. Next, consider this: The Hoosiers had the worst all-time record of any Power Four program in the country until the middle of the 2025 season. Even now, Indiana ranks 126th among programs that have played multiple FBS seasons, with 521 wins and 715 losses. To date, Akron — yes, Akron! — still has a better all-time winning percentage (.468) than Indiana (.424). But since the arrival of head coach Curt Cignetti, the facts on the ground in Bloomington have changed. And I refuse to ignore them. With the Hoosiers set to kick off their 2026 national title defense with a visit from North Texas on Saturday (noon ET, FOX), it’s important to revisit the reasoning why I ranked Indiana No. 1 in my Ultimate 138 College Football Rankings. 1. Curt Cignetti is still the head coach. 2. The best record in the sport over the last two seasons (27-2) belongs to Indiana. 3. The Hoosiers are the reigning national champions and the first team since 1894 to finish 16-0. Those are the reasons to believe in Indiana. The more important question is whether the Hoosiers still have the players to back it up. Transfer quarterback Josh Hoover is a big reason why the Hoosiers remain as formidable in 2026 as they were during last year’s title run. The nation’s leading returning passer has thrown for 9,629 yards in just 36 career games. With wideouts Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh catching passes, Indiana has the firepower to make another run at the top of the sport. This weekend, in front of what should be a packed house at Memorial Stadium, we’ll get a glimpse of just how good Hoover is, now playing with what Cignetti describes as his “two new best friends:” a good rushing attack and a great defense. If Indiana can run the ball and play defense this year like it did last year, Hoover isn’t likely to turn the ball over nearly as much as he did at TCU, if only because he won’t be asked to do nearly as much. There’s precedent for that in Bloomington. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana’s quarterback last season and the 2025 Heisman winner, averaged 35 pass attempts per game in his final season at Cal. That number dropped to 24 in his first season with the Hoosiers. Hoover averaged 34 attempts last year at TCU, and I expect Indiana’s offense to bring that number down, too. But that’s only if the Hoosiers can run the ball for more than 200 yards at better than five yards per carry in 2026. Against a rebuilding North Texas team, that shouldn’t be a problem. If it is, perhaps the Hoosiers really can revert to their pre-2024 ways. That would shock me. But so did Indiana becoming the best program in the sport in just two short years.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
We all have our own routines and superstitions when it comes to traveling, and that’s apparent when you look at the way the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams planned their upcoming trips to Melbourne, Australia. While Rams head coach Sean McVay’s team landed in Melbourne on Thursday morning, the day before the game set to start on Friday at 10:35 a.m. local time (8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 10). The Rams are only expected to spend one night in Melbourne, which is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles, before flying home after the game. “They have a loose idea of what we’re doing, but I do still think it is appropriate in terms of the trajectory,” McVay told reporters late in training camp, when asked if he’s told players the schedule. “I want to be able to talk to them about it, but we’re leaving later than most people would probably expect.” That’s no surprise. McVay took a similar approach last year, when the Rams stayed in Baltimore for a week after his team’s victory over the Ravens in Week 6, flying to London from there for a Sunday game, a 35-7 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. In all, the Rams spent a little over 30 hours in London for what McVay referred to as a business trip. The 49ers are on the other end of the spectrum. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan and his team traveled to Australia last Thursday and arrived last week on Friday — a week before the game — to get better acclimated to their new surroundings in Melbourne, holding practices there in the lead-up to the game. “It’s a big adjustment on the body,” Shanahan told reporters before the trip. “So, the recommendation for everybody has been to tell us when to go, and it’s made a lot of sense. And I know how our players feel also. I was a little bit on the fence. Science wasn’t, and what I was told. And our players weren’t at all. So that helped me get off the fence.” San Francisco edge rusher Keion White said he would try to sleep the entire 16-hour flight. “I don’t know if you can OD on melatonin, but I’m going to try,” White joked. So, which team will be best prepared to perform? I asked that question to Dr. Cheri Mah, a sleep expert based at Stanford University who specializes in the connections between sleep, performance, recovery and injury prevention. Mah helped establish a sleep curriculum with the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks for the past four years and worked with the Philadelphia Eagles during that team’s Super Bowl season in 2017. Most recently, Mah helped prepare new Memphis head coach Charles Huff for his team’s late kickoff in Las Vegas against UNLV, a 27-21 victory for the Tigers over the Rebels. Mah says sleep is one of the most important things for an athlete’s recovery. Athletes should view sleep as an investment, with a good night’s sleep as the start of the day. Mah said she always looks at trips and breaks them down into preflight strategies, in-flight strategies and post-flight strategies. “That’s what my biggest challenge is for the athletes and teams I work with,” Mah told me. “Making that small but powerful shift in how you invest in your sleep in what you do in the day, how your evening routine is structured and really setting up a sleep system for yourself, starting in the offseason.” Mah explained the advantages of both approaches for the two teams, considering factors such as the direction and location of travel, how long they will be there, and what they need to do to get ready for the following game. Mah has not consulted with either the Rams or 49ers for this trip. “For the Rams, the advantage of not changing the body clock — if that is what they’re trying to do by jetting in and jetting out — is their body clock when they’re playing in Australia would be at approximately 5 p.m. PT,” Mah said. “4 to 8 p.m. approximately in the afternoon/early evening is when performance is enhanced. Athletes perform physically the best during this period in the 24-hour day. So, that works to their advantage, given that game time will be right in that sweet spot. That works in the Rams’ favor from a body clock perspective. “And then, when they come back, they’re not trying to adjust to jet lag because if they jet in and jet out, they try to keep their clocks on Pacific Time, and they don’t have to spend many days trying to then try get back on Pacific Time, like the 49ers will, when they are returning and trying to get ready for the following week.” And the disadvantages for the Rams? “It’s a long flight,” Mah said. “Even though they are trying not to change body clocks and sleep, they will still experience travel fatigue. And that is a lot of travel fatigue in a very short amount of time — both going there and coming back. And then trying to be fresh enough and ready enough to play the following day. I just think that’s incredibly challenging physiologically, especially when you’re on that long flight. You’re cramped. There’s dehydration and there’s still going to be some time when the players need to sleep and take naps. “Trying to do that without any cushion between landing and playing definitely can be challenging for them.” The Rams are also traveling westward instead of eastward and across many more time zones (London is eight hours ahead of Los Angeles, while Melbourne is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles) than London last year, which could impact their approach. Mah said the rule of thumb is that for every time zone you cross, it takes your body about a day to acclimate. Usually, on domestic flights, travelers deal with a maximum of three time zone changes, and so it will take three days to adjust if you do nothing ahead of the flight to shift your body clock, according to Mah. So, the 49ers have taken what some sleep experts would consider a more traditional approach to dealing with jet lag by traveling a week early. “There’s pros and cons to what the 49ers are doing as well, right?” Mah said. “They are trying to shift their body clock, but even in a week they’re probably not going to be completely shifted physiologically to Australia time. The benefit is they have a couple of days to train closer to game time at 10 a.m. … Aligning their practice time gives them an opportunity to synchronize it with kickoff time. “They have a couple of days to get rehydrated and better acclimated to the Australian Time Zone, get their eating habits and treatments better resynchronized, so they have a better cushion when it comes to game time.” Mah acknowledged that, culturally, things can be different for teams. In working with teams traveling to London, some teams chose to arrive just a few days before kickoff while others got there a week in advance. For some teams, being in a different country and dealing with changes like food provides a challenge for players. And players will have a say in how teams decide to proceed. “There’s no perfect solution,” Mah said. “There’s clearly advantages and disadvantages to what both teams are trying to do. But I do think being thoughtful about how they’ve chosen to do this and being mindful of sleep and the impact of travel is a huge win.”Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
On behalf of the staff, board, and families of Chilkat Valley Preschool, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Chilkat Community Foundation for their 2026 Grant supporting our operational funds.
Operating a high-quality preschool requires stable, predictable funding to cover the essential overhead costs that keep our doors open..
By investing in our daily operations, the Chilkat Community Foundation directly invested in the early education and well-being of our community’s youngest residents. We…
Seasonal wines are hitting Aldi shelves soon, from refreshing white wines to blended reds and those that receive the highest honor of being labeled DOCG.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
Luke Bryan’s dropping a new album September 18th, and his own kids basically couldn’t care less about hearing it early. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Luke Bryan’s dropping a new album September 18th, and his own kids basically couldn’t care less about hearing it early. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs