(The Center Square) – Another Muslim man has been charged with terrorism tied to a range of alleged crimes associated with claiming to raise support for charities and instead using the money to fund the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas.
Author: alaskaadmin
(The Center Square) – Active-military voters stationed overseas, as well as expats, could more easily submit their ballots in elections if Senate Bill 970 passes in the California Legislature.
Alton Brown has said he loves eating this particular Girl Scout cookie frozen – though popping them in the air fryer is another delicious way to go.
Food Republic – Restaurants, Reviews, Recipes, Cooking Tips
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When Colton Underwood was announced as the star of ABC’s longest-running reality show, producers dubbed him “the Virgin Bachelor.”
Now we know that that title was far from accurate.
Sure, Colton was a stranger to the ways of women before his tenure, but it seems he had hooked up with a whole lot of dudes.
Colton recently opened up about the extreme measures he took to keep his sexuality hidden before publicly coming out as gay in 2021.
During an appearance on the “We Need to Talk” podcast, Colton admitted that he limited his encounters to a very specific group: married men.
“I was very careful, even when I was physically experimenting with guys and trying to, like, figure myself out,” Underwood explained, adding:
“I was so careful on how I did everything.”
That caution extended to who he chose to be involved with.
“To protect myself, I would only hook up with married men,” he said. (via People).
“[Married] ‘straight’ men. So that was sort of my rule that I would never break. When I was in the closet, that would be the only time I would ever hook up with men was if they were married… because they had more to lose than I did.”
According to Underwood, the decision stemmed from fear.
“I was very careful,” he said while discussing the years he spent struggling with his sexuality behind closed doors.
Underwood explained that he viewed married men as a safer option because they had just as much — if not more — to lose if their interactions became public.
Looking back, Colton acknowledged that the mindset was unhealthy.
He described it as a form of self-preservation during a period when he was terrified that his sexuality would be exposed and potentially derail both his football aspirations and his public image.
When he appeared on The Bachelorette and later became the lead of The Bachelor in 2019, his virginity became a major storyline. At the time, the label followed him everywhere.
Now, Underwood says he hated the attention.
He revealed that he worried constant questions about his virginity would lead people to dig deeper into his personal life and uncover the secret he was desperately trying to keep hidden.
“I always got asked why I was a virgin,” Underwood recalled, explaining that producers embraced the narrative while he feared what further scrutiny might reveal.
Many social media users expressed sympathy for the fear and pressure he described, while others questioned the ethics of pursuing married men, regardless of the circumstances.
These days, Colton is married to Jordan C. Brown. And in 2024, the couple welcomed their first child.
So the road to happiness may have been a winding one — but at least Colton got there eventually.
Colton Underwood: I Banged a Bunch of Married Dudes Before Becoming the Bachelor! was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Students perform during a final spring concert on May 13, 2026 at Meadow Lakes Elementary, one of three schools closed by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District this year to address a budget deficit. (Photo by Elise Giordano/Mat-Su Sentinel)
Alaska saw an unprecedented wave of school closures this year. District officials grappling with severe budget shortfalls have opted to close 12 elementary and middle schools across the state — in Anchorage, Wasilla, Sutton, Seward, Sterling, Soldotna, Kasilof and Ketchikan.
With those closures, hundreds of students and staff will bus or commute to new schools next year, class sizes will grow as grades are combined and districts across the state are cutting programs, teachers, health aides, custodians, sports, library services and extracurriculars like music.
Officials in four districts say the closures were incredibly complex and difficult decisions but necessary to combat millions in budget shortfalls and years of state funding not meeting districts’ surging costs to operate schools.
“It was an incredibly trying time,” said Randy Trani, superintendent of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District that closed three elementary schools this year to address a $28 million budget shortfall. “Non-winnable… we did this to save teaching positions,” he said.
“This is devastating to everyone,” said Kylie Wilcox, a Soldotna mother of five. Her middle and high schoolers attended River City Academy, one of four schools closed on the Kenai Peninsula. “The district does not want to do this, the administration doesn’t want to do this, we just, it’s the reality of what we’re working with.”
At the same time, superintendents said it’s still unclear whether the closures and cuts have balanced district budgets because Gov. Mike Dunleavy has yet to sign off on next year’s increased budget for education funding. Last year, lawmakers flew back to Juneau for a special session, overruled Dunleavy’s veto and restored an education funding increase in a historic override vote in August, just weeks ahead of the first day of school.
This year, the Alaska Legislature approved one-time additional funding of $144 million for K-12 schools, including $29 million to offset rising energy costs, to total $1.8 billion approved for education next year. Lawmakers passed a budget with higher-than-expected state oil revenues driven by the Iran war, which is now before Dunleavy for his consideration.
Education Commissioner Deena Bishop said that the state has seen declining enrollment for more than 15 years, and as a result districts close schools due to what she called “excess capacity.” Bishop has served as commissioner under the Dunleavy administration since August 2023.
“We’ve had several schools at 50% capacity, 55% capacity, that were within two miles of each other. And understanding that you want to use the majority of your money, you don’t want to put into facilities — the majority of your money you want to put into classrooms,” she said. “And so decisions, you know, things were weighed, and districts, hopefully working with their parents and communities, made decisions that they felt were the correct ones.”
Bishop said more families are opting for homeschool programs, and districts need to figure out how to provide education services for families that want choices for more flexibility.
Nearly one in six Alaska students were homeschooled last year, totaling an estimated 23,600 students, according to data compiled by the Association of Alaska School Boards.
“So we can’t really be upset that, you know, ‘Oh no, they’re not going to our schools,’” Bishop said. “Obviously they’re going to a school that their needs are met, if they’ve chosen that, so how do we work with it? You know, what does education look like, and what does it look like in serving a community? And more and more we’ll find that one size doesn’t fit all that schools really want to offer, and districts are starting to offer different programs.”
Alaska students have the option to enroll in homeschool or correspondence programs across the state, not necessarily with the district where they reside. While district officials say they are working to adapt and provide homeschool education services, districts receive less state funding per homeschool student which is contributing to district-wide deficits.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District closes three schools
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, the state’s second largest district with almost 20,000 students, faced a $28 million budget deficit this year, prompting cuts across the district.
The school board closed Meadow Lakes and Larson elementary schools in Wasilla and Glacier View School in Sutton, affecting roughly 415 students and dozens of staff.
That comes after the district cut roughly 160 staff positions last year, said Superintendent Randy Trani. He said the district would have had to cut an additional 225 positions this year, which was unworkable.
“The very last thing that we wanted to do was lay off teachers, and the second last thing we wanted to do was close schools, but we’re to the point where if we didn’t close schools, it was only going to result in more teacher layoffs,” he said.
Trani said the district went through a process of evaluating schools based on a number of metrics, including number of students, costs to maintain and opportunities to bus students to schools nearby, in order to decide which schools to close. “The schools that we were forced to shut down were fantastic schools. This wasn’t a decision on academic merit. This was a decision about logistics and being forced into a really impossible choice,” he said.
Trani said closing the three schools wasn’t even enough to make up for the budget shortfall and the district had to cut deeper.
The school board considered various scenarios from cutting sports programs to transitioning to a four-day school week, Trani said, which were rejected by the school board. “These are all horrible choices,” he said.
While the Matanuska-Susitna Borough continues to have the fastest growing population in the state, Trani said declining birth rates combined with an ongoing wave of families opting to homeschool is leaving the district with declining enrollment of full-time students and reduced funding for the district. Roughly 3,200 students, or 16% of the district’s students, were enrolled in Mat-Su correspondence programs this year.
Trani said another cost driver had been double digit increases to healthcare insurance costs resulting in roughly $6 million more to the deficit, bumping it to $28 million.
But he emphasized the largest driver of the deficit was insufficient state funding. “State funding has not kept up with inflationary pressures, and it is by far the biggest driver,” he said. “Unless there is a long term fix to how K-12 education is funded this problem is going to continue.”
Ketchikan closes two of four elementary schools, with more cuts to come
Ketchikan serves roughly 1,800 students in the Southeast Alaska island community that is only accessible by plane or boat. This year, the district enacted major cuts, including 76 staff positions across the district to address a $3 million budget shortfall, plus $5 million in debt to the local borough. It closed two of the four elementary schools.
The district closed Point Higgins and Fawn Mountain elementary schools, leaving one elementary, one middle and one high school in the community.
Niki Suomala, a third generation Ketchikan resident, attended Point Higgins elementary school, located 15 miles north of town. She said it was a special experience for her two children to go there — until the closure.
Her kids will be in the second and sixth grades next year, and they plan to commute into town for school. She said there were some tears at the news, but she said her children are adapting. She said she’s disappointed overall, but feels compassion for the district.
“It’s like, gosh, couldn’t we see this? Couldn’t we have seen this coming, and couldn’t we have tried to do something different?” she said. “But I also feel compassion, because I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Sheri Boehlert, the interim superintendent of Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District, also served as the principal of Point Higgins, spoke by phone after a full week of packing up and clearing out the schools. She said the reaction to the closures has been mixed: while there’s some in the community who want to see deeper cuts to balance budgets, there’s also a lot of grief in saying goodbye to neighborhood schools.
“It’s hard to dismantle something that was a big part of your career,” she said. “But on the flip side of that, the staff and community has really, by and large, been overwhelmingly supportive. We have tons of volunteers that are helping teachers pack and move, and they’re going to make something great at the next school for students, and there’s optimism out there.”
Class sizes will be effectively doubling in Ketchikan, Boehlert said, from about 15 students to class numbers in the twenties for elementary school and thirty students or more in the middle and high schools.
Boelert said the district has seen rising costs to operate, including for fuel, utilities and special education services. She said in particular the cost of staff health insurance is up 112% this year. Previous cost overruns for health insurance discovered last year created the over $5 million debt to the borough which the district will pay over over the next several years. “That is a unique situation,” Boehlert said. “They need their money back.”
Boehlert said with essentially flat state funding not meeting cost increases, the district cut roughly 26% of staff this year: “So it’s teachers, it’s principals, it’s custodians, health aides, like maintenance staff. No work group was unaffected.”
Even so, with the debt repayment, and this year’s state budgets still uncertain, Boehlert said Ketchikan faces more cuts across the district — unless there’s a significant population increase.
“We have a difficult road ahead of us in Ketchikan,” she said.
Four schools closed across the Kenai Peninsula
In the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the state’s third largest school district stretches across roughly 25,000 square miles — an area about the size of West Virginia — and serves nearly 8,400 students.
This year, the district faced an $8.5 million budget shortfall, after an $17 million deficit last year. The district is still in the midst of budget negotiations and determining cuts. An additional $3.3 million from the local borough and yet-to-be-determined one-time state funding this year may restore some programs, but officials opted to close four schools.
The district closed River City Academy in Soldotna, Tustumena Elementary School in Kasilof and Sterling Elementary School, sending students to other schools in Soldotna and Kenai. On the eastern side, the district closed Seward Middle School where classes will be consolidated into the elementary and high schools.
“The response was overwhelmingly that parents do not want these schools to close down. Communities did not want the schools to close down,” said Kari Dendurent, assistant superintendent of the Kenai Peninsula School District.
One of those parents is Kylie Wilcox, a mother of five living in Soldotna. Two of her children attended River City Academy, which was a standards-based school serving grades seven through 12. She said they liked the supportive environment and had hoped to continue through high school there.
“They were starting to make friends at River City, and so they were really sad, like ‘I’ve got to start over again.’” she said. “And they were angry. They talked a lot about, you know, ‘why can’t they just give money to schools? Don’t they think that we’re worth it?’ My oldest was upset enough that they were willing to testify in the district meeting as well. I was really, really proud of them for doing that.”
Dendurent, the assistant superintendent, said the district worked through a transition plan to help students and families plan where to attend schools next year. She said some teachers from River City Academy transferred to Skyview and will be in homerooms with former students. She said it’s a difficult process with cuts across the district, including reading programs, library aides, English language learning programs, swimming pools and others.
“It’s very, very difficult, and it impacts everybody, and the other part that also makes it difficult is we are in contract negotiations right now with our certified and our classified employees as well,” she said.
Dendurent said the district has seen more students and families opt for homeschool programs, resulting in less state funding for the district. “It’s a borough issue, it’s a state issue, and it’s a national issue with declining enrollment,” she said.
She said rising health care costs is also a major factor for the district budget, as well as fuel and utilities costs. Even with the school closures, Dendurent said the district’s financial picture is still uncertain. “Predictable, sustainable funding is what I think all of us are looking for,” she said.
Wilcox said she has empathy for district officials and they handled the process fairly well, but wishes there was more support from the Kenai Peninsula Borough and from state leaders. She said her family is still evaluating options, but will likely homeschool her two middle and high school age students, with her 10th grader also pursuing classes at the Kenai Peninsula College.
“Honestly it feels sometimes like there are people in our state government that would rather see public schools fail, and rather see more homeschool and private school options happen for kids. And I feel like that’s not going to serve all of Alaska’s kids,” she said.
“Like, homeschool is a great option for a lot of people. I am a homeschool graduate,” she added. “But I know that there are families where that’s just simply not an option, and they deserve the support of the state for their child’s education, that’s one of our rights.”
Anchorage closes three elementary schools, with deep cuts across the district
In the state’s urban center, the Anchorage School District made severe cuts this year to address a $90 million deficit and opted to close three elementary schools. It is the largest school district that serves nearly 42,000 students.
The closures were at Fire Lake, Lake Otis and Campbell STEM elementary schools. A parent group filed a lawsuit challenging the district’s decision to close Campbell STEM, which is still under dispute. It’s the only one of the three schools without plans to move a charter school into the building.
Andy Ratliff, the district’s financial officer, said closing the three schools accounted for just a fraction of the deficit, and cuts were made across the district — including almost 500 staff positions, or about 10% of the district’s staff.
“We reduced millions of dollars in administrative costs. We’ve increased our class sizes by four. We reduced a lot of our IT positions, maintenance, everything,” he said. “Mental health, our teaching and learning department was cut by like 45 or 55%. Yeah, I mean it’s just kind of all across the board, even into our special education realm.”
Ratliff said the district has spent down its savings, and the small increase in state funding last year didn’t meet the district’s rising costs. He said health insurance rose in the double digits and now is about 20% of the total budget. “It’s really just this inconsistent funding that’s really just kind of dictated by the state that has put us in this position,” he said.
Ratliff noted the state’s energy relief funds are contingent on oil revenues and likely won’t reach districts until September. He said the uncertainty of funding this late in the year is challenging for staffing and determining what cuts if any can be restored.
“They did approve money, but we don’t have it yet,” he said. “So it’s hard for districts to do any sort of restoring of the cuts that they’ve made at this point.”
State legislature approves $144M in one-time next year, but funding still uncertain
District officials said the Legislature’s boost of $700 per student in the state’s funding formula last year was welcome, but did not significantly affect districts’ overall financial challenges.
The 12 school closures this year comes after five schools were closed last year in Kodiak, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and Fairbanks.
Many district officials, education advocates and lawmakers have emphasized that state funding has not kept pace for years with school districts’ needs and costs for providing public education.
But Bishop, education commissioner for the Dunleavy administration, rejected the notion that school funding has been flat.
“Over time in our state, because of the fluctuations of how we get resources to provide to schools, I think that’s exactly why money is either in the formula or out of the formula, but over time you will see that generally there’s been an increase in funds every year,” she said.
She acknowledged the rising costs of school districts, and said at the same time the governor and Legislature have competing priorities for the state budget. “Everybody in the state has to look at the picture as a whole,” she said.
“Hopefully when we can create new revenue, continue to really thrive in schools and innovate programs to match needs that families are seeking, that we’ll be able to move into the future,” she said.
This year, lawmakers seemed to have less appetite for taking on another education funding battle with Dunleavy, particularly among competing priorities of election reform and reviving the state’s pension system. Both initiatives were vetoed by Dunleavy and a legislative veto override effort failed for both. Citing increased oil revenues due to the Iran war, the Legislature passed $144 million in additional one-time funding and nearly $150 million for K-12 school maintenance and repairs.
Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, is a former teacher and vocal proponent of increasing education funding. She co-chairs the bipartisan task force on education funding launched last year.
“Closing a school feels like a death, and it is,” Himschoot said.
Himschoot pointed to budget problems, loss of enrollment and the shift to homeschool, but said the state, in her view, is not funding education as it should.
Himschoot said the task force is investigating short and long term funding solutions. The state approved an adequacy study this year to determine how much funding is needed to support schools, to be completed in the next few years. Another bill to allow districts to budget based on a three year average of student counts, failed in the Legislature this year, but Himschoot said the policy is likely to be revived next year to allow districts to set budgets earlier in the year. “It would take some of the uncertainty out and I think that’s going to have an impact on outcomes,” she said.
She said the task force is continuing its work looking at the problems and funding mechanisms, gathering input and evaluating solutions to address issues in the funding formula, major maintenance and rising costs like health care. Recommendations are due next January.
“The pain is felt by the students. That’s a straight line from state funding to what students get or don’t get,” she said. “It keeps me awake at night.”
STORRS, Conn. — It’s toward the end of his grueling incline-run workouts when UConn head coach Dan Hurley feels the familiar yearning for some self-inflicted pain. As he runs, sweat spewing, Hurley cues up “One Shining Moment” on his phone, the annual highlight video that accompanies each NCAA Tournament. The Huskies make their first appearance after exactly 90 seconds, with forward Alex Karaban embracing a teammate following the Round of 32 victory over UCLA. Hurley’s face flashes across the screen moments later, twisted into a comedic sideline expression. Next comes center Tarris Reed Jr. flicking home a hook shot. And then there’s freshman Braylon Mullins burying perhaps the greatest shot in program history: a 3-point buzzer beater against Duke that propelled the Huskies to another Final Four, their third in the last four seasons. For Hurley, the palatable portion of the video ends shortly thereafter. He relives UConn’s win against Illinois in the national semifinals and then quickly taps his screen to exit. Treadmill session over. He still can’t stomach the way this particular montage ends: scenes of Michigan prevailing in the championship game. Even for a coach who built his career on suffering, who thought he was the failure of the famed Hurley basketball family, the self-inflicted anguish can only go so far. “You’re disappointed because you were pretty close to winning three out of four championships,” Hurley told me last week. “Sending Tarris out with a ring and a parade, [sending] Alex out as the most decorated college basketball player of his generation. So that part of it is crushing. And then you look at the historical context of being in that game three out of four years [and realize] we are doing things as a program that haven’t been done since the ’90s. And we’re doing it during a really volatile time. “So I think two things can be true, you know? The run that we’ve been on has been historic, but man, it sucked that we didn’t win it.” This is the headspace Hurley occupies on a scorching afternoon in mid-June, partway through the Huskies’ first week of their first summer session, the de facto beginning of another championship pursuit. As a perpetually tortured soul, Hurley’s journey toward fulfillment always seems to land at the crossroads between overly critical introspection and the healthy acceptance that even seasons ending in defeat can be enjoyed. It’s a lesson imparted on him by colleague Geno Auriemma, head coach of the UConn’s women’s team. So here Hurley stands, halfway between the loss to Michigan and the blank slate of a fresh campaign, reconciling those conflicting parts amid widespread changes to the program. Though nothing about his hunger for a third national title has waned, so much of what’s around Hurley is different. Gone are Karaban and Reed, the two leading scorers and two most important players from last year’s team. Gone, too, is assistant coach Luke Murray, an offensive mastermind and ace recruiter now in charge at Boston College. Shooting guard Solo Ball, who would have been the Huskies’ most experienced returner, is taking a medical redshirt as he recovers from wrist surgery. Seven newcomers arrived via the transfer portal, two more from the high school ranks, and there are fresh names within both Hurley’s staff and the strength and conditioning department alike. “Parts of it do feel different: new faces, new guys,” point guard Silas Demary Jr. told me last week. “But it’s still the same standard. It’s still the same [level of] holding everybody accountable, running through every line. It’s still some of the same rules we’ve had even before the changes that are now in place.” Much of that approach can be attributed to the way Hurley is wired — his unflinching competitiveness quickly flipping from one season to the next within a few hours of the final buzzer against Michigan, at which point the transfer portal had already opened. Once the Huskies boarded their return trip from Indianapolis the following day, still wounded from a six-point loss that separated them from a seventh national title, Hurley began asking general manager Tom Moore for an overview of how to retool the roster. It was the same thing Hurley had done the year prior on the way home from Raleigh, North Carolina, after losing to eventual national champion Florida in the Round of 32. By then, Moore and a group of support staffers had spent months working the phones to better understand how the transfer market was likely to unfold dollar-wise and which players were keen on entering the fray. His small council included graduate assistant Andrew Hurley — one of Dan’s sons — along with student managers Khaliq Young and Jack Richardson. Additional insight came from assistant coaches Murray, Kimani Young and Mike Nardi, though Murray’s involvement curtailed once he accepted the job at Boston College. Still, Hurley and Murray traded names of potential transfer targets on the flight back from the Final Four, a reflection of their extremely tight bond. While the pros of reaching the national championship game will always outweigh the cons, making three such appearances in quick succession has complicated the Huskies’ involvement in the transfer portal. Moore estimates that UConn and other teams participating in the Final Four are often entering the race for high-profile transfers two or three weeks later than their competitors, which is reflected by lofty price tags that suggest bidding began a good while earlier. He jokes that the program would be flush with cash if the Huskies received a fundraising dollar for every time an agent told Moore, “You’re late — but we’ll let you in because you’re UConn,” which is a tradeoff the staff is happy to make. “Our athletic director, Dave Benedict, is extremely supportive of us and our efforts and finding a way,” Moore told me last week. “It’s not easy anywhere. Everyone is trying to figure the thing out as best they can. But we’ve had about five offseasons in this new model. We always go into it with an idea of what [the roster cost] might be in December. And then we sort of have to up it a little as we sort of start to talk to people in February. Then it seems like we go back to Dave again in March with another [request]. And then we have to go to him again in April and May when we’re in the heart of it and say, ‘It may be even more.” “And he’s never, ever once pushed back. He’s sympathetic of what we’re facing, and he’s in our corner. He understands that to have championship goals, you really have to have championship aspirations in terms of fundraising and revenue generation.” There also needs to be conviction — particularly when the Huskies have faced such pronounced time crunches for identifying, scouting and hosting players in the wake of sustained postseason success. This, according to Moore, is another area where Hurley excels. He watches film, pores over statistics and dives into the analytics of each potential transfer target before making a “strong, firm decision” that prevents the program from getting “paralyzed by guys wanting to take a visit and the whole thing,” Moore told me, which can begin to feel performative. Hurley’s unprecedented success in the modern era, when NIL and the transfer portal conspire to make roster construction more difficult than ever, has only strengthened his belief in the general framework fueling UConn’s ascent. He described his approach to building next year’s team as “almost slotting people in to fit the type of pieces that we’ve had success with here.”The product on display during practice last week certainly reflects such an endeavor. The power forward spot that was manned for ages by Karaban now belongs to Duke transfer Nik Khamenia, whom Hurley described as having “a lot of attributes that Alex had in terms of the feel, the size, the versatility, the competitiveness, the love of the game, the shooting.” The center position will be anchored by another hulking bruiser in Seton Hall transfer Na’jai Hines, whose 6-foot-10, 260-pound frame is in keeping with the imposing presence Reed provided over the last two seasons. His primary backup, Stanford center Oskar Giltay, complements that strength with similar athleticism and shot-blocking that former UConn big man Samson Johnson offered both of Hurley’s national championship teams. The ultra-confident, self-assured perimeter shooter is now Wofford transfer Nils Machowski, who steps into an archetype once filled by players like Cam Spencer and Joey Calcaterra in recent years, both portal gems. The instant-impact freshman is expected to be forward Colben Landrew, a rugged wing with enough talent for Hurley to place him in the same category as recent first-year standouts Stephon Castle, Liam McNeeley and Mullins, all of whom were five-star recruits. So while there have been plenty of changes at UConn ahead of the 2026-27 season, with new faces in new places at seemingly every turn, the Huskies’ profile still looks and feels largely the same. And if recent history is any indication, that might be enough for Hurley to reach another Final Four. Perhaps he’ll even win it all and watch the entire “One Shining Moment” video next spring. “You never want to lose championship people,” Hurley told me last week. “But I think that the change is refreshing, it’s invigorating, it gets you excited to do it with new people that haven’t experienced the way we do it, you know? You’re exposing new people to the UConn way of doing it. It’s kind of fun.”Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
A prominent Michigan pollster is accusing state Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s Senate campaign of pressuring a state capitol news outlet into killing a survey of the heated Democratic primary.
The pollster, Steve Mitchell, told POLITICO the survey was conducted on behalf of Michigan Information & Research Service, an independent news outlet covering the state capitol that his firm regularly works with. But MIRS ultimately chose not to publish the survey after pushback from the McMorrow campaign.
The poll found McMorrow at just 6 percent ahead of the state’s pivotal Aug. 4 contest, far behind former public health official Abdul El-Sayed at 42 percent and Rep. Haley Stevens at 33 percent.
“The poll, in the eyes of the McMorrow campaign, understated their support,” Mitchell, whose firm Mitchell Research & Communications conducted and paid for the poll, told POLITICO. “And they put intense pressure on MIRS, and therefore MIRS decided that they weren’t going to run the survey. That’s their decision, and I support their decision.”
McMorrow has trailed the other two candidates in a number of recent public surveys, but 6 percent would mark a new low — a sign her campaign for the critical Michigan Senate seat may be mired in third place. McMorrow’s campaign told POLITICO the polling methodology was faulty and that its resulting memo was riddled with errors, including spelling her name wrong.
Kyle Melinn, a news editor with MIRS, said he killed the poll after speaking with the McMorrow campaign and other pollsters.
“I told Steve that the campaign did raise issues with the poll, and that they were pressuring me to not run the poll,” Melinn said in an interview. He added that after registering the McMorrow campaign’s concerns, he solicited the advice of other pollsters, and “didn’t run it because I didn’t feel comfortable with it.” The other unidentified pollsters shared his issues with the poll, according to Melinn.
McMorrow campaign spokesperson Jackson Boaz said in a statement that “Voicing concerns about a poll isn’t a pressure campaign. They chose not to publish a survey that is deeply flawed.” Asked whether the campaign had asked MIRS not to run the poll, Boaz said, “MIRS chose not to run the poll because they agreed the poll did not meet their standards.”
Boaz said the McMorrow campaign reached out to MIRS after “we noticed odd things about the data,” including that 0 percent of Black voters were undecided in the race; 0 or 1 percent of voters in Detroit and its metro area were undecided while other parts of the state had undecided voters at 25 percent, 48 percent, and even 54 percent; and that McMorrow was at just 5 percent support in her home base of Oakland County.
Their suspicion — which they said MIRS confirmed — was that the poll allowed anyone to take it through an open link, rather than having access controlled to ensure a random and representative sample of the state.
The poll was conducted through a methodology known as text-to-web, in which random voters are selected to receive a text message link to a survey to fill out. That allows pollsters to ensure they are reaching an appropriately wide-ranging group of voters. But the McMorrow campaign said all respondents received the same open-access link, which would allow anyone with the link to take the poll — potentially multiple times.
“The outlet that sponsored this poll declined to publish it because it didn’t meet their standards. It was conducted through an open SurveyMonkey link sent over text, meaning anyone who received this poll could vote multiple times or send the link to friends and supporters to impact the results,” Boaz said in a statement. “This is fundamental polling malpractice. We urge either of our opponents, or any reputable pollster, to stand by this shoddy methodology.”
In an interview, Mitchell admitted he got some of the polling memo wrong, saying for example that he meant to write El-Sayed supported Medicare for All, not “Social Security for All.” But he said he stood by the poll and its methodology.
“I have always had 100 percent confidence in all the polling I do,” Mitchell said. “I believe that we’ve been very strenuous in the methodology that we use. We’re very careful about it. We weighted it well, and more importantly, we have a track record that shows we are a strong and good pollster.”
“A poll is a poll,” Mitchell said when asked about the open link question, sharing a poll with POLITICO from GOP gubernatorial candidate John James that he said used a similar approach.
The controversy over the spiked poll underscores the importance of the Michigan Senate race. Democrats view defending the open seat as crucial to reclaiming the Senate majority, and the party establishment has mobilized hard against Bernie Sanders-backed El-Sayed, who they argue could pave the way to Republican Mike Rogers flipping the seat in November.
But recent pollssuggest McMorrow is falling behind El-Sayed, who is experiencing a surge in support, and Stevens, who is backed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
In the memo about the contested poll, Mitchell wrote there has been a “huge erosion in support for Mallory McMorrow.”
“One of the reasons for her seeming collapse is the fact El-Sayed had received a large amount of unpaid media because of the endorsements by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Hasan Piker the anti-Semitic podcaster while Haley Stevens had an outside organization spend more than $6 million on her candidacy,” Mitchell wrote. However, he added: “Our poll was conducted June 11-13 which coincided with an ad buy of at least $5 million on behalf of McMorrow that started just the day before we began our polling. Therefore, McMorrow’s ads did not have enough time to impact our results.”
Politics
As far as Portugal manager Roberto Martínez is concerned, I am sure he is saying: Houston, we have a problem. But for DR Congo? Houston: this is a DREAM. On Tuesday afternoon in Texas, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal kicked off its World Cup campaign with a 1-1 result against DR Congo and once again, an African side delivered an inspiring performance against an Iberian squad to record the biggest result in its history. I think it’s obvious that Portugal needs to heavily improve and has so much to improve on. But it was yet another majestic performance from the early days of this tournament. DR Congo — just like Cape Verde’s draw against Spain — should be very, very proud. Here are my takeaways: 1. It Won’t Happen, But Ronaldo Shouldn’t Start For Portugal I am sure I will be getting a thousand messages from Ronaldo’s superfans, but here’s a statement I have made for a long time now. I think Portugal possesses so much more fluidity when the legendary captain comes off the bench. Portugal, looking to win its first ever World Cup title, is a team of stars — led by a 41-year-old Ronaldo who has joined Lionel Messi as the only male player to feature in six World Cups. But Martínez knows that with this deep squad at his disposal, which includes Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva, who’ll join José Mourinho’s Real Madrid next season, wants to go far. I also want to state that this is nothing against Ronaldo, it’s more about Martínez’s philosophy and how he prefers an interchangeable attacking lineup and the 41-year-old striker essentially slows this down because he is such a target man. I know it will never happen. But I just think Portugal would be much stronger with some younger, more mobile attackers such as Gonçalo Ramos and Rafael Leão. 2. DR Congo Deserved The Result And Inspired A Nation It was a celebration 52 years in the making as DR Congo was making its return to the World Cup for the first time since 1974, when it was Zaire. There’s no doubt that the Central African team had heart and an intent to earn something against this talented Portuguese side. It gave away nearly 80% possession but for many moments, it decided to gamble and push forward with a more direct approach. And then history. Having given up 15 goals at the World Cup stretching back to that 1974 tournament, Yoane Wissa forever etched his name into his country’s history with a first-half goal. At the start, Wissa was isolated, as was his teammate Cédric Bakambu, but then when a beautiful cross came in, Wissa took his chance. It was well executed by the Newcastle United man. But throughout the action, the African side stood tall and held a resilient performance. There’s so much to be proud of from The Leopards. 3. Disjointed Portugal Needs More Cohesion Portugal made the semifinals in 1966 and then again reached that feat 20 years ago, when the Seleção das Quinas (the Team of the Shields) finished the 2006 tournament in fourth place. Its fallen short of that stage since then, most recently when it lost to Morocco in the quarterfinals in 2022 as the Atlas Lions made history by becoming the first Arab and African nation to earn a final four spot. I already mentioned the embarrassment of riches of this squad, but for a large majority of the action, Portugal, with and without Ronaldo, looked like a collection of individuals, playing next to each other, not for one another towards an objective. The passing accuracy was there. In fact, it was statistically at 96%, which was its best ever since 1966 — but it came to nothing. Similar to Spain, it was passing for passing’s sake. It can’t act like that. If Portugal wants to make at least the semifinals again, it needs to feel more like a team. 4. Colombia Can Take A Lot Of Inspiration From Today If Colombia earns a win against Uzbekistan on Tuesday night, I think Nestor Lorenzo’s side can feel very confident that it can top the group and take something from Portugal in the final game, especially since the match will be played in Miami in front of what should be a pro-Colombia crowd. But as we witnessed on Wednesday, DR Congo won’t be a pushover and Colombia can’t overlook this team when those two meet next week in Guadalajara. As for Portugal, the team will return to Houston and face Uzbekistan in what feels like a must-win scenario.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
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For years, Collin Gosselin’s story has played out in headlines, court documents, and on our TV screens.
Now, the former reality star says he’s ready to tell the tale himself.
The son of former Jon & Kate Plus 8 stars Jon and Kate Gosselin has announced plans to release a memoir detailing his experiences growing up in one of reality television’s most famous families.
Collin’s book is titled In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood and is scheduled for release on October 13.
And based on his comments, readers should expect some major revelations.
In a statement announcing the project, Collin explained that fear kept him from speaking openly about many aspects of his childhood.
“For a long time, I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell this story. Growing up, millions of people watched my life on television. People felt like they knew me. They knew my family,” he wrote on Instagram, adding:
“They watched me grow up. But there was so much they never saw.mFor years, I kept those experiences to myself. Some because I was afraid. Some because I didn’t think anyone would believe me. And some because I just wasn’t ready.”
But the 22-year-old says he’s finally ready to share his truth.
According to Collin, writing the memoir forced him to delve into some very difficult episodes from his childhood.
“Writing this book forced me to revisit some of the hardest moments of my life, but it also gave me something. I’ve been searching for for a long time: my voice. This isn’t the story people think they know. It’s the story I’ve lived.
Collin’s relationship with his mother has been strained for a long time.
As fans of the family know, Kate Gosselin sent Collin to a behavioral treatment facility when he was a child, citing behavioral and mental health concerns. Years later, Jon Gosselin obtained custody of both Collin and his sister Hannah.
Since then, Collin has repeatedly accused Kate of mistreating him during his childhood.
In previous interviews, he alleged that he was isolated from his siblings and subjected to abusive treatment. Kate has strongly denied those allegations and has maintained that decisions regarding Collin’s care were made because of serious behavioral and psychiatric issues.
The family remains deeply divided, with several of Collin’s siblings reportedly estranged from both him and Jon.
Kate is probably dreading the release date, but Collin says the book won’t just focus on family conflict.
Instead, he hopes it will provide readers with a fuller understanding of what he experienced behind the scenes while growing up in the spotlight.
For longtime followers of the Gosselin family saga, the book could provide the most detailed account yet from one of the children at the center of the controversy.
Whether it also reignites the long-running feud between Jon and Kate remains to be seen.
Collin Gosselin to Pen Tell-All Memoir (That Will Probably Destroy What’s Left of … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Bailee Ann, the 18-year-old daughter of Jelly Roll, has shared a new statement, opening up about both the positive and negative messages that have been overwhelming her public profiles over the past few days as a result of the singer’s ongoing divorce from his wife Bunnie Xo.
As news of Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo’s divorce continues to circulate, the situation has sparked widespread discussion online, with many comments and opinions appearing across each of their social media accounts, including Bailee’s. The recent high school graduate took to TikTok stories to share a message that thanks those who have offered their support and also addresses the importance of compassion during this difficult time.
Starting out on a positive note, she writes, “thank you to everyone who is showing me so much love and kindness through everything. At the end of the day, no matter what, we are all humans with feelings and that is worthy of compassion. Thank you for the kind messages, the words of support, and those of you who go out of your way to make me feel protected & seen. I love yall.”
She goes on to promise to never forget the people who have shown her empathy, especially amid all the hate. As for everyone else who has chosen to take the negative route by spreading criticism and unkindness, Bailee expressed her hope that “humanity can evolve to a place where kindness comes first.”
“I understand & respect opinions and that a public profile is a public profile, but that doesn’t have to mean we throw away our human decency. I love ALL of you,” she said in conclusion.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie’s split comes after 10 years of marriage. According to TMZ, the country star filed for divorce in Tennessee in May, citing court records obtained by the publication. Bailee Ann is the first of her family to speak out and this wasn’t the first statement she’s made on the matter.
One day prior to sharing the more positive message, she took to Tiktok to express her frustration over the amount of people who are desperate to find out all details of what she deems to be a “private family matter.”
“Oh & one more thing I am disgusted at how invested everyone is in a very clearly private family matter,” she wrote. “It’s fkn crazy.”
“Go on somewhere yall,” she continued. “Worry bout your house- not mine. I’m not speaking on it – yet.”
This news broke over a month after Jelly Roll and Bunnie celebrated Bailee Ann’s senior prom and high school graduation.
Neither Bunnie nor the “Save Me” singer have yet to comment on the matter publicly.
The post Jelly Roll’s Daughter Bailee Ann Speaks Out Amid His Divorce From Bunnie Xo appeared first on Country Now.
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