Dan Devine of The Ringer described the play in which it occurred:
Dan Devine @YourManDevine
Oh, man. Nerlens Noel went up to try to block an Andrew Wiggins dunk; Wiggins hit him with his lead left elbow; and Noel went down hard and hit his head on the court. Stretcher out on the court in OKC.
Daniel Beyer of Fox Sports provided more details:
Daniel Beyer @danbeyeronfox
Wow. #Thunder big man Nerlens Noel hit his head hard on the floor and is still laying there. Doctors yelling “keep your eyes open”. Scary.
Noel underwent thumb surgery last season and only played in 30 games, and he has dealt with injuries throughout his career. He missed the 2013-14 campaign because of knee surgery, missed 15 games in 2015-16 and played just 51 games in 2016-17.
Entering Tuesday, the Kentucky product averaged 5.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in his first full campaign with the Thunder after they signed him this past offseason following a disappointing showing with the Dallas Mavericks in 2017-18. He averaged just 4.4 points a night in those 30 games.
Noel can serve as a double-double threat when completely healthy, as evidenced by his 11.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game in 2015-16.
The Thunder figure to rely even more on the combination of Steven Adams, Jerami Grant and Patrick Patterson in the frontcourt while Noel is sidelined.
Center DeMarcus Cousins hasn’t yet made his debut with the Golden State Warriors this season as he recovers from his torn Achilles, but his return appears to be coming soon.
“It’s closer now,” head coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN. “The conditioning has got over a barrier.”
The coach expects Cousins to make his debut within the next 20 games.
This article will be updated to provide more information on this story as it becomes available.
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Face-to-face trade negotiations between China and the United States will be extended to an unscheduled third day, according to US officials.
This week’s meetings in Beijing are the first direct talks since Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, agreed in December to a 90-day ceasefire in a trade war which has seen the two sides raise import tariffs on each other’s goods and has roiled global financial markets.
Experts say it will take months for the world’s two largest economies to resolve the causes of the dispute, which include disagreements over Beijing’s handling of technology and intellectual property.
As the talks wound down late on Tuesday evening in the Chinese capital, there were signs of progress on issues including purchases of US farm and energy commodities and increased access to China’s markets.
But people familiar with the negotiations said the two sides were further apart on Chinese structural reforms that the Trump administration is demanding in order to stop alleged theft and forced transfer of US technology and on how to hold Beijing to its promises.
“Talks with China are going very well!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, without elaborating.
Steven Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the US Department of Energy, told reporters in Beijing that the talks, which began on Monday, had gone well.
“I confirm we’re continuing tomorrow, yes,” Winberg said, declining to answer further questions.
INSIDE STORY: Can the US and China resolve their differences? (25:00)
Companies feeling the pain
The trade war has seen Washington imposing tariff increases of up to 25 percent on $250bn of Chinese imports over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on $110bn of US goods, slowing customs clearance for US companies and suspending issuing licenses in finance and other businesses.
The dispute weighed on economic growth and sparked volatility on global markets.
Trump is increasingly eager to reach an agreement to help lift the markets, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with internal White House deliberations. The S&P 500 Index has fallen about eight percent since the truce began.
A spokesperson for the US Trade Representative’s office, which is leading the US negotiating team in Beijing, said talks would continue on Wednesday and “a statement will likely follow then”.
If no deal is reached by March 2, Trump has said he will proceed with raising tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200bn worth of Chinese imports at a time when China’s economy is slowing significantly.
In the meantime, companies in both countries are feeling pain from the effects of US tariffs and retaliation from China, which are starting to mount.
COUNTING THE COST: Is China’s economy slowing? (24:49)
Signs of progress
In what is widely seen as a goodwill gesture, China on Tuesday issued long-awaited approvals for the import of five genetically modified crops, which could boost its purchases of US grains as farmers decide which crops to plant in the spring.
On Monday, Chinese importers made another large purchase of US soybeans, their third in the past month.
Increased purchases by China of US soybeans, oil, liquefied natural gas and financial services are viewed as easier to achieve than major changes to China’s industrial policies aimed at transferring US technology to Chinese firms.
“Overall the talks have been constructive. Our sense is that there’s good progress on the purchase piece,” one person familiar with the talks was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. The person added that it was more difficult to determine how to hold China to its commitments to better protect intellectual property.
Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, said the two sides for the first time were discussing topics that matter most to the Trump administration. These include expanded Chinese purchases of US products, greater protections for US intellectual property, constraints on Chinese industrial policy, and enforcement and verification of follow-through by China.
“The minimum baseline for judging whether this week is a success is whether they can have an in-depth conversation on those areas,” Kennedy told Reuters, adding that an announcement of another round of talks would be a positive outcome.
As seen from a window outside the Oval Office, President Donald Trump gives a prime-time address about border security Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2018, at the White House in Washington. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
With the partial government shutdown starting to bite, the president is explaining why he is not budging on his border wall plan.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night said the United States is suffering from a humanitarian and security crisis at the border, as he urged Congress to provide billions of dollars for a steel barrier, calling such a wall “absolutely critical.”
“This is a humanitarian crisis. A crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul,” Trump said in a rare televised address from the Oval Office.
Story Continued Below
Trump also put the pressure on Democrats to agree to his demands in order to reopen the government, which has been partially shut down for 18 days.
But the president did not declare a national emergency that would potentially allow him to circumvent Congress as he seeks to fulfill one of his core campaign promises.
Trump is refusing to back off his demands for $5.7 billion in wall funding, and Democrats are refusing to give Trump the money. The impasse has pushed the government into one of the longest shutdowns in U.S. history.
In recent days, Trump has changed tacks, offering a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall and openly flirting with declaring a national emergency to secure the funds. But such a declaration would inevitably invite a court challenge that would leave Trump no closer to getting his wall, even if it would provide the president cover with his base.
The political stakes are spiking as the ramifications of the shutdown are spreading throughout the nation, potentially disrupting tax refunds, airport travel and the paychecks of roughly 800,000 federal workers.
Trump and his aides are now going on the offensive. Besides Trump’s primetime speech, Vice President Mike Pence has been sitting for TV interviews, top aides are briefing lawmakers, and Trump is planning a trip to the border on Thursday.
The White House also planned to host a conference call with surrogates and allies about the “crisis at our border” at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday night after the president’s speech, according to an email invitation obtained by POLITICO.
But Democrats were also eager to get their case across. After demanding equal airtime, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered a rebuttal to Trump’s speech Tuesday evening.
Nissan is adding range and power to its well-known Leaf all-electric vehicle.
At the CES tech show in Las Vegas, Nissan unveiled the Leaf e+ on Tuesday with 40 percent more range than its predecessor. The car will now run up to 226 miles on a single charge, easing range anxiety from the current Leaf’s roughly 150-mile range.
It still looks like a traditional Leaf vehicle, but the “e+” hints at the car’s battery pack with a higher energy density. Yes, there’s some nominal changes to the design like the front of the car has blue highlights and there’s an “e+” logo plate on the backside of the charge port lid.
That looks different.
Image: Nissan
The upgraded EV will be available to buy in the U.S. this spring. The car was supposed to make its debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show back in November, but instead it was pushed to CES because of the former Nissan chairman’s arrest. Whoops.
The Leaf was Nissan’s first all-electric car when it debuted in 2010 and remains the Japanese car makers only all-electric option. The Leaf has spurred a lot of electric vehicle sales: 380,000 worldwide since it entered the EV scene more than eight years ago.
Back it up.
Image: nissan/MikeDitzPhoto.com
The battery capacity of the newest Leaf is what its drivers have been itching for, along with quicker charging. The first generation had a 24 kWh-battery. The next generation leaf Leaf is at 40 kWh. And now the e+ is at 62 kWh. Tesla’s most modestly priced sedan, the Model 3, starts with a 50-kWh battery with a 250-range, but a $45,000 price.
The Leaf e+ doesn’t have a price tag yet, but the current leaf starts at just under $30,000.
A look inside.
Image: nissan/MikeDitzPhoto.com
So while it’s not the most earth-shattering EV announcement, anyone eyeing a Leaf just got some extra miles on that charge.
Malala Yousafzai captured the world’s attention after she was shot by the Taliban for her advocacy of gender equality. In her latest book, We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World, Yousafzai writes about being forced to live in England and then devotes the remaining space to the stories of girls and women who also fled their homes.
Those stories portray a range of feelings and experiences: guilt and gratefulness, death and survival, loss and opportunity. A refugee’s journey, simply put, is complicated. Contributors, who are from Colombia, Iraq, Syria, and other countries, use only a first name.
“We need to remember that most [refugees] are women and girls, and they are really vulnerable but they are also resilient so we need to join them, support them, and stand up with them,” Yousafzai told Mashable.
President Trump and his administration have done the opposite, drastically lowering the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S. and shutting down the government to build a border wall. The president has also used hateful rhetoric to talk about immigrants and refugees, describing them as violent criminals.
Of the 68.5 million people who are displaced worldwide, 25.4 million are fleeing conflict and persecution, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Half of them are women and girls.
There are several misconceptions about what it means to be a refugee, and many of those are debunked in We Are Displaced. Here are five things Yousafzai wants you to know about life as a refugee.
1. Being a refugee is a hard, emotional journey.
When thinking of the hardships refugees undergo, we think of their physical journeys, but the emotional cost is just as difficult. In her book, Yousafzai acknowledges that while she feels grateful the United Kingdom welcomed her family, she also misses her friends, Pakistani tea, and hearing Pashto spoken in the streets.
She says the experience of leaving her home in Pakistan is difficult to put into words, but she remembers distinct details that explain why she had to leave in the first place. When the Taliban occupied her town and the government ordered an evacuation, she saw people on the roads, some with no shoes, fleeing in pursuit of safety. Refugees in similar circumstances are at greater risk of mental health issues, such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“They don’t know where they’re going, they don’t know where they’ll find a safe space, where they’ll find some shelter, but they do know that it is no longer safe to live in their houses,” Yousafzai says.
Those who survive trips and find safety still long for their homes, communities, and culture.
2. Refugees don’t really choose to leave their homes.
To those who don’t believe refugees must leave their homes, Yousafzai offers advice one would expect from an education activist: read a book (hers is at the top of the recommendation list).
She emphasizes the importance of hearing directly from the girls and young women who put their lives at risk. There’s Ajida, a Rohingya refugee who fled to a nearby forest for several days with her husband and three children because the military and police in Bangladesh surrounded their village. They set houses on fire, raped women and young girls, and killed men. (Ajida and he family now reside in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.) Marie Claire, a young refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, witnessed a mob in Zambia murder her mother.
“When you write it, it’s one sentence: She saw her mother get killed in front of her,” says Yousafzai. “If you take a pause and think about it and imagine what the situation would have been like … horrifying and shocking, you understand that leaving your home becomes the last and only option for you.”
Not only do refugees leave their homes, they also lose their lifestyles and their livelihoods.
“Some people talk about safety and borders and things, but we also have to remember that people who have become refugees … we define them as refugees and define them in numbers, but we often forget that in their own countries, they were teachers, doctors and engineers,” she says.
3. Refugees need more than just physical safety.
Marie Claire, who traveled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Zambia and then to Pennsylvania, felt unsafe in Zambia. People in the streets and at school would shout things like, “Go back to your country! Why are you here? You don’t belong here!” Contributors Zaynab and Farah also wrote about experiencing verbal harassment and discrimination. Yousafzai says people can help refugees through rough transitions.
“I think the first thing a refugee would ask for is a warm welcome, a smile, and a hug. Nobody likes seeing hateful comments,” says Yousafzai.
Once you open your home and your hearts to them, as Yousafzai put it, connect with them through conversations and listen to their stories.
4. Refugees are so much more than victims.
We tend to see refugees as victims for obvious reasons, but Yousafzai’s book makes the case that they are much more than their circumstances as they fight to reclaim their lives. Zaynab, for example, joined the student council at her high school and put together the school’s girls’ soccer team. Ajida learned to make a stove out of clay to cook rice and lentils supplied by the Bangladeshi government. Then she sold them to the Love Army, a humanitarian organization.
“That’s why I call these stories inspiring stories. Refugee stories, they’re not just stories of grief and sorrows,” she says. “These are stories of inspiration, resilience, triumph, as well — how these girls have overcome these difficulties.”
5. The opportunity to learn can be transformative for refugees.
Yousafzai says that many of the girls she’s visited in refugee camps across the world are dedicated to their education and are determined to become professionals, like journalists or doctors. Muzoon, who is passionate about refugees getting an education, convinced a 17-year-old girl at a refugee camp in Jordan to get an education instead of marrying a man in his 40s. Together, Muzoon and the teenage girl hope to be the “ripple effect” and inspire others to go to school.
“Even in that whole situation, where things don’t make sense, they still have hope and dreams,” says Yousafzai.
She also has advice for those who want to help, beyond buying her new book (which supports girls’ education).
“It is time that people learn more about refugee girls’ stories and get inspired, but also do something in their communities if they can, whether it’s helping one individual, doing something through social media, campaigning, or joining organizations, or working for refugees. Every act that you do matters.”
WATCH: Canadian mother and daughter open their home to 43 refugees
Kliff Kingsbury is the new head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Can he turn QB Josh Rosen into a superstar?Associated Press
The Arizona Cardinals made a splashy hire Tuesday by grabbing former Texas Tech head coach and recently hired USC offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury—a name that had become the hottest in coaching circles this hiring season.
Kingsbury was fired by Texas Tech in November after six seasons, in which he had a record of 35-40, but he quickly was hired by USC. Then, before he’d even called a play for the Trojans, he became one of the most-sought-after interviews for NFL teams.
So why was Kingsbury so highly thought of in the first place? How could a coach who failed at Tech be considered ready for a head coaching job in the NFL?
That’s the big question, and B/R sought to answer it by asking it to coaches who have worked for Kingsbury, some who have gone against him and NFL decision-makers.
“Every NFL owner wants the hot new offensive toy right now,” said one NFL personnel executive, whose team is hiring a new head coach and asked to not be named. “Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt Nagy, Matt LaFleur—the idea is you’d rather hire the guy one year too soon than be a year late and miss out on a top candidate.
“It’s still a copycat league, and everyone wants offense. Kliff’s ability to scheme, adapt and execute an offense that gets the ball to playmakers is pretty exciting.”
Editor’s note: This is the first installment in B/R’s “Next Belichick?” series, which profiles some of the top up-and-coming coaches this year. You’ll get to know more about the following coaches in the coming weeks.
Part 1: Kliff Kingsbury
Part 2: Eric Bieniemy
Part 3: Josh McDaniels
Part 4: Kris Richard
The wins might not have been there for Kingsbury at Texas Tech, but the offensive numbers were, as the team ranking in the top 16 in total offense in all six of his seasons, including four top-10 finishes and first overall in 2016. The 39-year-old former NFL quarterback also developed a reputation for working with top QBs, including Case Keenum, Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes—the last of those disciples being a big reason he received so much NFL attention.
Mahomes dominated the NFL with 50 touchdowns and 5,097 yards during this regular season, his first as a starter and second in the league. His ability to dominate right away is part of what makes Kingsbury attractive.
Kingsbury helped develop the Patrick Mahomes we saw dominate the NFL this season.Charlie Riedel/Associated Press
“He is really bright, man,” Mahomes told B/R. “I’m telling you, he does a lot of the same stuff they do in our building as far as drawing up new plays every week and dressing up plays to have success. He has the work ethic and innovative mind to easily be successful.”
Mahomes signing off on Kingsbury no doubt carries a lot of weight.
And it matches up with the opinion of coaches who have prepared to do battle against the Texas Tech offense in years past.
“The way the NFL is trending toward pass-happy offenses, I understand why teams view Kingsbury as a unicorn,” said Bryan Carrington, the director of recruiting at the University of Texas. “He’s one of the best offensive minds in the country, and when I look at the Rams, Chiefs, Bears and Saints, I see basically a Big 12 offense.
“Kliff is also one of the best quarterback developers out there, and a lot of these teams looking for a head coach have their franchise quarterback already, so it makes sense. Kliff was the offensive coordinator at Houston when I started college there, I love him as a coach and an offensive mind, but I knew that guy ain’t gonna be at USC no longer than the end of next season. … All he needs is a home-run hire at defensive coordinator and he’s good money.”
Kingsbury might be a unicorn, indeed. The effort and energy with which NFL executives have approached him would seem to back up that statement. With offenses moving in a direction that’s more college-friendly, and with so many teams hoping to land the next McVay or Nagy, it makes sense that Kingsbury’s name would be at the top of many lists.
As one NFL owner (not the Cardinals’) told B/R, “Look at the teams in the playoffs. Outside of the Chargers and Patriots, you have offensive minds running things. Dallas [Jason Garrett], Kansas City [Andy Reid], the Rams [Sean McVay], New Orleans [Sean Payton], Indianapolis [Frank Reich] and Philadelphia [Doug Pederson]. Hell, half those teams are coached by former quarterbacks. This is where the league is going, and Kingsbury fits.”
He does, having not only coached at a high level but also played at it. That’s part of the reason so many players love him. He can walk the walk and talk the talk. And that’s ultimately what the Cardinals are hoping for with Kingsbury: someone to groom last year’s No. 10 overall pick, Josh Rosen.
Kingsbury’s next job will be to develop last year’s No. 10 pick, Josh Rosen.John Amis/Associated Press
Rosen is well-known as an outspoken player who often butted heads with coaches at UCLA and, according to team sources, with the Cardinals last year. Now he’ll be tasked with learning from Kingsbury. Will the two mesh? One team official (not for the Cardinals) who has spoken to Kingsbury and evaluated Rosen before the 2018 draft predicted it could be bumpy: “They’re going to kill each other. The best chance is that they end up friends, but I think they’re too much alike to succeed together.”
The biggest obstacles for any coach is the ability to hire a staff. Carrington suggested that will be key for Kingsbury, just like it was for Chip Kelly when he came from college to the NFL. Finding a defensive coordinator who can run that side of things (like Wade Phillips in Los Angeles) is a must.
If Kingsbury can do that, many NFL insiders believe he does have the tools to become a great NFL head coach.
From losing at Texas Tech to a brief relationship with USC to a head coaching job with the Cardinals all in the span of two months, it’s been a wild ride for Kingsbury. And the fun is just getting started.
Matt Millercovers the NFL and NFL draft for Bleacher Report.
The former Texas congressman’s radio silence is becoming increasingly awkward.
Beto O’Rourke is leaning toward running for president, according to four people who have spoken with him or his advisers in recent days.
But for a presidential contender, his radio silence is becoming increasingly awkward.
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In Iowa and New Hampshire — where Democrats are accustomed to being courted aggressively by presidential contenders — calls from Democratic Party organizers to O’Rourke’s advisers go unreturned. And a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday that O’Rourke won’t make any decision before February and is preparing for a solo road trip — but avoiding early nominating states — bewildered even his supporters.
“I have no idea what that is, what that means, what the strategy is,” said Tyler Jones, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina working on a campaign to draft O’Rourke into the presidential race. “Beto’s always done things more unconventionally than other Democratic leaders, so I think it’s very much on brand … I’m sure he has a strategy, and just because we don’t know what it is doesn’t mean it’s not a good one.”
O’Rourke’s former chief of staff, David Wysong, has been speaking privately with Democratic strategists since November, but without any definitive suggestion of the former Texas congressman’s timing for a decision. O’Rourke himself spoke with former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley before O’Malley endorsed him last week, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
O’Malley’s office declined to comment on the call, and O’Rourke’s advisers did not respond to requests for comment.
But following their discussion, O’Malley suggested to a former adviser that O’Rourke appeared to be leaning toward running.
“It sounds like he’s seeing green and yellow lights, and not a whole lot of red lights,” said Boyd Brown, a former South Carolina lawmaker and former Democratic National Committee member who is national senior adviser to a “Draft Beto” campaign.
In his own exchange of text messages with O’Rourke, Brown said, “His response was very noncommittal … It was just ‘Thanks — a lot of decisions to be made, a lot of discussions to be had.’”
O’Rourke’s reticence to engage publicly in the 2020 campaign could put him at a competitive disadvantage in Iowa, where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) drew overflow crowds as she touched off her presidential campaign over the weekend. Warren has already rolled out a team of four high-level Iowa staffers with extensive caucus experience.
Other top-tier presidential contenders, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), toured Iowa last fall. Harris, who also contributed $25,000 to the state Democratic Party, is about to embark on a national book tour; another likely candidate, Julián Castro, is preparing to formally announce his 2020 campaign on Saturday.
Despite multiple invitations to O’Rourke to appear in Iowa, “we still haven’t heard anything,” said Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democrats. “At this point, I think a lot of folks are starting to assume that he’s not getting in — and move on to other people.”
“If you want to win Iowa, you have to come to Iowa,” he said. “I don’t think [O’Rourke] has missed his window, but it’s not just getting here. Before you get here, you need to have a team who can get it together … You’re starting to miss the window on the major hires.”
Of O’Rourke’s avoidance of early nominating states, Bagniewski said, “It’s strange … It’s really strange.”
George Appleby, a Des Moines-based attorney who has long been active in presidential campaigns in Iowa, said, “Being on the ground in Iowa, I feel the urgency for people to get in that maybe people outside of the state would not feel.”
Noting that the Iowa caucuses are only 13 months away and considering “the amount of money that you’re going to have to raise to be considered to be viable,” Appleby said, “Boy, oh boy, it seems to me you’ve got to get here pretty soon.”
If he elects to run, many supporters of O’Rourke believe the timing now could be fortuitous for a border-state Democrat, with the government shutdown focusing attention of immigration and President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
O’Rourke has maintained a visible presence on the issue — though only in Texas — since the November elections, walking across the border from El Paso to Juarez to meet with asylum seekers and visiting a detention camp for migrant children at Tornillo. On Christmas Eve, he was photographed passing out pizza slices to immigrant children in El Paso.
Over the holidays, O’Rourke spent time with his wife and children in New Mexico’s Sierra Blanca mountain range, posting photographs on Instagram of them building an igloo.
“Amy’s sitting next to me on the couch as we try to stay up to midnight,” he wrote. “She asked me if I remembered where we were last year at this time. We’d just finished a week on the road in west Texas, Rankin, Odessa, Aspermont, Sterling City, Colorado City, Big Spring, Anson, Guthrie, and after Amarillo we drove west to her parents’ place in New Mexico to spend New Year’s Eve. The next year, 2018, felt like 10 years. It felt like no time at all. So much happened, met so many amazing people, traveled so many thousands of miles. Got to be part of something so special… very grateful for this past year and for everyone who was a part of it. Here’s to 2019!”
With O’Rourke’s seeming lack of urgency, supporters are ratcheting up their efforts to draft him into the race — and to prepare a national infrastructure for him should he decide to run. On Monday, a “Draft Beto” campaign announced the addition of strategists to its effort in the early nominating states of South Carolina and Nevada.
In addition to Brown, Jones, who worked as a chief strategist for Joe Cunningham’s stunning upset victory in a congressional race last year, will be the group’s South Carolina state director, and officials said they are interviewing strategists in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well.
“We’ll treat this like a presidential campaign until I hear otherwise,” Brown said.
He called O’Rourke’s road trip “a good indication that he’s looking at doing this.”
“A little out of the ordinary,” he said. “But … this guy’s got this thing figured out better than I do. Who am I to judge?”
O’Rourke told an audience in El Paso before he left Congress that he would turn to Medium as his venue for engaging with the public as a private citizen. His campaign infrastructure is so minimal that associates half-expect that he would drop any announcement without warning. But the signals he has sent so far are few.
In New Hampshire, attorney and Democratic activist Jay Surdukowski, who co-chaired O’Malley’s 2016 presidential campaign in the state, said Democrats “are so spoiled. We’re used to people hounding us, not the other way around.”
But he said most other 2020 candidates are not coming off an all-consuming Senate run, as O’Rourke is.
“I’m willing to cut him a lot of slack. He just came off a two-year slog,” Surdukowski said. “He’s still in that kind of magic window where he could still make a splash.”
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LAS VEGAS—If you have $5,000 you can own a supercharged Windows 10 workstation.
The Cemtrex SmartDesk contains three touch-screen monitors, sensors that can let you control your PC with hand gestures, and a wireless phone charger that sits on the side.
We saw the workstation here at CES. It comes integrated with a keyboard, trackpad, document scanner, speakerS, and a web camera, all in a polished frame that’s accessible whether you’re sitting or standing.
Image: pcmag
US-based Cemtrex says the 120-pound desk is the most advanced workstation on the market. However, the PC running inside isn’t anything to brag about it. According to the spec sheet, the system uses an 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, with either a GTX 1050 graphics card or GTX 1060, and 16GB or 32GB of RAM. In other words, nothing really overpowered.
The desk’s claim to fame is how well its features have been integrated. You don’t have to worry about cable management. Just plug in the system and get to work.
“This is everything, all-in-one,” Cemtrex marketing manager Jonathan Rudolph told PCMag. “And it’s connected all by one wire.”
Owners of the SmartDesk don’t even have to use the trackpad. They can gesture with their hands to scroll through a webpage or zoom in. An integrated Leap Motion gesture controller on the desk will read the motions and translate them into commands.
Cemtrex began shipping the SmartDesk this month. You can order it now on the company’s website starting at $4,899, going up to $5,699. If you do buy one, Cemtrex will send a team to install the desk.
The company is partly marketing the product to company executives. Hotels have also begun adopting the desks for business travelers. The plan is to continually update the SmartDesk model every two to three years with cutting-edge features and newer PC tech. Existing customers can then exchange their old system to help pay for an updated model.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Arians is finalizing a deal with the Buccaneers to become their next head coach. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network provided additional details on his contract and staff:
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet
The #Bucs are signing Bruce Arians to a 4-year deal with a fifth-yaer option, source said. Among the coaches Arians hopes to finalize deals with: Harold Goodwin as Run Game Coordinator/OLine, Byron Leftwich as Pass Game Coordinator and Clyde Christianson as QB coach.
Former New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles is the “top target” for defensive coordinator, according to Rapoport.
The 66-year-old spent five seasons as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2013-17. He led the franchise to a 49-30-1 record with two playoff appearances and a trip to the 2015 NFC Championship Game.
Following the 2017 season, Arians announced he was walking away after 42 consecutive years as a coach in the NFL and college football:
“The tears you see are really tears of joy, peace. I’ll miss the players. I’ll miss coming out of the locker room, hearing the national anthem because it still gets me … I probably truly didn’t know until that kick [Sunday] went through that I was going to retire. I know everybody speculated for months … you now have the story. Like I said, it’s been an unbelievable journey.”
Arians is one of 11 coaches to win the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year award more than once (2012, 2014). His 2012 honor came after leading the Indianapolis Colts to a 9-3 record as interim head coach when Chuck Pagano took a leave of absence to undergo treatment for leukemia.
Specializing in offensive strategy, Arians had six teams rank in the top 10 in scoring during his 14 years as a coordinator and head coach with four different clubs. He won two Super Bowl titles with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Bucs will be hoping Arians brings his outstanding resume and history of success to help quarterback Jameis Winston finally live up to his potential after being the No. 1 overall pick in 2015.
Winston seemed to turn a corner late last season with 1,811 passing yards and 13 touchdowns in the final seven games, but he’s had successful stretches at various points in his career. Consistency has been the biggest problem on the field for the 25-year-old.
Arians has had success with quarterbacks throughout his career, including coaching Andrew Luck during his rookie season in 2012 and helping to resurrect Carson Palmer’s career in 2015.
The Buccaneers are trying to find stability going with their fifth different head coach since 2009. They haven’t won a postseason game since 2002 and haven’t made the playoffs since 2007, with just three winning seasons in the past 11 years.
Arians’ task is large, but he led a quick turnaround in Arizona with three straight winning seasons from 2013-15. The Bucs need him to make that kind of immediate impact heading into next season.
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