Category: News

The failed MAGA coup of January 6 was a terrifying day in American history, but it could have been even worse. Thanks to Capitol Police officers, the violent Trump supporters weren’t able to kidnap or murder members of Congress, hang former vice president Mike Pence, or overturn the election. It was a no-brainer for the House to come together for a rare bipartisan union and award them the Congressional Medal of Honor for helping to save democracy. But of course, there were some dissenters, and they were the usual suspects.

As per CNN, a mere 12 Republicans voted the measure down, but they’re about who you’d expect. There was Matt Gaetz, of course (though not Jim Jordan, the Beavis to his Butt-head). Marjorie Taylor Greene was a shoe-in. Tooth-loser Louise Gohmert, obviously. And then the rest: Andy Biggs of Arizona; Thomas Massie of Kentucky; Andy Harris of Maryland; Lance Gooden of Texas; Michael Cloud of Texas; Andrew Clyde of Georgia; Bob Good of Virginia; Greg Steube of Florida; and John Rose of Tennessee.

Why would they vote to not award the hard-working, blue-collar types that saved their hides? Because the award dared mention that they earned it for the actions during the January 6 riot, which it referred to as an “insurrection.” Gohmert even filed an alternative version, which erased the Jan. 6 date entirely, merely saying the fallen officers “passed in January.”

Gaetz, meanwhile, found it “offensive,” claiming it combined the honor with “editorial comments about the January 6 sequence of events” — a pretty next-level fit of vague word salad to describe a catastrophe that led to actual deaths.

But Liz Cheney, the leading Republican in the House, one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, did not mince words. “What happened on January 6 was an attack on the Capitol,” she told CNN. “The officers who defended us, both Capitol Police, the Metropolitan police, all the law enforcement officers who defended us put their lives on the line — some lost their lives — and there should be no question that we’re awarding people a gold medal for their actions on that day,”

In any case, this means there are 12 House Republicans who are okay publicly admitting what happened on Jan. 6 was not what it really was. Then again, one could definitely say it was a “sequence of events.”

(Via CNN)

I’m about fourteen seconds into demoing a Super73 electric bike in a quiet Irvine, California industrial park when I “get it.” The “it” in that sentence being why these vehicles seem to inspire such cultish devotion from their rabid fanbases on social media and Reddit. The answer is easily visible in my dorky smile.

Tearing around a football-field-sized parking lot at 32mph? Feeling like I’m on an old-school motorbike but without the same level of road rash risk, big trucks to contend with, and the need for a special driver’s test? It’s a nice balance of convenience, comfort, and cool. No wonder celebrities from Jack Black to Joel McHale to Meek Mill rep the brand.

After a few more minutes, I understand why every single surf grom in the town where I live, Laguna Beach (CA), seems to have a Super73 or one of its competitors. Just the chance to dodge the city’s notorious summer traffic by using the bike lanes is appealing enough to make me long for one. And while most of the e-bikes on the market cost upwards of $1000, the middle of the price bell curve is still substantially less than a Vespa or a top-notch, unmotorized racing or road bike.

“You like it?!” a helpful clerk asks as I fly past her for the third time.

“Tooooootalllyy!” I call over my shoulder, pressing the throttle down as far as it will go.

“The COVID lockdown came in March, the bike boom started in April, and since then demand for e-bikes has spiked through the roof,” Matt Ford, competitive cyclist and owner of Rock N’ Road Cyclery tells me. “We have five stores and can’t keep them in stock. It might not even be the specific bike someone is looking for, they’re just saying, ‘I want to be in that e-bike world, so… I’ll take it!’”

Ford’s assessment of the massive sales boom for e-bikes, particularly since the start of the pandemic, is echoed by brands across the industry. Super-73, ONYX, Rad, and Specialized have all spent a fair chunk of 2021 back-ordered online. Wait times for the most hyped bikes can stretch for months, as fulfillment problems due to pandemic-related factory closures collide headlong with unprecedented demand.

“E-bike growth has continued at historic levels,” Dirk Sorenson, an analyst at The NPD Group, told Bicycle Retailer in July. He noted that sales spiked 84% in March 2020, 92% in April, and 137% in May. All of this growth was great, of course, save for the fact that it coincided almost too neatly with production hubs in the US and China shutting down.

“We started to hear about problems downstream in our supply chain in January, heading into Chinese New Year,” says LeGrand Crewse, founder of Super73. “So a lot the production targets of our new bikes were delayed for about 90 days. Then demand started to dry up before turning upward again and spiking.”

By summer, the angle went from “spiking” to vertical. It hasn’t slowed much since.

While Covid backlogs plagued Super73 and other e-bike brands from the 2020 Christmas season into the new year, rabid fans of the vehicles didn’t seem to mind much. They continued to gather on forums and social media, posting their adventures and design tweaks (Super73 and many of its competitors celebrate people customizing their bikes).

Investors weren’t bothered by the wait times, either. In February 2021, Super73 took on $20 million in outside funding; Rad Power Bikes announced a successful $150 million raise that same month.

As the industry has trended upwards, it’s also innovated. The number of companies and range of bikes has rapidly blossomed, year over year — with styles that Ford notes “often couldn’t be more different and still be categorized as bikes.”

Spurred on by tangible growth, eager venture capitalists, and the fear that established motorcycle and car companies with deeper pockets are going to edge into their industry, upstart companies are racing to establish their respective lanes. So far, there seems to be plenty of space under the e-bike tent. Bikes made by Super73 and ONYX really aren’t built to be true “pedal bikes” in any sense, they’re more akin to the old gas-powered mopeds. ONYX even calls itself an “electric drive train motorbike” on its website and on social platforms (though it’s got pedals to retain its e-bike status).

On the flip side, Specialized bikes still look and feel like the rest of their product line; they’re “pedal-assist” bikes– not meant to do all the work for you. Somewhere in the middle are companies like Segway (yes, that Segway), which has gone the moto-dirtbike route, and brands like Rad Power Bikes, which focuses on adding carrying capacity, convenience, and ease to the standard bicycle experience.

“Honestly, I started thinking about getting my e-bike because it was so cool looking,” says Joe Collord, who waited three months for an ONYX bike to help with his San Diego commute. “I was looking for a road bike and this did everything I needed, plus it was a blast to ride — I mean, you’re weaving through cars at 45 miles per hour.”

The second half of his comment highlights something of a sticking point in the e-bike world. Though the vehicles have different bodies and vibes — Super 73 is akin to a low-riding cruiser, ONYX looks like a cafe racer, Rad looks like an actual bicycle, etc. — the real differentiator is power. And when it comes to power, California currently divvies the bikes into classes I, II, and III, with different rules for each. Other states have other parameters, with many rules feeling mushy as new tech outpaces legislation.

In California, the top speed for class III bikes, theoretically, is 28 MPH. Anything faster than that is a motor vehicle and governed by the Department of Transportation (DOT), but there’s no enforcement mechanism in place and, since all of these bikes have pedals, it would be hard for a police officer to pull a rider over unless they’d been caught on radar gun. Sure, someone going 60mph on an ONYX might be easy to identify, but someone flying down a bike lane at 32mph on a Super-73 will have an easy time skirting the rules.

When I ask Collord about registering his Onyx as a motor vehicle I can almost hear him cringe. “Well… not yet. I do drive in the car lane — because I don’t want to be a dick flying past cyclists at 45 miles-per-hour — but I haven’t registered as a motor vehicle… yet.” He pauses. “I am looking into it.”

Eventually, there will have to be hard and fast rules created to govern e-bikes. But right now it’s more like the Wild West, for better or worse. People who buy an electric bicycle because it’s so convenient aren’t really racing to deal with the hassles of the DMV.

“The pandemic changed everyone’s thought on how they get around,” Super73’s CEO LeGrand Crewse, tells me a few weeks after my demo and our initial interview. “They’ve realized that they don’t always need a car and I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon. We’ve historically thought of two-wheeled vehicles in the US as recreation more than transportation — that’s not the case elsewhere and I’m glad to see it changing here.”

The shift is visible in most coastal cities in Southern California — the unarguable epicenter of America’s e-bike boom. It’s sure to be seen elsewhere soon enough and could, potentially, have a positive impact on traffic flow in a legitimate way. Delloite’s famous tech predictions estimate e-bike sales between 2020 and 2023 at 130 million. As a vehicle to replace a car on short trips, GreenAmerica.org puts e-bikes at 1/10 the energy use of automobiles, with electric energy being significantly cleaner than gas and e-bike emissions landing at precisely zero.

Potential applications stretch into the travel sector, too. Already, hotels are starting to offer e-bikes (and even e-retro mini SUVs) for rental. Post-pandemic, it’s easy to imagine multi-day trips, part pedal-powered and part electric, through the American Southwest and other wild spaces. City tours, which already utilize e-scooters, are sure to hop on the e-bike wave.

“Obviously, the huge interest is good for us and our industry,” Crewse says. “But these bikes are good for the environment, they’re good for connecting communities, and they’re good for the world at large.”

After demoing multiple bikes over the course of months, I’ll add one undeniable x-factor: “They’re also fun as hell.”

Just a little over two years ago, Soulja Boy had his infamous “Drake??” moment on The Breakfast Club, where the “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” rapper claimed he helped influence Drake’s early success. Fast forward to the present and it’s clear that his sentiments have not changed.

Souja recently took to Twitter to share his displeasures with Drake’s recent comments about Bow Wow’s influence on him, which he had posted on Instagram. “I had to link with Wizzle,” Drake said. “Everybody wants to have drinks and everybody wants to celebrate and turn up and, you know, I just had to see Wizzle. I had to see Wizzle in person. If it wasn’t for you, there wouldn’t be no me. That’s why I’mma rock with y’all forever.”

But Souja had said he was lying. “That n**** drake is hilarious. Dude stole my whole bar then thanked bow wow,” he said. Drake showed love to Bow Wow after the three songs on his EP Scary Hours 2 debuted within the top three positions of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As a result of the feat, he held a party to commemorate the accomplishment, which Bow Wow attended.

Despite all this, it’s likely the two rappers will stay on good terms. After his 2019 The Breakfast Club appearance, Soulja shared an Instagram direct message conversation between him and Drake, in which the Toronto rapper wrote, “You know it’s always been love all jokes aside.”

Shawn Bradley was one of the NBA’s most recognizable figures over the course of his 12-year NBA career, which included stints with the Sixers, Nets, and Mavs, the latter of which he spent the last eight years of his career before retiring in 2005. But tragedy struck the former center in January as he was cycling just a few blocks from his home.

According to a team statement released on Twitter Wednesday, Bradley was riding near his home in St. George, Utah when a car struck him from behind. Bradley has been hospitalized ever since after undergoing a spinal procedure and the subsequent recovery process. The injury has left him paralyzed.

The release also included statements from owner Mark Cuban and GM Donnie Nelson.

The Dallas Mavericks have issued a press release on behalf of former Maverick Shawn Bradley as well as statements from Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson. pic.twitter.com/F9fCtlZ1zJ

— Mavs PR (@MavsPR) March 17, 2021

The NBA has a long and storied history of towering figures, both in the literal and figurative sense. But even among the trees, Bradley stood above most of his peers with his imposing 7’6 frame. He was the No. 2 overall pick in 1993 and led the league in blocks in 1997. Bradley also had a role in the iconic film Space Jam, as well as several other movie and television appearances. His former teammate, current Nets coach Steve Nash, was among those who offered his thoughts to Bradley and hope that he would make as full a recovery as possible.

People are still reeling from the tragic shootings in the Atlanta area, in which eight people were shot to death at three separate massage parlors. Six of them were Asian, prompting concerns that the suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, was racially motivated. On Wednesday, a sheriff’s official, Captain Jay Baker, was called out for the curious way he described Long’s apparent motives, telling reported that he’d simply had a “very bad day.” Now things are even worse: As per BuzzFeed, eh appears to have previously shared anti-Asian T-shirts online.

In a Facebook post from last April, Baker shared images of some parody shirts, in which the Corona beer label was replaced with the words “Covid 19 IMPORTED FROM CHY-NA.” It’s pure Trump, from blaming the East Asian nation for the pandemic to his preferred way of pronouncing its name. “Love my shirt,” Baker wrote. “Get yours while they last.”

The post disappeared shortly after BuzzFeed reached out to Baker, who did not otherwise respond.

During the same press conference Wednesday, Georgia police said it was too early to determine a motive for Long’s alleged massacre, saying that he’d explained that he had sex addiction issues, and that he’d targeted the massage businesses to “take out that temptation.” Baker then put it more succinctly, saying, “Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.” His phrasing earned the ire of people already deeply upset.

According to The New York Times, there have been nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents against Asian-Americans across the nation since last March. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump has long bandied about terms like “China Virus” and “Kung Flu,” and specifically blamed the nation for the pandemic. He even did it right before news of the massacre broke.

(Via BuzzFeed)

Back in June 2020, Kanye West announced that his brand Yeezy landed a deal with Gap. While he didn’t share too many details about the joint venture, some specifics about the partnership were revealed by The New York Times. According to “a person familiar with the negotiations, who was not authorized to speak publicly,” the deal holds a term of ten years, with the option to renew after five. Almost nine months later, Yeezy and Gap’s partnership seems to be a successful endeavor.

Bloomberg reports that the collaboration between the two brands, which is set to be available in stores later this year, could be valued as high as $970 million. The publication also reported that Yeezy itself is valued between $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion, thanks to estimates from UBS Group. West also has $122 million in cash and stock, $110 million from his music catalog, and $1.7 billion in other assets, including Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS brand. If the reported numbers are correct, it would bump West’s net worth to somewhere between the range of $5.1 billion and $6.6 billion — a sharp increase from the $1.3 billion that Forbes reported last year.

In other news, last week collaborator Cyhi The Prynce said that West got back to work on his upcoming album Donda, which was originally set to arrive last summer.

For weeks, P.J. Tucker’s future has been up in the air. The Houston Rockets are embracing a youth movement in the post-James Harden era, and Tucker, who is an unrestricted free agent after this season, wants to play for a team that can satiate his desire to win a championship for the first time in his career.

Basically every good team has been linked to him in recent weeks, and on Wednesday night, we finally got resolution to this entire saga. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Rockets and the Milwaukee Bucks came to terms on a deal that will send Tucker to the Eastern Conference, while a collection of other players and picks will also be moved in the deal.

In a subsequent move, the Bucks sent Torrey Craig to the Phoenix Suns.

It is worth mentioning that Tucker has not been particularly good this season — he’s averaging 4.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 30 minutes a night while connecting on 31.4 percent of his threes — but he also hasn’t exactly been in a situation conducive to success. Plus, Tucker’s value has always come in the postseason, where his defensive versatility and ability to his threes has been coveted.

If Tucker is capable of being that, this move is a boost for the Bucks’ frontcourt. If not, well, their fortunes to win a championship will still be ultra-reliant on Giannis Antetokounmpo, but Tucker should at least be able to provide some defensive solidity once the playoffs roll around.

In another, better timeline, Black Widow would have come out last May. Instead the next Marvel movie is due in theaters this May, being one of many blockbusters that decided to wait out the pandemic, to see if humanity finally got a handle on a once-in-a-century catastrophe. Jump a whole year and, alas, even its current May 7 due date is being optimistic. Disney honcho Bob Chapek knows it, too, and when asked whether the long-delayed solo vehicle for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff would be getting an exclusive theatrical run, his answer was refreshingly honest — which is to say he doesn’t know.

Chapek appeared on Bloomberg Television, interviewed in front of Disneyland in California, which recently set a limited capacity reopening for late April. When asked about Black Widow, he noted that everything, now, still, even with the increasing vaccine rollout, is in flux.

“Our situation and our conditions change,” Chapek said. “Just a few weeks ago, theaters in New York and Los Angeles weren’t even open. Now, all of a sudden they’re open, so we’re waiting to see how prospective theatergoers respond to these reopenings. We’re going to remain flexible. We’ll make the call probably at the last minute in terms of how these films come to market, whether it’s Black Widow or any other title.”

Marvel, of course, is owned by Disney, and the company has either made their big films available free with a Disney+ subscription (Onward, Soul) or in theaters and PVOD simultaneously (Raya and the Last Dragon). So Black Widow could wind up dropped in multiplexes, to socially distancing crowds, and for $30 over their streamer.

Movie theaters in New York City opened two Fridays ago, while Los Angeles ones opened earlier this week — both having been shuttered since mid-March of last year. While movie theater attendance has since skyrocketed, it’s still nowhere near what it was pre-pandemic — in part because the pandemic is still very much in full swing. And even though vaccines are being more distributed than ever, only a small portion of the country is fully vaccinated, and anxieties about contracting or spreading COVID-19 remain.

So will people feel comfortable enough in less than two months to go see the first new Marvel movie in almost two years? (The last one, Spider-Man: Far from Home, came out in July of 2019.) Like Chapek, we’ll just have to wait and see. But for now, Black Widow is due in theaters on May 7.

(Via Deadline)

The first time one of my kids had a panic attack, I didn’t have any idea what to do. The pounding heartbeat, racing thoughts, shortness of breath, and feeling like you’re losing control are disconcerting symptoms for adults to experience, but they’re even more alarming for a child who doesn’t know why it’s happening. As a parent, it’s scary not knowing how to help your child when they clearly need help.

The exact cause of panic disorder is unknown, but experts estimate it affects close to 4 percent of the population. Like other anxiety disorders, it also tends to run in families, which appears to be the case for my kiddos. But even people who don’t have a full-fledged disorder can occasionally experience a panic attack, and it’s good to know what actually helps.

My youngest was around six years old when he had his first bout of panic. It wasn’t long after we’d tucked him into bed when he called for me with a shaky urgency in his voice. When I got to his room, he said he couldn’t breathe and that his heart was going really fast. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said through chattering teeth. “My whole body won’t stop shaking and I’m freaking out.”

I immediately recognized the signs of panic, having gone through it with his older sister, but he was a lot younger than she had been when she had her first episode. Thankfully, the tools we used with her also worked with him.

Here’s how we help our kids through a panic attack:

1) Verbalize what’s happening to them.

Panic attacks are intense for the person experiencing them and saying something like “Calm down” isn’t really helpful. They want to calm down, they just can’t.

For our kids, explaining exactly what’s happening, what they can expect to happen, and what they actually can control is the first step toward regaining calm. After the first time through it, they don’t need this much detail, but here’s a basic script of where we started:

“You’re okay, even though it doesn’t feel like it. You’re just having a panic attack. The fear part of your brain is sort of stuck for a bit, and it keeps revving up your body. It’s like your brain thinks there’s a tiger chasing you, even though there isn’t. That makes your heart beat really fast and makes it hard to breathe. You might feel like you’re losing control. You might even feel like you’re going crazy. But it’ll pass soon, I promise. Panic attacks are just temporary glitches. Your brain and body will calm back own, usually within ten minutes or so. Let’s work on helping you feel better while it works its way out of your system.”

2) Use “box breathing” to help them catch their breath.

Breathing intentionally is one of the quickest ways to reset when your body is in a heightened state. The best technique we’ve encountered for this is an exercise called “box breathing” or “square breathing.” It’s actually a tool Navy Seals use to keep calm under stress, but it’s so simple even kids can use it.

Slowly draw the shape of a square in the air, starting from the bottom left-hand corner. As you draw the first line upward, have your child breathe in for a count of five. Then have them hold their breath while you draw the top line, then exhale while you draw down the right side. Finally, have them hold the exhale while completing the square with the bottom line. Then repeat—breathe in, hold, breath out, hold. Around four or five seconds for each breath and hold wonders for getting breathing under control, which helps calm the brain and body.

Here’s a quick video that shows how it works. (With our kids, I usually draw the box for them while talking them through the breaths and holds at first, then have them start drawing the box with me as they start to calm down.)

Box breathing relaxation technique: how to calm feelings of stress or anxiety

youtu.be

3) Ground them in reality with the “4-3-2-1” exercise.

Panic is the brain gripped by a state of fear that doesn’t reflect what’s actually happening. It’s basically the amygdala—the fight or flight center of the brain—wigging out for no apparent reason. The intense fear triggers the fight or flight response, forming a sort of feedback loop, with the body freaking out because the brain’s freaking out, which makes the body freak out, and so on.

Getting the brain to focus on the body’s physical senses can help break that loop and bring the body and brain back to a state of calm (or at least calmer). For this, we use a simple grounding exercise we call “4-3-2-1.”

Have the child look for and then name, out loud:

– Four things they can see. (“I see my lamp. I see the cat. I see the window. I see my teddy bear.”).

– Three things they can feel. (“I feel my pillow. I feel your hand. I feel the sheets.”)

– Two things they can hear. (“I hear cars outside. I hear the heater running.”)

– One thing they can smell. (“I smell your lotion.”)

I always have the kids say a full sentence for each thing they count, as that reinforces the physical aspect of the exercise. Without fail, my kiddos are always calmer when they get to what they can smell. Super simple, but super effective.

It’s important to note that these exercises don’t stop an attack in its tracks. Panic usually just has to run its course. What they do is take the edge off, make the attack more tolerable, and help the kiddo wait it out without feeling like they have no control at all while it’s happening.

Panic attacks and anxiety attacks (which share similar symptoms and can respond to the same tools) aren’t fun for kids or for parents. But when a kid knows what’s happening and a parent has tools to help them manage it, they’re a lot less scary for everyone involved.

The NCAA Tournament kicks off on Thursday evening when the First Four games tip off, followed by the usual March Madness craziness we have come to expect during this time of year over the next four days. Before things tip off, though, a number of college athletes, many of whom will participate in the upcoming bubble-type environment in Indiana, decided to speak out about the way the NCAA operates.

At the forefront of the discourse was standout Rutgers guard Geo Baker, who got this ball rolling on Tuesday in an interaction with Jon Rothstein of CBS and in a follow-up tweet. One day later and he created a hashtag, #NotNCAAProperty, to excoriate the organization for how it keeps a vice grip on players being able to profit off of their likeness.

Baker ended up boosting messages from a number of other college basketball players, while plenty of current and former collegiate athletes hopped on board with this message.

A pair of ESPN college basketball personalities, Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas, endorsed the message from these athletes — the former tweeted out a story about the hashtag, while Bilas created a video trying to address one of the misconceptions around compensating athletes.

Earlier this year, a bill introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Lori Trahan sought to remove any restrictions on name, image, and likeness that the NCAA could put on a college athlete. In a statement to ESPN, Trahan, a former college athlete during her time as a volleyball player at Georgetown, said, “I’m all too familiar with the NCAA’s business model that for decades has utilized the guise of amateurism to justify obscene profitability while student athletes have struggled to get by.”