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If there were a hall of fame for pettiness, a divorced father in Virginia would be a shoo-in for the lengths he went to give his ex-wife and children the final kiss-off. After his daughter, Avery Sanford, turned 18, the father pulled up in his truck with a trailer attached and dumped 80,000 pennies in front of her house.

The $800 was for his final child support payment.

Avery saw it all go down through the doorbell camera on her front door. “I just turned 18,” Avery told WTVR. “When I was in the middle of class, my dad came by. He had rented a trailer.”

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“He pulled up in front of our house, like turned the trailer on so it dumped out all the pennies in the street in front of our house,” she continued. “And my mom walked outside while it was happening. She didn’t recognize them at first.”

The mother called out to the man in the car, “What are you dumping on my lawn?” The man replied, “Your final child support payment!”

Avery’s mother reported the incident to the Henrico County Police.

Mother, daughter donate thousands of dumped pennies to domestic abuse center

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First of all, as a parent, to put on such a disgusting display of pettiness in front of your children, is just plain awful. Second, there’s no good reason for anyone to be upset about taking responsibility and financially supporting their child.

Avery hasn’t spoken to her father in years and after his most recent antics, it seems like keeping a distance is a good idea.

“It is really hurtful and damaging to your kids when you do things like that. And it doesn’t matter how old your kids. It doesn’t matter if they’re a young child or an adult,” Avery said. “The actions of your parents will always have some effect on you.”

Caught on Camera: ‘Frustrated’ dad makes his final child support payment in PENNIES dumped on his ex-wife’s front l… https://t.co/osIBtNVDZL

— HLN (@HLNTV)
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To take the embarrassing situation and turn it into a positive, Avery and her mother have decided to donate all of the money to Safe Harbor, a domestic abuse shelter. Safe Harbor is a nonprofit organization that provides shelter, supportive services, and advocacy to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“It’s not just her that he’d be trying to embarrass. It’s also me, it’s also my sister. And it’s upsetting that he doesn’t really consider that before he did this,” Avery said. “Turning around and donating that money to moms and children in need like I feel like, that just really turns the situation into a positive one. You can learn a lesson from it.”

A reporter reached out to Avery’s father and he seems to be feeling somewhat contrite about his behavior. He said he let 18 years of frustration get the best of him and that he didn’t want to “put a further wedge between him and his daughter.”

As for Avery, she has a bright future ahead of her. The high school senior is looking forward to attending Virginia Tech in the fall.

A school in Utah has made an inexcusable mistake and has yet to provide a decent answer for why it happened. The photo the school published of its cheerleading squad excluded Morgyn Arnold, a 14-year-old with Down syndrome.

Morgyn is the team manager who learned all of the routines and cheered beside the squad at home games. But she’s nowhere to be seen in the squad photo that was published in the school’s 2020-2021 yearbook.

What’s worse is that the squad took two photographs, one with Morgyn in the front row and one without.

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The picture with Morgyn.

The photo that was published.

“The first picture you see is a cute junior high cheer team,” Morgyn’s sister, Jordyn Poll told Today. “The second, although similar, includes all members of the team. It’s the SAME cheer team–SAME girls, SAME photo shoot, SAME poses, but one included all team members and one did not.

“Additionally, Morgyn’s name wasn’t even mentioned as a part of the team,” Jordyn added. “She wasn’t included. She spent hours learning dances, showing up to games, and cheering on her school and friends but was left out.”

Morgyn realized she had been excluded from the photo immediately after receiving her yearbook.

“She came home from school and was showing us her yearbook,” Jordyn explained. “She said ‘There’s my team and there’s my friends and I’m not included.’ She was devastated.”

The family wants to know why Morgyn was left out so her sister wrote a lengthy Facebook post describing their pain.

Teen with down syndrome left out of cheerleading yearbook photo

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The school posted a statement on its Facebook page but it has since been deleted.

“We are deeply saddened by the mistake that was made,” the statement read. “We are continuing to look at what has occurred and why it occurred. Apologies have been made to the family and we sincerely apologize to others impacted by this error. We will continue to address it with the parents of the student. We will continue to look at our processes to ensure this does not happen again.”

The junior high school and its cheerleading squad have suspended their social media accounts due to the incident.

Jordyn wants answers for the school’s screw-up but doesn’t want any hate directed at the girls on the cheerleading squad.

“There’s been so much hate directed to these other girls and it’s so unnecessary,” she said. “They are kind and did their very best to include Morgyn and make her feel like she belongs and they continue to do so and continue to reach out and let her know that she is loved. If it was up to them, they would have included her in the photos.”

Unfortunately, the school has yet to provide a reason for Morgyn’s omission. Jordyn says that her sister is getting over her initial feelings of rejection with her usual kindness.

“I think a lot we can learn from her example,” Jordyn said. “She’s forgiven them and moved on. She’s sad, when she looks at the pictures. Her example speaks a lot, and she’s excited to continue to find memories and continue cheering.”

This article originally appeared on 11.05.15

Which country best represents the “free world”? That was one question at the heart of a report by a London-based think tank.

Each year, the Legatum Institute ranks countries on their Prosperity Index by measuring performance on eight subindices.

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Image by the Legatum Institute.

Among their most notable findings for 2015 is a new global leader for personal freedom.

They rate countries’ personal freedom according to surveys covering tolerance for immigrant and minority communities, civil liberty and free choice, and citizens’ satisfaction with their freedom of choice.

So which country is our new beacon of freedom?

GIF from “How I Met Your Mother.”

That would be Canada.

The Canucks ascended five places since the previous year to take the #1 seat for personal freedom.

They took the top spot because over 92% of survey respondents said they believe Canada is both welcoming to immigrants and “tolerant” of ethnic minorities, and 94% feel they have the freedom to shape their own futures.

Canada ranks sixth overall for prosperity and holds the second highest rank for education. Their lowest score was in the subindex for entrepreneurship and opportunity, which could change under the leadership of Canada’s newly-elected prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

Others in the freedom top 10 include New Zealand, Norway, Luxembourg, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and Uruguay.

What about the United States?

It is the self-proclaimed “land of the free.”

You’re not fooling anyone, Cumberbatch.

The U.S. climbed seven spots from its 2014 rank, just barely squeezing into the 90th percentile for personal freedom at #15. And though it remains the world’s richest country, it ranks 11th overall for prosperity.

The U.S. was the subject of another one of Legatum’s top-line findings for becoming less safe, sliding down three places to #33 for the safety and security subindex.

The world’s highest-ranked country for overall prosperity is Norway. But that’s old news. The quasi-socialist Scandinavian state has held the post for the last six years.

Today, the maple leaf is a global symbol of freedom.

Let’s let it ring to a tune by one of Canada’s iconic sons, Neil Young:

Here are the full 2015 Legatum Institute Prosperity Index rankings:

This article originally appeared on 05.31.15

Photographer David Jay specializes in fashion and beauty, stuff that’s “beautiful and sexy — and completely untrue,” as he puts it. But that’s not all he photographs.

Three years ago, Jay began to take pictures of young, severely wounded soldiers returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trigger warning: These portraits don’t shy away from wounded bodies.

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Be prepared. I found them shocking at first. But keep looking. The more I looked, the more beauty and humanity I found reflected here. (The photo captions are from the Jay’s Unknown Soldier Project Facebook page.)

This is 1st Lt. Nicholas John Vogt, U.S. Army. On Nov. 12, 2011, he was severely injured by an IED while on a foot-patrol in Panjwaii, Afghanistan. We took these pictures this past weekend in the swimming pool at Walter Reed Medical Center. I asked Nicholas for his permission to post these images and this was his response: “The only thing that I want to pass on is this: Losing limbs is like losing a good friend. We wish we could still be with them, but it wasn’t ‘in the cards.’ Then we get up, remember the good times, and thank God for whatever we have left.” Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography. All images used with permission.

In a National Public Radio interview about his project, Jay said, “You can imagine how many times each of these men and women have heard a parent tell their child, ‘Don’t look. Don’t stare at him. That’s rude.'”

“I take these pictures so that we can look; we can see what we’re not supposed to see. And we need to see them because we created them.” — David Jay

Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

Jay wants us to see, to become even a little familiar with the tragic loss of limbs and burned skin of wounded vets — his portraits are 4 feet wide — but he also wants us to see them as people and to think about their experiences and those of people in their lives.

This past week, I went to San Antonio, Texas. There I had the privilege of photographing both Daniel Burgess and Bobby Bernier. They are friends. Daniel stepped on a IED, losing one leg and destroying the other. Bobby was hit by incoming artillery, sustaining burns over 60% of his body. He is pictured here with his daughter Layla. Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

This is Maj. Matt Smith. This past week, Matt allowed me to photograph him in his room at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Less than three months ago, on June 8, 2013, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Matt was shot along with five others by a member of the Afghan National Army. The bullet severed his femoral artery, resulting in the amputation of his leg. A private and soulful man, it was an honor to photograph him. Thank you, Maj. Smith. Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

This is Jerral Hancock. He was driving a tank in Iraq. A roadside bomb pierced the armor, breaching the interior. We shot these pics two weeks ago at his home in Lancaster, California, where Jarral lives with his two beautiful children. We ended up hanging out into the night, smokin’ ciggys … so I kept taking pictures. Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

“To the men and women of The Unknown Soldier, I can’t thank you enough for your courage and sacrifice … both on and off the battlefield. It is an honor to photograph you.” — David Jay

On July 25, 2012, SFC Cedric King, an Airborne Ranger, was severely injured by an IED while serving his country in Afghanistan. Due to the explosion, Cedric sustained a multitude of internal and external injuries, losing both his legs. Cedric was doing his laps while I was photographing 1st Lt. Nicholas Vogt in the pool at Walter Reed Medical Center last week. Cedric kept watching, so I had to ask. Cedric said, “That man (Nicholas) doesn’t know it, but he changed my life. There was a point when I was so down that I thought I couldn’t go on. And then one day I saw him swimming … and I just thought, wow … if he can go on like that, then I can go on too.” Cedric will also change people’s lives. Already has. Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

This is Michael Fox, a 27-year-old Marine and an amazing man. On Nov. 15, 2011, Michael was on foot-patrol in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. His is the first picture of “The Unknown Soldier.” Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

This past weekend, I photographed Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris in Houston, Texas. He came up from San Antonio to see one of my other exhibitions, The SCAR Project (www.thescarproject.org). Shilo was severely burned on Feb. 19, 2007, by a roadside bomb estimated at 700 pounds. He lost three men out of a crew of five. Only Shilo and his driver survived the blast. Shilo has a book coming out soon. He is truly an amazing man, and I am honored to call him a friend. Image by David Jay/David Jay Photography.

“The Unknown Soldier is about neither war or politics … but rather something infinitely simpler and more powerful.” — David Jay

Image by David Jay/ David Jay Photography.

The Library of Congress has acquired images from Jay’s The Unknown Soldier project as part of its documentation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This speaks to the power of these images in capturing war’s aftermath. But they are so much more than documentation.

Pictures like these help those of us who remain at home to begin to comprehend the true human cost of war.

Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals did not go as the Philadelphia 76ers hoped, as they couldn’t capitalize on a rare off-shooting night from Trae Young in what became a 103-96 loss to enter what is now a very interesting offseason early.

After the game, a focal point was Ben Simmons, who had 13 points and eight rebounds, playing his typical key role defensively as well, but had just five points and for the fourth straight game did not attempt a shot from the field in the fourth quarter. Making that worse was that he had a wide open dunk that he passed up in the late fourth quarter to tie the game at 88, instead shoveling a pass to Matisse Thybulle who got fouled and split his free throws.

Doc Rivers was asked about that moment and just took a deep breath, saying, “yeah,” before moving on and later admitted he just didn’t know if Simmons could be a championship point guard. That passed up dunk came up later when Joel Embiid pointed to that sequence — including the ensuing Hawks bucket and his turnover after that — as “the turning point” in the game.

You can tell that Embiid is trying not to completely shift the blame onto Simmons by noting his turnover after, one of many for him on what was a sloppy night for Philly as a unit, but it’s understandable that moment would stick out in the mind of Embiid and many others. It was a brutal sequence and was the embodiment of the issues Simmons has on the offensive end right now. Embiid also issued an apology to Philly on Twitter for not getting the Sixers further, as he’s unsurprisingly taking this latest early playoff exit hard.

With Doc’s comments and Embiid’s, it certainly sets up an offseason where Simmons trade rumors are going to swirl — and fans have been firing up the trade machine for some time. What the impact of losing Simmons would have on the defense is hard to properly figure out given his versatility on that end, but if this series showed anything it’s that the Sixers desperately need to upgrade their backcourt offensively. Simmons will get the most blame of anyone on the roster for this loss, but there’s plenty to go around. Embiid, for as magnificent as he was all playoffs, had some rough turnovers and again seemed out of gas at the end. Tobias Harris looked like last year’s Harris and not this year’s improved version, missing a number of good looks near the rim in Game 7, and the bench unit was a disaster all series, with Doc Rivers failing to make rotation adjustments.

Still, Simmons’ refusal to dunk the ball will be one of the lasting images of this series for fans, and it’s clear it stood out in the moment to Embiid and the Sixers as well.

The Philadelphia 76ers completed one of the worst collapses from a 1-seed in recent playoff history on Sunday night, losing Game 7 at home to a resilient Atlanta Hawks team that deserves full credit for putting the Sixers into stressful situations and asking them to come up with answers offensively over and over late in games.

The Sixers could not do that at all in three of their four losses — with the Game 1 loss coming after getting smacked early and failing to complete a late comeback. Philly, which blew 18- and 26-point leads in Games 4 and 5, respectively, held a four-point advantage in Game 7, which is certainly less of a staggering lead to lose grip of, but that it happened on a night where Trae Young struggled shooting and the Hawks scored just 103 points hammered home the issues the Sixers have offensively.

Chief among those is Ben Simmons, who for the fourth straight game in the series went 0-for-0 from the field in the fourth quarter, which seems almost impossible.

It’s even more impossible when you consider he chose not to take a wide open dunk with only Young rotating over to him with Philly down two, passing it off to a shocked Matisse Thybulle who got fouled and split the free throws.

After the game, Doc Rivers was asked about Simmons and whether he can be the point guard on a championship team and he gave the honest answer, which is that he doesn’t know.

Rivers would at a different point say, “I still believe in him,” but noted that there was a lot of work to do with him in the gym to get him to a point where he’s better next year and more confident and willing to score. It has reached the point with Simmons where Sixers fans have grown so frustrated with the lack of scoring impact that they are almost completely in agreement that it’s time to move on from him and get someone with more offensive punch in there alongside Embiid at the guard spot. Whether Daryl Morey agrees or not remains to be seen, but Simmons was on the trade block in James Harden talks earlier in the season, and Morey has never been shy about shuffling the deck in a big way when he sees a glaring need.

It might be best for all parties if Simmons is moved, as a fresh start away from the house of playoff horrors that Philadelphia has become may just bring out the best in him — as would a fresh perspective. As he noted after the game, he needs to clear his head after this series.

Rivers, meanwhile, has plenty of blame to be laid at his feet for this series, with dreadful bench deployment, namely with Dwight Howard who was awful all series, and refusing to try small-ball lineups with Simmons at the five in lieu of Howard, which would’ve given the Hawks a much different look and put Simmons in the game early in the quarter. That would’ve helped the “hack-a-Simmons” situation as he could’ve played more minutes with the Sixers not in the bonus and exited for the middle before coming in fresh late.

Still, no one in Philly is happy with just about anyone not named Joel Embiid or Seth Curry, and the offseason is about to be very interesting in the city of brotherly love.

After two straight collapses in Games 4 and 5, the Sixers were able to rebound in Atlanta to force a Game 7 back home and give themselves a chance to finally put away the Hawks in a series that has been rather unbelievable to this point. The Hawks have been, without a doubt, the more resilient side in the series and it’s how they got all three of their wins going into Sunday night, and that resiliency was put to the test once again in Game 7.

Trae Young struggled for the first three quarters of the game, scoring just 11 points on 2-of-16 shooting from the field as Atlanta’s top star couldn’t find his touch from anywhere to start the game. With Young playing that poorly as a scorer, one would have expected the Sixers to be cruising, but the Hawks defense bowed up forcing 15 turnovers through three quarters and Kevin Huerter and John Collins stepped up in a major way to get Atlanta a 76-71 lead going to the fourth.

Huerter, in particular, took over as the Hawks lead scorer, with 19 points through three quarters including flat out taking over in isolation for a stretch in the third.

Young did have nine assists, as he was able to continue to be effective running the Hawks offense and setting up his teammates, particularly Clint Capela, as the Sixers bent their defense to keep him from getting good looks.

On the other side, it was Joel Embiid who carried the load offensively and kept the Sixers in it, as he so often has in this series.

Tobias Harris took on the lead creator role for Game 7, but struggled to find his range as a shooter, going just 5-of-16 from the field through three quarters, as the Sixers had far too many empty possessions between their shooting struggles and turnovers — six of which came from Embiid. Fittingly, Game 7 came down to a tight and tense fourth quarter, as has happened so often in this series.

This time, it was the Hawks turn to go cold from the field to start, as Joel Embiid took matters into his own hands early in the quarter, leading the Sixers on a 10-1 run to open up an 81-77 lead.

However, the Hawks had the answer once again in the form of Kevin Huerter, who hit a midrange jumper to tie it at 84-84 (after a Young midrange jumper to finally pull the lid off the rim for him) with six minutes to play.

Huerter again gave the Hawks the lead at 88-86, which the Sixers answered by getting Ben Simmons in the post on Danilo Gallinari where he spun into a wide open dunk and…passed.

Thybulle would split the free throws and on the next possession, Trae Young got Clint Capela a lob on a broken play where Tobias Harris, inexplicably, chased Young all the way out and let him blow by him after making a good defensive play initially.

Trae then, after not being able to hit anything all night and 4-of-22 from the field, hit his second three of the game from long range to put an early dagger in the Sixers.

The Sixers would pull all the way back to within one at 93-92 with a minute to play, but Matisse Thybulle fouled, who else, but Huerter on a three-pointer just as the Hawks were struggling to create anything positive offensively.

Huerter hit all three free throws to put the Hawks up 96-92, and then the icing on the cake came when Embiid got ripped clean by Gallinari, who then got the runout dunk, which proved to be enough of a cushion to get them the win and a date with the Bucks on Wednesday night for the start of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Huerter finished with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting, with six rebounds and three assists as the Hawks best player on the night, an incredible performance in a spot where they desperately needed someone to step up given Young’s dreadful shooting night. Young clawed out a 21-point, 10-assist effort as he was able to positively impact the game even as his shot didn’t fall, including setting up all six of Clint Capela’s made field goals on the evening. Gallinari had 17 points off the bench as he likewise gave the Hawks a big lift, while John Collins had 14 points and 16 rebounds in the 103-96 victory.

On the other side, Joel Embiid had 31 points and 11 rebounds to lead all scorers, with Seth Curry having a solid 16-point effort in support. Harris finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds, but his 8-for-24 shooting effort, with a painful number of misses from close range left a lot out there. Ben Simmons had 13 assists and eight rebounds, but just five points as he continued to be terrified of even trying to score the basketball, best evidenced by him passing up a wide open dunk in the fourth, and didn’t attempt a shot in the fourth quarter once again in this series.

The Sixers now enter an offseason that will be fascinating, as it’s apparently clear that this core group just isn’t going to get it done. Simmons seems in desperate need of a change of scenery and will be the focal point of trade rumors and trade machine efforts for the rest of the summer. Whether that’s the move Daryl Morey chooses to make remains to be seen, but something likely needs to happen because this series was nothing short of a collapse, blowing a pair of 18-plus point leads and then failing to beat the Hawks on Trae Young’s worst shooting night of the postseason.

For the Hawks, it was another show of their tremendous heart and effort, pulling out a win under the most unlikely of circumstances once again. It looked early in the fourth like Philly could take over and for the Hawks to put it away behind the scoring efforts of the others beyond Young has to build confidence as they head to Milwaukee for what figures to be an even tougher test against a Bucks team that just put battled through their own playoff demons in back-to-back series.

Who is Tucker Carlson? Is he a sincere conspiracy theorist earnestly feeding his millions of viewers misinformation? Or is he a grifter cynically flinging red meat to his base while secretly bearing different beliefs? The truth gets even murkier in a new piece by The New York Times’ Ben Smith, in which he — a proud member of the “fake news media” — alleges to not only be really good texting buddies with the Fox News stalwart. He’s also, Smith claims, he’s widely considered a great source for unflattering Trump gossip.

In a new piece, the paper’s premier media columnist confesses he has a frenemy-style relationship with the media figure who was roasted the very same day by CNN’s Brian Stelter. While Stelter had solemn questions for Carlson, Smith was a bit more savvy and Inside Baseball, alleging that it’s an “open secret” that he’s a big time gossip hound — the “go-to-guy for sometimes-unflattering stories about Donald J. Trump,” as well as dirt about his home network. Smith names over a dozen colleagues (none at the Times) that they get dirt from him. Three of those called him “a great source.”

Smith writes:

“In Trump’s Washington, Tucker Carlson is a primary supersecret source,” the media writer and Trump chronicler Michael Wolff writes in his forthcoming collection of essays, “Too Famous.” Mr. Wolff, who thanked Mr. Carlson in the acknowledgments of his 2018 book, “Fire and Fury,” explained, “I know this because I know what he has told me, and I can track his exquisite, too-good-not-to-be-true gossip through unsourced reports and as it often emerges into accepted wisdom.”

Stelter even admitted that one “can see Tucker’s fingerprints all over the hardcover” edition of his 2020 book Hoax. But times have changed. When it came time to release the paperback edition, he’d found he “couldn’t stomach” talking to him anymore, presumably because of how increasingly deranged his show has become since Trump’s 2020 loss.

It’s no shock Carlson would be a great source for gossip. Born into a world of insiders, he’s also powerful enough a figure in rightwing media that he has the former president’s ear. What’s more, one source speculates, Carlson’s habit of keeping non-Trumpist media fat with fun stories may explain why he hasn’t suffered the same fate of another Fox News conspiracy theorist, Glenn Beck, whose notorious reign in the Obama era came to a premature end. Had Carlson not made himself useful, the idea goes, journalists would treat him even worse than they do.

Carlson, for the record, denied to Smith that he was a notorious leaker to the “liberal media.” “I don’t know any gossip,” he texted back. “I live in a town of 100 people,” referring to his life in remotest Maine. Then again, in our brave new tech world, gossip doesn’t need to have a zip code to get around.

(Via NYT)

Tucker Carlson has spent much of 2021 miraculously finding one new low after another. He’s compared COVID-19 protocols to Jim Crow. He’s floated a white supremacist conspiracy theory. He’s asked viewers to harass people who wear masks. He’s unleashed weird laughs. And he’s alternated between downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection and trying to explain it away. Last week he spent a lot of time blabbing about a surreal (and debunked) theory that puts the blame for the Capitol siege on the FBI. Most people have laughed at him. But CNN’s Brian Stelter actually did some homework to prove him wrong.

The host devoted a segment Sunday to some important questions about Carlson’s latest cuckoo obsession, which posits that unindicted co-conspirators are government agents. After noting that the deranged theory is “everywhere now,” having been picked up by far right politicians and media, Stelter questioned Carlson’s journalistic bona fides.

“Presumably he asked questions of the FBI and of prosecutors and sources?” Stelter asked, almost certainly rhetorically. He then said he went straight to Carlson’s employers. “So I asked Fox PR executives, did anyone vet Tucker’s reporting? Did the Fox newsroom go through his reporting?”

He had other questions:

“Why haven’t they followed up on it since? Carlson alleged these explosive stories, claiming this is an incredible bombshell. Where is the Fox newsroom? Why isn’t Special Report with Bret Baier covering this story every day? Why isn’t Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace covering this incredible claim right now?”

Predictably, Stelter had yet to receive a response from Fox News. But he thought he had his answers anyway. Carlson, he theorized, is “out there on his own,” doing whatever he wants. And when real journalists question the veracity of his claims, the network, he said, can simply claim it’s “an opinion show and everyone knows it’s an opinion show.”

But, Stelter said, Carlson’s fans don’t think it’s just one guy’s opinion. They “think it’s news,” he said. “They trust Tucker more than they trust real reporters. So what was the betting? What was the process? Why isn’t Fox following up? Why isn’t the newsroom digging into his claims? Why isn’t the newsroom at Fox trying to prove Tucker’s theory?”

These are all valid questions, even if, again, the answers are probably obvious. Indeed, Carlson’s show is the only place where you see this incredible — and, again, already discredited — claim taken seriously. And Stelter surely knows full well that if he wants Fox News to give him honest answers, he shouldn’t hold his breath.

You can watch Stelter’s segment in the video above.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The final round of the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego was a wild one, as the day started with a bunched up leaderboard that only got more crowded as the day wore on — at one point with 10 players within one shot of the lead. As the round continued, a lot of the expected contenders began to fall by the wayside as the grind of a U.S. Open started to yield the types of scores and frustration that we have become accustomed to at golf’s most grueling major.

Among those who were at the top of the leaderboard before backing out was 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who was 5-under and in solo first briefly, before suffering a rather wild collapse on the back nine. After bogeying the 11th and 12th to fall to 3-under, DeChambeau blew his tee shot right on the par-5 13th and again found himself in trouble. As he waited to hit his second shot, things got extra weird as a fan ran out onto the fairway with a golf club and some golf balls and started launching shots off the cliff to the left, dancing before trying to evade security who made an incredible tackle from a golf cart.

Shouts to Rich Beem for capturing this moment the TV cameras wouldn’t show, because “idiots on the course” is a rarity in golf, but if it were ever going to happen, it was going to be on a hole where Bryson was. DeChambeau has become golf’s greatest villain, most notably feuding with Brooks Koepka who has not been shy about how much he hates Bryson, which has led to DeChambeau getting heckled with “Brooksy!” chants constantly.

The fake basketball shot into a juke on security was rather incredible, but the most impressive part of this is the guy that cuts him off with a golf cart, hops out, and tackles him in one motion, an absolutely phenomenal moment in great sports security work.