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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — There's more than just school pride and bragging rights to all that bellyaching over who might be in and who might be out of college football 's first 12-team playoff. Try the more than $115 million that will be spread across the conferences at the end of the season, all depending on who gets in and which teams go the farthest. According to the College Football Playoff website , the 12 teams simply making the bracket earn their conferences $4 million each. Another $4 million goes to conferences whose teams get into the quarterfinals. Then, there's $6 million more for teams that make the semifinals and another $6 million for those who play for the title. Most of this bonanza comes courtesy of ESPN, which is forking over $1.3 billion a year to televise the new postseason. A lot of that money is already earmarked — more goes to the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference than the Big 12 or Atlantic Coast — but a lot is up for grabs in the 11 games that will play out between the opening round on Dec. 20 and the final on Jan. 20. In all, the teams that make the title game will bring $20 million to their conferences, all of which distribute that money, along with billions in TV revenue and other sources, in different ways. In fiscal 2022-23, the Big Ten, for instance, reported revenue of nearly $880 million and distributed about $60.5 million to most of its members. The massive stakes might help explain the unabashed lobbying coming from some corners of the football world, as the tension grows in advance of Sunday's final rankings, which will set the bracket. Earlier this week, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark lit into the selection committee, which doesn't have a single team higher than 15 in the rankings. That does two things: It positions the Big 12 as a one-bid league, and also threatens to makes its champion — either Arizona State or Iowa State — the fifth-best among conference titlists that get automatic bids. Only the top four of those get byes, which could cost the Big 12 a spot in the quarterfinals — or $4 million. “The committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus resumes,” Yormark said this week, while slamming the idea of teams with two losses in his conference being ranked worse than teams with three in the SEC. The ACC is also staring at a one-bid season with only No. 8 SMU inside the cut line of this week's projected bracket. Miami's loss last week all but bumped the Hurricanes out of the playoffs, a snub that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said left him “incredibly shocked and disappointed." “As we look ahead to the final rankings, we hope the committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field," Phillips said in a statement. The lobbying and bickering filters down to the campuses that feel the impact. And, of course, to social media. One of the most entertaining episodes came earlier this week when athletic directors at Iowa State and SMU went back and forth about whose team was more deserving. There are a few stray millions that the selection committee cannot really influence, including a $3 million payment to conferences that make the playoff. In a reminder that all these kids are going to school, after all, the conferences get $300,000 per football team that meets academic requirements to participate in the postseason. (That's basically everyone). Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The Northern Arizona women's volleyball team ended its season with a loss to Idaho State in the first round of the Big Sky Conference Championships on Wednesday in Sacramento. The Bengals needed four sets to defeat the Lumberjacks 25-12, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Abaxx Files Early Warning Report with Respect to MineHub

NonePenelope Hegseth joins 'Fox & Friends' to defend her son's character and discuss his nomination by President-elect Trump to be defense secretary. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, spent another day courting support from Republican senators on Capitol Hill and taking a few questions from reporters while he was at it. The military vet turned " Fox & Friends" co-host met with senators Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss; Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Sen.-elect Jim Banks, R-Ind., Thursday. The meetings followed others Hegseth held earlier in the week with GOP senators, including Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who will be the next chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Hegseth has been facing a mountain of criticism with accusations against him ranging from fiscal mismanagement to alcoholism to sexual misconduct. Nevertheless, Hegseth said Thursday while walking between meetings on Capitol Hill that Trump supports him "fully." TRUMP FLOATS DESANTIS AS POTENTIAL DEFENSE SECRETARY REPLACEMENT IF HEGSETH FALTERS Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, walks through the basement of the Capitol Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) "I'll tell you why I support him," Scott told reporters after his meeting Thursday with Hegseth. "I admire people who are willing to put on the uniform and lead troops into battle. ... When he goes in the Department of Defense, he will walk in with the mentality that he's going to take care of our warfighters." Scott added that he will do "everything" he can to ensure Hegseth is confirmed. "Pete Hegseth won’t back down from the media or the Pentagon bureaucracy," Banks added after his own one-on-one meeting with the defense nominee. "And he won’t back down from China, Russia or Iran. He will help President Trump make America strong again." Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, responds to reporters during a meeting with Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the Capitol in Washington Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Between meetings on Capitol Hill Thursday, Hegseth was pressed about his meeting a day earlier with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. Ernst said earlier Thursday morning she was not yet willing to throw her support behind him. ARE PETE HEGSETH'S TATTOOS SYMBOLS OF ‘CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM’? "Productive meeting. Excellent," Hegseth said of his meeting with Ernst as he was peppered with questions during his meeting with Rounds. "Constructive, candid. It was great," Hegseth told a different reporter. When asked if the allegations about him were a topic of his conversation with Ernst, Hegseth declined to comment further, citing the private nature of their conversation. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, left, meets with Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) "It's been a wonderful process," Hegseth told reporters Thursday. "There's an incredible amount of knowledge in the U.S. Senate — in the Senate Armed Services Committee — men and women who have studied these issues, have invested their lives in it. And as someone who is hoping to earn their support as the nominee for secretary of defense, I welcome that knowledge, I welcome that advice. And that's why we're here in all these meetings." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Hegseth's meetings Thursday coincided with visits to Capitol Hill by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The pair convened on Capitol Hill to discuss their new role running President-elect Trump's Department of Government Efficiency with Thune.

Young holds 3-shot lead over Scheffler in BahamasWASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service chief told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday that “much-needed reform” and accountability measures are underway in the wake of the agency’s “abject failure” on July 13, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire at a Butler County rally in one of two attempts on President-elect Donald Trump’s life during a turbulent campaign season. “I recognize we did not meet the expectations of the American public, Congress and our protectees,” testified Ronald Rowe, the Secret Service’s acting director, in the final hearing of the House task force investigating the assassination attempts, which also included a thwarted attempt at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 15. “The sniper ... the lone-wolf gunman, must be lucky once. The Secret Service must be perfect every time.” Rowe told the bipartisan 13-member panel that since taking over for Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned shortly after the Butler shooting, he has implemented a series of practical reforms. These include bolstering training and advance team security checks, streamlining communications, acquiring and using more equipment such as drones and ballistic counter measures, and improving hiring and retention to relieve an overworked agency grappling with a heightened threat environment. He also pledged to “be an agent of change” when it comes to the Secret Service’s culture — promising to find and cultivate strong leaders earlier in their careers, to “challenge previous assumptions” and to foster a “shared collective responsibility” that empowers agents and state and local partners at every level to raise security concerns or questions. “Our agency isn’t defined by one failure,” he said, but by learning from mistakes and answering “a call to duty with unwavering resolve.” While several members of the panel on both sides of the aisle, including chairman Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, thanked Rowe for his service and leadership over the last few months, the director faced some pointed questioning and criticism from a few members who accused the agency of negligence and mismanagement. The hearing devolved into a shouting match when Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, who implied that Rowe should have responded more quickly as deputy director following the Butler shooting, asked Rowe about security during a 9/11 memorial ceremony this year. Fallon appeared to suggest potential security mishaps at the 9/11 memorial, and Rowe, who was a first responder at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks, took extreme offense and accused Fallon of being “out of line” and using the 3,000-plus victims for politics. The two men then yelled and pointed at each other for nearly two full minutes until Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., pleaded with the chairman to shut the pair up as Fallon’s clock for questioning ran out. Rowe told Kelly the most glaring failure on July 13 was the “failure to recognize the significance of the AGR building,” from where Bethel Park gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a roof within range of Trump’s stage. The Secret Service has said it failed to have an adequate presence in the area — and should have cordoned it off entirely — despite advance team concerns that did not make it up the chain of command or were not acted on. The preparation and handling of the Trump rally “underscored critical gaps in Secret Service operations,” Rowe acknowledged. “Let me be clear: there will be accountability and that accountability is occurring,” he said, noting the due process involved takes time and frustrates him. “But it is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure.” Kelly, who was at the July rally and whose hometown is Butler, said the events that day and the investigations since “bring out the best of us and the worst of us,” describing the experience as “very emotional” for everyone involved. He said that many Americans “come up with conspiracy theories because they don’t get answers when they need it,” and the task force’s work has been to provide those answers and help prevent future failures. “We are suffering from a lack of trust and faith in our government,” he said. “We know you had questions. We got you the answers.” The task force earlier this year said it found security failures on three key fronts: the Secret Service failed to adequately plan for the Butler rally, creating confusion among local law enforcement partners; public access to the site less than 150 yards from the stage was poorly managed; and communications breakdowns — with agencies struggling with heavy radio traffic and unable to fully communicate across various channels — led to “information in a moment of crisis (going) through radio, texts and phone calls, way too slowly,” according to Kelly. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., said the assassination attempts marked a “need for significant reform” at the tactical level and “agency-wide,” noting the Butler shooting represented the closest a president’s been to being killed since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot while returning to his limousine outside the Washington Hilton in 1981. Green urged Rowe to find a way to instill greater urgency and solid leadership across the agency. “Your guys showed up that day and didn’t give a shit,” he said. “There was apathy and complacency, period. This is a leadership issue, a command climate issue, a culture issue.” Rowe pledged to review how the agency promotes its agents, with the aim of improving training and identifying potential strong leaders early on as opposed to simply promoting agents with the most years under the belts. A detailed report on the security failures, and recommendations by the task force, is coming within the next day or two, according to Kelly and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado. Since its inception in July following House approval and appointments made by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the task force reviewed almost 20,000 documents, interviewed hundreds of personnel from federal, state and local agencies, conducted site visits in Pennsylvania and Florida, and reviewed physical evidence from the assassination attempts at FBI Quantico. But Crow said the FBI did not provide key information, including records and interview transcripts, related to Crooks and his activities leading up to the shooting. “If their intent was to slow walk us ... they are sorely mistaken,” Crow said of the FBI and Justice Department, noting several members would return in the next Congress. “America deserves to know what happened with Mr. Crooks ... who he was talking to ... that is an important part of the story.” Asked by the Post-Gazette what reason the FBI and Justice Department gave for denying the task force’s requests for certain records, the congressman said the agencies claim the information cannot be shared pending an active criminal investigation. “We completely disagree with that,” Crow said. “We’re the first branch, and we have the authority to conduct oversight over all of government. Constitutionally we have that authority. We have members on the Intelligence Committee ... defense committees ... members who are regularly briefed and oversee our nation’s most sensitive secrets. So you cannot tell me that we can’t come up with a process to get information about an ongoing investigation and to treat that information properly and securely in a manner that’s consistent with their needs.” The FBI did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. In September, the FBI told the Post-Gazette that, “any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and unfounded.” “The FBI has been working closely with our law enforcement partners to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting, and we have followed normal procedures in the handling of the crime scene and evidence,” the agency said at the time. “The FBI continues its painstaking work on the investigation to develop as complete a picture as possible of what led to the shooting, and we remain committed to maximum transparency as we continue to brief Congress and publish information for the public regarding the ongoing investigation.”Nikola Corp. stock rises Tuesday, outperforms marketINDIANAPOLIS (AP) — There's more than just school pride and bragging rights to all that bellyaching over who might be in and who might be out of college football 's first 12-team playoff. Try the more than $115 million that will be spread across the conferences at the end of the season, all depending on who gets in and which teams go the farthest. According to the College Football Playoff website , the 12 teams simply making the bracket earn their conferences $4 million each. Another $4 million goes to conferences whose teams get into the quarterfinals. Then, there's $6 million more for teams that make the semifinals and another $6 million for those who play for the title. Most of this bonanza comes courtesy of ESPN, which is forking over $1.3 billion a year to televise the new postseason. A lot of that money is already earmarked — more goes to the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference than the Big 12 or Atlantic Coast — but a lot is up for grabs in the 11 games that will play out between the opening round on Dec. 20 and the final on Jan. 20. In all, the teams that make the title game will bring $20 million to their conferences, all of which distribute that money, along with billions in TV revenue and other sources, in different ways. In fiscal 2022-23, the Big Ten, for instance, reported revenue of nearly $880 million and distributed about $60.5 million to most of its members. The massive stakes might help explain the unabashed lobbying coming from some corners of the football world, as the tension grows in advance of Sunday's final rankings, which will set the bracket. Earlier this week, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark lit into the selection committee, which doesn't have a single team higher than 15 in the rankings. That does two things: It positions the Big 12 as a one-bid league, and also threatens to makes its champion — either Arizona State or Iowa State — the fifth-best among conference titlists that get automatic bids. Only the top four of those get byes, which could cost the Big 12 a spot in the quarterfinals — or $4 million. “The committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus resumes,” Yormark said this week, while slamming the idea of teams with two losses in his conference being ranked worse than teams with three in the SEC. The ACC is also staring at a one-bid season with only No. 8 SMU inside the cut line of this week's projected bracket. Miami's loss last week all but bumped the Hurricanes out of the playoffs, a snub that ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said left him “incredibly shocked and disappointed." “As we look ahead to the final rankings, we hope the committee will reconsider and put a deserving Miami in the field," Phillips said in a statement. The lobbying and bickering filters down to the campuses that feel the impact. And, of course, to social media. One of the most entertaining episodes came earlier this week when athletic directors at Iowa State and SMU went back and forth about whose team was more deserving. There are a few stray millions that the selection committee cannot really influence, including a $3 million payment to conferences that make the playoff. In a reminder that all these kids are going to school, after all, the conferences get $300,000 per football team that meets academic requirements to participate in the postseason. (That's basically everyone). Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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Luke Humphries bid for back-to-back World Championship titles on track after winNEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ponce Financial Group, Inc., (the "Company”) (NASDAQ: PDLB), the holding company for Ponce Bank (the "Bank”), announced that it will be presenting at a virtual bank conference hosted by Sycamore Analytics and Pendragon Capital Management on December 11, 2024 from 1:05 to 1:35 PM. To register for the event visit www.VirtualBankConference.com . About Ponce Financial Group, Inc. Ponce Financial Group, Inc., is the holding company for Ponce Bank. Ponce Bank is a Minority Depository Institution, a Community Development Financial Institution, and a certified Small Business Administration lender. Ponce Bank's business primarily consists of taking deposits from the general public and to a lesser extent alternative funding sources and investing those funds, together with funds generated from operations and borrowings, in mortgage loans, consisting of 1-4 family residences (investor-owned and owner-occupied), multifamily residences, nonresidential properties, construction and land, and, to a lesser extent, in business and consumer loans. Ponce Bank also invests in securities, which consist of U.S. Government and federal agency securities and securities issued by government-sponsored or government-owned enterprises, as well as, mortgage-backed securities, corporate bonds and obligations, and Federal Home Loan Bank stock. Forward Looking Statements Certain statements herein constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Exchange Act and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be identified by words such as "believes,” "will,” "would,” "expects,” "project,” "may,” "could,” "developments,” "strategic,” "launching,” "opportunities,” "anticipates,” "estimates,” "intends,” "plans,” "targets” and similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors. Factors that could cause such differences to exist include, but are not limited to, adverse conditions in the capital and debt markets and the impact of such conditions on business activities; changes in interest rates; competitive pressures from other financial institutions; the effects of general economic conditions on a national basis or in the local markets in which Ponce Bank operates, including changes that adversely affect borrowers' ability to service and repay Ponce Bank's loans; anticipated losses with respect to the Company's investment in Grain; changes in the value of securities in the investment portfolio; changes in loan default and charge-off rates; fluctuations in real estate values; the adequacy of loan loss reserves; decreases in deposit levels necessitating increased borrowing to fund loans and investments; operational risks including, but not limited to, cybersecurity, fraud and natural disasters; changes in government regulation; changes in accounting standards and practices; the risk that intangibles recorded in the financial statements will become impaired; demand for loans in Ponce Bank's market area; Ponce Bank's ability to attract and maintain deposits; risks related to the implementation of acquisitions, dispositions, and restructurings; the risk that Ponce Financial Group, Inc. may not be successful in the implementation of its business strategy; changes in assumptions used in making such forward-looking statements and the risk factors described in Ponce Financial Group, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC”), which are available at the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. Ponce Financial Group, Inc. disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, future events or other changes, except as may be required by applicable law or regulation. Contact: Sergio Vaccaro [email protected] 718-931-9000How to cope with a loved one’s gambling problem

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