The Holiday Bowl ended at 8:46 p.m. Friday night, as did Washington State's collapse.

Not way back, the Cougars were on the verge of the College Football Playoff race. But inside 42 days, they lost three straight games, their tailback, offensive coordinator, quarterback, head coach and bowl games.

They placed on a formidable performance against Syracuse at Snapdragon Stadium, but with a banged-up roster they didn't have enough of anything to maintain up with the Orange within the 52-35 loss.

Now all attention turns to the search that can shape WSU's future. This is crucial, especially within the short term. The Cougars need stability at the highest of this system in order that they can put together a roster for next season.

Much more vital is filling the vacant position at the highest of the university: the seek for the subsequent president.

Kirk Schulz, WSU's leader since 2016, is stepping down this summer.

Will his successor know whether a football is inflated or stuffed?

Will he (or she) realize that a successful football team is probably the most cost-effective marketing tool for any university, especially given the upcoming enrollment apocalypse for universities across the country?

Will he (or she) work with the Washington State Board of Regents, stand firm with the school and work with athletic director Anne McCoy to offer the resources crucial for the Cougars to achieve the rebuilding Pac-12?

The leadership structure at Pullman is somewhat unusual and requires context.

The campus has one chancellor, Dave Cillay, but he reports to Schulz, who oversees your entire WSU system. This reporting line is anticipated to stay in place when Schulz's yet-to-be-named successor comes on board within the second half of 2025.

“Cillay will not have full control over Pullman campus expenses, including athletics,” a source acquainted with the WSU operation told Hotline (via text message). “The new system president who replaces Kirk will continue to have ultimate authority.”

The situation is analogous, not less than when it comes to designation, to the leadership structure of the University of California. Except UC System President Michael Drake doesn't control campus-specific spending. Cal's chancellor sets the Bears' athletic budget. UCLA's chancellor is doing the identical for the Bruins.

But the WSU system president, together with the regents, controls the budget in Pullman and the campuses in Spokane, Tri-Cities, Everett and Vancouver, which function more like satellites than equals. Pullman has roughly thrice as many undergraduate students because the 4 branches combined.

The source called it a “bad setup” because “the Pullman chancellor is the most important person; the other system schools are glorified junior colleges.” Yet the Pullman chancellor has no control over the Pullman budget and resource allocation.

Schulz began transitioning into his oversight role for the system in 2021, naming Principal Elizabeth Chilton as chancellor of the Pullman campus. But Chilton “wasn’t prepared for the scope of Power Five athletics,” the source said, forcing Schulz to proceed to compete at a high level.

(Chilton left Washington state last spring to develop into president of the University of New Hampshire.)

“A lot of the dysfunction at WSU is due to all the system junk,” the source said, “instead of us focusing all of our time and effort on the main campus.”

Making matters worse for the Cougars, the number of scholars in Pullman has dropped from 18,346 in fall 2019 to simply 14,346 in fall 2024 — a 22 percent decline. in response to WSU.

Even more ominous: Enrollments of foreign and international students who pay full tuition fell by 37 percent during this era.

Add to that the large lack of athletic department revenue resulting from the demise of the Pac-12 and the brand new era of revenue sharing with athletes (in the summertime of 2025), and the Cougars face a monumental budget crisis rooted in existential issues, not day-to-day costs that goes into running a serious college football program.

Will the subsequent WSU president grant Cillay, the Pullman chancellor, control of the athletic department budget? This seems unlikely given the outsized role that campuses play within the economic model that underlies your entire system.

That's why finding a alternative for Schulz is so vital.

That won't be a difficulty for the Cougars next season: The 2025-26 budget will probably be finalized well before the subsequent president takes office.

But Schulz's successor could have authority over the athletic department's spending within the 2026-27 academic yr – the rebuilding Pac-12's first football season.

One area (of several) to contemplate: Will the salary pool for coordinators and assistant coaches remain stable?

The Cougars spent $3.7 million on personnel salaries in 2024. in response to USA Today's compensation database.

That's barely lower than Oregon State ($4.3 million), but significantly greater than the highest tier of the Mountain West, where Boise State and UNLV spent $2.9 million and $2.8 million, respectively .

Or will the Cougars reduce their employees' salaries to a level comparable to the Mountain West's middle class?

Another vital area: the cash pool for revenue sharing.

Most Power Four football programs share about $15 million with athletes. The Group of Five schools won't come near that quantity, but where will the Cougars compare to Oregon State, Boise State and San Diego State?

The way forward for WSU football isn’t about one-time allocations. It's not a $500,000 issue here or a $1 million issue there.

The success of the rebuilding Pac-12 will depend on committing hundreds of thousands of dollars for the remaining of the last decade.

It's about more – much, rather more – than simply picking the fitting alternative for Jake Dickert.

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Originally published: December 28, 2024 at 8:34 am PST

Who lacks adequate dental care within the United States?

Donald Chi: People with low incomes often have difficulties Finding and accessing dental care. This population includes racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities or special health needs, and folks in rural areas who live removed from a dental office.

What are the consequences of poor oral health?

Chi: Oral health touches every a part of our lives as humans. You need your teeth to eat, socialize, have a job, and learn, and you would like them to be healthy.

Painful tooth decay can affect your ability to sleep, chew your food, and keep you occupied. Imagine you might have missing teeth within the front of your mouth because they were removed on account of extensive tooth decay. There are quite a few studies that show that folks lose their front teeth cannot find or keep jobs. Both the pain and aesthetic elements of poor oral health may cause real problems.

What are dental therapists, what training do they receive and what services do they provide?

Chi: Dental therapists are very much like medical assistants. They are usually not full-fledged dentists, but have sufficient training to perform a limited variety of dental procedures. Dental therapists typically complete two to 4 years of coaching after highschool, and that is the case trained to offer preventative care.

Dental therapists also can provide cleanings and fluoride treatments sealantsi.e. coatings that protect your teeth from bacteria. And they’ll perform some relatively easy procedures—for instance, small fillings and easy tooth extractions. However, dentists are still needed for more complex treatments similar to larger fillings, complicated tooth extractions, root canals, crowns and dentures.

Dental therapists are usually not a substitute for dentists. Dental therapists' scope of practice is restricted, however it is critically vital.

In a community with many unmet dental care needs, dental therapists can put out small fires. Dentists can then think about putting out the main fires. It's a team effort – dental therapists work with dentists to make sure all of a community's needs are met.

In 2006, Alaska became the primary state to license dental therapists. What has your research revealed about how Alaska's plan works?

Chi: We found that Medicaid recipients, each children and adults, were less more likely to have teeth removed after dentists approved it. That's what that meant More and more persons are keeping their teeth longerthey usually were more more likely to seek preventive treatments similar to fluoride treatments and cleanses.

What other lessons have you ever learned from other states with dental therapists?

Chi: The remaining 13 states which have licensed dental therapists have dental therapy programs which have been running for lower than 20 years, which is concerning the same because the length of this system in Alaska.

But we've seen data from Minnesota showing that Medicaid enrollees usually tend to seek dental care after the introduction of dental therapy. And we see similar results in other areas supervised by dental therapists. It was just remarkable to see this almost immediate impact.

Besides visiting the dentist, what other ways are there to advertise good oral health?

Chi: Healthy eating is an excellent solution to promote oral hygiene, preserve tooth enamel and reduce the chance of gum disease.

I understand that healthy eating will be difficult on account of the limited availability and comparatively high cost of healthy foods. But minimizing the quantity of sugar in your weight loss plan and avoiding juices and sugary drinks are also good ways to guard your teeth.

Brush twice a day with a Toothpaste that incorporates fluoride and drinking fluoridated water also helps maintain good oral health.

The biggest prize in ice hockey is the Stanley Cup, and for the primary time in nearly twenty years Edmonton Oilers are vying for it. The Oilers are hoping for a comeback against the Florida Panthers and are only two wins away from becoming champions of the National Hockey League.

The finals will once more focus attention on Edmonton, the previous team of the legendary Wayne Gretzky. But they may also focus attention on a few of Canada's biggest exports: hockey and oil.

Novelist Leslie McFarlane once observed: For Canadians, “hockey is more than a game; it is almost a religion.” Now that the Oilers have a likelihood to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada for the primary time in nearly 30 years, Prayers and superstition aboundout of wearing special clothing to fans who look away during penalty shootouts.

The Oilers also recall one other aspect of Canadian society with almost religious significance: the extraction of natural resources. In American and Canadian culture Oil has long been intertwined with religion. In the eyes of some people it’s a national blessing from God, and a way to the “good life”“ for individuals who persistently seek it.

We are religious scholars who study sports and the way oil shapes society, or Petroculture. The Edmonton Oilers represent a worldview that values ​​triumph, luck and labor – beliefs that could be found on the ice or within the oil fields. The Stanley Cup Final offers a glimpse into how the oil industry helped shape the religious fervor surrounding Canada's favorite sport.

Boomtown

Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, a province known for its vast oil, gas and oil sands reserves. With five refineries producing a mean 3.8 million barrels per day, oil and gas is Alberta's largest industry – and an attitude to life.

This is very true for Edmonton, the “oil capital of Canada”. Here, oil not only structures the local economy, but additionally shapes identities, architecture and on a regular basis experiences.

For example, visit the West Edmonton Mall and you may see a statue of three oil staff drilling, reminding buyers that Oil is the muse of their trade. Visit the Canadian Energy Museum to learn the way oil and gas have transformed the region because the late Forties, and to view items resembling engraved hard hats and the “Oil Patch Kid”, a variation of the legendary “Cabbage Patch Kids” toys. Take a tour of the Greater Edmonton area and see how Pump jacks line the horizon. Oil is all over the place and shapes the longer term, wealth and opportunities.

Given this background, the Oilers' name is just not surprising. After all, it is just not unusual to call teams after local industries. Pittsburgh Steelers pay homage to the steel mills that after employed a big portion of the team’s fan base. The Tennessee Oilers were originally the Houston Oilerswhich prompted other Texas teams just like the XFL to Roughnecks further north is the name of the basketball club Detroit Pistons References to automotive engineering.

Teams with industry-inspired names play a dual role, honoring each a spot and a career. Some fans not only cheer for the house team, but cheer yourself on – and reaffirm that their industry and their work are necessary.

In a recent TikTok videoa person, ecstatic over the Oilers' victory over the Dallas Stars, claps his hands and jumps around his lounge. The caption reads: “My Filipino father, a first-generation immigrant who works on an oil rig and has never played hockey in his life, is cheering for the Oilers as they make the playoffs. Better bring him the trophy, you oil boys.” He appears to be cheering for the Oilers not because they're a hockey team, but because they're an oil team.

And indeed, the Oilers are an oily team. The Oilers Oilfield networkdescribes itself, for instance, as “exclusively promoting[ing] companies in the oil and gas industry” so executives can network “through the power of Oilers hockey.”

The Oilers' connection to the industry is further underlined by their logos. The current logo incorporates a easy drop of oil, but earlier designs featured machine gears and an oil employee Pulling a lever in the form of a hockey stick.

Liquid gold

There is an extended tradition of mixing ice hockey and oil – and with Canada itself.

After the British North America Act When Canada was founded in 1867, the brand new nation sought a particular identity through sports and other cultural forms.

This is where hockey is available in. The winter game developed in Canada from the Gaelic game “Shintyand the First Nations game of lacrosse soon became the glue that held the nation together.

Since then, the media, politicians, sports clubs and major industries have helped to fuel fan enthusiasm and portray hockey as an integral a part of Canada's rugged pioneering character.

In 1936 Imperial Oilone among Canada's largest oil firms, began sponsoring Hockey Night in Canada, a national radio show that reached hundreds of thousands of individuals each week. A number of years later, Imperial Oil played a significant role in bring the show to televisionwhere the Imperial Oil Choir sang the theme song. Imperial Oil and its petrol stations Esso also sponsored Youth hockey programs across the country. In 2019, Imperial signed a contract to supply the “official retail fuel” in Canada.

On the solution to great wealth

The links between hockey and industry in Alberta’s oil region will not be nearly sponsorship. In each cultures, the concept of ​​luck plays a central role – historically one among the various prerequisites needed to extract fossil fuels. “Getting rich” within the oil fields is entangled with the concept of ​​divine windfallespecially amongst the various Christian staff.

philosopher Terra Schwerin Rowe has written concerning the “petrotheology” of North America and explained what number of Perceive oil as a present from God is to be taken from Earth – for those who can find it.

Oil represents luck and who wouldn't need to borrow a little bit of it for his or her team? Sport is exciting because sometimes talent, team chemistry and residential advantage still lose out to luck. Oil culture combines the concept of ​​divine favor with the demand to persevere and persevere, just like hockey.

Currently, fans from everywhere in the world join the people of Edmonton in supporting the Oilers. They will throw their hands within the air in despair when captain Connor McDavid is shipped to the penalty box, or they’ll dance to the Oilers' motto: “La Bamba.” They too will cheer for the oil.

SAN PABLO – Discovering the world of fitness has modified the lifetime of Jennifer Hernando, founder and owner of Jenuine Fitness, a San Pablo gym that’s celebrating its fifth anniversary this month.

Hernando debuted Jenuine FitnessLocated at 510 Training Co. at 1085 Broadway Ave., in 2019, 510 Training Co. offers each individual personal training sessions and group boot camp classes.

The vision?

“Empower, inspire and motivate everyone around us. That is our motto,” said Hernando.

Five years — and a world pandemic — later, Jenuine Fitness, a woman- and Filipina-owned business, continues to welcome latest and familiar faces to its Monday-through-Saturday classes for all skill levels. This interview has been edited for clarity.

Q: When did you begin your personal fitness journey?

A: I at all times worked out, but I didn't really go to the gym with a plan. It wasn't until I used to be 30 that I actually desired to make a change. I had two young children on the time and desired to be healthy and robust for them in order that I could live a protracted life and watch them and their children grow up.

Q: What fascinated you a lot about fitness?

A: I loved how I felt afterward. I felt like I used to be getting stronger and didn't think I could do all of the things I did like lift heavy weights, do rigorous pull-ups or run fast without getting drained. My mood improved and I had lots more energy throughout the day because I used to be understanding. The physical changes were after all the icing on the cake. My muscles began growing all over the place. As a youngster, I used to be ridiculed for being “too skinny,” so it was very satisfying to see my body changing due to all my exertions.

Q: Were there things within the fitness environment that put you off?

A: Not that I can consider anything.

Q: What inspired you to open your personal gym? Did you ever have doubts about whether you might pull off the project?

A: I used to be given the chance to begin my very own boot camp program by 510 Training Company. From there, I've taken it to the following level and exceeded all expectations. Of course, I had doubts about whether I’d give you the chance to retain my members. Will my program be difficult or fun enough for people to want to hitch or come back in the event that they've tried it before?

Q: What are the toughest and best features of owning and running your personal gym?

A: The hardest part is the various hours I spend away from my husband and kids. I find it hard to find time for myself.

But the most effective part is constructing a community and being surrounded by a supportive community. Seeing members change physically and gain confidence over time. Hearing members say Jenuine Fitness is their favorite place since it provides them with mental therapy. Seeing my members get stronger and higher physically.
I even have the most effective coaches supporting me. Each of them has their very own individual training style and might adapt it to all ages and limitations – injuries, lack of mobility or range of motion. And I create programs that challenge my members.

Q: What five suggestions would you give to someone on their very own fitness journey?

A: Set realistic goals. Don't compare yourself to others. Focus on progress, not perfection. Be patient. Be consistent.

Name: Jennifer Hernando

Age: 43

Position: Founder, Owner of Jenuine Fitness

Qualifications: National Academy of Sports Medicine, certified personal trainer

Residence: Hercules

Five things about Jennifer:

— She was born within the Bay Area and raised in San Francisco.

— She became a mother at 24 and now has a grown daughter and a teenage son.

— She has an analogous twin sister.

— When she trains alone, she likes to take heed to slow jams and R&B from the 80s and 90s.

— When she’s not on the gym, she enjoys traveling, mountaineering, going to concert events and music festivals, trying latest restaurants, learning latest things, and spending time together with her dogs.