A NCAA committee really helpful that Flag football add to its aspiring women's sports program on Wednesday, a major step by which it becomes an officially sponsored championship in all three divisions.

The NCAA said at the least 65 schools of sponsorship football already on the club or university level, with more moving on this direction. The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles Football was also added with a thrust from the NFL.

The NFL has energetically promoted flag football, including the beginning of a world ambassador program in 2022. In Germany, the league and its teams have urged that flag football as a university sports in highschool is sanctioned across the country.

As soon because the NCAA program for ladies's sports is within the NCAA, Flag Football would need to need at the least 40 schools that were sponsored on the university level and the minimum minimum for games and participation of the players for the NCAA championship status.

The emerging NCAA women's sports program was founded to present women more opportunities and offer schools more opportunities for sponsoring teams.

The last sport that moved through this system was the wrestling of ladies, which was approved last month as 91st championship sports of the NCAA. The first wrestling championship of ladies takes place in 2026.

There are currently five other sports in this system: acrobatics and tumbling, rider, rugby, stunt and triathlon. Previously, five sports emerged from this system to earn the NCAA championship status: Rowing (1996), ICE Hockey (2000), Water Polo (2000), Bowling (2003) and Beach Volleyball (2015).

NFL

New Orleans – The NFL discusses the chance to start out quite a few football -like skilled flags with potential investors, said Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday.

The endeavor would come with separate leagues for men and ladies's teams, said Goodell at his annual press conference throughout the Super Bowl week.

“We are now examining an opportunity to create a professional flag very aggressively [football] League for men and women, obviously two different leagues, ”said Goodell. “I believe that's something now we have been working on for just a few months [with] An enormous amount of interests from players, from investors. “

Goodell didn’t provide any details and mentioned no prospective timeline for the leagues.

The NFL has increased the expansion of the Flag football. A youth tournament began with the hope that sooner or later it could sustain with the recognition of the Little League World Series. A flag football game is now playing as a part of its annual Pro Bowl games after it has scrapped the Tackle version of the All-Star game after the season.

Goodell continues to go away open that NFL players can participate within the Flag football on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“I think that's a great opportunity,” said Goodell on Monday. “Listen, the Olympic Games are the biggest international stage.”

Goodell addressed a wide range of other topics than he spoke to reporters for nearly 50 minutes on Monday within the New Orleans Saints dressing room on Monday.

– – – –

18-game season

Goodell said he had informal discussions with Lloyd Howell, the manager director of the NFL Players Association, in regards to the implementation of a daily 18-game season.

“We had no formal negotiating sessions to extend the work agreement,” said Goodell. “I’m sure that it’s going to occur in any way in context. It is something about which Lloyd and I even have had informal conversations. But there may be so much to do. We committed ourselves in 2011 once we signed the collective agreement that the players wouldn’t only have a say in it, but would also give you the chance to forestall or support or support it. We could do this once we moved to 17 games in 2020. “

Every step from a 17-game-to-18 game season could be accompanied by a discount within the pre-season from three to 2 games per team and would must be carried out in a way, said Goodell, which could be as protected as possible for players.

“I think all of these are factors that we look at the low season,” said Goodell, “and how we look at it with our partners. … if we do 18 and two, it could be a way because we know that fans love football. You want more football. But we have to be incredibly sensitive and wise in relation to the balance and how we deal with it. I think this is something we are all interested in concentrating. But it hasn't started yet. “

– – – –

Electronic first downs

The NFL hopes to give you the chance to measure the primary downs electronically in some unspecified time in the future, said Goodell.

“I think technology will eventually exist in the future,” said Goodell. “We proceed [to work] With our partners, how we will drive it forward as soon as possible in order that we will get to this place. “

The NFL has tested an electronic system to measure the primary downs and will use it next season, in keeping with a one who is aware of the planning of the league. But in keeping with this person, this isn’t clear at this point. And the system would still include the officials in the sphere who manually recognize football before the system is used to find out whether this spot of the ball results in a primary down.

– – – –

Tom Brady

The league will re-rate the team access restrictions that she arrange on Tom Brady this season, said Goodell, based on his double role as partial owners of the Las Vegas Raiders and analyst for FOX of their NFL programs.

“Everyone in the National Football League, owner and staff is still exposed to manipulating rules and other guidelines,” said Goodell. “They are chargeable for this behavior and all of them are held accountable. In the event of this particular transition, as you already know, we had special rules that were interpreted for it [based on] Some of the concerns that a part of the property had, and to make certain that we learned just a little more about it, where could there could possibly be any conflicts? We will obviously take this under consideration within the low season and give it some thought: Should this directive be adjusted? Should something be added or pulled off? “

But Goodell also said he believed that Brady, who will call the Super Bowl for Fox on Sunday, treated the situation well this season.

“Tom was incredibly cooperative,” said Goodell. “He often calls over it and says: 'I'm doing well?' And I believe he’s serious about separating the 2 and never putting the league or someone right into a conflict point.

– – – –

International Super Bowl

Goodell said he believed that an excellent bowl could finally be played at a world event location.

“I think there is a potential that one day we will have an international franchise,” said Goodell. “And if we do that, it would not surprise me at all if the Super Bowl follows and is played there.”

Local News

CONCORD, NH (AP) — Whether scenic or barely scary, indignant werewolf, anyone? — The designs on the front of the “I Voted” stickers are getting numerous attention this 12 months. But have you ever ever thought concerning the back of your Election Day souvenir?

“Clothing-safe adhesive, that’s incredibly important,” said Janet Boudreau, a sticker designer. “You can ruin leather, silk and fine wool if you don’t use a garment-safe adhesive on fabric stickers.”

Boudreau should know. She designed the enduring sticker that has been a fixture at polling places for many years: a straightforward ellipse with a wavy red, white and blue American flag. And regardless that the corporate she once owned now has competition, she's excited concerning the recent versions popping up across the country, lots of them designed by kids.

“I’m all for it,” she said. “And I’m all for younger people getting involved, understanding and believing in the power of voting.”

Two years ago, New York county stickers featuring a wild-eyed crab-like creature created by a 14-year-old boy caused an internet sensation. This 12 months's hit – one among nine designs sold in Michigan – contains a werewolf tearing his shirt in front of an American flag.

The 12-year-old designer from Michigan declined an interview request, but other young artists reported rewarding experiences.

In Milton, New Hampshire, 10-year-old Grace was treated like a celeb as she visited the polls for the January presidential primary and March local elections.

“I definitely noticed a difference in everyone’s attitude. Everyone seemed happier and more excited to vote because they got a cool sticker that I designed,” she said. “And I think it’s really cool that I’ve influenced how people vote and how they think about voting.”

The New Hampshire competition was open to fourth graders and received greater than 1,000 entries. Grace, whose design features the state's fallen but forgotten Old Man of the Mountain rock formation, not only got to attend a pizza party on the Statehouse, but has been pen pals with one among the opposite two winners ever since.

While Grace quickly selected her design, 11-year-old Rilynn created three versions and let her family vote on her favorite. The winner? A moose stands on a ledge overlooking colourful fall foliage and the state's highest mountain.

Like Grace, she was excited to see her stickers in motion earlier this 12 months.

“They had a huge stack of stickers and people were literally picking out my sticker,” she said. “When my father got there, he didn’t have one.”

Not all recent stickers are designed by children.

In Denver, incarcerated people created two stickers, one featuring the Colorado flag with a brick constructing, a sun and purple mountains, and the “D” in “voted.” The aim of the design competition was to advertise civic engagement and promote a way of purpose and community.

In King County, Washington, a graphic designer developed a sticker that shows the Seattle cityscape at the highest and the landscape at the underside. And a contest for adults and students in San Francisco was won by illustrator Hollis Callas, which featured flowers, birds, a seal, the Golden Gate Bridge and “I Voted” in multiple languages.

“I love it,” said Allison Tichenor, who picked up a sticker when she voted earlier this week. “It’s beautiful, just like the city.”

Tichenor and others said they enjoy wearing the stickers to remind others to vote.

“I think they're important because you never know who it might inspire to vote,” said Deanna Long of Raleigh, North Carolina, who went to a Kamala Harris rally on Wednesday and carried a voter sticker on her bag that said a toddler depicted on a purple mane was a unicorn.

“The designs were fun and came from young children who rely on others to provide their needs,” Long said. “The value of voting will hopefully become clearer to younger generations and I hope the artwork inspires them too.”

In 2019, the US Election Assistance Commission launched a national best sticker competition to acknowledge progressive best practices in election administration. Recent winners include the Sante Fe County Clerk's Office in New Mexico, where the competition focused specifically on the “Future Voter” and “First-Time Voter” stickers.

“Elections are difficult, and these “I Voted” sticker contests usually are not only an ideal solution to engage the community, but additionally some creativity and fun,” said Benjamin Hovland, Chairman of the Bipartisan Federal Commission.

Jason Wickersty actually showed creativity with the sticker, which he created from pork rolls, a processed meat popular in New Jersey referred to as Taylor ham. He shared a photograph of the meat stuck to his shirt on the social platform X in 2020 and explained himself in an email this week.

“We Jerseyans are deeply proud and constant to our state, and because it has not yet made official 'I Voted' slices of pork buns, I cut a slice with an X-Acto knife and made my very own quintessentially Jersey 'I Voted' carved “badge,” he said.

Although a author once called her the “real Betsy Ross” of “I Voted” stickers, Boudreau wasn’t the primary to supply them. But it managed to dominate the market. In 2000, about 13 years after she created the design at her kitchen table, her campaign company sold greater than 100 million stickers every two years before she sold the corporate in 2015. Officials there didn’t reply to an email requesting current sales figures.

The stickers were originally intended to diversify the corporate's offerings and attract recent business, said Boudreau, who remembers her 6-year-old son adding the colourful stickers to the black-and-white ads she sent out to potential customers.

“But it just made people happy,” she said. “It opened doors for us and made voters happy.”

FREMONT – A person suspected of brandishing a duplicate firearm and shouting death threats at a highway driver whose automotive was decorated with an Israeli flag has been charged with a hate crime and other offenses, in accordance with authorities and court records.

In addition to the charge of violating civil rights, a hate crime, the suspect, Jesus Hernandez Hernandez, 44, of Castro Valley, can be charged with aggravated menacing and brandishing a duplicate weapon, records state.

RELATED: Newark man convicted of hate crime on Oakland freeway

Hernandez is free on his own bail and is predicted to enter a guilty plea on October 31.

According to authorities, the victim told police that on September 12 at around 4 p.m. he was driving on I-680 with an Israeli flag outside his window when one other driver in a Ford sedan attempted to ram his vehicle and commenced yelling at him concerning the flag.

The victim followed the suspect off the highway and onto the streets of Fremont while calling 911, documents say.

The suspect allegedly pointed the gun on the victim again and ordered him to stop following him or he would kill him, documents say.

Fremont police stopped the suspect's vehicle in the realm of ​​Mission Boulevard and Denise Street and arrested Hernandez. A pellet gun was present in the vehicle.

During a lineup, the victim clearly identified him because the suspect. Hernandez refused to talk to police.

Originally published: September 25, 2024 at 8:40 am

Coco Gauff shall be the primary tennis player in history to serve because the U.S. team's flag bearer when she joins LeBron James within the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Gauff, 20, is ranked No. 2 on this planet and the reigning U.S. Open champion. She may even be the youngest American flag bearer in Olympic history, overtaking Cindy Nelson, who held the role on the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

Gauff represents Team USA in women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles, competing alongside world primary Jessica Pegula in women's doubles and men's number 11 Taylor Fritz in mixed doubles.

She was originally chosen for the Tokyo Games but had to take a seat out 2021 as a consequence of a COVID-19 diagnosis.

I just wish to thank my fellow Olympic athletes/athletes on Team USA for voting and giving me this incredible honor of carrying the flag on the opening ceremony . Thank you a lot. I’m so honored.

– Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) July 24, 2024

The favorite for the singles title is world primary Iga Swiatek, who has won the last three French Open titles on the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, the venue for the Olympic tennis competitions. Swiatek has an 11-1 head-to-head record against Gauff, including a recent win within the semifinals of this 12 months's French Open in June.

Gauff, who won the ladies's doubles title on the tournament with partner Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, shall be hoping to defeat her in the course of the matches, where Siniakova will face Wimbledon champion and ten-time Grand Slam doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova.

The draws for the tennis events will happen on Thursday at 11 a.m. in Paris/5 a.m. ET.

Required reading

ALAMEDA COUNTYVoters have officially removed two Sunol Glen Unified School District board members, the culmination of a recall initiative sparked by their push to ban the flying of Pride flags on local school grounds last 12 months.

Results certified by Alameda County on Friday show the recall was an in depth call, with 52% of voters supporting the ouster of Board Chairman Ryan Jergensen and Trustee Linda Hurley. Voter turnout was 64%, with 533 of the county's 828 registered voters casting ballots.

In September, Jergesen and Hurley – who made up the vast majority of the three-member panel – proposed a rule change that will have allowed Sunol Glen School to fly only the “statutory flags,” meaning the flags of the state of California and the United States. Although the Pride flags weren’t specifically mentioned within the resolution, it got here just months after school officials flew the flag on school grounds.

The recall campaign quickly gained momentum, with parents accusing Jergesen and Hurley of bigotry and censorship—not just for the flag ban, but in addition for Jergesen's demand that Alameda County sheriff's deputies remove the general public from the board room before the board voted on the resolution.

In a press release, leaders of the recall initiative, United for Sunol Glen, said the vote “puts an end to the chaos that the school board majority has brought to the community and puts the school district on a path that refocuses on the well-being of Sunol Glen School and its students.”

“Our victory is marred by the knowledge that the past year has created much division and we must now figure out how to move forward as a community,” Erin Choin, a mother and substitute teacher at Sunol Glen, said in a press release.

With Jergesen and Hurley not on the board, that leaves only Peter “Ted” Romo, who opposed the flag resolution. Romo and Jergensen were elected to four-year terms in 2022, while Hurley was elected to two-year terms that very same 12 months.

The Alameda County Board of Education is anticipated to temporarily fill at the very least considered one of the possibly vacant seats.

Staff author Katie Lauer contributed to this story.

Originally published: July 20, 2024 at 12:37 pm

Flags related to the January 6, 2021 riot and the overall efforts by Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the final result of the 2020 presidential election flew on the homes of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

One, one the other way up American flaghas long been an emblem of a ship – or a nation – in distress, which Trump supporters adopted after the 2020 election. The flag flew at Alito's residence in Virginia on January 17, 2021, just 11 days after the riot on the U.S. Capitol.

The other photo, flown in the summertime of 2023 at an Alito family vacation home on the New Jersey coast, shows a lone pine tree and bears the words “An appeal to heaven.“ This flag, sometimes referred to as “Pine Tree Flag”, is a relic of the Revolutionary era and represents strength against tyrannical enemies. Like all long-used symbols, the pine tree flag has a wealthy history of use and continues to vary its connotations over time.

We are scientists of visually And political rhetoric who study the cultural significance Symbols attributedlike flags, and like these Symbols function on this planetGiven what we find out about symbolism, the Appeal to Heaven flag offers each historical and latest connotations.

A colonial history

The image on the flag of Appeal to Heaven was in-built 1652 when the colony of Massachusetts began minting Pine Shillingwhich were coins printed with pine trees.

The lonely pine is a Symbol of New Englandwhile the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” on the flag is 1775 Resolution by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts.

The 1775 resolution was inspired by the English philosopher John Locke. Locke argued in 1690 that individuals “Appeal to Heaven' when their rights are denied. The phrase and image on the flag symbolize the best to revolt against a tyrannical government.

As if to verify the revolutionary significance of the flag, in 1775 six schooners under the command of George Washington the flag waved while encountering British ships.

Modern uses

Today, the flag appears in social movements for various purposes. For example, in 2020, the Appeal to Heaven flag appeared at a Black Lives Matter protest dance party in Washington, DC.

But that just isn’t essentially the most common use. Since 2013, the Appeal to Heaven flag has taken on Christian nationalist overtones. Christian Nationalism refers to a set of ideological beliefs that portray the United States as a purely Christian, God-ordained nation.

Minister of South Carolina Dutch papers used social and traditional media to advertise the flag. Sheets spread the assumption that the The USA ought to be a Christian nationwhich ought to be regulated through belief in Christian superiority.

Over the last decade, Sheets and his fellow believers brought the flag to the state capitols and other public events to advertise his efforts to elect evangelical Christian leaders to political office.

On January 6, 2021, the flag appeared within the hands of insurgents, including the Proud boys. When insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was considered one of many symbols leading the violence. After the harrowing events of that day, the flag became more closely related to the “Stop the Steal” effort, alongside general pro-Trump slogans.

In a resolution dated 31 January 2024 Facebook postA flag company advertised the “Appeal to Heaven” flag with an in depth description, which included the meaning of “goes beyond its historical origins“ and is “made very popular among Republicans and Christians … and is seen as a symbol of Christian nationalism.”

In the next years, the flag was displayed by elected officials, equivalent to Speaker of the House Mike Johnsonwho placed it in front of his congressional office. Senator from the State of Arizona. Janae Shamp used it on her desk within the Arizona Senate chamber. Co-Chair of the Federalist Society Leonard-Leothe conservative court activist who Hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to remodel the federal judiciary, hung it in front of his house in Maine.

A signal to the initiated

Despite the flag's clear connection to Christian nationalist ideology, a few of Alito's defenders say that just isn’t the flag's meaning.

For example Carrie Campbell Severino accused “the news establishment” is attempting to rewrite the history of this “Revolutionary War flag” as if it was “somehow connected to January 6th.” Severino said the thought was “completely ridiculous.” She is president of the Leo-affiliated Concord Fundsformerly Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group that allegedly “unrivalled influence … in shaping the federal judiciary.”

In a May 29, 2024, letter responding to inquiries from members of Congress, Alito denied knowing the meaning of the flag. The New York Times quoted his letter as saying:

“I was not aware of any connection between this historic flag and the Stop the Steal movement, and neither does my wife. … She did not raise it to identify with this or any other group, and the use of an old historic flag by a new group does not necessarily take away all other meanings from that flag.”

Some commentators on the flag controversy wondered aloud concerning the encrypted meaning of the flag, while others pound The flag is a “dog whistle” for pro-Trump and Christian nationalist ideologues. The flag is maybe an emblem that the majority people would overlook, but that appeals to a select audience. Research has shown that racist and non secular dog whistles help “Mobilizing … support for racist resentment“white Christian voters” without alienating others.

The meaning of symbols like this flag inevitably changes over time. And while Alito’s actual beliefs could also be difficult to discern, the recent revelations should draw attention to how the flag symbolizes a spread of beliefs held by conservative activists, Christian nationalists and those that need to impose their radical views on the country.

Related Press

WASHINGTON – Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants over controversial flags flying over his homes.

In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito said his wife was accountable for an upside-down flag flying over his house in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flying over his New Jersey beach house last 12 months.

None of the incidents justified his rejection, he wrote.

“I am therefore obliged to deny your motion to dismiss,” he wrote.

The court is considering two necessary cases related to the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. These include the costs against the rioters and the query of whether Trump enjoys immunity from prosecution on charges of election interference.

Alito has previously rejected calls from Democrats to abstain on other issues.

The New York Times reported that an upside-down American flag was seen outside Alito's home in Alexandria, Virginia, lower than two weeks after the Capitol attack. The newspaper also reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside the judge's New Jersey beach house last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021, echoing Trump's false claims of election fraud.

Alito said he didn’t know the upside-down flag was flying over his house until it was dropped at his attention. “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but she refused for several days,” he wrote in nearly an identical letters to Democrats within the House and Senate.