Fourth of July means hot dogs, beer and beaches—and above all else, fireworks. The tradition actually began as early as Benjamin Franklin and has only picked up steam since.

In honor of families across America gathering to watch the colorful displays, here’s a guide to six of your favorite fireworks–so you don’t have to keep referring to them as “the one that looks like a dandelion.”

And if you’re trying to capture the perfect Fourth of July Instagram, check out 6 Secret Tips For Photographing Fireworks With Your Phone.

The archetypical fireworks, aerial shells climb up to the sky without much fanfare before exploding. The explosion, however, is magnificent, with colors radiating from a central point, making for a vibrant circle that lights up the sky. It’s no wonder these are often used in the finale of Fourth of July festivities.

Aerial repeaters are those fireworks that that explode into a few lines of color, before rapidly disappearing. They’re usually emitted rapid fire.

Unlike aerial shells and repeaters, cones emit fireworks from the ground up, spraying out displays of color that grow taller as the fuse continues to burn.

Fountains are quite similar to cones, but are usually accompanied by a series of whistles, crackles and other sound effects, and, unlike cones, remain at a similar height the entire time they’re burning.

Roman candles are those fireworks that remind you of popcorn, spraying little balls of flame every second or so. Once in the air, the flames bounce around in a whirly frenzy before disappearing.

Skyrockets aren’t known for one particular type of explosion. Many of the explosions they emit are similar to aerial shells, but they’re also responsible for the explosions that resemble, yup, dandelions.

Summary: A video taxonomy for the Fourth of July


All3media, Britain’s biggest independent producer, was jointly acquired in 2014 for £550m by Liberty Global and Discovery, the US broadcaster in which Mr Malone has a large minority stake.

The multi-million-pound drama series now in the works are meant to appeal to international audiences as well as Britons, for binge watching on demand. Liberty Global’s cable networks in Germany, the Netherlands and across central Europe will carry the programmes and work with All3media on their own commissions.

It marks a strategic reversal for Virgin Media which, prior to the Liberty Global takeover, sold its 50pc stake in UKTV, the owner of the Dave channel, ending its involvement in programming making.

It recently began buying in programmes from the United States to strengthen its pay-TV package with exclusives but its work with All3media is the first time it has been directly involved again in making programmes.

The takeover of UTV Ireland would represent a consolidation, as Liberty Global already owns TV3, Ireland’s biggest commercial broadcaster. It would increase Mr Malone’s media clout in his ancestral home, where he is restoring a castle he has dubbed “the green banana”. ITV and Liberty Global declined to comment. The cable company is ITV’s biggest shareholder.

Summary: Virgin Media is to expand into programme making five years after it sold off its television channels, as it seeks to shore up its pay-TV business and mount a stronger challenge to Sky.


There is so little left in national politics to delight us. The candidates, for the most part, are scripted, strident and narrow people who betray their actual humanity at their own peril. The races are costly, vicious affairs. And Americans almost never approve of an elections outcome once the winners settle into office.

But the last five years have brought one big bright spot to the political circus: Because of the viral nature of the Internet, the ads are just getting better. The latest case in point is a new 30-second jewel by Joni Ernst, who has an uphill climb to replace retiring Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. Her pitch: I can castrate pigs so I am the perfect conservative for Iowa to send to the Senate.

Not only does she remove pig testicles, she smiles talking about it. The gender politics behind the spot—Ernst would join only four other female Republicans in the Senate if she wins—are both bold and hilarious. In a city of broken down men, she tells voters, it will take a woman with a knife to fix things. “Let’s make ’em squeal,” she announces. And at that point she is no longer talking about pigs, at least not of the livestock type.

Ernst, a state legislator and veteran of the 2003 Iraq war, is running in a crowded field of Republicans, which includes Mark Jacobs, the former CEO of Reliant Energy, who has so far not disclosed any pig-slicing expertise. Whoever wins the primary, however, is expected to have a tough time beating Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley. A March 13 Quinnipiac poll found Braley with double-digit leads over most of his possible GOP opponents.

But then that was before the pigs started to squeal.

Summary: There is so little left in national politics to delight us. The candidates, for the most part, are scripted, strident and narrow people who betray…


The following script is from "The Giving Pledge" which aired on Nov. 17, 2013, and was rebroadcast on March 27, 2016. Charlie Rose is the correspondent. Denise Schrier Cetta, producer.

Today, the wealthiest 400 Americans are worth over $2 trillion. Together, it's been reported they own as much wealth as the bottom half of American households combined.

While resentment towards the super rich grows, there may be a silver lining taking shape. It turns out a lot of those rich people are giving staggering sums of money away, in what is being called a golden age of philanthropy.

And this surge in generosity is not by accident. Much of it is the result of an ambitious and targeted campaign called "The Giving Pledge." It was started by an influential trio: Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Two years ago, Charlie Rose had the opportunity to get them together to learn more about their new club for billionaires. Membership comes with just two requirements: be worth at least a billion dollars and be willing to give half of that away.

Charlie Rose: Is it necessary to join the Giving Pledge that you promise 50 percent of your net worth?

Melinda Gates: Yes. In your lifetime or in your will.

Charlie Rose: Or in your will?

Charlie Rose: Are people shocked by that?

Warren Buffett: I don't think so.

Melinda Gates: We're asking them to be bold. We're asking them to step out and to do something big. But a lot of them were already on their way there and just hadn't put a numeric number behind it. And I think now also the Giving Pledge has gotten going, people know that's the expectation.

Warren Buffett: And we don't, we don't, we don't find a lot of people that say, "I want to join if it was 40 percent."

Charlie Rose: Some may say I'm happy to give much more than 50.

Warren Buffett: Oh, most of them. Most. My guess is that a very significant percentage of our members, I mean, way over half are going to give a lot more than half.

That's certainly true of the founders. The Gates have already committed to giving 95 percent of their wealth away. Warren Buffett - 99 percent.

They say that kind of extreme giving is needed because the rich have been getting so much richer. Tech innovations and rising global markets have produced vast fortunes not seen since the Industrial Revolution.

So what does Warren Buffett say to convince today's billionaires to give their fortunes away?

Warren Buffett: Incremental wealth, adding to the wealth they have now has no real utility to them. But that wealth has incredible utility to other people. It can educate children, it can vaccinate children. It can do all kinds of things.

Charlie Rose: There are others, and people that I know, say, "I want to give it to my children. That's what I want to do." What's wrong with that?

Warren Buffett: I don't really think that, as a society, we want to confer blessings on generation after generation who contribute nothing to society, simply because somebody in the far distant past happened to amass a great sum of wealth.

So far 115 billionaires have bought Buffett's argument and signed the Giving Pledge. Ages range from 27 to 98. Some inherited wealth, but most are self-made. Their businesses range from technology and social media... to pizza, hair care and home improvement. Combined pledges so far - over a half a trillion dollars.

Charlie Rose: What conditions are there? I mean, can they say, "Yes, I'm with you. I'm here. But I want to give it to this institution or that institution."

Warren Buffett: We don't care what institution they give it to.

Bill Gates: Yeah, in fact, we're not endorsing any flavor of philanthropy. We do think we're all gonna be smarter and do it better learning from each other. But there is no pooling of money. We celebrate the diversity of philanthropy.

Billionaires can be shy when it comes to talking about their money. But Warren Buffett helped convince seven who have signed the pledge to sit down with 60 Minutes.

They are investors Pete Peterson and Nicolas Berggruen, South African mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe and his wife Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe, entrepreneur Sara Blakely and AOL founder Steve Case, and his wife Jean.

Charlie Rose: When did you first hear of the Giving Pledge?

Jean Case: Melinda called and talked to us. But we had the benefit of knowing Bill and Melinda for a long time, going back to our technology roots.

Steve Case: We competed against them for many years.

Steve Case: And we're happy to finally join forces.

Charlie Rose: You wanted to be on their side.

Steve Case: Yeah, yeah, we wanted to be on the, aligned.

They've all signed the same pledge, and they bring the same brashness to their philanthropic ambition that helped them build financial empires.

Pete Peterson: Charlie this is a group made up largely of entrepreneurs. And they didn't make a billion dollars or five billion dollars by doing the ordinary. They did it by being bold.

That's certainly true for Sara Blakely.

Sara Blakely: Well, I made all the money by making other people's butts look a lot better.

Charlie Rose: I think you've missed me.

In 2000, she took $5,000 in savings and started the undergarment company Spanx. Now she wants her philanthropy to be as cutting edge as her billion dollar business.

Sara Blakely: I started my business with an invented product that didn't exist and shook up an industry. And I want to collaborate with people and increase my chances of coming up with an idea or something that will do that for my cause, which is helping women.

At 42, Blakely admits she's just beginning to figure out how she'll help women. At 83, Warren Buffett says he wants to stick with what he's good at - running his company Berkshire Hathaway -- so he's given the bulk of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation so it can be used to reduce global poverty and disease.

As for the other pledgers, they're tackling an impressive array of causes: unemployment in South Africa, early detection and treatment of brain cancer, and some interests that take on a more political tone: tax reform in California and the national debt.

But as Bill Gates discovered when he left Microsoft, going from making money to giving it away, isn't always easy. An example of just one of the lessons he's learned: it doesn't matter how effective a vaccine is, if you don't package and deliver it the right way, it will not do any good.

Charlie Rose: I guess there's a learning process, too.

Charlie Rose: Because you feel like, "how do you do this even if you're inclined to do it?"

Bill Gates: It's almost disconcerting to switch to an area where you're back at square zero a little bit. And the measurements aren't quite the same as in the business game. What you're trying to do, the need to take risk, try different things. And so you need encouragement.

That's why Buffett and the Gates invite pledgers once a year to exclusive resorts like Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Here billionaires attend sessions on how to give money away more effectively. Our cameras were not allowed in, but we were shown this day's agenda: it included lessons on how tools like technology can be used to transform failing schools and, with the government cutting funding on medical research, how can philanthropists step in and help spur new medical breakthroughs.

But we wondered, what else goes on behind closed doors?

Charlie Rose: Will there be a conversation here about failure?

Jean Case: Yes, there most definitely will be.

Charlie Rose: What does that, how do you phrase that?

Warren Buffett: Well, if you bat a thousand, you're playing in the little leagues.

I mean the-- and the problems are major league.

Steve Case: The difference in the entrepreneurial world, when you launch a company, you have a particular idea, a particular product, a particular service, almost always you pivot, you shift. You-- the market reacts to your initial idea. You make some adjustments. It's only after making a few adjustments that you see the success. We need that same mentality in philanthropy, trying things, taking risks, recognizing the first try, maybe the second try, maybe the third try won't work. But if you stay at it and you're learning, you're talking to others, and you're learning together, eventually you'll break through and see the kind of impact you were hoping for.

Jeffrey Skoll, one of the first to sign the giving pledge, is using the billions he made as eBay's first president to fight what he calls global threats - not just one, but five problems he's convinced pose immediate danger to humanity: climate change, water security, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and the Middle East conflict.

Charlie Rose: I mean, is there some argument to make sometimes that-- that because people made a lotta money they may come to these problems with a certain arrogance, like, "I know everything there is to know. I'm so-- smart guy. Let me tell you what to do."

Jeffrey Skoll: I think we all have a danger...

Jeffrey Skoll: ...of feeling like we know the answers. And the reality is we don't.

But that doesn't keep Skoll from trying. In addition to his more traditional charitable giving, in 2004 he started the for profit media company Participant, to make movies that promote his philanthropic goals.

Charlie Rose: And the purpose of the movies is what? Awareness is one.

Jeffrey Skoll: To create entertainment that inspires and compels social change. And so whether that is climate change or dolphin hunting in Japan or dealing with drug sentencing laws, every film we do has a purpose and it has a social action campaign associated with the movie. And we try to get people involved in the issues of the movie, to try to make a difference in those issues.

But the problem with all of this may be that it shows how quickly charity can cross over into advocacy.

Take the 2011 movie "Contagion." Skoll took what he'd learned through his charitable work in pandemics and funded a movie to warn people that a virus could kill billions.

[Jude Law in "Contagion": On day one there were two people, and then four, and then 16. In three months, it's a billion. That's where we're headed.]

Charlie Rose: And what did the movie accomplish for you?

Jeffrey Skoll: In many ways, it put pandemics back on the map, that the public realized how important our public health organizations are, for example. A number of politicians that had seen the movie who were ready to vote on cuts to funding to the CDC recognized that that would be a bad idea.

Randall Lane: The public has a right to know who owns the world.

Randall Lane, the editor of the business magazine Forbes, says billionaires like Skoll have become so influential he devoted an entire issue to philanthropy.

Randall Lane: Government is showing, you know, over the past couple decades that it can no longer solve the great problems of the day. Now these philanthropists who have incredible wealth, the problem-solving brainpower, and also the name and the influence to be able to open doors are uniquely qualified right now to solve the huge problems.

But that does raise the question: do these billionaires have too much power?

Charlie Rose: There's some people who say big philanthropy is not such a good idea, meaning that somehow you have enormous power and you're not elected and, and that that may not be such a good idea to have people with enormous wealth to have so much influence.

Warren Buffett: Well, would they prefer dynastic wealth? Pass it on. Or would they prefer, you know, obscenely high living? There's a couple other ways to get rid of money, but I-- I-- I-- think it's better if you're helping other people, using a good bit of it for helping other people.

Charlie Rose: OK, so there's no instance in which somebody could say, "Look, I mean, we got too many people of huge wealth who are having too much influence."

Jean Case: Well, Charlie. Think about Bill and polio, for instance. Bill and Melinda's work in polio. I mean, they're coming close to eradicating polio on the face of the Earth. I think when we have a couple of examples like that, people will see, that's not power being used for personal purposes. That's really leveraging everything you have to change the world to make it better.

But as Warren Buffett is finding out, not every billionaire feels that way.

Warren Buffett: I've got I've gotten a lot of yeses when I've called people. But I've gotten a lot of nos, too. And I am tempted, because I've been calling people with a billion dollars or more, I've been tempted to think that if they can't sign up for 50 percent, maybe I should write a book on how to get by on $500 million. Because apparently there's a lot of people that don't really know how to do it.

Since our story first aired, another 28 billionaires, now totaling 143 people from 15 different countries -- have signed the Giving Pledge.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: Membership comes with just two requirements: You must be worth at least a billion dollars and be willing to give half of that away


WASHINGTON — A woman at a Hillary Clinton campaign event in New Hampshire on Thursday dared to ask the Democratic presidential candidate if she believed the charges made by women who say her husband raped or harassed them.

“You say that all rape victims should be believed,” the audience member said at the Manchester event, which was focused on opportunities for women.

“But would you say that about Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, and/or Paula Jones — should we believe them as well?”

All three women claim Bill Clinton raped or sexually harassed them decades ago.

Hillary Clinton responded by defending her husband.

“Well, I would say that everybody should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence,” she said, before moving on.

The audience applauded the former secretary of state.

Throughout her campaign, Clinton has condemned sexual assault and championed victims’ rights.

She spoke out recently following the airing of a CNN documentary called “The Hunting Ground” on students on college campuses who said they were raped but weren’t taken seriously by administrators.

“Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported,” she tweeted.

But that statement prompted plenty of Twitter responses asking about the women who have accused President Bill Clinton of rape, but didn’t get justice.

Summary: WASHINGTON — A woman at a Hillary Clinton campaign event in New Hampshire on Thursday dared to ask the Democratic presidential candidate if she believed the charges made by women who say her husban…


Kate Middleton's flawless blowout — Get her perfect Wimbledon look

Kate Beckinsale's twist-y bun at the 2014 LACMA Art + Film Gala.

Emma Stone attends the premiere of 'Birdman' during the New York Film Festival.

Selena Gomez rocked a sleek bun at the 'Rudderless' premiere in Los Angeles.

We're calling it now -- the middle-parted bob, like this one on Rose Byrne, is the going to be the hottest hair look of the season.

Chloe Grace Moretz's swept-up, no frills bun at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.

Gwen Stefani's straight and sleek midi bob at the Emmy Awards.

Nina Dobrev's messy braid at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards.

Julianne Hough arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere 'Let's Be Cops', sporting a platinum pixie bob.

Jessica Alba's deep side part during the press tour for her new movie, 'Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For', during Comic-Con.

Kate Bosworth's gorgeous braided updo at the Style Thief app launch at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.

Diane Kruger's double braid situation at the red carpet premiere of "The Bridge".

Olivia Wilde at a movie premiere in NYC.

Alessandra Ambrosio rocks a ponytail underneath her Panama hat at an amusement park in Los Angeles.

Jennifer Lawrence stepped out in NYC with a grown-out pixie cut.

Katie Holmes out and about in NYC -- with bangs!

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge shows off her ponytail during the royal tour in New Zealand.

Kate Upton sports a sexy, voluminous updo at the UK Gala premiere of 'The Other Woman' in London.

Nina Dobrev sports a hair bow at the 2014 PaleyFest.

Emma Stone goes red again at The Amazing Spider-Man 2 photo call in Sydney, Australia.

Kate Middleton's hair continues to look stronger and fuller ever time we see her. She stunned next to hubby Prince William at Wimbledon in London on July 2. Find out how to get her healthy hair below!

Kate's hair was down with tons of volume. It looks like she used a curling iron to give her hair some curls and bounce. It looked amazing at the tennis match. We're so jealous of her thick hair!

Her makeup was her usual style - a smokey eye and bright pink blush. Her fashion was also

, if you know what we mean! She re-wore a dress she

To get shiny and soft hair like Kate, we love the very advanced Kerastase Chronologiste Deeply Nourishing Restorative Hair Treatment. The Kerastase Chronologiste Caviar Ritual is actually offered as a special summer service at

, located in Union Square in New York City, and I got to try it in May. It left my hair silky smooth and frizz-free - so luxurious! Plus, who doesn't love to be engulfed in caviar?

If you haven't been to the new Red Door, book an appointment ASAP. They do hair, makeup, nails and they even have a full-service spa - it's beauty heaven! I especially love their "speed menu" for busy New Yorkers like myself.

Summary: Kate Middleton's hair continues to look stronger and fuller every time we


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

Who knew Amy Poehler could sing?!

The 44-year-old actress showed off some serious vocal chops with a surprise cover of Bette Midler's "The Rose" at Tenacious D's Festival Supreme, sharing the stage with Jack Black.

WATCH: Amy Schumer and Amy Poehler Sharing the Stage at the Emmys Was One of Our Favorite Moments

Holding a cigarette between her fingers, Poehler looked the part of a retro rock legend in aviator shades and a furry vest over a long-sleeved maxi dress, with tousled locks to boot.

Perhaps Poehler is still recovering from her recent split. The Parks and Recreation actress and comedian Nick Kroll broke up in September after two years together.

In happier news, we are inching closer to the release date of Poehler's highly anticipated new comedy with Tina Fey, Sisters. In the film, which opens Dec. 18, longtime pals Poehler and Fey play (you guessed it) sisters who decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home. See the hilarious trailer in the video below.

Amy Poehler shows off singing skills with surprise Bette Midler cover

Amy Poehler attends the Hulu Original "Difficult People" premiere at the SVA Theater on Thursday, July 30, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 30: (L-R) Actors Amy Poehler, Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner attend the 'Difficult People' New York Premiere at the School of Visual Arts Theater on July 30, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)

Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler attend the premiere of Netflix's new original series, "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp", at the SVA Theater on Wednesday, July 22, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS -- Episode 226 -- Pictured: (l-r) Actress/comedian Amy Poehler, host Seth Meyers during 'Really, with Seth & Amy' segment during on June 24, 2015 -- (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 15: Amy Poehler arrives at the Australian premiere of 'Inside Out' at Event Cinemas George Street on June 15, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 04: (L-R) Actresses Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph attend the 2015 AFI Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute Honoring Steve Martin at the Dolby Theatre on June 4, 2015 in Hollywood, California. 25292_004 (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Turner Image)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 04: (L-R) Actors Amy Poehler, Martin Short, Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey attend the 43rd AFI Life Achievement Award Gala honoring Steve Martin at Dolby Theatre on June 4, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for AFI)

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 29: Actress and Executive Producer of Hulu Original Difficult People, Amy Poehler speaks onstage at the 2015 Hulu Upfront Presentation at Hammerstein Ballroom on April 29, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Hulu)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - APRIL 15: Actress Amy Poehler attends the premiere of 'Adult Beginners' at ArcLight Hollywood on April 15, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 19: Dr. Jane Aronson (L) presents the Unity Award to honoree Amy Poehler onstage at the 2nd Annual unite4:humanity presented by ALCATEL ONETOUCH at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 19, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Variety)

LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS -- Episode 0169 -- Pictured: (l-r) Host Seth Meyers talks with Amy Poehler of 'Parks and Recreation' during an interview on February 24, 2015 -- (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 06: Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler speak onstage at Spike TV's 'Don Rickles: One Night Only' on May 6, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Spike TV)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - OCTOBER 20: (L-R) Actress Jennifer Lawrence, actress Amy Poehler and honoree Elizabeth Banks attend ELLE's 21st Annual Women in Hollywood Celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel on October 20, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jeff Vespa/Getty Images for ELLE)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - OCTOBER 20: Amy Poehler arrives at the 2014 ELLE Women In Hollywood Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on October 20, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA - MARCH 02: (EXCLUSIVE ACCESS, SPECIAL RATES APPLY) Will Arnett and Amy Poehler attend the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/VF14/WireImage)

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 25: Actress Amy Poehler attends the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on August 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

TORONTO, ON - APRIL 12: Amy Poehler and Will Arnett attend the Toronto East General Hospital's First Annual Comedy Gala, 'Laughter Is The Best Medicine' at Allstream Centre on April 12, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage)

Amy Poehler Will Arnett attend the Costume Institute Benefit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art May 7, 2012, celebrating the opening of Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/GettyImages)

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 25: Actress Amy Poehler (L) and host Seth Meyers speak onstage at the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on August 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage)

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 23: Actress Amy Poehler attends the 'They Came Together' screening during theBAMcinemaFest 2014 at BAM Harvey Theater on June 23, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 15: Actors Will Arnett and Amy Poehler arrive at the 13th Annual Warner Bros. and InStyle Golden Globe After Party held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on January 15, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 15: Actors Amy Poehler and Will Arnett arrive at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 15, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - NOVEMBER 19: Actors/comedians Will Arnett (L) and Amy Poehler (R) arrive at Variety's Power of Comedy presented by The Sims 3 benefiting The Noreen Fraser Foundation at Hollywood Palladium on November 19, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Chelsea Lauren/WireImage)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - NOVEMBER 19: Actor/comedians Will Arnett and Amy Poehler pose backstage at Variety's Power of Comedy Presented By The Sims 3 Benefiting The Noreen Fraser Foundation at Hollywood Palladium on November 19, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/WireImage)

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 27: Amy Poehler arrives for the 'Late Show with David Letterman' at Ed Sullivan Theater on October 27, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 25: 66th ANNUAL PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS -- Pictured: (l-r) Actresses Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham and Lizzy Caplan arrive to the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Nokia Theater on August 25, 2014. (Photo by Jason Kempin/NBC/NBC via Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 07: Will Arnett and Amy Poehler attend the 'Schiaparelli And Prada: Impossible Conversations' Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 12: Amy Poehler and Tina Fey arrives at the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 12, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 25: Actress Amy Poehler attends the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on August 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 08: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler filming 'The Nest' on July 8, 2014 in Long Island. (Photo by Steve Sands/GC Images)

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 28: Actors Amy Poehler (L) and Will Arnett attend The Comedy Awards 2012 at Hammerstein Ballroom on April 28, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 23: Amy Poehler attends the 'They Came Together' screening during theBAMcinemaFest 2014 at BAM Harvey Theater on June 23, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/FilmMagic)

NBCUNIVERSAL EVENTS -- The NBC Emmy Party -- Pictured: (l-r) Aubrey Plaza, 'Parks and Recreation', Rashida Jones, 'A to Z', Amy Poehler, 'Parks and Recreation', Minnie Driver, 'About a Boy' at Boa Steakhouse, West Hollywood, Calif., August 24, 2014 -- (Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

Summary: Who knew Amy Poehler could sing?!


Netflix’s DVD business is about to get some competition from GameFly, which is testing mail-order movie rentals on top of its existing games service.

GameFly confirmed to VentureBeat that it will offer DVDs and Blu-ray discs to subscribers, with a beta program beginning on April 4. Customers with a two-disc or higher game rental plan will get into the beta first, and movies will count against their disc limit at no extra charge. GameFly’s game rentals are twice as expensive as Netflix’s movie service, though, starting at $16 per month for one disc at a time.

Combining game and movie rentals seems like a no-brainer, but no one’s been able to make it work so far. Blockbuster added games to its mail-order DVD service in 2010, but the effort was widely panned for having a three-month delay on new releases. (Blockbuster finally scrapped the entire mail-order service late last year, while also closing all of its U.S. stores.)

Netflix also planned to add game rentals a few years ago, as part of an ill-conceived plan to create a separate company for the mail-order business, called Qwikster. The Qwikster spin-off never happened, and game rentals died along with it.

The problem with game rentals is that they’re much more expensive to carry than movies, with most new games selling for $60. GameFly is in a better position to add movies because the costs are lower, and customers are already paying a higher price for game rentals.

As VentureBeat points out, GameFly’s biggest weak point is its limited supply — and resulting long wait times — for newer games. Subscribers may feel burned by the company’s investment in movies rather than more games, but at the same time, movie rentals can help fill in for the summer doldrums when there aren’t many new games coming out.

The future isn’t exactly bright for optical media, as streaming video services take over and game consoles make a bigger push into downloads. But at least console owners still have a DVD player in the living room; GameFly is giving itself one more way to ride the wave while it lasts.

Summary: Beta program lets users rent DVDs and Blu-ray discs at no extra charge.


Looking for something to put next to the Sriracha candy cane in your favorite hipster’s Christmas stocking?

Look no further than Oregon-based Rogue brewery’s newly available Sriracha stout, costing $13 a pop. It’s probably a great chaser for that Sriracha vodka you’ve been hoarding in your freezer.

Somewhere between gobbling down Sriracha donuts and lollipops, we should probably ask ourself if Sriracha has jumped the shark. But we’ll save that conversation for another day.

Summary: You can use it to wash down that Sriracha vodka you've been hoarding


It was seventh grade when Patti Stanger made her first match: She successfully set up her best friend with a boy at a local dance. Today, Ms. Stanger is the owner of The Millionaire's Club, an elite matchmaking service based in Los Angeles. She also hosts Bravo's reality show "The Millionaire Matchmaker."

Name: Patti Stanger Age: 48 Hometown: Short Hills, N.J. First job: Coat salesperson, Hahne & Company Favorite job: Matchmaker Education: B.F.A. in film from University of Miami Current position: Founder and president of The Millionaire's Club and host of "The Millionaire Matchmaker" Years in industry: 20-plus How I Got Here in 10 words or less: I have a gift. I just know what I'm doing.

Q: You're a third-generation matchmaker. But one of your grandmother's earliest matches—for your mother—didn't go so well and ended in divorce.

A: She was horrified because she had fixed them up. When you were single in [the 1960s], it was like the Scarlet Letter. So my grandmother went back out on the street and fixed her up with my father. They did this through the local temple. The rabbi got wind of it, and he said, 'If you guys are going to be doing this, can we send you friends and family?' My mom and my grandmother started holding cocktails parties and introduced the local singles.

Q: Your first real job in matchmaking was in special events and marketing at Great Expectations, the oldest dating service in the U.S. What do you consider your first professional match?

A: I dated a guy and he liked me but I didn't like him. I went through his wardrobe and cleaned out his house and got him to get a new car. He said to me, "If I give you $10,000, will you find me my wife because I want someone like you?" And within a year, he got married. That was the first match that led to me leaving my corporate job. [Before that] I had this as a side business.

Q: Why did you stay in the corporate world so long?

A: I was a VP of marketing, I was regional sales manager in fashion, and marketing director in communications and product development. I was always a corporate Fortune 500 girl. I needed my pension, I needed my 401(k), I needed my insurance. I couldn't even imagine a world not knowing when money was coming in. I had to realize this was a business. Silicon Valley was booming with millionaires coming down from San Francisco to L.A. every weekend trying to get their "hottie patottie" and find their future wife. They didn't know how to date, they didn't know how to talk to girls.

Q: So, your job isn't just about matching people up for dates or relationships? You do the prep work.

A: [Early on] I realized coaching was three-quarters of what we do in matchmaking. It's not really just getting them on the date. It's making sure they know what to do and say on the date, like you see on the show. It's asking, "How was the date?" "What did you wear?" "What did you eat?" "What did you do?" "How did you ask her out for the next time?"

Q: How is your club different than other dating services?

A: We offer unlimited dating because the process is never-ending. I don't want [the clients] to run out of options. I've had people get married off one date. There are others who take five years. Everybody is different.

Q: How much do clients, the majority of whom are men, pay for your services? How are they chosen?

A: Fees range from a base membership of $40,000 for a year of unlimited dating throughout the U.S. and Canada to a VIP or Diamond Membership, which runs from $150,000 to $200,000. With the full VIP membership, you have the entire staff working for you 24/7 and basically your own entourage of matchmakers. I screen with my own personal system. Plus, I grew up in [affluent] Short Hills, N.J., and I can recognize wealth when I see it.

Q: Why don't the potential dates have to have money?

A: Successful men don't date up. They are intimidated by wealthy women unless they are blue bloods. Successful men want to always take care of their women, and that means financially.

Q: How do you stay in business, considering love is so unpredictable and can go sour?

A: I have a great track record, and I have never been sued. If I can't find someone for someone, I refer them out. I have an affiliate division of matchmakers all over the world that I work with. Men like certain types of women, and I can subcontract that out to foreign countries.

Q: If you weren't a matchmaker, what would you be?

A: I'd be a chef. It's Zen to me. When I'm cooking, it's just relaxing. It's like having a massage or a cocktail. It calms me down. I'm not hyper. I'm very focused. I love the whole process of cooking, and I love to watch people smile when they eat.

Write to Elizabeth Garone at cjeditor@dowjones.com

Summary: Patti Stanger was in the seventh grade when she made her first match. Now she is the owner of The Millionaire's Club, an elite matchmaking service, and host of the reality show "The Millionaire Matchmaker."


The Autopilot software uses cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors to perform basic functions, including steering on a motorway, changing lanes, adjusting speed in response to traffic, and parking.

The technology is available in the company's latest car, the Model S, and is designed to improve over time.

Musk expects the second, fully autonomous version of its Autopilot will be even safer than the current technology. Two years away still, the second generation of Tesla's Autopilot will need to convince regulators that it is "definitively" safer.

He said: Tesla is going to need to use a large amount of data to show "that the safety level is definitely better, by a meaningful margin, if it's autonomous versus non-autonomous."

Summary: Autonomous cars and self-driving features in the main still need to win over public trust.


“Here, parents walk their kids to school,” he said. “At pickup and drop-off, they congregate and talk about things. So you end up with people who are engaged and involved because they know what the issues are.”

Mr. McGaffey, 46, who is station manager at Pleasantville Community Television cable access channel, was raised in the village and returned in 2000 with his wife, Ekaterina McGaffey, 38, who works in special education. In 2008, they purchased a 1925 Tudor, paying $640,000, where they live with their children, 15 and 9. “I wanted to be in a community where I could have some say,” he said.

Last month, Mr. McGaffey attended the village’s first public meeting focusing on revisions to the business district master plan. So did Donna Edlund, an associate broker with the Pleasantville branch of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, who said, “We need more places for people to park.”

For Pleasantville’s mayor, Peter Scherer, 59, who has lived in the village with his family for 30 years, change is a critical but delicate necessity. He noted with pride the historic homes that line a mile-long stretch of Bedford Road, calling it “an almost intact 100-year-old street.”

Yet he acknowledged challenges, citing the high tax rate and the effort to attract more businesses. He mentioned the need for more diversity as a concern in a suburb that is still primarily white. Toward that end, Pleasantville, like many Westchester communities, has passed regulations requiring new residential development to include 10 percent affordable housing units.

“Certainly there is progress toward more diversity, but more progress needs to be made for sure,” Mayor Scherer said.

Pleasantville forms a rough triangle with the central business district in one corner and, about a mile north, a cluster of restaurants and other businesses called the Old Village. Robert Hughes, the building inspector, said that of the village’s roughly 2,060 housing units, more than 70 percent are single-family houses, fewer than 10 percent are multifamily houses and slightly more than 19 percent are condominiums and co-op apartments.

Toll Brothers recently broke ground on the Enclave at Pleasantville, 68 townhouses priced from $739,995. The development will include seven affordable units.

Single-family houses are a mix of styles and ages. “It can be hard to price a house because it’s usually different from every other house on the street,” Ms. Edlund of Coldwell Banker said.

Ms. Edlund said that during the first week of July, 33 residential properties were on the market in the village of Pleasantville, ranging from a one-bedroom one-bath 700-square-foot garden co-op in a 1950s building, listed at $135,000, to a new five-bedroom four-and-a-half-bath, 4,000-square-foot colonial for $1.45 million.

The median sales price for single-family houses in the village for the 12-month period ending June 30 was $613,500, up nearly 12 percent over the previous 12-month period, Ms. Edlund said.

“Right now it’s a seller’s market,” said Rosemary D’Addato, a broker and the owner of the Century 21 Haviland Realty Corporation. “The inventory is low and we’re getting multiple offers.”

That is in spite of the taxes. Ms. D’Addato said that, for instance, a 2,000-square-foot home that recently sold for $515,000 had taxes of $18,367.

The Jacob Burns Film Center screens more than 400 films yearly and hosts a roster of guest speakers. Nearby, the center’s Media Arts Lab offers classes for all ages.

The Gordon Parks Foundation, which moved to Pleasantville from Purchase College in 2015, houses the 20th-century photographer’s archives and presents changing exhibitions in its first-floor gallery.

Theatrical performances at Arc Stages include youth, community and professional productions. Axial Theater’s professional ensemble performs in St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Earlier this month, the 12th annual Pleasantville Music Festival drew thousands to Parkway Field to hear Guster, the Smithereens and more.

Other summer options include the village pool (families, $450; individuals, $225; seniors, $100) and free concerts by the Pleasantville Fire Department Band.

Cooking classes are offered at the United States headquarters of Zwilling J.A. Henckels, the German cutlery manufacturer, which moved to Pleasantville last year.

The village is home to the Westchester Table Tennis Center and is minutes from Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills and Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Mount Pleasant.

In the 2015-2016 school year, the Union Free School District served 1,752 students in Bedford Road School (kindergarten through Grade 4), Pleasantville Middle School (Grades 5 through 8) and Pleasantville High School. The district’s population of 8,213 consists chiefly of Pleasantville residents but includes some from Mount Pleasant. Conversely, a small portion of Pleasantville lies within the Mount Pleasant Central School District.

Mean SAT scores for the high school’s 2015 graduating class were 550 in critical reading, 559 in mathematics and 551 in writing; the statewide equivalents were 489, 502 and 478, according to data from the College Board, which administers the tests.

The trip to Grand Central Terminal takes around 50 to 55 minutes on Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem Line. Round-trip peak fare is $27; monthly tickets, $300.

Parking in a commuter lot costs $200 to $600 a year, depending on its location, according to Patricia Dwyer, the village administrator.

Around 1750, Pleasantville was referred to as Leggett’s Corner, according to Carsten Johnson, the village historian. In the early 1800s, it was known as Clark’s Corners, because Henry Clark owned property encompassing two corners in what is now the Old Village. The present name was chosen in 1828 by the village’s first postmaster, Henry Romer.

Why Mr. Romer selected “Pleasantville” is uncertain. “Maybe because he lived in Mount Pleasant,” Ms. Johnson said. “Or maybe because the view from his home was a pleasant one.”

Mr. Romer lived at 330 Bedford Road. A 1930 reconstruction of his home still stands, according to a village pamphlet on historic houses.

Summary: One of several municipalities in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester, Pleasantville is 1.9 square miles, which means people walk.


Sadiq Khan called on Labour to unite and get into “the habit of winning elections” as the newly elected London mayor urged the party to go back to the strategy followed by previous leaders John Smith and Tony Blair.

In his first interview with a national newspaper since his decisive election victory, the new mayor delivered a warning to his party about the importance of securing power, saying “I’ve achieved more in these seven days than in the last six years in opposition.”

Khan said that his party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, could not be blamed for general election losses in 2010 and 2015, but added Labour was failing to “score enough goals” against a deeply divided Conservative party, racked with infighting over Europe.

Related: Is Cameron proud of Zac Goldsmith’s toxic mayoral campaign in the capital? | Owen Jones

“We need to understand that Cameron’s government is as bad as John Major’s. If you compare and contrast what John Smith and Tony Blair did during that period, compared to now,” he told the Guardian.

“That is the trajectory we need to be on if we want to win in 2020,” he added, arguing that most psephologists would say Labour was not heading towards a general election victory at the moment.

Asked what Labour MPs who were most critical of Corbyn should be doing to support their leader, Khan said: “I think it is more a question of what Jeremy should be doing. If you are leader you want to use all your talents. I think politics is a team sport, and we came together as a team. I think we’ve got to be united as a party. Divided parties don’t win elections.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Khan also:

Related: 'I'm living the dream': Sadiq Khan on his first week as London mayor

Khan said Cameron had not raised the controversy surrounding the Tory campaign for the London mayoralty, in which repeated claims about Khan’s links to extremists by Goldsmith and Cameron were criticised as dog-whistle politics.

“It is not for me to ask for an apology, it is for him to offer one,” he said, adding that a few Conservatives had sent him messages to say they were disgusted by what had taken place.

Khan said he feared that any vote for Britain to leave the EU would be devastating for the capital’s economy, and that it would take London a “generation” to bounce back. “I’m not saying it is armageddon, we can survive, but it will take a long time to recover,” he said.

He also revealed that the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, had told him on a visit – “only half-jokingly” – that she would “roll out the red carpet” to welcome London-based companies to her city if Britain voted to leave.

But Khan’s main focus was on Labour’s electability. “It is all about winning, winning for a purpose. There is no such thing as a heroic failure. We have to get back into the habit of winning elections,” he told the Guardian.

Related: How London became a Labour city – and what it means for British politics

He talked about the southern attack strategy championed by former Southampton MP, John Denham, in the 1990s. He added that before 1992, his former constituency of Tooting, in London, was the furthest south that Labour held.

“The Labour party in the 1990s wasn’t just looking at the Labour voters we had, it was trying to reach out and target seats. The famous toehold strategy, you win one seat in one ward as a toehold to try to win seats elsewhere,” he said.

He pointed to the way in which Smith and Blair had built up support across the country, and said Corbyn should be looking to replicate that level of outreach.

Corbyn was barely mentioned on the mayor’s campaign literature, and did not appear alongside him at his signing-in ceremony last weekend. But Khan joined the Labour leader at last Monday’s meeting of the party’s MPs in Westminster, where Corbyn also conceded that while progress had been made in the local elections, “we are not yet doing enough to win in 2020”.

During the last week Corbyn insisted Labour had “an enormous tent” – and in the latest evidence that Corbyn is keen to heal rifts within Labour he will give a keynote speech at the annual conference of Progress, the right-of centre Labour group.

Khan said he hoped his victory would provide a “template” to the national party about how to reach out across the political divide and persuade those who had voted for other parties, including the Tories, Ukip and SNP, to come back to Labour. He argued that wooing business had to be part of the strategy.

Related: Sadiq Khan: ‘Ruthless? No. Decency can get you to the top in politics’

“My challenge is over the next few months and years to hopefully show the rest of the country that Labour administrations can be pro-business, Labour administrations can be competent, Labour administrations can provide value for money.”

He said that he “loved” being an MP for Tooting and said as an opposition MP he could do case work to help constituents.

“But can I improve the NHS, can I improve policing, can I improve schools, can I provide apprenticeships for young people in opposition? The answer: no. The MPs who remember being in government know that and I worry that some people think it is okay to be in opposition but it isn’t.”

He said it was not appropriate for Labour to be thinking about a 10-year strategy because “every day we are out of power, people are struggling”.

Summary: London mayor tells leader ‘divided parties don’t win elections’ as Labour turns its attention to 2020 general election


Wins by college athletes in courtrooms and boardrooms could end up in losses for their non-athlete classmates.

High-profile legal cases and NCAA policy changes are likely to boost the cost of fielding big-time athletics programs. And students—even those who never attend a single college basketball or football game—may have to foot the bill, higher-education finance experts say.

How the Game Is Changing

The most sweeping changes to college sports could come from an antitrust suit against the NCAA pending in New Jersey, in which attorney Jeffrey Kessler contends that college athletes should be paid as much as the market dictates—a salary, essentially. A win for Kessler, who filed the suit on behalf of former Clemson football player Martin Jenkins, likely would spark bidding wars among universities for top recruits by eliminating limits on such payments.

The case is likely to go to trial next fall.

“I do believe that if the Kessler case wins, that could break the bank for the NCAA as we know it today,” says William Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland system and co-chairman of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. “This would become like a mini NFL draft. It would become a free market.”

Other factors also promise to change the rules of the game.

A federal judge in August ruled in favor of former college athletes, led by UCLA star basketball player Ed O’Bannon, in an antitrust suit against the NCAA that could lead to back payments for as many as 100,000 former athletes and additional scholarship money for future ones.

The ruling came less than five months after the National Labor Relations Board concluded Northwestern University football players were, essentially, university employees, and could unionize.

Some schools have already hinted they would pay athletes thousands of dollars more per year after NCAA officials—independent of any lawsuits—said they might allow universities to cover athletes’ entire cost of attendance.

Who Will Foot a Bigger Bill?

Only a handful of NCAA Division I schools have self-sustaining athletics programs—just 20 of the nearly 130 schools in the top-flight Football Bowl Subdivision, for example—so most universities subsidize those departments, even in a pre-Kessler, pre-O’Bannon world. At public institutions in particular, part of that subsidy is drawn from student fees.

According to the Knight Commission, growth in athletics funding at Division I schools outpaced academic spending from 2005 to 2012. Students at some schools pay $1,000 in athletics fees alone.

Changes to how student-athletes are paid could lead some schools, stuck with nowhere else to turn, to raise other students’ fees. Universities and colleges could also scale back their athletics programs to cut costs. That “would be the rational approach,” Kirwan said. “But when it comes to college athletics, rationality doesn’t often prevail,” he said. “There are so many societal pressures.”

Research shows that some students don’t even know their fees are already paying for athletics. At Ohio University, for instance, 41% of revenue from the general fee of $531 per quarter for full-time students in 2010 went to intercollegiate athletics, but 54% of students didn’t know it, according to a survey by the nonprofit Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, D.C. think tank.

Dividing the $765 per year they paid for athletics through the fee by the number of games the average Ohio University student attended, the center calculated that students were paying the equivalent of more than $130 per athletic event they actually watched in person.

Eighty-one percent said they opposed raising the amount of their fees that went to the athletics program, or wanted it reduced.

If the Kessler lawsuit succeeds, “The institutions that rely primarily on student fees are going to have to make a decision about whether they’re going to try to keep up,” says Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission. “When you have schools with $5 million for their entire athletic budget trying to compete with schools that have $5 million coaches, it’s going to strain at some point.”

The Pressure to Stay in the Game

Even some schools in the “Big 5” conferences—the SEC, ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and Pac-12—where football and basketball bring in big bucks will have trouble maintaining their programs if bidding for athletes takes off, experts said. Schools on the fringes of big-time sports success, such as UC Berkeley, Rutgers, Northwestern, and Indiana, would have tough decisions to make about whether to pass on costs to students, says Murray Sperber, a UC Berkeley professor who has written several books about the role of college sports.

The most likely outcome, Sperber says, would be for at least some of those universities to drop out of the big-time sports world by eliminating athletics scholarships or otherwise scaling back sports programs rather than risking protests by paying athletes and charging students more. But some colleges in mid-tier conferences will probably choose to stay in the bidding game, he says.

“You think of it as a big poker game where the stakes keep going up,” Sperber says. “The students in trouble potentially are those at schools beyond the Big 5, because they’ll have to decide whether to stay in the poker game.”

No Price Tag on School Spirit

Students at some big-time Division I schools said athletic success is important not just for the campus but also for the community. The University of Kentucky basketball program, for example, is part of the school’s and the state’s identity, says Jacob Ingram, president of that university’s student body.

“One of the things the state of Kentucky identifies with most is the Big Blue Nation,” says Ingram, a senior from Nicholasville, Kentucky. “What a great way to leverage our brand and share the rest of what the university has to offer.”

At Rutgers, which is in its first year in the Big Ten, the athletics department has taken on new importance with its climb into the Big 5 ranks. Few students seem to mind paying for that prominence, says senior Brian Link, and even fewer would want to see the school to roll back the affiliation.

“Given the state of where our athletic program is, I think if we have a de-emphasis on athletics a lot of people wouldn’t be too happy,” says Link, from Sayreville, N.J. “That’s where a lot of our school pride comes from—our athletic program. A lot of people in New Jersey root for Rutgers because there aren’t other big-time programs here.”

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet affiliated with Teachers College, Columbia University.

Summary: As the college football season heats up, the action far from the field could eventually raise the costs of fielding teams.


The most common places to hide a key are under a plant pot (19 per cent), bin (13 per cent), rock or stone (13 per cent), doormat (10 per cent) or a gnome or garden ornament (eight per cent), according to a survey of 2,000 adults by LV=.

The main reason for leaving a key out is so that friends and family can get into the house while they are away from home, the insurance firm found.

One in four (25 per cent) leave one hidden in case of emergency and a similar number (23 per cent) do so in case they ever lose their keys.

Those leaving a key out believe it is safe to do so because they only leave it unattended for short periods of time or think they have a "really good hiding place", while others believe it is okay to do so because they live in a safe neighbourhood.

While "hidden" keys might be concealed from view, it is not always the case inside the home - with many people leaving keys where a thief could easily access them through a letterbox or an open window.

Almost one in five people (18 per cent) say they leave their keys close to the front door in plain sight - such as in a bowl, on a hook or on a table - where burglars could easily hook them out and access the house without breaking in.

One in five (20 per cent) admit leaving their front or back door unlocked when they're out while millions have lost track of spare keys to their house.

The research found that, on average, each household has lost at least two keys that were cut for friends, family or people working in their home, equating to nearly 20 million spare keys currently unaccounted for.

LV=, which obtained the police figures under the Freedom of Information Act, is urging homeowners to tighten up their home security by keeping keys safe.

Selwyn Fernandes, managing director of LV= home insurance, said: "While the number of burglaries is falling overall, it is alarming to see that the number of thefts where the burglar used a key is increasing.

"Burglars know that people tend to leave a spare key in a handful of places near their door and will often search these before attempting a break-in.

"Don't make their job easier for them by leaving keys where they can easily be accessed. If you must leave a key outside, use a police approved key safe and only give the code to people you trust."

Summary: Leaving spare keys under the mat contributing to rise in home burglaries as   police figures show number of break-ins where key was used is increasing


LOS ANGELES (AP) With his hometown crowd going crazy and Abner Mares charging right at him from the opening bell, Leo Santa Cruz really wanted to brawl.

Santa Cruz survived and thrived when he returned to the skill that made him the unofficial king of L.A. boxing.

Santa Cruz beat Mares by majority decision Saturday night, remaining unbeaten with a superior technical performance in an entertaining featherweight bout between two local fighters.

Santa Cruz (31-0-1) survived a night of furious exchanges and eventually controlled several rounds with his superior jab and reach, overcoming Mares' heavy pressure. He left Mares bloodied after the final bell, raising his arms in victory.

''My dad told me that we could beat him by boxing,'' Santa Cruz said about his father and trainer, Jose. ''We want to be aggressive, but tonight we had to box him, too. And that's how we got it done.''

A raucous crowd at Staples Center supported Santa Cruz over Mares, but just barely. Both fighters were born in Mexico and grew up in the Los Angeles area, attracting a turnout of 13,109 to decide local bragging rights.

Those fans got a treat of a fight featuring 2,037 total punches, and Santa Cruz emerged with the virtual crown. Both fighters immediately said they would welcome a rematch, which wouldn't be difficult to book because both fighters are managed by Al Haymon under the Premier Boxing Champions banner.

Mares (29-2-1) did admirable work inside and survived numerous big shots, but ultimately couldn't land a decisive blow. Although he felt he won the fight, Mares emerged frustrated by Santa Cruz's jab that kept him inches away from a chance to change the fight.

''I think I made a mistake in my strategy,'' Mares said. ''I came out strong, and my corner was telling me to slow down. I wanted to go as fast as I could.''

Two judges scored the fight 117-111 for Santa Cruz, while Max DeLuca had a 114-114 draw. The Associated Press favored Santa Cruz, 116-112.

Santa Cruz landed 35 percent of his 1,057 punches, while Mares connected with just 23 percent of his 980 blows.

Santa Cruz's superior reach and dominant jab work made the difference: In just his second 126-pound fight, Santa Cruz landed sharper and bigger punches during long stretches of the bout, which was mostly action-packed from the opening bell.

The crowd was worked into a furor by the opening bell, and the fighters responded to that energy by basically running straight at each other and throwing haymakers. They took only occasional breaks in that pace during the frenetic first half of the fight, even after both were cut during a clash of heads in the third.

''I stayed outside with the jab,'' Santa Cruz said. ''We were able to take control.''

Santa Cruz maintained distance and used his left hook to punish Mares, who had blood trickling from a cut near his right eye in the late rounds. Mares kept throwing shots to Santa Cruz's body, but Santa Cruz calmly kept peppering Mares' face until the final bell.

Los Angeles boxing fans had eagerly anticipated this matchup between these occasional sparring partners.

Santa Cruz, who grew up in the nearby Lincoln Heights neighborhood, became a fixture on the undercards of major fights. His career slowed in recent years with several matchups against second-tier contenders for his WBC 122-pound title, but he moved up in weight last May on the Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard.

Mares, from Hawaiian Gardens, won titles in three weight classes during an impressive two-year span, but his progress was interrupted by a stunning first-round knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez in 2013. After 11 months off, he returned with three straight wins.

On the undercard, Julio Cesar Ceja rebounded from an early knockdown and stopped Hugo Ruiz with 26 seconds left in the fifth round of the impressive U.S. debuts by two promising Mexican 122-pounders.

Ruiz knocked down Ceja (29-1, 27 KOs) with a looping left hook in the third round, and Ceja was down on all three judges' scorecards when he flattened Ruiz (35-3) with a dynamite left to the chin. Several moments later, the referee stopped the bout.

Ceja earned a shot at Santa Cruz for his WBC 122-pound belt if Santa Cruz elects to drop back down to super featherweight.

Alfredo ''Perro'' Angulo also stopped Hector Munoz after five rounds for his second straight victory following a three-fight skid for the popular Mexican super middleweight.

Summary: Leo Santa Cruz beats Abner Mares by majority decision


MIAMI—The woman who set off the Zika scare in Florida doesn’t have a clear connection to the neighborhood where the outbreak is believed to be concentrated. She hasn’t traveled to a country where Zika is circulating and she hasn’t had sex with anyone likely to be infected.

These confounding facts are also laced with potential danger. The woman in her early 20s is pregnant.

The woman is one of 22 cases health officials are grappling with in their efforts to understand and contain the first known mosquito-borne Zika outbreak in the continental U.S., according to an internal report on the investigation for health officials reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. She is also the first known pregnant woman likely infected in the U.S. by a mosquito bite, rather than from travel or sexual intercourse.

Referred to as Miami-Dade #1 for the county she lives in, the woman isn’t known to be connected to the “warning zone” of about a square mile in the neighborhood of Wynwood, just north of downtown Miami, that is now the focus of Florida and federal health investigators.

Two other cases in the report, a man from adjacent Broward County and a man from Miami-Dade, also don’t have a clear connection to the area, showing that significant questions remain about how and where patients are being infected with Zika, and how widespread the transmission may be.

Investigators were led to Wynwood, a neighborhood full of hip restaurants and art galleries but also vacant storefronts and residential blocks, by two other cases: infected men who work in businesses about 400 feet from each other there, according to the report.

One, a man in his late 20s known as Broward #2, has a job at a business that does work in Brazil and has several employees who travel there frequently, according to the report. The report didn’t name the business or say what kind of work it does.

The patient recently had a houseguest from Brazil, where an explosive epidemic last year led to nearly 166,000 suspected infections and has been tied to birth defects in hundreds of newborns. Fourteen of the roughly 30 employees who work at the business in Wynwood reported they had typical Zika symptoms such as fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis from early June to mid-July, according to the report.

The other infected man, a 26-year-old known as Miami-Dade #2, works at a business nearby with 11 employees. He and a customer were the only ones to report Zika symptoms, according to the report.

The Florida Department of Health said it had identified 18 positive cases so far from the roughly square-mile area, including four new cases announced on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. Most of these cases have been in the area of the businesses, according to the report and officials familiar with the investigation.

One patient who works in the area said he visited the emergency room with a fever and a rash on Aug. 1; doctors suspected Zika and drew blood for testing. On Tuesday it was confirmed that he was infected with Zika, likely from a mosquito.

On Monday, a new case was reported in Palm Beach County. The case expanded the outbreak to a third Florida county, north of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where the first cases were identified. Florida Department of Health officials have ruled out sexual contact as the source of the latest infection, a spokeswoman said. The agency is conducting a door-to-door investigation in Palm Beach County to see if there are additional Zika cases there.

The gender of the patient wasn’t reported. Of the 22 known cases, at least 17 are men, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The CDC warned pregnant women on Aug. 1 to avoid the roughly square-mile area in Wynwood around the central site of the two businesses—the first such warning of its kind on the U.S. mainland.

The Florida Department of Health said it believes that active transmission of Zika is occurring only within the roughly square-mile area, but that it is investigating elsewhere and will notify the public if it finds wider active transmission. The CDC has said that single, isolated cases are to be expected when local transmission by mosquitoes occurs.

The CDC referred questions about individual patient details to the Florida Department of Health, which said it wouldn’t confirm any.

Most of the 1,825 confirmed cases of Zika in the U.S. mainland are related to travel to Zika-infected areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week.

The report and interviews with officials are a reminder how difficult it is to stop a mosquito-borne outbreak. Despite preparations for Zika in the U.S., it took weeks from when the first cases were likely infected by mosquitoes for authorities to determine where transmission was likely occurring. Efforts to kill mosquitoes initially had limited success.

The unnamed pregnant woman was the first patient to raise alarm bells among authorities.

The young woman was 23 weeks pregnant, unemployed and living with her boyfriend in a rooming house with no air conditioning or window screens. She went to an emergency room on July 7 with symptoms of Zika after feeling ill for three days.

The virus is dangerous for pregnant women, because it can damage the developing brain of a fetus. The report said the patient was given an ultrasound a week or two after the Zika infection, and her baby appeared to be growing normally.

The second case that emerged, known as Broward #1, a 44-year-old man who went to the doctor a day after the pregnant woman, lives about 14 miles from her and had no close geographic contact, according to the report.

It wasn’t clear from the first two cases where mosquitoes might be spreading Zika. The Florida Department of Health went door to door, asking people about possible Zika exposure and if they would give urine samples for testing, said Celeste Philip, Florida’s surgeon general and health secretary, and others involved in the effort. Investigators tested 124 people in Miami-Dade and Broward connected to the pregnant woman and the man from Broward, according to the report and investigators, and found no Zika cases.

A Florida Department of Health spokeswoman said the first cases had each been deemed to be an “isolated incident” not tied to the Wynwood area.

The next two cases gave investigators a connection to Wynwood through their workplaces, according to the report. Those men, Broward #2 and Miami-Dade #2, had fallen ill a few days after the pregnant woman, complaining of fever, rash and aching joints, but said they hadn’t traveled, according to the report.

Another infected person—a 33-year-old man called Miami-Dade #3, who fell ill July 9—lives about 3 miles south of the two Wynwood businesses, according to the report. The document didn’t give any information linking the case to the Wynwood area. The Florida Department of Health said it had gone door-to-door to interview and test people in possible areas where the individual outside of Wynwood could have been infected. It said Wednesday its investigation continues.

After the two cases alerted investigators to the link to Wynwood in late July, teams of public-health workers set about canvassing for possible additional infections.

The focus was on an area radiating 500 feet out from one or both of the affected businesses, reflecting the average flight range of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the virus.

Zika is a hard virus to track because four out of five people who are infected aren’t aware. They don’t develop symptoms or have only mild symptoms.

Miami Police Commander Jose Rodriguez accompanied health investigators in Wynwood to reassure residents, who were often wary of unfamiliar faces at the door. Usually “we tell people don’t open the door to strangers,” he said.

Officials collected urine samples, distributed fliers on how to prevent an infection and scoured properties for standing water, said Mr. Rodriguez. Orange and blue fliers hanging on doorknobs in Wynwood urged residents “Don’t forget to drain and cover.” Use repellent and put screens on open windows and doors to “protect yourself from mosquito bites and the diseases they may carry,” fliers said.

A mosquito can bite an infected person, for example someone who is traveling from a place where the virus is circulating, and then transmit the virus to other people it bites, triggering a local outbreak.

The CDC said it doesn’t expect transmission of Zika in the continental U.S. to become widespread, noting the Aedes aegypti mosquito’s short flight range.

Enough Americans live in air-conditioned, mosquito-free homes that sit apart from one another that it isn’t easy for the bugs to transmit disease to many people or for people to carry it to many new spots, something much easier in the crowded urban neighborhoods of the tropics, the CDC said.

It probably will never be known for sure how mosquitoes began transmitting Zika in Miami, partly because most people who are infected don’t know it, said CDC Director Tom Frieden. “It’s unlikely that we’ll ever know exactly who brought it in, where they brought it in from,” he said.

Miami-Dade County officials said they have found no Zika-infected mosquitoes. Miami-Dade County mosquito-control workers are aggressively exterminating the insects, spraying insecticide from airplanes.

They did that after earlier efforts on the ground didn’t significantly reduce the population of Aedes aegypti—a nasty pest that breeds in tiny pools of water in bottle caps or trash, hides in dark recesses and is hard to get rid of.

Write to Betsy McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com and Melanie Evans at Melanie.Evans@wsj.com

Summary: An internal report on the initial Zika-infected patients in Florida illustrates the struggle by health officials to understand and contain the first known mosquito-borne Zika outbreak in the continental U.S. One patient is the first known pregnant woman likely infected in the U.S. by a mosquito bite, rather than from travel or sexual intercourse.


When the massive Anheuser-Busch InBev-SABMiller merger is complete, the resulting company will own over 400 beer labels, including 8 out of America’s top 10 brands. Right away, the new Bud-Coors-Miller-Stella-Molson conglomerate will be responsible for producing roughly 30% of all the suds on earth.

And if the corporate overlords have their way, the company will gain even more market share down the line. To do so, it’ll have to expand into more regions and/or reverse the trend that’s most visible in the U.S.: the rise of small, independent craft labels. According to the Brewers Association, which represents the craft segment, the number of breweries and craft beer’s portion of overall beer sales have both doubled over the past five years. At the same time, sales of “macro” beers like Budweiser and Miller have gone flat or declined.

While the $104 billion merger of the world’s #1 and #2 beer companies is intended to assure Big Beer’s dominance in the global marketplace, it’s actually but one of several strategies being employed to put the pesky craft category in its place—or even destroy it, if possible. Here are a handful of tactics Big Beer is using to try to keep its brands on top.

#1. Create your own quasi-craft brands. Read Blue Moon Brewing’s history on the brand’s website and you’ll learn that the Belgian-style wheat ale was created by beer-loving visionaries two decades ago in Denver. What you won’t see there, nor at the Blue Moon Brewery at the Sandlot, where the Colorado Rockies play, nor on a bottle of Blue Moon, is mention of the fact that the brand has always fallen under the domain of Coors, the Colorado-based brewer that’s now owned by MillerCoors, which is itself a subsidiary of SABMiller.

Blue Moon was ahead of its time in what’s become known as the “crafty” beer category—brands that seem like small indie labels that are actually owned by the world’s biggest beer companies. Shock Top is Anheuser-Busch InBev’s best-known faux craft beer, and according to one source, “75% of consumers believe Shock Top is from a small/unknown brewer.”

Clearly, these brands hope to win sales by creating the appearance of indie craft authenticity, all while using the production and marketing advantages of a global corporation. But they might not be able to blur the lines indefinitely. Earlier this year, a class-action lawsuit was filed against MillerCoors because it presents Blue Moon as a craft beer when it is not—at least not in terms of the commonly accepted Brewers Association definition that a craft brewer is small and independently owned.

#2. Snatch up craft brews that’ll sell out. If you can’t beat them, buy them. That seems to be the philosophy behind Anheuser-Busch’s strategy for purchasing popular craft labels such as Goose Island, Elysian, 10 Barrel, Golden Road, and Blue Point. Generally speaking, these brands vigorously proclaim that their quality and dedication to customers won’t diminish after the change in ownership, and they say they still deserve to call themselves craft beers. Purists who believe only small, independently owned operations merit the “craft” label obviously disagree.

In any event, according to the Brewers Association, America is now home to over 4,000 breweries, roughly double the number just five years ago. Even the new, ultra-powerful AB InBev-SABMiller super conglomerate can’t buy them all out, one would think. But the global beer behemoth can strategically purchase key craft brewers and use them to make it extremely difficult for independent little guys to be successful in the marketplace.

Read next: This Graphic Shows How a Massive Beer Merger Will Affect America’s Top Brews

#3. Defend macro brews, bash craft snobs. This part of the plan is probably the most bizarre, and perhaps has backfired on Big Beer. On the one hand, the beer giants have purchased several prominent craft labels and created their own faux craft brands. On the other, Anheuser-Busch InBev decided it was wise to run with an ad campaign mocking craft beer that theoretically supports its struggling Budweiser label. The commercial, first aired during the 2015 Super Bowl, called Bud “Proudly a Macro Beer,” while making fun of hipsters who “fussed over” flavors like pumpkin peach ale. (Budweiser sales, it should be noted, have been falling for roughly a quarter of a century as drinkers increasingly turn to light beers and craft brews.)

For what it’s worth, after the Budweiser commercial aired MillerCoors released a statement defending all kinds of beer, including the craft category: “We believe each and every style of beer is worth fussing over … Quality isn’t something that belongs to a single style of beer or a single brewer.”

#4. Control distribution. For better or worse, America’s alcohol selection is the result of three-tier system, in which brewers and importers (tier #1) must use distributors (tier #2) to place their beverages in the stores and restaurants that ultimately sell them (tier #3). “Independent beer distributors,” the National Beer Wholesalers Association states, “work to help new brands get to market and to ensure that consumers can choose from a vast selection of beer.”

The problem is that not all distributors are independent. Anheuser-Busch InBev has been purchasing distributors around the country—including two recently in Colorado, one of the nation’s craft beer strongholds. Critics say that there’s an imbalance when one company owns two of the three tiers for distribution, and point to the history of AB-owned distributors only selling AB products, thereby shutting out craft brands and forcing them to find other means of distribution.

Reuters reported this week that the U.S. Justice Department is currently conducting an investigation into allegations claiming that Anheuser-Busch InBev is violating antitrust regulations by purchasing distributors and only distributing its own products, while simultaneously using its size and power to pressure independent distributors to stay away from craft labels. After all, if it’s difficult or impossible for consumers to find craft beer in stores and restaurants, they’ll have little choice but to drink mass-produced brews.

#5. Merge and overwhelm the marketplace. “At some point, weak growth prospects can’t be concealed or offset,” Tara Lachapelle wrote this week in a Bloomberg column about why megamergers happen. “Mainstream brands such as AB InBev’s Bud Light and Coors Light, part of a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors, have been losing share in the U.S. as the craft names gain.”

Because increasing sales of Budweiser and Coors Light seems impossible given changing consumer tastes, the companies seem to be trying to please shareholders by choosing consolidation—which at least looks like growth on paper.

There are many competitive advantages to creating one gigantic beer company too. Namely, advertising. According to a Marketplace report, AB InBev and SABMiller spend a total of $500 billion annually on sports sponsorships. But now that they’re not competing with each other for partnerships with, say, the Milwaukee Brewers or the Olympics, they’ll have more negotiating power and probably will be able to save some of that cash. “They will have a lot more leverage in the marketplace,” Chris Pearlman, executive vice president with Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment, explained. “Ultimately [they will] spend less than they would have had they remained separate.”

Read next: These Are All the Beers a Combined AB Inbev SABMiller Would Brew

Summary: A monster merger is just one step


WASHINGTON -- AngryRenter.com looks a bit like a digital ransom note, with irregular fonts, exclamation points and big red arrows -- all emphasizing prudent renters' outrage over a proposed government bailout for irresponsible homeowners.

"It seems like America's renters may NEVER be able to afford a home," AngryRenter.com laments. The Web site urges like-minded tenants to let Congress feel their fury by signing an online...

Summary: AngryRenter.com says it represents tenants fearful that they will never be able to buy their own homes -- but it's actually the product of an inside-the-Beltway conservative advocacy organization led by Dick Armey and Steve Forbes.


For Mondelez International Inc. and its chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, William Ackman’s investment is the latest jolt in a yearslong roller-coaster ride of activism and corporate restructuring.

Mondelez, which sells Oreo cookies, Triscuit crackers and Trident gum, has been performing well of late after turbulence early on following the 2012 spinoff of its former North American grocery business into Kraft Foods Group Inc....

For Mondelez International Inc. and its chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, William Ackman’s investment is the latest jolt in a yearslong roller-coaster ride of activism and corporate restructuring.

Mondelez, which sells Oreo cookies, Triscuit crackers and Trident gum, has been performing well of late after turbulence early on following the 2012 spinoff of its former North American grocery business into Kraft Foods Group Inc. Mondelez’s shares have gained 27% this year, far outpacing major indexes and most rivals.

Mondelez already has one major activist investor on its board: Nelson Peltz, who joined in January 2014 as part of a truce with Ms. Rosenfeld after a six-month standoff over the company’s strategy. That followed pressure from Mr. Peltz’s Trian Fund Management LP to make the 2012 split.

Investors had expected Mondelez to be the star of the two companies that resulted—a growth engine driven by sales of snacks in developing markets such as Brazil and Russia. Kraft was expected to be a more unremarkable performer. Ms. Rosenfeld, who had led the combined conglomerate before the spinoff, chose to run Mondelez.

But coming out of the gate, Mondelez stumbled with pricing missteps and inventory buildups. Ms. Rosenfeld said at the time it was just a “speed bump.” But the new company continued to hit bumps like that for more than a year, exacerbated by tapering economic growth and stiffer competition in emerging markets, which made up some 40% of its revenues.

About nine months after the split, Kraft—with its iconic macaroni and cheese, Oscar Mayer deli meats, Jell-O desserts, and more—was outshining Mondelez with better-than-expected earnings that stemmed not from sales growth but cost cuts.

The struggles prompted Mr. Peltz to step in and push Ms. Rosenfeld to dramatically reduce overhead spending and rethink its future. In July 2013, Trian, which had amassed a stake of more than $1 billion in Mondelez, proposed that it merge with PepsiCo Inc. ’s snack business, Frito-Lay.

With the truce announced the following January, Mr. Peltz dropped his campaign for a PepsiCo deal merger with PepsiCo’s snacks operation. The next month, Ms. Rosenfeld unveiled a massive restructuring of the company designed to save $3 billion over three years using an aggressive cost-cutting tool called zero-based budgeting.

Mondelez has since cut overhead, closed older factories in the U.S. and moved production to new, highly-efficient ones in places like Mexico, and cut back on travel and other corporate expenses.

Though Mondelez continues to get hit by external factors like the stronger U.S. dollar, cost cuts and an ability to raise prices for its products overseas enabled its adjusted operating margin to expand by 2.7 percentage points in the latest quarter, topping expectations.

Altogether, Mondelez’s shares are up about 65% since the Kraft split.

Write to Annie Gasparro at annie.gasparro@wsj.com

Summary: For Mondelez International and its chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, William Ackman’s investment is the latest jolt in a yearslong roller-coaster ride of activism and corporate restructuring.


Running back Justin Forsett has been released by the Ravens, who complied with his request to play elsewhere.

The Cal alum was on the inactive list Sunday and was expected to drop down the depth chart after the return of injured rookie Kenneth Dixon.

So Forsett asked the Ravens to let him go, and general manager Ozzie Newsome formally cut him Tuesday.

Quoted on the team’s website, Forsett said, “It was mutual. I felt like my opportunity here was closing. I’m at a phase in my career where I don’t want to sit.”

Forsett started in Baltimore’s first three games, rushing 31 times for 98 yards and catching 11 passes for 36 yards.

But Terrance West took over as the starter Sunday against the Raiders and was backed up by Javorius Allen.

Forsett ran for 1,266 yards in 2014. He broke his arm in 2015, playing in 10 games.

Jags’ Joeckel hurt: Jacksonville left guard Luke Joeckel could miss the rest of the season with a left knee injury. The team announced that Joeckel, who injured his knee against Indianapolis in London, will be placed on injured reserve and have surgery.

The injury could mean Joeckel, the second overall draft pick in 2013, has played his final game in Jacksonville. The Jaguars declined to pick up a fifth-year option in his rookie contract and signed free agent Kelvin Beachum to a five-year, $45 million contract.

Falcons sign Hawk: Atlanta addressed a sudden depth problem at linebacker by signing free agent A.J. Hawk, who spent his first nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers.

The Falcons placed linebacker Sean Weatherspoon on injured reserve. Weatherspoon ruptured his right Achilles tendon in a 48-33 win Sunday over Carolina.

Hawk, 32, had 24 tackles with Cincinnati in 2015, his only season with the Bengals.

Cards put two on IR: Arizona will be without running back Chris Johnson and safety Tyvon Branch for at least eight weeks as both players were placed on injured reserve.

NFL rules allow for one player to be eligible to return to the active roster eight weeks after his injured reserve designation.

Johnson and Branch, a fourth-round pick by the Raiders in 2008 who played who played seven seasons in Oakland, are both dealing with groin injuries suffered during Sunday’s 17-13 loss to the Rams.

Changes for Colts defense: With a 1-3 record, Indianapolis shook up its defense, releasing cornerback Antonio Cromartie and waiving inside linebacker Sio Moore.

Both started the first four games.

The Colts (1-3) signed Cromartie on Aug. 22. He emerged as the starter in a secondary decimated by injuries. But he was benched last weekend after drawing two penalties in a four-play sequence.

Moore, a 2013 third-round pick by the Raiders, had 31 tackles this season.

Briefly: Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey returned to practice after missing Miami’s first four games because of a broken left hip that raised concerns about his career. It was his third hip injury since 2014. ... The Lions signed tight end Clay Harbor and released tight end Orson Charles.

Summary: The Cal alum was on the inactive list  Sunday and was expected to drop down the depth chart after the return of injured rookie Kenneth Dixon.  The injury could mean Joeckel, the second overall draft pick in 2013, has played his final game in Jacksonville.  Atlanta addressed a sudden depth problem at linebacker by signing free agent A.J. Hawk, who spent his first nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers.  The Falcons placed linebacker Sean Weatherspoon on injured reserve.  Arizona will be without running back Chris Johnson and safety Tyvon Branch for at least eight weeks as both players were placed on injured reserve.  NFL rules allow for one player to be eligible to return to the active roster eight weeks after his injured reserve designation.  Johnson and Branch, a fourth-round pick by the Raiders in 2008 who played who played seven seasons in Oakland, are both dealing with groin injuries suffered during Sunday’s 17-13 loss to the Rams.  With a 1-3 record, Indianapolis shook up its defense, releasing cornerback Antonio Cromartie and waiving inside linebacker Sio Moore.  Moore, a 2013 third-round pick by the Raiders, had 31 tackles this season.  Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey returned to practice after missing Miami’s first four games because of a broken left hip that raised concerns about his career.


What happens when athletic attire, Ivy League culture, modern art and worldly travel converge? Fourlaps, a new athletic apparel brand that launched on Aug. 1, will try to answer that question.

Daniel Shapiro, a retail veteran, is the professor. Well, by title, he is the founder and CEO. Shapiro has worked for Old Navy, Gap and American Eagle, but now, he takes his first major crack at the sports clothing industry. Shapiro planted the seeds for Fourlaps five years ago and has worked full time fine-tuning the brand for two years.

Fourlaps purposely launched on the eve of the Olympics, and it is still rolling out new gear. On Oct. 5, the silver charge tee, made with XT2 Anti-Odor Technology, which uses the power of silver to help eliminate odors on the garment, became its latest to hit the market. ThePostGame got an inside look at some of the gear, which can be found at FourLaps.com.

Signature Tee Black Motto, Rush Jogger Navy

"Start before you're ready" is Fourlaps' slogan.

Advance Short Red, Smash Tee Navy

All articles of clothing have a "4" logo.

Dash Tank Medium Gray, Bolt Short Grey

Fourlaps' original ten styles, retailing for $29.50-$69.50, were released Aug. 1.

Smash Tee Green, Advance Short Light Grey

Daniel Shapiro has been working on the line for five years.

Rush Hoodie Navy And Signature Tee Today

The name "Fourlaps" is derived from the four laps needed to complete a mile on a standard track.

"Daily workouts are paramount to leading a healthy lifestyle and having the right clothing is imperative," Shapiro says.

Silver Charge Tee Heather Grey

The silver charge tee officially debuted Oct. 5.

The silver charge tee is made with XT2 Anti-Odor Technology, which uses the power of silver to help eliminate odors on the garment.

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.

Athletics, Attire, clothing, Fitness, Fourlaps, Ivy League, Running, Style, Training, Workout

Summary: Fourlaps is a new athletic attire brand with a Ivy League and modern art style.


As Donald Trump’s chickens continue their relentless return to the roost, it has emerged he once booted a female wrestler off his reality TV show because she engaged in a little "locker room talk".

The clip from a 2010 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice shows Mr Trump tut-tutting as Maria Kanellis complains that "arrogant" Aussie chef Curtis Stone “took a crap” in her dressing room and did nothing to mitigate the smell.

"That is a little below the belt,” Mr Trump said. “Maria do you sort of regret having said that? Isn’t it sort of gross? It’s like, disgusting. This is my boardroom – it’s not a locker room. Maria, you’re fired."

Five years before that episode aired, of course, Mr Trump had been taped on board a bus with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, shooting the breeze about grabbing women "by the pussy".

The disgraced presidential candidate was all-too-ready to dismiss those remarks as mere "locker room talk" when the footage was dropped like a bomb late last week, a month out from America's poll.

Mr Trump apologised (in a fashion) for the comments, but it seems as if this hole may be too deep even for the master of comeback to claw his way back out of.

Indeed, Mr Trump's characterisation of his brag to Billy Bush only added fuel to the fire, and not just because it was an attempt to downplay what appears to be the most egregious of admissions.

Professional athletes have turned out by the squadload to hammer Mr Trump for dragging their workplace through the mud, with many noting that while they may discuss sex and women, they certainly don't do so in the manner on show in the Access Hollywood offcut.

"We talk about women (and sex!). We talk about wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, fans, and groupies," Chris Kluwe, an eight-year NFL veteran and author wrote in an open letter published by Vox.

"Most guys respect women, some guys don't, but never have I heard anyone use your particularly disgusting brand of sadism that refers to women as objects and not people. Even the most debauched club-hopping party animal talks about women more civilly than you."

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016

Summary: Donald Trump once booted a female wrestler off his reality TV show because of her "gross" "locker room talk".


The man died at the scene, and police will prepare a report for the coroner. (9NEWS)

A man has died in a workplace incident at Melbourne's South Wharf this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to a construction site near the Hilton Melbourne South Wharf hotel just before 3.35pm.

It is believed a man fell from a piece of equipment. He died at the scene.

WorkSafe Victoria has been notified and police will prepare a report for the Coroner.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016


An independent company will "name and shame" Catholic Church entities that fail to adhere to new national standards to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Catholic Professional Standards Ltd will hold the Catholic Church in Australia accountable as the church seeks to rebuild the trust destroyed by its handling of the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests and other clergy.

Among the church's many failures has been the lack of a whole system of accountability and clear, consistent and comprehensive national standards, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge says.

"CPS is the church's considered response to a crisis that has been heartbreaking for so many people," he said.

Tuesday's announcement is an attempt by the church to act ahead of further criticism from the child sexual abuse royal commission, which will hold its final public hearing on the Catholic Church in February.

"We have learnt many, many things through the agonising journey of the royal commission and we have in this case been prepared to be proactive," Archbishop Coleridge told AAP.

CPS will develop and then audit and report on compliance with professional standards to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable people involved with the church and Catholic service providers.

It will not have the power to force any church authority to change the way it operates or sanction those who fail to comply with the new standards, but Archbishop Coleridge said its public reporting of any failures would amount to a naming and shaming.

"They won't have the power to impose a penalty other than the public identification of failure, which in itself is a fairly potent thing," he said.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference vice president said there remain other forms of accountability within the church, including intervention by the Pope in cases of very dramatic failures.

The new company will not handle abuse complaints.

The plan is that it will work alongside the federal government's proposed national redress scheme and the church's much-criticised national Towards Healing and the Melbourne archdiocese's Melbourne Response protocols for dealing with abuse complaints.

Archbishop Coleridge said there could be further changes longer term.

"Towards Healing and the Melbourne Response may well undergo a seachange but I can't say that with certainty," he said.

"I think it's a time when we have to review all that we have done to ensure that it is best practice and if it's not, to take the kind of decisions and initiatives that are required."

Catholic Religious Australia president Sr Ruth Durick said CPS was a significant development in how the church operated in Australia.

"It is a decisive step forward for the church as we move beyond the royal commission," she said.

Summary: The Catholic Church has set up an independent company to hold it accountable in protecting children and vulnerable people.