WNBA star A'ja Wilson teared up during her statue's unveiling, noting her grandmother was not allowed to walk on the same campus in her youth


Meredith Cash
Wed, January 20, 2021

A statue of A'ja Wilson now sits outside of Colonial Life Arena.

A'ja Wilson unveiled her statue at the University of South Carolina.

The Gamecocks legend and reigning WNBA MVP invoked her late grandmother, Hattie Rakes, through tears during the MLK Day ceremony.

Wilson pointed out that Rakes "couldn't even walk on the grounds of the University of South Carolina" as a child, but now that same campus houses a statue of her granddaughter.

The University of South Carolina has forever immortalized A'ja Wilson on its Columbia, South Carolina, campus - the same campus that her grandmother, Hattie Rakes, was forced to avoid as a kid growing up in the segregated southern state.

Wilson returned to her alma mater on Monday - Martin Luther King Jr. Day - to unveil a statue sculpted in her honor. And as she addressed the masked crowd outside Colonial Life Arena, the Gamecocks legend turned WNBA superstar teared up while wearing her late grandmother's pearls and invoking her memory in her closing remarks.

"My grandmother, Hattie Rakes, grew up in this area, actually four blocks from the governor's mansion, to be exact," Wilson said. "When she was a child, she couldn't even walk on the grounds of the University of South Carolina. She would have to walk around the campus just to get to where she needed to go."

"If only she was here today to see that the same grounds she had to walk around now is the same grounds that houses a statue of her granddaughter," she added.

Wilson enjoyed an illustrious four-year career at South Carolina, earning All-America honors each of her final three seasons on campus. She led the Gamecocks to their program's first national championship.

By her senior year, the 6-foot-4 Hopkins, South Carolina, native was the consensus National Player of the Year, winning the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, and Wade Trophy after averaging 22.6 points and 11.8 rebounds per game for South Carolina. And she's carried that success into the pros, where she earned MVP honors in the Wubble this season.

A'ja Wilson playing for the South Carolina Gamecocks. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

After the event wrapped up, Wilson watched as her former coach, Dawn Staley, led the No. 4 Gamecocks past the 15th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks at home. And during the live broadcast of the game, ESPN's Holly Rowe interviewed Wilson about the "amazing" day and her grandmother's lasting influence.

"Everyone that knows me knows how close my grandmother was to me," Wilson said. "To know that she had to go through all those things is very sad, but at the same time, you look and see they were all planting seeds for us. We have to continue to do the same."

"The message I just want to share with the young Black girls out there is never give up," she added later. "As Black women, we tend to get pushed underneath the rug or just ignored, but at the same time, our voices carry... You can achieve whatever you'd like to. That ceiling is no longer there - we're breaking that ceiling, and we're coming for everyone that's in our way."

Check out full highlights from Monday's celebration below:

Dream close to being sold, taking Loeffler out of WNBA

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who was running for reelection, speaks to the media at Cobb County International Airport on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Branden Camp)

DOUG FEINBERG
Tue, January 19, 2021, 10:50 PM

The Atlanta Dream are close to being sold, ending defeated U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler's contentious stint as a WNBA owner.

“As it relates to the Atlanta Dream, we understand a sale of the franchise is close to being finalized,” the league said in a statement. “Once the sale negotiation is concluded, additional information will be provided.”

A person with knowledge of the situation said there are five groups that have expressed interest in buying the Dream and that the team was “finalizing its decision.” The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because none of those details had been revealed publicly by the team.


An Atlanta Dream spokeswoman said the team had no comment on the impending sale at this time.

Players around the league have called for Loeffler to sell her 49% stake in the Dream after she wrote a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert over the summer objecting to the league’s initiatives to advocate for racial justice and the Black Lives Matter movement.

When Loeffler, a Republican appointed to her Senate seat by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, didn't immediately sell the team, WNBA players started to endorse and campaign for her opponent, Democrat Raphael Warnock, who defeated Loeffler in Georgia's runoff election on Jan. 5. That result, combined with Jon Ossoff's victory in a runoff for Georgia's other Senate seat, handed Democrats control of the Senate.

Warnock and Ossoff were set to be sworn in Wednesday, the same day President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who will hold the tiebreaking vote in the 50-50 Senate, were inaugurated.

Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman who had closely aligned herself with Trump, has been an owner of the Dream since 2011. She hadn't served as the franchise's representative to the league's Board of Governors since October 2019. She also wasn't involved in day-to-day business.

Text messages and phone calls to spokespeople for Loeffler’s campaign and Senate office were not immediately returned.

Mary and John Brock are the Dream's majority owners.

After Warnock won the runoff, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James tweeted a photo of Dream players wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts with the caption: “Think I’m gone put together an ownership group for the The Dream.”

Carmelo Anthony, Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts, actor Kevin Hart and former NFL player Champ Bailey all replied that they would be interested in helping to buy the team.

The Dream would be the second WNBA franchise sold this month. The Las Vegas Aces were bought, pending approval from the league's Board of Governors, by Raiders owner Mark Davis.
___

This story has been corrected to show that Loeffler was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Brian Kemp, not President Donald Trump.
___

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds and Associated Press Writer Ben Nadler contributed to this report.
___

More AP women's basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Chiney Ogwumike to executive

produce ESPN documentary 

on 2020 WNBA season

Ryan Young

·Writer

Tue, January 19, 2021, 7:29 PM

Chiney Ogwumike didn’t partake in the 2020 season inside the WNBA’s bubble in Florida, but she’s going to make sure the season will be remembered forever.

Ogwumike announced on Tuesday that she will serve as an executive producer on an upcoming ESPN Films documentary on the season.

Ogwumike has played four seasons in the league, three with the Connecticut Sun and one with the Los Angeles Sparks. The two-time All-Star and former No. 1 overall pick missed two full seasons due to a knee injury and an Achilles injury, however, and last played in 2019. She opted out of the 2020 season due to medical precautions related to COVID-19.

Ogwumike joined ESPN in 2017, working as a part-time WNBA and NBA analyst while still competing in the league. She took over hosting “Chiney and Golic Jr.,” alongside Mike Golic Jr., which made her the first Black woman to host a national daily sports radio show.

WNBA documentary to hit on social justice push

The league held a modified season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That season, though, was overshadowed by a large social justice moment across the country — one that players across the league helped lead.

The documentary, based on the clip Ogwumike shared, will center around that and the players’ involvement in the Georgia Senate race. Players, especially the Atlanta Dream players, took a stand against Dream co-owner and Senator Kelly Loeffler — who was very open with her support for President Donald Trump and criticisms of the Black Lives Matter movement. The team openly supported Loeffler’s opponent in the race during the season, too.

Loeffler eventually lost her race in a runoff election to Sen. Raphael Warnock, and is reportedly planning to sell her stake in the team.

“When it came to what the WBBA players were doing, it always takes me back to what my mom has told me: Tiny drops of water make a mighty ocean,” Ogwumike said on ESPN on Tuesday. “Well, the WNBA players have been doing the work consistently, day by day, especially the last few seasons. Now people are seeing the vast nature of that work coming together.”

Chiney Ogwumike to executive 

produce ESPN documentary 

on 2020 WNBA season

Ryan Young

·Writer

Tue, January 19, 2021, 7:29 PM

Chiney Ogwumike didn’t partake in the 2020 season inside the WNBA’s bubble in Florida, but she’s going to make sure the season will be remembered forever.

Ogwumike announced on Tuesday that she will serve as an executive producer on an upcoming ESPN Films documentary on the season.

Ogwumike has played four seasons in the league, three with the Connecticut Sun and one with the Los Angeles Sparks. The two-time All-Star and former No. 1 overall pick missed two full seasons due to a knee injury and an Achilles injury, however, and last played in 2019. She opted out of the 2020 season due to medical precautions related to COVID-19.

Ogwumike joined ESPN in 2017, working as a part-time WNBA and NBA analyst while still competing in the league. She took over hosting “Chiney and Golic Jr.,” alongside Mike Golic Jr., which made her the first Black woman to host a national daily sports radio show.

WNBA documentary to hit on social justice push

The league held a modified season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That season, though, was overshadowed by a large social justice moment across the country — one that players across the league helped lead.

The documentary, based on the clip Ogwumike shared, will center around that and the players’ involvement in the Georgia Senate race. Players, especially the Atlanta Dream players, took a stand against Dream co-owner and Senator Kelly Loeffler — who was very open with her support for President Donald Trump and criticisms of the Black Lives Matter movement. The team openly supported Loeffler’s opponent in the race during the season, too.

Loeffler eventually lost her race in a runoff election to Sen. Raphael Warnock, and is reportedly planning to sell her stake in the team.

“When it came to what the WBBA players were doing, it always takes me back to what my mom has told me: Tiny drops of water make a mighty ocean,” Ogwumike said on ESPN on Tuesday. “Well, the WNBA players have been doing the work consistently, day by day, especially the last few seasons. Now people are seeing the vast nature of that work coming together.”

ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike is working on an upcoming documentary on the WNBA's bubble season last summer. (Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)

MY FAVORITE BERNIE 

INAUGURATION MEME

 

Casual Bernie Sanders goes viral as the inauguration's unexpected meme

Nardine Saad 
Wed, January 20, 2021

Sen. Bernie Sanders arrives at Wednesday's inauguration. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)

Sen. Bernie Sanders certainly felt the icy burn of the cold day at the Capitol as well as that of the pithy Twitter users who couldn't get enough of his casual Inauguration Daylook.

The Vermont senator became an unexpected meme during Wednesday's festivities after being photographed appearing extremely uncomfortable and cold while in his seat ahead of the ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Vice President Kamala Harris , First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and inauguration performers Lady Gaga andJennifer Lopez catalyzed numerous articles and tweets about their symbolicwardrobe choices for the auspicious occasion.

But Sanders, a former presidential hopeful who became an important ally to President Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign, made a sartorial statement all his own. One of the IDGAF variety.

The 79-year-old lawmaker donned his signature utilitarian Burton jacket amid a sea of bespoke trench coats. (Burton is a snowboarding company based in Burlington, Vt., and a longtime supporter of Sanders).

The progressive politician also prominently displayed patterned knit mittensand inexplicably carried a large manila envelope to the ceremony. It's all business, all the time for this no-frills civil servant.

Ruby Cramer, a reporter for Buzzfeed, noted that Sanders previously wore the same mittens on the campaign trail during his presidential bid. The Green New Deal scribe was given the mittens two years ago by Vermont teacher Jen Ellis, who made them "from repurposed wool sweaters” and lined them with “fleece made from recycled plastic bottles." Men's magazineEsquire noted the jacket proved that "You Only Need One Good Coat."

Like the other guests attending the inauguration during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanders also wore a disposable blue surgical mask. But that's neither here nor there.

Here are the best tweets reacting to Sanders's look and stance, and some of the best guesses as to what was in that envelope:

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Palestinians expect first COVID vaccine by weekend

Palestinians due to receive first batch of Russian vaccine

Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Mon, January 18, 2021

RAMALLAH, West Bank/GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinians expect to receive a first batch of COVID-19 vaccine by the weekend, officials said on Tuesday - at a time when more than a quarter of their Israeli neighbours have already been inoculated.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has ordered Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and hopes to administer it to 50,000 residents by March, after last week granting the drug emergency approval.


The PA governs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in coordination with Israel, whose vaccination campaign has been the world's fastest. By Tuesday morning, 28% of its 9 million citizens had received at least one dose.

Israel has not extended the programme, which uses vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Inc., to the 3.1 million Palestinians in the West Bank or the 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the PA's Islamist rivals Hamas.

Abdel Hafiz Nofal, Palestinian ambassador to Russia, said it would send 5,000 vaccine doses to the West Bank "by the end of the week" and would not charge for this initial consignment.

"We are working to seal an agreement with the Russian government to buy 100,000 doses, which are enough to vaccinate 50,000 people," Nofal told Reuters.

Nofal envisaged the deal taking place in February, and said 100,000 was the most Moscow could sell the PA that month.

Israel's Health Ministry said it had approved the import.

An Israeli official said earlier that the first batch of Sputnik V doses could arrive on Tuesday, through the West Bank's border with Jordan, but later said there had been a hold-up.

Russia's standard export price for the two-dose Sputnik V is $18 but the cash-strapped PA was trying to negotiate a discount, Nofal said.

Palestinian health officials said the first in line for the vaccines would be medical personnel, the elderly and those with chronic diseases - in Gaza as well as in the West Bank.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens and John Stonestreet)

 

Jill Biden to make history as

1st first lady to hold paid job

outside the White House

KATIE KINDELAN

Wed, January 20, 2021, 12:05 PM

First Lady Jill Biden will make history as the country's first first lady to hold a paid job outside the White House.

Biden -- who worked full-time as a community college English professor during her eight years as second lady -- has said she plans to continue teaching during her time in the White House.

"I’m really looking forward to being first lady and doing the things that [I did] as second lady, carrying on with military families and education and free community college, cancer [the Biden Cancer Initiative], that Joe and I have both worked on," Biden said in an interview last month on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." "And I’m going to teach as well."

"It’s hard for me to think of it in historic terms I guess because I taught all eight years when I was second lady," she replied when asked about the historic nature of her decision.

Biden has been an educator for more than three decades. She taught English at Northern Virginia Community College during the eight years her husband, President Joe Biden, served as vice president in the Obama administration.

She is planning to continue to teach at Northern Virginia Community College as first lady, but her office is not releasing any further details.

PHOTO: First Lady Jill Biden places her hands on President Joe Biden during the 59th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Reuters)

“As she did as Second Lady, out of respect for the privacy of her students and to preserve the integrity of her classroom, Dr. Biden will keep her teaching at Northern Virginia Community College separate from her public role," Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa told ABC News in a statement.

Kate Andersen Brower, the author of several bestselling books on first ladies and the White House, described Biden's decision to continue teaching as "unprecedented" in American history.

"It is unusual for a second lady to work but unprecedented for a first lady," Andersen Brower told "Good Morning America" in December. "I know from talking to the campaign that there is an understanding that she doesn’t know if she can balance both teaching and being first lady quite yet, but there is a sense of this is her hope and this is what she wants to do because she loves teaching, and it's the career that she's carved out for herself that is unique and different from her husband's."

Andersen Brower said Biden continuing in her professor role would not only be unprecedented but also hopefully a significant shift in the trajectory of first ladies.

MORE: A closer look at the first spouses, Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff

"I think it's incredibly important for a woman to have her own identity, especially when you're married to a politician and now to the president," she said. "The idea that you would have to give up your entire life for your spouse seems very antiquated."

"I hope that people will accept Jill Biden's desire to teach, and that she's a wife and a mother and has a career," added Andersen Brower, who coined the term "Professor FLOTUS" to describe Biden's dual roles. "I hope that we’re at the point where we accept that, because I think if it was a man, we would definitely accept it."

While second lady, Biden worked on support for military families, helped her husband with his Cancer Moonshot initiative and led initiatives to highlight community colleges across the country, all while teaching English and earning her doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007.

In addition to her doctorate, Biden also holds two master's degrees, both of which she earned "while working and raising a family," according to her official White House biography.

Biden was forced to defend her doctor title last year after a Wall Street Journal op-ed called on her drop the "doctor" title from her name because she is not a medical doctor.

MORE: Blended families see themselves in Kamala Harris as she becomes 1st stepmom vice president

The op-ed's author, Joseph Epstein, wrote that the use of doctor by Biden "sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic," adding that, "A wise man once said that no one should call himself 'Dr.' unless he has delivered a child."

“That was such a surprise," Biden said on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" in response to the op-ed. "It was really the tone of it that I think that -- you know, he called me kiddo."

"And one of the things I'm most proud of is my doctorate," she said. "I mean I worked so hard for it."

Joe Biden also expressed displeasure about the op-ed, telling Colbert of his wife's accomplishments, "She had two master’s degrees and she kept going to school all the time while teaching at night."

In response to the op-ed, women took to Twitter to encourage others with degrees to add them to their name.

"Today I added “Dr” to my profile name. Thanks WSJ for the nudge," wrote Dr. Laura Scherer, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Medical School.

Biden is entering her role as both First Lady and college professor at a time when women currently make up nearly half of the workforce in the U.S., and nearly one-third of all employed women are working mothers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau.

In his election victory speech in November, Joe Biden described his wife as both a military mom and an educator who will make a "great" first lady.

PHOTO: Jill Biden sits with second grader Madison LaValle on a tour of Fort Belvoir Elementary School with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, June 22, 2010. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

"She dedicated her life to education. Teaching is not just what she does, it’s who she is," he said. "For American educators, it is a great day for y’all. You’re going to have one of your own in the White House. And Jill is going to make a great first lady. I am so proud of her."

ABC News' Molly Nagle and Johnny Verhovek contributed to this report.

Jill Biden to make history as 1st first lady to hold paid job outside the White House originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

Biden asks Trump's surgeon general to step down before he's even sworn in

Kathryn Krawczyk
Wed, January 20, 2021


President-elect Joe Biden is revamping outgoing President Trump's coronavirus approach before he even takes office.

On Wednesday morning, Biden asked Surgeon General Jerome Adams, whom Trump nominated for a four-year term back in 2017, to step down from his post. Biden has already announced his intention to nominate former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to the post, but will install an acting surgeon general in the meantime, The Washington Post reports.

The nation's top doctor is appointed for four-year terms; Adams took office in Sept. 2017, allowing him to stay on through this September. But amid the Trump administration's bungling of the COVID-19 crisis, it seems Biden wants a fresh start. He'll even bypass Deputy Surgeon General Erica Schwartz, a career civil servant, in naming an acting top doctor to take Adams' spot, the Post reports.

Adams acknowledged his forced resignation in a statement, which focused more on smoking cessation and other health crises than on COVID-19.

The inauguration's sad symbolism

Neil J. Young OPINION THE WEEK

Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock
January 20, 2021

Like almost every other aspect of the past year, Wednesday's inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won't look like any we've seen before. Aside from the alterations that have been made due to the coronavirus pandemic, the special measures being taken because of the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol and the ongoing threat of violence from Trump loyalists mean that this day will be a terrifyingly unique moment in history.

The security measures are extensive. As many as 25,000 troops have been deployed to Washington, D.C. The National Mall, normally filled with as many as one million spectators, has been declared off limits, and barricades circle the Capitol where the inauguration ceremony will take place. Across the city, various zones have been marked off to restrict traffic and general movement. As The New York Times recently reported, "the security perimeter…is necessary to prevent an attack from domestic extremists. Such groups 'pose the most likely threat' to the inauguration, according to a joint threat assessment from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security."

None of those threats should be confused with the legitimate and lawful protests that often accompany a presidential transition. Indeed, peaceful protests have been a regular feature of presidential inaugurations — and of American history itself. But the violence that has marked this presidential transition, and that possibly overshadows Wednesday's events, demonstrates the particular danger Trumpism still poses to the country and how much it has assaulted the basic foundations of American democracy.

Especially in the 20th century, when inaugurations became enormous public spectacles, Americans have regularly protested the events. Sometimes they protested the person taking office. Other times, they used the moment to direct attention to a cherished cause.

That was the case at the first major protest to mark an inauguration. In 1913, over five thousand women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on the day before Woodrow Wilson's swearing in as president in what became known as the Women's Suffrage Parade. Wanting to bring focus to their call for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, the marchers instead drew the ire of thousands of spectators, many of whom unleashed violent attacks on the women as police stood by. But the parade gave a boost to the growing suffrage movement. Seven years later, the Nineteenth Amendment fulfilled their goal.

In the second half of the century, protests at presidential inaugurations accelerated. Anti-Vietnam War protestors gathered in Washington for Richard Nixon's first and second inaugurations in 1969 and 1973. At the latter, as many as 60,000 anti-war activists shouted, "Nixon, Agnew, you can't hide; we charge you with genocide." Opponents of another war, this time in Iraq, descended on George W. Bush's second inauguration in 2005. By then, Bush was used to it. Four years earlier, 20,000 of what The New York Times described as "loud but mostly peaceful protestors" had shown up to demonstrate against what they believed had been a stolen election.

Much smaller protests visited Barack Obama's two inaugurations. His successor, however, would witness the largest protest ever assembled for a presidential inauguration when nearly half a million people in D.C. — and at least four million more in cities across the United States — joined in the Women's March the day after Donald Trump was sworn in.

Predictably, Trump took to Twitter to offer a rather unpredictable response to the protests against him. "Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don't always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views."

That rare endorsement of democratic traditions and Constitutional guarantees was quickly overshadowed by Trump's long record of illiberal actions and anti-democratic impulses as president, especially his love of violence carried out on his behalf. At his numerous rallies, Trump regularly greeted protestors with threats of violence by his ravenous crowds. His continual encouragement of white nationalists and hate groups yielded devastating and deadly results.

All of that culminated with the events of January 6. Rather than accepting the results of a free and fair election, Trump, and his willing surrogates, stoked anger and outrage among supporters with their lies of rampant voter fraud and a stolen election. Instead of conceding his loss and initiating the process for a peaceful transfer of power — a bedrock condition of any functioning democracy — Trump spewed heated rhetoric while Congressional Republicans planned their outrageous challenge of the Electoral College results.

Riled up and enraged by all of it, Trump's core supporters showed up to carry out violence in his name, certain theirs was a righteous cause. In his inciting speech to the crowd shortly before the attack, Trump raged, "We will not let them silence your voices," while the crowd roared back, "Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!"

They didn't need any last minute encouragement to violence, of course. Trump spent four years cultivating insurrectionary sentiments among his followers. But the rot goes much deeper than the several thousand who showed up to storm the Capitol. Nearly half of Republicans surveyed have said they support the attack. In just one presidential term, Trump has shifted the most extreme and out-of-bounds positions to the center of his party — and right into the mainstream of American politics.

That's why although Trump will no longer be president after Wednesday, Trumpism still dangerously lingers, perhaps even more inflamed.

Faced with a rampant pandemic and a cratering economy, Joe Biden must tackle some of the biggest challenges this nation has seen. But none may be bigger than attending to the lasting damage Trump has done to American democracy, now all-too-visible in a presidential inauguration conducted under heavy guard.