Mike Hembree, USA TODAY
Published 8:21 a.m. ET Aug. 19, 2018
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USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Hembree explains the complicated situation that NASCAR now finds itself in with its CEO Brian France. USA TODAY
The first race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs is weeks away, but it could be argued that they started Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Late in the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race — a goofily long name for a very long, often eventful, race, two of the drivers virtually certain to be major factors in the playoffs met on the high ground. Eventually, both fell.
Kyle Busch had rallied from a lap-two crash to challenge in the top five, and he was driving like a man on fire in the final 100 laps, racing toward a win that seemed an impossibility at the dawn of the race. Busch’s mangled Toyota was in no shape to win a car-show trophy, but he was pushing the crippled car beyond its limit and seeking to expand his BMS win total to eight.
Then he drove the car a few inches over the edge, crowding into the rear of Martin Truex Jr.’s Toyota as they raced for second place. The contact sent Truex sliding into the inside wall, then rocketing to the right and hard into the outside wall. J.J. Yeley’s car also slammed into the outside wall during the incident.
Busch vs. Truex. The same pair raced across the final laps of last season’s final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Truex holding serve and winning his first Cup championship.
The normally unflappable Truex flapped Saturday night. After taking the hard ride into the wall, he pulled the steering wheel off its column and threw it angrily onto the dash.
He wasn’t done.
Truex climbed from the car, tossed his gloves, growled a bit and, for good measure, kicked his car before departing the scene.
The incident was barely over when Sherry Pollex, Truex’s long-time girlfriend, offered her opinion via Tweet: “Kyle Busch is a moron.”
Omg I can’t believe that just happened. Kyle Busch is a moron
After the race, Busch admitted that the incident “was totally my fault. I feel terrible about that. I misjudged a little bit — four inches, six inches, you name it. I barely clipped him and sent him for a hell of a ride. I hate it that I clipped him.”
Truex had cooled down — at least for public consumption — a few minutes after the crash as he talked to media representatives. But it was clear he wasn’t happy, and it won’t be surprising if Busch’s bump is repeated — in reverse — somewhere down the road, in the playoffs or before they start.
Kyle wound up crashing again and wasn’t a factor at the finish.
Meanwhile, the “other” Busch, Kyle’s older brother Kurt, turned the misfortune of others into gold, driving with style over the closing laps and scoring his first victory of the season. Kurt was already virtually assured of a spot in the playoffs, but the win gives that invitation more shine. His big night also underlined the uncomfortable position in which he sits for a second straight year — without a contract for next season.
“It’s all about winning,” Busch said. “We’ve been the most consistent team this year that hasn’t won. I wasn’t worried about not making the playoffs, so we could kind of treat these races coming up as free-for-alls, and we’re just going to keep going after it.”
Ironically, Kurt was involved at the back end of the multi-car lap-two crash that put his brother in a deep hole. The hood of Kurt’s car was damaged, but repairs were made quickly, and he joined his brother in storming through the field.
In the end, only one survived. And thrived. And not the one many had predicted.
Sergio Aguero has scored 13 hat-tricks for Manchester City
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said Sergio Aguero was in the best condition he has seen him in, after the striker scored a superb hat-trick in a thumping win over Huddersfield.
Aguero opened the scoring in the first half before adding two goals after the break to complete his 13th career hat-trick and ninth in the Premier League. Only Alan Shearer, with 11, has scored more in the competition.
“I never saw him like this since I was here,” Guardiola said.
“He is in an incredible condition with the ball and without the ball.”
The defending champions, who beat Arsenal 2-0 in their opening match, lost only once at home in 2017-18, and victory never looked in doubt against a Huddersfield team who have now been beaten in their first two games.
The Terriers did manage to hold City at bay for 25 minutes but were undone when goalkeeper Ederson picked out Aguero with a pinpoint pass and the striker drew out Ben Hamer before lifting the ball into the net.
Gabriel Jesus added a second seven minutes later with a crisp low strike from the edge of the area, before Aguero pounced on a Hamer error to stab in his second.
Jon Gorenc Stankovic gave the visitors the slightest glimmer of hope before half-time when he poked in from Steve Mounie’s flick-on, but any optimism was snuffed out early in the second half by a brilliant free-kick from David Silva.
Aguero wrapped up his hat-trick with a smart flick from Benjamin Mendy’s cross – before a Terence Kongolo own goal sealed an emphatic win for an impressive City.
Guardiola’s side are top of the table and have scored eight goals in two games, conceding just one. Huddersfield, meanwhile, drop to the bottom on goal difference.
“We started better than last season,” said Guardiola. “We made a good performance in 90 minutes.
“Last season, Huddersfield played five at the back. We decided today we would play with two strikers.”
Guardiola praises Man City’s ‘attitude’ & ‘desire’
Guardiola’s experiment a worry for his rivals
How do you stop a team like Manchester City? That was a question posed to the 19 other Premier League managers last season, with many opting for the tactic of ‘parking the bus’.
City usually managed to find a way through, but sometimes not until very late on – winning goals against Huddersfield, Southampton, Bournemouth and West Ham last term did not come until after the 80th minute.
That has perhaps prompted Guardiola to find an alternative tactic to deal with defensive sides, as BBC Radio 5 live pundit Leon Osman observed during Sunday’s game.
“Pep Guardiola has made a number of changes and left out Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker,” said the former Everton midfielder.
“He’s taken out all the guys with pace and got his footballers on. Guys with quick feet that can operate in small spaces.”
The result was Huddersfield could barely get the ball off their hosts as City skilfully crafted opportunities from the limited space they had.
Manchester City enjoyed near total dominance against Huddersfield. The hosts had 77% possession and 32 shots on goal
Even at 6-1, City did not ease up their attacking intent. In truth, Huddersfield can consider themselves fortunate that a repeat of the 10-1 defeat they suffered at City 31 years ago did not materialise.
Guardiola will surely have been happy with what he saw. Usually so tense on the touchline, he was seen sharing a joke with coach Mikel Arteta towards the end of the game.
His side now have a couple of ways they can successfully approach a game – an ominous sign for the rest of the Premier League.
Hamer errors hinder Huddersfield
Hamer joined Huddersfield on a free transfer from Leicester in the summer
It was always going to be a tough ask for Huddersfield to get anything against a fresh and hungry City side, but their cause was not helped by some questionable goalkeeping by Hamer.
Dane Jonas Lossl was first choice last term but missed a large amount of pre-season because of his World Cup commitments, while Hamer, signed from Leicester in the summer, impressed in friendlies.
Terriers boss David Wagner rewarded Hamer by starting him against Chelsea last weekend. He conceded three goals in that game but was given another opportunity to impress against City.
He did not take it. Hamer committed himself to coming way off his line to try and deny Aguero the opener – but could only watch as the Argentina striker lifted the ball out of his reach.
He was then beaten at his near post for City’s second, before spilling a fairly routine save from a cross to allow Aguero to tap in City’s third.
Huddersfield do not score often – Stankovic’s strike was only their sixth in the past 14 games – so they cannot afford to make too many mistakes.
“We faced a City side absolutely on it,” said Wagner. “They were different class and we were second best and that is why we conceded this defeat.
“We hoped for more out of the last two games but we didn’t expect more. This means nothing more than we get these two games out of our head now and focus on the next one.”
Man of the match – Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Sergio Aguero scored his ninth Premier League hat-trick but could easily have scored more. He finished the game with nine shots on goal, more than any other City player
A Premier League first – the stats
Huddersfield have conceded nine goals in their first two matches this season. Only one side in Premier League history has conceded more goals in their opening two games – Wigan Athletic in 2010-11 (10).
Manchester City have now scored 104 goals in 39 games at home under Pep Guardiola in the Premier League.
With his assist for Aguero’s opening goal, Ederson became the first goalkeeper to set up a Premier League goal for Manchester City.
Aguero has scored 14 goals in his past eight league appearances for Manchester City at the Etihad.
Stankovic is just the second player from Slovenia to score a Premier League goal after ex-West Bromwich Albion and Hull City midfielder Robert Koren.
Aguero now has nine Premier League hat-tricks (level with former Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester City striker Robbie Fowler). Only ex-Blackburn and Newcastle forward Alan Shearer (11) has managed more.
The Argentine has equalled Shearer’s record of trebles for one Premier League club. The ex-England captain scored nine for Blackburn Rovers.
What next?
Manchester City travel to newly promoted Wolves on Saturday, 25 August (12:30 BST), while Huddersfield are at home to Cardiff at 15:00 on the same day.
It’s the last slog of summer, and with each hot, sticky day we become more panicked.
Some questions on our minds right now: Will we ever be comfortable again? What does not sweating feel like? Is there anything to look forward to before the autumnal equinox?
The solution to our woes, of course, is to create some kind of reason to enjoy the sweltering, existentially taxing days before fall saves us. And what’s a better excuse to enjoy things than a nice holiday? August needs more of those.
Obviously, work should be cancelled on each of these occasions, which we’ve detailed below for your consideration. Please discuss with your employer.
Dog Park Lurking Day
A day for dog lovers who are not dog owners, Dog Park Lurking Day celebrates the usually embarrassing act of going to the dog park without a dog to look at dogs. It’s not embarrassing today, though. Today, you are supposed to do it.
Please wear sunscreen and do not bring a camera. This isn’t a free-for-all.
The fun zone.
Go to the Beach Before It’s Too Late Day
Have you failed to go to the beach this summer? Correct your error on Go to the Beach Before It’s Too Late Day. To avoid overcrowding, celebrations of this day will be staggered, taking place twice per week throughout the month of August.
Isn’t that just the same thing as weekends? you ask. Yes, it is!
The Cleaning of the A/C Filters
The “clean filter” light on your air conditioner has been on for six weeks and you know it. Today, take the opportunity to clean your dirt trap so that you may breathe clean-ish air until the equinox. While the filter is out of your unit, be sure to post a photo on Instagram. #NoFilter.
This isn’t “fun,” per se, but it’s more enjoyable than sweating.
*sits in front of the air conditioner until Halloween*
Wear a cotton/linen blend. Bonus points for monochrome sets. There are no prizes.
Popsicle Mold Day
Today is the day you finally make popsicles with the popsicle molds you bought at Tuesday Morning in 2012. Get creative. Why not throw some fresh fruit or a little booze in there?
Do not actually give your dog a boozy popsicle.
Image: Merrimon Crawford/Shutterstock
The Recycling of the Popsicle Molds (sponsored by Popsicle®*)
Your homemade popsicles sucked, so it’s time to toss your popsicle molds in the glass/plastic recycling bin and eat a real Popsicle®.
Try a grape one. Your mouth will turn purple and mottled-looking, like you have hypothermia.
When Harry Met Sally Solstice
When Harry Met Sally is a fall movie, but there comes a day in August when the only way to escape the heat is to immerse yourself fully in Meg Ryan turtleneck culture. This is the When Harry Met Sally solstice — after this date, it is permissible to watch When Harry Met Sally every day until fall’s end.
Good turtleneck.
Image: Castle Rock Entertainment
Lie Down Day
Lie down on your couch. Enjoy the icy tundra your (clean) air conditioner has created. Pretend it is colder outside. It will be soon enough, and you will long for summer.
Noelle Stevenson started playing Dungeons & Dragons around the same time she started developing She-Ra and the Princesses of Power for Netflix and DreamWorks Animation. With Molly Knox Ostertag, author of The Witch Boy and prop designer on Disney XD’s Star vs. the Forces of Evil, as her group’s Dungeon Master, Stevenson developed her first character: a “Tiefling warlock nightmare baby,” as she put it.
“She was a teenager who sold her soul to the devil to make her mom mad,” the showrunner told D&D fans gathered at New York City’s Flame Con, the largest LGBTQ-centric Comic-Con. The Tiefling was also a teleporter, so when Stevenson found she was dealing with a character on She-Ra who shared that ability, she tapped into the D&D world to flesh it out.
“I steal a lot from characters I’ve made from D&D,” she said.
For those fluent in D&D, Stevenson explained her Tiefling had “Misty Step,” an ability that allows characters to teleport up to 30 feet to a location in their sight. “But I had two spell slots for Misty Step, so I got stuck a lot,” she said with a laugh. “I’d be like, ‘Guys, I can see through the key hole. I’m going in!’ and then would get attacked by something. ‘I did not think this through!’”
Using this as inspiration, Stevenson said her approach to the teleporting character on She-Ra was exploring what happens “when someone who doesn’t have great impulse control is just like, ‘I’m gonna go!’ but then it’s like, ‘Oh no!’”
“I pull so much inspiration from [D&D],” she added, “because how do you embody these characters? How do you embody it when you have a mission for these characters? And you go and you figure it out from there.”
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a reimagining of the 1985 He-Man spin-off She-Ra: Princess of Power, centers on Princess Adora (voiced by Aimee Carrero), twin sister of He-Man, after she’s been kidnapped as a baby and raised by the villainous Evil Horde. When she learns the truth, she has to come to terms with her identity as She-Ra.
“As She-Ra, she doesn’t know how to act,” Stevenson previously told EW. “This is all new to her, and it’s a little clumsy at first. It’s like an uncomfortable suit. She’s like, ‘Okay, here I am. I’m very glamorous, I’m very strong, people are looking up to me — because I’m very tall.’”
Now, when it comes to some of the backlash she’s already received from the online crowd to her take on She-Ra, Stevenson has thick skin from her years of being a fan artist on Tumblr. “How does this make me become better as a person, become better as a creator? If it doesn’t, let it go,” she said of criticism.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power will drop Nov. 16 on Netflix.
SportsPulse: Trysta Krick and USA TODAY Sports’ fantasy football expert Steve Gardner give you their studs, duds and sleepers for the 2018 season. USA TODAY Sports
LANDOVER, Md. — Week 2 of the NFL preseason is nearly complete. It featured Jets rookie quarterback Sam Darnold’s first start, Alex Smith’s debut with the Redskins, some notable injuries, more national anthem rumblings and continued consternation regarding the league’s new rule designed to eliminate dangerous tackles involving the helmet. Now that 30 teams have played this weekend (the Ravens and Colts will meet Monday night), here are 30 things we learned:
2.Don’t sleep on Washington. Smith looked very sharp — he may be a better fit for this scheme than Kirk Cousins was — and the defense could make a huge leap with Crimson Tide brothers Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne.
3. New Monday Night Football analyst Anthony “Booger” McFarland gets to view games from a sideline crane. Down in front, Booger.
4. Players, coaches and preseason TV announcers are still railing against the NFL’s highly legislated helmet rule. “I’m as baffled as anyone else,” said Vikings veteran Brian Robison. “At the end of the day, it’s a very confusing rule.”
5. Tom Brady played the first half Thursday night. After missing most of the Patriots’ offseason … he looks perfectly ready for Week 1.
6. Aaron Rodgers is a crier. “To be back at Lambeau was a thrill and the ovation touched me,” Rodgers said Thursday, his first start in Green Bay since he missed most of last season with a busted collarbone. “I have to kind of wipe away some tears in my eyes.”
8. The Vikings provided a nice tribute Saturday to late assistant coach Tony Sparano, who died suddenly last month from heart disease. His family, including Jaguars assistant offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr., was in attendance.
9. Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey had a 71-yard TD run against Miami. He didn’t rush for more than 66 yards in any game during his rookie season.
10. Memo to Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill: Twerking will cost you 15 yards.
Come for Tyreek Hill’s TD, stay for his celebration
11. Even in the remote event that both Nick Foles and Carson Wentz are unavailable for the regular-season opener, the Eagles are better off with third-string QB Nate Sudfeld (5 preseason TD passes) than pursuing another veteran.
12. The NFL should really avoid preseason games that replicate regular-season contests. The Rams hosted the Raiders on Saturday, and starters on both sides sat in a contest that was drab even by the measure of NFL football in August. The teams meet again in 23 days as the marquee matchup of ESPN’s Week 1 MNF twinbill.
13. However Raiders RB Chris Warren III — son of former Seahawks star RB Chris Warren — took the opportunity to rush 18 times for 110 yards and a score. Take note, Money Lynch and Doug Martin.
14. Even though Rams stars Todd Gurley and Jared Goff got the day off, they’re ready for Showtime, courtesy of LeBron James and the Lakers.
15. Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston looked crisp in relief of Ryan Fitzpatrick. But that won’t do Tampa Bay much good in the season’s first three weeks.
16. Backup QB battle to watch: Davis Webb vs. Kyle Lauletta in a bid to hold the clipboard for Giants’ Eli Manning.
18. Oft-suspended Cowboys DE Randy Gregory played for the first time since the 2016 season. “He looked quick and explosive. He looked like himself. He certainly looks like he is comfortable and confident,” said Dallas coach Jason Garrett.
19. Vikings RB Latavius Murray fumbled twice, losing one, on six carries. Dalvin Cook must have cracked a smile.
20. Steelers rookie QB Mason Rudolph’s first (ill-advised) pass Thursday was returned for a pick-six by Green Bay’s Tramon Williams. Ben Roethlisberger must have cracked a smile, too. To Rudolph’s credit, he hooked up for a TD with JuJu Smith-Schuster five minutes later.
21. Note to Le’Veon Bell: Second-year Pittsburgh RB James Conner looked nice while ripping off 57 yards on five carries.
22. Timing is everything. Browns fans got to boo Bills WR Corey Coleman, Cleveland’s first-round pick two years ago, who was traded two weeks ago for buffalo wings.
23. Chargers WR Mike Williams, the seventh pick of the 2017 draft, scored on a 25-yard reception Saturday. Good news for a player whose rookie season was wasted by injuries.
24. It appears Cowboys Pro Bowl G Zack Martin avoided a major knee injury Saturday. “I just want to say we’ve got more to gain from (an MRI), but from what we’ve seen, I’ll sleep good tonight on Martin,” said Dallas owner Jerry Jones.
25. In a league where things change overnight, Bills rookie QB Josh Allen suddenly and surprisingly has much better odds to start a meaningful game soon after AJ McCarron went down with a broken collarbone Friday.
27. The Saints are probably sunk if Drew Brees gets hurt. But shouldn’t they get a better insurance policy than Taysom Hill or Tom Savage?
28. Seattle may have lost first-round RB Rashaad Penny for a month to a broken finger, but the run game is in good hands with Chris Carson. Teammates have raved about his camp, and he showed why Saturday on a 23-yard TD run … that was negated by a penalty.
29. Broncos fans are infatuated with new backup QB Chad “Swag” Kelly … but they’re on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to 2016 first rounder Paxton Lynch, who heard lusty boo birds when he entered the game.
30. LB Alexander Johnson played his first game in four years Saturday, just five days after signing with Denver and three weeks after he was acquitted of rape charges. Johnson was kicked off Tennessee’s football team after he was arrested during his senior season. GM John Elway declined Thursday to speak to the specific homework the Broncos did on Johnson beyond speaking to his former coaches.
Senators grilled Trump administration officials over a report pointing to serious problems in caring for unaccompanied migrant children who are detained after crossing the border, and then placed in foster care, or state or local facilities. (Aug. 16) AP
A man detained by U.S. immigration officials while rushing his wife to a California hospital for the birth of their fifth child was wanted in Mexico on homicide charges, authorities now say.
Joel Arrona-Lara, 36, was taken into custody Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a gas station in San Bernardino. Surveillance video from the station shows Arrona-Lara being taken away in handcuffs.
The arrest set off the latest in a series of firestorms over the zero tolerance immigration policies of President Donald Trump. ICE initially issued a statement noting that no one is exempt from deportation and “all of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and” removal from the U.S.
On Saturday, ICE released a statement saying Arrona-Lara “was brought to ICE’s attention due to an outstanding warrant issued for his arrest in Mexico on homicide charges.”
No details of the warrant were released. His wife, María del Carmen Venegas, 32, says the warrant was the result of a misunderstanding. The family’s legal representative, Emilio Amaya of the Community Services Center of San Bernardino, says he has been unable to find any legal proceedings against his client in Mexico.
“They left her at the gas station to fend for herself,” Amaya said of Carmen Venegas. “The hospital is about two miles from the gas station. She actually ended up driving by herself to the hospital.”
Carmen Venegas says she and her husband have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. She says her husband was taking her to the hospital for a cesarean section on Wednesday when agents walked up to the car and asked the couple for ID.
She told CNN she is undocumented but did provide a driver’s license. Her husband had left their nearby home in a hurry and did not have his with him, she said. ICE agents denied her husband’s request to return home for his ID, she said.
“I never thought that they would take him like that, handcuff him, and that they would leave me stranded at the gas station,” she said.
Carmen Venegas gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Arrona-Lara remained in detention at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange County, Amaya said.
“I asked them why they separate good people, why they weren’t arresting people who do bad things, and I asked them to let us go,” Venegas told NBC Los Angeles in Spanish. “They told me they were only doing their job.”
Below is the complete statement from ICE:
Mr. Arrona-Lara, a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States, was taken into custody Wednesday by ICE Fugitive Operations Team officers in San Bernardino, Calif. Mr. Arrona-Lara is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
Mr. Arrona-Lara was brought to ICE’s attention due to an outstanding warrant issued for his arrest in Mexico on homicide charges.
ICE continues to focus its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security. ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. However, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.
Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the Supreme Court could mean abortion opponents are closer than they’ve been in 45 years to overturning _Roe v. Wade. USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – If he wins confirmation to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh‘s impact could extend from cradle to grave.
Because he would replace retired justice Anthony Kennedy, who occasionally sided with the court’s liberal wing, Kavanaugh particularly could shift the balance on cases involving abortion, capital punishment, racial discrimination and gay rights.
A review of cases in which Kennedy cast the deciding vote over the dissent of his fellow conservatives – combined with a review of Kavanaugh’s rulings and writings – reveals the areas of law most likely to change.
Kennedy’s fifth vote struck down state bans on same-sex marriage in 2015. The following year, he upheld the limited use of racial preferences in college admissions and struck down excessive restrictions on abortion rights.
Sprinkled throughout his 30-year high court career were votes in favor of criminal defendants, notably those on death row. Together with the court’s four liberal justices, he spared juveniles and people with intellectual disabilities from the death penalty.
In some of those cases, there are indications from Kavanaugh’s opinions, speeches and articles that he would have been on the other side.
“With Kavanaugh, it is extremely unlikely that he would do anything like what Justice Kennedy has done,” says David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University.
In other cases, the jury is still out. Justin Walker, a University of Louisville law professor who clerked for Kavanaugh at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Kennedy at the Supreme Court, notes Kennedy and his high court colleagues endorsed Kavanaugh’s opinions or dissents 13 times.
“For people wondering where they’re going to disagree, they’re going to have to look elsewhere,” Walker says.
Abortion, death penalty
Kennedy’s alliance with the high court’s liberals waxed and waned over the years. Three years ago, he sided with them in eight cases decided 5-4, compared to five in which he joined the other four conservatives. This past year, however, he joined the conservatives 14 times in 5-4 cases and didn’t once side with the liberals.
Here’s a look at cases in which Kennedy joined the liberals – and where Kavanaugh might not follow suit.
Abortion
Kennedy voted in 2016 to strike down restrictions on abortion clinics and doctors in Texas that had created hardships for thousands of women, without sufficient health benefits. The case was decided 5-3 following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. A generation earlier, Kennedy also helped preserve abortion rights in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decided 5-4.
Kavanaugh’s only abortion ruling came last year, when he dissented from the appeals court’s decision allowing an undocumented teenager in federal custody to get an abortion. He said the government “has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion.”
In a speech last year, he heaped praise on the late chief justice William Rehnquist, citing among other things Rehnquist’s dissent from the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Rehnquist, he said, “stated that under the court’s precedents, any such unenumerated right had to be rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people.”
Death penalty
Five times in the last four years, Kennedy provided the deciding vote for criminals on death row pleading special circumstances, including intellectual disability, judicial bias and prosecutorial misconduct.
“The death penalty is the gravest sentence our society may impose,” Kennedy said in his 2014 opinion striking down Florida’s rigid method of discerning disability. “Persons facing that most severe sanction must have a fair opportunity to show that the Constitution prohibits their execution.”
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, says cases based on an “evolving standard of decency” under the 8th Amendment hinged for many years on “whatever Justice Kennedy thought it meant.”
In that same speech about Rehnquist, Kavanaugh cited approvingly the chief justice’s dissent from the Supreme Court’s 1972 decision striking down state death penalty statutes. He cited this passage from the dissent:
“The most expansive reading of the leading constitutional cases does not remotely suggest that this court has been granted a roving commission, either by the founding fathers or by the framers of the 14th Amendment, to strike down laws that are based upon notions of policy or morality suddenly found unacceptable by a majority of this court.”
Race and gay rights
In just the past three years, Kennedy provided the deciding vote to allow some use of racial preferences in college admissions, make it easier to prove housing discrimination, strike down election districts that packed in black voters and overturn a conviction because of a juror’s racist comments.
“The nation must continue to make strides to overcome race-based discrimination,” Kennedy said in the latter case, decided last year. “It is the mark of a maturing legal system that it seeks to understand and to implement the lessons of history.”
Kavanaugh in 2012 voted to delay but uphold a South Carolina law requiring that voters have photo IDs, even though minorities more often lack them. He reasoned that the law allowed for exceptions that would ease its burdens on racial groups.
But Kavanaugh also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that among his 10 most significant opinions was one siding with a Fannie Mae worker who complained after being called the “n-word.”
“No other word in the English language so powerfully or instantly calls to mind our country’s long and brutal struggle to overcome racism and discrimination against African-Americans,” he wrote in that case.
Kennedy is best known for several opinions that expanded the rights of gays and lesbians, culminating in the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Two years earlier, he was the deciding vote in striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples already married in some states.
“Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions,” Kennedy said in 2015. “They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
Kavanaugh has no judicial record in gay rights cases, leaving his supporters and detractors to speculate how he would vote. He served as White House staff secretary at the time President George W. Bush sought a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, but documents from that time have not been released.
Still, Kavanaugh’s speech last year on Rehnquist may offer guidance. He praised the former chief justice for saying that rights not enumerated in the Constitution could be recognized by courts only if they were “rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.”
He said Rehnquist’s 5-4 opinion in 1997, which said assisted suicide did not reach that threshold, “stands to this day as an important precedent, limiting the court’s role in the realm of social policy.”
Opener Alastair Cook edges behind to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant off the bowling of Ishant Sharma as England lose their first wicket on day two of the third Test at Trent Bridge.
It’sSummer Lovin’ Weekhere at Mashable, which means things are getting steamy. In honor of the release of Crazy Rich Asians, we’re celebrating onscreen love and romance, looking at everything from our favorite fictional couples to how Hollywood’s love stories are evolving. Think of it as our love letter to, well, love.
In hindsight, Zosia and I were never meant to be.
We met one night at a friend’s party and had one of those mutual lightning crash moments. Instant connection. I liked her free spirit and her nerdy librarian vibe, and she was drawn to my long, blonde hair and my laugh.
When we met the next day for our first real date, it was immediately apparent that we had backed into an “opposites attract” kind of scenario. I just wanted a nice, quiet lunch where we could sit and talk. She wanted to have us act like tourists and see the sights.
Still, the relationship developed from there. We had plenty of happy moments, far fewer sad moments, some knockdown arguments and tense showdowns. Typical relationship stuff. But in the end, we didn’t make it. Our life goals, or destinies, as some might say, didn’t quite align. And that was that.
That failed love story isn’t an event pulled from my own life (my hair is neither long nor blonde, for starters). It was actually the “Sunday Morning Date” tutorial scenario from an intriguing tabletop game called Fog of Love.
Image: adam rosenberg / mashable
This “romantic comedy as a board game” (as the website describes it) is a two-player game that mixes role-playing with the randomness of card draws and blind mutual decision-making. Each player assume the role of a character they create and role-play in the context of a relationship driven by shifting desires and secret goals, defined in the game as “Destiny.”
It’s a neat idea on the surface: Most adults can relate on some level to the experience of leaping into and nurturing a love relationship. Fog of Love turns that into an actual story-driven game, with each scenario broken into chapters made up of multiple, randomly selected scenes.
A typical scene presents one or both players with a choice to make. When both choose, they do so blindly. Each scene is resolved using a multiple-choice format, and the relationship typically benefits when both players land on the same choice — though that doesn’t also mean that at-odds choices are a dealbreaker.
A full scenario plays out across the arc of a love relationship. Winning is a matter of fulfilling one’s Destiny, a goal that can change over the course of a game (though your choices narrow as you reach later chapters). One or both players can win, or lose, just like real life.
Fog of Love is a two-player game that mixes role-playing with the randomness of card draws and blind decision-making.
The actual game is more complex to play than I’m describing here, and that’s where Fog of Love‘s tremendous tutorial comes in. I’ve frankly never seen anything like it in another tabletop game. The tutorial is printed across a set of 30 numbered cards, all sprinkled into the various card decks that make up the core of the game.
The first time you play, it’s best to set up the board and place the card decks down without shuffling them; all the cards are arranged in a specific order for your first playthrough. Once everything’s set, ditch the instruction manual and grab the first tutorial card on top of the “Sweet” deck.
The game takes care of the rest from there. On the first card, you’ll learn how players assemble the collection of scene cards they can choose from whenever it’s their turn. The next tutorial card, which the first one will tell you is on top of the “Traits” deck, begins teaching the process of character creation.
During this early stretch, you’re encountering tutorial cards every few minutes, as different aspects of the game setup — card selection and character creation — play out. Once the actual game starts, the tutorial loosens up, letting you play multiple scenes at a time before hitting you with new rules to factor in.
All throughout, the language on the cards constantly encourages players to use their imaginations and come up with details that fill out the different aspects of their individual and shared lives.
For example, when you get to Features — literally, the physical features that led to an initial mutual attraction — the tutorial card emphasizes the fact that you should “tell what it was about this Feature that your character fell for.” (Fittingly, you choose your partner’s features rather than your own by selecting five cards from that deck and choosing the three you like most.)
Image: adam rosenberg / mashable
The tutorial continues all the way through its 30th card, which congratulates you on finishing your first scenario. It also tells you to shuffle all the card decks (sans tutorial cards, of course) for future games, and suggests the best order in which to tackle the game’s three included story scenarios.
The tutorial is unbelievably player-friendly, even for those whose tabletop background goes no further than Monopoly. That said, Fog of Love is a difficult game to master. The reason became clear to me only after my IRL wife and I finished our first game together, and we both lost: It’s so easy to play this game wrong.
At its core, Fog of Love is a role-playing game. Too often, my wife and I both let our own, personal impulses rule the moment as we made choices from scene to scene. The key is remembering to play the character you’ve created as she or he is defined by the cards on the table and the Destiny you’re chasing.
This is something that started to click as the tutorial game wound on, but it was a situation where we’d both effectively sabotaged ourselves in the long run by making bad choices early on in the relationship. We didn’t build up a strong enough foundation for our love, and so when the finale eventually arrived, we weren’t satisfied enough — either individually or as a couple — to make our relationship last.
But isn’t that just how things are? The choices we made too often sprung out of our IRL identities, neither of which much resembled our in-game personae. Again and again, playing against the character we’d created worked against us.
Or to put it more succinctly: We weren’t our authentic selves, and the relationship suffered as a result. That’s as true in real life as it is in Fog of Love.
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