Latest news with #Kahler
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KSDE confirms DOGE cuts to national service agency
KANSAS (KSNT) – The Kansas State Department of Education confirmed that a program dedicated to national service and volunteerism was slashed by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. On Friday, April 25, The Washington Post reported that AmeriCorps was directed to terminate nearly $400 million in grants, about 41% of its total funding. AmeriCorps provides service to various areas in Kansas such as education, veteran services, senior independence, disaster recovery, conservation and climate change efforts. 27 News contacted KSDE Communications Director Denise Kahler. Kahler said the KSDE is still reviewing a letter the department received on Friday. What happens to bodies of inmates who've died in Kansas? 'To be clear, the $400 million figure represents the total funds cut for all AmeriCorps programs, not just Kansas,' Kahler said. In 2023, AmeriCorps reported that it was investing more than $15.3 million in federal funding to Kansas. The funds were to allow nearly 5,000 Kansans to support their communities through national service. Through the program, Kansas residents have received over $30.8 million. AmeriCorps has worked with various Kansas organizations and government departments over the years. The agency has worked with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Literacy KC, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and other state and national programs to bolster community strength in Kansas. Former Wolfe's Camera shop, nearby buildings for sale for $2.85 million Earlier in April, AmeriCorps' National Civilian Community Corps informed volunteers that they would exit the program early 'due to programmatic circumstances beyond your control,' according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. The memo stated that those who have completed 15% or more of their term would be eligible for a prorated amount, but those who have completed less would not be eligible. For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
31-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Packers' proposal to ban tush push gains momentum within NFL
Packers' proposal to ban tush push gains momentum within NFL The Green Bay Packers aren't the only ones in favor of getting rid of the "Tush Push" from the NFL. On Sunday, ESPN's Kalyn Kahler reported that a source with direct knowledge told ESPN that the Packers' proposal to ban the controversial play has support within the competition committee. The potential ban sparked heated debate at the NFL's Annual League Meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Kahler, "Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, assistant general manager Jon Ferrari, and two head coaches on the competition committee, Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills, gathered in a hallway outside of the ballroom to have a private and animated side conversation about the Packers' proposal." McVay and McDermott are members of the competition committee, along with fellow head coaches Mike Tomlin and Todd Bowles and six other team executives around the league. Per Kahler, while Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy has been outspoken about banning the tush push, head coach Matt LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst declined to comment on the proposal. "I am not a fan of this play," Murphy wrote in February in his monthly Q&A post at "There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl." Green Bay cited pace of play and player safety as reasons for the proposed ban. However, multiple sources who have been in competition committee meetings about the play told ESPN there was no injury data to support the ban but rather a hypothetical conversation centered on potential injuries, according to Kahler. The Eagles' success in running the tush push with quarterback Jalen Hurts has made the play a topic of debate in recent years. Some coaches, executives, and players have argued that it's not a football play and is more like a rugby scrum, while others feel more teams would run it if they could execute it as well as Philadelphia. NFL owners will vote Tuesday morning, determining whether the controversial tush push remains a legal play or gets pushed out for good. At least 24 owners would have to vote in favor of banning the play.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NFL tush push ban reportedly has support in league meetings, though discussions are 'heated'
The quest to ban the 'tush push' is apparently getting somewhere. The Green Bay Packers' plan to ban the push sneak, the play that the Philadelphia Eagles have made popular in recent years, is starting to gain support within the competition committee, according to ESPN's Kalyn Kahler. Advertisement It's unknown what kind of support the ban has specifically as league meetings take place in south Florida this week. One person told Kahler that the proposal is going to be 'hotly contested' during those meetings. When the ban was discussed during a football operations meeting on Sunday, things apparently got 'heated.' Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman apparently got into an 'animated' discussion with Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott about the proposal. While the competition committee is discussing the proposal, NFL owners are the ones who actually determine what is implemented. All 32 owners are expected to vote on that proposal, and all other rule changes, officially on Tuesday. Whether or not the votes are there among the owners to actually ban the tush push, Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson wrote on Friday, simply isn't clear. The Packers are behind the push to ban the play this offseason. The Eagles, who started doing this play in 2022, used it to score the first touchdown in their Super Bowl LIX win in February. While other teams have tried to emulate the Eagles in recent years, Philadelphia is easily the best at the tush push. Nobody else comes close. Advertisement Packers president Mark Murphy has said the play is 'almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less,' and he's not alone in his hatred of the play. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, though, calls the push to remove the play from the game insulting. The NFL said that there were no injuries on the play across the league last season, either — which is one thing that the Packers cited in their proposal to ban the play. This is now the third offseason that the NFL is reviewing the tush push, though this is the first offseason that there has been a specific rules proposal made in an effort to remove the play from the game. And while there is support from teams other than the Packers to remove the play, not everyone in the league is against the tush push. "It's weak," one unnamed NFL executive told ESPN about the proposal. "It's punishing a team who became excellent at executing the play. In 2022, when Philadelphia was the only team doing it, there was a concern that it made the game less compelling because fourth-and-short was no longer in doubt. Then other teams copied it, and they can't do it as well.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas education leaders respond to shutdown of DOE
TOPEKA (KSNT) – State education officials have issued a statement Friday following the Trump Administration's push to close the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Denise Kahler with the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE) issued a press release on March 21 in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision to shut down the DOE. Kahler said the KSDE is waiting for a response from Congress and will be looking over Trump's order in the coming days to determine what the impact will be on Kansas. 'For decades, federal support has played a critical role in ensuring equitable access to education, particularly for students with disabilities, those from low-income families, and rural communities. While we have received assurances that funding will not be affected, we do not know yet what impact the elimination of federal oversight will have for programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), and the Higher Education Act (HEA). The administration has said there will be no programmatic disruption.' KSDE statement excerpt What are the pink mystery rocks scattered across northeast Kansas? The Trump Administration argues that closing the DOE will give children and families an 'opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,' according to an executive order filed on March 20. This comes shortly after Trump appointed WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to lead the DOE. Kahler said the Kansas State Board of Education (KBOE) and the KSDE will continue to work with both state and federal leaders, community partners and school district to protect educational opportunities for Kansas students. The KSDE will clarify funding sources, policy implications and legal obligations while staying in contact with schools to maintain a transition with minimal classroom disruptions across the state. The educational StarBase program which connected the state's students to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) was also closed in February. The closure of this program ended about 30 jobs for state educators. Controversial FAFSA high school graduation requirement removed in Kansas For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chicago Tribune
12-02-2025
- Automotive
- Chicago Tribune
From a Chicago Bulls fan winning $1M to a putt for a Porsche: How in-game contests keep sports fans engaged
LINCOLN, Neb. — Like he had done many times before, Travis Weber went to Pinnacle Bank Arena with his uncle last month to watch a Nebraska men's basketball game. The game against USC was no ordinary outing for the 42-year-old from Lincoln. Far from it. He went home the winner of a 2025 Porsche Macan valued at $75,000. All he had to do was putt a golf ball the length of the court through a tiny slot at the bottom of a board. Video of his slow-rolling putt, all 94 feet of it, and his Tiger Woods fist pump went viral. Every night across the country, fans vie for prizes in contests staged during breaks in the action at sporting events big and small. In basketball, it might be half-court shots or length-of-the-court putts. In football, it might be throwing a ball at a target or kicking a field goal. In hockey, it might be taking a shot from center ice. The vast majority of these real-people efforts come and go with polite applause from the crowd, an amusing distraction while the real athletes are getting a rest. Some of them are a lot more fun than that, with explosions of joy and disbelief that something great just happened — and it has been that way for a long time. Jim Kahler, director of the Sports & Entertainment Management Program at Cleveland State University, said in-game contests have been part of the fan experience since the mid-20th century. Bill Veeck was famous for the wacky ways he engaged fans as a minor- and major-league baseball owner — you may remember his 1979 Disco Demolition debacle at a Chicago White Sox game — and Kahler said the late NBA Commissioner David Stern encouraged franchises to emphasize entertainment as much as the game itself. 'Those breaks at halftime and quarter breaks and two-minute timeouts became valuable inventory,' said Kahler, who previously was chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 'You could tie it to the growth of sponsorship. You've got more and more sponsors than ever before. Teams are smart enough to sell those spots. The sponsor and the team have to figure out something that's interactive and engage with the fans in a way the fans appreciate. 'Then it kind of became the arms race of who can come up with the better idea.' The chances of winning Of course, there is risk involved with offering prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars. About a half-dozen companies in the United States assume that risk for sponsors and make good on payoffs to contest winners. Bob Hamman, who founded Dallas-based SCA Promotions in 1986, and his son and company vice president Chris Hamman base their fees on the odds they set for each contest. For example, Bob Hamman said, there's a 50% chance a person picked at random will make a free throw. That drops to 14% for a 3-pointer and 2% for a half-court shot. For Weber's putt at Nebraska, Pennsylvania-based Interactive Promotions Group wrote the insurance policy to mitigate Porsche of Omaha's risk of having to give away the $75,000 Macan. IPG CEO and co-founder Greg Esterhai said the chances of a random fan making a 94-foot putt into a 3-by-3-inch slot are 1 in 100. IPG set the premium at $16,200 to cover a total of eight attempts — one contestant per game for eight games. Esterhai said the claim for Weber's Porsche was approved after IPG reviewed video of the putt and verified conditions were met, such as Weber never having played golf professionally and not having been allowed a practice attempt. At UMass, there was a recent dispute over payment for a $10,000 half-court shot, with the school announcing last week it would pay off the winner after the insurance company covering the prize was said to have reneged because the contestant's foot was over the line. Esterhai said that IPG insures about $2 million in prizes for thousands of in-game contests each year and that there are about 250 winners, but only one or two take home a prize valued at $75,000 or more. Asked if he roots for contestants to win, Bob Hamman paused. 'Well, not really,' he said, laughing. 'But generally speaking, we know there has to be winners. If there are no winners, we have no business.' The joy of winning Chris Hamman said a watershed moment for in-game contests occurred in 1993, when Chicago Bulls fan Don Calhoun's overhand throw from the opposite free-throw line swished through the hoop 80 feet away for $1 million. The insurance company balked at paying because Calhoun had walked on to play basketball at two junior colleges a few years earlier and played in a handful of games. That was disqualifying, according to the insurance company. The Bulls — reportedly with Michael Jordan's involvement — and sponsors ended up making good on the payoff. Porsche of Omaha has conducted the putting contest for four years at Nebraska basketball games. Weber said a Nebraska athletics employee tapped him on the shoulder a couple of minutes before tipoff to ask if he wanted to be the putter during a break in the first half. Weber readily accepted. He owns and operates a home inspection business and is an occasional golfer. Putting, he said, is the strength of his game. Weber said his strategy was to aim straight at the target. Fortunately, he pushed the putt a bit right and it began to break to the left about 6 or 7 feet from the slot and went through. Weber said Tuesday he expects to take delivery of his Porsche in a couple of weeks. Naturally, he chose Huskers red as the color. 'I had never been selected for a contest ever,' he said. 'I wanted to do the free throw, half-court shot thing. Never got to. I guess this was something I'm actually good at, putting, so that helped my odds a little bit.' Some numbers associated with these in-game contests: 1993 The year Bulls fan Don Calhoun swished a shot of about 80 feet, from the opposite free-throw line, to win $1 million. The Bulls and sponsors paid Calhoun after the insurance company reneged, saying he was disqualified because he had played in a handful of junior college basketball games. Calhoun's million-dollar shot is considered the moment in-game contests took off in popularity. 1 in 2 Chances a random fan will make a free throw, according to contest insurer SCA Promotions. 1 in 7 Chances a random fan will make a 3-point shot, according to SCA. 1 in 50 Chances a random fan will make a half-court shot, according to contest insurer Interactive Promotions Group. SCA Promotions sets the chances at 1 in 49. 1 in 100 Chances a random fan will make a length-of-the-court putt (94 feet) into a 3-by-3-inch slot, according to IPG and SCA. 1 in 200 Chances a random hockey fan will make a shot from center ice into a 4-inch slot at the bottom of a board covering the goal 89 feet away, according to SCA. $1,000 Estimated insurance premium for SCA to cover the risk of having to give away $10,000 in a half-court shooting contest, according to SCA vice president Chris Hamman. The premium would cover five attempts by five different contestants. $16,200 Insurance premium paid to IPG to cover the risk of Porsche of Omaha having to give away a $75,000 Porsche Macan to Travis Weber, who made a 94-foot putt into a 3-by-3-inch slot in Nebraska's Putt for a Porsche contest. The premium covered eight attempts by different contestants over eight games.
