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Jack Squirek, known for Raiders’ Super Bowl 18 interception, dies

Super Bowl-winning linebacker Jack Squirek, best known for his interception in the Los Angeles Raiders’ Super Bowl 18 win over Washington in 1984, has died. He was 64.

‘The Raiders Family is mourning the loss of Jack Squirek, who passed away on Friday,’ the franchise announced on social media Saturday. ‘The thoughts and deepest condolences of the Raider Nation are with the Squirek family at this time.’

A cause of death was not provided.

The Raiders selected Squirek out of Illinois in the second round of the 1982 NFL draft. He spent four seasons in Los Angeles, including the 1983-84 season, where the Raiders defeated heavily favored Washington 38-9 in Super Bowl 18. Before the first half ended, Squirek intercepted quarterback Joe Theismann’s screen pass and returned it 5 yards for a touchdown to go up 21–3 at halftime.

Squirek’s pick-six was ranked as the 19th on the NFL’s 2016 list of Top 50 Clutch Super Bowl plays.

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Super Bowl 18 marked the Raiders’ last Super Bowl win, one that proved impressive as the 1983-84 Washington team scored 541 points that season, an NFL record at a time that has since been broken by multiple teams.

Squirek finished his career with one final season on the Miami Dolphins. He played in 55 career games.

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Why Harbaugh should stay at Michigan on crusade to get athletes paid

HOUSTON — If Michigan wins the national title on Monday night, the stage will be set for a seminal moment in college sports. 

All season long, and once again Saturday prior to the College Football Playoff championship game, coach Jim Harbaugh has advocated for players to share in the billions being generated by this sport. To do it with a trophy in his hand, on the night the entire country is paying attention, would be arguably the most significant stance for athletes’ rights ever taken by a prominent coach. 

“People come to watch the players,” Harbaugh said Saturday. “They really don’t come to watch the coaches. They don’t come watch the administrators. They come to watch the players. And in a world where the revenue is ever growing, the student-athletes being able to participate in that ever-growing revenue, who could argue against them?”

Even now, in an era of players being able to profit off name, image and likeness, arguing for schools and the NCAA to share revenue with athletes is a bold step for a college coach. Few have had the foresight, desire or guts to do it.

But if Harbaugh believes that sincerely and isn’t merely using it as media chum to distract from his multiple imbroglios with NCAA rules, then he needs to do it by staying at Michigan and fighting the fight. It’s easy to talk. It’s a lot easier when you have one foot out the door waiting for an offer from the NFL. 

“There used to be a saying, ‘hey, we’re all robbing the same train here,’” Harbaugh said. “Coaches, administrators, media, television stations, conferences, NCAA. And the ones that are really robbing the train, the ones that could really get hurt, are getting a very small piece. That needs to change.”

There’s no reason to believe Harbaugh is being insincere in his desire to see athletes start to get a cut of the massive (and growing) revenues generated by college football. It does, however, make for a convenient topic on a day like Saturday to suck up some oxygen that might otherwise go to sign-stealing or breaking recruiting rules during the COVID-19 dead period back in 2020, both of which have put Michigan and Harbaugh in the crosshairs of the NCAA enforcement staff. 

Harbaugh may come off as the most aloof man in college football, but he’s not a dummy when it comes to how the media works. If he says a little as possible about the things he doesn’t want to talk about while fully engaging on the topic of athlete pay, he knows which one is going to get more attention.

“There’s a lot of people profiting off the backs of student-athletes, and they do a lot of work to keep it from them with all kinds of rules,” Harbaugh said. “And (they) have been doing it for a long time.”

Even if they recognize the inequity of the current system, the vast majority of coaches don’t talk that way — and they sure don’t do it in public. The big buzzword in college athletics these days is “alignment,” and when someone is making millions of dollars a year to coach, being out of alignment with their athletics director or president on that issue is more trouble than its worth. 

Harbaugh doesn’t care, which is admirable these days. In the eyes of some Michigan fans, it has even made him more of a legend because they truly believe the NCAA targeted him due to his renegade views. Though it’s a complete fiction, the narrative of Harbaugh as a martyr is far more palatable than the boring reality that Michigan was bad at cheating and made it very easy for the NCAA to find out. 

But if Harbaugh gets up on stage Monday night with a trophy in hand amidst the confetti falling at NRG Stadium and says the kinds of things he said Saturday, it will have an impact similar to former UConn basketball player Shabazz Napier using the Final Four platform in 2014 to tell the world he sometimes went to bed starving because he couldn’t afford food. 

It doesn’t matter that the reality was more nuanced or that the NCAA was already en route to changing its rules so that schools could offer unlimited meals, it brought an to the attention of millions of people and pressured the NCAA to act quickly. Similarly, there’s already a movement being led by NCAA president Charlie Baker that would require the highest-revenue schools to put a minimum of $30,000 per year in a trust fund to pay at least half their scholarship athletes.

The conversation is just beginning, and there’s a long way to go before all the details are in place, but Baker’s proposal will be discussed in depth next week in Phoenix during the annual NCAA convention. A newly-minted national championship coach making that case for the entire world to see has the potential to influence the tone of the debate and supercharge the urgency to do something significant. He even suggested Saturday that every coach, administrator and others profiting off the labor of college athletes should have five to 10 percent of their salary put into a pot that would be redistributed to players. 

“It’s time to share,” Harbaugh said. “Maybe that’s a start, a way.”

Whether you like that idea or not, at least somebody is willing to say it would be ridiculous for Michigan to offer Harbaugh a $9 or $10 million per year contract while claiming there’s not enough money to share revenues. It’s actually a very easy concept: If schools always seem to find enough money to hire and fire coaches, why would that be any different if they suddenly have to pay a workforce of athletes? It’s simply a matter of priorities. 

“If things can change as they’ve changed so quickly in college athletics just this year – just in 2023, we’ve seen so much change, including a whole conference going into a portal – then you’re hopeful,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, you’re confident that this is something that could change rather quickly with the right voice, with the right people talking about it, with eventually someone to speak for the players.”

So why wouldn’t Harbaugh be that person? The answer may be because he’s about to become the coach of the Los Angles Charges or Las Vegas Raiders or some other franchise.

“I’ll gladly talk about the future next week,” Harbaugh said Saturday. “And I hope to have one, how about that? A future, I hope to have one, yes. Thank you.”

But if he truly cares about this issue, Harbaugh can actually make a difference by staying at Michigan and becoming that advocate he says is so necessary. Among his peers, nobody else has shown much interest in doing it. And Harbaugh certainly can’t be that transformational figure if he’s off in the NFL. 

For the longest time, Alabama’s Nick Saban has been the conscience of the sport when it comes to the big issues. When he speaks, people listen. But Saban at 72 years old is probably close to the end of his career. When he exits the stage, there’s going to be a leadership vacuum someone like Harbaugh could fill if he truly had the desire to stay at Michigan and make a stand. 

If Michigan wins its first national title since 1997, Harbaugh’s coaching legacy will be set for the rest of time. But if he wants to become one of the most important people in the history of the college football, there’s only one option: Stay at Michigan and do the hard work required to get this sport to change. 

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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NFL sack leader suffers knee injury in Steelers’ regular-season finale

T.J. Watt was knocked out of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ regular-season finale Saturday with a knee injury.  

The Steelers believe Watt suffered a MCL sprain but await further testing, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported.

Watt was having a whale of a game against the rival Baltimore Ravens with two sacks, extending his league-leading total to 19, and three tackles for loss. But in the third quarter Watt was forced to the locker room after an accidental collision with teammate Montravius Adams.

Watt’s leg appeared to buckle awkwardly as Adams ran into him on a pass play, and Watt was shown pounding the field in pain as trainers came out to examine him. He eventually walked to the blue medical tent with some assistance and was later shown walking slowly to the Pittsburgh locker room. The Steelers ruled him out around the start of the fourth quarter.

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All eyes will be on Watt’s health going forward, especially if the Steelers qualify for the playoffs. That’s no guarantee, but Saturday’s 17-10 win to sweep the top-seeded Ravens — who rested several key players, including likely MVP Lamar Jackson — was a big step in the right direction.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin did not reveal the extent of Watt’s knee injury after the game, but said he’d have more information in the days ahead.

‘Obviously disappointed in that. But, you know, there are challenges in the game of football, there are challenges in life. So we’ll deal with it, whatever it may be,’ Tomlin said.

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Vivek Ramaswamy says there are only two ‘America First’ presidential candidates

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Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy asserted that he and former President Donald Trump are the only two candidates with an American First agenda.

At a town hall in Marengo, Iowa on Saturday, the 38-year-old entrepreneur said that he and Trump are the only two ‘America First’ candidates on the Republican ballot.

‘I think there’s two America first candidates in this race,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘That’s Donald Trump and me.’ 

The moment came after Ramaswamy told a crowd of supporters that it was time to speak ‘candidly,’ asking the attendees to raise their hands if they were planning on casting their ballot for Ramaswamy or for Trump.

‘How many of you are leaning towards supporting me right now?,’ Ramaswamy asked. ‘A good number of you.’

Next, Ramaswamy asked audience members which of them were planning on voting for Trump in the Iowa presidential caucuses on Jan. 15.

‘How many of you are considering Donald Trump for the caucus?,’ Ramaswamy asked. ‘Okay. Well, thank you. I understand that because I think there are two ‘American First’ candidates in this race.’

Ramaswamy, who has campaigned on an ‘America First 2.0’ agenda, has aligned himself with Trump’s America First policy, which centers on reducing U.S. trade deficits and rebalancing the burden of America’s responsibilities to international trade organizations.

In just a week, the 2024 Iowa Caucuses will commence, where the first votes for the next potential president will be cast. 

Being the first state to cast votes for presidential nominees, Iowa’s caucuses set the stage for the entire primary season. Winning or performing strongly in Iowa can generate crucial momentum for candidates, influencing voter perceptions of their viability.

Ramaswamy received the endorsement of former Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King in a post on X last week. 

Salem, New Hampshire, GOP Chairman Steve Goddu also endorsed Ramaswamy last year, along with former New Hampshire GOP Senate candidate Kevin Smith.

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

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Nikki Haley raises eyebrows with ‘change personalities’ comment as her momentum sparks increased scrutiny

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley raised a few eyebrows this weekend from conservatives, after the former South Carolina governor made a comment about changing ‘personalities’ while discussing the upcoming Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. 

‘The structure of it is really amazing,’ Haley told an interviewer on a local Iowa PBS station last week of the GOP primary process. ‘Iowa starts it. You change personalities, you go into New Hampshire.’

The presidential candidate was discussing whether she would support changing the order in which states vote in the Republican primary as Democrats did for their presidential primary process. She often remarks on how each state has its own personality. 

At a recent event in Iowa, Haley called Iowans ‘patriotic,’ ‘hardworking’ and ‘very careful’ while saying New Hampshire voters wear their ‘feelings on their sleeves,’ and South Carolinians can ‘kick you with a smile.’ 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has seen poll numbers tighten with Haley as her numbers rise, hit the 51-year-old on the remark while answering questions following an event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday. 

DeSantis said it’s ‘just not going well’ for Haley as she faces more scrutiny in the media. ‘I think she’s not showing an ability to be able to withstand that and to be able to answer the type of questions that you need. I mean you obviously saw she’s dealing with history, having trouble there, dissing Iowa with the things she said there … and now this saying that you change personalities once you leave Iowa and go to New Hampshire.’

Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who supports DeSantis, wrote in X, formerly Twitter, Saturday, ‘So – @NikkiHaley (allies) dump another $1.8 million against @RonDeSantis … so she can ‘changepersonalities’ to go to NH to ‘correct’ Iowans… & audition to be Trump’s VP ($0 against Trump)… to advance forever wars, open borders, & corporate interests. Got it. #DeSantis2024.’

Haley’s campaign hit back against the attacks, with spokeswoman AnneMarie Graham-Barnes telling Fox News Digital in a statement: ‘Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are getting more and more desperate by the hour Nikki’s momentum is real and her vision is resonating, so they’re grasping at straws. Voters see right through it.’ 

Iowa’s polls show former President Trump, who has also increased his attacks on Haley, including TV attack ads, with a double-digit lead over the other candidates (about 50%, according to a Real Clear Politics average), but Haley has closed the gap with DeSantis and the two are vying for second place with 15.7% and 18.4% respectively, with Vivek Ramaswamy in a distant fourth with 6%. 

‘President Trump has long said he’d train his sights on whomever is number two in the race,’ Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, told Politico recently. ‘Rob DeSanctimonious is approaching single digits everywhere and his campaign is on life support, which means it’s Nikki Haley’s turn in the barrel.’

Haley has struggled with other gaffes recently, most notably her answer in a New Hampshire town hall last month that failed to make any mention of slavery as the cause of the Civil War. She walked back the comments hours later, saying ‘of course’ the war was about slavery, but her opponents continue to hound her about it. 

She also faced heat for telling New Hampshire voters recently, ‘You know Iowa starts it. You know that you correct it … you know that my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home,’ which she later described as a joke. 

Haley noted the increased attacks she’s received from Trump and her other opponents during a town hall in Iowa Saturday, joking, ‘All these fellas are showing me way too much attention.’ 

She also derided Trump for a recent attack ad against her, which claimed she and President Biden both opposed Trump border security measures such as a wall.

‘Isn’t that sweet of him, spending so much time and money against me?’ she quipped to Fox News. She told Iowa voters Saturday that in reality she had said the wall was a start but more needed to be done to secure the border. 

‘They’re taking little pieces and putting it together to make it look like what they want you to see,’ Haley said of the other candidates’ attacks. ‘But you know what it all means. If they’re lying, it’s because they know they’re losing. It’s that simple. And if they’re going to lie about me, I’m going to tell you the truth about them.’ 

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Fauci to be grilled by House GOP on COVID origins, future pandemics

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic response, will be grilled on the origins of the virus and how to manage future mass outbreaks during back-to-back marathon meetings with lawmakers.

The longtime former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is sitting down for a closed-door interview with the House select committee on COVID-19 Monday and Tuesday, with both sessions expected to last at least seven hours.

‘This is after-action review, lessons learned. What did we do right, what did we do wrong? Why were decisions made? You know, let’s face it, COVID was challenging from the standpoint that we didn’t know how to treat it. We didn’t know where it came from. We were learning what it was doing to people,’ Committee Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

‘Dr. Fauci clearly was the scientific face of COVID during the pandemic and spokesperson under both administrations. … He might stay here in Washington, but we’re going home to our constituents, who want answers to a lot of things.’

Wenstrup, a physician of over 30 years, said he was interested in hearing insights that could potentially help his committee eventually offer bipartisan recommendations on how to handle the next pandemic.

He’s also planning to demand answers on pandemic political decisions, including vaccine mandates, which Wenstrup called ‘egregious.’

‘It’s like a politician saying, ‘You must get this vaccine or you’re fired from your job.’ And, you know, where’s the doctor? People want to have a conversation with their doctor. ‘Am I at risk? Why am I at risk? Why should I get the vaccine? What are the side effects of the vaccine?’’ he explained. 

The Ohio Republican also suggested he’d ask Fauci about the controversy over whether COVID originated naturally or was formed in a Wuhan, China lab.

‘When people had a differing view of whether this came from nature and thought it came from a lab, why were they ignored?’ he asked. ‘You saw people being called crackpots and conspiracy theorists.

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‘We have people saying, ‘Forget about the origins, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just move on.’ … You’ve got to be prepared. Just as you want to see if something may emerge from nature, which is a lot of the work that they were doing with gain of function. … I can understand that. But, at the same time, you know, the technology is there to create a virus, and where are they doing it? In Wuhan. So why are we ignoring that?’

Wenstrup’s committee has been investigating whether government officials at the time, including Fauci, worked to suppress questions about whether the pandemic was the result of a lab leak in Wuhan. Republicans accused those officials of pushing the natural origin theory in a bid to protect China.

Fauci became a politically polarizing figure during the pandemic. He was vilified by those opposed to lockdowns, masking rules and vaccine mandates, while being idolized by those who agreed with the government’s actions. 

Wenstrup said the interview would be more of a ’roundtable’ with lawmakers on both sides posing questions. He also expressed hope the committee’s final recommendations could be bipartisan. 

‘At the end of the day, we want to just reveal what worked and what didn’t work and what we might do better in the future,’ Wenstrup said. ‘I come from a military background. It’s always fair to say there were lessons learned.’

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Vin Diesel, Tommy Lee, Jermaine Jackson hit with sex abuse lawsuits under California’s accountability law

Vin Diesel, Tommy Lee, Jermaine Jackson and others were hit with sexual abuse lawsuits brought under a California law aimed at accountability.

Each lawsuit was brought under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which won’t expire until Dec. 31, 2026. 

The law allows victims to revive claims that would otherwise be barred from the legal process due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

‘The purpose is to give alleged victims a second bite at the apple, with an opportunity to pursue claims that they were not in a position to pursue or failed to pursue before the legal timeline for doing so expired,’ Ethan Krasnoo, Partner at Reavis Page Jump LLP, explained to Fox News Digital.

‘Sexual assault and abuse are two of the most underreported crimes,’ personal injury lawyer and former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital. ‘Victims can feel ashamed and may not want to relive their trauma at a very public trial. They may also feel that the public and a jury won’t believe them if it’s a ‘he said, she said’ situation. 

‘But the pressure of filing a lawsuit or losing the opportunity altogether can motivate victims to contact a lawyer. And once a perpetrator has been named, that can empower other victims to come forward. That’s what #MeToo was all about.’

Victims remaining silent is ‘not uncommon,’ Krasnoo noted.

‘Some of my clients have taken more than ten years to make a public disclosure of the sexual assault they endured,’ he said. ‘There are many reasons for this, including victims assigning self-blame and embarrassment, victims failing to understand that what they endured is illegal or failing to understand the time limitations on bringing a lawsuit.  

‘When the perpetrator is someone the victim trusts, it can especially complicate a victim’s ability to recognize what happened to them as sexual assault.  And it can take a lot of courage for a victim to bring an action and publicly disclose the allegations after having suffered trauma as a result of rape or sexual abuse. Some may not be ready to do so for quite some time, if ever.   

Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel was sued for sexual battery Dec. 21 by his former assistant, according to a complaint obtained by Fox News Digital.

Asta Jonasson accused the actor of assaulting her while working on the ‘Fast Five’ film. She claimed Diesel hired her in 2010, and her first assignment was organizing parties and catering for Diesel during filming.

Diesel allegedly assaulted Jonasson one night while she was trying to keep people from photographing the actor hanging out with multiple women in the suite of his hotel.

‘Vin Diesel forcibly grabbed Ms. Jonasson, groped her breasts, and kissed her’ after the last woman left the suite, the lawsuit claimed.

At one point, Jonasson alleged, Diesel ‘pinned her against the wall with his body and grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s hand and placed it on his erect penis. Disgusted by being forced to touch his penis, Ms. Jonasson instantaneously withdrew her hand and again verbally refused him.’ 

She alleged Diesel ‘ignored Ms. Jonasson’s pleas’ and then ‘began to masturbate’ while keeping her pinned to the wall.

Jonasson claimed Samantha Vincent, president of One Race and Vin Diesel’s sister, called her hours after the alleged assault and fired her.

A representative for Diesel denied the claim. 

‘Let me be very clear, Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety,’ the rep said. ‘This is the first he has ever heard about this more than 13-year-old claim made by a purportedly nine-day employee. There is clear evidence which completely refutes these outlandish allegations.’

Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee was sued for gender violence and sexual assault Dec. 15 by a woman who chose to remain anonymous, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

Jane Doe claimed to be ‘lured under false pretenses’ to take a helicopter ride by the drummer’s personal pilot, David Martz. The woman alleged she only found out Lee would be a passenger ‘moments before the ride.’

Martz requested Jane Doe sit in the cockpit with Lee, but she says she declined because there was ‘no room for her’ to sit in the cockpit. However, Lee insisted she join him by sitting on his lap so she would ‘not miss the view,’ the complaint stated. ‘Plaintiff felt immense pressure from both Martz and Lee to come to the cockpit, so she acquiesced.’

The suit stated Lee began ‘groping and kissing Plaintiff.’ She attempted to pull away from Lee, but ‘he only became more forceful.’ At one point, she claims, Lee attempted to ‘force her to perform oral copulation.’

The woman claimed to have felt ‘trapped’ as Martz allegedly did ‘nothing.’ Once the helicopter landed at Van Nuys Airport, Lee ‘hugged Plaintiff and jumped out of the helicopter. Plaintiff and Martz then traveled back to the Airfield, in silence.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Lee’s representative for comment.

Jermaine Jackson

Michael Jackson’s brother, Jermaine Jackson, was hit with a lawsuit Dec. 28. Rita Barrett accused Jackson of sexual assault and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy of covering up the alleged assault in documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

In Spring 1988, ‘Defendant Jackson forced himself into Plaintiff’s home, and with force and violence sexually assaulted Plaintiff,’ the lawsuit states. Barrett claimed that, during the assault, she ‘prayed to God for help.’ Barrett ‘feared for her life,’ and ‘when Defendant Jackson was satiated, he left the residence.’

Barrett claimed she knew Gordy through her husband, Ben Barrett. Ben and Gordy had a professional relationship while the music executive was working with Jackson.

‘Because of his relationships with both Defendant Jackson and Plaintiff’s family, Mr. Gordy was uniquely situated to both report Defendant Jackson’s acts and to aid Plaintiff during her time of trauma,’ the suit stated. ‘Instead, Mr. Gordy withheld and concealed the acts, further perpetuating the cover-up and allowing Mr. Gordy, Defendant Jackson, and others in the business relationship to continue to reap profits derived from Mr. Jackson’s work and reputation for years to come.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to a representative for Jackson.

Nigel Lythgoe

‘American Idol’ producer Nigel Lythgoe was sued by Paula Abdul Dec. 29. Abdul accused Lythgoe of sexually assaulting her twice while she was judging on the show in a lawsuit obtained by Fox News Digital.

Abdul claimed Lythgoe first sexually assaulted her in an elevator during an early season of ‘American Idol.’

‘Lythgoe shoved Abdul against the wall, then grabbed her genitals and breasts, and began shoving his tongue down her throat,’ the court documents stated.

‘Abdul attempted to push Lythgoe away from her. When the doors to the elevator for her door opened, Abdul ran out of the elevator and to her hotel room. Abdul quickly called one of her representatives in tears to inform them of the assault.’

The second assault allegedly occurred while Abdul was judging Lythgoe’s other show, ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’ According to Abdul, Lythgoe forced himself on her after the two shared dinner at his home. Abdul said she attended the dinner because she believed Lythgoe had extended her a ‘professional invitation.’ 

Lythgoe denied the accusations, telling Fox News Digital, ‘To say that I am shocked and saddened by the allegations made against me by Paula Abdul is a wild understatement. For more than two decades, Paula and I have interacted as dear – and entirely platonic – friends and colleagues.

‘Yesterday, however, out of the blue, I learned of these claims in the press, and I want to be clear: Not only are they false, they are deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for. While Paula’s history of erratic behavior is well known, I can’t pretend to understand exactly why she would file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue. But I can promise that I will fight this appalling smear with everything I have.’

Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this report.

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The U.S. added 216,000 jobs in December, much better than expected

The U.S. labor market closed out 2023 in strong shape as the pace of hiring was even more powerful than expected, the Labor Department reported Friday.

December’s jobs report showed employers added 216,000 jobs for the month while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. Payroll growth showed a sizeable gain from November’s downwardly revised 173,000.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for payrolls to increase 170,000 and the unemployment rate to nudge higher to 3.8%.

Markets reacted negatively to the report, with stock market futures sliding and Treasury yields sharply higher.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Has the Stanley cup hype reached its peak?

A stainless steel cup is proving surprisingly durable in the often erratic world of internet fads.

It’s called the Stanley “Quencher,” and it checks in at 1 foot tall. Capable of holding 40 ounces of liquid, it’s been described as an “emotional support” water bottle by some, and a must-have by others.

And although it first caught on as a trendy object during the pandemic, the cup has proved to be a surprisingly resilient cultural object, joining Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Ugg boots among the long-lasting hallmarks of Gen Z/millennial girl culture.

Stanley, a company that had once been best known for making thermoses favored by blue-collar workers and campers, has stayed a favorite among younger people, topping many holiday wish lists.

The hashtag #StanleyCup has amassed over 6.8 billion views on TikTok. According to figures shared with CNBC, Stanley’s annual sales for 2023 are projected to top $750 million.

This week, the popularity of its cups reached new levels after the release of a special edition “Winter Pink” cup, sold exclusively at Target, spawned a frenzy online and people crowded stores across the U.S. in hopes of securing just one of the coveted tumblers.

Vincent Marcus, an influencer based in Los Angeles, was among the thousands who trekked to Target to get the limited edition drinking vessel for his 10-year-old daughter, who heard about the release on social media.

“She and her friends are really realizing the hype,” he said, noting his daughter had four cups already. “The desire to collect is only a recent thing.”

Armed with folding chairs, they arrived at a local Target at 1 a.m., waiting in 40-degree weather for the 8 a.m. opening of the store’s doors. In a video posted to TikTok, Marcus showed a line snaking around the block behind them as the night progressed.

Once inside, Marcus said the store’s manager started counting people. Only the first 40 were able to secure the coveted item.

“I fully recognize that it was an insane thing to do, but it was all for her,” he said. “Of course, it’s just a cup.”

However, Marcus said his daughter and others have been drawn to the fact that the cups “have a collectability factor.”

The wait was worth it: After the cup was successfully obtained, he said his daughter “carried it around the entire day afterwards.”

Other Stanley enthusiasts online said they witnessed physical altercations and general chaos amid high demand for the collaboration.

The limited edition cup is already listed on resale sites for up to $300.

Thousands of people have joined a handful of popular Facebook groups dedicated to hunting down various cups and buying, selling and trading them. Its popularity has even inspired a toy, which one Instagram account called trendyfavefinds described as “a baby ‘Stanley.’”

There was a moment in time where it seemed like the Stanley cup brand could have been cast aside. But a consumer — Ashlee LeSueur, a Salt Lake City native and lifestyle blogger — stepped in to help.

LeSueur, who had purchased her first Quencher in 2017, began gifting it to friends and recommending it to followers on her blog, The Buy Guide, according to CNBC.

When the Quencher was on the brink of being discontinued in 2019, she lobbied to save her favorite cup and bought 5,000 Quenchers at wholesale price.

In 2020, after Stanley brought on Crocs veteran Terence Reilly as its new president, he partnered with The Buy Guide. The brand launched a collaboration with the blog to promote new collectible colors such as Desert Sage and Cream.

“My experience at Crocs was fueled by collaboration culture and drop culture,” Reilly told CNBC. “And I knew that once we had our legs under us at Stanley, and once we could see the connection to consumers that we were creating, we were also ready for collaborations.”

The Quencher became Stanley’s top-selling product that year, and has retained that spot ever since.

While it may come as a surprise to see a water bottle hold such a beloved spot in consumer hearts, brand loyalty for similar products is not unprecedented.

The Hydro Flask was also once considered the go-to water bottle accessory of the day, having usurped the Nalgene before it as the “it girl” hydration product. It gained popularity during the 2010s for its ability to keep the ice in water cold for 24 hours and came in a variety of vibrant colors. But consumers said it had a flaw — it didn’t fit in the cupholder of a car.

Even amid the rise of Stanley cups, some Gen Z social media users have already shifted their attention toward another water bottle company — the Owala.

One TikTok user analyzed water bottle trends over the years, predicting a year ago that Owala water bottles would eventually become the next big thing.

“When you see Owalas everywhere, I’m telling you, come back to me,” the creator said in the video. “Follow the people who are nurses. They are on the water bottle trends first.”

Another user posted a video silently comparing the two insulated water bottles — when she flipped both the Stanley Cup and Owala upside down, the Stanley cup appears to leak a puddle of water onto the floor.

Some comments on videos comparing the two brands characterize Owala as the “cooler younger sister” to the Stanley cup, which has been designated by some users as “basic.”

“Just trying to keep up with Gen Z,” one TikTok user said, while showing off her new Owala in a video.

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More states are considering requiring full minimum wages for tip earners this year

Five states are deciding this year whether to ditch the practice of paying workers who earn tips less than the minimum wage. And activists say they’re bringing that fight to at least as many others, framing it as a key cost-of-living issue in an election year.

Ballot measures pending in Michigan, Arizona, Ohio and Massachusetts, and a bill being reintroduced in Connecticut would eliminate a longstanding two-tiered pay system for tip-earning hourly workers like restaurant servers and bartenders, who earn a lower “subminimum” wage than their nontipped counterparts.

Only seven states already pay a single minimum wage regardless of tips. While more than two dozen others have raised subminimum pay for tip earners above the federal $2.13-an-hour floor — a rate last increased in 1991 — those workers still earn less in base pay than their states’ minimum wage.

Employers are required to make up the difference whenever tips don’t add up to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, but labor advocates and researchers say that rarely happens consistently.

One of the next big battlegrounds is New York, where a $15 hourly minimum wage took effect Jan. 1 — except for tip earners. Activists and progressive lawmakers are already pushing to end that exemption and calling on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to back a single pay floor as part of her 2024 budget plan.

Proponents feel the wind in their sails after Chicago lawmakers voted in October to begin phasing out the tipped subminimum wage over five years until it’s even with the city’s standard hourly minimum of $15.80. Less than a year earlier, Washington, D.C., took a similar step through a ballot measure voters backed by wide margins.

“We’re just seeing so much momentum following that win” in the Windy City, said Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage, a national advocacy group that led the effort there. She said the organization has already seen thousands of restaurants across the country voluntarily abandon subminimum wages in favor of the same base pay for all front- and back-of-house workers, with tips on top.

In addition to New York and Connecticut, Jayaraman said One Fair Wage is campaigning behind legislation to end subminimum pay in Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii and Rhode Island in 2024. Altogether, the group says it’s tallied 13 states taking up similar policy changes through various means this year.

“It’s about a massive shift that’s happened in the restaurant industry post-pandemic,” said Jayaraman, who also directs the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

As the economy reopened and employers struggled to hire — while inflation juiced the costs of everything from a head of lettuce to a month’s rent — tips increasingly failed to keep subminimum wage earners afloat, Jayaraman said. She estimated that by the time the Chicago ordinance came up for a vote, about a third of the city’s labor-hungry restaurateurs had already hiked by so much that the measure was virtually a moot point for them.

Tipping volumes rose modestly as the country emerged from the pandemic, but Americans groaned about it even when they went along and added gratuity in more places more often. Recently, though, frustrations over tipping etiquette — scrambled by the ubiquity of automated prompts from digital card readers — have calcified into fatigue.

“We’ve definitely observed a slight increase in tipping over the last few years,” the payments processor Square told NBC News in November, but the upticks were “a lot more modest than people realize.”

For many workers, that has translated into lower take-home pay. Some bartenders and servers told CNBC’s Emily Lorsch that they’re now making as much as 30% less than what they earned in previous years, citing a backlash to so-called tipflation.

Opponents of eliminating subminimum pay for tipped employees, including restaurant industry groups, say the practice is crucial for smaller establishments operating on razor-thin margins. Otherwise, many businesses say they’d have to pass higher labor costs on to consumers in the form of steeper menu prices or those vague service charges creeping onto patrons’ checks. Some also argue there’s no better way to incentivize good service than with the prospect of a fat tip.

Forcing these workers to rely exclusively on tips just isn’t working anymore.

Saru Jayaraman, president of one fair wage

Sylvia Allegretto, a senior economist at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research think tank, said concerns about the health of the restaurant industry have been wielded to depress wages for decades.

“Why are there restaurants in California if we have a $16 minimum wage and no subminimum wage?” said Allegretto, a former co-chair of UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

Jayaraman acknowledged concerns about competition, saying, “It has to be everybody across the board,” not just deeper-pocketed businesses with more ability to raise pay. But she said the compensation patchwork is already driving up labor costs by prolonging a hiring crunch and high turnover, adding, “A lot of workers are saying, ‘I won’t come back until it’s the law.’”

Beyond just eliminating subminimum pay for potentially millions more tipped workers in 2024 — an election year in which Jayaraman said a “top issue for every poll I’ve seen is the cost of living” — One Fair Wage also wants to secure higher pay floors overall.

The ballot measures the group is backing in Michigan, Arizona and Ohio, along with one in California that would end subminimum pay for incarcerated people — the only residents there who can still be compensated that way — would also raise the overall state minimum wage across the board, she said.

“Forcing these workers to rely exclusively on tips just isn’t working anymore,” she added.

The next 12 months will show how many voters and policymakers agree.

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