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Trump’s nominee for Commerce secretary passes key vote in the Senate

President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, passed a key procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday, clearing the path for his final confirmation vote. 

The Senate’s vote this afternoon to invoke cloture ended the debate on Lutnick’s nomination and paved the way for his confirmation as Commerce secretary. Senators advanced his nomination by a 52-45 vote. Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 majority. 

Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a co-chair of Trump’s 2024 presidential transition team, needed a majority vote to bring his final confirmation vote to the Senate floor. 

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted 16-12 on February 5 to advance Lutnick to the procedural vote. Lutnick testified for over three hours before the Senate Commerce Committee on January 29. 

If confirmed, Lutnick will become one of the wealthiest people to serve in a presidential administration, along with Elon Musk and Trump himself. During Lutnick’s confirmation hearing, he committed to selling all of his interests and assets if confirmed. 

‘My plan is to only serve the American people. So I will divest — meaning I will sell all of my interests, all of my business interests, all of my assets, everything,’ Lutnick said. ‘I’ve worked together with the Office of Government Ethics, and we’ve reached agreement on how to do that, and I will be divesting within 90 days upon my confirmation.’

Lutnick said selling his businesses would prevent a conflict of interest. 

‘Upon confirmation, my businesses will be for sale and someone else will lead them going forward,’ Lutnick added. 

Trump announced Lutnick’s nomination two weeks after he was elected president. 

‘I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce. He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,’ Trump said. 

Trump applauded Lutnick’s leadership during the presidential transition, saying he ‘created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.’

With Lutnick teed up to lead Trump’s ‘Tariff and Trade agenda,’ he faced questions during his confirmation hearing about tariff policy. Lutnick said the argument that tariffs create inflation is ‘nonsense.’ 

‘We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better. We can use tariffs to create reciprocity,’ Lutnick said.

Lutnick testified that he shares Trump’s stance on tariffs, adding he prefers an ‘across-the-board’ strategy to ‘country-by-country’ tariffs. 

Trump on Monday announced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from all countries, adding up to a 35% tariff for Chinese steel and aluminum imports. The tariffs are set to go into effect on March 12. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Roughly 75,000 federal employees agree to Trump’s buyout offer

Roughly 75,000 federal employees have accepted President Donald Trump’s deferred resignation program, after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts in January to leave their jobs or be forced to return to work in person.

Employees who accepted the so-called ‘fork in the road’ offer will retain all pay and benefits and be exempt from in-person work until Sept. 30, a move that’s part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to downsize the federal government. 

‘We have too many people,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday in a press briefing. ‘We have office spaces occupied by 4% — nobody showing up to work because they were told not to.’ 

The White House confirmed to Fox News Digital that numbers had climbed to 75,000 as of Thursday morning. 

It previously said it expected 200,000 people to accept the offer.

The Trump administration’s offer faced scrutiny, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s plan from advancing amid challenges from labor union groups who voiced concerns that the law didn’t require the Trump administration to hold up its end of the deal.

However, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole of Massachusetts ruled in favor of the White House Wednesday evening, asserting the plaintiffs in the case aren’t directly impacted by the Trump administration’s offer. 

They ‘allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members’ questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm,’ O’Toole wrote.

‘The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees,’ O’Toole wrote. ‘This is not sufficient.’

The Trump administration praised the court’s decision, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described it as ‘the first of many legal wins for the president.’ 

‘The court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing,’ Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.’

The buyout program is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has unveiled to cut down the federal workforce. On Tuesday, Trump also signed an executive order instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal workforce staffing numbers. 

The order instructs DOGE and federal agencies to work together to ‘significantly’ shrink the size of the federal government and limit hiring new employees, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Specifically, agencies must not hire more than one employee for every four that leave their federal post. 

Agencies also are instructed to ‘undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force’ and evaluate ways to eliminate or combine agency functions that aren’t legally required, the fact sheet said. 

Fox News’ Andrea Margolis, Jake Gibson, Jacqui Heinrich and Patrick Ward contributed to this report. 

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Hospitals nationwide challenge Trump’s executive order on transgender treatments for minors

A number of hospitals and clinics across the country that provide transgender surgeries or medication for minors are giving a giant middle finger to President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ‘protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation.’ 

Mass General Brigham and other Boston-area hospitals and clinics confirmed to Boston public radio that they plan to continue providing transgender medical treatments as normal. A spokesperson for Mass General Brigham said the hospital was ‘reviewing the federal actions to determine what impact they would have if implemented.’

Oregon Health & Science University, one of the state’s largest providers of transgender surgeries, has stood firm against Trump’s order and said that they expect no interruptions to their services, according to local outlet Oregon Live. 

In Minnesota, multiple hospitals confirmed they will continue to offer transgender medical treatments, and no hospitals in the state have publicly announced any cuts, according to local news outlet The Bemidji Pioneer.

Defiance from these hospitals comes in the face of conflicting directives from state and national leaders who have either determined Trump’s executive order is unlawful, or called on hospitals to ignore the directive. New York Attorney General Letitia James warned New York hospitals that complying with Trump’s order would violate state discrimination laws. 

Simultaneously, attorneys general from 15 states have argued that a court ruling determining Trump’s broad federal funding freeze was unlawful, ultimately rendering his threat to slash funding from hospitals illegal. ‘We will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump Administration to restrict access to [transgender operations and treatment] in our jurisdictions,’ they said.

While some hospitals have chosen to do nothing in the face of these conflicting directives, others have taken limited steps to comply. 

At Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago’s largest children’s hospital, puberty blockers, hormones and mental health services will continue for all current and new patients, but surgery will no longer be offered.

In East Hollywood, California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will stop accepting new patients seeking transgender medications but will continue providing these medications to existing patients who have already been receiving them. Gender-reassignment surgery was not something they offered at the time of Trump’s order.

At Wisconsin Children’s located in Milwaukee, the parent of a transgender patient told TMJ4 News that the hospital said it will not be accepting new patients seeking transgender medical care but there ‘should be no changes’ to the ‘healthcare’ that their child or other current patients receive. Fox News Digital reached out to Children’s Wisconsin for comment but did not receive a response.

A spokesperson for Denver Health told Fox News Digital that while it is terminating all transgender surgeries, patients who have been receiving hormone therapy can continue to do so ‘through the end of February.’ 

While hospitals are reacting differently over what to do next, the Trump administration is being taken to court by state attorneys general, transgender patients and their families, and even a clinic providing transgender treatment. 

In a move that showed what Trump’s executive order could do when hospitals do not comply, the administration withdrew a $1.6 million grant that was supposed to go to St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles to provide funds for its transgender treatment services. While two judges recently ruled that Trump’s federal funding freeze was unlawful, the decisions do not apply to Trump’s executive order on transgender medical services that is preventing St. John’s from accessing the money, according to Cal Matters.

St. John’s intends to sue, Cal Matters noted, and will not be cutting any of its services at this time. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the clinic said Republicans ‘in particular,’ should be concerned about Trump’s ‘overreach’ and ‘attempts to create false narratives about gender-affirming care that go against decades of science.’

‘The attacks on trans health care are blatant attempts by the federal government to interfere in peoples’ private lives — including in doctor-patient relationships and in parent-child relationships — and should alarm all of us.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Trump’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ commission to target autism, chronic diseases

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which will be led by newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Fox News Digital exclusively learned. 

The commission will be chaired by Kennedy and will be ‘tasked with investigating and addressing the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis, with an initial focus on childhood chronic diseases,’ the White House explained to Fox News Digital.

Kennedy was confirmed as the nation’s leader of the U.S. Health and Human Services on Thursday and was expected to be sworn in later in the afternoon. His commission will work to ‘restore trust in medical and scientific institutions and hold public hearings, meetings, roundtables’ to receive input from health leaders. 

The commission, Fox Digital learned, will focus on four policy directives to reverse chronic disease, including providing Americans transparency on health data to ‘avoid conflicts of interest in all federally funded health research;’ prioritizing ‘gold-standard research on why Americans are getting sick’ in all federally-funded health research; working with farmers to ensure food is healthy, as well as affordable; and expanding health coverage and treatment options ‘for beneficial lifestyle changes and disease prevention.’

The commission initially will focus on childhood chronic diseases, such as autism and fatty liver disease, and also investigate adult chronic diseases, such as asthma and the U.S. average life expectancy compared to other nations. 

Within 100 days of the commission’s founding, it is expected to publish ‘an assessment that summarizes what is known and what questions remain regarding the childhood chronic disease crisis, and include international comparisons.’ Within 180 days, it is expected to ‘produce a strategy, based on the findings of the assessment, to improve the health of America’s children,’ Fox Digital learned. 

Kennedy and Trump vowed on the campaign trail to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ including directing their focus on autism among youths in recent years. The commission will investigate chronic conditions for both adults and children, including those related to autism, which the White House said affects one in 36 children.

Trump, in recent months, has cited autism stats while previewing his second administration, balking at the number of children currently diagnosed compared to just 25 years ago. 

‘When you look at, like, autism from 25 years ago, and you look at it now, something’s going on,’ Trump said in December 2024 ahead of his inauguration. ‘Think of this: 25 years ago, autism, 1 in 10,000 children. Today it’s 1 in 36 children. Is something wrong? I think so, and Robert and I, we’re going to figure it out.’ 

Trump also vowed while on the campaign trail in June that he would ‘establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds who are not bought and paid for by Big Pharma, and I will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.’ 

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52–48 on Thursday to confirm Kennedy. His confirmation hearings before the Senate in late January included a few outbursts from protesters, as well as Democrats grilling him over his vaccine stances. 

Kennedy, who ran for president as a Democrat in the 2024 cycle before ultimately dropping out and endorsing Trump, clarified to the Senate that he is not ‘anti-vaccine.’ 

‘I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish. And nobody called me anti-fish. And I believe that … that vaccines play a critical role in healthcare. All of my kids are vaccinated. I’ve read many books on vaccines. My first book in 2014, a first line of it is ‘I am not anti-vaccine’ and last line is ‘I am not anti-vaccine.’ Nor am I the enemy of food producers. American farms are the bedrock of our culture, of our politics, of our national security,’ he said during his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee in January. 

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New poll shows what Americans think of Trump’s record-setting first 3 weeks

President Donald Trump took to social media on Thursday morning to showcase his frenetic pace since reentering the White House on Jan. 20.

‘THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER,’ the president touted.

Trump has signed 64 executive orders since his inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any presidential predecessors during their first weeks in office.

While Trump is never shy about advertising his accomplishments, new polling indicates Americans are divided on the job he is doing so far in his second administration.

Trump stands at 48% approval and 47% disapproval in a national survey conducted for AARP.

The poll is the latest to indicate an early split when it comes to public opinion regarding Trump.

Some surveys, including Pew Research, indicate Trump’s approval ratings are slightly underwater, while others, including a poll from CBS News/YouGuv, suggest the president’s ratings are in positive territory.

Trump’s poll position among Americans stands in stark contrast to his first term in office, when he started out underwater in surveys and remained in negative territory for all four years in the White House.

‘His approval rating is higher than it was at any point in time during his first term,’ veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told Fox News.

Newhouse, pointing to the president’s frenetic pace since returning to power, noted that Americans are ‘giving him positive marks right now, based not just on the perception of what he is going to do, but what he has done already.’

The surveys are in agreement when it comes to the massive partisan divide over Trump.

The AARP poll indicates Trump holds a net approval of 83 points with Republicans, a net disapproval of 76 points among Democrats and that he is underwater by 19 points among independent voters.

‘Trump’s ratings are stronger among men, white voters, and those without college degrees. He is seen more negatively by women, Hispanic and Black voters, and those with college degrees,’ the survey’s release highlighted.

While Trump’s approval ratings for his second term are a major improvement from his first term, his numbers are below where his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, began his single term in office.

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House, with his disapproval in the upper 30s to low to mid 40s. 

However, Biden’s numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.

Biden’s approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.

Fox News’ Mary Schlageter contributed to this report.

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Tariffs would be ‘catastrophic’ for sales of tequila and mezcal, industry group says

The U.S. spirits industry maintained its market share leadership over beer and wine for a third straight year in 2024, even as revenues slid, according to new data released Tuesday.

Spirits supplier sales in the U.S. fell 1.1% last year to a total of $37.2 billion, while volumes rose 1.1%, according to the annual U.S. economic report from the Distilled Spirits Council, a leading trade organization.

That is the first time revenue for the spirits category has fallen in more than two decades. Despite a return to more typical buying patterns after a pandemic boom, spirits revenues have grown an average 5.1% annually since 2019. Between 2003 and 2019, the average annual growth rate was 4.4%.

“While the spirits industry has proven to be resilient during tough times, it is certainly not immune to disruptive economic forces and marketplace challenges, and that was definitely the case in 2024,” said DISCUS President and CEO Chris Swonger.

Tequila and mezcal remained a bright spot for the year as the only spirits category showing sales growth, as revenue climbed 2.9% to $6.7 billion.

Premixed ready-to-drink cocktails grew double digits, but the category includes various types of mixed spirits including vodka, rum, whiskey and cordials.

Mexican spirits and beer have grown more popular with consumers for over two decades, and tequila and mezcal sales outpaced American whiskey for the first time in 2023.

The road ahead for the Mexico-based products remains uncertain. The Trump administration earlier this month delayed imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico — which would include distinctive products such as mezcal and tequila — by one month while tariff negotiations continue.

“These tariffs have wreaked havoc on our craft distilling community,” said Sonat Birnecker Hart, president and founder of KOVAL Distillery in Chicago. “Many craft distillers have expended great time, effort and resources to expand into international markets only to see their dreams shattered by tariffs that have absolutely nothing to do with our industry,” Hart added.

Swonger also noted that tariffs would be a “catastrophic blow” to distillers and only add to the pressure higher interest rates have put on the industry’s supply chain, as wholesalers and retailers continue to deplete inventory buildups and cautiously restock products.

“Consumers were contending with some of the highest prices and interest rates in decades, which put a strain on their wallets and forced many to reduce spending on little luxuries like distilled spirits,” said Swonger. 

“Our sales dipped slightly but consumers continued to choose spirits and enjoy a cocktail with family and friends,” he said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS
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How Eagles assistant coach Autumn Lockwood made history

There’s something that happened at Super Bowl 59 that you might have missed. It’s understandable. There was a lot going on. You know, like the game. Some kind of halftime show. A president showed up. It was busy.

That supersized kinetic energy of the Super Bowl might have understandably scattered your attention. But this is important and you should pay attention. A member of the Philadelphia Eagles’ coaching staff made history. It was actually the second time. It was quiet history, but it was history nonetheless.

The Eagles’ Autumn Lockwood became the first Black woman coach to win a Super Bowl, the NFL confirmed to USA TODAY Sports.

Autumn also made history in Super Bowl 57 when she became the first Black woman to coach in a Super Bowl.

Autumn is the team’s associate sports performance coach and one of only a handful of women to coach in the championship game.

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What does all of this mean? It continues an evolution in NFL coaching. A slow one, to be sure. A really slow one. The NFL has progressed in what has been a long trek to bringing front office and coaching diversity to the league. This is another step in that process.

Lockwood’s background shows a steady climb through the strength and conditioning universe. She worked at the University of Houston and East Tennessee State. Her introduction to the NFL came through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship as an intern for the Atlanta Falcons in 2019.

Over the past 20 years or so, I’ve asked various team and league officials when they believed we’d have a woman head coach in the NFL. The answers have ranged from never to soon to the NFL will have a woman head coach before the country has a woman president. (That last one is proving prescient.)

It could be decades before that happens because there aren’t that many women in the coaching pipeline. An NFL owner would need to think completely outside of the box. Or a head coach would have to hire a woman as a coordinator and prep her to become head coach. This is what men do in the league all the time. In fact, they hire their sons to do this.

The main barrier, again, is that pipeline. For example, last year the Chicago Bears hired Jennifer King as their assistant running backs coach. She became the first woman coach in the franchise’s more than 100-year history.

Last February, according to the Bears, there were 12 women in full-time coaching roles on nine NFL teams. Those numbers need to increase dramatically.

Yes, there was something remarkable that happened at the Super Bowl. You might have missed it. But it was vital. Lockwood changed NFL history.

What moments like this one do is send the message to girls and women, especially girls and women of color, that they can make it to the highest of sports stages. They belong there.

We’ve seen a lot of attacks on diversity in recent months and days, and we will see a lot more to come. Despite so many of those ugly moments, diversity remains our greatest strength. Both as a country and in the NFL.

What matters most is that Lockwood is good at her job. So good she’s part of the team that’s Super Bowl champions.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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Alex Bregman bolts Houston, lands $120 million deal with Red Sox

Alex Bregman, a constant presence in the American League playoffs for the past decade, is moving on from the Houston Astros — and perhaps providing exactly what the Boston Red Sox have been missing.

Bregman, the two-time All-Star third baseman who played key roles in a pair of World Series-winning teams, has reached agreement with the Red Sox on a three-year, $120 million contract that includes opt-out clauses after the first two seasons.

A person familiar with the agreement confirmed the details to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity, as the deal has not been finalized.

With the departure of Bregman, 30, that epic and controversial Astros dynasty that won World Series in 2017 and 2022 is now down to one core player – second baseman Jose Altuve. It was Altuve – who has signed a pair of extensions with Houston and is locked up through 2029 – who lobbied Astros owner Jim Crane late in the season to retain Bregman, years after the club saw both shortstop Carlos Correa and center fielder George Springer depart via free agency.

But the Red Sox waited it out and designed a package that Bregman couldn’t pass up with spring training camps opening up this week. Bregman will reunite with Red Sox manager Alex Cora, the Astros’ bench coach in 2017, Bregman’s first full season after which they won the World Series and later became ensnared in a sign-stealing scandal.

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For the Red Sox, Bregman gives them one of the game’s consummate winners, a player who likely peaked with a 41-homer, 8.9-WAR season in 2019 yet remains both a lineup and clubhouse cog. He’s played at least 145 games in six of his seven full seasons, including last year when an elbow injury limited him to part-time DH duties.

And he represents the kind of free-agent strike that’s been badly missing in the seven years since the Red Sox won the 2018 World Series, as efforts to build a sustainable winner had the effect of making Boston an unattractive spot for free agents.

But Bregman needed a home, and with a $40 million average annual value, will make a significantly higher salary than the $26 million he’d have earned had he accepted the Astros’ standing offer of six years and $156 million. He also turned down the Detroit Tigers’ offer of six years and more than $170 million.

Despite his elbow injury in 2024, Bregman hit 26 homers as his OBP dwindled to .315, and the Astros overcame a slow start to reach the postseason for the eighth consecutive year. Yet their streak of AL Championship Series appearances ended at seven, and they’ve slipped from 106 wins in 2022 to 90 in ’23 and 88 last year.

The Astros still won the AL West, but their reduced win total forced them into the wild-card round, where they were swept in two games by the Detroit Tigers.

Their 2017 championship was marred by the sign-stealing scandal, one that reportedly enveloped most or all of the position players. Altuve and Bregman were chosen to be the initial public-facing veterans of that scandal, the fallout dogging them with boos from opposing crowds since the scandal was unearthed after the 2019 season.

Yet Bregman is on the Red Sox now, tasked with producing at the plate and cultivating a championship culture. He knew little else in Houston.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

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Jets plan to move on from Aaron Rodgers after turbulent run

Aaron Rodgers’ turbulent run with the New York Jets is meeting an unceremonious end.

As it launches a new era under first-year head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey, the team plans to move on from the 41-year-old quarterback, it announced Thursday. Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer was first to report that the team informed Rodgers they do not intend to keep him for the 2025 season.

‘Last week we met with Aaron and shared that our intention was to move in a different direction at quarterback,’ Glenn and Mougey said in a statement released by the team. ‘It was important to have this discussion now to provide clarity and enable each of us the proper time to plan for our respective futures. We want to thank him for the leadership, passion, and dedication he brought to the organization and wish him success moving forward.’

Releasing or trading Rodgers, who has one year remaining on his contract, would leave the Jets with a $49 million dead cap hit.

Glenn made clear upon his hire last month that the team had larger concerns than Rodgers’ fit within the organization.

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‘This thing is not about Aaron Rodgers, folks. This is about the roster,’ Glenn told reporters after his introductory news conference. ‘We plan on building the best roster that we can. So, whatever that may be — guard, tackle, defensive tackle — that’s what we’re evaluating.

‘Listen, everybody’s under the microscope. That’s just what it is.’

The decision brings an end to one of the most turbulent chapters of Rodgers’ professional career. The four-time NFL MVP was traded to New York in April 2023 after his 18-year relationship with the Green Bay Packers reached a breaking point. Rodgers was expected to be a transformative figure for the Jets, who sought to end the NFL’s longest active postseason drought. But he tore his Achilles just four plays into his debut campaign.

His return only extended the disappointment for the franchise. Coach Robert Saleh’s firing after a 2-3 start was the first of many drastic moves made with the intention of implementing a course correction, but the team dropped 10 of 11 games from late September to early December. The franchise extended its playoff drought to 14 seasons and also was dealt its ninth consecutive sub-.500 ledger.

‘I personally want to thank Aaron for his time at the New York Jets,’ Jets chairman Woody Johnson said in a statement. ‘His arrival in 2023 was met with unbridled excitement and I will forever be grateful that he chose to join us to continue his Hall of Fame career. From day one, he embodied all that it meant to be a New York Jet, embraced our fans, and immersed himself in our city. That is what I will remember most when I look back at his time here. He will always be welcome, and I wish him only the best in whatever he chooses to do next.’

In the final weeks of the season, Rodgers spoke reverently about his run with the organization.

‘It’s been the best two years of my life,’ Rodgers said in January. ‘And that’s a perspective adjustment that happened at some point during the rehab process last year. Just the excitement of falling back in love with the game, getting to know these guys in here, getting to know the great men and women who work here, it’s been a lot of fun.’

Rodgers said he would need time after the season to decompress and decide on his football future.

‘I just need some time away to think about my future in the game and my future here, if they want me to be part of the next phase or if they’re ready to move on,’ Rodgers said. ‘Either way, I’m thankful for my two years here.

‘That just comes down to the desire on their side and ultimately my desire, kind of take some time mentally and physically to rest and relax.’

This story has been updated with additional information.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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Meet the star powering UCLA’s undefeated start

UCLA women’s basketball is having its best season in program history, and it’s all thanks to a center dominating the paint.

Lauren Betts was a top-ranked recruit out of Aurora, Colorado, who committed to join a highly-stacked Stanford team under Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer, adding a potential star to one of the best frontcourts in the country. 

However, Betts didn’t spend much time on the court. Her confidence was affected and it didn’t feel like a good fit. She entered the transfer portal after one season at Stanford. UCLA pushed hard to make her a Bruin, feeling like she could help the team take that next step toward a championship.

Now, in her second season at UCLA, Betts is elevating the Bruins and the team is eyeing its first Final Four berth. If Betts keeps up her standout play, there won’t be anything stopping UCLA from reaching Tampa. 

Because there isn’t anything like her.

“Lauren Betts is maybe the most unique player in college basketball,” said Southern California coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

What makes Lauren Betts so good?

At 6-foot-7, Betts is among the tallest players in Division I; only 14 other players are listed at that height.

Betts makes sure to use her towering size to her advantage. If she isn’t setting up a screen near the top of the key, she’s positioning herself near the basket, waiting for the ball to find her hands. Once the rock gets to her inside, she has incredible footwork; she can either use some finesse or easily reach over defenders to put the ball in the hoop. 

It often looks too easy for Betts with only one defender on her. As teams try to limit her, another defender will be brought in for a double-team. Sometimes, yet another is brought over to put three players around her. Still, she’s able to find the bucket, or she finds wide-open teammates who knock down jumpers.

“That presents a certain amount of challenges and decisions that you have to make and how you want to guard (Betts),” said Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff, who saw her total 19 points and 14 rebounds in a Bruins win over his Buckeyes. “She’s a really hard match-up, especially us, with her size and managing. She’s got nice hands and great touch around the basket.”

Betts leads the Bruins in several statistical categories, and is 24th in the country in points (19.6), 29th in rebounds (9.7) and fifth in blocks (2.9) per game. She’s also one of 35 players nationally with at least 10 double-doubles this season. It’s no surprise she is on the Naismith Trophy Women’s Player of the Year midseason team.

So far, Betts is living up to the hype she generated as a senior at Grandview High School, becoming another big-time star in Los Angeles. Across town, USC guard JuJu Watkins has emerged as the next big star of the sport — but you can’t forget about Betts in that conversation.

It’s been a joy to watch Betts blossom for USC forward Kiki Iriafen, who was a teammate with Betts at Stanford before she became a rival with the Trojans. Iriafen remembers playing alongside Betts and thinking she was a great player with a high ceiling. 

“You can double her but she can still pass. I think she’s a great passer, she’s very unselfish, she scores very efficiently,” Iriafen said. “She’s a player that you can’t stop her, but you have to try to slow her down.”

Iriafen said she is proud of what Betts has become and always will be a major supporter. Unless they’re playing against each other in the crosstown showdown – which strangely makes her a rival.

The key to taking down the Bruins is to get Betts out of the game – or at least limit her. But not much has worked yet. There are plenty of options to go about it, but as Gottlieb says, the evolution of Betts’ game is what makes the task even more challenging than before.

“It is really impressive to be really good and then improve,” Gottlieb said. “She was already good, but she’s improved, which has obviously helped UCLA take a step and probably be the best that they’ve ever been.”

As UCLA enters the home stretch of the season and prepares for the NCAA Tournament, it knows if Betts is in rhythm, the Bruins have a good chance of hoisting the team’s first national championship trophy.

Even better news? (Or, worse if you’re not a fan of the blue and gold?)

Betts has already committed to play her senior season. So, good luck trying to stop her next year, too.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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