With Sen. Kamala Harris about to become Vice President Kamala Harris, California is getting a new U.S. senator for only the second time in 25 years. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he would appoint Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla to Harriss soon-to-be vacant seat.

For months, Padilla has been seen as a logical choice for the job. Hes got plenty of experience in California politics Los Angeles city councilor (1999-2006), state senator (2006-2015) and secretary of state (2015-present). Hes a close ally of the governor, and like Newsom he is more of a technocrat than someone who identifies clearly with either the progressive or moderate wing of the party. He also brings geographical balance to the California delegation as the first senator from Southern California since John Seymour left office in 1992.

Most notably, though, the son of Mexican immigrants will be Californias first senator of Hispanic descent pretty surprising given that California has the third-highest share of Hispanic residents of any state in the country. In fact, a plurality of California residents are Hispanic (39 percent, compared with 37 percent who are non-Hispanic white, 14 percent who are Asian and 6 percent who are Black), making Padillas appointment a long overdue milestone.

Nevertheless, Newsoms decision wont please everyone. The governor has been under pressure from virtually every constituency and interest group in the Democratic Party to pick a senator who represents them. For instance, many civil-rights leaders and womens groups were pressuring Newsom to choose a Black woman, such as Rep. Karen Bass or Rep. Barbara Lee. With Harriss departure, there will be no Black women in the next Senate, and there have been only two in all of American history (there are four current senators, and five former senators, of Hispanic descent).

[Democrats And Republicans Should Argue More Not Less]

So there is potential downside here for Newsoms own political prospects as well. This is not something that I wish even on my worst enemy, because you create enemies in this process, he lamented last month. (Its also a terrible time for Newsom to alienate potential allies; hes recently been raked over the coals for attending a crowded dinner party at a posh Napa Valley restaurant in violation of his own COVID-19 protocols.) On the bright side for him (and other ambitious California politicians), though, he does have more chances to placate these groups: He will also be tasked with appointing a replacement for Padilla as secretary of state, as well as a replacement for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has been nominated to be Joe Bidens secretary of health and human services. (There may yet be another Senate vacancy from California, too, as 87-year-old Dianne Feinstein is stepping down from her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and some liberals have called on her to resign from the Senate entirely.) So regardless of the health of Newsoms own political career, he has the enviable and extremely rare opportunity to shape California politics for years to come.

How many years, though, is an open question. Padilla will have to face the voters in 2022, when Harriss Senate seat is up for election, and appointed incumbents do not enjoy the electoral advantage that elected incumbents do. Being a senator from California is also an extremely desirable job: Its one of the most powerful positions in the most populous state in the union, and given Californias strong Democratic lean (Biden just won it by 29 percentage points), its Democratic senators have quite a bit of job security. So Padilla can probably expect to face a stiff challenge for his seat from some of the states other ambitious Democrats. For example, many progressives would love to see Rep. Katie Porter, a protge of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, seek a promotion, and Rep. Adam Schiff has $13.7 million in his campaign bank account despite his congressional district not being even remotely competitive.

[What The Stimulus Tells Us About Compromise In D.C.]

Padilla also probably wont be helped by Californias unusual top-two primary system, whereby all candidates run on the same ballot in the primary, and the top two finishers regardless of party advance to the general election. That means a potential Democratic challenger wouldnt have to get more votes than the incumbent, as in most states; instead, he or she would simply need to get more votes than the leading Republican (or third-party) candidate. Again, given how blue California is, thats an easy scenario to imagine: Indeed, two of Californias three Senate elections since the top-two primary was implemented have gone to a Democrat-on-Democrat general election. So while Democrats probably arent in danger of losing Californias Senate seat to Republicans in 2022, it might still be a competitive election worth watching all the way until November.

Originally posted here:

Californias New Senator Will Make History. But Can He Win A Full Term In 2022? - FiveThirtyEight

No New York Yankee player has had a much more impact on the Yankees success in the past two decades than Derek Jeter. In an important moment, he always seemed to rise to the occasion, even when it didnt seem likely. On the last day of his career at Yankee Stadium, it seemed that the game was choreographed for Jeter even though they would not go on to a postseason appearance in 2014. He retired with 3,464 hits and 260 home runs, and a career .816 OPS.

Not only was Derek Jeter a great hitter, but he was also an excellent defender as one of the best shortstops in baseball. But one of the strangest talents that Jeter had was the ability to accomplish a particular feat and do it unexpectedly. On the evening of Oct. 13, 2001, the seventh inning of the third game of the American League Division Series between the Yankees and Athletics, and Jeter was in the right place at the right time. With Oaklands Jason Giambi on third base. With Mike Mussina on the mound, Torrence Long hit one down the right-field line, Spencer fielded the ball but overthrew both cut off men. Jeter mysteriously appeared past the first baseline getting the ball and flipping it to Posada, who tagged out Giambi. This is an astonishing play that he has never been seen then or since.

One of Derek Jeters most stressful times was the games leading up to his 3,000th hit, a record seldom seen in baseball. In all of baseball history, only 27 players had had 3,000 hits. Jeter entered his 2011 season struggling and not used to bad press, but after a two-hit game in Cleveland lifted his average to .257, Jeter a .314 career hitter before this season acknowledged that the scrutiny of his struggles had taken some fun from the chase for 3,000.

Its kind of hard to enjoy it when theres a lot of negativity thats out there, Jeter said. Hopefully, I might be able to enjoy it the next few days.

Nevertheless, the hit watch was on among the New York Yankee faithful. Jeter was known for having his Mom and Dad in the stands for important moments in Jeters career. This was no different in the days leading up to his 3,000 hit moment. On July 9, 2011, he entered the game at Yankee Stadium just two hits short of the remarkable accomplishment. Jeter would get a hit in the game, drawing him even closer. Again referring to Jeter over accomplishing, in his second at-bat, he would launch a David Price breaking ball over the left-field fence for his 3,000th hit, a homer no one expected. With a sold-out Stadium, he would hit five for five and hit the winning hit in the game.

With so many important moments in the future Hall of Famers career, it wasnt easy to pick on a particular moment of accomplishment. But today, I have picked one of the most successful moments of his career. With his career all but over, the Yankee star played his last game at Yankee Stadium. It was one of the happiest days for Yankee fans as they celebrated his career, but at the same time is was sad for the fans to know they would never see their favorite shortstop play again.

But even with the celebration, there was a game to be played that day against the division winning Baltimore Orioles on that afternoon in 2014. There was nothing on the line, but somehow the game took on special meaning for Yankee fans. The stands were full for that last Yankee game. Like in many games, his family was in the stands. As the game progressed to a tie in the ninth inning, fans didnt know if Jeter would be taken out of the game to give him his moment in the bottom of the ninth. But the decision was made to have Jeter hit instead. He took to the plate and hit a game-winning walk-off a line drive to end his career as if it was choreographed.

That late afternoon saw a celebration of Derek Jeter that would last long after the game was over without a single fan leaving the ballpark. The celebration will be one that will be long-remembered by New York Yankee fans. Below will remind you of that game. Thank you, Derek Jeter, for an amazing career that will lead to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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New York Yankees History: On this day after Christmas one of the Happiest/Sad days of the last decade (video) - Empire Sports Media

Liverpool star Fabinho admits a second Premier League title would be more special than the first as it would put Jurgen Klopps side further in to football history.

The Reds ended a 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England in July with a whopping 18-point advantage over Manchester City.

Liverpool have made light of injury problems this season to hold a four-point lead over Christmas in the chase for successive titles.

This team will be remembered for how well we play, the quality of our football and for winning the title, Fabinho said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

But to fight for the second one would put us further in to football history. It would put us up there with teams in the Premier League that have won back to back titles. Teams like Manchester City.

It would put us on the higher level and put us with the best teams in the history of the league.

Taking into account everything that has happened this year, the difficulties of no fans in the stadiums and the busy run of fixtures and injuries we have had, it all adds to making the second title more special than the first one if we could do it.

It would show that we have this constant desire at the club to be winners.

Long-term injuries to Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez has forced the Brazilian midfielder to drop deeper into central defence.

Yet the 27-year-old has hardly put a foot wrong since Liverpools last domestic defeat, the 7-2 horror show away to Aston Villa at the start of October.

Fabinho said that plans for him to play at the back had been in operation almost from the day he arrived at Liverpool in July 2018.

Back then the coach saw the need for someone to be available so I started working on that position, getting used to it, working with potential partners, said Fabinho, who is set to make his 100th Liverpool appearance against West Brom on Sunday.

We had three centre-backs at the time so it was all just a test for me, just to be prepared. The coach had identified that there could be a need further down the line.

So when I came in I felt good and comfortable and over time its got easier.

When Virgil got injured I expected to come in as centre-back and even the other players were joking. They were saying: Fabinho the defender is back, he is here.

Yes I was nervous at first but I think I have grown in to it.

Continued here:

Fabinho aiming to put Liverpool among best teams in history with second title - This Is Anfield

Welcome to the relaunched This Day in Yankees History. With the offseason well underway, the Pinstripe Alley team has decided to continue the revived program in its new format. These daily posts will highlight two or three key moments in Yankees history on a given date, as well as recognize players born on the day. Hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with us!

This Day in Yankees History (December 26)

101 Years Ago

When researching this day in history, I entered with the assumption that nothing much of note could have happened on the day after Christmas. While MLB teams occasionally drop significant transactions on holidays, typically, they take it easy on days like Christmas just like the rest of us.

And yet, 101 years ago today, perhaps the most important move in the games history came to pass, as the Yankees agreed to send $100,000 to the Red Sox in exchange for Babe Ruth. Theres little that needs to be said about the divergent paths of these two teams after the sale of Ruth, though its certainly fun to note that Ruth posted a 209 OPS+ with the Yankees, winning four titles while Boston obviously went without a championship for 86 years.

More interesting at this point are the circumstances surrounding the Yankees and Red Sox that culminated with the momentous deal that put Ruth in the Bronx. Yet even over a century later, much of what caused the Red Sox to send the games best player to their direct rivals remains a mystery.

Reports suggest Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was under financial pressure after the 1919 season. Some say Frazee, also an owner of multiple theaters and a producer of several stage productions, needed cash to finance his theatrical projects. Also possibly coming into play was Ruths knowledge of his own worth; the star two-way player was the face of the game, and the sport was gaining popularity around the country thanks in no small part to Ruths greatness. Ruth reportedly asked for his salary to be doubled entering 1920.

The parallel has been drawn before, but the Red Sox ridding themselves of a star outfielder, sending him to a fellow big market team that quickly wins a pennant, all because said star was about to see a salary jump is just a tale that does not get old, and one that repeated itself when they traded Mookie Betts almost a year ago.

Today is Chris Chamblisss 72nd birthday. The former first baseman is probably best known for stroking the home run that won the deciding Game Five of the 1976 ALCS over the Royals. Lets relive it, shall we:

Chambliss played seven seasons with the Yankees, won two World Series, and accumulated over 15 WAR per Baseball Reference. He later served as hitting coach under Joe Torre during the 1996-2000 dynasty years.

We thank Baseball Reference and Nationalpastime.com for providing background information for these posts.

Read this article:

This Day in Yankees History: The Curse of the Bambino is born - Pinstripe Alley

We see caste as a problem, not as an analytical category. It is the object of analysis but never its subject. Scholarship on Indias history includes caste as one element, with class and community comprising other categories. What would the history of India look like if seen through the lens of caste?

Ambedkar made this argument for ancient India, seeing the struggle between Brahminism and Buddhism, interrupted by Muslim invasions that destroyed the latter and included the former within a new order. Hinduism emerged from this conquest by adopting Buddhist practices of vegetarianism, temples, floral offerings and non-violence. Buddhists, meanwhile, converted to Islam from the low castes to which they had been reduced.

Whatever its accuracy, Ambedkars history repudiated the dualistic narrative of Hindu-Muslim conflict by including caste within it. Ambedkar claimed that by launching the movement for Pakistan, the Muslim League abandoned its history of alliances between caste and religious minorities. It came instead to an agreement with the Congress as one high-caste party with another to divide the spoils of Independence.

I want to offer a parallel account of how caste permits us to understand modern Indian history. Consider how the Bania tells us a different story about this past. The first time this caste transformed modern India was in the 18th Century, when traders supported the East India Company to make colonialism possible. They did so by switching allegiance from Kshatriya rulers, whether Hindu or Muslim.

The second time Banias changed Indias modern history was with the development of the Congress as a mass organisation under Gandhi. The Kshatriyas displaced by colonialism had by then been replaced in politics by Brahmin lawyers and administrators. The first Bania to take power from the Brahmins who dominated the party, Gandhi gained for it the support of Indias traders.

The national and religious culture promoted by Gandhi was also Bania in character, defined by bhakti, ahimsa and popular Vaishnavism. His rival Jinnah performed a similar feat in the Muslim League, which had been run by an administrative class equivalent to the Brahmins, alongside remnants of the old Kshatriya elite.

Jinnah was from the Khoja caste of traders and, like Gandhi, the first Bania to gain control of his party while bringing Muslim capitalists to support it. Khoja are mostly converts of Hindu Lohana caste. Jinnah boasted of his ability to talk to Gandhi as a Khoja would to a Bania.

If Gandhis rise to power signalled the emergence of a new national culture for Hindus, Jinnahs rise accomplished the same for Muslims. The culture of learning and honour that had characterised the Leagues Brahmin and Kshatriya elite was replaced by a Bania focus on contractual politics.

With Independence, Banias in both countries had to take a back seat. In India they were restricted by a Brahmin bureaucracy and in Pakistan excluded by a new Kshatriya elite. With Brahmins disempowered by the loss of their bases in north India, power soon came to be exercised directly by Kshatriyas through the military.

The multiplicity of power centres in post-colonial India led to a variety of alliances, in which the numerical dominance of Shudras has been divided, joined or mediated by other castes. Pakistan was dominated by a Kshatriya-Shudra grouping in the west and a Shudra-Dalit-Adivasi one in the east, with Brahmin administrators and Bania capitalists of little account in either wing.

In India, Banias played a major role for a third time during the countrys economic liberalisation in the early 1990s, which freed them to adopt a new political identity in Hindutvas Brahmin-Bania combine. Their religiosity is not the austere kind valued by Brahmin ideologues like Savarkar, however, but continues to be focused on bhakti.

In Pakistan, meanwhile, the Kshatriya-Shudra grouping became an absolute majority with the separation of Bangladesh. Even a traders party like that of Nawaz Sharif must adopt Kshatriya ideals to survive. As for Brahmins, their declining status has allowed them to emerge as ideological brokers for groups making claims to power in the name of Islam.

Religion has come to define national culture in both countries, allowing different castes to identify with each other by excluding minorities. While Hinduism provides a home for many sectarian cultures in India, Islam in Pakistan is exclusive.

Why does Islam as a national ideology have to find its enemies within the Muslim community in Pakistan, whether among Ahmadis or Shias, Deobandis or Barelvis? Because the emergence of Bangladesh eliminated Hindus as a substantial minority, with Christians, Sikhs and Parsis also too insignificant.

While Christians and Hindus are discriminated against and even persecuted in Pakistan, as Muslims and Christians sometimes are in India, they are not seen to represent any serious threat to Islam. This means that Islam comes to dominate politics in such a way as to obscure both caste and religious difference.

If the suspect religious minority in Pakistan is to be found within Islam, non-Muslim groups come to represent not religious but caste difference. A Muslim community dominated by Kshatriyas and Shudras thus attacks Christians in Punjab as Dalits, while discriminating against Hindus in Sind as Dalits, Banias and Adivasis.

Christians and Hindus also serve as repositories for the caste identities of Muslims, who escape their status by displacing it onto them. While caste differences in India are also displaced onto a religious minority, in Pakistan this displacement locates the minority within and caste outside Islam. Caste really does allow us to see history anew.

Faisal Devji is Professor of Indian History at the University of Oxford

Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters, curates the fortnightly Dalitality column

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Seeing India, Pak history through the lens of caste - The Indian Express

Was the Central Air Data Computer the first microprocessor? Well, histories are complicated. In 1998, Ray finally got clearance from the Navy to tell people about it, and The Wall Street Journal published a piece titled Yet Another 'Father' of the Microprocessor Wants Recognition From the Chip Industry. The Intel engineers who share the title told the paper that the Central Air Data Computer was bulky, it was expensive, it wasnt a general purpose device. One expert said it was not a microprocessor because of how the processing was distributed among the chips. AnotherRussell Fishsaid it was, noting, The company that had this technology could have become Intel. It could have accelerated the microprocessor industry at the time by five years." But other people around that time also wanted to claim the title of father of the microprocessor; there were some big patent fights, and not everyone even agrees on the exact definition of a microprocessor in the first place.

The discussion, says Fish, who today runs an IP licensing company called Venray, is not a technical one, it is a philosophical one. Fish at one point wrote that the 4-bit 4004 could count to 16, while the 20-bit CADC was evaluating sixth order polynomial expressions rapidly enough to move the control surfaces of a dogfighting swing-wing supersonic fighter. When I spoke to him recently, he said he had gone back and read through the documentation. What Ray Holt did was absolutely brilliant, he says. Particularly given the timeframe. Ray was generations ahead, algorithmically and computationally.

Official histories have a way of hardening, but notice the very careful language on Intels website today when it describes the 4004, that canonical first microprocessor (emphasis mine): The first general-purpose programmable processor on the market.

The device Ray and the team had invented, this noncommercial, not-on-the-market microprocessor, was a stumped branch on a family tree. It flew a plane that could go fast and slow and fire missiles with unprecedented precision, but no next thing was born from it. A brilliant and beautiful secret butterfly that didnt beget other butterflies.

Except.

Ray says he likes to find out what the kids are really interested in. For Skylar DiBenedetto that was VR and 3D printing.

What Ray is doing now is launching another set of little histories, individual ones, as he nudges hundreds of students down a different path, down a different set of logic gates. As a robotics teacher, its astronomical, really, what he does, says Skylar DiBenedetto, a former student of his. Ray and Liz helped Skylar discover VR and 3D printing, and now shes a freshman at Ole Miss, the first person in her immediate family to go to college, where she helps run the virtual reality lab.

And hes not stopping. In our last conversation, just before Thanksgiving, he describes the after-school program for public school kids he and some other collaborators want to start after the new year. He is wearing a cap commemorating the last flight of the F-14, and I note the cross on the doorframe behind him. A friend of a friend has donated a big space, and he and Liz Patin and a few others are going to talk to local leaders and teachers and set it up. Maybe down the line hell even raise enough money to execute on his idea for a Christian-based STEM high schoolthe sketches for it look amazing, with classrooms and labs arranged around a central robot-competition area. When I ask Ray if its a stretch to say that his work to connect with kids is a little bit reminiscent of the way he was able to connect with Bill when they were working on the F-14 project, he says, Not a stretch at all. Maybe they could have even started a company together. I think we probably could have made some useful products.

Ray ultimately decided to transition out of a cutthroat technology industry and shift his focus to youth sports, describing it as a way for him to keep a connection with Bill. Unless you follow your passion, he says life can get useless, boring, and without meaning.

On the weekend before this piece is due to publish, I find myself gazing idly at the bookshelf under the television and my eyes focus on a small volume called The Portable James Joyce. It looks old, and I cant remember ever actually opening it, but something scratches at my brain. I pull it out and turn to the front. Its inscribed. William B. Holt 1/6/65. I flip to the table of contents. A few stories are underlined lightly in pencil, including Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The Dead. A young man, organizing his early days at university, five years before a death he could never have foreseen, reading a short story that ends with a man wondering about a boy his wife used to know, one who died.

Link:

The Secret History of the First Microprocessor, the F-14, and Me - WIRED

HOME, SWEET HOME This home at 1617 Main St. in Wellsburg is among those being profiled by West Virginia Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, in a book he is writing about the community. (Contributed photo)

WELLSBURG West Virginia Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld is writing a book one that depicts Wellsburgs story through its structures and the families who lived and worked in them.

The perspective of the book is telling Wellsburgs history through the stories of the families who built, lived in or had significant events in some of our more architecturally significant, or historically significant homes, explained Weld, R-Brooke.

As I got into my research, I was very surprised of just how much of Wellsburgs history and the county and the states history could be told through these homes and the people who built them and lived in them.

His interest in the project began in 2018 during a conversation with his mother, Roseanna Filberto. She and her husband Welds stepfather and retired Weir High School football coach Tony Filberto have lived in the same house at 21st and Charles streets in Wellsburg since 1986. Weld grew up there.

A couple of years ago, we were talking about the house and Mom said, Weve lived here so long, and I dont know anything about the house. Who built it? Who lived here?

Ive always been very interested in history, and local history in particular. So I started to do the research.

Weld learned the original owner of the home, William Scott, was the owner of the Scott Ice Cream Company and had two confectionaries in Wellsburg during the 1920s. But Scott died young just before the economy collapsed and the Great Depression happened in 1929.

Weld contacted the grandsons and great-grandsons of Scott, who had always believed their relative committed suicide after losing everything in the Depression.

Weld was able to show them Scotts death certificate, which showed he had actually passed away in a local hospital three months prior to the Depression. This told the family something about their history they did not know, according to Weld.

Later, they visited the area and were able to tour their familys former home that now belongs to the Filbertos.

It was very cool to make that connection, Weld said. I thought out of that, there has to be a books worth of information on other homes. So I picked two dozen or so other homes in town and started my book.

Among them were many homes near Welds own home on Pleasant Avenue in Wellsburg, where many elected officials have resided over the years.

Among them was former State Sen. John Chernenko, D-Brooke, also a former majority whip. John and Jackie Kennedy made a historic visit to Wellsburg and the Chernenko home prior to the 1960 Democratic primary election for president.

Weld also has researched homes at 22nd and Main streets, at 816 Main St. and at 1030 Franklin Ave.

He spoke to John Sperlazza about his home at 2011 Main St. just before Sperlazzas death this year. Weld said he has since given the interview to Sperlazzas family.

Weld is keeping mum on other sites he researched so as to build interest when the book is published.

He said his work has revealed that Wellsburgs former three-story city building was destroyed by fire in 1939.

And while it didnt pertain to any one structure in the city, the Cliftonville Mine Riots played quite a role in Wellsburgs history. There was a gun battle between mine workers and the sheriff and his deputies that led to the sheriff being killed. A large court trial in the county took place in July 1922, according to Weld.

Weld has conducted his research through items found at the Brooke County Courthouse, local libraries, the Library of Congress, newspapers and books.

For the most part, the research is done, so now it is just a matter of process to complete the work, according to Weld.

In addition to being a state senator, Weld is also an attorney. He works on the book on weekends.

He hopes to have it done maybe by the end of 2021.

When it is done, I hope people get as much out of it as I did writing it, heaid. I hope they learn something about their home and their town, and thats why I started to write it.

(King can be contacted at jking@theintelligencer.net)

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Excerpt from:

Weld telling Wellsburg history through its homes, families - The Daily Times