Daily Archives: December 15, 2021

Lane Kiffin is realizing that college football players are now able to act like coaches every offseason.

With the regular season over and the early signing period for high school recruits set to begin Wednesday, many players who are looking to transfer have been actively searching for their new schools this month. As players put their names in the transfer portal, coaching staffs have to keep an eye out for players they want to add for the upcoming season while also prepping for bowl games if their teams are eligible for the postseason.

Players are also now able to make money off their name and image rights. This is the first offseason where transferring players can consider how much money they can make in endorsements when choosing their new schools. And Kiffin says that money is now an overriding factor for many players when it comes to their transfer decisions.

"I don't think people really say it this way, but let's not make a mistake: We have free agency in college football," the Ole Miss coach told the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger. "The kids a lot of times go to where they're going to get paid the most. No one else is saying that, maybe. But the kids say, 'This is what I'm getting here from [name, image and likeness].' "

It's easy to see why Kiffin isn't exactly thrilled with the reality of the transfer portal. Thanks to new NCAA rules, players can transfer and immediately be eligible at their new schools. The loosening of the transfer rules has led to more players searching for better opportunities, even before they were able to make endorsement and sponsorship income. More transfers has led to more work for coaches to keep players from transferring and actively recruit transferring players to upgrade their teams.

"Right now you're practicing for bowl games," Kiffin said. "We had a player not here [Monday] because he's still on his official visit to another place. Just really think about that. It's very strange. I had a recruiting weekend this weekend where I had to fly out really quick to go see someone that's at another school but is in the portal."

Story continues

But why shouldn't players be afforded the same offseason reality that coaches have been experiencing for years? Coaches have been free to change jobs this time of the year for decades. And money has often been a driving factor. Former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly left the Irish while the team still had a chance at making the College Football Playoff. Ex-Louisiana coach Billy Napier was hired by Florida before the Ragin' Cajuns played in the Sun Belt title game.

Oh, Kiffin left Florida Atlantic for Ole Miss before the Owls played in the Boca Raton Bowl at the end of the 2019 season.

Look, there's a lot of things that aren't perfect in college football but the ability for players to play right away and make money off their own likenesses are two huge steps toward fixing the longtime systemic inequities in the sport. Coaches like Kiffin and Mississippi State coach Mike Leach are far more used to a college football where those inequities were an unaddressed reality and simply the way things were and should always be.

And let's be real, the transfer portal and name, image and likeness process would probably be a lot less messy for players and coaches if the NCAA and its member schools had been proactive to make incremental and well-thought-out change. Instead, the portal and the current NIL rules are the products of rash decisions after years of procrastination by those in charge of college sports.

Go here to read the rest:

Lane Kiffin on the transfer portal: Players transfer to where 'they're going to get paid the most' - Yahoo Sports

Investment programs are gaining popularity in the U.S. and internationally, as more millennials shift their money into cryptocurrency.

The dynamic represents both an opportunity for citizens to obtain a second passport, and an option to claim permanent residency in a foreign country, according to one market observer. He cited the Caribbean and Europe as prime destinations for nascent crypto investors.

We're looking specifically at the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, as well as countries such as Portugal that offer golden visas, which are residency by investment programs, Armand Tannous, vice president of North America and Latin America for Apex Capital Partners, told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday.

Investors approved for the Caribbean will have to wait three to four months for citizenship, while those applying for European nations will have to wait six to 18 months.

Additionally, Tannous noted that if a citizen decides to renounce their U.S. citizenship, even though they have a second citizenship, they don't have access to the tax benefits that the other countries offer.

Still, there's been an increase of 36% of individuals who have renounced their citizenship within the last year. [Thats] a huge number, Tannous said.

As more countries allow investment into their nation by foreign nationals and offer them substantial benefits in return, Tannous explained that citizenship by investment programs (CIP) do a lot of "due dilligence" when it comes to vetting applicants.

Successful applicants need to present a clean criminal record and also show a legal source of funds or source of wealth as well as invest in one of the government approved investment opportunities, Tannous said. That could range from real estate to government bonds, or even a donation to the national economic fund of a specific country.

According to data compiled by Apex Capital Partners, the pandemic fueled a 200% surge in applications from U.S. citizens applying for citizenship and residency by investment programs, with strong growth in Canadian applications (47%).

The interest fueled by crypto comes during what has been a volatile yet monumental year for digital coins. Bitcoin (BTC) the leading cryptocurrency soared to new highs, but has since retreated amid fears about the Omicron variant of COVID-19, as well as concerns about Federal Reserve monetary policy.

Story continues

However, the sector is still booming amid sustained interest by small investors in smaller crypto units, and soaring institutional buy-in from major companies. Meanwhile, digital currency enthusiasts many of whom are millennials are driving interest in dual citizenship.

Over the last 24 months, with the pandemic, [we have seen]that you don't necessarily need to be living in your country of which you're were born in to be able to continue [or] actively [be] running your business, whether it's a crypto business, simple trading, or even having access to different investment opportunities internationally, Tannous said.

The reasons for why the crypto crowd is gravitating toward having a second home country are related to opportunity cost, tax exposure, as well as a lot of uncertainty in the field, the investor said.

They see that trend of where you're treated best and that's when they look at being global citizens, he added.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn

Over the shoulder view of a young woman checking the stock market on smartphone, having coffee at home. Business on the go concept.

Excerpt from:

How crypto is boosting investor education, dual citizenship hopes - Yahoo Finance

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Thursday, December 10, 2021

Last Sunday, after nearly suffering a heart-attack watching Pittsburgh play Baltimore in a classic Steelers-Ravens thriller, I attended my first concert of the pandemic era: Genesis, which played to a packed-to-the-rafters crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Tomorrow afternoon, Ill be indulging in yet-another COVID-era first thats also been on my personal bucket list for years. Ill be watching the Black Knights play the Midshipmen in the annual Army-Navy game.

Im also an entertainment junkie whos in the movie theater at least once a week, and Im known to dine indoors a LOT. And it bears mentioning that all of the above, at least in New York City, require full vaccination (in the interest of full disclosure, I am).

Believe it or not, my reason for sharing this information is not to boast about my social life, or virtue signal about vaccinations. It's meant to illustrate an important point about the virus and human behavior, which have played an integral part in propelling the economy for the better part of the last two years.

The appearance of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 rocked markets, which up until Thursdays retreat that squashed a 3-day rally, had recouped nearly all of its gains a reversal so dramatic investors had begun dismissing it as Omi-whatever.

It's still very early days and caution is advised. Yet signs, including price action in major markets, are pointing to the variant being less fatal, even if it's significantly more communicable than Delta. Case counts are already jumping everywhere even among highly vaccinated populations so more restrictions on public life (or the unlikely but still non-zero probability of full-on lockdowns) cant be entirely ruled out.

But with all that being said

Story continues

Amid the battles breaking out over vaccine mandates and the impact on those who have chosen not to be inoculated against COVID, theres strong evidence to suggest that people are over it, as the kids say these days.

None of this is meant to dismiss the toll the virus continues to take on the globe, where the death toll has spiraled inexorably higher (over 5 million worldwide and counting), even with the presence of vaccines. To be sure, there are many with underlying conditions, or loved ones considered high risk, who are still cautious or outright paranoid, and with good reason.

Yet evidence everywhere suggests that vast numbers of people and not just the mostly maskless hordes gathered to watch Phil Collins and Company at the Garden are moving beyond living in self-imposed exile to a strategy of risk assessment and mitigation. Holiday gatherings, including office parties, are starting to look a lot like they did pre-COVID.

To wit:

And all over the world, more people are getting out and about. Global mobility data from Deutsche Bank suggests that on a population-weighted basis, most of the world is back close to pre-pandemic levels of mobility, the bank said in a research note this week.

People are moving about their respective countries, and the world, at an increasingly rapid pace.

As the winter COVID wave and Omicron hit us, in aggregate mobility hasnt yet dipped, chief economist Jim Reid wrote. This either shows people are learning to live with the virus more or that its too early to tell as travel and domestic restrictions, only very recently imposed, have yet to fully take their toll, with more possibly to come.

Perhaps, but the learning to live aspect is what is most important to understanding why stocks have recouped their losses from the Black Friday sell-off. In fact, Matt Roberts, newly publicly-traded Vacasa's (VCSA) CEO, told Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous this week that bookings continue to outperform, even with Omicron swirling.

"We posted amazing Q3 results when the Delta variant was spiking. It's partly because we're domestic focused and whole homed. So, if anything, we are quite insulated from any new variants," Roberts said.

The rise of new variants is a very real risk. Yet all the high frequency data that continue to defy expectations, especially those showing how hot the labor market remains, suggest that demand is sky high. That means even people fearful of COVID are still coming out of their bubbles.

The response to Omicron may dampen the economic outlook in the near term, wrote Thomas Torgerson, co-head of sovereign ratings at DBRS Morningstar, in research this week.

At present, we view these risks as contained and unlikely to derail the global economic recovery as consumers and businesses continue to adapt and learn to live with the risks, he added.

For many (but certainly not all), "learning to live" with COVID has become something of a credo. So whether vaccinated, unvaccinated, or just plain over it (I count myself firmly in the latter camp), people are weighing the risks, but seem to be erring on the side of enjoying lifes creature comforts.

Oh, and Go Army!

By Javier E. David, editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him at @Teflongeek

Why Apple's stock is on fire right now

Omicron variant is starting to hurt consumer spending: BofA data

Supply chain disruption has brought massive change to beer market: CEO

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn

See the original post here:

Vaxxed or not, data suggests people are over Omicron/Delta, and COVID altogether - Yahoo Finance

As we enter the final four weeks of the regular season, the focus slowly shifts to the postseason. The playoff hunt will dominate the backstory of every game with each team's fate continuing to evolve every time the scoreboard hits 0:00. The importance of each game gets magnified as fans start to roll out the dreaded "must-win" label. It used to justify an expectation that a team will over-perform simply because the stakes are raised. You see coaches cringe during interviews the second it rolls off the tongue of a reporter. Additional pressure rarely translates to success. That's exactly why coaches spent the last 14 weeks ingraining the idea into their team that each game is equally important.

Bettors are wired differently. We are not coaches. We spend each week trying to capture any possible edge we can find. Sometimes it can be data-driven or just news and information. Every sports bettor will tell you that a week doesn't go by where they aren't trying to project where a team is mentally and how that will impact their play. It can be a player prop when facing his old team, or a team looking ahead to a game the following week. It's part of the handicap. Understanding its predictive value is the key.

We grow up watching our favorite sports-themed movies and they all have one thing in common a happy ending. When the pressure peaked, the team responded to defeat adversity and secure the victory. The NFL is highly entertaining, but it's not a movie. Credits don't roll when the games end. More often than not, when a team is in a "must-win" situation, it ends with disappointment and frustration for fans. Bettors need to keep that in mind as we wind down the NFL season. Don't give teams a bump simply because their backs are against the wall. Players respond differently to pressure. I targeted two games that feature at least one team that's feeling the heat as the season winds down. Here is the best way to bet how they will respond on Sunday.

Story continues

The Steelers at 6-6-1 are behind 10 other AFC teams in the playoff standings. If Pittsburgh plans to push its way to the top seven, it has to start this week against Tennessee. The Steelers have the Chiefs, Browns, and Ravens waiting for them in a brutal stretch to end the season. Mike Tomlin's record of 14 straight seasons without a losing record is in serious jeopardy.

The Titans are coming off a 20-0 win over the Jaguars. It already sounds like it's "1-2-3 Cancun" time in Jacksonville. Regardless of what we think of the Jaguars, the shutout speaks to how the Titans' defense has improved down the stretch. Mike Vrabel's unit ranks 11th in EPA/Play allowed while the formerly formidable Steelers defense ranks an uncharacteristic 27th. In a matchup in which both teams will rely heavily on its ground game, Tennessee's defense is top 10 in terms of rushing success rate allowed. If Big Ben has to win this one with his arm, I'm betting the Steelers fall deeper out of the playoff picture.

What a difference a year makes. After being swept during the season by the Saints, Tom Brady's Bucs headed to New Orleans as three-point underdogs in last year's playoff divisional round. It's been downhill for the Saints ever since.

Fast forward 11 months. The defending champion Buccaneers are double-digit favorites at home against a Saints team struggling to stay above water in the playoff race. The Saints continue to be a puzzle Brady has yet to solve in the regular season. New Orleans took down Tampa 36-27 as a four-point underdog in late October. Tampa is now laying 6.5 more points in the rematch. Are 10.5 points too many to lay with the best team in football? Tampa Bay is 5-0 as a double-digit favorite this season, while the Saints lost their last three as underdogs.

As strong as the Bucs have been at home (6-0 S/U, 5-1 ATS), I do think we see the best version of the Saints we have seen in a while. It's not that New Orleans was impressive in beating the Jets, but it's that the game served a purpose in getting some key reps for players returning from injury.

Running back Alvin Kamara gets the attention, but DE Marcus Davenport and OT Terron Armstead are the valuable pieces that make this Saints team a playoff contender. We saw Tampa take its foot off the gas against Buffalo at home last week, and I think they let the Saints hang around long enough to cover. I'm not daring enough to grab the moneyline at +400, but I am happy to get a 10.5-point head start in this one.

Stats provided by Ben Baldwin and teamrankings.com.

Read more from the original source:

NFL betting: It could be a prime spot to fade Tom Brady and the Bucs - Yahoo Sports

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Donning my Captain Obvious hat, Ill connect a few dots that by now are fairly apparent: inflation remains implacable in the face of rising COVID-19 infections. That is likely to make the Federal Reserve announce that its slowing the spigot of monetary policy, which is also making markets temperamental.

Across the board, we are seeing rising and accelerating inflation, Clearnomics CEO James Liu told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday.

Most likely [the Fed is] going to accelerate the rate of tapering, and then were looking at probably the first rate hike in the first half of next year, he said.

However, Tuesdays hot wholesale prices data which showed headline inflation skyrocketing nearly 10% year-over-year, a record and a central bank struggling to get ahead of inflation gives us an opportunity to reiterate something that often gets lost in the debate about price pressures.

That is to say, our current inflationary moment is entirely driven by voracious consumer demand, a high-class problem that's actually buttressed the economy in ways that can only be described as Herculean. At the risk of oversimplifying, people want to get out, buy things and see people after spending most of 2020 cooped up at home.

Irrespective of COVID-19 variants rearing their ugly head, those impulses have yet to shift appreciably.

For evidence of this, note the observations of Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) President Daniel Pinto, both of whom were quoted as saying spending and consumer behavior are holding up strongly as new virus infections soar.

"I don't see any impact yet. And if you go out to a restaurant, I don't see people change their behavior, Moynihan was quoted as saying by The Transcript.

Story continues

The [air travel] numbers, you can see bounce around a little bit... but the reality is it seems like the vaccines continue to work, and we'll see what that plays out. I'm not the scientist, but it's got time and the data will get better, but we're not seeing any behavior change here, Moynihan said, according to The Transcript.

Meanwhile Pinto cited JPMorgans proprietary credit card spending as being a whopping 17% higher than it was before the pandemic. "So the consumers have a great balance sheet. They have accumulated savings over this time, The Transcript quoted Pinto saying.

And that brings us to Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Multiverse-spanning installment featuring the Wall Crawler from Astoria. Amid all the hand-wringing about Omicron, Marvels latest blockbuster is poised to reap the highest box-office opening of the pandemic, if rapturous early reviews are to be believed (yours truly will be attending an early show on Thursday).

Should the projections hold up, it would reinforce an idea the Morning Brief expounded upon last week, to at least some criticism. People appear to be looking beyond anxiety-inducing headlines about COVID-19, and renewed masking mandates in New York and California.

Whether that changes in the near-term is anyones guess. But with more available jobs than people to fill them and wages on the rise (even if the effect is being offset by surging prices), a consumption driven economy is still eating, shopping and showing up en masse to movies they want to see.

By Javier E. David, editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him at @Teflongeek

Economy

7:00 a.m. ET: MBA Mortgage Applications, week ended Dec. 10 (2.0% during prior week)

8:30 a.m. ET: Retail sales, month-over-month,December (0.8%. Expected, 1.7% in October).

8:30 a.m. ET: Retail sales excluding autos and gas, month-over-month, November (0.9% expected, 1.4% in October)

8:30 a.m. ET: Import price index, month-over-month, November (0.6% expected, 1.2% in October)

8:30 a.m. ET: Business Inventories, October (1.1% expected, 0.7% in September)

8:30 a.m. ET: NAHB Housing Market Index, December (84 expected, 83 in November)

2:00 p.m. ET: FOMC Rate Decision

Earnings

Politics

The Senate will hear from top airline leaders. CEOs Doug Parker of American Airlines, Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines, Scott Kirby of United Airlines and others will appear at 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss Oversight of the U.S. Airline Industry."

President Biden is traveling to Kentucky to receive an update on the recent tornadoes. He will visit the towns of Mayfield and Dawson Springs to survey storm damage.

Congress sends Biden $2.5T debt limit hike, avoiding default [AP]

FTSE heads lower as UK inflation soars to decade high of 5.1% [Yahoo Finance UK]

U.S. to add more Chinese firms to investment, export blacklists: FT [Reuters]

Microsoft has biggest drop since Sept. after inflation data [Bloomberg]

Ray Dalio: 'The system is in jeopardy' after events like Jan. 6

Why hedge funds are warming up to crypto

Maybe bad bosses are causing the worker shortage

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn

Read the original:

The Fed, inflation and Spider-Man: Morning Brief - Yahoo Finance

Yasiel Puig has been out of MLB since 2019. (Photo by David Maxwell/Getty Images)

Warning: The following article contains graphic allegations of sexual assault.

A new pair of sexual assault allegations against former MLB outfielder Yasiel Puig have come to light, less than a week after he signed a $1 million deal with a Korean baseball team.

Puig reached legal settlements with two women who accused him of sexually assaulting them on consecutive days in 2017, according to The Washington Post's Gus Garcia-Roberts. The former All-Star reportedly paid the women, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, a total of $325,000 in settlements that included non-disclosure agreements.

MLB was reportedly aware of the allegations against Puig, then with the Dodgers, and opted not to suspend him or place him on administrative leave, unlike their handling of many more public accusations. Los Angeles Dodgers president Stan Kasten claimed to "have no recollection of that at all when asked by the Post.

Puig had previously been accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit by a woman who claimed he accosted her in the bathroom of a suite at a Los Angeles Lakers game. He has since settled the lawsuit.

In a letter Allred reportedly sent to Puig, she claimed the outfielder went to a nightclub on Jan. 27, 2017 with a woman, who lived in Los Angeles.

Puig allegedly offered to take the woman home around the time she realized she was intoxicated. Puig allegedly insisted on walking her to her door, which she said she protested due to their mutual inebriation, then pushed his way into her apartment, started kissing her and pulled off her underwear.

The woman said she repeatedly told Puig to leave and told him she was not interested in sex, but he only stopped after she screamed once he attempted to rape her. Puig then allegedly tried to force her to perform oral sex on him, which she also resisted, at which point Puig ejaculated and left the apartment.

There is reportedly no indication the woman reported the alleged assault to the police.

Story continues

A day later, Puig attended the Dodgers' FanFest at Dodger Stadium, where he pledged to focus more on baseball after a turbulent 2016 season. After the event, he allegedly invited a woman to join him at a friend's house in Santa Fe Springs, where they had consensual sex in the bedroom.

During intercourse, the second woman claimed Puig noticed a bruise on her leg and accused her of having sex with someone else. It is unclear what kind of relationship they had before meeting at FanFest, if there was any at all. An angry Puig allegedly slapped the woman "violently and repeatedly" across the face, then choked her with his left hand.

The woman said Puig only released her once she began to pass out. She then reportedly texted a friend to come "rescue" her in messages obtained by the Post.

The alleged assault was reported to Santa Fe Springs police two days later, with the woman showing a bruise on her right shoulder, marks on both sides of her lower neck and bruising on the left of her chin. She reportedly told police she wanted the allegation documented but not prosecuted due to the fame of her alleged attacker.

Both women reached confidential settlements with Puig through Allred in April of that year.

While MLB has frequently sidelined players accused of sexual assault and domestic violence, it apparently took no such action upon learning of the allegations against Puig.

The league reportedly did get Puig to grant the women permission to speak with its investigators despite the NDAs, but it's unclear if the women chose to do so. The investigation was reportedly closed, leaving Puig fully available for what would be one of the better seasons of his career in 2017.

Once considered one of the most exciting talents in all of baseball, Puig has not appeared in an MLB game since the 2017 season. He did reach a deal with the Atlanta Braves in 2020, but that was nixed by a positive COVID-19 test.

The allegations against Puig from the 2018 Lakers game came to light later in 2020. He claimed the allegations to be "totally false" and insisted he and his accuser had consensual sex, which led to his accuser countering she is a lesbian who was attending the game with her female fiance.

Per the Post, the woman's lawsuit was settled for $250,000. One of the reported reasons he settled was a disclosure by his attorneys that his ability to pay a larger sum was limited. While Puig made $51.6 million in MLB salaries alone, documents apparently showed his finances to consist of overdrawn checking accounts and an MLB retirement account with half a million dollars withdrawn.

Free of that lawsuit, Puig has since presented himself as a baseball outsider who was misunderstood by MLB and the media, with the stated aim of returning to the big leagues.

Last Wednesday, Puig signed a $1 million deal with the Kiwoom Heroes. We'll see where that road takes him.

Read the original post:

Report: Yasiel Puig was accused of sexual assault by 2 other women in 2017 - Yahoo Sports

It was around fourth or fifth grade when Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson went outside in the chilly South Carolina air to find her Christmas present. The shiny new basketball hoop was set atop bricks so it would sit evenly on the slope of the yard, and it was immediately put to use.

"That's where it all started," Wilson told Yahoo Sports. "You had to pull me away from the goal at night because I loved it that much."

It's the sports gift that meant the most to Wilson and it still stands in her parents' yard, the net long wasted away from use, but the rim and backboard intact. She said her dad, Roscoe, doesn't plan on moving it until it falls.

That's the kind of special gift Wilson hoped to help give youth athletes in the warmer Las Vegas area this month as part of the Dick's Sporting Goods Sports Matter #GiftofSportTour. Wilson surprised young athletes on video after they chose sports equipment from the truck for the holiday season.

"Seeing the kids just light up when they receive their gifts is something thats truly special to me, especially giving back to the youth and our next generation of athletes," Wilson told Yahoo Sports. "Its something thats truly special because I know thats how I got started. To partner with them and just seeing everything that theyve done for the community in Vegas, Im just happy to be a part of it honestly."

Wilson said it's exciting to see them with items that "get their blood flowing at the next level," just as her hoop did for her. Her resume in the 15 years since that gift reached her parents' yard already includes an MVP trophy, an Olympic gold medal and off-court work that represents a changing ecosystem around women's sports.

Wilson is a beneficiary of growing attention and space given to the WNBA and women's college basketball. The South Carolina national champion already has a statue on the campus, but she was a few years too late to benefit from the name, image and likeness laws that took effect this summer.

Story continues

"I think honestly [NIL] would have enhanced me, of course, because I feel like collegiate athletes now are learning how important their brand really is right out the gates in high school," Wilson, 25, told Yahoo Sports. "And I think because we didnt have that, we kind of got the chance to kind of live a little bit. But theyre finding their brand for now as a pro [while they're] in college."

Wilson said if she played collegiately during the NIL era, she would have come into the WNBA with a better grasp of her brand and how to grow it. (She did admit in her characteristic way, "I'm a little jealous, but it's OK.") It could have also helped create more opportunities once she did turn pro.

"I hope that this is something that starts just a domino effect of women getting sponsorships and deals that they deserve," Wilson said. "And its pretty cool to see how many different ones these collegiate athletes are getting."

Wilson, who closed out her fourth WNBA season in September, is doing fairly well in that regard.

She may not have come into the league with a brand, but she's rocking one now.

The Olympian founded the A'ja Wilson Foundation to support children and their families who struggle with dyslexia. She launched her own candle company run by her mom, Eva. In the 2020 bubble, she and Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier started a popular podcast.

And Wilson has hit more serious, life-altering tones by joining the WNBA Players Association's social justice council and writing "Dear Black Women" about her mental health. Her sponsorships and deals, like Mountain Dew and Dick's Sporting Goods, assist her community in positive, personal ways.

There are many players still going overseas for year-round play, but it feels like a different WNBA offseason in that many players have stayed home and continued to feed their off-court entrepreneurship. There's offseason news, talk and appearances that keep the league relevant, such as Wilson on Tuesday's episode of Kevin Hart's "Cold as Balls" show. Or last spring's Saweetie music video. Is it because WNBA viewership continues to rise?

"I think its a mixture of that and within a couple years its been the 'Year of the Woman,' " Wilson told Yahoo Sports. "And everyone is just wanting to pick your brain, wanting you to be in this. We have so many, 'first females to do this,' 'first woman to do that,' these past couple years. I dont want to say its trendy, but I think companies are understanding how powerful the woman is. And were showing it and were backing it up and it goes from there."

Wilson is a restricted free agent when the offseason officially opens and will garner a large raise from the $70,000 she made in 2021 as a rookie contract holdover from the former collective bargaining agreement. She told Yahoo Sports she hasn't thought much about it and leaves it to her agent.

Instead, she's enjoying "being normal" and spending time with family, including an upcoming birthday for one of her pups. Ace, the elder of her two Aussiedoodles, turns 2 on Dec. 21.

As for offseason training, she said she'll wait a few months before "getting on Chelsea Gray's nerves" to get in the gym with her point guard. The location of the hoop has changed, but the desire to get to the next level hasn't.

Follow this link:

A'ja Wilson continues to hone brand amid 'Year of the Woman' growth in women's sports attention - Yahoo Sports

The explosive growth of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which took off this year in large part because of the growing popularity of Ethereum blockchain technology, is something that surprised the digital coins (ETH-USD) ex-core developer.

An NFT is a certificate of authenticity that shows proof of ownership for anything digital. The tokens are being assigned to one of a kind digital art and now music.

Aside from applications that are creating new revenue streams for the music, movie, sports, art and gaming industry, Lane Rettig sees the next installation of NFTs being more of a utility.

He cited an example where a theatergoer buys a Broadway ticket for $200, but pays Ticketmaster $45 for the ticket. Its absolutely ridiculous, Rettig told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview.

Im not saying Tickemaster adds no value, but theres no way they add like 30%. The reason Tickemaster is able to get away with charging so much is they basically have a monopolistic relationship with the vendors or sports teams, he argued.

The beauty of NFTs, which offer open protocols, is it opens up competition, Rettig explained. If tickets are built on a blockchain, competition is introduced because anyone can access the platform. Additionally, other people can build competing platforms and services and products.

Rettig argued that moving ticketing onto NFT platforms for concerts and sports events will make the market more liquid, allowing people to cut out fees and middlemen so patrons just have to pay the actual ticket price. Airline tickets could also move in this direction, he said.

Along the line of NFTs, smart contracts also offer efficiencies like receiving your salary by smart contract. Rather than getting a lump sum every two weeks, a smart contract system funds can be deposited every second, in a process called dripping.

Rather than getting $1,000 a month you get like 25 cents deposited into your account every two minutes, he said.

Story continues

Etherium is now the second-largest cryptocurrency measured by market capitalization, outpacing Bitcoins performance this year.

It is now being used for the majority of projects, notably NFTs, built on the blockchain (a digital ledger of digital transactions). But why exactly is it being chosen over Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and others?

According to Rettig, its just the technologys superiority. He likened it to Javascript the most widely used computer programming in the world to program everything from toasters to cars.

If you talk to any professional software developer, theyll tell you they dont like working with it. It has warts all over it, but its taken over the world, he added.

Similarly, he says Etherium isnt amazing and has clunkiness to it, but it works well enough and it has a first mover advantage.

I think crypto speaks to an open permission-less community driven vision. I think we need to determine how to build an open metaverse. It should be a place to gather and engage in social entertainment.Lane Rettig

Rettig stumbled upon crypto by accident in late 2016, early 2017. After attending an Ethereum developer conference in Mexico, and meeting co-creator Vitalik Buterin and other Ether stakeholders, his interest was piqued. He then joined the Ethereum Foundation.

I absolutely saw mass adoption when I learned of it, he said. The writing for me was on the wall.

Hes since left Etherium to work on a new blockchain called Spacemesh, thats building an alternative platform that still does a lot of the things Etherium does.

Its like a next generation Etherium, Rettig said. It does the things Etheriun does, but does them more efficiently and its more scalable.

While Bitcoin and Etherium are now mined by professionals, using big expensive computers, needing lots of capital that need to solve complex math problems to guess the code called proof of work, Spacemesh is being designed to use hard drive space on an ordinary computer.

That also makes Spacemesh 99% more green than Bitcoin and Etherium because it only uses hard drive space and no electricity.

In order to mine BTC or ETH, you need to dedicate a scarce resource to the network, Rettig said, which is a huge drain on electricity and the environment. But in the case of Spacemesh, instead of expending electricity youre allocating hard drive space for some period of time the space refers to the hard drive space, Rettig explained.

My vision for blockchain longer term is that these need to be things that anyone anywhere can operate without needing permission or a credit card to go to your bank or know your customer process. Maximum useability by home users, he told Yahoo Finance.

PARIS, FRANCE - OCTOBER 29: In this photo illustration, the Facebook logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of a Meta logo on October 29, 2021 in Paris, France. On October 28, during the Facebook Connect virtual conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced the name change of Facebook, believing that the term Facebook was too closely linked to that of the platform of the same name, launched in 2004. It is now official, the Facebook company changes its name and becomes Meta. (Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)

The virtual reality called the metaverse has gotten a lot of attention lately after Facebook (FB) changed its name to Meta Platforms, and announced plans around it.

Yet Rettig isnt jazzed about Facebooks premise, telling Yahoo Finance he found it highly disturbing, he said. I dont dislike Mark Zuckerberg, Im not anti-Facebook. But it was just so dystopian in so many ways it bothered me.

He says the overall concept is still fuzzy to him right now. Whatever it turns out to be, Rettig hopes its not Facebooks vision, which he speculates would be a closed, tightly controlled ecosystem much like Apples (AAPL).

Its the opposite of my vision for the future socially and technologically, he said. I think crypto speaks to an open permission-less community driven vision. I think we need to determine how to build an open metaverse. It should be a place to gather and engage in social entertainment.

However, Rettig thinks the metaverse could cause crypto to explode further. Because it resides outside of existing social and political order, it cant be denominated in any major currency. In theory, it would have to use something like Etherium, but wont be limited to one cryptocurrency.

It must be built using cryptocurrency and could not be built before cryptocurrency in the same way the Internet allowed an explosion of creativity and people to become their own bloggers along with building businesses, empires and brands in a global distributed fashion, he said.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Read the latest cryptocurrency and bitcoin news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn

Read this article:

Ethereum developer sounds off on NFTs, metaverse and 'dystopian' Facebook - Yahoo Finance

Closing arguments in the criminal case against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will begin Thursday as jurors weigh whether she intentionally defrauded patients and investors in the blood-testing startup.

The closing arguments will give each side a crucial opportunity to craft a cohesive narrative that makes their case and to re-introduce key pieces of evidence that the jury may have forgotten in the nearly four months since the trial began.

Its closing where you get to really argue your case, Cardozo law school professor Jessica Roth, who specializes in corporate & white-collar criminal law, tells Yahoo Finance. So they are very important.

The stakes in the case are high: Holmes faces 11 counts of fraud, each of which carries up to 20 years in prison. Holmes was indicted back in 2018 after Theranos imploded under regulatory scrutiny following revelations that it could not actually perform hundreds of diagnostic tests on a few drops of blood as it suggested to investors and the public. Theranos COO and Holmes' onetime boyfriend, Sunny Balwani, faces the same charges and is scheduled to face trial next year.

Holmes made the risky move of testifying in her own defense in the trial's final days, portraying herself as a hardworking entrepreneur who believed in her pitch and also testifying that she endured abuse from Balwani. While that testimony could influence the jury's decision, experts say the closing arguments will also carry significant weight.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes becomes emotional as she is asked to read romantic texts between herself and ex-boyfriend Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, as she is cross-examined by prosecutor Robert Leach at Robert F. Peckham U.S. Courthouse during her trial in San Jose, California, U.S., in this courtroom sketch, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Vicki Behringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Witnesses dont come in a logical order and often they come in bits and pieces that need to be put together, says criminal defense attorney and former white collar federal prosecutor Elisha Kobre. So the jury doesn't really get the full picture until the lawyers make their closing arguments.

Michael Weinstein, a former Justice Department trial attorney, says he sees closings as an opportunity to help the jury assimilate the larger mosaic of each sides narrative. However, he argued that jurors usually have a verdict in mind before those closings begin.

Story continues

Traditionally, at closing arguments, it's rare that a jury is going to go in with a guilty verdict and come out not guilty, Weinstein says. However, 10 minutes after they close the judge is going to instruct them and say: You can disregard all the lawyers arguments, and what you need to focus on is the evidence.

However, closing arguments can help jurors bolster their own arguments when trying to persuade fellow jurors that a particular verdict is called for.

By the end of trial especially after a trial the length of the Holmes trial almost all of the jurors will have made up their minds as individuals, says white collar criminal defense lawyer Jack Sharman. "In a closing, you want to confirm and reassure those jurors who have moved to your camp and away from your adversarys. You want to give your jurors ammunition arguments, exhibits, witnesses to use against your opponents jurors while the jury deliberates in the jury room.

As reinforcement, each side will likely revisit key evidence introduced during witness testimony. However, one significant part of Holmes' defense could get blocked from closings and deliberations: The government said it would request that the judge strike Holmes' testimony claiming sexual assault at Stanford University and alleging Balwani controlled and abused her, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The lawyers can only rely on the evidence that's been admitted, Kobre said, and if the judge excludes the evidence, the lawyers won't be able to say it.

Weinstein explains that even if the judge excludes or limits jurors from considering Holmes' abuse or sexual assault claims, the testimony remains in the jurors' minds making it uncertain whether it will carry influence.

In reality, they heard it already. The bell has been rung, Weinstein says.

The testimony they heard from Holmes, in fact, will likely play a large role as jurors decide whether to convict her. In cases where a defendant testifies, the verdict typically turns entirely on whether the jury believed them, according to Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor.

"If the defense persuades even one juror not to vote to convict, which may fall short of an acquittal, that alone is enough to prevent a conviction. If the jurors are unanimous not believing Holmes as to just one count, then a one-count conviction would result in a significant term of incarceration," Frenkel said.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.

Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news

For tutorials and information on investing and trading stocks, check out Cashay

Read more:

Elizabeth Holmes closing arguments this week: What to expect - Yahoo Finance

The man who walked onto the pitch and was only made to exit after receiving a body slam from Sam Kerr will not face legal ramifications for the act, The Athletic's Charlotte Harpur reported.

That's because the law enacted to curtail disorderly fan conduct at soccer matches in the UK does not apply to the women's competition, per the report. So the Metropolitan Police department has not arrested the fan from Wednesday's incident, it confirmed to Harpur, and it has no intention to do so.

It's a troubling loophole as the women's game grows in popularity.

A young fan walked onto the pitch during a women's Champions League match between Chelsea and Juventus on Wednesday. Security was nowhere to be found and a Chelsea player attempted to push him gently toward the sideline to get off the pitch.

When he sauntered back toward the players still taking a video of himself, Kerr dropped a shoulder and decked him. What appeared to be a trainer or coach ushered him off the pitch at that point.

(NSFW language warning for video below:)

Kerr was given a yellow card and the club suspended the fan. But the police department confirmed to The Athletic no arrest was made, even though Section 4 of the Football (Offences) Act of 1991 would seem to allow for such an arrest.

Via The Athletic:

The law states: It is an offence for a person at a designated football match to go onto the playing area, or any area adjacent to the playing area to which spectators are not generally admitted, without lawful authority or lawful excuse [which shall be for him to prove].

The key term is "designated football match." By the provision enacted in 2004, a designated match is one in "which one or both of the teams represents a club which is a member of the English Football League, the Premier League, the Football Conference or the League of Wales, or represents a country or territory."

Story continues

The list excludes women's games completely, per The Athletic. Therefore, the fan who walked onto the pitch is not in violation of the law and did not commit an arrestable offense.

A pitch invader is grounded courtesy of Chelsea's Sam Kerr during the UEFA Women's Champions League Group A match at Kingsmeadow, London. (Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)

The women's Champion League was founded in 2001 as the UEFA Women's Cup. Lawmakers could and should have included it by name in the 2004 provision, but did not.

It's another example of women's exclusion from the general sport conversation, and it has potentially dangerous impacts. This time it ended well enough, with Kerr decking the fan in a laughable moment that flew around social media sites overnight. But it could have ended in tragedy.

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes raised concerns with reporters after the match, noting that with the growth of the women's game and players becoming superstars, their safety needs to become a priority.

But The Athletic reported that matches are not attended by police unless there is a specific need, such as a sold-out stadium or recent crime in the area. And the issue reaches across the pond where the WNBA and NWSL are growing in popularity in the U.S.

In September 2019, Los Angeles Sparks star Chiney Ogwumike saw a fan coming at her sister, former MVP Nneka Ogwumike, while on the court after a game. Security was there to tackle the fan, though he initially got by them.

But in general, security is more lax at women's events. And now, at least in the UK, it's clear that laws don't protect female athletes, either.

That change needs to be made a priority before something terrible happens.

View original post here:

Pitch invader decked by Sam Kerr can't be arrested because it was a women's match - Yahoo Sports