Category: News
Mount Carmel’s Logan Wessel, following role model in Grant Best, gets down to business. ‘A Division I talent.’
Logan Wessel spent last season as a reserve on a talented Mount Carmel team. He used that time to soak in as much knowledge as he could.
Wessel gravitated toward one teammate in particular. He found a heck of a player to look up to in Grant Best, who earned all-state honors as a senior last season and signed with Air Force.
“I like to model my game a little bit after Grant Best,” Wessel said. “He was like a role model for me. He’s such a good rebounder and I try to crash the boards as much as I can.
“He’s one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever met and I try to do as much as I can to keep getting better every day.”
Wessel is showing off all that he has learned. The junior guard continued his strong season Tuesday night, scoring 15 points to lead the host Caravan to a 68-36 win over St. Rita in a Catholic League crossover in Chicago.
DK Heard finished with 10 points and seven rebounds for Mount Carmel (14-5), while Ronald Johnson added nine points and nine rebounds and Luke Segroves chipped in with eight points.
Mount Carmel’s Logan Wessel (30) drives into the lane as St. Rita’s Brendan McDevitt (10) defends during a Catholic League crossover game in Chicago on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
Micheal Hampton III scored 11 points for St. Rita (7-12). Jayden Hawkins came through with 10 points and Eze Nwagwu pulled down six rebounds.
Wessel, meanwhile, knew there would be some weight on his shoulders this season. He has the most varsity experience of anyone on what is essentially a brand-new roster that features two freshmen — Heard and Johnson — and a sophomore, Marshaun Thornton, in prominent roles.
“I was definitely excited because this is what I’ve been wanting since my freshman year,” Wessel said. “But I was also a little nervous because I was asking, ‘What’s going to happen this season? We have a new team. How are things going to jell and stuff?’
“But I think we’re playing well now.”
Mount Carmel’s Logan Wessel (30) finishes off a fast break with a dunk against St. Rita during a Catholic League crossover game in Chicago on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
The Caravan have won seven of their last eight games. The development of the freshmen has been a big part of that. But so has the consistent leadership and scoring provided by Wessel.
“Logan’s definitely a Division I player,” Luke Segroves said. “He’s probably our best player all around. I trust him very much. He’s a great leader. He’s very intense, he plays defense and he always tries his hardest.”
Mount Carmel coach Phil Segroves, Luke’s dad, sees the same thing.
“I’m really proud of Logan,” Phil Segroves said. “He’s pound for pound one of the hardest workers on our team. He’s a Division I talent. He reminds me a lot of Grant Best.
Mount Carmel’s Logan Wessel (30) listens during a timeout against St. Rita in a Catholic League crossover game in Chicago on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
“With his ability to shoot and his ability to lead, he’s taking on that role for us.”
Wessel scored 10 points in the first half Tuesday as Mount Carmel raced to a 16-2 lead and never looked back. It was 37-12 at halftime.
Wessel is becoming accustomed to being one of the guys counted on to carry the load.
“Being on varsity last year, I didn’t get as many reps as I wanted, but I put in a lot of work in the offseason and it’s starting to translate now,” he said.
Mount Carmel’s Logan Wessel (30) pushes the ball up the court on St. Rita’s Brendan McDevitt (10) during a Catholic League crossover game in Chicago on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
Wessel’s basketball journey goes back to kindergarten, when his height got him noticed.
“I used to go to St. Thomas the Apostle, right down the street from Mount Carmel,” Wessel said. “I was watching basketball practice and the coach was like, ‘You’re tall. You should play basketball.’ I was like, ‘I guess so.’
“The rest is history.”
The sport stuck. Wessel used to play baseball but gave it up heading into high school. He also golfs for fun, but there’s no question where his heart is when it comes to athletics.
“With basketball, it’s just the love of the game,” he said. “I always like to work hard and I strive to try my best all the time. I’m really competitive and once I got into the sport, I fell in love with it.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/logan-wessel-mount-carmel-st-rita-ihsa-boys-basketball/
Gilgeous-Alexander anota 34 puntos y Thunder vence a Spurs por 1ra vez en 4 duelos esta temporada
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander anotó 34 puntos, y el Thunder de Oklahoma City, campeón defensor de la NBA, aplastó el martes 119-98 a San Antonio para obtener su primera victoria en cuatro duelos contra los Spurs esta temporada.
Jalen Williams sumó 20 puntos y Chet Holmgren contribuyó con ocho unidades, diez rebotes y tres bloqueos a la causa de Oklahoma City. El Thunder mejoró a un récord de 34-7, el mejor de la liga, en el punto medio de la temporada, encaminándose a igualar el resultado de la pasada campaña regular, de 68-14.
Stephon Castle anotó 20 puntos y Victor Wembanyama añadió 17 tantos y siete rebotes por los Spurs.
San Antonio comenzó la noche en segundo lugar detrás de Oklahoma City en la clasificación de la Conferencia Oeste. Los Spurs se habían perfilado como contendientes al título con las tres victorias sobre el Thunder en un periodo de dos semanas el mes pasado, pero ahora han perdido seis de diez compromisos.
Oklahoma City comenzó esta temporada con un récord de 24-1, luego tuvo un bajón que incluyó las tres derrotas ante los Spurs. El Thunder se ha recuperado y ahora ha ganado cuatro duelos seguidos.
Oklahoma City ganó sin dos titulares: el líder en rebotes Isaiah Hartenstein y el especialista defensivo Lu Dort. Aun así, el Thunder mantuvo a los Spurs en un 40% de acierto en tiros de campo.
_____
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Con 28 puntos de Durant, Rockets sacan victoria 119-113 ante Bulls
HOUSTON (AP) — Kevin Durant anotó 28 puntos y Alperen Sengun agregó 23 con 11 asistencias para liderar la victoria el martes 119-113 de los Rockets de Houston ante los Bulls de Chicago.
Hubo 35 cambios de ventaja en el juego sin que ninguno de los equipos pudiera ampliar la diferencia hasta que los Rockets lo hicieron en los minutos finales.
Houston estaba detrás por uno con aproximadamente 3,5 minutos por jugar antes de ponerse arriba 110-106 con una racha de 7-2. Durant inició esa racha con una clavada y Jabari Smith Jr. agregó un triple.
Una bandeja de Tre Jones redujo la ventaja a dos, pero Smith encestó un tiro antes de un triple para extender la ventaja a 115-108 con aproximadamente 90 segundos restantes.
Kevin Huerter hizo una bandeja para Chicago después de eso, pero una potente clavada de Durant dejó a Houston arriba 117-110 con menos de un minuto por jugar.
Amen Thompson agregó 23 unidades para los Rockets y Smith anotó 10 de 18 tantos en el último cuarto para ayudar a Houston a romper una racha de tres derrotas consecutivas.
Jones tuvo un récord personal de 34 puntos para los Bulls, que perdieron por cuarta vez en cinco juegos.
___
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Lincoln-Way East’s Aaron Stauffacher knows what he needs from 3-point range. ‘Just a little bit of daylight.’
Lincoln-Way East’s Aaron Stauffacher measures everything by degrees or matter of separation.
Given any kind of opening, the 6-foot-4 junior forward uses the range and depth on his outside shot to change the calculus.
“With my size and length, I always get just a little bit of confidence whenever I see just a little bit of daylight,” he said. “I’m like a butterfly. If I see light and space, I just take flight.”
Stauffacher was flying high from beyond the arc Tuesday night.
He matched a career high with five 3-pointers in scoring 19 points to power the host Griffins to a 68-59 SouthWest Suburban Conference victory over Sandburg in Frankfort.
Senior guard Jaymon Hornsby scored seven of his 15 points in the fourth quarter as Lincoln-Way East (8-10, 3-4) closed the game with an 18-6 run.
Lincoln-Way East’s Aaron Stauffacher (23) works to the basket against Sandburg’s Jake Tomczak (11) during a SouthWest Suburban Conference game in Frankfort on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Steve Johnston / Daily Southtown)
Senior forward Will Johnson led Sandburg (11-8, 4-4) by scoring 24 points to go with eight rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
Stauffacher, meanwhile, added six rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot. Junior forward KaiJay Brown, who had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Griffins, praised Stauffacher’s effort.
“His rebounding, offensively and defensively, is so big for us,” Brown said. “I trust him all the time out there. Our coach told us to spray the ball to him and they’d collapse on him.
“That opened everything else up.”
Lincoln-Way East’s KaiJay Brown (30) tries to work the ball past Sandburg’s Will Hooks (4) during a SouthWest Suburban Conference game in Frankfort on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Steve Johnston / Daily Southtown)
Lincoln-Way East coach Luke Yaklich confirmed that Stauffacher’s shooting was the result of careful planning.
“Aaron is very diligent,” Yaklich said. “He came in at 6 this morning, shot for an hour and also after school. Everything he caught was in rhythm and he also released everything in rhythm.
“We were able to get to the rim because of the threes he made.”
Stauffacher hit all five 3-pointers in the first half, staking the Griffins to a 36-27 halftime lead.
It’s a skill he has developed.
Lincoln-Way East’s Aidan Deist (5) battles to get a shot off against Sandburg during a SouthWest Suburban Conference game in Frankfort on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Steve Johnston / Daily Southtown)
“I wasn’t always a great shooter,” Stauffacher said. “I’ve spent a lot of time over the summer putting in the work, just trying to develop my shots.
“The shooting helps create not just for me but the whole team. It spreads their defense out, and our point guards get downhill and open the entire floor.”
Last season, Stauffacher was elevated to varsity during the final stages of his sophomore year. He has found his groove, seeing where he could impact winning.
“That time on the varsity last season just helped me develop my skills,” he said. “I know what I need to do and bring some energy to the team.”
His role has vacillated from being a starter or an offensive catalyst off the bench, but his attitude never wavers. He’s the oldest of three kids, with basketball being the connective thread.
“My dad was the manager of the men’s basketball team at the University of Wisconsin and my mom played in high school,” Stauffacher said. “I’ve played the game since a young age.
“I’ve always loved it. You can be your own person, put your own stamp on the game.”
Lincoln-Way East’s Aaron Stauffacher (23) goes up to block a shot by Sandburg’s Malachi Perkins (1) during a SouthWest Suburban Conference game in Frankfort on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Steve Johnston / Daily Southtown)
Yaklich, who’s back on the high school level after being the head coach at Illinois-Chicago, realized right away what he had in Stauffacher the first time at an open gym in April.
“I vividly remember meeting Aaron and I asked who the blonde kid was,” Yaklich said. ”He’s a dirty-work kid, and by that I mean he’s going to get a rebound, take a charge or get a deflection.
“He does all of the things that are in the margins.”
Stauffacher understands that those little things matter.
“Getting along with everyone helps team bonding,” he said. “Guys aren’t going to get mad if you try to coach them. I keep to myself, but when I’m feeling myself, I’ll be a little bit more outgoing.
“Everybody knows I want what’s best for them.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
The Forgotten Man
The Forgotten Man
Authored by Be Water,
The 2008 Crisis Never Ended
Do you wish to know [when] that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that [commerce is conducted], not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—[then] you may know [that day has arrived]…
—Francisco d’Anconia
No Country For Young Men
For most of America, the headlines trumpeting a “strong economy” and “stocks at record highs” land like a cruel joke. Michael W. Green’s recent series My Life Is A Lie attempted to quantify the economic devastation felt by the majority of the country these many years. This carnage has been sanctified by our technocrats—an Aztec priesthood invoking sacred economic statistics as celestial omens to justify the ritual sacrifice of society on the altars of GDP and the S&P 500.
Green, an investment industry insider, gave voice to the Forgotten Man:
Predictably, the priesthood declared heresy. Economists, journalists, thought leaders, think tanks, and other fellow travelers circled the wagons, tearing apart Green’s numbers, splitting hairs, and nitpicking his methodology.
That is a grave mistake.
Fiddling While Rome Burns
How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?
—One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
This sort of wonkish debate—whether the poverty line is $30k or $140k, whether CPI is 2% or 4%—exemplifies the scientism enabling our national dissolution: the religious belief that the statistical map is more real than the economic territory. Perhaps such effete technocratic sophistry could be tolerated—even indulged—were the body politic unified. But it is a fatal conceit in such a Balkanized powder keg of a nation.
Into this highly combustible environment, Green’s essays landed like an errant spark. If nothing else, Green forced a long-overdue reckoning with a reality that the credentialed class has steadfastly refused to acknowledge: that they themselves have spent decades drowning the American Dream in a flood of ruinous policy, even as they now insist that the water level is perfectly fine and that Americans are simply bad swimmers.
Such an acknowledgment, however, would be tantamount to confessing that their entire worldview—the long Postwar Consensus—rests on a meticulously constructed lie. That the intellectual facade of modern finance and economics, the modern monetary system and central banking, fiscal and monetary policy, financialization, globalism—all of it—has strip-mined the nation and fracked the American bedrock, leaving behind a slag heap of poverty, misery, and rage in place of the prosperity it promised.
That their own lives have been a lie.
From Picket Fences To Shoebox Micro-Apartments
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
—Winston Smith
Whether Green’s numbers withstand academic scrutiny is altogether beside the point. His essays struck such a visceral nerve because Green—as someone with institutional investment credentials—put numbers to what millions have experienced firsthand for decades. And he did so at precisely the moment when their long-simmering rage is boiling over.
And then the Minnesota headlines broke.
If Green’s essays were a stray spark drifting toward the powder keg, these revelations of fraud represented a blazing torch hurled straight at it. Billions have been bled from the American middle class—those who can barely afford their own children—to bankroll the imaginary children of fraudsters.
But the scale of the plunder extends far beyond one state:
The populace’s rage, therefore, springs from a well far deeper than Green’s economic statistics—or any one else’s, for that matter—could ever fully plumb. Understanding this fury—and its implications for both our civilization and our portfolios—requires returning to an existential question we posed five years ago: how did we devolve from the society depicted in the New Yorker’s 1957 Christmas cover (left) to that depicted in its 2020 Christmas cover (right)?
Source: The New Yorker
These two contrasting images—set six decades apart—bear witness to a birthright betrayal so absolute that it defies measurement. The transformation seems inconceivable: in the course of a single lifetime, how did the most prosperous civilization in history come to cannibalize its children’s futures?
Asked differently, how could prior generations buy houses, raise families, and afford healthcare on a single income—and then retire—while younger generations drown in debt, face bleak job prospects, are cursed to rent forever, risk financial ruin from hospital visits, and accumulate pets rather than rear children?
Why do so many feel worse off than even a decade ago, despite record asset prices and strong GDP growth? And why has this malignancy metastasized simultaneously throughout the Western world—the US, Europe, Canada, Australia?
The answers won’t be found in economic textbooks, models, and policy papers that led us here in the first place. Nor will they emerge from the clerisy who authored them:
But answer these questions, and the chaos of our age suddenly resolves into clarity: not only the financial stress, but the seething rage erupting across Western nations worldwide. The collapse not merely of institutional trust, but of societal trust writ large. The rise of populism and politically motivated violence. The pervasive sense that the very fabric of civilization—if not reality itself—is being torn apart at the seams. The gnawing feeling shared by ordinary people that they are struggling to survive a precarious interlude before some major cataclysm strikes.
Mr. Market’s Schizophrenic Break Of 2020
The madness of the 2020-2021 COVID era was apocalyptic—literally a lifting of the veil: governments induced a global economic coma yet asset prices—the economy’s vital signs—registered euphoric highs. It was as if a comatose patient’s monitors indicated an Olympic athlete in peak condition—the clearest illustration of what Green is now attempting to quantify.
Meme stocks, fake currencies, and bankrupt companies—indeed all assets—went parabolic even as the economy flatlined.
We call this period Mr. Market’s Schizophrenic Break, the absurdity of which was perhaps best encapsulated by David Portnoy (aka “Davey Day Trader”) picking stocks out of a scrabble bag on Twitter and CNBC—a strategy that consistently worked!
Source: @stoolpresidente
Source: @EnronChairman
The Financial Matrix
Portnoy himself saw through this surreal facade during the height of the COVID market mania:
The good news is I know it’s rigged. The government is [saying] don’t worry we’re just gonna create a trillion-billion-zillion dollars. It’s fantasy land. It’s Schrute Bucks [fake money from a popular TV show]. It’s the worst coronavirus day in a while and the government is saying don’t worry about it cause we’re gonna print a quadrillion dollars and the market sky rockets. The stock market is disconnected from reality. The whole thing is a pyramid scheme. We’re living in the Matrix.
Portnoy wasn’t merely ranting, however—he had unwittingly laid bare the central economic mystery of our age, one that somehow eluded our credentialed classes: that the numbers and charts streaming across Bloomberg terminals had become utterly divorced from the reality of everyday life.
In this inverted Bizarro World, bankruptcy was bullish, currencies invented as a joke were enormously valuable, and picking stocks from a Scrabble bag was a wise investment strategy.
With a degenerate gambler’s uncanny intuition for detecting rigged games, Portnoy had stumbled onto a profound truth: that financial reality had somehow been replaced with an elaborate, videogame-like simulation—the Financial Matrix. This self-contained universe was governed by its own laws and utterly indifferent to the world it was supposed to represent.
The 2020-2021 COVID madness represented the reductio ad absurdum toward which the entire post-War policy consensus had been hurtling—the culmination of decades of pathology that had metastasized to such absurd extremes that it became impossible to ignore even for laymen like Portnoy and his “degen” followers.
But while Portnoy had correctly identified the symptoms, he had not diagnosed the underlying disease. Five years ago this month—amidst the heights of the COVID market mania—we set out to identify the cancer at the heart of the global financial system, to understand how virtual reality had replaced reality, and to assess the implications for investing.
The result was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice & The Man Who Broke The Markets. In Sorcerer, we traced the vectors of metastasis—monetary, memetic, algorithmic—that had spread through the global financial system, mapping the ways this cancer would ultimately upend markets, economies, and societies worldwide.
We originally published Sorcerer privately in January 2021. However, as the pathologies we diagnosed then have only intensified in the interim, we felt compelled to expand and update the work for a public audience. This growing urgency also explains why Green’s recent series resonates so deeply now. The economic cancer we diagnosed in late 2020—having metastasized invisibly for decades, revealing itself only in occasional paroxysms, as in 2008—finally became impossible to ignore when the COVID policy response devoured economic reality itself in 2020-2021, and then in 2022 ignited the worst inflation in five decades.
The Day Is Come
The COVID years—and beyond—mark the fulfillment of Francisco d’Anconia’s prophecy. He exhorted us to watch the money—to read it as the barometer of a society’s virtue. He warned of the day when ‘money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors’ and when ‘men get richer by graft and by pull than by work.’
Look around. That day is not coming; rather it is already here. Green’s essays and recent news headlines merely crystallized the gnawing suspicion that has haunted the American subconscious since at least the 2008 Crisis: that for decades the productive American citizen has been taxed and inflated into serfdom—forced to finance their own dispossession and the demolition of their way of life. Americans have been reduced to human batteries whose life force powers the Financial Matrix.
It is even now dawning on the citizenry that the “strong economy” and “record-setting stock market” are merely mirages conjured by the Financial Matrix—phantom metrics generated by and for the simulation. Meanwhile, in the ‘desert of the real,’ the productive have been treated as enemies, and “those who deal in favors” preside over a Witches’ Sabbath wherein swindlers parade as sages and vice dons the robes of virtue:
Baal, or the World In Masquerade
Here, corruption is rewarded and honesty has become a self-sacrifice—the laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you: “for my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/13/2026 – 23:05
Chicago Bears’ wild-card win over Packers sets NFL streaming viewership record with 31.61 million average
LOS ANGELES — Chicago’s come-from-behind victory over Green Bay in Saturday’s wild-card round became the first NFL game to have over 30 million viewers on a streaming service.
The Bears’ 31-27 victory averaged 31.61 million on Amazon’s Prime Video, according to Nielsen, and broke the previous standard by 4 million. That mark was set on Christmas Day, when Minnesota’s win over Detroit averaged 27.52 million on Netflix.
Chicago trailed 27-16 with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter before Caleb Williams threw a pair of touchdown passes to lead the Bears to their first playoff win since the 2010 season.
It was the second year that Prime Video has had a playoff game. Last year’s wild-card game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens averaged 22.07 million.
It was the third season the NFL has streamed the Saturday night wild-card game. The AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs during the 2023 season averaged 23 million on Peacock.
Four of the five playoff games on Saturday and Sunday delivered increases from last year.
Some of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen began using its Big Data + Panel methodology for all events last September with the start of the current television season.
Earlier this year, Nielsen began measuring out-of-home viewers for all states but Hawaii and Alaska, along with including data from smart TVs along with cable and satellite set-top boxes.
Nielsen previously measured only the top 44 media markets, which covered 65% of the country.
The most-watched game of the weekend was the Sunday late-afternoon game between San Francisco and Philadelphia, which averaged 41 million on Fox. That’s a 14% increase over last year’s game between the Eagles and Green Bay in that timeslot.
The 49ers’ 23-19 victory was the most-watched wild-card game on any network since the 2021 season, when San Francisco against Dallas averaged 41.5 million on CBS.
Sunday’s game between Buffalo and Jacksonville averaged 32.71 million on CBS, making the Bills’ 27-24 win the most-watched early Sunday AFC wild-card game on any network. It was also a 5% jump over last year’s contest between the Bills and Denver.
Fox also had Saturday afternoon’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina. The Rams’ 34-31 win averaged 27.98 million, up 7% from last year’s matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston on CBS.
It was the most-watched Saturday afternoon wild-card game since NBC averaged 28.30 million for New Orleans against Seattle in 2011.
New England’s 16-3 victory over the Chargers on NBC averaged 28.9 million, down slightly from the 29 million for last year’s Washington-Tampa Bay game.
It was the most-watched prime-time event since last February’s Super Bowl on Fox.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/chicago-bears-green-bay-packers-nfl-streaming-record/
Kevin Durant’s 28 points lead the Houston Rockets past the Chicago Bulls 119-113
HOUSTON — Kevin Durant had 28 points and Alperen Sengun added 23 with 11 assists to lead the Houston Rockets to a 119-113 win over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.
There were 35 lead changes in the game, with neither team able to build a cushion until the Rockets did in the final minutes.
Houston trailed by 1 with about 3 1/2 minutes to go before going on a 7-2 run to make it 110-106. Durant got things going in that stretch with a dunk and Jabari Smith Jr. added a 3-pointer.
A layup by the Bulls’ Tre Jones cut the lead to 2 but Smith made a jumper before knocking down a 3 from the top of the key to extend the lead to 115-108 with about 90 seconds remaining.
Kevin Huerter made a layup for the Bulls after that, but a booming dunk by Durant left Houston up 117-110 with less than a minute to play.
Amen Thompson added 23 points for the Rockets and Smith scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to help Houston snap a three-game skid.
Jones had a career-high 34 points for the Bulls, who lost for the fourth time in five games.
The Rockets led by 6 with about eight minutes left before the Bulls scored the next seven points, with 3-pointers by Isaac Okoro and Ayo Dosunmu, to take a 99-98 lead midway through the fourth.
Houston was just 4 of 20 on 3-point attempts when Thompson hit one to put the Rockets back on top. But Matas Buzelis made one for the Bulls seconds later to give them a 102-101 lead.
Thompson made two free throws after that before a bad pass by Durant led to a basket by Buzelis that left the Bulls up 104-103 with 3 1/2 minutes left.
Up Next
Bulls: Host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.
Rockets: Host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/chicago-bulls-houston-rockets-kevin-durant/
China registra superávit comercial de 1,2 billones de dólares en 2025
HONG KONG (AP) — El superávit comercial de China se disparó a un récord de casi 1,2 billones de dólares el año pasado, informó el gobierno el miércoles.
Los datos de aduanas mostraron que el superávit global de China aumentó 20% respecto al año anterior, con exportaciones por 3,77 billones de dólares e importaciones por 2,58 billones de dólares.
El superávit comercial de 2024 fue de 992.000 millones de dólares.
Las exportaciones de China en diciembre aumentaron 6,6% respecto al año anterior, superando las estimaciones de los economistas y siendo más altas que el incremento interanual de 5,9% de noviembre. Las importaciones en diciembre aumentaron 5,7% interanual, en comparación con 1,9% de noviembre. ___
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Surrounding Cities Move In As Seattle Pulls Back On Drug Enforcement
Surrounding Cities Move In As Seattle Pulls Back On Drug Enforcement
A policy shift inside the Seattle Police Department is already generating unintended consequences — and they’re not the ones city leaders were hoping for, Jason Rantz of Seattle 770AM said in a new op-ed this week.
After Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes told officers that most drug possession and use cases will once again be diverted away from prosecution and into the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEED) program, surrounding law-enforcement agencies moved quickly to capitalize on growing frustration inside SPD’s ranks. Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank and the Marysville Police Department publicly began recruiting Seattle officers, using social media to pitch what they described as a more supportive environment for policing.
The Conservative commentator said Swank addressed Seattle officers and their union directly on X, telling them Pierce County “has a home for you,” promising strong leadership backing and community support.
Marysville’s police department quickly echoed the message, noting that it had already hired at least eight former SPD officers and highlighting its post-Blake municipal drug code and its own jail — features meant to signal that policing there still carries tangible authority and consequences.
Though the exchanges were framed humorously online, the message behind them was serious. According to the op-ed, Seattle’s renewed emphasis on diversion represents a return to policies that many officers believe stripped meaning from proactive policing.
While Barnes maintains that arrests can still be made, critics argue the system is structured to avoid real accountability by routing repeat drug offenders into a diversion program they view as ineffective and driven more by ideology than results.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild has repeatedly warned that such policies erode morale and compromise public safety. With overdose deaths and visible drug use still widespread, officers are being asked, the author argues, to enforce laws they know will rarely result in lasting consequences.
Other departments, meanwhile, are offering a simpler alternative: come work somewhere you are actually allowed to police.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/13/2026 – 22:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/surrounding-cities-move-seattle-pulls-back-drug-enforcement
Snoop Dogg’s NBA analyst role underscores why his on-air presence and global appeal keeps growing
LOS ANGELES — Snoop Dogg arrived at Intuit Dome hours before tipoff, long before most fans filled the arena and even before some players.
Dressed in a gray suit and black turtleneck, a diamond-encrusted Peacock pendant resting on his chest and purple Chuck Taylor sneakers with gold laces nodding to his lifelong Los Angeles Lakers allegiance, Snoop didn’t rush. He didn’t posture. He waited for his moment to shine as an NBA analyst alongside Reggie Miller and Terry Gannon for Peacock’s recent Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Clippers broadcast during the second half.
With an AP reporter trailing him through the arena for an all-access, behind-the-scenes look at his preparation — including time in the green room ahead of the broadcast — Snoop made it clear that this wasn’t a cameo.
“I don’t believe NBC would have gave me this opportunity if they thought I was coming in there playing games,” said Snoop, who won over global audiences during the Paris Olympics in 2024. “It’s not so much about me. It’s so much about what the game is needing right now.”
In recent months, Snoop underscored his ease in live, unscripted settings across major TV stages. He continued his work on NBC’s “The Voice,” performed during Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL broadcast, went viral at the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl and presented and did interviews at Sunday’s Golden Globes — where Amy Poehler and Stephen Graham praised his presence. That visibility has coincided with a deepening relationship with NBCUniversal, which continues to expand his role across sports and entertainment with next month’s Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, including NBA coverage.
Before opening tip of the Jan. 5 game, Snoop sat in production meetings and joined the coaches’ meetings with Steve Kerr and Tyronn Lue. He lingered near the Golden State Warriors’ locker room, occasionally dancing as his own music blared from inside, patiently waiting to interview Warriors star guard Stephen Curry a couple hours before the game.
Snoop’s approach resonated with the players he covered.
“He can find his way anywhere in any environment,” Curry said. “It was cool to see all the different versions of Snoop.”
How Snoop makes his presence felt on the biggest stages
This image released by CBS Broadcasting shows Amy Poehler, left, accepting the award for best podcast for “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” from presenter Snoop Dogg during the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Kevork Djansezian/CBS Broadcasting via AP)
Curry has seen Snoop’s ability to move comfortably between worlds long before this night. The sharpshooting guard recalled seeing Snoop around Team USA during the Paris Olympics, where he blended seamlessly into the basketball environment while connecting easily with players away from the court.
“He caught me off guard at the beginning because he gave me three really straightforward basketball questions,” Curry said of Snoop’s Warriors-Clippers pregame interview. “Then I heard he got to it on the broadcast. … He was a great addition.”
Whether Snoop is on a global broadcast, major streamer or a sideline, he reads the room in real time. That feel showed up again at the Arizona Bowl, when he snagged a deep kickoff mid-interview, losing a shoe but securing the ball. It was a spontaneous moment that quickly went viral and showed why he continues to resonate in live settings.
Moments like that help explain why Snoop’s presence keeps widening. He’s set to be part of NBC’s coverage of the upcoming Winter Olympics, further extending a presence that now spans sports, entertainment and generations of viewers.
Miller, who played 18 years with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, said Snoop’s versatility and seriousness stood out even behind the camera.
“He’s authentic,” Miller said. “Questions that he asked in the coaches meetings, stepping up and asking informed questions of Steve Kerr and Ty Lue. He could have just sat back and listened. No, he’s getting his hands dirty.”
Gannon echoed those sentiments.
“It’s not like he’s just showing up and saying ‘I’m here,’” he said. “He put in the work and effort. The broadcast was seamless because of that.”
How Snoop built a bridge between the game and a broader audience
Snoop Dogg tries to make the catch on a kick off in the first half of the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl NCAA college football game between Fresno State and Miami, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Snoop said he studied legendary broadcasters, particularly the late Chick Hearn, who was the play-by-play announcer for more than 40 years with the Lakers. The rapper viewed his role as someone who understands basketball deeply but speaks from outside the traditional broadcast lineage.
“I represent the average Joe, despite being me being a well-known celebrity,” he said. “The NBA has moved forward to where it deserves to have people like me who understand the game, know the game and can speak to the game and also bring new viewers.”
Snoop’s perspective showed up immediately once he went on air.
He called out the Warriors’ Draymond Green for taking — and missing — too many 3-pointers, while praising his ability to function as a point-forward. He noted Curry’s ability to play through an ankle injury in the third quarter. He labeled on-court chemistry “cookies and cream like they about to open up a cookie shop,” dubbed Curry “Stephisticated” and punctuated a scoring burst with “two-piece chicken nuggets.”
When Warriors coach Steve Kerr was ejected after disagreeing with referees on a goaltending call, Snoop’s bold personality cut through the moment, shouting “Inglewood” as the crowd roared inside the Intuit Dome, which is located in Inglewood, California.
“When the lights are on, that’s when I shine the brightest,” Snoop said.
What’s next for Snoop?
Debuting as an NBA analyst, Snoop Dogg, records video on the court before an NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Snoop said he’d welcome more opportunities to call NBA games, viewing the analyst role as a natural extension of a career built on curiosity and evolution. He’s eager to immerse himself in the Winter Olympics, where he’ll once again be an NBC correspondent and join Team USA as an honorary coach.
He’ll serve as an ambassador and supporter for American athletes in the lead-up and throughout the Games. He’s also hosting an event with Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard during NBA All-Star week next month.
“I feel like I’m progressing myself as a full-on entertainer,” Snoop said. “This is a part of entertainment, being able to pull people into things they may or may not be interested in. I would love to do more of this.”
Snoop is certainly living a dream with a simple through line: Show up, do the work and stay open to what comes next.
“When you master who you are,” he said, “you understand that you’re not one-dimensional. You evolve.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/13/snoop-dogg-nba-analyst-role/
