Category: News
The AI Economy And The Public Risk Few Are Willing To Admit
The AI Economy And The Public Risk Few Are Willing To Admit
Authored by Mark Keenan via GlobalResearch.ca,
Artificial intelligence is being sold as the technology that will “change everything.” Yet while a handful of firms are profiting enormously from the AI boom, the financial risk may already be shifting to the public. The louder the promises become, the quieter another possibility seems to be:
What if AI is not accelerating the global economy – but masking its slow down?
The headlines declare that AI is transforming medicine, education, logistics, finance, and culture. But when I speak with people in ordinary jobs, a different reality emerges: wages feel sluggish, job openings are tightening, and the loudest optimism often comes from sectors most financially invested in the AI narrative.
This raises an uncomfortable question: Has AI become a true engine of prosperity — or a financial life-support system?
The Mirage of Growth
Recent economic data suggests that a significant portion of U.S. GDP growth is being driven not by broad productivity, but by AI-related infrastructure spending — especially data centers.
A study from S&P Global found that in Q2 of 2025, data center construction alone added 0.5% to U.S. GDP. That is historic. But what happens if this spending slows? Are we witnessing genuine economic expansion — or merely a short-term stimulus disguised as innovation?
This pattern is not new. In Ireland in 2008 — before the housing collapse — construction boomed, GDP rose, and skepticism was treated as pessimism. The United States experienced something similar the same year: real estate appeared to be a pillar of prosperity — until it wasn’t. On paper, economies looked strong. In reality, fragility was already setting in.
Today, echoes of that optimism are returning — except this time, the bubble may be silicon, data, and expectation.
The Productivity Paradox
AI has been presented as a labor-saving miracle. But many businesses report a different experience: “work slop” — AI-generated content that looks polished yet must be painstakingly corrected by humans. Time is not saved — it is quietly relocated.
Studies reflect the same paradox:
According to media coverage, MIT found that 95% of corporate AI pilot programs show no measurable ROI.
MIT Sloan research indicates that AI adoption can lead to initial productivity losses — and that any potential gains depend on major organizational and human adaptation.
Even McKinsey — one of AI’s greatest evangelists — warns that AI only produces value after major human and organizational change. “Piloting gen AI is easy, but creating value is hard.”
This suggests that AI has not removed human labor. It has hidden it — behind algorithms, interfaces, and automated output that still requires correction.
We are not replacing work. We may only be concealing it.
AI may appear efficient, but it operates strictly within the limits of its training data: it can replicate mistakes, miss what humans would notice, and often reinforce a consensus version of reality rather than reality itself. Once AI becomes an administrative layer — managing speech, research, hiring, and access to capital — it can become financially embedded into institutions, whether or not it produces measurable productivity.
As I explore in the book Staying Human in the Age of AI at that point, AI does not enhance judgment — it administers it. And then we should ask:
Is AI improving society — or merely managing and controlling it?
The Global Data Center Stampede — But Toward What?
McKinsey estimates that over $6.7 trillion may be spent on AI and computing infrastructure by 2030 — a level of capital allocation typically seen in wartime. But what exactly is being built, and will it ever return value to ordinary people?
The United States is not the only nation embedding AI within its economic strategy. Similar trends are emerging globally:
EU: funding AI infrastructure via public bonds
China: integrating AI into its “national rejuvenation” strategy
Singapore / UAE / Ireland: offering major tax incentives to build data-center zones
BRICS: framing AI as a counterweight to Western digital dominance
AI may no longer be a neutral technology — it is becoming a strategic instrument shaped globally by national policy, geopolitical competition, and financial pressure. The question is no longer whether AI will shape national policy — but whether policy itself is already being reshaped in service of an AI orthodoxy.
Analysts warn that parts of the industry may already resemble a circular economy of expectations: cloud and chip companies invest in AI startups that then buy computing services from the very firms that fund them. Speculation becomes demand — and demand becomes proof of viability.
If this pattern repeats globally, AI may not represent a technological revolution — but a new public liability embedded into national strategies.
The Genesis Mission — And the Rise of State-Protected AI
A November 2025 U.S. executive order — internally referred to as the “Genesis Mission” — may institutionalize AI infrastructure by merging:
federal supercomputers
national-lab datasets
taxpayer funding
private-sector AI firms
into a unified national AI platform.
This does not guarantee bailouts — but it creates the conditions under which major AI firms may become “too big to fail”. Once AI is embedded into national strategy, failure becomes political.
We may be witnessing the transformation of AI from speculative investment into a publicly underwritten enterprise.
Under these conditions, any failure — technological, economic, or environmental — will not remain private. It will become a public cost.
Are we potentially witnessing a new socialisation of private risk and debt — similar to what occurred after the 2008 housing collapse in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere — with the burden once again transferred onto the public?
Who Carries the Risk?
The concern is not just the data boundaries of AI itself and the “consensus reality” it portrays — but where the financial risk may already be hiding.
Large retirement funds and passive index portfolios are now concentrated in AI-dependent giants such as Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Tesla. On the debt side, data-center financing and private credit tied to AI infrastructure are quietly entering bond portfolios.
This means the AI boom is not simply an investment trend. It may already be embedded inside the retirement accounts of ordinary citizens — without their knowledge.
Across borders, governments risk repeating the same pattern: constructing AI infrastructure before proving that it benefits society.
Questions the Global Public Deserves Answers To
Is AI transforming work — or creating new layers of hidden labor?
Are data centers driving prosperity — or merely propping up GDP?
Are citizens knowingly investing in AI — or being invested through passive portfolios?
Is AI creating value — or simply absorbing public capital and subsidies?
When enough money, debt, and public credibility are tied to a technology, questioning it becomes difficult — and supporting it becomes mandatory.
Conclusion
As I wrote in the book Staying Human in the Age of AI, we should not allow AI to overshadow human thought. History reminds us that optimism is most dangerous when it becomes unquestioned. AI may still deliver genuine breakthroughs — but belief is currently moving faster than evidence.
If AI delivers value, perhaps this risk will be justified. If it does not — the cost will not fall on venture capital. It will fall on pensioners, savers, taxpayers, and future generations.
Now that AI is being treated as national infrastructure, its success or failure is no longer a private gamble. It has become a global public risk — and public risks always come with a public bill.
If we allow AI to define the future, we risk forgetting that the future is still ours to define.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/03/2025 – 16:20
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/ai-economy-and-public-risk-few-are-willing-admit
Indianapolis man gets 35 years for killing near Gary fitness center
An Indianapolis man got 35 years in a plea deal for a slaying near Hudson-Campbell Sports & Fitness Center in January 2023.
Keeon Lee, 29, pleaded guilty in documents filed Oct. 31 to voluntary manslaughter and a gun enhancement.
Gary Police were called at 12:45 p.m. Jan. 9, 2023, to the 400 block of Massachusetts Street for a homicide. Jalen “JayBall” Hurd, 24, of Gary, was found fatally shot multiple times near the Hudson-Campbell Sports & Fitness Center, a block from City Hall.
After the hearing, relatives said the men were “acquaintances” and they heard the shooting may have been after an “argument over basketball.”
A tearful woman, who declined to provide her name, said Hurd was a “good brother” and “so genuine. We just want to know why.”
She said later they believed pictures of his body circulated on social media.
During the brief hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Shannon Phillips said the plea was after extensive negotiations. It was a “reasonable offer” and Lee “accepted responsibility.”
Defense lawyer James Thiros said Lee was facing a “significant” punishment and the prison time was “not a slap on the wrist.”
Lee declined to speak in court.
That appeared to leave Judge Natalie Bokota momentarily mystified that he would skip an opportunity to publicly say he was remorseful.
“I am hesitating,” she told him, and “a little bit surprised.”
Phillips and Thiros both noted it was mentioned in pre-sentencing interview paperwork.
The judge accepted the plea deal.
“I don’t know all the facts” behind the “horrifying crime,” Bokota said.
Thiros and prosecutors spoke privately with Bokota at a bench conference for several minutes after the sentencing.
Police were called at 12:45 p.m. to the 400 block of Massachusetts Street for a homicide. Hurd was lying on the sidewalk next to a black car. A basketball with the word “Jalen” was found nearby.
Security video appeared to show Hurd parking and going toward his trunk when a white vehicle pulls up and a man guns him down. He continued to shoot while Hurd was on the ground, according to the affidavit.
Police found 30 .223-caliber shell casings at the scene. Investigators traced the other car, a 2012 white Buick’s license plate to Lee. Investigators later discovered Lee’s car was impounded Jan. 10 and he didn’t try to get it back, charges state.
A relative wrote Hurd wanted to start a youth sports mentorship program someday.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
mcolias@post-trib.com
Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether local jails can hold immigrants for ICE
MADISON, Wis. — A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of an immigrant rights group arguing that it is illegal for local jails to hold immigrant detainees at the request of federal authorities.
The Wisconsin lawsuit comes as federal agents have launched high-profile immigration crackdowns in cities including Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina. Another operation is expected in the coming days in Minnesota, targeting Somali immigrants. The enforcement tactics have been met with protests and lawsuits.
A majority of justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to take the ACLU case directly as an original action, rather than have it first work its way through lower courts. The court is controlled 4-3 by liberal justices.
Four justices, who were not named, voted to accept the case, while conservative Justices Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley dissented. Justice Brian Hagedorn, who most often sides with conservative justices, wrote separately to discuss the process, but he did not reveal how he voted.
None of the justices discussed the merits of the case in the order agreeing to take it.
The court’s decision means there could be a final ruling in the case by the middle of 2026, far faster than if it first had to wind its way through lower courts. All briefs in the case are due within two months, and the court will set a date for oral argument sometime after that early next year.
The ACLU brought the lawsuit against five county sheriffs in September on behalf of Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant rights group based in Milwaukee.
“This is a historic step toward ensuring that Wisconsin’s law protects all residents, not just those with power and privilege,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. “Honoring ICE detainers has subjected hardworking immigrants to unlawful arrests for far too long.”
The lawsuit contends that it is illegal for local jails to hold immigrants on detainers sent by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to local sheriff’s offices. The lawsuit was filed against sheriffs in Walworth, Brown, Marathon, Kenosha and Sauk counties, all of which honor those requests.
Sam Hall, one of the attorneys for the sheriffs, said they were reviewing the court’s order and evaluating next steps.
“We are confident, however, that Wisconsin sheriffs who honor ICE detainers do so fully within the bounds of Wisconsin law and the federal legal framework governing immigration enforcement,” he said in an email.
The sheriffs had argued that because the lawsuit involves a complicated area of the law — federal immigration law and the relationship between federal and state and local law enforcement — the case was best “resolved and refined” by first going through the lower courts, rather than skipping directly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Honoring an ICE detainer means the sheriff agrees to hold the person for 48 hours after they otherwise should have been released under state law. The goal of detainers is to give ICE agents more time to pick someone up if they are suspected of being in the country illegally.
The ACLU wants the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prohibit sheriffs from holding people on ICE detainers, which are based on administrative warrants. Holding someone for extra time must be authorized by a judicial warrant, in which a court determines there is probable cause to keep them longer, the ACLU argues in the lawsuit.
The ACLU argues that keeping the person in custody for that extra time constitutes an illegal new arrest. It is illegal because Wisconsin law does not allow officers to make civil arrests except in certain circumstances, none of which apply to immigration enforcement, the lawsuit argues.
In the first seven months of this year, ICE sent more than 700 requests to local jails across Wisconsin, asking them to hold someone 48 hours beyond when they were set to be released, the lawsuit contends.
Republicans in the GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature support a bill that would withhold money from counties that don’t comply with ICE detainers. The measure passed the Assembly, and if the Senate approves the bill it would head to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is likely to veto it.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/wisconsin-supreme-court-ice/
Search for missing man Daniel Davis narrows on Blue Island; family urges community to keep an eye out
Wendy Davis said driving around for 12 hours and searching for her dad made for a Thanksgiving she will never forget.
Her father, Daniel Davis, 59, was last seen at 1:15 a.m. Nov. 25, leaving 115 Bourbon Street at 3359 W. 115th St. in Merrionette Park, according to police reports. Davis, a Chicago resident, was involved in a multivehicle accident the day before, where police said he may have suffered a head injury.
Wendy, along with a volunteer search party and Chicago police, narrowed their efforts on the Blue Island area this week after receiving camera footage of Davis at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 26, leaving St. Donatus Church on Union Street.
But a week has passed since that footage, and Wendy said the volunteer group needs more recent camera identification so the Chicago police can bring in a canine unit.
She urged Blue Island area residents and businesses to check any security footage they have, such as on Ring cameras. She also urged residents, especially those living near the church where he was last seen, to check their garages, sheds or anything that would qualify as shelter on their property.
“Keep sharing and telling your friends,” Wendy said. “We cannot do this without the help of the community and we are completely lost without documented sightings. The power of social media and kind neighbors is crucial at this moment.”
Chicago police said they are looking for a man wearing a limited edition, black Harvey-Davidson jacket, a red and black sweatshirt and black pants.
Davis also may be carrying identification on him, as his wallet was not found in his car, said Kenny Braasch, one of the search group leaders.
Davis refused medical treatment after the car crash Nov. 24, and a responding Cook County officer gave him a ride to Bourbon Street, his place of work, according to Chicago police.
Hours later, Davis was spotted on the bar’s cameras trying and failing to get into employees’ cars in the bar’s back parking lot then leaving on foot at about 1:15 a.m., according to Jenn Barber Masuka, the mother of Davis’ daughter and founder of a Facebook group devoted to the search.
Camera footage from Ring cameras in Blue Island show Daniel Davis Nov. 25, 2025. He went missing that day, and the footage was given to a volunteer search party by Blue Island residents. (Wendy Davis)
Masuka said an off-duty community service officer allegedly drove past Davis staggering on a sidewalk later that morning and called Bourbon Street management, because the officer recognized Davis as an employee. She said Davis’ coworkers called the police and have been active in the search.
Masuka also said there is video footage of Davis falling on a sidewalk the morning of Nov. 25 and that he may need medical attention. She said she hopes Davis is carrying cash and has been able to find food and help, as she said there has not been any bank activity, including any transactions on his credit and debit cards.
She urged people living in the Blue Island area to keep an eye out for Davis throughout their day.
“We just need that one person to look up,” Masuka said. “We just need one clip.”
Camera footage from Ring cameras in Blue Island of Daniel Davis the afternoon of Nov. 25, 2025. He went missing that day, and the footage was given to a volunteer search party by Blue Island residents. (Wendy Davis)
Since his disappearance, more than 95 volunteers joined Masuka, Braasch and Wendy in the search.
Wendy said the volunteer group, made up of close friends, family, neighbors, coworkers and strangers, has hung fliers around the Blue Island area, along with going door to door asking residents to check their cameras.
Volunteers have also checked alleyways, wooded areas and even nearby houses for sale, along with contacting hospitals, Metra, CTA, several local schools and businesses, mental health centers and shelters, Wendy and Masuka said.
“I don’t think there’s anything we haven’t tried yet,” Wendy said.
She said the number of people helping is a testament to how the community sees and cares for him. She said she doesn’t think her dad would ever believe her if she told him just how many people are out “fighting for him right now.”
“I have never met one person in my life that has ever had anything bad to say about him and this whole search is proof of just how much everybody loves him,” she said. “There’s people involved that we would never have expected to see. It’s overwhelming in the best way.”
Masuka and Wendy both said Davis’ disappearance is unlike him.
Masuka said Davis is an extremely talented artistic person and lighting designer, and said musicians who play Bourbon Street love him.
Wendy said her dad is a “huge goofball” and said her childhood is packed with memories of them laughing together, along with treasured traditions.
She said they would visit their favorite pasta restaurant, Pasta Palazzo, in Lincoln Park, and order the chicken alfredo every time, or grab lunch at Asuka Japanese restaurant in Bloomington and take a stroll around Indiana University’s campus.
“There’s never a time where I’m not laughing with him,” Wendy said. “He would drop the entire world for me, and I wish he could see everybody doing the same for him right now.”
Daniel Davis, a Chicago resident who went missing on Nov. 25, smiling on April 6, 2023 while having his usual chicken alfredo with his daughter Wendy Davis in Lincoln Park. Wendy said he is most likely wearing the same outfit in the picture, but without the hat and with more facial hair. (Wendy Davis)
A Chicago police official said Tuesday they learned of alleged sightings of Davis in the Joliet area, but could not confirm those reports.
Braasch, one of the search group leaders, said to call 911 if residents see Davis, as he would mostly likely need medical attention.
Braasch also said people can call Chicago police Area 2 Special Victims Unit at 312-747-8274 with information and text video footage or photos to him at 708-846-9565.
awright@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/dan-davis-missing-blue-island/
Jan. 6 Defendant Sues Federal Government Over Alleged Abuses In Custody
Jan. 6 Defendant Sues Federal Government Over Alleged Abuses In Custody
Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,
A former Jan. 6 defendant who alleges he was repeatedly abused in custody is suing the federal government for almost $18 million.
Ryan Samsel of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was convicted in September 2024 of civil disorder-related offenses in connection with the civil disturbance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was incarcerated and awaiting sentencing when President Donald Trump pardoned him on Jan. 20 of this year.
The civil legal process in Samsel’s case was initiated when the Department of Justice (DOJ) was served with a notice under the Federal Tort Claims Act on Nov. 28, his attorney, Peter Haller, told The Epoch Times. A tort is a wrongful act or infringement of a right that gives rise to civil liability.
To sue under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a claimant has to file an administrative claim with a federal agency within two years after the injury takes place. The agency then has six months to settle or deny the claim. The plaintiff then has six months after the claim is denied or the agency fails to respond to the claim to file a civil lawsuit against the federal government in federal district court.
The document that begins the process, known as a Standard Form 95, states that Samsel is seeking $17,980,000 from the federal government for personal injuries suffered from January 2021 through January 2025.
Samsel, now 42, was found guilty of “assaulting Officer C.E. with a deadly or dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury,” during the civil unrest at the U.S. Capitol, the DOJ said last year.
The DOJ said Samsel was also convicted on felony charges of civil disorder, assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, as well as assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon.
Haller said his client disputes the criminal allegations and that the officer identified as C.E. suffered no injury, which he said was clear from a magnetic resonance imaging scan and other medical evaluations.
Samsel alleges he was subjected to physical abuse while in custody at facilities operated by the DOJ and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in the District of Columbia, New York, and Virginia.
There were 62 “separate assaults and other torts committed against Mr. Samsel while in the custody of the United States, as well as cruel and unusual punishment,” Haller said in the legal filing.
“Given the severity, duration, and documented multiplicity of the abuses suffered by Mr. Samsel, he is likely to be recognized as the most tortured individual by the Federal Government in recent American history,” the attorney said.
The form states that during Samsel’s four-year federal detention, he suffered 62 torts that “reflect a continuous scheme to physically and mentally harm him throughout his imprisonment and continuously deny him necessary medical treatment for serious vascular issues that pre-existed prison as well as for most injuries sustained from attacks by corrections officers during prison.”
The form said Samsel was held in custody for almost seven months but was not indicted until Aug. 25, 2021, which was “in clear violation of due process.”
As a result of his incarceration, Samsel suffers from “permanent physical impairment stemming from multiple documented injuries sustained during his incarceration.” Among those injuries are a dislocated jaw, broken right orbital bone, broken nose, lacerations, contusions, and acute kidney damage, “all resulting from coordinated assaults by correctional staff and other inmates,” the form said.
He still suffers from partial loss of vision in his right eye, persistent pain, and swelling related to his injuries, and needs ongoing medical attention for eye and chest injuries, blood clots, and thoracic outlet syndrome, according to the form.
In addition, he suffers panic attacks and “other uncontrollable emotional consequences,” as well as physical deterioration, chronic pain, and high cholesterol that came about as a result of his prolonged confinement and inadequate nutrition while in custody, the form said.
In November 2021, Samsel was forced to sit in a restraint chair for about 17 hours, where he was on public display for local schoolchildren to see him through a window. While in the chair, he was left in his own waste and developed a blood clot, according to a table of torts attached to the form.
From January to August 2021, Samsel was placed in a segregated unit for Jan. 6 prisoners in which the lights were on at all times. He was denied exercise and showers. He suffered sleep deprivation for about seven months, the table said.
Haller said his client received three “major beatings” from corrections officers and in two different prisons he was housed in closet-sized rooms.
Haller said the abuse his client experienced was comparable to the experiences of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq, more than two decades ago.
Reports of alleged widespread torture and abuse of prisoners held by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib during the 2003 Iraq war first emerged more than 20 years ago, when leaked photos appeared to show detainees being forced into humiliating positions.
“The parallel of Ryan’s torture to that of Abu Ghraib is remarkable–17 hours in a restraint chair with students as witnesses, multiple beatings by officers, multiple multi-month stretches in solitary with lights on 24/7, a broom closet for a cell, housed in a high security floor of [Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York] with murderers who stabbed him, starvation, repeated humiliation,” Haller told The Epoch Times.
“These forms of severe mental and physical abuse, disorientation and humiliation were all applied against Ryan Samsel just as they were against the prisoners of Abu Ghraib; the only meaningful difference is that in Abu Ghraib, Arab and Middle Eastern terrorists generally suffered torture for a year or less—whereas Ryan Samsel was tortured for four years,” Haller said.
The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment. No reply was received by publication time.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/03/2025 – 15:45
Kylian Mbappé aporta doblete y Real Madrid rompe mala racha con victroia 3-0 ante Athletic Bilbao
Por TALES AZZONI
MADRID (AP) — Kylian Mbappé firmó un doblete y el Real Madrid despachó el miércoles 3-0 al Athletic Bilbao para poner fin a una racha de tres partidos sin ganar en la Liga española.
Eduardo Camavinga también marcó en la visita al estadio San Mamés para un Madrid que se colocó a un punto del líder Barcelona, que el martes venció 3-1 al Atlético de Madrid.
Ambos partidos de la 19ª jornada se adelantaron porque Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic y Atlético jugarán en la Supercopa de España en enero en Arabia Saudí.
El Madrid venía de encadenar empates en la liga contra Girona, Elche y Rayo Vallecano. Fue la segunda victoria del cuadro merengue en sus últimos seis partidos en todas las competiciones.
“Era un partido importante, queríamos romper la dinámica”, señaló el técnico madridista Xabi Alonso. “Veníamos con la calma necesaria y preparados. Ha sido un partido muy completo, los 90 minutos, muy concentrados, apenas concediendo ocasiones. Y generamos muchas nosotros”.
“Ha sido el partido más redondo en un estadio exigente. Pero lo llevamos con calma, a seguir”, remarcó.
Mbappé ha marcado siete goles en sus últimos tres partidos en todas las competiciones. El astro francés había anotado una vez contra Girona y cuatro veces de visita a Olympiakos en la Liga de Campeones. Contabiliza 30 goles entre club y selección esta temporada y es el máximo goleador tanto en La Liga española como en la Liga de Campeones.
Mbappé anotó su primer gol el miércoles al culminar un contragolpe en el séptimo minuto. Controló el balón cerca del mediocampo y superó a un par de defensores durante su carrera antes de encontrar la red desde el borde del área.
“Ha sido estético y plástico tanto en el primer gol como el segundo. Ha conectado muy bien con Vinicius”, señaló Alonso. “Lo necesitamos”.
Camavinga aumentó la ventaja con un cabezazo desde corta distancia a los 42, y Mbappé consiguió su segundo gol con un formidable disparo desde casi 30 metros a los 59.
Camavinga tuvo que ser reemplazado a los 69 por una aparente lesión. El Madrid también perdió a Trent Alexander-Arnold debido a un problema físico a los 55.
El Athletic, que marcha en el octavo lugar, apenas ha logrado dos victorias en sus últimos ocho partidos.
___
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Protestors criticize Braun’s redistricting plan outside Hammond fundraiser
As Armando Corpus joyfully blew his kazoo on the corner of Hohman Avenue and Fayette Street in Hammond Tuesday evening, he wondered what the donors were eating inside the digs across the street.
Corpus, of Highland, is the chef for the St. Joseph Catholic Church soup kitchen down the block from The Banc, where the NWI Development Group and Republican Indiana Victory Committee PAC hosted a $10,000-a-plate dinner for Governor Mike Braun. For the 200 people who come through his chow line, $10,000 “would do a lot of good.”
Nick Egnatz, of Munster, uses a megaphone during a protest outside a fundraiser attended by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun for the Indiana Victory Committee at The Grand Reserve in Hammond, Indiana on Tuesday, December 2, 2025. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
“In a city struggling to recover, it’s so effing rude,” Corpus said of the dinner. “Every opportunity we have to defy this regime, we should take it.”
Around 30 protestors braved the frigid weather outside the nearly $20 million mixed-use development, which formerly housed Bank Calumet, as Braun and his donors dined inside at $10,000 a pop. Hammond Police blocked off Fayette Street, which runs perpendicular to the building, and the protestors, who at one point stood in the building’s vestibule to warm up, were moved across the street.
Absent from the peaceful protest was its original ringleader, Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. McDermott over the weekend posted about the event and said Braun’s camp reached out to his Chief of Staff Scott Miller several times to let them know his posts posed “a security risk,” a point with which McDermott vehemently disagreed because he was within his First Amendment rights.
When reached by text Tuesday night, McDermott was less defiant.
Steve Jarzombek, of St. John, holds a sign above his head during a protest outside a fundraiser attended by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun for the Indiana Victory Committee at The Grand Reserve in Hammond, Indiana on Tuesday, December 2, 2025. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
“I was strongly discouraged from attending the protest … as such, it was better for me to leave it to the democratic officials who ran the protest,” McDermott said, referring to Hammond Common Councilmen Alfonso Salinas, D-3; and Scott Rakos, D-6.
Earlier Tuesday morning, McDermott announced on WJOB that he and Braun were meeting at Meats by Linz, which would be the first time he and the Governor were meeting in person, according to what McDermott told the Post-Tribune Monday. When asked if that meeting had anything to do with his not showing up Tuesday night, he demurred.
“I really can’t get into that … without getting myself into more hot water,” he said.
But McDermott’s absence didn’t ruin the protestors’ good time at all. Bob Cavallo, of Hammond’s Hessville neighborhood, tried to crowdsource a ticket to the shindig so he could talk to Braun and other attendees about the redistricting battle going on in the Indiana House of Representatives earlier Tuesday.
Jim Zmuda, right, talks with a Hammond police officer during a protest outside a fundraiser attended by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun for the Indiana Victory Committee at The Grand Reserve along Hohman Avenue in Hammond, Indiana on Tuesday, December 2, 2025. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
“If I had $10,000, I’ll go in there for a drink. Anyone?” Cavallo said jokingly. “But this redistricting is crap. I looked at the new map, and I knew it was going to be bad, but it shocked me; there are 150 miles between one corner of Lake County to the other corner in Marshall County.”
Rakos pointed out that the city, at its Monday night Common Council meeting, learned it won’t receive a Community Crossings matching grant for its roads for 2026.
“It’s not just the gerrymandering,” Rakos said. “The governor’s paid no attention to Hammond and won’t work with the mayor, and now we’re losing (Community Crossings). It’s a mess,” he said.
“There are starving kids, and they’re paying $10,000 a plate to eat. It’s a disgrace,” Jessica Morgan, of Cedar Lake, added.
Javier Silvares, of Highland and a soup kitchen volunteer with Corpus, joined him on the kazoo. Born in Spain, he knows what authoritarianism looks like.
“I was born under (Spain dictator Francisco) Franco, and I saw what the first stages (of authoritarianism) look like,” Silvares said. “The U.S. is supposed to be the richest country in the world, but the difference between classes is so huge, you can’t say it’s fair.
“But I do think we make a difference by being out here.”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
F-16 Fighter Jet Crashes In Southern California
F-16 Fighter Jet Crashes In Southern California
Southern California’s ABC7 reports that an F-16 fighter jet has crashed near Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake.
#BREAKINGNEWS: San Bernardino County firefighters responding to reports of crash possibly involving F-16 aircraft near China Lake https://t.co/Dh7bmvLASE
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) December 3, 2025
Breaking911 has posted what appear to be images of the aftermath of the jet crash.
Reports of an F-16C Fighting Falcon from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crashed near Trona Airport, south of Death Valley, California. The pilot reportedly ejected safely, suffered minor injuries, and was taken to a Ridgecrest hospital. pic.twitter.com/Nl9xRjcC6G
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 3, 2025
“F-16 Thunderbird 5 photographed with its last takeoff before it crashed in Trona, CA. Insane to see six of them take off from Nellis and only five returned. I’ll try to post the images later of the Thunderbird’s last takeoff. This is just a picture of the screen from my camera,” photographer Kelvin Cheng wrote on X.
F16 Thunderbird 5 photographed with its last takeoff before it crashed in Trona, CA. Insane to see six of them take off from Nellis and only five returned. I’ll try to post the images later of the Thunderbird’s last takeoff. This is just a picture of the screen from my camera pic.twitter.com/rJaIfXpLHN
— Kelvin Cheng (@kelvinkccheng) December 3, 2025
Developing…
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/03/2025 – 15:11
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/f-16-fighter-jet-crashes-southern-california
Napoli triunfa en dramática tanda de penales y avanza a cuartos de final de Copa Italia
Por DANIELLA MATAR
MILÁN (AP) — Napoli accedió a los cuartos de final de la Copa Italia tras emerger victorioso el miércoles de una interminable tanda de penales contra Cagliari tras un empate 1-1 en el tiempo reglamentario.
El equipo de Antonio Conte finalmente se impuso 9-8 en los penales. Mattia Felici estrelló su disparo al travesaño por Cagliari y el arquero napolitano Vanja Milinkovic-Savic atajó el remate de Zito Luvumbo.
David Neres pudo asegurar la victoria para Napoli con el quinto penal de la tanda, después del fallo de Felici, pero su disparo fue detenido por Elia Caprile. Alessandro Buongiorno se encargó de sellar la victoria. Milinkovic-Savic convirtió un penal en la tanda.
Napoli se adelantó en la primera mitad con el cabezazo de Lorenzo Lucca y Sebastiano Esposito lo empató a los 67 tras una asistencia accidental del mediocampista local Scott McTominay.
Napoli jugará contra Fiorentina o Como en los cuartos de final.
El Inter de Milán jugaba más tarde en casa contra Venezia, el único equipo de la Serie B que queda en carrera. El ganador jugará contra Roma o Torino.
Atalanta se cita con Juventus
Atalanta se las verá contra Juventus en cuartos de final tras vapulear 4-0 a un Genoa con 10 hombres.
Fue la primera derrota de Daniele De Rossi como técnico de Genoa después de asumir el cargo a principios del mes pasado.
Berat Djimsiti cabeceó un centro para darle la ventaja a Atalanta a los 19 minutos. La tarea de Genoa se se complicó cuando el adolescente Seydou Fini fue expulsado a los 36 por derribar a Raoul Bellanova se perfilaba para rematar a gol.
Marten de Roon duplicó la ventaja de Atalanta al inicio de la segunda mitad con un potente disparo desde fuera del área y Mario Pasalic se deslizó para anotar el tercero cerca del final. Honest Ahanor, un zaguero de 17 años que fichó con Atalanta en julio procedente Genoa en julio, anotó su primer gol en el tiempo de descuento.
Juventus eliminó a Udinese en su cruce de octavos de final el martes.
___
Deportes AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
Tom Houlihan, co-founder of HF Chronicle and longtime Star columnist, remembered for life in community journalism
Tom Houlihan, a longtime columnist for the Star and one of the founding members of the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle, died Nov. 23 following a decision to end cancer treatment in favor of palliative care. He was 76.
Houlihan was born in 1949, and grew up in Morgan Park on Chicago’s South Side. He graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in journalism in 1971.
After graduation, Houlihan’s career in journalism started with Crescent Newspapers, a now-defunct chain of newspapers that once covered the ‘crescent’ of suburbs around Chicago. There, he worked for the Lockport Herald as both a reporter and editor.
“He was just an excellent reporter, and, I mean, everybody loved him,” said John Ostenburg, a longtime friend and former business partner of Houlihan’s. “He just had a real natural ability. He also had a very creative streak.”
Ostenburg and his wife are godparents to one of Houlihan’s three sons.
“I don’t know any person that I ever, in my life, have heard say anything bad about Tom Houlihan,” Ostenburg said. “In right about 50 years of relationship that we had, I can think of no instance where I would have thought, jeez, why’d he do that, or why’d he say that? It just was not in his nature.”
After leaving the Lockport Herald and traveling for a few months in Spain, Houlihan came back to Illinois and took a position at Lewis University, where Ostenburg taught journalism.
“In the history of journalism, one of the outstanding moments was the penny press,” Ostenburg said. “And so we decided we were gonna start this newspaper, and it was going to be a weekly paper that would sell for a penny a copy.”
That project became the Lockport Free Press, which they started in 1976. Houlihan did almost all of the paper’s reporting. Though the publication was short-lived, Ostenburg said the two were “good newspapermen, but poor businessmen.” Houlihan met his first wife, Kat Houlihan (née Raymond), when she was hired to sell advertising for the paper. They were married in 1979.
In 1982, Houlihan became a full-time reporter for The Times of Northwest Indiana, where he stayed for six years. From there, he was hired at Star Newspapers, where he became a weekly columnist.
“There were all kinds of new subdivisions popping up in the south suburbs, and he did this comparison between the names of the subdivisions and the names of cemeteries,” Ostenburg said. “He wrote really good columns for the Star, and was very well-read. I mean, it was a popular feature in the Star for a long time.”
Houlihan stayed in that role for the next 20 years. In 2007, when the Star was merged with the Daily Southtown to create the SouthtownStar, he was working as the Star’s editorial page editor. Following the merger and the subsequent closure of the Star, Houlihan moved to a position as a communications writer at Governors State University.
Tom Houlihan in front of a pawpaw tree in his backyard in Flossmoor in 2021, after he donated $1,000 to establish several stands of pawpaw trees in other areas of the village. (Paul Eisenberg/Daily Southtown)
Kat Houlihan died suddenly in 2000, leaving Houlihan to look after the couple’s three sons: John, Joseph and Emmett Houlihan.
“Kat had not had any indications or signs of any kind of an illness or anything,” Ostenburg said. “It just came on all of a sudden, and all of a sudden his life was completely different.”
Ostenburg said he admired the way Houlihan handled his personal tragedy and cared for his sons.
“The way he was concerned about his sons, how they would be able to handle the situation and grow up, I think was just such an indication of who he was,” Ostenburg said.
Flossmoor resident Tom Houlihan, center, is surrounded by family and friends Nov. 15 at a gathering after 100 pawpaw trees were planted along a walking path in Flossmoor in his honor. (Paul Eisenberg/Daily Southtown)
In 2003, Houlihan remarried to Patty Houlihan (née Briske), a former Star reporter, and the family moved to Flossmoor.
After several years out of the field of journalism, Houlihan returned to the industry in 2014 when he became one of the three co-founders of the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle, together with Eric Crump and Marilyn Thomas.
“We’re grateful for his contributions to the Chronicle and to the community,” the Chronicle posted to its Facebook page Nov. 24. “Tom will be missed.”
Houlihan retired from the Chronicle in 2020. Three years later, he was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“He was very clear-minded about it. In typical Tom fashion, he faced everything in a very direct way,” Ostenburg said. “The doctors had told him previous that there was really no cure.”
Volunteers and Flossmoor village staff members planted 100 pawpaw trees Nov. 15, along a walking path in the village in honor of Tom Houlihan, who had spurred efforts to populate the tree in the area, as Houlihan’s family and friends gather around him. (Paul Eisenberg/Daily Southtown)
One of the projects Houlihan took up in the later part of his life was the preservation and planting of pawpaw trees. He’d developed an interest in the little-known trees, which produce edible fruit and were cultivated by indigenous people for hundreds of years before European settlement, in 2013.
Houlihan set himself to re-establishing the trees in Flossmoor, starting in his own backyard. On Nov. 15, about a week before he died, his family celebrated him by hosting a tree-planting event to establish a grove of 100 pawpaw trees in Flossmoor near Butterfield Creek.
During the event, Ostenburg said, Houlihan had shared a story he’d been told during his Lutheran upbringing that stayed with him.
“He had been told the story of Martin Luther being asked, ‘if you knew that tomorrow was going to be the last day on earth, what would you do?’” Ostenburg said. “And Martin Luther said, ‘I’d plant a tree.’”
A memorial celebration will be held in early 2026, according to the family. Specific details have not yet been announced.
elewis@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/tom-houlihan-flossmoor-journalist-star/
