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Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings, the first to breach the pool of reporters awaiting the arrival of coaches, joked that he had better talk fast “before that Kentucky coach shows up.” He was right. Calipari walked into room, lamenting the fact that the SEC’s backdrop signs were dangerous without handrails, and a crowd immediately formed around him on the dais. He explained that Kentucky’s August trip to the Bahamas was an experiment of sorts, one he needed to use to show his team (and perhaps himself, as he alluded to) that his two-platoon idea was one worth pursuing....

“I told them in the huddle, ‘I hope they beat us,’” Calipari told ESPN sideline report Shannon Spake after UK’s 71-69 victory, which pushed their unbeaten streak to 24 games. “They’re going to learn their lesson on this. We’re not losing in March because of a play like that. For no reason? You’re out of your mind, figure it out.” MORE: Season of Supremacy | Towns videobombs Cal | Odds against perfect season...

That could be the setup for a cheesy political joke, but for our purposes it’s the setup for a football conspiracy theory. Elway, the Broncos’ general manager, and Romo, the Cowboys’ former starting quarterback, went to Washington last weekend to watch Donald Trump take the presidential oath of office. Somehow, the two wound up at an event for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. We have no idea whether Elway tampered with another team’s player off camera, but you know fans think he did, which just heightens the “Will Elway trade for Romo?...

Isner was hurt in the final of the Miami Open last week while playing Roger Federer. Isner has played in the U.S. Clay Court Championship every year since 2008 and won the title in 2013. The American said “it is very disappointing to not compete there this year. I am hopeful that I will be back on the court in a few weeks.” His withdrawal leaves Steve Johnson as the top seed in the tournament....

He was preparing for a game in New Orleans when someone brought him the turkey/duck/chicken concoction. Needless to say, hilarity ensued. MORE: Week 12 NFL Power Rankings “A guy brought me one in the booth," Madden said, via the East Bay Times. “I was just going to eat it later or put it on the bus, and it started to smell so good I had to taste it. I grabbed it and started to eat it before the game....

A few years back, I returned to Philadelphia to visit my father, who was in his final months, living in a nursing home. On the long ride from the airport, I tuned into WXPN, the public radio station where I worked in my 20s as a DJ, spending hours putting together sets combining blues, rockabilly and bluegrass. As luck would have it, after a few songs by artists I’d never heard of, the DJ played John Prine’s classic about old age and loneliness, “Hello in There....

John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, put together a passive-aggressive masterwork on Tuesday about a CBS Sports poll. A poll. A website poll, about a basketball game. MORE: Dream scenarios for the NBA lottery | The Lakers are desperate John Tory, you see, is actually not mad that CBS offered readers a choice of either Golden State, Oklahoma City, Cleveland or “other.” He’s not mad at all. It’s funny, actually, and so funny to Tory that he tweeted the response, tagged the Raptors and CBS Sports in it, and gave it the dreaded “open letter” format to CBS chairman Sean McManus....

Biden’s initial and preferred plan has been to increase the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. The increased taxes would help fund roads, bridges, electric vehicles and broadband, but Republicans have disagreed. An increase in corporate taxes would undo the tax cuts signed by former President Donald Trump in 2017. There is currently no minimum corporate tax on profits, so Biden proposed establishing a 15 percent minimum to give Republicans an alternative to his plan that would not require raising corporate taxes....

The Warriors have won four championships in the past eight years, but they did not meet Donald Trump while he was in office. The team was publicly disinvited after star point guard Stephen Curry said he was not interested in going, according to an ESPN report. During their meeting on Tuesday, Biden took a knee in front of the team for a photo with Vice President Kamala Harris and the team, prompting laughter from those in the room....

British lawmaker Chris Bryant, a Labour Party member of the U.K. Parliament, told the Evening Standard he put forward the Democrat on Monday. “When others have resorted to violent solutions, he has argued that the best force is the force of argument,” he told the newspaper. “Because guns can stop a heart but well-placed words can change many hearts, and many hearts can change a world.” Newsweek has contacted Bryant and the Biden campaign for comment....

The latest battleground state poll released by Pulse Opinion Research found that 55 percent of likely voters in Wisconsin favored Biden, while 43 percent said they were leaning toward Trump. A further 2 percent of Wisconsin voters said they were either unsure about who to vote for, or intended to back a third party candidate instead. Pressed on whether they certain of their vote, almost eight in ten respondents said their vote wouldn’t change, and 21 percent indicated that they could still be moved before polls open on November 3....

The former vice president was asked what he would do if he won the race to the White House, and a compromised version of a Medicare for All bill pushed forward by Sanders, managed to get through the Senate, and land on his desk in the Oval Office. “Do you veto it?” MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked Biden. Biden replied: “I would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of healthcare being available now....

Biden repeatedly called for a bipartisan approach to governing during last year’s White House campaign. This harked back to his 36 years in the Senate, which had a less severe partisan divide when he was first elected in 1972 and for many years afterwards. “We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in this country,” Biden said before the election. “When I say that, and I said that from the time I announced, I was told that, ‘Maybe that’s the way things used to work, Joe, you got a lot done before, Joe, but you can’t do that anymore....

Instead of mining materials needed to build electric vehicles domestically, two unnamed administration officials told Reuters Biden will focus on purchasing the metals overseas and bring them into the U.S. Once the raw materials arrive, American workers will turn them into things like batteries, so electric vehicles can be built. The approach deviates from former President Donald Trump’s push to speed up domestic mining projects, which typically undergo a thorough environmental review to assess potential risks....

Biden tested positive for COVID on Thursday and the White House said the president was experiencing what were described as “very mild symptoms.” The president will now isolate at the White House, where he will continue to carry out his duties and participate in planned meetings virtually, and will continue to do so until he tests negative. Shortly after the news broke, conservative commentators such as Charlie Kirk, Paul Joseph Watson, and tech entrepreneur Eli David took to Twitter to highlight the fact that Biden caught COVID despite having had four vaccines....

When it comes to North Korea, Biden could simply decide to replicate the failed policies of the past—policies championed by Democrats and Republicans alike. That means more failed sanctions, more pressure coupled with the hope China can somehow bring Pyongyang to heel. And if that is the case, 2021 could be another year of missile and nuclear tests, threats of war followed by promises of talks that go nowhere....

A week ago Biden was staring into the abyss. His approval ratings were deep underwater and 70 percent of Americans thought the country was going in the wrong direction. Resurgent Republicans were poised to test the Democrats’ hold on states they had won easily for years, capitalizing on voters’ frustrations with a sputtering economy and an enduring pandemic that Biden had promised to end. And most embarrassingly, Biden’s signature legislative achievements had been thwarted repeatedly in Congress by factions within his own party, even after he announced what he called a framework agreement....

Unity has been a central element of Biden’s early rhetoric, inheriting as he did a fractured political landscape scarred by four years of Donald Trump and decades of worsening partisan divide in Washington, D.C. His unifying message may be welcomed by Americans exhausted by vicious politicking, the pandemic and systemic economic problems—but many Republican lawmakers are giving the president short shrift, particularly after his $1.9 trillion stimulus package was passed with no GOP support....

The letter states that the Republicans members of the House of Representatives have “serious concerns” about Harris’ appointment to resolve the situation, branded a border crisis by her political foes, amid record breaking numbers of encounters there. Harris was personally tasked by Biden to try and control the surge of migrants crossing the border. She has since been criticized by high profile GOP and right-leaning figures for not visiting the border since her appointment....

Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday that action would be taken when the House of Representatives and the Senate get back to work but didn’t offer details on what form that might take. On Wednesday, October 4, the OPEC+ group of oil producing nations said that they had agreed to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day to raise prices, despite objections and lobbying from the White House....