Per the NY Times today, Claudine Gay will stay on as president of Harvard University, the school’s governing board announced on Tuesday. The members of the board, the Harvard Corporation, deliberated into the night on Monday before ultimately deciding not to remove Dr. Gay from her post.
“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” said a statement signed by all of the board members other than Dr. Gay. “Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.”
But the statement also faulted Dr. Gay’s initial response to the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, with the following Quote of the Day: “So many people have suffered tremendous damage and pain because of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, and the University’s initial statement should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation,” the board’s statement said.
This war is impacting our country in so many ways.
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The Michigan Republican Party continues to be in shambles. Per the Detroit News, the National Republican Party will be in town next week to meet with state Republicans to sort things out. The Detroit News reported that a draft report from a group opposed to Michigan Republican Chairperson Karamo’s leadership found the state GOP’s main fundraising account had just $315,000 in it as of Nov. 30.
The party also owes about $509,000 on its longstanding line of credit with Comerica Bank, along with $110,000 for a speaker at the Mackinac Leadership Conference in September. With three weeks until the beginning of 2024 — a pivotal election year — the state’s GOP is essentially bankrupt.
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Twenty and counting with no relief in sight. The Detroit Pistons lost their 20th game in a row last night. Coach Williams is trying everything to shake them out of the doldrums, but nothing seems to work. Turnovers, poor shooting, poor team defense, and lack of effort for a full 48 minutes continues to plague the team. The lack of effort is puzzling. The Pistons are the youngest team in the league, so effort should not be an issue. The other things can be resolved with experience, coaching, and practice, but effort comes from within the heart of each player, and it comes from holding each other accountable. This team does not have a team leader who calls out his fellow players when their effort is lacking. Talent without heart leads to frustration and year three of a total rebuild is nothing but frustration.
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Thanks to subscriber Deanna K, I have more details about the 10-year $700 contract Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turns out it is a 20-year contract. Per The Athletic, Ohtani will get $2 million per year for the first 10 years of the contract, and then get $68 million per year in years 11-20 of the contract.
The Dodgers will have to fund the future years of the contract starting in year two of the contract using an annual discount rate of 5%. In today’s dollars, the contract is worth approximately $460 million. There are tax benefits to Ohtani by structuring the contract the way it is, especially if he moves back to Japan after he retires from baseball. There are also major benefits to the Dodgers as they minimize the impact of the contract on the league’s luxury tax imposed on teams whose total contracts exceed a certain amount.
Deferred contracts are not new to professional sports. The most famous deferred contract was signed by Bobby Bonilla of the Mets whose $5.9 million contract was bought out by the Mets in 2000 when it was clear Bonilla was going to retire. The Mets agreed to pay Bonilla $1.2 million per year for 25 years starting in 2011 on July 1 of each year. Bonilla, who has been retired for 22 years, still has 12 more years left on his contract. In the baseball world, July 1 is known as Bobby Bonilla Day.
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Per the Detroit News, an Allen Park teenager has been charged for allegedly encouraging a Texas teen to commit suicide, authorities said. The Texas teen shot himself in the head in January. Investigators found the Texas teen had made statements online about being depressed in the weeks leading up to his death. In the messages through a gaming social platform, the Allen Park teen allegedly encouraged the Texas teen to kill himself approximately 12-18 hours before his death. The Allen Park teen traveled to a Montgomery County court and pleaded guilty last week to a felony charge for aiding suicide and a misdemeanor for harassment causing death.
Stories like the above are gut wrenching to me. There are so many reasons this should not have happened. The teen clearly was reaching out for help when he took to an online gaming site to share with others his depression. Why would a fellow teen encourage him to kill himself? The ease of access to a gun made it possible. Our terrible mental health system wasn’t there for him.
Teenage suicide tears me apart. They have their whole life in front of them. They just need someone who will be there for them and help them through the extremely rough spots they are dealing with. Our society is failing our teenagers who struggle with mental health issues. The cost continues to be the loss of life. Sometimes it is the teenager who is suffering and sometimes it is others who become victims.
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Quote of the Day: See above story.
Orchid of the Day: Inflation. It continues to move closer to the desired rate of the Feds.
Onion of the Day: No onion today.
Question of the Day: How long will the Pistons losing streak continue? 25, 30, 35, 40 games?
Image/Video of the Day: After my 40-minute bike ride today, frozen is how I felt. 19-degree wind chill will do that to you.