Omar King USA Today Thursday 20240411

The Arizona Supreme Court has revived a 160-year-old abortion ban, which could lead to a shortage of abortion clinics in the state. The ban was put in place in 1864 and was temporarily halted after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. The ban does not include specific criteria for when an abortion is legally allowable, raising legal questions and potentially making it difficult for doctors to determine when a medical emergency justifies an abortion. The ban also includes medication abortions and could lead some people to seek abortion pills from suppliers outside the state or country. The ban could take effect in approximately 60 days, depending on legal challenges. The law carries a prison sentence of 2 to 5 years for anyone aiding an abortion, except in cases where it is necessary to save the life of the mother. There is ongoing litigation regarding whether a woman could be prosecuted for seeking an abortion. The enforcement of the ban is currently stayed for 14 days, and it is unclear This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service, GARS. Welcome to our reading of the USA Today. I'm Omar King for the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Today is Thursday, April 11, 2024. Our first article comes to us from the front page. Arizona abortion ban brings a new outcry. Arizona Attorney General Chris Myers, answering questions Tuesday at a news conference outside the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, has vowed not to enforce any abortion bans. Court upholds 160-year-old law, unleashing fear and legal tumult. This story comes to us from Shelby Slade, Ray Stern, Jimmy Jenkins, Mary Jo Pizzi, Stephanie Ennis, and Sasha Humpkin via the Arizona Republic, also via the USA Today Network. Abortions are illegal in nearly all circumstances under a pre-statehood law that has been upheld by the state Supreme Court. The abortion ban was put in place under Arizona law in 1864. The State Court of Appeals, however, issued an injunction against the 160-year-old ban when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. When the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling came in June 2022 and removed the Roe protections, conservative activists in Arizona petitioned the courts to remove the injunction against the ban. When is abortion legal in Arizona? The pre-statehood law indicates abortions are allowed when necessary to save the life of the mother. When would an abortion be necessary to save a mother's life? The ban doesn't include specific criteria to help providers determine when an abortion is legally allowable, said Jennifer Platt, co-director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. That raises legal questions and could make it difficult for doctors to parse out when a medical emergency is so severe that they can perform an abortion without fearing retribution. There's no specific definition. The 15-week ban had very specific definitions of what constituted emergency circumstances, she said. Working that out and figuring out the contours and limitations of that is also going to be this brand new big legal question for folks to have to tangle with. What about medication abortion, the abortion pill? The law bans all abortions except when necessary to save the mother's life. The ban includes medication abortions, which are two drug combinations recommended for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Medication abortions are also often known as abortion pills. Arizona has a law that says manufacturer, supplier, or physician, or any other person is prohibited from providing an abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery, or mail service, though the law doesn't say anything about whether it's legal for a person to receive the drugs in the mail. As a result, some Arizonans could end up turning to obtaining abortion pills from suppliers outside the state or the country. Plan C, a U.S.-based information campaign about medication abortions, says that while abortion pills are prescription medications in the U.S., it is possible to get them from some places without a prescription. Plan C is referring patients to a free, confidential, repro-legal helpline at 844-868-2812. When does the 1864 abortion law take effect in Arizona? The territorial ban could take effect as soon as roughly 60 days from now to much further down the road, depending on how the parties to the lawsuit respond to the Arizona Supreme Court's decision. That's according to Jared Keenan, legal director of the ACLU of Arizona, which was not a party in the case that led to today's decision. The Supreme Court stayed enforcement of the territorial ban for 14 calendar days from Tuesday. Plus, the parties in a separate lawsuit had agreed with former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich that should the territorial ban take effect, the state could not enforce it for an additional 45 days, Keenan said. So under that reasoning, the earliest possible enforcement date is roughly 60 days away. But if the parties raise additional challenges to the territorial ban at the trial court level in the next two weeks, they could ask the trial court to stay the state's Supreme Court opinions. Keenan said a potential stay by the trial court could remain in place until the case is resolved. That could be months in the future, possibly after the November election, when a measure protecting abortion access may be on the ballot. If passed, the constitutional amendment would take effect in early December, after the general election votes are canvassed. What are the punishments for abortions? The pre-statehood law requires 2 to 5 years in prison for anyone aiding an abortion, except if the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother. Could a woman be prosecuted for seeking an abortion? The text of the pre-statehood law notes that it could apply to any person who provides, supplies, or administers to a pregnant woman or procures such a woman to take any medicine, drugs, or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means, whatever, with the intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life. Jennifer Piat of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law said that leaves open the possibility that a woman could be prosecuted under the law for seeking an abortion. She said the question is subject to ongoing litigation. We didn't have this law in place, so there wasn't any reason to sort out or tear out those nitty gritty pieces of it. Now that it is in place, there's going to be that legal argument available. The language is broad enough, I think, in the statute, and that it's possible. She noted a law from same era requiring at least a year in prison for a woman seeking an abortion was repealed in 2021. That could create legal arguments around legislation intent that would indicate that pre-statehood law upheld Tuesday doesn't apply to anyone who receives an abortion. We just don't know, she said, so I think it's possible that could be litigated. How will the Arizona abortion ban be enforced? Enforcement of the law is stayed for 14 days under the state Supreme Court's ruling. Beyond that, it is unclear just how or if the law will be enforced. Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs issued an executive order last year giving all power to enforce abortion laws to the state attorney general. The current attorney general, Democrat Chris Mays, has vowed not to enforce any abortion bans, but her decision and Hobbs' order could be challenged by one of the state's county attorneys. What does prospectively enforced mean? The Arizona High Court ruling indicated the ban can be only prospectively enforced. Because the law is prospectively enforced, said DeSandra Day O'Connor College of Law Pied, attorneys wouldn't be able to prosecute any previous abortions or abortions that could occur in the time before the ruling would take effect. How can an abortion ban affect maternal mortality in Arizona? Abortion bans have a harmful effect on maternal mortality, studies and health experts say. Pregnant people in states where abortion is already banned are nearly three times as likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after delivery, said Dr. Jill Gibson, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Arizona. Arizona's maternal mortality rate has tragically quadrupled over the last 20 years, and today the Arizona Supreme Court has made a decision that we know from data will directly cause the maternal mortality rate in Arizona to become even more unacceptable and tragic. An abortion ban could also reduce the number of medical students and recent graduates who will want to do the obstetrics gynecology training in the state, health policy expert Swapna Reddy said. And based on what has happened in other states with abortion bans, there could be a chilling effect on finding providers, including pharmacists, nurses, support staff in the field of reproductive health care in general. That's a problem for our larger society, and it disproportionately affects folks in rural areas, and it disproportionately affects areas that already have maternal care shortages, said Reddy, who is a clinical associate professor at Arizona State University's College of Health Solutions. She said her opinions are personal and do not represent the university. In the United States, we have the worst maternal mortality stats of any developed nation, and Arizona already has maternal mortality issues, so it's something I think we really need to be conscious of. Where is abortion illegal in the United States? Abortion is banned in the following states according to CNN's Abortion Law Tracker, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia. These states have bans in place making abortions illegal depending on how far along the pregnancy is. Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah. This concludes the reading of our first front page story, Arizona Supreme Court Revives 1864 Abortion Ban, What to Know About the Ruling, by Shelby Slade, Ray Stern, Jimmy Jenkins, Mary Jo Pitzel, Stephanie Ennis, and Sasha Humka, via the USA Today, published April 10, 2024. Our second story from the front page comes to us from the election section, One Person Responsible, Biden Campaign Blames Trump After Arizona Abortion Ruling, by Joey Garrison of the USA Today, published April 9 and updated April 10, 2024. From Washington, President Joe Biden's re-election campaign and his administration worked to blame Donald Trump after the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a 160-year-old abortion ban that could shorter abortion clinics in the state. Arizona just rolled back the clock to a time before women could vote and by his own admission, there's one person responsible, Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement. Arizona's ruling, which has major political repercussions in a key battleground state, came a day after Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee and former president, said individual states should be able to choose their own abortion restrictions after months of sending mixed signals on the issue. In the same video statement, Trump said he was proudly the person responsible for ending Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that provided a constitutional right to an abortion for five decades. That slammed the Arizona ruling as the product of Trump's three Supreme Court appointments, all of whom ruled in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade. Today, because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an abortion ban from 1864 with no exceptions for health, rape, or incest, Biden campaign spokeswoman Brooke Gorin said, it's alarming and will send shockwaves throughout this crucial swing state and the country. Dobbs precedent leads to Arizona decision. The 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson's Women's Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade is cited 22 times in the Arizona Supreme Court's four to two ruling, which upheld a law that predates Arizona statehood that requires two to five years in prison for anyone aiding in abortion, except if the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother. Pointing to the new Dobbs precedent, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a new state law passed in 2022, which prohibited the abortions in Arizona after 15 weeks, did not repeal the pre-statehood law nor create a right to abortion. This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women's freedom, Biden said in a statement. White House Press Secretary Karen Jean Pierre said millions of Arizonans will soon face a more extreme dangerous abortion ban than they did before as a result of the ruling. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, she said 21 states have adopted abortion bans affecting one third of all American women of reproductive age. All of these bans, including the one upheld today by the Arizona Supreme Court, are direct results of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Jean Pierre said, accusing Trump's handpicked justices of paving the way for chaos and confusion across the country. Trump said Wednesday he would not sign a federal abortion ban if he's elected to a second term. He's also sought to distance himself from the Arizona ruling when a reporter asked him whether the state went too far on abortion restrictions. Yeah, they did, Trump said after landing in Atlanta for a fundraiser. It'll be straightened out, he added. I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason. The Arizona court decision came a week after the Florida State Supreme Court upheld Florida's strict abortion laws, allowing a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy to go in effect in May, but in a separate decision ruled that a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to an abortion can go before the voters on the November ballot. Voters might have final say in Arizona, like in Florida. Abortion might also go before voters on the November ballot in Arizona. Abortion advocates in the state say they've already collected more than 500,000 signatures, well above the threshold of 383,923 signatures needed to trigger a referendum by an early July deadline. Democrats believe a ballot initiative on abortion in Arizona could give a boost both to Biden and the Democrats in the race to replace independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who opted against re-election. The Biden campaign has sought to make restoring abortion rights a defining issue in the 2024 campaign. The abortion issue is widely credited with energizing Democrats in the 2022 midterms to help the party exceed expectations, and it has also been a winner for Democrats in several state referendums since Roe's collapse. Representative Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Sinema's seat, called the ruling devastating for Arizona women and their family. Carrie Lake, a Trump-backed Republican running for the Arizona Senate, also said she opposes the court's decision. It is abundantly clear that the pre-statehood law is out of step with Arizonans, Lake said. Harris, the Biden administration's leading voice on reproductive rights, plans to visit Tucson, Arizona on Friday in the wake of the ruling. The American people believe that health care decisions should be between women and their doctors, not politicians, and we are ready to stand up to fight for our most fundamental freedoms, Harris said. This concludes the reading of our second article from the front page of the USA Today. One person responsible, Biden campaign blames Trump after Arizona abortion ruling. Joe Garrison of the USA Today published April 9th, 2024, updated April 10th, 2024. Our first article from the money section comes to us via the USA Today. Inflation came in hot at 3.5% in March. CPI report shows Fed could delay rate cuts by Paul Davison, published April 10th, 2024. Inflation ran hot for a third straight month in March, raising questions about when the Federal Reserve will feel confident that price pressures are subdued and it can begin cutting interest rates. Overall prices increased 3.5% for a year earlier, up from 3.2% in February, driven largely by rising costs of rent, gasoline, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index. On a monthly basis, costs rose 0.4%, similar to the previous month. What is core inflation right now? Core prices, which exclude volatile food or energy items, are watched more closely by the Fed, increased by 0.4% in line with February's rise, that kept the annual increase at 3.8%. Is inflation really going down? Since reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022, inflation has slowed dramatically, but after rapid improvement in the fall, price increases have accelerated on a monthly basis to a range of 0.3% to 0.4% so far this year. Products such as used cars, furniture, appliances have gotten less expensive as pandemic-induced supply bottlenecks have unwound, though goods price jumped in February. But the costs of services such as rent, car insurance, and transportation keep rising, in part because pandemic-related pay increases have slowed only gradually as worker shortages have eased. Barclays expects the monthly price gains to slowly moderate, bringing down yearly inflation to 3%, and core prices increase to 3.1% by the end of the year, still well above the Fed's 2% goal. Are interest rates going down in 2024? In recent weeks, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the uptick in prices in the first two months of the year could have been a blip, and inflation is still heading toward the 2% target on a sometimes bumpy path. But the larger-than-expected rise in March could set off more worries that market-friendly interest rate cuts will be pushed back, especially with the economy and labor market performing so robustly recently. The futures market is now betting the Fed's first rate cut will be pushed back to September, the Fed lowering rates just twice this year. It had been predicting the first cut in June and a total of three decreases in 2024, in line with the Fed's official meeting estimate last month. In a note to clients Wednesday, economist Paul Ashford of Capital Economics wrote, the third consecutive 0.4% monthly rise in core CPI pretty much kills off hopes for a June rate cut. And Kathy Bostjanchich, Nationwide's chief economist, said the report will undermine Fed officials' confidence that inflation is on a sustainable course back to 2% and likely delays rate cuts to September at the earliest and could push off rate reductions to next year. Since March 2022, the Fed has hiked its benchmarked short-term rate from near zero to a 22-year high of 5% to 5.25% to tame inflation. Though officials have paused since July, higher rates increase consumer and business borrowing costs and tend to curtail economic activity. What is the U.S. stock market doing right now? Stock prices weakened in response to the higher inflation rate. As of 1045 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 fell 0.73% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.84% as investors grew concerned that expected interest rate cuts may come later than hoped. Prices for 10-year treasury bonds, which are sensitive to inflation, fell and pushed up their yields to 3.1%. Inflation is shaping up as a key issue in the presidential election. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the latest numbers show that while inflation has fallen more than 60% from its peak, more still must be done to lower costs. Prices are still too high for housing and groceries. Even as prices for key household items like milk and eggs are lower than a year ago, Biden said, what is the reason for gas prices rising again? Gasoline prices rose 1.7% in March, the second increase after four straight monthly declines. The Russia-Ukraine war has constrained Russian crude oil supplies, and demand is picking up as the spring driving season gears up and producers are switching to more expensive summer blends. Will rent go down in 2024? Together, the cost of housing and gas accounted for more than half the monthly increases in overall prices. Rent increased 0.4% in March, easing slightly from the prior month by the latest in a flurry of hefty gains. That nudged down the annual rise to a still elevated 5.7% from 5.8%. Economists expect rent increases to moderate based on new leases, but that has filtered through just gradually to existing leases. The cost of some other services also kept drifting higher. Medical care increased 0.6%, car repairs 1.7%, and auto insurance 2.6%. Airfares, though, slipped 0.4% on falling jet fuel prices. More encouraging, some goods prices dropped, with used cars falling 1.1%, new vehicles edging down 0.2%, and appliances dipping 0.7%. Apparel prices, though, rose 0.7%, and furniture increased 0.3%. Are food prices going up or down? Food prices are unchanged for a second month, nudging up the annual increase to a still modest 1.2%, and providing consumers continued relief from big price gains during the pandemic. Breakfast cereal prices fell 1.6%, bread slid 0.9%, and cookies dropped 1.2%, but proteins generally climbed. The cost of uncooked ground beef increased by 0.7%, bacon jumped by 0.9%, and eggs surged by 4.6% amid another bird flu outbreak. This concludes the reading of our first article from the money section. Inflation came in hot at 3.5% in March. The CPI report shows Fed could delay rate cuts, by Paul Davison of the USA Today, published April 10, 2024. Our second story from the money section, red flag for the job market, behind booming employment gains, white collar hiring slows, by Paul Davison of the USA Today, published April 11, 2024. The U.S. economy added a booming 303,000 jobs in March, a recent report shows, filling out the portrait of a stunningly resilient labor market that keeps shrugging off high interest rates and inflation, yet the job market may not be as hot as it looks. Professional and business services, a sprawling sector that includes most white collar fields, added a meager 7,000 jobs last month, and has created just 71,000 positions since June of last year. The tally was bumped up by January's 48,000 white collar payroll gains. Economists have questioned the employment totals in that month because of the challenges the Labor Department faces early in the year as it seamlessly adjusts the raw figures from its month survey. During the same eight-month period in 2022 and 2023, professional and business services added 275,000 jobs. A downshift could be a troubling sign for the economy and labor market because professionals earn amongst the highest salaries and provide a big boost to consumer spending, says economist Agran Nekarj of MUFG Bank. What industries experience job gains? U.S. job growth, in fact, mostly has been driven by just four large sectors since fall. Government, health care, leisure, and hospitality, and construction. Local governments and leisure and hospitality, which includes restaurants and bars, have been catching up to their pre-COVID employment levels. Health care has been buoyed by aging baby boomers, and construction hiring has been propped up by a dire housing shortage and recently easing mortgage rates. Analysts say that's not enough to juice hiring in the months ahead. How long can two to four industries sustain economic activity in the United States, Nekarj asks. How does the jobs report affect interest rates? There may be a silver lining to a softening job market. Reports in the past week revealing robust job growth in hiring than anticipated inflation have led the futures market to push back forecasts for the Federal Reserve's first interest rate cut from June to September, and its estimate of three rate cuts this year has been trimmed to two. If job growth lags, it could help convince the Fed to reduce rates sooner, assuming inflation continues to ease. Other job fields are declining. Other large sectors have turned in weak employment growth since mid-2023, or even longer in some cases, but they've been constrained by industry-specific factors. Financial activities have been hindered by high interest rates, the information industry, by massive tech layoffs after excessive hiring during the pandemic, and manufacturing by a shift in consumer purchases from goods to services since the health crisis has faded by high rates that discourage business investment. Professional and business services, however, includes 23 million workers in a wide variety of fields, including law, accounting, architectural, and marketing firms, HR consulting companies, temporary staffing firms, travel agencies, and office administration services. In other words, it pretty much reflects the U.S. economy. If the economy is chugging along nicely, so should professional services. Why is it so hard to get a white-collar job right now? Much of the shortfall in white-collar hiring can be traced to employment by temporary health services, which has fallen by 181,000 over the past year. Traditionally, companies cut temporary workers before laying off their own permanent staffers, so the sharp drop-off argers poorly for future job growth, Nekarj says. But economist Dante D'Antonio of Moody's Analytics points out that payrolls of temporary staffing firms have been declining for two years. He says companies relied heavily on temp agencies when they couldn't find permanent workers during the pandemic, and so their payrolls have been returning to normal as labor shortages have eased. Noting that payrolls at temporary staffing agencies have slid below pre-COVID levels, he also suggests that worker shortages have given temp workers the leverage to ask their companies to convert them to permanent staffers. He adds it's not clear whether it's enough to explain the trend. It's possible, he says, that the pullback in temp worker employment also signals wider layoffs ahead. White-collar jobs are at risk. Also, temporary help isn't the only industry within professional services that's shedding a flatlining job. Nekarj notes, over the past year, employment has been unchanged at marketing and HR consulting firms and down at business support services, such as call centers, since July. Payrolls have held steady at management consulting services. With the course of the economy uncertain, many companies may be scaling back their outsourcing of services like HR and marketing and shifting those duties to in-house employees to save money, Nekarj says. In the summer and early fall, professional and business services shed jobs for four straight months, a streak that normally indicates an ongoing recession, Nekarj says. That's not currently the case, he says, because at least some of the weak hiring can be traced to labor shortages rather than a feeble demand by employers. In February, the gap between job openings and hires was wider for professional services than for U.S. industries overall, he says. Still, he says, employer demand for office workers is softening as well. I'm going to be very cautious. Adam Morris, CEO of Sales First Recruiting, says orders for sales rep, account managers, and marketing professionals have been falling, and the Portland, Oregon-based company saw sales decline last year. He attributes the drop-off to a correction after a burst of post-COVID activity in hiring in 2021 and 2022. Morris says that applies to his own recruiting firm as well. He has 13 employees down from 20 or so in 2022 because he decided not to replace those who left last year. So far this year, business has picked up a bit, and he plans to expand his staff, but rarely, saying he doesn't think it's ethical to hire workers only to let them go, Morris says. I'm definitely going to hire one or two people. I'm going to be very cautious after that. This concludes the second article from our money section, Red Flag for the Job Market, Behind Booming Employment Gains, White Collar Hiring Slows, by Paul Davison of the USA Today, published April 11, 2024. From the sports section, The Magic of the Masters Can't Overshadow the Fact that Men's Golf is in Some Trouble, by Kristen Brennan, published April 10, 2024. From Augusta, Georgia, The Game of Men's Golf Marks Time from One Year to the Next when Augusta National opens its doors for another Masters. This is a revered tournament, the most famous on Earth is also something more. It's a measuring stick of sorts, an annual gathering to help us show how the men's game is doing. How is Tiger holding up? Is Rory ready to finally win here? And perhaps the most important, where does the game stand in these fraught times? With the sport increasingly and devastatingly sectioning itself off from the people it needs the most, its fans. Also because the game's most compelling matchup these days is PGA vs Live. By any measure, as the Master begins, Thursday morning, golf is a sport in some significant trouble. The glory days of Tiger are long since over, replaced by little more than hope. Hope that he can make the cut here this week. Hope that people who love and miss him can will him into the weekend and up the leaderboard. TV ratings are down. The player's championship dropped 15% from last year to this year. And while it's convenient to say that's happening in all sports, we know that's not true because we just lived through the past magical month following a certain player in March Madness. The players themselves are concerned. Even though some of the biggest worrywarts are the ones who bolted their multi-million dollar lives for Live's Saudi blood money, Bryson Dibashaw for example, it's great to have the majors where we come together. But we want to be competing, at least I want to be competing every week with all of the best players in the world for sure, said the man who walked away from playing against the best players in the world to go on to a no-cut exhibition style shell of a golf tour, and it needs to happen fast. It's not a two year thing, like it needs to happen quicker rather than just for the good of the sport. Too many people are losing interest. There's a sentence as problematic as it is honest that you don't see very often from a pro athlete in a big time sport. Too many people are losing interest. Of course, they are losing interest precisely because of the actions of people like the guy who ordered the quote. Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley, watching the game he loves descend into what it never was supposed to become, is also understandably concerned. I will acknowledge that if you look at the data this year, golf viewers are down. On linear television, while other sports, some other sports are up, he said Wednesday, so you can draw your own conclusions. Certainly the fact that the best players in the world are not convening very often is not helpful. Whether or not there's a direct casual effect, I don't know, but I think that it would be a lot better if they were together more often. One of the allures of golf has always been how players have conducted themselves. Golfers call penalties on themselves. That's unique and notable, something that requires at least an element of honesty. Keep that in mind as we consider defending Masters Champion John Rom. Back in 2022, as golf's civil war was exploding, Rom was quite adamant that he had absolutely no interest in joining Liv. Money is great, but when his wife Kelly and I started talking about it, we're like, will our lifestyle change if I got $400 million? No, it will not change one bit, Rom said. Truth be told, I could retire right now with what I've made and live a very happy life and not play golf again, so I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons. I play for the love of the game, and I want to play against the best in the world. I've always been interested in history and legacy, and right now PGA Tour has that. In December 2023, he left the PGA Tour for Liv. Rom will get his applause and cheers here this week, but he will never be able to recapture his honor. It's so fitting in golf's troubled times. The man who lied and sold out for money is the reigning Masters Champion. This concludes the reading of our first article from the sports section, The Magic of the Masters Can't Overshadow the Fact that Men's Golf is in Some Trouble, by Christine Brennan of the USA Today, published April 10, 2024. Our second article from the sports section comes to us from the New York Jets. Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was heartbroken, thought career might be over after tearing Achilles, by Victoria Hernandez of the USA Today, published April 10, 2024. Aaron Rodgers was scared at the possible severity of his injury when he tore his Achilles on the New York Jets' first offensive drive of the 2023 season. In an appearance on the I Can Fly podcast on Monday, the four-time MVP spoke on his initial feelings after his debut with his new team was shattered. Last offseason, he joined the Jets in a blockbuster trade with the Green Bay Packers, the team that drafted him nearly 20 years ago. New York was featured on Hard Knocks as the anticipation for Rodgers to resurrect the Jets built. I was heartbroken on September 11 in the locker room thinking my career might be over and that's how I'm going to go out, the quarterback said, one of the highest highs in my sporting career, running on the field on 9-11 with an American flag, which I had never done in my life. After all the beauty, the summer, and Hard Knocks, and a new team, and just being in New Jersey, and the excitement, talking to their amazing fan base, and just feeling just the energy and the momentum building and then that. The Jets finished the season 7-10 with Zach Wilson mostly filling in behind center. It was New York's eighth straight season with a losing record. The Jets haven't qualified for the playoffs since 2010, the longest postseason drought in the league. Even though he didn't return to the gridiron to try to help his new team in 2023, Rodgers recovered with unprecedented speed. He said that he gained much more than his health back on the journey. I look back now and so much changed in my life for the better. I often have had a hard time with people who say everything happens for a reason, he said. Part of it is the ego wanting things to just be a little bit easier sometimes. So much changed in my life in the last six months that would not have happened had I not been carted off the field, but only in that has all this beauty been able to happen. How can I not be grateful? This concludes the reading of our second article from the sports section, Jets QB Aaron Rodgers was heartbroken, thought career might be over after tearing Achilles by Victoria Hernandez of the USA Today published April 10, 2024. Our third article from the sports section comes to us via the NBA, Adam Silver Raptors Jonte Porter accused of a cardinal sin by Jeff Zilget of the USA Today published April 10, 2024. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Wednesday called player involvement in wagers related to the NBA a cardinal sin and said banishment from the game is on the table if it is discovered a player intentionally influenced the outcome based on a wager. Toronto Raptors forward Jonte Porter is under investigation by the league surrounding over and under wagers involving Porter. Porter, the younger brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. has not played since March 2022, three days before an ESPN story detailed gambling irregularities involving games in which Porter played. It's cardinal sin what he's accused of in the NBA and the ultimate extreme option I have is to ban him from the game, Silver said after the NBA owners meeting in New York. That's the level of authority I have here because there's nothing more serious around this league when it comes to gambling and betting on our games and that is a direct player involvement and so investigation is ongoing but the consequences could be very severe. On January 26 against the Los Angeles Clippers the over-under on Porter's props were about 5.5 points and 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists and the over-under on his made three-pointers were .5. Porter played just four minutes and did not take a shot and finished with zero points, three rebounds and one assist. He played just four minutes leaving the game with an eye injury he sustained in a game against Memphis on January 2022. DraftKings Sportsbook reported that the under on Porter's made threes was the biggest money on player props for the NBA that day according to ESPN. In a March 20 game against Sacramento, Porter left the game after just three minutes due to illness according to the Raptors. He took one shot and did not score and had two rebounds and one block and one steal. The over-under on his player props in that game according to ESPN was about 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds. Porter averages 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 26 games with the Raptors this season. Porter signed a two-way contract with Toronto on December 9. NBA players are not allowed to wager on NBA games. And if found culpable according to the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Employer Association, NBPA, is at the discretion of the NBA commissioner and may include a fine, suspension, expulsion or a perpetual disqualification for further association with the association or any of its members. NBA teams and leagues monitor sports betting for potential problems. To the extent it's going to exist, if you have a regulated environment, you're going to have a better chance of detecting it than you would if all the bets were placed illegally," Silver said. This concludes the reading of our third article from the sports section, Adam Silver, Raptors Jonte Porter being accused of a cardinal sin, by Jeff Zilget of the USA Today, published April 10, 2024. Our next article comes to us from the life section, from the horoscopes today, April 11, 2024. Here are the horoscopes for today, Thursday, April 11, 2024. Aries, March 21 through April 19. Sudden clarity. Today's alignment between the sun and Mercury provides a retrograde reality. This is a turning point. Taurus, April 20 through May 20. Mercury ideas. The sun's alignment with retrograde Mercury acts like light, bursting through a cloud of mental confusion. Gemini, May 21 through June 21. Important exchanges. As the sun and retrograde Mercury align, talks within your community inspire a eureka moment. Cancer, June 22 through July 22. Receiving a missing piece of the puzzle. The sun's alignment with Mercury provides clarity in a business matter. Leo, July 23 through August 22. Eye-opening conversations. As the sun and Mercury align, you realize that the judgment made impulsively was premature. Virgo, August 23 through September 22. Making a breakthrough. The sun's alignment with retrograde Mercury sheds light on a mysterious circumstance. The devils in the details. Libra, September 23 through October 22. Are you finally hearing what they're saying? As the sun and Mercury align, you and a loved one reconnect. Scorpio, October 23 through November 21. Obtaining the correct information. The sun's alignment with Mercury grants critical insight into a work or health matter. Sagittarius, November 22 through December 21. Honest conversations. The sun's alignment with retrograde Mercury instigates discussions regarding romantic or creative desires. Capricorn, December 21 through January 19. Having the hard conversations. The sun's alignment with Mercury helps you address a conflict with loved ones. Aquarius, January 20 through February 18. Surprise correspondence. Welcomes new arrivals during the sun's alignment with retrograde Mercury, clearing up confusion. Pisces, February 19 through March 20. Feeling prosperous. Following some recent financial snafus, today's alignment between the sun and Mercury offers a solution. This concludes our reading of the horoscopes for today, April 11, 2024. That concludes our reading of the USA Today. This has been Omar King for the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Thank you for listening to GARS.