Eric Adelson

The state has spent more than $500,000 since fiscal year 2024 to pay 54 social media influencers to promote Michigan. detroitnews.com/story/news/pol…

Everyone Wants to Cover Sports -- it's where the juice is. @EllynBriggs @FOS talked to editors from Politico, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker about their pushing into sports amid fears of "Google Zero" frontofficesports.com/why-so-many-me…

NEW: Next in Florida's war on 'woke': Becoming its own higher ed watchdog Cannot overstate how big a deal this next salvo from Florida is.. including the little known history of how accreditors pushed the South to desegregate colleges and universities wlrn.org/education/2026…

In the Final 32 thoughts of the season, @FriedgeHNIC says his piece on the Red Wings: - Larkin's value went up after the Leo Carlsson offersheet. Yzerman will draw that line harder now. - Not convinced Yzerman wants to start the season with the distraction but also that no trade is better than a bad trade. - Yzerman wants current players for Larkin. If he wanted futures, the deal would be done already - Rumors that the Carolina Hurricanes have sniffed around on Simon Edvinsson. - No sense where Patrick Kane might land, he has options. Doesn't really expect him to go back to Detroit. - Liked the Arvidsson and Kolesar additions a lot.- On DeBrincat, Yzerman doesn't like the big contracts being handed out. Doesn't know how comfortable Yzerman will be paying Cat what he's worth on the open market. - Wings are at a crossroads. Raymond's contract sunddely looks extremely good. Seider's may be the best in the league. - Yzerman was not a fan of how much players started getting paid so quickly. Term wasn't an issue. - Older players may not age well and you get stuck with the contract and the money hung up. #LGRW #RedWings

FULL timeline of the campaign to bring Balogun back, according to a half dozen U.S. government & soccer officials: - Wednesday after U.S.-Bosnia match: Andrew Giuliani alerted Trump to the red card (Trump & Giuliani had been talking multiple times/week since start of World Cup and regularly before that.) - Wed night: Giuliani, Lutnick and U.S. Soccer officials began activating on plans to challenge red card - That kicked off 4 days of coordinated lobbying, legal maneuvering & diplomacy that stretched from Oval Office to Zurich - On *Thursday* Trump dialed Gianni Infantino and asked abt FIFA’s rules around the red card decision and grounds for suspension. (They’ve known each other for 8 yrs.) - FIFA declined to confirm any specific discussions but reiterated to POLITICO that the decision to suspend the one-match ban was made by an independent disciplinary committee. - As U.S. Soccer’s legal team formally prepared & submitted its appeal to FIFA, Giuliani + Lutnick offered to make White House attorneys available to assist - At the same time, Giuliani and Scott Goodwin — a hedge-fund manager who had helped pay the salary of Mauricio Pochettino — zeroed in on the officiating history of referee Raphael Claus -Articles examining previous controversies involving Claus circulated among senior gov officials as they evaluated every argument that could bolster the appeal - On FIFA side, Emilio García, who oversees the legal affairs of FIFA, advised Infantino on the available procedural options - García + other FIFA officials worked to determine whether the circumstances of Balogun’s tackle met the narrow standards that would allow the disciplinary decision to be revisited - By Sunday, FIFA announced that Balogun’s one-match suspension would be suspended - FIFA insists that the decision was an independent one made by its 18-person disciplinary committee, but it would not say whether the decision was decided through a vote, and it has not published a report on the decision. politico.com/live-updates/2…