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B.C. aims to hang onto 'Hollywood north' title by boosting film and TV tax incentivesGoogle Renews Push Into Mixed Reality HeadgearCoastal Carolina beats Georgia State, wins bowl game eligibility for fifth season in a rowYPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — On a damp Wednesday night with temperatures dipping into the 30s, fans in sparsely filled stands bundled up to watch Buffalo beat Eastern Michigan 37-30 on gray turf. The lopsided game was not particularly notable, but it was played on one of the nights the Mid-American Conference has made its own: A weeknight. “A lot of the general public thinks we play all of our games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, not just some of them in November,” MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said in a telephone interview this week. “What it has done is help take what was a pretty darned good regional conference and has given it a national brand and made it a national conference.” When the conference has played football games on ESPN or ESPN2 over the last two seasons, the linear television audience has been 10 times larger than when conference schools meet on Saturdays and get lost in the shuffle when viewers have many more choices. The most-watched MAC game over the last two years was earlier this month on a Wednesday night when Northern Illinois won at Western Michigan and there were 441,600 viewers, a total that doesn’t include streaming that isn’t captured by Nielsen company. During the same span, the linear TV audience has been no larger than 46,100 to watch two MAC teams play on Saturdays. “Having the whole nation watching on Tuesday and Wednesday night is a huge deal for the MAC,” Eastern Michigan tight end Jere Getzinger said. “Everybody wants to watch football so if you put it on TV on a Tuesday or Wednesday, people are going to watch.” ESPN has carried midweek MAC football games since the start of the century. ESPN and the conference signed a 13-year extension a decade ago that extends their relationship through at least the 2026-27 season. The conference has made the most of the opportunities, using MACtion as a tag on social media for more than a decade and it has become a catchy marketing term for the Group of Five football programs that usually operate under the radar in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and New York. Attendance does tend to go down with weeknight games, keeping some students out of stadiums because they have class or homework and leading to adults staying away home because they have to work the next morning. “The tradeoff is the national exposure,” Buffalo coach Pete Lembo said. “You know November nights midweek the average fan is going to park on the couch, have a bowl of chips and salsa out in front, and watch the game from there." When the Bulls beat Ball State 51-48 in an overtime thriller on a Tuesday night earlier this month, the announced attendance was 12,708 and that appeared to be generous. There were many empty seats after halftime. “You watch the games on TV, the stadiums all look like this,” Buffalo fan Jeff Wojcicki said. “They are not packed, but it’s the only game on, and you know where to find it.” Sleep and practice schedules take a hit as well, creating another wave of challenges for students to attend class and coaches to prepare without the usual rhythm of preparing all week to play on Saturday. “Last week when we played at Ohio in Athens, we had a 4-four bus ride home and got home at about 3:30 a.m.,” Eastern Michigan center Broderick Roman said. “We still had to go to class and that was tough, but it's part of what you commit to as an athlete.” That happens a lot in November when the MAC shifts its unique schedule. During the first two weeks of the month, the conference had 10 games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays exclusively. This week, there were five games on Tuesday and Wednesday while only one was left in the traditional Saturday slot with Ball State hosting Bowling Green. Next week, Toledo plays at Akron and Kent State visits Buffalo on Tuesday night before the MAC schedule wraps up with games next Friday and Saturday to determine which teams will meet in the conference title game on Dec. 7 in Detroit. In all, MAC teams will end up playing about 75% of their games on a Saturday and the rest on November weeknights. When the Eagles wrapped up practice earlier this week, two days before they played the Bulls, tight end Jere Getzinger provided some insight into the effects of the scheduling quirk. “It's Monday, but for us it's like a Thursday,” he said. Bowling Green coach Scot Loeffler said he frankly has a hard time remembering what day it is when the schedule shift hits in November. “The entire week gets turned upside down,” Loeffler said. “It’s wild, but it’s great for the league because there’s two days a week this time of year that people around the country will watch MAC games.” AP freelance writer Jonah Bronstein contributed to this report. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballgenie top 100 。

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Minnesota is focused on one final task before it sets its sights on the Big Ten Conference season. The Golden Gophers (7-5) will look to finish 2024 on a high note when they host Morgan State on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis. It will be the final nonconference game for Minnesota before it begins conference play in earnest with a home date against No. 21 Purdue on Thursday. Meanwhile, Morgan State (6-9) is hoping to break out of a skid that has included seven losses in its past 10 games. The Bears are coming off a 99-72 loss against No. 3 Iowa State on Dec. 22. The highest scorer on either team is Minnesota's Dawson Garcia, who is averaging 19.2 points to go along with a team-high 7.3 rebounds this season. Garcia is shooting 49.7 percent from the field, 85 percent from the free-throw line and 31.8 percent from 3-point range. Mike Mitchell Jr. ranks second on the Golden Gophers with 11.6 points per game. Lu'Cye Patterson is next with 10 points per contest, and Parker Fox is fourth with 6.8 points per game. "At the end of the day, we're all here for a reason," Mitchell said. "We have to produce when we're out there, but once (Garcia) gets going, it helps us all figure it out together." Minnesota coach Ben Johnson has seen opponents focus on slowing down Garcia as the season has progressed. That strategy could create opportunities for other teammates, he said. "Teams are always going to guard Dawson differently," Johnson said. "Are they not switching ball screens? Can you play through him in the post? ... When you get two on the ball, you can (kick) it out. Now you've got an advantage on the backside." For Morgan State, Wynston Tabbs leads the way with 16.1 points per game on 45.9 percent shooting from the field. Three other players are scoring in double figures: Amahrie Simpkins (12.7 points per game), Will Thomas (12.1) and Kameron Hobbs (10.7). Morgan State coach Kevin Broadus wants his players to be more disciplined on defense. "That's one of the things that we have to change," Broadus said. "We're fouling too much." This is the second meeting between the schools. Minnesota pulled away for a 94-64 win on its home court in the inaugural matchup on Dec. 8, 2009. --Field Level MediaUS senator says mysterious drones spotted in New Jersey should be 'shot down, if necessary'Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and soon to be Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.-S.D.) need to go huge in first budget reconciliation act , because this might be the only bite of the apple they get. The political reality in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is that the majority margin is unstable and might not exist in October 2025 if resignations, illness or even naturally occurring deaths winnow their current 220-to-215 majority . As of now, due to presidential appointments ravaging the House majority, the count at the beginning of the upcoming Congress is expected to be as thin as one vote at 216 to 215. (RELATED: STEPHEN MOORE: You Say You Want A Revolution? Watch Trump) The internal political debate that is raging in Washington, D.C. is how far the Republican trifecta of House, Senate and Executive Branch control can go in the first swing at passing a budget reconciliation bill which is not subject to the filibuster in the Senate. Should the Republicans include in this bill the entire wish list of extending the Trump tax cuts from the first term, ending taxes on tips , overtime and Social Security , bolstering border security, restoring sane energy policy by ending Green New Deal tax laws implemented under the Inflation Reduction Act , ending the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service by 87,000 agents , reducing the size of the federal workforce and many other issues? Or should the Republicans wait to tackle many of these issues — particularly holding off keeping the Trump tax cuts which is important to the incoming president’s economic growth plan — until October or November? The instability of their House majority demands that they choose the boldest plan possible and pass it, leaving little undone. From a political and economic standpoint, it is in every Republican’s interest that the economy be thriving when they come up for re-election in 2026. Creating tax uncertainty by failing to extend the first-term Trump tax cuts for the corporations who the president will be trying to incentivize to invest in growing America’s industrial and resource-development base undermines the Trump economic-growth plan. It would also be very unwise to not immediately keep President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to end the taxes on tips and overtime. The Social Security tax issue may need to be part of a separate, independent bi-partisan deal, but it would be a slap in the face to those hourly wage and tip workers to not deliver on a promise that directly and immediately impacts their take home pay. The private Department Of Government Efficiency is calling for cutting the number of federal government employees along with many other changes. If Congress is going to act on any of their recommendations, it is critical that they start with a ten percent reduction in force or more in the budget reconciliation act with a projected savings of about half a trillion dollars over a ten-year period. Border security was a fundamental divide between the president-elect and his opponents and needs to be handled through budget reconciliation which does not require the votes of Senate Democrats. So, anything in this area that can be included in the reconciliation bill must be in the first one Republicans pass into law. Unwinding the tax incentives to produce unreliable energy sources is essential for inclusion as well. These incentives act as a disincentive to invest in fossil-fuel energy generation — and are designed to push out fossil fuels and nuclear energy from the all-of-the-above energy strategy that Republicans are fond of talking about. For Trump’s energy policy to work, government must take its thumb off the scale in favor of renewables, and the only place that can get done is through the budget reconciliation act. Failure to do so will leave in place a tax system designed to drive capital investment away from oil and natural gas and toward wind and solar. We have an abundance of domestic natural gas, oil and coal. What Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act did was squeeze capital investment away from developing and using this abundance. Ultimately, anything left out of the first budget reconciliation act may not find a place in any subsequent bill, even if the House and Senate majorities hold for the full two years. In late 2025, many members of Congress will be turning their eyes toward the 2026 election as the primary season will be a few months away. No one knows if, with their razor-thin majorities, the historically contentious House and Senate GOP conferences can politically hold together for a future BRA. In 2017, Republicans attempted to partially keep their promise by using the budget reconciliation bill to try to partially repeal Obamacare. It fell apart as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) surprised the Senate GOP leadership by voting against the bill , causing it to fail and proving that legislative coalitions are fragile. That is why the old saying to strike while the iron is hot should be Republican leadership’s and Trump’s battle cry. They might not get another chance to keep their 2024 election promises and being tepid on the first budget reconciliation bill will only lead to failure to make the changes needed to restore America’s greatness. Republicans need to go big. They were elected to solve problems and the budget reconciliation process is one of the few vehicles which allow the majority party to assert its will in Congress to make change. So, just do it. Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org .

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani is keeping elite company. The Japanese superstar caps 2024 by winning The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the third time, tying him with basketball great Michael Jordan. He trails only four-time winners Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and LeBron James. “I’m very honored,” Ohtani said through translator Matt Hidaka in an exclusive interview with the AP. ”Obviously all the hard work has paid off. Maybe next year, I’ll get the award again.” In balloting by 74 sports journalists from the AP and its members, Ohtani received 48 votes. He previously won the award in 2023 and 2021 , when he was with the Angels. “Growing up in Japan, I did follow Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods,” he said. “I would see their accolades and how they were successful in the United States.” The AP honor has been given out since 1931. Golfer Babe Didrikson won six times, the most by a man or woman. Swimmer Léon Marchand of France, who won four gold medals at the Paris Olympics, was second with 10 votes in balloting announced Monday. Golfer Scottie Scheffler, whose victories this year included the Masters and an Olympic gold medal, was third with nine. The AP Female Athlete of the Year will be announced Tuesday. Moving from the beleaguered Los Angeles Angels to the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers, Ohtani won his third Most Valuable Player award and first in the National League, led his new team to its eighth World Series championship and created Major League Baseball’s 50/50 club by hitting 54 home runs and stealing 59 bases. Ohtani signed a then-record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers in December 2023. Already a two-way superstar, he embellished his reputation even further despite not pitching all season while he rehabilitated from a second major right elbow surgery he had in September 2023. Ohtani went wild on offense, making every at-bat a must-see moment. The 6-foot-4 designated hitter batted a career-high .310 while easily surpassing his previous career highs in home runs and stolen bases. In September, he reached the previously unheard of 50/50 mark in a performance for the ages . Against the Miami Marlins in Florida, Ohtani went 6 for 6 with three homers, 10 RBIs, two stolen bases and 17 total bases. “It wouldn’t shock me if he went 60/60 and 20 wins a year from now,” Brad Ausmus, who managed the Angels in 2019 during Ohtani’s second season in Anaheim, said recently. “This guy is the greatest athlete to ever play the sport of baseball and there’s not a close second.” Ohtani said he knew the Dodgers’ franchise record for most homers in a season was 49. His previous best was 46, set in 2021. “I kind of wanted to get over that bar,” he said. “I was pleasantly surprised I was able to pass that record.” Ohtani carried the Dodgers offensively during the regular season, and he stayed healthy until Game 2 of the World Series. He injured his left shoulder trying to steal second base against the New York Yankees and finished the Series playing hurt. He underwent surgery a few days after the Dodgers celebrated their championship in early November. “I don’t have full range of motion yet, but it feels a lot better,” he told the AP. “There’s no pain. There’s obviously still a little bit of tightness, but slowly but surely it’s getting better.” Ohtani recently received an updated rehab schedule, and he’s focused on the near-term. “It’s the small steps that I think are very important to get me to the ultimate goal, which is to just get back healthy,” he said. Ohtani is also throwing in the 70 mph range, which is typical for pitchers early in the offseason. “I’m going to continue to ramp up slowly,” he said. The Dodgers’ rotation for next season is in flux, and Ohtani is waiting to see how it shakes out. “We may go with a five-man rotation with a bullpen (game), which is what we did a lot during this season or we may have a six-man rotation,” he said. “But it’s all about balancing out when we can get rest and recuperate. We’ll see where that takes us along the playoff chase. I’ve got to obviously pace myself, but again that situation will guide us to how we get there.” The Dodgers open the 2025 season in Japan, where Ohtani is even more closely watched . “My personal goal is to be fully healthy by the time the opening games do start,” he said. “To be able to pitch and hit would be great, but the situation will kind of guide itself.” Each time Ohtani comes to the plate or steps on the mound, there’s great pressure and expectation for him to perform spectacular feats. “I just go out there and try to stay within myself,” he said. “I can only control what I can control and that’s where you trust your teammates. The guys behind me, you trust they’re going to make the plays for you. I don’t really try to overthink it.” Ohtani generated big bucks for the Dodgers off the field, too. Fans traveled from Japan in droves to see him play around the U.S. At Dodger Stadium, they paid extra for tours of baseball’s third-oldest venue narrated by Japanese-speaking guides and to be on the field during pre-game batting practice. A majority of the fans bought Ohtani-branded merchandise, especially his No. 17 jersey. Ohtani’s presence also helped the Dodgers land a bevy of new Japanese sponsors. Because Ohtani prefers to speak Japanese and use an interpreter with the media, he is shrouded in a bit of mystique. Asked before his first postgame series if he was nervous, he dropped a one-word answer in English: “Nope,” which drew laughter. Japanese-born Dodgers manager Dave Roberts observed Ohtani’s behind-the-scenes interactions with his teammates, coaches and staff, and came away impressed. “I really do believe that as good of a ballplayer as he is, he’s a much better person. He’s very kind, considerate, he cares,” Roberts told the AP. “I’m just proud of any fame or glory or award that he receives because he just does it in such a respectful and humble way.” Ohtani relishes his privacy and rarely shares details about himself off the field. That’s why his February announcement via Instagram that he had wed Mamiko Tanaka , a former basketball player, stunned his new teammates and the rest of the world. The following month, after the Dodgers arrived in South Korea to open the season, he was enveloped in scandal when his longtime interpreter and friend , Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Dodgers after being accused of using millions of dollars of Ohtani’s money to place bets with an illegal bookmaker. His new teammates rallied around Ohtani, who was found to have no part in the wrongdoing, and publicly it didn’t seem to affect him even if he was privately distressed by it. By June, the uproar had subsided. Mizuhara pleaded guilty to federal bank and tax fraud charges and admitted to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani. The public got a glimpse of Ohtani’s softer side in August, when his dog Decoy delivered a first pitch to his owner on their shared bobblehead night. The Nederlandse Kooikerhondje exchanged an endearing high-five with Ohtani at the plate. As a result, Decoy became a celebrity in his own right, with his breed (pronounced COY-ker-HUND-che) making the list of the most mispronounced words of 2024. He and Ohtani were mentioned during the telecast of last month’s National Dog Show, where the small Spaniel-type breed was among the competitors. “The number of the breed has kind of dwindled, so by him gaining a little bit of popularity hopefully that brings up the number of his breed,” Ohtani said. “I do feel like we were able to, in a small way, contribute to the popularity of the dog and I’m sure Decoy himself would be happy about that.” Ohtani will be looking to top himself next year while eyeing a repeat World Series title. “It’s almost like right now you can lock in the Most Valuable Player in the National League award because no one has that ability or talent,” Roberts said. “I’m just excited to see what ’25 has for Shohei Ohtani.”

AP Trending SummaryBrief at 5:02 p.m. ESTStock market today: Wall Street gains ground as it heads for a winning week

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Aidan O'Connell might not be Mr. Right for the Raiders, but he is Mr. Right Now. He did enough in Friday's 19-17 loss at Kansas City to show that Las Vegas' quarterback job will be his for the rest of the season — barring, that is, another injury. O'Connell didn't look like a quarterback who hadn't played in nearly six weeks because of a broken thumb . Plus, the Raiders had a short week to prepare for the Chiefs, meaning O'Connell only went through a series of walk-through practices. Even so, he completed 23 of 35 passes for 340 yards, including touchdown passes of 33 yards to tight end Brock Bowers and 58 yards to wide receiver Tre Tucker. He didn't throw any interceptions. “Thought he competed,” coach Antonio Pierce said Saturday morning. “I thought for what we knew we were getting with Spags (Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) and that defense, that he stood in the pocket, made some tough throws, took some hits, took the shots down the field like we wanted. We had some opportunities to take shots down the field, he threw them. And I thought our skill guys did a hell of a job competing and making some really good plays for us.” O'Connell's performance would've shined even more if not for the Raiders' final offensive play. He led the Raiders from their 8-yard line to the Chiefs 32 with 15 seconds left. The plan was for O'Connell to take the snap and throw the ball away to run off a few more seconds, then send Daniel Carlson out for the potential winning field goal without giving Patrick Mahomes enough time to mount one of his signature comebacks. But rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball before O'Connell was expecting it, and the Chiefs recovered to secure another close, last-minute victory. The Raiders were called for illegal shift, which Kansas City declined. But there was some question about whether officials intended to call a false start instead. Though that infraction would have cost Las Vegas 5 yards, the pre-snap penalty still would've given Carlson a shot at the field goal. Pierce said his team heard an official's whistle before the snap, and that will be included in the Raiders' report to the NFL. “We do that every game,” Pierce said. “Typically, anywhere from three to five questions, and then we’ll get a letter within 24 to 36 hours, and we’ll read it and learn from it.” Bowers had another sensational game. He was targeted 14 times, catching 10 passes for 140 yards. For the season, he has 84 receptions for 884 yards and four TDs, making him a strong contender for Offensive Rookie of the Year. “We’re seeing double-teams and them really shifting their zone to him, and I don’t really think it matters,” Pierce said. “I think we've got a really special player on our hand.” The Raiders need to do better on first and second downs to set up more favorable third-down conversions. They have faced 47 third downs from 7 to 10 yards, tied with the Dallas Cowboys for fifth most. Las Vegas' conversion rate on those plays is 36.2%, which actually is favorable compared to the rest of the league, but the Raiders are still creating too many of those situations. Las Vegas made life difficult for Mahomes, sacking him five times. And it wasn't just Maxx Crosby bringing the heat. Four players had at least one-half sack, including K’Lavon Chaisson, who had 1 1/2. It was a season-high total for the Raiders, and they have taken down the opposing quarterback in 30 consecutive games, the third-longest active streak. Carlson is usually money, but he missed field goals from 56, 55 and 58 yards. Hardly chip shots, but he is capable of converting from those distances. He had made 30 of 38 field goals from 50-plus yards entering the game, with a career long of 57 yards. WR DJ Turner injured his knee in the second half. 12 — The Raiders are one of three teams to fall behind double digits in each of their first 12 games of a season. The others were the 1986 Indianapolis Colts and 1972 New England Patriots. The Raiders visit Tampa Bay on Dec. 8. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl