🏈 Fake Love

Bishop Sycamore ex-Head Coach Roy Johnson; Image: Awful Announcing

📸 Picture this: You settle into your couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon eager for some football.

• Since the NFL is still in preseason, you decide to flip the channel to ESPN, where they’re showing a game between two powerhouse high school teams – Florida’s IMG Academy and Ohio’s Bishop Sycamore HS.
• Your eyes slowly start to widen as you first notice the score - 30-0 IMG in the middle of the 2nd quarter - and then begin to digest what the announcers are saying: despite Bishop Sycamore claiming to have a number of D1 college recruits, none of their players showed up in any recruiting database.

🙅 We’re not making this up… Bishop Sycamore is described as an online charter school in Columbus, Ohio. But it appears the school might not be real.

• It isn’t listed in the Ohio High School Athletic Association's directory of schools, but reportedly belongs to the Texas Christian Athletic League.
• It has two addresses listed online. One appears to be a house in a residential area, while the other is the library at Franklin University in Columbus.
• Last school year, it reported an enrollment of just three kids to the Ohio Department of Education (and has filed nothing yet for this year).

📺 So, how'd they end up on ESPN ?... The network said the game was booked by Paragon Marketing, which has partnered with ESPN in the past for multiple high school events across different sports.

• ESPN claims they raised the alarm with Paragon weeks ago when they couldn’t obtain any information about Bishop Sycamore in general.
• The network says the school bailed on a conference call days before the game and later provided a fact sheet of information claiming multiple players had D1 offers from major programs.

In reality, the Bishop Sycamore roster reportedly includes postgraduate players as old as 19 or 20, some of whom are alleged to have played in junior college. The team hasn't won a game since launching in 2019, while getting outscored 342-49.

📅 Worst of all… Bishop Sycamore had played a game less than 48 hours earlier, raising obvious health and safety concerns. Paragon said it was unaware of this fact, and would have canceled Sunday’s game if the company had known.

• According to video footage from Friday night’s contest, Bishop Sycamore was using many of the same players that also competed on Sunday, with several playing both offense and defense.

☢️ The fallout… After Sunday’s contest, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on the Ohio Department of Education to investigate Bishop Sycamore. All future opponents also canceled their upcoming games.

• On Monday, Bishop Sycamore parted ways with head coach Roy Johnson, citing “a lot of things,” including a poor job of tracking the team’s injuries and a pending fraud charge.

In other words, it's looking like Bishop Sycamore could soon become Bishop Syca-no more.

+Bonus Read: Bishop Sycamore Football Interview: Former Player Paints Scary Picture

🎁 DONUT Headline: Apple is reportedly working on new health-related features for the Apple Watch, including a tool to tell users when their blood pressure is increasing and a thermometer to help with fertility planning.

🎶 Keep running.  Keep smiling.

We firmly believe all dogs deserve a fighting chance. So does Dogs, Rock & Roll, KING KANINE’s registered 501c3 nonprofit organization, which provides dogs with paralysis or missing limbs with mobility options.

• Lester was the first pup to get a wheelchair with the help of Dogs, Rock & Roll. He couldn’t use his back legs and just watched as other dogs ran around and played. He would try to drag his little body to keep up, but you could tell he wanted to do more.

Dogs, Rock & Roll provided the funds for Lester’s new wheelchair.

Now, his true personality shines and he’s such a goofball! He likes to wear funny costumes, play with toys, and chase feet.

How can you help ?

When you purchase anything from KING KANINE for your dog, a percentage goes to Dogs, Rock & Roll – and thus, a dog in need.

• KING KANINE is dedicated to all things pet wellness. Their products are made by animal lovers, many of whom have their own rescue pets that use their products. Complete symbiosis.

Get your dog something they’ll love and help another dog who needs it. Use code “DONUT15” at checkout for 15% off anything in-store.

Explore KING KANINE today.

Over the next two days, we’ll be examining a pair of laws in Texas that have emerged as flashpoints for the U.S. political landscape as a whole – and they're right in our backyard (DONUT HQ is in Austin, TX).

• In the interest of fairness, we flipped a coin to see who went first. So, without further ado…

🚫 Texas Abortion Ban

Image: Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo

• When the Court said nothing by midnight Tuesday, the most restrictive abortion measure in the country officially took effect.
• Then, late last night, the Court rejected the emergency appeal 5-4, leaving the measure in place while legal challenges proceed. (Read the order and opinions.)

📝 What does it entail ?... According to the new law, doctors can’t knowingly perform an abortion if there’s a detectable fetal heartbeat, which it defines to include cardiac activity that usually appears about six weeks into a pregnancy.

• The measure was designed so that private parties would be in charge of enforcing the law, rather than the state. Under its terms, private parties can file civil lawsuits against any person who allegedly performs or aids a banned abortion, or who intends to do so, and collect up to $10K in damages per abortion challenged.

👁️ Looking ahead… In May, SCOTUS agreed to review Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Those arguments are expected later this year, with a ruling in 2022.

• The CDC estimates that 65 percent of legal abortions occur within the first eight weeks of gestation, and that 92% are performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation.

💃⚡🕺 It’s Getting Hot In Herre...

Image: SWG3

While idly mingling, the human body radiates ~100 watts of excess heat – which can add up fast in confined spaces, especially if dancing is involved.

• BODYHEAT is a state-of-the-art heating and cooling system that transforms body heat from club-goers into a source of renewable energy.

Based on the number of people who set foot in SWG3 in a given year, the venue estimates the tech will save more than 77 tons of CO2 annually.

Keep reading.

Image: PressDemocrat News

Mel Smothers went to sleep in his South Lake Tahoe home Sunday night under an evacuation warning due to the Caldor Fire. When he awoke on Monday, the warning had turned into an order.

• The 74-year-old quickly packed up what he could and hopped in the car with his golden retriever. With only one way out of town, Mel soon found himself stuck in stand-still traffic from all directions.

It was roughly an hour in when Mel decided he needed something to help pass the time, so he reached for his violin.

Keep reading.

According to the latest U.S. data, in what percentage of opposite-sex marriages does the wife earn more than the husband ?

A) 20%
B) 30%
C) 40%
D) 50%

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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C) 30%

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found 30% of wives in opposite-sex marriages earned more money than their husbands in 2020.

• This disparity has held constant over the past decade after climbing steadily starting 40 years ago, per the NY Post.