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Trillion-dollar gap in Taiwan, Korea stock fortunesMAGA celebrates Trump’s latest legal victory in Jan. 6 case

by Vijaya Chandrasoma I would like to explain why I continue writing so shamelessly about a subject about which recent events have proved I know next to nothing. In my defense, the news I have reported over the years has been always been based on facts and the traditional “reliable sources”. Unfortunately, my opinions and predictions have been personal and out of touch with the current political and social climate prevailing in the United States, which has changed substantially since the turn of the century. I had little interest in politics in the USA during the two decades I lived there. We spent the 90s struggling for survival, doing menial jobs, which is the lot of most immigrants without American educational qualifications and work experience. But by the time I decided to retire in Sri Lanka 20 years later, we had achieved the one ambition that mattered to us. Our children had grasped the wonderful educational opportunities available during the Clinton years to kids who were prepared to work hard, as mine were. They have been amply rewarded for their efforts. My imagination was captured by the noble aspirations of Senator Barack Obama, an African-American who, in 2008, was shooting for the skies, against all odds. I was a valued volunteer in the Obama presidential campaign office in Phoenix, Arizona, performing such vital tasks as licking stamps and answering telephones in my thick Sri Lankan accent. When Obama was elected the first black president in US history, I, like many an American, was elated that my adopted country had finally turned the racist corner. Man, were we wrong! I retired in Sri Lanka after the war at home ended in 2009. I had little interest in Sri Lankan politics, though I was struck with grief and disgust at the way our politicians were stealing our beautiful island blind, robbing from the poorest of the poor. But like many self-serving dilettantes of the privileged class, able to comfortably weather these deteriorating economic conditions, my social conscience was conspicuous in its cynical absence. In any event, I dared not protest against the corrupt politicians in “power”, who held no brook with those who attempted to publicly exercise their constitutional rights of free speech including publication, armed as they were with their own extra-military goon-squads and the infamous “white vans”. Journalism in Sri Lanka was not, in those days, the healthiest of occupations. I have every confidence that, prayerfully not too late, we have finally replaced a series of crooked governments since Independence with a patriotic leader and a party of politicians intent only on the country’s prosperity and not on their own. A government elected with enormous goodwill, with the hope that a nation with great resources, human and natural, will be administered competently to finally reach its full potential. With the kind of integrity, discipline and national pride that has transformed Singapore, a shanty town in the 1960s, to one of the most advanced, prosperous city-states in the world, Sri Lanka in the 1950s was one of the richest of British colonies. We could have surpassed Singapore if we had our own Lee Kwan Yew, who once famously said. “I had to choose between democracy and discipline. I chose discipline”. There is every hope that our present leader will be that Sri Lankan Lee Kwan Yew, even 70 years too late, who will also choose ruthless discipline against international-scale corruption, political extravagance and departmental wastage, the disgusting hallmark of every past Sri Lankan government, which had reached a crescendo of corruption in the new century. Democracy is a luxury we can enjoy after we have set our house in order. Just like Singapore, a vibrant, prosperous, disciplined democracy today. So long as President Obama was rescuing the USA from the near economic recession he inherited from the younger Bush, and doing so with competence, grace, compassion, without a trace of political or personal scandal; and so long as my adopted home was progressing inexorably towards its final destination of that Shining City on a Hill, I found no need to express my thoughts on paper. Until the nation hit a roadblock, when the despicable Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, probably the most qualified candidate in history, for the presidency in 2016. An election that proved conclusively that America remained a deeply racially and ideologically polarized nation. In a perverse sort of way, we should thank Trump and the Republican Party for exposing how Americans really feel, which is far removed from the sanctimonious bull shit they have been feeding the world over the years. I felt compelled to write, for my own pleasure, an essay about the disaster that my adopted home had wrought upon itself. I sent this essay to my aunt, Ms. Vijita Fernando, distinguished Gratiaen Prize winning journalist/author, who had spoilt me relentlessly since I was in my early teens. She encouraged me to submit this essay to my old friend, the editor of the Sunday Island, who, to my surprise, published it. So at age 75, I became a “journalist”, and enjoyed the heady emotion of seeing my name in print. Writing also provided me with the occupational therapy that helped me occupy my time with a pastime I had always enjoyed. Donald Trump had inherited a booming economy from President Obama, with 75 weeks of consecutive economic growth and the lowest unemployment rate in decades. I will not repeat details of Trump’s disastrous first term, with enormous tax cuts to benefit the wealthiest, moronic claims that climate change was a hoax and deregulation of environmental pollution laws imposed by President Obama; criminal mismanagement of the Covid pandemic which cost over 650,000 American lives; these were just the “highlights”. I continued writing on a regular basis about Trump’s criminal misadventures, and when the US electorate came to its senses and dumped him in 2020 in a landslide, and elected President Biden, my relief was palpable. I published a book (for friends and family, not for sale, you may call it an ego trip), which ended with the speech of Oliver Cromwell, on the forcible expulsion of the corrupt and duplicitous Rump Parliament in England in 1653. The last words of that speech were: “Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. “IN THE NAME OF GOD GO!” Most appropriate words for Trump and his neo-Nazi Republican cronies of 2020. Only, those venal bastards didn’t go. Instead, the MAGA (Make America Great Again), white supremacist section of the Republican Party, incited by defeated but incumbent President Trump, tried to violently impede the peaceful transition of power, when a white supremacist mob stormed the Capitol. A felony of sedition. Trump left the White House without observing any of the traditional ceremonies for the changing of the presidential guard. In leaving, he stole boxes of top-secret documents which belonged to the National Archives. A felony of espionage. The leaders of the Republican Party, who initially denounced Trump, and held him accountable for the crime of inciting the insurrection on January 6, endangering their own miserable lives and the lives of their Congressional colleagues, changed their tune, kissed the ring and made him their Supreme Leader. So I decided to resume writing, with the ambition of compiling a second book when the criminal Trump, saddled with four indictments, 91 felonies, impending sociopathic dementia and dictatorial hallucinations, would surely be decisively defeated in the presidential election of 2024. I was, yet again, proved spectacularly wrong. I had, yet again, shown my complete ignorance of the national psyche of the modern United States. A totally different American electorate, one which voted against the incumbent Democratic administration purely because of high prices and inflation; which voted instead for a proven loser who led a Party which openly espoused a campaign of fear and racial hatred. An electorate too myopic to see that these current high prices and inflation were the result of the near recession that the Biden administration inherited, which had, after four long years, been brought under control by rational and bipartisan legislation. They paid no heed to the opinion of leading economists that the US economy was the strongest and the “envy of the world”. And would only get better. Instead, they opted for an administration whose proposed economic policies of high tariffs and tax cuts for billionaires and corporations will only bring more grief to the working classes; and whose authoritarian, white supremacist policies will spell the end of democracy in the cradle of democracy. Even women, who had been deprived of their reproductive freedoms by the most corrupt right wing Supreme Court in history; black males and Latinos, who had been the brunt of Trump’s obscene insults; they incredibly supported this obviously white supremacist authoritarian movement. A movement financed by billionaires, led by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who had financed the Trump election campaign and has been his constant companion at Mar a Lago since the election, the honored family guest at Thanksgiving. I will conclude this essay with a few undeniable facts. Trump’s felonious conduct is beyond doubt. He has been elected president for a second term, with a jail sentence and trials for felony charges for sedition, obstruction of justice and espionage hanging over him, which would have seen him languishing in federal prison for the rest of his life had he lost the election. Trump’s selected cabinet is composed almost entirely of yes-men and women, singularly lacking in the morals, intelligence and qualifications, even the confidence of traditional allies, to manage the departments of the most powerful country on the world. Their only essential qualification – blind loyalty to Trump. Trump’s nomination for Attorney General, depraved Congressman Matt Gaetz, was forced to withdraw his nomination when swirling allegations of sex trafficking and raping underage girls made his confirmation impossible by even Trump’s lapdog majority Senate. His choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is a doozy. A marine who served two tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, his only “administrative” experience is as a weekend television host on Fox TV. He has numerous police charges for drunken and disorderly conduct, and sexual assault. Hegseth also believes that torture like waterboarding and war crimes are justified under certain circumstances, and women have no role in military combat. He flaunts a white supremacist tattoo on his body. A lifelong alcoholic, who his Fox colleagues say was often drunk on the job, he has sworn to lay off the booze if confirmed. He even got his mommy to plead on Fox TV that her son is “a changed man”, capable of running the largest bureaucracy in the nation, with three million employees worldwide and an annual budget of $850 billion. After all, he did promise to stay sober on the job. Hegseth will probably not survive the confirmation process in even the most servile Senate in history. Nor will several other of Trump’s highly dubious cabinet choices : Kash Patel (FBI Director), Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence), Robert F. Kennedy Jr (Health Secretary), to name just three. But not to worry, there are plenty more of those creepy nutcases around that Trump will ultimately get confirmed. All they’ll have to do to keep their jobs would be to nod. President Biden had earlier indicated that he would not be using his presidential powers to pardon his son, Hunter, who had been on trial for two minor charges, committed when he was a drug addict. One, for tax evasion – the back taxes have since been fully paid, with late fees. Two, for the purchase of a gun while he was a drug addict, which was never used in the commission of a crime. A Class E felony, which would been dismissed with a slap on the wrist for a first offender, had his name been anything but Biden. Hunter is completely sober today. But President Biden, mindful of the retribution threatened by the Trump’s nominees for Attorney General, Pam Bondi and FBI Director, Kash Patel, against Trump’s imagined “enemies”, knew that Hunter would be tormented, and have the book thrown at him, to a maximum of 17 years’ jail time. So President Biden lied, he undeniably abused his power and went back on his word to grant Hunter a full pardon. Which any father would have done for his son in a heartbeat. As the saying goes, Democrats are expected to be flawless, while Republicans can be as lawless as they please. Biden’s pardon had the hypocritical Republicans screaming foul, claiming that he was guilty of gross abuse of power. Forgetting the traitors and fraudsters Trump had pardoned during his first term, and has promised to pardon in his second. They are insisting that, as a quid pro quo, Biden should pardon Trump for his conviction of 34 felonies, and other indictments of sedition, obstruction of justice and espionage, for which he is awaiting trial. The moral equivalent of pardoning a traitor as a quid pro quo for pardoning a jaywalker! President Biden would be well advised to give advance pardons to himself, Special Counsel Jack Smith, Liz Cheney, Dr. Fauci and those named “enemies from within” like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff that Trump has threatened to prosecute and imprison after his inauguration. Trump has told us exactly what he’s going to do when he is in power, and Wannabe Hitler is not playing games. With white supremacists and neo-Nazi “strategists” like Jason Miller, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon in Trump’s backroom, and a supporting cast of thousands of Christian nationalists and avaricious billionaires, America had better fasten its collective seatbelts. The tragedy for the ages is that the majority of the citizens of the most educated, powerful and richest nation in the world has elected to be led, with the powers of a monarch, by a self-confessed white supremacist on the cusp of dementia, an illiterate, cruel wannabe dictator and a political party of violent Nazi Brownshirts. Shades of the Third Reich in Germany in 1932, with the caricature American Hitler elected as the Fuhrer. I hope I am wrong, as usual.

Clintons urge voters agitated by today's politics to remain involved in public serviceMembers of the New York police crime scene unit pick up cups marking the spots where bullets lie as they investigate the scene outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah) NEW YORK (AP) — The gunman who stalked and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fled New York City by bus, police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. Here’s the latest: Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . FBI announces reward for information leading to gunman’s arrest and conviction The FBI announced Friday night that it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the shooter who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer. The FBI’s New York Field Office is working with the New York City Police Department to identify the gunman. Police believe gunman who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York City The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer may have fled the city on a bus, New York City police officials told CNN on Friday. Video of the suspected shooter leaving the scene of the shooting Wednesday showed him riding a bicycle to Central Park and later taking a taxi cab to a bus depot, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told CNN. “We have reason to believe that the person in question has left New York City,” Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Gunman’s steps after killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO give police new clues The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer made sure to wear a mask during the shooting yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras that have aided authorities piecing together his movements and his identity. A law enforcement official said Friday that new surveillance footage shows the suspect riding the subway and visiting establishments in Manhattan and provided more clues about his actions in the days before he ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The gunman’s whereabouts and identity remain unknown Friday, as did the reason for Wednesday’s killing. New York City police say evidence firmly points to it being a targeted attack. For many companies, investor meetings are seen as a risk In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was walking to when he was fatally shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Police have obtained other surveillance images of the person wanted for questioning Those images include New York’s subway system, a law enforcement official said. In establishments where the person was captured on camera, he always appeared to pay with cash, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Another health insurer taking precautions after the shooting Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm that serves 1.5 million customers in 12 states, said it’s temporarily closing all six locations. The firm has offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and North Dakota, and employs about 3,000 people. Employees will work from home, Medica spokesman Greg Bury said in an email Friday. “The safety of Medica employees is our top priority and we have increased security both for all of our employees,” a statement from Medica said. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution.” Bury also said biographical information on the company’s executives was taken down from its website as a precaution. Government health insurance provider Centene Corp. says its Investor Day will now be virtual The insurer cited the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in its announcement about the Dec. 12 event. “All of us at Centene are deeply saddened by Brian Thompson’s death and want to express our support for all of those affected. Health insurance is a big industry and a small community; many members of the CenTeam crossed paths with Brian during their careers,” Centene CEO Sarah M. London said in a news release. “He was a person with a deep sense of empathy and clear passion for improving access to care. Our hearts are with his family and his colleagues during this difficult time.” Centene Corp. has grown in recent years to become the largest insurer in Medicaid, the state- and federally funded program that covers care for people with low incomes. Insurers manage Medicaid coverage for states, and Centene has more than 13 million people enrolled in that coverage. UnitedHealth Group says it’s focused on supporting Brian Thompson’s family The insurance company also said it’s focused on ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring of kindness and support in the hours since this horrific crime took place,” the company said. NY Mayor Eric Adams provided no new information on investigation’s progress during interviews But he said Friday that he’s confident police will arrest the shooter. “We are on the right road to apprehend him and bring him to justice,” Adams said on TV station WPIX. Hours after the shooting, UnitedHealthcare removed photographs of its executives from its website Later, it removed their names and biographies entirely. Investigators believe the suspect may have traveled to NY last month on a bus that originated in Atlanta Police and federal agents have been collecting information from Greyhound in an attempt to identify the suspect and are working to determine whether he purchased the ticket to New York in late November, a law enforcement official said. Investigators were also trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone recovered from a pedestrian plaza through which the shooter fled. Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO spotlights complex challenge companies face in protecting top brass The fatal shooting of Brian Thompson while walking alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take to protect their leaders against threats. Experts say today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. Police test DNA and fingerprints on discarded bottle as they hunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer Police said Thursday they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper from a trash can near the scene of the ambush and think the suspect bought them from a Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The items were being tested by the city’s medical examiner. Want stories like this delivered straight to your inbox?Stay informed. Stay ahead. Subscribe to InqMORNING

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street as the market posted its fifth straight gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched another record high. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%. The benchmark index’s 1.7% gain for the week erased most of its loss from last week. The Dow rose 1% as it nudged past its most recent high set last week, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. Markets have been volatile over the last few weeks, losing ground in the runup to elections in November, then surging following Donald Trump's victory, before falling again. The S&P 500 has been steadily rising throughout this week to within close range of its record. It's now within about 0.5% of its all-time high set last week. “Overall, market behavior has normalized following an intense few weeks,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, in a statement. Several retailers jumped after giving Wall Street encouraging financial updates. Gap soared 12.8% after handily beating analysts' third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, while raising its own revenue forecast for the year. Discount retailer Ross Stores rose 2.2% after raising its earnings forecast for the year. EchoStar fell 2.8% after DirecTV called off its purchase of that company's Dish Network unit. Smaller company stocks had some of the biggest gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8%. A majority of stocks in the S&P 500 gained ground, but those gains were kept in check by slumps for several big technology companies. Nvidia fell 3.2%. Its pricey valuation makes it among the heaviest influences on whether the broader market gains or loses ground. The company has grown into a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth because of demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. Intuit, which makes TurboTax and other accounting software, fell 5.7%. It gave investors a quarterly earnings forecast that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Facebook owner Meta Platforms fell 0.7% following a decision by the Supreme Court to allow a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against the company. It stems from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.63 points to 5,969.34. The Dow climbed 426.16 points to 44,296.51, and the Nasdaq picked up 42.65 points to close at 2,406.67. European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed. Crude oil prices rose. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.41% from 4.42% late Thursday. In the crypto market, bitcoin hovered around $99,000, according to CoinDesk. It has more than doubled this year and first surpassed the $99,000 level on Thursday. Retailers remained a big focus for investors this week amid close scrutiny on consumer spending habits headed into the holiday shopping season. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, reported a quarter of strong sales and gave investors an encouraging financial forecast. Target, though, reported weaker earnings than analysts' expected and its forecast disappointed Wall Street. Consumer spending has fueled economic growth, despite a persistent squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. Inflation has been easing and the Federal Reserve has started trimming its benchmark interest rates. That is likely to help relieve pressure on consumers, but any major shift in spending could prompt the Fed to reassess its path ahead on interest rates. Also, any big reversals on the rate of inflation could curtail spending. Consumer sentiment remains strong, according to the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index. It revised its latest figure for November to 71.8 from an initial reading of 73 earlier this month, though economists expected a slight increase. It's still up from 70.5 in October. The survey also showed that consumers' inflation expectations for the year ahead fell slightly to 2.6%, which is the lowest reading since December of 2020. Wall Street will get another update on how consumers feel when the business group The Conference Board releases its monthly consumer confidence survey on Tuesday. A key inflation update will come on Wednesday when the U.S. releases its October personal consumption expenditures index. The PCE is the Fed's preferred measure of inflation and this will be the last PCE reading prior to the central bank's meeting in December.Super Micro Computer said on Friday it has received an extension from the Nasdaq till Feb. 25 to file its delayed annual and quarterly reports, sending the AI server maker's shares up 5 per cent in extended trading. Last month, Super Micro named BDO USA as its auditor and submitted a compliance plan to the stock exchange to file its annual and quarterly reports, after its listing came under threat when it failed to file its annual report in August. The company in August cited a need to assess "its internal controls over financial reporting" for the delay, a day after Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position. Super Micro said on Friday it expects to file all its required reports by Feb. 25, in order for the stock to remain listed on the Nasdaq. The company's AI servers with liquid cooling technology have been seeing strong demand from enterprises looking for hardware capable of powering artificial intelligence applications. Super Micro on Monday began a search for a new finance chief based on recommendations made by a special committee formed to look into its accounting practices.Cannabis cafes and theaters? New rules could change marijuana use

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The Whitesboro football team will get a second shot in a row at a state title, but it will need to knock off the team that beat it 35-6 last year. Section I champion Somers is chasing its third straight Class A state title. The Tuskers are in their fourth straight state championship, set for 6 p.m. on Friday at JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse. Whitesboro is making its third state title game appearance (1996 and 2023). Both teams enter with 13-0 records. Whitesboro ran through opponents during the regular season but the playoffs have challenged the team far more, with a sectional title win by 15, a seven-point win after that then a more convincing 49-21 win over Brighton to get to the title game. “We needed these playoff games,” to face adversity, Whitesboro head coach Curtis Schmidt said. “It all came together for the Brighton game. That was our best game, all three phases of the game against a really good opponent.” But before that, the team was down on the scoreboard early against Corcoran in the section title game and then again against Horseheads. “Which you need to face,” he said. “The kids need to learn how to handle it. The coaches need to learn how to handle it.” And in part because of that, “Now we finally put together a full game effort last week.” When asked what he knows about the team he coached against last year in the dome, Schmidt said: “I know a lot.” He’s watched a lot of video and collected a lot of information, he said. “They’re very good.” The players are always in the right place and there’s no tricking them, he said. “They’ve been here four years in a row for a reason.” The game last year started off perfectly for Whitesboro, but the touchdown that would have given Big Blue such a boost right away was wiped out by a penalty and the team came away from the drive with no points. “If we score first, it’s a different game,” Schmidt said. Still, the defense held and kept it a one-score game deep into the first half. But Somers hit on the big play a few times and got a multi-score lead. “We have to make them drive the football and make them earn their points,” Schmidt said of this time around. “You can’t let up big plays and you can’t turn the ball over, and we did. So we’ll try to control the clock and control the football.” “Last year, although it didn’t turn our way, it helped us,” Schmidt said. “Experience is huge, for the coaches and the players.” The team is about to play its 28th game in the last two seasons, with many contributors on this team there for all of them. “Played a lot of football, played in a lot of big games.” Whitesboro senior quarterback Memphis Ferguson is closing in on 2,000 passing yard, with 1,855 so far and 28 passing touchdowns against four interceptions. He’s also the lead leader with 1,028 yards rushing and 20 TDs on the ground. Senior John Paul DeSantis leads the team with 156 carries and has 719 yards with 11 TDs. Sophomore Connor McDonald has 71 rushes for 726 yards and 13 scores as well as a team-best 30 catches, 709 yards and 12 scores through the air. Ferguson spreads the ball out in the passing game, with 22 passes complete to Mike Hill (363 yards, four TDs), 20 to Jax Hall (433 yards, six TDs) and 12 more to Tyler Thorngren (361 yards, six TDs). The defense has produced a number of turnovers this year — 10 fumbles recovered and 18 interceptions. Hall has five interceptions and Thorngren and Jamir Brooks have three picks each. Somers has replaced Mac Sullivan, the quarterback who led the Tuskers past Whitesboro last year. Now at the helm is Miguel Iglesias, who was a receiver last year, and had three catches for 52 yards and a score against Whitesboro. Schmidt called him an athletic QB. The other two players who produced big offense in last year’s title game are back. Running back Mason Kelly, now a three-year starter, ran 23 times for 94 yards and a TD in last year’s game. Receiver Dean Palazzolo last year had four catches for 154 yards and three TDs, and, according to Schmidt, “is very, very talented and had a big game against us last year.” Defensively, Schmidt said, “They have a really nice scheme. It’s a college-level scheme the way they play it, with their front six.” It took a while last year for Whitesboro to figure it out and adjust to it, the coach said. “We didn’t have all the answers we should have come game time. This year I can confidently say we’re prepared for them.” Added Schmidt on Thursday: “If we can limit their big plays and hold onto the football, we’ll be holding the trophy up tomorrow night.” Watch party The Whitesboro Central School District will host a free, in-person viewing of the game in the high school auditorium for district residents. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

I’m a Celebrity’s Oti Mabuse hits back at body shamers: ‘This is the healthiest I’ve ever been’