The Rock Chalkboard

KU basketball at Texas: Who stood out and who didn't...
Braun hustle plays are very much becoming a regular thing. The sophomore wing put his body on the line for loose balls, including a diving stop and timeout at the end of regulation that could have proved to be a winning play. He hit shots — though he probably should have taken more — and he chipped in on the glass, though Tuesday was by no means his best rebounding game.

Report: Les Miles was investigated at LSU in 2013
Former LSU head football coach Les Miles was investigated in 2013 for alleged sexual harassment and sexist comments towards student workers, according to a USA TODAY report that was published on Wednesday. According to USA TODAY, the investigation, performed by an independent law firm, found Miles' actions improper, though the former Tigers head coach was not publicly reprimanded by the university.

Bits o Chalk

Sources -- Free agent J.J. Watt has offers from multiple NFL teams
The Browns are among the teams interested in Watt, according to ESPN and multiple reports, but it was not clear as of Thursday morning whether Cleveland has submitted an offer to the five-time Pro Bowler. Cleveland.com reported last week that Watt had some mutual interest in signing with the Browns.

Markieff Morris on Los Angeles Lakers' skid: 'We need these challenging times'
"[I] think early on we won with talent a lot and we got a lot of role players that know their roles. Now with those guys out -- with AD out, in particular -- we need guys to do different things," Morris said after finishing with season highs in points (12) and rebounds (9). "This is new for all of us. But we need it. If you ask me, we need it. Because you never know with injuries. You never know in the playoffs. You never know. We need these challenging times to really find who we really are.

LA County Sheriff says Tiger Woods was 'not drunk' during crash -- 'Purely an accident'
The Los Angeles County sheriff says Tiger Woods was "not drunk" during the rollover that seriously injured the golf superstar Tuesday, saying the single-vehicle crash was "purely an accident."

California is first state to pass 50,000 Covid deaths
Covid-19 has killed nearly 51,000 people in California, which on Wednesday became the first state to pass 50,000 deaths related to the coronavirus, according to an NBC News count of reports.

RB Leipzig's Angelino: Man City boss Guardiola 'killed' my confidence at City
RB Leipzig defender Angelino said Pep Guardiola "killed" his confidence during their time together at Manchester City.

Eraser Dust

CPAC Preview: Trump, Election Claims At Conservative Confab : NPR
The conference, organized and sponsored by the American Conservative Union, will even keep alive Trump's false claims of election fraud with several panels on the topic with names like "Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence," "The Left Pulled the Strings, Covered It Up, and Even Admits It" and "Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!)."

VIDEO: 3 mountain lions running along MT road
Jay Kinsey was driving northeast of White Sulphur Springs last week when he saw something unusual -- three young mountain lions running along the road.

Taste Test: McDonald's new Crispy Chicken Sandwich trio
As I sat digesting all three sandwiches and their greater meaning, I wondered if I’d attached too much weight to this moment in history. I’d reasonably tempered all my expectations for the sandwiches themselves, because it’s stupid to get your hopes up for anything in the fast food sphere; if you set the bar low, anything good that happens is a splendid surprise. I had never asked nor expected McDonald’s to create a revelatory sandwich, and it didn’t. Enjoyable? Absolutely! But is it the sort of thing that will spawn a secondary market, snarl traffic for miles, or drive people to senseless acts of violence? It will not, and it should not, because JFC people, it’s a goddamn chicken sandwich.

Kalispell School Board Votes to Keep Mask Mandate - Flathead Beacon
Multiple times during public comment, members of the audience laughed at students giving testimony about their fear of attending school without a mask requirement.

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover sends image of descent stage's crash on Mars - CNET
NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover has provided a new image from the red planet, showing a plume of smoke from where its descent stage made surface impact with Mars. One of the rover's Hazcams captured the image, Perseverance tweeted Wednesday.

Australia passes new law requiring Facebook and Google to pay for news - CNN
The new code, which the Australian parliament approved Thursday, "will ensure that news media businesses are fairly remunerated for the content they generate," Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.

ERCOT: Texas Was 4 Minutes and 37 Seconds Away From a Blackout That Could Have Lasted Months – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
The board that oversees The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) held an urgent meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the winter storm that crippled most of Texas last week. They offered apologies for the devastation the power outages caused and pledged to gather the facts to help lawmakers determine how to prevent it from ever happening again.

Kalispell Chamber pulls plug on parade sponsorship
“In order to deliver successfully on business priorities in 2021, we have had to examine our resources,” Clarno wrote in an opinion piece in Wednesday’s Daily Inter Lake. “Due to the continuing health situation, increasing costs and liabilities, and limited volunteer support, the Chamber will not produce parades going forward.”