The Rock Chalkboard

Where KU football's five JUCO enrollees stand in the 247Sports rankings
The KU football coaching staff used just about every avenue at their disposal to try and improve the roster ahead of year two of the Lance Leipold era. Of course, the coaches hit the transfer portal hard and landed 14 transfers from four-year institutions and the haul has the Jayhawks ranked No. 21 nationally heading into August. The coaches also took six high school prospects and five junior college recruits. Using the 247Sports overall recruiting ranking, KU’s 2022 class of 25 players ranks No. 66 nationally.

Ochai Agbaji named Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year
Kansas basketball’s Ochai Agbaji was named the Big 12’s Male Athlete of the Year on Monday, adding another award to his extensive collection. Agbaji is the fourth Jayhawk to win the award since the Big 12’s inception, joining Jacque Vaughn (1997), Nick Collison (2003) and Frank Mason III (2017). Going back to the Big 8 days, Agbaji joins Danny Manning (1988) and Rex Walters (1993). Nominations for the award are sent in by the institutions and are selected based on performance by a media panel.

39 Days Until Kansas Football: TV Numbers and Realignment - Blue Wings Rising
Before we get started, I've decided that I'm getting tired of constantly talking about conference realignment. While the rest of the college football world seems intent on telling everyone else what SHOULD happen with the national landscape (whether their school is involved or not), there are plenty of other topics to explore and discuss as we get geared up for the season.

Eraser Dust

The inside story of how John Roberts failed to save abortion rights | CNN Politics
Chief Justice John Roberts privately lobbied fellow conservatives to save the constitutional right to abortion down to the bitter end, but May’s unprecedented leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade made the effort all but impossible, multiple sources familiar with negotiations told CNN.

It appears unlikely that Roberts’ best prospect – Justice Brett Kavanaugh – was ever close to switching his earlier vote, despite Roberts’ attempts that continued through the final weeks of the session.

Wildfire near Yosemite National Park balloons to California's largest this year
A rapidly expanding wildfire near Yosemite National Park, California’s largest of the season, at 17,000 acres, prompted thousands of evacuations Monday and sent smoke to the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.

How Texas abortion law turned a pregnancy loss into a medical trauma : Shots - Health News : NPR
Elizabeth Weller never dreamed that her own hopes for a child would become ensnared in the web of Texas abortion law.

Former Log Cabin Republicans lament their lack of progress in Texas | The Texas Tribune
More than two decades later, this year’s Texas Republican convention made headlines again for its attitudes toward LGBTQ people. The party adopted a platform in June at its convention in Houston declaring that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice.” That party position comes after similar language had been stripped from the platform just four years earlier, representing a backward step for Log Cabin members who have for years been fighting for acceptance within their ranks.

Tribal leaders, members react to pope's apology on schools | AP News
MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) — Pope Francis’ apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system and the abuses that took place within it was a full-throated denunciation of a decadeslong policy of forced assimilation that aimed to strip Indigenous children of their culture and traumatized generations.

Investigation underway into California man's death in Kalispell | KECI
Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino says the body of 52-year-old Brian Blackmore was sent to the Montana Crime Lab for further investigation.

After Fed Raises Interest Rates Wednesday, Investors to Look for Clues About What’s Next - WSJ
After the Federal Reserve lifts its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday, attention will turn to what Chairman Jerome Powell says about a rate increase at the central bank’s meeting in September.

Paul Sorvino dies: 'Goodfellas' actor, father of Mira Sorvino was 83
Paul Sorvino, an imposing actor who specialized in playing crooks and cops like Paulie Cicero in "Goodfellas" and the NYPD sergeant Phil Cerreta on "Law & Order," has died. He was 83.

Kentucky and Duke are still bringing in the best college basketball recruits even after NIL changes the rules - CBSSports.com
Conversations about student-athletes someday having name, image and likeness rights began years before student-athletes actually had name, image and likeness rights -- and in those years lots of people had strong opinions about what players being able to profit in previously not-allowed ways might do to college athletics. I heard every theory, legitimate and otherwise. But the main thing I always said, basically every time the topic came up, is that I didn't believe it would change the order of things much, if at all. I always thought the same schools that typically got the best prospects would continue to get the best prospects, always believed the annual recruiting rankings in a post-NIL world would largely look the same as they did in the pre-NIL world. And Monday night provided the latest reminder that such appears to be true.

Trade Rumors: Brown, Nets, Durant, Celtics, Lakers, Turner | Hoops Rumors
Jaylen Brown‘s name suddenly popped up in trade rumors as the centerpiece of a proposed deal for the Nets’ Kevin Durant. The Celtics wing offered a three-letter response of “smh” (shaking my head) on Twitter.

Two Weeks In, the Webb Space Telescope Is Reshaping Astronomy | Quanta Magazine
Coordinating over Slack, Pascale, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, and 14 collaborators divvied up tasks. The image showed thousands of galaxies in a pinprick-size portion of the sky, some magnified as their light bent around a central cluster of galaxies. The team set to work scrutinizing the image, hoping to publish the very first JWST science paper. “We worked nonstop,” said Pascale. “It was like an escape room.”

The Choco Taco is gone for good | CNN Business
“Over the past 2 years, we have experienced an unprecedented spike in demand across our portfolio and have had to make very tough decisions to ensure availability of our full portfolio nationwide,” a Klondike Brand representative told CNN Business in an email, adding “we know this may be very disappointing.”

GOP lawmaker attended gay son's wedding 3 days after voting against same-sex marriage
A Republican lawmaker attended his gay son’s wedding just three days after joining the majority of his GOP colleagues in voting against a House bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.

39 Days Until Kansas Football: TV Numbers and Realignment - Blue Wings Rising
Before we get started, I've decided that I'm getting tired of constantly talking about conference realignment. While the rest of the college football world seems intent on telling everyone else what SHOULD happen with the national landscape (whether their school is involved or not), there are plenty of other topics to explore and discuss as we get geared up for the season.