Monthly Archives: February 2021

Flight-hopping Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was among those up in arms over Disneys firing of The Mandalorian co-star Gina Carano, who was cut loose from the Star Wars spinoff series earlier this month following uproar over several offensive social media posts including one in which she likened blowback against conservatives to being a Jewish person during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

Cruz defended Carano in a Twitter post on Feb. 11, but in doing so the purported Star Wars fan also felt the need to take shots at the franchises other notable female leads.

Texan Gina Carano broke barriers in the Star Wars universe: not a princess, not a victim, not some emotionally tortured Jedi, wrote Cruz. She played a woman who kicked ass & who girls looked up to. She was instrumental in making Star Wars fun again. Of course Disney canceled her.

The emotionally tortured Jedi line was a not-so-subtle shot fired at Daisy Ridley's Rey, the heroine of the latest Star Wars trilogy sequel who overcame the trauma of being orphaned after the murder of her parents. The princess and victim descriptions, meanwhile, were likely references to Carrie Fishers princess-turned-Gen. Leia Organa and Natalie Portmans Padm Amidala.

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment Tuesday promoting her new sci-fi thriller Chaos Walking, Ridley says she had not heard Cruzs attempted Rey diss, but responded to it on the spot, referencing Cruzs heavily criticized trip to Cancn last week while his state experienced a historic, deadly freeze and devastating power outages. (The politician subsequently blamed the impromptu vacation on his daughters in a misleading statement claiming he was only leaving for a day. He later admitted it was a blunder and apologized in a TV interview.)

Story continues

I did not know, and I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi, the actress says, who doesnt leave their state when its having a terrible time.

Ouch.

Our thoughts to Cruz as he recovers from the wrath of an emotionally tortured Jedi.

Chaos Walking opens March 5.

Video produced by Jen Kucsak and edited by John Santo

Watch the trailer:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

See more here:

Daisy Ridley claps back at Ted Cruz's Rey diss: 'I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi who doesn't leave their state' - Yahoo...

When Ed Hornick first came down with COVID-19 symptoms last January, he assumed that one day he'd feel better. But a year later, like millions of others who contracted the virus, he's still sick. This torturous cycle of debilitating brain fog, fatigue and muscle pain which Hornick, a senior editor at Yahoo News, recently wrote about has been referred to by mostly informal names thus far, such as "long COVID."

But during a press conference Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, finally referred to it by an official name: PASC. "Many of you are now aware of what had long been called 'long COVID' but actually, what that really is is post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which were now referring to as 'PASC,'" Fauci said.

With some studies showing that as many as one-third of patients with COVID-19 may experience lingering symptoms, the National Institutes of Health announced this week that it is launching an analysis to figure out what is causing the constellation of symptoms. "Its very difficult to treat something when you dont know what the target of the treatment is," Fauci said during the press conference. "And thats the reason why it's extremely important to take a look at these individuals, not only the scope of this and not only, you know, the depth and breadth of the symptoms, but also to try and have some correlate that actually is the pathophysiological correlate."

Dr. Bradley Sanville, a pulmonologist at UC Davis who treats PASC patients at the facility's Post-COVID Clinic, says Fauci's announcement is a significant development. "The name is important. I think the colloquial name of 'long haulers' is fine and helps patients identify with others," Sanville tells Yahoo Life. "But from a medical standpoint, naming is important because it gives it a little bit of veracity that it otherwise wouldn't have."

Story continues

Dr. Anthony Fauci referred to what's been called "long COVID" by an official name: PASC. (Getty Images)

Sanville says that the inclusion of "sequelae" which technically means "aftereffect of a disease" helps capture the large variation of symptoms that long-haulers experience. "It's different than using 'disease'; disease is something that is much more discreet and we know has a particular pathophysiology behind it," says Sanville. "Whereas a syndrome, or sequelae, is something that's associated with well, in this case, SARS-CoV-2 virus. But we don't know exactly what's causing it, and it's probably a collection of a couple of different things happening."

He's hopeful that this name will add to the legitimacy of this condition, which he currently sees at a rate of six new patients a week. "Giving it a name that physicians and nurses understand helps it kind of give some reality too," he says. "I had a patient the other day who complained that the doctor she had seen had just written her off as being neurotic. So not that I have any magic answers necessarily for all these patients but it's so prevalent that it seems unlikely that ... it's just in people's brains."

Equally appreciative of the new name is Dr. Ruwanthi Titano, a cardiology specialist at Mount Sinai who has treated more than 260 patients with cardiac symptoms of PASC. "I think this is an appropriate name showing that it's after the acute illness, there are these long-term sequelae that we're really seeing coming out of the woodwork," she says. Titano is particularly happy to hear about NIH's plans to study the condition, for which symptoms range from shortness of breath and heart palpitations to hair loss and numbness.

"I think the more [patients] we see, the more comfortable we are at recognizing the syndrome but what to actually do with it is still up in the air," says Titano. "There is a general approach I take, but then I have to get very individualized for each patient ... and so we're adapting all the time. This is a critical area where I think having NIH-level help and funding is really important to collect data, make registries and then move forward and say, 'We have these unanswered clinical questions.'"

For people like Hornick, the acknowledgment and naming are long overdue. "It's incredibly comforting to know that what I've been going through for the past 10 months has an official name and that significant research and resources are being dedicated to tackling it," says Hornick. "Hopefully, scientists will be able to get to the bottom of not just PASC, but also afflictions like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, which still remain a mystery to doctors."

Titano feels optimistic that they will. "l am very hopeful," she says. "I think because, you know, the alternative is really bleak and, because based on my experience, I have seen a lot of patients improve. It has been very incremental and gradual ... but I have seen patients improve, and I think we will continue seeing that as we learn more and more."

Read more from Yahoo Life:

Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter.

See the rest here:

Long-term effects of COVID-19 given name by experts, Fauci - Yahoo Lifestyle

The most enduring image from the USA womens gymnastics 2012 Olympic team wasnt of gold-medal-celebrating athletes or a stuck landing at the end of a championship routine.

It was one of self-doubt and disappointment.

It came courtesy of McKayla Maroney, undeniably the worlds best vaulter at the time, who nonetheless was denied a gold medal after she shockingly fell on her second attempt. Had she landed square, she would have won easily. She didnt and had to settle for silver.

On the medal podium, Maroney briefly pouted her lips. Cameras snapped and the image was instantly hailed as her not impressed face. It was mimicked, replicated and repeated everywhere. Maroney even busted it out when visiting President Obama at the White House.

I was sad, I was upset and I was not impressed, Maroney said years later. What was a joke to many wasnt to her though. She said she didnt sleep for nearly a week.

It was the least of her troubles, the shallowest of her horrors from those Olympics.

Throughout Maroneys time in London, the then-17-year-old was systematically raped and violated by team doctor Larry Nassar. Each of her four teammates Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber and Kyla Ross has publicly revealed they were victimized as well. It all happened under the watch of a group of adults that keeps being charged with its own despicable crimes.

That included the 2012 teams head coach, John Geddert, who doubled as a friend of Nassars from back in Lansing, Michigan. It was at the gym Geddert owned and operated, Twistars, where Nassar would meet and molest hundreds of girls.

Geddert, himself, was charged Thursday with 24 criminal counts, including two involving his own sexual assault of a girl aged 13-16. There was also one for lying to police during questioning about Nassar and 20 counts related to abusive coaching. Rather than face the accusations, he ran from them, driving to a highway rest stop and killing himself.

Story continues

U.S. gymnast Jordyn Wieber is consoled by head coach John Geddert after her performance during the artistic gymnastics women's floor exercise final at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (AP)

Then there was USA Gymnastics president Steve Perry, who in 2018 was indicted by a Texas grand jury for tampering with evidence related to the Nassar investigation. He is still awaiting trial.

Other training and competition settings included Indianapolis-based coach Marvin Sharp, who in 2015 killed himself inside his jail cell after being charged with molesting a 15-year-old girl.

And, of course, there was Nassar, who in 2017 pleaded guilty to raping and sexually assaulting 10 victims and had nearly 200 speak at a sentencing hearing. For years he wasnt just the national team doctor, but an active presence on USAG advisory boards that wrote training and safety procedures. The 57-year-old is currently in a federal prison in Florida on separate child pornography charges.

I frequently had to travel [without my parents] under the supervision of USA Gymnastics, Raisman stated on Thursday following Gedderts indictment and then suicide. The responsible adults included John Geddert, Marvin Sharp, Steve Penny and Larry Nassar.

Others, including team coordinator Martha Karolyi, were clearly too focused on winning to question the wisdom of allowing a grown man such as Nassar unfettered access to the training center dorms or hotel rooms of teenage girls.

The United States would capture five medals over the nine-day gymnastics competition at those London Games, including three golds. The visions of their smiling and cheering (and even not impressed) faces would launch fame, commercial opportunities and another generation of young, enthralled girls who aspired to be just like them.

It looked beautiful. It was actually a nightmare and one that, with each increasing arrest and allegation, becomes even more unfathomable to comprehend. Not just how it happened, but how the athletes accomplished what they did in spite of it all.

Maroneys Olympic dream, for example, began when she was handed a sleeping pill by Nassar on the flight to London. She recalls awakening with Nassar in his hotel room where he was giving her a treatment.

I thought I was going to die, she said in a statement at Nassars 2018 sentencing hearing.

He went on to repeatedly rape her, perhaps daily, throughout the Games.

The scope and breadth of the depravity is breathtaking. Or it should be. The Nassar scandal became so big, and so brutal, that the stories tended to blend together, overwhelming the true sense of the evil and awfulness involved.

Each girl was a victim though. Each act was a crime. Each moment a life-altering act. The volume of the incidents shouldnt diminish their viciousness.

Everything those Olympians went through, from the climb up the ultra-competitive ladder of USA Gymnastics, to the Olympics itself, to even the disappointments that came during competition, lives forever under that cloud.

They were surrounded by alleged pedophiles, who constructed a training mentality and a culture of compliance that made the athletes extremely vulnerable to abuse.

Say nothing. Question nothing. Dare never to complain. America, they were often reminded, has a dozen more elite gymnasts just like you who will gladly take your place and maintain the focus needed to win gold.

There is no union to advocate for them. No agents with the power to speak up. The system can replace them too easily.

Everything worked against them, even Olympic rules, which allow for just two gymnasts from a single country to compete for the coveted All-Around gold often chosen at the discretion of the coaches.

In 2011, Wieber won the women's world championship. At the Olympics a year later, dealing with a shin injury "treated" by Nassar, she missed qualifying for the all-around final by one-tenth of a point.

It is a sport where the smallest of mistakes means everything. That reality impacts everything.

Even parents were held at bay. They were banned from lengthy, cut-throat training camps at the Karolyi Ranch in Texas. And during the Olympics, USA Gymnastics, citing the need for focus, limited parental contact to just a few phone calls and texts, plus two brief face-to-face pre-scheduled sessions.

Maroney, in 2018, said that the fact "my mom and dad were unable to observe what Nassar was doing ... imposed a terrible and undeserved burden of guilt on my loving family." In 2019, her father, Mike, died while trying to detox from opioids.

It doesn't take much to connect the dots.

The need for control was everything to USA Gymnastics, though. Geddert, who fashioned himself as a tough guy coach but was really just a manipulative bully to little girls, was always quick to brag about his demanding ways. He basked in his reputation.

What kind of coaching was this though?

Does Maroney uncharacteristically fall on that second vault, blowing what was presumed to be a shoo-in gold, if she wasnt suffering through a string of rapes by a doctor she had been brainwashed into trusting?

And what of Wieber? She was the best in the world at 15, but suffered a stress fracture in her shin, in part, she later theorized, because of overtraining by Geddert.

Then, rather than receive honest medical treatment, she received Larry Nassar.

U.S. gymnasts, left to right, Jordyn Wieber, Gabrielle Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Kyla Ross raise their hands after winning the team gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. (AP)

The doctor that was our abuser," Wieber said at Nassar's sentencing. "The doctor that is a child molester.

The abuse went beyond just sexual and included mental and emotional trauma. Wiebers failure to qualify for the all-around competition left her devastated. She openly cried after and couldnt face fans or the media.

She hasnt said a word, Geddert said of Wieber directly after the qualifying failure. She doesnt talk. Shell get into her little shell.

Wiebers mother, Rita, unable to see her then-16-year-old after the most heartbreaking day of her career, could only get her briefly on the phone I told her, Life will go on, Rita said at the time. We always raised her to know that we support her in all of life, not just gymnastics.

USA Gymnastics meanwhile shrugged and sent her in for more "treatment" from Nassar. There was the coveted team gold to win two days later, after all. The U.S. would clinch it when, incredibly, Wieber and Maroney delivered near flawless vaults.

That spectacular triumph was hailed as proof the machine of American gymnastics worked.

Redemption, Geddert said that day of Wieber. Thats the type of kid she is."

She is. No matter what John Geddert and USA Gymnastics did to try to break her.

Now I question everything about that injury and the medical treatment I received, Wieber said. Was Larry even doing anything to help my pain? Was I getting proper medical care, or was he only focused on which of us he was going to prey on next?

With a real doctor, could Wieber have won all-around gold? Could she have, scores and standings aside, performed her best in the competition she spent her life training and sacrificing and dreaming to reach?

And what if anyone stopped and thought of McKayla Maroney, not merely her ability to vault?

If Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee had paid attention to any of the red flags in Larry Nassars behavior, I never would have met him, Maroney stated. I never would have been treated by him, and I never would have been abused by him."

No one was paying attention, though. Certainly not enough. Perhaps because many of the people charged with identifying those red flags had red flags of their own. The win-at-all-costs mentality, the disregard for abuse of any kind ... it was done by what we increasingly know were abusers themselves.

The USA gymnasts didnt just have to defeat the Russians and Romanians.

It had to defeat USA Gymnastics itself.

At the end of an Olympics that appeared, per the medal count, to be a glorious success, the team branded itself with a name. Some media had been calling them The Fab Five, but that didnt work.

I guess it was taken by some basketball team or something, said Maroney, who wasnt alive when, indeed, the University of Michigan made the term famous in the early 1990s.

So they dubbed themselves "The Fierce Five instead.

Fierce, Maroney proudly explained back then. Thats what we are.

More and more each day.

More from Yahoo Sports:

Visit link:

The miracle of the Fierce Five: Winning in spite of rampant abuse - Yahoo Sports

Salesforce (CRM) is becoming a "success from anywhere, success from everywhere" company during the unprecedented adoption of digital and changing nature of work.

"I would say that we are in a world still that we're creating in the future. We know the past is behind us, and the future is definitely ahead, and it's going to be a new work environment," Benioff told Yahoo Finance on Thursday after the software giant reported record quarterly and full-year results.

To be sure, a new work environment doesn't mean having just one location. Earlier this month, Salesforce's Chief People Officer Brent Hyder wrote that the "workspace is no longer limited to a desk" in the company's office towers and that the "9-to-5 workday is dead."

Most Salesforce employees opt for a "flex" way of working in which they spend 1-3 days in an office for team collaboration or customer meetings and presentations. Benioff also works from the office and home.

"I'm not just going to be in my home. In fact, in the last month, I've actually been in Singapore. I've been with my employees there. Yesterday, I was actually at the top of Salesforce Tower here in San Francisco. And I plan to get back into the work environment and into my office and back with my customers. But I also know I'll probably be working at home as well. I've developed a lot of new skills," he added.

Salesforce has seen its business accelerate during the coronavirus pandemic that ushered in an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. On Thursday, the software-as-a-service giant reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Earnings per share came in at $1.04, outpacing estimates for 75 cents. Revenue for the quarter came in at $5.82 billion ahead of forecasts of $5.68 billion.

Salesforce delivered full-year fiscal 2021 revenue of $21.25 billion, up 24% year-over-year, and a new record. The customer resource management (CRM) provider expects full-year fiscal 2022 revenue to be in a range of $25.65 to $25.75 billion. Shares of Salesforce fell 4% on Friday on the slower pace of growth.

Story continues

"We're quite confident in delivering more than $25.5 billion in revenue. The reason why, of course, is we were operating off a deferred revenue model, that is you know all the contracts that we signed this year we haven't recognized the revenue until we're actually delivering the service, and so that flows very nicely into this year, and also the years to come," Benioff told Yahoo Finance. He previously shared that Salesforce's long-term revenue target for fiscal 2026 is $50 billion, double what the company is doing now.

Photo by: zz/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2020 12/15/20 Businesses and industry in Manhattan, New York City on December 15, 2020 during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. While many of the larger corporations have managed to navigate the financial storm caused by the pandemic, other retailers have struggled to stay in business. Here, The Salesforce Tower offices in Midtown. (NYC)

When the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, resulting in lockdowns and remote work, Salesforce had to tear up its old business plan and adapt.

"We devised a whole new business operating model for how we run Salesforce and how we would succeed from anywhere. We called that our 'pandemic operating model,'" Benioff told analysts on the earnings call, which was hosted outside in San Francisco with the leadership team socially-distanced.

Benioff noted that the company has become "significantly more strategic and more relevant to our customers than probably any time before." The company has also deployed new products such as Work.com to help companies and organizations reopen safely and Vaccine Cloud to aid in vaccination logistics.

"This has been a year where we're all fighting the pandemic, and that is a huge part of what we're working on every single day," Benioff said.

Benioff said the new work environment that's emerged is one of "success from everywhere, success from anywhere," with the need to work, sell, market, and service from anywhere.

Benioff told analysts that he's "been surprised" by how many sales calls they've been able to make. He added that if he could "rewind history over the last 22 years," he would have "enforced a much more significant digital discipline" from its sales organization.

In a world where in-person events, like its 170,000-person Dreamforce, go virtual, Benioff said the digital capability allows them to build a pipeline and direct access and deliver highly-customized selling at a velocity that wasn't previously thought possible.

"I think that when we look back at all of the time and energy we spent physically getting on airplanes, getting in cars, going to people's offices, having a breakfast or a lunch or a dinner, waiting to try to get up and make a C-level sales call, when you look today at the level of access that you have in organizations to conduct B2B sales, I mean, it's all the capability when you're digitally enabled, you can go anywhere just much, much faster," Benioff said.

Julia La Roche is a correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

Original post:

Salesforce becomes a 'success from anywhere' company with record year - Yahoo Finance

Tiger Woods has triumphed over the greatest challenges possible on a golf course. But he has never faced a test like the one thats before him now.

Woods suffered severe injuries to his legs in a one-car rollover on a Los Angeles area street Tuesday morning. He was driving on a winding residential road when his SUV hit a sign, a curb, crossed over two lanes of oncoming traffic, traveled down into a gully and ended up drivers-side down. The fact that Woods survived that initial impact was the first good sign.

Woods was conscious when first responders arrived on the scene, and awake and responsive, according to his team, late Tuesday evening. Between those times, though, he underwent hours of extensive surgery, the first steps in what will be a long and arduous recovery.

Two questions face Woods, one immediate and crucial, the other long-term and aspirational. First, can Woods have a normal life, with typical mobility and freedom from pain? Second, can one of the worlds best-known athletes ever return to competitive golf?

Yahoo Sports spoke to several surgeons with extensive experience in treating injuries similar to those Woods suffered. Without having reviewed Woods specific case file and with the caveat that there may be undisclosed elements of Woods case that could impact any prognosis all agreed that a return to a normal life is highly likely, and a return to elite-level golf isnt out of the question.

Tiger has a very, very, very long road to recovery ahead, said Dr. Kirk Campbell, an orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone Health, and based on the information we have, returning to being an elite golfer would be very challenging. But I would not root against him.

A vehicle rests on its side after a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods along a road in the Rancho Palos Verdes section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Woods suffered leg injuries in the one-car accident and was undergoing surgery, authorities and his manager said. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The simple fact that Woods is in treatment at all, given the way his SUV left the road and came to rest, is good news.

Any time there is a rollover accident where the car gets off four wheels, you can die, said Dr. Brian Polsky, an orthopedic surgeon at the Centers for Advanced Orthopedics in Washington, D.C. The trauma involved in that is very unpredictable, even with seatbelts and airbags. From that standpoint alone, hes fortunate.

Story continues

Late Tuesday evening, Woods team released a statement documenting the extent of his injuries. Dr. Anish Mahajan, CMO and interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, indicated that Woods suffered significant orthopaedic injuries to his right lower extremity. In detail, those known injuries and treatments included:

Comminuted open fractures on both the tibia and fibula. Comminuted means Woods bones broke into more than two pieces. Open means the bones broke through the skin. The bone saw the outside world, which is very bad, Polsky said. That means theres a significant increase of infection.

Insertion of a rod to stabilize the tibia. Doctors inserted an intramedullary nail in Woods tibia, running it from his knee toward his ankle. The nail is 12 to 16 inches long, depending on the length of the patients tibia, and will remain in place. This is a standard procedure in cases of this type, and long bones typically heal well.

Insertion of screws and pins to stabilize the foot and ankle. This may be the bigger issue, said Dr. James Gladstone, chief of sports medicine at The Mount Sinai Health System in New York. If its a simple ankle fracture, those can get fixed, and people do very well. If its complex or severe, the risk is that the ankle gets stiff during the course of the healing process.

Surgical release of the covering of muscles of the leg. Any muscle has a covering over it like skin, Gladstone said. If youve had trauma, the muscle swells, and you may have to do a fasciotomy, where you cut that covering to keep the muscle from being strangled. Fasciotomies often require the wound to be left open in order to let the muscle subside, which in turn increases the risk of infection.

All of these procedures will require a minimum of several days in the hospital, and possibly much more once the trauma team sees how Woods responds to initial treatment. Antibiotics will be a necessity, and likely additional surgical treatments.

Open fractures can require multiple debridements, which is a fancy word for cleanups," Polsky said. Thats not uncommon. He could potentially require additional procedures for skin coverages, skin grafts and muscle grafts, depending on how bad it is.

Then Woods will leave the hospital, and the real work will begin.

This wont be the first rehab session for Woods or the second, third, fourth or fifth. Woods has undergone multiple surgical procedures all over his body, most recently his fifth back surgery just before last Christmas. Each time, Woods rebounded, sometimes slowly, sometimes triumphantly.

Unfortunately, its very possible that he may not physically be back to 100 percent, ever, Polsky said. But the person youre dealing with, someone of that athletic level, that amount of mental strength, that focus he has, definitely adds to the potential of him returning.

The mental aspect of Woods recovery will be a crucial one, but given his well-established tenacity, that aspect of his treatment isnt as much of a concern. Take it from the people whove seen that up close: the players he has competed against, and beaten, for the past two decades.

We all know he's a strong cookie physically, mentally, Tony Finau said Tuesday while practicing for the WGC-Workday Classic in Florida, so if someone's going to get through this, he will, and be back for the better, I'm sure.

Thats a hopeful diagnosis, not a medical one. Before Woods walks up another fairway, hell need to walk out his front door. That alone will require months of physical therapy.

I would imagine that when all is said and done, hes in very good hands, so he has a very good chance of having a basically normal life, Polsky said, being able to walk, be a father, maybe even to some extent be athletic, depending on recovery.

What about his day job? Thats another matter entirely.

Tiger Woods was at the Genesis Invitational golf tournament Sunday, but not as a player. A recent back surgery kept him from playing. (AP)

Golf fans with an eye toward history have noted the similarities between Woods accident and that of Ben Hogan, who lived through a devastating wreck in 1949, suffering a fractured pelvis, blood clots and a range of other injuries. Hogan recovered and went on to win six more majors. Could Woods enjoy a similar resurgence?

Again, thats probably more optimistic than realistic. Woods, 45, is 12 years older than Hogan was at the time of his accident. Even before Tuesday, Woods career was on a slow decline. Since his landmark Masters win in 2019, he has missed the cut in three majors and hasnt cracked the top 20 in any of the others. Hes slipped out of the world top 50 for the first time since 2018. On Sunday at the Genesis Invitational in which he did not play because of his back he was tentative, at best, about his prospects for the Masters. Now? Who knows?

Thats the $10 million question, Polsky said. There are fairly simple compound fractures that are open that are treated effectively with one procedure, and that individual can return to whatever their pre-injury status was. He cites the example of one of his patients, an Olympic athlete who suffered a similar open compound fracture and later returned to the Olympics.

Campbell pointed to Alex Smith, the Washington Football Team quarterback who suffered a similar injury to Woods broken tibia and fibula, along with nerve damage but still returned to the field two seasons later and kept Washington in the playoff hunt.

It all depends on concomitant [associated] injuries, Campbell said. Right now we dont know the details of his foot and ankle injury. And were not even speaking about his lower back. Hes still rehabbing from the recent surgery on that.

Worth noting: Woods team focused on trauma to the right leg, although initial reports indicated that he had broken bones in both legs. Whether that means his left leg was not as severely damaged, or whether Woods team is keeping that information private, remains unknown. But if the primary injury is to Woods right leg, that carries some small glimmer of hope for his golf game.

For a right-handed golfer, a lot of the power and torque goes through the left leg at the hip, the knee, the ankle, Polsky said. If the right leg got to 90 percent, he probably could be playing potentially competitive golf. If the worst of [the trauma] was to the right leg, thats mildly positive.

Assuming Woods recovers at a projected rate, he wont be able to return to a golf course for months. Given that his focus now is on winning majors, its likely hell miss the entire 2021 major season, which runs from mid-April to mid-July. That could mean we wont see Woods tee it up in any tournament until 2022.

It can really cover the spectrum, Gladstone said. It can be he returns without any problem, or he cant return at all. Without knowing more about his specific injury and how hes responding, we just dont know yet.

We all know Tiger is such a tremendous athlete, and hes proven time and time again that hes super-dedicated in terms of rehab, Campbell said. But the injury that he had will need several months before hell be back to functioning at a reasonable level.

Whenever hes ready, the game will be waiting for him.

I have no doubt in my mind he'll be back, Bryson DeChambeau said. Take him a little longer, I'm sure, but from my perspective he's one of the most impressive human beings I've ever met and I think that he'll come back just fine.

Rory McIlroy, one of Woods heirs in the game, offered a more philosophical perspective. Hes not Superman, McIlroy said Wednesday. Hes a human being at the end of the day. And hes already been through so much. At this stage, I think everyone should just be grateful that hes here, that hes alive, that his kids havent lost their dad. Thats the most important thing. Golf is so far from the equation right now, its not even on the map at this point.

_____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.

More from Yahoo Sports:

Read the original here:

Surgeons: Tiger Woods return to elite golf will be very challenging - Yahoo Sports

Each week during the 2020-21 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into three of the leagues biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether the trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

[Last week: Draymond Green's double standard, the struggling Celtics and NBA Top Shot]

The Lakers have lost four of their last five games and five of their last six, falling from a game behind the Western Conference-leading Utah Jazz to a game up on the fourth-place Phoenix Suns. Three of those losses have come by double digits. The stretch coincides with Anthony Davis' re-aggravation of his right Achilles strain in the first of them.

So, we shouldn't really be worried about the Lakers, right? As long as Davis returns to health by the playoffs, when he and LeBron James are the NBA's most dominant pairing, L.A. should still be the favorite to repeat as champions.

But ...

Achilles strains are no joke. We know what became of Kevin Durant's Achilles strain in the 2019 playoffs, which gives the Lakers every reason not to rush Davis back before he is fully healthy. The variance for Achilles injuries is wide. Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon missed two games last season with Achilles soreness, returned for four and rested one more before rejoining the lineup on a regular basis. Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love has yet to play this season with a more serious Achilles strain in the preseason. Davis is closer to Love on that spectrum.

Meanwhile, his injury lays bare the issues his dominance masked and places a greater burden on his running mates.

The Lakers tweaked their center rotation, swapping out Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee for Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell. On paper, it was an upgrade. In practice, it has made the Lakers less of a vertical threat. With almost 40% of their shots coming at the rim, the Lakers ranked second last season, per Cleaning the Glass. They are eighth this season, closer to 36%. Likewise, they have seen their ranking in opponents' field-goal percentage at the rim drop from fifth last season (61%) to 17th this season (63.4%). Their margin for error has been winnowed.

Story continues

The next few weeks could make or break LeBron James' MVP case. (Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)

Their defense as a whole still ranks atop the league, which is another positive sign for the playoffs, but their offense has slipped from 11th last season to 17th this year. That should change when games are more meaningful, as it did last season, when their offense ranked first among the final eight teams, because James and Davis are just a lethal combination, and the Lakers have the rest of this regular season to maximize Gasol's floor spacing around them.

It could just be that the Lakers are finally running into the same problems that have plagued so many other teams this season. They have lost fewer games to injury and health protocols than the majority of the league, but starting point guard Dennis Schroder has also missed the past four games after his reported potential exposure to COVID-19. The Lakers have nobody else on the roster besides James who consistently creates for others. This week's release of beloved teammate Quinn Cook indicates they are gearing up to address one of their depth concerns.

All of this has placed an inordinate amount of pressure on James, who at 36 years old has played every game and exceeded 40 minutes in four of his last 10. The second half of the season is going to be more of a grind, especially if Davis' absence stretches beyond the weeks-long timeline the Lakers initially offered. James may be superhuman, and he is chasing his fifth MVP award, but is it really worth taxing him to improve the team's standing in the West?

With the Jazz stretching their lead atop the conference and facing one of the easiest remaining schedules, it might actually be better for the Lakers to finish fourth or fifth in the West. From a matchup standpoint, the second-place Clippers still pose a bigger threat to their repeat. (Who on the Jazz defends James and Davis?) Avoiding a second-round L.A. rivalry in hopes another team takes them out, as they did last year, is probably a more sound strategy.

All of this said, none of it may make a difference in the end. Barring any limitation of James and Davis, the Lakers will be favored to win every series they enter in the playoffs, concerns about slimmer margins and depth be damned.

Determination: Fiction

No team has been hit harder by injuries this season than the Magic, and it is not close. Two of their most important building blocks Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac are out for the season with torn ACLs. Rookie Cole Anthony (rib) is sidelined through the All-Star break, and Aaron Gordon (ankle) is in the middle of a four-to-six-week recovery.

All of this leads to the March 25 trade deadline.

Orlando has somehow won four of their last seven games, starting the likes of Dwayne Bacon, Gary Clark, James Ennis and Michael Carter-Williams around All-Star center Nikola Vucevic. They are just two wins back from a spot in the play-in tournament and a shot at a third straight playoff appearance. It is smoke and mirrors. Orlando is being outscored by 6.4 points per 100 possessions, essentially operating like the third-worst team in the entire league.

Which is what they should want to be. This is a stacked draft, featuring three or four potential franchise-altering prospects. The Magic know too well what it is like to pick beyond a draft's drop-off point. They missed Joel Embiid, Kristaps Porzingis, De'Aaron Fox and Trae Young by single picks from 2014-18. The one time they have had a top-three pick in the past decade, they got Victor Oladipo. (And gave up on him too early a story for another day.)

Orlando is a lost cause. Even when healthy, the Magic have been nothing more than first-round fodder since the 2010 Eastern Conference finals, when a No. 1 overall pick (Dwight Howard) made his last stand for them. How many of the roster's current players are going to be around when the team threatens to advance to the third round again?

The list goes no further than Fultz, Isaac, Anthony and maybe Chuma Okeke, their first-round pick from 2019 who missed all of last season with an ACL injury. Of course they should hold a fire sale. Evan Fournier's deal is expiring. Get what you can, while you can. Gordon is in his seventh season on the Magic. Time to cut bait. Terrence Ross is signed through 2023. Take what you can get. Mo Bamba, the sixth overall pick from 2018, is playing less than 10 minutes per game. Give him a chance, or extract some value before it is painfully obvious you have given up on him.

The biggest fish is Vucevic. The 30-year-old is enjoying a career statistical year (24.1 points on 48/40/84 shooting splits, 11.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game) in the void left by a depleted roster. He has two years left on his deal after this one. Nobody wants to trade their best player, but what is the Magic's ceiling with him in that role? Where will he be by the time they develop or sign someone better? He may never hold more value than he does right now. If it takes waiting until the summer to get the best haul for him, so be it, but it is beyond time to blow up the Magic.

Bradley Beal's belief in the Wizards is being rewarded. (Will Newton/Getty Images)

At season's start, I had the Wizards securing one of the East's eighth playoff spots. Two weeks ago, they were 6-17, owners of the fewest wins in the NBA and their conference's worst record. All-Star guard Bradley Beal was "damn tired" from carrying them even that far. He was also fresh off publicly committing to righting the ship in Washington.

Since then, they are 6-1, better than anybody but the surging Brooklyn Nets. This is not a soft 6-1. Their lone loss came agains the Clippers. They have beaten the Nuggets twice, along with the Lakers (albeit without Davis), Celtics, Blazers and Rockets. Washington has leapfrogged three teams in the standings, sitting two games back from a play-in spot with only one more loss than the fifth-place Toronto Raptors. A playoff berth is still very much on the table.

Beal's 32.8 points per game continue to lead the league in scoring. Russell Westbrook has more assists than anyone in the NBA over Washington's recent stretch, averaging a 19-11-11 despite abominable shooting (44/8/50 splits, thankfully on just two 3-point attempts per game). They are trying on defense. It is at least some semblance of the partnership we imagined, because how could two All-NBA-caliber talents not lead a team to the playoffs in the East?

And there is room to grow. The improvement has coincided with a starting lineup shift. A season-ending injury to Thomas Bryant and failed experiments with Robin Lopez and Alex Len afforded Moe Wagner a chance to start at center. The threat of his shooting opens a half step here or there for Beal and Westbrook to attack the basket. Same goes for undrafted second-year guard Garrison Matthews, who is shooting 43.8% on four 3's a night in the first eight starts of his career. Neither has been a disaster on defense, and the Wizards are no longer digging early holes.

Davis Bertans catching fire from distance has only further opened the floor for everyone. Rui Hachimura's mid-range game has benefited from spacing previously crunched by sharing the court with multiple non-shooting threats. Lopez has shifted to a reserve defensive specialist role, especially when they need stops and veteran stewardship in crunch time. One way or another, Wizards coach Scott Brooks has finally found a rotation that at least make sense.

None of it is great, but as far as the playoffs are concerned, the Wizards have a path they can believe in now.

Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

More from Yahoo Sports:

More:

NBA Fact or Fiction: Trouble with the Lakers, a Magic fire sale and the surging Wizards - Yahoo Sports

Bitcoins (BTC) price tumbled along with U.S. stocks, bringing the cryptocurrencys decline since Sunday to 17%, the most for a two-day period since the coronavirus-fueled crash in March 2020. The decline has wiped out more than $100 billion of bitcoins market value, which last week climbed past $1 trillion for the first time.

And while many traders are still bullish on bitcoin in the long term, analysts said the largest cryptocurrency, now changing hands around $47,000, may have further to fall in the coming days, traders and analysts said.

The current market is extremely overheated, Flex Yang, founder and chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based crypto lender Babel Finance, told CoinDesk. Prices could fall as low as $40,000, he said.

Related: Opera Adds In-Browser Crypto Options With Simplex Integration

Bitcoin staged a mini-rebound Tuesday after the New York state attorney generals office announced a settlement of a dispute involving the stablecoin tether (USDT). But the rally proved short-lived and appeared to peter out as prices approached $50,000.

Market sentiment remains largely bullish, and there are signs some investors are buying the dip.

In China, demand for tether has gone up, as evidenced by the stablecoins premium over the Chinese yuan on over-the-counter trading desks, when prevailing foreign-exchange rates are taken into account.

For example, earlier on Tuesday, a screenshot of Huobi OTC, the similarly named exchanges fiat-to-crypto trading platform, showed a 2% premium between USDTs price, expressed in yuan, and the going exchange rate for the Chinese currency in U.S. dollar terms, per Bloomberg data.

Related: MicroStrategy Bets Another $1B on Bitcoin

Guy Hirsch, managing director for U.S. at eToro, told CoinDesk he saw 26% more new bitcoin positions opened than closed on the trading platform, which would help drive markets higher in the longer-term.

Story continues

We dont believe any of the weakness should be construed as being symptomatic of structural weakness or a lack of confidence in crypto assets, Joel Kruger, cryptocurrency strategist at institutional crypto exchange LMAX Digital, said. There will once again be tremendous opportunity for existing players to increase exposure and new participants to take on fresh exposure into the dip.

View original post here:

Bitcoin Poised for Further Losses After Two-Day Plunge Wipes Out More Than $100B - Yahoo Finance

Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving thinks the NBA's logo needs an update. Irving posted a picture on Instagram on Wednesday suggesting the league alter its logo to honor Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

What would that look like? Irving has an idea.

Irving added his reasoning to the post, saying "Gotta Happen, idc what anyone says. BLACK KINGS BUILT THE LEAGUE."

Bryant's widow, Vanessa Bryant, is on board with the idea. She shared Irving's picture of the logo, saying "love this. @KyrieIring."

The current NBA logo is modeled after Jerry West a Hall of Fame guard who spent all 14 seasons of his career with the Lakers. West who is white joined the Los Angeles Clippers as an executive board member in 2017.

West has discussed changing the logo in the past, and is receptive to the idea.

Changing the NBA logo to a silhouette of Bryant isn't a new idea. In the days following Bryant's death in a helicopter crash, a number of people suggested the league honor Bryant with a new logo.

That said, it's probably not going to happen. Following Bryant's death, the NBA reportedly did not want to highlight an individual player in its logo. Despite Alan Siegel, who designed the league's current logo, admitting he modeled the logo after West, the NBA has never acknowledged the logo is designed to be a specific player. The league reportedly doesn't want to highlight a specific player in its logo because it would be impossible to choose one person.

A case could be made for Bryant but it could also be made for Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell and many others. That was the league's stance following Bryant's death. It's unlikely to change now, even if Irving isn't the only current player who would support the idea.

Story continues

More from Yahoo Sports:

See the rest here:

Kyrie Irving wants NBA to honor Kobe Bryant with new logo and Vanessa Bryant is on board - Yahoo Sports

Yahoo Sports may receive compensation from BetMGM in connection with the wagers you make on the BetMGM platforms.

BetMGM is offering a special promotion for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim fight Saturday night. New customers in CO, IN, IA, MI, NJ, TN, VA or WV who place a $1 bet on the fight will win $100 in free bets if Canelo wins.*

Click the link, sign up for your new BetMGM account, deposit at least $10 via your preferred method and then bet $1 on the fight. You dont need to win the bet to be eligible for the bonus.

Alvarez, who is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, seems a good bet to knock out Yildirim. He's a -5000 favorite.

At BetMGM, there are round ranges you can bet on that make the odds more favorable. It offers bets asking the question, Over how many rounds will the bout go? It provides odds at less than three rounds or more than three; less than five rounds or more than five; less than seven rounds or more than seven; less than nine rounds or more than nine; and less than 11 rounds or more than 11.

Alvarez has made a commitment in recent bouts to working the body, and Yildirim is vulnerable to the body, so that would suggest it would go closer to four rounds than seven.

At Bet MGM, less than five rounds is -110 and over five full rounds is -125.

*New users only. Must be 21+. CO, IA, IN, MI, NJ, TN, VA or WV only. Paid in free bets. Minimum deposit required. Visit BetMGM.com/YahooSpecial for restrictions on free bets and full terms and conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ & WV), 1-800-522-4700 (CO & VA), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-270-7117 (MI), or 1-800-889-9789 (TN).

If you don't feel like betting on the fight, new users who create a BetMGM account can get a $25 registration bonus (no deposit required) and a 100% deposit match up to $1,000 with their first deposit.

New users only. Must be 21+. CO, IA, IN, MI, NJ, TN, VA or WV only. Deposit match and registration bonus paid in bonus dollars. Visit BetMGM.com/YAHOO for restrictions on bonus dollars and full terms and conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ & WV), 1-800-522-4700 (CO & VA), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-270-7117 (MI), or 1-800-889-9789 (TN).

See the original post:

Bet $1 on Canelo vs. Yildirim and win $100 in free bets if Canelo wins* - Yahoo Sports

Workers whose states denied them unemployment aid during the COVID-19 pandemic may be able to retroactively access benefits back to Feb. 2, 2020, according to a new Labor Department rule issued Thursday.

The Department of Labor (DOL) broadened access to the federal pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) established under the CARES Act, and comes in response to a Jan. 22 executive order seeking clarification on who qualifies for it.

The DOL rule expands eligibility to certain workers who refused to show up based on unsafe conditions, education workers who lost work due to volatile work schedules, and employees whose hours were reduced or who were permanently laid off. The department also clarified that primary caretakers for children whose schools have closed have a valid, pandemic-related reason for not working.

Todays guidance from DOL is a huge relief and welcomed news to all those who were essentially forced by their state to choose your money or your health when they were called back to work, Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow with The Century Foundation, a progressive, independent think tank, wrote in an email to Yahoo Finance.

For workers who are primary caregivers to children, the DOL is requiring that states allow the circumstances where a child is not permitted to attend in-person school as a qualifying, pandemic-related reason (under PUA) to certify that an applicant is unable to work. Alexa Tapia, a coordinator for National Employment Law Project, told Yahoo Finance on Friday that this provision could particularly aid female workers.

Glen Newswanger and Dwight Newswanger prepare beef orders at Newswanger Meats in Shiloh, Ohio, U.S., May 13, 2020 as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues. Picture taken May 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dane Rhys

We've seen throughout this crisis that, for one, women have borne the brunt of it. They've taken on the caregiving, they've consistently shown the biggest proportion of job losses, with Black and Latina women having the highest losses in the December jobs filings, Tapia said. This empowers workers to not be fearful of leaving their employment and pursuing unemployment."

Story continues

For workers who refused to show up to a job based on unsafe conditions, the DOL said that an employers failed safety precautions such as those related to wearing facial masks, physical distancing measures, and personal protective equipment (PPE) consistent with public health guidelines can also justify refusing work. Roughly 40,000 Americans have been turned down for unemployment because of refusal to work over unsafe conditions, according to Andrew Stettner of the Century Foundation.

The job refusal piece is so important because we've seen a lot of the workers on the frontlines...being forced to work in unsafe working conditions, Tapia said, citing Kansas meatpacking employees who were exposed to COVID-19 and told to report to work. Still, Tapia cautioned that employers retain the right to contest and defend an employee's claim of an unsafe environment.

Another group of workers now eligible for federal benefits are full-time and part-time employees who were denied state unemployment benefits because their employers declined to participate in work sharing, an elective unemployment program.

Yet another previously ineligible group that can now apply for assistance includes school and school services workers, such as bus drivers and school cafeteria workers, who were denied benefits over the summer, or told that they would need to repay benefits if their work resumed in the fall. With many schools experiencing volatile schedules, the DOL said, workers whose hours have been decreased can apply.

Newly eligible workers based on Thursdays guidance must file for the federal benefit through their state unemployment division. However, they must be careful to specify their claim is under the PUA program, rather than their state's program. The maximum number of weeks of eligibility will also be based on the state maximum where the applicant applies, according to Tapia.

Prior guidance opened the federal unemployment benefit to those who did not qualify for regular unemployment compensation and were unable to continue working as a result of COVID-19, such as self-employed workers, independent contractors, and gig workers.

The DOL did not respond to a request asking for an estimate of the number of Americans it expected to become eligible for federal unemployment insurance, based on its updated guidance.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance and former litigation attorney.

Follow Alexis Keenan on Twitter @alexiskweed.

READ MORE:

Twitter's Jack Dorsey sued by shareholder over his dual role as Square CEO

Crypto price surge invites a torrent of crypto crime

Citadel CEO: 'We had no role in Robinhoods decision to limit trading in GameStop'

See original here:

Labor Department expands jobless aid for those forced to choose 'your money or your health' - Yahoo Finance