Six-time All-Star Davis moved to Los Angeles to link up with LeBron James in a blockbuster trade during the offseason, having made no secret of his desire to depart New Orleans. Davis, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2012, revealed he spoke to James about his own initial exit from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat and said he is still fond of the Big Easy. MORE: ESPN reporter apologizes for linking race to reaction to Davis...

And that’s not just because he lacks the qualifications to work with those documents, former special master Ken Feinberg told CBS News. But because of the political whiplash likely facing anyone who takes the job, including the likelihood of personal threats and the intense media scrutiny that comes along with the acceptance of such a high-profile position. “This is a political appointment,” Feinberg said. “Now I agree there are very substantive national security concerns....

Gorka, a conservative radio program host, is a former Fox News contributor. While Gorka was in the Trump Administration, he was a staunch defender of many of Trump’s foreign policy moves. However, in a 2017 letter, Gorka implied Trump’s agenda was being undermined from within. “Given recent events, it is clear to me that forces that do not support the MAGA promise are—for now—ascendant within the White House,” Gorka wrote....

McConnell has explicitly indicated he has no intention of being impartial, vowing to work closely with White House counsel and Trump as the trial approached. Richard Painter, Bush’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, denounced the senator on Twitter for contradicting himself by taking the oath. “This man just swore an oath saying the exact opposite. This man is a perjurer,” Painter tweeted, accompanied by a December NPR article featuring McConnell vowing to be anything but partial in the trial....

Ranging from 28 percent in Arizona to 37 percent in both Texas and Wisconsin, voters said they would vote ‘yes’ to a ballot measure that would make cryptocurrency legal in the next election. The poll also surveyed voters from California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. When informed that Wyoming has introduced crypto-friendly legislation, results ranging from 25 percent of voters in Arizona to 42 percent in Texas said they would support a similar bill in their state....

The reason for the sudden shift in attitudes is clear: over the weeks and months of the pandemic, the pileup of circumstantial evidence pointing to the Wuhan lab kept growing—until it became too substantial to ignore. The people responsible for uncovering this evidence are not journalists or spies or scientists. They are a group of amateur sleuths, with few resources except curiosity and a willingness to spend days combing the internet for clues....

As these YouTubers touted claims of a symbiotic relationship with Egyptian authorities, at least a dozen women, some of them only teenagers, have faced arrest and jail. It is a lucrative market for influencers and YouTube—one campaigners want the video-sharing giant to take action against. “It’s a circle that feeds itself, it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Lobna Darwish, gender and human rights program officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an advocacy group based in Cairo, told Newsweek....

The White House did not respond to requests for comment; officials elsewhere in the administration played down the Turkish demands as bargaining tactics: “We told them flat out, no.” But independent diplomatic sources in Ankara and Washington with knowledge of the U.S.-Turkey talks say that while the precise depth of the “security zone” has still to be agreed, the concept is “pretty much a done deal,” as one observer put it....

Kamel was Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law and had direct knowledge of what he claimed: for 10 years he had run Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programs. Kamel told his Western interrogators that he hoped his revelations would trigger Saddam’s overthrow. But after six months in exile in Jordan, Kamel realized the United States would not support his dream of becoming Iraq’s ruler after Saddam’s demise. He chose to return to Iraq–where he was promptly killed....

Malaysian-American midfielder Wan Kuzain Wan Kamal has been attracting keen interest from football fans in his parents’ birth country, Malaysia over the past few years, and many were understandably surprised to see him recently visiting Malaysia, where he has been since late November. After all, by his own account the 19-year old has never been in Malaysia, and he last month was announced to have signed a professional contract with Swope Park Rangers in the United States’ second tier; United Soccer League (USL)....

SHARON: He was very friendly, as usual. He calls me Ariel and I call him George. I [told him] I don’t see even the slightest sign that there is a change on the part of Arafat. On the contrary, the situation has become worse. Al- though he has mil control, Arafat has not given instructions to stop incitement or to rearrest terrorists engaged in planning attacks. Since Arafat accepted the Tenet document [a ceasefire framework brokered by CIA Director George Tenet] a few days ago, we have suffered 230 terrorist attacks, four Israeli citizens have been killed and another 10 wounded....

A farmer from a village in the Pune district of Maharashtra state found the big cat struggling to stay afloat after he approached the well to turn on the motor pump, according to conservation group Wildlife SOS. A tense video of the rescue effort shows the 4-year-old female up to her neck in water, as the well continues to fill. Leopards are expert swimmers but they can become exhausted when trapped in bodies of water for hours at a time....

This week, the big one is Alabama at Auburn. It's the top-ranked Crimson Tide, undefeated and pursuing its third consecutive BCS championship, against upstart Auburn, ranked No. 4 with just one loss. Do the Tigers have a chance against big, bad Bama? Our Exit Poll panelists discuss what Auburn has to do to pull off the upset as well as other rivalry games around the country. But first, what do they think is going on in Gainesville?...

As the actual votes were tallied, Tel Aviv denizens learned that the tally remained very close to projections from the night before. It was official. Prime Minister Netanyahu had lost. All day Wednesday, and Thursday as the rising percentage of votes slowly rolled in, confirming the loss, Likud supporters continued to try to spin the results, insisting Netanyahu remained the only one who could form a coalition. By Friday morning , the numbers were final—Blue and White had received 33 seats and the Likud 31; giving the center-left bloc a mandate of 57 seats, compared to 55 for seats for the right-wing bloc....

But one can bet that when the smoke clears after a couple seasons — that’s usually the amount of time it takes to truly assess a team’s draft — this team and its underrated general manager will have had another excellent draft. That always seems to be the case for the Steelers and Kevin Colbert. SIGN UP to stream the NFL Draft LIVE on DAZN in Canada Pittsburgh has been a playoff team in 12 of Colbert’s 18 seasons running the Steelers’ player personnel department....

Rooney heads to Brazil with the weight of a nation on his shoulders once again but question marks remain on whether the Manchester United striker can produce the goods on the international stage, with him yet to score a World Cup goal in two previous appearances. And while he has entered previous World Cups under an injury cloud, former England striker Shearer says it is time the 28-year-old finally delivers at football's showpiece event, where Roy Hodgson's men will come up against Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica in Group D....

TeamRankings is the only site that provides customized picks that maximize your edge in NFL survivor pools. Check out their NFL Survivor Picks, Football Pick ’em Picks, and NFL Betting Picks. For a limited time, you can also get a free trial of all their premium football picks. FREE TRIAL: Survivor, pick ’em, betting picks from TeamRankings Week 2 NFL Survivor Pool Advice: Tips, strategy for picks Here are our thoughts on the five most popular Week 2 survivor picks since you’re probably considering at least one of these teams....

TeamRankings is the only site that provides customized picks that maximize your edge in survivor pools. Since 2017, TeamRankings subscribers have reported nearly $1.5 million in survivor pool winnings. More From TeamRankings:Football Pick ’em Picks | NFL Survivor Picks | NFL Betting Picks Week 12 NFL Pick ’em Pool Tips, Analysis Review of last week’s pick ’em analysis Last week, we highlighted two favorites (Cleveland and Indianapolis) and one underdog (Philadelphia)....

By now, you’ve likely seen yesterday’s most important numbers: 58 and 41. The first was Barack Obama’s share of the vote in the crucial Wisconsin primary; the second, Hillary Clinton’s. That 17-point spread immediately transformed Obama, a one-time insurgent candidate, into the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. As every pundit pointed out, Obama had beaten Clinton in a state where she had no clear excuse for defeat, setting the stage for showdowns in Texas and Ohio on March 4 and leaving little leeway for further losses....

Impetigo is a highly contagious bacterial skin condition that results from open lesions, such as popped pimples and cold sores. The infection takes the form of honey-colored crusting on the skin and can be itchy and painful, according to Dr. Eric S. Siegel, a dermatologist in Millburn, N.J. “We see this on a daily basis,” Siegel said. It often appears in children or among people who are in close contact with each other, since impetigo is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact....