WATCH: Kellyanne Conway defends Donald Trump staffers who tweeted about a phony �assassination attempt�

Kellyanne Conway on "Rigged Election," FBI Probe, Poll Numbers, Healthcare

It doesnt matter that the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday night was actually a non-violent protester who had a sign.Trumps surrogates want you to believe that their candidate was nearly assassinated, and they wont let something as inconvenient as the facts get in the way.

During an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper on Sunday, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway insisted that the protester from Saturdays rally in Reno, Nevada, was actually a Democratic plant or operative trying to disrupt our rally (he wasnt). She added that, I think people saw a nimble, resilient Donald Trump who would be nimble and resilient as president as well.

Tapper interjected to point out that it wasnt an assassination attempt. It was apparently a local voter, a Republican who says he is supporting Hillary Clinton. He has given money to Hillary Clinton. He has canvassed for Hillary Clinton. But he says hes a Republican. But most importantly, he was not trying to assassinate anyone.

Tapper then asked the all-important question: This was not an assassination attempt, but why is your campaign spreading that it was?

Conway seemed uncomfortable when answering the question, sputtering, Thats really remarkable. That thats what the storyline is here.

She then insisted that the Trump campaign wouldnt retract its claim that the Nevada protester had tried to assassinate Trump unless CNN retractedall the storylines, all the headlines, all the breathless predictions of the last two weeks that turned out not to be true.

Conway isnt alone among Team Trump in trying to cast the Reno incident as a thwarted assassination. Donald Trump Jr.retweeted posts insisting just that, including this one from former political operative and CBS News employee Jack Posobiec claiming that it was an assassination attempt.

In reality, the incident at the Reno rally involved a non-violent protesternamed Austyn Crites, a registered Republican who is supporting Hillary Clinton in this election. An unknown audience member shouted that he had a gun when he was trying to raise a sign, which started the commotion that led to Trump being rushed off-stage.

All of a sudden, because they couldnt grab the sign, or whatever happened, bam, I get tackled by all these people, Crites told KRNV.And somebody yells something about a gun, and so thats when things really got out of hand.

Watch the exchangebelow:

Source: http://www.salon.com/2016/11/07/watch-kellyanne-conway-defends-donald-trump-staffers-who-tweeted-about-a-phony-assassination-attempt/

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Vikings" Rhett Ellison notches rare TE rushing touchdown

Vikings: Season 4 Returns Comic-Con Full Trailer | History

For a brief time near the end of regulation in an eventual loss, Vikings tight end Rhett Ellison was the teams unlikely hero.

With 27 seconds remaining, he scampered into the end zone on a play added to the teams playbook this week, giving the Vikings their first lead of the game via a rush from the backup tight end.

It was the third time in franchise history a tight end has recorded a rushing touchdown and was set to be the game-winner before the Vikings defense collapsed late in their 22-16 overtime loss.

They didnt see it coming, so it worked out, Ellison said.

The play was nearly a disaster. Just after Ellison crossed the end zone, the football popped free and appeared for a moment to be a fumble. But review showed that Ellison had crossed the goal line for a touchdown.

The only other rushing touchdowns from Vikings tight ends were from Stu Voigt in 1972 and Steve Jordan in 1984.

It was exciting, but a very tough team loss, Ellison said.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/2016/11/06/vikings-detroit-lions-rhett-ellison-notches-rare-te-rushing-touchdown/

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Magnitude 5.0 earthquake hits Oklahoma, Nov. 6, 2016

Oklahoma earthquake causes serious damage

A magnitude 5 earthquake struck Oklahoma on Sunday (November 6, 2016) near the largest U.S. oil storage hub, prompting some pipeline companies to shut down operations at the site as a precaution. Bloomberg

Beginning in 2009, the frequency of earthquakes in the U.S. State of Oklahoma rapidly increased from an average of fewer than two 3.0+ Mw earthquakes per year since 1978 to hundreds per year in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Thousands of earthquakes have occurred in Oklahoma and surrounding areas in southern Kansas and North Texas since 2009. Scientific studies attribute the rise in earthquakes to the disposal of wastewater produced during oil extraction that has been injected more deeply into the ground.

Two of the most significant earthquakes in these swarms were the November5, 2011 Prague earthquake east of the Oklahoma City area and the September 3, 2016 earthquake near Pawnee, north of Prague. The 2011 Prague earthquake, at reported magnitude 5.6, was at the time the strongest recorded earthquake in the history of Oklahoma. The 2016 earthquake was initially reported to be an identical 5.6 magnitude, but this was later upgraded to 5.8, making it the strongest earthquake on record. Simultaneously, the USGS upgraded the magnitude of the Prague earthquake to 5.7. Numerous seismologists had advised local residents of an even greater risk of earthquakes in 2014, by which time the number of earthquakes had increased to a dangerously high level. In response to the major increase in earthquakes in the Central United States, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began developing a new seismic hazard model to account for risk associated with induced seismicity. By June 26, 2014, no fewer than six individual earthquake sequences in Oklahoma had been identified and named by the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS). Other swarms have been observed in south-central Kansas and North Texas.

In March2013, a peer-reviewed paper published by a research team led by seismologist Katie Keranen at the University of Oklahoma in the scientific journal Geology reported that "the volume of fluid injected into the subsurface related to the production of unconventional resources continues to rise" and that there was a link between the "zone of injection and the seismicity" potentially triggering the Prague earthquake. On March28, 2016 the USGS released the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map which concluded that the primary cause of the earthquake in Oklahoma in 2011 was pressure on fault lines from cumulative effects of injecting oil drilling wastewater under high pressure into the underground. Although the 2011 earthquake was the largest on record until that time, the USGS reported that the central and eastern U.S. (CEUS) had undergone the most dramatic increase in seismic activity in the United States since 2009 with an average of 318 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 a year up from 24 a year from 1973 to 2008. In 2015 there were 1,010 earthquakes in the CEUS region. By mid-March, 2016 there were already 226 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and larger in the CEUS.

Source: http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/earthquake-hits-oklahoma-nov-6-2016/

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How Tottenham"s change in formation frustrated Arsenal and why the Gunners lose their rhythm without Santi Cazorla

Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham - Arsene Wenger Post Match Interview

That would mean taking Alex Iwobi out of the team but, at this stage of his development, there are signs that might just now also benefit him.

Can either team win the Premier League?

It was a result that prompts most questions of Arsenal. Yes, a draw is hardly a disaster in the context of eight wins in a 10-match unbeaten run but, equally, this was another of those moments to make what you might call a statement.

Victory would have put Arsenal clear at the top of the Premier League table for the first time this season. They were facing a weakened Tottenham team. They were at home and, having taken the lead, looked capable of winning comfortably.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/11/06/how-tottenhams-change-in-formation-frustrated-arsenal-and-why-th/

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Steelers announce Ben Roethlisberger will start vs. Ravens on Sunday

Ben Roethlisberger"s 5 TD Game! (Week 4 Highlights) | Chiefs vs. Steelers | NFL

When the Pittsburgh Steelers take the field against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, they"ll do so with Ben Roethlisberger back in the lineup. The Steelers announced Sunday morning that Roethlisberger is not only active, but will also start the game against the Ravens.

The Steelers had considered Roethlisberger a game-time decision all week.

He was injured during the Steelers" win over the Miami Dolphins three weeks ago, tearing the meniscus in his left knee. He was originally expected to miss 4-6 weeks after surgery, but will once again return earlier than the team originally planned.

He actually only missed one game for the Steelers -- a Week 7 loss to the New England Patriots -- because the team was on a bye last week. Landry Jones made the start against New England and took the loss.

The Steelers still hold a lead in the AFC North, but the Ravens and Bengals are close behind. There"s plenty of time left in the season, but a win on Sunday would put some separation between Pittsburgh and the teams behind them, and Roethlisberger starting is a pretty good sign that they consider this an important game for their season.

Source: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/steelers-announce-ben-roethlisberger-will-start-vs-ravens-on-sunday/

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Racing at middle age: NYC Marathon marks 40th anniversary today

Brian shows you what the TCS NYC marathon feels like | ASICS

NEW YORK - Forty years ago, the worlds top two marathon runners were each handed an envelope with a check in it for $3,000 - secret rewards for helping raise the profile of the very first five-borough New York City Marathon.

It was an instant hit, a Wow! says George Hirsch, chairman of the board of the New York Road Runners club that on Sunday hosts the 2016 race.

What is now the worlds largest marathon began in 1970 when 126 men and one woman circled Central Park. Six years later, about 2,000 amateurs, including Hirsch, took the race to the streets of New York for the first time, touching all five boroughs.

Leading the pack were American marathon record-holder Bill Rodgers and Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter, paid to push the 26.2-mile run into the global spotlight. Hirsch - then a prominent publisher - passed them the checks under the table, he remembers.

We wanted to give the most important runners in the world an incentive to be here, Hirsch says. They made a big difference.

Rodgers won the first of his four New York marathons.

The payments to hit the pavement certainly paid off.

This year, about 50,000 people from more than 120 countries - half of them women - have registered. The elite athletes will be competing for a prize purse totaling $803,000, with potential time bonuses. The mens and womens champions will each receive $100,000. And $25,000 goes to the fastest competitor in a wheelchair.

All eyes will be on the two Kenyans who won last year - Mary Keitany, also the 2014 champion, and Stanley Biwott.

Among Americans, Gwen Jorgensen, the triathlon gold medalist at the Rio Olympics in August, will be running her first marathon. Molly Huddle, who set a U.S. record while finishing sixth in the 10,000 meters in Rio, is making her first try at this longer distance.

The star-studded American field also includes Olympians Dathan Ritzenhein and Kim Conley, who is making her marathon debut.

Scattered amid the crowded, sweaty runners will be eight amateurs in their 60s and 70s - all trailblazers in New York in 1976.

d**k Traum was the first person to complete a marathon with a prosthetic leg, in 7 hours, 24 minutes. Asked to step off ahead of the thousands of others, he was the first person to start the five-borough marathon.

I ran as if you broke your leg and had a cast, trying to get across the street quickly, hopping-style, says Traum, who has a business Ph.D. and created his own computer app company to help companies maximize resources.

At 75, h**l mount his handcycle Sunday at the start line near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the borough of Staten Island. A knee replacement on his natural leg disqualifies him from actually running; one leg must be intact by the rules of the race.

He lost his limb as a young man when a runaway car crashed into him at a New Jersey gas station.

Traum was a member of New York Road Runners, the club led by Fred Lebow, a Romanian-born New Yorker and avid runner whose energy fueled the early efforts to expand and elevate the marathon to a global level. Even after his death, Lebow symbolizes the race, his statue standing near the Central Park finish line.

For the citys first five-borough run, Lebow, Hirsch and Percy Sutton, Manhattans borough president, had persuaded Mayor Abe Beame to ban traffic from the route that spanned the whole city. On the sidelines were tens of thousands of spectators - a far cry from the 2 million or so now cheering on runners.

The three men told the mayor that the crime-ridden, nearly bankrupt New York of the mid-1970s needed the marathon to lift the citys spirits, Hirsch says.

Rodgers and Shorters payments were legal but defied a regulation of the sports governing body, now called USA Track & Field, which classified marathoners as unpaid amateurs. Many struggled financially.

New York spurred the worldwide running boom, with ordinary people huffing and puffing their way through big urban marathons that followed in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai and elsewhere.

The Boston Marathon is the oldest, launched in 1897.

On the first Sunday in November, when exhausted participants finally finish, some collapsing into the arms of loved ones, many take away new friendships while collecting funds for more than 300 charities.

Four decades after a small group of hard-core enthusiasts started it, the NYC Marathon has become an athletic and social democracy.

In every neighborhood, spectators come at us with a lot of enthusiasm - and that may be conga drums, it may be somebody banging on cookware, says Paul Fetscher, who ran in 1976. You get to see the best neighborhoods, you get to see the worst, you get to see the richest, you get to see the poorest, and you get to see the immigrant population of Brooklyn, where more than a million people were not born in the United States.

But they all love sport, he adds. And running is the most basic of all sports: left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.

In 1976, Fetscher aced the race in 2:29.

At 70, still working in commercial real estate, he plans to run the 26.2 miles again.

I can still do that, he said.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/racing-at-middle-age-nyc-marathon-marks-40th-anniversary/

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College football rankings: How Week 10"s top 25 scores changed the Playoff picture

Inside College Football: College Football Playoff rankings reactions

Hey, we have College Football Playoff rankings now! The years first top 25 that actually matters didnt serve up too many surprises that significantly changed the course of the season even Texas A&M over Washington and the other one-loss teams was sure to work itself out one way or the other, and it did in Week 10 but its still nice to know what the committees thinking, as best we can.

Below, the final scores of every top-25 game in Week 10, with quick Playoff ramifications notes on each. As always, this includes paying attention to how teams stack up in the committees rudimentary strength-of-schedule stats, which largely boil down to raw win-loss records.

No. 1 Alabama 10 (9-0), No. 13 LSU 0 (5-3)

One Iron Bowl win away from the SEC Championship, unless something weird happens. Entrenched at No. 1 until Thanksgiving weekend, unless something even weirder happens.

No. 2 Clemson 54 (9-0), Syracuse 0 (4-5)

The Tigers have all but locked up an ACC Championship trip, and a win this dominant against a potential bowl team could raise an eyebrow.

No. 3 Michigan 59 (9-0), Maryland 3 (5-4)

Believe it or not, this will count as another of those wins against teams better than .500, boosting the Wolverines strength of schedule in the committees eyes.

Mississippi State 35 (4-5), No. 4 Texas A&M 28 (7-2)

See? That controversy about the Aggies ranking ahead of unbeaten Washington just sorted itself out. The Bama-LSU winner and Auburn are your clear SEC West favorites.

No. 5 Washington 66 (9-0), Cal 27 (4-5)

Long-term, the Apple Cup likely remains on course to decide the division. Short-term, this probably wont count as a win over a good enough opponent to move the Huskies up in the rankings. UWs still win-and-in, though.

No. 6 Ohio State 62 (8-1), No. 10 Nebraska 3 (7-2)

High-quality win, based on win-loss record (which the committee likes), and thus might mean the Buckeyes jumping Washington, in addition to the spot theyll gain from A&M. OSUs still on course to win the East if it wins out.

No. 7 Louisville 52 (8-1), Boston College 7 (4-5)

Nothing much changes, but U of L adds another hilarious score. If BC astounds the world by getting to .500, it still wont change things much.

No. 8 Wisconsin 21 (7-2), Northwestern 7 (4-5)

For now, the Wildcats will no longer count as a quality W for Wisconsin, Western Michigan, or Nebraska. Or, um, Illinois State, an FCS team. Yep, a team with an FCS loss counts as a decent opponent, as long as it has a .500 record. See how silly the committees strength-of-schedule metric is?

No. 9 Auburn 23 (7-2), Vanderbilt 16 (4-5)

Unlikely anything changes. Vandy falls below .500 and no longer provides whatever boost it was providing to Florida.

Arkansas 31 (6-3), No. 11 Florida 10 (6-2)

One of the SEC Wests teams that still has a losing record in-conference just about knocked the East out of the Playoff. The jokes will never stop. Another boost for A&M, Auburn, and Bama.

No. 12 Penn State 41 (7-2), Iowa 14 (5-4)

Hey, guess whos probably moving ahead of Nebraska in the rankings and in good shape for a New Years Six bowl? PSU adds a respectable W.

No. 14 Oklahoma 34 (7-2), Iowa State 24 (1-8)

Doesnt matter. The two-loss Sooners remain the Big 12 standings leader, which goes to show you how bad the Big 12s Playoff condition is.

No. 15 Colorado 20 (7-2), UCLA 10 (3-6)

Nothing much changes, unless UCLA somehow wins out and makes this an OK win. Still the Pac-12 South leader. What a time to be alive.

TCU 62 (5-4), No. 17 Baylor 22 (6-2)

Seriously, the Big 12 is almost officially out of the Playoff. This was great for Arkansas, though.

No. 18 Oklahoma State 43 (7-2), Kansas State 37 (5-4)

You dont lose to Central Michigan and make the Playoff (even if it was on some BS), but how about a Cotton Bowl? Just keep winning, and this one shined the resume a little.

No. 19 Virginia Tech 24 (7-2), Duke 21 (3-6)

ACC Coastal favorite still. No other news to report.

No. 20 West Virginia 48 (7-1), Kansas 21 (1-8)

Nobody cares. The Eers are the Big 12s last Playoff hope, though.

No. 21 North Carolina 48 (7-2), Georgia Tech 20 (5-4)

Still alive in the ACC Coastal, adding a potentially decent win.

No. 22 Florida State 24 (6-3), NC State 20 (4-5)

NC States no longer .500, but its ranked opponents played FSU anyway. Not much consequence.

No. 23 Western Michigan 52 (9-0), Ball State 20 (4-5)

This could count as an OK road win, if BSU can reach .500, but the Broncos lead the race for mid-majordoms automatic New Years Six bowl regardless. Even if Boise State wins out, Wyoming might win that division, and the autobid only goes to conference champions.

No. 24 Boise State 45 (8-1), San Jose State 31 (3-7)

Keeping pace behind Wyoming (in the division) and WMU (in the Playoff rankings), but this W wont count for anything.

No. 25 Washington State 69 (7-2), Arizona 7 (2-7)

No changes, though that is a very #nice score. The Apple Cup remains on course for importance.

Get an original mini-column on the college football thing of the day, plus news, links, and fun stuff!

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/11/3/13502146/college-football-playoff-rankings-2016-top-25-scores-schedule

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