Palm Desert, California – Bronny James played his first NBA preseason game on Friday night, but LeBron James was not in uniform as the Lakers hosted Minnesota in the first of two-weekend games in the Coachella Valley.

After three tough days of training camp, Lakers coach JJ Redick decided to rest LeBron James against the Timberwolves, but the 39-year-old NBA’s all-time leading scorer is expected to play against Phoenix on Sunday, which also happens to be Bronny’s 20th birthday.

Bronny James scored two points in the Lakers’ 124-107 loss against the Timberwolves, missing his first five shots before converting a layup with 56.9 seconds remaining. However, the 6-foot-2 guard blocked three shots and added one rebound and an assist while playing the first half of the second quarter and most of the fourth quarter, totaling 16 minutes.

Bronny James Begins His Lakers Career With A Preseason Debut. LeBron Won’t Join Until The Next Game

“I liked what I saw from Bronny,” Redick explained. “Truthfully, he’s quite easy to coach, and he has a terrific soul and enthusiasm about him. I enjoy being around him. I am cheering for him. He’s a good player that we’re proud to have in our program.”

Bronny James did not talk with reporters following his debut.

Bronny James understands that he has a lot of work to do before he and his son become the first father and son to play together in the NBA. He received his first opportunity to play in Lakers gold when he hit the court to start the second quarter at Acrisure Arena outside Palm Springs.

Bronny, who played alongside starting Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell, was caught on a pick on his first defensive possession, allowing Rob Dillingham to shoot an open 3-pointer. Bronny’s pass was intercepted by Nickeil Alexander-Walker on the opposite end, but Bronny rushed back and stopped his layup attempt.

“He can do some things defensively at his size that are really unique, and he can, I think, turn into a really disruptive defender, and that manifested itself,” Redick told ESPN. “On the offensive end, he’s still kind of figuring out who he is, and that’s our job as a player development program to build him up.”

Bronny missed three shots in his first six minutes of play, including a three-pointer. He contributed an assist as he found Rui Hachimura for a 3-pointer from the corner during a fast break.

Bronny returned for the fourth quarter, but missed a jumper and had his layup attempt blocked. In the last minute, he received a pass from fellow rookie Dalton Knecht and looped a layup over a defender for his first point.

Bronny got playing time in the Lakers’ preseason opener after three excellent practices this week, according to Redick.

LeBron looked to maintain a respectful distance from Bronny during the game, allowing his oldest kid to concentrate on his work. However, during a stoppage halfway through the second quarter, LeBron spoke to Bronny for very some time, explaining things with hand motions while Bronny nodded.

Bronny James was the Lakers’ second-round draft pick, and he participated in the summer league in Las Vegas. He is anticipated to play for the Lakers during the preseason before spending most of the 2017 regular season with the G League’s South Bay Lakers.

“Of course there’s nerves,” Bronny said following the Lakers’ pregame shootaround. “But I’m just excited to go out there and learn from the people playing in front of me, and if I get a chance to showcase what I can do, I’m going to do that.”

As is customary for inactive players, LeBron generally avoided the Lakers’ huddles. He usually stood on the perimeter during timeouts, alongside Anthony Davis, who also missed the preseason opener. Both superstars were in training camp in El Segundo.

“We felt like, given everything they had this summer, and their level of participation over the past three days, it made the most sense for them to get an off day today,” Redick informed the crowd. “We told them at shootaround to just stay off their feet.”

Bronny James Begins His Lakers Career With A Preseason Debut. LeBron Won’t Join Until The Next Game

Redick said Thursday that both LeBron James and Davis will play at least one game this weekend.

James and Davis are sitting out the first of the Lakers’ six preseason games to ease back into competition after a busy summer. LeBron and Davis were both members of the United States gold medal-winning team at the Paris Olympics, and they walked to midcourt just before tipoff to welcome their Olympic teammate, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards.

The audience who filled the 22-month-old arena that houses the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds on Friday did not appear disappointed. Hundreds of fans wearing gold Lakers shirts, including James and George Mikan, rushed into the building and down the steps in the lower bowl to get a good look at the pregame warmups.

“The beautiful thing about the Lakers is that we have fans all over the world,” he remarked. “I believe the desert here is an extension of our fan base in Los Angeles. It’s an excellent opportunity for our group to perform in front of these supporters tonight.”

SOURCE | AP

A week after Hurricane Helene devastated the Southeastern United States, residents in the hardest damaged areas are wondering how they will pay for the water damage caused by one of the deadliest storms to hit the mainland in recent history.

The Category 4 storm that hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26 has dropped trillions of gallons of water across numerous states, leaving a devastation trail that stretches hundreds of miles inland. According to the National Hurricane Center, more than 200 people have died in what is now the deadliest hurricane to strike the continental United States since Katrina.

Western North Carolina and the Asheville area were particularly heavily struck, with water destroying buildings, roads, utilities, and property in ways that no one expected, let alone prepared for. Inland areas in Georgia and Tennessee were also flooded out.

The Oak Forest neighborhood in south Asheville stands up to its name, with trees towering over 1960s ranch-style houses on spacious lots. But on September 27, as Helene’s leftovers passed across western North Carolina, many of those trees fell, occasionally hitting houses.

Julianne Johnson said she was walking upstairs from the basement to help her 5-year-old son pick out clothes when her husband started yelling about a massive tree falling crosswise across the yard. The tree mostly avoided the house, although it did crush a portion of a metal porch and damage the roof. Then, Johnson claimed, her basement flooded.

Homeowners Hit By Hurricane Helene Face The Grim Task Of Rebuilding Without Flood Insurance

On Friday, a blue tarp was secured to the roof with a brick. The sodden carpet that the family had taken out sat on the side of the house, awaiting disposal. Johnson stated that she was unable to file a house insurance claim until four days after the storm due to a lack of cell phone connection and internet.

“It took me a while to make that call,” she explained. “I don’t have an adjuster yet.”

Roof and tree damage are typically covered by the average house insurance policy. Johnson, like many homes, does not have flood insurance, and she is unsure how she would pay for that portion of the damage.

Those recovering from the storm may be startled to hear that water damage is a separate issue. Insurance professionals and experts have long warned that home insurance often does not cover flood damage to a home, even though flooding can occur anyplace it rains. Flooding is caused by more than just seawater seeping into the land; it also includes water from banks, mudflows, and excessive rainfall.

However, most private insurance firms do not offer flood insurance, making the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Program the principal supplier of coverage for residential homes. Congress established the government flood insurance program more than 50 years ago after many private insurers discontinued issuing policies in high-risk areas.

According to FEMA’s most recent data, North Carolina has 129,933 such policies in place, however, the majority of that protection will likely be located on the coast rather than in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Helene inflicted the most damage. In comparison, Florida has over 1.7 million flood policies in place across the state.

Charlotte Hicks, a flood insurance expert in North Carolina who has led flood risk training and educational outreach for the state’s Department of Insurance, believes that many Helene survivors will never be fully compensated. Without flood insurance, some people may be able to rebuild with the assistance of charitable organizations, but the majority would be left to fend for themselves.

“There will absolutely be people who will be financially devasted by this event,” Hicks said to the audience. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Some may face foreclosure or bankruptcy. Entire neighborhoods will most likely never be restored. According to Hicks, there has been widespread water damage, and for others, mudslides have even stolen the land where their house once stood.

Meanwhile, Helene is proving to be a more manageable disaster for the private home insurance market, as those policies typically only cover wind damage from storms.

This is a relief for the sector, which has been under increasing pressure from other worsening climate disasters like wildfires and tornadoes. Nowhere is the declining private market due to climate instability more visible than in Florida, where many companies have already stopped offering coverage, leaving the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation as the state’s largest insurer.

According to Mark Friedlander, a representative for the Insurance Information Institute, Helene is a “very manageable loss event,” with insurer losses estimated to be between $5 billion and $8 billion. This is in comparison to the insured losses from Category 4 Hurricane Ian in September 2022, which were anticipated to cost more than $50 billion.

According to Friedlander and other experts, less than 1% of the inland communities that saw the most catastrophic flood devastation have flood insurance coverage.

“This is very common in inland communities across the country,” Friedlander explained. “Lack of flood insurance is a major insurance gap in the U.S., as only about 6% of homeowners carry the coverage, mostly in coastal counties.”

Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders, said the photos of flood destruction in North Carolina horrified her, despite decades of witnessing the difficult recovery journeys of natural disaster survivors.

“This is a significant situation in terms of people being disappointed. They will be disappointed in their insurers as well as FEMA,” Bach stated. “FEMA cannot match the kind of dollars private insurers are supposed to be contributing to the recovery.”

Homeowners Hit By Hurricane Helene Face The Grim Task Of Rebuilding Without Flood Insurance

This Monday, FEMA said that it could handle Helene’s urgent needs, but warned that it does not have enough resources to last through the hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, despite the fact that most hurricanes occur in September and October.

Even if a homeowner has it, FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program only provides up to $250,000 for single-family houses and $100,000 for possessions.

Bach stated that in addition to homeowners educating themselves on what their policies cover and do not cover, the solution is a national catastrophe insurance program that functions similarly to the Affordable Care Act for health insurance.

Following Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the state of North Carolina began requiring insurance agents to take a flood insurance class so that they could appropriately advise their clients on the risk and available policies, according to Hicks. The state also requires home insurance policies to clearly mention that they do not cover floods.

“You can’t stop nature from doing what nature is going to do,” Hicks pointed out. “To believe that things will never be this awful again is a hazardous assumption. Many people underestimate their risk of flooding.

SOURCE | AP

(VOR News) – On August 31, President Joe Biden was asked about his fall campaign. “On the road from there on,” he said, visiting Pittsburgh on Labor Day.

Biden hasn’t appeared since Labor Day in Kamala Harris’ campaign. Beyond that, his ceremonial occasions occasionally eclipse hers.

Hurricane Helene forced Harris to travel to Washington for a FEMA briefing, postponing Las Vegas campaign operations. Harris distracted his political successor by reaching for a command center podium as Joe Biden issued his storm response remarks from the Oval Office.

Democrats may win the House, Senate, and lower-ballot races, including Harris, without presidential campaigning or scheduling issues. Former president Obama questioned Harris. Before November 5 in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Obama will tour battleground states. Recorded Florida, Maryland, and Michigan Democratic Senate advertisements.

Managing a new presidential campaign is hard.

Lame-duck presidents grapple with succession. Harris had less time to campaign once Joe Biden left for a second term.

Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “I think he’s doing his job as president.” “That seems to be the most crucial factor,”

Hurricane Helene created temporary issues.

Biden postponed his Pennsylvania campaign event and drove with Harris to the Carolinas and Georgia on Wednesday to assess damage and offer support.

Their remarks varied. On Friday, Biden unexpectedly entered the White House briefing room and disrupted Harris’s presentation on unions outside Detroit. It was his first presidential address.

On Tuesday, Biden will help Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in suburban Philadelphia and travel to battleground Harris’ staff ignored Biden’s run.

The president of Pennsylvania is tied to union leaders and blue-collar workers. Brazile promised to “put him on a bus” for PA’s campaign.

Brazile: “I would make sure he is out there in the final weeks and days of the campaign.” “He has connections to people she will require.”

At a White House gun control rally with Harris in August, Biden declared, “We cannot let Kamala lose.” Both frequently discuss the Middle East in the Situation Room.

Joe Biden and Harris’ lone campaign event failed.

The White House proposed Biden introduce Harris at their lone political engagement on Labor Day, when the vice president replaced the president. Her procedural violation emphasized union aid.

“Electing Kamala Harris to the presidency will prove to be the best choice you have ever made,” Biden addressed the assembly. Biden uncomfortably grabbed close friends’ hands after speaking since Harris hadn’t.

Democratic voters prefer Harris over Biden, thus Harris may not want Biden’s help. Harris lauded the administration and her work while neglecting major issues.

That includes encouraging gun ownership more than Biden, restricting US-Mexico border asylum, and raising affluent Americans’ long-term capital gains taxes after Biden slashed them.

Many things need Joe Biden’s time.

Biden’s campaign absence may worsen as his administration handles Hurricane Helene and the Middle East.

“When you’re doing your job, you don’t need to campaign,” said Nikki Fried, Florida Democratic Party chair. Fried said Biden’s Thursday visits to numerous states showed that “the full force of the federal government stands with the people during times of heartbreak and uncertainty.”

Presidents are always busy, as shown by last month’s New York U.N. General Assembly meetings and Joe Biden’s Germany and Angola travels. Despite the White House promising further political action after the trip, he can’t campaign for Harris until mid-October, three weeks before Election Day.

Joe Biden can succeed, says Fried.

Says “Joe Biden adores being out on the campaign trail.” “He’s seen interacting with voters and communities while strolling around, and it definitely puts a spring in his step and a smile on his face.”

Some things are better avoided.

Party candidates benefit from president’s absences. Bush lost support after the 2008 financial crisis. McCain resigned citing economic problems after criticizing the government’s Katrina and Iraq War responses.

“I want him to win whether my presence and support for him help him or if I oppose him and it helps him,” he adds.

In 2000, Al Gore distanced himself from Bill Clinton by condemning Monica Lewinsky and other misdeeds. That contributed to Gore’s narrow loss to Bush, according to Democrats.

Clinton and Biden are different, argues Hillary’s 1992 campaign planner Paul Begala. Begala noted, “Clinton enjoyed widespread popularity in 2000.” “Biden is not.”

For Biden, Begala proposes “focusing on governing, and leaving the campaigning to Kamala” and her closest allies.

: “A lot of people can campaign for her: Oprah, Taylor Swift, the Obamas, and the Clintons.” Only Biden can be president.

SOURCE: AP

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