For a Minnesota minor league baseball team known for a history of outlandish promotions, the idea of naming its longtime live pig mascot after the weight loss drug Ozempic made perfect sense.
The St. Paul Saints quickly found that not everyone was amused by the pig’s name, Ozempig, or the team’s posting of a backstory about the pig’s embarrassment at gaining weight and promise to try to remain trim.
Almost immediately after the team announced the name this week ahead of Saturday’s opening day game, criticism began pouring in on social media from people distressed by the name, calling it hurtful and insensitive.
Sean Aronson, the Saints’ vice president and media relations director, said the team only wanted an amusing, topical name for its pig when it chose Ozempig from nearly 2,300 entries in its “Name the Pig Contest.” Team officials were shocked that so many people found the name offensive, Aronson said.
“In today’s world, people don’t want to be diminished, they don’t want to be made to feel a certain way and I’m not going to tell them how they feel is wrong,” Aronson said. “But I can tell you there was no ill-intent, there was no maliciousness, there was never even a discussion in the room when we were going over the name that hey, this may offend some people.”
Ozempic is among several new drugs that have been effective at helping people lose significant weight. The drugs can be expensive, depending on insurance coverage, but have drawn extensive attention in part because they have been promoted by celebrities and on social media sites.
The Saints’ pig is a beloved participant in the team’s games played at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul, about 10 miles from the much larger home of the Minnesota Twins in downtown Minneapolis. The animal carries out balls to the umpire and over the course of the summer becomes noticeably larger — so much larger in fact that another young pig takes over duties midway through the season.
Naming the pig mascot after the high-profile drug seemed a natural for the Saints, a Triple-A affiliate of the Twins that has a long history of amusing promotions, such as attaching a fan to a Velcro wall in the outfield and holding races in the infield between people dressed as giant eyeballs.
With such past stunts in mind, some Saints fans defended the name as a play on words and nothing more.
Aronson said team officials understood why some people are outraged and considered making a name change but decided to stick with Ozempig.
“We knew how we originally came up with the name and we’re good with it but we did discuss it and decided we’re going to keep it,” he said.
Owning a soccer club is hitting Ryan Reynolds in the wallet.
Wrexham, the Welsh team bought by Reynolds and fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney in 2021, released its accounts for the latest financial year on Thursday and reported that the amount owed to celebrities has risen to nearly 9 million pounds ($11.4 million).
That was up from 3.7 million pounds ($4.67 million) from the previous year, ending June 2022.
While the club said turnover rose from nearly 6 million pounds ($7.5 million) to 10.5 million pounds ($13.3 million) and that future prospects are positive, its losses increased to 5.1 million pounds ($6.4 million) from 2.9 million pounds ($3.66 million).
Reynolds and McElhenney purchased Wrexham, one of the world’s oldest soccer teams, for $2.5 million while the club was in the fifth tier of the English game.
It has since been promoted to the English Football League and is bidding for back-to-back promotions, which would take the team to third-tier League One.
Wrexham is third in League Two heading into a home game against leader Mansfield on Friday. The top three teams at the end of the season are automatically promoted and the next four enter a playoff for one last promotion spot. Wrexham is three points above fourth-place MK Dons with a game in hand.
Wrexham said the club’s losses were “deemed necessary to allow the club to maximize its full potential in the shortest time practically possible.”
“The club is under no immediate pressure to repay these loans at the expense of the progress we seek to achieve,” Wrexham said, “and further financial support will be provided/secured to support the capital expenditure projects the club is currently planning.”
Those projects include increasing the capacity of its Racecourse Ground stadium. Wrexham is regularly getting crowds of more than 10,000 spectators, more than three times the number attending before the takeover and a remarkable figure for a fourth-tier team.
“The financial losses suffered by the club since the takeover shouldn’t be repeated,” Wrexham said, “with income generated by the club now sufficient to meet the operational costs of the club going forward.”
Wrexham pointed to the “continued popularity of ‘Welcome to Wrexham’” — the fly-on-the-wall documentary charting the progress of Reynolds and McElhenney as soccer owners — and more money earned in the EFL as reasons to predict that turnover will carry on growing.
The FBI and police in Coeur d’Alene, a northern Idaho town that a local public advocacy organization has described as a “safe haven” for white supremacist groups, are investigating after the University of Utah’s women’s basketball coach said her team was targeted in a series of “racial hate crimes” while in town for the NCAA Tournament last week.
Mayor Jim Hammond apologized to the University of Utah women’s basketball team during a news conference on Tuesday. The apology came after Utah athletics officials said a driver revved their engine and yelled the N-word at the team, band members and cheerleaders as they went out to dinner Thursday evening. Later, as the group left the restaurant, two trucks came near them and the drivers revved their engines and yelled the N-word in another instance.
“We condemn, in the strongest terms, those horrendous acts of hatred,” Tony Stewart, of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said at the news conference. “If the perpetrators can be found, we call upon them to be prosecuted. There is no place in our communities or in the United states of America for such horrific acts.”
Police Chief Lee White said local law enforcement received a report about the incident the night it happened and are working with the FBI to speak with the victims and witnesses to determine which state or federal laws apply to the situation. He cited federal law, a state law against malicious harassment and a statute against disorderly conduct.
The team was in the area to take part in the NCAA tournament in Spokane, Washington, hosted by Gonzaga University, but had to stay in Idaho due to a lack of hotel space. Utah coach Lynne Roberts revealed the incident to reporters on Monday.
“Racism is real and it happens and it’s awful,” Roberts said. “For our players, whether they are white, Black, green, whatever — no one knew how to handle it. And it was really upsetting. And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, it’s messed up.”
Roberts added that the NCAA and Gonzaga helped move the team to a different hotel. Neither Roberts nor the women’s athletics department immediately responded to a request for comment. Gonzaga and NCAA officials along with Idaho Gov. Brad Little swiftly issued statements apologizing to the team and condemning the harassment.
Coeur d’Alene and northern Idaho have become known for its extremism and proliferation of racist groups. The Aryan Nations and other white supremacist groups have terrorized the region since at least the 1970s, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 2022, members of a racist hate group called Patriot Front marched through downtown Coeur d’Alene. Thirty-one of them were arrested on suspicion of conspiring a riot, according to The Spokesman Review.
A local far-right activist showed up to Tuesday’s news conference, yelling about the Patriot Front incident. He claimed to be a member of the media but would not say which news outlet he was part of. Attendants at the event booed him.
The Idaho 97 Project, which opposes far-right extremism in the state, has called the region a “safe haven” for white supremacist hate groups.
“We’ve always had extremism in Idaho on some level, going back to Richard Butler and some of those groups in Coeur d’Alene,” Mike Satz, then its executive director, said in 2022. He added to KMTV, “We also have a lot of people who are just moving into the state who are coming here because they see Idaho as a conservative bastion.”
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University of Utah’s women’s basketball coach said her team was the target of a series of “racial hate crimes” after arriving in Idaho for the NCAA Tournament last week. The incidents prompted the team to change hotels for the sake of their safety, she said.
Utah coach Lynne Roberts told reporters that the team of Black, white and Latina athletes experienced several incidents Thursday night after arriving in the Spokane area for the tournament where they faced Gonzaga University. Roberts didn’t go into detail about the incidents, but said they were concerning enough to request that they be moved from their hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to a location closer to Spokane.
“Racism is real and it happens and it’s awful,” Roberts told reporters on Monday. “For our players, whether they are white, Black, green, whatever — no one knew how to handle it. And it was really upsetting. And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, it’s messed up.”
Roberts added that the NCAA and Gonzaga, the host school, worked to move the team to a different hotel. Neither Roberts nor the women’s athletics department immediately responded to a request for comment.
The Utah Utes celebrate after a basket against South Dakota State on Saturday.Steph Chambers / Getty Images
Utah’s deputy athletics director, Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL News of Salt Lake City that the team, along with band members and cheerleaders, were walking to a local restaurant for dinner when someone in a white truck drove up to the group, revved its engine, and yelled the N-word before speeding away.
“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that?” Green said. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like, ‘I can’t believe that.’”
The team continued with the evening. Then, as they were leaving the restaurant, two trucks came near them, the drivers revved their engines and yelled the N-word.
“I got emotional and started to cry,” Green told KSL. “I was just numb the entire night.”
The team was staying in Idaho, about 35 minutes from Spokane, Washington, where it was scheduled to play during the opening weekend of the tournament. Utah was one of three teams staying in Idaho instead of Washington because of a lack of hotel space in the Spokane area, where Gonzaga is located. Utah’s athletic director Mark Harlan lamented the arrangement, telling KSL, “We should not have been there.”
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts speaks Monday in Spokane.Young Kwak / AP
“Gonzaga University has been made aware of the racially disparaging comments made to visiting student-athletes and travel party members in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in advance of the NCAA Women’s First and Second Round Basketball Tournament games these past several days,” the statement began.
“Hate speech in any form is repugnant, shameful and must never be tolerated. We worked hard to secure the opportunity to serve as the host institution, and our first priority is and must be the safety and welfare of all student-athletes, coaches, families and supporting staff. To this end, we have worked closely with the NCAA and program participants to support the security and safety of everyone involved. We are frustrated and deeply saddened to know that what should always be an amazing visitor and championship experience was in any way compromised by this situation, for it in no way reflects the values, standards, and beliefs to which we at Gonzaga University hold ourselves accountable.”
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A Wisconsin museum is partnering with a historical preservation group in a search for the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong’s plane in the South Pacific.
The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior and the nonprofit World War II historical preservation group Pacific Wrecks announced the search on Friday, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
Bong, who grew up in Poplar, is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II — the most ever, according to the Air Force. He flew a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane nicknamed “Marge” in honor of his girlfriend, Marjorie Vattendahl. Bong plastered a blow-up of Vattendahl’s portrait on the nose of the plane, according to a Pacific Wrecks’ summary of the plane’s service.
Captain Richard J. Bong, of Poplar, Wisc., points to a large picture of his girl friend, Marge Battendahl on his Lighting P-38 fighter plane pilot stationed at a New Guinea Air Base, on March 31, 1944.
/ AP
Bong said at the time that Vattendahl “looks swell, and a hell of a lot better than these naked women painted on most of the airplanes,” the Los Angeles Times reported in Vattendahl’s 2003 obituary.
Another pilot, Thomas Malone, was flying the plane in March 1944 over what is now known as Papua New Guinea when engine failure sent it into a spin. Malone bailed out before the plane crashed in the jungle.
Pacific Wrecks founder Justin Taylan will lead the search for the plane. He plans to leave for Papua New Guinea in May. He believes the search could take almost a month and cost about $63,000 generated through donations.
Taylan told Minnesota Public Radio that he’s confident he’ll find the wreckage since historical records provide an approximate location of the crash site. But he’s not sure there will be enough left to conclusively identify it as Marge.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to find the ultimate proof, which will be a serial number from the airplane that says this airplane is Marge,” Taylan said.
Bong shot down more planes than any other American pilot, earning celebrity status. Gen. Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military’s highest decoration, in 1944.
According to the Air Force Historical Support Division, his Medal of Honor citation reads: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action in the Southwest Pacific area from Oct. 10 to Nov. 15, 1944. Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Major Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and in the Leyte area of the Philippines. His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down enemy airplanes totaling eight during this period.”
Bong also earned the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, seven Distinguished Flying Crosses and 15 Air Medals, according to the Air Force.
Captain Richard I. Bong on March 30, 1944.
AP Photo
Bong married Vattendahl in 1945. He was assigned to duty as a test pilot in Burbank, California, after three combat tours in the South Pacific. He was killed on Aug. 6, 1945, when a P-80 jet fighter he was testing crashed.
He died on the same day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Vattendhal was 21 when Bong died. She went on to become a model and a magazine publisher in Los Angeles. She died in September 2003 in Superior.
The search for Bong’s plane comes just weeks after a deep-sea exploration team searching for the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s lost plane in the South Pacific said it captured a sonar image that “appears to be Earhart’s Lockheed 10-E Electra” aircraft.
U.S. women’s soccer team frustrated by early exit – CBS News
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The U.S. women’s national soccer team lost to Sweden in the round of 16 at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the team’s earliest exit from the tournament. While the players are disappointed, they also expressed hope for the future. Nancy Chen reports.
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U.S. women’s soccer team frustrated by early exit – CBS News
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The U.S. women’s national soccer team lost to Sweden in the round of 16 at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the team’s earliest exit from the tournament. While the players are disappointed, they also expressed hope for the future. Nancy Chen reports.
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Trump legal team pushes back on protective order request – CBS News
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Former President Donald Trump’s legal team faced a 5 p.m. deadline Monday to respond to special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a protective order in the Jan. 6 indictment. Prosecutors want to prevent Trump from posting potentially sensitive case information online, but Trump’s defense attorneys opposed the request saying the proposal is “overboard.” CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa reports.
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Team USA put up a good fight, but lost an incredibly close game. Trump’s attorney is confronted with Mike Pence’s harsh comments. And a four-time Disney bride wants to keep the magic going.
Here’s the biggest news you missed this weekend.
A narrow loss for Team USA
Quinn Rooney / Getty Images
A fraction of a centimeter cost Team USA the game and a chance to defend its title at the Women’s World Cup in Melbourne Sunday.
The U.S. women’s team dominated Sweden for much of the play, forcing fine saves from the goalkeeper, but the game was tied 0-0 after extra time. The match was ultimately decided in penalty kicks, where Sweden won out 5-4.
Minutes after Team USA was eliminated, goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher was still gesturing at her net in an apparent belief that she had saved the match-ending kick.
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Naeher appeared to stop Sweden forward Lina Hurtig’s shot but the video assistant referee showed the ball barely crossed the line as America crashed out in the round of 16, its earliest World Cup exit ever.
The tournament will continue Monday, when host Australia takes on Denmark and England faces Nigeria.
Russia strikes as world leaders talk peace
A Russian “guided air bomb” hit a blood transfusion center in the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk Saturday night, killing two people and injuring four more, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a picture of a building engulfed in flames in a Telegram post and said, “This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy via X
Houses and farms were damaged, according to regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, who added that residential housing and other agricultural infrastructure had also been struck in nearby villages.
The intense overnight fighting came as officials from 40 different countries met in Saudi Arabia to begin Ukraine-organized peace talks aimed at finding a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war.
FDA approves pill for postpartum depression
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever pill for postpartum depression. The medication, called zuranolone, was found in clinical trials to improve symptoms of postpartum depression, such as anxiety, difficulty sleeping and low energy, as early as three days after taking the first pill.
Teen charged in fatal stabbing of gay man
The 17-year-old suspect arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 28-year-old gay man at a Brooklyn gas station was charged with murder as a hate crime, officials said Saturday.
O’Shae Sibley was fatally stabbed July 29 in Brooklyn, New York. He was vogue dancing at a gas station when a group approached him and told him to stop, witnesses said.
People gather at a gas station during a vigil to memorialize O’Shae Sibley in New York, on Aug. 4, 2023Tracie Van Auken / AP
Meet the Press
Since Donald Trump’s indictment last week on charges he conspired to defraud the country, former Vice President Mike Pence has been quite vocal about the pressure he felt from the former president and “his crackpot lawyers” to overturn the election.
On “Meet the Press” Sunday, Chuck Todd pressed Trump lawyer John Lauro about Pence’s striking characterization. Lauro insisted Trump and Pence had merely engaged in a disagreement over whether a vice president could constitutionally take actions that could lead to a presidential election being overturned.
“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law,” Lauro contended, calling it “just plain wrong” to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.
After Lauro’s interview, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., slammed his argument as “deranged.”
You can watch the full interview here.
What are Trump’s defenses?
Some legal experts say there are a number of plausible defenses the former president can use, such as arguing he relied on the advice of lawyers. But many veterans of federal criminal cases say each of Trump’s most viable arguments can be overcome, based on the known facts and evidence and the current state of the law.
Politics in Brief
2024 Election: The first battle of Ohio’s Senate race — already awash in hostilities among the three Republicans angling to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2024 — arrives Tuesday with a special election on a hot-button ballot measure.
Meet the Press Blog: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday offered his strongest dismissal of the election fraud theories at the heart of Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election.
Mike Pence: Pro-Trump protesters heckled the former vice president at his first campaign event since Trump was indicted in the special counsel’s 2020 election pobe. “There’s the sellout! There’s the traitor!” they yelled at Pence as he exited his vehicle.
A Juneteenth flip-flop: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called Juneteenth a “useless” holiday in Iowa on Saturday, two months after posting a video saying it’s a day to celebrate “how far we’ve come.”
Debating a debate: California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposed rules for their debate on Fox News, calling them a ‘joke’ in a statement on Saturday. DeSantis’ team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Culture & Trends
Disney weddings have skyrocketed in popularity, and for this bride, one wasn’t enough. Shellie, who calls herself “The Serial Bride” online, is going viral for being married at Disney four times — and is now planning at least two more.
Shellie, AKA “The Serial Bride,” and her husband pose for pictures in the Disneyland Resort.Photos by Jenna Henderson/White Rabbit Photo Boutique, Courtesy The Serial Bride
Shellie, who has turned her Disney wedding pictures into Instagram reels that have been viewed millions of times, is part of a growing and thriving community of adult Disney enthusiasts who obsessively document their love of Disney online, with repeated expensive trips to the theme parks. “I love being a magic creator,” she told NBC News in an interview. Planning Disney weddings and vow renewals has become her hobby and a way to pamper herself. She said she works a regular, 9-to-5 job, and budgets for her Disney adventures.
To some, Shellie and her husband’s decisions are confusing. On social media, she’s become the latest “Disney adult” to receive death threats and judgment from people who believe that Disney experiences are too expensive.
Shellie and her husband were first married at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, in 2016.Photos by Jenna Henderson/White Rabbit Photo Boutique, Courtesy The Serial Bride
In Case You Missed It
Lara Horwitz
Lara Horwitz is a platforms editor for NBC News.
Josh Feldman
Josh Feldman is a weekend platforms and social editor for NBC News.
It looks like the possibility of a debate between California’s Gavin Newsom and Florida’s Ron DeSantis — two governors on the opposite ends of the political spectrum — may still be a ways off.
Newsom’s team on Saturday slammed DeSantis’ proposed rules for their debate on Fox News.
“What a joke,” Newsom spokesman Nathan Click said in a statement in response to the proposal that DeSantis’ team sent Fox News host Sean Hannity a day earlier.
“Desantis’ counterproposal is littered with crutches to hide his insecurity and ineptitude — swapping opening statements with a hype video, cutting down the time he needs to be on stage, adding cheat notes and a cheering section,” Click said. “Ron should be able to stand on his own two feet. It’s no wonder Trump is kicking his ass.”
DeSantis’ team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, told Hannity on Wednesday that he would be willing to debate Newsom, a Democratic governor with whom he has frequently clashed on issues like guns, abortion, education and immigration.
“Absolutely. I’m game. Let’s get it done. Just tell me when and where. We’ll do it,” DeSantis said, agreeing to the debate idea that initially came about in June, when Hannity asked Newsom if he’d debate DeSantis.
Newsom sent a formal debate offer letter to Hannity in July that included rules such as that the debate would be moderated by Hannity, be broadcast live and 90 minutes in length, and that both governors would not use notes. Newsom also proposed Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina as potential locations.
In a letter to Hannity, dated Friday, DeSantis’ team offered its own rules for the debate, which diverged from some proposed by Newsom. Some of the differences:
DeSantis suggested four dates from between Sept. 19 to Nov. 8, while Newsom proposed two dates in November.
DeSantis wanted a live audience with a 50-50 split, while Newsom said “no live audience.”
DeSantis does not want opening remarks, while Newsom would like both participants to get four minutes.
DeSantis proposed that they each submit a two-minute-long video that must be approved by Fox News before it is played at the top of the debate.
Hannity on Wednesday framed the event as a “policy-based debate” between the heads of a red state and blue state, but DeSantis has said that the debate will be far more than that.
“This is the debate for the future of our country,” he told Hannity.
Christina Zhao
Christina Zhao is a politics editor for NBC News, based in New York.
