Final Four floor built by Upper Peninsula company

Since 2006, floors for the NCAA Final Four have been built by a company located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

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    The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge will hold a summit to decide the future of the monarchy over the next two generations following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. In consultation with the Queen, Britain’s next two kings will decide how many full-time working members the Royal family should have, who they should be, and what they should do. The death of Prince Philip has left the Royal family with the immediate question of how and whether to redistribute the hundreds of patronages he retained. Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to step back from royal duties, confirmed only last month after a one-year “review period”, has necessitated a rethink of who should support the sovereign in the most high-profile roles. Royal insiders say that the two matters cannot be decided in isolation, as the issues of patronage and personnel are inextricably linked. Because any decisions made now will have repercussions for decades to come, the Prince of Wales will take a leading role in the talks. He has made it clear that the Duke of Cambridge, his own heir, should be involved at every stage because any major decisions taken by 72-year-old Prince Charles will last into Prince William’s reign. The Earl and Countess of Wessex, who were more prominent than almost any other member of the Royal family in the days leading up to the Duke’s funeral, are expected to plug the gap left by the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by taking on more high-profile engagements. However, they already carry out a significant number of royal duties – 544 between them in the last full year before Covid struck – meaning they will not be able to absorb the full workload left by the absences of the Sussexes and the Duke of York, who remains in effective retirement as a result of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. In 2019 the Sussexes and the Duke completed 558 engagements between them. It leaves the Royal family needing to carry out a full-scale review of how their public duties are fulfilled. Not only do they have three fewer people to call on, they must also decide what to do with several hundred patronages and military titles held by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Sussexes and possibly the Duke of York, if his retirement is permanent. Royal sources said the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge would discuss over the coming weeks and months how the monarchy should evolve. The issue has been at the top of the Queen and the Prince of Wales’s respective in-trays since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s one-year review period of their royal future came to an end last month, but the ill health and subsequent death of Prince Philip forced them to put the matter on hold.

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  • How Meghan ensured she had a part in Prince Philip's funeral – with a handwritten note on wreath

    The Duchess of Sussex wrote the card attached to the wreath sent by her and Prince Harry to ensure that, in a small way, she played a part in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral service. Meghan, who is heavily pregnant with the couple's second child, had hoped to attend the ceremony but was advised against travelling by her doctor. The 39-year-old was watching the funeral on television at home in Montecito, California. The Sussexes' tribute was among nine family wreaths laid in the Quire of St George's Chapel, propped against the stalls on each side of the Duke's coffin. Buckingham Palace aides declined to provide details of the other wreaths, saying they were private. But a source close to the Sussexes confirmed that theirs had been designed and handmade by Willow Crossley, a Cotswold florist known for her natural, rustic arrangements. The variety of locally sourced flowers, some of which were picked from the designer's garden, were chosen due to their particular significance.

  • Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey has a double-digit lead over Gov. Greg Abbott in latest Texas gubernatorial election poll

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  • Elon Musk's brother Kimbal Musk, typically a Democrat donor, gave $2,800 to each GOP lawmaker who voted to impeach Trump

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  • Why the Queen sat alone at Prince Philip's funeral

    The Queen was seated two metres apart from her loved ones on Saturday as just 30 members of the Royal family attended the Duke of Edinburgh’s Covid-complaint funeral. Buckingham Palace said the 94-year-old monarch had faced “difficult decisions” over who to invite to the 3pm ceremony at St George’s Chapel and the seating plan reflected a strict adherence to the Government’s coronavirus rules on indoor worship. Her Majesty was seated alone at the front of the quire, on the south side of the chapel, where only three years ago she and Prince Philip watched Prince Harry marry Meghan Markle. She was in the same spot for Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank three months later in October 2018.

  • Russia beefs up warship presence in Black Sea as Ukraine tensions simmer

    Two Russian warships transited the Bosphorus en route to the Black Sea on Saturday and 15 smaller vessels completed a transfer to the sea as Moscow beefs up its naval presence at a time of tense relations with the West and Ukraine. The reinforcement coincides with a huge build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine, something Moscow calls a temporary defensive exercise, and follows an escalation in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

  • National security advisor says Russia will face 'consequences' if Putin critic Alexei Navalny dies

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  • Neighbor who tossed an elderly Jewish woman off a balcony while yelling 'Allahu Akbar' avoids trial because he smoked weed

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  • Iran identifies suspect behind blast at Natanz nuclear site

    "Reza Karimi, the perpetrator of this sabotage... has been identified" by Iran's intelligence ministry, state TV said. It said the suspect had fled Iran before last Sunday’s blast that the Islamic Republic has blamed on arch-foe Israel.

  • 3 killed as police crack down on hard-line group in Pakistan

    A crackdown by Pakistani security forces on protesting supporters of a banned Islamist party left at least three people dead and 20 others injured Sunday, a police official and a party spokesman said. Lahore police spokesman Rana Arif said supporters of the hard-line Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party attacked police with a petrol bomb and took custody of five police officers, including Deputy Superintendent Umar Farooq Baluch.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene stops ‘America First’ caucus amid criticism from GOP

    Conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has scrapped the planned launch of the “America First” caucus, which called for “common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and election integrity. CNN reported that Greene received pushback from fellow Republican leaders after a spokesperson from her team confirmed the launch on Friday. Nick Dyer, Greene’s spokesperson, told CNN in an email on Saturday that she is not “launching anything.”

  • Mayim Bialik says not even the 'Big Bang Theory' writers were originally sure if Amy would say yes to marrying Sheldon

    Mayim Bialik told Insider that even the "Big Bang Theory" writers had to discuss and weigh the options of Amy accepting or denying Sheldon's proposal.

  • A leading conspiracy theorist who thought COVID-19 was a hoax died from the virus after hosting illegal house parties

    A high-profile conspiracy theorist from Norway, who shared false information about the pandemic online, has died from COVID-19, officials say.

  • Trump's NSA general counsel Michael Ellis resigns, never having taken office

    Michael Ellis, a former Republican operative tapped as general counsel at the National Security Agency in the final months of the Trump administration, resigned Friday after spending three months on administrative leave. Former President Donald Trump's acting defense secretary had ordered NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone to accept Ellis' appointment as general counsel, and Nakasone agreed days before Trump left office, The Washington Post reported. The day Trump left the White House and Ellis was scheduled to start his new job, Nakasone placed him on administrative leave, citing a Pentagon inspector general investigation and inquiry into how Ellis handled classified information. The inspector general's investigation is still open, Nakasone told a House committee last Thursday. "I have been on administrative leave for nearly three months without any explanation or updates, and there is no sign that NSA will attempt to resolve the issue," Ellis said in his resignation letter to Nakasone on Friday, the Post reports. "I therefore resign my position, effective immediately." Ellis was general counsel to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) before he joined the Trump White House in early 2017 as a National Security Council lawyer. His appointment to the NSA "raised concerns among Democrats and national security experts that it was an attempt by the Trump administration to install a loyalist in a sensitive and senior position — one with visibility into the activities of other U.S. spy agencies," the Post reports. The NSA general counsel job doesn't require Senate confirmation. More stories from theweek.comThe new HBO show you won't be able to stop watching'Highly unlikely' Chauvin trial ends in 'all-out' acquittal, legal analyst predicts7 cartoons about Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal