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TheNo.6 Oregon Ducks (8-1) host theArizona Wildcats (4-5) on Saturday from Autzen Stadium.With the Wildcats on a losing skid, currently near the bottom of the Pac-12, and a four-touchdown underdog, there wouldn't be nearly as much attention on this game. But as the Ducks are in the hunt for the College Football Playoff, the national media will be staying up late to make sure Oregon takes care of business like many are expecting them to.

The last time the Ducks were inside the top 10 of the polls with Arizona in town, the Wildcats pulled the upset of the then No. 2 Ducks back in 2014. Despite the loss, the Ducks were able to win out and defeat the Wildcats in the 2014 Pac-12 Championship to make the first-ever College Football Playoff.This time around, the margin for error won't be nearly as big for the Ducks with Oregon already having one loss on the season and currently outside the Playoff committee's top four.

Almost all national experts and predictions we've looked at have the Ducks takingdown the Wildcats this weekend but the game will have added intrigue to seeif the Ducksassert game control early and if the Ducks pass the College Football Playoff committee's eye test as a top-four team.

Here's what the national media is saying ahead of Oregon vs. Arizona:

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What the national media is saying about Oregon ahead of Arizona - 247Sports

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the real facts:

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CLAIM: Video shows a rigged voting machine in Mississippi as a voter clicks the box for Bill Waller Jr. in the Republican primary runoff for governor and the machine switches the vote to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.

THE FACTS: The video shows a voting machine malfunction in Lafayette County, Mississippi, during the August 27 runoff. Posts sharing the false claim that the machine was deliberately rigged began circulating on Twitter following Nov. 5 off-year elections across the country. The video was first shared in August during the Republican primary runoff. One video showing the malfunction, which marked the ballot for Reeves when Waller was pressed, recirculated during the November election with a caption that falsely stated, Voter Fraud Rigged Machines. The Mississippi Secretary of State issued a press release on August 27, explaining that the video showed a machine malfunction at the Burgess precinct in the city of Oxford. Nineteen votes were cast on the machine before authorities were made aware of the issue, according to the release. The machine was replaced after the issue was discovered. Each political partys county executive committee is responsible for providing testing on TSX machines. Both parties contracted with the county election commission and the county technician to provide accuracy testing for this machine and the machine operated correctly prior to the election, the press release said. Reeves won the runoff and went on to defeat Democrat Jim Hood, the state attorney general, in the Nov. 5 elections.

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CLAIM: The young man pictured in photos with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the Trump impeachment inquiry.

THE FACTS: The man in the photo is Alex Soros, son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros. He is not the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint about a July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky sparked impeachment proceedings. Posts with the false identification spread widely on Facebook and Twitter as public impeachment hearings began Wednesday. Rep. Steve King of Iowa amplified the false claim Thursday, tweeting the photos with the comment: Adam Schiff said, I do not know the identity of the whistleblower. @RepAdamSchiff here are four strong clues. Kings tweet was taken down Thursday after receiving more than 1,000 likes. He did not respond to requests for comment. The photos were taken from Alex Soros Instagram and Twitter accounts. Alex and his father have been the target of conservative attacks for their ties to the Democratic party and liberal causes. Alex Soros serves as deputy chairman of the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic organization founded by his father. Rep. King is circulating false information, the Open Society Foundations said in a statement Thursday. He is not the whistleblower, and any attempt to identify the whistleblower is a violation of protections put in place to help people in government root out waste, fraud and abuse.

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CLAIM: Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has declared it illegal for minors to participate in hunting season.

THE FACTS: No such announcement has been made, and the youth hunting season in Virginia, which has concluded for the year, has not been outlawed. Posts began circulating on Facebook after Virginia Democrats won control of the Legislature in the Nov. 5 election, with Northam soon after announcing he intends to reintroduce several legislative gun proposals once the new lawmakers are sworn in. Youth hunting season in Virginia which applies to hunters age 15 or younger has not been altered, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries confirmed to the AP in an email. Any reports of cancellations or changes to the scheduled youth hunting days are inaccurate, the agency said in a statement. In 2019, youth hunting days were offered Sept. 28-29 for deer, and Oct. 12-13 for bear and turkey. A youth waterfowl hunting day was held Oct. 26. After the Nov. 5 election, Northam said he plans to work with the new Democratic majority when the legislative session begins in January. Stricter gun laws, which include universal background checks and banning military-style assault weapons, are at the top of the governors list, the AP reported last week. Northam had also proposed a package of gun-control measures during a special session in July, in response to a mass shooting in Virginia Beach. One of the bills calls for anyone who recklessly leaves a loaded unsecured firearm in such a manner to endanger the life or limb of any child under the age of 14 to be punished with a misdemeanour charge and up to a $500 fine. A responsible hunter regardless of age would not be affected by this bill, Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in an email to the AP.

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CLAIM: Video shows sanitation trucks surrounding Madison Square in New York to protect Trump from booing protesters.

THE FACTS: Sanitation trucks were lined up strategically around Madison Square Park when President Donald Trump spoke at the launch of the New York City Veterans Day Tribute on Nov. 11, but they were there for security purposes, a common occurrence at events that draw large crowds. Trash trucks surrounding Trump in Madison Square to protect him from the booing is the perfect metaphor, stated a tweet with the video of the event, which was viewed more than 600,000 times. Officials with the New York City Police Department and the Department of Sanitation confirmed to The Associated Press that sanitation trucks are often used for security at big events, including the annual Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the New Years Eve celebration in Times Square. The trucks are used as part of our counterterrorism overlay, not unique to this visit, Lt. Eugene Whyte, of the NYPDs public information office, told the AP.

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CLAIM: The city of Dallas opened a convention centre for people seeking shelter from the cold and then police arrested people with unpaid tickets who tried to enter.

THE FACTS: The Dallas Police Department told the AP that no arrests were made for parking tickets or non-violent offences. A cold front swept through Texas on Monday sending temperatures plummeting into the 20s. Due to the cold weather, Dallas officials opened the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for those seeking shelter. The Dallas Police Department offered security Monday night at the shelter. To ensure the safety of all individuals, each person was notified upon entering the shelter that they were subject to checks for registered sex offenders, the police department said in a statement. In addition, if an individual had active warrants for sex offences, serious felonies, and violent crimes they were subject to arrest. The department made 11 arrests that night on outstanding warrants for crimes including sexual assault of a child. No one was arrested for unpaid parking tickets, the statement said. That claim is not true. Anastasia Reed, senior public affairs officer for the city, also confirmed in an email that individuals with minor, nonviolent and non-felony warrants were permitted to stay overnight. Police officers also conducted checks on Tuesday night.

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This is part of The Associated Press ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

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Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

Beatrice Dupuy, Arijeta Lajka And Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press

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NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didnt happen this week - CityNews Edmonton

Youre walking around and a thought occurs: I should check my phone. The phone comes out of your pocket. You type a message. Then your eyes remain glued to the screen, even when you walk across the street.

We all do this kind of distracted walking, or twalking. (Yes, this term is really a thing.)

The behavior has spawned debates among lawmakers about whether walking and texting should be illegal. Some cities, such as Honolulu and Rexburg, Idaho, have gone beyond talk and banned distracted walking altogether.

But we shouldnt let that reassure us. Last year, pedestrian deaths in the United States were at their highest point since 1990, with distracted drivers and bigger vehicles the chief culprits. So being fixated on a screen while walking cant be safe.

We know research-wise its not a good idea, and common-sense-wise it cant be a good idea, said Ken Kolosh, a manager of statistics at the National Safety Council, a nonprofit that focuses on eliminating preventable deaths. We dont ever want to blame the victim, but theres personal responsibility all of us have.

So why do we do it? I talked to neuroscientists and psychologists about our conduct. All agreed that texting while walking might be a form of addictive behavior.

But this column isnt about pointing fingers. Rather, now is a good time to reflect on why we are so glued to our phones, what we know about the risks and how we can take control of our personal technology rather than let it control us.

People are, by nature, information-seeking creatures. When we regularly check our phones, we are snacking on information from devices that offer an all-you-can-eat buffet of information.

Our information-foraging tendencies evolved from the behavior of animals foraging for food for survival, said Dr. Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist and co-author of the book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. Studies have shown that our brains feel rewarded when we receive information, which drives us to seek more. Thats similar to how our appetites feel sated after we eat.

In some ways, smartphones were designed to be irresistible to information-seeking creatures. Dr. Gazzaley drew this analogy: An animal will probably stay in a tree to gather all of its nuts before moving on to the next one. Thats because the animal is weighing the cost of getting to the next tree against the diminishing benefit of staying. With humans and smartphones, there is no cost to switching between email, text messages and apps like Facebook.

The next tree is right there: Its a link to the next webpage, a shift to the next tab, he said. We transfer so easily that we dont have to use up the nuts to move on to the next one.

So we get stuck in cycles. At what point is this considered addiction?

Not all constant phone use was considered addictive, said Steven Sussman, a professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California. External pressures, like a demanding job, could force people to frequently check their phones. But when people check their devices just to enhance their mood, this could be a sign of a developing problem.

Another signal of addictive behavior is becoming preoccupied with smartphone use when you should be doing something else. An even clearer indicator is what happens when the phone is taken away.

Lets say you go out to the mountains and you dont get reception, so you cant use a smartphone, Dr. Sussman said. Do you feel a sense of relief? Or do you feel, wow, I want to get out of these mountains I want to use the smartphone. If you feel the latter, thats toward the addictive direction.

Jim Steyer, the chief executive of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that evaluates tech products and media for families, said there needed to be a broad public awareness campaign over the dangers of walking and texting in parallel with distracted driving.

You have distracted pedestrians and distracted drivers, so its the double whammy, he said. Tech addiction hits in both ways.

Just how dangerous is distracted walking? The answer is: Its still unclear.

Distracted walking is a relatively new area of research. There have been few studies to show the consequences of what the behavior can lead to. And some of the studies conflict with one another.

This year, New York Citys Transportation Department published one study, including data collected about pedestrian-related incidents in New York and nationwide, which found little concrete evidence to link distracted walking with pedestrian fatalities or injuries.

Yet the National Safety Council said the national data cited in the New York study did not include information on whether pedestrians were engaged in other tasks at the time of the incidents.

The council instead published a study conducted by the University of Maryland in 2013. It found that between 2000 and 2011, there were hundreds of emergency room visits related to phone use while walking, and the primary cause of injury was a fall.

While more research needs to be done on distracted walking, its indisputable that walking while texting is less safe than paying attention to your surroundings.

When youre busy doing secondary tasks like texting, you dont judge gap distances in traffic as well, you walk slower, you make poor decisions, and youre not aware of your surroundings, said Mr. Kolosh of the National Safety Council.

Obviously, the answer to not getting into dangerous situations by walking and texting is not to walk and text at the same time.

But thats easier said than done, since people have trouble reining in their tech use. So several experts recommended exercises in self-control.

Melanie Greenberg, a clinical psychologist and the author of The Stress-Proof Brain, said people could practice being more mindful by asking themselves any of these questions:

Is this the most important thing for me to be doing right now?

Am I controlling my destiny, or am I letting tech control it?

How is my posture? Am I stressing my body out?

Am I going to cause myself harm?

Reducing access to the device can also be helpful, Dr. Gazzaley said. You could carry your phone in your bag instead of your pocket, making it more troublesome to pull out, for example.

The National Safety Council said that when pedestrians have to check their phones, they should stop walking and stand in a safe place. It also advised people wearing earphones to listen at a low volume.

Chris Marcellino, a former Apple engineer who led the development of the original iPhones notifications, recommended going into the phones settings and switching off notifications for all apps except those that are most important to you, like work-related apps.

These are things that arent pertinent to your life that are bombarding you all the time, he said.

Other tools, like the do not disturb function on both iPhones and Android phones, can be set to shush notifications temporarily.

Even knowing all of this, I caught myself the other day checking Twitter while crossing a parking lot. I reflected on this and realized Twitter was a waste of time.

So I deleted the app. Then I installed another one to block the Twitter website from my phone just for good measure.

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Texting While Walking Is Dangerous. Heres How to Stop. - The New York Times

BORIS Johnson has visited students evacuated from The Cube Bolton University halls after a huge blaze broke out - as pressure mounts over cladding on the building.

Horrified eyewitnesses said the flames "crawled up the cladding like it was nothing" after the inferno erupted at around 8.30pm yesterday.

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Dramatic pictures posted on social media show firefighters tackling flames shooting out of the windows of the building on Bradshawgate.

Two people were treated by paramedics at the scene with around 200 firefighters tackling the fire after it reached all six floors of The Cube halls of residence.

Students were evacuated and asked to go to nearby halls to contact their loved ones and let them know they were "safe".

A police probe has now been launched to establish how the fire started - with all residents accounted for.

Boris Johnson visited staff and students at the university - as Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham called on him to give families living in tower blocks with cladding "peace of mind".

He also viewed donations of food, emergency supplies and phone chargers given to the students.

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Boris Johnson is today visiting students and staff following the blaze

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Some witnesses have claimed Grenfell-style cladding was responsible for the ferocity of the blaze.

The fire brigade has confirmed the building did have cladding but not the same type on the doomed tower block where 72 people died in 2017.

Mr Burnham told Sky News: "It does not have the ACM cladding which is now banned, but it does have a type of cladding which does cause concern."There will be many people living in buildings with this cladding today who will be very worried."

The Fire Brigades Union has now called for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety after the flames spread "extremely rapidly" through the building.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: "This terrible fire highlights the complete failure of the UK's fire safety system.

"It's deeply troubling to see fire spread rapidly up a building's exterior again - a shocking indictment of the government's shameful inaction after Grenfell. This is not how any building should react to a fire in the 21st century, let alone a building in which people live.

"We need to end the deregulation agenda and the disastrous cuts to our fire and rescue service. It's time for a complete overhaul of UK fire safety before it's too late."

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service firefighters are still working to extinguish the final pockets of the blaze but it is now under control.

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One woman posted on Twitter claiming the alarms didn't sound in some of the flats.

A student said: "The fire alarms in our rooms didn't even go off!

"It took banging on people's doors and screaming 'it's a real fire' to get everyone out.

"My whole life is in that room and not knowing what possessions I still have is horrible."

Hero bar workers at Cocktails and Co helped a student to find emergency medication after she left hers in the burning building.

Ellie Cornish forgot to pick up her medication, which prevents seizures caused by PTSD, when she was evacuated.

She said: "Seeing my panicked and upset state, she offered to call 111 for me to get an emergency prescription.

"I was worried about my medication as I was in a heightened state of stress and that can cause seizures for me.

Ace Love, 35, added: "The fire kept getting more intense, climbing up and to the right because the wind was blowing so hard.

"We could see it bubbling from the outside and then being engulfed from the outside.

"A lot of students got out very fast, someone was very distressed, the rest were on phones calling for help.

"The fire got worse and worse, to the point where you could see through the beams, it was just bare frame.

When we stepped out we could see the embers in the sky. We could see the building glowing at the top.

He said he didnt see any casualties although a number of students were crying on their phones.

It was pretty awful, he said, adding: They were just in shock.

The University of Bolton has confirmed students will be given temporary alternative accommodation and food and toiletries will be provided.

Urban Student Life, who own the building, said insurance companies have been notified after the fire broke out on the fourth floor before spreading to the sixth.

The lower floors have "considerable water damage" - with the rear block damaged by the fire.

A statement added: "All students from the Cube and the surrounding areas affected have be given alternative hotel accommodation and emergency supplies.

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"The insurance companies who are connected to both the building and student possessions have been alerted and will be mobilised to offer guidance.

"For any urgent enquiries we have a contact e mail address - enquiries@urbanstudentlife.com".

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Bolton fire Boris Johnson visits University of Bolton halls blaze as pressure mounts over cladding c - The Sun

Colin Kaepernick's chance is here. Whatthe NFL planned to conduct Saturday at 3 p.m. ETat the Atlanta Falcons' facility is without precedent. The 32-year-old quarterback, who was given no notice and merely hours to agree to terms, was scheduled to work out this weekend for representatives from an undetermined number of NFL teams in a private event funded and arranged by the league.

By now, even non-football fans know Kaepernick's story and that he has been out of the league since the end of the 2016 season, when he protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. Some consider this to be Kaepernick's best chance to get another shot in the NFL. Others, like his friend Eric Reid of the Carolina Panthers, have labeled this a "PR stunt" by the league.

In the hour leading up to the scheduled workout, Kaepernick's representatives released a statement saying that Kaepernick would instead work out at 4 p.m. ET at a different facility in the area that would be open to the media, which the NFL had declined to allow at the initial workout.

This weekend's workout offers a set of unique challenges for Kaepernick and teams who wish to attend. Though it's being styled as pro day for the veteran quarterback, the inherent differences in an event planned months in advance and done in a similar fashion across every school in the nation and this Kaepernick workout can't be ignored.

Here are a few of the issues facing those involved this weekend in an FAQ-like form.

What a great question! The fact is there is no good day 11 weeks into the NFL season. Tuesdays are typically off days in the league for teams having played the Sunday before with a Sunday game the following week, but teams are also hosting various tryout players at their own facilities for any number of different positions for this season or in the future. Head coaches and position coaches can be involved with that and in game-planning for the next opponent. Assembling 32 GMs and head coaches in a centralized location on any day during the season isn't possible.

Saturday is also not great. It's hard to imagine coaches leaving their teams at the hotel the day before the game to travel to Flowery Branch, Ga., for this workout. GMs couldand maybut that would also involve changing their plans on short notice. It stands to reason some general managers had plans to attend a college football game that day, perhaps even the Georgia-Auburn tilt just hours south at Auburn.

As one scout said to me Wednesday, this league never does anything last minute. This is unprecedented, and Andrew Brandtcorrectly points outthis could open a Pandora's Box for players out of the league looking for the NFL to help them with their second chance.

Truthfully, though, Kaepernick is getting more notice for his workout than most out-of-work players. You know the drill: let's say a team's kicker struggles again on a Sunday. By Monday or Tuesday at the very latest, there's a group of kickers in town working out for the team.

But the lack of heads up also hurts teams who wish to attend. At least, that's what they're saying. By Wednesday night, some team executives hadreportedlyalready reached out to Kaepernick's team telling them they wouldn't be able to staff the workout.

The details of how exactly this thing is going to go down are unclear. Will his trainer lead the workout? A quarterbacks coach? Perhaps a former quarterback who's now a scout sent to this workout?

The same questions exist about his targets, and here's where there could be an issue of timing. Can the men he typically throws to in his workouts also be there? Will he need to assemble a group of street free agents in the Atlanta area, something that could be done with relative ease? No matter, Kaepernick would want clarity on that quickly and field his group as soon as possible to work on timing.

Details relating to this question started to leak out on Saturday, with the NFL reportedly providing three receivers but Kaepernick also allowed to bring five of his own. That group is expected to include former Kaepernick teammate Bruce Ellington.

Although not every NFL team who will be in attendance has been publicly reported just yet, there have been several reports that have already surfaced regarding which teams will be there. The Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Redskins will all be in attendance, according to the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys initially were on the list but decided to pull out.

In total, more than 24 teams are expected to be in attendance, according to an ESPN report. That's more than 75 percent of the league. Here are CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani's five best fits for Kaepernick.

Other than to truly give this the feel of the combine or a pro day, I see no reason to do anything more than weighing Kaepernick. He's still the same height and his hands are still the same size.

You may ask, "Has he lost a step?" It's probable that Kaepernick, who ran a 4.53-second 40-yard dash at the 2011 NFL combine after weeks of training, would not be able to run that same time on Saturday, two weeks after his 32nd birthday with four full days to prepare.

Then you may ask, "is it not important to see what his 40 is today?" No, it's not. Save for that million-dollar gimmick this past summer, most NFL players haven't been asked to run the 40-yard dash since they were in Under Armour tights at the NFL combine. Same with the three-cone and the vertical and everything else. This step in the process seems unnecessary.

CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora reports former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson will lead the drills during Kaepernick's workout. Former Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin will also be in attendance to help, as first reported by Yahoo! Sports' Charles Robinson.

Not exactly. At this point, we all should be able to drop any pretense and understand there's a PR element here. Yes, this workout is closed to the media, but it's well understood that at the very least a list of who showed up will get leaked.

If all 32 teams show up, no problem. But what if you're the one that doesn't? Well, you better have an excuse better than "we didn't have enough time to plan to send anyone." A team that has a viable starter and backup quarterback can easily say, "We're set at that position" whether they mean it or not.

If a team is not represented Saturday, that team's head coach is bound to be asked about it by his local media either after his Week 11 game or the following Monday. Truly, is that what someone wants to deal with?

If a team is interested, they'll send someone. If a team isn't interested (for whatever reasons), they may still send someone to avoid any future headache.

But it should be noted that quarterback is the most important position on the field and in all of sports. Teams regularly say they're constantly evaluating their roster and available players. It would go against conventional wisdom -- and run counter to the stated goal of the program -- to not put a good-faith effort into going to this workout.

Again, let's drop the pretense. The interview is vital. Outside of proving his continued ability to be a capable quarterback in this league (and that won't be hard), the most important things to decision-makers in this league are, Will he continue to protest racial inequality, social injustice and police brutality during the playing of the national anthem, and how much -- or little -- would he be willing to sign for?

There's a 15-minute interview portion starting at 3:15 p.m. Saturday, just after the orientation and just before the measurements. Even if every question could get answered in that time, it's hard to imagine every question will be asked. Remember, there will be leaks. There will be representatives from various teams, possibly league reps and definitely members of Kaepernick's team.

So will Team X want to ask either of those questions -- or other hot topics -- in that setting? The threat of an NFL insider tweeting "Team X asked Colin Kaepernick if he'd continue kneeling during the national anthem" to the world is enough to scare someone away. So, naturally, you'd ask after the workout in a private setting.

But as mentioned above, the majority of people sent here won't be decision makers. In a very basic sense, they will be middlemen conveying this message to those who make the calls. Is it in Kaepernick's best interest to have these important discussions with someone other than a team owner or general manager?

These are complex, nuanced discussions to be had. If Kaepernick ever plays again, he surely would do so after having long talks with the head coach, general manager and team owner. Those talks would be had with the benefit of privacy, which is something that effectively won't and can't be afforded here.

From the moment the news broke of the Saturday workout, it was clear this wasn't going to be perfect. This is important for Kaepernick, and some of these natural issues are unfortunately outside of his control.

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Colin Kaepernick workout: Everything you need to know about Saturday's NFL event with most teams expected - CBS Sports