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Watched NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt last night (Thursday, August 18th). Lester's last segment was on how the USA women were winning more medals than the men in Rio 2016. They showed a variety of photos of different women who have won medals - but I noticed that they didn't include Ginny Thrasher and Kim Rhode, air rifle and skeet shooter respectively, in the segment. They've won medals too -- Gold Medal for Thrasher and 4 or 5 career Olympic medals for Rhode, including one in Rio. The NBC Nightly News website shows last night broadcast, but it does...

Sydney McLaughlin, New Jersey's 16 year-old sensation, will attempt to become one of the youngest U.S. track and field Olympians when she competes in the finals of the women's 400-meter hurdles at Sunday's U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. McLaughlin, who turns 17 on Aug. 7, needs to finish in the top three in her race to make the Olympic team, which will compete in the Olympic Games next month in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 400 hurdles race is scheduled for Sunday at approximately 7:03 p.m. EST. and will shown on NBC. McLaughlin, who will be...

The Hemisphere: Brazil's rulers have been taken aback by the millions of countrymen surging up against them, venting their fury. What we have here is a fresh example of why socialism fails. Up until now, a million Brazilians in the streets usually had something to do with a soccer match or, perhaps, a samba festival. This time, it wasn't about festivities. What started as a protest against a 9-cent fare hike on public transport fireballed into a gigantic public protest against political corruption, high taxes and lousy public services — and the government itself. Protesters stormed state legislatures and set...

TOKYO – Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of the only atomic bombings in history, are teaming up to try to bring the Olympics to Japan in 2020, the cities' mayors said Sunday. Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue told a press conference they will establish a joint committee to work on a proposal based on world peace. Both men are founding members of the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign, which advocates for a global ban on nuclear arms. In a speech last month in Mexico City, Akiba said he firmly believed the world could abolish nuclear...

I think Barack Obama's critics will face an irresistible temptation to Blame it On Rio from here on out and that would be unfair. The Olympic setback is hardly the defining moment of President Obama's foreign policy. But it is a window through which we can see some things a bit more clearly now than perhaps we saw before. With apologies to Fred Barnes, who beat me to the punch on some of these, here would be my quick hit list: 1. The decision shows the limits of soft power and those limits are greater than even soft power skeptics...

Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympics after the Brazilian city won a landslide victory over Madrid in the final round of voting on Friday. -snip- Chicago went out after polling just 18 votes in the first round, despite the eloquent speeches on their behalf made by Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to address an IOC session, and first lady Michelle Obama.

Analysis: Chicago's Loss Is A Blow To Obama, Too By JENNIFER LOVEN and JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writers Oct 2 WASHINGTON – OK, so it wasn't health care, climate change or war. Still, President Barack Obama's high-profile failure to win the Olympics for Chicago could feed negative narratives already nipping at his heels — that he's a better talker than closer, more celebrity than statesman. And this could hamper his efforts on the weightier issues. Despite Obama's fabled charm and powers of persuasion, his in-person plea for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Games fell flat. It was a hugely...

CHICAGO — Talk about short parties. As word arrived that Chicago had been eliminated from consideration for the 2016 Olympics in a first round of voting, stunned silence fell over thousands of residents who had gathered in a plaza in the heart of this city’s Loop, for what nearly everyone here seemed certain was to be a victory party. Some people gasped, others gave frowns of astonishment, and then, still carrying their CHICAGO 2016 signs and wearing the orange Olympics T-shirts they had just been handed, people began to leave. “It’s unbelievable,” said Janie Carter, 55, staring up at a...