The group is in partnership with InsideOut Sports & Entertainment and Hard Rock, to present an event featuring tennis legends Agassi, Chang, McEnroe, and Roddick
NEW YORK /PRNewswire/ — Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E), an innovative agency combining sports, experiential marketing and media capabilities, announced the Inaugural Pickleball Slam featuring tennis legends Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, John McEnroe, and Andy Roddick competing for a $1 million purse. Created and produced by HS&E and InsideOut Sports & Entertainment (ISE), the 2023 event will be held at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Sunday, April 2 and will be televised live exclusively on ESPN at 12:00 PM Eastern, immediately ahead of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
First-of-its-kind competition to be televised live on ESPN
“Pickleball is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon – experiencing a meteoric rise across genders, age groups, geographies, and income levels. The Slam, a multi-year partnership with the Hard Rock, represents the convergence of culture and sport, giving brands an opportunity to engage with passionate fans and amateur players, as pickleball continues to gain popularity,” said David Levy, Co-CEO, HS&E. “We look forward to bringing together four of America’s most iconic tennis legends for this groundbreaking competition, which heralds a new milestone for the fastest growing sport in America.”
The Slam marks the start of a five-event partnership with Hard Rock, HS&E, and ISE, and showcases HS&E’s innovation, creativity, and engagement strategies that drive brand and business growth for sponsors. Future Pickleball Slams will be held at various Hard Rock locations. The inaugural Slam will feature two legends’ singles matches pitting Roddick versus Chang, followed by McEnroe versus Agassi in the second match. The final match of the day will be a doubles match with McEnroe and Chang competing against Roddick and Agassi. The final match will determine the split of the $1 million purse.
“We are tremendously excited to be bringing the Inaugural Pickleball Slam to Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida,” said Keith Sheldon, President of Entertainment for Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming. “Hard Rock Live has become synonymous with big events, and to have four of the biggest names in American tennis battling for the largest purse in pickleball history on a national live broadcast will only serve to bolster this reputation. We are honored to partner with HS&E to debut The Slam at The Guitar Hotel.”
Four of America’s greatest tennis champions competing for $1 million
The 2023 Pickleball Slam includes an amateur challenge, which will be played on Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1. It will include 96 doubles teams, entering on a first-come-first-in basis, vying for a $10,000 team prize, and a chance to compete against two of the tennis-turned-pickleball legends prior to the televised event on Sunday, April 2. The weekend also includes a Saturday night banquet featuring a Q&A with the tennis legends.
For more information and to register for the Slam Amateur Challenge, visit www.thepickleballslam.com. Tickets to the Slam go on sale February 10.
Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E)
Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E) is an affiliate of Horizon Media, the largest U.S. media agency according to AdAge Data Center 2022, and provides a unique and complementary combination of sports, experiential marketing, and media capabilities. HS&E has a core focus on IP creation and monetization, strategic advisory and consulting, media rights, sponsorship, sales, and experiential, Metaverse, and Web3.0 strategy and activation. HS&E is led by co-CEOs David Levy and Chris Weil.
Horizon Media
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Horizon Media, Inc, the largest U.S. media agency according to AdAge Data Center 2022, delivers data-driven business outcomes for some of the most innovative and ambitious brands. Founded in 1989, headquartered in New York, and with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto, the company employs 2,400 people and has media investments of more than $9 billion. Horizon Media’s fundamental belief is that business is personal, which drives its approach to connecting brands with their customers and engaging with its own employees resulting in industry-leading workplace satisfaction levels (Glassdoor). The company is consistently recognized by independent media outlets for its client excellence and has earned several “Best Workplaces” awards reflecting its commitment to DEI and the life and well-being of everyone at Horizon Media.
InsideOut Sports + Entertainment (ISE)
InsideOut Sports + Entertainment (ISE) is a Los Angeles based independent event producer founded in 2004 by former world No.1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. InsideOut owns and operates numerous proprietary events and promotions including the Champions Series, the Legendary Night Series of exhibitions, and numerous customized private and public outings. To date, InsideOut has produced over 300 events in 44 states and 12 countries and is committed to a strong charity tie-in with every public event it owns or produces. Since inception, InsideOut events have contributed over $5 million to various charitable causes.
About Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood is the flagship-integrated resort of Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The renowned entertainment, gaming and hospitality destination unveiled a $1.5 billion expansion in 2019, highlighting the debut of the world’s first and only Guitar Hotel. Between three hotel towers, the resort boasts 1,271 luxury guestrooms. Amenities include a 42,000 square-foot Rock Spa® & Salon; an 18-acre recreational water experience; private “Bora Bora” style cabanas; more than 20 food and beverage outlets; an expansive gaming floor with more than 2,700 slots, more than 200 table games and a 45-table poker room; 120,000 square feet of premier meeting and convention space; and a 26,000 square-foot retail promenade. Hard Rock Live, ranked No. 5 worldwide in 2022 gross revenue for both Pollstar Magazine and Billboard in its respective categories, highlights A-list entertainers and performers, sporting events and live broadcast productions in an intimate 7,000-person capacity setting. Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood is located on 87 acres of the Hollywood Seminole Reservation along State Road 7 (U.S. Highway 441). For more information, visit us online at www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com call (800) 937-0010 or follow us: Facebook: SeminoleHardRockHollywood, Twitter: @HardRockHolly, Instagram: @HardRockHolly.
ABOUT ESPN
ESPN, Inc., is the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment brand, featuring an unmatched portfolio of sports assets. It is comprised of eight U.S. 24-hour television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, Longhorn Network, SEC Network and the ACC Network; five with HD simulcast services – ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS and ESPN Deportes). Other businesses include direct-to-consumer video service ESPN+, ESPN Audio (broadcast, satellite, digital, podcasts), an array of digital services (ESPN.com and many other sites, ESPN App, fantasy games and more), multi-screen ESPN3, endeavors on every continent around the world across media including more than 40 networks, espnW, consumer products and ESPN Events. Based in Bristol, Conn., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Hearst holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.
Over the past few years, Mike has become an insane pickleballer (pickler), fortunately for the senior 50+ crowd he started his show, Sleeve’s Senior Pickleball Report. He spends the rest of his time speaking on social justice and spending time with his beautiful wife, Karen, and enjoying simple living in his ger/yurt. View all posts
Over the past few years, Mike has become an insane pickleballer (pickler), fortunately for the senior 50+ crowd he started his show, Sleeve's Senior Pickleball Report. He spends the rest of his time speaking on social justice and spending time with his beautiful wife, Karen, and enjoying simple living in his ger/yurt.
Hollywood Legend Rob Reiner and Wife Found Dead; Son in Custody
Renowned filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home in a reported homicide. Police have arrested their son in connection with the case, and tributes are pouring in.
Director Rob Reiner participates in a discussion following a screening of the film LBJ at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas on Saturday October 22, 2016 On Saturday evening October 22, 2016, the LBJ Presidential Library held a sneak peek of Rob Reiner’s new filmÊLBJ, starring Woody Harrelson as the 36th president. The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, chronicles the life and times of Lyndon Johnson who would inherit the presidency at one of the most fraught moments in American history. Following the screening, director Rob Reiner, actor Woody Harrelson, and writer Joey Hartstone joined LBJ Library Director Mark Updegrove on stage for a conversation about the film. LBJ Library photo by Jay Godwin 10/22/2016
Hollywood Legend Rob Reiner and Wife Found Dead; Son in Custody
December 15, 2025
Renowned filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead in their Brentwood, Los Angeles home on Sunday, authorities say. Emergency responders were called to the residence Sunday afternoon, where both were discovered with fatal wounds consistent with a stabbing. Police are treating the case as a double homicide.
Los Angeles police arrested the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, in connection with the deaths. He is being held in custody as investigators continue to piece together the circumstances surrounding the incident.
2016 SAMHSA Voice Awards
Reiner was one of Hollywood’s most influential figures, known for his work as a director, producer and actor. His career spanned decades, from early television fame to directing beloved films that shaped American cinema.
Friends, colleagues and public figures have begun sharing tributes and reactions to the news as the investigation is ongoing.
More details will be updated as they become available.
FDA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Claims Lack Solid Evidence—Why Overreaction Could Harm Public Health
COVID-19 vaccine safety: The FDA’s claims about COVID-19 vaccine deaths in children lack strong evidence and could restrict vaccine access. Learn why experts say VAERS reports aren’t proof, and how overreacting may harm public health and trust in vaccines.
The death of children due to an unsafe vaccine is a serious allegation. I am a pediatric cardiologist who has studied the link between COVID-19 vaccines and heart-related side effects such as myocarditis in children. To my knowledge, studies to date have shown such side effects are rare, and severe outcomes even more so. However, I am open to new evidence that could change my mind. But without sufficient justification and solid evidence, restricting access to an approved vaccine and changing well-established procedures for testing vaccines would carry serious consequences. These moves would limit access for patients, create roadblocks for companies and worsen distrust in vaccines and public health. In my view, it’s important for people reading about these FDA actions to understand how the evidence on a vaccine’s safety is generally assessed.
Determining cause of death
The FDA memo claims that the deaths of these children were directly related to receiving a COVID-19 immunization. From my perspective as a clinician, it is awful that any child should die from a routine vaccination. However, health professionals like me owe it to the public to uphold the highest possible standards in investigating why these deaths occurred. If the FDA has evidence demonstrating something that national health agencies worldwide have missed – widespread child deaths due to myocarditis caused by the COVID-19 vaccine – I don’t doubt that even the most pro-vaccine physician will listen. So far, however, no such evidence has been presented. While a death logged in VAERS is a starting point, on its own it is insufficient to conclude whether a vaccine caused the death or other medical causes were to blame. To demonstrate a causal link, FDA staff and physicians must align the VAERS report with physicians’ assessments of the patient, as well as data from other sources for monitoring vaccine safety. These include PRISM, which logs insurance claims data, and the Vaccine Safety Datalink, which tracks safety signals in electronic medical records. It’s known that most deaths logged only in VAERS of children who recently received vaccines have been incorrectly attributed to the vaccines – either by accident or in some cases on purpose by anti-vaccine activists.
Heart-related side effects of COVID-19 vaccines
In his Substack and Twitter accounts, Prasad has said that he believes the rate of severe cardiac side effects after COVID-19 vaccination is severely underestimated and that the vaccines should be restricted far more than they currently are. In a July 2025 presentation, Prasad quoted a risk of 27 cases per million of myocarditis in young men who received the COVID-19 vaccine. A 2024 review suggested that number was a bit lower – about 20 cases out of 1 million people. But that same study found that unvaccinated people had greater risk of heart problems after a COVID-19 infection than vaccinated people. In a different study, people who got myocarditis after a COVID-19 vaccination developed fewer complications than people who got myocarditis after a COVID-19 infection. Existing vaccine safety infrastructure in the U.S. successfully identifies dangers posed by vaccines – and did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, most COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. rely on mRNA technology. But as vaccines were first emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic, two pharmaceutical companies, Janssen and AstraZeneca, rolled out a vaccine that used a different technology, called a viral vector. This type of vaccine had a very rare but genuine safety problem that was detected.A report in VAERS is at most a first step to determining whether a vaccine caused harm. VAERS, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, clinical investigators in the U.S. and their European counterparts detected that these vaccines did turn out to cause blood clotting. In April 2021, the FDA formally recommended pausing their use, and they were later pulled from the market. Death due to myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccination is exceedingly rare. Demonstrating that it occurred requires proof that the person had myocarditis, evidence that no other reasonable cause of death was present, and the absence of any additional cause of myocarditis. These factors cannot be determined from VAERS data, however – and to date, the FDA has presented no other relevant data.
A problematic vision for future vaccine approvals
Currently, vaccines are tested both by seeing how well they prevent disease and by how well they generate antibodies, which are the molecules that help your body fight viruses and bacteria. Some vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccine and the influenza vaccine, need to be updated based on new strains. The FDA generally approves these updates based on how well the new versions generate antibodies. Since the previous generation of vaccines was already shown to prevent infection, if the new version can generate antibodies like the previous one, researchers assume its ability to prevent infection is comparable too. Later studies can then test how well the vaccines prevent severe disease and hospitalization. The FDA memo says this approach is insufficient and instead argues for replacing such studies with many more placebo-controlled trials – not just for COVID-19 vaccines but also for widely used influenza and pneumonia vaccines. That may seem reasonable theoretically. In practice, however, it is not realistic. Today’s influenza vaccines must be changed every season to reflect mutations to the virus. If the FDA were to require new placebo-controlled trials every year, the vaccine being tested would become obsolete by the time it is approved. This would be a massive waste of time and resources.Influenza vaccines must be updated for every flu season.Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock via Getty Images Plus Also, detecting vaccine-related myocarditis at the low rate at which it occurs would have required clinical trials many times larger than the ones that were done to approve COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. This would have cost at least millions of dollars more, and the delay in rolling out vaccines would have also cost lives. Placebo-controlled trials would require comparing people who receive the updated vaccine with people who remain unvaccinated. When an older version of the vaccine is already available, this means purposefully asking people to forgo that vaccine and risk infection for the sake of the trial, a practice that is widely considered unethical. Current scientific practice is that only a brand-new vaccine may be compared against placebo. While suspected vaccine deaths should absolutely be investigated, stopping a vaccine for insufficient reasons can lead to a significant drop in public confidence. That’s why it’s essential to thoroughly and transparently investigate any claims that a vaccine causes harm.
Tariffs 101: What they are, who pays them, and why they matter now
Learn what tariffs are, who pays them, and why they matter for the U.S. economy. Explore how import taxes impact prices, trade policy, and everyday consumers as the Supreme Court reviews Trump’s global tariffs.
Tariffs 101: What they are, who pays them, and why they matter now
Kent Jones, Babson College The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case to determine whether President Donald Trump’s global tariffs are legal. Until recently, tariffs rarely made headlines. Yet today, they play a major role in U.S. economic policy, affecting the prices of everything from groceriesto autosto holiday gifts, as well as the outlook for unemployment, inflation and even recession. I’m an economist who studies trade policy, and I’ve found that many people have questions about tariffs. This primer explains what they are, what effects they have, and why governments impose them.
What are tariffs, and who pays them?
Tariffs are taxes on imports of goods, usually for purposes of protecting particular domestic industries from import competition. When an American business imports goods, U.S. Customs and Border Protection sends it a tariff bill that the company must pay before the merchandise can enter the country. Because tariffs raise costs for U.S. importers, those companies usually pass the expense on to their customers by raising prices. Sometimes, importers choose to absorb part of the tariff’s cost so consumers don’t switch to more affordable competing products. However, firms with low profit margins may risk going out of business if they do that for very long. In general, the longer tariffs are in place, the more likely companies are to pass the costs on to customers. Importers can also ask foreign suppliers to absorb some of the tariff cost by lowering their export price. But exporters don’t have an incentive to do that if they can sell to other countries at a higher price. Studies of Trump’s 2025 tariffs suggest that U.S. consumers and importers are already paying the price, with little evidence that foreign suppliers have borne any of the burden. After six months of the tariffs, importers are absorbing as much as 80% of the cost, which suggests that they believe the tariffs will be temporary. If the Supreme Court allows the Trump tariffs to continue, the burden on consumers will likely increase. While tariffs apply only to imports, they tend to indirectly boost the prices of domestically produced goods, too. That’s because tariffs reduce demand for imports, which in turn increases the demand for substitutes. This allows domestic producers to raise their prices as well.
A brief history of tariffs
The U.S. Constitution assigns all tariff- and tax-making power to Congress. Early in U.S. history, tariffs were used to finance the federal government. Especially after the Civil War, when U.S. manufacturing was growing rapidly, tariffs were used to shield U.S. industries from foreign competition. The introduction of the individual income tax in 1913 displaced tariffs as the main source of U.S. tax revenue. The last major U.S. tariff law was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which established an average tariff rate of 20% on all imports by 1933. Those tariffs sparked foreign retaliation and a global trade war during the Great Depression. After World War II, the U.S. led the formation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, which promoted tariff reduction policies as the key to economic stability and growth. As a result, global average tariff rates dropped from around 40% in 1947 to 3.5% in 2024. The U.S. average tariff rate fell to 2.5% that year, while about 60% of all U.S. imports entered duty-free. While Congress is officially responsible for tariffs, it can delegate emergency tariff power to the president for quick action as long as constitutional boundaries are followed. The current Supreme Court case involves Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to unilaterally change all U.S. general tariff rates and duration, country by country, by executive order. The controversy stems from the claim that Trump has overstepped his constitutional authority granted by that act, which does not mention tariffs or specifically authorize the president to impose them.
The pros and cons of tariffs
In my view, though, the bigger question is whether tariffs are good or bad policy. The disastrous experience of the tariff war during the Great Depression led to a broad global consensus favoring freer trade and lower tariffs. Research in economics and political science tends to back up this view, although tariffs have never disappeared as a policy tool, particularly for developing countries with limited sources of tax revenue and the desire to protect their fledgling industries from imports. Yet Trump has resurrected tariffs not only as a protectionist device, but also as a source of government revenue for the world’s largest economy. In fact, Trump insists that tariffs can replace individual income taxes, a view contested by most economists. Most of Trump’s tariffs have a protectionist purpose: to favor domestic industries by raising import prices and shifting demand to domestically produced goods. The aim is to increase domestic output and employment in tariff-protected industries, whose success is presumably more valuable to the economy than the open market allows. The success of this approach depends on labor, capital and long-term investment flowing into protected sectors in ways that improve their efficiency, growth and employment. Critics argue that tariffs come with trade-offs: Favoring one set of industries necessarily disfavors others, and it raises prices for consumers. Manipulating prices and demand results in market inefficiency, as the U.S. economy produces more goods that are less efficiently made and fewer that are more efficiently made. In addition, U.S. tariffs have already resulted in foreign retaliatory trade actions, damaging U.S. exporters. Trump’s tariffs also carry an uncertainty cost because he is constantly threatening, changing, canceling and reinstating them. Companies and financiers tend to invest in protected industries only if tariff levels are predictable. But Trump’s negotiating strategy has involved numerous reversals and new threats, making it difficult for investors to calculate the value of those commitments. One study estimates that such uncertainty has actually reduced U.S. investment by 4.4% in 2025. A major, if underappreciated, cost of Trump’s tariffs is that they have violated U.S. global trade agreements and GATT rules on nondiscrimination and tariff-binding. This has made the U.S. a less reliable trading partner. The U.S. had previously championed this system, which brought stability and cooperation to global trade relations. Now that the U.S. is conducting trade policy through unilateral tariff hikes and antagonistic rhetoric, its trading partners are already beginning to look for new, more stable and growing trade relationships. So what’s next? Trump has vowed to use other emergency tariff measures if the Supreme Court strikes down his IEEPA tariffs. So as long as Congress is unwilling to step in, it’s likely that an aggressive U.S. tariff regime will continue, regardless of the court’s judgment. That means public awareness of tariffs – and of who pays them and what they change – will remain crucial for understanding the direction of the U.S. economy. Kent Jones, Professor Emeritus, Economics, Babson College This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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