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Should college athletes be allowed to sign endorsements deals? California lawmakers think they should, but the NCAA is pushing back and threatening to disqualify California schools from championships. Meanwhile, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched overnight. Read on to see what the mission means for the future of space exploration, including future trips to Mars. And could coffee really help you lose weight? Researchers seem to think so.
Here’s what you need to know in the daily roundup.
TOP STORY: California Colleges Could Be Banned From NCAA Championships For Allowing Athletes to Receive Payments
The debate about whether college athletes should be getting paid for their on-the-field achievements has been going on for several years. But the issue is heating up in California. Lawmakers are looking at a bill called the “Fair Pay to Play Act.” It would permit college athletes to have endorsement deals with outside companies or to sign with agents. The bill has already been approved by the state Senate.
But current NCAA rules do not allow student-athletes to receive that kind of payment. The organization is pushing back hard against California’s lawmakers. The NCAA has threatened to disqualify California colleges from participating in championships. That could include several Division 1 schools and Pac-12 Conference schools, such as USC and UCLA.
In a letter to the state assemblies that was published by USA Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert wrote that “the bill threatens to alter materially the principles of intercollegiate athletics and create local differences that would make it impossible to host fair national championships. As a result, it likely would have a negative impact on the exact student-athletes it intends to assist.”
WHAT’S BUZZING THAT HAS EVERYONE TALKING: The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Was Successful
While you were sleeping: The mission that had been dubbed SpaceX’s most challenging yet was a success! The Falcon Heavy rocket launched around 2:30 a.m. this morning from Kennedy Space Center, its first nighttime launch. The rocket was carrying 24 satellites belonging to the Air Force, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Planetary Society, and other research institutions, according to Space.com.
The Falcon Heavy placed all of the satellites into orbit. As NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine explained on social media, missions like this will help scientists further explore Mars and beyond.
A NASA press release further explains, “The missions, each with a unique set of objectives, will aid in smarter spacecraft design and benefit the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration plans by providing greater insight into the effects of radiation in space and testing an atomic clock that could change how spacecraft navigate.
With launch and deployments complete, the missions will start to power on, communicate with Earth and collect data. They each will operate for about a year, providing enough time to mature the technologies and collect valuable science data.”
OFF-BEAT: New Study Suggests Coffee Can Help You Burn Fat
That pot of coffee in the morning could help you lose weight, new evidence suggests. Researchers at the University of Nottingham and the UCLA School of Medicine analyzed fat cells in the body. Our brown fat cells keep us warm by generating heat when we feel cold. (Meanwhile, white fat cells store calories).
The researchers found that coffee urges the brown fat cells to get moving and to start burning calories. Dr. David Agus explained on CBS This Morning, “We all have that warm feeling after we drink a cup of coffee because we’re stimulating that brown fat. It’s important and interesting that we actually know the mechanism now.”
The researchers first analyzed the impact of the coffee by looking at the stem cells of mice. They found that caffeine boosted metabolism. The second part of the study involved a small group of human volunteers who either drank water or a caffeinated beverage. The participants who drank caffeine were found to have produced more heat in their bodies.
DAILY NEWS ROUNDUP
- Missing Utah student MacKenzie Lueck met someone at a park after a Lyft driver picked her up at the airport.
- Tiger Woods is no longer a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Nicholas Immesberger.
- New York retiree Vittorio Caruso, the most recent American tourist to die in the Dominican Republic, suffered a heart attack, according to the autopsy.
- Amazon Prime Day will now be a 48-hour event and it’s scheduled for July 15 and 16.
- Italy will host the 2026 Winter Olympics.
CHECK THIS OUT: Crocodile Receives Prayers After it Wanders Into a Temple In India
Yikes! A 6-foot long crocodile made its way into a temple in India over the weekend. The crocodile relaxed by a statue to the Hindu goddess Khodiyar Mata until wildlife officials came to retrieve it.
But it took more than two hours to guide the crocodile out of the temple because of the large crowd that had gathered to offer prayers to the reptile. As explained by India Today, the goddess is often depicted riding on the back of a crocodile. Officials eventually guided the crocodile to a pond and the animal did not appear to suffer any injuries from its adventure into the village.
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