While everyone involved in the allegedly Nike-funded transgender youth athlete study remains virtually silent, one member of Congress is calling on Nike to face “consequences” if they truly provided funds for a study that involves minors taking puberty-blockers.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) spoke to OutKick about the damage that transgender ideology has on young people. Mace is a very outspoken pro-women member of the House of Representatives and she explained why that position is so important to her.
“I’m a woman who’s been through some things, and I’m a girl mom and I have sisters and a mother, of course, and friends who’ve been through some traumatic events in their lives. And having gone through my own trauma, I’ve realized… there’s just so much more we can do to protect women and girls,” Mace said.
“To see women being erased in real time by the left, by progressives, by people who are mentally ill, doesn’t sit well with me. And there aren’t enough women speaking up and speaking out and fighting for other women, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Nancy Mace speaks with OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske about transgender athletes in women’s sports
Even though President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban males from girls’ and women’s sports, several states continue to defy the ban. Over the past few weeks, males have won state championships in several girls’ high school events.
“We saw what’s going on with the governor of Maine really doubling down on this gender ideology that hurts women and hurts girls. It’s appalling. It’s offensive,” Mace told OutKick. “I think that there will be more women in the Republican Party coming to our party, fleeing to our party because they don’t like what they see happening to women and girls. But we need conservative governors across the country who will protect women. And girls, that’s the next fight. It’s not just at the federal level, it’s going to be at the state level now.”
Rep. Nancy Mace told OutKick that Nike should face “consequences” for their role in allegedly funding a study on transgender youth athletes as young as 12 years old.
(USA Today Network/Imagn Images)
Mace turned her attention to Nike, the company that allegedly helped fund a transgender youth athlete study on children as young as 12 years old. OutKick has tried to speak with the company dozens of times, and they’ve stonewalled us at every turn.
“That’s not the behavior of an innocent company. And if they’ve been caught red-handed funding, gender transition research and studies on underage minor children, then we do need the media and influencers and folks online to point it out and expose it for what it is. There should be consequences to this behavior,” Mace said.
While radical left-wing Democrats continue to push gender ideology – even on children – Mace pointed out that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject providing “gender-affirming” care to minors.
“[The] vast majority of Americans don’t agree with progressives or the Democrat party on transitioning underage kids. And in fact, there are a lot of studies around the world that show that if your child has gender dysphoria, once they get through their teenage years in puberty and get to the other side, they no longer have gender dysphoria. What we’re doing is damaging and harming these kids, making their mental health worse, and we’re physically mutilating them,” Mace said.
While OutKick continues to try and get answers about this alleged study, no other media outlet is putting any pressure on Nike to come clean about its role. Mace suggested that perhaps the reason other media outlets aren’t covering this study is simple: money.
“Nike is a big advertiser. They throw a lot of money around. They have a lot of power and influence and people are afraid of giants, but like in the Bible, David existed – David [vs.] Goliath – and he won,” Mace said.
Taking down Goliath wasn’t easy, but it was possible. The key is not to stop fighting. And we have no plans to quit anytime soon.
BRAD HARRISON/Staff An exciting season of Jones County Parks & Recreation youth basketball is off and rolling with ongoing play in a total of five divisions with fundamentals and more being mixed in with the fun of the game. The season for all leagues runs into February with games being played at the Jones County Government Center Gym….
CORRECTS FIRST NAME TO DIANE – Diane West and her grandson Paul Quirk pose for a photo, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
The oldest baby boomers — once the vanguard of an American youth that revolutionized U.S. culture and politics — turn 80 in 2026.
The generation that twirled the first plastic hula hoops and dressed up the first Barbie dolls, embraced the TV age, blissed out at Woodstock and protested and fought in the Vietnam War — the cohort that didn’t trust anyone over age 30 — now is contributing to the overall aging of America.
Boomers becoming octogenarians in 2026 include actor Henry Winkler and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, singers Cher and Dolly Parton and presidents Donald Trump, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The aging and shrinking youth of America
America’s population swelled with around 76 million births from 1946 to 1964, a spike magnified by couples reuniting after World War Two and enjoying postwar prosperity.
Boomers were better educated and richer than previous generations, and they helped grow a consumer-driven economy. In their youth, they pushed for social change through the Civil Rights Movement, the women’s rights movement and efforts to end the Vietnam War.
“We had rock ‘n’ roll. We were the first generation to get out and demonstrate in the streets. We were the first generation, that was, you know, a socially conscious generation,” said Diane West, a metro Atlanta resident who turns 80 in January. “Our parents played by the rules. We didn’t necessarily play by the rules, and there were lots of us.”
As they got older they became known as the “me” generation, a pejorative term coined by writer Tom Wolfe to reflect what some regarded as their self-absorption and consumerism.
“The thing about baby boomers is they’ve always had a spotlight on them, no matter what age they were,” Brookings demographer William Frey said. “They were a big generation, but they also did important things.”
By the end of this decade, all baby boomers will be 65 and older, and the number of people 80 and over will double in 20 years, Frey said.
The share of senior citizens in the U.S. population is projected to grow from 18.7% in 2025 to nearly 23% by 2050, while children under 18 decline from almost 21% to a projected 18.4%.
Without any immigration, the U.S. population will start shrinking in five years. That’s when deaths will surpass births, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, which were revised in September to account for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Population growth comes from immigration as well as births outpacing deaths.
The aging of America is being compounded by longer lives due to better health care and lower birth rates.
The projected average U.S. life expectancy at birth rises from 78.9 years in 2025 to 82.2 years in 2055, according to the CBO. And since the Great Recession in 2008, when the fertility rate was 2.08, around the 2.1 rate needed for children to numerically replace their parents, it has been on a steady decline, hitting 1.6 in 2025. Younger generations miss boomer milestones
Women are having fewer children because they are better educated, they’re delaying marriage to focus on careers and they’re having their first child at a later age. Unaffordable housing, poor access to child care and the growing expenses of child-rearing also add up to fewer kids.
University of New Hampshire senior demographer Kenneth Johnson estimates that the result has been 11.8 million fewer births, compared to what might have been had the fertility rate stayed at Great Recession levels.
“I was young when I had kids. I mean that’s what we did — we got out of college, we got married and we had babies,” said West, who has two daughters, a stepdaughter and six grandchildren. “My kids got married in their 30s, so it’s very different.”
A recent Census Bureau study showed that 21st century young adults in the U.S. haven’t been adulting like baby boomers did. In 1975, almost half of 25-to-34-year-olds had moved out of their parents’ home, landed jobs, gotten married and had kids. By the early 2020s, less than a quarter of U.S. adults had hit these milestones.
West, whose 21-year-old grandson lives with her, understands why: They lack the prospects her generation enjoyed. Her grandson, Paul Quirk, said it comes down to financial instability.
“They were able to buy a lot of things, a lot cheaper,” Quirk said.
All of her grandchildren are frustrated by the economy, West added.
“You have to get three roommates in order to afford a place,” she said. “When we got out of college, we had a job waiting for us. And now, people who have master’s degrees are going to work fast food while they look for a real job.” Implications for the economy
The aging of America could constrain economic growth. With fewer workers paying taxes, Social Security and Medicare will be under more pressure. About 34 seniors have been supported by every 100 workers in 2025, but that ratio grows to 50 seniors per 100 working-age people in about 30 years, according to estimates released last year by the White House.
When West launched her career in employee benefits and retirement planning in 1973, each 100 workers supported 20 or fewer retirees, by some calculations.
Vice President JD Vance and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are among those pushing for an increase in fertility. Vance has suggested giving parents more voting power, according to their numbers of children, or following the example of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in giving low-interest loans to married parents and tax exemptions to women who have four children or more.
Frey said programs that incentivize fertility among U.S. women hardly ever work, so funding should support pre-kindergarten and paid family leave.
“I think the best you can do for people who do want to have kids is to make it easier and less expensive to have them and raise them,” he said. “Those things may not bring up the fertility rate as much as people would like, but at least the kids who are being born will have a better chance of succeeding.”
Major cities in Tennessee are reimagining their public riverfronts as vibrant community spaces.
By Cary Estes on December 23, 2025
Agency Landscape and Design
River City Company launches a visionary plan for the Chattanooga riverfront, showcased in the rendering.
When Tennessee native Anna Mae Bullock – better known as Tina Turner – famously sang about “rollin’ on the river,” she was referring to the Mississippi River, which runs along the western edge of the state.
But the Mighty Mississippi makes up only a small portion of the more than 60,000 miles of waterways flowing throughout Tennessee. And increasingly, this natural resource is being further enhanced through public-private partnerships designed to make many of the Tennessee riverfronts even more attractive and accessible. This, in turn, is expanding recreational opportunities and boosting local economies.
“It really speaks to a statewide commitment to investing in the quality of life in Tennessee,” says Patrick Osborne, planning and design director of the Tennessee RiverLine project. “The state is embracing the value of outdoor recreation. Projects like these reflect a broader movement, where Tennesseans see their waterways as assets to be celebrated and protected.”
Memphis River Parks Partnership
The City of Memphis has a front-row view to the watery wonder that is the Mississippi River. But easy access from downtown Memphis to the river has long been limited.
That began to change in 2017 with the formation of the Memphis River Parks Partnership. The goal was to convert 5 miles of mostly underused river parks into a connected network of public spaces, with multiple access points to Beale Street and other popular downtown destinations.
“It is meant to draw people together in one place that is beautiful and peaceful,” says Paul Chandler, CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership. “The intent is to unify our city and enhance relationships that might have never been developed without this park system.”
The centerpiece is the renovation of 31-acre Tom Lee Park, which opened in 2023 and receives approximately 2 million visitors annually. Chandler expects the park to become even more popular in 2026 with the scheduled opening of the Memphis Flyway, a 40-foot-high observation deck that will extend 218 feet over the Mississippi River.
“When the sun sets across that huge body of water, the view from the Flyway is going to be really spectacular,” Chandler says.
Evolving Chattanooga’s Riverfront
The City of Chattanooga made major enhancements to its Tennessee River frontage in the early 2000s with the 21st Century Waterfront plan. Now, Chattanooga’s economic development engine – the River City Co. – is bringing additional improvements to the area through the Evolving Our Riverfront Parks plan, with work scheduled to begin in 2026.
“Our goal is to add strategic features and amenities to allow for year-round daily use and enjoyment of the waterfront,” says River City Co. President and CEO Emily Mack. “We’re focusing on people-centered design and providing places of enjoyment for our community.”
Proposed changes include improvements to the riverfront pier, the creation of additional river access points, landscaping with more shade trees, two new restaurants, two new recreational spaces with playgrounds and more public restrooms.
“This is an opportunity to provide a destination for people to gather and connect with the community and with nature,” Mack says. “It will help support our existing riverfront events, which are huge to the local economy. It will also serve as an economic catalyst for our downtown businesses. This is going to have an incredible ripple effect throughout our city.”
Tennessee RiverLine
The long-term goal for Tennessee RiverLine is to be a 652-mile, 1.2 million-acre river park.
Knoxville Is Part of Tennessee RiverLine
The most expansive project of them all, the Tennessee RiverLine, began as an idea by a student in the University of Tennessee School of Landscape Architecture to create a connected system of recreational opportunities along the Tennessee River.
Now, work is underway to make this vision a reality; the long-term goal is to form a 652-mile, 1.2 million-acre river park, stretching from Knoxville to Paducah, Kentucky.
“It’s a regional vision for how our communities connect with the Tennessee River and adjacent public lands,” Osborne says. “Our focus is on planning and designing river access sites, parks, recreation opportunities and the supporting infrastructure.”
The key to the project’s success, Osborne says, is through the RiverTowns Program, in which RiverLine officials work directly with local community leaders. There are currently 12 communities in Tennessee that have signed up to be part of the program.
“This is a generational project that is moving forward in phases, primarily through our RiverTowns Program,” Osborne says. “We’re helping each of these towns identify and prioritize projects that help improve river access and highlight restorative recreation practices. We want to ensure that the river is accessible, healthy and celebrated for generations to come.”
Tennessee Focuses on Outstanding Parks, Too
The most popular outdoor attraction in Tennessee is easily Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which received more than 12 million visitors in 2024. But if you want to be a little more low-key than Smoky, there are also 60-plus state parks across the state.
The offerings range from the nearly 30,000-acre Fall Creek Falls State Park near Spencer to the 11-acre Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville. Scott’s Gulf Wilderness State Park in Sparta features the 110-foot-tall Virgin Falls, which requires a 4-mile hike to reach. It is one of more than 80 waterfalls that can be found within Tennessee’s state parks.
Tennessee added several state parks in 2025. Though it was a division of an existing outdoor attraction, the Hiwassee/ Ocoee Scenic River State Park was split into two separate parks to provide more dedicated resources to each area. The Ocoee River was the site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater slalom events, and the 2.5-mile course remains popular with paddlers.
Head of the Crow State Park and Fiery Gizzard State Park near Monteagle were both carved out of the already existing South Cumberland State Park.
Even more state parks are on the way. The current 950-acre Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area, which is just off Natchez Trace Parkway near Gordonsburg, is set to receive official state park status soon too.
Tennessee bird watching is also exceptional, with over 400 documented species, including residents and migrants. The Cumberland Mountains are vital, hosting the highest global concentration of the near-threatened cerulean warbler’s breeding pairs. Additionally, successful reintroduction efforts mean the majestic bald eagle is now observable statewide.
LAFAYETTE — LaFayette Parks and Recreation now has early-bird registration open for spring baseball and softball, ending on Dec. 31. The early-bird registration fee is $60, and regular registration is $75 — regular registration ends on Jan. 31. Upon registering $40 is due, and the remaining fee must be paid by Jan. 31.
“A lot of our kids actually trended toward going to Valley to play, and I think Roanoke as well — so we’re trying to bring those kids and families back to our program so we can actually grow our own program inside of LaFayette,” said LaFayette Diamond Youth Baseball Coordinator Jamarcus Walton. “This is the first year where we’re actually trying to incorporate the softball aspect into our program as well… We’re looking for volunteer coaches to coach any level, and we’re also looking for players to fill out all those rosters — hopefully, this year, we can have more than one team in each age group.”
Walton said there are many ways the community can get involved in helping the LaFayette Parks and Rec baseball and softball programs grow and serve local children, including sponsoring an athlete, a business sponsorships and donating funds for new bats.
“Currently, we’re in need of sponsorships, because I was just informed at the district meeting that we have to change over to USA bats — so that’s gonna be a big difference this year for the entire Diamond Youth Program in the state of Alabama,” Walton said. “So we’re going to definitely need some sponsorships in order to help the city purchase [those] — that’s for the entire 6U up to the 12U level as well. So hopefully we can get all that done. I have a lot of faith in this program, it’s grown tremendously since we first brought it back.”
With a desire to provide a space for activity, Walton said he hopes access to youth sports will support community growth and provide a space for children to have fun.
“I feel like youth sports are the one thing that drives the community,” he said. “And as you can see, without youth sports, your community sort of dwindles away. You have different families leaving the area, transition to other places that have these programs in place — but if we can bring all these extracurricular activities to our own city — I feel like that help us retain, of course, our citizens, but also help us grow and expand. LaFayette lately has been trending down the population, but we’re trying to bring the youth sports in order to bring those families back to our communities, so we actually drive success.”
Walton said for young children, co-ed T-ball is offered for ages three and four, and for ages five and six they can enjoy modified coach pitch style. Baseball and softball teams are offered for ages seven and eight which will have coach pitch double, and nine and 10 which will start kid pitch, as well as kid pitch for ages 11 and 12. The age cut off to participate is on May 1, as long as children do not turn 13 they can still play in the 12U age group.
“At the end of the day, everything revolves around the kids,” he said. “Youth sports, it’s all about the kids. So we’re trying to find ways to get more revenue and money [in the program] to do more for the kids, so we can have different cookouts and stuff like that for the kids as well. [We want] to give them something different to do [other] than just staying at home and going to school every day.”
For more information, visit Parks & Recreation of LaFayette on Facebook.
HURLOCK, Md – The town of Hurlock now has a Salvation Army red kettle to help raise funds for families in need this holiday season. The kettle is set up at Hurlock Gas and Deli on South Main Street, thanks to the efforts of an employee at the store.
T.J. Higgins, who works at Hurlock Gas and Deli, says the idea started when he approached Hurlock’s mayor, Earl Murphy, about bringing a kettle to the town.
“I reached out to our newly elected mayor,” Higgins said. “He said that he was open to any and all ideas. I knew the holiday season was coming up, and I just said to him, you know, what about the Salvation Army? They don’t have a presence here. You see them in Cambridge. We see them in other areas. What about here in Hurlock?”
From there, coordination with the Salvation Army helped bring the iconic red kettle to town just in time for the holidays. Higgins added that the kettle is meant to encourage everyone to chip in, no matter the size of the donation.
“Everybody sees the red kettle,” Higgins said. “They know what it looks like. They hear that bell. Sometimes it goes to the wayside in the background. But basically, it’s just about giving. It gives the community and strangers, citizens the opportunity to chip in whatever they can to help those that really need it the most.”
Troy Paul of the Salvation Army says the kettle gives the community a chance to directly support local families.
“Every dollar that’s donated here stays local,” Paul said. “So if you donate to a red kettle or donate to the Salvation Army, everything stays right here in Hurlock.”
Darrell Hurston of Elite Youth Sports, whose group volunteered at the kettle, says it’s also a chance to teach kids about giving back.
“One thing we try to teach our kids is, integrity and discipline and, and community service,” Hurston told WBOC. “Right? So this is part of that. You can’t get any more community service than the Salvation Army.”
The Salvation Army red kettle in Hurlock will remain in place through Christmas Eve. Volunteers are still needed to help ring the bell and collect donations, offering neighbors one more opportunity to support their community during the holiday season.
