Texas Olympian Is The Latest To Speak Out Against Abusive Team USA Doctor

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelJanuary 17, 2018 7:14 am

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

The four-day sentencing hearing for former USA Gymnastics team doctor, Larry Nassar began Tuesday. Nassar is accused of sexually abusing more than 140 women and girls while he was the doctor for Team USA and Michigan State University. He has plead guilty to seven first-degree sexual assault charges. Several Olympic gold medalists have accused Nassar of sexual abuse and this week another gymnast came forward: Simone Biles of Spring, Texas.

Mark Alesia, a reporter with The Indianapolis Star, told NPR’s Morning Edition on Wednesday that it’s a big deal for Biles to share her story. 

“Simone Biles won four gold medals at the Rio Olympics, she is one of the most successful Olympic gymnasts ever,” said Alesia. “And adding her name to the Olympians who’d already come forward makes people think, when is this going to end? Who’s next?”

Biles posted a statement to Twitter Monday saying that she had been reluctant to speak about the abuse but knows now that it isn’t her fault. She went on to say “It is impossibly difficult to relieve these experiences and it breaks my heart even more to think that as I work towards my dream of competing in Tokyo 2020, I will have to continually return to the same training facility where I was abused.”




Fans of the Dallas Mavericks will soon have a new, high-tech option to pay for tickets. Owner Mark Cuban says the Mavs will become the first pro sports franchise outside California to accept bitcoin.

Gus Contreras with KERA News has the latest on Cuban’s cryptocurrency play.

Mark Cuban spent much of last year talking about a Bitcoin bubble.

Most stocks, there’s not intrinsic value because you have no true ownership rights, no voting rights. You just have the ability to buy and sell those stocks — they’re like baseball cards. And I think Bitcoin’s the same thing,” Cuban said.
Next year fans can turn those virtual baseball cards into basketball tickets. The Mavs owner answered a Twitter question Monday about when the team would start accepting Bitcoin. He replied, “Next year.”

Cuban told Bloomberg the team will accept currency like Bitcoin or Ether, from companies it deals with. And he wants to make it easy for fans to pay that way.

The big question now? Whether Dirk Nowitzki will still be around to spend those bitcoins on.




Oprah Winfrey’s powerful speech at the Golden Globes calling for an end to the culture of sexual harassment continues to make waves.

She was accepting the Cecil B. de Mille Award for lifetime achievement. Winfrey told the audience, “For too long women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men, but their time is up.”

Her message was met with thunderous applause. On the heels of that rousing speech, Winfrey is now slated to speak in north Texas this April. She will be the keynote speaker at the “Feed Just One” gala, held by Minnie’s Food Pantry in Collin County.