HAMAS vs. Israel (Shutterstock).

Air strikes by Israeli jets on Gaza took place on Sunday, with Hama threatening to push the two-week war into a wider Mideast conflict.

In addition to battling Hamas militants, Israel’s military also finds itself fighting the Hezbollah troops from Lebanon. At the same time, humanitarian aid is struggling to get to those in need.

Israel has promised to unleash a ground offensive into Gaza and has been gathering men and armor near its southern border, but the U.S. and other nations have pleaded with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off and allow civilian refugees time to leave the area.

The next wave of Speaker hopefuls

With Kevin McCarthy ousted from the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Jim Jordan unable to get enough votes, nine Republicans have offered themselves for the post.

U.S. CAPITOL building, the seat of Congress, in Washington, D.C. (Wikipedia photo).

Speaker of the House is not only the leader of the lower house of Congress, but he or she is next in presidential succession after the vice president if the president resigns, dies or is disabled.

They include Tom Emmer of Minnesota – the majority “whip” – Austin Scott of Georgia (a “freshman” in his first term) and Bryon Donalds of Florida, considered a preferred candidate of the party’s right wing.

Hitler’s image at Michigan State

A trivia question on a video board before Michigan’s football game against Michigan State has created an embarrassment for MSU on Saturday.

The question involved display of a picture of Adolf Hitler on the Spartan Stadium board about an hour before the game began.

MSU apologized for the incident, saying that the game was provided by a third party and “we are deeply sorry for the content … which is not representative of our institutional values.”

Sports: Bulldogs still lead the pack

Georgia remains as the top-ranked team in the AP College Football Top 25 this week. It was their 19th consecutive week at the top.

The Bulldogs are 7-0 and have received 38 first place votes. In second are the Michigan Wolverines (8-0) with 19 first place votes. Ohio State (7-0, three first place votes) is third, followed by Florida (7-0 with three first place votes) in fourth and Washington (7-0) in fifth.

The remainder of the top 10 are Oklahoma (7-0), Texas (6-1), Oregon (6-1), Alabama (7-1) and Penn State (6-1).

UCLA (5-2) is 23rd after defeating Stanford and USC (6-2) dropped to 24th after losing to Utah.

Weather: No disco, but 70s remain

Our West Orange County area will continue to enjoy mellow temperatures in the 70s this week. The forecast for Monday is for a daytime high of 75 with an overnight low of 59 with mostly cloudy skies.  Tuesday will be similar with 75 (60). Wednesday will be a bit cooler at 71 (59) with a 10 percent chance of rain. The likelihood of some wet stuff increases to 22 percent on Thursday with temps of 70 (56).