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IT'S HAPPENING!!!

EA Sports just made every sports gamer's dream come true -- by officially announcing a reboot of its beloved college football franchise!!!

Of course, the "NCAA Football" series was a huge hit with fans for years -- but the game was discontinued in 2014 due to issues regarding using NCAA player likenesses.

A return was made possible in October 2019, however, when the NCAA board of governors voted to allow athletes to profit off their name/likeness ... with changes to be implemented as early as January 2021.

The video game company randomly dropped the major announcement Tuesday ... saying, "For those who never stopped believing ... College Football is coming back."

FYI -- the beloved series started off as "Bill Walsh Football" in 1994 and 1995 ... before taking on the College Football/NCAA Football name from 1996-2014.

Details have not been made available just yet ... but it's enough to get even the casual NCAA Football gamer pumped for the return.

No word on who the cover athlete will be -- or if there will even be one -- but Cincinnati Bengals star QB Joe Burrow is sad he won't be able to fulfil his lifelong dream.

"All I ever wanted was to be on the cover of this game and as soon as I graduate they bring it back," Burrow tweeted Tuesday.

The city of Hamilton, GA's still in shock by the absurdly racist conversation its ex-police chief had with an officer, so now the Mayor's taking action.

Mayor Julie Brown's office tells TMZ ... as the city begins the process of replacing ex-Chief Gene Allmond -- who resigned -- its major focus is how to reform the police department ... starting with proper training.

Mayor Brown's assistant, Buddy Walker, says the city plans to hire a sensitivity training company to meet with the whole force, and the training will be mandatory for whoever is hired as the next chief.

As we reported ... former officer John Brooks didn't know his body cam was on during a vile, racist conversation last year with Allmond. Brooks casually dropped the n-word, and made a lewd comment about Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams. Allmond suggested slavery was a pretty good deal for Black people.

Brooks has since been fired.

The Mayor's office told us race will not be a factor in replacing Allmond or Brooks ... they just want the best candidates. For what it's worth, the small town's force is already pretty diverse -- we're told 2 of Hamilton's 3 current officers are Black.

The world's most famous groundhog just made its bold prediction for the rest of winter ... and it looks like we're in for a cold one, folks.

Punxsutawney Phil was awakened, once again, early Tuesday morning for Groundhog Day in Gobbler's Knob, PA and got put to work giving us a forecast for the rest of the season. Ol' Phil saw his shadow ... so, as they say, 6 more weeks of winter.

This year's celebration was a little more pared down compared to its usual gathering, which would include a way bigger crowd of in-person spectators.

Organizers of the annual event streamed it virtually for folks at home, but there was Phil's regular group of "Inner Circle" top hat buddies who attended -- most of whom were masked up ... carrying on tradition.

Now, the fact the woodchuck is expecting more cold days ahead isn't all that surprising ... the furry little bastards have predicted that 106 times over the course of a 135-year run that they've been looking to Phil for a weather report.

This year actually proves to be meaningful, especially up there in the Northeast -- where winter storm Orlena has covered several states in several feet of snow.

So yeah, Groundhog Day 2021 is pretty much spot-on.

The iconic Hollywood sign got a makeover, and though what went down is technically a crime ... it might be worth the time for supporting a good cause.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... 6 people were arrested for altering the sign to read "Hollyboob" Monday. We're told police were notified of what was going on and tracked the group as they made their way down the hill and busted them.

Our sources say the group -- which we've learned includes model Julia Rose -- told cops they did this to raise breast cancer awareness ... but they will also be cited for trespassing before they're released.

Julia -- who's no stranger to breast-related stunts -- is currently with Hollywood police being processed. We got video of her being led away in cuffs, too.

The timing of the stunt is interesting. As you may know ... Breast Cancer Awareness Month is October, so it seems these folks are several months early.

Tiffany Haddish and Common's relationship is TikTok official -- 'cause the two of them were locking lips and bumpin' and grindin' on camera ... and we gotta say, it's hot!!!

The comedian posted a video Sunday to get in on the "Silhouette Challenge," which is where you appear at first covered head to toe in clothing ... only for the video to cut to that same person stripped-down, striking a sexy silhouetted pose -- all to the remixed tunes of Paul Anka's 'Put Your Head On My Shoulder' and Doja Cat's 'Streets.'

Tiffany's started out promising, and when it flashes to her as a shadow with a red background ... the temperature in the room shoots up. And even more so when Common makes a cameo.

Watch for yourself -- the couple is NOT shy about showing their affection for each other. They make out, grind ... pretty much almost everything short of third base and beyond. Don't worry, they keep it PG-13 -- but considering we haven't seen much PDA from them publicly, this is a big jump in their relationship.

Reddit users messed with the bull, now it gets ... the tarp. That's how the saying goes, right?

We kid, but in all seriousness ... check out what Wall Street's Charging Bull looks like right now in Manhattan's Financial District -- the bronze sculpture is completely covered in a blue tarp, from horns to hooves.

There's no official explanation out as to why this happened, but the reason seems to be obvious -- especially considering what's been happening with the stock market this past week.

Of course, we're talking about the frenzy with Gamestop, AMC and other stocks that were restricted on exchanges like Robinhood ... which was seen as a corrupt move by normies who were making a bundle against hedge fund managers trying to bet on shorts.

There was widespread outcry online, with folks accusing Robinhood of being in cahoots with these hedge fund runners -- something Robinhood denied, BTW. The chatter wasn't just digital though ... it literally trickled into the streets with protests over the weekend.

People gathered at the Bull with signage that read "TAX WALL ST TRADES" among other messages. There are even photos circulating that show the Bull getting vandalized with blue tape, with phrases like "#HoldTheLine" and "WBC" etched in in permanent marker.

Basically, there's been a lot of activity there these past few days -- and it looks like the authorities have responded in kind ... both with man power and now ... with plastic.

Anderson Cooper confronted a guy who used to legit believe the CNN anchor was part of an evil, devil-worshipping cabal that devoured children ... and got an apology out of him.

CNN ran a special report Saturday night, with Anderson in the driver's seat ... going down the rabbit hole of QAnon and its origin. If you aren't familiar, the QAnon conspiracy theory is multi-faceted and ever-changing -- and is what some of the Capitol rioters subscribe to.

Very long story short ... QAnon believers think high-level politicians (mostly Dems) and Hollywood folks are pedophiles, part of a child-trafficking ring ... who are out to control the world. They also believe Donald Trump was their savior, and was gonna expose it all.

Anywho ... in CNN's report, Anderson did an interview with former QAnon supporter Jitarth Jadeja, who was all in on it until 2019. Safe to say, it made for an awkward exchange.

Watch for yourself ... Jadeja literally says, "I apologize for thinking that you ate babies." He goes on to explain why Anderson was a focus in QAnon, and what was alleged about him among supporters. Anderson seems astonished to hear it first-hand ... rightly so.

Of course, AC goes out of his way to say that all of those theories are absolutely NOT true -- but really digs into why people are so inclined to buy into a bunch of bull crap.

Big tech is in the hot seat like never before -- and one company that deserves a chair in the front row is Instagram ... so says Lindsey Pelas, who accuses them of discriminating against women.

We talked to the mega social media influencer, model and actress -- who makes much of her living online these days -- and she tells us IG appears to have it out for females ... but goes easier on men, especially as it pertains to their bodies, and what they're allowed to post.

Check it out ... Lindsey explains this is all about censorship -- another hot button issue lately -- and claims IG's policies are unfair toward women in how much skin they can show on the platform, whereas Insta is allegedly way more lenient on guys baring it all. Lindsey likens it to digital cherry-picking ... which she says often ends with fellas being able to run wild.

There's another level here too ... erections and vaginas. Listen to Lindsey -- she says there's a disparity on what products are allowed and aren't on IG.

Anyway, back to her main point, which is this -- the power these big tech companies have at their fingertips got put on full display this week with the drama from Robinhood. Funny enough, LP says that saga ain't too different from what's going on in the camera app.

A police chief in Georgia has resigned and one of his officers was fired after video surfaced of an absolutely shocking, racist conversation in which they casually drop the n-word and say slavery met the needs of black people.

Hamilton Police Chief Gene Allmond and Patrolman John Brooks didn't realize Brooks' bodycam was recording during their racist conversation.

The patrolman talked about who he'd rather have sex with -- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms or voting rights activist Stacey Abrams.

Then, as they repeatedly drop the n-word, the Chief discusses slavery ... "For the most part, it seemed to me like they furnished them a house to live in. They furnished them clothes to put on their back. They furnished them food to put on their table and all they had to do was f***ing work. And now we give 'em all those things and don't have to f***ing work."

The conversation took place last year ... just before a Black Lives Matter protest.

We got another UFO sighting on our hands here in L.A., folks -- but this one stands alone, as it offers some the best clear shots we've seen of what appears ... well, you make the call.

An eyewitness shot these photos last Saturday while heading south on the 101 Freeway, just outside of Thousand Oaks as she was approaching Westlake Village around sunset. We're told she was on her phone when she saw this thing hovering in the sky, flying in the same direction she was heading ... with a group of lights trailing behind it.

The eyewitness says she shot three consecutive photos as quickly as she could, and as you can see ... the unidentified object appears to have changed positions, both tilting ever so slightly and moving to a new spot in the sky. We're told this UFO was only visible for a few seconds, before it literally vanished into thin air. We know ... far-fetched, right?

That's what we thought too -- but we've been assured these photos are NOT altered, and they show what they show. We were skeptical -- thinking these could've been tweaked in Photoshop -- so we had one of our art gurus take a closer look to see what she thought.

Turns out, our own photoshop wiz seems to agree ... these don't look like fakes.

Our graphic artist tried an experiment with stock images of "glowing discs," "UFO's" and "flying saucers" ... to see if the images could be manipulated in a similar fashion as the tipster's photos. She concluded it would be hard to cut/paste these images with the exact angles of the tipster's images. So, these photos do appear to be legit ... or at the very least, probably not photoshopped.

We also reverse image searched these pics, BTW, and couldn't track down ANY that were exactly the same -- so again, it lends credence to the idea these were taken on the spot, without being doctored after the fact.

So, where does that lead us in the end??? Welp, depends on what you want to believe. On its face, this looks to be a straight-up UFO sighting. IF that is in fact the case -- who woulda thought Hollywood had it right all along in its depictions?!?

Some Chinese officials have rolled out a whole new way to test for COVID-19 -- and it entails bending over and spreading 'em ... something we can now see in a test run.

You might've heard of this by now, but you haven't seen it quite like this -- check out this video of a Chinese health official demonstrating how their new anal swabbing method works ... doing the deed on none other than a life-size dummy, who is oh-so-compromised.

The doll -- which is weirdly wearing pajamas for some reason -- is bent over with its heinie out in the air and its arms spread out, almost like it was getting checked for weapons at a prison intake session or something. Eventually, the scientist goes in.

The guy dips the swab in a saline solution -- standard practice for this methodology -- and then inserts the cotton-end into the hole. He gets in there pretty deep -- an inch or so give best results, they say -- and then gives it a nice little twist for good measure before pulling out and putting in a plastic sample tube.

No big, right?!? Eh, not exactly ...

While some Chinese experts insist the anal swab test is much more accurate at detecting the 'rona -- a lot of people aren't too happy about the surprise screenings they're being subjected to at airports in parts of northern China, including in the country's capital of Beijing.

Word is this is NOT a country-wide mandated test, but it seems like some provinces and whatnot are running it on their own terms as they see fit -- and folks don't appear to have much of a say in the matter. If they suspect someone's exposed, they can request it.

They can either administer it to you on the spot, or they'll let you keep your dignity and sometimes let you do a self-test in the privacy of a room, before they cut you loose.

GameStop's wild stock market ride is all the rage in the investment world, but to employees at the brick-and-mortar stores ... it's had little impact on their workday, unless they happen to work in Cleveland.

TMZ reached out to GameStop locations in 20 major U.S. cities to see if they've seen an increase in customers due to the frenzy caused by the WallStreetBets group on Reddit.

Sixteen stores -- including those in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Nashville, Portland, Phoenix, Seattle, San Fran and San Diego -- said it was status quo as far as customers.

One thing hedge fund managers, and even WallStreetBets founder Jaime Rogozinski, agree on is GameStop's future isn't bright. Hell, 3 stores -- in Miami, Philly and NYC -- told us biz has been slower than usual. Miami had a whopping 8 customers Thursday.

However, Cleveland is the exception, where they say sales are up 100% compared to last week. We're told several customers at that branch credited the stock surge story for inspiring them to visit and support GameStop ... so it doesn't go under.

On the flip side ... the manager of a Minneapolis location tells us he got an angry call from someone upset they couldn't trade GameStop shares on Robinhood.

As we've reported ... the stock-buying frenzy of GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and a handful of other companies resulted in Robinhood shutting down trading for them, which pissed off retail investors who believe the move only benefits hedge funds.

Brian Williams put his dry-wit on full display to troll House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's meeting with Donald Trump -- and viewers never saw it coming.

The longtime anchor teed up the gag by earnestly telling his guests -- Baratunde Thurston and Bill Kristol -- that he'd obtained exclusive video of the highly criticized Thursday meeting between Rep. McCarthy and Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

What he ended up rolling, though ... was an iconic clip from the Oscar-nominated film, "Jerry Maguire."

The clip alone would've been funny, given the context, but Williams -- who clearly has late-night talk aspirations -- continued to sell the joke with his deadpan style ... claiming he thought it was going to be a vid of the meeting, and "someone’s gonna be, of course, in big trouble."

Trouble is a good word to describe how many anti-Trump folks feel about the Mar-a-Lago meeting between the former President and the House Minority Leader.

McCarthy's taking heat because 2 weeks ago he criticized Trump for inciting the Capitol riots, but now appears eager to work with him -- a sign Trump still has major power with the GOP.

Ben Crump -- the famed civil rights attorney who represents the families of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd -- has been retained to represent the family of the Florida HS teen seen on video being body slammed by a cop.

The family of Taylor Bracey -- the 16-year-old Liberty HS student slammed to the concrete by school resource officer Ethan Fournier -- hired Crump just days after the attorney called out the "brutality" of the Osceola County Sheriff's Deputy, who has since been placed on paid administrative leave while the department investigates.

Crump says Taylor was unarmed and posed no threat to the officer ... adding the officer did not render any aid and instead handcuffed her as she lay unconscious.

He said, "It is unconscionable what happened to this young girl at the hands of someone whose primary duty is to serve and protect our children." He added, "Do we really need to add school resource officers to the list of fears they deal with on a daily basis?"

Crump wants the deputy fired and arrested. As we reported ... the Sheriff's Dept. said it's turning the case over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

One might say Mark Cuban's got a baby shark on his hands -- his 11-year-old son got in on the Robinhood craze, but in just one day he learned some tough lessons.

The "Shark Tank" star joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and told us all about his fam's newest trader, Jake, who was flying high Wednesday, when he opened his Robinhood account and picked up a couple shares of AMC and BlackBerry.

Mark says Jake was riding high as he turned his first trades into seemingly easy money -- but like millions of investors, Thursday morning turned into a learning experience for him.

Pop had to break it down for Jake -- what goes up sometimes comes way down. Like, way down.

Fortunately for Jake, his father is a billionaire, so this lesson won't cost him everything -- he only invested about $100, anyway. But, watch the clip ... Mark taught his son something else about how to react when a stock you like suddenly plummets.

Stock school aside, Jake is ticked off about Robinhood shutting down trades -- and Mark told us why the free-trading app has some explaining to do.

The GameStop stock battle between retail investors and hedge fund managers has resulted in Robinhood unlisting the stock and several others ... and people are pissed.

As of Thursday morning ... Robinhood customers can no longer buy Gamestop stock on the free-trading app, thereby blocking members of the WallStreetBets forum on Reddit. Of course, that group of investors sparked the resurgence of GameStop's stock.

It also aimed to do the same for AMC, Nokia, BlackBerry, Naked Brands and a few other stocks ... but Robinhood's unlisted those too!

In making the move, Robinhood emailed customers warning of "the current volatile market conditions." The notice stated, "It’s as important as ever to be an informed investor," and included links to its investment resources.

Of course, this has infuriated customers who believe this is market manipulation favoring the hedge funds that have shorted stocks like GameStop... and hurting retail investors who are backing them.

As one person on Twitter put it ... "The free market is only free until rich people lose money."

As we reported, GameStop's stock price has surged to $350 this week -- after starting the year at $19 -- thanks to the backing of retail investors encouraged by the WallStreetBets group.

By Robinhood blocking trading on Thursday, the general feeling among the public is that the financial services company is siding with the hedge fund people on Wall Street ... and screwing over the little guy.

This could get ugly.