This article was reported by DealNews, a site that scours the web for the best retail deals.

This is not a drill! The release of Best Buy’s Black Friday ad signals the entrance of a major player in the shopping season, and this electronics giant is not fooling around. The massive 47-page ad boasts some truly impressive price drops on name-brand HDTVs, MacBooks, and Beats headphones, but there are notable stumbles, too. Read on for our full analysis.

The Best Buy Black Friday Ad Analysis

The Best Buys

Panasonic 50″ 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $199.99
If you want to make a statement, offering a brand-name HDTV as your show-stealing doorbuster is a heck of a way to do it. This Panasonic 50″ set comes in at an astonishing $99 below our Black Friday prediction for the 46″ to 47″ class TVs. In fact, this deal will be tied as the best price we’ve seen for any 50″ HDTV by about $100 — including refurbs. (We’ve only seen a 50″ TV drop this low once before, on Thanksgiving last year.) Best of all, this price outshines the leaked Black Friday prices for every other TV in this size range, including Target’s incredible $235 48″ set. The only drawback to this doorbuster is that you’ll have to go to the store to grab it.

Samsung 55″ 4K 2160p Smart LED LCD Ultra HDTV for $899.99
Remember when we said you shouldn’t buy a name-brand smart TV on Black Friday? Here’s the glaring exception to that rule. You don’t even have to brave the in-store crowds to score this incredible Samsung 55″ 4K Smart TV deal; according to the ad, this doorbuster will be available online. At $900, this set beats our August mention of a refurb, becoming the cheapest Samsung 55″ 4K TV we’ve seen by $315.

LG 65″ 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $799.99
A truly pleasant Black Friday surprise for the super-size shoppers, this LG HDTV is about to become the cheapest brand-name 65″ we’ve seen outside of refurbs. It’s also a full $100 below the best price we’ve previously seen for an LG 65″ set. For what it’s worth, this TV also comes in at $149 below our doorbuster prediction for the 70″ class.

Apple MacBook Air Haswell Core i5 11.6″ Laptop for $779.99
If you’re shopping for a current-gen MacBook Air on Black Friday, this is definitely the deal to beat. That $780 price point not only shatters our Black Friday prediction by $19, but it blows past our previous all-time low by $70. Best of all, it knocks a delightful $120 off Apple’s price.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4″ 16GB Android Tablet for $199.99
Although Best Buy disappointed us on the Galaxy Tab S (more on that later), this Galaxy Tab Pro offer is legit. At $200, it’ll beat our previous price low for a new unit by $50, and be tied with our October mention of a refurb as the best price we’ve ever seen for this excellent quad-core KitKat tablet.

Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD On-Ear Headphones for $79.99
Sorry, Target: Best Buy just became the place to buy a pair of Beats cans on Black Friday. Even we’re floored by this $80 doorbuster; that ties the all-time best price we’ve seen for these headphones refurbished.

2nd-Gen Nest Learning Thermostat for $199.99
The ultimate home-warming gift for techies is about to see a serious price drop. Best Buy’s Black Friday price blows past our $220 prediction for the Nest Thermostat, bringing this in-demand gadget to the lowest price we’ve ever seen by $24. (For further comparison, we saw it bundled with a $50 Apple gift card for $250 on Black Friday last year.)

Pebble SmartWatch for iOS and Android Devices for $79.99
Best Buy is slashing the prices of both the Pebble base model and the Pebble Steel, making either smartwatch a smart buy. The original Pebble will fall to $80, beating our previous low by $19; similarly, the Pebble Steel will surpass its previous best price by $20.

The Bad Buys

Samsung Curved 55″ 4K 2160p LED LCD Ultra HDTV for $1,299.99
Although this Samsung Ultra HDTV will fall to a sexy $144 below the lowest price we’ve ever seen for any curved set, it’s already been beaten. Sam’s Club will also offer a Samsung 55″ curved 4K TV … but for $22 less than Best Buy’s price.

Sony 32″ 720p LED LCD HDTV for $189.99
This $190 Sony 32″ TV handily beats Target’s $198 Samsung, but it’s worth mentioning that we’ve seen brand-name 32″ sets as cheap as $160 in recent weeks. Furthermore, Best Buy’s price comes in at $91 above our Black Friday prediction for this class. If brand isn’t important, you’re much better off going with Kohl’s, which will offer a 32″ TV for just $100.

Dell Inspiron Core i3 16″ Touchscreen Laptop for $299.99
Despite this system’s price falling to $25 below our mainstream laptop prediction, shoppers should really look for better specs in this class. Especially disappointing is the Core i3 CPU and 500GB HDD, as we saw a similarly-equipped Dell with double the hard drive space for a buck less at Walmart earlier this month.

Apple iPad mini 3 16GB WiFi Tablet for $324.99
Here’s another discount that should be amazing, but is actually DOA. Despite the fact that we predicted the iPad mini 3 would only see moderate deals, Best Buy will knock $74 (or 19%) off of Apple’s price. Unfortunately, Target has the deal to beat when it comes to the current-gen mini, offering this tablet at list price but bundled with a huge $100 gift card.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5″ 16GB Android Tablet for $399.99
This top-of-the-line Android tablet is an excellent buy at $400 — which is why we’re recommending you grab it at this price from Sears, where you’ll also score a $20 credit with your purchase.

Amazon Fire TV 1080p Streaming Media Player for $74.99
Sure, this price is right in line with our Black Friday prediction for the Fire TV, and it’s $24 below Amazon’s current price. Unfortunately, both Staples and Meijer will offer this streaming box for a buck less.
Despite some disappointing missteps, Best Buy’s Black Friday ad delivers in almost every way. From that jaw-dropping $200 Panasonic TV to those $80 Beats headphones, we’ve clearly got a lot to look forward to on Black Friday.

Excited for Black Friday deals? Consider subscribing to the DealNews Select Newsletter to get a daily recap of all our deals; you never know when a Black Friday price will be released! You can also download the DealNews apps, check out the latest Black Friday ads, or read more buying advice.

This morning, Ricky Jackson walked out of the Cuyahoga County courtroom in downtown Cleveland a free man after 39 years in prison–several of those on death row–for a murder he didn’t commit. The last time he tasted freedom was in 1975 when a postage stamp cost 10 cents, Gerald Ford was president, Pete Rose was the World Series MVP, Billie Jean King won Wimbledon, and Saturday Night Live had just premiered.

Ricky and his co-defendants Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman–who had their convictions overturned today as well–all were sentenced to, as Ricky Jackson emotionally explained in his courtroom testimony this week, “death by electrocution.” All three came close to being executed in the late 1970s–Wiley came within 20 days of his execution date–when their sentences were commuted to life in prison based on a lucky technicality (a paperwork error in Jackson’s case) and Ohio’s death penalty statute being held unconstitutional for the other two. When Ohio later corrected its death penalty law, it could not be applied retroactively to the trio due to the ex post facto laws, so they escaped execution based on unbelievably fortuitous timing.

Today’s events make Ricky Jackson the long-serving person in U.S. history to be exonerated, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. From near-execution to freedom is a great story on its face, but breaking a wrongful conviction record is a tragic feat.

The case against Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers was based on the testimony of a 12-year old boy, Ed Vernon, who claimed that he witnessed the murder in broad daylight on a public street in front of a neighborhood deli, and could positively identify all three defendants. He provided great detail about how the murder went down, including a description of the green getaway car the defendants allegedly sped away in.

The Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law took Ricky’s case several years ago, after the Cleveland Scene published an article calling into question the convictions. The big break came, however, when Ed Vernon, now in his 50s, was in the hospital and, when visited by his pastor, broke down and confessed that he had not seen anything. In fact, he had been on a school bus blocks away and had only heard the shots, but had made up the entire story under police pressure. He told his pastor that living with the lie had been a cloud over his life. His pastor then told him that he had to come forward and correct this injustice.

On Monday and Tuesday, in powerful courtroom testimony, Ed Vernon, choking back tears, explained that at first he believed, in his 12-year old mind, that he was “doing the right thing” by making up the story to help police solve the crime. But his mother knew he was lying, and told him that when the police called him downtown to identify the suspects in a line-up, he should refuse to identify them, and “that would be the end of it.” He did as his mother told him, but the detectives would not accept his recantation. Detectives took him into a room and screamed at him, threw objects around the room, and told the crying 12-year old that his parents would be sent to prison for perjury if he didn’t change his story. They got him to sign a statement implicating the suspects with details about the murder that they fed to him, and had him claim in the statement that he didn’t identify the suspects in the line-up because he too scared.

Vernon explained to the judge this week, “I was a black kid, poor and uneducated, from the neighborhood. A white man had been killed. I didn’t know anything about the justice system. Do you really think as a 12-year old I could stand up to those detectives screaming in my face?”

Vernon sobbed on the stand when describing how this “lie from the pits of hell” had ruined his life, and how he had finally felt relief when he confessed to his pastor.

Prior to testifying, Vernon passed a polygraph about his recantation, and other new witnesses, discovered by the Ohio Innocence Project, testified this week and corroborated Vernon’s recantation. Several witnesses said that Vernon was on the school bus with them blocks away when they heard the shots, and thus, Vernon could not have seen the murder. One new witness, for example, testified that not only was she with Vernon on the school bus–out of sight from the murder–when the shots rang out, but that moments after getting off the bus she saw Jackson and one of the Bridgeman brothers relaxing in front of Jackson’s house several blocks from the murder scene. She told them about the shooting, and they walked up to the murder scene to see what was going on. She explained that she knew back in 1975 that the defendants were innocent, but did not come forward earlier because she was only 13 years-old and her father would not let her get involved in such a violent case.

Another witness–called by the State to presumably refute Jackson’s innocence claim–surprised everyone in the courtroom by testifying that Vernon was sitting next to him on the school bus when they heard the shots, and that after he learned that Vernon was claiming he had witnessed the murder, he told him, “You must have X-ray eyes” because no one on the school bus could have seen what happened.

But the biggest surprise of all occurred right before closing arguments when the prosecutors announced that they were “conceding the obvious” and dropping all charges against Ricky Jackson. They also noted that they would soon be dropping charges against the Bridgeman brothers as well.

Jackson, who steadfastly refused to entertain a deal on Monday at the start of the hearing to admit guilt in exchange for being released from his life sentence immediately, walked free this morning with all charges dropped and his name cleared once and for all.

There are many heroes in this case. Vince Grzegorek, the reporter for the Cleveland Scene who got the ball rolling with his story casting doubt on the convictions. The students at the Ohio Innocence Project, who turned the case inside out for years sensing that an injustice had been done. The Ohio Innocence Project attorneys, Brian Howe and Carrie Wood, who wouldn’t give up the fight until justice was done. Ed Vernon, for having the courage to step forward and correct a “lie from the pits of hell” that had been forced on him as a child by the police. And, of course, Ricky Jackson, for having the fortitude to stay strong through nearly 40 years of wrongful imprisonment and never give up on his innocence.

But the prosecutors here were also heroes. The annals of wrongful conviction cases are sadly full of instances where prosecutors, whether for political reasons or because they were afflicted by some sort of complicated psychological denial, have refused to concede, or even fought back with vitriol, when faced with overwhelming evidence of innocence. But not here.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Ted McGinty and his team of assistants, including Mary McGrath and Saleh Awadallah, were in a search for the truth. At the hearing this week, they did not object to any of the Ohio Innocence Project’s evidence–hearsay or otherwise–explaining that they wanted “everything to come in so the chips can fall where they may.” And once the chips fell, they stood up and did the right, dropping all charges and allowing the case against Jackson and his co-defendants to finally come to and end. Prosecutors are supposed to seek justice rather than “wins,” and that is clearly what the prosecutors sought in this case. They should be commended.

But the road for Jackson and the Bridgemans is not over. They have had decades taken from them–years when others obtain an education or learn a trade–in order to provide for themselves later in life. The three innocent men are now being released without the proverbial 40 acres and a mule–in fact, they have nothing. They are free, but they are severely handicapped. In their late 50s, it is hard to imagine how they will move forward and provide for themselves in their twilight years.

Ohio has an exoneree statutory compensation statute, but it’s difficult to win and often takes years of litigation to prevail. The prosecutors in this case should take the next step and concede to a declaration of innocence under the compensation statute for Ricky and the Bridgemans to allow them to move forward without years of anguish and poverty.

In the meantime, Ricky has been released today without a dime to his name. The Ohio Innocence Project will provide him with clothing, a winter coat, shoes, toiletries, etc. But he needs more. A lot more. The OIP has also established a fund to assist Mr. Jackson obtain food and other necessities to help him get his life back on track. Those wishing to donate can do so here.

Ricky Jackson (center) with Jodi Shorr and and his attorney Brian Howe of the Ohio Innocence Project on Jackson’s last of nearly 15,000 nights in prison.

I bristled recently when a guy I know — a generally progressive, liberal-minded kind of fellow — said that Hillary Clinton was “kind of a Margaret Thatcher. ” When I asked him to elaborate, he said, “Well, she’s a bit of a ball buster.”

I feel like these words, as off-hand as they might have been, sum up the entrenched attitudes about gender and politics in America. Hillary Clinton has almost nothing in common with Margaret Thatcher, the conservative former Prime Minister of England, aside from a propensity for somewhat matronly and fluffy up-do’s. Oh, yes, and a vagina.

My friend would have done better to compare Hillary to another moderate who climbed through the ranks of government and fought doggedly for various causes along the way (LBJ, perhaps). Those fights, for Hillary, have revolved around issues such as healthcare reform, rights of women and children and same-sex marriage. Margaret Thatcher, on the other hand, devoted much of her time in office to maintaining a free market economy, privatizing national industries and legislating tax cuts. She is in bed (metaphorically speaking) with the likes of Reagan and the George Bushes, senior and junior. She would never let Hillary under those sheets. My friend, though, couldn’t see past their common gender, political track records be damned.

And then there is the “ball buster” comment. I know it has been said before — that when men are forceful and outspoken, they are praised as good leaders, and when women are the same way, they are called bitches — but since it’s obviously still happening, I think I’ll say it again. What makes Hillary more of a “ball buster” than, say, Bill Clinton? But Bill is repeatedly praised for getting things done during his tenure, while Hillary is maligned for being pushy. And why must her strength be characterized as a busting of balls per se? Urban Dictionary defines a ball buster as “a woman…who challenges the virility and dominance of a man by using verbal abuse or by controlling social situations usually controlled by men.” When that term is bandied about, the implication is that being a powerful woman is somehow a direct attack on men.

Actually, maybe the epithet is apt in a sense. Hillary is, in fact, trying to control a social situation “usually controlled by men” — if by “social situation” we mean the United States government. And she is “challenging the dominance” of men by suggesting there might be room for a few more women in the various branches of our democratic system. I guess it comes down to whether you see this as a problem or a mark of progress toward an equal and fair society.

The truth is that America is a supposedly advanced nation in the embarrassing situation of never having had a woman at the helm — or even the Vice-helm. Our country has gotten too old for this childish national behavior. It’s the 21st century. We’re running out of excuses. Maybe there is one trick Hillary could learn from her not-so-kindred sister-in-arms Margaret Thatcher: how to get elected.

Today, faith leaders and all those who have spent years trying to fix our broken immigration system should feel gratitude toward President Obama. In a primetime address to the nation last night, the president announced he was taking executive action to relieve some of the suffering caused by the failures of the status quo. Millions of families will no longer live under the daily threat of having their lives torn apart by senseless deportations, which is something all Christians – whether Republican or Democrat – should celebrate. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ, who have spent significant portions of their lives hiding in the shadows, can now enjoy the flourishing God intends for us all. Their joy and well-being must inform our judgments of the president’s action, especially in light of the biblical call to “welcome the stranger.”

Unfortunately, the president’s compassionate actions are creating a political firestorm among some Republicans in Washington. Their anger and antipathy toward the White House are blinding them to the positive effects these measures will have for our society. Even after decades living and working in our nation’s capital, I’m still amazed at the many ways political ideology can prevent us from having “eyes that see” and “ears that hear.” I lament that our political discourse has come to this.

Everyone agrees the only way to find sustainable, long-term solutions is through Congress passing bipartisan legislation. The Senate did exactly that more than 500 days ago, but their honest efforts have languished in the House of Representatives because of Republican intransigence. GOP leaders promised alternative policy ideas; reform garnered widespread, nationwide support — including among a majority of Republicans; faith leaders were hopeful after countless positive conversations with members of Congress; the president even told me that he was “optimistic” about reform after conversations with Speaker John Boehner; the country, and, more importantly immigrant families, patiently waited — yet, the House failed to act.

With only continued delay and obstruction from the Congress and no promises for change, finally a political leader decided to act for the sake of immigrant families. For making a morally responsible choice — using his discretionary legal authority to focus enforcement resources and prioritize deportations in ways that keep families together and our nation safe — President Obama has been labeled an “emperor” and a “dictator” by the Republicans who now promise to obstruct his executive actions, sue the White House, block his administration’s executive and judicial appointments, threaten another shutdown of the government, or even attempt to impeach him.

Immigration reform has become a matter of faith for many of us in churches around the country. In Matthew 25, Jesus clearly instructs his followers to “welcome the stranger.” He goes further to say, “as you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.” We have seen how that biblical text and clear gospel instruction has literally converted millions of Christians, including we evangelicals, to support immigration reform.

I recall the teary single father, who was stopped for a missing bolt on his license plate, telling us that he was being deported away from his two young daughters who were hanging on to his legs with fear in their eyes. I remember a conversation in the White House where a group of evangelical pastors were told that only criminal and drug cartel members were being deported. A conservative white evangelical pastor from Orange County raised his hand and said to the president’s top staff, “I’m sorry, but you deported Jose from my congregation, and now his son Joaquin has joined a gang.” There were tears in his eyes too. These stories go on and on in the faith community — one family after another broken apart by a broken system.

It is because of our faith that Christians — Evangelical, Catholic, Mainline Protestant — and of every tribe and tongue around the country have urged our leaders to put people before politics. The president’s action does exactly this, allowing millions of God’s children to be removed from the danger and uncertainty that is currently their daily reality.

For us, the 1,000+ deportations per day means the breakup of families we have come to know and love in our own congregations and communities. Their families are now our families; their kids are our kids. For us, this is an issue for the body of Christ, a question of our obedience to Jesus Christ. It is about things that are so much more important than politics.

I know and respect a number of Republicans who believe in an inclusive party for their future, but their leaders have yet to clearly reject the politics of fear that informs so much of the fierce opposition to immigration reform. The next Congress could still pass immigration reform under its Republican leadership. And I’ll be the first person standing next to them if they’re ready to build on what the president has accomplished today and pass a more permanent solution. But until Congress stops letting politics hurt real people, many of us in the faith community will be steadfast in our thanks to President Obama for the relief he has provided to millions of people whose lives are a pawn in Washington’s political dysfunction.

Join us in that thanks.

Jim Wallis is president of Sojourners. His book, The (Un)Common Good: How the Gospel Brings Hope to a World Divided, the updated and revised paperback version of On God’s Side, is available now.

Every time a wife stands by her scandal-mired celebrity husband, we eventually reach a point in the ensuing, endlessly looping discussion where we ask ourselves why she stayed, how much she knew, and whether her refusal to leave him is a reflection of her own shortcomings. If it were me, naysayers say triumphantly, he’d be out on his ass. You sure about that?

Camille Cosby has stood beside her husband Bill for nearly 50 years, through the births of five children, through one child’s tragic death. Camille was there through Bill’s famous womanizing, through career ups and downs, through a lawsuit that claimed that her husband had drugged and raped more than a dozen women. She was by his side years later, on November 6, when a milquetoast AP reporter meekly asked Bill, on camera, about the rape allegations, and she was there when he tried to bully the reporter into “scuttl[ing]” the portion of the tape that contained his non answers. She was there when Bill, a respectability politics devotee until the end, dropped the word “integrity” in an attempt to shame the reporter into doing his bidding. She’s still there. Why?