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Column: So many candidates for the US team, so few Ryder Cup spots

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson still has time on his side, just not as much. He also keeps getting more candidates for his U.S. team, which isn’t making the job any easier.And it’s no longer about Brooks Koepka or anyone else from LIV Golf.“There’s still a lot of golf between now and then,” Johnson said that Sunday morning in May at the PGA Championship, a few hours before Brooks Koepka showed off his major swagger at Oak Hill with a victory that did more than restore his reputation as Big Game Brooks.It moved him to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings. Given that Koepka appears to be back at full strength, that’s not such a bad thing.Now consider the last two weeks.Wyndham Clark showed plenty of moxie when he outplayed Rory McIlroy on the back nine of Los Angeles Country Club and won the U.S. Open. Coupled with his victory in an elevated event at the Wells Fargo Championship, Clark moved past Koepka to No. 2 and is all but assured of his Ryder Cup debut in Rome...

Ford cutting several hundred white-collar jobs to reduce cost amid transition to electric vehicles

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is going through another round of white-collar job cuts as the company continues to reduce costs amid a transition to electric vehicles.The company confirmed Tuesday that it was starting to notify several hundred engineers and other salaried employees that their jobs are being eliminated. The firings come after around 200 Ford contract employees were let go last week. Spokesman T.R. Reid wouldn’t give a specific number of Ford jobs that are being cut this week, but said they are not nearly the scale of those made last summer when the company let go of 3,000 white-collar workers and another 1,000 contractors largely in the U.S.Most of the cuts were in engineering, but all business units will see job cuts, Reid said. “Teams that were affected were pulled together yesterday to let them know that there would be actions taken this week. Then individual people will be notified today and tomorrow,” Reid said. CEO Jim Farley has said much of Ford’...

NHL, players unveil inclusion coalition they hope will help make hockey more diverse and welcoming

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

The NHL and NHLPA are launching a new inclusion committee made up of current and former men’s and women’s players, with minority and LGBTQ+ representation, aimed at diversifying hockey and making the sport more welcoming.The NHL Player Inclusion Coalition unveiled Tuesday is the latest step in a process started in the summer of 2020, when the police killing of George Floyd led to a worldwide reckoning on matters of race and racism. It comes on the heels of Pride night incidents around the league, when a handful of players refused to wear rainbow-colored jerseys for warmups, leading officials to decide against teams wearing any themed uniforms next season.The 20-member coalition is chaired by former NHL players P.K. Subban and Anson Carter, each of whom is Black, and includes retired U.S. women’s star Meghan Duggan, who is openly gay. Duggan, now the New Jersey Devils’ director of player development, wants to be on the leading edge of helping a sport that has traditionally been...

US consumer confidence jumps to highest level since early 2022

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American consumer’s confidence jumped in June to its highest level in 18 months as a strong labor market continues to buoy the U.S. economy.The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 109.7 in June from 102.5 in May. That’s the highest the reading has been since January of 2022 and much higher than economists had forecast.The business research group’s present situation index — which measures consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions — rose to 155.3 from 148.9 in May.The board’s expectations index — a measure of consumers’ six-month outlook for income, business and labor conditions — climbed to 79.3 this month from 71.5 in May.A reading under 80 often signals a recession in the coming year. The Conference Board noted that reading has come in below 80 every month but one since February of 2022.The board said that consumers’ fears of a recession declined in June, with 69.3% of respo...

5 teens were killed in a car that swerved off a road and sank in a Florida pond

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Five teenagers were killed when their car ran off a curving street and landed in a southwest Florida retention pond where it went underwater, authorities said.It happened either late Sunday or early Monday, killing everyone inside. The crumpled Kia sedan was pulled from the water on Monday.On Tuesday morning, Fort Myers Police confirmed their identities as Eric Paul, 19; Jackson Eyre, 18; Amanda Ferguson, 18; Breanna Coleman, 18; and Jesus Salinas, 18.The News-Press in Fort Myers reported that Paul, Eyre, Ferguson and Coleman worked together at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant, and had gone out together to get fast food after finishing their Sunday night shifts. The steakhouse was closed Monday so their friends and families could grieve together at a dinner where flowers were placed alongside their framed pictures.

Rapper Kodak Black booked and released from jail following recent court hearing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

South Florida native and rapper Kodak Black is now free to travel and tour, pending his trial, following his release from a South Florida jail. Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, was arrested last year on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He was freed on bond, and regular drug testing was a condition of his release.However, during a scheduled court appearance Monday, Kapri’s lawyer, Bradford Cohen, requested an increased bond in lieu of several pre-trial release conditions, including regular drug testing. Kapri was not in court as he was not required to appear. Following approval by the judge and the removal of the pre-trial release conditions, Cohen tells 7News that his client turned himself in, posted a $250,000 bond and was released all in under an hour. A warrant was issued for Kapri’s arrest earlier this month after he failed to show up for a mandatory drug test. A judge released Kapri ...

Man sentenced to death assaults lawyer in Florida courtroom

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) – A man convicted of two murders in a 33-year-old cold case has found himself in deeper trouble after assaulting his own lawyer during his sentencing.Court video footage captured the moment Joseph Zieler beckoned his lawyer, Kevin Shirley, over to speak to him, before elbowing him in the face, causing a commotion in the courtroom.Zieler was sentenced to death for the murder of an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter.The incident took place moments after being sentenced. Despite the assault, the lawyer said he was fine.Authorities swiftly intervened and apprehended Zieler, escorting him out of the courtroom.

Drive-thrus are creating problems for cities and towns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

New York (CNN) — America is a land of drive-thrus.An estimated 200,000 drive-thrus are spread across this country. Americans visit drive-thru lanes approximately 6 billion times a year. At leading chains like McDonald’s, drive-thrus account for 70% of sales or more.Drive-thrus promise hungry drivers ease, convenience and a juicy burger.But long lines of cars waiting for orders spill out into US roads in every state from chains like Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Starbucks and Dunkin. And city officials, urban planners and critics say the model is failing modern cities.Magnets of traffic and congestion, drive-thrus discourage walking, public transit use and visits to neighboring businesses. They also lead to accidents with pedestrians, cyclists and other cars, and contradict the environmental and livability goals of many communities.A host of cities and regions want the sprawl to stop: Atlanta lawmakers will vote this summer on whether to ban new drive-thrus in the popular Beltline area. M...

Putin admits Kremlin gave Wagner nearly $1 billion in the past year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

The Wagner Group is fully funded by the Kremlin and received tens of billions of rubles in public money over the past year, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, days after the paramilitary group’s aborted attempt at a coup.“I want to point out and I want everyone to know about it: The maintenance of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided for by the state,” Putin said at a meeting with officials from the Russian defense ministry, according to state-owned newswires TASS and Ria Novosti. “From the Ministry of Defense, from the state budget, we fully financed this group.”From May 2022 to May 2023, the Russian state paid more than 86 billion rubles (approximately $940 million) to the Wagner Group, Putin said. POLITICO was not able to independently verify that claim.This is the first time the Russian president has acknowledged publicly the group was funded by the Russian state.The Wagner paramilitary group, created in 2014 by the oligarch...

Canadian wildfire smoke clouds European skies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:06 GMT

The smoke from Canada’s devastating wildfires has reached Europe, but the Continent’s skies are unlikely to turn orange as happened in North America.The bloc’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said Tuesday that as the fires in Quebec and Ontario have intensified further, they sent a large plume across the Atlantic. The smoke arrived in Portugal and Spain on Monday and is expected to sweep across Western Europe and the British Isles until at least Thursday. But scientists said Europeans won’t see their skies turn a dramatic orange — as happened earlier this month in New York and other North American cities — or have to worry about choking on smoke. “It is important to note that long-range transport of smoke, such as this episode, tend to occur at higher altitudes where the atmospheric lifetime of air pollutants is longer, which means they are manifested more as hazy skies with red/orange sunsets,” CAMS said in an email...