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Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas has crashed the MVP race between A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart head into the playoffs this week as the top contenders to become the WNBA’s most valuable player.That’s no surprise. They are the two superstars on the league’s two “super teams” — the Las Vegas Aces (34-6) and the New York Liberty (32-8).But there is a third contender for MVP as well. Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas has played her way into the conversation, recording a league-record six triple-doubles in leading the Sun (27-13) to the No. 3 seed.Thomas is the first player in league history to record at least 600 points, 400 rebounds and 300 assists in a single season. She also set a league high with 27 double-doubles — including the six triple-doubles — and set a league record with 316 assists — 7.9 per game — despite playing forward.“She puts people in the right position. She finds people on the court and makes it easy for everyone out there,” said Sun guard DeWanna Bonner, who is also Thomas’...

AP Top 25 Reality Check: Alabama’s latest slip out of the top five continues a trend for Tide

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

So much about Nick Saban’s 17 seasons at Alabama represents unprecedented success in college football that even the slightest dip in performance is notable.For any other program, seemingly permanent residence in the top 10 of The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll going on nine consecutive seasons would be celebrated. For the Crimson Tide, it’s a sign of slippage.No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Michigan held their places atop the AP poll Sunday, with Florida State moving up to No. 3 and Texas vaulting into the top five at No. 4 after beating ‘Bama.The Tide dropped seven spots to No. 10, keeping its streak of consecutive appearances in the top 10 alive at 128. Look a little closer. From 2009-2020, the season of Alabama’s sixth and most recent national championship under Saban, the Crimson Tide appeared in the AP poll’s top five a jaw-dropping 88% of the time. Not only was that the best mark in college football over that span, but next best wasn’...

Trials of Canadian, U.S. uprising organizers show the limits of protest rights

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

Thomas Klassen, York University, CanadaThe trial has begun for two major leaders of the so-called Freedom Convoy that occupied parts of Canada’s capital in early 2022. Two organizers, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, are charged with mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.At the same time, in the United States, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill. Several others involved in that uprising have also received long prison terms.The trials and sentencing hearings connected to these events are being closely watched because they raise questions about the way citizens can express dissent and protest in democracies.Stoked by politiciansThe importance of the criminal trials — and in the U.S., the ongoing appeals process as well — extends beyond the fate of the people before the courts. The protests, and in some cases the violence, were partly in...

FDA approves new COVID vaccines

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved newly updated COVID-19 shots on Monday in an effort to give Americans some added protection ahead of a potential winter uptick in infections.Outside advisors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday will recommend who should get the shots, which are manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Once the CDC director signs off, the shots will be available to the public. "Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, on Monday. “The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. We very much encourage those who are eligible to consider getting vaccinated.”The updated shots were designed to target the XBB.1.5 vari...

84-year-old woman rescued after hunters find her car 800 feet into drainage

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — A woman was rescued thanks to the observant eyes of two hunters on Sunday morning after she reportedly drove off a ridge and into an 800-foot drainage area.On Sunday around 10 a.m., fifteen Bonneville County Search and Rescue volunteers, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office Backcountry deputies, Idaho Falls Fire EMS, and Swan Valley Fire responded to Skyline Ridge in Bonneville County after a report from the hunters that they had spotted a car in a drainage area about 800 feet down from the ridge.The hunters also told dispatchers an elderly woman was inside the car.According to Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Bryan Lovell, the driver, an 84-year-old woman, had driven off the ridge possibly early in the morning or the previous night.“They were able to get her out of there. She was too frail to get up the steep embankment,” says Lovell.Search and Rescue says the woman was relatively unharmed but she was transported by ambulance to E...

Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker suspended without pay amid investigation into reported accusation of sexual harassment

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

(CNN) — Michigan State University announced Sunday it has suspended head football coach Mel Tucker without pay, less than a day after USA Today reported he has been under investigation about alleged sexual harassment.Vice president and director of athletics Alan Haller said at a news conference Tucker is the subject of an ongoing investigation that began in December. An investigative report was submitted in July and a formal hearing will take place the week of October 5, Haller said.According to the USA Today report, published Saturday night, Tucker is alleged to have made sexual comments and masturbated while on a phone call with Brenda Tracy, an advocate and rape survivor.Tracy reported the call to the university’s Title IX office, USA Today reported. “The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” Tracy told USA Today. “It’s like he sought me...

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson was buyer who paid $3.5M for Theo Epstein’s Lakeview mansion

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson and his wife, Chicago Red Stars forward Mallory Swanson, in late August were the buyers who paid $3.5 million to buy a six-bedroom Lakeview mansion from former Chicago Cubs President Theo Epstein.A Georgia native who previously played for the Atlanta Braves, Dansby Swanson, 29, has been a key part of the Cubs’ success this season. He signed a seven-year, $177 million contract with the team in December, which was the same month that the couple married. Mallory Swanson, 25, has been with the Red Stars since 2021.In Lakeview, sources confirmed to Elite Street that the Swansons were the buyers who, through a trust, purchased the 7,000-square-foot brick and limestone mansion from Epstein and his wife, Marie. Epstein is now a Connecticut-based consultant for Major League Baseball, and he and his wife last year paid $11.9 million for a six-bedroom, 8,155-square-foot mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.The Swansons continue the Lakeview home’s...

Google’s search engine dominance is at the center of the biggest US antitrust trial in decades

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE (AP Technology Writer)The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway.The legal attack will swing into full force Tuesday in a Washington D.C. federal courtroom that will serve as the battleground for the biggest U.S. antitrust trial since regulators went after Microsoft and its dominance of personal computer software a quarter century ago.The 10-week trial before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to include potentially revelatory testimony from top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet, as well as other powerful technology companies. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who succeeded Google co-founder Larry Page in 2019, will be among the most prominent witnesses likely to testify. Court documents also indicate one of Apple’s highest-ranking executives, Eddy Cue, might be called to the stand.The case against Google mirrors the...

On Nutrition: Tips for kids’ school lunches

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

Barbara Intermill | (TNS) Tribune News ServiceBefore I ever dreamed of having kids of my own, I was a consultant for the New Mexico Department of Education in Santa Fe. My job? To make sure the schools in our state were meeting federal guidelines for feeding wholesome meals to kids.Then I had kids of my own, who often chose to take their lunch to school rather than buy it.That was when my knowledge of foods that can optimize a child’s health came face to face with getting my kids to eat those foods.If you’re one of those parents, a good starting place is to know what kids actually need nutritionally. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program is required to follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (www.dietaryguidelines.gov). The recommendations change every five years based on current nutriton research.Based on the 2020-2025 guidelines, five food components are required to meet a child’s nutritional goals: fruit, vegetables, gr...

Heat-related deaths are up, and not just because it’s getting hotter

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:50 GMT

Phillip Reese | (TNS) KFF Health NewsHeat-related illness and deaths in California and the U.S. are on the rise along with temperatures, and an increase in drug use and homelessness is a significant part of the problem, according to public health officials and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heat was the underlying or contributing cause of about 1,670 deaths nationwide in 2022, for a rate of about 5 deaths per million residents, according to provisional data from the CDC. That’s the highest heat-related death rate in at least two decades. Data from this year, which has been exceptionally hot in much of the country, is not yet available. The next-highest death rate was logged in 2021.Heat-related illness ranges from heat exhaustion, which causes heavy sweating and a rapid pulse, to heatstroke, which causes confusion, loss of consciousness, high fever, and in many of the severest cases even death. Heat-related illness can occur alongside and exacerbate other h...