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Pac-12 board meets Monday: Packed agenda includes media rights and legal affairs but no decisions expected

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

The number of realignment carnival barkers and basement-couch Twitterati with an opinion on the Pac-12’s existential crisis runs into the hundreds, if not thousands across the college football landscape.The number of people who know the details of the media rights negotiations and expansion strategy is probably closer to 15 or 20.Many of them will convene Monday in Seattle for the quarterly board meeting.The presidents and chancellors are not expected to vote on a media deal or expansion. Resolution on both matters likely will come in the late spring or early summer.In fact, the twin pillars of Pac-12 survival will share the board’s agenda with a litany of other issues, including updates on the Pac-12 Networks and on-field competition, plus financial and legal affairs.Legal matters alone could consume an outsized portion of the meeting, for there are headwinds on numerous fronts facing the conference specifically and college sports generally:— Former Pac-12 executi...

What went wrong for the Warriors in ‘disappointing’ season

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES — Steve Kerr examined the visitors’ locker room at Crypto.com Arena Friday night and saw tired eyes and disappointed faces looking back at him.The Warriors didn’t have enough this year, with their season coming to an end at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers, who defeated them in six games to advance to the Western Conference finals.There was obvious sadness amongst the Warriors, but many had already come to terms with the reality.“That’s probably where we should be,” a top-eight team in the league, Kerr said. “This is not a championship team.”The Warriors opened training camp eager to defend their title after an improbable climb back to the mountaintop last summer. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala had a fifth championship on their brain.“It’s mind-boggling to think that we have that opportunity,” Thompson said back in September. “We are going to seize it, I just ̵...

Youngkin signs law requiring stringent age verification for porn sites

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill Friday night that requires users to verify they are 18 years old through advanced verification methods to enter pornographic websites.He said this is in an effort to protect children from being exposed to adult content. Under the bill SB 1515, adult websites must require users to provide government-issued IDs, biometric scans or submit to age verification software.This new law is for websites where at least 33.3% of its content can be considered “material harmful to minors.”Earlier this month, a similar law was put in place in Utah. In retaliation, PornHub blocked all users in the state from accessing their content. Virginia also was warned by the porn industry that it could lose access to adult sites if the bill was signed.Critics of the bill say the legislation raises data privacy concerns while doing little to protect minors.The law goes into effect on July 1.Source

Curtis Strange returns to Oak Hill for PGA Championship with mixed bag of memories

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

Curtis Strange first began working as a golf analyst more than 25 years ago. His return to Oak Hill as part of the ESPN broadcast team for the PGA Championship will mark the first time commentating at a course where he won a major championship.That was only interesting until the two-time U.S. Open champion did the math. “There’s not a lot to choose from,” Strange said with a laugh.Even so, no other course brings such a mixed bag of memories.The strongest remains the 1989 U.S. Open, where Strange showed his mettle in the toughest test in golf by making 15 straight pars to take the lead, made his lone birdie on the 16th hole and became the first player since Ben Hogan in 1951 to win back-to-back.“It wasn’t so much what I did, it’s what others didn’t do,” Strange said.But then he returned to Oak Hill as a captain’s pick for the 1995 Ryder Cup. The Americans had a 9-7 lead and kept losing every match that reached the 18th hole. Strange had Nick Faldo beat u...

Roglic gains time on Stage 8 of Giro; Healy wins with solo breakaway

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

FOSSOMBORONE, Italy (AP) — Primoz Roglic launched the first significant attack of the Giro d’Italia in Saturday’s undulating eighth stage and gained 14 seconds on overall rival Remco Evenepoel.Ineos teammates Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas also rode strongly.Irish rider Ben Healy won the stage with a solo breakaway, while Norway’s Andreas Leknessund held onto the pink jersey despite losing a big chunk of time.Healy got into an early breakaway and surged ahead in the finale on the first of two ascents up the short but steep Muro dei Cappuccini climb, which featured gradients of up to 19%.The Cappuccini climb was also where Roglic burst into action on the second ascent with six kilometers to go.By the top of the climb, only Geoghegan Hart and Thomas were with Roglic, while Evenepoel was left behind, and Leknessund even further back.Leknessund’s overall lead ahead of Evenepoel was reduced to eight seconds, with Roglic surging up to third, 38 seconds back.“It’s a relief to ...

This tribe’s land was cut in two by US borders. Their fight for access could help dozens of others

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

For four hours, Raymond V. Buelna, a cultural leader for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, sat on a metal bench in a concrete holding space at the U.S.-Mexico border, separated from the two people he was taking to an Easter ceremony on tribal land in Arizona and wondering when they might be released.It was February 2022 and Buelna, a U.S. citizen, was driving the pair — both from the sovereign Native American nation’s related tribal community in northwestern Mexico — from their home to the reservation southwest of Tucson. They’d been authorized by U.S. officials to cross the border. But when Buelna asked an agent why they were detained, he was told to wait for the officer who brought him in.“They know that we’re coming,” said Buelna, who has made the trip for a variety of ceremonies for 20 years. “We did all this work and then we’re still sitting there.”Now, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is trying to change this — for themselves and potentially dozens of other tribes in the U.S. Tr...

Bayern closes in on Bundesliga, Union Berlin on Champions League

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Bayern Munich captain Thomas Müller scored on a rare start as they took another step toward a record-extending 11th consecutive Bundesliga title by routing Schalke 6-0 on Saturday.Bayern moved four points clear of Borussia Dortmund before the late game. Dortmund could restore the one-point gap by beating Borussia Mönchengladbach at home, while it must also maintain hope in Bayern dropping points in its final two games.Bayern next plays Leipzig and Cologne, while Dortmund plays Augsburg and Mainz for its last games of the season.Bayern missed a couple of good chances before Müller finally made the breakthrough in the 21st minute. Müller, who is captain while Manuel Neuer works on his comeback from a broken leg, was making his first start since April 22.Ten minutes later, Joshua Kimmich made it 2-0 with a penalty awarded through VAR after Cedric Brunner caught Jamal Musiala in the face with his arm. The Schalke defender was booked and Musiala showed no lasting damage.Ser...

Darlington Preview: Ross Chastain learning to handle role as NASCAR villain

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Ross Chastain thinks things went too far last week in punching Noah Gragson in the pits at Kansas.However, the NASCAR points leader says he feels more comfortable in his growing role as the Cup series’ reigning bad boy. Gragson confronted Chastain after a late-race incident and took a punch from Chastain before personnel broke it up. “I feel security stepped in about 10 seconds too quick,” Kyle Busch said Saturday. Expect blood pressure to rise this week at Darlington Raceway where the Goodyear 400 takes place Sunday. The track “Too Tough To Tame” has traditionally gotten drivers sideways both during and after the checkered flag waves. Chastain would prefer to talk out issues with rival drivers, but stood by his actions at Kansas. “I’m not saying that every time in a little bit different situation (I’m) going to react like that,” he said. “I want to talk to guys and have conversations, but last week was too far.” Chastain cleared...

Young refugees look to make move to Kingston

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

A pair of Afghani boys are hoping to call Kingston home with the help of local sponsors and the Anglican Diocese. Hadi and Hassan met each other at 12 and 13 respectively at a small refugee learning centre in Indonesia, resettling there after life in Afghanistan became dangerous for themselves and their families. The boys are both from the Hazara ethnic minority which puts them in danger of routine attacks from members of the Taliban, and the journey that has taken them to Indonesia has largely been undertaken to try to escape that danger. They’ve been living in a youth shelter since arriving in Indonesia in 2017 but now, as they turn 18, they are “aging out” of the shelter and left with virtually no future prospects available to them in the country. For the time being, they have been taken in by “Ms. Kailyn and Mr. Butch”, two teachers from Canada and USA respectively who have tutored the boys over the years and come to know them. While Indonesia as a ...

Russia appears to lose 4 military aircraft in Russian territory

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:31:25 GMT

Moscow appears to have lost four military aircraft in downings on Saturday in the Bryansk region of Russia, some 50 kilometers northeast of the border with Ukraine.Two Mi-8 military helicopters and two fighter jets — an Su-34 and an Su-35 — suffered crashes on Saturday, according to reports by Russian state media and pro-Kremlin bloggers. All crew members of the aircraft died, according to the reports.“Two Mi-8s, one Su-34, and one Su-25 were lost. Tragedy,” Russian propagandist Andrei Rudenko reported. “They were hit near the border of the Russian Federation and most likely with air-to-air missiles,” he said. The cause of the downings could not be confirmed. Russian authorities confirmed only one aircraft downing, of an Mi-8 helicopter near the village of Klintsy in the Bryansk region, and did not give a cause for the crash. Russian media outlet Readovka reported that the aircraft were shot down from the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine.Numerous videos posted to soc...