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Are Jalen Carter or Peter Skoronski options for the Chicago Bears at No. 9 in the NFL draft? 4 questions facing GM Ryan Poles.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

Ryan Poles is just four days from his second draft as Chicago Bears general manager. The three-day event is crucial for the Bears as they continue rebuilding their roster, starting with the No. 9 pick.As Thursday night’s first round approaches, our team of writers weighs in on four key topics.1. The possibility of the Bears drafting Jalen Carter at No. 9 is ____.Brad Biggs: Intriguing — if he’s on the board.That likely would mean a handful of teams ahead of them removed the Georgia defensive tackle from their board. Personnel men have said all along that based on tape, Carter is potentially the most dominant player in the draft. They also have said it’s easy to see the difference between plays where Carter is at 100% and when he’s, in essence, taking plays off. As one former GM told me, throw on tape of the elite interior linemen in the NFL today and you don’t have to look too hard for examples of them not necessarily playing at maximum effort. Bu...

Chris Perkins’ final NFL mock draft: Who will be Miami Dolphins’ selection at No. 51?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

The Sun Sentinel’s third and final 2023 NFL Mock draft has Dolphins columnist Chris Perkins going until pick No. 51, the Dolphins’ first selection this year. Trades, which are sure to happen, are factored into this mock draft, similar to Dolphins writer David Furones’ mock draft but unlike Perkins’ initial mock draft. The NFL draft is Thursday-Saturday in Kansas City.1. Carolina Panthers (from Chicago): Bryce Young, QB, AlabamaThis remains a tough choice between Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, but I’ll give the Panthers the guy believed to have the higher football IQ.Top needs: QB, Edge rusher, ILB2. Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud, QB, Ohio StateStroud likely remains the No. 2 selection here even though there’s talk that the Texans like Kentucky’s Will Levis.Top needs: QB, Edge, WR3. Tennessee Titans (mock trade with Arizona): Anthony Richardson, QB, FloridaThere’s chatter that veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill is on the tradin...

4 fake Patriots draft trades, featuring Jerry Jeudy, a new cornerback and top-10 pick

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

The surest bet during the NFL Draft does not involve a player, pick or position.It’s a coach, Bill Belichick, picking up the phone and finalizing a trade.The Patriots are annually among the most active teams in the league come draft weekend, moving up and, often, down the board to maximize what they believe to be the best possible value from each class. Belichick has often traded back in the first round, but it’s been five straight years he’s moved up on Day 2. What will the Patriots do next?Weighing their current needs and 11 scheduled draft picks, here are four potential Patriots trades heading into the draft:Trade upPatriots receive: 10th overall pick, third-round pick (No. 94)Eagles receive: 14th overall pick, third-round pick (No. 76), fourth-round pick (No. 117)If the Patriots move up in the first round, it will be more of a hop than a jump.Here, Belichick is motivated to leap the offensive line-needy Titans and Jets, who could nab an elite tackle at 11th or ...

Probe ordered after shots fired at errant Instacart driver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida prosecutor has ordered an investigation after a homeowner fired shots into a couple’s car when they mistakenly turned onto his property while making a late-night Instacart delivery. Police closed the case without consulting the state attorney’s office.No one was injured by the gunfire in an upscale Fort Lauderdale suburb, but it is the latest in a spate of similar shootings across the U.S. where people have mistakenly turned onto the wrong property or gotten in the wrong car. One person has been killed and others seriously wounded. In this case, the shooter told police the car was being driven erratically, struck his leg, and made him fear for himself and his son. Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor issued a statement saying police investigators never contacted his office about the April 15 shooting in Southwest Ranches that put at least two bullets into the car driven by 19-year-old Waldes Thomas Jr., who was with his 18-year-old ...

Watchdog: World military spending up to an all-time high

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Global military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2.24 trillion, with a sharp rise in Europe, chiefly due to Russian and Ukrainian expenditure, a Swedish think tank said Monday.Spending globally increased by 3.7% in real terms, but military expenditure in Europe was up 13% — its steepest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said in a report. Military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia “strongly influenced many other states’ spending decisions.”The independent Swedish watchdog said that last year, the three largest arms spenders were the United States, China and Russia, who between them accounted for 56% of global expenditure.‘The rise “is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,” said Nan Tian, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program. Several states significantly incre...

Kenya president says cult deaths akin to terrorism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenyan President William Ruto said Monday that the starvation deaths of dozens of followers of a pastor in the south of the country is akin to terrorism.He said the pastor, Paul Makenzi, who is in police custody belongs to jail and not to any religion.“Mr. Makenzi … pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact he is a terrible criminal,” Ruto said.Makenzi was arrested on suspicion of telling his followers to fast to death in order to meet Jesus. A group of emaciated people were rescued alive, but some of those later died. Authorities then turned their attention to dozens of apparent shallow graves on Makenzi’s land.The total death toll now stands at 47, with 39 bodies exhumed over the weekend, said a statement from the Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, who is visiting the area.The Kenya Red Cross Society on Sunday said 112 people had been reported missing at a tracing desk set up at Malindi, where the pastor’s main church was located.Ruto...

Moscow court rejects appeal from cafe bombing suspect

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A suspect in a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger had her appeal rejected Monday by a court in the Russian capital.Moscow City Court turned down Darya Trepova’s appeal against her arrest on charges of involvement in the April 2 bombing that killed Vladlen Tatarsky and injured 50 others at a St. Petersburg cafe. It upheld a lower court ruling that ordered Trepova to remain in custody for two months pending investigation.Tatarsky, 40, an ardent supporter of the Kremlin’s military action in Ukraine who filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines, was killed as he led a discussion at a riverside cafe in the historic heart of Russia’s second-largest city. Trepova, a 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident who was seen on video presenting Tatarsky with a statuette moments before the blast, was quickly arrested. Russian media reported that Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the statuette but didn’t know what was i...

9 teenagers injured in shooting at prom after-party in Texas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gunfire at a huge prom after-party at a home in Texas injured nine teenagers, and a second shooting in a nearby city is being investigated for a possible connection, officials said.Sheriff’s deputies in Jasper County, in East Texas, arrived in the wee hours of Sunday at a home where about 250 people were partying, authorities said. They found nine victims with gunshot wounds that didn’t appear to be life-threatening, according to a statement by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.Eight people were taken in personal vehicles to Jasper Memorial Hospital, and at least one of them was transferred to a hospital in nearby Beaumont, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Karli Cherry said. One person did not go to the hospital, she said. A second shooting within the city of Jasper occurred shortly after the first, the statement said. There were no injuries in the second shooting, but a connection is being investigated because of a “common vehicle ...

Hundreds of migrants reach Italian isle; 20 reported missing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

ROME (AP) — Taking advantage of the return of calm seas, migrant smugglers launched a score of boats from Tunisia at the weekend, and their passengers reached a tiny Italian island by the hundreds. A body was found in one of the boats, Italian news reports said, and passengers said many other people from that boat were missing.Dozens of the migrants sat Monday morning near Lampedusa’s port awaiting transfer to the island’s overcrowded shelter or eventually to Sicily or the Italian mainland. Earlier Monday, a fishing boat off Lampedusa aided a distressed migrant boat that contained 34 survivors and a body, the Italian news agency ANSA said. Survivors reportedly told rescuers that some 20 fellow passengers were missing from the boat that had set out from a Tunisian port on Saturday night.On Sunday, with seas calm after four days of rough conditions, a total of 640 migrants reached Lampedusa, while 179 migrants stepped ashore from four boats early Monday. In many cases, Italian c...

Editorial Roundup: Texas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:50:00 GMT

Austin American-Statesman. April 21, 2023. Editorial: House bill rewards companies at expense of our schoolsAfter the Texas Legislature allowed a controversial corporate property tax rebate known as Chapter 313 to expire last year, House Speaker Dade Phelan vowed lawmakers would return to Austin this year with a better plan to lure big business to the state.The new version would be more transparent and allow for more accountability and oversight than Chapter 313, Phelan said, referring to the now defunct program designed to attract companies to Texas in exchange for school property tax breaks.Instead, with little more than five weeks left in the legislative session, the House is contemplating passing something worse — House Bill 5, a less transparent and potentially far more costly tax incentive program than Chapter 313, which forfeited tens of billions of dollars in school property taxes in order to lure new businesses to local school districts. Supporters of HB 5, including numero...