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Mikal Bridges: ‘Big confidence, big faith’ in Ben Simmons’ return from back injury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Mikal Bridges believes a Ben Simmons comeback arc is in store.In an appearance on the Podcast P show hosted by Los Angeles Clippers All-Star Paul George, Bridges said he’s “got big confidence, big faith” in Simmons, who has spent this summer rehabbing after missing the majority of his games in Brooklyn due to ongoing back issues.Simmons underwent a microdiscectomy for a herniated L-4 disk in May of 2022, a procedure known to have a recovery timeline in excess of a full calendar year. Bridges said on the Podcast P show he believes confirmation of an actual back injury was good for Simmons, who had become a punching bag for fans on social media angered by his decision to sit out an entire season with the Philadelphia 76ers.“I think his back was messed up, and him actually going through, getting X-rays and them telling him you had to get surgery, I think it felt good for him because I think people didn’t believe him,” Bridges said. “Because may...

Gretchen’s table: Summer fruit galette brings bright summer flavor

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Gretchen McKay | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)Summer desserts should look and taste exactly like the season: bursting with color and full of fresh, sunny flavor. The best ones are also super easy to make, with ingredients that are easy to find in either the supermarket or farmers market, and not wickedly expensive.My go-to when it’s warm outside is always a galette, a rustic, free-form pie that’s basically just pastry dough folded over a filling of fresh fruit mixed with sugar and a little cornstarch to thicken it. Not only is it a beautiful dessert, with the colorful filling peaking through the golden, buttery crust, but it’s super-forgiving for folks who wouldn’t normally attempt a double-crust pie, yet want something more elegant than a crumble.I used last-of-the-season strawberries and new-to-the-season peaches for this first galette of summer, along with fresh blueberries. But you can pretty much use any fruit that strikes your fancy — stone fruits like plums, cherries, nectari...

Twitter turning into X is set to kill billions in brand value

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Aisha Counts and Jesse Levine | Bloomberg News (TNS)It’s rare for corporate brands to become so intertwined with everyday conversation that they become verbs. It’s rarer still for the owner of such a brand to announce plans to intentionally destroy it.On Sunday, in the middle of a quiet summer weekend, Elon Musk decreed that Twitter’s product name would be changed to “X,” and that he is getting rid of the bird logo and all the associated words, including “tweet.” Musk’s move wiped out anywhere between $4 billion and $20 billion in value, according to analysts and brand agencies.“It took 15-plus years to earn that much equity worldwide, so losing Twitter as a brand name is a significant financial hit,” said Steve Susi, director of brand communication at Siegel & Gale.Musk, whose company has already declined significantly in value since he purchased it for $44 billion in October, announced the change on Saturday night. By Monday morning a new black “X” logo, designed by a fan over...

New Biden rule would make government websites and apps more accessible to people with disabilities

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration proposed new regulations Tuesday to make state and local government websites and apps for services like libraries, parking, transit and court records more accessible for people with disabilities. The new Justice Department rule would establish certain accessibility standards for websites and app-based services maintained by state and local governments, the White House announced. Those could include providing text descriptions for photos for the visually impaired who use screen readers, and captioning for government videos.Administration officials say such websites and government services have not been as accessible as they should be for people with disabilities, and that President Joe Biden was aiming to change that. Wednesday is the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.“President Biden has been completely clear that everyone in America has to be able to share in the benefits of technology,” said Arati P...

Congress considers easing regulations on air transport of donated organs

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Colleen DeGuzman | KFF Health News (TNS)What do kidney and pancreas transplants have to do with airplane regulations?Tucked into the hundreds of pages of legislative language to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration is a provision to change the life-or-death process by which human organs are flown commercially from donor to recipient.But where on the plane organs are stowed during flights has been a long-standing issue for organ procurement organizations.The sweeping measure, which is pending in Congress and faces a Sept. 30 deadline, aims to change regulations and move organs to the cabin from an aircraft’s cargo hold. Organizations managing organ transport consider it an opportunity to secure legislative relief from a system they say adds more hurdles to the task of shipping organs.It used to be that a member of a transplant team could take a packaged organ to a plane’s gate and hand it off to the aircraft’s crew, who would stow it in the cockpit or on the flight deck. T...

Bristol police: Brother of Aaron Hernandez allegedly ‘mapped out’ shootings at UConn, Brown University

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Dennis “D.J.” Hernandez, the brother of the former NFL star Aaron Hernandez who died by suicide while in prison on a murder conviction, was arrested last week after allegedly going to both the University of Connecticut and Brown University earlier this month to “map the schools out” for the presumed purpose of carrying out mass shootings, according to court documents obtained by the Hartford Courant.The 37-year-old former UConn wide receiver and quarterback was taken into custody last Wednesday outside a Bristol residence where police allege he threatened to kill responding officers and had to be tased. Two children in the home, ages 12 and 5, were safely evacuated and not harmed, Bristol police wrote in court documents tied to Hernandez’s arrest.Hernandez was arrested on charges of second-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace and second-degree failure to appear.The failure to appear charge he faces stemmed from a missed court appearance in New Britain Superior Court on ...

Judge blocks Biden administration’s policy limiting asylum for migrants but delays enforcement

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give President Joe Biden's administration time to appeal.The order from U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of the Northern District of California takes away a key enforcement tool set in place by the Biden administration as coronavirus-based restrictions on asylum expired in May. The use of a rule known as Title 42 allowed the U.S. to expel millions of people starting in early 2020 on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.“The Rule — which has been in effect for two months — cannot remain in place,” Tigar wrote in an order that will not take effect for two weeks.The new rule imposes severe limitations on migrants seeking asylum but includes room for exceptions and does ...

Block on Iowa’s strict abortion law can be appealed, state Supreme Court says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds can proceed with an appeal on a temporary block on the state’s new, restrictive abortion law, the Iowa Supreme Court said Tuesday.Reynolds announced her intentions to appeal last week and said it was “just a matter of time” before lawyers for the state filed the request, which they did Friday. The Iowa Supreme Court had to say whether the request could move forward.The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the measure to ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy during a July 11 special session, and the law went into effect days later, immediately after Reynolds signed it. The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood North Central States and the Emma Goldman Clinic launched a legal challenge and Judge Joseph Seidlin on July 17 granted their request to pause the law as the courts assess its constitutionality. Abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy while the new law is on hold.Reynolds is asking the state Supreme C...

Pete Davidson to do 50 hours community service after charge of driving into Beverly Hills house

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Pete Davidson has entered a diversion program to resolve a reckless driving charge for crashing into a Beverly Hills home and will perform 50 hours community service, authorities said Tuesday. The 29-year-old “Saturday Night Live” and “King of Staten Island” actor and comedian will likely do his community service with the New York Fire Department, where his late father worked, Los Angeles County prosecutors said. Davidson was seven years old when his father, Scott, a New York firefighter, died responding to the 9/11 attacks.Davidson pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor and was put in an 18-month diversion that also includes 12 hours of traffic school, an order to obey all laws and restitution that was not specified.When Davidson was charged on June 16, prosecutors called the March 4 crash a “serious collision.” No one was reported injured.Davidson’s latest show, “Bupkis,” debuted on Peacock in May, and he stars in the forthcoming film “ Dumb Money.”The Associated Press

Hugh Carter Jr., the cousin who helped organize Jimmy Carter’s ‘Peanut Brigade,’ has died

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:00 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Hugh “Sonny” Carter Jr., who helped organize the “Peanut Brigade” that helped elect his cousin Jimmy to the White House and later enforced the president’s frugal ways in the West Wing, has died. He was 80.The Carter Center, the 39th president’s post-White House organization for advocating democracy and fighting disease in the developing world, did not release a cause of death. Hugh Carter was among the many extended family members who campaigned alongside Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and their children early in the 1976 presidential campaign, when the Georgia Democrat was considered a longshot candidate. After Jimmy Carter won, he assigned Hugh Carter the task of curtailing waste among White House staffers. The job earned him the nickname “Cousin Cheap.” Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson and chairman of The Carter Center’s governing board, called Hugh Carter “crucial in my grandfather’s election” and, without referencing his old nickname, said his cousi...