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Michael Jordan’s decision to sell Hornets leaves some team decisions in flux

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The timing of Michael Jordan’s decision to sell his majority ownership stake in the Charlotte Hornets has left the organization in flux, with several looming key personnel decisions.The Hornets have the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft on Thursday night. They also have some difficult decisions to make in free agency in early July, including whether to re-sign embattled restricted free-agent Miles Bridges.With the NBA’s Board of Governors unlikely to approve the team’s sale to an ownership group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall until at least another month or two, the question becomes who’ll sign off on general manager Mitch Kupchak’s potentially franchise-altering decisions this summer?Will it be Jordan, a lame duck majority owner? Or will the new ownership have a major input? Jordan will remain on as a minority owner after the sale is approved, so he still has a vested interest in the organization.Bobby Marks, a front office insider for ESPN, said the timing o...

Juneteenth Music Festival, Parade in Denver attracts thousands

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- This weekend nearly 70,000 people are expected to attend the several Juneteenth celebrations in the metro. According to the Juneteenth Music Festival website, Denver is home to the Juneteenth Music Festival, an event that annually attracts tens of thousands of people. In 2021, Juneteenth was recognized as a commemorative holiday by Denver City Council the website stated. The festival will happen both Saturday and Sunday in the historic Five Points Neighborhood. It will all kick off with a parade starting at Manual High School. The parade will start at 11:00 am going from 26th Avenue on Williams St. to 26th Avenue on Welton Street. The festival's website gives background information on the holiday:  "Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.  Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texa...

50 million under severe storm threat Friday as one Texas town digs out after a deadly tornado

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

(CNN) — More than 50 million people across a large swath of the United States are under a severe weather threat Friday, one day after storms cut a deadly path across Texas, Florida and Mississippi.Three people, including a child, were killed in Perryton, Texas, when a ruinous tornado slammed the town Thursday, the fire chief told CNN. The storm also sent up to 100 people in the Texas Panhandle town to the hospital with injuries ranging from head wounds to abrasions, the Ochiltree General Hospital interim CEO told CNN.An 11-year-old boy, among the three killed by the tornado in Texas, was found dead in the neighborhood where he lived, Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher told CNN.One person has died after severe weather swept through Mississippi overnight, the Mississippi Department of Emergency Management said in a release. Preliminary reports show that more than 70 homes have been damaged.A person in Florida died after being trapped under a tree that ...

ISIS-linked rebel group attacks Ugandan school, killing dozens

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

Kampala, Uganda (CNN) — Armed rebels attacked a school in western Uganda, killing at least 41 people, mostly students, and abducting six others, Ugandan officials have said.Some were hacked to death with machetes while others died when their dormitories were set on fire, military spokesman Felix Kulayigye told CNN.About 20 members of the ISIS-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group attacked the Lhubirira secondary school late on Friday, according to Uganda’s military.The school is situated along Uganda’s border with Congo in the town of Kasese, and educates children between the ages of 13 and 18. Of the dead, 39 were students and two were from the local community, local officials said.Authorities were still trying to extinguish the fire by Saturday morning. The military suspects more dead bodies may be found, but said there was no one still alive trapped in the school.According to Kulayigye, there had been 62 people in the school during the attack.“We’re commiserating...

Donald Triplett, the first person diagnosed with autism, dies at 89

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

(CNN) — Donald Gray Triplett, the first person diagnosed with autism symptoms, died Thursday, according to his longtime employer. Triplett was 89.Triplett started working at the Bank of Forest in 1958 and was remembered as a “fixture” at the small Mississippi city bank that sits about 40 miles east of Jackson.“Every employee that has come through our doors since then, has fond stories and memories of him that we will treasure – looking enviously at his travel photos, having your picture taken by him as a new employee, a collection of trinkets & post cards given through the years, a nickname or number given when he met you, or even being shot by a rubber band,” the Bank of Forest said in a statement on Facebook.“Don was a fixture at the bank for almost 65 years, and he will remain a fixture in our hearts for years to come.”Triplett was identified as “Donald T.” in the 1943 paper “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact” by Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the...

Massachusetts State Police find body of missing Lynn man who called police from LYFT ride

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

State police found the body of a missing Lynn man Friday night who was last known to have entered a rideshare vehicle on Sunday after leaving a party in Chelsea, a state police spokesman said.Divers recovered the body of Dickson De Los Reyes, 24, in marshland, identified as the Rumney Marsh Reservation, along the highway shortly after 8:30 p.m., a state police spokesman said in a statement.Police said De Los Reyes got into a LYFT rideshare vehicle at 3:42 a.m. on Sunday. The LFYT ride was terminated just before 4 a.m. on the same night. De Los Reyes’ cell phone number dialed 911 just after the LFYT ride was terminated, according to police.“The call disconnected and several attempts to call the number back by police were unsuccessful,” a state police spokesman said.Police said the call was made from the area of the American Legion Highway in Revere and attempts to determine the phone’s location “had negative results, suggesting the phone is off.”De Los Reyes was described as a Hispan...

California man who groped women on flight sentenced to one year of probation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

A federal judge sentenced a California man Thursday to one year of probation after prosecutors said he touched two women on a redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, court records show.Prosecutors said Jairaj Singh Dhillon, 43, of Modesto, Calif., touched a woman on her thigh about 30 minutes into a May 2022 flight as she was tending to her infant child next to her in the window seat. He then “reached his hand deeper into her groin area,” court documents said.“When the first victim swatted his hand away and called for help, the female passenger across the aisle — who was sitting next to the first victim’s husband — stood up in the aisle to allow the first victim’s husband out, only to be groped in the groin and buttocks by Dhillon,” federal prosecutors in Boston wrote in court documents.But Dhillon’s public defender said his offenses were a “complete aberration in a life otherwise defined by respect and concerns for others.” Dhillon built a life in the United States over 22 years ...

How 'burn scars' could create disaster during monsoon season in Southern California

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Monsoon season began in the Southern California this week and the National Weather Service is bringing awareness to the possible impacts of debris flows in the region.As the seasons shift, monsoon weather patterns are more likely to occur. When it comes to areas in the US Southwest, monsoonal flow draws in warm, moist air from Mexico that then produces periodical thunderstorms from mid-June until the end of September.NWS says these weather events can cause bouts of heavy rain that then creates flash flooding. In areas that have "burns scars," or terrain with scorched soil and vegetation caused by wildfires, this flooding can bring notorious debris flows. Monsoon Season begins in Southern California The burned soil can be as water repellant as pavement, according to NWS, so chaos could occur during periods of high intensity, short duration rainfall. This is especially true for steep sloped area with "burn scars." Under the influence of gravity, NWS says masses of left...

Collapsed stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia to reopen within 2 weeks, governor says

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The collapsed stretch of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia will reopen within two weeks, Pennsylvania’s governor said Saturday, after joining President Joe Biden on a helicopter tour over the critical stretch of highway closed to East Coast traffic since last weekend.“We are getting it done here in Philly,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a briefing at Philadelphia International Airport after the flyover that included members of Congress and the city’s mayor.Biden outlined the substantial initial federal commitment and longer term support for a permanent fix for the vital roadway. “I know how important this stretch of highway is” to Philadelphia and the Northeast Corridor, he said. “Over 150,000 vehicles travel on it every day, including 14,000 trucks. … It’s critical to our economy and it’s critical to our quality of life.’’Shapiro, offering a timeline that would be welcome news to commuters and long-haul truckers alike, said with Biden at his side...

Highway safety agency reports power problems in 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SUVs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:19 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Multiple U.S. owners of Hyundai’s popular Ioniq 5 electric SUV have complained of completely or partially losing propulsive power, many after hearing a loud popping noise, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Saturday.The agency said in a notice posted online that it received 30 complaints about the problem in 2022 models, of which it estimated 39,500 were on U.S. highways.The Office of Defects Investigation at the NHTSA has opened a preliminary investigation and says Hyundai indicated in an initial review that a power surge was damaging transistors, preventing vehicles’ 12-volt battery from recharging.A Hyundai spokesperson did not immediately respond to phone and email queries from The Associated Press asking if the complaints might lead to a service recall. Technical problems accompanying automakers’ growing global rollout of electric vehicles to fight climate change have included battery recalls because of the potential for fir...