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Wembanyama Winners: French star Texas-bound as San Antonio Spurs win top pick in most anticipated NBA Draft in decades

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

The San Antonio Spurs have won the No. 1 pick in the NBA's Draft Lottery, clearing the way for them to select French phenom Victor Wembanyama in June's draft.The Spurs were tied for the best odds to win the top prize in Tuesday's Draft Lottery. The Spurs beat out the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons, each having a 14% chance to win the top pick. Odds were not in the favor of Detroit, who had the worst record in the league but fell out of the top four picks.The NBA "flattened" lottery odds in 2017 in an effort to deter teams from intentionally losing games to better their draft odds, a practice known among NBA circles as "tanking."Despite reduced odds for the league's worst teams, there was no shortage of NBA franchises willing to spend a season in the muck for any chance to be the team to ultimately draft Wembanyama.The 7-foot-5 French center is widely regarded as the most dominant and high-upside NBA prospect since LeBron James. He's been on NBA Draft radar since his early teens...

Los Angeles Dodgers receive visit from Larry O'Brien trophy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed a special guest into the dugout this week. The Larry O'Brien Trophy, awarded to the winners of the NBA Finals, made a brief trip to Los Angeles as part of a nationwide promotional tour ahead of June's championship series.Videos and photos posted to Twitter showed Dodgers players Mookie Betts, Tony Gonsolin, Austin Barnes, David Peralta and Yancy Almonte posing with the NBA's highest honor. The Larry O'Brien Trophy has been touring the country in the weeks leading up to the NBA Finals. During its trip to Los Angeles, it also stopped for a photo op at the Greek Theatre and a meet-and-greet with the Jonas Brothers.It's not unusual for championship trophies to go on road trips to promote the league and its teams. The Stanley Cup, awarded to the winners of the NHL Championship, is the most famous professional prize to travel the globe.The L.A. visit comes as the hometown Los Angeles Lakers begin their Western Conference Finals series against the Denver Nu...

Man gets more than 2 years in prison for BB gun attacks on Pasadena Planned Parenthood

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

A 53-year-old man from San Bernardino County was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on Monday for repeatedly firing BB guns at a Planned Parenthood facility in Pasadena and illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, the United States Department of Justice announced early this week.  Richard Royden Chamberlin began his BB gun assault on the Pasadena Planned Parenthood health center in June 2020, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The attacks involved the 53-year-old firing BB gun pellets out the window of his vehicle, causing shattered windows at the clinic and scaring the staff at the facility.  In a March 2021 attack, Chamberlin again drove by the facility firing a BB gun, peppering the banners of the facility while it was open and receiving patients. A person seated on the front porch was nearly hit by the BBs.  Just two months later, in May, officers with the Pasadena Police Department stopped Chamberlin after another attack on th...

CCS, NCS golf championships: De La Salle wins another team crown

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

Four teams and a handful of individuals from the Bay Area News Group’s coverage area have advanced to the Northern California regional boys golf championships next week at the Berkeley Country Club.De La Salle finished first on Monday in the North Coast Section Division I championships at Foxtail Golf Course in Rohnert Park to capture its third consecutive team crown.The Concord school tied with Campolindo at 374 points apiece, but DLS won on tiebreakers. Amador Valley finished third, four strokes back.The top three teams and four individuals not on a qualifying team in both the NCS and Central Coast Section championships move on NorCals on Monday.Amador Valley’s Kush Arora captured medalist honors in the NCS finals, shooting a 65. He finished one stroke ahead of De La Salle’s Colin Keith and two in front of Foothill’s Brandon Knight.Knight and Mission San Jose’s Matthew Almajano (69) qualified as an individual for NorCals.Crystal Springs Uplands finished sec...

Missouri terminates emergency rule limiting trans care

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

By Margaret Stafford | Associated PressKANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri officials terminated the Republican attorney general’s emergency rule that would have placed limits on transgender care for minors and some adults.The move was announced Tuesday without explanation on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website. The website says: “This emergency rule terminated effective May 16, 2023.”The rule would have required adults and children to undergo more than a year of therapy and fulfill other requirements before they could receive gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery.Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment.Bailey’s move comes less than a week after the Missouri Legislature approved a ban on minors starting care. Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, is expected to sign that law.The ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit in late April seeking to block the rule, which woul...

Athletics shut down Mason Miller indefinitely with `mild’ UCL sprain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

OAKLAND — A’s top pitching prospect Mason Miller was diagnosed with a “mild” UCL sprain in his right elbow, and while the injury falls far short of a tear and the resulting Tommy John surgery, his absence could be a lengthy one.As much as the Athletics are hoping Miller can pitch again this season, there are no guarantees.Miller visited with Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas, the same doctor who repaired 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy’s right elbow and who has treated pitchers for years.“Basically it showed a little inflammation around the ligament, and we’re going to follow a conservative plan of care,” A’s director of sports medicine Brian Schulman said Tuesday before the A’s hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Coliseum. “He will start throwing when he’s asymptomatic and we’re going to build him back up and get him back out there when he’s safe.”Miller last pitched on May 7, reported some sorenes...

Elizabeth Holmes loses final bid to delay imprisonment

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes on Tuesday afternoon lost her final bid to stay out of prison while she appeals her fraud conviction and sentence.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a one-page ruling denied Holmes’ attempt to overturn her trial judge’s decision on her incarceration date.Late last month, two days before she was to surrender herself for imprisonment, Holmes asked the appeals court to reverse U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila’s order that she surrender herself for imprisonment April 27, arguing that Davila made “numerous, inexplicable errors” when he denied her attempt in district court to delay her incarceration.That request bought her some extra time, but the Ninth Circuit, which is hearing her appeal, said in its ruling Tuesday denying her motion to stay free on appeal that Holmes had failed to show that her appeal of her conviction and sentence raises a substantial question of law or fact. It remains unclear when she must be...

Accused Los Gatos party mom to fight charges that could lock her up 17 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

The infamous “party mom” of Los Gatos, told that she would be sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison if she pleaded guilty as charged to furnishing liquor to her teen son and his friends and goading them into party hookups with drunk girls, opted Tuesday to take her chances at trial.Shannon O’Connor, 48, charged with child endangerment and sexual battery, has been jailed without bail since her October 2021 arrest stemming from accusations that she played teen party and romance broker for her son and his high school freshman friends.In an unusual move, O’Connor asked Judge Elizabeth C. Peterson last month to tell her what sentence she’d get if she pleaded guilty. The judge privately told lawyers in the case the sentence would be 17 years and four months and set Tuesday’s hearing for O’Connor to declare her decision.“It’s my understanding that Ms. O’Connor doesn’t want to avail herself of the court-indicated se...

Insólito: una gallina interrumpe el servicio del metro en la Ciudad de México

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO  — El metro de Ciudad de México, uno de los sistemas de transporte más grandes de América Latina, ha estado en las noticias en los últimos tiempos por accidentes, problemas de mantenimiento y por los cortes en su servicio. Uno de los últimos, debido a una gallina.“El Metro informa que personal de Transportación del organismo coordinó un corte de corriente para el rescate de una gallina, que se encontraba en la zona de vías”, indicó el sistema de transporte en sus cuentas sociales oficiales.Un video distribuido por el Metro el lunes mostraba a personal de mantenimiento y funcionarios de protección civil con cascos persiguiendo a la gallina por las vías con escobas, guantes y una bolsa de basura.El ave eludió varios intentos de captura antes de que un trabajador arrojara su abrigo sobre el animal que campaba a sus anchas por una estación cercana al centro de la ciudad. Choque de trenes en el Metro de la Ciudad de México fue sabotaje, según la Fiscal...

Supreme Court seat leads 4 judicial posts being decided in Pennsylvania primaries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:25:40 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania voters were choosing nominees for a seat on the state Supreme Court and three other statewide appellate judicial posts in primary elections Tuesday. Democrats currently hold a 4-2 majority on the state’s highest court, which is playing a prominent role in settling disputes over voting rights, abortion rights and gun rights in the presidential battleground state.Competing on the Republican ticket are Carolyn Carluccio, a Montgomery County judge, and Patricia McCullough, a judge on the Commonwealth Court, a statewide appellate court that handles cases involving government agencies or challenges to state laws.On the campaign trail, McCullough has repeatedly boasted of being the “only judge in 2020 in the presidential election in the entire country” to order a halt to her state’s election certification.McCullough was ruling in a Republican-backed post-election legal challenge that sought to throw out 2.5 million mail-in ballots — most cast...