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Get to know Zacch Pickens: Q&A with the new Chicago Bears defensive tackle’s college coach

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

The Chicago Bears weren’t necessarily looking to double-dip at defensive tackle on Day 2 of the NFL draft. That’s just how it worked, and now they have a chance to rebuild the front with youth from the inside out.The Bears chose South Carolina defensive tackle Zacch Pickens with the first selection of Round 3 (No. 64), nine picks after selecting Florida’s Gervon Dexter. While it could appear redundant, veterans Justin Jones and Andrew Billings are on one-year contracts and without future options at the position, the Bears almost assuredly would have been signing or drafting tackles next offseason.Now there is hope Pickens and Dexter can develop alongside one another, not unlike what the Bears experienced with Tommie Harris and Tank Johnson in the 2004 draft.Pickens had a career-high 42 tackles for the Gamecocks last season with 2½ sacks, and his disruptive first step offers hope he can boost the interior pass rush.Jimmy Lindsey, South Carolina’s defensiv...

Column: Starting Christopher Morel in the minors this season calls other Chicago Cubs personnel decisions into question

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

Jed Hoyer is a man of few regrets, so it was no surprise the Chicago Cubs president didn’t second-guess his decision to send Christopher Morel to Triple-A Iowa to start the season.Recalled on May 9, Morel has hit .367 with nine home runs and 15 RBIs in his first 12 games after Tuesday’s 7-2 victory in the opener of a three-game series against the New York Mets at Wrigley Field.Morel’s seventh-inning homer extended his streak to five straight games with a home run — the first Cub since Sammy Sosa in 1998 to do that — and he’s the fourth player in major-league history with at least nine home runs in his first 12 games of a season. Only Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt, who hit 11 in his first 12 games in 1976, had more.That has made many Cubs fans wonder why in the world Morel didn’t make the opening-day roster in the first place.It’s a good question and one that hasn’t been addressed until now.But Hoye...

Advocates, teacher unions call for free school breakfast, lunch for Ontario students

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

Advocacy groups, teachers’ unions and food banks are calling on the Ontario government to provide a free breakfast and lunch program in schools across the province.In a letter to Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Children Minister Michael Parsa today, the collection of organizations say many children in Ontario are facing food insecurity that forces them to rely on food banks for their nutritional needs.The groups, including the Toronto Youth Cabinet, Food Banks Canada and the province’s four major teachers’ unions, say current student nutrition programs in Ontario are seeing increased demand but are not meeting the needs of students.The organizations say Ontario should provide a universal free school breakfast and lunch program to all students and guarantee that schools have sufficient infrastructure, resources and funding to deliver the meals.Feed Ontario, a collective of 1,200 direct and affiliate food banks and other organizations that work to address food i...

Russia’s Wagner boss says more than 20,000 of his troops died in Bakhmut battle

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the Russian private army Wagner says his force lost more than 20,000 fighters in the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, with about 20% of the 50,000 Russian convicts he recruited to fight in the 15-month war dying in the eastern Ukrainian city.The figure was in stark contrast with claims from Moscow that it lost just over 6,000 troops in the war, and is higher than the official estimate of the Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 troops between 1979-89. Ukraine hasn’t said how many of its soldiers have died since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.Analysts believe the nine-month fight for Bakhmut alone have cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, among them convicts who reportedly received little training before being sent to the front.Russia’s invasion goal of “demilitarizing” Ukraine has backfired because Kyiv’s military has become stronger with the supply of weapons and training by its Western allies, Wagner ch...

Super Typhoon Mawar passing over Guam as Category 4 storm with strong winds, rain

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Typhoon Mawar barreled into Guam as a powerful Category 4 storm Wednesday, pummeling the U.S. Pacific territory with high winds, heavy rains and a dangerous storm surge that swamped low-lying areas as residents hunkered down in homes and shelters.The typhoon’s center passed over the northern tip of Guam on Wednesday evening, the National Weather Service said. It is the strongest storm to hit the U.S. Pacific territory of over 150,000 people in decades.The weather service earlier warned of a “triple threat” of winds, torrential rains and life-threatening storm surge, and officials were bracing for “considerable damage” including non-reinforced concrete walls being blown down, fuel storage tanks rupturing and overturned cars.The weather service said the storm was a Category 4 “super typhoon,” meaning maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or greater.The storm’s center hit Guam around 9 p.m. Wednesday, which is Wednesday morning in the continental United Sta...

Japan to provide 100 military vehicles to Ukraine

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan held a ceremony on Wednesday marking its planned donation of about 100 military vehicles to Ukraine, as Tokyo seeks to provide equipment that can be of broader military use than its earlier shipments of helmets and hazmat suits. In a ceremony at the Defense Ministry at which two half-ton trucks were on display, Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino handed a document to Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky listing the three types of vehicles included in the donation.“We hope the invasion ends as soon as possible and peaceful daily lives return,” Ino said. “We will provide as much support as we can.”The donation, which also includes 30,000 food rations, comes as Japan’s government is seeking to ease its military equipment transfer policy under a new national security policy that allows its military a greater offensive role, in a major break from its post-World War II self-defense-only principle.While other countries have provided Ukraine with tanks, miss...

Polish ruling party wants commission to investigate Russian influence; critics fear witch hunt

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s ruling party is pushing for the creation of a commission which it says would investigate Russian influence. Critics view it as an attempt to create a powerful and unconstitutional tool that would help the party continue to wield power even if it loses elections this fall.A vote on the bill could come as early as Wednesday.Some fear the ruling party could use the planned commission to eliminate opposition leader Donald Tusk from political life. Tusk is the main opposition leader and the greatest threat to the ruling party, Law and Justice, as it seeks a third consecutive term in the vote expected in October.Opposition senators dubbed it “Lex Tusk,” using the Latin term for “law,” and rejected it earlier this month in the upper house, where they hold a majority. It now returns to the more powerful lower house of parliament, the Sejm, where the ruling party can usually muster a slim majority.The bill foresees the creation of a commission...

Bodies of 18 Afghan migrants who died while being smuggled into Bulgaria returned to Kabul

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The bodies of 18 Afghan migrants who died while being smuggled into Bulgaria were returned to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Taliban government’s Foreign Ministry said. Bulgarian authorities discovered the bodies in a secret compartment below a load of lumber in the back of a truck left on a highway not far from the capital, Sofia, in February.They confirmed all 18 had died of suffocation. A Bulgarian senior police official called the case the country’s deadliest involving smuggled migrants. Bulgarian authorities detained seven people in connection to the deaths.Borislav Sarafov, director of Bulgaria’s National Investigation Service, said the migrants were “pressed against each other like in a tin can” which had caused their slow and painful deaths. He described it as “an extraordinary human tragedy.”The ministry’s deputy spokesman in Kabul, Zia Ahmad Takal, said his government paid for the repatriation of the bo...

Target pulls some LGBTQ+ merchandise from stores ahead of June Pride month after threats to workers

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Target is removing certain items from its stores and making other changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise nationwide ahead of Pride month, after an intense backlash from some customers including violent confrontations with its workers.“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement Tuesday. ”Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”Target declined to say which items it was removing but among the ones that garnered the most attention were “tuck friendly” women’s swimsuits that allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts. Designs by Abprallen, a London-based company that designs and sells occult- and satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories, have also...

Editorial Roundup: Pennsylvania

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:59:05 GMT

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. May 22, 2023. Editorial: Ban handheld devices while drivingPennsylvania is the only state among its neighbors to permit the use of handheld wireless electronic devices while driving. It’s time for the commonwealth to ban this risky habit, too. Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe, has again introduced legislation to bring Pennsylvania in line with 25 other states — and safety recommendations — by banning driving “while holding or supporting any electronic wireless device.” The Senate Transportation Committee passed the bill, 13-1, setting up a bipartisan push to make the state’s roads safer.Distracted driving kills and maims. Fourteen percent of fatal car crashes involve cell phone usage. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that more than 3,500 people died needlessly in distracted driving incidents in 2021, up more than 20% from 2,800 in 2018. Cell phones are implicated in a smaller number of distracted driving accidents, but the Insurance In...