Gleaming concrete sleepers run across a new railway bridge in Kenya, the latest stretch of a Chinese-built line from the coast all the way to Uganda. Only, it doesn't quite reach the border. Instead, the railroad ends abruptly by a sleepy village about 75 miles west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the tracks laid but unused. Construction of what was intended to be a flagship infrastructure project for Eastern Africa was halted earlier this year after China withheld some $4.9 billion in funding needed to allow the line's completion. Beijing's sudden financial reticence appeared to catch the governments of Kenya and Uganda off guard: Both may now be forced to reinstate a colonial-era line in a bid to patch the link and boost regional trade. The reason for China's attack of cold feet may lie in the project's high profile. Chinese state media repeatedly used the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project as a showcase for President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative. But with concerns rising globally that Belt and Road was loading poorer nations with unsustainable debt, Xi signaled in April that Beijing would exert more control over projects and tighten oversight. That extra rigor is beginning to be felt worldwide. A planned light-railway system that was the most high profile belt and road project in Kazakhstan is on hold after the collapse of a local bank that handled Chinese funds. In Zimbabwe, a giant solar project hit a funding shortfall after the Export Import Bank of China backed out of providing financing due to the Zimbabwean government's legacy debts, RWR Belt and Road Monitor reported this month. Kenya's line may be next. The Chinese "are adopting a more cautious approach to their debt exposure in Africa," said Piers Dawson, a consultant at London-based investment consultancy Africa Matters Ltd. He cites "increased noise around its sustainability and potential default." China is now the single largest financier for infrastructure in Africa, funding one-in-five projects and constructing every third one, according to a Deloitte report. With infrastructure needs that the African Development Bank estimates at $130 billion to $170 billion yearly, governments are only too willing to take out Chinese loans to plug the funding gap. Related video: How China's Belt and Road Initiative could impact Africa (provided by CNBC) The downside is that Kenya was one of three African countries identified in a March 2018 report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development as at risk of debt distress as a result of its Belt and Road participation. The others were Egypt and Ethiopia. "China has its own issues it's dealing with, including perceptions that it is 'trapping' many of its Belt and Road partners by drowning them in debt," said Jacques Nel, an economist at NKC African Economics. China's government has "put the brakes on its external expansion plans, or has at least become more focused on the viability of projects due to its own corporate debt concerns," he said. The first half of the Kenya-Uganda railway, a 470-kilometer (290-mile) stretch between the port city of Mombasa and Nairobi, is operational but not yet making money. Beijing balked at funding the extension to Uganda amid concerns it may be a step too far beyond viability. Kenya and landlocked Uganda had coordinated their plans for the new railway to reduce transport costs and the time it takes to move goods from the coast across each country and further into the eastern and central Africa hinterland. Yet with the realization that China may not release more funds, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has given the go ahead to link the line to a narrower-gauge railway that's over 90 years old. Uganda, which had banked on Chinese funding too, has decided to refurbish the colonial-era line on its side of the border. But that still means shouldering more debt at a time when the International Monetary Fund is urging spending restraint. China is already Kenya's biggest external creditor, with some 22% of the country's external debt as of December, according to Treasury data. The situation doesn't bode well for Kenyatta's legacy, which he was building around the railroad as the nation's single-biggest investment since Kenya attained self-rule over five decades ago. Knowing that alternative and probably more expensive debt could further widen Kenya's deficit, Kenyatta is courting private investors to build the link between the new and old railroads. Uganda will meanwhile include the $205 million needed to rehabilitate its old tracks in the budget, but hasn't said how it plans to raise the funds. Back in 2013, when Kenyatta asked Beijing to fund the railway, a condition was that China supply the constructors. Export-Import Bank of China financed the $3.6 billion line to Nairobi, China Road and Bridge Corp. built it, and China Communications Construction Co. was picked as the operator. Revenue from the railway is supposed to repay the loan, but critics say the cost was too high and it won't turn a profit for a long time. They point to southern neighbor Tanzania, which in 2016 canceled $7.6 billion in Chinese funding for a 2,200-kilometer railway and contracted Yapi Merkezi Insaat Ve Sanayi of Turkey and Portugal's Engenharie and Construcao Africa to build a shorter line at roughly half the cost per kilometer. Beijing's tighter scrutiny of Belt and Road projects comes as China shifts the program away from low-cost loans onto a more commercial basis involving its private sector. Clearer rules for state-owned enterprises and building overseas auditing and anti-corruption mechanisms were among other steps floated by officials at the time of the Belt and Road Forum in April. China supports the Kenya railway project but requires a reasonable and sustainable financing plan, according to a person involved with the project. Because China now requires high-quality projects and a more thorough feasibility study, the process of approving loans has slowed in general, but it doesn't mean the project is terminated, said the person, who asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak publicly. Related parties in the Chinese government and banks are still deliberating financing options, the person said. China's Ambassador to Kenya, Wu Peng, was asked in May by local newspaper the Daily Nation about expectations President Kenyatta's visit to China that month would secure funding for the missing section of the railway, to Kisumu by Lake Victoria. "I really don't know where those expectations came from," Wu was cited as saying.


The Sacramento Kings have hired Nancy Lieberman as an assistant coach on George Karl's staff.


Kourtney Kardashian reveals she dreams of getting out of the spotlight, plus more celebrity news for May 23, 2019. Kourtney Kardashian would gladly stop the cameras from rolling on her life Kourtney Kardashian still sounds shocked "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" has had the success it's had even all these years later. "I just didn't really think about it. I never thought it was going to become this thing, but everything just happened so quickly from when we shot the sizzle reel or whatever. It got green lit straight away," she says in Paper magazine's new cover story. She's even considered getting out of the spotlight   and not just for a vacation. "I always say I want to move away someday and just be away from it all. Sail away," she muses. "No one will ever see me again...I keep throwing up different places, but then I'll go there to visit and I'll be like, 'Nope, this isn't it, but glad I came.' We've just been to Finland. And I was like, 'Check, it's great for me to visit, but I'm not going to move there.' Maybe Norway. Switzerland? I've got a lot of ideas." Asked how she'd feel if there were no cameras in her life suddenly? "I would be very happy," she says, "...I would be very happy." Kim Kardashian files to register a trademark for her son's name It should probably come as no surprise that the newest member of the Kardashian-Jenner family may very soon be generating cash for the family, thanks to his famous name. The Blast reports Kim Kardashian West , who welcomed her fourth child, Psalm, with husband Kanye West , on May 17, filed on May 18 to trademark the name Psalm West for 16 different products. Among them are hair accessories, clocks, baby carriers, baby clothes, bath linens and home furnishings, according to the website. Kim's little sister, Kylie Jenner, recently filed to register a trademark for "Kylie Baby," for a baby clothing and accessory line, presumably named in honor of her daughter, Stormi. Jennifer Garner offers great -- and funny -- life advice to grads at her alma mater Last month, Jennifer Garner delivered one of the best April Fool's jokes of the year when she showed off her alleged memoir, "Bless Her Heart," complete with a forward written by her therapist. When she returned to her alma mater, Denison, in Ohio, last weekend, to accept an honorary doctorate, she gave grads a speech that was similarly endearing -- and self-effacing. After joking about her grammar problems and thanking the faculty for helping her have "a life of adventure and fun and the tools to deal with more than I could have ever imagined," she shared tips for the students as they moved on to the next phase of their lives. They weren't all your typical, deep thoughts-type tips, either. "First don't walk down the Grand Canyon to see what it looks like from the bottom. It's great from the top - you should do that. But when you get to the bottom, it's just a big hill, and it's a pain in the a-s to climb back up," she cracked, according to the Daily Mail . "We know, vaping smells like maple syrup or pineapple or cotton candy, whatever it is. But now that you're going to be adulting, it's not cute - just don't do it," she continued. Other words of wisdom included: "Nothing looks better in your 50s than sunscreen in your 20s;" "when it comes to Halloween costumes, go funny over sexy (why would dress like a flirty nurse when you could be a mailbox?);" and some more serious advice including, "mixed signals are not mixed signals -- they're a no." She went on to urge the soon-to-be grads to "impose self-discipline around" reading from a book on your bedside table, [being] in charge of your consumption of social media. And [fostering] a sense of humor about yourselves because otherwise, you run the risk of being boring." She continued: "If you're a woman and - pardon me for being binary for just a second. The stage has been set. The world is yours to grab. Go out and get it, girl. Finally, stay close to your friends from college. You've just spent four years hanging out with them. That history is invaluable. Work friends, you talk to them about work. Lovers, you talk to them about love and dinner reservations. But friends from college, you can talk to them about everything and you can do nothing with them and still be happy." Before leaving, she added: "My friends from Denison mean the world to me, have gotten me through everything possible. And without them, I wouldn't know any Republicans." Millie Bobby Brown declares herself a 'Mother of Tortoises' Eleven's a mom! Well, sorta. When Millie Bobby Brown stopped by "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" this week, she told Jimmy and the audience that Steve Irwin's son, Robert, helped her adopt a "husband and wife" team of pet tortoises, according to the Daily Mail . With two mystical creatures in her life, she said, she felt like a "Game of Thrones" character, joking, "I'm a Mother of Tortoises!" The 15-year-old, who met Robert and Bindi Irwin while she was shooting "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" in Australia, said she told someone she met at the airport about her new four-legged pals. "I overheard this young girl was going to miss her graduation," Millie explained, saying two flights had gotten mixed up. "So I asked if she wanted to travel with me and she did." The "young girl," by the way, was in the "Tonight Show" audience. She was also presumably older than Millie - turned out she was trying to get back to the Big Apple for her graduation from Columbia University. Tori Spelling and her daughter take on Jennie Garth and her daughter in a kitchen showdown When the "Beverly Hills, 90210" reboot hits FOX in August, there's a good chance we can expect the same friendship chemistry between Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling the two shared on the original show. Jennie, now 47, and Tori, 46, proved that recently, when they teamed up with their respective daughters, 12-year-old Fiona Facinelli and 10-year-old Stella McDermott, to compete on Gordon Ramsay's "MasterChef Celebrity Family Showdown." The challenge involved cooking a meal made of ingredients from the other team's fridge in 45 minutes -- no small effort, given the fact Jennie and Fiona's groceries were all pretty much vegan, while Tori and Stella's involved meat, cheese and eggs. "I don't know how to cook meat," said Jennie, looking horrified (according to the Daily Mail ). "Mama, what is this?" Tori asked Jennie at one point. "Is it ... 'futter'? Faux butter?'" After settling on English pea purée risotto (Tori and Stella) and New York strip steak with fingerling potatoes and blanched green beans in a mushroom sauce (Tori and Fiona), the actresses paused for a rose cause and told their daughters to handle things for a minute before they jumped in. They maybe should have stuck with the booze, judging from the famously mean celebrity chef-host's aghast responses to their various moves. Ultimately, though, the judges congratulated Jennie and Fiona on making a "beautifully rendered" meal. They also said it was "cooked with aggression," though, which might be why what was described as Tori and Stella's "master class in making risotto" finally won. The prize was $25,000 for the charity of Tori and Stella's choice. They opted to donate to Girls, Inc. Jennie, meanwhile, knew it wasn't over quite yet, admitting, "We're never gonna hear the end of this ..." Busy Philipps teams up with the ACLU in its campaign against abortion restrictions Busy Philipps isn't done with her fight against restrictive abortion laws. On Thursday, May 23, the ACLU announced Busy will appear in a pro-choice ad campaign on shows on MSNBC and CNN in response to the new wave of anti-abortion legislation, according to The Hollywood Reporter . Busy's been credited with starting the #YouKnowMe hashtag that's inspired thousands to share their abortion experiences over the past month -- more 87,000 were shared on Twitter alone. "You know me. You know someone like me," Busy says in the ad. "I had an abortion. It was my decision. Today, it's my right. But states are trying to take that right away by taking on Roe v. Wade, and Trump is making it possible. He's appointing anti-choice judges on the federal courts and the Supreme Court. The ACLU is fighting to stop abortion bans and restrictions in Alabama and in 13 other states. Join us. Speak up. It's no time to sit on the sidelines." The ACLU is currently suing Ohio over its six-week abortion ban, a law that will prevent women from getting an abortion at a time when many if not most would have no way of knowing if they are pregnant. The organization is also suing Kentucky over its "fetal heartbeat" bill and plans to go after Georgia and Alabama for their similarly restrictive bills. LuAnn de Lesseps ordered back to prison LuAnn de Lesseps has been ordered to return to prison after failing an alcohol test, according to Us Weekly . Citing local Palm Beach, Florida reports, the tab says the order landed on Thursday, May 23, about a month after she failed the test, thereby violating the terms of her probation stemming from her 2017 battery, trespassing and disorderly intoxication arrest. It seems the judge was concerned she "wasn't taking her probation seriously," according to Us. "Per her New York Probation Officer, [she had] an alcohol test conducted on 04/21/2019. [Luann] admitted to drinking 2 glasses of mimosas after a performance she had in Chicago," the court documents stated. Other paperwork indicated that in spite of having attended two rehab programs in 2018, she skipped the outpatient treatment option after the second because she planned to tour her "Countess and Friends" cabaret and believed "that increased participation in AA meetings would suffice." Speaking to Us in March, she said she takes her alcohol struggle "day by day." "I do the best that I can do," she said at the time. "I get on the stage and that keeps me busy and it keeps me focused on my cabaret, and I get to put my creative energy into that and it keeps me out of trouble. I'm just doing yoga and taking care of myself and hanging out with less people that are prone to partying." As of last week, she was fighting claims she'd violated her probation. Dionne Warwick isn't convinced Beyonce is an icon just yet Dionne Warwick's been in the music industry for nearly six decades. With her new release, "She's Back," she's proved she's still got it, too. So how does she feel about todays biggest music stars, including Beyonce in 2019, who's been hailed as an icon since she released "Lemonade?" She's cautious. "Not yet," Dionne told Essence . Asked specifically about Bey, Dionne continued: "Watching her grow has been quite refreshing. It's wonderful to see how she's been able to create what and who she wanted to be and who she is...very proud of that, I really am. Now, sustaining and becoming a big icon? That Gladys Knight, or Patti LaBelle, or Johnny Mathis, or Frank Sinatra, or Sammy Davis Jr. is? I doubt that. And I love her to death and can appreciate her talent. But that iconic status? It's a long road." Hayden Panettiere's boyfriend could face jail time after domestic dispute Hayden Panettiere 's new boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, has been charged with one count of domestic abuse, according to Page Six . The tab reports he could face up to four years in prison. Brian was arrested on the battery charge after the two reportedly got into a fight in Los Angeles that he allegedly started. According to Page Six, police saw marks on Hayden that suggested she'd been injured by Brian. World's oldest record store refuses to sell Morrissey's albums due to political allegiance Given his album release plans this week, Morrissey may not have chosen a great time to back the controversial, far-right political party, For Britain. Founded by Anti-Islam activist Anne Marie Waters, the party says it wants to reduce "Muslim immigration to the UK to near zero and 'bring the entire EU' project down,'" according to Wikipedia. Now, Wales Online (via Page Six ) is reporting the self-professed world's oldest record store, Spillers, has refused to sell Morrissey's albums. "I'm saddened but ultimately not surprised that Spillers is unable to stock Morrissey's releases any longer. I only wished I'd done it sooner," said owner Ashli Todd. Morrissey's new album of covers, "California Son," is due out Friday, May 24.


New Hampshire officials are considering having the family of an 80-year-old hiker cover the costs of his hours-long rescue mission, saying he was unprepared to hike in dangerous weather. They are also weighing criminal charges after two family members left the man to hike alone. James Clark was found Thursday night on Mount Washington in New Hampshire in a fetal position and showing signs of hypothermia "to the point of not being able to speak any clear or discernible words," the New Hampshire Fish and Game said in a press release . Clark, of Dublin, Ohio, was attempting to climb Lion Head Trail in Sargent's Purchase with two family members when they left him behind, officials said. The family members summited Mount Washington without Clark and then descended down a different trail. They became worried and called rescue personnel around 7:45 pm. on Thursday when Clark had not reached the summit. The family members told authorities that Clark did not have overnight gear and was not carrying a cell phone or light. Temperatures on the summit were below freezing with a wind-chill of 12 degrees Fahrenheit, officials said. Rain and dense fog led to icy conditions. New Hampshire Fish and Game Lt. Mark Ober said Tuesday that Clark was not prepared to make the hike in those weather conditions and was not wearing proper clothing. Ober told the Associated Press that his agency may recommend to the attorney general's office that Clark's family pay the cost of the rescue mission. The cost of the mission has not yet been determined. Fish and Game Major Dave Walsh told the New Hampshire Union Leader that criminal charges are also possible because Clark was left to hike alone and his family members did not go back to check on him. "That may be something that we look at when we ask the attorney general about the negligent hiking," he said. "They should have been better prepared in terms of equipment and clothing and never should have left him alone. I don't know his physical shape, but he's 80 years old." Clark was found late Thursday night on the Lion Head Trail. He had to be changed into dry clothes and placed in a sleeping bag for warmth, the Fish and Game agency said. "Three rescue personnel continued to keep Clark warm and alive as volunteer rescuers were called to assist in the life-saving event," the agency stated in its press release. Another rescue team reached Clark around 1:15 a.m. on Friday and carried him almost two miles to a road, where he was then taken by ambulance to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. Fish and Game Conservation Officers, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue Team all assisted in the rescue. Clark told the Union Leader that the family members he was with were his grandsons, ages 19 and 14, and they had planned for the two teenagers to hike at their own pace and let Clark catch up later. He said they had done that before while hiking in New York and Vermont. "If anybody's at fault, it's definitely me and not those boys," Clark said. "I'm the one who has insisted that they go ahead. So any negligence was on my part."


Due in part to injuries, Champ Bailey didn't look like his normal himself during his final season with the Denver Broncos in 2013. Age caught up to Bailey and - seemingly for the first time in his career - he struggled in coverage. That was nearly seven years ago and although Bailey appears to still be in great shape, he knows his playing days are well behind him. "I do not think I could still play," Bailey said during a conference call with reporters Monday. "I could probably play in a game or two and play pretty good. But I could not go through the grind that those guys go through every week. There's absolutely no way my 41-year-old self could do that. "People think it's just easy to go back out there, but I think a lot of people have proven everybody wrong that it's not that easy. You can't just get up off the couch and go out there. These guys are professionals, and I have a lot more respect for the game." Bailey was voted into the team's Ring of Honor on Monday and he will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August. He's perfectly content to talk about his career in the past tense. Bailey, a 12-time Pro Bowler, will go down as one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history and as the best cornerback in Broncos history. MORE: 7 reasons the Warriors are winning another title no matter who they play in the Finals Magic Johnson confirms rumor that Lakers want to sign Kyrie Irving Wall Street Journal's Golden State Warriors Scoop Is Big, If True 5 reasons Saints should be favorites to sign Gerald McCoy Injury to Reuben Foster could help Chiefs, Redskins strike a deal


Leading privateer LMP1 teams Rebellion Racing and SMP Racing are predicting a close battle for 'best of the rest' in the Le Mans 24 Hours behind the dominant Toyotas. Despite the efforts of the FIA and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest to bring the Toyota TS050 Hybrids and the non-hybrid LMP1s closer together through its Equivalence of Technology formula, it's clear it will take serious misfortune to hit the overwhelming favourites for SMP or Rebellion to even get a sniff of a challenge for outright honours. Even if the Russian and Swiss teams could equal Toyota's one-lap pace, the Japanese brand's faster pitstops, longer stints and better traffic management with the help of its hybrid boost are once again expected to yield an advantage of several laps over a 24-hour period. If Toyota manages to stay out of trouble, it will be up to SMP and Rebellion to provide the real fireworks in the top category. Both teams were relatively evenly-matched in qualifying, with especially SMP having made significant steps with its BR Engineering BR1 challenger since last year. In qualifying SMP driver Egor Orudzhev handed his team a third place on the grid with a best effort of 3m16.159s, just two tenths quicker than Rebellion's Gustavo Menezes. #10 Dragonspeed BR Engineering BR1: Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley, Renger Van der Zande, #3 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-13: Nathanael Berthon, Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent Photo by: Marc Fleury Marrying its turbocharged AER power unit to an aggressive low-downforce package, the two Dallara-built cars are capable of reaching top speeds of over 350 km/h on the Circuit de la Sarthe's long straights, some 10km/h faster than Rebellion is capable of with even its upgraded, naturally aspirated Gibson power plant and refreshed aerokits. Rebellion's Andre Lotterer fears SMP's top speeds will prove to be a powerful weapon in the privateer battle, telling Motorsport.com: "Their turbo engine is pretty good. It's definitely a strength, we're lacking a bit there. "Hopefully there will be a good fight. The thing is, even if we have the same speed over a lap or even maybe a bit quicker, on the straights they have a benefit in traffic. We can easily be stuck longer behind an LMP2 car than them. That factor could be the difference." Rebellion is also facing reliability headaches after both its cars hit engine trouble during qualifying, throwing into question one area Neel Jani had identified as his team's main strong point against SMP ahead of the start of qualifying. "I did a 3m17s-low on a used set [of tyres]," Jani said of his qualifying effort. "So we knew we could go 16s-low, we could have challenged for P3, no doubt. "We never had issues with the engine, it's the first time. So now we have to find out if it's something [with the new spec] or not. For sure there's some head-scratching going on because it shouldn't happen." Read Also: Rebellion confident engine failures won't happen again #1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-13: Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani, Bruno Senna Photo by: Marc Fleury SMP's Le Mans veteran Stephane Sarrazin is pleased with the compromises the Russian team has made for its second attempt at Le Mans. "Rebellion look fast in the high-speed corners, we are faster on the straights," he said. "Le Mans is a compromise with the level of downforce you use, where you want to be fast. This year we need an easy car to drive but it will be very similar to last year, a good battle with Rebellion. "We were 9km/h quicker than Rebellion but it depends on the compromise. It's important to overtake the LMP2s on the straight to gain time." Sarrazin's rookie teammate Stoffel Vandoorne downplayed the top speed advantage of the BR1. "Of course it helps on the straights but it's a compromise on downforce", Vandoorne told Motorsport.com. "In the corners we can't follow as closely as we would have liked. The car feels pretty light there. I think it has its pros and cons." Lotterer is not surprised by SMP Racing's stronger progression over the 2018/19 WEC superseason, citing budget reasons for Rebellion's more modest pace of development. "If you look at the amount of power and fuel we're allowed, if you give those regulations to a factory team I think they could be quite quick," he said. #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1: Stéphane Sarrazin, Egor Orudzhev, Sergey Sirotkin Photo by: Alexander Trienitz "Whether it's chassis or engine systems or aerodynamics, I think we're pretty good but there's so much potential to be unlocked. You can't expect it from teams like SMP or us because it just costs a lot more resources for everything. "If they put a bit more resources into it, they can find big steps. We did also a big step with our aero package, so it's more adjusted for Le Mans, but we're also a bit limited with our resources. We would like to do more, but it's what we have." Sarrazin acknowledged the Dallara-built BR1 has been vastly improved since its Le Mans debut 12 months ago, but has also pointed at improvements within ART Grand Prix, which runs the two SMP Racing cars. The French superteam has a strong pedigree in single-seaters, but is still relatively new to sportscar racing. "We improved a lot since last year here," Sarrazin added. "We did a lot of development in the car, engine, aero, and chassis. We also improved the team, because ART was new in endurance and they learn quickly. We know each other and what we have to do, drivers and mechanics." #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1: Stéphane Sarrazin, Egor Orudzhev, Sergey Sirotkin Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt


Gennaro Gattuso has admitted he's still hopeful of a top four finish as his Milan side edged to a 1-0 win over Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Saturday night. Heading into the game Milan knew that a win would close the gap between them and Inter in fourth place to just one point with their cross-town rivals set to play on Monday night. YESSS! Another three solid points for the boys in Florence thanks to @hakanc10 's header / FINISCE QUI! I rossoneri espugnano il Franchi grazie alla rete di Calha #FiorentinaMilan 0-1 #ForzaMilan pic.twitter.com/BGaqcpQIWE   AC Milan (@acmilan) May 11, 2019 Milan started the better of the two sides and dominated the play in the first half, with Hakan Calhanoglu putting the visitors ahead courtesy of a glancing header from Suso's inviting cross just 10 minutes before half time. It had been fairly easy work for Gattuso's men in the first half, but Fiorentina came out for the second half a rejuvenated team. They peppered the Milan goal with chances and tested Gianluigi Donnarumma on a number of occasions, but the visitors were able to hang on and snatch a crucial 1-0 win. Speaking to the press after the game, via Forza Italian Football , Gattuso insisted he's still hopeful of his Milan side finishing in a Champions League qualification place, although also admitted he has some regret regarding his side's poor run of form in April which saw them drop out of the top four in Serie A . He said: "There's hope but also regrets. We were third and we dropped a few points. We have to prepare well for the next games and hope that football will give us some surprises. "We saw some during the week, so we have to be ready." The win keeps Milan's hopes of finishing in the top four alive, although they must rely on other results going their way if they are to climb the table. In the meantime Milan can only win their games, and they'll be hoping to make it three successive wins when they host an already-relegated Frosinone side at the San Siro next weekend.


The Ohio State Buckeyes open their 2019 campaign on Aug. 31 against Florida Atlantic, yet they still don't have their starting quarterback locked down. Although many have considered sophomore Justin Fields as the Buckeyes' starting QB heading into next season, head coach Ryan Day has made no such commitment to the Georgia transfer. Ryan Day on Ohio State quarterbacks Justin Fields and Gunnar Hoak: "Justin and Gunnar are going to compete like heck to win the job, but at the end of the day, it's going to come down to who can play the game."   Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) July 18, 2019 Fields has definitely locked up the spot as the favorite to start at QB for Ohio State next season, but that doesn't mean he's earned the job just yet. Recent senior transfer from Kentucky, Gunnar Hoak, will also compete for the starting spot as well. The quarterback position for the Buckeyes is wide open with the departure of Dwayne Haskins. Day has an important decision facing him for his first full year with the school. First-year Ohio State coach Ryan Day draws quite a crowd. pic.twitter.com/Bwl1iEALYR   Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) July 18, 2019 Both Fields and Hoak offer Ohio State a sizeable option at the quarterback position. Neither have had much playing time in their time at Ohio State or Kentucky, with Fields throwing just 39 passes last year at OSU and Hoak just 26 with the Wildcats. In either scenario, Day will have to start a quarterback with little experience. As he heads into next season with a 3-0 record as a head coach at Ohio State, Day has big shoes to fill replacing Urban Meyer . With preseason training just around the corner, Justin Fields and Gunnar Hoak will have to show out to earn the attention of Ryan Day and, hopefully, the starting role. Related slideshow: Ranking the 10 best college football mascots (provided by For The Win)


Jared Goff has improved by leaps and bounds since his rookie year in the NFL, going from being (wrongfully) labeled a bust in 2016 to making two consecutive Pro Bowls. He's earned the respect of his peers, too, and is viewed by fellow players as one of the best in the league. After debuting at No. 38 on NFL Network's Top 100 Players list last year, Goff improved his position in this year's rankings. He was voted the 32nd best player in the league for 2019, up six spots from a season ago. That's our quarterback! @JaredGoff16 | #NFLTop100 - Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) July 29, 2019 Despite a shaky end to the 2018 season, Goff still put up strong numbers. He completed 64.9 percent of his passes for 4,688 yards, 32 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions. His passer rating of 101.1 was the best of his career. If not for a disappointing performance in the Super Bowl and shaky outings against the Lions, Bears and Eagles at the end of the season, Goff likely would've been even higher on this list. But in those games, he had just one touchdown and seven interceptions. Entering 2019, Goff could take the next step toward becoming one of the five or 10 best quarterbacks in football. It'll take an MVP-type season, but after seeing what he did in the first 11 weeks of the season, it's not out of the question. MORE: Freddie Kitchens stopped practice to punish the Browns for a training camp fight Tom Brady disobeys Bill Belichick at practice, and suffers the consequences Emmanuel Butler starting to steal the show at Saints training camp Packers impressed with Rashan Gary's effort early at training camp Observations from Lions training camp, Day 4: injuries mount on defense


Providence's iconic Superman Building is included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual list of the nation's most endangered historic places. The 2019 list highlights 11 architectural and cultural sites the private nonprofit deems at risk because of neglect, development or other threats. The 91-year-old vacant skyscraper is Rhode Island's tallest building at around 430 feet (131 meters). Formally the Industrial Trust Building, it resembles the Daily Planet headquarters in the old TV show. Katherine Malone-France, the National Trust's interim chief preservation officer, says few buildings in Providence are as iconic or beloved, but the Superman Building has deferred maintenance needs after six years of vacancy. The National Trust says the list can mobilize support for preservation. This year's list also includes Nashville's Music Row and the National Mall Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. READ MORE: Superman Building makes national list of endangered places CHECK OUT WCVB: Get the latest Boston news, weather and sports online, anytime. Stay in the know with Boston's news leader   WCVB.


Jeffrey Gundlach is satisfied with the pitch he gave at the New York Sohn Investment Conference last month. Now, he's advising investors take profits and close out the trade. In early May, the co-founder and chief investment officer of DoubleLine Capital LP said interest-rate volatility could not possibly remain as low as it's been the past eight years. To turn a profit, he recommended investors employ a put-call straddle on the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF, known by its ticker TLT. In a tweet late Wednesday, he said it's time to cash out. Bond yields plummeted and interest-rate volatility spiked last month after trade talks between the U.S. and China fell apart. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's MOVE Index, which tracks Treasury volatility, rose nearly 50% in May and currently sits at the highest level in 2 1/2 years. Gundlach weighed in on the swift bond rally last week, too, tweeting that longer-dated Treasury price-action appeared to be consistent with a "blowoff momentum top." The yield on 30-year Treasury bonds fell from 2.9% to 2.57% in May, the biggest monthly drop in three years. As of 1:01 p.m. in New York, 30-year Treasury yields stood at 2.59%. --With assistance from Luke Kawa.


MADISON - Republican lawmakers writing the state budget are trying to cut a deal Thursday on road funding   an issue that has caused internal GOP fights for years. Their long-running differences on the issue have again flared in recent weeks. So far they haven't been able to come up with a comprehensive transportation plan, but leaders hope to have the Joint Finance Committee work out an agreement Thursday. The committee was to meet at 1 p.m., but had not started by mid-afternoon. Asked at 3:30 p.m. if the committee would still be able to meet Thursday, GOP Rep. John Nygren of Marinette   the co-chairman of the committee   said, "That's the hope." Subscribe to our On Wisconsin Politics newsletter for the week's political news explained. Republicans are split and none of them has publicly offered a detailed plan on how to fund roads for the long term. They have mostly ruled out raising the gas tax   as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has proposed   but some have talked of raising vehicle fees. If Republicans come up with less money than Evers, they likely would have to delay some projects. But they could also try to keep construction plans on track using money from other accounts or increasing borrowing. RELATED: Wisconsin Republicans appear nowhere near a deal on road funding RELATED: Wisconsin GOP isn't considering gas tax increase but may boost fees, Senate leader says Evers is seeking $624 million more in transportation taxes and fees over two years. Most of that   $530 million   would come from the higher gas tax, with the rest coming from higher truck fees and titling fees. The gas tax would go up by about a dime a gallon by 2021 under Evers' plan, from 32.9 cents a gallon to 42.5 cents a gallon. Craig Thompson, Evers' transportation secretary, this week said Evers is willing to compromise on transportation as long as Republicans agree to rely on a sustainable, ongoing increase that is paid by those who use the roads. RELATED: Wisconsin gas tax to go up by nearly a dime a gallon under Gov. Tony Evers plan RELATED: Tony Evers vetoes the GOP tax cut bill but plans to include his own cut in the state budget Spending substantially less than what Evers proposed could delay repairs on two-lane highways and the completion of the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee County, he said. Such a plan could also result in smaller increases for local governments to fix their roads, he said. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau said Republicans were considering raising annual vehicle registration fees by $10, from $75 to $85. That would generate far less than what Evers has proposed. Some Senate Republicans have called for using a one-time surplus to give $134 million to counties and towns for their roads. Their plan has gotten a mixed response and doesn't include any money for cities or villages. RELATED: GOP leaders say they aren't sexist; Evers' aide says they won't work with women on governor's team RELATED: Gov. Tony Evers says voters should 'connect the dots' on why Republicans won't meet with his female aides Republican lawmakers hope to complete the state budget before it is due at the end of the month. Evers can refashion it using broad veto powers that allow him to strike out words throughout the spending plan. If legislators don't get the budget done on time, the state will continue to operate on the terms of the current budget. The committee Thursday is to look at several issues, not all of them related to transportation. Buses and charging stations. Evers wants to buy buses and install charging stations for electric vehicles using $25 million the state is due from a national court settlement with Volkswagen over fraudulent practices with emissions control equipment. Under the agreement, the funds must be used to reduce emissions. Crime lab. Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul are seeking about $1.8 million to hire 17 more analysts at the state's crime labs and on digital forensic services provided to local law enforcement. The positions would be funded with a mix of tax money and fees paid by offenders. Health outreach. Evers wants to spend $1.1 million to educate people about health-care programs and assist people in signing up for insurance through marketplaces set up under the Affordable Care Act. Auditors. Evers wants to hire 36 tax auditors at a cost of $7 million over two years. The auditors are expected to generate $43.5 million in taxes that would otherwise go uncollected. Molly Beck and Lawrence Andrea of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley . Our subscribers make this coverage possible. Subscribe to the Journal Sentinel today and get a special offer at jsonline.com/deal. Top Headlines: On 75th anniversary of invasion, D-Day veterans recall 'all hell was breaking loose' Wisconsin Senate sends Gov. Tony Evers abortion legislation he has promised to veto Biologic medications for arthritis, psoriasis have flooded the market   and been linked to 34,000 deaths FOLLOW THE JOURNAL SENTINEL: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Republicans struggle to come up with plan to fund roads


SEATTLE, WA   King County is asking people and pets to avoid contact with water in the Duck Island area of Green Lake. The water in that area has tested positive for high concentrations of toxic algae. Water quality tests taken on June 24 were above state thresholds for algal toxin, although swimming beaches at Green Lake were not closed. Cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, produces toxins that can irritate the skin and even kill. In May, a dog died after swimming at Anderson Lake State Park near Port Townsend. The lake there has been closed multiple times in recent years due to toxic algae blooms. Duck Island is located in the northwest corner of Green Lake near the intersection of Aurora Avenue and West Green Lake Drive.


The Scheduling-ening that was promised has finally begun. After years of being asked to pay for full-priced tickets to half-assed games, fans began voting with their (whole) butts. They stopped showing up for the games that serve only to give the home team a win and the visiting team a check. The tickets were still sold in most cases, but concessions went un-bought and the empty seats gave athletic directors and coaches pause. They knew once the butt has opted out, the wallet that rests on the butt isn't far behind. Georgia dove headfirst into the breach. Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart professed a desire for three Power 5 nonconference games a year. Georgia which already plays Georgia Tech every year set up games with Oklahoma (2023 and 2031) , Clemson ('29, '30, '31, '33) , Florida State ('27 and '28) and Texas ('28 and '29). As Georgia announced the last of these matchups last week, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin hinted on Wednesday that the Gators who hadn't played an out-of-state nonconference game on another school's campus since visiting Syracuse in 1991 also were about to announce some home-and-home series against Power 5 opponents. There are a couple future @GatorsFB home-and-home series we are getting ready to announce … just waiting on some final contract signatures in the coming weeks #staytuned #GoGators 🐊🏈 pic.twitter.com/uNZyPbXDzq   Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) May 7, 2019 The next day, Florida announced a series with Colorado in 2028 and '29. That underwhelmed the Florida fans who wanted something resembling Georgia's list. But on Friday, Florida announced a series with Texas in 2030 and '31. This was met with the appropriate amount of glee, but fans who will be asked to pay actual money for a 2020 home schedule of Eastern Washington Kentucky South Alabama LSU Missouri South Carolina New Mexico State naturally wondered if there might be some interesting nonconference games outside of the Florida State series before everyone has flying cars. Stricklin says he's working on it. Working on it. Goal is to have at least 10 power 5 opponents each year. https://t.co/DRYCkN1YjX   Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) May 10, 2019 (Which would be one fewer than Georgia's stated goal. Not that anyone is keeping score other than everyone.) Hopefully, the rest of the Power 5 outside of scheduling all-stars such as Oklahoma, Texas and USC who should just keep doing what they've been doing will follow suit. It's just a shame that this can't start sooner. It wouldn't be nice to buy out of all the paycheck games that no one wants to see anyway to schedule more interesting games sooner, and this is a population that doesn't seem to mind paying buyouts. Still, I wouldn't bet on a wholesale philosophy change until after the 2026 season. What happens then? The first College Football Playoff media rights deal ends. And if the Pac-12 or the Big Ten champ (or both) keep getting omitted from the field, the aggrieved leagues are going to demand a format that actually allows them to participate. Georgia may be rolling the dice with a 2028 schedule that includes non-conference games against Texas, Florida State and Georgia Tech, but in 2028 going 11 2 against that schedule with an SEC East title (but a loss in the conference championship) probably would be good enough for an at-large spot in an eight-team playoff. It's frustrating to think that we'll probably have to sit through six more years of garbage nonconference scheduling before we get to the promised land, but it is fun to imagine what that future will look like. Let's take a trip through time to Sept. 6, 2031 when Florida travels to Austin to face Texas. What time is kickoff? They haven't referred to the start of a game that way since kickoffs were eliminated prior to the 2027 season because the people who run the game realized that an unsafe play that got more boring every year wasn't adding any value. So they replaced the kickoff with a play from a team's own 35-yard line. Most teams choose to punt. This is safer than a kickoff because players shadow one another down the field rather than crashing into one another with a 30-yard head of steam. It's also more exciting than a kickoff because more punts get returned for touchdowns. If a team wishes to keep the ball, it can try to gain 15 yards on that play. If it doesn't make the line to gain, the opponent takes possession where the play was stopped. Greg Schiano and I were only 15 years ahead of our time on this one. The game will be broadcast on Hulu, which bought the Big 12's Tier One broadcast rights following a ferocious bidding war against ESPN and Amazon in 2024. Hulu has been broadcasting Big 12 games since 2025, but that could change soon. Bleepblorp*, only a tiny startup when that eight-year Hulu deal was made, has surpassed Netflix as the dominant streaming service because of its proprietary compression capabilities. Once Bleepblorp proved to users that it would allow them to flawlessly stream a 6K movie over a 6G network and only use three MB of data on their wireless plans, the company took off. It had wisely spent its venture capital on a streaming library of beloved and semi-beloved old TV shows. For one month in 2029, Small Wonder was the most binged show in America. More venture capital poured in, and Bleepblorp began snapping up sports rights. While the NFL and NBA remained too savvy to confine their rights to one platform, the NHL and Olympics happily took Bleepblorp's money. In the meantime, college conferences realized they could make far more money by selling their rights together than they could selling them apart. As the Gators and Longhorns prepare to play, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey yeah, he's still there and Big 12 commissioner Chris Del Conte (watching the game he signed as the Texas AD) quietly confer about a plan for the power conferences to merge their rights following the 2033 34 school year. That's when the SEC's deal with ESPN expires, and any non-ESPN bidder would be happy to buy out the last two years of the ACC's ESPN deal. The goal is to force Disney/ESPN, FOX, Bleepblorp and anyone else who wants to bid to pay a premium for only a piece of the rights. Those will be split among several networks, as the NFL and NBA do. The only sticky wicket is the Pac-12, which still wants extra money to buy out its network. "Don't worry," Del Conte tells Sankey. "The Big 12 has a plan for our friends out west, just like they had a plan for us in 2010." *There is some controversy over how Bleepblorp acquired its compression technology. Rumors throughout Silicon Valley have pointed to the possible pillaging of always-in-crisis tech firm Pied Piper . The game is the first major test for new Texas coach Sam Ehlinger, who shot up the ranks in four short years following his retirement from the NFL. Texas had slipped after Tom Herman left during the great NFL Migration of 2023 who knew Kliff Kingsbury would win three Super Bowls after getting fired at Texas Tech? which also swept Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley, Baylor's Matt Rhule and Florida's Dan Mullen into the NFL. The Longhorns struggled for seven years, but then Texas leadership realized that the only way to bring Texas back was with the guy who brought Texas back the last time. Meanwhile, fourth-year Florida coach Lane Kiffin is feeling the pressure. Georgia coach Smart was on the verge of getting fired before he broke through and won the national title in 2025. Now he's won four more titles since, and he's forced Florida to burn through two coaches since Mullen left. Kiffin might be victim No. 3 if he doesn't have a big year and finally get a win in Jacksonville. They're planning for unusually tight security at the game because President Ed Orgeron plans to attend. Following Nick Saban's retirement from Alabama following the 2021 season to replace retiring Lee Corso on ESPN's College GameDay , Orgeron's LSU team won the next two national titles. In the midst of the 2023 title run, Orgeron was elected lieutenant governor of Louisiana even though he didn't actually campaign or appear on the ballot. He was so popular following the 2022 title and a convincing win against Florida the week before the election that 67% of voters wrote in his name on election day. Following a national title win against Oklahoma that January, Orgeron shocked the college football world when he announced his plan to serve in the office he had unexpectedly won. After the governor resigned in 2025 following a scandal in which he embezzled funds earmarked for the National Crawfish Museum, Orgeron was elevated to the state's top office. That's right. He was an interim governor. But that didn't last long. Orgeron kept the office following a landslide win in 2027, but he wouldn't stay in Baton Rouge long. Political operatives looking to launch a third party noticed his ability to build consensus and begged him to come aboard. By the time Michigan coach Matt Campbell raised the school's first national title trophy since 1997, Orgeron was in Iowa campaigning for the Tigah Party. Come November, the Democrats and Republicans never stood a chance. Franklin Roosevelt had Fireside Chats. President O has One Nation, One Heartbeat meetings. Once a week, he marches through the West Wing at 7 a.m. banging a massive drum. It is broadcast live on every news channel, and after more than two years of these sessions, a divided nation has begun to come together. What? Does all that sound too far-fetched? Until last week, so did the idea of Florida leaving the Sunshine State for a regular-season, out-of-conference football game on someone else's campus. A Random Ranking We took the kids to see Detective Pikachu on Saturday, and the nine-year-old has declared it his own personal Citizen Kane (at least until the new Godzilla hits theaters). So let's rank the top 10 Pokémon. 1. Mr. Mime 2. Pikachu 3. Blastoise 4. Mewtwo 5. Weezing 6. Geodude 7. Charizard 8. Dugtrio 9. Snorlax 10. Loudred Three And Out 1. Rest in peace, former Arizona and Hawaii coach Dick Tomey. Tomey died Friday at age 80 . He had been diagnosed with lung cancer in December. A man of integrity and passion who impacted the lives of so many. He always put others before himself. Coach Tomey's legacy goes far beyond the football field. Bear Down Coach! pic.twitter.com/lQmtbodkWt   Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) May 11, 2019 Aloha, Coach Tomey. ➡ https://t.co/eZXcRce4O6 pic.twitter.com/Kj8rpNy1IS   Hawaii Football (@HawaiiFootball) May 11, 2019 2. SI's Joan Niesen checked in on Wisconsin tailback Jonathan Taylor , who is spending this spring on the track. 3. In this week's transfer portal news, Florida's top-rated class of 2019 signee (DB Chris Steele) is already looking for a new school . Meanwhile, former Ohio State quarterback Matthew Baldwin plans to transfer to TCU . Also, former North Carolina tailback Jordon Brown is headed to Kansas State , where he'll be eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer. What's Eating Andy? I have many spoiler-y thoughts heading into the final episode of Game of Thrones , but I will share only one. (And I'll try to stay away from as many spoilers as possible, but just skip to the next section if that's an issue.) I haven't enjoyed the compression of character arcs during these past two abbreviated seasons, but I have no problem with the way a certain character went out during Sunday night's episode. This character, a complex man who flirts with redemption but who we know deep down is ultimately irredeemable because of his blind spot for a certain sibling, surrendered to his most basic need and got buried for it. It probably wasn't the death this character or the aforementioned sibling deserved, but it says something about how power can crumble quickly in the face of an unrelenting, innovative opponent. Sometimes characters don't get the deaths they deserve, but sometimes that undeserving death serves the story. In The Wire , Omar gets taken out not by a coordinated effort but by a random act of violence. One of the most important people in his world gets bumped off by a kid robbing a store and then reduced to a throwaway mention in a note from the night shift cops to the morning shift. That was completely intentional, and it helped tell the story David Simon was trying to tell. So it didn't bother me that two of the most important characters in the tale became just two more bodies in the rubble. Unlike many of the choices the showrunners made this season, that one served the story. What's Andy Eating? I'm pretty sure I'll never have a burger named after me, but during my last visit to Tuscaloosa, Ala., I realized I'm woefully underprepared should anyone ever bestow that honor upon me. Given my strong stances on nearly every culinary topic, it would seem only natural that I would have long ago mapped out my perfect burger. Alas, I have not. This thought hit me as I stared at the extensive custom burger menu at Dotson's Burger Spot . As I scanned the list of potential toppings, it occurred to me that I couldn't tell anyone what to put on the AndyBurger. Something else also occurred to me: This milkshake has a healthy amount of bourbon in it. Perhaps I should have waited until dessert for that splendid mix of salted caramel ice cream, bourbon, caramel syrup and whipped cream, but I couldn't resist. So I probably was in a bit of an altered state when I took my first crack at a signature burger. This attempt had a decidedly Mexican (New and Old) lean because I couldn't resist trying the ground chuck-chorizo patty. I topped it with house-made pepper jelly, pepper jack, a fried egg and bacon. I had all that wedged between two pieces of Texas toast because I'll always choose Texas toast if it shows up on a list of bread options. Would this be my burger if someone asked me to attach my name to it? I don't think so. Not because of the taste. The chorizo-chuck patty worked perfectly with the pepper jelly. The egg probably was overkill, but one can never have too much protein. The bacon always belongs. I'd recommend this burger to anyone, but as an occasional diversion not as your everyday, slap-your-name-on-it burger. So my quest to build my signature burger will continue. The trip to Dotson's allowed me to make two critical decisions. When it finally is created, the AndyBurger will have bacon on it. It also will be between two pieces of Texas Toast. Everything else is negotiable. I hope to add more ingredients as I travel around the country. But who knows? I may finalize the order on my next trip to Dotson's. It appears I do some of my best thinking under the influence of that salted caramel shake.


Tim Slade will move into Brad Jones Racing's wildcard chassis for this weekend's Townsville Supercars round. With his regular ZB Commodore damaged on the opening lap of Saturday's race in Darwin last month, BJR has opted to move Slade into a different chassis for the second leg of the northern swing in Townsville. The race winner will take over BJR-006, which was last raced full-time as a VF Commodore by Nick Percat in 2017, before being switched to ZB spec and raced as a wildcard by Jack Smith and Tim Blanchard this year. According to team boss Brad Jones, the switch has helped lighten a hectic work load between the last two events after all three of the squad's Holdens copped damage in Darwin thanks to qualifying shunts on the Sunday for Percat and Macauley Jones. Read Also: Townsville number change for Coulthard Mustang New ownership structure for top Holden Supercars squad Supercars tightens tyre rules for second parc ferme trial "It's no secret that all of our cars sustained a lot of damage across the Darwin weekend," said Jones. "With the travel and turnaround time between events, the pressure has really been on for the guys and girls in our team to do all the necessary repairs to the #14, #8 and #21 Supercars. "The team do an incredible job under that immense pressure on race weekends to get the cars back out for the next race. When we get back to the workshop, the repair work is a lot more detailed and the #8 and #21 cars had to spend a bit of time on the jig and in the production shop to ensure they were all fixed. "We basically turn the cars around to be like new again. "We wanted to spend a bit more time working on the Freightliner Racing Supercar, as we didn't feel we had enough time to check over it and make the repairs we really needed to. Whilst we're in Townsville, the team back home will spend the required time on it to ensure there are no niggling issues after Darwin." The Townsville weekend will see BJR celebrate a special milestone, the stalwart outfit set to notch up its 600th Supercars race start on Saturday. "It's not something my brother Kim and I set out to achieve, but a pretty big milestone to add to the record books," added Jones. "Hopefully we can have the opposite weekend to what we had in Darwin. Everyone works so hard towards the same goal so it would be great to see that hard work and dedication pay off with a podium finish this weekend."


DURHAM, N.C.   Moments after a North Carolina man pleaded guilty to gunning down three Muslim university students, a prosecutor played a cellphone video of the slayings in court Wednesday as one of the victims' relatives fainted, others wept and a man openly cursed the confessed killer. Craig Stephen Hicks, 50, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder more than four years after the February 2015 slayings and two months after incoming District Attorney Satana Deberry dropped plans to seek the death penalty in hopes of concluding a case she said had languished too long. "I've wanted to plead guilty since day one," Hicks told Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson. Hudson sentenced Hicks to three consecutive life sentences without parole, tacking on five more years for shooting into a building. Hicks burst into a Chapel Hill condo owned by 23-year-old Deah Barakat and fatally shot Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and the woman's sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19. At the time, Chapel Hill police said Hicks claimed he was provoked by competition over parking spaces at the complex where they lived. Relatives said the victims were targeted because they were Muslim and asked federal authorities to pursue hate-crime charges. Authorities later indicated they did not have sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute Hicks on hate crime charges, said Joe Cheshire, an attorney for the victims' families. He said officials couldn't overcome Hicks' initial explanation that the violence was provoked by a parking space dispute. Family members and prosecutors spent most of the two-hour hearing telling the judge that Hicks was motivated by bigotry against non-white people. Hicks showed off a handgun on his hip when he wanted to intimidate his Korean neighbor, a black remodeling worker and his eventual victims, said District Attorney Satana Deberry. An aggressive atheist, Hicks also expressed disgust for Christians and Jews. "You played into the hands of the worst of religious people   the fanatics, the radicals   who want to shred this world," Mohammed Abu-Salha, the womens' father, told Hicks in court. The killings were part of growing hatred toward Muslims, he said. The court was shown a videotaped confession. In it, Hicks told police that after grabbing his gun and extra bullets and pounding on his neighbors' door, he lost control when Barakat cursed him. "I did wrong. I overreacted," Hicks told interrogators. That account was contradicted by a cellphone video, shown in court, in which Barakat records his own death. The video rolls as Barakat approaches the door to record the exchange with his often-seething neighbor. He hoped it could be evidence for a legal restraining order to keep him away, Cheshire said. With the victims' parents and siblings watching, the video showed Hicks complaining Barakat and the Abu-Salha sisters were using three parking spaces. Prosecutors said that wasn't true. When Barakat responded they were using no more spaces than condo rules allow, Hicks responded, "You're going to be disrespectful towards me, I'm going to be disrespectful ..." Hicks pulled a gun from his waist and fired several times. The phone dropped. The sounds of women screaming can be heard, followed by several more shots. Then silence. Women wept openly in the courtroom and a young man cursed Hicks. Barakat's older sister, Dr. Suzanne Barakat, fainted. She later appeared at a news conference with family members and an attorney said she was OK. "In 36 seconds, Mr. Hicks executed three people," Assistant District Attorney Kendra Montgomery-Blinn said. Hicks said in his confession that after the women fell wounded, he shot both in the head at close range. Autopsy results confirmed his description. Barakat, a dental student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Yusor Abu-Salha had been married less than two months, and she'd just been accepted to the dental school. Razan had just made the dean's list at North Carolina State University. Barakat and the Abu-Salha sisters had cooked food for the homeless, worked to improve a poor Raleigh neighborhood and planned a trip to Turkey to help Syrian war refugees, Montgomery-Blinn said. Prosecutors and family members contrasted the academic and humanitarian work of the slain with Hicks. An ex-wife told prosecutors Hicks was fixated on the 1993 Michael Douglas movie "Falling Down," about a frustrated and unemployed white man who responds to personal and social dysfunction with increasing violence. Hicks' third marriage was disintegrating and he'd recently quit his job with an auto parts company in anger, Montgomery-Blinn said. Workers there described him as constantly playing computer sniper games, she said. Hicks listened attentively throughout, his hands shackled. Former U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand said Wednesday his office hadn't decided whether to pursue hate crime charges against Hicks when he resigned before the incoming Trump administration in 2017. The federal hate crime statute requires attorneys to consider the outcome of the state trial when pursuing such charges, he said. There was "no additional punishment he could have gotten that would have meant anything," Rand said. Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco declined comment on the hate-crime inquiry. Cheshire said the families were not happy with the lack of prosecution. "It hurt a lot of feelings and it added to the false narrative," he said. "Our government failed this family and our multicultural democracy."


Fire crews discovered a body and car Tuesday that had been buried under several feet of mud at the scene of a flash flood that overran a road in Los Angeles last week. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said that crews excavating the car off a road in Palmdale found the body. The man was found inside a Chevy van, according to KTTV. The discovery could be the first related death to a storm last Thursday that sent a wave of water rushing toward the Mojave Desert roadway. The flooding also mired more than 100 cars and trucks in tons of mud farther north on State Route 58 in Kern County. Crews carted away the mud and expect to clear those roads within 24 hours. KTTV reported that many witnesses called the city multiple times on Thursday about the car that flew off the roadway on M-8. Officials said they had to wait until the conditions were right to search for any missing persons. "When the fire department got on scene, the conditions were such that it wasn't safe for them to search directly in the area," said Los Angeles Sheriff's Lt. Victor Lewandowski. Police used a backhoe Tuesday afternoon to clean out the catch basin in Palmdale and found signs of a missing person inside. "You feel for the people," Katie Clawson, of Quartz Hill, told KTTV. "You feel for the people who maybe lost their loved one." Officials know the man's name, but the family doesn't want to release it, according to KTTV. Meanwhile, the search for a missing 67-year-old man swept away by the dangerous flood waters at the foot of the Tehachapi Mountains area was suspended after officials deemed the deep mud made the search too dangerous. Click for more from KTTV. The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Mike Emanuel reports from Capitol Hill


Aurora will see a return of last week's light rainfall today, tomorrow and later in the week, according to drone-powered weather forecasting service Saildrone . Today's forecast shows the highest likelihood of rain at 91%, with expected rainfall of 0.43 inches. The coming days will also bring warm temperatures, forecast to last through Sunday. Temperatures will reach a high of 82 degrees on Thursday. Skies will partially clear on Wednesday, remaining partly cloudy through Thursday. Winds will reach a modest high of 13 mph on Friday, while today and tomorrow will continue to be calmer. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


While franchises like the Clippers and Nets landed big wins in NBA free agency, there was a long list of teams that made major mistakes or sat on the sidelines. The Crossover focuses on the former, taking a deeper dive into the clubs that proved to be clueless at one of the most crucial times of the year. Rob Mahoney, Hornets The plans of most NBA teams are at least decipherable by a certain logic. The Knicks didn't get Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, so they signed the players they could to short-term deals with team options to keep somewhat flexible. The Magic committed quite a bit of money to maintain an iffy status quo, but in part because the franchise just enjoyed its first winning season in nine years. There's no such read on Charlotte. The problem with the Hornets isn't that they chose not to offer Kemba Walker the supermax (a perfectly understandable position) or that they let him get away (a matter that was squarely in Walker's control to begin with). It's that they knew those things and still refused to trade him when they had the chance. And worse yet: it's how they've chosen to replace him. There just isn't credible evidence that Terry Rozier is a starting-level point guard. Charlotte has ignored that in signing him to a sizable contract for that very job. Rohan Nadkarni, Wizards This is more of a lifetime achievement award for the Wizards than for anything wildly egregious the team did this summer. Over the last year, Washington has lost Otto Porter, Kelly Oubre, and Tomas Satoransky with basically no intriguing assets to show for them. Porter was traded for Bobby Portis and Jabari Parker, neither of whom are still on the Wizards. Satoransky this summer joined Porter on the Bulls on a reasonable, three-year contract. Oubre was traded for Trevor Ariza, and Ariza left this summer for the Kings . Basically, the Wizards have been losing all of their players without even a hint of promise and replacing them with uninspiring vets. Isaiah Thomas and Ish Smith will be the team's point guards in absence of John Wall. C.J. Miles is going to be the starting small forward. Thomas Bryant is back, and that's actually good, but does he really fit the timeline of everyone else here? Washington is going to be in a tough spot for a while because of John Wall's contract. The Wizards didn't have any easy, obvious paths this summer. But treading water with a veteran-laden team that didn't make the playoffs led by an interim GM doesn't exactly inspire confidence moving forward. Eventually, the Wizards are going to have to do something drastic to get themselves out of the hole they seemingly instead only continue to dig. Pretty much everyone besides Washington itself came to that realization long before this summer. DeAntae Prince, Knicks It feels bad to pile on, but the Knicks structured their entire team around this summer. With Zion Williamson entering the draft and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant hitting free agency, they appeared to be in prime position to pull off a major acquisition. It finally looked like they were taking a proactive approach and making themselves available in a summer filled with big-time free agents. The lottery didn't go the Knicks' way, which was out of their control, but that they came away from this completely empty-handed says a lot about this team and the perception around the league. Michael Shapiro, Magic Orlando's cap space has to go to someone, but the Magic's continued stockpiling of bigs is downright confusing. Nikola Vucevic's return may ultimately be for the best given Mo Bamba's disastrous rookie year, though the Al-Farouq Aminu signing continues to grow Orlando's glut of bigs. The open jumpers will be available far less often with D.J. Augustin instead of Damian Lillard. Pair Aminu and Vucevic with Bamba, Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon, and Orlando's roster construction remains among the league's worst. Jarrel Harris, Suns Seriously, do I have to explain? Devin Booker should wear Anthony Davis's "That's all folks" shirt during the first game of the season to show how much of a disaster this team is. They reached in the NBA draft and selected Cam Johnson at No. 11 and this free-agency period has been brutal, as they lost out on D'Angelo Russell and signed Ricky Rubio instead . The Suns also parted ways with Josh Jackson, who they took one pick ahead of De'Aaron Fox in the 2017 NBA draft.


The extreme diet phenomenon may offer clues on how nutrition can treat disease. At first, the cravings were like "a drug withdrawal," Jay Wortman recalls. Lying on a hotel bed in Ottawa one night, he'd had to white-knuckle his way out of eating Ferrero Rocher chocolates he'd spirited off a flight. A recent Type 2 diabetes diagnosis had prompted the Vancouver-based family medicine doctor to cut out nearly all carbohydrates   sweets, pasta, bread, even fruit   in an attempt to manage his blood sugar while he waited to start medication. But he couldn't stop thinking about those chocolates, or his favorite breakfast: waffles doused in syrup. "I think I was a full-fledged sugar addict," he says. Four months later, the sugar pangs had eased. He got through the early weeks by stocking up on artificial sweeteners and focusing on how much his 2-year-old son needed a healthy dad. With sugar off the table, he says, all that was left was "the non-carby foods"   bacon, eggs, steak, and vegetables. Soon, he started sleeping better and feeling less fatigued. Weight was coming off at the rate of a pound a day, until he was down 30 pounds and no longer overweight. "I had to get my pants taken in," Wortman says. "And then I had to get them taken in again." More than 16 years later and still following the ultra-high-fat, low-carb regimen that's become popularized under the name keto, Wortman has never taken a diabetes drug. He hasn't needed to. He feels stronger and is skiing the most ambitious slopes of his life. "At 68, I'm far fitter than I was at 52 when [my diet] started," he says. Transformation stories like his   and the thousands of seemingly hyperbolic claims of dieters losing dozens of pounds, complete with Instagrammed before-and-afters   have made keto the biggest diet phenomenon today. The most Googled diet of 2018 , it has eclipsed household names like Weight Watchers (now known as WW) and the other low-carb regimens, Atkins and Paleo. Keto is a Silicon Valley life-hacking fixation (see author Tim Ferriss's keto videos ), a Hollywood trend (see Kourtney Kardashian 's and Halle Berry 's keto journeys), and fodder for numerous online communities . Devotees can meet at low-carb keto cruises , keto conferences , and keto cafes . While there's no leading figurehead, a cadre of evangelists sell books and pseudo-medical supplements and devices to help dieters check whether they're truly in "ketosis," the holy grail fat-burning state keto dieters are after. Beyond all the hype, the chance that keto   a minimalist variation on the diet promoted by cardiologist Robert Atkins   can solve the obesity crisis is vanishingly slim. On average, low-carb diets look a lot like others when it comes to long-term weight loss : Most people can't stick to them . There's tremendous variation in how humans respond to nutritional and dietary tweaks, and let's not forget that the promises keto boosters now make are reminiscent of the overhyped claims that fueled the recent gluten-free craze. But how do you explain results like Wortman's? He expected that avoiding carbs would help manage his blood sugar in the very short term, not that his other diabetes-related symptoms   thirstiness, frequent urination, and blurred vision   would vanish. And he definitely didn't anticipate that the diet would allow him to control the disease long-term, without any medication. Keto might not be an obesity panacea , but it would be a mistake to dismiss the diet as just another fad, in part because of results such as Wortman's. Along with all the dubious keto supplements and the weight loss books has come a growing body of science exploring keto as a potential foil for Type 2 diabetes and other illnesses. It's part of a fascinating broader examination of how we might use nutrition to treat disease . "It's anti-establishment" Keto isn't just low-carb   it is practically no-carb. Its followers avoid ice cream and pizza, as well as whole grains, fruits, and legumes such as brown rice, apples, and lentils. No bakery-fresh bagels, homemade apple pie, birthday cake, or even juicy watermelon. But what people eat in America   and around the world   is carbohydrates . They account for roughly half the calories on average in the American diet, come highly recommended in national nutrition guidelines, and feature prominently in the traditional diets of everyone from pasta-munching Italians to rice-loving Indonesians. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization , of the world's more than 50,000 edible plants, "Just three of them, rice, maize and wheat, provide 60 percent of the world's food energy intake." All three of those staples are carbs. To follow a keto diet is to reject this culture and history. And while keto forbids processed junk foods   something common to just about every diet   it also severely limits the fruits, grains, and legumes suggested by the US Department of Agriculture as essential parts of a healthy diet. Keto adherents believe the conventional nutrition wisdom is not only wrong but actively harmful. This rejection of mainstream thinking helps explain why keto went viral at this moment, and why it's more than just a diet. It's a cultural identity. Take Wortman. He's been on two of Jimmy Moore's low-carb cruises , sailing across the Caribbean, downing steak after steak. His wife started keto shortly after he did and remains on the diet. He calls their daughter, who was born seven years into their keto lifestyle, "a product of a keto gestation." The diet didn't just change Wortman's life; it changed how he thought about medicine and nutrition. He believes there's a conspiracy by a "matrix of agendas" to promote a plant-based diet. The "whole fiber thing is a myth," he tells me. He also thinks the concerns about a meat-heavy diet's impact on the planet   that cows produce too much methane   are hugely overblown ( they aren't ), and that the link between cardiovascular disease and saturated fat has been "debunked" ( it hasn't ). In a time when black is white, up is down, and discussions of fake news dominate the news cycle, it's no accident that keto went viral, says Alan Levinovitz, a James Madison University religion professor who studies diet beliefs. "It's anti-establishment," mirroring other strains of rebelliousness in our politics, he says. He experimented with the carnivore diet (a form of keto) and says he experienced no health improvement. Americans are living in the aftermath of the low-fat experiment   where the public learned about guidelines and studies that have often been muddied by food industry interests. With its emphasis on fat, keto is the antidote to the Snackwell's era. You can gorge on butter and bacon and stay in ketosis. It's the perfect forget-everything-you-know-about-nutrition diet. A diet to heal disease? Keto's potential to heal has captured the imagination of people like Columbia University oncologist and author Siddhartha Mukherjee , who has been studying the diet's effects on cancer. "We are trying to steer clear of any diet crazes," he says. "For me, it's thinking of the diet as a tool or drug," one that may work when used in tandem with traditional cancer medicines in "a very particular population of cancer patients." Keto's effects on insulin and glucose levels   and how they may interfere with cancer cell growth   are what intrigue Mukherjee and other scientists. He's only tested the cancer hypothesis in mice. And he has other concerns, echoed by many in the medical field, including that keto may not be safe for the cardiovascular system since it can drive up cholesterol levels. Wortman, the keto evangelist, is gratified that other doctors are at least opening their minds to keto as a therapy, something he didn't expect to happen in his lifetime. After his high-fat and -protein diet controlled his blood sugar, he started reading about keto in Atkins's books and scientific papers and became convinced of its potency. The diet's potential for treating Type 2 diabetes is the aspect of keto that has long obsessed Wortman. More than a decade ago, he started lecturing on the subject at medical conferences, only to be lambasted. Other health professionals believed the high-fat regimen would damage people's kidneys, arteries, and brains. Wortman felt vindicated when, this spring, the American Diabetes Association came out with a consensus statement   intended as guidance for doctors across the country   suggesting a very low-carb diet could be a nutritional treatment option for some patients with diabetes. Today, Wortman prescribes keto to all his patients who have Type 2 diabetes. (The standard medical interventions include weight loss, exercise, medication such as metformin, and insulin therapy, as well as regular blood sugar monitoring.) He's even experimented with using the diet to treat northern British Columbia's aboriginal people, who are disproportionately diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Though he never published anything on the experiment in a scholarly journal, it was the subject of a 2008 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary . "People lost weight, improved their diabetes, and got off their medications," says Wortman, who does not profit from advocating for the keto diet. "The obvious failure of the conventional approach has also been getting too big to ignore," he adds. "I often say to my patients and colleagues now, 'What's the most important thing you do about your health? It's your diet.'" The burning question The reason for shunning sugars is that eating more than the equivalent of a slice or two of bread each day can knock dieters out of ketosis. Dr. Atkins reportedly liked to say that ketosis is "as delightful as sunshine and sex." (With his four-phase plan, he promised to help people "stay thin forever" by eating more fat and fewer carbs   the same way the now-popular Keto Reset Diet book promises to "burn fat forever.") To understand how ketosis works, consider how the human body uses fuel. On a typical high-carb diet, we're fueled primarily by glucose (or blood sugar), much of which we derive from carbohydrate-rich foods. When we eat a bagel or a bunch of grapes, for example, the glucose levels in our blood rise, and the pancreas secretes insulin to turn glucose into an energy source, moving it from the blood into our cells. But the body only evolved to store enough glucose to last a couple of days. So if we forgo eating carbs, it finds other ways to keep going. One of those ways is a process called ketogenesis. In ketogenesis, the liver starts to break down fat   both from food and from the reserves stored in our fat tissue   into a usable energy source called ketone bodies, or ketones for short. Ketones can stand in for glucose as fuel when there's a glucose shortage. Once ketogenesis kicks in and ketone levels go up, the body is in ketosis and burning fat instead of the usual glucose. (Whether this actually leads to increased calorie burn or fat loss is a matter of scientific debate.) There are a couple of avenues into ketosis. One is through fasting: When you stop eating altogether for an extended period of time, the body will ramp up fat burning for fuel and decrease its use of glucose (which is part of the reason people can survive for as long as 73 days without food). Another way to reach it is by making your body think it's fasting   by eating only about 20 to 50 grams of total carbs per day. At the low end, that's equivalent to a slice of bread or a small potato. People on a keto diet generally aim to get about 5 percent of their calories from carbohydrates in foods such as berries and salad, about 15 percent from proteins like salmon and sardines, and 80 percent from fats including coconut oil and avocado. And ketosis is a quantifiable state. Dieters can measure their ketone levels with blood tests, breathalyzers, and urine strips (with varying degrees of accuracy   blood tests are considered the gold standard for now). This data-driven aspect is part of what appealed to Ethan Weiss, a University of California San Francisco professor of cardiovascular research. Initially, he was skeptical when he was invited to consult for Virta Health , a company selling lifestyle counseling on ketogenic diets for Type 2 diabetics. A second-generation cardiologist, he says his family had "nothing that resembled fat in the house" when he was growing up. The more he learned about keto, however, the more intrigued he became. He says he was excited by "the idea that we can give [patients] an option that's going to get them off medication reliably. The only other intervention that's done that was bariatric surgery ," he says. Eventually, Weiss co-developed a breath sensor , called Keyto, to help people track how their diet affects their ketone levels. Playing around with the prototype, he realized he'd made the diet a kind of game. "I was trying to see if I could get my ketone levels to go up. And because I'm naturally competitive and like games, I got obsessed." Within two months, he dropped nearly 16 pounds he hadn't intended to lose and saw his blood sugar levels, which had been high, normalize. Still, he concedes there's a lot we don't know about the effects of the diet. "There are two questions: Is it safe to be in ketosis long-term? And is there something else about this diet that's potentially dangerous or harmful long-term? We can't really answer either one in a rigorous way today," he says. One concern is that some people on keto will see their cholesterol levels increase, which is linked with a heightened risk of heart disease . In a recent op-ed criticizing low-carb evangelists for their "cheerleading," Weiss wrote of the cholesterol problem: "It's a classic issue of balancing benefits and risks, one complicated because it isn't clear if, how much, or in whom an increase in cholesterol even matters. That's why there is general consensus that rigorous clinical trials are needed to answer this critical question." Other doctors, writing in JAMA Internal Medicine , list " keto flu ," cardiac arrhythmias, constipation, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies among keto's documented side effects in the pediatric scientific literature. But the diet's greatest risk, they write, may be the opportunity cost of not eating enough high-fiber , unrefined carbohydrates. I ask Weiss why he's so excited about keto, even willing to promote it, given those risks, and the fact that sustained weight loss on keto doesn't look all that different from other diets. "[We] can't let perfect be the enemy of great," he answers. "That is, what we are doing now sucks." The frontiers of keto science Oncologists are also looking past keto's big unknowns and exploring the potential benefits of the diet as part of cancer therapy. While they warn that it's far too early to prescribe the diet for any specific cancer type, they're excited about the possibilities . For a study published in 2018 in Nature , Mukherjee and his co-authors tested whether PI3-kinase inhibitors   a class of drug used to treat cancers, which has the side effect of driving up blood sugar and insulin levels   would perform better in mice when they also ate a keto diet or took a drug that suppressed insulin levels. The idea they wanted to test, Mukherjee explained on Weiss's keto podcast , was: What if "the drug causes a physiological side effect   high sugar, high insulin   and that high insulin is now what is bringing the tumors alive again ... like a malignant circuit." In the study, the combination of the drug and the diet shrank 12 types of tumors in mice   even pancreatic cancer, which is very difficult to treat in humans. But keto caused the leukemia to worsen, meaning researchers still need to work out where the diet is helpful and where it's harmful. Marcus DaSilva Goncalves, a co-author on the study and endocrinologist at New York's Weill Cornell Medicine, says we'll learn more from a human trial, scheduled to start later this year, that will build on the mouse research. For now, it's way too early to know whether this research will translate to humans, despite all the YouTube videos and blogs suggesting that sugar "feeds" cancer. "We are in the Stone Age of understanding which diet is best for each type of cancer site," Goncalves said. He's also concerned about heart health. "We don't know what it's doing to cardiovascular risk factors. But cancer's unique   people are willing to accept a more hazardous condition in order to cure the cancer." Much better-established are keto's effects on epilepsy. For nearly a century , doctors have been prescribing the diet to treat epilepsy, an idea that came about in the 1920s , when researchers observed that people who fasted experienced fewer seizures. Researchers still aren't sure why the diet can work, but a few mechanisms have been proposed , including making neurons more resilient during seizures. And today, studies have shown that children and adults whose epilepsy doesn't respond to medications seem to experience a pretty large reduction in seizures when following a ketogenic diet. That doesn't, however, mean that the diet works for other conditions. There are still many questions about even the most talked-about keto applications, such as keto for Type 2 diabetes. While researchers have found the diet can reduce people's hemoglobin A1C (a measure of blood sugar) and their reliance on medication, the effects tend to wane after one year . Virta Health , the keto counseling company Weiss consults for, recently published data from a two-year evaluation of the Virta program. Through telemedicine, Virta's clients get nutrition support and health coaching about how to prepare low-carb foods and stick to the diet. In the trial, people's A1C and weight crept up between one and two years   but 38 percent saw their diabetes reverse and 15 percent were in remission. "Those results are dramatically better than anything else anybody's published at two years with diet or lifestyle regimen," Steve Phinney, a founder of Virta who has been studying (and living on) keto for decades, says. Skeptics, such as the cardiologists turned diet gurus Dean Ornish and Joel Kahn , argue that keto's potential heart risks are too great. Others note that it's not clear whether it's the keto diet itself or the weight loss it can induce that helps control Type 2 diabetes. To begin to answer the latter question, Phinney and his colleagues ran a study that cycled 16 patients through a low-carb (keto), moderate-carb, and high-carb diet during four-week periods, with two-week reset periods in between. During the diet, the participants were fed enough to keep their weight stable. At the start of the trial, they all met diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, a constellation of conditions   excess fat in the abdominal area, high blood sugar, low HDL (or "good") cholesterol, and high blood pressure   that are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes. The results were just published in the journal JCI Insight . After one month on the high-carb diet, one of the 16 people no longer met the criteria for metabolic syndrome. On the moderate-carb diet, three of the 16 reversed their metabolic syndrome. On keto, that number rose to nine out of 16. This suggests that it's carbohydrate restriction, not weight loss, that helps control metabolic syndrome, including high blood sugar. The study will have to be replicated. It's also worth noting the high-carb group ate a lower-quality diet (with foods such as marshmallow fluff and barbecue sauce) while the lower-carb groups stuck to whole foods, which could have muddied the results. And it was funded by a grant from Dairy Management Inc. and the Dutch Dairy Association, and co-authored by researchers with a financial stake in showing keto's benefits. But Phinney believes the work is nothing short of revolutionary. "A guy named Thomas Kuhn pointed out that scientific revolutions don't happen overnight, they happen over time," he says. "We're using a non-pharmaceutical, very powerful tool to hopefully halt and turn back an epidemic that is threatening our ability to provide health care because it's such a dramatically expensive disease." And there are other ways the diet may be used. Researchers are currently exploring the benefits of keto for Type 1 diabetes . There's preliminary research suggesting an ultra-low-carb diet could have a role in treating neurodegenerative diseases , like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. A lot of the brain research, however, was done in mice or cells, so we still need evidence of human response. When we have better studies, keto might look as ineffectual as gluten-free   or maybe it'll be the diet miracle we've been hoping for. That is, if we can stick to it. Gallery: Can the keto diet raise your cholesterol? Here's what heart docs say (PopSugar)


PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Zach Davies wanted a shot at becoming the first Milwaukee pitcher in two years to toss a complete game. So with the Brewers nursing a two-run lead heading into the ninth on Sunday in Pittsburgh, Davies went to manager Craig Counsell and pleaded his case. "I told him that I had it," Davies said. "He thought twice and gave me the opportunity." BOX SCORE: BREWERS 4, PIRATES 2 It was one of the few missteps Davies made on a day the Brewers desperately needed to give their bullpen a break. Though Davies' bid for going nine full innings for the first time in his career ended when he allowed a leadoff double to Colin Moran in the ninth, he improved to 6-0 when reliever Corbin Burnes wriggled free of a two-on, one out jam to give Milwaukee a 4-2 win. A day after a marathon 12-10 victory in 13 innings -- one that took nearly 5 hours and required six Milwaukee pitchers to lock down -- Davies and two relievers needed just 2 hours, 41 minutes to give the Brewers their third win in four games in their first meeting with the Pirates this season. "You pitch into the eighth inning or the ninth inning on days after extra-inning games, it's just so huge," Counsell said. "They're just really valuable performances. He was awesome today." The Brewers -- who rely on their relievers by design as much as any team in the majors -- haven't had a complete game since Jimmy Nelson threw one against San Diego on June 18, 2017. Davies' work on Sunday came on the same day Milwaukee announced Nelson will return to the rotation on Wednesday against Miami, ending a long recovery from right shoulder surgery that cut short Nelson's breakout season two years ago. "I remember Jimmy's last one, he was the last guy for us," said Davies, who struck out three and walked one while his ERA rose slightly to 2.20. "You do want to add your name to that list, but at the same time, you want to go out there and have a quality game. When you have the opportunity, then it sinks in." Pittsburgh had chances. The Pirates led off three innings with doubles and another on a single and a two-base error but managed to get just two runs out of it on a day they went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position. "An experienced pitcher staying with his plan, making pitches, using sinker down and away and throwing changeup in some offensive counts, we weren't able to do damage," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. Eric Thames hit a two-run homer and an RBI double for Milwaukee. Thames sent a pitch from Jordan Lyles (5-3) into the right-field seats in the third inning, then drove home Keston Hiura with a drive to the left-center gap in the fourth. "I had Thames in a couple positions where we felt really good and I wasn't able to make pitches from that point on," Lyles said. Lyles has been one of the few constants in Pittsburgh's injury-riddled starting rotation. He made his 11th start of the season as scheduled five days after exiting a loss to Cincinnati with discomfort in his left hamstring. While Lyles stressed the hamstring was not an issue, he allowed at least one base runner in five of his six innings and Thames pounced on his mistakes. Thames' seventh home run of the season just cleared the 21-foot high Clemente Wall in right field to put Milwaukee in front 3-0. An inning later Thames sent a liner that rolled to the notch in left-center, giving Hiura time to score all the way from first. It was all the support Davies would need. Kevin Newman hit a sacrifice fly in the third to put Pittsburgh on the board and Bell added an RBI groundout but otherwise the Pirates did little. Lyles, a teammate of Davies' last season while working out of Milwaukee's bullpen, admired Davies' work even as he couldn't quite match it. "He fills up the strike zone," Lyles said. "He did his job today, did it really well. He's one of the best pitchers in the National League this year for a reason." Pittsburgh put two runners on in the ninth thanks to Moran's double and a catcher's interference call against Manny Pina -- his second of the day. But Burnes entered and struck out pinch-hitter Elias Diaz before getting Newman to ground out to second to wrap up his first save of the season and second of his career. TRAINER'S ROOM Brewers: RHP Jhoulys Chacin was placed on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain. Nelson will start in Chacin's place on Wednesday against Miami, Nelson's first major league appearance since injuring his right shoulder on Sept. 8, 2017. ... 2B Mike Moustakas (bruised right hand) was held out of the lineup as a precaution a day after being with a 101 mph fastball by Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez. UP NEXT Brewers: Open a three-game series with Miami on Tuesday when Chase Anderson (3-0, 3.31 ERA) faces Pablo Lopez (3-5, 4.99). Pirates: Are off Monday then welcome Atlanta for a three-game set starting Tuesday. Steven Brault (2-1, 5.87 ERA) will start the opener. ------ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports Related slideshow: 2019 MLB season (provided by imagn)