He auditioned for Risky Business. Guy named Tom Cruise got it. He tried out for Thelma & Louise. Dude named Brad Pitt aced him out. Thirty years ago, an actor from the Ohio farmland named Dwier Brown was living and dying in L.A, literally, getting small parts in movies, TV and stage work, where his specialty was: dead guy. He'd been shot to death six times, lynched, knifed. In the TV drama The Thornbirds, he'd been run over by a wild boar. He'd suffered a broken neck and an aneurysm   in the same play. Then came the role of a lifetime, one to last forever. It called for Brown to be dead before shooting even began in an Iowa cornfield, a role Brown, 60, happily still plays today. It is his 15 minutes of fame. "Actually, it's six minutes," Brown said. "I've got nine minutes coming." The film was Field of Dreams, the iconic baseball father-son love letter. The role was that of John Kinsella, played by Brown, and his son Ray, played by Kevin Costner. The history they made lasted just those six on-screen minutes, but it brought grown men to tears with a few short words. "Hey, dad, wanna have a catch?" "I'd like that." Field of Dreams premiered 30 years ago this month. To mark it, the Class-A Clearwater Threshers had Brown throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Spectrum Field before Friday night's game against the Charlotte Stone Crabs. Brown wore his gray flannel uniform top with KINSELLA on the back. When he arrived at the park after breakfast Friday, he carried a weathered genuine horsehide, "greased palm" ball glove, a gift from his own father a half century ago. Brown signs his autographs with "Wanna have a catch?" Field of Dreams is a gift that keeps giving. For Brown, it has meant a small side industry, beginning with the 25th anniversary. He has written a book, "If You Build It … A book about Fathers, Fate and Field of Dreams." He has a website, dwierbrown.com, where he announces his schedule, which includes stops at minor league ballparks across the country, and where you can order autographed baseballs, as well as "If You Grilled It" cooking aprons. Dwier Brown has it going. But here's the best part: the glistening looks. He gets them at whatever park he plays, wherever he goes, really. He loves them. "They'll me their dad and them never got along, but they took them to see Field of Dreams and … they start crying," he said. "I start crying. I'm standing in a tire store or an airport or wherever, hugging people, patting them on the back. I definitely feel like I'm a traveling priest, hearing father confessions from everyone. It's extraordinary. But that's what I got into acting for, to make meaningful movies that people would remember, that would change people's lives." Brown, who has been a professional actor for 38 years and who has always found work, auditioned for Field of Dreams in Los Angeles, along with 300 other actors. "Jim Carrey auditioned for the part, which would have made it an entirely different movie," Brown said. "I never beat him out for any other movies." Costner, who at the time was also writing the script for the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves, and director/writer Phillip Alden Robinson chose Brown, who roughly resembled Costner and his father. Not that it mattered, but Brown grew up on an Ohio farm and had played Little League ball, though he was cut by the freshman team in high school baseball. "I could field, but I couldn't hit," he said. Filming began in May 1988 in Dyersville, Iowa, at a ballfield carved from cornfields that stretched across two properties. Brown was paid the industry scale for his two weeks of shooting, about $400 per week. His crucial scene with Costner went on for days, line by line, allowing for just the right amount of fading sunlight and for the helicopter which pulled back to reveal headlights snaking toward the farm, the film's climactic scene. There were a few issues. First, Costner and Brown talked and suggested to the director that no one says, "Want to have a catch?" at least where they grew up. You said, "play catch." Robinson, who was from New York, where they said "have a catch," shot them down. But Brown and Costner earned one victory. "Originally, 'Hey, dad' was not in there, it was left implied that they were father and son," Brown said. "But they did audience screenings, and some of the audience were so incensed. They had to change it, insert it. You can see they cut from Kevin saying 'Hey' to me as he says 'dad' It was dubbed in." Then there was Brown's actual catching, which looked a little two-handed stiff. It has been the subject of ridicule among persnickety baseball sticklers. "Let me defend myself, because nothing hurts me more," Brown said with a smile. "There's a helicopter and a guy hanging out of it with a camera and the sun is fading. There are 3,000 townspeople in 1,500 cars stretched out for three miles. They give me this giant catcher's mitt, which is like a brick bagel, no flexibility at all. Hadn't been broken in. The helicopter is taking off. We're feeling the rotor wash. I thought, 'What if I drop the ball?' I was being extra cautious.' I'm not going to drop the ball." He didn't drop the ball. Nor did Field of Dreams, though Rolling Stone would pan it for schmaltz and dub it "The worst movie of 1989." "None of us thought it would be anything," Brown said. "We didn't realize it until we had a cast and crew screening a few days before the release. Usually, these are pretty rowdy events. Well, after about a half hour, everybody kind of got quiet. By the end, we were all crying. We were all like, 'What have we done?' " The same feeling overcame Brown a few weeks after the premiere, when someone recognized him in a grocery store and cried on his shoulder. Recently, Brown was buying a mirror at Home Depot when an orange vested store associate stopped him to talk about their dads. It happens all the time. Dwier Brown thinks of his own father, Walter, who died before the film's premiere. Walter Brown was a survivor of the Great Depression and a World War II veteran who always played catch with his son, but who hid his own troubled past with his father, who had abandoned the family. "The biggest success of my career is that I'm now that person who my dad could never be," Brown said. "I didn't get to watch that movie with my dad, but I get to talk to people whose relationships got healed by the movie, or watch it every year with their dad." Brown remembers his Risky Business audition. At the time, Tom Cruise said he was interested in joining Brown's theater group. Brown gave Cruise his phone number. "I guess he lost it," Brown said. Brown is stopped all the time to have a catch. He pulls out his hard-cheese beat-up glove, winds up his right arm and obliges. It's surprising he hasn't had Tommy John yet. Five years ago, in Dyersville, at the 25th Field of Dreams reunion, replete with Bob Costas emceeing and interviewing, Brown had a catch with anyone who asked. The day after the reunion, Brown's then 15-year-old son, Woody, asked his father a question. "He said, 'Gosh, dad, you were kind of playing catch with everybody yesterday, I didn't really get a chance to play catch,' " Brown said. "So, we drove out the next morning at 6. Nobody was around. And we played catch." Just like in the movies.     ©2019 Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) Visit the Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.) at www.tampabay.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Related slideshow: MLB season (provided by imagn)


A look at the 'original ' stillborn F-Type from 1990, and the sports car it might have been Ian Callum is stepping down from his role as design boss at Jaguar after 20 years. Callum is leaving to "pursue other design projects", and will be replaced by current Creative Design Director Julian Thompson. Callum will continue to work with Jaguar as a design consultant, however. Callum has been responsible for many standout designs over the year, but this original Jaguar F-Type, cancelled 29 years ago, might be one of the most intriguing, since he didn't design it but was tasked with making it into something else. A few years ago Callum told Andrew Frankel the real story behind it: Within the walls of a studio somewhere off the M40, Ian Callum is pacing up and down. There is a sense of anticipation in the room. He is about to give a walkaround talk about a Jaguar sports car, something you might expect him to be able to do in his sleep by now. But there is a difference: it s 23 years since he last saw this car, the XJ41, and its design had nothing to do with him. Instead, he was tasked with taking its concept and turning it into something else entirely. I ask him what he s thinking.  I m thinking that so much rubbish has been spoken for so long about XJ41, and what it was or was not turned into, that it s going to be a relief to set the record straight,  he replies. And so, shortly, he will. For now, however, spool back to the first time that the media was full to bursting with stories of a car called F-type. The tale of XJ41 and its XJ42 coupé sister rattled on through most of the 1980s. It was conceived at a time when the XJS, first unveiled in 1975, was considered a failure relative to the E-type; Jaguar was determined to make a sports car more faithful to the memory of its greatest roadgoing creation. The project was first mooted in 1980 and was to be spun off the all-new XJ40 platform. Originally, it was going to be a simple, relatively light car, and had it stayed that way, the course of Jaguar and at least one other car company could have been very different. But as was so often the case in the bad old days of the British motor industry, things started to slip.  For a start,  says Callum,  the car was propelled by a wave of enthusiasm rather than a hard-nosed business case. And then it got delayed.  Its original launch date of 1986 was pushed back and back, time in which competitors grew stronger, forcing Jaguar to upgrade the mechanical specification, adding weight all the while. What had been intended to be a simple rear-drive sports car powered by a normally aspirated straight six, just like the original E-type, was suddenly perceived to need at least the option of four-wheel drive and twin turbocharging. Development costs spiralled northwards, but still the project continued, despite its weight nearing 1900kg (4180 lb), an appalling mass for a car of the era. It reached the point of being ready for production and would have gone on sale but for one game-changing event: in 1989, Ford bought Jaguar for £1.6 billion (approximately US$2.4bn at the time). New boss Bill Hayden undertook a forensic analysis of the business and job one was to kill the F-Type. As Callum puts it:  He came in and said,  It s too big and it s too heavy. This car is a luxury Jaguar cannot afford . That must have hurt those responsible for it, not least Keith Helfet, who d been responsible for its styling, and his boss, Geoff Lawson, whose post Callum would eventually fill after Lawson s untimely death in 1999 at the age of just 54. Between them, they d come up with a shape that has stood the test of time   a far more attractive car than the ugly XJS and one dramatically more in keeping with the style, if not the execution, of the E-type. For the interior, It took themes from contemporary Jags, including  Spitfire wing  dash and J-gate  box. Designers are notoriously bad at giving the thumbs up to the work of rival stylists, but Callum is clearly a fan, albeit not without reservation. "I like it and, at least in design terms, there's no doubt that it would have worked," he says.  It s a very  Geoff  car, a man whose ethos was pure simplicity. If I had to criticise it, I d say perhaps it s a little safe and could have done with being a bit more voluptuous. In engineering terms, however, its size and weight meant that Ford made absolutely the right decision to can it.  And that would have been that, were it not for a maverick Scot called Tom Walkinshaw, who had been commissioned to develop and build the XJ220 (also styled by Helfet) and was looking for the next big thing. It had been his success in racing the XJS that had turned sales of the big coupé around, and it was he who wondered what the XJ41 might be like sitting on an XJS platform. "The view at Jaguar was that the XJS platform was old, out of date and no longer part of the plan," says Callum (pictured right, with Andrew Frankel).  But Tom knew it inside out and was convinced he could build an F-type for a fraction of the cost of the one done in house by Jaguar that had just been given the bullet.  It was a speculative punt   Jaguar never commissioned Walkinshaw to reinvent the XJ41   but with a majority interest in JaguarSport, he certainly had the ability to get Jaguar s attention. So he sent over a young designer called Ian Callum   whose most significant work to date had been to style the Ford Escort Cosworth   to see what could be done. And Project XX was born.  That was the last time I saw this car,  he murmurs today.  This exact vehicle. It was 23 years ago and it seems like yesterday. Weird, really.  Turning the XJ41 into something that could be built on an XJS platform was anything but a cut 'n' paste job. There was no commonality at all between the XJS and XJ41 platforms, the latter being a much larger car with a different wheelbase, tracks and overhangs. But the car started to come together and a clay model was made of an effective downscaled XJ41.  There were little things I didn t like, such as the grille, so I changed it, which both Geoff and Keith took umbrage at. There were some uncomfortable moments, because effectively I was working on someone else s baby. Jaguar says no  Then Jaguar said they didn t want it, which they were entitled to do because they hadn t asked for it in the first place. All the same, Tom had invested a lot in the car and was not about to let it drop. So one day he came in and said:  That Jag. D you think you could turn it into an Aston?  Which is exactly what I did. The reason that the clay model of Project XX didn t survive is because I turned it into the DB7.  Enter DB7 As for the importance of the DB7, I refer to the rather pompous introduction to its road test written by, er, me in Autocar, issue dated 19 October 1994:  The fragile future of Britain s most distinguished marque is in the hands of this car. Should it fail… the gates at Newport Pagnell could just shut for good.  How XX turned into the DB7 is another story, because the XJ41 saga still had one more twist to turn Callum:  Ford turned to Jaguar and said:  If Walkinshaw can put a car on that platform, why can t you?   Jaguar called the result the XK8 and cashed in big time on a car that was immensely popular and came with a fraction of the development costs of XJ41. That car s success begat the 2005 XK upon whose back the company s current credibility was built. As we leave, Callum turns and says:  You know, it s always been an irritation that people think the DB7 is just a rebodied XJ41. I m glad to have been able to tell it as it is.  But even if the DB7 is related only in concept to the XJ41, that is enough to give it an importance never normally accorded to cars that fail to get into production. As Callum himself says:  Without XJ41, there d have been no DB7 and no XK8.  There would also, therefore, possibly be no Aston Martin and a very different Jaguar from the company that exists today. So take a last look at this old soldier, because it might be a while before Jaguar feels inclined to wheel it out again. Jaguar was undoubtedly correct to kill it and wait until the time and its resources were right to do the F-type properly. Even so, I find myself unable to leave without turning and taking one last look. Without XJ41, so much of what we take for granted in two of Britain's greatest marques would simply not exist. The Missing Link: F-Type concept of 2000 Between the first F-Type and the F-Type finally unveiled in 2012, there was another. It will be remembered by some that at the Detroit motor show in 2000, Jaguar showed a gorgeous design study called the F-Type concept. What very few will know is just how close it came to being made and how different from any other Jag it would have been. Callum: "the car was shown as a front-engined machine, but we soon realised that wasn't what it needed to be. There was a serious intent to develop it, so we turned it into a mid-engined car using the transverse 3.0 V6 drivetrain from the X-type relocated behind the driver. the car was completely designed, aero mules were running and the car was ready to go into tooling. The Missing Link: F-Type concept of 2000 "Then Bob [Dover, then Jaguar boss] ran into a problem. Jaguar was suffering badly because it had no diesels and Bob faced a dilemma: did he invest with Ford and Peugeot in developing diesel powertrains, or continue with the sports car? He chose diesel, which was probably the right call. But it was a shame; it was a gorgeous car with really trick five-link rear suspension. It would have tackled the Boxster head on. I've still got pictures of it somewhere. Maybe one day I'll show them to you…"


In just a few more days, the Kansas City Chiefs will make their preseason debut. Part of the excitement surrounding the team this offseason has been the rebuilt defense. While fans will be interested in seeing the new players on the field for the first time, new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is looking for a few things from his players. That starts with getting a first look at the defenders they added in the draft. "Yeah, it's hard to pick any particular one out," Spagnuolo said following practice on Wednesday. "Certainly, we want to see Juan Thornhill in there, and Khalen (Saunders). You know, the guys that we drafted. But there have been a bunch of guys that have surfaced." Spagnuolo will also be looking at technique and fundamentals of a lot of different defensive units. However, there are two things in particular that Spagnuolo emphasized that he'll be looking for from all of his players. "To me, I'd just like to see all of them give great effort and tackle," Spagnuolo said. "I'll be looking for that same thing in the young guys too." While Spagnuolo really didn't want to name any specific veterans he'll keep his eye on during the first game, he did note that communication will be a huge focus against the Bengals. "Listen, to pick out anybody would be an injustice," Spagnuolo said. "I'm really looking for more as how cohesive a unit we can be. With that comes effort and tackling, just like I talked about. But to me communication and working together as unit, communicating back end to front end, that's as important as anything. If we don't get that squared away in the first game, it'll be a long season. So we don't want that." With many new players in the mix on the starting defense, establishing communication throughout the entire defense (front end and back end) is paramount to team success. Spagnuolo wants to make sure that his players are communicating and working together from the get-go. Last season it took a few games for everyone to get on the same page because there were a lot of injuries on the defensive side of the ball during training camp and early in the season. This year the coaching staff has been mixing in a lot of different players on the defensive side, perhaps with the hope of preparing everyone to play with the first team. If communication is solid early on, perhaps it will allow the new-look defense to get off to the hot start they need. MORE: ESPN's Molly Qerim walked off set after Max Kellerman said Kobe's on his 'all-NBA worst team' 6 quick takeaways from Packers' joint practices with Texans 'Hard Knocks' with Raiders: Winners and Losers from Episode 1 Brett to Bryant? Kicker Maher might be Cowboys weakest link, for now Sergio Llull 'not closing the door' on Rockets, NBA


With reports that Jets coach and interim G.M. Adam Gase didn't want Le'Veon Bell (overstated) and/or that Gase thinks the Jets paid too much for Bell (correctly stated), chatter has emerged that the Jets could trade Bell. If Gase is inclined to do it, now's the time given his current power and control over the team. And John Clayton, formerly of ESPN and now a radio host in Seattle, recently said just enough on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh to get people thinking that a trade could happen: "If there's a suitor, I could absolutely see the Jets trading him before the start of the season." It's more likely that the Jets will have a suitor than that the Jets would trade him, however, because Bell already has earned $12 million via signing and roster bonuses. A new team could get him for five years, $40.5 million. That's the ballpark that likely would have gotten the 49ers to bite in March, but now that the 49ers have signed Tevin Coleman (and already have Jerick McKinnon entering the season year of his own big-money, free-agency deal) they'd likely be interested only if they have (another) rash of ACL tears. It's unclear whether anyone else would want to acquire Bell's deal and also give the Jets something for him. An injury to a starter in the last year or two of his contract could be the only thing that triggers serious interest. Still, the Jets would have to be willing to eat $12 million in exchange for Bell playing a grand total of zero games (which is even nuttier than giving a coach full control of a team after having coached a grand total of zero games). That would serve only to add perception of dysfunction atop perception of dysfunction and reinforce the "what the hell are they doing?" vibe that has gripped much of their fan base and the media. Another possibility, as floated by Rich Cimini of ESPN.com, would be a one-and-done arrangement for Bell , with a trade coming in 2020. A new team would be getting a four-year, $38.5 million contract, with $13 million fully guaranteed for 2020. But here's the thing: If Bell has the kind of back-to-the-future year that would inspire someone to take on a $13 million obligation for 2020 at a position where plenty of young, relatively dirt-cheap options are annually available via the draft and/or undrafted free agency, that would be the kind of year that would validate the trade and make the Jets far more inclined to keep him. At this point, the best play for the Jets would be to embrace the presence of Bell (when he's actually, you know, present) and work toward proving that Bell was worth it. And Gase would never be happier to be proven wrong.


Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward was ejected from Tuesday's game, and it came at the hands of baseball's most notorious umpire. Woodward was tossed by crew chief Angel Hernandez in the sixth inning of his team's contest against the Boston Red Sox following a controversial out call at second base. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News noted that it was the rookie skipper Woodward's first career ejection. Here's the footage of Angel Hernandez ejecting Rangers manager Chris Woodward. Near the middle of the video is the clip of the wild safe/out call at second base. pic.twitter.com/ayumQ05ErQ   Andersen Pickard (@andersenreports) June 12, 2019 Angel Hernandez ejects Chris Woodward. Congrats to Angel. This is the first time Woodward has ever been ejected in professional baseball. This ump show is stupid   Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) June 12, 2019 After the game, Woodward explained that he was upset at Hernandez for failing to provide a warning that time was about to expire on a potential challenge, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Chris Woodward confirmed that he was ticked that Angel Hernandez said the clock ran out on challenging. Woodward said all other umps give a warning that the time is about to expire. Hernandez said that Woodward had his back to him.   Jeff Wilson (@JeffWilson_FWST) June 12, 2019 The Rangers did hold on to win by the final of 9-5, but that was hardly the dominant storyline afterwards. For Hernandez, he continues to show why he is seen as the consensus worst umpire in the league. Woodward isn't even the only AL West manager that has gone off on him in recent months. Related slideshow: The 2019 MLB season (Provided by imagn)


Tunisian authorities said Friday they had seized 671 kilogrammes of illegally harvested red coral worth two million euros and arrested 10 people on suspicion of trafficking. Interior ministry spokesman Sofiene Zaag said it was the first haul of that size in the North African country. The harvesting of Mediterranean red coral -- highly valued by jewellers -- is tightly controlled in Tunisia and has been banned for two decades in neighbouring Algeria. But divers still continue to secretly plunder reefs, mainly for export to Europe. The National Guard said it had arrested seven Tunisians, an Algerian and two Spaniards in connection with the haul. The Spaniards worked for an international import-export company that was suspected of trading black market coral alongside its legitimate business, Zaag said. Despite conservation efforts, the future of the Mediterranean red coral remains threatened, not only by unregulated harvesting but also by climate change.


William Byron scored his second consecutive pole, topping the field for Sunday's Cup race at Pocono Raceway. Byron won the pole with a lap of 173.494 mph. It is Byron's third pole of the season and his career. He's started on the front row in three of the past four points races. This is the sixth time he's started on the front row this season. Click here for qualifying results Byron was followed by Kyle Busch (172.629 mph), Clint Bowyer (172.520), Erik Jones (172.410) and Brad Keselowski (172.374). This is Busch's best start of the season. Denny Hamlin (171.939) will start sixth and is followed by Kyle Larson (171.890), Jimmie Johnson (171.857), Daniel Suarez (171.690) and Austin Dillon (171.661). JJ Yeley spun during his lap. That was the only incident in the session.


Five of the eight slots for the 2019 Home Run Derby have been filled, MLB.com's Thomas Harrigan reports . The Indians' Carlos Santana , the Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. , the Brewers' Christian Yelich , the Mets' Pete Alonso , and the Pirates' Josh Bell will take their hacks in the contest on Monday, July 8 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. In his return to Cleveland, Santana has clearly been his team's best hitter, a no-brainer to represent his city. Entering Sunday, he was batting .291/.411/.536 with 18 home runs and 48 RBI in 348 plate appearances. Yelich and Alonso are No. 1 and No. 2 in home runs with 29 and 28, respectively. Bell has 22 round-trippers. Guerrero got off to a slow start following his major league debut in late April, but has brought his OPS up around the league average with eight home runs in 225 plate appearances. The Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. is also believed to be participating, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. Acuña has performed well in his sophomore season, posting an .876 OPS with 19 home runs in 381 PA. The rest of the field will be confirmed by 10 PM ET on Wednesday. Follow @Baer_Bill Related slideshow: 2019 MLB season (Provided by imagn)


The wait is over for the St. Louis Blues. This franchise has been around since 1967, so leave it to Jordan Binnington   a goalie in his first season, who only recently became the Blues' starter   to lead them to the promised land. And boy, did Binnington ever do that. The Blues won their first-ever Stanley Cup by beating the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7, but that final score is awfully misleading. The Bruins dominated the flow of play, particularly during the first period, yet found themselves down 2-0 after the opening 20 minutes. The Bruins didn't just roll over and die after falling in that early hole, but they also couldn't find much room against St. Louis, who played a perfect road Game 7 with everything on the line. Whenever the Bruins did find some daylight, Binnington slammed the door shut. Binnington ended Game 7 with 32 saves, with some of his best work coming in the first period, although his third-period save on Joakim Nordstrom probably ranked as the backbreaker. While the Bruins' lone goal spoiled the shutout for Binnington, it's fitting that Alex Pietrangelo 's goal will stand as the game-winner. That tally, which came with less than 10 seconds remaining in the first period, made it 2-0, and really deflated the Bruins. As brilliant as Tuukka Rask had been during the Bruins' run within one win of another title for the city of Boston, Binnington was far superior on this night, and that's what most of us will remember from Game 7. Judging by the reactions in St. Louis, it's also a performance that Blues fans won't ever forget.   James O'Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports . Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins .


It's not uncommon for NFL players to enter training camp still nursing injuries or health issues. That's what the non-football injury list is for, and the Lions placed both Darius Slay and Damon Harrison on the NFI list to start camp. If it applied to coaches, Matt Patricia would be listed too. Coach Patricia rolled into his Thursday press conference with his left leg on a rolling cart. Patricia explained he had a procedure done recently to "clear up" some issues he was having with his calf and heel. He is in a cast and is using the cart to keep pressure off the leg to help the healing process. #Lions Coach Patricia rolled into the press conference today, says he was dealing with a lower leg issue and had it cleaned up, says he's staying off of it for a few days so it heals properly pic.twitter.com/DWun7334Qn - FOX 2 Sports (@FOX2Sports) July 25, 2019 He also has a golf cart to help him get around the practice fields outside in Allen Park. Matt Patricia debuting on his new on-field cart: pic.twitter.com/hqL9F9qDKt - Michael Rothstein (@mikerothstein) July 25, 2019 MORE: Mike Trout's perfect 98.6 MPH throw to home plate had everyone in awe Packers GM explains reasoning for releasing DL Mike Daniels Roundup: A-Rod Buys J-Lo a Porsche, PBR Hard Coffee, MLB Trade Deadline Bold Predictions Ranking the NBA's Top 10 Big Threes 10 things we'll be watching the first week of Lions training camp


Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr on Tuesday, signaling that the embattled Republican chairman will be able to stay the course on his committee's subpoena for Donald Trump Jr. "None of us tell Chairman Burr how to run his committee," McConnell told reporters on Tuesday. "I asked him to undertake this investigation with Russian collusion a couple of years ago. He's indicated publicly that he believes they will find no collusion." Though the GOP leader did not directly address the furor over the subpoena for Trump Jr., his continuing support for the Intelligence Committee's investigation will be welcomed by Burr and other Republicans on the panel. Burr in particular has faced severe criticism from the White House and fellow GOP senators for subpoenaing Trump Jr. even after the special counsel's report was completed, though he's shown no signs of backing down. President Donald Trump lashed out at Burr again on Tuesday. "My son spent, I guess, over 20 hours testifying about something that Mueller said was 100 percent okay. And now they want him to testify again," Trump told reporters. "It seems very unfair to me." Republicans are worried that Trump Jr. has no intention of complying with the subpoena and is eager to force a floor vote on the subpoena, which would amount to a high-stakes loyalty test on the Senate floor. If Trump Jr. doesn't comply, the full Senate can take him to court over his resistance to being interviewed by the committee or held in contempt. There may be ways to avoid that, such as allowing written responses or coming to some other deal with Trump Jr. But if anything is in the works, Burr isn't saying. "I don't talk about engagement with witnesses. At all. Never have. I don't have any comment as it relates to the interview process period. On anything. I'm not addressing anything relative to witnesses," he said in an interview. "We're continuing to try and wrap up our investigation."


Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter can officially add "billionaire" to his growing list of titles. According to Forbes , the Brooklyn-born artist-turned-entrepreneur's business empire is now worth $1 billion, making him "one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire   and the first hip-hop artist to do so." In 1996, Jay-Z became a household name when he released his debut album, "Reasonable Doubt," on his independent label, Roc-A-Fella Records. Since then, the 49-year-old   who has rapped about his unconventional rise from Brooklyn street corners to corporate boardrooms   has continued to expand his portfolio to include smart investments inside and outside of music. In 1999, he launched clothing line Rocawear, which sold for a reported $204 million in 2007 to apparel company Iconix. A year later, Jay-Z launched entertainment company Roc Nation, which is now worth an estimated $75 million. In 2015, he submitted a bid to purchase the parent company of Scandinavian streaming service Tidal for a little less than $60 million. The service, which he relaunched later that year, is now worth $100 million, according to Forbes. On his 13th studio album "4:44," Carter detailed some of his investments, including artwork that he purchased years ago for $1 million. Today, Forbes estimates that his art collection is worth roughly $70 million. Aside from investments in art and music, the hip-hop mogul has also expanded his empire to include investments in Uber, real estate and liquor. Forbes reports that his stake in Uber is worth an estimated $70 million, his real estate investments are worth an estimated $50 million and his cognac, D'Ussé, sells almost 200,000 cases annually and is worth $100 million. His investment in the champagne company Armand de Brignac is worth an estimated $310 million. Warren Buffett, who appeared on the cover of Forbes with Jay-Z in 2010 , said that Carter was "teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I'll ever teach in," and explained that "for a young person growing up, [Jay-Z] is the guy to learn from." "Jay-Z's journey is the modern-day embodiment of the American dream," Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes editor and author of " Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office ," tells Vibe . "His ascent offers an invaluable blueprint and inspiration to the next generation of entrepreneurs." Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube! Don't miss: 3 money lessons from Jay-Z's '4:44'


Aston Villa could be set to make another big statement of intent in the near future, by signing Manchester City midfielder Douglas Luiz for a reported £15m. Luiz - if a work permit is granted - is poised to become Dean Smith's eighth signing of a frantic summer spending spree, which has already witnessed the arrivals of record-signing Wesley, Ezri Konsa and Jota, as well as the permanent additions of Tyrone Mings and Anwar El Ghazi, following fruitful loan spells. Matt Targett and Kortney Hause round off the list of the Villans' summer additions. Out of all of these new arrivals, potential newcomer Luiz is probably the least well-known. Luckily for you, this article will rectify this by highlighting six things you need to know about Villa's latest target. He Came Through the Vasco da Gama Youth Academy Wallpapers & Capa • Douglas Luiz • Vasco da Gama pic.twitter.com/C2qxIsUf5Z   NewsColina! (@newscolina) May 22, 2017 Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1998, Luiz was snapped up by one of the city's biggest clubs in Vasco de Gama when he was 14. His move to Manchester City in 2017, continued the club's tradition of developing players who then go on to secure moves to some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Notable Vasco de Gama youth team alumni include: Bayer Leverkusen's Paulinho, Barcelona's Philippe Coutinho and most impressive of all, Balon d'Or winner Romario. If Luiz goes on to replicate some of the achievements of his fellow youth team graduates, Aston Villa may just be picking up one of the bargains of the summer. He Started Off as a Right Back Although his senior career has been almost entirely as a centre-midfielder of some variety, Luiz started off his footballing development playing as a right back for Vasco de Gama's under-17 side. Vasco were well encumbered in the middle of the park during the infancy of Luiz's career, owing to the fact that Brazilian youth internationals Evander, Andrey and Mateus Vital, all played in that position. This thrust Luiz into an unfamiliar full back role a nd his time spent out wide has left a lasting legacy on his playing style, with the 21-year-old prone to drifting towards the wings. This will likely make the Brazilian well suited to Dean Smith's tactical system. This is because the attacking runs of wingers Albert Adomah and Anwar El Ghazi frequently left pockets of space out wide last season. These holes can hopefully now be filled by Luiz. Manchester City Could Not Get a Work Permit For Him In a situation that must have frustrated Pep Guardiola no end (especially considering Man City's failure to find a suitable backup to Fernandinho in recent seasons), Douglas Luiz was refused a work permit following his move to Man City in 2017. Guardiola then re-applied for Luiz's permit in 2018, but again it was rejected, this time just three hours before the close of the transfer window (ouch!). Do not worry though Villa fans. Reports suggest that the club are confident that they can avoid any such problems. Let's hope that if the FA does reject the Brazilian's appeals again, they give Dean Smith slightly more notice than they afforded the Citizens last season! He's the Brazilian Under-23 Captain Aston Villa have agreed a £15m deal with #ManCity for Brazil under-23 captain Douglas Luiz. City manager Pep Guardiola rates the player highly but he was refused a work permit before the start of last season - Villa are confident they will avoid any similar problems. pic.twitter.com/0wiTLj2tda   BBC RM Sport (@BBCRMsport) July 12, 2019 Luiz comes to Villa Park with a wealth of international experience, having been capped on seven occasions by Brazil's under-20s, whilst he was also recently named his country's under-23s captain. Luiz has skippered the side to victories over Guatemala, Qatar and France's Under-18s this summer, spending the majority of these games marshalling the midfield alongside the more attack-minded Wendel. These leadership skills should serve Luiz well as he attempts adapt to the mentally demanding nature of playing regular Premier League football. He Spent the Last Two Seasons at Girona After failing to get a work permit in England, Luiz was shipped out on loan to La Liga minnows Girona for two seasons, following the City Football Group's purchase of the Catalan club in 2017. Luiz got off to a slow start during the 2017/2018 campaign, managing only one start all campaign, as Girona impressively finished tenth in La Liga. The following season was a more fruitful one for Luiz personally. The Brazilian managed 29 appearances in all competitions, cutting a composed figure in the middle of the park that defied his tender years. Unfortunately, Luiz's increased contribution was not enough to save Girona from the drop and the Brazilian will be determined to avoid another relegation this season for Villa. Pep Guardiola Has Spoken Very Highly of Him An endorsement from Pep Guardiola is normally a fairly safe indication of a player's ability. The Spaniard has worked with some of the best players in the world, and his praise of Luiz should be enough to get Villa fans excited. Very excited indeed. In July 2018, Guardiola told Man City's official website that Luiz 'has real potential', also going on to praise the youngsters physical strength and willingness to learn. The 48-year-old also fought tooth and nail to get Luiz a work permit last summer, even sending in video footage of the youngster in action in a desperate attempt to convince the FA to allow the Brazilian a spot in City's Premier League squad. Needless to say, this level of commitment would suggest that Guardiola will be sad to see Luiz go.


SALEM, Ore.   Oregon is awash in pot, glutted with so much legal weed that if growing were to stop today, it could take more than six years by one estimate to smoke or eat it all. Now, the state is planning to curb production. Five years after voters legalized recreational marijuana, lawmakers have given the Oregon Liquor Control Commission more leeway to deny new pot-growing licenses based on supply and demand. The bill passed in Oregon's House late Thursday in a 39-18 vote after it was approved earlier in the Senate. It is aimed not just at reducing the huge surplus but also at preventing diversion of unsold legal marijuana into the black market and forestalling a crackdown by federal prosecutors. "The harsh reality is we have too much product on the market," said Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who intends to sign the bill. Supply is running twice as high as demand, meaning that the surplus from last year's harvest alone could amount to roughly 2.3 million pounds of marijuana, by the liquor commission's figures. That's the equivalent of over 1 billion joints. Oregon has one of the highest such imbalances among the 10 states that have legalized recreational marijuana since 2012, in part because it had a big head start in the weed business. With its moist climate and rich soil, Oregon has a long history of pot growing. When it became legal, many outlaw growers went legitimate, and others jumped into the business, too. They are now all cultivating weed in a multitude of fields, greenhouses and converted factories, with 1,123 active producer licenses issued by the OLLC over the past three years. The legislation could be a lifeline to some cannabis businesses that are being squeezed by market forces. Retail prices in Oregon for legal pot have plummeted from more than $10 per gram in October 2016 to less than $5 last December. At the same time, smaller marijuana businesses are feeling competition from bigger, richer players, some from out of state. Officials worry that some license holders will become so desperate they will divert their product into the black market rather than see it go unsold. "We're a very young industry," said Margo Lucas, a marijuana grower and vendor in the Willamette Valley who is hoping the measure will give her business breathing room. Related video: Like it or not, legal marijuana is here to stay, Stuart Varney says (provided by Fox Business) She noted that growers can't seek federal bankruptcy protection   pot is still illegal under federal law, and banks avoid the industry   and that many owners have taken out personal loans to finance their businesses. "So when we go out of business, we're going to go down hard," Lucas said. "Many of us will lose our homes. ... You're going to have a lot of entrepreneurs in this state that are pretty unhappy with the way that this ends if we don't get some support with this bill." Opponents say the proposed law will drive growers who are denied licenses into the illegal market, if they're not there already. "This current track seems like a giant step backwards toward prohibition, which has always been a disaster," Blake Runckel, of Portland, told lawmakers in written testimony. As of January, Oregon's recreational pot market had an estimated 6½ years' worth of supply, according to an OLCC study . To prevent excess pot that is still in leaf form from spoiling, processors are converting some into concentrates and edible products, which have longer shelf life, OLLC spokesman Mark Pettinger said. U.S. Justice Department officials have said they won't interfere in states' legal marijuana businesses as long as the pot isn't smuggled into other states and other standards are met. Oregon officials want to let federal authorities know they're doing everything they can to accomplish that. The bill to curtail production could "keep the feds off our back," Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties, told lawmakers. Oregon puts no cap on the number of licenses that can be issued. Last June, the OLCC stopped accepting applications so it could process a monthslong backlog. But under current law, it has no specific authority to say no to otherwise qualified applicants, Pettinger said. The longer-term hope is that the federal government will allow interstate commerce of marijuana, which would provide a major outlet for Oregon's renowned cannabis. "We will kind of be like what bourbon is to Kentucky," said state Sen. Floyd Prozanski. Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky Find complete AP marijuana coverage here: https://apnews.com/Marijuana


Marco Asensio surprised coaches at Real Madrid training by besting his teammates in a pre-season fitness drill. The 23-year-old faced plenty of criticism from fans for his disappointing performances last season, but he has clearly remained fit and focused over summer to help him bounce back from the poor campaign. After the squad's first week of pre-season training, fitness coach Gregory Dupont ordered his squad to complete the 'Cooper test', which challenges players to run as far as possible in 12 minutes. According to Marca , the clear winner was Asensio , who looked to be well ahead of the rest of his teammates. Before the squad left for their summer holidays, manager Zinedine Zidane is said to have individually spoken to Asensio to try and encourage him to come back ready to perform, insisting that he felt as though the winger has all the talent to become one of the world's best players. Asensio was clearly listening and has spent this summer focusing on his fitness to make the best possible impression on Zidane upon his return. Coaches are said to be certain that the Spaniard is in the perfect frame of mind, and the hope is that he can push on and make a real impact for Los Blancos in the upcoming season. Last season, Asensio made 30 appearances in La Liga , but managed just one goal and six assists. That solitary goal and three of his assists all came within the first five weeks of the campaign, with Asensio quickly losing his place in the team after a poor run of results. He is yet to fully live up to the potential which many saw in him following his debut back in 2016, and last season was certainly his most disappointing with the senior side. With Los Blancos recruiting both Eden Hazard and Rodrygo Goes this summer, there is plenty of competition for places on the wings. However, Asensio will be hoping that his positive start will give him an early edge over the rest of his teammates.


USWNT captain Megan Rapinoe had joked that it's impossible to win a Women's World Cup without gay players, her comments coming at the end of a week in which she was criticised by US president Donald Trump. Rapinoe scored both goals in her side's 2-1 quarter-final win over France on Friday night, and insisted after the match that she isn't motivated by 'the haters' following four days of increased media attention on her team and views. She insisted after the match that she prefers to draw her energy from positive thoughts and   with Paris' Pride parade this Saturday   said with a grin: " Go gays! You can't win a championship without gays on your team, it's pretty much never been done before. Science, right there. "I'm motivated by people like me, people who are fighting for the same things, and I take more energy from that than trying to prove everyone wrong all the time   that's sort of draining to me. To be gay and fabulous during Pride month at the World Cup is nice." Asked specifically if scoring both goals after such a high-pressure week, Rapinoe explained: " I think there's always satisfaction, but I don't really get energised by 'haters' and all that. I feel like there's so many more people who love me, so I'm like 'this is great!' "I'm more energised by that. Obviously there was tons of support internally from the group, but from friends and family too. You want to come out and have a good performance and take the chances that are given to you." The US will play England on Tuesday night in Lyon for a place in the 2019 World Cup final, after the Lionesses beat Norway in Le Havre on Thursday.


Progressively colder air will lead to the first snowflakes and snowfall of the season, as well as the first freeze in parts of the Great Lakes, Northeast and neighboring Canada this weekend. Following warm weather during the past six weeks, some people spending time outdoors will be shivering this weekend. The accompanying frost and freeze can damage plants that are still thriving due to the recent warmth. This is not the type of setup to bring feet or even inches of snow to the majority of the snow belts to the lee of the Great Lakes but rather a rain/snow mix. However, there will be a few locations that get enough snow to potentially be disruptive. Snow, Cold to Visit Midwest and Northeast The rain and snow showers could be accompanied by thunder and lightning. Waterspouts are possible from Lake Superior to lakes Erie and Ontario. My first waterspout! #PureMichigan #LakeSuperior #GreatLakes #LakeLove pic.twitter.com/gngDX70Sd5   Mark Graf (@grafnaturephoto) October 15, 2015 A snowstorm is not coming to areas where most people live. According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Steve Travis, "Accumulating snow will not occur in areas close to the lakes or at elevations below 1,000 feet." Most of the slushy accumulation will be on non-paved surfaces. Snow will accumulate on the canopy of trees in some locations. According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, "There could be sporadic power outages, where leaves have remained on the trees in the higher elevations and the snow weighs down the branches." Rain showers will accompany the next push of chilly air as it spreads from parts of the Great Lakes to the Northeast into Friday. The coldest locations of the upper Great Lakes, New York state and northern New England could have a few snowflakes mixing in at this time. As a reinforcing surge of colder air presses southeastward Friday night into Saturday night, cold rain, a mix of rain and snow and wet snow showers are likely to spread from the Great Lakes to the interior Northeast. This will be the most likely time for snowflakes to make it to hilly areas of northeastern Ohio, the mountains of western and northern Pennsylvania, lower elevations of upstate New York and central and northern New England. "People in areas across the ski country of New York, central New York and northwestern Pennsylvania could wake up to a coating of snow Sunday morning," Travis said. Some of the mountains southeast of lakes Erie and Ontario could get enough snow accumulation on the trees for a few branches to come down. In portions of northern Maine, New Brunswick and the eastern townships of Quebec, the potential exists for a few inches of snow in some locations from Saturday night into Sunday. The mountains of northern New England are the places most likely for sporadic power outages and trees blocking secondary roads in the higher elevations. Snow this early is not exceptionally unusual. "For example, in Buffalo, New York, the average date for the first snowflakes is Oct. 24 and the earliest some sort of frozen precipitation has fallen was on Sept. 20," Travis said. Parts of northern New England have already received their first flakes of the season. In addition to chilly rain showers and snow for some, the main impact will be for the chilliest air of the season so far and for the first frost and freeze of the season to dip southward into parts of the Ohio Valley to the suburbs of the major Interstate-95 cities from Virginia to Maine. A frost will also visit the southern Appalachians. In areas from the Midwest to the Northeast, there can be a frost or freeze both Saturday night and Sunday night. In the Midwest, Saturday night may be the colder of the two nights. In the Northeast, Sunday night will be the colder night. For places that have had a frost or freeze in the past by the middle of October, take precautions to protect vulnerable plants, harvest vegetables that are ripe, empty bird baths and drain water out of garden hoses. During the showers of rain and snow, as well as cloudy intervals during the day, actual temperatures can plummet 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit. AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will spend a considerable amount of time in the 30s from the upper Great Lakes to northern New England during the daylight hours. Even farther south from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic coast, daytime RealFeel Temperatures will be several degrees lower than the actual temperature during cloudy intervals or in shady areas. Following the building chill into this weekend, another warmup is in store during the first part of next week. According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, "The first stage of the anticipated El Niño winter weather pattern will follow later next week in the Central and Eastern states." AccuWeather has more on the El Niño pattern coming to the U.S. this winter.


ATHENS (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled the Greek capital Athens on Friday, briefly knocking out power and telecommunications in parts of the city and sending people running from buildings in panic. The European Earthquake Monitoring Centre recorded the quake's epicentre at a point 22 km (14 miles) northwest of the city. Its website quoted a witness as saying the quake was "strong but fortunately not very long", while another compared it to a 'strong bounce' lasting about 15 seconds. The Acropolis, a complex of ancient Greek buildings including the Parthenon located on a rocky hilltop overlooking the capital, was intact, according to the authorities. It is one of the world's most visited historical landmarks. Reuters correspondents saw people evacuating buildings in the sprawling city, and hundreds crammed into Athens's central Syntagma Square. Two people were lightly injured by falling debris, health ministry officials said. In the port city of Piraeus, an abandoned structure on a port quay collapsed. The quake occurred at a depth of 15 km in an area affected by earthquakes in the past. Greece, along with Turkey, is among the most tremor-prone regions of Europe. Seismologist Manolis Skordilis told Greece's Star TV: "The earthquake was close to the surface, which is why it was felt so much." A fire brigade official said there had been several calls asking for help in rescuing people trapped in elevators, while some abandoned buildings were damaged. Athens is a sprawling metropolis of almost 4 million people. "The situation is gradually subsiding. The city withstood this and can handle it. There is no cause for concern," said Nikos Hardalias, general secretary for Civil Protection. Around 40 minutes after the first felt tremor, residents felt another strong quake, which the EMC rated magnitude 4.4, with an epicentre in the same region at the foot of Mount Parnitha. In 1999, an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 in the same area killed 143 people. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos, Renee Maltezou, Lefteris Papadimas, Angeliki Koutantou, Karolina Tagaris and Michele Kambas; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Raissa Kasolowsky)


The new-for-2019 Motorsport Games is set for an major expansion in season two next year. Event promoter Stephane Ratel has said he wants to grow the concept formulated together with the FIA from the three-circuit categories on the bill of this year's inaugural Games at Vallelunga in November to a minimum of six classes of racing. Read Also: Cars revealed for Olympics-style Motorsport Games But he revealed to Motorsport.com that plans to have as "much as possible" on the bill in 2020 when the competition for national teams is expected to move to Paul Ricard. The Games will kick off with the second-running of the GT Cup of Nations (a pro-am event for GT3 cars), TCR tin-tops and Formula 4 on November 1-3. Ratel has talked about a prototype category, Formula 3, rallying and historic racing as potential additions for next season. "We have announced the idea for year one and then we want to talk to more championship organisers about joining us for year two," he told Motorsport.com. "This event can't be achieved by the Stephane Ratel Organisation doing all the categories; we need to work with existing promoters. "That is why we are working with Marcello Lotti [the founder of TCR] for this year." He added that he would be "very happy" if the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the promoter the World Endurance Championship and organiser of the European Le Mans Series, brought a grid of prototypes to the Games in the future. Ratel explained that he favoured a move to Ricard because it would allow for different events to taking place concurrently. "We could have one race taking place on the 3.8km circuit and another on the 1.7km circuit, and Ricard also has its own rally stage and a kart track," he said. "I don't want a long event, but something that is super-compact with lots of things happening at the same time." Ratel explained that he also wanted to expand the karting element of the games, which in 2019 will be limited to a slalom event for electric karts, and said that drag racing was another potential addition. SRO was announced as the promoter of the Motorsport Games in June after which it revealed first deals of the event at a press conference ahead of last weekend's Spa 24 Hours. A new hybrid F4 single-seater built by KCMG, LMP2 class winner at the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours, was unveiled at the launch, along with the link-up with Lotti. The first running of the GT Cup of Nations at Bahrain last year was the inspiration for the Motorsport Games. The FIA wants national sporting authorities to co-ordinate team from their respective countries.


By acquiring Chris Paul in the trade which sent Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets, Nerlens Noel has been forced to make a change. Not necessarily in his game or anything of the sort. Actually, it's something far more trivial. It's his jersey number. Noel took No. 3 when he signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder last offseason, having first made the switch from No. 4 when he was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Dallas Mavericks in 2016-17. He also wore No. 3 in his one year at Kentucky. But now, it'd be a bold move on Noel's part to keep the same number in 2019-20 with Paul coming to town, considering the No. 3 is a fairly substantial part of the point guard's "CP3" brand. It turns out, Noel has settled on a new number and handed No. 3 over to Paul. According to Etienne Catalan on Twitter, Noel has selected No. 9. As Chris Paul will wear No. 3 for the #Thunder , Nerlens Noel ( @NerlensNoel3 ) will now wear No. 9 for the Thunder. #NBA @UniWatch pic.twitter.com/DJ1lSeUsjV - Etienne Catalan (@EtienneCatalan) August 8, 2019 Additionally, Catalan indicates Luguentz Dort will wear No. 5 for the Thunder. Dort wore No. 14 for the Thunder during NBA Summer League and No. 0 in his one season with Arizona State. Luguentz Dort ( @luguentz ) will wear No. 5 for the #Thunder . #NBA @UniWatch pic.twitter.com/2lOcCM4NvW - Etienne Catalan (@EtienneCatalan) August 8, 2019 MORE: National Football League, Buccaneers vs Steelers Live Stream, How to Watch Online, TV Channel, Start Time D'Angelo Russell Q&A: Warriors' new backcourt is 'like a video game' Preseason Week 1: How to watch, listen, and stream Saints vs. Vikings Assessing Rashan Gary's preseason debut for Packers Earl Watson explains the 'perfect marriage' of Westbrook, Harden


Mid West is friendly for those on foot, is relatively bikeable and has good transit options, according to Walk Score's rating system . So what does the low-end rent on a rental in Mid West look like these days   and what might you get for your money? We took a look at local listings for studios and one-bedroom apartments in Mid West via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to find out what price-conscious apartment seekers can expect to find in this Houston neighborhood. Read on for the cheapest listings available right now. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 8162 Richmond Ave. Listed at $620/month, this 576-square-foot studio apartment, located at 8162 Richmond Ave., is 40.1 percent less than the $1,035/month median rent for a studio in Mid West. When it comes to building amenities, expect secured entry, assigned parking and on-site laundry. Also, expect a fireplace, carpeted floors and a dishwasher in the unit. Cats and dogs are allowed. (See the complete listing here .) 9221 Pagewood Lane This one-bedroom, one-bathroom living space, situated at 9221 Pagewood Lane, is listed for $625/month for its 502 square feet. The unit comes with hardwood floors, a walk-in closet and in-unit laundry. Cats and dogs are allowed. (See the complete listing here .) 2600 Westerland Drive Here's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at 2600 Westerland Drive, which is going for $650/month. Neither cats nor dogs are allowed. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. (See the full listing here .) 6505 Westheimer Road Then there's this 588-square-foot living space with one bedroom and one bathroom at 6505 Westheimer Road, listed at $705/month. In the unit, expect a fireplace, a walk-in closet and in-unit laundry. Cats and dogs are permitted. (See the listing here .) 2929 Crossview Drive Check out this 741-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom rental at 2929 Crossview Drive, listed at $750/month. Amenities offered in the building include on-site laundry. In the unit, anticipate a fireplace, hardwood floors and a walk-in closet. Pets are permitted on this property. (Here's the listing .) This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide , then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


A man is in serious condition following a domestic disturbance on the Southeast Side Monday morning. Police responded to a call in the 400 block of Nash after 2 a.m. When officials arrived at the scene, they found a man in his 30's had been run over by his girlfriend, according to police. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox The man was transported to San Antonio Military Medical Center in serious condition. SAPD was not immediately available to provide additional information at this time. Madalyn Mendoza is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site , mySA.com , and on our subscriber site , ExpressNews.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @MaddySkye


Jermaine Cooks had doubts last year when a judge ordered him to complete Flip the Script's prison diversion program for carrying a concealed weapon. The Detroit resident said he first became entangled with the criminal justice system as a teen. He wondered whether the mentorship and job training program could really do him any good. One year later, 28-year-old Cooks said Flip the Script's staff have helped him in ways that others hadn't. He's learning to control his anger and budget his finances, lessons that he said are helping him stay out of prison. "I look at this as not my second but my third chance," Cooks said while studying for his GED test on a recent afternoon at Flip the Script's training center in Detroit. Flip the Script's leaders say they've helped about 8,000 men and women in Wayne County since Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit launched the program in 2003. But now they fear that Flip the Script's future could be in jeopardy if it loses its primary funding source: $1.5 million from the Michigan Department of Corrections. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's budget recommendation for the upcoming fiscal year did not include funding previously earmarked for Flip the Script in MDOC's proposed $2 billion budget. "There are a lot of competing priorities and Flip the Script is something we are open to discussing during continued negotiations," Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said in an email. Goodwill is advocating the Legislature to reinstate taxpayer money for its program that it touts as one of the best of its kind in the country. Evaluating metrics Flip the Script's director Niko Dawson said that while the program receives federal grants, it could not continue to offer its core services   GED preparation, employment coaching and job placement   without the state money. Goodwill would need to scramble to secure another significant funding source. MDOC partnered with Goodwill in 2014 to administer Safer Communities Stronger Families, a community-based sentencing alternative, through Flip the Script. The state pays for participation for roughly 270 people each year, Dawson said. Wayne County judges also order people on probation to complete Flip the Script's programming, which includes 12 weeks of course work, personal accountability training and other reentry services for men and women ages 16 to 39. Participants receive employment coaching and mentoring. In total, Flip the Script serves about 1,300 people annually, according to a Goodwill-commissioned review of the program . The majority of participants live in Detroit. Flip the Script's state funding has landed on the chopping block in budget proposals by former Gov. Rick Snyder and now Whitmer in part because of diverging opinions about its effectiveness. Lawmakers have reinstated the funding in previous years. "Historically, as we've looked at this program, it just had not shown the type of success that we were hoping for," said MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz, pointing to employment figures. In fiscal year 2018, Flip the Script fell short of its job placement metric for women and didn't meet its program completion goal for female participants, according to an MDOC presentation on proposed program eliminations. Flip the Script met its job placement goal for men but not its 90-day retention metric for men. The program also didn't meet its grade-level increase objective that year. Flip the Script says it's trying to boost academic success with the recent opening of an online GED academy for people whose work schedules don't allow them to attend in-person courses. Still, leaders with Flip the Script contend the full scope of the program's efforts can't be captured on paper. Dawson said job retention is a consistent challenge because participants often require two or three placements before they establish longevity and meet the benchmark. Unique challenges Flip the Script's clients face unique challenges. Staff recalled one man who was fired after showing up late for work several days in a row. The man explained he hadn't been sleeping well because he'd been staying in an abandoned home. Participants are often black men and women who are undereducated and sometimes functionally illiterate. More than half don't have a stable home and can't count on three meals a day, said Keith Bennett, the program's founder and director of community initiatives at Goodwill. Many are parents to young children. "And so with all of those distractions, you're doing good just to get them focused on ... understanding where they are in life," Bennett said. More: Michigan receives federal grant to help hundreds of ex-offenders obtain employment More: Oakland County the latest to 'ban the box' from government job applications Dollars and cents Gautz said corrections officials believe the state can instead serve the population "at a far better cost to taxpayers." Flip the Script costs $3,450 per participant, through a budget earmark. Meanwhile MDOC contracts with other organizations in Wayne County at $1,300 per person. MDOC officials think Goodwill should have to bid for funding like the agency's other partners, which risk losing the state's financial support when they don't meet their objectives, Gautz said. Bennett said he can't argue with the cost. While he said Flip the Script might not make sense to some onlookers if they evaluate it solely on "dollars and cents," Bennett said its benefit to public safety is unparalleled. "Nobody wants to talk about how many guys we have stopped and prevented from committing serious crimes, from killing people. You can't put a cost on that," he said. Proponents also say the program contributes to a reduction in recidivism and in turn saves the state incarceration expenses in the long run. The recent study funded by Goodwill found that 92% of people who completed Flip the Script in recent years have steered clear of prison or the courts system. Flip the Script's supporters have been vocal. By Monday, nearly 2,000 people had signed Goodwill's change.org petition to restore the state funding. Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, D-Detroit, in an email, urged constituents to join the cause. In an interview, she said she struggles to understand why such a long-running program that offers people a "bridge out of poverty" would be cut. "The benefits have paid for themselves over and over again," she said. 'Like a second home' Bennett said participants come to see Flip the Script as family. Staff maintain an open-door policy, welcoming people back for services beyond the one-year contract with MDOC. Cooks, the man court-ordered to the program, said he pictures himself returning to the training center to keep in touch with staff who've helped him map his future. "This is like a second home to me," he said. Angie Jackson covers the challenges of formerly incarcerated citizens as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Contact Angie: ajackson@freepress.com ; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter: @AngieJackson2 3 This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan 'Flip the Script' program for ex-offenders faces funding cut


A special message from MSN: Sport has the power to change lives. Yet in the UK only 8% of young women and girls are meeting the recommended exercise guidelines and millions are missing out on the transformational rewards of an active lifestyle. We're committed to tackling the under-representation of women's sport and have partnered with giving platform Benevity to raise funds for the charity Women In Sport. You can make a real difference - please donate now . In Season 5 of The Thread , OZY's chart-topping weekly podcast, we explore the history-making 1999 U.S. women's soccer team and all of the unheralded athletes, policymakers and activists who made their journey possible. Subscribe now to follow The Thread on OZY.com, Spotify, Apple, Himalaya or wherever you prefer to stream your audio. Thread embed If you have ever spent any time around sports stars of any variety, you know they're a breed apart. Not because of the total dedication it takes to get well beyond proficient at just about anything, though that helps. Not by becoming so much better than everyone else that you start getting paid for it. No, that's entry-level goodness. For pro-level greatness ? You need to bring to bear a scorched-earth angle of attack on not just the sport but life itself. U.S. women's national team star Megan Rapinoe is that scorched-earther whose early life obsession with soccer started when she was 3 years old, inspired by an older brother who subsequently battled against drug addiction and incarceration. Her obsession continues and now has her preparing for England in Tuesday's Women's World Cup semifinal, having scored all four U.S. goals in the team's two elimination-round wins   with her now-iconic arms-outstretched goal celebrations, literally basking in the spotlight. After beating Thailand so badly   final score 13-0   that the Thai team burst into tears, charges were leveled against the U.S. team for poor sportsmanship. For celebrating. After each goal scored. And though they've not subsequently beaten Chile, Sweden, Spain and France by margins as wide, their quasi-shrug of a response was telling. "I understand it, in part, but honestly   first of all, this is the World Cup," the almost-34-year-old Rapinoe told Fox Sports. So, "if anyone wants to come at our team for not doing the right thing, not playing the right way, not being the right ambassador for the sport, they can come at us because I think our only crime was an explosion of joy last night." And: BOOM. No surrender. No retreat. And if you pushed much beyond that, you got pushback that cut right to the heart of what was secretly suspected: Would anyone have asked a men's team this? "She really doesn't care," laughs Shaun Singletary, a former soccer coach and player. "Stars like Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain were very aware of the impact they had and were almost molds of your traditional cookie-cutter well-behaved athlete. Rapinoe doesn't care what people think about her and seems to have fully embraced being who she is." And who she is is an unapologetically out and proud 5-foot-6, 132-pound Californian midfielder/winger who ran out of f**ks a long time ago. Witness her response when asked whether she'd hobnob with Donald Trump if the team wins it all: "I'm not going to the f**king White House." This was predictably followed by a Rapinoe-bashing Trump tweet, and the lines were drawn for a classic media-political-cultural battle. Except in that unusually tight U.S. national team locker room. "We know we have each other's backs in there," head coach Jill Ellis said after the Trump dust-up. "I think for our players, there is only one purpose, one mission that we're here. Comments, media, whatever, it's always been something that I think we can block out pretty easily." There's been a lot of Rapinoe-related fuss to block out, as she's become a leading figure of social sports advocacy. In 2016 she started kneeling during the national anthem to support former quarterback Colin Kaepernick's silent protest against police brutality. And when U.S. Soccer tried to go old-school on her with a defense of the anthem, Rapinoe's response was swift. And ruthless. "Using this blanketed patriotism as a defense against what the protest actually is," Rapinoe told Yahoo! Sports, "was pretty cowardly." Rapinoe then said she'd "probably never sing the national anthem again." Double BOOM. Letting a winner lead the way. "You know sports fans have gotten used to trash talk," says Eric Tulppo, a former soccer player and women's national team superfan. "But straight talk? Well, the real is a little harder to take for some than the fake." In the end, though, the truest measure remains significance, and Rapinoe is a "great ball player. The U.S. will have a hard time replacing her when she hangs up the studs." And when will that be? Rapinoe, who played an instrumental role in the U.S. gold medals in the 2015 Women's World Cup and 2012 Olympics, now boasts sponsorship deals with both Nike and Samsung and was the first openly gay woman in this year's annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. At this point, retirement isn't even whispered. In the middle of her team's fight both for equal pay and another World Cup title, and her relentless social advocacy, she's become the very definition of a modern athlete. "Considering how much time and effort and pride we take in the platform that we have, and using it for good, and for leaving the game in a better place and hopefully the world in a better place," Rapinoe said in a news conference last week after the Trump flap, "I would encourage my teammates to think hard about lending that platform, or having that co-opted by an administration that doesn't feel the same way and fight for the same things we fight for." Comments from the likes of Ali Krieger and Alex Morgan indicate Rapinoe's teammates long ago took that advice to heart. "She's one of the first women's players who almost laughs at any flak she receives for her beliefs," Singletary says. "It also helps that she's one of the best players in the world." Doesn't it always? Explore more issues around women in sport and join our fight to empower everyone to experience the lifelong benefits of exercise here . Plus, Virgin Active have pledged to match donations raised meaning your money goes further to help even more women and girls get into sport. Related: Who are the women facing a big summer of sport [Read Sport]


Manuel Gámez clutches the hand of his only child, her dark eyes partly open and her motionless body blanketed by intravenous lines and a breathing tube. His 13-year-old daughter, Heydi Gámez García, lies in a raised bed in a Queens, New York, pediatric hospital room. A pair of stuffed animals sit by her side. Gámez hadn't seen Heydi since he sent her away with a hug and kiss from their violent hometown in Honduras four years ago. He says he feared for her safety after her grandfather was gunned down by MS-13 gang members. Since then he's tried repeatedly to join her in the US, only to be rebuffed by immigration authorities. But this is not the reunion he and his family imagined. Heydi, who had been despondent about being separated from her father, attempted to hang herself earlier this month in the suburban Long Island home of one of her aunts. Doctors say she is brain dead and won't recover. Immigration officials released Gámez from a Houston detention center last week on a 14-day humanitarian parole "to tend to the matters of his daughter's passing," according to an order from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is to return to Texas July 27 to face deportation. The 34-year-old father and his sisters faced a wrenching decision. They took Heydi off life support Thursday evening, and plan to bury her early next week in a Long Island cemetery, nearly 2,000 miles from the town in northwest Honduras where she grew up. "Please forgive me for failing you," Gámez says he will tell his daughter. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there... I never meant to leave you." They sought a safer life in the US Heydi's short life -- a story first reported by The New York Times -- is yet another reminder of the human toll of the ongoing immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border and beyond. Gámez says Heydi's mother walked out on the family when the girl was less than two months old. They have not seen her again. He says he moved to New York as an undocumented immigrant when Heydi was about one, leaving her behind with his parents in Honduras. He worked for several years on Long Island, where his sister Jessica had settled after being granted asylum. In 2014, he says he was forced to return to Honduras after MS-13 members, angered over his father's refusal to make extortion payments they called "war taxes," shot and killed the 59-year-old man in the street. With the health of Gámez's mother rapidly deteriorating, he said he worried about who would look after Heydi and his younger sister, Zoila. The following year he sent Heydi to the United States with an uncle, followed by Zoila, now 21, to protect them from MS-13. Heydi was granted asylum in June 2016. ICE documents show Zoila was granted asylum the following year. Heydi's aunt Jessica Gámez, 32, says the girl adjusted quickly to her new life in the United States. She learned English in less than a year, did well in school and loved listening to music and visiting a local Chinese buffet. Heydi spoke with her father almost every day, teaching him new words in English and correcting his pronunciation, he recalled, his eyes welling with tears. She spoke of one day becoming a nurse or a pediatrician or even a Hollywood actress. "She was a normal kid -- happy and mischievous, like most children," Jessica Gámez says. "She had many dreams. She was very smart." But she longed for her father to join her. Three times he crossed the US-Mexico border. The first two times he was detained and sent back to Honduras. The third time was just last month. Gámez kept promising Heydi they would soon be together. "Heydi was always asking, 'When is papi coming?'" Jessica Gámez says. "I would tell her to be patient. We're doing all we can." A father's struggle to rejoin his family Gámez's quest to join his daughter in suburban New York predates the Trump administration's hardline stance on immigration enforcement, including family separations at the border and forcing some asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases make their way through immigration courts. In April 2016, Gámez was picked up by US Border Patrol agents near McAllen, Texas. He was ordered removed in September, and deported to Honduras early the following month, ICE said. Gámez and his lawyer, Anibal Romero, said immigration authorities concluded the basis of his asylum claim was not credible. CNN has not been able to verify this with ICE. He tried again in September 2017 but was detained near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, ICE said in a statement. Gámez was convicted of illegal re-entry in late October of that year and sent back to Honduras a second time in November, ICE said. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which screens most asylum applications, declined to comment on Gámez's case, citing privacy concerns. Romero, his attorney, says Gámez is just one of many immigrants in the US who are good people and only asking for an opportunity to become legal residents. "How is it possible that man who is running away from his country with his kid and his sister gets sort of caught up in this broken immigration system where his daughter is granted asylum, his sister is granted asylum and he ends up getting deported?" Romero wonders. Every failed attempt by her father to reach the US seemed to plunge Heydi into a deeper depression, her relatives say. Gámez worried about making promises he couldn't keep, such as vowing to be by Heydi's side for her quinceañera, or 15th-birthday celebration. "She was losing faith that I would be with her," he said. Gámez recalls a phone call with his daughter shortly before his final border crossing. According to ICE, immigration authorities apprehended Gámez June 1 near Sarita, Texas. "She was crying, 'Papi, you'll never make it. They always catch you,'" he says. "I promised her, 'Daughter, this is the last time I try and God will grant me the opportunity.' But I got caught again." Heydi's fading hopes In recent months, Heydi's dream of a reunion with her dad began to fade. Heydi lamented to her aunts that, unlike her classmates, she did not have a father or a mother to visit her school. In December, she tried to cut her wrist at school and was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, Jessica Gámez says. Heydi also was seeing a therapist until about two months ago, she says. Jessica Gámez, 32, says Heydi even talked about returning to Honduras to be with her father. The girl said her "life had no meaning" without him. "I feel I didn't take proper care of her. Like I failed her in some way," says Jessica Gámez, who lived with Heydi at her home in Bay Shore, New York, about an hour and a half east of New York City. "I was suppose to be protecting her," she says. "I would never send her to Honduras. But I never thought something bad would happen to her here." One night in early July, Heydi broke down in tears to Zoila and said she no longer believed the stories about being reunited with her father. She talked about becoming a lawyer to help him win his freedom. Heydi then said she wanted to be alone. Two hours later, Zoila Gámez discovered her niece had gone into a closet and tried to take her own life. She did not leave a note, relatives say. One week later, doctors at Cohen Children's Medical Center in Queens declared Heydi brain dead. "Heydi arrived in a neurologically devastated state and there was no hope for recovery," Dr. Charles Schleien, a senior vice president at the hospital, said in a statement. "We've worked with this family and supported them through their anguish with our multidisciplinary team. In the end, they chose to turn tragedy into the gift of life. Heydi is an organ donor and her final act will be to save others." Wearing a GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet, Gámez has been holding a bedside vigil with his siblings at the hospital. Sometimes he and his sister Jessica take Heydi's hands in theirs and weep. "We love you," Manuel Gámez whispers to his mute daughter. "Don't leave us." Outside the hospital, Jessica Gámez struggles with her own grief. "I tried to give Heydi all she needed," she says. "But her only dream was to be with her father."


For some people, planning a trip is (almost) as fun as actually going on one, while others would rather just get to the final destination without the hassle. If you and your fiancé happen to fall into the latter category, planning your honeymoon can seem like an unnecessary task to add to your already long wedding to-do list. To help you turn honeymoon planning from a chore into an adventure, here are four easy hacks. Stick to Your Strengths If you have thousands of Twitter followers and your guy crunches numbers for a living and often brags about his bargain-shopping skills, be sure to use your areas of expertise to your advantage. For example, use your social savvy to create a list of travel bloggers for inspiration and advice while your bargain-hunting S.O. checks your credit cards and company perks to see what travel discounts you can score. Sample the Culture Don't wait to arrive at your dream destination to give it a taste. Go to a restaurant or whip up a speciality from the region to really immerse yourself in the culture while you plan. Or turn to your Netflix account and cozy up together with a movie that shows off the location's scenery or culture instead. Share Your Plans Your honeymoon will be filled with Facebook-worthy moments, but the planning process is worth a post on your social network , too. Once you have selected your honeymoon spot, post a status. Not only will it feel great to share the excitement with your loved ones, you may even get some insider advice from others who have previously visited the area. Schedule Surprises While it is great to work side-by-side with your fiancé to plan your honeymoon, try to sneak a few surprises for him in there, too! Pricey or full-day activities are best to discuss as a duo, but adding a couple's massage into the mix or scheduling a special dinner unbeknownst to your new hubby is the perfect way to add a bit of excitement to your vacation.


Burgers, pizza, and chicken: they're all on the decline. A new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association states that, from 2003 to 2010, the percentage of children who consumed fast food on a given day declined significantly. According to Reuters , the study, conducted by Colin D. Rehm and Andrew Drewnowski, shows that in 2003, nearly 39% of children of the United States consumed fast food on any given day. By 2010, that number had dropped to under 33%   a decline of nearly 20%. This does not necessarily translate to healthier children. According to Katherine W. Bauer of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Philadelphia, a decline in fast food consumption is visible in both children and adults. That does not necessarily translate, however, to healthier children. "From this paper alone I don't feel we're able to say that kids are getting healthier, because we don't know what, if anything, they're substituting for their fast food meals and snacks," Bauer told Reuters. "If children are substituting the calories from fast food for the same number of calories and quality of food from another type of restaurant, then they're no better off." The study also notes that the trend of menu labeling and calorie counting didn't really begin until 2010, so that is most likely not a source of the current downward trend. Fast food restaurants, in the meantime, continue to bow to pressure from health advocate groups and provide healthier options for kids. It's somewhat ironic that while fast food chains are doing the morally right thing by cutting calories on kids' meals, they may be simultaneously hurting their own bottom lines.


Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has returned to the club's training complex at Carrington ahead of pre-season, with Inter yet to make any progress in a potential deal for the Belgian. Lukaku is widely expected to complete his exit from Old Trafford this summer after his agent confirmed his desire to leave the club. Inter are thought to be leading the race for his signature, although they are yet to strike an agreement with the Red Devils. Back at Carrington: Big Rom. No progress in a possible deal with Inter as yet. #mufc   Kristof Terreur  (@HLNinEngeland) July 1, 2019 With a move to Inter yet to materialise, HLN journalist Kristof Terreur confirmed that Lukaku has returned to Carrington to begin preparations for the upcoming Premier League season. The Nerazzurri were said to be keen on a two-year loan deal with an obligation to buy for £54m, although United are not believed to be impressed by such an offer. The Red Devils are eager to recover the vast majority of the £75m they spent to sign Lukaku back in 2017, and they want to do so almost immediately to raise funds for this summer's hectic transfer business. Given United want a permanent deal, the latest report is that Inter are looking to sell some of their first-team players to try and raise the required funds. Both Joao Mario and Dalbert are thought to be nearing the exit door at San Siro, as Inter hope to raise enough cash to sign Lukaku. Manager Antonio Conte is thought to be planning a number of signings this summer to help them prepare for next season's Champions League . They have already completed the signing of Diego Godin from Atletico Madrid , whilst plenty of big names have been tipped to follow. The likes of Edin Dzeko and Ivan Rakitic are also thought to be on Conte's wishlist, meaning more than a few players may need to be sold.


The signing of Ryan Kalil comes with many benefits, but one big one isn't even directly associated with his ability at center. One of the biggest concerns for the Jets heading into the 2019 season was the team's offensive line, especially the depth behind the starters. Now that Kalil will start at center, it moves the versatile Jonotthan Harrison to a backup role where he can fill in at multiple positions if needed. Harrison may not have been the best choice as a starter, but he's been more than capable when called upon in the past as a backup. He's started 32 games over his career at both center and left guard, including eight for the Jets in 2018. Harrison took over for Spencer Long after a horrific half-season in New York and actually outperformed the original starter. He isn't better than Kalil but he's good enough to start in a pinch like he did this past season. Much of the offensive line is stabilized with Kalil entrenched at center, Kelechi Osemele at left guard, and incumbent starters Brian Winters and Kelvin Beachum at right guard and left tackle, respectively. But they all also have injury histories, so having a solid bench is crucial for consistency on the line in a new offense. There is already a huge question as to who will start at right tackle with both Brandon Shell and Brent Qvale uncertain for Week 1 after suffering knee injuries. Free agent acquisition Tom Compton was the only other capable backup on the Jets with 14 starts in 2018, but now Harrison gives the Jets another competent backup with starter potential. Offensive line depth is an underrated strength for a team, and the Jets have been burned by bad or injured lines in the past. The Jets don't have the best protection in the league and certainly not the best depth, but the addition of Kalil helps in both areas. MORE: Cleveland Indians completely roasted Colin Cowherd after Baker Mayfield chugged a beer 2020 aggregate mock draft 1.0: Here are the top NBA prospects to know Matt LaFleur on Packers FB Danny Vitale: 'He's been awesome' How Andre Iguodala could still be attainable for Houston Roundup: Taylor Swift Secret Listening Party, Entenmann's Recall, Jason Mamoa Without Beard and Long Hair


Seattle-based online portals company FLEXE has secured $43 million in Series B funding, according to company database Crunchbase , topping the city's recent funding headlines. The cash infusion was announced on May 7 and led by Tiger Global Management. According to its Crunchbase profile, "FLEXE is a warehousing company that connects organizations in need of additional space to organizations with extra space. The company's cloud-based platform powers unified warehouse sourcing and set up, while also streamlining material handling operations. FLEXE requires no technology investments, long-term leases, or process interruptions." The six-year-old company has raised three previous funding rounds, including a $14 million Series A round in 2016. The round brings total funding raised by Seattle companies in internet services over the past month to $61 million, an increase of $48 million from the month before. The local internet services industry has seen 54 funding rounds over the past year, securing a total of $620 million in venture funding. In other local funding news, clothing company TomboyX announced an $18 million Series B funding round on May 13, financed by The Craftory. According to Crunchbase, "We started with clothes and accessories with tomboy style. Then we listened to our customers   they wanted comfortable, functional undergarments. We delivered…and tripled our revenue in six months." Founded in 2012, the company has raised four previous rounds, including a $4.3 million Series A round in 2018. This story was created automatically using local investment data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


NASCAR on Thursday confiscated the No. 52 Chevrolet of driver Stewart Friesen before first Truck Series practice at Kentucky Speedway. NASCAR inspectors deemed the truck "unacceptable" when it was presented for inspection Thursday morning, noting there was a problem with the rear firewall placement in relation to the rear clip of the truck. The Halmar Racing was allowed to remove the tires from the track and all driver comfort and safety equipment from the truck. The truck has since been moved to alongside the Truck Series hauler, where it will remain until transported to NASCAR's research and development center in Concord, N.C. Per usual, NASCAR uncovered the vehicle-in-question for the garage to see. 51-crew chief Rudy Fugle came right over and took a picture on the interior pic.twitter.com/MdDCAZkLpG   Alan Cavanna (@AlanCavanna) July 11, 2019 Any addition penalties regarding the truck will be announced next week. The team brought out a backup truck for Friesen to compete in Thursday night's race. However, Friesen will have to start the race from the rear of the field regardless of where he qualifies. The backup truck is the truck the Canadian driver finished third in two weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway. Friesen is currently second in the series points standings with seven top-five and eight top-10 finishes in the first 12 races. He's also won one pole. Friesen is still winless in 60 career starts. Read Also: NASCAR Kentucky race weekend schedule