Google Translate is one of the company's most used products. It helps people translate one language to another through typing, taking pics of text, and using speech-to-text technology. Now, the company's launching a new project called Translatotron, which will offer direct speech-to-speech translations   without even using any text. In a post on Google's AI blog , the team behind the tool explained that instead of using speech-to-text and then text-to-speech to convert voice, it relied on a new model (which runs on a neural network) to develop the new system. "Dubbed Translatotron , this system avoids dividing the task into separate stages, providing a few advantages over cascaded systems, including faster inference speed, naturally avoiding compounding errors between recognition and translation, making it straightforward to retain the voice of the original speaker after translation, and better handling of words that do not need to be translated (e.g., names and proper nouns)," the Google research team wrote in the blog post. Translatotron can also preserve the characteristics of the voice of the speaker when translating from one language to another. This could be really useful to sound editors who dub movies and TV shows. The researchers have admitted that translations from the new model are not as precise as traditional models, but they're confident the accuracy of the new model will soon improve. There are plenty of apps out there like iTranslate and SayHi that try to translate one language to another using voice. But they're still not as smooth and error-free as one would like. Considering this still a model (and theres not even a demo available yet), chances are Google will take a while to implement the new system in consumer-grade solutions. I, for one, am looking forward to trying it out though. You can read more about Google's new technology here, and you can read more about the model the research team used here .


The White Sox have designated infielder Jose Rondon for assignment, according to the Athletic's James Fegan . In a corresponding roster move, the club has activated rookie corner outfielder Eloy Jimenez from the 10-day injured list. Rondon, 25, has seen action in three MLB seasons but tallied just 289 career plate appearances. The majority of those have come this season, but he's limped to a .197/.265/.282 line in 2019. A light-hitting utilityman, Rondon did slug 18 home runs in 2018 with Chicago's International League affiliate, but that power outburst was unprecedented, and he hasn't managed to follow up on it this year. Given his age and reputation as an above-average defensive infielder, perhaps he'll draw some interest leaguewide, but any claiming team would have to keep him on its active roster, since he's out of options. It seems likely he'll clear waivers and return to Triple-A Charlotte. Jimenez spent the minimum 10 days on the IL with a right elbow contusion. The former top prospect hasn't amazed in his rookie season, but his .244/.307/.483 line is more than adequate for a 22 year-old. The prodigious power hitter has popped 17 home runs on the year and still projects as a focal point of the club's rebuild, even if he'll need to refine his plate approach to tap into all of his immense offensive upside. Related slideshow: 2019 MLB season (provided by imagn)


Many of the players rumored to be on the move before the July 31 trade deadline are rentals Madison Bumgarner, Zack Wheeler, Nicholas Castellanos with expiring contracts perhaps limiting their trade value. Understandably, teams are hesitant to give up as much for players that may only stick around for two or three months. But there are other players on the block this summer who are controllable through the rest of this season and at least 2020, too. Generally, the return for these non-rentals is greater. Here are the five best of these non-rentals who are likely to be dealt by the end of July: 1. Trevor Bauer, SP, Indians It seemed like a foregone conclusion a month ago that the Indians would trade righthander Bauer. They were well behind the Twins in the AL Central and, frankly, just didn't look good. However, since the beginning of June, Cleveland's gone 27-11 and entered Friday four games out of first place . Even so, Cleveland still might be better off dealing Bauer, who's signed through the 2020 season and is likely to make between $18-$20 million in arbitration this offseason. With all the teams looking for starting pitching, a position of depth for the Indians, it could be smart to trade Bauer for an above-average outfielder and prospects who could help them win both this year and in the future. Possible destinations for Bauer include the Yankees, Astros and Braves, among others. Trevor Bauer, "James Brown'ing" Polanco with a 79mph Knuckle Curve. pic.twitter.com/Q4hpHb6skD   Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 14, 2019 2. Marcus Stroman, SP, Blue Jays Stroman is going to be traded this summer , and the Blue Jays should get a solid return for their ace righthander, who's under control through the 2020 season. His 5-10 record is deceiving because of the team he plays for (Toronto enters Friday at 36-62), but his 3.25 ERA over 110 2/3 innings pitching in the AL East is impressive. The Yankees are among the front-runners for Stroman, a Long Island native, and his 57.9% groundball rate should play well in Yankee Stadium. 3. Kirby Yates, RP, Padres There might not be a better relief pitcher on the block right now than Yates, and there's a greater chance the Padres will deal him now that they've dropped into last place in the NL West and are four games back in the second wild-card. With San Diego's sights set more toward 2020 and beyond, it probably makes sense to deal Yates (signed through 2020) and get a strong group of prospects and/or first- or second-year players in return. 4. Hunter Renfroe, OF, Padres Probably the best bat in the trade market, and definitely the best power hitter available, Renfroe is signed through 2023 but could be more valuable for the Padres on another team. The 27-year-old outfielder is slashing .249/.311/.589 with 27 homers and 49 RBI and could be a great addition to a contender (or even a team caught in the middle of buying and selling) seeking a power bat both now and in the future. Possible destinations include the Rays, Indians, Pirates and Phillies. 3 homers for @Hunter_Renfroe ! 💪 💪 💪 P.S. The @Padres were losing this game 11-4 after 7. 👀 (MLB x @BankofAmerica ) pic.twitter.com/y2NMKk6PnH   MLB (@MLB) June 15, 2019 5. Mike Minor, SP, Rangers The Rangers were a pleasant surprise through the first half of the 2019 season, and they still remain in contention for the second wild-card, so they may not end up dealing Minor. However, they've lost four straight and could decide to better their chances for 2020 instead of trying to outlast a handful of other clubs for the last playoff spot. If they do sell, Minor would be an ideal candidate for a sizeable return considering all the teams in need of starting pitching. Just know that he doesn't want to leave Texas . Related slideshow: The 2019 MLB season (Provided by imagn)


Colts guard Ian Silberman was taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons for an abdominal medical issue. - Joel A. Erickson (@JoelAErickson) August 8, 2019 The Indianapolis Colts began their preseason with a Thursday night matchup against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field, but guard Ian Silberman was taken to the hospital during the first quarter. Silberman, who was signed this week, was taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons due to abdominal issues. It isn't clear how severe the medical issue is, but there should be an update following the game from head coach Frank Reich. Silberman was signed by the Colts on July 30 after he was waived by the Carolina Panthers, who signed him to a reserve/futures contract during the offseason. Silberman has played in three career games. We will update this post when more information is available. MORE: A furious Chris Davis had to be held back from Orioles manager Brandon Hyde Packers vs. Texans: Time, TV schedule, streaming, how to watch How to watch Patriots vs. Lions Deadline passes as Elliott loses accrued season, fines reach $500K Breaking down everything the Duke Johnson trade means for the Browns


PARIS (Reuters) - Naomi Osaka believes she is finally getting to grips with claycourt tennis as she is about to start her first grand slam as the top seed at this year's French Open. The world number one from Japan has won the last two majors -- the U.S. and Australian Opens -- but she has yet to claim a title on the slowest surface. "Definitely for me I feel like I should be an all-court player. Honestly, it's been a bit of a ride trying to figure out how to play better on clay throughout these years, but I think this year I have been playing well," Osaka told reporters ahead of the May 26-June 9 tournament at Roland Garros. "So I'm really excited to see what happens here." Osaka reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart and the quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome on the red dirt this season. Looking to improve her claycourt skills, she spent a bit of time at 11-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal's academy. "I was able to go there for a little bit in between Germany and Spain. It was really nice," she said. "Everyone is very nice and helpful. And then I met Rafa. So that was really cool." Her claycourt results and her recent success at the majors have boosted her confidence. "I don't want to be here thinking I want to get to the quarters," she said even though her best result at the French Open was reaching the third round in 2016 and last year. "I have never been that far here before, but my end goal is to win, of course." Osaka will start her campaign against Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova before a potentially explosive second round clash against two-time grand slam champion Victoria Azarenka or 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko. Serena Williams, the 23-time major champion, could be her quarter-final opponent while defending champion Simona Halep is a potential semi-final obstacle. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)


The all-star Team Redline car featuring Formula 1 aces Max Verstappen and Lando Norris survived late drama to win the virtual 24 Hours of Spa on iRacing. , along with their Pure Racing Team sim racing veteran team-mates Max Benecke and Max Wenig, had dominated the majority of the race from pole position. However, drama stuck late on when Verstappen's brakes failed on his sim racing rig with just 15 minutes of the race remaining. He lost a lap while recovering to the pitlane, where he handed the car over to Norris. Norris re-emerged on track still with a comfortable lead, taking the chequered flag 27.285s ahead of the second-place car   Pure Racing Team Green, with Patrick Heinrich driving the final stint. Read Also: Norris learned about Verstappen's style in simracing This isn't the first time Verstappen and Norris have participated in high-profile virtual endurances this year. During the 12 Hours of Bathurst in February, neither were able to start their stints because their teammate crashed early in the race. "From the side of Redline, myself and Lando, it was a very cool collaboration," Verstappen said after the race. "To see how these guys are doing it as well, us coming from the real world and them on the simulators, it was a really good collaboration. "I hope we can do this again soon." PRT by TX3 completed the podium ahead of Vendayal Simracing Yellow and Williams Esports. The second Redline team, featuring World's Fastest Gamer winner Rudy van Buren, had their charge ended prematurely when Ayhancan Guven crashed at Blanchimont.


Simon Pegg has come a long way since starring in Run, Fat Boy, Run. Best known for playing the funny guy, Pegg's undergone a serious transformation in recent months for his upcoming film. Ahead of starring in the thriller Inheritance , the actor was required to lose weight and get cut, according to a tweet by his personal trainer, Nick Lower. Lower shared that the film required Pegg to be "lean, VERY lean," and also have a "specific body shape and look." Pegg replied to the tweet, adding: "Also occasional mild grumpiness…" • #SimonPegg 6 month body transformation for #InheritanceMovie • The brief for this role was lean, VERY lean. It required a specific body shape & look pic.twitter.com/ihjL23HTPt   Nick Lower (@NickLowerPT) March 1, 2019 Plot details for Inheritance are vague for now, although Variety reported in November 2018 that "the film explores what happens when the patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens to unravel and destroy their lives." To prepare for the role, Pegg, 49, lost around 20 pounds and dropped from 12% to 8% body fat, according to Metro . And in a new interview with the UK publication, Pegg's trainer, Lower, shared details on the actor's dramatic six-month transformation. "His character has been trapped in a basement for 30 years, so he's not going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger," Lower told Metro . "He was kept alive and he did exercise, but the brief was very, very lean. He's in shape most of the time, but for this movie he had to get down to single figure body fat, which we achieved." Pegg's Inheritance workout regimen involved cardio, strength training, and long trail runs . Over the six-month period, he also cut down on his calorie intake. Here's how Lower explained it to Metro : "We kept his calories in check and he trained very hard Simon had one rest day, then he would do our sessions and extra cardio. We didn't do anything magical or out of the ordinary   we made sure Simon had the right balance of macro nutrients and we trained a lot   a mixture of strength training and circuit training and some cardio added on to make sure we achieved that calorie deficit. "Essentially, it's got to be a mix of strength training. Strength circuits work really well, where you hit as many muscle groups as you can in one session, keeping it high intensity, then move onto 10-15 minutes of cardio or ropes. But then we trained so much we could spread it out a bit we would maybe do core and legs on one day, and move onto other sections for two days but Simon had the luxury of time for training. He did a lot of cardio on top of that as well." It's important to note that Pegg's physique isn't necessarily sustainable because of the extremes of his diet and exercise. It's not rare for actors to cut down in preparation for a role, but eventually they'll have to return to normal habits to stay healthy. (See: Christian Bale . Or Drew Ray Tanner .) Pegg's trainer made the point himself. "It's not maintainable and it's very hard," Lower said. "It's going to take a lot of training. Simon may have had one day rest, but he worked hard every day and he was strict, and that's how he got those results. But it's a short-term thing, you do not want to do that long-term." The actor is no stranger to action movies (he recently reprised his role as Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible Fallout ) but this is the first time he's done the leading man transformation, a process that has been popularized by the likes of Bale and Hugh Jackman. Simon Pegg is pulling a McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club for something pic.twitter.com/AXgcq5yJVe   Will Mavity (@mavericksmovies) March 2, 2019 Kate Mara ( Pose, House of Cards ) is attached to co-star in Inheritance , and the film will be helmed by Vaughn Stein, who previously directed Pegg alongside Margot Robbie in the 2018 thriller Terminal. Even Simon Pegg has a six pack now and I'm sat here eating buttery chappatis that my mum has made.   Furquan Akhtar (@furquan) March 2, 2019 Inheritance doesn't have a release date yet, but Pegg can be seen later this year in the drama Lost Transmissions , as well as Amazon Prime Video's superhero series The Boys. Slideshow: 40 male celebrities who don't drink alcohol (Provided by Men's Health)


Orlando should see warm temperatures through tomorrow, according to the seven-day forecast from drone-powered weather service Saildrone . The weather today will bring a high temperature of 88 degrees, with 85 expected on Wednesday. The coming days will also bring light rainfall. Today should see the most rain, with a forecast accumulation of 0.41 inches. Skies will partially clear on Friday. Winds will stay light through the week, with the highest speeds on Thursday at just 8 mph. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot in Federal Way early Tuesday morning, and police are searching for another 14-year-old boy who they say was with the teen at the time of the shooting. Shortly after midnight police responded to the shooting at the Maplewood Apartments in the 32100 block of 46th Place Southwest. The 14-year-old was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound, according to Federal Way police. Police say the circumstances of the shooting are unclear, but it appears it may have resulted from the teen's mishandling of a firearm. No one else was injured during the shooting.


Ndamukong Suh's tenure with the Los Angeles Rams has officially ended after just one season. After sitting on the free agent market for almost two months, the defensive tackle is signing with the Buccaneers, starting the next chapter of his career. He joins Tampa Bay just one day after the Bucs cut veteran Gerald McCoy, clearing a path for Suh to slide in at defensive tackle. Ndamukong Suh and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are finalizing a one-year deal, a source tells ESPN. Barring any late hang ups, Suh is now expected to be a Buccaneer. - Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 21, 2019 Suh signed a one-year deal worth $14 million last year, taking less money to join the Rams. He nearly accomplished his ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl, coming up just short against the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. He finished the season with 59 tackles and 4.5 sacks, batting down four passes and making a career-low four tackles for loss. Suh stepped up in the postseason with 1.5 sacks and two tackles for loss, helping shut down the likes of Ezekiel Elliott, Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram. Last season, Suh played nose tackle and some defensive end, showing excellent versatility up front - something the Rams loved. Rookie Greg Gaines will likely get the first crack at replacing Suh at nose tackle with Michael Brockers remaining at defensive end. Back in March, the Rams signed Dante Fowler Jr. to an almost identical deal to Suh's from last year, inking him to a one-year deal worth $14 million. When that transaction came down the wire, it signaled the end of Suh's time in L.A., given how difficult it was going to be for the Rams to keep both. MORE: 7 reasons the Warriors are winning another title no matter who they play in the Finals Magic Johnson confirms rumor that Lakers want to sign Kyrie Irving 5 reasons Saints should be favorites to sign Gerald McCoy Injury to Reuben Foster could help Chiefs, Redskins strike a deal NBA Free Agency 2019: The top players


When the Pittsburgh Steelers get back together for training camp football isn't the only order of business. This is also the time of year when the Steelers typically work on contracts for upcoming free agents. The Steelers don't work on new contracts during the season so that eight-week window is significant. Here are the 10 2020 free agents of top priority for the Steelers. MORE: Four potential Kawhi Leonard landing spots in free agency Suspended NASCAR driver still found a way to race this weekend Rams trading Tyler Higbee to Patriots would make sense for both teams Heading into training camp: Lions top-8 OL appear locked in Grizzlies Agree to Send Mike Conley to Jazz


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Matt Chapman knows how close he came to scoring the winning run in the 10th inning. Instead, the Minnesota Twins triumphed in the 12th when Mitch Garver hit a go-ahead single with one out to send his team past the Oakland Athletics 4-3 on Wednesday night. In the 10th, the A's challenged whether catcher Garver tagged Chapman at home trying for the would-be winning run on Mark Canha's slow chopper that third baseman Miguel Sano charged and fired home. The out call was upheld, though manager Bob Melvin said after the game, "he looked safe to me." "It's one of those plays that's just bang-bang, it could go either way. I don't know if video was conclusive enough to overturn something, especially when it's going to end the game like that," Chapman said. "Obviously looking back on it now it's a huge play and we'd love to have that go our way. That would have been huge. We had other opportunities to win the game, too." BOX SCORE: TWINS 4, ATHLETICS 3 (12) A's closer Blake Treinen (2-3) issued consecutive one-out walks and Byron Buxton hustled home as the Twins won for just the second time in their last six games. Late lineup addition Jorge Polanco hit a tying solo homer in the eighth for the Twins. That marked Minnesota's 161st homer through 85 games, tying the pre-All-Star break record set by the Yankees last year. Treinen returned from the 10-day injured list and though Melvin planned to use him at least once in a non-pressure situation initially, that wasn't how it worked out in his first appearance since a shaky outing June 20, when he surrendered three earned runs to Tampa Bay without retiring a batter. Oakland needed him. "We just want to make sure he's healthy," Melvin said. Both teams missed chances in the 11th and the A's in the 12th when Jurickson Profar was tagged out at second. Blake Parker (1-2) worked out of trouble in each of his two innings for the win, striking out three. Taylor Rogers finished the 4-hour, 40-minute game for his 11th save. "It took a lot. We've played a handful of games already this year similar to this one where it takes a mental fortitude from everybody involved to maintain your composure and continue to play," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Our guys did that again. We've been tested in some pretty unique ways this year. For our guys to go out there again and grind this win out, it's extremely satisfying." A's second baseman Franklin Barreto committed consecutive errors on one play in the seventh -- a fielding error when he didn't step on the bag then a wild throw to first -- and Minnesota got a run back. Initially Barreto was credited with making a putout at second against Ehire Adrianza but Twins challenged Adrianza was safe the call was overturned on review, then Adrianza was caught in a rundown going for home when Byron Buxton a squeeze. Ramon Laureano hit a three-run homer off Twins starter Kyle Gibson in the second to give Mike Fiers an early cushion. Oakland has homered in eight straight games. Fiers retired the first 14 Twins batters in order before Sano's two-out double in the fifth. The Oakland right-hander, 6-0 over his last 11 starts, settled for a no-decision after allowing two runs on five hits over six innings. He struck out four and didn't walk a batter for the sixth time this year. Oakland dropped to 9-2 against the AL Central this season and 61-21 dating to Aug. 23, 2016. ALL-STAR AGAIN Right-hander Jose Berrios is headed to a second straight AL All-Star game after being added for next week's Midsummer Classic in Cleveland when teammate Jake Odorizzi had to pull out because of a blister. Baldelli called after Berrios had finished breakfast Wednesday at the team hotel. "I'll be honest with you, I've been waiting for that call all week," said Berrios, whose own blister on his pitching hand has completely healed. "I've been throwing the ball pretty well," he said. TRAINER'S ROOM Twins: DH Marwin Gonzalez was a late scratch because of a bruised right big toe he hurt fouling a ball off the foot Tuesday night. Gonzalez was going to have the toe examined to make sure it's nothing serios, manager Rocco Baldelli said. Gonzalez was banged up in general needing a break and was listed as day-to-day. Polanco started in his place, batting third. ... RHP Odorizzi went on the 10-day injured list with the blister on his right middle finger that he hurt during Tuesday's losing start. Minnesota recalled RHP Zack Littell from Triple-A Rochester to fill the roster spot. Athletics: Top prospect LHP Jesus Luzardo has had another setback. He came out of his start for Triple-A Las Vegas after four innings Tuesday and an MRI exam revealed a Grade 2 lat strain on the left side. There is no timetable for his return, the A's said. ... LHP Sean Manaea will follow up his 30-pitch bullpen session from Tuesday with another in the coming days before the A's determine when to have him start a rehab assignment. Manaea had shoulder surgery in September then last month dealt with a sore muscle in his right side. ... RHP Jharel Cotton, who had surgery last month on his strained right hamstring that he injured working back from Tommy John surgery, is set to throw live batting practice Thursday at Class-A Stockton. UP NEXT Berrios (8-4, 2.89 ERA) starts the afternoon series finale looking to bounce back from a loss his last time out and is trying to beat the A's for the first time in four career starts. Oakland counters with RHP Tanner Anderson (0-3, 7.13) in his fifth career start. ---- More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP--Sports Related Slideshow: Best of the 2019 MLB season (provided by imagn)


The weather report shows more warm temperatures are in store for Miami, due to last through Sunday, according to drone-powered weather forecasting service Saildrone . Temperatures will reach 87 degrees today and 85 on Tuesday. The immediate forecast also includes light rainfall. Today's forecast shows the highest chance of rain at 97 percent, with predicted rainfall of 0.56 inches. Winds are expected to reach a modest high of 13 mph on Friday, while today will be quieter with a top speed of just 7 mph. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


The media picked Clemson to win its fifth straight Atlantic Division championship and its fifth straight ACC championship in its 2019 preseason poll, released Monday. Big deal. We knew that already. The actual news: the media sees the Coastal Division reaching a perfect state of competitive harmony. You see, the Coastal has seven teams and has produced six champions in the past six years: Duke in 2013, Georgia Tech in 2014, North Carolina in 2015, Virginia Tech in 2016, Miami in 2017 and Pittsburgh last season. Only Virginia is missing, and the media has picked Virginia to win the ACC Coastal this fall. Not only would a Virginia title completely the parity perfection, it would be Virginia's first Coastal title in the now 15-year history of the ACC's divisional split. In perfect Coastal fashion, all seven teams actually received at least one vote to win the division. COASTAL 1. Virginia   1,003 total points (82 first-place votes) 2. Miami   992 (55) 3. Virginia Tech   827 (20) 4. Pittsburgh   691 (8) 5. Duke   566 (5) 6. North Carolina   463 (1) 7. Georgia Tech   302 (1) Clemson, unsurprisingly, was a near unanimous choice to once again represent the Atlantic. ATLANTIC 1. Clemson   1,209 (171) 2. Syracuse   913 (2) 3. Florida State   753 4. NC State   666 5. Boston College   588 6. Wake Forest   462 7. Louisville   253 The Tigers were equally strong favorites to win the entire conference. ACC CHAMPION 1. Clemson   170 2. Syracuse   2 3. Virginia   1 If you do the math, you'll find one of the ACC's 173 media voters finds Virginia toppling Clemson in the ACC Championship. The ACC title game is Dec. 7 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. We'll see if Virginia can bring destiny into reality.


Linebacker Pernell McPhee was part of a trio of veteran players to sign with the Ravens at the end of the week and, unlike Shane Ray and Michael Floyd , it won't be his first tour of duty in Baltimore. The Ravens selected McPhee in the fifth round of the 2011 draft and he won a Super Bowl ring during a four-year run with the team that ended when he left for Chicago as a free agent. Injuries slowed McPhee during his time with the Bears and he didn't make much impact with Washington in a reserve role last year, but McPhee said that coming back to his first team has given him a new spark. "I feel rejuvenated and can't wait to join the No. 1 defense from last season ," McPhee said, via ESPN.com. "I have so much respect for this franchise and city, and I look forward to being a Raven once again." McPhee will join Ray, Tim Williams , Tyus Bowser and rookie Jaylon Ferguson in the mix of players vying for playing time off the edge with Matthew Judon as the Ravens rework a defense that lost Terrell Suggs and Za'Darius Smith in free agency.


Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan's quest for the Pentagon's top job faced a new obstacle Thursday amid outrage over an aborted attempt to hide the name of the destroyer USS John S. McCain during President Donald Trump's visit to Japan. Anger by Democratic lawmakers and retired military brass added to months of questions about the former Boeing executive's leadership style, on top of months of complaints about his role in implementing Trump's Iran and Syria policies, as well as his willingness to shift billions of dollars to build the president's border wall despite opposition in Congress. But the McCain furor threatened to take those criticisms to a new level, following reports that someone in the White House had sought to conceal or move a ship that bears the name of a deceased Republican senator and war hero   and that for a time, at least, people in the Navy were willing to go along. "It's beyond petty," said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, which would be the first stop in Shanahan's confirmation process once Trump nominates him. "It's disgraceful and the White House should be embarrassed." "It certainly doesn't inspire any confidence in his leadership," a Senate Democratic aide said, adding that the incident "raises concerns" about whether Shanahan   unlike former Secretary Jim Mattis   could deflect White House efforts to politicize the military. "This is pathetic," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), another Armed Services member. A spokesperson for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was close friends with McCain and is an ally of the president, said the South Carolina senator is in touch with the Navy asking for clarification. "It's important to Senator Graham that the McCain family knows what happened, if anything," Kevin Bishop, Graham's spokesperson, said in an email. Former military leaders demanded answers about how such a plan was allowed to get as far as it did, calling it an insult to a ship that had already stricken by tragedy. (10 of the McCain's sailors died in 2017 after a collision with a merchant vessel.) And they said those responsible need to go. "[Shanahan] ought to take responsibility no matter what, and he ought to demand that whoever in the White House made this request be fired," former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in an interview. "Whether he knew about it or not, declining to take responsibility in his initial reaction ought to be looked at carefully" by Congress during Shanahan's upcoming confirmation hearing. Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey went even further, calling for Shanahan's head to roll if he had been aware of the White House request. "Did Acting Sec Def Shanahan know the White House gave instructions to hide the name of a US Navy warship and the sailors ID? IF SO HE SHOULD RESIGN," tweeted McCaffrey, who also served as drug czar in the Clinton administration. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story Wednesday night, reported that Shanahan was aware of the plan to either hide the ship or move it from port. But Shanahan initially told reporters Thursday that he learned about the effort through media reports and declined to comment further. He later said he would never dishonor the memory of the late Sen. John McCain and promised to get to the bottom of what happened. The Journal said the Navy placed a tarp over the stern of the ship to hide its name and told crew members to take the day off so they wouldn't be around when Trump visited the base on Monday night Eastern time. The Navy has since said that the tarp was removed the Saturday before Trump arrived and the ship was in a "normal configuration" during the visit. A Navy official who asked not to be named said the crews of the McCain and the destroyer USS Stethem "were not among commands selected" to go to Trump's event, and were off as part of a 96-hour Memorial Day liberty period. Still, Trump appeared to confirm Thursday that someone in the White House had made the request   and he repeated his well-known dislike for the Arizona senator. "Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him, OK? And, they were well-meaning," the president told reporters. But Trump said he himself never made any such request. "I would never do a thing like that," he said. Trump later tweeted that the Navy had "put out a disclaimer" on the story. "Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News - but why not, everything else is!" Shanahan, after denying knowledge of the incident, said he has tasked his chief of staff with finding out who knew what and when. Yet critics say Shanahan is responsible for the military's actions. "This is certainly going to come up in Shanahan's confirmation hearing," said Price Floyd, a former Pentagon spokesperson in the Obama administration who also did White House advance travel work with the State Department. "Advance guys work for the man"   meaning the president   "but it's egregious that any staffer would think they need to move a ship because of its name," he said. "In my time as an advance person, I couldn't imagine asking to do something like that. It's beyond the pale," Floyd added. A former senior military officer with experience in the Pacific said such a micromanaging of ship movements by a member of the White House staff would be a striking breach of the military chain of command. "It would be extraordinary for higher levels to influence those types of movements of individual ships," said the former officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I don't know how this happened but I certainly never saw anything like that in my career." Shanahan became acting secretary Jan. 1 after Mattis, a seasoned Marine four-star general known for slow-walking or diverting some of Trump's decisions, resigned over the president's decision to pull troops from Syria. Shanahan then openly lobbied for months to get the secretary job permanently, before Trump announced plans to nominate him May 9. But Trump has yet to make the nomination official. And before this latest incident, Shanahan was already facing headwinds: Senators were already furious over Trump's decision to sell weapons to Middle Eastern countries over the objections of Congress, and his declaration of a national emergency in order to divert billions in military funds toward the border wall. Now he can add the destroyer McCain to the list of questions he will almost certainly face during his Senate hearing. Still, many lawmakers will probably be willing to believe that Shanahan didn't know of the plans for the destroyer, said Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute. "The timing is not great but absent hard evidence to the contrary, most members will be amenable to taking the acting secretary at his word on this matter," she said. Regardless of what Shanahan knew about the McCain, high-ranking retired officers and government officials said he is making a mistake in asking his chief of staff to investigate the incident. That's a job better suited to the Defense Department's inspector general, Mabus and others said. "If neither the president nor the secretary of defense were aware of this, which they maintain, they should find out who did take such shameful actions and hold them accountable for a profound lack of judgment," said retired Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander. "A DoD IG investigation would be a logical place to start." The investigation would have to involve senior military leaders, so it's not appropriate for Shanahan's office to investigate, said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno. Some wanted to know how the plan got as far as it did without someone hitting the brakes. The Journal said the idea to hide the ship began with the White House Military Office, then was communicated to Navy officials in the Pacific. "It's a disturbing episode that brings up the issue of the degree to which the military is being used as a political prop and politics being injecting into military activities," Barno said, adding that the White House office "has no authority over military commanders." "Why didn't anybody who received this guidance object to this earlier, at the combatant command, at 7th Fleet, at the two-star level in Yokosuka?" Barno continued. "Saner minds prevailed, but before that, how did it make its way down the entire chain of command?" Kelly Magsamen, a former senior Obama Pentagon official who worked closely with Pacific Command, said she was dumbfounded. "I'm flabbergasted that anyone in the chain of command tolerated the request and began to implement it, that they even got halfway down the road on this stuff," she said. "This request would never have been made under any other president, and if it had, the military chain of command would have pushed back significantly, and if they feel they can't or won't under this administration, that's very troubling. "It suggests to me there's something wrong in the military leadership ranks right now that these types of events continue to occur   something beyond just Trump," Magsamen said. Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a former operations officer with U.S. Pacific Command, said he was most troubled by the slow response between when one part of Pacific Command received the request and began to act on it on May 15, and when someone removed the tarp 10 days later   based on the timeline outlined in the initial news reports. "Nearly everyone should understand it's not appropriate to try to eliminate or marginalize the presence of a ship or ship's company because of the name of the ship," he said.


CHARLOTTE   The best thing to happen to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday was their lackluster second-half performance. Had the Panthers duplicated their first-half showing   during which they stormed out to a jaw-dropping 31-0 lead on the Seattle Seahawks   in the divisional-round playoff game, they would have risked entering the NFC Championship Game overconfident. But not now. Not after they narrowly avoided what would have been among the biggest comebacks in NFL playoff history. After holding on for a 31-24 victory, coach Ron Rivera will have the Panthers' attention this week in the walk-up to Sunday's home game against the Arizona Cardinals. "We didn't play as well as we needed to in the second half," Rivera said. "The biggest disappointment was I really didn't want to play the game the way we did in the second half. I wanted to be more aggressive and try to attack, but for whatever reason we got into protect mode and I'm a little disappointed in that." Quarterback Cam Newton put it most succinctly, saying, "There were a lot of guys playing with their butts tight, coaches with their butts tight. At one point fans and myself were butt-tight too. You have to find ways to get your groove back going and we need a little bit more of that next Sunday." The Panthers, who were 15-1 in the regular season, might not be as vulnerable as they appeared in the second half. But they might not be as strong as they appeared in the first half, either. The offensive line protected Newton quite well throughout and opened up gaping holes for running back Jonathan Stewart, who made a stellar return after missing the final three games of the regular season with a foot injury. All it took was one play for Stewart to show off fresh legs, running for 59 yards to set up Carolina's first touchdown. The Panthers amassed more than 100 yards rushing in the first half against a defense that allowed just 81.5 rushing yards per game this season, the best mark in the league. And tight end Greg Olsen, who dominated the Seahawks in a Week 6 win, continued to exploit Seattle's defense, proving once again to be Carolina's most dangerous pass catcher. The defense looked ferocious in continually pressuring Russell Wilson, one of the game's most elusive quarterbacks. After playing nearly flawless football in the final weeks, Wilson was hurried, hit and rattled in the first half. He threw two first-half interceptions, including one that star linebacker Luke Kuechly returned 14 yards for a score. "We were able to attack him," Rivera said of Wilson. Entering the playoffs, it appeared like Carolina's secondary   with the exception of all-pro cornerback Josh Norman   would be a vulnerability. But veteran veteran cornerback Cortland Finnegan reeled in Wilson's second interception of the first half. But then a likely rout gave way to an tense finish for Carolina, as Wilson picked apart the defense to spark Seattle's rally. "We have got to find ways to complete a full game of football," Newton said. "We have been known to take our foot off the throttle." At some point, that will catch up with the Panthers, and it nearly did Sunday. It didn't put too much of a damper on the victory over Seattle, because the win was significant: The Panthers ended the two-year reign of the Seahawks as NFC champions. But the Panthers, as well as their coach, all know that they can ill-afford a similar second-half lull against the Cardinals. And Rivera will preach that all week. "We had some opportunities to keep a couple drives going in the third quarter and we missed them," Rivera said. "We are going to play the same type of physical, attacking, aggressive type of defense next week against Arizona so we need to make sure we are good." An uneven performance like Sunday is one of the reasons why the Panthers still aren't regarded as highly as past teams with comparable records. They don't feel they get the respect they deserve, but it doesn't matter much anymore. "I'm going to be honest with you, I don't really care," Norman said. "At this point in time, if you don't pick us, it doesn't matter. I guarantee next week there is going to be a whole bunch of people switching their votes. We are just going to come out here and keep having fun, keep dancing and enjoying ourselves and our personality." Follow Eric Prisbell on Twitter @EricPrisbell . PHOTOS: Best of NFL divisional playoffs


UK's Chester Zoo shared a video of "super-rare" baby tapir.


Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso topped the opening MotoGP practice session at Brno, but Marc Marquez, Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira all finished less than a tenth of a second behind. was the leader for nearly all the session, the Honda rider and championship leader having set a time of 1m56.948 early on. The rest of the field could close the gap only in the last couple of minutes, with Yamaha's falling just half a second short. then took the lead in the final minute of the session with a 1m56.919s, beating Marquez by just 0.029s. Vinales was a close third while Tech 3 KTM rider grabbed an impressive fourth, just 0.099s slower than Dovizioso. Suzuki wildcard also impressed in fifth, although he was nearly half a second off the pace. Pramac Ducati's . The top 10 was completed by (Yamaha). on the second works Ducati. (KTM) rounded out the order in 22nd and 23rd. Session results: Cla#RiderBikeTimeGap 1 4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1'56.919 2 93 Marc Marquez Honda 1'56.948 0.029 3 12 Maverick Viñales Yamaha 1'56.982 0.063 4 88 Miguel Oliveira KTM 1'57.018 0.099 5 50 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki 1'57.371 0.452 6 43 Jack Miller Ducati 1'57.385 0.466 7 55 Hafizh Syahrin KTM 1'57.726 0.807 8 21 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 1'57.763 0.844 9 42 Alex Rins Suzuki 1'57.809 0.890 10 46 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1'57.827 0.908 11 44 Pol Espargaro KTM 1'57.834 0.915 12 63 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 1'57.950 1.031 13 9 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 1'57.961 1.042 14 53 Tito Rabat Ducati 1'58.029 1.110 15 35 Cal Crutchlow Honda 1'58.033 1.114 16 41 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1'58.052 1.133 17 30 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 1'58.101 1.182 18 20 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1'58.246 1.327 19 17 Karel Abraham Ducati 1'58.287 1.368 20 29 Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1'58.371 1.452 21 36 Joan Mir Suzuki 1'58.500 1.581 22 6 Stefan Bradl Honda 1'58.968 2.049 23 5 Johann Zarco KTM 1'59.028 2.109 View full results


Manchester United expect to have Alexis Sanchez fit and raring to go for the start of their 2019-20 Premier League season. The Chilean forward, 30, scored twice and played pretty well for Chile at the Copa America in Brazil over the past few weeks. However, he did suffer a hamstring injury in their 2-1 defeat to Argentina in the third-place match on Saturday. Speaking from United's preseason tour in Australia, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes Sanchez will be fit enough for the latter stages of preseason. "I don't think Alexis's injury was too bad," Solskjaer said. "When he's due back is three weeks after his last game, so that will be just after we come back from tour. I would expect him to be fit enough to play straightaway and train straightaway." So, there you have it. United are spending the next few weeks in Australia, Singapore and then China before heading back to Europe to end their preseason slate of games. Sanchez was also going to miss the Far East and Australia portion of this trip, but it is a little disappointing he will not get a full rest and then a full preseason to impress Solskjaer. Then again, he had the entire summer off this time 12 months ago and that didn't really work out that well for him, did it? Sanchez has a huge season ahead to try and resurrect his career which has stalled badly since joining United on a huge contract 18 months ago. He has scored just three PL goals in 32 appearances for United, compared to his 60 in 122 PL games for Arsenal. There were some reports he could leave United this summer, but there don't seem to be many suitors out there after his form dipped badly and especially given the astronomical contract he signed in January 2018. For him to be worthy of the reported $625,000 per week contract he's on, he probably has to score at least 15 goals and add 10 assists in the Premier League alone this season. Considering he will battle it out with Marcus Rashford , Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial just for playing time, that's a big ask. But, as has always been the case with Sanchez since he arrived at Old Trafford, we know there's a superstar play in there somewhere. Now is the time for him to rest up and be ready for the final weeks of preseason as United have a favorable run of games to start the new season. If United, and Sanchez, can hit the ground running, Solskjaer has a decent chance of turning things around as the Red Devils push for the top four. Imagine the damage a fully-fit, and focused, Sanchez could do alongside Martial and Rashford… Follow @JPW_NBCSports


In May, Volkswagen accidentally published, then took down, a video showing the ID.3 in a fetching wrap of fuchsia swirls on a teal background. A few days later, the company showed off the car in an official press release . Seems the first part of that two-step has happened again, as various Volkswagen outposts are publishing a promo video of the ID.3 interior and technology features before the video got pulled. Folks fast with a right-click copied the vid and took screenshots, giving us a better view of what's coming Europe's way when VW shows off the production EV at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Research the latest from Volkswagen on MSN Autos Turns out we've already seen these components in the Seat el-Born concept , which was brought to this year's Geneva Motor Show by VW's Spanish brand. The dash cluster lives on a digital screen that, in the el-Born and this ID.3 video, is broken into three information displays for automatic cruise control and lane assist systems, speed and range, and navigation. Gear indicators are listed vertically along the right edge of the display. The gear selector forms a chunk of the right edge of the plastic frame holding the dash screen. To shift, the driver twists the selector toward or away from himself, akin to the technique used in the BMW i3 . Going by the up and down arrows in the gear indicators, the ID.3 appears to offer several levels of brake regeneration. The 10-inch infotainment screen in the Seat el-Born concept was divided into three panels of vivid color. The ID.3 screen in the promo video is broken into four much plainer, geometric panels, relinquishing everything Latin for everything Teutonic. Navigation takes up most real estate, leaving room for music, phone, and sound-setting panels. Based on the two temperatures appearing in the lower left corner   which the el-Born didn't have   the ID.3 likely offers dual-zone climate control. The lower portion of the screen contains capacitive sliders to change the temperature. The promo vid touts "Natural Voice Control," exemplified by a voice telling the hatchback, "Hello ID, I am cold," the car responding, "The temperature will rise soon." Beneath the screen reside buttons labeled Menu, Climate, Assist, and Mode. In other news concerning the upcoming EV, a European Tesla owner who caught an ID.3 at a charging station said the hatch had rear drum brakes, which seems a decidedly European thing since the Renault Zoe and certain versions of the Opel Corsa-E use the same. The ID.3 will come in at least three versions, with the top possessing a 77-kWh battery and a 204-horsepower rear-mounted motor good for 342 miles. We have two months before seeing the final product, but these peeks continue to justify our expectation of something worthy. Volkswagen accidentally shows ID.3 dash and instrument panel originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 14 Jul 2019 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Follow MSN Autos on Facebook and Twitter


Plano will see a return of last week's moderate rainfall today, according to drone-powered weather forecasting service Saildrone . Today's forecast shows the greatest possibility of rain at 97 percent, with expected rainfall of 2.58 inches. The coming days will also see warm temperatures, forecast to stick around through Friday. Temperatures will get even hotter from Saturday to Tuesday, with a high of 95 degrees on Monday. Skies will partly clear up on Friday and Saturday. Winds should reach a modest high of 15 miles per hour tomorrow, while today will be calmer. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Interested in adopting a pet   or just taking a peek at some lovable pups? There are dozens of deserving dogs up for adoption at animal shelters in and around Atlanta. Animal shelters work hard to care for unhoused pets and connect them to loving homes. Hoodline used data from Petfinder to power this roundup of dogs currently available for adoption. (Details like pet availability, training, vaccinations and other features are based on data provided by Petfinder and may be subject to change; contact the shelter for the latest information.) Lacy, Labrador retriever mix Lacy is a female Labrador retriever mix currently housed at Atlanta Lab Rescue . Lacy is a social butterfly, and she'll get along great with other dogs. She has all of her shots and she is spayed. From Lacy's current caretaker: Lacy is a 4-year-old, 60-pound Lab who was picked up by animal control in Alabama. She's about as close to perfection as they come! She loaded easily into the car and rode really well, fell at my feet right away for belly rubs, takes treats gently, seems to be housebroken and is great with our dogs and everyone she meets. Read more about how to adopt Lacy on Petfinder . Casper, Labrador retriever mix Casper is a male Labrador retriever mix being kept at Atlanta Lab Rescue . Casper is friendly as can be, and he'll get along great with other dogs. He is already vaccinated, neutered and housetrained. Here's what Casper's friends at Atlanta Lab Rescue think of him: Casper is a 1-year-old, 45-pound Lab mix who was picked up as a stray at a shelter. He's good with other dogs and loves people and will make a wonderful addition in an active home with plenty of playtime and love! Apply to adopt Casper today at Petfinder . Buster, Labrador retriever mix Buster is a male Labrador retriever mix being kept at Atlanta Lab Rescue . Buster loves other dogs. He is neutered and vaccinated. Notes from Buster's caretakers: Buster is a 6-year-old, 80-pound Lab who was adopted from a shelter at the beginning of the year and then returned to the same shelter a few weeks ago when the owner moved. Buster is a very friendly, happy boy and doesn't seem any worse for the wear. He is good with other dogs and seems to be housetrained, and at his age he would probably have good house manners. Apply to adopt Buster today at Petfinder . Casey, Pekingese Casey is a male Pekingese being kept at Priceless Pets Atlanta . Casey will get along great with your other dogs. Priceless Pets Atlanta, however, wants to place him in a home without small children. Fear not: He already is housetrained. He also is neutered and vaccinated. Here's what Casey's friends at Priceless Pets Atlanta think of him: Casey is a 6-year-old, 12-pound adorable male Pekingese whose family gave him up because they are in the business of fostering human children, and Casey was offended when his home was "invaded" by strangers. As a result, Casey was kept outdoors for a long time, and his family felt that he deserved a better life. Casey is a cute little imp. When we got him, he had some bad matting on his rear quarters and was pretty offended by our efforts to get rid of the mats. For that reason, we don't think Casey would be good for a family with small kids. When he went to the vet, we learned why Casey was so sensitive about the matted areas   he had open sores under those mats. The vet gave him antibiotics to help with the healing. Read more about Casey on Petfinder . Duchess, Labrador retriever Duchess is a female Labrador retriever staying at Atlanta Lab Rescue . Duchess is the life of the party, and she'll get along great with other dogs. She's spayed and she has all her shots. She already is housetrained. Duchess' current caretakers say: Duchess is an 11-year-old (going on 4) purebred Lab who came from a breeder and lived her whole life with a family until an unfortunate recent incident where a toddler jumped on her while she was sound asleep and she awoke, startled and snapped at him. It's sad that she has lived her whole life with kids and loves kids, yet lost it all due to something she couldn't control and a reaction that any dog would have under the circumstances. If someone wants a healthy and active senior dog who loves people, other dogs and chasing a ball, then Duchess is the perfect dog for you. Read more about Duchess on Petfinder . Blair, Labrador retriever mix Blair is a charming female Labrador retriever mix currently housed at Atlanta Lab Rescue . She's already spayed and vaccinated. Fear not: She already is housetrained. Notes from Blair's caretakers: Blair is a 4-year-old, 50-pound Lab who came into a shelter in Alabama skin and bones and missing most of her hair. They found a foster home for her and she is now happy and looking like a different dog. She does not like stairs and we suspect that she has had some sort of hip injury. She is great in the house when left alone, and loves walks. She isn't aggressive about food or toys. She has a low-to-moderate activity level and low vocalization level, but will bark when alarmed. Read more about how to adopt Blair on Petfinder . This story was created automatically using local animal shelter data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Philadelphia. Sources: Philadelphia police officers to be fired over offensive Facebook posts The Philadelphia Police Department is expected this week to begin the process of firing police officers whose racist or offensive Facebook posts were documented in an online database, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation. Read the full story on Philadelphia Inquirer . 'Sanctuary city' of Philadelphia joins program to provide migrants with lawyers Today the vast majority of immigrants are forced to defend themselves during removal proceedings. Read the full story on Philadelphia Inquirer . Man threatens elderly victim confined to bed during robbery, police say Police say the suspect was captured on surveillance video entering the victim's residence. Read the full story on CBS Philly . City declares heat health emergency The emergency is scheduled to extend through Sunday night. Read the full story on 6abc Action News . Police searching for pair of suspects who twice hid in Target, stole items after employees left Surveillance video shows a man and woman entering the store on the 7400 block of Bustleton Ave. on July 7. Read the full story on CBS Philly . This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle , then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Former Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner has died, according to ABC News and ESPN. Buckner, 69, died Monday after a battle with Lewy body dementia, ESPN reported. "After battling the disease of Lewy Body Dementia Bill Buckner passed away early the morning of May 27th surrounded by his family," Buckner's family told ESPN in a statement. "Bill fought with courage and grit as he did all things in life. Our hearts are broken but we are at peace knowing he is in the arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Buckner is best remembered for a fielding error in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets. The Mets ultimately won the series after beating the Red Sox in Game 7. Much maligned by Boston fans after that infamous moment, he received a standing ovation at Fenway Park in 2008 during an event honoring past and present Boston sports greats. "As I clear my head and hold back the tears I know I will always remember Billy Buck as a great hitter and a better friend. He deserved better. Thank god for his family. I ll miss u Buck!," said friend and former teammate Bobby Valentine, who managed the Red Sox in 2012. Buckner played for Boston from 1984 to 1987 and returned in 1990. He made his debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969 and retired in May 1990. READ MORE: Former Red Sox 1st basemen Bill Buckner dies at 69, ESPN reports CHECK OUT WCVB: Get the latest Boston news, weather and sports online, anytime. Stay in the know with Boston's news leader   WCVB.


[ Read all Times reporting on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing . | Sign up for the weekly Science Times email .] John Noble Wilford knew that he was writing one of the most important stories of the century: The first human landing on another world. His article   for the front page of The New York Times on July 21, 1969, needed to begin with a sentence that conveyed the immensity of the moment. And so, after the launch on July 16, but before the landing, he spent a sleepless night trying to come up with an opening sentence, known in the journalism business as a lede: It is deceptively simple. It has heft. As he recalled in a recent interview: "That word, the 'moon.' It was the code word for inaccessible, unreachable." Sign Up For the Morning Briefing Newsletter This opening sentence, he said, put the amazing shift in humanity's perception of the moon into terms of everyday life that any reader could relate to: "Not only have we reached it, but we walked on it!" We all walk. It is, literally, a pedestrian thing. But this is walking made glorious: "Landed. And walked. On the moon." This is the story behind that story, which even today can wow a reader with the excitement of the moment: how it was reported and how Mr. Wilford   a giant of science writing and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner   turned a technically challenging human achievement into a narrative suffused with drama, felicitous language and even humor. [ Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar .] The lede   the word is an artifact of the days of Linotype machines, and is used to distinguish the leading sentence of an article from the metal used in those days to form type   was also un-Timesian, especially in 1969. Mr. Wilford had been hired away from Time magazine in 1965 to take on the space beat. The editor who hired him, Harrison Salisbury, told him that The Times did not "want someone to write a science story or a flight story or an engineering story." He recalls Mr. Salisbury saying that the moon landing should be "a story of a big adventure." Mr. Salisbury was part of a faction of editors who were looking to "put some life into The Times," Mr. Wilford recalled. But the newsroom was also still filled with "old-fashioned shirt-sleeve editors who went by the old book." So Mr. Wilford was not just worried about the first eight words of the article. He was also concerned about whether the old guard would require him to come up with something more stuffy and clunky. "I was deathly afraid they were going to want me to do some kind of old-fashioned, 'who what when and where' lede, and I did not want that," he said. Another thing he did not want was "to have 'historic' in the lede," he said. "It's a lame way to say something is important." Mr. Wilford called his editor at the time in New York, Henry Lieberman, to clear the way for the unconventional line, with its ring of authority, of history, of a new age in human activity. "I told him what I wanted to do and why, and I said, 'Do you think that's going to be all right?'" He said Mr. Lieberman replied, "Well, I'll run that by the editors." "I guess that he did, I never heard anymore," Mr. Wilford added. "I took nothing as a positive answer." He then went on to the kind of stylistic flourishes he has always been known for, as in his segue into one of Neil Armstrong's immortal quotes: Mr. Wilford reported on the launch in Florida, arriving days before with other Times reporters, all working in a rusty trailer that the newspaper maintained at the Kennedy Space Center press site. He wrote three versions of the article that night for successive editions of The Times. By deadline of the first edition, the astronauts had landed but not exited the lunar module; by the third edition, two astronauts' boots had touched the gritty soil of the moon. There was no email; to get his article to New York, Mr. Wilford banged it out on a typewriter and then read each word over the phone, making small changes on the fly as he read, to the "recording room," where transcriptionists quickly typed up pages and passed them to editors. But after writing up the launch in Florida, there was the problem of how to cover the transition of management of the spacecraft to mission control in Houston. For earlier launches, Mr. Wilford often ended up on a late-night flight. This launch was different. So the publisher of The Times, Arthur O. Sulzberger, "let us use his private jet." After meeting the newspaper's deadlines, they traveled speedily and in luxury to Houston. In Houston, the setup for reporters was different, but Mr. Wilford still had his desk, his background materials and his yellow pad with notes about what to expect from the mission   elements of the day-by-day flight plan that he could track as things went along. His preparation for this reporting was extensive; he had even "flown" a simulator of the lunar lander to get a feel for what Armstrong was up against in piloting the spidery craft. Mr. Wilford repeatedly crashed the vehicle. Mr. Wilford's storytelling switched back and forth in time between the landing and the moon walk, to a congratulatory phone call from President Richard M. Nixon, then back to the details of stepping down to the surface. Then he deftly transitioned to a stirring paean to exploration: "I started using 'spacefaring' even before the lunar landing," Mr. Wilford said; he was drawn to the word's historical echoes. "Seafaring, spacefaring   it's part of the same thrust." The structure of the article was determined in part by an editorial requirement to get the details of the landing and first steps on the moon, and the call from Mr. Nixon, "before the jump"   that is, within the part of the article that can be read on the front page. And he found space for flashes of dry humor, as well: And the astronauts' banter: At mission control's press area, Mr. Wilford wore earphones to hear the public affairs officer's commentary, and watched closed-circuit television to see what the spaceship's cameras were showing. He kept his ears attuned to whenever anything fresh and amusing occurred, such as that exchange between Armstrong and Michael Collins. "If you hear a particularly good quote, if you have anything that helps to give some narrative connection to events, you make a quick, scribbly note that no one but me could decipher," he said. "I didn't tape the air-to-ground, and you didn't usually get a transcript of air-to-ground until several hours later." The most dramatic element of the landing   the need to fly farther than planned to find a safer landing place   was overshadowed at the time, Mr. Wilford recalled, by a series of alarms from the lander's computers that mission controllers safely disregarded. The search for a landing spot was described in detail at a briefing later in the evening, and he worked it into the article's chronology of events. Throughout the piece, Mr. Wilford alternated between lyrical passages and those rich in scientific information and data, framed in ways that could grip the reader. These lines about Armstrong's heartbeat speak volumes: Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the "Freakonomics" book series, has called this "one of the most elegant little uses of data I can recall seeing in a news article," adding, "Someday I would like to write two sentences as good as those." Mr. Dubner, join the crowd. Near the end of the article, Mr. Wilford returned to Mr. Collins, still orbiting the moon as Mr. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the surface. Mr. Wilford recalled that the return to Mr. Collins was an attempt to bring some balance to the distribution of glory, an act of empathy for a man as alone as any human has ever been. "I still think of what Collins must have been thinking," he said. "He's up there in orbit. And Armstrong and Aldrin are landing on the moon, walking on the moon, and you think if something happens that they can't come back, he has no choice. He can't rescue them. He has to make the flight back on his own. That would have been the hardest thing in the world, I think."


Dozens of parents, teachers and students packed a courtroom Friday morning for a brief hearing for one of the suspects in the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting. Douglas County District Court Judge Theresa Slade scheduled a preliminary hearing for the suspect, 18-year-old Devon Erickson, for September. In the meantime, Erickson's attorneys will have to decipher the thousands of pages of evidence and hours of video the prosecution has given them. Slade did not address the suppression of the case file, which has remained hidden from the public since two students at the school were arrested in connection with the shooting. Slade will rule on the suppression in the near future, 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler told reporters after the hearing. He didn't have an estimate when that could happen. "There are some other things the court needs to rule on before it can take up that issue," he said. Brauchler said he supported releasing the file and the affidavit. Authorities have yet to disclose much information about what happened inside the Douglas County charter school during the shooting, including how the suspects acquired guns and their potential motives. "We're definitely at a place right now where the court could unsuppress this case file," he said. Erickson and his co-defendant Alec McKinney, 16, both face 48 criminal charges , including first-degree murder and arson, in connection to the May 7 shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch. Their schoolmate Kendrick Castillo died in the shooting a week before he was slated to graduate. Eight others were injured. Both suspects' court files had been suppressed by Slade at the request of Brauchler and the suspects' attorneys. Brauchler at a court hearing on May 15 requested that Erickson's file be opened to the public except for the arrest affidavit, which would detail what investigators believe happened during the shooting. Related Articles STEM School shooting suspects face 48 criminal charges; 16-year-old suspect charged as adult 2 suspects, same school shooting, 2 different legal paths: Here's how Colorado courts handle juvenile homicide suspects STEM School shooting suspect was actor in school musicals, formed rock bands Kendrick Castillo, STEM School shooting hero, is celebrated with Jeeps, robots and a declaration from the governor The shooting has prompted Douglas County leaders to consider spending millions on school safety , mental health services and additional school resource officers. McKinney faces charges in adult court despite his age, is scheduled to appear in the same courtroom next Friday. McKinney's legal name is Maya Elizabeth McKinney but the defendant uses male pronouns and is addressed in court by his preferred name, "Alec."


The most basic strategy for building wealth for retirement is to save as much as you can. That's certainly a good start. But you can also boost your retirement savings painlessly through better investment management. Here are five ways to increase your retirement savings by investing well. 1. Favor index funds. Index funds, which track an index like the S&P 500, offer two key advantages. They tend to outperform actively managed funds over the long term, and they are far less expensive to own than most other types of investments. The cost advantage is critical. For example, if an investment earns 8 percent annual returns and 1 percent is charged in transaction fees, the net return is 7 percent. A $10,000 per year investment would grow to $2,071,255 over 40 years. That's not a bad return. But if you could lower your investment fees by just 0.5 percent, the after-fee return would rise to 7.5 percent. This simple change would enable your investments to grow to $2,363,859, a nearly $300,000 increase. Fees matter a lot over the long term. 2. Seek low cost advice. Investment advisors might charge 1 percent of assets under management or more. But there are much less expensive alternatives for those who need a little help. Vanguard, for example, offers investment advisory services for just 0.3 percent. There are also several automated investment services that charge fees of 0.25 percent or less, such as Betterment and WealthFront. 3. Rebalance regularly. As the price of stocks and bonds fluctuate, investments can deviate from an asset allocation plan. For example, a planned allocation of 70 percent to stocks can fall well below this target during a bear market. Rebalancing involves bringing your investments back into line with your original plan. Rebalancing effectively enables investors to sell high and buy low. More importantly, rebalancing also maintains the risk profile established with the initial plan. Rebalancing is particularly important during difficult markets. Rebalancing your portfolio back into equities when the market is down allows you to capture more subsequent equity returns when the market recovers as well as maintain the asset class exposures of your target asset allocation. 4. Don't try to beat the market. Very few investors are able to beat the market consistently over time. Amateur investors and pros alike are more likely to underperform the market than they are to achieve oversized gains . In some cases the cost of trying is severe. In an effort to beat the market, investors often invest in stocks or market sectors that carry above average levels of risk. Even a few bad investments can cause considerable loss, particularly compared to simple investing with index funds. Investing is one time when being average is the goal. 5. Resist panic selling. Everyone wants to buy into the stock market when it's rising. The same psychology also applies when the market declines. Emotions take over, and you want to get out before you lose even more money. But this is a strategy that's guaranteed to lose money over time. A stock market decline is the prime time to be buying stocks, not selling them. But at a minimum, you should hold your positions. Sticking with an investment plan during market fluctuations can be difficult, but there are several things you can do to help you stick with your investment plan. First, write down your plan. A simple spreadsheet with your asset allocation targets will suffice. Second, write down your rebalancing plan. A simple plan such as rebalancing once a year will get the job done. Third, index funds make investment management easier. With actively managed funds, you must consider whether losses are the result of poor management. You don't have to evaluate the performance of a fund manager when you select funds that track the market. Funding your retirement accounts is certainly important. And by properly managing your retirement investments, you can boost your savings even further. Rob Berger is the founder of the personal finance blog the Dough Roller . More on MSN Money: 4 things you need to change your career 3 reasons to use a Roth IRA to save for college 5 signs you might be married to a gold digger


This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles people across the U.S. and details how they earn, spend and give away their money. Alex Pardoe works hard for his money   and he isn't afraid to splurge on Hermes Birkin bags, Louboutin loafers or a custom Mercedes. As a hairstylist and salon owner in the Detroit area, the 25-year-old earns $280,000 a year. While he makes sure to save for the future, he also believes in enjoying the present. "I've really always functioned under the mentality of you need to enjoy your life while you have it," he says. "I knew I never really wanted to die with a bunch of money in the bank, so I think it's important to live and be happy." What he earns Pardoe moved to Detroit from Virginia after high school to attend cosmetology school and ended up starting his career there in 2012. He first worked at a major salon chain, where he earned around $30,000 a year. But Pardoe was determined to grow his client list as well as his earning potential. He started sharing his work on Instagram and used the social media platform as a way to garner interest in his services. He even offered free services to certain influencers in exchange for word-of-mouth publicity. The strategy worked. As Pardoe began to build a solid repertoire of loyal clients, his income grew. By the next year, his take-home pay had doubled, he says, and it has only continued to increase. In 2017, he decided to open his own salon, Aesthetic Hair Co. , with two business partners in order to offer other stylists the same opportunity he had to expand his career. "I grew so quickly that I wanted to be able to provide a platform for other hairstylists to grow really quickly," he says. He's also developed and marketed his own line of hair products. "When I first started, the national average for what a hairdresser would take home was about $26,000 a year. We've strived so hard our whole career to not make that the standard and to give hairdressers a platform to make an amazing living for themselves," he says. As a salon owner, Pardoe liaises with distributors, takes care of education for the nearly 30-person staff and is on the floor three to four days per week. "I'm there to help all of my stylists with any questions," he says. "I'm always there to have their back when an issue arises in the salon." On any given day, Pardoe sees between eight and 22 clients, with the help of two assistants. He charges around $275 for highlights and anywhere from $800 to $2,000 for extensions, depending on length and thickness. "Being a salon owner kind of changed my life in a sense that I don't really work 9-to-5 anymore," he says. "I feel like I work 24/7." Overall, Pardoe earns around $190,000 a year from client work, $50,000 in tips, $30,000 from teaching classes and holding private sessions with other stylists, and $10,000 from his product line, for a total of $280,000. In the city of Detroit, the median annual salary is just over $27,000 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Pardoe's salon sits just outside of the Detroit city limits in Ferndale, an area in Oakland County that's home to both blue collar workers and a growing artist community. He's tapped into an affluent consumer base there. "I think the biggest misconception about living in metro Detroit is that because the city was bankrupt years ago that people here can't be successful and people here can't run businesses and people here don't have money," he says. "But Oakland County is actually one of the richest counties in the United States." Still, for Pardoe, work isn't just about money: "I got into hair because I really loved the instant transformation that you could give people and the confidence boost that you can give people." What he spends Here's a breakdown of everything Pardoe spends in a typical month. Cars: $4,180 Pardoe's largest monthly expense is his two cars. Currently, he's leasing a Mercedes Benz G-550 for $2,200 a month, which he plans to buy outright when the lease is up. He's also financing a BMW i8, which runs him $1,300 a month. He spends $380 on insurance and about $300 on premium gas. Although Pardoe admits that having two cars "isn't necessary and is definitely excessive," they're a worthwhile expense because they bring him joy. "Driving them makes me happy, so the more the merrier!" he says. Food: $2,500 Pardoe never cooks. In fact, he says, he's never even turned on the oven in his condo. Instead, he goes out or orders his meals in from delivery services such as DoorDash or UberEats, which he says is his biggest regular monthly splurge. He often brings in food for others, too. "I buy lunch for the salon all the time and l get things delivered for them all the time, so there's not just me," he says. "I'm buying food for everybody." Rent, utilities and Wi-Fi: $1,970 Pardoe shares a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo, which costs $2,500 a month, with his boyfriend Josh. Pardoe's share comes to $1,900, and he pays $70 to cover Wi-Fi for the place. Even living just north of Detroit, the couple can afford much more space than they would in a pricier area, such as San Francisco or New York. His rent includes two parking spaces and access to a gym. Miscellaneous: $1,875 Entertainment is Pardoe's largest miscellaneous expense, coming to around $1,200 per month. When he goes out with friends, he's quick to cover the tab, he says. His share of the expenses for his rescue dog, Biscuit, is around $100 a month. That covers food, treats, toys and vet costs. "I haven't gotten him into Gucci ready-to-wear," he jokes, "so as soon as we get him into Gucci ready-to-wear, the sky's the limit." He gives about $25 a month to the Humane Society and another $100 to Planned Parenthood. Pardoe spends around $5,000 on travel annually, which averages out to around $420 per month. He says it can be easy to get wrapped up in work, and so it's worth it to him to spend money on vacations and seeing the world: "I think it's really important to be as cultured as humanly possible and keep yourself grounded." And although Pardoe says he drives almost everywhere, he pays for cabs occasionally during a night out. That runs him around $30 a month. Savings: $1,800 Saving for the future is a key goal for Pardoe. In addition to the money he pays into his life insurance policy, he also puts $500 a month into his Roth IRA and $1,300 in a brokerage account. He also keeps a sizable amount of cash in his checking account. Currently, it holds around $77,000. Once he reaches $100,000 and qualifies for the next level of rewards at his bank, Pardoe says he'll start diverting money away from that account into one that earns a higher interest rate. To make sure he's on track to meet his retirement goals, Pardoe works with a professional financial advisor. Clothes, shoes and accessories: $1,500 Pardoe loves to splurge on brand-name clothes, shoes and accessories and can spend anywhere from $300 to $3,000 a month. The designer section of his closet includes garments from Gucci, Balenciaga, Christian Louboutin and others. He also collects Hermes Birkin bags, which start at around $7,000 each, and has a case dedicated to displaying them. "With the amount that I work and how hard that I work on my feet all day, it's rewarding to come home and have the things that I want to have," he says. "It's rewarding to be able to put on a pair of shoes that I worked really, really hard for." As a creative person, he has a lot of respect for designers, so if "a designer comes out with a new sweater and I really like this sweater, it's worth it for me to buy it." Pardoe is also a fan of tattoos and has spent around $10,000 total on his collection over the past six years. He sees tattoos as a fun way to express himself. "A lot of my tattoos are jokes," he says, pointing out one of Britney Spears shaving her head and another of Kim Kardashian crying. "It literally says, 'Kim, there's people that are dying,' just to remind me that I'm human, you know," Pardoe says. Insurance: $730 Pardoe puts $700 toward his joint disability and life insurance policy each month, as well as $30 towards renters insurance. He plans to stay on his parents' health insurance plan until he turns 26, so he doesn't pay anything toward health care yet. His life insurance policy is worth $3 million and he chooses to put a lot into the plan because the money earns a higher interest rate than a traditional savings account at a bank. Phone: $230 Pardoe's $230 monthly phone bill covers the hardware and service for two iPhones: one for work and one for personal use. Credit card repayment: $100 Pardoe puts around $100 a month toward the $2,000 balance on his credit card. Although Pardoe has enough in his checking account to pay his card off entirely, he chooses to carry a balance on the assumption that it will help him build credit and raise his credit score. Pardoe doesn't have any other debt, in part because his parents paid for his education: "I decided not to go to a four-year year school and I went to a trade school, so they paid a lot less for my school. I am very fortunate to not have student loans." Subscriptions: $50 In place of cable, Pardoe pays for a number of subscription streaming services: $7 for Hulu, $13 for Netflix, $15 for HBO Go and $15 for Amazon Prime video. What the experts say CNBC Make It asked Andrew Westlin, a certified financial planner at Betterment, to comment on what Pardoe is doing well and how he could improve. Here are his thoughts. He should consider a high-yield savings account Pardoe currently has around $77,000 in his checking account, which Westlin says is probably too much, since checking accounts typically only offer around 0.09% in interest. One way to earn a greater return while still keeping his funds accessible is to open a high-yield savings account, such as those offered by online banks such as Ally or Marcus by Goldman Sachs that earn 2% or more. "By moving over his current cash to a high-yield savings account that pays 2%, the money that he has will earn anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500 in the first year alone," Westlin says. "That's one of the easiest wins." Pardoe can use this money as an emergency fund, which experts say should hold enough to cover between three to six months' worth of living expenses. "He probably still wants to keep some money in his everyday checking account, just so he still has some more liquid funds," Westlin says. "We usually say keep about one month of your expenses in your everyday checking account. Everything else can be moved over to a high-yield savings account." He can pay off his credit card balance Another "quick win" for Pardoe, Westlin says, would be paying off his $2,000 in credit card debt. Right now, Pardoe is choosing to keep a balance because he thinks it helps his credit score, and he wants a good credit score in case he decides to buy a home. However, Westlin says, that's a myth: Carrying a balance doesn't help your credit score. In fact, carrying a balance could be costing Pardoe money. "Most credit cards, the interest rate is anywhere from 15% to 20%, so if he's keeping a $2,000 balance, that's about $300 to $400 of interest that he's paying every year," Westlin explains. Pardoe can build his credit by using his credit card regularly and then paying off the balance every month, Westlin says. He is smart to keep his usage below 30% of his credit limit, however, Westlin says: "Once you start getting your balance over 30% and your usage rate goes up, that will damage your credit score in the eyes of the lender because they're only lending you so much, and if you're maxing out your credit or using a really high percentage of what's available to you, that doesn't show that you're the most credit-worthy individual." It's great that he has numerous streams of income "In today's world, you can make money doing anything from anywhere," Westlin says. "A very common catchphrase is that the most important investment you can make is in yourself." He applauds Pardoe for diversifying his sources of income: In addition to earning money from doing hair, Pardoe is also a salon owner and an educator, and he has his own product line. "That's the best thing he's done," Westlin says. "He's really capitalized on his industry, what he's knowledgeable about and what he's passionate about. At the end of the day, he's doing something that he loves and making a lot of money doing it. I think that that's phenomenal." He should make sure he's eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA Although Pardoe is smart to make saving for retirement a priority, he should ensure that he's using the most effective savings vehicle. Because of how much he earns, he might not qualify to contribute to a Roth IRA, which has a $135,000 limit for single individuals. If he's not eligible to contribute to a Roth, he could face a penalty. To avoid that, "he can do what's called a recharacterization," Westlin says. "As long as that's done before the end of the tax year, he can move that money over to a traditional IRA, and there's no taxes or penalties." Additionally, it could be a good idea for Pardoe to outline what he wants retirement to look like. Does he want to live the same lifestyle? If so, he might need to be putting away more of his earnings each month. Currently, he's saving roughly 7% to 8% of his take-home pay, Westlin calculates, but, to keep up with his current lifestyle in retirement, he'll want to be saving at least 15% of his income. "It's about setting clear goals and determining how much he needs to save to meet each of them," Westlin says. He's smart to have disability and life insurance Because Pardoe has an active job and is on his feet all day, it's smart for him to have disability insurance, Westlin says. If he's ever unable to work, he'll still be covered. As for his life insurance policy, he might need to evaluate how he's using it. Because he doesn't have any dependents, it might not be necessary, Westlin says. If that's the case, he might be able to divert those funds elsewhere. However, having life insurance could be a wise move if he's using it as part of a business succession plan. "With life insurance, you can structure something that's called a buy-sell agreement with his partners," Westlin says. If Pardoe were to pass away, the proceeds from his death benefits would go to his partners, who could use the money to buy Pardoe's heirs out of his share in the business, he explains. Contributing so much to his policy each month might not be the best use of his funds, though, Westlin says. Overall, Pardoe has a strong handle on his finances, Westlin says. For now, "it's more about maximizing that money and making sure that he's saving enough and in the right places." As long as Pardoe is putting enough away for the future, "how the rest is spent doesn't really matter," Westlin says. What's your budget breakdown? Share your story with us at makeitcasting@nbcuni.com for a chance to be featured in a future installment. We are especially interested in hearing from people in San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C.


EDISON, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A police officer was injured in a hit-and-run on Thursday morning in Edison. RELATED: 3 teen soccer players struck and killed by out-of-control SUV in Miami Man, 52, dies after being struck by U.S. Post Office truck in Brooklyn Landscaper working at NJ shopping center fatally struck by co-worker Authorities say a student who was distraught over something had gotten into her car, ran over the officer in front of J.P. Stevens High School and then fled the scene. "There was a 'conflict' that happened within the school that caused the student to leave the building, get into her car and take off and ended up in an accident with the school officer," Edison Township Superintendent Paul Saxton said. The officer is being treated at the hospital for serious injuries, but is expected to survive. Cops tracked down the student a short time after the incident and have taken her in for questioning. Like 1010 WINS on Facebook and follow @1010WINS on Twitter to get breaking news, traffic, and weather for New York City.


(Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. was sued Monday by two Canadians who lost 10 family members in the March crash of a 737 Max in Ethiopia, adding to the aircraft manufacturer's legal woes stemming from two deadly crashes by the jet. Among the 157 people who died when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed minutes after takeoff on March 10 were plaintiff Manant Vaidya's mother, father, sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. Also on the doomed flight were the wife and three children of Paul Njoroge, the other plaintiff. The series of complaints, filed in a federal court in Chicago, allege that Boeing was negligent in its design and certification of the 737 Max, including a system on the jet that automatically pushes the aircraft's nose down when sensor data indicate the plane is approaching a stall. The Ethiopian Airlines crash and the October crash of a Lion Air 737 Max off the coast of Indonesia have been linked to the jet's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which automatically pushes down the aircraft's nose to help prevent a stall. In both crashes, pilots struggled to keep the plane aloft after the system was activated by erroneous sensor data and ultimately pushed the planes into a fatal dive. Read More: Boeing Mounts 15-Minute Defense of 737 Max as Grounding Drags On "If they deny their negligence, we are going to seek every single email, text message between them and the FAA," Robert Clifford, attorney for Njoroge and Vaidya, told reporters in Chicago on Monday. Boeing declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, Peter P. Pedraza, a Boeing spokesman, said in an email. "Boeing extends our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families and loved ones of those onboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302," Pedraza said. "As the investigation continues, Boeing is cooperating fully with the investigating authorities." The lawsuits add to Boeing's legal woes after the two crashes, including a lawsuit filed in late March on behalf of a Rwandan passenger who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash. Prosecutors, lawmakers and the U.S. Transportation Department's internal watchdog are also leading probes into the jet. Among the cases are Vaidya v. Boeing Co., 19-cv-02839, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago), and Njoroge v. Boeing Co., 19-cv-02843, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) (Updates with Boeing comment begining in sixth paragraph.) To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Beene in Washington at rbeene@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, John Harney For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.


NASHVILLE (AP)   Christian Pulisic scored twice in the second half, and the United States beat Jamaica 3-1 on Wednesday night for a berth against Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final. Weston McKennie also scored for the Americans, who face El Tri in Chicago on Sunday night in the finale of a tripleheader of finals. The U.S. women play the Netherlands in the World Cup final and Brazil faces Peru for the Copa America. The U.S. is 6-4 in Gold Cup finals, including 1-4 against Mexico with a win in 2007 and losses in 1993, '98, '09 and '11. The Americans have won 10 straight Gold Cup matches. McKennie scored for the second straight game, putting the U.S. ahead in the ninth minute with his third international goal. The game was halted in the 16th minute for an hour and 28 minutes because of a lightning storm. PULISIC DOES IT AGAIN! 🇺🇸 He fires it into the side netting and makes it 3 for USA 💪 #GoldCup2019 pic.twitter.com/DL7Pwc5gMs   FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 4, 2019 Pulisic made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute, Shamar Nicholson cut the deficit in the 69th and Pulisic got his second goal in the 87th, giving the 20-year-old 13 goals in 30 international appearances. Nine of Pulisic's 12 international goals have come in competitive matches. The Nissan Stadium crowd of 28,473 was chanting "We want Mexico" in the game's closing minutes. Nicholson's goal was the first against the U.S. in the tournament and ended a 482-minute scoreless streak by the U.S. defense. The Reggae Boyz were trying to reach their third straight Gold Cup final following loses to Mexico in the 2015 championship game and the U.S in 2017. McKennie's goal developed from a long pass from Michael Bradley to Reggie Cannon on the side of the penalty area. Cannon crossed and Jozy Altidore had his back to the goal as he tapped the ball to a charging McKennie. McKennie's shot from about six yards sailed over the right hand of goalkeeper Andre Blake. Altidore and Cannon had earned starts along with attacker Jordan Morris and central defender Matt Miazga's as part of U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter's lineup shuffle. Pulisic's first goal came after McKennie made a long pass to Morris, who ran free on a flnal. Blake saved Morris' shot, but Pulisic was coming up from the left side and knocked in the rebound. Nicholson scored on a header from Leon Bailey's cross. Blake made a diving save of Arriola's shot from the left side, but Pulisic was again ready for the rebound and sent a shot into the left side of the goal. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US defeats Jamaica to reach Gold Cup final against old foe Mexico


BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AP) Kenneth Kronholm only had to make one save to get his first shutout with Chicago in the Fire's scoreless draw with D.C. United on Saturday night. Bill Hamid made two saves on the other end to pick up his ninth shutout of the season. Chicago (5-10-9) added Kronholm in early May and he's 2-5-4. The only save in his second win came against Wayne Rooney. The Fire are now winless in five matches, but picked up their second draw in that time. Hamid's night was a little more difficult to get DC (9-6-9) a point. In the 29th minute he got his hand on a chip but the rebound went to Johan Kappelhof, whose point-blank shot was cleared off the endline by Frederic Brillant. In the 82nd minute, Hamid turned away Przemyslaw Frankowski with a dive to his left. Hamid's career high for shutouts is 10 in the 2014 season.