Recreate your favorite steakhouse dishes at home. We have steak recipes, luxurious sides, decadent desserts and more. Beef Wellington with Madeira Sauce This very impressive-looking yet easy-to-make dish can be made ahead. Just finish the baking process when your guests arrive.  Janaan Cunningham Get Recipe When you do want to eat out, check out the best steakhouse in every state. Grilled Ribeye with Garlic Blue Cheese Mustard Sauce This simple steak gets a big flavor boost from two of my favorites: mustard and blue cheese. My husband and I make this recipe to celebrate our anniversary each year!  Ashley Lecker, Green Bay, Wisconsin Get Recipe Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing A wedge salad gets the creamy treatment when topped with blue cheese dressing. Keep the dressing as a topper, or make it a dip for Buffalo wings.  Jenn Smith, East Providence, Rhode Island Get Recipe Green Bean Bundles I found this recipe in a rural newspaper years ago and have made it often. The bean bundles are excellent with chicken or beef. Sometimes I'll arrange them around a mound of wild rice to make an appetizing side dish.  Virginia Stadler, Nokesville, Virginia Get Recipe Steaks with Mushroom Sauce These rich steaks are smothered in a rich mushroom-wine sauce to create a wonderfully savory entree. The tender steaks are sure to be a hit, and would certainly dress up any plate.  Stephanie Allee, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Get Recipe Traditional Cheesecake Our Test Kitchen shares this recipe for a basic cheesecake that tastes great alone or with any number of garnishes. Try serving it with Raspberry Sauce and Sour Cream Topping. Get Recipe Rich & Creamy Parmesan Mashed Potatoes For special occasions (like my husband's birthday dinners), I mash my potatoes with cream cheese, sour cream and Parmesan. It's divine comfort food.  Jo Ann Burrington, Osceola, Indiana Get Recipe Steak Diane When I want to provide a memorable dinner but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, this is the recipe I rely on. I've used it many times on holidays or other occasions for a quick, impressive main dish. We relish the savory sauce poured over the steaks.  Pheobe Carre, Mullica Hill, New Jersey Get Recipe Flat Iron Steak Salad My steak salad with avocado and radishes is a big plate of summer deliciousness. I sometimes add dried cranberries and cherry tomatoes, but you can customize it to suit your tastes.  Marla Clark, Albuquerque, New Mexico Get Recipe Curried Sweet Potato Wedges Sweet potatoes roasted with curry and smoked paprika delight everybody at our table. The mango chutney makes a tangy dip.  Simi Jois, Streamwood, Illinois Get Recipe Italian Steak Bruschetta This recipe combines my favorite things to eat: toast, steak, bruschetta topping and delicious pancetta. It's looks so pretty on the plate! This five-ingredient appetizer is easy to prepare but will have everyone thinking you spent a long time in the kitchen.  Devon Delaney, Westport, Connecticut Get Recipe Green Beans Amandine It's hard to improve on the taste Mother Nature gives to fresh green beans, but Mom has for years using this green beans amandine. I have always thought the crunchy almonds were a super addition.  Brenda DuFresne, Midland, Michigan Get Recipe Garlic & Herb Steak Pizza We crave pizza that's super fast, cheesy and original. This one with steak and veggies is for folks who like their pie with everything on top.  Jade Fears, Grand Ridge, Florida Get Recipe Flourless Chocolate Cake with Rosemary Ganache Moist, dense and chocolaty describes this rich cake. A silky bittersweet ganache infused with rosemary really takes this dessert over the top. Kelly Gardner, Alton, Illinois Get Recipe Broiled Lobster Tail Wondering how to cook lobster tail? This recipe is for you! No matter where you live, these succulent, buttery lobster tails are just a few minutes away. Here in Wisconsin, we use frozen lobster with delicious results, but if you're near the ocean, use fresh!  Lauren Knoelke, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Get Recipe Spring Asparagus This fresh and colorful side dish is delicious served warm or cold. I get lots of compliments on the homemade dressing.  Millie Vickery, Lena, Illinois Get Recipe Easy Marinated Grilled Flank Steak Friends shared this three-ingredient marinade years ago, and it's been a favorite since. Serve this steak with salad and grilled potatoes for a quick meal.  Beverly Dietz, Surprise, Arizona Get Recipe Texas Garlic Mashed Potatoes These creamy potatoes get their flavor burst from garlic and caramelized onions. Their savory goodness makes any meal better.  Richard Markle, Midlothian, Texas Get Recipe Steak and Fries Salad This is a very popular dish at restaurants in central Pennsylvania. Prepared sweet-and-sour dressing is good on this salad, too.  Nancy Collins, Clearfield, Pennsylvania Get Recipe Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake If you delight in the taste of chocolate, then this is the cheesecake for you. Every creamy bite melts in your mouth. It's so impressive yet not difficult to prepare-I whip up this dessert each time I want a yummy treat for my family, friends or co-workers.  Mary Jones, Cumberland, Maine Get Recipe Grilled Peppered Steaks I once wanted a peppered steak for supper, so I tossed some spices together and came up with this recipe. My family thoroughly enjoyed it. Stephanie Moon, Boise, Idaho. Get Recipe Simple Au Gratin Potatoes These homemade au gratin potatoes are always welcome at our dinner table, and they're so simple to make. A perfect complement to ham, this homey potato gratin also goes well with pork, chicken and other entrees.  Cris O'Brien, Virginia Beach, Virginia Get Recipe Cheesy Cream of Asparagus Soup Kids may not want to try a vegetable soup, but once they spoon up a mouthful of this cheesy variety, the flavor will keep them coming back for more.  Muriel Lerdal, Humboldt, Iowa Get Recipe Lemon Shrimp with Parmesan Rice I grew up in Biloxi, Mississippi, where rice, garlic and seafood are staples of Gulf Coast cuisine. This easy shrimp and rice dish is a longtime family favorite that's ready in minutes.  Amie Overby, Reno, Nevada Get Recipe Steak with Chipotle-Lime Chimichurri Steak gets a flavor kick from chimichurri. This piquant, all-purpose herb sauce is so versatile, it complements most any grilled meat, poultry or fish.  Laureen Pittman, Riverside, California Get Recipe Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Garlic When we have company, these sprouts are my go-to side dish because they look and taste fantastic. Fancy them up a notch with pancetta instead of bacon.  Mandy Rivers, Lexington, South Carolina Get Recipe Pineapple Carrot Cake This moist cake with cream cheese frosting is the best I've ever eaten. It's so simple, too, because it uses two jars of baby food instead of fresh carrots that need to be grated.  Jeanette McKenna, Vero Beach, Florida Get Recipe Blue Cheese-Crusted Sirloin Steaks My wife adores this steak and me when I fix it for her. She thinks it's the ideal dish for Friday night after a long workweek.  Michael Rouse, Minot, North Dakota Get Recipe Maple-Glazed Green Beans After I picked my first green beans one year, I wanted to make a savory dish that was unique, quick and packed with flavor. I loved this so much I couldn't stop eating it, so the next day I picked more beans and made this delicious side dish again.  Merry Graham, Newhall, California Get Recipe Classic French Onion Soup Enjoy my signature French onion soup the way my granddaughter Becky does. I make onion soup for her in a crock bowl complete with garlic croutons and gobs of melted Swiss cheese on top.  Lou Sansevero, Ferron, Utah Get Recipe Parmesan Asparagus Nothing could be more simple than this side dish. Since it has just four ingredients, I assemble it in no time, then pop it into the oven for about 15 minutes. It turns out perfect every time.  Mary Ann Marino, West Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Get Recipe Bacon-Gruyere Smashed Potatoes Gruyere cheese, bacon, sweet onions and herbs take smashed potatoes to a whole new level of amazing. This loaded side dish is so rich and satisfying, it could almost be eaten on its own!   Lisa Speer, Palm Beach, Florida Get Recipe Beef Filets with Portobello Sauce These tasty steaks seem special but they are fast enough for everyday dinners. We enjoy the mushroom-topped fillets with crusty French bread, mixed salad and a light lemon dessert.  Christel Stein, Tampa, Florida Get Recipe Classic Crab Cakes Our region is known for good seafood, and crab cakes are a traditional favorite. I learned to make them from a chef in a restaurant where they were a best-seller. The crabmeat's sweet and mild flavor is sparked by the blend of other ingredients.  Debbie Terenzini, Lusby, Maryland Get Recipe Round Steak Italiano My mom used to make this wonderful dish, and I've always enjoyed it. The gravy is especially dense and flavorful. Deanne Stephens, McMinnville, Oregon Get Recipe Flank Steak Pinwheels The secret to these pretty flank steak pinwheels lies in their butterfly treatment. Because the steaks are flattened, marinade isn't need. Instead, they're filled with a colorful stuffing of red pepper and spinach and draped with a flavorful, homemade blue cheese sauce.  Taste of Home Test Kitchen Get Recipe Pretty Duchess Potatoes Comfort-food flavor comes in attractive packages that are just the right size!  Taste of Home Test Kitchen Get Recipe Basil-Butter Steaks with Roasted Potatoes A few ingredients and 30 minutes are all you'll need for this incredibly satisfying meal. A simple basil butter gives these steaks a very special taste.  Taste of Home Test Kitchen Get Recipe Garlic-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Sauce Don't be afraid to bring out the Brussels sprouts. Mellowed by roasting and tossed with mustard sauce, they may just delight even the most skeptical folks.  Becky Walch, Orland, California Get Recipe Strawberry-Blue Cheese Steak Salad At lunch one day, a friend told me about a steak salad she'd had at a party. It sounded so fantastic I had to try it for myself. My family would eat it nonstop if we could. Can't seem to get enough of that tangy dressing!  Alma Winberry, Great Falls, Montana Get Recipe


Regrets: Everybody has a few. But you certainly don't want to reach the end of your working life to find you're not where you want to be. A 2018 survey by Global Atlantic Financial Group, which sells annuities, asked over 4,000 Americans, pre-retirees and retirees, about their retirement savings. Of those surveyed, 55% said they had regrets. The top three were that they: Did not save enough. Relied too much on Social Security. Did not pay down debt before retiring. It's possible to avoid some of this remorse by taking steps now, says Maura Cassidy, vice president of Retirement Product at Fidelity. "There are tools available that can help you plan ahead," Cassidy tells Money Talks News. "Work on a plan now, and you'll have fewer regrets later." Here's how you can avoid those big retirement regrets. 1. Not enough savings Fidelity's recent Retirement Mindset survey found 62% of respondents were confident about their current financial health, Cassidy notes. But when people looked ahead to their retirement finances, that changed. Part of the issue is planning. Only 18% of the Fidelity respondents had a financial plan for retirement. Without planning, it's hard to know if you have enough saved. Find out how much you'll be spending in retirement, Cassidy says. "Sit down and think through your expenses, and amp up your savings." The most common financial surprises for retirees, Global Atlantic's survey found, are inflation and unexpected medical costs. Consider establishing a health savings account , if you qualify. It can be a valuable retirement planning tool. Picture your retirement lifestyle and think over how you'll fund it, says Brandon Renfro, a fee-only retirement adviser with a Retirement Income Certified Professional credential. "Without knowing what you'll spend money on, simply saving more is like working toward an unknown goal," says Renfro, who also is an assistant professor of finance at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas. "Plan your savings amount around a definable goal." It's not the usual blah, blah, blah. Click here to sign up for our free newsletter. 2. Relying too much on Social Security Rather than viewing Social Security as your main source of income in retirement, Cassidy suggests looking it at one of several legs of a stool. "There's a lot of misunderstanding about what Social Security can do and what you'll get," she says. "It's supplemental, and not designed to be replacement income." It's not meant to provide all the necessities of life. Also, no one knows how Social Security benefits will change or whether the entire system will face an overhaul. Cassidy says your planning should include other resources, including: Tax-advantaged retirement plans Pensions Taxable investment accounts Personal savings A health savings account Income from businesses or properties You may not be able to develop all of these, but you can increase your retirement income by working now to diversify your future income. Consult with a retirement planning specialist to assess your resources and make a withdrawal plan. Coordinate that with your plan for taking Social Security benefits. Related: The Shortest Path to an Amazing Retirement "Relatively little attention is paid to how retirees will withdraw from their savings," Renfro tells Money Talks News. "A good withdrawal plan can add years to your retirement and provide emotional comfort." And you won't have to depend exclusively on Social Security. (Article continues after video.) 3. Not paying off debt before you retire For retirees on fixed incomes, debt makes it hard to truly enjoy retirement. Therefore, Renfro advises you to retire any debt you have before you stop working. Do this by systematically focusing on one debt at a time , while making minimum payments on other debts. Get started by targeting the debt with the highest interest, or perhaps the one with the smallest balance. The important thing is to be debt-free in retirement so your financial resources can go toward helping you enjoy life. Cassidy, however, warns against focusing too much on paying down debt. Don't neglect your retirement savings, she cautions. "Compounding really works miracles (with retirement savings), and you can still save while paying down debt." Cassidy's advice: Put 15% of income toward retirement, making sure to get every cent of any company match you're eligible for. "You can do both, save and pay down debt, and even if you're not putting 15% toward retirement, you can still get a good start," she says. Bottom line For the most part, the best way to avoid retirement regret is planning. Start immediately, evaluating your situation and creating a retirement roadmap that helps you get from today to tomorrow. "Taking a small action today helps," says Cassidy. Learn everything you need to plan your dream retirement The Only Retirement Guide You'll Ever Need gives you the knowledge you need to retire on your own terms. Sure, you can pay a financial adviser, but this online course gives you total control to create a custom retirement plan around the things that make you happy. You're going to get expert, personalized advice. You'll have access to the latest tools. And when it's complete, you'll be able to approach your retirement confidently and with peace of mind. It's time to plan the best years of your life. Let's get started .


If nothing else, you have to give Mickey Callaway credit for his honesty. New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom threw a gem on Tuesday, going 8.1 innings, striking out 10 batters, and allowing just two earned runs in a 10-2 win over the Atlanta Braves. Callaway, the Mets manager, pulled deGrom in the ninth inning and inserted reliever Robert Gsellman to get the final two outs. After the game, Callaway was asked why he went with the veteran Gsellman instead of putting in young reliever Stephen Nogosek in what appeared to be a prime spot with an eight-run lead. Callaway essentially admitted that he was trying to pad deGrom's stats, reasoning that he did not want any inherited runners to go on the star righty's stat line, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Mickey Callaway said he brought Robert Gsellman into an eight-run game because he feared there would be runners on base, and he didn't want any inherited runs to go on Jacob deGrom's stat line.   Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) June 19, 2019 True, Gsellman was the more seasoned, reliable option, and even if deGrom exited the game without any runners on base, Callaway probably had already made the decision to warm up Gsellman over Nogosek. But giving one of your top bullpen arms an unnecessary day of work for the purposes of preserving an individual stat line is an interesting strategy to say the least. After posting the best ERA in baseball last season (1.70), deGrom hasn't been particularly close to replicating that feat this year with a 3.38 ERA in 14 starts before Tuesday. Still, he has to appreciate Callaway's efforts, especially in a season where the skipper has taken major heat for his pitching decisions .


Plucking an athletic director from the Pacific Northwest worked out well for Texas A&M recently in the form of Scott Woodward so it shouldn't be too surprising to see the Aggies explore going back to the same well by pursuing Oregon AD Rob Mullens. After a few weeks of speculation however , it appears A&M will be looking elsewhere for their new leader in the wake of Woodward's departure to LSU as local reports out of Eugene have the Ducks boss staying put at UO: Was told today that Rob Mullens decided to stay at Oregon and won't pursue the AD job at Texas A&M. We talked about that and other topics on the podcast. https://t.co/0K941MYkK8   Austin Meek (@austinmeekRG) May 10, 2019 Mullens was a name thrown out nearly as soon as Woodward's departure was announced and for good reason. He's presided over a significant facilities expansion in Eugene across a number of sports and has SEC experience from his time at Kentucky. After nearly a decade at Oregon, he was named last year as the College Football Playoff Selection Committee chairman and is the face most folks see when discussing the weekly rankings for the postseason system on ESPN . That CFP connection is also notable as Texas A&M's former head coach turned interim AD R.C. Slocum is also on the committee this year. Either way, the Aggies are set on landing a big name to replace Woodward but it's pretty clear now that Mullens won't be the one to fill the big shoes left behind in College Station. Related slideshow: Ranking the 10 best college football mascots (provided by For The Win)


COLUMBIA, N.H. (AP)   A long-planned Blessing of the Bikes ceremony for motorcycle enthusiasts became a scene of mourning and reflection Sunday as about 400 people paid tribute to seven bikers killed in a devastating collision with a pickup truck . The victims of the wreck Friday evening were members or supporters of the Marine JarHeads   a New England motorcycle club that includes Marines and their spouses   and ranged in age from 42 to 62. "When they fall, we all fall," said Laura Cardinal, vice president of the Manchester Motorcycle Club, adding that fellow bikers will support the families of those who died. "Those families, they're going to go through a lot now. They have a new world ahead of them." A pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer collided with a group of 10 motorcycles on a two-lane highway in the small town of Randolph, leaving victims strewn on the grass amid their shattered bikes. The cause of the crash was under investigation, and no immediate charges were filed. Blessing of the Bikes ceremonies are held in many locations as a way to give prayers for a safe season. Sunday's event, situated about an hour from the accident site, was expected to draw maybe 100 or 200 people before it was transformed by tragedy. The Rev. Rich Baillargeon presided, blessing the bikes using a branch dipped in holy water as they filed by, and held a moment of silence and prayer for the victims. One biker got up to say a prayer but got choked up and couldn't finish. The ceremony also included a bugle playing of taps. Many of the bikers wore jeans and leather jackets with their club patches and rumbled in on their Harley-Davidsons. The outdoor gathering took place on the property of a former church, with bikers parking in rows in the parking lot and on the grass on a warm, sunny day as vendors sold corn dogs, french fries, pizza, sausage and lemonade. Gary and Sheila Judkins came from Sumner, Maine, in part because of the crash, saying being there was a way to feel connected to other riders. "It's a positive thing for bikers. And if anything, bikers need something positive," Gary Judkins said. Authorities identified the dead as Michael Ferazzi, 62, of Contoocook, New Hampshire; Albert Mazza Jr., 59, of Lee, New Hampshire; Desma Oakes, 42, of Concord, New Hampshire; Aaron Perry, 45, of Farmington, New Hampshire; Daniel Pereira, 58, of Riverside, Rhode Island; and Jo-Ann and Edward Corr, both 58, of Lakeville, Massachusetts. One person injured in the wreck remained hospitalized in stable condition. Relatives of all but one of the victims could not be reached for comment or their numbers were not listed. The state attorney general's office said the Ferazzi family had asked that reporters not contact them. Mazza Jr.'s family described the former Marine and father of two as a quiet, self-starter who fell in love with motorcycles at an early age and always seemed to best anyone he competed against. When he got out of the Marines, he worked in the defense industry and then the construction business. Along with bikes, relatives said Mazza Jr. was passionate about judo and hunting when he was growing up. In the past two decades, his father Albert Mazza said he had very little contact with his son partly because he lives in Kenly, North Carolina. "He was a young man who could do anything. I competed in all kinds of things in my life ... and everything he tried to do, he beat me in," Albert Mazza said. "He was a natural at everything ... He was a tough, young guy who didn't know how to quit ... I was always proud of him and I always bragged on him because I knew he was a better man than I was." Joseph Mazza, Mazza Jr.'s uncle who lives in Haverhill, Massachusetts, said he was still dealing with the accident and trying to comprehend how so many bikers died in one accident. "The truck was coming in the opposite direction. It's hard to figure how he could hit 10 motorcycles without getting out of the way," Joseph Mazza said. "Right now, the details are very vague. I'm very confused ... I need more information." The tragedy left the close-knit motorcycle community in shock, with many remembering their own close calls on the road. "Seven people. C'mon. It's senseless," said Bill Brown, a 73-year-old Vietnam War veteran and motorcyclist, who visited the accident scene Saturday to plant flags. "Somebody made a mistake, and it turned out to be pretty deadly." The pickup driver, Volodoymyr Zhukovskyy, 23, an employee of a Springfield, Massachusetts, trucking company, was not seriously hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating, said he was interviewed at the scene by police and allowed to return to Massachusetts. A man reached by phone who identified himself as Zhukovskyy's father said his son is cooperating with the investigation and was not available to talk to a reporter. Authorities asked for the public's help in the form of videos, photos or other information about the accident or the vehicles. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu ordered flags to fly at half-staff Monday in memory of the victims. ___ Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston, Massachusetts, contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to show that one of the victims is Jo-Ann Corr, not Joanne Corr, and Albert Mazza was 59, not 49.


Douglas S. Boothe was the leader of a little-known generic-drug maker seven years ago when federal agents approached his company with an urgent plea: Slash production of an addictive pain medication that was fueling a national crisis. Boothe "wasn't interested" and rejected the Drug Enforcement Administration's request that Actavis voluntarily cut its supply of oxycodone to U.S. pharmacies, according to exhibits unsealed recently in a landmark lawsuit that accuses drug companies of recklessly distributing billions of addictive pain pills despite glaring signs of abuse. Now, Boothe is among a crop of figures from the generic-drug industry   from high-ranking executives to salesmen to account managers   whose decisions during the height of the country's opioid epidemic have been thrust into the national spotlight after the release of the documents. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today's most popular stories on The Washington Post Drugmaker Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, have for years borne the brunt of public criticism for inventing and deceptively marketing one of the most well-known opioid painkillers, OxyContin, in the 1990s. But the records show that by 2006, as the death rate accelerated, a handful of obscure generic-drug manufacturers were selling the bulk of opioid pills flooding the country. The documents and a DEA database that tracks every opioid pill sold in the United States from 2006 through 2012 are being made public a year after The Washington Post and the owner of the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia began pushing for their release. The database provides a road map of accountability for these sales. It attributes the vast majority of the 76 billion opioid pills produced and shipped from 2006 through 2012 to three companies that are now controlled by large multinational drugmakers: SpecGx, a subsidiary of Ireland-based Mallinckrodt; Par Pharmaceutical, owned by Endo Pharmaceuticals, also in Ireland; and Actavis, part of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. The records show how these and other generic-pain-pill makers rushed to gain market share as the nation's deadliest drug epidemic spun out of control. The records also reveal that some of the manufacturers were warned by auditors or regulators that they were not meeting federal requirements for detecting suspicious orders. Boothe, Actavis's chief executive in those years, denied culpability in a deposition unsealed Tuesday. Although federal law compels companies to monitor the pattern, frequency and amounts of drug orders, Boothe emphasized that Actavis could not control how its drugs were ultimately used. "Once it goes outside of our chain of custody, we have no capability or responsibility or accountability," Boothe said in the November deposition. "Once we ship a valid order to a wholesaler or ship a valid order to a distributor . . . our chain of custody is finished at that point." Boothe has not responded to voice mails, text messages or calls in recent days, or to messages left with his assistant at an Illinois drug company, Akorn, where he is now chief executive. Teva, Mallinckrodt and Endo declined to comment for this story. In statements to The Post for its stories about the newly unsealed documents, the drug companies have issued multiple defenses of their actions during the crisis. They contend they were trying to sell legal painkillers to legitimate patients who had prescriptions. They also blamed the crisis on overprescribing by physicians and on corrupt doctors and pharmacists who worked in "pill mills" that handed out drugs with few questions asked. The companies further asserted that they should not be held responsible for the actions of those who abused the drugs and that the DEA had all the information it needed to block pills from reaching the black market. On the DEA's radar By 2004, eight years after it had been introduced, OxyContin had mushroomed into the most frequently prescribed narcotic for moderate to severe pain in the United States. For Purdue, it had been an era of enormous profitability as the exclusive producer of the drug, which earned the company more than $1 billion a year. But in several court rulings, federal judges in New York and Washington that year invalidated a Purdue patent on OxyContin for misrepresenting to regulators how effective the drug was at lower doses. The decisions helped clear the way for generics manufacturers to compete for market share years earlier than they might have otherwise. Although Purdue would ultimately prevail on appeal, the dam had broken; generics began pouring into the market. Typically, generic-drug companies are able to produce less-expensive versions of a patented drug only long after its introduction, by which time its risks and benefits are well known. In the case of OxyContin, however, those risks were very much in dispute. In 2007, Purdue and several current and former executives pleaded guilty in federal court and agreed to pay a total of $635 million to settle charges they had fraudulently marketed OxyContin as a drug that was less addictive than other narcotics and that had few side effects. Since the landmark fine for deceptive marketing, opioid manufacturers have faced few penalties. Mallinckrodt became the first in 2017, paying $35 million to settle DEA complaints it did not adequately work to detect suspicious opioid orders. Three years before Purdue's settlement, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic versions of OxyContin, known as oxycodone hydrochloride. Among the early drugmakers to win approval for a generic was Amide Pharmaceutical, a privately held company in Little Falls, N.J., with 200 employees. With its approval in hand, and construction of a manufacturing plant underway to make billions of pills a year, Amide became the target of a buyout by what was then Actavis, a company based in Europe. Announcing the purchase in 2005, Actavis boasted that Amide would give the company an "important foothold in the US market . . . to generate significant opportunities to drive revenue growth." Months later, Actavis bought a second New Jersey generics company and installed one of its executives, Boothe, as the head of the companies' combined generics division. Actavis's sales of the generic version of OxyContin and other drugs containing oxycodone grew from 559 million in 2006 to more than 1.1 billion in 2012, according to the DEA database. Its sales of hydrocodone, another opioid pain reliever, rose from 2.2 billion to nearly 3 billion. Even as their sales of opioids surged, the generic drugmakers maintained a low profile. "We weren't really a household name   none of us," Nancy Baran, Actavis's head of customer service in those years, said in a recent interview. "Generics are not advertised on TV. No one ever hears your name. I worked at the company for 10 years, and my friends would still ask, 'Where?' " Inside the DEA's headquarters near the Pentagon in Northern Virginia, however, Actavis and Mallinckrodt would eventually bubble up on the radar of agents frustrated with their inability to curb the steep increase in prescribed opioids. The DEA had tried going after unscrupulous doctors, but each case took months to stop a single bad actor. Agents had met with distributors, pressing them to cut off suspicious pharmacies, but the flow of drugs kept increasing. "We kept trying to work our way back up the chain, to the source," Barbara J. Boockholdt, then the chief of the regulatory section for DEA's Office of Diversion Control, said in an interview. In 2011, Boockholdt walked across the hallway at DEA headquarters to an office that handles the agency's drug-ordering database   known as the Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, or ARCOS   and asked for reports on the nation's largest opioid manufacturers. "I was shocked; I couldn't believe it, Mallinckrodt was the biggest, and then there was Actavis," Boockholdt said. "Everyone had been talking about Purdue, but they weren't even close." Agents in Boockholdt's office analyzed the supply chains, tracing oxycodone from Actavis's plants in New Jersey to Walgreens and other pharmacies in Florida, some selling a million doses a year. They put together a presentation that ran more than 100 pages, a document that was made public on Tuesday. They put copies in three-ring binders and called in Actavis. On Sept. 12, 2012, executives from the company were led into a windowless conference room on the sixth floor of the DEA's headquarters. There, one of Boockholdt's deputies began by talking about how Florida was having, on average, 11 fatal overdoses a day. Then the lights were dimmed, and Boockholdt ticked through 60 charts and graphs showing that Actavis had sent nearly 240 million pills to Florida during the previous 30 months   more oxycodone than the manufacturer had sent to almost all other states combined. Actavis officials were taken aback, the court records show. Michael R. Clarke, the company's vice president for ethics and compliance, testified in a deposition that it felt like DEA officials were treating Actavis like "street dealers." Clarke had expected a more collegial approach like, "You know, that's great, that's fine, maybe you can do this better. We were looking for that sort of interchange, and it wasn't that," Clarke testified in December, according to the newly unsealed documents. "It was pretty clear that they believed that we were one of the manufacturers that led to whatever problem they identified related to diversion of opioids." Boockholdt told Baran, Actavis's head of customer service, that she needed to send people to South Florida to get to know the company's customers   "the long lines at pain clinics, out-of-state license plates, questionable clients, security guard (s) in the parking lots and signs stating cash payments only." The exchange is included in a 200-page internal memorandum, made public this past week, in which Boockholdt memorialized that Actavis had been put on notice to monitor its sales more closely. Baran assured the DEA that "to the best of its ability" Actavis would do so, the memo says. Baran told The Post this week, after her name surfaced in the documents , that she had not previously encountered the kinds of stories the DEA was describing. More typically, she dealt with " people upset about labeling or packaging," she said. "It was that kind of stuff." In October, a month after the meeting in Virginia, the DEA came knocking at the company's headquarters in Morristown, N.J., seeking dramatic action   a 30 to 40 percent voluntary reduction in the company's production of oxycodone, Clarke testified. "It was us essentially reducing what we were making so that there would be less product out there, as opposed to DEA stepping up its enforcement efforts for, you know, that level of criminal activity," Clarke said. He and another executive took the request to Boothe, a Princeton University and Wharton business school graduate who had been a vice president of Xerox before converting to a career in pharmaceuticals. Across the Atlantic, Actavis's parent organization was in disarray, controlled by Deutsche Bank after its billionaire owner had defaulted on loans. Boothe held firm, Clarke testified. "You know, he wasn't interested in voluntarily reducing our quota, particularly by 30 or 40 percent, without understanding that there was something else to be had," Clarke said. Clarke declined to comment for this story. The giant Boockholdt and the DEA had already summoned executives of the largest oxycodone manufacturer   Mallinckrodt   to the agency's headquarters for a similar warning a year earlier. The Aug. 23, 2011, meeting became known among federal agents as the "earthquake meeting," occurring the day of a rare magnitude-5.8 temblor in the Washington region. DEA officials showed the company the hundreds of millions of doses of oxycodone Mallinckrodt was shipping to distributors and the number of arrests being made for oxycodone possession and sale in those areas, Boockholdt said. It wasn't the first such indication of concern the company had received from the DEA. Four months earlier, in April 2011, a top company compliance officer had distributed a training document saying that a DEA representative in St. Louis had referred to the company in a conversation as "the kingpin within the drug cartel." The document, labeled as a presentation for the "Executive Committee," was emailed to the pharmaceutical giant's vice president for global supply chain, according to the unsealed records. The database lists Mallinckrodt subsidiary SpecGx as the maker of just over 2 billion pills that were shipped to Florida. Nationwide, the company would produce 28.9 billion pills during the years covered by the database   more than 80 for each person in the country. After the meeting with DEA officials, Mallinckrodt briefly reduced shipments, Boockholdt told The Post. The company also notified more than 40 of its distributors that they would no longer receive rebates if they continued to supply specific pharmacies whose orders were deemed suspicious. But Mallinckrodt's output of opioid pills soon ramped back up, Boockholdt said. At the time, Mallinckrodt was also failing to shore up its own system for tracking suspicious orders, according to recently released documents, which the company had fought to keep sealed. Karen Harper, a senior manager for controlled substance compliance, testified in a deposition that she told her superiors in 2008 that Mallinckrodt was not capable of detecting suspicious orders and that its systems needed to be upgraded. But company executives decided against hiring an outside vendor to help detect such orders, she said. In 2010, the company changed an algorithm for flagging "peculiar" orders   from those twice as large as the average from the previous year to those three times as large   because there were too many orders to review, Harper said. By 2016, while the company was in then-confidential negotiations with the Justice Department for failing to report suspicious orders, Mallinckrodt consolidated its specialty generic business in a new subsidiary registered in Delaware, called SpecGx LLC   the entity credited in the DEA database with Mallinckrodt's opioid sales. The next year, the company agreed to pay a $35 million penalty, acknowledging "certain aspects of Mallinckrodt's system to monitor and detect suspicious orders did not meet the standards" set by the DEA. The company's identity will soon change again. Mallinckrodt announced in April that it plans to change its name to Sonorant Therapeutics, spinning off 'Mallinckrodt Inc.' as a separate company for its generics business. It said in federal filings that liabilities arising from opioid litigation would "remain with Mallinckrodt Inc. or its subsidiaries following the separation." The company's outside spokesman, Daniel Yunger, said Mallinckrodt declined to comment for this story. Years of auditors' concerns The other large manufacturer of generic opioids listed in the database, Par Pharmaceutical, did not even have a system to detect sales orders that had the hallmarks the government associated with drug diversion, according to an outside auditing firm whose reports were made public this past week. "There is no Suspicious Ordering Monitoring System in place," the auditors wrote in May 2010, referring to a reporting mechanism required by the DEA. "A program must be instituted based on customers' sales volumes, seasonal fluctuations, etc., with a firm statistical analysis as the basis for such a program," wrote the auditors from the firm BuzzeoPDMA. Par did not act on that advice for years, records show. Instead, employees inside Par's sales department were responsible for monitoring orders, according to company documents and an executive at Par's current parent company, Endo Pharmaceuticals. Founded in 1978, Par quickly established itself in the generic drug industry. Soon after it went public in 1984, the company ran into legal troubles. In 1989, the company and two of its executives pleaded guilty to charges of bribing FDA officials in exchange for fast approvals for generic drugs. Two years later, the company pleaded guilty to 10 charges involving falsified applications for drug approvals and other infractions and agreed to pay $2.5 million in fines. Over the following decades, the New York-based company regained its footing. By 2006, Par had more than 700 employees and was describing itself as "the world's sixth largest manufacturer and distributor of generic pharmaceuticals," according to archived versions of its website. Its annual revenue had grown to more than $1 billion by 2012, documents show. As late as 2015, though, the outside auditors still had concerns about Par's oversight of opioid sales. The auditor noted that federal regulators might take issue with the company's method for vetting orders. "Par's current SOM [Suspicious Ordering Monitoring] system as it currently operates may be difficult to explain and defend during a DEA review," the auditor wrote. A lawyer in the case pressed Stephen C. Macrides, Endo's senior vice president of global supply chain, on why Par notified the DEA of no suspicious orders between 2010 and 2015. "If an order was deemed suspicious, it would have been reported to the DEA," Macrides said. He did not respond to messages seeking comment. By September 2015, Par's market value had multiplied. It was acquired for $8 billion by Endo, an Irish company that also manufactured and distributed opioids. aaron.davis@washpost.com shawn.boburg@washpost.com robert.oharrow@washpost.com Steven Rich, Alice Crites and Julie Tate contributed to this report.


Starting this fall, Walmart customers can not only buy groceries online, they can then have them dropped off right in their kitchen. More than 1 million shoppers in Kansas City, Mo., Vero Beach, Fl, and Pittsburgh, Pa. will be able to use Walmart's new "InHome'' service, the latest volley in the delivery wars being waged by retailers racing to woo customers with convenience and speed. Walmart employees will first pick the produce or other household items, ordered by a shopper online. They will then deliver food items into the customer's refrigerator, using smart technology that enables the homeowner to let them in and watch what they do while they're there "Once we learned how to do pickup well, we knew it would unlock the ability to deliver,'' Doug McMillon, Walmart's president and CEO, said in a statement. "But what if we not only cover the last mile to customers' homes but even the last few steps? What if we put their groceries away inside their kitchens or garages?'' Shoppers will pick the day they want the delivery to occur after checking the InHome Delivery option when they complete their grocery purchase online. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has gone tit for tat with e-commerce giant Amazon in the competition to shrink the amount of time it takes to get packages to customers' doors. As the battle has escalated, each has become increasingly creative in dropping off packages wherever a shopper might want to receive them. Walmart conducted a pilot test in which grocery orders were placed in a customer's refrigerator in 2017. Amazon just announced that it could begin using a self-driving drone to deliver orders within a matter of months. And earlier this year, it began testing a delivery robot . Also this year, for the first time, it delivered items to the desert-based music festival Coachella . And it has also set up Amazon lockers , where customers can retrieve items, at locations ranging from hotels to local banks. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Forget the porch. Walmart will deliver groceries right to your fridge starting this fall


A Queens couple spent years trying to get pregnant and finally succeeded via in vitro fertilization in 2018. But when the woman gave birth to two boys in March 2019, they were stunned: The children did not share their Asian descent. The couple reported they spent over $100,000 at CHA Fertility Center in California for attempts at IVF, according to a lawsuit filed last week . Red flags began to pop up throughout the pregnancy: A sonogram showed the woman was carrying twin boys, yet the couple had not used male embryos. When they contacted the clinic about it, doctors simply told them the sonogram was incorrect. Following the birth, the couple "was shocked to see that the babies they were told were formed using both of their genetic material did not appear to be," the lawsuit stated. The babies were not related to either of their parents   or to each other. The couple relinquished custody of the children. How does this happen? Dov Fox, a professor of law at the University of San Diego, explained the regulatory gaps that lead to situations like these. "Fertility centers   and there are almost 500 of them in the United States today   operate free of almost any regulation at all," Fox told NBC News. "There's no federal law, no state law, no enforced professional guideline that enforces requirements, that licenses these facilities in the way that they label or diagnose or handle sperm, eggs and embryos, that result in the creation of people." States oversee medical licensing, education requirements and discipline for physician misconduct, while federal regulations require the reporting of certain data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration , and regulate the use of drugs, devices and donor tissues within clinics. There is also professional self-regulation among groups like the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) to develop and practice ethical guidelines and programs for laboratory accreditation. Both organizations, who share a press contact, declined to comment on this story. But there is no single government agency empowered to crack down on mistakes made by fertility clinics, and no single government entity oversees the fertility industry as a whole. "In fertility medicine, it's very different than any other field, where we regulate very closely what's called 'never events,'" explained Fox. "These are major, avoidable mistakes. Things like blood transfusion on the wrong person, or a surgery on the wrong body part or the wrong patient. There, we require mandatory disclosure and we figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. We have nothing like that for what you might call 'never events' in reproductive technology." It has not been determined how the mistake at the CHA Fertility Center was made, and it has not returned a request for comment from TODAY. "We really have no idea how often this sort of thing happens where sperm fertilizes the wrong egg or embryos are switched," Fox said. "But cases that appear in courts and reports suggest that it happens a whole lot more often than you might think." What sort of ramifications can this have for families? For many, IVF is a time-consuming and expensive process. Carolyn Savage, 50, underwent IVF more than once. In March 2008, she gave birth to a daughter via IVF; in February 2009, she and her husband decided to use one of their five remaining frozen embryos. Ten days after it was transferred, she went into the clinic for a pregnancy test. "They called me a few hours later to tell me it was positive, but that they had made a mistake ," Savage said. "They had thawed and transferred the embryos of another family. So I knew right from the get-go that I was pregnant with somebody else's baby." Savage described the experience as "pretty awful." She did give birth to the baby and give him to his biological parents, and later wrote a book about the experience. Misplaced genetic material is not the only way that families can be let down by these clinics. Two tank failures at facilities in 2018 wiped out thousands of stored eggs and embryos , dashing dreams for many families . How can potential parents protect themselves? CHA Fertility Center claims to have "fulfilled the dreams of tens of thousands of aspiring parents." Its patients certainly didn't think this kind of mix-up could happen there. So what can you can do? Savage suggested that couples ask for full transparency during any procedures and to request the embryology file. That's a file that contains notes and paperwork about the steps the embryo has taken, from freezing to thaw to fertilization. Clinics also should universally make double-checking paperwork a part of their protocol. Do as much research on the clinic before you hand over that first payment. Ask if the clinic has made any mistakes in the past, Savage advised. "Just ask to see everything," Savage said. "Had we done that, our mistake would have been avoided."


An Indian court has convicted six men for the kidnap, rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir state last year, in a high-profile case that sparked widespread protests across the country. "Six of the men have been convicted and they will be sentenced soon. One has been acquitted," said Mubeen Farooqui, the lawyer representing the victim's family to reporters outside the court Monday. Another accused, who has been charged as a juvenile is undergoing a separate trial. Sentencing is expected later Monday. The victim, who belonged to a Muslim nomadic group known as the Bakarwals and whose identity is protected by Indian law, was abducted while she was alone in a field grazing horses in the town of Kathua in Jammu. The convicted men, all of whom are Hindu, locked the victim inside a Hindu temple for five days where she was drugged and repeatedly raped, before being strangled and bludgeoned to death with a rock. Her body was later discovered in a nearby forest. The initial arrests of the men, who prosecutors said plotted the girl's abduction as a means of scaring the predominately-Muslim nomads into vacating the region, proved to be a lightning rod in a part of India simmering with religious tensions. Immediately after the men were officially charged, a right wing nationalist group along with locals affiliated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched protests alleging bias by the investigators and demanded a separate inquiry into the whole case. Two BJP ministers from the, now collapsed, Jammu and Kashmir government who had participated in the protests in support of the convicted men were forced to resign, amid accusations of political interference and religious discrimination. Concerns over the impartiality of the state's judicial system led to a Supreme Court ruling in May of last year ordering the trial of the accused to be moved to the neighboring state of Punjab. The Jammu and Kashmir government had been opposed to the transfer of the trial. Nationwide outage The Kathua incident was one of a string of brutal rapes that prompted thousands of people to take to the streets across India in April 2018, in some of the largest mass demonstrations held in the country since the rape and murder of a female college student in Delhi in 2012. The public reaction helped spur the Indian government to introduce a new law allowing for the introduction of the death penalty to those convicted of raping a child under 12. According to India's National Law University report, nine people have been been sentenced to death under the new sexual violence law. India has been grappling with the issue of sexual violence for decades. Yet despite the introduction of stricter laws in recent years, around 100 sexual assaults are reported to police in India every day, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. There were nearly 39,000 alleged attacks in 2016, an increase of 12% over the previous year. For victims, justice in India's court system is far from certain. Courts and police both face a massive backlog of cases. According to court records, the number of sexual assault-related cases awaiting a trial date in 2016 totaled 15,450, with the courts resolving just 1,395, or less than 10% that year.


CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In what almost certainly will be a glimpse into Greg Olsen's future, the Carolina Panthers' All-Pro tight end will use the team's bye week to return to the TV booth for the Oct. 20 matchup between the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals. As part of his Week 7 assignment - his second with Fox Sports - Olsen will work with veteran announcer Kenny Albert and reporter Lindsay Czarniak in East Rutherford, N.J., the network said Tuesday. Olsen was rumored to be a candidate to join the "Monday Night Football" broadcast team for ESPN as early as this season. Instead, Olsen decided to play on, telling the Observer in May that he considered retirement, but did not want to end his career after losing most of two seasons to a bad foot. "That's always your rash decision," Olsen said. "You're exhausted. You're tired of going through it. You're tired of hurting." But then he reconsidered. "I think once you make it through that initial pity party," he said, "you think you've worked too hard, you've done too much and you've played too long to go out like that." Olsen's contract with Carolina runs through the 2020 season. He has long expressed interest in a broadcasting career after he leaves the NFL. The New Jersey native joined ESPN's "Postseason NFL Countdown" show in Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII, his second consecutive Super Bowl Sunday guest broadcast, and he helped call a game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams (he was on injured reserve at the time) for Fox in 2017. The reviews were glowing. USA Today ran a story entitled: "The NFL's most promising color analyst plays tight end for the Panthers." Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com


Luring Ryan Kalil out of retirement wasn't an easy task for Joe Douglas and company. It took seven weeks for the two sides to come to a contractual agreement. As a University of Southern California guy himself, Kalil had a hard time saying no to the Jets' main selling point -Sam Darnold. Even though Kalil had an itch to return to the NFL, he was waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. Kalil is a big fan of Darnold and it just so happens that center was a position of need for New York. "He's a big reason for me being here," Kalil told reporters over the weekend. "I've been a fan of Sam's since watching him at [USC] and Sam and I know each other a little bit. We've talked in passing in California, here. I just got excited at the opportunity to come and work with him." With Douglas playing hardball to get Kalil in green and white, he thought back to what the now-retired Josh McCown did for Darnold and how that could likely be Kalil in 2019. "I think it's going to be very beneficial for Sam," Douglas said. "We're a young team and when you have veterans that have proven themselves, proven to be great players in the league, young guys - they watch them every day." Kalil has kept a close eye on Darnold as a former USC Trojan himself. The opportunity to work with a talented young quarterback was enough for Kalil to put his retirement on hold. For years, the organization hasn't had a main attraction to sell to players like Darnold. The quarterback position has been an endless game of musical chairs between those with veteran experience and those with "potential." Darnold showed real potential first-hand through last season, though. After he returned from a sprained right foot, he was statistically one of the best players at his position. Training camp has proved this to be true thus far. Darnold has turned over the ball very little and looks like a more seasoned product under Adam Gase's direction. While the Jets work on getting Kalil up to speed, they appear to have found a perfect mentor for Darnold with McCown no longer within earshot. MORE: Cleveland Indians completely roasted Colin Cowherd after Baker Mayfield chugged a beer 2020 aggregate mock draft 1.0: Here are the top NBA prospects to know A year later, Freddie Kitchens and Todd Haley reflect negatively on 'Hard Knocks' Lions camp spotlight: Jamal Agnew in real roster danger How Andre Iguodala could still be attainable for Houston


The Detroit Red Wings are making patch signings as they scour NHL free agency for a way to improve the team. On Monday, the Wings signed forward Valtteri Filppula for two years. The Wings entered the July 1 free agency signing period with about $12 million in salary cap space, but they were not in on the big names on the market, such as Artemi Panarin and Matt Duchene. More: How Steve Yzerman will approach free agency The Wings are in rebuilding mode, and sought to add lower-salaried, short-term players to their lineup. They entered free agency with eight veteran forwards under contract   Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Bertuzzi, Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm and Luke Glendening   leaving room for Taro Hirose, Jacob de la Rose, Michael Rasmussen, Evgeny Svechnikov and Filip Zadina to battle for spots in the fall. The Wings entered the market with veteran defensemen Danny DeKeyser, Mike Green, Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley under contract, though the injury history of Daley and Ericsson make their status doubtful. Filip Hronek has earned a spot after his strong rookie year. More on Wings: Takeaways from development camp: Swede-on-Swede fights Filip Zadina explains why he's more comfortable in NHL Here's a look at who the Wings signed Monday. Filppula The Finnish forward is rejoining the Wings, for whom he played from 2005-2013. Yzerman has history with Filppula, having signed him in 2013 to a five-year, $25 million deal while general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Filppula, 35, is an underwhelming but safe choice, a solid two-way guy who will be a good fit in the locker room, can play center or wing, and both special teams. Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com . Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames . Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter . This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings free agency: Valtteri Filppula is back


The black bear was escorted out following its nap. Video credit: Missoula County Sheriff's Office


When it comes to fantasy football, running backs are still king. In the past few years, there has been a new strategy to ignore running backs and instead focus on wide receivers to start your fantasy draft. Most people call this strategy No RBs or Zero RBs , but I call it, no go, because if you want to have depth and win you need your kings. Most often, I will select two running backs to start my draft, unless I determine that one of the elite wide receivers provides value too good to pass on. Running backs selected early in drafts are typically more consistent and reliable, and if you skip them at the start of your draft, they become harder to find in later rounds. Once I feel confident about my two starting running backs, and have a third as a solid backup, then I start looking to fill out my other offensive skill positions. Detroit Lions Kerryon Johnson should be a running back who comes off the board early in most fantasy drafts, and he should be on your radar as I believe he is poised to be a fantasy football star. 6⃣ carries, 4⃣2⃣ yards and a TD! ⚡ @AyeyoKEJO ⚡ pic.twitter.com/NnKmZXEWI6 - Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 18, 2018 Johnson has an Average Draft Position (ADP) of #38 overall per Fantasy Pros , which means in a standard 10 Team League, you can get him late in the third round. Despite flashing potential in his rookie season and high expectations in year two, that is a valuable price tag. Johnson is a type of running back you would love to get as your RB3 in most leagues because he has RB1 upside. He can run, catch, and pass protect which are the qualities you look for in a three-down running back. If you follow my strategy for targeting running backs, you could take two top running backs and still grab Johnson as your RB3 in the third round. This would give you the type of depth needed at the position to overcome bye weeks and injuries that often occur with running backs. Speaking of injuries, that is the one part of Johnson's game that I think could derail his break-out potential. He had injuries in college and during his rookie campaign in the NFL, causing him to miss extensive time (six games) in his first year with the Lions. With an expected increase in workload, injury concerns increase with every touch. The Lions offense, run by new offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, is shaping up to potentially be more run-heavy. Carries and opportunities are often a running back's best friend and the former Auburn University star is primed to take the reins for the Lions in 2019 and beyond. Johnson could receive upwards of 200 carries, nearly 100 more than he saw in 2018, which would be about 4-6 more opportunities a game. He's also expected to see more passes thrown his way, which is always a great bonus for running backs in fantasy football. My favorite thing about Kerryon is his overall skill set. He can run between the tackles, has the speed to get to the edge, the ability to break tackles, a track record of being able to put the ball in the endzone, and he can catch the football well too. ⚡⚡⚡ Check out the best plays from @AyeyoKEJO 's rookie season. pic.twitter.com/Ix6Oqj7H1E - Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 14, 2019 Johnson's projected numbers, via Fantasy Pros , are 988 yards rushing, 315 yards receiving, and seven total touchdowns, but he has a chance to exceed those numbers if he can stay healthy. If I were to project his statistics, I believe Johnson has the potential to achieve: 1,200 yards rushing, 400 receiving, and reach if not exceed the 10 touchdown mark in 2019. If you're a Dynasty or Keeper League player, Johnson's ADP makes him even more valuable because if he does become a break-out star as I predict, he would not only offer you upside this season but also be a legit RB1 next year in fantasy football at only 23 years old. Living up to that type of billing would quickly make him the face of the franchise type of player for the Lions. His talent, age, and upside are all reasons why I think Johnson is a top offensive option for the Lions as well as a player you must try to add to your fantasy football team now before everyone realizes his tremendous break-out potential. MORE: Is Tacko Fall an NBA player? Here is the case for why... and why not Dan Le Batard delivers impassioned rebuke of racist 'send her back' chant despite ESPN rules Roundup: Tiger Woods is Struggling; Alex Morgan's New Project; Area 51 is Big Business NFL does not suspend Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill Ranking the Packers' position groups from weakest to strongest


The wedding industry is filled with niche jobs that you probably never heard of. You can hire a professional wedding guest or a professional bridesmaid to attend your wedding. If you want your pet to join your big day, you can hire a pet chauffeur. Visit INSIDER.com for more stories. For many weddings , a planner, a stylist, a florist, and an entertainer are hired. But there are a ton of other services in the wedding industry that aren't so often used or that you may not have even heard of. From a pet sitter on your big day to professional bridesmaids for hire, these are the jobs in the wedding industry you probably didn't know existed. 1. If you need more guests at your wedding, you can hire a professional guest. In Japan, the number of people who attend a wedding is important. Typically, the larger the guest list, the better. But there are some who don't have many to invite or who find that a guest drops out last minute. In those situations, they hire a professional wedding guest who can pretend to be a family member, a friend, or even a boss. A typical guest through Office Agents in Tokyo can cost as little as $200, but it will cost more if you want this guest to dance or even make a speech. "What's important is that these are normal people ... normal as in they are cheery and clean and look like they have regular jobs," Hiroshi Mizutani, the head of Office Agents, told Reuters. 2. If you need a larger wedding party, you can hire a bridesmaid. Asking a friend or family member to be a bridesmaid in your wedding can get complicated. That's where Bridesmaids for Hire comes in. For $2,000, you can hire a professional bridesmaid that will devote themselves to your wedding full time. They can act as your personal assistant to help you plan the big day and go over the finer details. They can even stand at the altar with you. "Jen is a cute, stylish, girly, cool, funny chick," one customer said about her hired bridesmaid . "She is the kind of lady you want on your side for your wedding, or just on your side in general." 3. If you want your pets to be included in your wedding, you will need a pet chauffeur. Many couples have been incorporating their furry loved ones into their weddings more and more. Pawfect For You will send you a personal chauffeur who can make sure your pet is involved without wreaking any havoc. The chauffeur can dress your animal, groom them, coach them, and even bring them to and from the ceremony. The service costs $499 to $899. "I am so glad I was able to have my puppy at my wedding," one customer said about the service. "I could not imagine my special day without him being there. They were so professional and huge dog lovers. My dog happily went with them and was sad when they dropped him back home." 4. If you'd rath er elope, you can hire an elopement expert and planner. Big weddings aren't for everyone, and that's why many people are opting to elope instead. Simply Eloped pairs you with an elopement planner who handles the planning of your small ceremony. The service costs between $350 and $2,800. "You can choose a location that's really important to you," Janessa White of Simply Eloped told INSIDER. "We had this one girl, we married her on a trail in Colorado where she dumped her father's ashes because that's where they went hiking a lot. The great thing about elopement is that we can do it at a very significant place that has a meaning to your life." 5. If you're struggling to plan the perfect proposal, you can hire a proposal planner. Planning a proposal can be extremely stressful, especially with the pressure to be spontaneous and romantic. That's when you can hire a professional proposal planner. Brilliant Event Planning charges $500 to create a big-gesture concept, but it can cost up to $12,000 to plan the full execution. 6. If you want to save money on the wedding cake, you'll need to hire a special baker who makes fake cakes. As works of art, wedding cakes are the center of any wedding reception, but they often come at a high price. To help couples save more money, one company devised a plan and created an entirely new job. FunCakes' bakers build just the exteriors of cakes using real icing and fondant but the inside of the cake is just foam, cutting the cost significantly. When the cake is ready to be cut and served at the reception, servers take the "cake" into the kitchen and bring out slices of actual sheet cake. No guests learn the truth and you just saved a large sum of money. Related video: Planning a wedding takes more than 500 hours (provided by Buzz60)


Craving halal food? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the top halal spots around Baltimore, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to venture next time you're on the hunt. 1. Nailah's Kitchen Topping the list is Nailah's Kitchen . Located at 5722 York Road in Rosebank, the Senegalese and halal spot is the highest-rated halal restaurant in Baltimore, boasting 4.5 stars out of 215 reviews on Yelp. 2. Mediterranean Halal Food Cart Next up is downtown's Mediterranean Halal Food Cart , situated at 2 Hopkins Place. With 4.5 stars out of 166 reviews on Yelp, the street vendor, halal and Mediterranean spot has proven to be a local favorite. 3. Yemen & Gulf Restaurant Fells Point's Yemen & Gulf Restaurant , located at 401 S. Broadway, is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the halal, Arabian and Middle Eastern spot five stars out of 21 reviews. 4. Halal Brothers Halal Brothers , a food truck and halal spot that offers falafel and more in Washington Hill, is another go-to, with four stars out of 11 Yelp reviews. Head over to 1925 McElderry St. to see for yourself. This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


The Kansas City Chiefs are still poking around the free agent pool. According to Houston Chronicle writer Aaron Wilson , the Chiefs hosted free agent offensive tackle Diegot Joseph for a visit on Thursday. Joseph entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Florida International during the 2017 season. He's spent time with the Bears, Ravens, Vikings and most recently the New York Jets. Joseph spent the 2018 season with the Jets on the practice squad. Following the 2018 season he signed a reserve/future deal with the team. He was waived from the Jets earlier in may in order to place a waiver claim on another player. At 6-6 and nearly 300 pounds, Joseph has the look of a swing tackle in the NFL. The Chiefs seem to still be working to hammer down that position with this offensive line group. There are a few different players vying for the spot including Ryan Hunter, Justin Senior, Dino Boyd, Pace Murphy and Zack Golditch. Signing a player like Joseph wouldn't be a big move for the Chiefs. He hasn't spent any time on an active roster in the NFL. However, this is the type of move that could help the Chiefs churn the bottom of the roster. Brett Veach has to continue to make a competitive environment at all levels of the roster in order to get the most out of his team. MORE: Did the Raiders steal the best fullback in the 2019 NFL draft? 2019 Preakness Stakes post positions and odds Houston Rockets free agency target: Jimmy Butler NBA Free Agency 2019: The top players Mark Jackson on Draymond Green: 'We were absolutely stunned that he was still on the draft board'


Nicolas Pepe's agent has revealed that the coveted Ivorian is 'open to everything' as Everton continue to show interest in the Lille forward, despite growing fears they will be priced out of a deal. Pepe was nothing short of spectacular in the 2018/19 season, netting 22 goals and registering 11 assists in Ligue 1. Lille value their prized asset at around £58m and he has attracted interest from a whole host of European clubs. Although It has been reported that Everton have joined the race for his signature, the Liverpool Echo claim that the club fear there will be a bidding war, driving his price up and making his services much harder to acquire. The other clubs interested in the player - such as Paris Saint-Germain - will also be able to provide the player with the lucrative chance to play in the Champions League, whereas Everton , of course, cannot. The Toffees have now been handed a boost in their pursuit however. Pepe's agent Samir Khiat played down PSG transfer speculation in a recent TV interview with L'Équipe Mercato ( via Get French Football News ) by claiming: "Nicolas is open to everything. The aim is for him to sign in the right place. "PSG is a possibility. I cannot say on the 12 July that he will sign for PSG. Today, all parties need to reach an agreement. Lille, the buying club and us." Pepe is only 24 and has only become well renowned in more recent times, so it is important he is able to move to a club where he knows he will be able to continue to improve upon the last season. Pepe's agent also shares this belief. He added: "He is wanted by a considerable number of clubs. For him, the most important thing is to be wanted and to go to a good club, in which he will play and continue to progress." Everton managed to stump up close to £50m (including add-ons) to land Richarlison last summer and it will take something similar and more, if they want to land the Ivorian. Although unlikely, the positive comments of Pepe's agent have given hope to the Toffees in their pursuit. The player is reported to make a decision on his future soon after Ivory Coast were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations by Algeria, ending his involvement in the tournament.


Digital artist Jan Frojdman spent three weeks shifting through 33,000 images obtained from NASA to create this 3D model of Mars.


"Food is fuel." On the surface, that's a statement you can get behind. After all, food does fuel your workouts and your daily life. But for some people, certain foods may drag them down rather than pump them up. In cases of food allergies , intolerances, or sensitivities, they may provoke unpleasant symptoms such as bloating , gas, severe diarrhea, constipation, unexplained changes in weight, or nutritional deficiencies, says registered dietitian Maxine Yeung, MS, RD, CPT, founder of The Wellness Whisk . And sometimes, they may also cause non-GI woes such as headaches, migraines, skin rashes, acne, joint pains, mood changes, low energy levels, runny noses, hives, and itchy eyes, says registered dietitian Kerry Clifford, MS, RD, LDN, with Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. "Everybody's body responds to foods differently," Clifford says. "Sometimes, our body doesn't necessarily love every food we eat or our immune system might recognize something as a 'foreign invader.'" While it's possible to have a food allergy , sensitivity, or intolerance to any given food, the most common culprits include alcohol, coffee, corn, dairy, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts, shellfish, soy, and wheat. (Yes, even incredibly healthy foods can cause issues for some people!) Since there are so many possibilities that could be to blame for your body's distress, figuring out which food (or foods) that are actually at fault can be a little tricky. One common way to ID the problem? Performing an elimination diet, which, yes, involves eliminating certain foods from your diet only to gradually reintroduce them to identify the specific trouble makers. But those are just the nuts and bolts. If you've been suffering from any, if not many, of the above symptoms ( bloating and gas and diarrhea, oh my!) an elimination diet probably sounds like a total saving grace. But walk, don't run. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as ditching ice cream for a few days and, if you feel less bloated, assuming you're lactose intolerant. Instead, done right, an elimination diet requires precise planning and monitoring (and the help of a professional). Before you start slashing food from your repertoire on your own, there's quite a bit of info you should know. So, pull up a chair and get comfortable elimination diet 101 is in session. What is an elimination diet? Despite being called a "diet," it has nothing to do with weight loss or dieting in the traditional sense. Rather, an elimination diet is a two-part process lasting anywhere from three to eight weeks. First you remove potential food triggers and then carefully add them back into your diet to determine whether they're to blame for your reactions, says WH advisor Samantha Nazareth , MD, a gastroenterologist who practices in New York City. "Sometimes symptoms, which range from belly pain to nasal congestion, can be delayed, therefore reintroduction of each food group has to be for at least three days." Yeung adds, "Once [triggering] foods are identified, we can modify an individual's diet to help improve their symptoms and other body functions such as digestion, absorption, microbial balance, and inflammation." In addition to just a general elimination diet that Dr. Nazareth and Yeung describe, there are also specific types of elimination diets such as a low FODMAP diet, which is used for patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) . "The low FODMAP diet eliminates certain short chain carbohydrates gluten, lactose, fructose, and sugar alcohols that ferment in our gut and can cause bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea and/or constipation," says Liz McMahon , MPH, RDN, a gut health-focused dietitian in Philadelphia. According to studies, patients with IBS don't absorb short-chain carbs, which can be a reason why they experience gas, severe bloating, and altered bowel habits (think: diarrhea, constipation, or both). "Eliminating the FODMAPs allows them to first of all, feel better, but then add them back in slowly to figure out what specific carbs/foods are causing their issue," McMahon adds. Can I do an elimination alone or do I need help from a pro? Before undertaking an elimination diet, consult a professional so they can ensure that you're conducting the diet effectively and that you're still able to meet your nutritional needs, Clifford says. After all, if you decide to try cutting out gluten, it's easy to not get the fiber you need. And if you eliminate dairy, you could be putting yourself at risk of too-low vitamin D and calcium levels. Your RD won't let those issues happen. And the same goes for more specific elimination diets such as a low FODMAP diet best to do so under the care of a physician and/or nutritionist. It's also important to talk to your doctor about any issues that you've had in the past (or currently have!) with disordered eating or anxiety, Yeung says. Especially in those with a tendency to control their eating, an elimination diet may trigger food restriction or a hype-focus on "good" and "bad" foods, and your health professional can help you to ensure that you follow your elimination diet in the healthiest way possible, both physically and emotionally. How should I begin an elimination diet? "Before starting an elimination diet, keep a food and symptom diary to help identify patterns between eating habits and symptoms," says Yeung. This will help you and your healthcare professional figure out which food or foods you should try to eliminate. For example, if you notice that you regularly get itchy after eating walnuts and almonds, you might decide that you want to try eliminating tree nuts. It's totally possible that you will decide to eliminate multiple foods or types of foods. The important thing is to eat normally and thoroughly document both everything you eat and how you feel after eating it. Track for at least a couple of weeks before making any decisions about what you'll try cutting. The second you spot a potential link in your log, it can be tempting to jump right into your elimination diet. Don't. Instead, keep eating normally, track your symptoms, and start planning. On day one of your diet, you should feel knowledgeable about the exact foods you'll need to avoid, prepared with lots of well-rounded recipes, and ready to read food labels with confidence , says Meghan Sedivy, RD, LDN, a registered dietitian with Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. Okay, so I've kept a food journal for a few weeks now what? When it comes to picking an actual day to start, choose a time when you know that you will easily have complete control over what you do (and don't) eat. So, no, vacation isn't the best time to try out something like this. Once you do choose a time to press play on this program, make sure to avoid making simultaneous lifestyle changes. "I've often seen people make many other lifestyle and medication changes [at the same time that they start an elimination diet]," says Yeung. "This makes it much more challenging to determine dietary sources of the symptoms." For example, if you start taking probiotics at the same time you eliminate soy, it will be hard to know if you're feeling differently because of the supplement or because of the elimination, she says. During your elimination diet, it should be your only lifestyle change in progress. And when this kick-off day finally arrives, go ahead and eliminate all food and food groups at once. Again, it's important to do this with a doctor or RD's supervision. After all, if you're cutting dairy, gluten , shellfish, and nuts...getting the nutrients you need is going to require some help, says Sedivy. Umm, how can I make sure to get all my nutrients if I'm not eating so many things? Hey, you breathe! It's a lot . But keeping up your intake of essential nutrients while on an elimination diet really isn't as hard as it might seem. In addition to working with a pro like a dietitian or doc, start (if not continue!) taking a standard multivitamin that doesn't have an added "'superfoods' or food powders," as they may actually have the ingredients you're trying to avoid, McMahon says. Depending on what food(s) you're eliminating, it's not a bad idea to go for a vitamin that has calcium with vitamin D if you're ditching dairy or one with B-vitamins if you're eliminating wheat and gluten. McMahon also encourages elimination dieters to keep it as simple as possible, to helps de-stress the whole process by making sure each meal has three basic components: protein lean options like chicken or fish healthy fats avocado or EVOO and carbohydrates veggies like spinach or broccoli or grains like brown rice or quinoa. Together, these components will keep you energized and feeling satisfied, which is a must especially when you're eliminating foods. How long does an elimination diet last? There's no hard-and-fast rule as to the exact length of an elimination diet. It can technically last anywhere from three to eight weeks, which "gives the body time to adjust to a new diet and also allows the gut lining the barrier from what we put into our mouths and the rest of the body to regenerate," Dr. Nazareth says. Irritants like food allergens can damage the lining, weakening the "security system" so that things that shouldn't enter the body (think: bugs) can now do just that and cause inflammation, bloating, gas, diarrhea, Dr. Nazareth explains. That being said, your doctor or dietitian can help you determine the appropriate time period for your elimination diet, which will largely depend on the food(s) you're cutting out. However, your body requires a good week or two to recoup from any potentially triggering foods. It will be tempting to quit the process early, but Yeung says it's important to stick it out. "Many people stop the elimination diet early because they are feeling better shortly after starting, but by doing this, you risk eliminating foods that you do not necessarily need to because you didn't go through the reintroduction phase," she says. "This could cause imbalanced diets and stop you from eating foods that you may really enjoy and can tolerate." When can I start reintroducing foods and how? After eliminating everything that's a potential trigger for you, begin the challenge phase of reintroducing one food group at a time. I repeat: one. at. a. time. You do this with the intention of provoking symptoms, Yeung says. But if you find that the food that you reintroduced has caused issues, then best to hold off eating it and seek medical advice. While you're at it (read: throughout the entire process of elimination and reintroduction), remember to log everything. Hey, hey, I know what you're thinking: again with the logging?! But take it from the pros like Clifford who emphasizes the importance of tracking, tracking, tracking. "Write down what foods you ate, how much, and where you got it," she says. Also take time to reflect on how you feel after eating, whether there are any changes to your digestion or energy levels, and whether you can tolerate certain serving sizes , but not others. You could keep this record in a journal or on your phone or download a food tracking app. What about the foods that still bother me? Should I keep eating them? It's important to know if you have a food allergy, intolerance, or sensitivity but it's even more important to know how to respond to that information. For example, she says, if you're lactose intolerant you won't cause harm to yourself if you eat lactose. (Although you might experience some uncomfortable side effects like gas or diarrhea.) But if you have celiac disease (confirmed by a intestinal biopsy) and eat gluten, you could harm your gut's ability to properly take in the nutrients your body needs, thereby putting you at risk for thereby putting you at risk for vitamin deficiencies, Dr. Nazareth explains. Your MD or RD can help you fully understand your condition so that you can keep your body safe and healthy. Gallery: Feeling bloated? Eat these 12 foods to flatten your belly (PopSugar)


When Warren Buffett takes the stage at Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders' meeting on Saturday, the 88-year-old billionaire will be greeted, as usual, by tens of thousands of adoring followers from around the world. Yet the Berkshire chairman and chief executive officer's optimism about the state of capitalism, a likely theme as he and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger field questions for five hours, may appear out of touch with the rise of populism in his country. Buffett's endorsements of corporate stock buybacks, the much-criticized longtime Berkshire holding Wells Fargo, and employer-focused attempts to reform healthcare put the Oracle of Omaha at odds with the drive among some Americans to tackle income inequality using root-and-branch reforms. Many announced Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 have endorsed such measures as government-sponsored healthcare and the reining in of big banks, policies that might seem antithetical to Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate. Indeed, Berkshire's mélange of businesses, such as the utilities MidAmerican Energy and PacifiCorp, parts and equipment makers Marmon and Precision Castparts, and food distributor McLane appear more aligned with Republican President Donald Trump's industrial vision for America. Trump in 2016 defeated Buffett-backed Democrat Hillary Clinton for the White House and championed an American manufacturing and rural economic renaissance, especially in its "heartland" where voters provided some of his strongest support. Now, even some of the strong American brands Buffett bet on being immune to competition are struggling. One such investment, Kraft Heinz Co, has lost more than half its value over two years as consumers moved to foods perceived to be more healthy or natural. "The businesses aren't necessarily bad, but the brands that were a part of the moat - the reason for the acquisition - are less prominent," said Meyer Shields, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "That's a concern." BERKSHIRE LAGS S&P 500 Investors appear to have noticed. Berkshire's stock price, which Buffett called the best measure of how the business is doing, has through Tuesday risen 6 percent this year, compared with a 18-percent rise in the S&P 500 index, including dividends. Buffett's assistant did not respond to an emailed request for comment. None of this, however, will stop Buffett's fans from descending on Omaha this weekend. Events will be held around the city, and people can buy mementos such as postage stamps featuring Buffett and Munger or, for $8,950, a pair of 2 carat-weight diamond stud earrings from Berkshire's Borsheims jewelry unit. Buffett's career of investing success and down-to-earth public persona are part of the draw. He has used his popularity to attract long-term shareholders and lend goodwill and credibility to his business dealings. This included lucrative investments at the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, when he provided financing to such companies as General Electric, Goldman Sachs and Harley-Davidson. DOMINANT STAKES Some policies endorsed from political left could weigh on Berkshire, though they could be dead-on-arrival in the face of a Trump White House and Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. For example, some research shows that when big investors hold large stakes in multiple companies in the same industry, it might reduce the incentive for those companies to compete, boosting prices and reducing service for consumers. Those "common ownership" arguments have drawn the attention of U.S. regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission, the latter of which held hearings on the subject last year. Berkshire owns multibillion-dollar stakes in six of the largest U.S. banks plus American Express. It also owns close to 10 percent of American, Delta and Southwest airlines, and more than 8 percent of another carrier, United Continental. "Investors like Warren Buffett - no one seems to have any data about how much does he get involved in corporate governance," said Martin Schmalz, associate professor of finance at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, who has done research on common ownership. "The theory says he does not aggressively push firms to compete more aggressively." Meanwhile, proposals to expand Medicare come as Berkshire plows ahead on its Haven joint venture with Amazon.com and JPMorgan Chase to cut healthcare costs for employees at those companies. Buffett also said in February that Berkshire was likely to become a "significant" buyer of its own stock, especially if it extended its three-year drought for major acquisitions. Some lawmakers have proposed restricting buybacks unless companies commit to paying their workers more. Berkshire employs more than 389,000 people. All of this comes as Buffett's advanced age highlights the need for investors to assess Berkshire once Buffett is gone. Buffett has shed many of his non-Berkshire roles, including sitting on outside boards and hosting college students in Omaha. He also ceded day-to-day oversight of Berkshire's businesses in Jan. 2018 to Vice Chairmen Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, each considered a possible successor as CEO. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Nick Zieminski)


The Bears reached an agreement with third-round choice David Montgomery , Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. The running back's deal leaves only sixth-round pick Duke Shelley unsigned. The Bears got fourth-rounder Riley Ridley and seventh-rounders Kerrith Whyte and Stephen Denmark under contract last month. Montgomery played at Iowa State, where he rushed for 1,216 yards and 13 touchdowns on 257 carries in 2018 after 258 carries for 1,146 yards and 11 touchdowns during his sophomore season. Although Montgomery had only 71 receptions for 582 yards and no touchdowns in three college seasons, the Bears have liked what they have seen out of Montgomery as a receiver . Montgomery joins Tarik Cohen and Mike Davis in the Bears' backfield.


At 50-48 and 11 games back in the American League West, the Angels don't have much hope of contending for a division title. They're one of six AL clubs with a plausible shot at a Wild Card spot, however, currently sitting five and a half games back in the standings. That might not put them in position to be one of the market's most aggressive buyers, but general manager Billy Eppler tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he's "absolutely" looking to add to his roster. Eppler specifies that the Halos will "lean heavily" toward players controlled beyond the 2019 season, likely due to the fact that they're chasing a one-game playoff. Clubs are generally reluctant to be too aggressive in selling off significant farm assets for a coin-flip Wild Card showdown, making Eppler's approach a fairly straightforward one. Looking around the Angels' roster, the pitching staff stands out as a logical area on which to focus. Neither Matt Harvey nor Trevor Cahill has performed anywhere close to the manner in which the Angels hoped when signing the pair to one-year deals over the winter, and both will be free agents at season's end. The tragic death of Tyler Skaggs still enshrouds the organization as well, and while it always feels a bit cold to look at such a heartbreaking event through a pure baseball lens, it's hard to understate just how significant that loss is for the Angels' rotation moving forward. Shohei Ohtani will return to the mound in 2020, joining Andrew Heaney and Griffin Canning , but there's little clarity beyond that trio. The summer trade market should feature several options who are controlled/signed through at least the 2020 season. Marcus Stroman is the likeliest such arm to move, but other potentially available options include Matthew Boyd (arb-eligible through 2022), Robbie Ray (arb-eligible through 2020), Trevor Bauer (arb-eligible through 2020) and Mike Minor (signed for $9.5M in 2020). Minor is admittedly a tough fit even if ultimately traded, given that the division-rival Rangers are currently a game ahead of the Angels in the standings. Controllable catching options might be a bit tougher to dig up   Wilson Ramos or James McCann could be available, and the Padres have depth at the position   but the Angels have had a bit of a revolving door behind the plate in recent seasons. Part of the decision to operate as buyers could also be a function of the fact that the Angels don't have much in the way of short-term assets to sell. All of the club's short-term, offseason pickups are either injured ( Jonathan Lucroy , Tommy La Stella ) or playing poorly (Harvey, Cahill and the already released Cody Allen ). The team's core is controlled beyond this season. Eppler calls moving a player with club control remaining a "non-starter" in trade negotiations, as the front office is focused on an "upward angle" for the team. The Angels have just under $115M committed to the payroll for the 2020 season and don't have may significant arbitration raises on the horizon, so they should be in good position to take on salary in a trade if need be. The team's current payroll, for context, exceeds $177M.


Play has concluded at TPC Deere Run for the final round of the 2019 John Deere Classic, and the PGA Tour once again has a first-time winner. Dylan Frittelli shot a 7-under 64 on Sunday to become the 12th first-time winner on Tour at 22 under, outlasting Russell Henley, who was in the clubhouse at 19 under with the lead while Frittelli was on the course. John Deere Classic: Leaderboard Check out all the highlights from Round 4 below. Twitter Feed A Twitter List by golfweek John Deere Classic TV/Streaming Info (All Times Eastern) Sunday Golf Channel : 1-2:45 p.m. CBS : 3-6 p.m. PGA Tour Live : 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups); 3-6 p.m. (featured holes) PGA Tour Radio : 1-6 p.m. (Sirius 92/XM 208) https://compass.pressekompass.net/compasses/golfweek/whos-your-favorite-firsttime-pga-tour-wi MORE: Three Potential Landing Spots for Chris Paul Report: Broncos ready to draft Devin Bush before trade with the Steelers 6 photos of Tacko Fall towering over NBA players Does Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey want to team up with DeAndre Hopkins in Houston? Trysten Hill may be crowning point on Cowboys star-studded defense


According to rental site Zumper , median rents for a one bedroom in Queen Anne are hovering around $1,756, compared to a $1,725 one-bedroom median for Seattle as a whole. So how does the low-end pricing on a Queen Anne rental look these days   and what might you get for your money? We took a look at local listings for studios and one-bedroom apartments from Zumper and Apartment Guide to find out what budget-minded apartment seekers can expect to find in the neighborhood, which, according to Walk Score ratings , is extremely walkable, isn't particularly bikeable and has good transit options. Take a look at the cheapest listings available right now, below. (Note: prices and availability are subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 527 First Ave. North This studio apartment, situated at 527 First Ave. North, is listed for $1,225/month for its 450 square feet. The residence comes with a dishwasher and in-unit laundry. When it comes to building amenities, expect assigned parking. If you've got a pet, you'll be happy to learn that cats and dogs are welcome. There's no leasing fee required for this rental, but there is a $40 application fee and a $750 deposit. (See the complete listing here .) 1215 Queen Anne Ave. North Here's a studio apartment at 1215 Queen Anne Ave. North, which is going for $1,250/month. The building offers assigned parking and on-site laundry. The residence also has a dishwasher. Neither cats nor dogs are permitted. Look out for a $40 application fee, a $200 cleaning fee and a $1,000 security deposit. (See the full listing here .) 715 Second Ave. North This studio apartment, situated at 715 Second Ave. North, is listed for $1,295/month for its 333 square feet. You can expect to see in-unit laundry and a walk-in closet in the residence. When it comes to building amenities, expect bike parking. Good news for cat lovers: Kitties are welcome. There isn't a leasing fee associated with this rental, but the listing specifies a $40 application fee. (See the listing here .) 320 Valley St. Over at 320 Valley St., there's this 480-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom living space, going for $1,350/month. The building features assigned parking, outdoor space and additional storage space. Pets are not welcome. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. (View the listing here .) This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide , then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


The New York Yankees have dealt with a number of injuries to their starting rotation this season, and CC Sabathia is the latest to wind up on the shelf. On Sunday, the Yankees announced that Sabathia has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his right knee. Prior to tonight's game, the Yankees placed LHP CC Sabathia on the 10-day IL with right knee inflammation and recalled INF/OF Tyler Wade (#14) from @swbrailriders .   New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 28, 2019 This has been a lingering issue for Sabathia. The 39-year-old has been placed on the IL with knee inflammation several times dating back to last season, so it's something that probably always bothers him and needs rest from time to time. Sabathia has pitched decent at times this year and is 5-6 with a 4.78 ERA. Luis Severino has yet to pitch this season because of an arm injury, and that is part of the reason the Yankees are interested in upgrading their starting rotation prior to the July 31 trade deadline. Sabathia's lingering knee issues have probably contributed to that reported interest as well. Related slideshow: 2019 MLB season (provided by imagn)