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Mike Lupica: Jalen Brunson the game-changer the Knicks need as they aim to end playoff drought

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

There was that moment, on a night out of the past at Madison Square Garden, at this big, loud basketball time in the city when the Knicks are finally trying to do something at this time of year, when Jalen Brunson did a Clyde thing. Which figured, just because of the occasion.It was in the second quarter, and it ended the 10-2 run when the Knicks were turning the game, and the night, their way for good. It was Brunson, the guy the Knicks needed even more than they knew, against Donovan Mitchell, the guy they had tried so hard and so mightily to get before they got Brunson.And Brunson stole the ball.The most complete point guard the Knicks have had since Walt (Clyde) Frazier picked him pickpocket clean. Donovan was trying to make a move to his left and Brunson flashed out, and now the ball was in his hands and going the other way, the play ending with Brunson actually making a silky dunk to make the game 36-27 for the Knicks.Brunson had started slowly on Friday night the way his team...

Pete Alonso homers again, Joey Lucchesi delivers career performance as Mets blank Giants, 7-0

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — The Mets had a likely hero and an unlikely one in their 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night at Oracle Park.Pete Alonso hit his 10th home run of the season to pad his league lead and set a new franchise record for the most home runs through the months of March and April. The two-run dinger was his second in as many nights and it came off right-hander Anthony DeSclafani in the fifth inning to put the Mets up by four. Alonso also hit a two-run single in the ninth for his second four-RBI night in a row, and his 23 is tied for the league lead.The unlikely hero was Joey Lucchesi, who was called up earlier in the day to make a start in place of the injured Carlos Carrasco. The left-hander blanked the Giants (9-13) for seven innings to become the first Mets starter to even reach the seven-inning mark this season.“He was lights out,” Alonso said.Lucchesi, who grew up across the bay from San Francisco in Newark and played college ball at nea...

Ira Winderman: Heat feeling a draft, and already a bit lucky

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

Even before last Monday’s tiebreaker drawing for position in the NBA Draft, even before this playoff run comes to a close, the Miami Heat’s draft room appreciated the work ahead.Now locked into, at least for the moment, the No. 18 selection in the June 22 draft, by virtue of winning a draw for that position over the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, the totality of the work to follow can begin to be appreciated.Because once again, the little things will matter.For most of this past season, with the Heat hard up against the punitive luxury tax, the 15th and final roster spot was left vacant.For most of the past decade, an honorarium roster spot was set aside for Udonis Haslem.Now seemingly locked into the tax for 2023-24 and with Haslem retiring, that means two more roster spots come into play for assistant general manager Adam Simon and the rest of the Heat’s draft-evaluation staff.“This year you were at 14 most of the year,” he said. R...

Will Fox settlement alter conservative media? Apparently not

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Days after Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit over its airing of 2020 election lies, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything had changed there.Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham led their shows Thursday talking about Hunter Biden, the president’s son. Ingraham’s show warned, “The left wants the government to be your only family.” Hannity targeted familiar villains — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Vice President Kamala Harris. Carlson mocked a speech on racial equity, saying it meant “that straight white men are bad.”Experts doubt the settlement will lead to much of a course correction in conservative media, save for a little less specificity to avoid future lawsuits.So far, that’s been the chief result of a Connecticut jury’s verdict last year that Alex Jones must pay $965 million to parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims, after claiming the 2012 massacre was a hoax and t...

Like US, Brazil beset by school violence, but seeks own path

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

About two weeks after a man killed four children in a Brazilian daycare center, authorities already have rounded up some 300 adults and minors nationwide accused of spreading hate speech or stoking school violence.Little has been revealed about the unprecedented crackdown, which risks judicial overreach, but it underlines the determination of the country’s response across federal, state and municipal levels. Brazil’s all-hands effort to stamp out its emerging trend of school attacks stands in contrast to the U.S., where such attacks have been more frequent and more deadly for a longer period, yet where measures nowadays are incremental.Actions adopted in the U.S. – and some of its perceived shortcomings – are informing the Brazilian response, said Renan Theodoro, a researcher with Center for the Study of Violence at the University of Sao Paulo.“We have learned from the successes and the mistakes of other countries, especially the United States,” Theodoro told The Associa...

‘It’s a game-changer’: New antibody drug to help prevent serious RSV in babies approved

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

Health Canada has approved a new antibody drug to help protect babies from serious illness caused by respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.Nirsevimab, also known by its brand name Beyfortus, was authorized on April 19. It was developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi. Nirsevimab is “a monoclonal antibody to prevent serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in newborns and infants during their first RSV season,” Health Canada spokesman Mark Johnson said in an email to The Canadian Press on Friday.The drug, which is given by injection, is also authorized for children up to two years of age if they are at risk of serious infection, he said.Monoclonal antibodies are made in a laboratory to mimic natural antibodies to prevent or treat diseases. Nirsevimab attaches to a protein on the surface of the virus and hinders its ability to enter the body’s cells, especially those in the lungs, according to the European Medicines Agency...

Pittsburgh Jews keep defying hate as synagogue trial nears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Three Jewish congregations, resolute in their defiance of the hatred that tried to destroy them, are still waiting for justice.But united in their horror and grief, they haven’t been standing still as the criminal case for the massacre that changed everything has crawled through the federal court system. Four and a half years ago, a gunman invaded the Tree of Life synagogue on a Sabbath morning and killed 11 worshippers from the three congregations that shared the building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The shooting, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the long-delayed trial of the suspect, accused of dozens of charges including hate crimes resulting in death.The three congregations are wary of what’s to come. Some members may be called to testify, and they’re bracing for graphic evidence and testimony that ...

Truck driver uninjured after utility poles crash through windshield on Florida interstate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The driver of a semi-truck was miraculously uninjured after two utility poles flew through the cab of his truck on Friday morning.The accident, which occurred on Interstate 275 in Tampa, took place at approximately 10:30 a.m. The Florida Highway Patrol said the 33-year-old driver of the truck reported seeing a vehicle parked on the outside shoulder of the highway. This "phantom vehicle," as the Florida Highway Patrol called it, then veered into the right lane and cut him off, the driver said. PHOTOS: Car crashes into second story of California home The driver then slammed on the brakes, causing two utility poles to break free from tie-downs on the trailer and crash through the cab of the truck. Aerial footage showed the poles sticking out through both the front and rear windshields. The driver was somehow uninjured, the highway patrol confirmed.(FHP)(WFLA)The poles were made of metal and concrete and belonged to Duke Energy, according to the Florida Highway Pa...

Austin Energy send crews to Arizona for Navajo Nation electric grid project

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Soon, many families in the Navajo Nation will be able to turn on the lights in their homes for the first time.A group of utility companies, including Austin Energy and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, are partnering to make this possible. On Friday, Austin Energy sent 11 crew members and 10 trucks to Leupp, Arizona, where they will spend two weeks working on the Light Up Navajo project. The goal is to connect Navajo families to the electric grid. Last year, Austin Energy sent eight crew members to Arizona to work on the project."We went to a place where people had never had lights, some people who have never had power in their homes for generations. And so to get lights on for people who have never had it - to see the appreciation they had is pretty humbling," said Paul Peterson, an Austin Energy distribution electrician supervisor. Austin Energy said the project is important because Navajo families otherwise may have issues accessing running water, reliable ligh...

Where Texas stands on math and reading proficiency amid 20-year lows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:36:58 GMT

(Stacker) – Several studies within the past year have shown just how detrimental remote learning has been to academic progress during the coronavirus pandemic, especially for students already disadvantaged by racial and economic achievement gaps.Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research, for example, looked at testing data from fall 2019 through fall 2021 of 2 million students in 10,000 schools across 49 states, including Washington D.C. Compared to testing data from the two years before the pandemic, its findings showed that remote learning, including hybrid models, was one of the primary causes of widening academic achievement gaps.Remote learning is only as effective as the resources a student can access, particularly for younger kids. High-performing fourth-grade students reported having greater access to resources like a computer, a quiet place to work, and a teacher to help them compared to low-performing students, according to a separate st...