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Mercury set WNBA record with 45 first-quarter points, hold off Sun 90-84

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Brittney Griner had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and the Phoenix Mercury set a WNBA record for points in a quarter with 45 in the first before holding off the short-handed Connecticut Sun down the stretch for a 90-84 win on Thursday night.Phoenix broke the record of 44 points in a quarter set earlier this season by New York to build a 21-point lead. But the Mercury only scored seven points in the second to have their lead trimmed to 52-48 at the break. The 38-point difference was the largest drop-off in points from one quarter to the next in WNBA history, according to ESPN Stats & Info.DeWanna Bonner, Connecticut’s leading scorer, left with a back injury early in the first quarter and did not return.Moriah Jefferson scored 17 points, and Diana Taurasi had 16 points and made four 3-pointers for Phoenix (9-20). Sophie Cunningham, who scored nine on three 3-pointers, reached 1,000 career points. Rebecca Allen scored a season-high 24 points and Alyssa Thomas had 2...

Clayton Kershaw gets no-decision in return, Dodgers beat Rockies 2-1

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Max Muncy drew a bases-loaded, two-out walk to force in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, Clayton Kershaw returned from the injured list and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied to beat the Colorado Rockies 2-1 on Thursday night.It was Daniel Bard’s 36th walk in 40 innings for the Rockies.The NL West-leading Dodgers won their fifth in a row against the division’s worst team. They extended their lead to 6 1/2 games over the San Francisco Giants.Pinch-hitter David Peralta walked leading off the eighth against Tommy Doyle (0-1). Pinch-hitter Jason Heyward grounded into a fielder’s choice to second, erasing Peralta. Mookie Betts singled before Bard came in and walked Freddie Freeman to load the bases.Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar made an over-the-shoulder catch of pinch-hitter Will Smith in shallow left-center field for the second out. Bard then walked Muncy before Chris Taylor flied out to end the inning.Kershaw gave up one run and three hits in five innings, stru...

Seahawks WR Cade Johnson taken to hospital as precaution for evaluation for head and neck injuries

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle wide receiver Cade Johnson was taken to a hospital during halftime of the Seahawks’ preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night to be evaluated for head and neck injuries. The Seahawks said Johnson was placed on a backboard as a precaution and transported to Harborview Medical Center. The team said he was in stable condition. Johnson was attended to in the medical tent behind the bench for several minutes late in the first half by Seattle’s training staff and medical personnel. He was placed on a backboard, loaded onto a stretcher, taken across the field and up a tunnel to where ambulances are parked during games at Lumen Field. There was no obvious play where Johnson was injured in the first half. Johnson had one rushing attempt for 2 yards and was targeted twice with no catches. He also had one kickoff return for 17 yards.Johnson is in his third season out of South Dakota State. He had two receptions over three games last season for the Se...

San Diego Red Cross CEO heading to Maui to aid in relief effort

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO – The Red Cross Southern California Region is sending its CEO to Maui to aid in massive relief efforts underway following devastating wildfires.“It is going to take weeks and months to respond to something this large," Sean Mahoney said.Mahoney is not only CEO of the Red Cross Southern California region, but he is also a San Diego resident. Mahoney has been with the Red Cross for almost six years and dedicated his time and skills to several major relief efforts around the country like the Paradise Fire in 2018.He joins a total of 20 Red Cross volunteers from across California and countless more from around the country, all heading to Maui after wildfires swept through the western community of Lahaina.“The Red Cross responders respond by themselves. They might have a skillset, they might be a shelter manager, or a feeding manager, or a government ops supervisor. They will get a one-way ticket. They’ll bring a sleeping bag and some clothes and they go,” Mahoney said. Local...

Ex-tech CEO pleads guilty in $150 million fraud on Qualcomm

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A former technology executive pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday for his participation in a $150 million fraud on the San Diego-based semi-conductor company Qualcomm, prosecutors said.Sanjiv Taneja, the ex-CEO of tech firm Abreezio, which was sold to Qualcomm, admitted to one count of money laundering related to a $1.5 million transaction involving proceeds of the fraud on Qualcomm, Kelly Thornton with the Office of the United States Attorney Southern District of California said in a news release.Taneja confessed that he, co-defendants Karim Arabi and Ali Akbar Shokouhi of San Diego and others schemed to hide Arabi’s involvement in Abreezio, according to his plea agreement."Arabi was a Qualcomm employee throughout the entire marketing period, and hiding his involvement in the firm and the development of its patented technology allowed Abreezio’s principals to claim that the company was an 'angel-funded' outside firm while disguising its true connections to Qualcom...

Maui residents had little warning before flames overtook town. At least 53 people died.

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Maui residents who made desperate escapes from flames, some on foot, asked why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as fires raced toward their homes, in interviews at evacuation centers Thursday.Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that the warning sirens were triggered before a devastating wildfire killed at least 53 people and wiped out a historic town, officials confirmed Thursday.Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain. But many of Lahaina’s survivors said they didn’t hear any sirens and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.Thomas Leonard, a 70-year-old retired mailman from Lahaina, didn’t know about the fire until he smelled smoke. Power and cell phone service had both gone out earlier that day, leaving the town with no real-time...

Illinois Supreme Court plans to rule on semiautomatic weapons ban

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court plans to issue an opinion Friday on a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban of the type of semiautomatic weapons used in hundreds of mass killings nationally.The lawsuit, filed by Republican Rep. Dan Caulkins, of Decatur, and like-minded gun-owners, alleges the law violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. But it also claims the law is applied unequally.The law bans dozens of specific brands or types of rifles and handguns, .50-caliber guns, attachments and rapid-firing devices. No rifle is allowed to accommodate more than 10 rounds, with a 15-round limit for handguns. The most popular gun targeted is the AR-15 rifle.Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Protect Our Communities Act hours after lawmakers sent it to him in a lame-duck session in January, months after a shooter using a high-powered rifle killed seven and injured dozens on Independence Day 2022 in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The new law...

Bodies pile up without burials in Sudan’s capital, marooned by a relentless conflict

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — It was a funeral no one had envisaged: Sadig Abbas’ lifeless body was lowered hastily into a shallow unmarked grave in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, not long after dawn.Even the few family members and neighbors who could attend were distracted, scouring the cemetery’s surroundings for warnings of incoming fire, recounted Awad el-Zubeer, a neighbor of the deceased.Thankfully, none came.Nearly four months of violent street battles between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have made funerals a near impossibility in Khartoum. Amid the chaos, residents and local medical groups say corpses lie rotting in the capital’s streets, marooned by a conflict that shows few signs of easing.“Given these circumstances, if you asked me exactly where his body was buried I couldn’t tell you,” said el-Zubeer.There is limited data on the casualties in Sudan. The country’s health minister, Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim, said in June that the...

‘Nothing left’: Future unclear for Hawaii residents who lost it all in fire

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — Retired mailman and Vietnam veteran Thomas Leonard lived in the historic former capital of Hawaii for 44 years until this week, when a rapidly moving wildfire burned down his apartment, melted his Jeep and forced him to spend four terrifying hours hiding from the flames behind a seawall.“I’ve got nothing left,” Leonard said Thursday as he sat on an inflatable mattress outside a shelter for those who fled the blaze that decimated the town of Lahaina. “I’m a disabled vet, so now I’m a homeless vet,” he added with a small laugh.The fire that tore across the coastal Maui town and caught many by surprise has already claimed dozens of lives — a toll expected to climb — and burned more than 1,000 buildings. It has turned a centuries-old hamlet beloved by travelers and locals alike into a charred, desolate landscape.The devastation has resonated worldwide in part because tourists from around the globe flock to Maui to enjoy its white sand beaches, including many who s...

LGBTQ+ people in Ethiopia blame attacks on their community on inciteful and lingering TikTok videos

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:59 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Members of Ethiopia’s LGBTQ+ community say they face a wave of online harassment and physical attacks and blame much of it on the social media platform TikTok, which they say is failing to take down posts calling for homosexual and transgender people to be whipped, stabbed and killed.A local LGBTQ+ support group, House of Guramayle, said that some TikTok users are also outing Ethiopians by sharing their names, photographs and online profiles on one of the country’s most popular social media platforms.In Ethiopia, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The East African country whose population of close to 120 million is split between Christianity and Islam is largely conservative, and while LGBTQ+ people have long suffered abuse, activists say the hostility has reached a new level.“TikTok is being used to incite violence,” said Bahiru Shewaye, co-founder of House of Guramayle. Bahiru said several videos have been reported to TikTok but “we a...