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Dick Butkus, Pro Football Hall of Famer, dies at 80

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

(CNN) — Former Chicago Bears linebacker and Pro Football Hall of Famer Dick Butkus has died at the age of 80, the team announced Thursday.Butkus died “peacefully in his sleep overnight at home in Malibu,” California, a statement from his family, posted by the Bears on social media, reads.Butkus was “the ultimate Bear, and one of the greatest players in NFL history,” Chicago Bears chairman George H. McCaskey said.“He was Chicago’s son,” McCaskey said. “His contributions to the game he loved will live forever and we are grateful he was able to be at our home opener this year to be celebrated one last time by his many fans.”A ferocious hitter drafted out of the University of Illinois, Butkus was an imposing force as the Bears’ middle linebacker for all nine of his NFL seasons in the 1960s and 1970s, and made eight Pro Bowls.He retired after playing part of the 1973 season, a few years after suffering a knee injury, and was elected to th...

18-year-old arrested after deadly stabbing of beloved environmental activist in New York City

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

(CNN) — An 18-year-old man has been arrested for the fatal stabbing of a well-known community activist returning home from a wedding with his girlfriend early Monday.Ryan Carson, 32, was at a Brooklyn bus stop just before 4 a.m. when he was confronted by a man who had been kicking scooters on the street, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Wednesday.“What are you looking at?” the man said to Carson, who tried to de-escalate the situation before he was stabbed three times, once through the heart, according to Kenny. The attack was captured on video.Details of the killing were revealed during a briefing Wednesday in which the New York City Police Department announced a decline in murders, shootings and other violent crimes this year.Police on Thursday identified the suspect as Brian Dowling, who faces charges of murder with depraved indifference, and criminal possession of a weapon, according to an NYPD spokesperson.Carson was sitting with his girlfriend at a bus...

Column: Dick Butkus personified Chicago’s toughness with the Bears. ‘There was no way that guy wasn’t going to be great.’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

In Chicago, where everyone likes to think of themselves as tough, Dick Butkus was the real deal.The Chicago Bears linebacking great, who died Thursday at 80, was considered the toughest guy in a sport in which hitting is not optional.He carried that persona into his post-football life, cashing in on that demeanor in movies and TV and even bringing it to the social media site formerly called Twitter. When Butkus’s account finally was verified in January 2022, he began trolling Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers the day after a Packers playoff loss, writing “Funny, the orange juice tastes a little bit sweeter this morning.”That was why Butkus was still beloved in Chicago decades after his Bears days as a human sledgehammer with a crew cut ended. He never felt the need to be anyone but himself, and that was good enough for us. He later joked about his reputation for creating mayhem.“I’m not so mean,” Butkus told Tribune reporter Cooper...

Five things to know about getting to the Orioles playoff game or the Billy Joel-Stevie Nicks concert Saturday

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

On Saturday afternoon, the Orioles will play the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards in the opening game of the American League Division Series — the Orioles’ first playoff appearance since 2016.Mere hours later, crowds will flock to the area for a different attraction: a show put on by rock legends Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens announced the concert in January, long before any potential overlap with an Orioles postseason game was certain.Together, the baseball game and concert are expected to draw more than 90,000 people to the stadium complex. But it’s nothing Baltimore can’t handle, Mayor Brandon Scott told The Baltimore Sun in a written statement.“This Saturday is exactly the kind of day that we want to be having in Baltimore’s vibrant downtown,” Scott said, noting that the city’s Emergency Operations Center is “activated” and that Baltimore has pulled off similar situations before,...

Trump ‘temporarily’ drops lawsuit against former lawyer-turned-witness Michael Cohen

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has dropped his $500 million lawsuit against Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer who is now a key witness in a criminal case against him, Cohen and a Trump spokesperson said Thursday night. But the former president did not waive his right to sue again.Trump had accused Cohen of “spreading falsehoods” “with malicious intent” and causing “vast reputational harm” for talking publicly about hush-money payments made to women during Trump’s 2016 campaign that are at the heart of criminal charges he faces in New York. Trump has also accused Cohen of breaking a confidentiality agreement that he signed as a condition of his employment.The former president and GOP front-runner’s decision comes days before he was set to give a deposition in the suit brought in April in Florida. That testimony was originally set for Oct. 3, but Trump rescheduled so he could attend the first three days of a separate New York civil fraud trial. Cohen is likely...

Coyotes agree to deal with Scripps Sports to show games over the air

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona Coyotes have reached a four-year deal with Scripps Sports and will become the second NHL team to broadcast games over the air.Scripps will broadcast all non-national Coyotes games to roughly 3 million people in Arizona and Utah in the deal announced Thursday. The Vegas Golden Knights are the only other NHL team to broadcast its games over the air.“One of the challenges of the (regional sports model) is it was really shrinking in terms of the number of households that had access to our games,” Coyotes President and CEO Xavier Gutierrez said. “That was really counter to what we were trying to do and that’s super serving our fan base and really try to capture new fans, especially as we’re building the young, exciting team.”The deal comes a day after Diamond Sports Net Arizona agreed to end its telecast rights agreement with the Coyotes. Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Texas since March. The company said in...

New Mexico signs final order to renew permit at US nuclear waste repository

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico environmental regulators on Thursday finalized a 10-year permit extension at the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository that they say will increase oversight and safeguards while prioritizing the cleanup of Cold War-era waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory.The state Environment Department said the permit goes into effect on Nov. 3, following a nine-month public comment period. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico plays a key role in the nation’s multibillion-dollar effort to clean up radioactive waste left behind by decades of nuclear research and bomb-making. It has been licensed previously to take what is known as transuranic waste, or waste generated by the nation’s nuclear weapons program that is contaminated with radioactive elements heavier than uranium.“The new permit will benefit New Mexico and legacy waste clean-up from around the U.S. for years to come,” New Mexico Environment Department Secretary ...

Failure of single component caused Washington seaplane crash that killed 10, NTSB says

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. investigators have confirmed that a mechanical issue caused the seaplane crash that killed 10 people off an island in Washington state last year. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, said Thursday that a single component of a critical flight control system failed, causing an unrecoverable, near-vertical descent into Puget Sound’s Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island.About 85% of the aircraft was recovered from the ocean floor several weeks after the crash.NTSB investigators examining the wreckage found that a component called an actuator, which moves the plane’s horizontal tail and controls the airplane’s pitch, had become disconnected. That failure would have made it impossible for the pilot to control the airplane. Evidence showed the failure happened before the crash, not as a result of it, investigators concluded.The plane was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter turboprop operated by Renton-based Fri...

Ramsey County attorney’s office: White Bear Lake officers justified in firing shots back at man in January

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

The Ramsey County attorney’s office said Thursday that two White Bear Lake police officers were legally justified when they fired a dozen rounds at a man after he shot and severely injured one of them in January.Daniel Loren Holmgren Jr., 34, was not hit by the shots that officer Ryan Sheak and Sgt. Eric Gadbois fired after Holmgren emerged from his apartment bedroom and began firing his handgun on Jan. 24.Daniel Holmgren, 33, DOB: 09/13/1989, of White Bear Lake, was booked into the Ramsey County jail on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with allegedly shooting a White Bear Lake police officer on Jan. 24, 2023. (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)Holmgren’s gunfire hit Sheak twice in the midsection, but the officer managed to fire back one shot. Gadbois shot 11 times after Holmgren went back into his bedroom, according to a six-page memorandum the attorney’s office prepared after its review of the incident.Both Sheak and Gadbois “only used deadly fo...

Voorheesville man sentenced for attempted rape of a child

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:45:33 GMT

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A 28-year-old man will serve 14 years in prison for trying to force a teenager to have sex with him. William Maguire, of Voorheesville, was sentenced on Thursday. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! Maguire pleaded guilty in July to attempted rape in the first degree and attempted criminal sexual act in the first degree. The incident took place in January in the town of Providence.Maguire was also sentenced to 15 years of probation.