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Leclerc starts on pole for Belgian GP after Verstappen gets grid penalty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (AP) — Runaway F1 championship leader Max Verstappen had the fastest time in qualifying for the rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix on Friday, but Charles Leclerc will start the race from pole position because of Verstappen’s five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.Verstappen will begin Sunday’s race in sixth place, but that will hardly bother the two-time reigning Formula One champion considering he won here last year from 14th on the grid.“This year the car is better. I’m still targeting to win the race for sure,” Verstappen said. “I know that I have to drop back on Sunday with the penalty I have, but it was the best I could do today.”He also believes it was the right decision to change his gearbox in Belgium. “I think it’s the best place to do it,” said Verstappen, who has won 44 races in his career. “Sunday looks more and more dry.”Verstappen finished qualifying a significant .82 seconds ahead of Leclerc and .88 ahead of Red ...

UEFA has removed Juventus from Europa Conference League in financial wrongdoing case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA has removed Juventus from Europa Conference League in financial wrongdoing case.Source

Expect delays on the I-70 mountain corridor next week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Travelers should expect delays on the Interstate 70 mountain corridor starting next week because of work on the Floyd Hill expansion project.Rock-scaling operations are set to begin Monday and will last for about two weeks, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Colorado Day celebrations begin! Where to get free or discounted tickets The work "will allow crews to widen eastbound I-70 to build an extended on-ramp from the U.S. 6 interchange to the top of Floyd Hill," according to CDOT.The work is scheduled for Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.I-70 traffic holds, delaysEastbound I-70 traffic will be stopped at the Hidden Valley/Central City interchange (Exit 243). Westbound I-70 traffic will be stopped near County Road 65 (Exit 248). No detour will be in place.Travelers can expect traffic holds up to 20 minutes long in both directions and delays of up to 45 minutes as the traffic clears, according to CDOT. 5-year construction project begins on ...

Payton pins blame for awful 2022 season by Broncos, Wilson on predecessor Hackett

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Sean Payton was so intent on having the Denver Broncos put last year’s awful 5-12 season behind them that he had a video made showing a 2022 Ford Bronco with its rearview and side mirrors removed.Clearly those mirrors were no longer missing this week when he excoriated his predecessor, Nathaniel Hackett, and lashed into Hackett’s new team, the New York Jets, in an interview with USA Today’s Jarrett Bell that was posted Thursday.Payton, who’s returning to the sideline after a year’s sabbatical, called the work Hackett and his staff did in Denver last season “one of the worst coaching jobs in the NFL” and said there were “20 dirty hands” around Russell Wilson’s career-worst season. “Everything I heard about last season,” Payton said, “we’re doing the opposite.”Although Payton was known for his frankness during his 15-year stint with the New Orleans Saints, his comments came as somewhat of a surprise given that he’s admonished his team not to look back at 2022 a...

Pac-12 will pursue expansion with Colorado, USC and UCLA leaving next year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

The Pac-12 Conference issued a statement aimed at stability after Colorado became the third school in a year to announce plans to leave. The nine schools remaining for the 2024-25 season were largely silent Friday. Colorado on Thursday announced it would join the Big 12 beginning in 2024, joining Big Ten-bound Southern California and UCLA in an exodus that could continue in coming weeks and months. Their departures coincide with the expiration of the league's current media rights deals and the Pac-12 has not yet announced a lucrative deal going forward.Shortly after CU's regents approved the move to the Big 12, the Pac-12 issued a statement pledging to soldier on. Possible Pac-12 expansion targets could include San Diego State and SMU.“We are focused on concluding our media rights deal and securing our continued success and growth,” the Pac-12 said. “Immediately following the conclusion of our media rights deal, we will embrace expansion opportunities and bring new fans, markets, e...

Authorities charge Alabama woman who acknowledged fabricating story about kidnapping, toddler

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Authorities in Alabama said Friday they have filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate. She has been charged with misdemeanor false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident.Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis announced the charges against Carlee Russell at a news conference. He said she turned herself into jail Friday and was released on bond.“Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the lose using a small child as bait,” he said.Derzis said he was frustrated that Russell was only being charged with two misdemeanors despite the panic and disruption she caused, but he said the law did not allow for enhanced charges.Russell, 25, disappeared after calling 911 on July 13 to report a toddler wandering beside a stre...

Tupperware shares are up 140% this week as meme stock mania takes hold

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

New York (CNN) — The meme traders are back. Shares of Tupperware (TUP) have exploded by about 140% this week and nearly 300% over the last month for no discernible reason.The Florida-based container company has been in hot water for some time. Sales are on the decline and Tupperware even warned that it was on the brink of bankruptcy in April.In early June, the New York Stock Exchange even notified Tupperware that it was in noncompliance with the exchange’s rules because its market capitalization was too low, less than $50 million, over a period of 30 trading days. Tupperware’s average closing price, the notification said, was also less than $1 for that period – below the exchange’s threshold.In early July, Blackrock stepped in as an investment partner to Tupperware, possibly to help them manage their debt load. But no new material announcements or changes have been made since then.The surge in stock price would make some sense if there was any...

Biden signs historic order moving prosecution of military sexual assault outside chain of command

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

(CNN) — President Joe Biden on Friday ordered a historic change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice by transferring key decision-making authorities outside the military chain of command in cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, murder and other serious crimes.The order, which the administration is calling “the most significant transformation of the military justice system since the UCMJ was established in 1950,” officially implements changes passed by Congress as part of fiscal year 2022’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and comes two years after an independent review commission on sexual assault in the military, formed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, recommended moving prosecution of sexual assault in the military outside the chain of command.Key among the changes in the order is the establishment of rules to govern the newly formed Offices of Special Trial Counsel (OSTC) which, composed of a panel of independent mil...

Massachusetts Democrats reach ‘agreement in principle’ on fiscal 2024 state budget

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

House and Senate budget negotiators said they reached an “agreement in principle” Friday on an overdue fiscal 2024 budget, though details of what survived private deliberations were not immediately available.House and Senate budget chiefs Sen. Michael Rodrigues and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz said the Legislature planned to take action on the compromise budget on Monday, 31 days after their deadline.Top Democrats have kept private this month what caused the weeks-long delay but a breakthrough means lawmakers will likely enter their traditional August recess after handing Gov. Maura Healey a finalized spending plan.“Our respective teams are actively engaged in ironing out the details and working diligently to finalize the agreement,” Michlewitz and Rodrigues said in a joint statement. “We are confident that the conference committee report will be filed in the coming days, ensuring that both the House and Senate will take up the report on Monday in formal session.”The necessary documents to...

Secret villas inside hotels are the ultimate in quiet luxury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:47 GMT

Jackie Caradonio | (TNS) Bloomberg NewsIt was only a matter of time before quiet luxury hit the travel world. Reflecting a chic tendency toward the inconspicuous, it’s already shown up nearly everywhere else, from fashion to furniture, sports cars to skin care.Enter the unlisted suite, the secret accommodation that can be booked only by those who know it exists. Not only does it shun the customary online booking engine, it practically evades public awareness altogether. These suites are wiped from hotel websites and missing from search results—all but phantoms in the highly visible, over-Instagrammed universe of luxury stays.Pricing is available only by direct inquiry, and you must really dig extremely to see a photograph, even a description, in any published format. In the past year, they’ve sprouted by the dozens.Take Villa de France, the new Jacques Grange-designed five-bedroom suite at Cheval Blanc in St. Barts. It’s a palatial retreat so discreetly nestled in the resort’s flora...