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Goga Bitadze making his presence felt on the offensive glass with the Magic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

Goga Bitadze’s role with the Orlando Magic may be uncertain going forward, but he’s already made a significant impact on the limited he’s played.When Bitadze first signed with the Magic as a free agent on Feb. 13, he was the third-string big man — mainly playing when the game’s result was already determined — behind starter Wendell Carter Jr. and reserve Moe Wagner.But with Carter out and Wagner starting the previous three games, including Thursday’s 131-124 home loss to the Utah Jazz, Bitadze has stepped into the backup big role.He’s made the most of those minutes by providing the Magic with an imposing interior threat, especially on the offensive glass.“They make it easy for me to adjust,” Bitadze said. “Whatever coach wants me to do, I’m going to go out there and do it.”Bitadze’s grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the 61 minutes he’s played with the Magic, including 8 in the combined 41 minute...

Chicago Bears trade the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL draft to the Carolina Panthers. Here’s what they got in return.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles finally found the deal he was looking for.The No. 1 pick the Bears collected for finishing last season with a 3-14 record now belongs to the Carolina Panthers. In a headline-grabbing trade Friday, Poles sent the top selection in April’s draft to GM Scott Fitterer in exchange for the No. 9 pick, the No. 61 pick, a first-round pick in 2024, a second-round pick in 2025 and wide receiver DJ Moore, a source confirmed. ESPN and NFL Network first reported the news.It had long been the Bears’ preference to trade the No. 1 pick and conversations on that front escalated when the league scouting combine began in late February. Poles vowed to remain in firm control of the situation, seeking a trade partner that could help maximize what the Bears squeezed out of the top pick while remaining mindful of how far they were willing to trade down.Now the Bears have their haul and can begin recalibrating their draft board on the march to the start of...

Red Sox notebook: Trevor Story taking grounders, Masataka Yoshida shining in WBC

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

When Trevor Story took the stage at Winter Weekend in late January, the high-tech metal contraption encasing his arm was a brutal reminder of a development that would seriously impact the 2023 Red Sox.Story had undergone an internal brace procedure less than two weeks before. The surgery, a way to repair his right elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), has a significantly shorter recovery than Tommy John surgery. Whereas the latter sidelines players for 12-18 months, the former could have Story ready to go in four to six months.Less than two months after Winter Weekend, the veteran infielder began taking grounders at spring training.“Trevor, he started taking grounders yesterday. He’s doing it again today with (Adalberto Mondesi),” Alex Cora told MLB.com’s Ian Browne on Friday. “That’s good. It gives you hope. If he’s not thinking about this year, then why take groundballs so soon?”Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom can’t rule out Story missing ...

Kiska, Marineland’s lone killer whale and last captive orca in Canada, has died

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

Kiska, a killer whale at Marineland and the last captive orca in Canada who has swam alone in her tank for more than a decade, has died. The Ontario government said Marineland, a theme park in Niagara Falls, Ont., informed the province Thursday of her death.The province had Animal Welfare Service Officers at the park Friday as Marineland performed a necropsy on the animal, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General said.Marineland’s owner, Marie Holer, declined to comment to The Canadian Press when reached by phone.The park told the Niagara Falls Review that the killer whale’s health declined recently “despite intensive interventions by her caregivers, Marineland’s veterinarian team and international veterinarians with expertise in supporting the health and well-being of cetaceans.”Kiska was believed to be 47 years old and had lived at Marineland since being captured in Icelandic waters in 1979.She was captured alongside Keiko, who became ...

Quake swarms at neighboring Alaska volcanoes raise concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Not one but two volcanoes on the same island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain were rocked by earthquakes on Friday, prompting concerns about a possible eruption.Elevated earthquake activity was reported at both Tanaga and Takawangha volcanoes on uninhabited Tanaga Island, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from Anchorage. “If an eruption were to occur, it is uncertain at this stage if it would come from Takawangha or Tanaga,” officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said in a statement that raised the alert level for the two volcanoes.WHAT’S THE LATEST?Even though the frequency of tremors slightly diminished Friday, earthquake activity at the volcanoes was still occurring about every minute or two.“We’re still getting earthquakes up above magnitude 3 going on quite regularly,” said John Power, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey stationed at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.Seismic activity ramped up earlier this week at Tanaga ...

Ex-US Rep. Buyer convicted of illegal stock purchases

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A former Indiana congressman and Persian Gulf War veteran was convicted Friday of insider trading charges after a two-week trial in which jurors rejected his testimony that he had acted innocently in his pursuit of stock market profits.The verdict against Steve Buyer, a Republican lawyer who served in Congress from 1993 to 2011, was returned after a jury heard evidence about stock purchases he made after he became a consultant and lobbyist.Buyer, 64, of Noblesville, Indiana, once chaired the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and served for a time as a House prosecutor during former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial.The jury returned guilty verdicts on four securities fraud charges. As the verdict was announced, Buyer shook his head. Judge Richard M. Berman set sentencing for July 11.Prosecutors said at trial that Buyer took information from clients and used it to make illegal stock trades. Authorities charged him with engaging in insider trading during ...

Medical helicopter service suspended after N. Carolina crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

FRANKLIN, N.C. (AP) — An emergency helicopter transport service announced Friday that it suspended operations, a day after one of its helicopters crashed in western North Carolina, leaving three of the four people aboard hospitalized. “Safety is of the upmost concern to our program, and as such we have suspended all LIFE FORCE operations until our crews feel ready to return to service,” LIFE FORCE Air Medical, which is operated by Erlanger Health System, said in a statement posted on Facebook. The service didn’t have information on the circumstances or cause of the crash. Erlanger will still accept patients via air medical transport and it was working with other air medical providers while the program is grounded.The Eurocopter EC135 medical helicopter landed hard in Franklin on Thursday night, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating with the National Transportation Safety Board.Macon County Sheriff Brent Holbrooks said the helicopter was taking a pa...

New Air Force One will stay blue and white, Biden decides

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is sticking with a blue-and-white color scheme for the exterior of the replacement Air Force One aircraft, the first of which is expected to be delivered in four years.The Air Force said late Friday that the light blue on the new model of the modified 747s that transport the president will be a little bit deeper and more modern in tone than the robin’s egg blue on the versions of the aircraft currently in use. Boeing is modifying two of its 747-800 aircraft that will use the Air Force One call sign when the president is aboard. They will replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft the president currently uses.The choice of the plane’s exterior colors follows an earlier decision by the administration to scrap a red-white-and-blue design favored by Donald Trump, Biden’s immediate predecessor. An Air Force review had suggested the darker colors would increase costs and delay delivery of the new jumbo jets.In 20...

2 LA police officers shot by parolee released from hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two Los Angeles police officers shot by a wanted parolee have been released from the hospital and a third is in stable condition, police said Friday.The officers, all members of a K-9 dog-handling unit, were wounded Wednesday in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood near downtown. Two were released on Thursday, a police statement said.The gunman, Jonathan Magana, 32, was found dead more than two hours after the shooting. The coroner’s office will determine whether he died by suicide or was shot by police during the confrontation.Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, plainclothes officers from a drug enforcement detail were looking for Magana, who was on parole after being released last year after serving time for robbery, according to police. He also was a suspect in an extortion incident, law enforcement said.Officers spotted Magana walking, but then lost sight of him. They called in uniformed officers to help surround an area and asked K-9 officers to assist in searching it, the ...

Judge in E. Jean Carroll's suit against Trump says jury can hear other accusers, 'Access Hollywood' tape

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:50 GMT

(The Hill) – A federal judge ruled on Friday that E. Jean Carroll can use the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape and the testimony of two other women who have accused former President Trump of sexual assault as evidence at trial in her defamation case.District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a request from Trump’s team to disallow the tape and the testimony from the two women, Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds, who separately accused the former president of assaulting them in late 1970s and early 2000s.The disagreement centered on a rule that allows for evidence that a defendant “committed any other sexual assault” when a civil case is “based on a party’s alleged sexual assault.” Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in a department store in the mid-1990s and of later defaming her by claiming that she lied about the incident. The alleged defamation includes a 2019 interview with The Hill in which Trump said Carroll was “totally lying” and “not my type.”Because Carroll has two pend...