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Column: Montez Sweat trade comes down to 1 goal — Ryan Poles and the Chicago Bears are seeking to add ‘erasers’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

It’s going to be a lot to ask Montez Sweat to make the impact Khalil Mack had with the Chicago Bears in his first game and before him Julius Peppers.But Ryan Poles was dreaming big when he became the only general manager for a team with a losing record — the Bears enter Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints at the Caesars Superdome at 2-6 — to be a buyer at the trade deadline day Tuesday.Poles is banking on Sweat being a difference maker for seasons to come and used the term “eraser” when talking about the need to add elite players to the roster Wednesday after Sweat passed his physical and the trade of a 2024 second-round draft pick to the Washington Commanders was finalized.What does an eraser look like? They come in all shapes and sizes and play nearly every position. You see them routinely when you watch weekend highlights. They come in the form of edge rushers who defeat offensive tackles with aggressive hand moves before bending the c...

Mike Preston: Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton’s versatility, honed since youth, paying off | COMMENTARY

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

When the Ravens struggled last week against the Arizona Cardinals’ rushing attack, they were saved several times by second-year safety Kyle Hamilton, who finished the game with 10 tackles, including nine unassisted.That’s why safeties are important.They are the last line of defense, and the Ravens haven’t had a quality player at the position since Bernard Pollard in 2012, which is also the last time they won a Super Bowl.Hamilton isn’t a thumper like Pollard, not yet anyway, but he could become that kind of enforcer. In his second season, the first-round selection out of Notre Dame is fourth on the team in tackles (42) and is tied for third in sacks (three).And he still might add a little more weight and muscle to that 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame.Ouch.“It’s almost like he’s across the board gotten so much better, but I would say — if I was going to pick the number one thing that he’s really improved at — it’s just under...

From lowriders to hot rods, this weekends' Bomb Fest will have it all

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- More than 300 cars are expected to be on display at the Embarcadero Marina Park North near downtown Saturday.A San Diego tradition is being kept alive for another year as the annual Bomb Fest welcomes riders of classic cars, mini trucks, and more to gather at the city's vibrant waterfront this weekend.Event organizers say all cars and trucks from 1954 and beyond are welcome, as well as all lowrider bicycles and motorcycles. There's still time to register your vehicle ahead of the event. John Lennon’s art collection unveiled in San Diego for first time in a decade A "best of show" cash prize will be awarded, along with car club participation prizes."We got a lot in store this year," said Bomb Fest organizer Jose Arevalo." We have cars coming from all over -- from Colorado to Mexico City, we have cars coming from Northern California." Aside from some unique cars and specialty wheels, attendees can expect to enjoy a live performances by Soto the Band, Pepe Marquez a...

Arkansas man arrested after trying to crash through gates at South Carolina nuclear plant

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

WALHALLA, S.C. (AP) — An Arkansas man has been arrested for trying to crash through the exit gates of a South Carolina nuclear plant, authorities said.Doyle Wayne Whisenhunt, of Lockesburg, Arkansas, was taken into custody Friday night at an abandoned home in Pickens County, South Carolina, and transferred to the Oconee County sheriff’s office, the sheriff’s office announced in a news release.Whisenhunt, 66, has been charged with one count each of attempted murder, malicious injury to personal property, and unlawful entry into an enclosed place relating to the Thursday night incident at the Oconee Nuclear Station.An arrest warrant says Whisenhunt accelerated his vehicle toward a Duke Energy security officer while on the grounds of the nuclear station in an attempt to cause harm or death.Authorities also say Whisenhunt caused damage to the gates and fencing outside the secured area of the facility by hitting them with his vehicle. Whisenhunt also trespassed onto the prope...

Maple Leafs’ Liljegren placed on long-term injured reserve

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed defenceman Timothy Liljegren on long-term injured reserve, the team announced on Saturday.Defencemen Simon Benoit and Max Lajoie were both recalled from the Toronto Marlies. Liljegren suffered a lower-body injury in Thursday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins. The 24-year-old needed assistance to the trainer’s room and was favouring his left leg following a high-speed, first-period trip by Brad Marchand that sent him crashing hard into the end boards."He just didn't see the stick go in between his legs and can-opener him to make him go feet-first into the boards in the most dangerous area on the ice."Timothy Liljegren is expected to miss significant time due to the Brad Marchand trip: https://t.co/HkHz90kbzh pic.twitter.com/H81wvgplRG— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) November 3, 2023“I mean, you never like to see something like that, obviously,” Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews said. “He is a re...

Small biz owners are both hopeful and anxious about the holidays, taking a cue from their customers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — All signs point to a relatively solid holiday season for America’s small businesses. Yet, owners of these businesses appear to have a collective anxiety about the months ahead.They have their customers to thank on both counts.American kept up their spending over the summer, witness the government’s estimate that the economy grew by 4.9% in the third quarter. Yet even as they open their wallets, consumers seem pessimistic about their finances. A recent AP-NORC poll found that many Americans are concerned about their financial future.In turn, after two years of a COVID-fueled sales boost, owners fear consumers have run through their pandemic savings and might cut back this holiday season or shop online again after getting out and supporting local businesses. Inflation is still a concern and interest rates are higher. And there’s no predicting the weather.“When we talk to retailers there’s a lot of uncertainty,” said Max Rhodes, CEO of Faire, an online wholesale marketp...

Haley and Ramaswamy show the rising political power of Indian Americans even as they feud in debates

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

The tension between Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy was hard to miss when they last met on a debate stage.“Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” Haley told Ramaswamy.Responding to the broadside, Ramaswamy argued “we will be better served as a Republican Party if we’re not sitting here hurling personal insults.” He later told reporters he would “use smaller words next time to make it easier” for Haley.The two are poised to meet again on Wednesday for the third presidential debate, one of their final chances to make a case in front of a large audience before voting begins in the GOP primary next year. Though they are polling far behind former President Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 nomination, Haley and Ramaswamy represent the growing political influence of Americans of Indian descent and are a reminder of the nuanced views within the Indian diaspora.“It is a growing, heterogeneous community,” said Milan Vaishnav, the director of the South Asia P...

Vast digital trove of recordings by Canadian literature greats nears completion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

EDMONTON — Jason Camlot was chatting with his new boss in the English department of what was then Montreal’s Sir George Williams University in 1999, when he spotted a dusty cardboard box of 80 reel-to-reel tapes in a corner of the department head’s office.He asked about it. Oh, he was told, it’s just a bunch of old poetry readings from the ’60s and ’70s that nobody’s ever heard.He never forgot that dusty box. About seven years ago, he tracked it down, found an old reel-to-reel machine, and started to listen. “It was this incredible reading series,” said Camlot. “All the biggest names in North American poetry were there, all recorded in beautiful sound.”As it turned out, a lot of other universities had similar dusty boxes. And now, Camlot’s discovery has grown into SpokenWeb, a digitized  bonanza of thousands of hours of readings and off-the-cuff remarks from Canada’s greatest writers during the time when the nat...

GOP Rep. Ken Buck plans to challenge his party’s direction under Trump as he leaves the House

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Ken Buck has had enough.When the Colorado Republican announced this past week that he would not seek reelection, he began with the type of criticism of Democratic policies that is standard fare for a hard-line conservative. But then Buck turned his ire to fellow Republicans, spending most of the three-minute announcement video accusing them of being “obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.”Buck’s scorched-earth approach caught few on Capitol Hill by surprise.With a deadpan demeanor, an independent streak and a background as a federal prosecutor, Buck has gained national prominence as a House Republican fed up with Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and the Trump allies in Congress who amplify them. It’s a stand few others in the GOP are taking and is a remarkable turn that shows just how deeply Trump’s once-fringe lies about that race have settl...

During strike talks, Biden worked to build ties to the UAW’s leader. They have yet to fully pay off

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:19:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden called the head of the United Auto Workers union to congratulate him this past week on getting a new contract with General Motors and to wish him a happy 55th birthday — a sign of how the relationship had evolved since their first get-to-know-you meeting in the Oval Office on July 19.UAW President Shawn Fain launched the strike against GM, Ford and Chrysler-owner Stellantis with a willingness to force political leaders to choose between backing unions or corporations. Biden had long straddled this line. He proclaimed in speeches that unions built the middle class, but he also heralded his credentials as a former senator from the “corporate capital of the world,” also known as Delaware.The White House was determined to build trust with Fain and look past his occasional slights of Biden. That approach, which included Biden meeting with workers on the picket line in Michigan, helped to resolve the nearly 45-day set of strikes and produc...