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Saints again facing questions about inconsistency on offense and squandered scoring chances

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The good news for the New Orleans Saints is that their muddling start has been good enough to keep them in contention in the anemic NFC South. After all four teams in the division lost in Week 6, New Orleans (3-3) entered Week 7 just a half game out of first place.Whether the Saints’ offense and quarterback Derek Carr can find the consistency and competence in the clutch to capitalize remains to be seen.It’s not like New Orleans is incapable of moving the ball. During Sunday’s 20-13 loss to Houston, the Saints outgained the Texans 430 to 297 in total yards. Carr passed for a season-high 353 yards.The Saints crossed Houston’s 35-yard line on seven of 10 offensive series — but got in the end zone only once.“When you’re not scoring down there, there’s a lot of factors that go into that,” coach Dennis Allen said Monday after reviewing footage of the game. “Can we call better play calls? We probably can. And yet, if we execute some o...

Montgomery Co. schools changes promotion process after former principal was promoted while under investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

Montgomery County Public Schools says it’s changing the process it uses to promote administrators, after an investigation into how a principal was promoted while facing harassment and bullying allegations unveiled several missteps.In a document sent to school staff last week titled “A Framework for Change at MCPS,” Maryland’s largest school system said that effective immediately, administrators won’t be considered for promotions while they’re under investigation.The school system will also require what it considers to be a robust, multifaceted background check before a preliminary recommendation for appointment to a new role is made.The action plan was sent to staff as part of a broader email last week, spokesman Chris Cram told WTOP. Local blog Moderately Moco first reported some of the plans detailed in the email.As part of the promotions process, according to the memo, the school system will use a “multifaceted” background check tha...

Ryan Tannehill remains Titans starting QB with bye week giving him time to heal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans believe they got lucky with the timing of quarterback Ryan Tannehill spraining his right ankle in London occurring right before their bye week.Tannehill left London on crutches after hurting the same right ankle that cost him a combined five games at the end of last season. Malik Willis was sacked on four of five pass attempts in the Titans’ 24-16 loss to Baltimore.Coach Mike Vrabel said Monday an MRI showed Tannehill’s ankle was similar to last season when the quarterback missed two starts after spraining the same ankle, not the second injury that sidelined the veteran for the final three games of the season. The Titans (2-4) are off until hosting Atlanta (3-3) on Oct. 29, and Vrabel said Tannehill will play if he can go. If Tannehill can’t, then they must choose between either Willis or rookie Will Levis. “I don’t know who that would be yet,” Vrabel said. “We’ll see.”Willis started three games last season before ...

Phillies slugger Bryce Harper wants big leaguers to play baseball at 2028 LA Olympics

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryce Harper wants to take a swing at the Olympics.The Philadelphia Phillies slugger said it would be a dream to play for Team USA when baseball returns for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Harper, who turned 31 on Monday, has long been an advocate of Major League Baseball taking a break during the season to let major leaguers play in the Olympics.Harper said his wife texted him a happy birthday message attached to news about baseball’s return.“You talk about growing the game, and that’s the way you grow it at the highest peak,” Harper said. “You let guys that are playing in the league take that break just like in the NHL and see what happens. I think it would be really cool. I think it would be a lot of fun. I don’t know if they’ll ever go for it, but I would love to put USA on my chest and represent it at the highest level.”Baseball became an official Olympic sport in 1992 and was initially open only to amateur players. Pros were later permitted, but MLB hasn’t let ...

Jets get to .500 at the bye-week break in an unlikely yet promising turn of events

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

Raise your hand if you thought the New York Jets would be 3-3 at their bye-week break after Aaron Rodgers went down with a torn Achilles tendon four snaps into his debut.Yeah, sure.Even the most optimistic of fans likely had a tough time envisioning that scenario, especially after ugly losses to Dallas and New England in consecutive weeks, followed by a tightly contested defeat against Kansas City.It still probably seemed unlikely Sunday until late in the fourth quarter, when the Jets’ defense came up with stop after stop and made a big play — Tony Adams’ interception — to put New York in position to score the eventual winning touchdown in a 20-14 victory over previously undefeated Philadelphia.“Not that anyone cares, but there has been a lot of adversity within this organization, with all the different things that have transpired,” coach Robert Saleh said Monday. “But the resolve and the resilience of the group that we have in the locker room and the effort that’s put o...

Truck driver killed when train derailment collapses Colorado bridge, spilling coal cars onto highway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A truck driver was killed when a train derailed near Pueblo, Colorado, and caused a railroad bridge to collapse onto a major highway — crushing the semitruck, spilling coal and mangled rail cars across the roadway and shutting down traffic indefinitely, authorities said Monday. The 60-year-old driver was initially said to be trapped in the Sunday afternoon accident on Interstate 25, but authorities said Monday that he had died.The partially collapsed bridge could be seen Monday afternoon with the semitruck caught beneath it in the northbound right lane. Derailed train cars were piled up on the bridge and along the tracks to the northeast and large amounts of coal covered a portion of the highway.A nine-mile (14-kilometer) stretch of I-25 — the main north-south road corridor in Colorado, used by 39,000 to 44,000 vehicles daily — was shut down in what the Colorado Department of Transportation said Monday would be an extended closure.The bridge partially collapsed when th...

$557K settlement for pedestrian hit by texting Denver cop

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — An Arapahoe County couple is expected to receive $557,000 from Denver to settle a lawsuit after Eric Szakmary was hit by a Denver Police officer who was texting while driving.The city council has the settlement on its consent agenda for Monday's meeting, which means the lawsuit settlement is likely to be approved. The lawsuit was filed by Szakmary and his wife, Kimberly.The Problem Solvers first reported on the lawsuit earlier this year after Szakmary's attorney, Scott Smith, complained negotiations with the city had stalled."Liability on the case seems very, very clear. And yet the City and County of Denver and the officer that hit my client refuse to accept responsibility for it," Smith said at the time.RTD surveillance video of a Sep. 17, 2019, crash involving a Denver police officer who was texting and driving (Credit: RTD)“You’d think if anybody was paying attention to their surroundings, it would be an officer,” said Szakmary, remembering the night of Sep. 17, ...

'Kids have to buckle up': Seatbelt could have saved teen's life

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — According to Colorado State Patrol, 61 teen drivers have died in the state so far this year, and that is a 53% increase from this time last year.Those numbers are shocking to the family of Sammie Caflisch. Sammie was in a car crash in Parker in July 2020 and wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Resident stabs alleged robber to death in Broomfield She died the day after her 15th birthday."Because she wasn't wearing her seatbelt, she was ejected from the vehicle. The kids that were in the car that had their seatbelt on actually didn't even have to go to the hospital, had no injuries," said Sammie's aunt, Shelly Gibson.Sammie's death was crushing for her family."Sammie was just a very spunky, ornery young lady," Gibson said. "She had so much life ahead of her and was just so much fun."Seatbelt use linked to deadly teen crashesNow her family runs the Sammie's Sunshine foundation. They help other families after crashes and go into schools to help with driver safety weeks. Their m...

The Patriots, at 1-5 for 1st time since 1995, taking small improvements back to the drawing board

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Over three weeks and three straight losses, Mac Jones has walked into the Patriots team facility ready to face the kind of truths only game film can reveal.It’s been difficult to watch and many of the same themes continue to pop up each week — turnovers, penalties and poor fundamentals.Yet as much as the season seems to be slipping way with each passing game, it hasn’t affected the third-year quarterback’s resolve to help his team find a way out of its current malaise.“We definitely need to improve but have to keep swinging,” Jones said. “If you don’t swing, you’re not going to get any hits. Definitely going to keep swinging.”Sunday’s 21-17 setback at Las Vegas has dropped the Patriots to 1-5 for the first time under Bill Belichick.They remain in last place in the AFC East, with back-to-back matchups against the division’s top two teams up next.While many of the issues that need to be corrected are clear, what’s also undeniable is that New England’...

Robbins: Israel’s critics estranged from reality

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:09 GMT

There is a famous scene in the classic movie “Annie Hall” in which protagonist Alvy Singer visits his girlfriend’s family, and encounters her somewhat untethered brother in a hallway. Singer listens as the brother rambles incoherently before politely taking his leave. “Right, well, I have to go now, Duane,” he says, “because I’m due back on planet Earth.”“Planet Earth” came to more than one person’s mind about 36 hours after the news emerged about Israelis slaughtered in cold blood, babies riddled with machine gun bullets in their cribs, hundreds of young people mowed down at a music festival, human beings decapitated, raped and abducted by Hamas,1,300 Israelis murdered, 3,700 Israelis maimed. Over 150 terrified innocents held hostage in the terror state established in Gaza by Hamas for the purpose of annihilating Israel.At a solidarity rally for Israel in Boston, Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey announced that what was called for was “de-escalation” of “the conflict....