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CHICAGO (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks placed running back Kenneth Walker III on injured reserve prior to their game against the Chicago Bears on Thursday because of an ankle injury. Walker hurt his ankle in last week's loss to Minnesota and left that game after sitting out the previous two because of a calf problem. He also missed two weeks in September with an oblique issue. Walker has run for 573 yards and seven touchdowns on 153 carries. A second-round draft pick by Seattle in 2022, he has 2,528 yards rushing and 24 TDs in his career. Walker could, in theory, return if the Seahawks win two playoff games, though their postseason hopes were slim entering the game against Chicago. Seattle (8-7) trailed the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams (9-6) by one game with two to play. The Seahawks' best path to the postseason was to win the final two regular-season games and have Los Angeles lose to Arizona on Saturday. Seattle visits the Rams to close the regular season. With Walker out, Seattle signed rookie running back George Holani off the practice squad. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLDehradun, Nov 24 (PTI) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday announced that the film 'The Sabarmati Report' will be exempted from entertainment tax across the state. Uttarakhand is the seventh BJP-ruled state to have made the film tax-free after Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. The film, directed by Dheeraj Saran, is based on the 2002 Godhra riots and was released in cinemas on November 15. It stars Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna and Ridhi Dogra in pivotal roles. Dhami, after watching the film said, "59 Ram devotees who boarded from Ayodhya were travelling in the Sabarmati Express train and it was set on fire at Godhra station, due to which they died untimely. There was less investigation and more politics in the matter. The truth did not come out." He praised the film producer Ekta Kapoor and the entire team for bringing out the truth and said that back then the "urban naxal media propagated the incident as a lie". He appealed to everyone to watch the film. HIG HIG (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s 2023-24 Legislative Session closed Dec. 1 and the next session, while officially underway, doesn’t fully begin until lawmakers are sworn into office Jan. 7. Looking back, members of the state House and Senate introduced 3,862 bills and 924 resolutions across the two-year session. There were 77 bills adopted into law in 2023 and 162 adopted in 2024. The combined total of 239 was far fewer than the previous six legislative sessions. There hasn’t been a lower total since 2009-10 when 226 bills advanced into law — the last time the Pennsylvania General Assembly had a partisan divide. Democrats controlled the House while Republicans led the Senate. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, often cites the challenge of advancing legislation with a split government. That dynamic won’t change in 2025-26. Though there are 20 new members joining the legislature — 16 in the House, four in the Senate — the respective parties defended their majorities. Republicans have a 28-22 advantage in the Senate while Democrats maintained a 102-101 margin in the House. What follows is a look back at the outcome of legislation proposed last session by area lawmakers. Aaron Bernstine — 8th Legislative District Rep. Aaron Bernstine will formally begin his fifth term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives when members are sworn into office on Jan. 7, 2025. He ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Bernstine, a Republican, represented Pennsylvania’s 8th Legislative District — parts of Lawrence and Butler counties — since redistricting took hold in 2023. Prior to that, he represented what had been the former 10th District. He held three committee assignments along with a subcommittee appointment during the 2023-24 Legislative Session: Commerce, Finance and Gaming Oversight committees and a subcommittee on Housing Finance. Across the two-year session, Bernstine sponsored 154 bills and resolutions. He was the prime sponsor of two bills. One sought to allow state licensure for nurses educated at a school with national accreditation in addition to the current requirement that institutions hold regional accreditation. The other was a reintroduction of a bill from a prior session, “Markie’s Law,” that seeks to delay parole for state inmates convicted of certain offenses while incarcerated — 12 months for escape attempts, smuggling contraband or retaliation or intimidation of a witness; 24 months for a violent offense. Neither bill gained traction at the committee level. Bernstine is among the members of the conservative Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus. One bill that he announced but ultimately didn’t introduce would have sought to reclassify drag performances as “adult-oriented business” — a bill unlikely to advance given the current dynamics of the General Assembly. He voted against both budgets in the 2023-24 session, criticizing Gov. Josh Shapiro for submitting a “liberal wish list.” “His plan is a copy-paste version of the Bidenomics that are destroying our economy. From Philadelphia mass transit bailouts to doubling the minimum wage, Gov. Shapiro wants Pennsylvania to be just like California, which is where his campaign donations originate,” Bernstine said after the governor made his 2024 budget proposal. Bernstine attempted to trim more than 1% from this year’s $47.6 billion budget through a floor amendment, and he tried the same to enact school choice. He attended President-elect Donald Trump’s rally in Butler where an assassination attempt was made, and he stood up for local police and first responders amid criticism of event security and the immediate response after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear. Marla Brown — 9th Legislative District The 2025-26 session will be the second in the Pennsylvania House for Republican Rep. Marla Brown. She was re-elected to represent the 9th Legislative District, which covers a portion of Lawrence County, after running unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Brown’s first session saw appointments to four committees — Aging & Older Adult Services, Commerce, Finance and Health. She also chaired subcommittees on Care & Services and Local Business. She sponsored 83 bills and resolutions. On 14 bills and three resolutions, she was the primary sponsor, however, none made it into law. In fact, as a member of the House’s political minority, just one received committee consideration. Brown introduced one of at least three proposals to open primary elections to all voters, allowing those not registered with a recognized party, namely Democrat or Republican, to choose which ticket they’d vote on. Pennsylvania is one of nine states with closed primaries and is home to more than 1.46 million independent voters, nearly 16% of its entire electorate. Brown believed the change would help elevate moderate candidates across the political spectrum and improve governance in an era of hyper-partisanship. Open primary proposals aren’t novel but in a rarity, they actually garnered enough support to advance out of the House State Government Committee but were ignored before receiving consideration on the chamber floor. “This is a bipartisan issue, in my opinion, on which we should easily meet in the middle of the road. We’ve got to find common ground in the House if we’re going to be able to represent this state in the best way,” Brown said after introducing her bill. Brown’s other bill proposals ranged from mandating that social media companies report suspected drug sales to the creation of a targeted grant program for nurses to repay student loans amid workforce struggles. Brown sought to require felony charges for threats made against schools and mandate a prison sentence for the conviction of delivering fentanyl. She also pursued operator-friendly reforms within Pennsylvania’s cosmetology law. Brown voted against both budgets enacted during her tenure, so far, and she opposed cost of living adjustments for former state employees who retired before 2001. She hosted policy hearings in her district on drug addiction and transportation issues, supported a package of bills to provide tax relief to working families, and joined other legislators in calling on the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to revise its maligned broadcast policy. She did not, however, vote in favor of a study authorized by the House to look into PIAA’s finances, broadcast agreements and more. Michele Brooks — 50th Senatorial District The start of the 2025-26 Legislative Session marks the midway point of Republican Sen. Michele Brooks’ third term in office. Her district, the 50th, includes Crawford, Mercer and most of Lawrence counties. Her current four-year term expires in 2026. In 2023-24, Brooks served as majority chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee and vice chair of the Finance Committee. Her other committee assignments were Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Communications & Technology, Education, Rules & Executive Nominations and Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness. She sponsored 248 bills and resolutions last session including 60 bills and eight resolutions as a prime sponsor. The focus of the bills she introduced included eliminating inheritance taxes on siblings and other relatives, enacting consumer protections, the creation of a lost dog registry, extending the statute of limitations for the crime of drug delivery resulting in death, including sales taxes in advertised retail prices, addressing Lyme disease and expansive efforts to serve firefighters and EMS providers. Among the bevy of bills of which she was a prime sponsor, six became law and four others advanced to the House. The rest remained in the Senate. Motorcycles will be included in Pennsylvania’s Automobile Lemon Law after a Brooks bill became Act No. 151 of 2024, extending protections for manufacturer defects to a new class of vehicle. Senate Bill 500 , a bipartisan bill known as Owen’s Law, became Act 32 of 2023. It allows for medical prescriptions through Medicaid of donor milk for children younger than 12 months. Brooks was successful in expanding Pennsylvania’s Safe Haven Law. Act 134 of 2024 adds urgent care centers to designated locations where parents may safely surrender newborns if they feel unfit to care for the child. She also secured an amendment to Pennsylvania’s Public School Code through Act 55 of 2024 which will allow professionals in skilled occupations to more easily receive state certification to teach at career and technical schools. Her bill was amended as part of budget negotiations to include numerous negotiated updates to the code beyond her original intent. Act 66 of 2023, born out of Brooks’ Senate Bill 941, eases eligibility and qualifications to become a drug treatment counselor and increases counselors’ patient caseload capacity during an opioid epidemic, defined as 1,000-plus opioid overdose deaths in three consecutive years. Pennsylvania schools must notify parents and guardians in writing whenever ticks are removed from students under Act 120 of 2024. Schools must provide information on the symptoms of Lyme disease, and must preserve the tick for parents or guardians to either send into a state lab for analysis or allow the school to do so. Results are confidential. Elder Vogel — 47th Senatorial District Republican Sen. Elder Vogel returns to the Pennsylvania Senate for the 2025-26 Legislative Session after being re-elected to represent the 47th Senatorial District. Vogel defeated Democrat Kate Lennen in the general election, garnering nearly 64% of the vote and earning a fifth four-year term. He ran unopposed in the primary. The 47th Senatorial District consists of most of Beaver County and parts of Lawrence and Butler counties. In the 2023-24 session, Vogel served as majority chair of the Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee. He also was appointed to the Banking & Insurance, Environmental Resources & Energy and Transportation committees. He sponsored 286 bills and resolutions last session, including nine bills as a prime sponsor. Three of the bills became law while the other six didn’t pass out of the Senate. Vogel worked for eight years to advance a bill guaranteeing insurance coverage for telemedicine services. After watching his proposals defeated through the years — be it through inaction, lack of House support, a veto by former Gov. Tom Wolf — Vogel’s Telemedicine Act was adopted in 2024 and signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro. Act 42 of 2024 assures patients that any medically necessary service they’d receive in person that’s covered by their insurance plan would also be covered if administered remotely through telemedicine. That coverage includes Medicaid and CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. His proposal to establish the Sexual Assault Emergency Services Act became Act 59 of 2023. It expands Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs at hospitals, using telehealth through the existing Penn State University SAFE-T Program to connect victims with specialized nurses to ensure through and timely care in cases of sexual assault. Another bill from Vogel became Act 18 of 2023, authorizing the first increases in dog license fees in nearly 30 years and for kennel fees, 60 years. The modest increases are intended to help improve dog law enforcement in the commonwealth. Vogel was a prime co-sponsor of two bipartisan proposals with Sen. Judith Schwank, D-Berks, that were developed to aid dairy farmers. One bill sought to help Pennsylvania dairy farmers enroll in the federal dairy margin coverage program while the other would allow the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board to collect and distribute over-order premiums collected on Class I fluid milk in Pennsylvania. Each bill was voted out of committee but gained no further momentum. He co-sponsored another bill with Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria/Clearfield/Centre, that would mandate a prison term of 20 to 40 years for anyone convicted of providing fentanyl or related synthetic opioids to minors. The measure received no consideration in the Senate. Vogel’s other proposals last session sought to create a statewide stroke registry, boost funding for the Pennsylvania Housing and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund that aids senior citizens, low- and moderate-income families and persons with disabilities, and create licensing for professional music therapists. He also was active in promoting on-farm conservation efforts, raising awareness of food insecurity and promoting food drives as well as advocating for legislation to mitigate crop damage by deer, enhance trespass penalties related to hunting and add a seat to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Board.jollibet gaming 。

AP Sports SummaryBrief at 10:40 p.m. EST

As CFP run continues, Penn State hopes to get passing game on trackCHICAGO (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks placed running back Kenneth Walker III on injured reserve prior to their game against the Chicago Bears on Thursday because of an ankle injury. Walker hurt his ankle in last week's loss to Minnesota and left that game after sitting out the previous two because of a calf problem. He also missed two weeks in September with an oblique issue. Walker has run for 573 yards and seven touchdowns on 153 carries. A second-round draft pick by Seattle in 2022, he has 2,528 yards rushing and 24 TDs in his career. Walker could, in theory, return if the Seahawks win two playoff games, though their postseason hopes were slim entering the game against Chicago. Seattle (8-7) trailed the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams (9-6) by one game with two to play. The Seahawks' best path to the postseason was to win the final two regular-season games and have Los Angeles lose to Arizona on Saturday. Seattle visits the Rams to close the regular season. With Walker out, Seattle signed rookie running back George Holani off the practice squad. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

BEREA, Ohio — Future Hall of Fame defensive end Myles Garrett sat on a couch in the Browns locker room within earshot of All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio conducting his weekly press conference at the mic stand. Garrett, who said last week that he wants to see the Browns’ plan for winning in 2025 or he might ask to be traded, heard something very familiar from Bitonio if he was able to make it out over the normal hooting and yelling amongst players in the locker room. Like Garrett, Bitonio wants to know the Browns’ blueprint for winning in 2025 before deciding if he’ll return for the final year of his contract, worth an average of $16 million a year, or retire after 11 seasons. The longest-tenured member of the team, Bitonio has taken 3-12 arguably harder than anyone else on the team. If he decides to retire and ease the aches and pains all over his body, Sunday’s game against the Dolphins will be his last home game. More Cleveland Browns coverage As Dustin Hopkins continues ‘working through’ issues, meet the player who could kick in Browns' final 2 games Will Browns left guard Joel Bitonio return next season? Berea Report (Video) Key Browns weapon idle on Thursday of Dolphins week; starting defender to IR; outlook for Dustin Hopkins Week 17 NFL Preview: Find everything you need to know with our Week 17 NFL preview. “The goal now, you’re in year 11, year 12, you want to try and win games,” Bitonio said. “It’s hard to go out there and have three wins right now. That’s been tough. It’s tough on your body. You just don’t feel as good on Monday when you lose a game. So it’s part of the process and you’d love to hear what the plan is going forward and kind of see where we’re at, see how much winning you can do. “I don’t know specifically with Joe Thomas, but he was in the start/middle of a rebuild when he was retiring and I don’t know if that played a factor or if he was just done anyway, but you see that sometimes with guys where it’s like, what do they have coming back and stuff like that. But that’s all stuff I’m going to worry about in the offseason. Right now, I’ve got a game to play and we’ve got to lock in because they have some good players up front.” Also like Garrett, Bitonio would like to know the QB plan for 2025. Will the Brown draft a QB with their first-round pick, which is currently No. 5 overall? Sign a quality free agent? Give Deshaun Watson another chance? But it won’t necessarily dictate his decision. “For me personally, I don’t what they’re thinking there, but I’m going to be a Cleveland Brown, I think, for my career,” he said. “So if I come back, whatever decision they make at quarterback is what decision they make. I’m not as young as Myles where you have some options other places. So for me it’s more going to be like how I feel personally, how my family feels and all that stuff.” Unlike Garrett, Bitonio, 33, has no plans to take his talents elsewhere for a championship if he doesn’t like what he hears from the Browns. “Cleveland gave me a chance and I’ve been here for 11 years and there’s been some losing and things like that, but we’ve had some moments where we’ve won and we’ve had some runs here and those memories are always great for me, but they’ve given me so much and I love this organization and what they’ve done for me and my family and at this point in my career, I just can’t see myself putting on a different helmet,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.” Furthermore, the grass might not be greener on the other side. The Browns are a case in point. They were expected to challenge for the playoffs this year and tumbled from 11-6 to 3-12 instead. “It’s hard to pick who’s going to win the Super Bowl this year, you know what I mean?” Bitonio said. “It’s hard to pick a team that needs a left guard that wants to bring you in, that wants to take care of you and you make that decision to be like, ‘Hey, we’re going to win a Super Bowl here’ and the quarterback gets hurt or someone gets hurt or you get hurt and then you’re like, ‘dang, I just chased the Super Bowl for what purpose?’ “It’s easy in hindsight to be like, ‘oh yeah, Joe should have gone to Denver that one year,’ but you don’t know what would’ve happened when he goes out there and stuff like that. So I think that all that is so hard to decide on. That’d be out of the question for me.” When Bitonio looks around the locker room, he sees the Garretts and the Denzel Wards and Conklins and Jerry Jeudys and other talented guys, and believes the turnaround can be quick. “I do,” he said. “I think I’ve seen it with majority of guys in here, we were a playoff team last year, won 11 games, so I see the people and the talent and the pieces. I don’t think it’ll be easy though. I think you have to put your head down, you have to work, you have to have a plan in the off season, all these things have to go into it, but I don’t think it’s a total like ‘gosh, we have no talent, nobody here.’” Over the years, Bitonio watched his good friend Thomas play 11 seasons through knee injuries and back injuries and elbow pain, and never experience a playoff campaign. At least Bitonio has gotten to experience two in his 11 seasons, but as fate would have it, he missed the lone playoff victory in that span — the 48-37 win over the Steelers in the wild card round after the 2020 season — because he tested positive for Covid-19. His only two playoff appearances were losses, the 22-17 loss to the Chiefs in the divisional round after 2020, and the 45-14 loss to the Texans in the wild card round last year. But he watched Thomas suffer from depression from all the losing, including 1-31 in 2016 and 2017, and he understands the physical and emotional toll the game can take. Bitonio and his wife, Courtney, welcomed their third child over the summer, and they built a house out west. He has plenty of reasons to walk away, and plenty to stay. “Truthfully, it’s mostly personal, just how my body feels going into another season,” Bitonio said. “The game, it’s an amazing game, blessed to play it, but it’s a stressful game, you put a lot on your body, how are you going to feel in 10 years or 15 years or 20 years?” This season, Bitonio got to watch his close friends Jack Conklin and Nick Chubb battle back from devastating knee injuries that would’ve ended the career of many players. He also got to block for Jameis Winston while he averaged more than 300 yards a game during his seven starts and resuscitated the Browns’ anemic offense. But the Browns are in the midst of their worst season since their 0-16 campaign in 2017, and now is not the time to make major life choices. “We’ll see how we’re doing in a couple weeks after the season,” he said. “It’s very hard to make a decision when you’re in the middle of it, you’re going through the daily grind. So I’m going to finish the year as strong as I can and see how we feel in a couple weeks and go from there.” Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com's Browns reporters.CHICAGO (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks placed running back Kenneth Walker III on injured reserve prior to their game against the Chicago Bears on Thursday because of an ankle injury. Walker hurt his ankle in last week's loss to Minnesota and left that game after sitting out the previous two because of a calf problem. He also missed two weeks in September with an oblique issue. Walker has run for 573 yards and seven touchdowns on 153 carries. A second-round draft pick by Seattle in 2022, he has 2,528 yards rushing and 24 TDs in his career. Walker could, in theory, return if the Seahawks win two playoff games, though their postseason hopes were slim entering the game against Chicago. Seattle (8-7) trailed the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams (9-6) by one game with two to play. The Seahawks' best path to the postseason was to win the final two regular-season games and have Los Angeles lose to Arizona on Saturday. Seattle visits the Rams to close the regular season. With Walker out, Seattle signed rookie running back George Holani off the practice squad. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

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Manmohan Singh's life and work 1991-2014 will be a golden chapter in India's history ChidambaramMuseums are many things, but in today’s day and age they’ve taken on a whole new role in the world. During Robb Report ’s House of Robb at Miami Art Week on Thursday, museum executives and advisers came together to discuss how museums function in the 21 st century. One area of agreement? That cultural institutions are serving as a new town square, a place where people come together to discuss the issues of the day. “We feel more important now than we have in a long time,” said Christopher Bedford, the director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “That’s such a great privilege—to be a gathering place for people to be together, think together, negotiate some of the difficult problems of the day together. . .We shouldn’t be mini dictatorships wherein we advance to you the best artists, the best politics, the best way of writing, thinking, speaking. I think what we’re supposed to be doing is encouraging critical thinking, empowering people to think critically. . .And I think that’s the obligation of the town square.” Over the past several years, museums have been at the center of many inflection points, whether it’s the pandemic, efforts to advance diversity and inclusion, or the recent war in Gaza. They’ve dealt both internally and externally with those topics, and have served as locations for both protest and resistance. That’s forced them to become even more clear about their own principles, says Madeleine Grynsztejn , the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. “Shit will happen, and when it does, you have to be very, very clear—before, during, and after—about your principles, and that’s where your mission and your vision and your stated policies all have to come into play,” she said. “None of that is going to work if you don’t know your principles, if they’re not super clear, and if you don’t have the discernment to choose great artists and put them up on the walls and interpret them well.” One of those principles, across the museum landscape, is support of freedom of expression and free speech, whatever an artist’s politics may be. It’s a fine line that museum executives walk, but one that Bedford and Grynsztejn agreed was necessary for museums to defend. And to that point, the cultural strategy adviser András Szántó, who works with many museums, added that while these institutions have to stand behind their artists, they also have to stand behind one another. “We need more of a NATO attitude, so that when institutions are attacked—whether from the center, from the left, or the right—that they support each other,” Szántó said. “There’s a lot of solidarity that may be necessary between museums and all kinds of cultural institutions as these dramas inevitably play out in our cities.”CARSON, Calif. (AP) — The LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls have been Major League Soccer mainstays since the league's inaugural season in 1996, signing glamorous players and regularly competing for championships through years of success and setbacks in a league that's perpetually improving and expanding. Yet just a year ago, both of these clubs appeared to be a very long way from the stage they'll share Saturday in the MLS Cup Final . The Galaxy were one of MLS’ worst teams after a season of internal turmoil and public fan dissent, while the Red Bulls were merely a steady mediocrity seeking yet another coach to chart a new direction. A year later, these MLS founders are meeting in the league's first Cup final between teams from North America's two biggest markets. “Two original clubs being able to put themselves in this situation, I think it’s great,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “To see two clubs that have been at it as long as this league has been around be here, I think it’s a special moment. Couldn’t be two more different and contrasting styles as well, which could make for an interesting game, and I would imagine a high-intensity game.” Everything changed in 2024 after a dismal decade for the Galaxy , who are favored to cap their transformation by winning their team's record sixth MLS championship with a roster that's dramatically different from its past few groups — albeit with one massive injury absence in the final. The transformation of the Red Bulls happened only in the postseason, when a team that hadn't won a playoff game since 2017 suddenly turned into world-beaters under rookie coach Sandro Schwarz. New York struggled through the final three months of league play with only two wins before posting road playoff victories over defending champ Columbus , archrival New York City FC and conference finalist Orlando to storm into the Cup final. “We know about the history (of our club), and we know tomorrow will define what that could mean,” Schwarz said Friday. “To feel the pressure for tomorrow, it’s necessary, because it’s a final, and without pressure it’s not possible to bring the best quality on the field.” The Red Bulls have never won an MLS Cup, only reaching the championship match once before. What's more, they've somehow never won a Cup in any tournament, although they’ve collected three Supporters’ Shields for MLS' best regular-season record. The Galaxy’s trophy case is large and loaded, and those five MLS Cups are on the top shelf. But not much of that team success happened in the past decade for the club that famously brought David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard and many other international stars to Hollywood. In fact, this season has ended a grim era for the Galaxy, who haven't lost all year at their frequently renamed home stadium — which was the site of protests and boycotts just a year ago. The club's fans were tired of LA's steady underachievement and ineptitude in the front office run by team president Chris Klein, who was fired in May 2023. One year ago Thursday, the Galaxy hired Will Kuntz, a longtime Los Angeles FC executive who engineered his new club's roster transformation, most dramatically by landing new designated players Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil — two international talents that LAFC also had in its sights. “I give Will and the group up there a ton of credit,” Vanney said. “It’s one thing to have players you like, and it’s a whole other thing to get them here and get them to connect with your group.” Pec and Paintsil combined for 32 goals and 27 assists while boosting the incumbent talents of striker Dejan Joveljic and Riqui Puig, the gifted Barcelona product who runs the offense from the midfield. The Galaxy clicked in the postseason, scoring a jaw-dropping 16 goals in four matches. Puig has been the Galaxy's most important player all season, but he won't be in the MLS Cup Final after tearing a knee ligament late in last week's conference final victory over Seattle . The loss of Puig — who somehow kept playing on his injured knee, and even delivered the game-winning pass to Joveljic — makes the Galaxy even more difficult to anticipate. “He played a lot in the regular season, so it was not so easy to analyze all these games now without him,” Schwarz said. “But the main focus is to analyze what we need to do, because it’s not clear now how they’re playing without him.” The Galaxy could give some of Puig's responsibilities to Marco Reus, the longtime Dortmund standout who joined LA in August. Reus is nursing a hamstring injury, but Vanney expects him to play. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccerTyler Herro scores 27 before ejection in Heat's 104-100 win over Houston Rockets

He’s one of the most famous corporate leaders in the world, delivering products embraced by billions. But it’s the haters that companies like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta worry about. In an era when online anger and social tensions are increasingly directed at the businesses consumers count on, Meta last year spent $24.4 million on guards, alarms and other measures to keep Zuckerberg and the company’s former chief operating officer safe. Some high-profile CEOs surround themselves with security. But the fatal shooting this week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson while he walked alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take in protecting their leaders against threats. Thompson had no personal security and appeared unaware of the shooter lurking before he was gunned down. And today’s political, economic and technological climate is only going to make the job of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them even more difficult, experts say. “We are better today at collecting signals. I’m not sure we’re any better at making sense of the signals we collect,” says Fred Burton of Ontic, a provider of threat management software for companies. After Thompson’s shooting, Burton said, “I’ve been on the phone all day with some organizations asking for consultation, saying, ’Am I doing enough?” Since the killing, some health insurers have taken steps to safeguard their executives and rank-and-file workers. Medica, a Minnesota-based nonprofit health care firm, said Friday it is temporarily closing its six offices for security reasons and will have its employees work from home. “Although we have received no specific threats related to our campuses, our office buildings will be temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in a statement. A Medica spokesman said the company had also removed biographical information about its executives from its website as a precaution. UnitedHealth Group, parent of the insurer Thompson led, removed photos of its top executives from its website hours after the shooting, later removing their names and biographies. But well before the attack, some of the biggest U.S. companies, particularly those in the tech sector, were spending heavily on personal and residential security for their top executives. Meta, whose businesses include Facebook and Instagram, reported the highest spending on personal security for top executives last year, filings culled by research firm Equilar show. Zuckerberg “is synonymous with Meta and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” the Menlo Park, California, company explained earlier this year in an annual shareholder disclosure. At Apple, the world’s largest tech company by stock valuation, CEO Tim Cook was tormented by a stalker who sent him sexually provocative emails and even showed up outside his Silicon Valley home at one point before the company’s security team successfully took legal action against her in 2022. Cook is regularly accompanied by security personnel when he appears in public. Still, the company’s $820,000 allotted last year to protect top executives is a fraction of what other tech giants spent for CEO security. Just over a quarter of the companies in the Fortune 500 reported spending money to protect their CEOs and other top executives. Of those that did, the median payment for personal security doubled over the last three years to about $98,000. In many companies, investor meetings like the one UnitedHealthcare’s Thompson was walking to when he was shot are viewed as very risky because details on the location and who will be speaking are highly publicized. “It gives people an opportunity to arrive well in advance and take a look at the room, take a look at how people would probably come and go out of a location,” said Dave Komendat, president of DSKomendat Risk Management Services, which is based in the greater Seattle area. Some firms respond by beefing up security. For example, tech companies routinely require everyone attending a major event, such as Apple’s annual unveiling of the next iPhone or a shareholder meeting, to go through airport-style security checkpoints before entering. Others forgo in-person meetings with shareholders. Government health insurance provider Centene Corp. joined that group Thursday, citing the UnitedHealthcare executive’s death in announcing that its upcoming Investor Day will be held online, rather than in-person as originally planned. “But there are also company cultures that really frown on that and want their leaders to be accessible to people, accessible to shareholders, employees,” Komendat said. Depending on the company, such an approach may make sense. Many top executives are little known to the public, operating in industries and locations that make them far less prone to public exposure and to threats. “Determining the need for and appropriate level of an executive-level protection program is specific to each organization,” says David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations at the National Retail Federation. “These safeguards should also include the constant monitoring of potential threats and the ability to adapt to maintain the appropriate level of security and safety.” Some organizations have a protective intelligence group that uses digital tools such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to comb through online comments to detect threats not only on social media platforms such as X but also on the dark web, says Komendat. They look for what’s being said about the company, its employees and its leadership to uncover risks. “There are always threats directed towards senior leaders at companies. Many of them are not credible,” Komendat said. “The question always is trying to determine what is a real threat versus what is someone just venting with no intent to take any additional action.” Burton, a former special agent with the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, points out that despite the current climate, there is little in the way of organized groups that target companies. Today, one of the primary worries are loners whose rantings online are fed by others who are like-minded. It’s up to corporate security analysts to zero in on such dialogue and decide whether or not it represents a real threat. And CEOs aren’t the only targets of disgruntled customers. In the U.S., there were 525 workplace fatalities due to assault in 2022, according to the National Safety Council. Industries including healthcare, education and service providers are more prone to violence than others, and taxi drivers are more than 20 times more likely to be murdered on the job than other workers, the group said. But the ambush of UnitedHealthcare’s Thompson this week is bound to get some CEOs second-guessing. “What invariably happen at moments like this in time is you will get additional ears listening” to security professionals seeking money to beef up executive protection, Burton says. “Because I can guarantee you there’s not a CEO in America who’s not aware of this incident.” ___ Associated Press writers Anne D’Innocenzio and Haleluya Hadero in New York and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed. He’s one of the most famous corporate leaders in the Chipotle is raising its U.S. prices to offset inflation and The U.S. government on Friday ordered testing of the nation's A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook a large area of NorthernCultivate ThanksgivingAI will force tech investors to become macro awarePlenty of big-time investors have made a name for themselves over the years, but arguably none have become as big of a household name as Warren Buffett. Thanks to personal achievements and the success of his company, Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.A 0.30% ) ( BRK.B 0.18% ) , Buffett has even become known as the "Oracle of Omaha." With a track record of decades of market-beating returns, it's no surprise that investors of all experience levels (myself included) turn to Buffett's words and Berkshire Hathaway's holdings for guidance on how to approach the market. Below are Berkshire Hathaway's top five holdings, according to CNBC: Company Percentage of Portfolio Apple ( AAPL 1.30% ) 23.2% American Express ( AXP 1.30% ) 15.4% Bank of America ( BAC 1.06% ) 12.1% Coca-Cola ( KO 0.72% ) 8.6% Chevron ( CVX -1.23% ) 6.4% Data source: Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing. Holdings as of Sept. 30 and Oct. 15. Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway have made major changes recently Buffett is known for his long-term investing approach . One of my favorite Buffett quotes speaks to this mentality, "If you aren't willing to own a stock for 10 years, don't even think about owning it for 10 minutes." It sounds simple enough in theory, but it's easy to get lured in by short-term happenings in the stock market. That said, recent moves by Berkshire Hathaway remind investors they can invest in a company for the long term while still adjusting their stake when it makes sense to do so. For example, since the end of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway has sold around 605 million shares of Apple -- or close to 70% of its stake. Did Buffett and his team do this because they have lost faith in Apple's long-term potential? Not at all. Buffett cited high valuations while anticipating a rise in capital gains taxes as reasons for shrinking the Apple position. For Berkshire Hathaway, that makes sense. Of course, your situation and that of a trillion-dollar corporation are very, very different, but it highlights how investors can keep a long-term mindset while still making adjustments to their portfolio along the way.

Yearender: Peace, stability in Middle East still distant in 2025Lewis scores 21, Marist beats Binghamton 69-51NEW DELHI: Women outshone men in terms of turnout at polling stations in 2024 Lok Sabha election, clocking a polling percentage of 65.8 as against 65.6 for their male counterparts. However, barely 9.5% of the total 8,360 candidates in the parliamentary poll were women, with 74 who got elected constituting 13.6% of Lok Sabha. This is the second time in the history of general elections to Lok Sabha that women turnout surpassed male participation. The share of women in the total electorate too went up to 48.6% from 48.1% in 2019 general election, as did the number of female electors per 1,000 male electors, which rose to a new high of 946 from 926 in the 2019 election. Interestingly, though there were a total 800 female contestants, 152 of the 543 parliamentary constituencies (PCs) did not have a single woman in the fray. These details are part of the granular data on 2024 general elections released by Election Commission on Thursday. As per the latest set of reports, the country's electorate saw a 7.4% increase to nearly 98 crore in 2024, of which 64.6 crore voted, from 91.1 crore in 2019, of which 61.4 crore had voted. Of the 64.4 crore votes cast, 64.2 crore were by way of EVMs and 42.8 lakh through postal ballots. The overall polling percentage was 65.7, excluding postal ballots, and 66.1 with postal ballots. Interestingly, while only 0.08% of EVM votes were rejected, nearly 12.5% of postal ballots received were rejected. 'NOTA' votes on EVM were 0.9%, but 1.1% by postal ballot route. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , Location Guesser and Mini Crossword .