DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos signed left tackle Garett Bolles to a four-year extension on Thursday, locking up a big piece to protect rookie quarterback Bo Nix. Bolles has spent his entire career with the organization after being drafted out of Utah with the 20th overall pick in 2017. He has a chance this season to help the Broncos into the postseason for the first time since they won Super Bowl 50 after the 2015 season. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a weekRachel Reeves has announced that she will call in senior bankers to challenge Whitehall departments over their spending plans as she pledged to “take an iron fist against waste”. The chancellor said she would conduct a “zero-based review” of public spending, which will require departments to go through their budgets line by line. She said that if it did not deliver on one of the government’s priorities then the spending would be cut. The spending review, which covers day-to-day spending between 2026 and 2029, requires departments to find efficiency and productivity savings of 5 per cent. Reeves will ask “challenge panels” of external experts including former executives from Lloyds, Barclays and the Co-operative Group to review the departmental plans. They will work alongside experts from think tanks, the world of academia and others from the private sector to form an independent review of what spending is necessary.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Tomorrow, AT&T's chief executive officer will participate in a fireside chat where he will discuss the Company's multi-year strategic growth plan. : , chief executive officer, ( ), will speak tomorrow at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference where he will provide an update to shareholders. Stankey is expected to cover key topics discussed below. As a result of the investment-led strategy announced at its , the Company expects to be in a differentiated position within the connectivity industry by the end of the decade. In Mobility, the Company is building a more efficient, high-capacity, programmable and open network. By 2027, it expects to have largely completed the modernization of its 5G wireless network with open technology, with deep mid-band 5G spectrum covering 300 million+ people by the end of 2026. In broadband, the Company already has the largest fiber broadband network in America. By the end of 2029, it expects to reach 50 million+ total locations with fiber . This includes expectations to pass about 45 million locations through its organic fiber deployment and to serve 5 million+ fiber locations through Gigapower, its joint venture with Blackrock, as well as through agreements with commercial open-access providers. These collective efforts increase AT&T's opportunity to serve customers how they want to be served, by one provider in a converged manner. While building the network of the future, the Company is actively working to exit its legacy copper network operations across the large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029. As discussed during the Company's 2024 Analyst & Investor Day, it expects 2025 Free Cash Flow of $16 billion+, when excluding DIRECTV. The expected drivers of next year's free cash flow growth include Adjusted EBITDA growth, lower cash interest from lower debt balances, the absence of network termination fee payments in 2025 and lower working capital impacts in 2025 compared to 2024. These items are expected to more than offset an expected increase in cash taxes. AT&T expects its multi-year strategic plan to provide $50 billion+ of financial capacity over the next three years, largely through organic growth. Financial capacity represents anticipated free cash flow after distributions to noncontrolling interests, plus expected cash payments from the announced agreement to sell AT&T's stake in DIRECTV to TPG, as well as net borrowing capacity after the Company achieves its net leverage target. The Company continues to expect to achieve its net leverage target of net-debt-to-adjusted EBITDA in the 2.5x range in the first half of 2025 and maintain leverage within this range through 2027. The Company expects to return $40 billion+ of this financial capacity to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Under this capital return plan, the Company expects to maintain its current annualized common stock dividend of per share. This plan would result in $20 billion+ in total dividend payments, with capacity for about in share repurchases, from 2025-2027. The plan also contemplates approximately in incremental financial flexibility for items such as potential organic or inorganic strategic growth investments, debt repayment, redemptions of noncontrolling interests, or additional dividends or share repurchases. Tune in for the fireside chat with at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference, scheduled to begin at . The webcast will be available live and for replay at To automatically receive AT&T financial news by email, please "Total locations" includes consumer and business locations (i) passed with fiber and (ii) served with fiber through commercial open-access providers. Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update and revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise. This news release may contain certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between the non-GAAP financial measures and the GAAP financial measures are available on the company's website at . We help more than 100 million U.S. families, friends and neighbors, plus nearly 2.5 million businesses, connect to greater possibility. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to our 5G wireless and multi-gig internet offerings today, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. For more information about AT&T Inc. ( ), please visit us at . Investors can learn more at . © 2024 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the Globe logo are registered trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE AT&T
Ex-Colorado footballer Bloom dedicates time to fulfilling wishes for older adults
Teaching Strategies listed to GSV 150 for fifth consecutive year; one of six early childhood companies to earn a spot for 2025 WASHINGTON , Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Teaching Strategies, the country's leading developer of early childhood curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and family engagement solutions, has been named to the GSV 150, an annual list of the top 150 private companies transforming digital learning and workforce skills, for the fifth year in a row. Selected from over 2,500 private education technology companies, Teaching Strategies is one of six early childhood education companies to receive the recognition. "We're honored to again be recognized by GSV, and alongside these transformative companies, for leading the field in digital solutions that support early childhood educators, young learners and their families," said Teaching Strategies CEO John Olsen . "This recognition is a great way to close 2024–a year defined by innovations to our early childhood curricula , by improvements to our learning assessments , and by an expansion of professional development opportunities for our hardworking educators—and we look forward to 2025." "The rapid rise of generative AI is fueling knowledge and creating opportunities we had not imagined before," says Luben Pampoulov, Partner at GSV Ventures. "Multi-modality is making education more engaging, AI tools are driving personalization and productivity, and learning is happening at the speed of light. Effectively everyone across the 2025 GSV 150 has generative AI deeply embedded in their offering." To arrive at its listing, GSV evaluated venture capital and private equity-backed private for-profit companies using their proprietary rubric of revenue scale, revenue growth, user reach, geographic diversification, and margin profile. The selected companies are collectively reaching approximately 3 billion learners and generating $25 billion in annual revenue. By sector, 48% of the 2025 GSV 150 are K-12 companies, followed by 46% workforce learning, 31% higher education, 12% adult consumer learning, and 4% early childhood. A quarter of the companies stretch across multiple "PreK to Gray" sectors. See the full GSV 150 list. Many of the companies will attend the ASU+GSV Summit April 6-9 in San Diego . About Teaching Strategies Teaching Strategies ® is the leading provider of early childhood curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family engagement solutions. Its products, including the most widely used curriculum and assessment solutions, The Creative Curriculum ® and GOLD ® , reach over 4 million children each year in more than 80 countries around the world. A trusted partner and advocate for the early education community for 45 years, today Teaching Strategies connects teachers, children and families to inspired teaching and learning experiences, insightful data, stronger family partnerships, and robust professional learning through SmartTeachTM, the leading early learning platform. Learn more at www.teachingstrategies.com . A bout GSV Founded in 2011, GSV is a global platform that drives education and workforce skills innovation. Our mission is that ALL people have equal access to the future, and we believe that scaled innovations in " PreK to Gray" learning and skills are crucial to achieving this goal. The GSV platform includes the ASU + GSV Summit, hosted annually in San Diego with 7,000+ attendees; the India -based ASU + GSV & Emeritus Summit, now entering its third year; and The AI Show @ ASU + GSV , an immersive exploration of the AI Revolution in education, which welcomed 10,000+ attendees this year. GSV Ventures, GSV's investment arm founded in 2015, is a multi-stage venture fund investing in the most transformational companies across the global " PreK to Gray" landscape. SOURCE Teaching StrategiesMinutes after the University of North Carolina announced it had hired Bill Belichick as its next head football coach, the Tar Heels’ Instagram account posted a photo of the legendary NFL coach — at no more than 3 years old — sitting in the UNC bleachers. “Welcome home, Coach,” the post reads , dredging up the memory of when the young Belichick shadowed his father, Steve, who was a UNC assistant from 1953 to 1955. As news of his hiring spread around the NFL world, the reaction ranged from excitement at seeing him back on the sideline to disbelief. The most decorated coach in NFL history after earning six Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots, and two more as the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, Belichick is officially making his next challenge college football after agreeing to a five-year deal with UNC. “I will have to see him on the sideline to believe that’s happening,” Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury joked Thursday. “We’ll see how the NFL job search goes and all that. I will have to see him on the sideline coaching in Chapel Hill to believe that’s happening." While Belichick’s knowledge of the sport, and his success, are unquestioned, there has been debate among those who have played for the 72-year-old coach during his 40-plus years in football about how well his style will translate to the college game. Some of his former players believe his skill set will work at any level. That list apparently includes Tom Brady, the quarterback during all six of Belichick’s Super Bowl wins with New England. “Congrats, coach. The Tar Heel way is about to become a thing,” Brady posted on Instagram on Thursday, referencing “The Patriot Way” that he popularized in New England. Some cautioned that the players he brings into the UNC program should prepare to have their limits tested like never before. “I think he’s going to do good,” said Patriots receiver Kendrick Bourne, who played under Belichick during his final three years in New England. “Bill does a good job of developing players, developing young men. I think it will be a challenge for the young man. He’s a tough coach, which we all know. But I think it will be good for certain players that have the right mindset.” Bourne's advice? Always stay locked in mentally. “Just stay tough,” Bourne said. “Have a gritty mindset because it’s not going to be easy, but in the end, it’s going to be worth it." Though some have questioned why the Tar Heels would even consider hiring Belichick after parting ways with 73-year-old Mack Brown this season, current Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said good coaching is ageless. “To me, it doesn’t matter if you’re a young man or a 10-year vet in the league, he’s a great teacher,” said Mayo, who played eight seasons under Belichick, winning a Super Bowl during the 2014 season, and then succeeded him as head coach after last season. "I wish him nothing but the best. It doesn’t really matter what level, I think he’ll be successful.” NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is a relative newcomer to the college game himself. He spent three seasons at Jackson State before going to Colorado in 2023. In a message posted to the X social media platform, he welcomed Belichick as a competitor. “Coach Bill Belichick is a coaches coach to all us Coaches along with my man coach (NIck) Saban,” Sanders posted. “They’re game changers and they know how to move people forward. I know this is a great thing for College Football & for North Carolina. God bless u Coach, if you’re happy I am 2.” But former Patriots defensive back Je’Rod Cherry wonders how well Belichick’s old-school coaching style will be received in an era in which in-your-face methods don't always fly as well as they did when Belichick began his career. “You can’t coach hard anymore,” Cherry said during an appearance on ESPN GameNight. “You can’t yell at guys, curse at guys and that’s what he does. You are going to have to find guys who are going to accept that brand of coaching and will accept someone constantly getting on them." New York Jets safety Jalen Mills, who played for Belichick with the Patriots from 2021 to 2023, said he was surprised by the news. “I thought he definitely was going to try to wait it out until after the season and come back to the NFL,” Mills said. "But I think it’s gonna be a good thing for him because now you get a guy who has won and, of course, he’s going to try to turn that program around. But he also gets to connect with the younger generation and kind of modify and adjust to this younger generation of football on top of what he already knows. So I think that’ll just help him as far as coaching. And then, of course, he’ll give those guys, those young guys, structure as far as what the NFL looks like, too.” Just how much the Belichick on the college sidelines will resemble the one in the cutoff hooded sweatshirt who patrolled NFL sidelines is unclear. Belichick hinted they will be one and the same. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN prior to agreeing to the UNC job, Belichick laid out what his approach at the college level would be. “The program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players than have the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said. “It would be a professional program — training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques — that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level.” AP National Writer Howard Fendrich and Pro Football Writer Dennis Waszak contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Minutes after the University of North Carolina announced it had hired Bill Belichick as its next head football coach, the Tar Heels’ Instagram account posted a photo of the legendary NFL coach — at no more than 3 years old — sitting in the UNC bleachers. “Welcome home, Coach,” the post reads , dredging up the memory of when the young Belichick shadowed his father, Steve, who was a UNC assistant from 1953 to 1955. As news of his hiring spread around the NFL world, the reaction ranged from excitement at seeing him back on the sideline to disbelief. The most decorated coach in NFL history after earning six Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots, and two more as the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, Belichick is officially making his next challenge college football after agreeing to a five-year deal with UNC. “I will have to see him on the sideline to believe that’s happening,” Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury joked Thursday. “We’ll see how the NFL job search goes and all that. I will have to see him on the sideline coaching in Chapel Hill to believe that’s happening." While Belichick’s knowledge of the sport, and his success, are unquestioned, there has been debate among those who have played for the 72-year-old coach during his 40-plus years in football about how well his style will translate to the college game. Some of his former players believe his skill set will work at any level. That list apparently includes Tom Brady, the quarterback during all six of Belichick’s Super Bowl wins with New England. “Congrats, coach. The Tar Heel way is about to become a thing,” Brady posted on Instagram on Thursday, referencing “The Patriot Way” that he popularized in New England. Some cautioned that the players he brings into the UNC program should prepare to have their limits tested like never before. “I think he’s going to do good,” said Patriots receiver Kendrick Bourne, who played under Belichick during his final three years in New England. “Bill does a good job of developing players, developing young men. I think it will be a challenge for the young man. He’s a tough coach, which we all know. But I think it will be good for certain players that have the right mindset.” Bourne's advice? Always stay locked in mentally. “Just stay tough,” Bourne said. “Have a gritty mindset because it’s not going to be easy, but in the end, it’s going to be worth it." Though some have questioned why the Tar Heels would even consider hiring Belichick after parting ways with 73-year-old Mack Brown this season, current Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said good coaching is ageless. “To me, it doesn’t matter if you’re a young man or a 10-year vet in the league, he’s a great teacher,” said Mayo, who played eight seasons under Belichick, winning a Super Bowl during the 2014 season, and then succeeded him as head coach after last season. "I wish him nothing but the best. It doesn’t really matter what level, I think he’ll be successful.” NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is a relative newcomer to the college game himself. He spent three seasons at Jackson State before going to Colorado in 2023. In a message posted to the X social media platform, he welcomed Belichick as a competitor. “Coach Bill Belichick is a coaches coach to all us Coaches along with my man coach (NIck) Saban,” Sanders posted. “They’re game changers and they know how to move people forward. I know this is a great thing for College Football & for North Carolina. God bless u Coach, if you’re happy I am 2.” But former Patriots defensive back Je’Rod Cherry wonders how well Belichick’s old-school coaching style will be received in an era in which in-your-face methods don't always fly as well as they did when Belichick began his career. “You can’t coach hard anymore,” Cherry said during an appearance on ESPN GameNight. “You can’t yell at guys, curse at guys and that’s what he does. You are going to have to find guys who are going to accept that brand of coaching and will accept someone constantly getting on them." New York Jets safety Jalen Mills, who played for Belichick with the Patriots from 2021 to 2023, said he was surprised by the news. “I thought he definitely was going to try to wait it out until after the season and come back to the NFL,” Mills said. "But I think it’s gonna be a good thing for him because now you get a guy who has won and, of course, he’s going to try to turn that program around. But he also gets to connect with the younger generation and kind of modify and adjust to this younger generation of football on top of what he already knows. So I think that’ll just help him as far as coaching. And then, of course, he’ll give those guys, those young guys, structure as far as what the NFL looks like, too.” Just how much the Belichick on the college sidelines will resemble the one in the cutoff hooded sweatshirt who patrolled NFL sidelines is unclear. Belichick hinted they will be one and the same. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN prior to agreeing to the UNC job, Belichick laid out what his approach at the college level would be. “The program would be a pipeline to the NFL for the players than have the ability to play in the NFL,” Belichick said. “It would be a professional program — training, nutrition, scheme, coaching, techniques — that would transfer to the NFL. It would be an NFL program at a college level.” AP National Writer Howard Fendrich and Pro Football Writer Dennis Waszak contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
It’s a common seasonal refrain: “Christmas just isn’t like it used to be.” This is not a new complaint. History shows that Christmas traditions are just as subject to change as any other aspect of human societies, and when customs change, there are always some who wish they could turn back the clock. In the 1830s, the English solicitor William Sandys compiled a host of examples of Britons bemoaning the transformation of Christmas customs from earlier eras. Sandys himself was especially concerned about the decline of public caroling, noting the practice appeared “to get more neglected every year.” He worried that this “neglect” was indicative of a wider British tendency to observe Christmas with less “hospitality and innocent revelry” in the 19th century than in the past. Yet the 19th century also produced new holiday customs. In fact, many of the new Christmas practices in Sandy’s time went on to become established traditions themselves – and are now the subject of nostalgia and fretted over by those who fear their decline. Take, for example, the humble Christmas card. My research shows that these printed seasonal greetings borrowed from the customs of the past to move Christmas into a new age. A British tradition Annual sales and circulation of Christmas cards have been in decline since the 1990s. Laments over the potential “death” of the Christmas card have been especially vocal in the United Kingdom, where the mailing of Christmas greetings to family and friends via printed cards was long considered to be an essential element of a “British Christmas.” Indeed, historians Martin Johnes and Mark Connelly both argue that throughout the 20th century the Christmas card was viewed as just as essential a part of Britain’s distinctive blend of holiday traditions as children hanging stockings at the end of their beds, Christmas pantomimes, and the eating of turkey and Brussels sprouts. Yet, as these same historians are quick to note, at one time Britons did none of these things at Christmas. Each of these traditions became an element of the customary British Christmas only during the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th. This makes them all relatively new additions to the country’s holiday customs, especially when viewed in light of Christmas’ more than 2,000-year history. Industrial revolution and Christmas cards The custom of mailing printed Christmas cards began in the middle decades of the 19th century and was a product of the industrial revolution. It was made affordable by new innovations in printing and papermaking and more efficient modes of transportation such as the railway. The development of this new tradition was also facilitated by Parliament’s introduction of the Penny Post in 1840, which allowed Britons to mail letters to any address in the United Kingdom for the small price of a penny stamp. Most historians date the Christmas card’s arrival to 1843, the same year in which Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol.” In that year, the inventor and civil servant Henry Cole commissioned the artist John Callcott Horsley to design a card to help Cole handle his Christmas correspondence more efficiently. Printed versions of Cole’s card were also made available for sale, but the high price of one shilling apiece left them outside the bounds of affordability for most of the Victorian population. Cole’s experiment, however, inspired other printers to produce similar but more affordable Christmas cards. The use of these cheaper cards began to spread in the 1850s and had established itself as a holiday tradition by the final decades of the century. A Victorian invention? While the Christmas card may have seemed like an entirely new invention to Victorian senders and receivers, the first Christmas card’s design was actually influenced by other, older British holiday traditions. As historians Timothy Larsen and the late Neil Armstrong have demonstrated, Christmas’ status as an established holiday meant that new Christmas customs developed during the 19th century needed to connect with, supplement or replace already existing traditions. The Christmas card was no exception to this recorded pattern. In 1843, many Britons bemoaned the disappearance of a variety of “Old English” Christmas customs. Foremost among these were traditions of Christmas “hospitality,” including Christmas and New Year’s visiting, when family, friends and neighbors went to each other’s homes to drink toasts and offer best wishes for the holiday and the coming year. Scholars argue popular belief in these traditions depended on a mixture of recalled reality and constructed fictions. Foremost among the latter were the popular stories depicting “old English hospitality” at Christmas by the American writer Washington Irving, published in the 1820s. In fact, Britons regularly invoked Irving’s accounts of Christmas at the fictional country house, Bracebridge Hall, when debating the changing character of their nation’s Christmas observances. Regardless of these “old” customs’ historical reality, they nevertheless came to feature prominently in discussions regarding the supposed disappearance of a range of community level Christmas observances, including feasting, caroling and public acts of charity. All of these, it was believed, were endangered in an increasingly urban Britain characterized by class tensions, heightened population mobility and mass anonymity. A union of the old and the new While it is unclear whether these ongoing debates inspired Cole’s decision to commission his 1843 Christmas card, the illustration Horsley designed for him alluded to them directly. The card features a family framed by trestles adorned with holly and mistletoe, accompanied on either side by charitable scenes involving the feeding and clothing of the poor. The center of the card – and the symbolic center of Horsley’s Christmas vision – however, is the family of three clearly defined generations enjoying a collective feast, including the classic English Christmas pudding. They face the viewer, their glasses raised in a toast, directly above a banner wishing them a “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.” The central visual imagery of the card – as a “paper visitor” to the home of the recipient – replicates the social act of toasting associated with the older custom of holiday visits. In fact, Horsley’s design invoked many of the same elements featured in Irving’s stories. This is not surprising, given that in later life Horsley recalled the impact of reading Irving’s depictions of the “Christmas at Bracebridge Hall” as a boy, and how he and his sister Fanny had been “determined to do our best to keep Christmas in such a notable fashion.” Refashioning ‘old English hospitality’ Early Christmas cards favored similar imagery associated with the “Old English” Christmas of carolers, acts of charity, the playing of country sports, games such as blindman’s bluff, copious greenery, feasting and the toasting of Christmas and the New Year. These Christmas cards were thus novel, industrial products adorned with the imagery of British Christmases past. The development, and ultimate triumph, of the Christmas card in Victorian Britain demonstrates how nostalgia was channeled into invention. The Christmas card did not revitalize the traditions of Christmas and New Year’s visiting; it offered a paper replacement for them. Industrial production and transportation transformed the physical visitor into a paper proxy, allowing more people to visit many more of the homes of others during the holiday season than they ever would have been able to in person. The desire to hold on to one element of an older, supposedly declining Christmas tradition thus proved instrumental in helping to create a new holiday tradition in the midst of unprecedented changes in the character of communications and social relations. Today, a similar context of social and technological changes has caused some to predict the “death” of the Christmas card. The history of the 19th century suggests, however, that should the tradition die, whatever replaces it will thrive by drawing selectively on the Christmas customs of the past. Christopher Ferguson is Associate Professor of History, Auburn University. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. 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Trump threatens to try to take back the Panama Canal. Panama's president balks at the suggestion