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GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Regardless of which sector of the city of Grand Rapids you find yourself in, it’s a good bet there’s going to be some nightlife nearby. From casual dive bars featuring live sports games to clubs filled with dancing and upscale cocktail bars, Grand Rapids has a variety of options for West Michigan residents and visitors of all ages and from all walks of life. Recently, MLive/The Grand Rapids Press published a story on Bridge Street nightlife, and how a decade of investment by the community and a few key players has transformed the corridor into one of the most popular spots in Grand Rapids. RELATED: Bridge Street is booming: How it became one of Grand Rapids’ hottest nightspots Then, we asked MLive readers for their thoughts . While over half of respondents (34) said they preferred two downtown locations - The B.O.B. and Tin Can - a variety of different spots across the city were also named. Surveyed readers highlighted live music, quality drinks, a good crowd and affordable prices as their top reasons for stopping in at any one place. Jeff Noordof of Cedar Springs pours a beer using the new self-service beer wall by ‘Pour My Beer’ at the B.O.B. in Grand Rapids on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com) Joel Bissell | MLive.com A little over a quarter of respondents (18), said they preferred The B.O.B., a multi-story restaurant, bar and club venue located downtown at 20 Monroe Ave. NW. The B.O.B. features multiple establishments under one roof, from a low-key basement bar with shuffleboard and karaoke to an upstairs nightclub and even a rooftop patio. RELATED: See inside The B.O.B., the iconic Grand Rapids bar that reopened after being closed for months Of those patrons preferring The B.O.B., two thirds said it’s their favorite bar mainly “if the DJ is there.” “He kills the music,” said Russ, 37, a resident of nearby Hastings, Mich., who said the DJ is a big draw. Other respondents in favor of The B.O.B. highlighted the good atmosphere and crowd at the downtown spot. Surveyed readers who liked The B.O.B. ranged from patrons in their 20s to 50s. People dance on the first floor of the B.O.B. on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022. Rylan Capper | rcapper@mlive.com Several other bars that also were chosen for access to live music were Midtown GR, on Ionia Ave., and Mammoth Distilling on Wealthy Street. Midtown GR, a music venue with a capacity of 200, was described by Dan Lynn of Holland as “made to enjoy music, and every seat in the house is great!” The other top downtown spot highlighted by a quarter of surveyed readers (16) was the Tin Can, 206 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, a downtown bar with multiple locations across Michigan known for its games and pudding shots. Respondents ranging from their 20s to 40s highlighted the activities available, which include enlarged versions of Connect4 and Jenga, the friendliness of staff and the price of drinks as all being a draw. Lala, 30, from Grand Rapids said, “the vibe is perfect,” while Grand Rapids resident Dave said the spot is “so fun and no frills.” Ayrianna, a 22-year-old patron from Michigan, said she appreciated “the atmosphere and the amazing bartenders.” While most respondents hailed from Michigan, 16 who answered were from out of state, including folks from Midwestern states like Illinois and Wisconsin and readers in New York and Florida. Out-of-state patrons didn’t often agree on their favorite Grand Rapids location, but the largest number (5) chose Tin Can. Other bars that were highlighted for their atmosphere included Blue Dog Tavern on Stocking Avenue NW, Anchor bar on Bridge Street, Brewery Vivant on Cherry Street, General Woodshop, and Butcher’s Union, both on Bridge Street. People stand outside Anchor Bar for a smoke break on Bridge Street in Grand Rapids on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Joel Bissell | MLive.com Colin, 30, now a resident of West Branch, Mich., added Steel Cat Bar on Bridge Street to the list. He fondly recalled its cheap drinks, free popcorn, “and I have fond memories of doing homework in college at the bar watching movies.” Editor’s note: MLive will conduct surveys on interesting issues in Michigan. Artificial intelligence was used to assist in the sorting of reader responses. Want more Grand Rapids-area news? Bookmark the local Grand Rapids news page or sign up for the free “3@3 Grand Rapids” daily newsletter.Mumbai: A 32-year-old woman has fallen prey to scammers and lost over Rs 21 lakh in digital arrest fraud. According to the Navi Mumbai police, the complainant is a resident of Navi Mumbai and works as a software engineer in a private company. On November 29, she received a phone call from a person who claimed to be calling from a bank and told her that her credit card bill of Rs1.68 lakh was pending. The complainant told the caller that she did not have a credit card after which the caller told her to raise an online complaint with the Ghatkopar police. After some time, she received another call from a person who claimed to be a police officer and informed her that her Aadhar card details had been used for money laundering purposes and that she would be arrested. To prove her innocence, she was told to record her statement over a video call without informing anyone about it, or else her relatives would also be arrested. Another scammer, posing as an Enforcement Directorate official, spoke to the complainant and induced her to transfer her savings and investment money to a bank account provided by them. They also forced her to take a personal loan and transfer the said amount to a beneficiary bank account. They had also told the complainant that once their ‘probe’ was complete she would get her money back in seven to eight days. However, later the scammers started giving evasive replies and refused to give her money back. Having realised that she had been duped, the woman approached the police and got an offence registered last week. A case has been registered under sections 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation) 351 (criminal intimidation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
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New Chip Wars! Who Will Dominate AI? Find Out NowNEW YORK (AP) — No ex-president had a more prolific and diverse publishing career than Jimmy Carter . His more than two dozen books included nonfiction, poetry, fiction, religious meditations and a children’s story. His memoir “An Hour Before Daylight” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002, while his 2006 best-seller “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” stirred a fierce debate by likening Israel’s policies in the West Bank to the brutal South African system of racial segregation. And just before his 100th birthday, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation honored him with a lifetime achievement award for how he wielded "the power of the written word to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding.” In one recent work, “A Full Life,” Carter observed that he “enjoyed writing” and that his books “provided a much-needed source of income.” But some projects were easier than others. “Everything to Gain,” a 1987 collaboration with his wife, Rosalynn, turned into the “worst threat we ever experienced in our marriage,” an intractable standoff for the facilitator of the Camp David accords and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. According to Carter, Rosalynn was a meticulous author who considered “the resulting sentences as though they have come down from Mount Sinai, carved into stone.” Their memories differed on various events and they fell into “constant arguments.” They were ready to abandon the book and return the advance, until their editor persuaded them to simply divide any disputed passages between them. “In the book, each of these paragraphs is identified by a ‘J’ or an ‘R,’ and our marriage survived,” he wrote. Here is a partial list of books by Carter: “Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President” “The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East” (With Rosalynn Carter) “Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life” “An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections” “Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age” “Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems” (With daughter Amy Carter) “The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer” “Living Faith” “The Virtues of Aging” “An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood” “Christmas in Plains: Memories” “The Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War” “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis” “Faith & Freedom: The Christian Challenge for the World” “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” “A Remarkable Mother” “Beyond the White House” “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work” “White House Diary” “NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter” “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power” “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety” The Associated PressWelcome to Streaming Rewind, a weekly breakdown of the new and noteworthy as we work to help readers wade through the absolute deluge of television series and movies in the streaming space. Welcome to Christmas and New Years limbo, where the time is made up and the date doesn’t matter. There’s a limited number of releases this week, because Hollywood typically just shuts down for the last month of the year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few surprises. The Beyoncé Bowl (Netflix) If you’re not a football fan, you may not have known that Beyoncé did a halftime special for the Ravens vs. Texans game on Christmas (that’s right, Netflix does football now too). In said special, she performed some of the songs from her Cowboy Carter album live for the very first time. If you’re a member of the Beyhive who wasn’t willing to sit through a football game to watch Queen Bey perform, Netflix released a stand-alone special of the performance today. And, for those wondering, Netflix did, indeed, manage to host two whole live events on Christmas day without its typical buffering issues. Squid Game is Back for Round 2 (Netflix) It’s been a Netflix week! The highly anticipated second season of Squid Game finally dropped, ironically resulting in many across the industry working during Christmas and continuing the trend of Netflix completely missing the point of the series . Reviews have been mixed due to it being painfully obvious that Seasons 2 and 3 were meant to be one complete story rather than split in half, but our critic Shannon Miller liked the season . If you’ve already finished your binge, check out how Squid Game’s Season 2 ending sets up Season 3 . The Order (On Demand) Nicholas Hoult has yet another film out on demand, this time alongside Jude Law and Jurnee Smollett. The film’s been met with early acclaim, and is based on a true story (and adapted from Kevin Flynn’s novel The Silent Brotherhood) centered on a string of bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest. You may have seen it during its brief theatrical run when it released on December 6 but, if you missed it, it’s available for purchase now. New and Notable: Gladiator II — December 24 (On Demand) Y2K — December 24 (On Demand) Doctor Who Christmas Special — December 25 (Disney+)
By BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Related Articles Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.The Edmonton Oilers have struggled in goal at times this season, and tomorrow will have an interesting chance to acquire a former top end goalie prospect Cayden Primeau for free. Some Oilers analysts have reported that GM Stan Bowman may be interested in adding a cheap third option to the crease for insurance against injury and poor play. According to reports from Canadiens reporter Eric Engels this morning, Cayden Primeau will be placed on waivers tomorrow as the Holiday Roster Freeze lifts. The holiday roster freeze will lift tonight at midnight, meaning the Canadiens roster move will be official tomorrow afternoon. This could give the Oilers some time to prepare, as the team already has some decisions to make with an extra player on the roster after the freeze . Should the Edmonton Oilers make a waiver claim on Cayden Primeau? The Montreal Canadiens are placing Primeau on waivers for a reason. With a horrific .836 save percentage through 11 games this season, he's probably been the worst goalie in the NHL. Although the Oilers have seen improved player from their goalies in the last few weeks, they're still ranking in the bottom 10 teams for most goalie statistics. They could definitely use some help from a third goalie who could step up in the case of injury or poor play, but expecting Cayden Primeau with the worst save percentage in the league to do so may be a tall ask. However, Primeau is just 25 years old, and it's possible the Oilers still see some talent in him that made him a top prospect. In the 2019 World Juniors Tournament, Primeau was a star level talent that backstopped Team USA to a Silver Medal. Last season Primeau had a .910 save percentage in 23 games, so the Habs could be making a hasty decision to cut him so quickly. With a salary of only $890K, there's very low risk of claiming him or burying him in the minors It's possible the Oilers see some talent in Primeau, and having a need for a good third option in net, could place a low risk claim on the Habs goaltender. We'll see the Oilers decision within the next 48 hours. This article first appeared on Oilers Daily and was syndicated with permission.An online debate over foreign workers in tech shows tensions in Trump's political coalition
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BATTLE CREEK — Different year. Same result. The Traverse City St. Francis Gladiators made it back to the Division 3 volleyball state championship final at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena for the second straight year. And they left as the runner-up for the second straight year. Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central swept the Gladiators in Saturday’s title bout, winning by a 25-21, 25-20 and 25-15 final that broke the hearts of the St. Francis players, coaches and fans once again. “We’re second in the state. There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” St. Francis head coach Kathleen Nance said. “St. Mary’s played better than we did today. They earned that first-place spot, and we earned second. We were the last two standing. What’s to be ashamed about?” The Gladiators (35-13-3) fought back to tie the first set at 18-18, but the Kestrels (30-4-2) rattled off five consecutive points to take control in the waning moments. St. Francis got to within three at 24-21, but a service error into the net gave St. Mary the 1-0 lead. Riding the momentum, St. Mary quickly jumped out to a 4-0 advantage and maintained control through most of the second set, leading 7-1, 11-4, 18-11 and 21-14 before the Gladiators rallied back to get within three at 22-19. That rally ended as another St. Francis service error into the net gave the Kestrels the set win and a 2-0 lead. With their season on the line, St. Francis came out strong in the third set and grabbed a 2-0 lead. But St. Mary tied it quickly at 2-2 before getting some distance from St. Francis at 9-4. The Gladiators never got back to within striking distance the rest of the way, falling by 10 points in the final set. “St. Mary’s is just an amazing team. They’ve got great ball control. They’ve got great hitters,” Nance said. “We just weren’t able to have an answer for that today.” With her squad down 24-15 in the final set, senior libero Avery Nance pulled her team together and — even with the outcome all but settled — let her fellow Gladiators know how much they mean to her. “I told them that I loved them and that I was proud of them,” she said. “Let’s go out fighting for that last point because that’s who we are. We’re a gritty team, so let’s make it a gritty point. No matter what happens, I love them and we’re going to go out together as a team.” Quinn Yenshaw led the Gladiator attack with 12 kills followed by Lola Brown with eight, Reese Muma with six, Landry Fouch with four, Harper Nausadis with three, and Reese Jones with one. “I’m just grateful for what we’ve accomplished these last two years,” Yenshaw said. “We are so close as a team and love each other so much. ... I’m going to miss the girls who are leaving, but I know we’ll keep the legacy going and keep Gladiator volleyball strong.” Jones was tops in aces with two and in assists with 14 as Avery Nance pitched in with seven assists and Tessah Konas had six helpers. On defense against the high-powered Kestrels, Nance led in digs with 14 followed by Fouch with nine, Yenshaw with eight, Jones with seven, Grace Mason with six, Coco Miller with five, and Nausadis with three. “I feel like we were a little underestimated this year,” Coach Nance said. “This was our only loss to a D3 team this season — this loss today. I don’t think we’ll be underestimated anymore.” The lone D3 loss ends the high school volleyball careers of four senior Gladiators — Avery Nance, Landry Fouch, Tessah Konas and Grace Mason. “No one wants to lose, especially for those that this is their last time to play,” Coach Nance said. “No one wants that, but I’m proud of everything we accomplished this year.” St. Francis brings back a wealth of talent with Jones, Muma, Yenshaw, Brown, Miller, Nausadis and Aubrey Lesinski to go along with a strong JV program and promising stars at the middle-school level, giving the Gladiators a long window to remain contenders. “I want St. Francis volleyball to continue to be an amazing program. There’s so much talent we’re still going to have and so much talent that nobody even got to see today,” Coach Nance said. “We’re going to get there.” Nausadis believes that as well. “Obviously it sucks to lose, but we’re all really proud of each other,” Nausadis said. “This is a huge accomplishment just to make it here. It’s hard to see it right now, but there’s a lot to be proud of. We wanted to win it, but we did this for each other and proved we can make it back.” Nausadis hopes the Gladiators can make it back in 2025. “It will be a different team next year, but we’re going to work as hard as we can,” she said. “We’re going to do our best.”
Janet Yellen tells Congress US could hit debt limit in mid-January
Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’Vancouver-based bookkeeping service Bench Accounting has announced its sudden closure, potentially putting hundreds of staff out of work. The company that has described itself as North America’s largest bookkeeping service for small businesses says on its website in a “notice of closure” dated Friday that the platform is “no longer accessible.” The statement acknowledges that the closure is “abrupt and may cause disruption,” and says the firm is committed to helping customers “navigate through the transition.” Bench has previously said it had more than 600 employees and had received investor funding of US$113 million. It said it moved to Vancouver and changed its name to Bench in 2013, having started out in 2012 as 10sheet Inc in the U.S. Calls to Bench’s Vancouver office went to voice mail and did not immediately receive a response. But the company’s former CEO and co-founder Ian Crosby released a statement on social media on Friday, saying he was “very sad” about the closure. Crosby, who said he was ousted by the company’s board about three years ago, said there was a lesson in the fate of the company. “I hope the story of Bench goes on to become a warning for VCs (venture capitalists) that think they can ‘upgrade’ a company by replacing the founder. It never works,” he said. The University of British Columbia Sauder Business School alumni said he had been avoiding speaking publicly about Bench since his exit, but wanted to make a statement in light of the company’s demise. He said that in 2021 he had been battling with some board members over their strategy for a “new direction” that he thought was a “very bad idea.” “Rather than continuing to fight with me, they opted to just replace me, thinking that they could run the company better themselves,” he said. “I was totally convinced that their approach would destroy the company. I opted to resign rather than fight.” Other bookkeeping companies were quick to reach out to Bench’s former clients, with rivals such as Acuity and Better Bookkeeping making reference to Bench’s closure in social media pitches. A spokeswoman for B.C.‘s jobs ministry said they were looking into a request for comment. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024.The NFC’s No. 1 seed will come down to the final week when the Detroit Lions host the Minnesota Vikings. The winner takes the NFC North and gets a first-round playoff bye and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl. The loser becomes the No. 5 seed and must play on the road in the wild-card round. The Vikings (14-2) held on for a 27-25 victory over the Green Bay Packers to set up the high-stakes showdown in Week 18. The Lions (13-2) visit the San Francisco 49ers (6-9) on Monday night in a rematch of the NFC title game. Win, lose or tie, they have to beat the Vikings again. Detroit beat Minnesota 31-29 in Week 7. The Philadelphia Eagles clinched the NFC East and locked up the No. 2 seed with a 41-7 rout of the Dallas Cowboys. However, coach Nick Sirianni has a tough decision to make this week. Saquon Barkley is 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season record for yards rushing in a season. Sirianni has to decide whether to rest Barkley and most of his starters to prepare for the playoffs or let his star try for the 40-year-old record. The Los Angeles Rams (10-6) were on the verge of clinching the NFC West. They would lock it up Sunday night if the Commanders beat the Falcons. The outcome of the Atlanta-Washington game has a major impact on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7). If the Falcons win, they’d remain first in the NFC South and would win the division with a victory against Carolina next week. If the Falcons lose, the Buccaneers would take over first place and would secure the division with a victory over New Orleans next week. The Commanders would secure a wild-card spot with a win against Atlanta. If they lose, Seattle stays mathematically alive for a wild card and the Buccaneers could also find a path to the playoffs as a wild-card team. Three teams in the AFC have already secured their seeds. The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (15-1) won the AFC West weeks ago and clinched the No. 1 seed. The AFC East champion Buffalo Bills (13-3) are the No. 2 seed. The AFC South champion Houston Texans (9-7) are the No. 4 seed. The Baltimore Ravens (11-5) would win the AFC North and get the No. 3 seed with a win or tie against Cleveland next weekend or a loss or tie by Pittsburgh, which hosts Cincinnati. If they don’t win the division, the Steelers have already clinched a wild-card berth. The Los Angeles Chargers (10-6) also secured a wild-card spot. They’ll be no lower than the sixth seed. The final AFC playoff spot comes down to the Broncos (9-7), Dolphins (8-8) or Bengals (8-8). Denver clinches with a win or tie against the Chiefs. The Dolphins need the Broncos to lose and they must beat the Jets on the road to get in. The Bengals must win and the Broncos and Dolphins have to lose for them to get in. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLAshworth pays price for Man United recruitment as Ratcliffe shows ruthlessness