Santos' blocked field goal and Carter's turnover were part of another sloppy performance for Chicago in its fifth consecutive loss. The pair of miscues helped set up two of Minnesota's three touchdowns in a 30-27 overtime victory . The Bears (4-7) closed out a miserable three-game homestand after they won their first three games of the season at Soldier Field. They were in position to beat Green Bay last weekend before Santos' 46-yard field goal attempt was blocked on the final play of the Packers' 20-19 win . “It’s tough. ... When things just aren’t going your way, you gotta put your head down and just keep going to work,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “It’s not easy to do but that’s kind of where we’re at.” Chicago and Minnesota were tied at 7 when Caleb Williams threw incomplete on third-and-4 at the Vikings 30 early in the second quarter. Bears coach Matt Eberflus sent Santos out for a 48-yard attempt, but it was knocked down by defensive lineman Jerry Tillery. “I think it was the penetration with the trajectory of the ball,” Santos said. “Had the ball started 3 or 4 inches to the right of both those guys' hands, I think it still goes in through the uprights.” Brian Asamoah returned the blocked kick 22 yards to set the Vikings up with good field position. Sam Darnold then capped a six-play, 53-yard drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Jalen Nailor for a 14-7 lead with 6:29 left in the first half. It was the third blocked field goal for Santos this year, the most for Chicago in a single season since it also had three blocked in 2012. Santos also had a 43-yard try blocked in the fourth quarter of a 35-16 victory over Jacksonville on Oct. 13. The Bears became the first NFL team to allow three blocked field goals in a season since the Browns and Ravens each had three blocked in 2022. “Whenever that happens two games in a row we’ve got to make sure we take a hard look in terms of the protection, the technique and who we have in there,” Eberflus said. “So it's going to be a big thing to look at.” Chicago trailed 17-10 when it forced a Minnesota punt midway through the third quarter. Carter warned his teammates to get out of the way, but it hit the ground and bounced off the inside of his right leg before it was recovered by Bo Richter at the Bears 15. The Vikings turned the mental error into Aaron Jones' 2-yard touchdown run and a 24-10 lead. “Gotta get out of the way of the ball. That’s on me,” Carter said. “I let the team down today. Game shouldn’t have been in the situation it was in. I felt bad for the guys.” Santos and Carter both played a role in a late rally for Chicago. Carter had a 55-yard kickoff return, and Santos got an onside kick to work before making a tying 48-yarder on the final play of regulation. But the Bears stalled on the first possession of overtime, and Darnold drove the Vikings downfield to set up Parker Romo's winning 29-yard field goal. “We're losing in the most unreal situations,” Bears receiver DJ Moore said. “Now it's like the luck's got to go in our favor at some point.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLIn the past few years, state and local governments across the U.S. have begun spending billions in opioid settlements paid by companies accused of fueling the overdose crisis. But where is that money going, who is getting it, and is it doing any good? KFF Health News, partnering with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Shatterproof , a national nonprofit focused on addiction, undertook a yearlong investigation to find out. Dozens of interviews, thousands of pages of documents, an array of public records requests, and outreach to all 50 states resulted in a first-of-its kind database that catalogs more than 7,000 ways opioid settlement cash was used in 2022 and 2023. It’s the most comprehensive resource to date tracking some of the largest public health settlements in American history. Among the findings: --States and localities received more than $6 billion in opioid settlement funds in 2022 and 2023. According to public records, they spent or committed about a third of that amount and set aside about another third for future use. The final third was untrackable, as many jurisdictions did not produce public reports on the funds. --Reports of spending tracked the minuscule to the monumental, from $11.74 to buy postage in Yavapai County, Arizona, to more than $51 million to increase the addiction treatment workforce in California. --States allotted, on average, about 18% of their funds for addiction and mental health treatment; 14% for recovery services such as housing, transportation, and legal aid; 11% for harm reduction efforts such as overdose reversal medications; and 9% for prevention programs that aim to stop people from developing substance use disorders. States committed, on average, about 2% for syringe service programs, through which people can get sterile needles. (A variety of entities received this money, from law enforcement to nonprofit organizations to government agencies.) --Governments reported spending more than $240 million on purposes that did not qualify as opioid remediation. (Most settlements allow states to spend up to 15% of their funds this way.) Most of this tranche went to legal fees, but several jurisdictions funneled money to their general fund. One county even sent funds to its road and bridge department. --Several cities and counties reported expenditures they said addressed the overdose crisis but that would leave an average person scratching their head — such as $33.07 to an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Sandborn, Indiana, and $30,362 to screen first responders for heart disease in Oregon City, Oregon. “When people know that people aren’t watching and there’s no accountability, then they can kind of do what they want,” said Tonja Myles , a community activist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is in recovery. “That’s why we have to have some kind of database and accountability.” Despite the recent decline in overall overdose deaths in the U.S., more than 90,000 people still died in the 12 months ending July 2024 and rates are rising in many Black and Native American communities . “We can’t mess up or miss this moment,” Myles said. Opioid settlement payouts are expected to total about $50 billion over nearly two decades, paid by more than a dozen companies that made or distributed prescription painkillers, including Johnson & Johnson, Walgreens, and Walmart. Although it’s a large sum, it’s dwarfed by the size of the crisis, making each dollar that’s spent critical. KFF Health News and its partners reviewed hundreds of settlement spending reports, extracting expenditures line by line, and developed a methodology to sort the expenditures into categories like treatment or prevention. States were given an opportunity to review the data and comment on their spending . To be sure, the database does not capture the full picture of opioid settlement spending nationwide. Some places do not publish spending reports, while others declined to engage with this project. The data presented here is a snapshot as of the end of 2023 and does not account for further spending in 2024. The differences in how states control , process , and report on the money make apples-to-apples comparisons nearly impossible. Still, the database helps fill a gap left by a lack of national reporting requirements and federal government inaction . It is “a tool for those who want to objectively measure whether everything that can be done is being done,” said Matthew Myers, a former president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which compiles similar annual reports on tobacco settlement money. Treatment a Clear Winner The top priority to emerge from early opioid settlement spending was treatment, with more than $416 million spent or committed to residential rehabs, outpatient counseling, medications for opioid use disorder, and more. The state of New York — which spent the most on treatment — allocated about $22 million of that for programs that make the gold standard for care as easy as possible for patients: providing same-day prescriptions for buprenorphine, a medication that decreases cravings for opioids. The result was a program that John Greene said changed his life. Greene, 57, used to live in the woods down the street from Family & Children’s Counseling Services in Cortland, New York. He cycled through jails and hospitals, overdosing half a dozen times and trying rehab just as many. But now he has four months of recovery under his belt — the longest stint since he started regularly using drugs at 14. He said it’s because the counseling center’s new program — funded by a mix of state and local opioid settlement dollars — has a different approach. Counselors aren’t didactic and judgmental. They don’t force him to stop smoking marijuana. Several staff members have experienced addiction themselves. They drive Greene, who doesn’t have a car, to doctor appointments and the pharmacy for his buprenorphine prescription. Now Greene lives and works with his brother, looks forward to weekly counseling sessions, and is notching small victories — such as buying his nephew toy cars as a stocking stuffer. “It made me feel good to do something for somebody and not expect nothing back,” Greene said. Emily Georgia , one of Greene’s counselors, said the center has worked with nearly 200 people like him in the past year. Without the settlements, “the program probably wouldn’t exist,” she said. Across the country, the money supports other innovative treatment approaches: --$21 million for a new program in Kentucky that diverts people with mental illness or addiction who face low-level charges away from incarceration and into treatment, education, and workforce training --More than $3 million for, in part, three new mobile methadone programs in Massachusetts, to bring the medication to rural and underserved areas --Tens of thousands of dollars each in Iowa and Pennsylvania to cover out-of-pocket treatment costs for people without insurance or those with high deductibles Philip Rutherford , an expert on substance use disorder at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, said these efforts “are really positive” and many have been “historically difficult or impossible to achieve with federal or state funding.” But some funds are also flowing to treatment approaches that defy best practices, such as denying people medications for opioid use disorder. Some in the recovery community consider methadone and buprenorphine a crutch. But study after study show that the medications help people stay in treatment and reduce the risk of overdose and death . Research even suggests that treatment without these medications can be more harmful than no treatment at all. Although not everyone will want medication, settlement funds shouldn’t “prop up a system that doesn’t allow people to have that choice,” said Regina LaBelle , a professor of addiction policy at Georgetown University. Babies, Forgotten Victims of the Epidemic While treatment received a windfall in early opioid settlement spending, another aspect of the crisis was neglected: neonatal abstinence syndrome , a condition in which babies exposed to drugs in the womb experience withdrawal. Nationwide, more than 59 newborns a day are diagnosed with it. Yet only about $8.4 million in settlement money was committed to the issue — less than 0.5% of all funds publicly reported as spent or committed in 2022 and 2023. Experts in public health and addiction, as well as affected families, say it’s due to stigma. “A mom using drugs and being a parent is a very uncomfortable reality to face,” said Ashley Grant, a 38-year-old mother of three in Mesa, Arizona. “It’s easier to just push it under the rug or let them fall through the cracks, as sad as that is.” It almost happened to her. Grant learned she was pregnant with her third child last year. At the time, her partner was in jail and she was using drugs after an eight-year period of recovery, was estranged from her family, and didn’t know how she’d survive the next nine months. During a visit to a methadone clinic, she saw a booth about Jacob’s Hope , a specialty nursery that cares for substance-exposed newborns and their moms. Nursery staff connected her with a therapist, helped her enroll in parenting classes, and dropped off diapers and a playpen at her home. After delivering at the hospital, Grant and her baby boy stayed at Jacob’s Hope for about a week. Nurses showed her how skin-to-skin contact calmed his withdrawal symptoms and more frequent feedings and burpings decreased gastrointestinal discomfort, which is common among substance-exposed newborns. Today, Grant has roughly five months of recovery. She got certified as a peer recovery specialist and hopes to join Jacob’s Hope one day to help moms like her. But the nursery’s future is uncertain. After opening in 2019, Jacob’s Hope nearly shut down this summer due to low reimbursements and delayed payments from insurers, said Lyndsey Steele , its associate director. Community donations kept the nursery afloat, but “it’s still hanging on by a thread,” she said. She’s hoping opioid settlement money can help. In 2022, Jacob’s Hope received about $250,000 from Arizona’s opioid settlements. But this year, the legislature captured the state’s share of remaining funds and, in a controversial move , gave it to the Department of Corrections. Jacob’s Hope has now turned to local governments, which control their own settlement dollars. Its home city of Mesa said a first round of grant applications should open in the spring. Steele prays it won’t be too late for babies in need — the epidemic’s “forgotten victims,” she called them. Heart Disease Screening, Robot Ambulances, and More Some opioid settlement expenditures have sparked fierce disagreement. They generally fall into three buckets: money for law enforcement , funding for youth prevention programs , and purchases unrelated to the opioid crisis. Settlement dollars nationwide have bought body scanners , K-9 units , bulletproof vests , patrol trucks , and laptops and printers for police and sheriffs. Some spending strayed even further from the spirit of the settlement. In Oregon City, Oregon, more than $30,000 was spent on screening first responders for heart disease. Police Chief Shaun Davis said his staff respond to opioid-related emergencies and experience trauma that increases their risk of heart attack. But some people question if settlement funds should be footing the bill. “This looks to me like you’re trying to defray other costs” from the police budget, said Stephen Loyd , chair of Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council. “I don’t think that there’s any way that this opioid money was earmarked for stuff like that.” A second area of contention is youth prevention. Although most people agree that stopping children from developing addictions is important, the execution is tricky. Nearly half a million settlement dollars have gone to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, commonly known as D.A.R.E. Decades of research suggest its original curriculum is ineffective . Robeson County, North Carolina, spent about $10,000 in settlement money to buy “ Andy the Ambulance ,” a robot ambulance with big eyes and an audio system through which a human operator can discuss the dangers of drugs. EMS Director Patrick Cummings said his team has taken the robot to churches and elementary schools. We “don’t have any studies that show it’s working,” he said, but educating kids seems like a good investment because “if they never try it, they don’t get addicted.” Then there’s the chunk of money — up to 15% of each state’s funds — that’s a free-for-all. Flint, Michigan, spent nearly $10,000 on a sign for a community service center. The city reported that the expense did not qualify as “opioid remediation.” In other words, it’s unrelated to addressing the crisis. But Caitie O’Neill, a city spokesperson, said that “the building sign makes it possible for residents to find” the center, which houses city services, “including Narcan kits, fentanyl testing strips, and substance abuse referrals.” Jurisdictions across 29 states reported non-remediation spending in 2022 and 2023. Most opioid settlements require such reports but operate on an honor system. No one is checking if the other 21 states and Washington, D.C., were truthful. Jackie Lewis, an Ohio mother whose 34-year-old son, Shaun, died of an overdose in October 2022, finds that hard to stomach. “This is blood money,” she said. Some people have “lost sight of that.” Lewis is raising Shaun’s daughter, ensuring the 9-year-old receives counseling at school and can attend the hip-hop music classes she enjoys — all on Lewis’ Social Security payments. This year they moved to a smaller town with lower costs. As settlement funds continue flowing, she wants officials in charge of the money to help families like hers. “We still exist and we’re still struggling,” she said. KFF Health News’ Henry Larweh and Megan Kalata, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Sara Whaley and Vivian Flanagan, and Shatterproof’s Kristen Pendergrass and Sahvanah Prescott contributed to this article. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has taken a leading role in providing guidance to state and local governments on the use of opioid settlement funds. Faculty from the school collaborated with other experts in the field to create principles for using the money , which have been endorsed by over 60 organizations. Shatterproof is a national nonprofit that addresses substance use disorder through distinct initiatives, including advocating for state and federal policies, ending addiction stigma, and educating communities about the treatment system. Shatterproof is partnering with some states on projects funded by opioid settlements. KFF Health News, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Shatterproof team who worked on this report are not involved in those efforts. ( KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.) ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’
The City boss is enduring the worst run of his glittering managerial career after a six-game winless streak featuring five successive defeats and a calamitous 3-3 draw in a match his side had led 3-0. The 53-year-old, who has won 18 trophies since taking charge at the Etihad Stadium in 2016, signed a contract extension through to the summer of 2027 just over a week ago. Yet, despite his remarkable successes, he still considers himself vulnerable to the sack and has pleaded with the club to keep faith. “I don’t want to stay in the place if I feel like I’m a problem,” said the Spaniard, who watched in obvious frustration as City conceded three times in the last 15 minutes in a dramatic capitulation against Feyenoord in midweek. “I don’t want to stay here just because the contract is there. “My chairman knows it. I said to him, ‘Give me the chance to try come back’, and especially when everybody comes back (from injury) and see what happens. “After, if I’m not able to do it, we have to change because, of course, (the past) nine years are dead. “More than ever I ask to my hierarchy, give me the chance. “Will it be easy for me now? No. I have the feeling that still I have a job to do and I want to do it.” City have been hampered by a raft of injuries this term, most pertinently to midfield talisman and Ballon d’Or winner Rodri. The Euro 2024 winner is expected to miss the remainder of the season and his absence has been keenly felt over the past two months. Playmaker Kevin De Bruyne has also not started a match since September. The pressure continues to build with champions City facing a crucial trip to title rivals and Premier League leaders Liverpool on Sunday. Defeat would leave City trailing Arne Slot’s side by 11 points. “I don’t enjoy it at all, I don’t like it,” said Guardiola of his side’s current situation. “I sleep not as good as I slept when I won every game. “The sound, the smell, the perfume is not good enough right now. “But I’m the same person who won the four Premier Leagues in a row. I was happier because I ate better, lived better, but I was not thinking differently from who I am.” Guardiola is confident his side will not stop battling as they bid to get back on track. He said: “The people say, ‘Yeah, it’s the end of that’. Maybe, but we are in November. We will see what happens until the end. “What can you do? Cry for that? You don’t stay long – many, many years without fighting. That is what you try to look for, this is the best (way). “Why should we not believe? Why should it not happen with us?”
NonePLAINS, 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.” 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.
Allar puts critics on mute, keeps winning for Penn StateNoneRivers APC elects Okocha as chairman
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Even when Penn State quarterback Drew Allar gets some praise, it's usually a backhanded compliment. They say he's a good game manager and stays within himself, or that he doesn't try to do too much. They mention he might not be flashy, but he gives the team a chance to win. And here's the thing about Penn State since Allar stepped under center: The Nittany Lions have won games. A lot of them. Sometimes that's hard to remember considering the lukewarm reception he often gets from fans. "I get it — we have a really passionate fan base and they're a huge part of our success," Allar said Sunday at College Football Playoff quarterfinals media day. "For us, we always want to go out there every drive and end with a touchdown, so when we don't do that, there's nobody more frustrated than us." The polarizing Allar is having a solid season by just about any standard, completing more than 68% of his passes for 3,021 yards, 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions while leading the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions to a 12-2 record and a spot in the Fiesta Bowl for Tuesday's game against No. 3 seed Boise State. But in a college football world filled with high-scoring, explosive offenses, Allar's no-frills performances often are the object of ire. The Penn State offense is a run-first bunch, led by the talented combo of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. "If we had a nickel for every time there was a Monday morning quarterback saying some BS stuff, we'd all be pretty rich," offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said. "I think part of being a quarterback, especially at Penn State but really anywhere, is how you respond to and manage criticism." The 20-year-old Allar has made strides in that department after a trying 2023 season that finished with a 10-3 record. He says that's largely because once fall camp started back in August, he logged off the social media platform X. Allar said negative online experiences wore on him last year, and his phone number was leaked a few times, which added to the stress. He finally realized that controlling outside narratives was impossible, so the best course of action was to eliminate a needless distraction. "I've been more mentally free, as much as that sounds crazy," Allar said. "I think that's been a huge difference for me this year." The biggest criticism of Allar — and really Penn State as a whole during the 11-year James Franklin era — is that he isn't capable of winning the big games. He's 0-2 against rival Ohio State and threw a late interception against Oregon in the Big Ten title game earlier this month, which sealed the Ducks' 45-37 victory. He wasn't great in the CFP's first round, either, completing just 13 of 22 passes for 127 yards as Penn State muscled past SMU 38-10 on a cold, blustery day to advance to the Fiesta Bowl. But the quarterback is confident a better performance — aided by a game that will be played in comfortable temperatures in a domed stadium — is coming. "For me, I just have to execute those (easy) throws early in the game and get our guys into rhythm," Allar said. "Get them involved early as much as I can and that allows us to stay on the field longer, call more plays and open up our offense more. That will help us a ton, building the momentum throughout the game." Allar might be a favorite punching bag for a section of the Penn State fan base, but that's not the case in his own locker room. Star tight end Tyler Warren praised his quarterback's ability to avoid sacks, saying that the 6-foot-5, 238-pounder brings a toughness that resonates with teammates. "He's a football player," Warren said. "He plays quarterback, but when you watch him play and the energy he brings and the way he runs the ball, he's just a football player and that fires up our offense." Now Allar and Penn State have a chance to silence critics who say that the Nittany Lions don't show up in big games. Not that he's worried about what other people think. "I think it's a skill at the end of the day — blocking out the outside noise," Allar said. "Focusing on you and the process and being honest with yourself, both good and bad."
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Darren Rizzi would be an unconventional choice to take over the New Orleans Saints' head coaching job on a permanent basis. That doesn't mean it can't happen. The Saints (4-7) had been on a seven-game skid when Rizzi, the club's special teams coordinator, was promoted. They've since won two straight, and as the club entered its Week 12 bye, prominent players were already discussing their desire to continue improving Rizzi's resume. “He’s definitely had an impact on our football team,” quarterback Derek Carr said after New Orleans' 35-14 victory over Cleveland last weekend. “We want to keep winning so that maybe he gets a chance to be the coach here for a long time. “That’s what we want as players,” Carr continued. "Hopefully, we can continue to have success, keep winning and give him that opportunity.” Before the Saints' demoralizing defeat at Carolina precipitated the firing of third-year coach Dennis Allen , Rizzi had never been a head coach at the NFL or major college level. The north New Jersey native and former Rhode Island tight end got his first head coaching job at Division II New Haven in 1999. He also coached his alma mater in 2008 before moving to the NFL with Miami in 2009 as a special teams assistant. By 2010, he was the Dolphins' special teams coordinator and added the title of associate head coach in 2017 before ex-Saints coach Sean Payton lured him to New Orleans in 2019. A common thread shared by Payton and Rizzi is that both worked under Bill Parcells. Parcells — known best for winning two Super Bowls as coach of the New York Giants — was coaching the Dallas Cowboys when Payton was his offensive coordinator. Rizzi, who grew up a Giants fan during the Parcells era, got to know his childhood idol during his first couple years in Miami, where Parcells executive vice president of football operations. Since his promotion, Rizzi has spoken to both Payton and Parcells. And he has begun to employ motivational techniques reminiscent of Payton, who left New Orleans in 2022 as the franchise leader in wins (152 in the regular season and nine in the postseason — including New Orleans' lone Super Bowl triumph). Payton as a big believer of symbolic imagery and motivational props, from baseball bats distributed before contests that were expected to be especially physical to gas cans left in the lockers of aging veterans whose performance was key to the club's success. Rizzi, who describes himself as a “blue collar” guy, has his own spin on such things. He began his tenure by asking players to accept individual responsibility for the metaphorical hole the team had dug itself and asked them all to embrace the idea of filling it up — one shovelful at a time. He even has brought a shovel — as well as a hammer, tape measure, level and other construction tools — to team meetings to help make his points. Saints tight end Taysom Hill, who also plays on special teams, has gotten to know Rizzi well during a half-decade of working together. Hill doesn't sound surprised to see Rizzi's combination of work ethic, enthusiasm and personal touch resonating across the entire team now. He also made a lot of changes , from weekly schedule adjustments to reconfiguring players' lockers by position. “He has a really good pulse on what we need collectively as a team to get ready for a football game," said Hill, who scored three touchdowns and accounted for 248 yards as a runner, receiver, passer and returner against Cleveland. “Guys have responded to that.” Because Rizzi's first victory came over the first-place Atlanta Falcons , and because the Falcons lost again last week, the Saints now trail Atlanta by just two games with six to play. Suddenly, the idea of the Saints playing meaningful football down the stretch is not so far-fetched. “We’re starting to get our swag back, and that makes me happy,” Rizzi said. ”We’re going to have some downtime now to kind of press the reset button again and see if we can make a push here." When the Saints return to action at home against the Los Angeles Rams on Dec 1, they'll do so with a level of momentum and positivity that seemed to steadily drain out of the club between their first loss of the season in Week 3 through the six straight setbacks that followed. While Saints players have tended to blame themselves for Allen's demise, they've been quick to credit Rizzi for the turnaround. “He’s pointed us and steered the ship in the right direction,” Carr said. “Hopefully, we can just keep executing at a high level for him, because we love him.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner , father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker." Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. Jared Kushner is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation. Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said. Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison — the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought. Christie has blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has called Charles Kushner’s offenses “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney.” Trump and the elder Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009. Tucker reported from Newtown, Pennsylvania.
NO. 20 TEXAS A&M 81, RUTGERS 77Sabres get power-play goals from Zucker and Thompson in 4-2 win over the Blues
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Quinton Morton-Robertson's 16 points helped Purdue Fort Wayne defeat Green Bay 83-67 on Sunday night. Morton-Robertson had three steals for the Mastodons (10-5, 3-1 Horizon League). Jalen Jackson added 15 points while going 6 of 11 from the field and had five assists. Trey Lewis shot 3 for 6 (3 for 5 from 3-point range) and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line to finish with 12 points. The Phoenix (2-13, 0-4) were led in scoring by Preston Ruedinger, who finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Green Bay also got 11 points from Ryan Wade. The loss is the 10th in a row for the Phoenix. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Waste Sorting Robots Market Forecast 2024-2031: Challenges and Strategic Recommendations 11-23-2024 07:24 PM CET | IT, New Media & Software Press release from: SkyQuest Technology The Waste Sorting Robots Market is a dynamic and rapidly growing sector, driven by technological advancements in hardware, software, and digital infrastructure. It covers a diverse range of services such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. The increasing need for digital transformation across industries is propelling market growth. Emerging technologies like 5G, blockchain, and IoT are further unlocking new opportunities. With continuous innovation, the IT sector is poised for significant expansion in the coming years, particularly in the areas of automation and remote work solutions. 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CHICAGO (AP) — Cairo Santos had a field goal blocked — again. DeAndre Carter muffed a punt in the second half. And those were just the special teams mistakes for the struggling Chicago Bears. Santos' blocked field goal and Carter's turnover were part of another sloppy performance for Chicago in its fifth consecutive loss. The pair of miscues helped set up two of Minnesota's three touchdowns in a 30-27 overtime victory . The Bears (4-7) closed out a miserable three-game homestand after they won their first three games of the season at Soldier Field. They were in position to beat Green Bay last weekend before Santos' 46-yard field goal attempt was blocked on the final play of the Packers' 20-19 win . “It’s tough. ... When things just aren’t going your way, you gotta put your head down and just keep going to work,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “It’s not easy to do but that’s kind of where we’re at.” Chicago and Minnesota were tied at 7 when Caleb Williams threw incomplete on third-and-4 at the Vikings 30 early in the second quarter. Bears coach Matt Eberflus sent Santos out for a 48-yard attempt, but it was knocked down by defensive lineman Jerry Tillery. “I think it was the penetration with the trajectory of the ball,” Santos said. “Had the ball started 3 or 4 inches to the right of both those guys' hands, I think it still goes in through the uprights.” Brian Asamoah returned the blocked kick 22 yards to set the Vikings up with good field position. Sam Darnold then capped a six-play, 53-yard drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Jalen Nailor for a 14-7 lead with 6:29 left in the first half. It was the third blocked field goal for Santos this year, the most for Chicago in a single season since it also had three blocked in 2012. Santos also had a 43-yard try blocked in the fourth quarter of a 35-16 victory over Jacksonville on Oct. 13. The Bears became the first NFL team to allow three blocked field goals in a season since the Browns and Ravens each had three blocked in 2022. “Whenever that happens two games in a row we’ve got to make sure we take a hard look in terms of the protection, the technique and who we have in there,” Eberflus said. “So it's going to be a big thing to look at.” Chicago trailed 17-10 when it forced a Minnesota punt midway through the third quarter. Carter warned his teammates to get out of the way, but it hit the ground and bounced off the inside of his right leg before it was recovered by Bo Richter at the Bears 15. The Vikings turned the mental error into Aaron Jones' 2-yard touchdown run and a 24-10 lead. “Gotta get out of the way of the ball. That’s on me,” Carter said. “I let the team down today. Game shouldn’t have been in the situation it was in. I felt bad for the guys.” Santos and Carter both played a role in a late rally for Chicago. Carter had a 55-yard kickoff return, and Santos got an onside kick to work before making a tying 48-yarder on the final play of regulation. But the Bears stalled on the first possession of overtime, and Darnold drove the Vikings downfield to set up Parker Romo's winning 29-yard field goal. “We're losing in the most unreal situations,” Bears receiver DJ Moore said. “Now it's like the luck's got to go in our favor at some point.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
NEW YORK -- A New Jersey family on Sunday marked the birthday of their son, Edan Alexander, who is among the hostages still being held by Hamas . They gathered in Central Park and solemnly sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew for now 21-year-old, who was 19 when he was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. "This is a day that should be filled with joy and celebration, but instead we are marked by pain and worry," father Adi Alexander said. Edan Alexander, a swimmer, Boy Scout, and Knicks fan from Tenafly, joined the Israel Defense forces out of high school. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, families have gathered periodically in Central Park to call for the release of hostages . On Sunday, his mother, Yael Alexander, focused on staying positive. "So we have a restaurant that we go to for every celebration with the kids. So definitely, going for shopping, and that's it, just to spend it with the family," she said. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said on social media Sunday that the Israeli-American should be home with his family, adding, "We will not relent until he is home." Edan Alexander has a younger brother and sister, 13-year-old Roy Alexander and 18-year-old Mika Alexander. His sister said she was thinking of how she'd celebrate if her older brother was home. "We would just go to a restaurant with him and just share fun memories that we have with him," Mika Alexander said. Omer Hortig has known Edan Alexander since the second grade. "He's the type of person that today, on his birthday, he would be having a lot of fun. We'd be going out. I mean, he's turning 21," Hortig said. Edan Alexander's birthday also falls on the fifth night of Hanukkah this year, a time when his family and friends say his absence is certainly felt. "Every night of Hanukkah you light a candle and you're reminded of him and the other hostages and it's usually a very happy holiday. This year, it's not so happy, as well as last year, so I hope it's the last year we have to spend the holiday like this," Hortig said. The last time Edan Alexander's family saw him was in a Hamas propaganda video just after Thanksgiving . They say it gave them hope that he's still alive. His father sent him the same message as he has for the past 450 days. "Stay strong, survive, and you'll be out soon," Adi Alexander said.