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- Andy Cohen Finally Speaks Out on ‘Real Housewives’ Reckoning: “It’s Hurtful. But I Have No Regrets” Hollywood Reporter
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Tag Archives: clearing
Tensions high in San Francisco as city seeks reversal of ban on clearing homeless encampments – ABC News
- Tensions high in San Francisco as city seeks reversal of ban on clearing homeless encampments ABC News
- Hundreds attend divided rally over clearing San Francisco homeless encampments ABC7 News Bay Area
- Intractable homeless encampment problem in San Francisco won’t be solved by court decision KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA
- Fight over SF homeless sweeps intensifies ahead of court hearings San Francisco Chronicle
- Hundreds rally for federal judges to remove injunction blocking San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments KGO-TV
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FTC Takes Action Against Publishers Clearing House for Misleading Consumers About Sweepstakes Entries – Federal Trade Commission News
- FTC Takes Action Against Publishers Clearing House for Misleading Consumers About Sweepstakes Entries Federal Trade Commission News
- Publishers Clearing House pays $18.5 million in ‘dark patterns’ suit The Seattle Times
- Publishers Clearing House to pay $18.5 million settlement for deceptive sweepstakes practices CBS News
- Publishers Clearing House Settles ‘Dark Patterns’ Suit for $18.5 Million The New York Times
- Publishers Clearing House pays $18.5 million in ‘dark patterns’ suit The Spokesman Review
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EU approves Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, clearing huge hurdle – CNBC
- EU approves Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, clearing huge hurdle CNBC
- Microsoft CEO Raises Eyebrows With Comment About UK & Activision Blizzard Pure Xbox
- Microsoft president clarifies EU cloud agreement, popular games will be ‘automatically’ licensed to competitors and ‘this will apply globally’ PC Gamer
- Microsoft is ‘putting their money where their mouth is,’ says asset management firm CNBC International TV
- Microsoft’s Record-Breaking Success: Exploring The Factors Fueling Its Journey Beyond 300 – Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Benzinga
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No. 21 Oregon State edges No. 9 Oregon, clearing way for USC vs. Utah rematch in Pac-12 Championship Game
No. 9 Oregon squandered a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game after losing 38-34 to rival No. 21 Oregon State as the Beavers pulled off a miraculous comeback. No. 14 Utah, with its 63-21 win over Colorado coupled with No. 13 Washington’s Apple Cup victory, jumped past the Ducks thanks to conference tiebreaker rules and will play No. 6 USC in Las Vegas. The title game will serve as a rematch of a 43-42 victory for the Utes on Oct. 15.
The Ducks could have clinched a title game berth with a win over their rival, but Washington’s win over Washington State bumped the Huskies into a three-way tie with the Ducks and Utes. The tiebreaker rules gave Utah the three-way advantage due to a better strength of schedule. The Ducks will have a long offseason to think about their loss after giving up a massive lead.
Oregon State trailed 31-10 in the third quarter but finished the game on a 28-3 run down the stretch to beat its rival for just the third time since 2008. The Beavers’ passing game struggled, but a dominant running performance helped make up the gap. Running back Damien Martinez, one of the best freshmen players in America, toted the ball 15 times for 103 yards to lead a Beavers rushing effort that posted 268 yards and five touchdowns. Freshman quarterback Ben Gulbranson completed just six passes and threw two interceptions in the win.
Oregon quarterback Bo Nix had another strong game with 327 yards passing and two touchdowns, but the Ducks failed to convert in key situations. The Ducks settled for a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter at the Oregon State 6-yard line and muffed a punt at the 2-yard line to set up another Beavers score. Nix made a wrong decision on a fourth-and-1 zone read and was stopped for a turnover on downs.
Nix had one last chance to throw a game-winner into the end zone, but his pass on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line fell harmlessly into the end zone. Oregon State was able to get a first down and run out the clock.
The win clinches a 9-3 season for Oregon State, which is the best since former coach Mike Riley led the Beavers to a 9-4 campaign in 2012. If Oregon State can win a bowl game, the Beavers could put together a 10-win campaign for the first time since 2006.
The Pac-12 Championship Game features No. 6 USC facing off against No. 14 Utah in Las Vegas at 8 p.m. ET on Friday. With a win, the Trojans can likely earn their first trip to the College Football Playoff. The Utes will try to win their second consecutive conference championship after entering the season as betting favorites.
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How Buffalo is clearing 80 inches of snow almost as fast as it fell
While some neighborhood roads are still buried in snow, Mark Poloncarz, Erie County’s executive, reports that all major highways, arterial roads and secondary routes are now open.
“Now we’re just kind of touching up and finishing the work that needs to be done to ensure that every neighborhood has been cleared,” Poloncarz told The Post Monday.
Erie County, which includes Buffalo, received some of the most astronomical snow amounts from the lake-effect snow event, which also walloped areas downwind of Lake Ontario with up to 6 feet of snow.
In Erie County, the National Weather Service received a report of 81.2 inches in Hamburg, N.Y., which is 15 miles south of Buffalo. At one point, snow was pounding the ground at upward of five inches per hour. In Orchard Park, home to the Buffalo Bills, 80 inches was reported.
Around Hamburg and Orchard Park, 60 inches fell between Thursday night and Friday night alone, probably setting a new 24-hour state record.
“We get lake effect snowstorms. They are not unusual,” Poloncarz said. “What’s unusual is the amount of snow that fell with this snowstorm.”
Matthew Latko, the division director for the New York State Thruway Authority in Buffalo, who has lived in the city for nearly 34 years, called it “the biggest storm ever.” He raved about his team’s response.
“I don’t think anybody in the country put in what our guys did and the recovery time that we had,” he said.
The rapid-fire cleanup brought together counties, towns, New York state and partners in the contracting business.
Teams from the New York Thruway Authority in Buffalo and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) worked around-the-clock pushing snow from the roads to snow storage areas on road shoulders during whiteout conditions. There were large chunks of time where workers couldn’t see past the hood of their cars, Latko said.
Trucks that couldn’t plow the dense snow lifted and pushed the white heaps off the road. Overflowing snow was also moved into dump trailers and taken to abandoned parking lots or other open spaces in heaps.
“As of right now, there is a pile of snow that’s four and a half stories tall at one of our community colleges that we’re using as a dump site,” Poloncarz said.
As of Monday morning, travel bans were only in place in the city of Lackawanna and half of Buffalo while efforts were made to clear the roadways. It took workers a little longer to clear Lackawanna and parts of Buffalo because the areas are more densely populated and have narrower streets. Poloncarz hoped to lift Lackawanna’s driving ban by the end of the day.
Eighteen communities were originally placed under driving and travel bans on Thursday to allow snowplows to clear the streets when the snow wasn’t as deep. Some 400 trailer drivers were fined over the weekend for disobeying the order. Many of the vehicles got stuck.
Over 500 plow trucks from the NYSDOT were deployed to roadways across the region, according to Marie Therese Dominguez, the NYSDOT commissioner. Mechanics from around the state maintained heavy equipment all weekend and safety representatives made sure workers were trained.
Before the snow covered the ground, layers of brine, a very high concentration of salty water, were lathered onto the roads to prevent hard layers of snow from becoming hardly packed.
In addition to the efforts from government agencies, neighbors helped neighbors.
Nick Belles, 26, a plowman clearing commercial lots in Buffalo’s south towns, said he got a total of three hours of sleep during a three-day stretch. He kept himself up chugging coffee.
“Just trying to stay going,” he said.
The snow came so heavy, he switched from plowing with a pickup to using a backhoe and other heavy equipment.
Residents joined forces to ensure that Buffalo Bills players were able to make it to the airport after their matchup against the Cleveland Browns was moved from Orchard Park, which received snowfall as tall as their quarterback Josh Allen, to Detroit. The Bills iced the Browns out with a 31-23 win.
Officials advised that the heavy lifting be left to professionals. Two people died of heart attacks in Erie County from shoveling.
“There are no generals in this war, so to speak,” Poloncarz said. “Everyone is working together.”
At the federal level, President Biden agreed to send aid to the 11 affected counties to assist state and local authorities with their cleanup efforts. The emergency declaration authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide disaster relief.
The aid falls on the heels of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) plea to the president for emergency aid on Saturday.
This was the biggest storm to hit Buffalo since November 2014, when communities south of Buffalo were blanketed in 7 feet of snow over the course of three days. That storm claimed 14 lives.
The paralyzing storm in 2014 forced nearly 300 New York National Guard members to step in to remove the snow. The snow piles from the storm lingered until July.
This time, Poloncarz believes the region was better prepared.
“It’s been a monumental effort,” he said. “I don’t think there are many parts of the United States that could have responded to this type of storm and recovered as quickly as we have.”
Dino Grandoni contributed to this report.
NFLPA fires independent doctor involved in clearing Tua Tagovailoa
The league and union oversee the protocols in tandem, and either side can choose to end the participation of any of the independent doctors — called unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants, or UNCs — involved in the concussion-evaluation process for players. The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday on the NFLPA’s decision.
Tagovailoa is in the NFL’s concussion protocols after suffering a head injury during Thursday night’s game at Cincinnati. He struck the back of his head on the turf on a first-half sack. Tagovailoa was taken from the field on a stretcher and transported by ambulance to a hospital. He was diagnosed with a concussion, according to the Dolphins. Tagovailoa was released that night from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and accompanied the team on its flight back to Miami. He underwent further tests Friday.
He played in Thursday’s game four days after being cleared by team physician and the UNC, as required by the protocols, to return to a game Sunday against the Buffalo Bills in Miami Gardens, Fla. The UNC involved in the decision has not been publicly identified.
The joint investigation is ongoing and the doctors involved were interviewed, according to a person familiar with the case. The NFLPA believes that mistakes in judgment were made, according to that person.
“Until we have an objective and validated method of diagnosing brain injury, we have to do everything possible, including amending the protocols, to further reduce the potential of human error,” former Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter, the NFLPA president, said in a statement Friday. “A failure in medical judgement is a failure of the protocols when it comes to the well being of our players.”
Tagovailoa left Sunday’s game in the first half after being shoved to the ground on a play by Bills linebacker Matt Milano. Tagovailoa got to his feet after the play but stumbled. He walked off the field with members of the medical staff. But Tagovailoa was cleared and returned to begin the second half. He and Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel said afterward that Tagovailoa had injured his back, not his head.
The protocols outline a step-by-step process for evaluating a player suspected to have suffered a head injury. A player can return to a game if cleared by both the team physician and the UNC following several tests. The protocols say that a player may not to return to a game if he demonstrates “gross motor instability” that is “determined by [the] team physician, in consultation with the UNC, to be neurologically caused.”
Tretter said in his statement Friday: “What everyone saw both Sunday and [Thursday] night were ‘no-go’ symptoms within our concussion protocol. … We need to figure out how and why the decisions were made last Sunday to allow a player with a ‘no-go’ symptom back on the field.”
The NFLPA exercised its right last Sunday to initiate the joint review with the NFL as to whether the concussion protocols were followed properly. The league said Wednesday that the review was ongoing but it had “every indication” that the protocols had been followed properly.
Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said during a televised interview Friday that Tagovailoa underwent a long-form exam called the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) in the locker room last Sunday. After returning to that game, Sills told the league-owned NFL Network, he was evaluated daily for a concussion leading up to Thursday’s game.
“It’s something that we’re reviewing together,” Sills said Friday. “What I can tell you is to reiterate that in real time, these evaluations, when a player is evaluated, they are examined and interviewed by both the team physician and this independent neuro-specialist. And those two confer, and they must both agree together in real time that a player is cleared in order for them to return to the game.”
It appears likely that, even if the joint investigation finds that the protocols were not violated, the league and union will close the loophole allowing a player who exhibits gross motor instability to return to a game if the doctors conclude it is not neurologically related.
“We want to be as transparent and as open about this as possible,” Sills said Friday. “We certainly want to learn, to improve, to get better. … And so if we find that we fell short or if we find that there are things that we need to change, we will certainly be up front about doing that.”
George Atallah, the NFLPA’s assistant executive director of external affairs, said in a statement Friday: “The whole point of our advocacy for more than a decade on the issue of concussions is to shift the culture of our game from one that was previously focused on the fastest path back to the field, to one that emphasized player care above all.
“When the first set of protocols were implemented in 2011, they were designed with that goal in mind and every year since we have improved on those protocols to the point where today’s concussion protocols are far more comprehensive and safer for players than ever before[.] But they are only effective if the people applying them and making decisions place patient/player care above checking boxes to clear someone back to work as fast as possible.”
‘CODA’ Wins Producers Guild Award, Clearing a Path to Best Picture
Is “CODA” the little movie that could?
The Apple TV+ dramedy about deafness and music scored a major victory at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday night, winning the group’s best-film award.
“As a producer, I’ve always been drawn to stories that are filled with humanity,” Phillippe Rousselet, one of the producers of the movie, said in his acceptance speech. “In a world where we see the lack of it every day, I’ll take this award as a sign that there’s still hope.”
The PGA Award is often considered the strongest industry bellwether for best picture. Since 2009, when the guild and the Oscars both expanded their number of best-film nominees and adopted a preferential ballot, the two groups have differed only three times in their ultimate selection.
The PGA victory for “CODA,” in addition to its recent best-ensemble win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, appears to be setting the film up for a best picture face-off against Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog,” which has so far collected top honors from the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA and the Critics Choice Awards. Between those two movies, Oscar night will almost certainly culminate with a streaming service winning Hollywood’s biggest award for the first time.
Still, it’s worth noting that “CODA,” which stands for children of deaf adults, received only three Oscar nominations compared with the 12 earned by “The Power of the Dog,” and it lacks the directing and editing nominations that typically indicate best-picture strength. Indeed, no film since 1932’s “Grand Hotel” has won Oscar’s top prize without either of those key nominations.
To get to best picture, “CODA” will probably have to take every Oscar it’s nominated for, a scenario that is seeming more doable by the day as supporting actor Troy Kotsur continues to pick up trophies and after the film’s screenplay pulled out a surprise win at BAFTA.
Elsewhere at the PGA Awards, “Summer of Soul” took the documentary-film honor, while “Encanto” was named the best animated film. The top TV prizes went to “Succession” (best episodic drama), “Ted Lasso” (best episodic comedy) and “Mare of Easttown” (best limited series).
Jevon Carter to sign with Milwaukee Bucks after clearing waivers, agents say
Guard Jevon Carter plans to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks once he clears waivers, agents Mark Bartelstein and Reggie Brown of Priority Sports told ESPN on Tuesday.
The Nets waived Carter upon reaching an agreement with free agent guard Goran Dragic on Monday. Carter is the second perimeter player this month to choose the Bucks after being waived by the Nets, joining DeAndre’ Bembry.
Carter delivers depth to a Bucks backcourt that has been impacted by the loss of Donte DiVincenzo, who was traded to the Sacramento Kings, and Pat Connaughton, who is out for a month following hand surgery.
The Bucks tried to sign Dragic, but ultimately lost out to his history and relationship with coach Steve Nash — his former teammate.
Carter, 26, averaged 3.6 points over 12 minutes in 46 games for the Nets this season after joining them in an offseason trade with the Phoenix Suns, with whom he spent two seasons. Carter played his rookie season with the Memphis Grizzlies, who drafted him 32nd overall out of West Virginia in the 2018 NBA draft.
Poland says Belarus ferries migrants back to border after clearing camps
BIELSK PODLASKI, Poland/BRUZGI, Belarus, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Poland accused Belarus on Friday of trucking hundreds of migrants back to the border and pushing them to attempt to cross illegally, only hours after clearing camps at a frontier that has become the focus of an escalating East-West crisis.
The accusation by Poland suggests the crisis has not been resolved by an apparent change of tack by Minsk, which on Thursday had cleared the main camps by the border and allowed the first repatriation flight to Iraq in months.
European governments accuse Belarus of flying in thousands of people from the Middle East and pushing them to attempt to illegally cross the EU border, where several people have died in the freezing woods. Belarus denies fomenting the crisis.
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Polish Border Guard spokesperson Anna Michalska said that by Thursday evening, just hours after clearing the camps, Belarus authorities were already trucking hundreds back and forcing them to try to cross in darkness.
“(The Belarusians) were bringing more migrants to the place where there was a forced attempt to cross,” Michalska said. “At the beginning there were 100 people, but then the Belarusian side brought more people in trucks. Then there were 500 people.”
When the migrants tried to cross the border, Belarusian troops blinded Polish guards with lasers, she told a news conference. Some migrants had thrown logs and four guards sustained minor injuries.
Access to the border on the Polish side is restricted by a state of emergency, making it difficult to verify her account.
‘NIGHTMARE’
In an interview with the BBC, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko repeated denials that he had orchestrated the crisis but, asked if Belarus was helping migrants try and cross into Poland, he said: “I think that’s absolutely possible. We’re Slavs. We have hearts. Our troops know the migrants are going to Germany. Maybe someone helped them. I won’t even look into this.”
The migrants from the camp on the Belarus side were taken on Thursday to a huge, crowded warehouse and journalists were permitted to film them. Children ran about on Friday morning, and men played cards while one dangled a toddler on his lap.
“This is not a life but this is not permanent, this should be just temporary until they decide our destiny: to take us to Europe or bring us back to our countries,” said 23-year-old electrician Mohammed Noor.
“What I wish for myself, I wish it for others too – to go to Europe and live a stable life.”
Meanwhile in a hospital in Bielsk Podlaski, on the Polish side, two migrants who had been caught after crossing were given treatment before being taken away by Polish border guards.
Migrants gather in a camp near Bruzgi-Kuznica checkpoint on the Belarusian-Polish border in the Grodno region, Belarus, November 18, 2021. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
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Before he was taken away, Mansour Nassar, 42, a father-of-six from Aleppo, in Syria, who had travelled to Belarus from Lebanon, described his ordeal during five days in the forest.
“The Belarusian army told us: ‘If you come back, we will kill you’,” he said, in tears in his hospital bed. “We drank from ponds… Our people are always oppressed.”
Kassam Shahadah, a Syrian refugee doctor living in Poland who helps out in another hospital, said patients were terrified of being forcibly returned to Belarus.
“What they have seen, what they have lived through on that side is a nightmare for them,” he said.
EXTREME SUFFERING
Human rights groups say Poland has exacerbated the suffering by sending back those who try to cross. Poland says this is necessary to stop more people from coming.
“I have personally listened to the appalling accounts of extreme suffering from desperate people – among whom many families, children and elderly – who spent weeks or even months in squalid and extreme conditions in the cold and wet woods due to these pushbacks,” Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović said after a four-day mission to Poland.
“I have witnessed clear signs of their painful ordeal: wounds, frostbite, exposure to extreme cold, exhaustion and stress,” she said. “I have no doubt that returning any of these people to the border will lead to more extreme human suffering and more deaths.”
The Polish border guards have recorded seven deaths at the border. Rights groups say more than 10 people have died.
‘CYNICAL AND INHUMANE’
Europeans have shunned Lukashenko since a disputed election last year, but reached out cautiously this week, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking to Lukashenko twice by phone.
However, on Thursday the European Commission and Germany rejected a proposal that Minsk said Lukashenko had made to Merkel, under which EU countries would take in 2,000 migrants, while 5,000 others would be sent back home. read more .
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that the situation on the borders remained deeply concerning.
“Lukashenko’s regime’s use of vulnerable people as a means to put pressure on other countries is cynical and inhumane,” he said. “NATO stands in full solidarity with all affected allies.”
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Reporting by Joanna Plucinska, Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Leon Malherbe, Yara Abi Nader, Kacper Pempel, Stephan Schepers, Andrius Sytas; Writing by Joanna Plucinska and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Peter Graff and Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.