The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged Nigerians to report any bank that refuses to sell Forex to them at the approved rate within 24 hours. This was contained in a statement released on Friday, by CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor. He warned customers not to purchase dollar at any bank beyond […]
CBN urges Nigerians to report banks that refuse to sell Forex
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) releases an emergency mobile phone line for customers denied access to foreign exchange by banks.
The post CBN releases telephone line on Forex complaints appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Anti-government protesters in Paraguay's capital set the country's congressional building on fire over ruling party's decision to create alternative Senate.
The post Protesters set Paraguay’s legislative building ablaze appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Roger Federer needs more than three hours to outlast Nick Kyrgios 7-6(9) 6-7(9) 7-6(5) in a pulsating Miami Open semi-final on Friday to set up another mouthwatering final clash with Rafa Nadal.
The post Nadal, Federer in Miami final rematch appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers: 1. Another student of Queen’s College, Lagos has died following the outbreak of epidemic in the school. The latest death brings the number of death to three. The victim, identified as Praise Sodipo, reportedly died at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja. The Senior Secondary […]
Nigerian newspapers: 10 things you need to know this Saturday morning
The sacked South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, denies accusations that he was plotting against the state and says he learnt of his sack through TV..
The post Gordhan denies plot against S/Africa appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Tiger Woods says he has lost his battle to be fit for the Masters, and is "not tournament ready" for the first major of the year and does not have a timetable for his return.
The post Tiger Woods gives up on Masters appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
China intensifies its crackdown against religious extremism in the far-west province of Xinjiang, with ban on long beards and wearing veils in public.
The post China bans beards, veils in public places appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
A ten year old red Ferrari previously owned by President Donald Trump is set to go on auction in Florida on Saturday.
The post Trump’s Ferrari for auction appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
OAKLAND — The Warriors won a 10th straight game on Friday night, their third victory in the past four days against a conference rival from Texas.
After sweeping a Rockets, Spurs back to back in San Antonio and Houston, they returned home and took down the Rockets again: XXX-XXX, further solidifying their place atop the Western Conference, now needing only a combination of four wins or Spurs losses over the final two weeks to officially clinch homecourt throughout the playoffs.
Friday night’s win came attached with more late-game drama than many of the other wins during this streak. The Rockets led by two heading to the fourth and maintained that slim edge with less than eight minutes left. But the Warriors closed strong — which has been an occasional issue for them this season, but not of late.
Matt Barnes had a layup to tie it at 92 at the 7:39 mark. Twenty-two seconds later, Andre Iguodala ripped down one of his six rebounds, sprinted the floor and squirmed through traffic and smoothly laid in a reverse to give the Warriors a lead they’d never lose.
Before the game, Steve Kerr trumpeted Andre Iguodala’s Sixth Man of the Year candidacy, saying, though he’s not near the top of the leaderboard in bench scoring this season, he “impacts winning” far more than any other candidate. Hours later, Iguodala continued his torrid March with another crucial all-around performance in Kevin Durant’s absence.
That included 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. One of those was patented Iguodala, catching Houston big man Clint Capela too loose with the ball as he went up for a layup and perfectly timing a bat down strip block that tumbled off Capela’s leg and out of bounds to the Warriors.
That was only one of the Warriors’ season-high 14 blocks on Friday night. Entering the season, many were skeptical about Golden State’s ability to protect the rim after losing Andrew Bogut. But the Warriors lead the league in blocked shots and, even without Kevin Durant (who his ninth in the NBA in blocks per game), have been swatting shots at a massive rate of late.
The Warriors had some first quarter offensive struggles. Klay Thompson had a pull-up airball. The Rockets put James Harden on Zaza Pachulia and the Warriors awkwardly tried to feed Pachulia in the post, which failed. Plus the focus level was low. With Capela on the wrong side of the court putting his fallen shoe back on, the Warriors didn’t recognize the 5-on-4 advantage, Draymond Green and Pachulia bumbled into each other and then, after allowing Capela to get back into the play, Green airballed a floater and yelled at Pachulia.
Things were a struggle until JaVale McGee entered in the second quarter and provided his best minutes in awhile. McGee scored 13 points in six second half minutes, leading the team in scoring at halftime.
Then after halftime, McGee had three blocks in less than a minute and four of his season-high five in the third quarter. As a team, the Warriors had seven blocks in the third quarter and the Rockets, constantly searching for fouls, didn’t shoot a free throw.
One of McGee’s third quarter blocks was a nifty help-side swat of a James Harden layup, as the MVP candidate continued his frustrating season-long struggles against the Warriors defense. Harden went 4-of-18 on Friday night, missed seven of his nine 3s and turned it over six times.
In his four games against Golden State this season, Harden finished 23-of-74 overall (31 percent), 5-of-34 on 3s and turned it over 26 times. The Rockets lost three of the four games.
But midway through the fourth, they were still in it.
Iguodala’s layup put the Warriors up two. Ian Clark made a 3 moments later. Shaun Livingston bounced in for a reverse layup. The lead spiked to seven quickly.
Then the Warriors kept the pressure on in the key moments, capped in the final minute by a falling, fading, off-balance Steph Curry bank shot to give him 24 points on the night and the Warriors a 10th straight win. The Warriors closed on a 19-6 run.
“My action today is the latest in a series of steps to create American jobs and to grow American wealth,” President Donald Trump said earlier this week before a group of coal miners.
Trump was announcing the rollback of several Obama-era environmental regulations that would have affected industries such as coal mining. Trump has repeatedly claimed that over-regulation has led to a decline in coal-industry jobs.
“I made them this promise,” Trump said at the signing. “We will put our miners back to work.”
Experts in the industry have already pointed out, repeatedly, that the coal jobs are extremely unlikely to come back. The plight of the coal industry is more a function of changing energy markets and increased demand for natural gas than anything else.
The chief executive of the nation’s largest privately held coal operation told the Guardian earlier this month that Trump “can’t bring back.”
Another largely overlooked point about coal jobs is that there just aren’t that many of them relative to other industries. There are various estimates of coal-sector employment, but according to the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns program, which allows for detailed comparisons with many other industries, the coal industry employed 76,572 people in 2014, the latest year for which data is available.
That number includes not just miners but also office workers, sales staff and all of the other individuals who work at coal-mining companies.
Although 76,000 might seem like a large number, consider that similar numbers of people are employed by, say, the bowling (69,088) and skiing (75,036) industries. Other dwindling industries, such as travel agencies (99,888 people), employ considerably more. Used-car dealerships provide 138,000 jobs. Theme parks provide nearly 144,000. Carwash employment tops 150,000.
Looking at the level of individual businesses, the coal industry in 2014 (76,572) employed about as many as Whole Foods (72,650), and fewer workers than Arby’s (close to 80,000), Dollar General (105,000) or J.C. Penney (114,000). The country’s largest private employer, Walmart (2.2 million employees) provides roughly 28 times as many jobs as coal.
If anything the numbers above over-estimate the jobs impact of coal relative to other industries. Since 2014 the coal industry has shrunk further according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to 50,300 employees as of February 2017.
The point isn’t that coal jobs don’t matter – they matter to the people who have them and to the communities they support, especially as they typically pay far more than do jobs in the retail and service industries, But if you’re looking to make a meaningful increase in the number of jobs available to U.S. workers, bringing back coal jobs isn’t going to do it.
Of course, part of the fixation on coal is because mining has always loomed large in the American imagination. There’s something mysterious and ennobling about the dangerous endeavor to extract valuable commodities from deep within the earth, something that’s missing from, say, used-car sales or ski-lift operation.
There’s also a larger economic debate about coal’s impact on the economy, given the large role it plays in generating the nation’s electricity. But while the industry’s impact is large, its payrolls aren’t.
The other thing about coal is that unlike retail and other industries, coal is highly concentrated in certain regions. When coal mines shut down, towns go under. National media sends reporters and TV crews to those towns, and the resulting coverage can make coal’s impact on national employment levels feel much larger than it actually is.
That national impact is only likely to get smaller, regardless of Trump’s actions. Even a quarter-century ago, the coal industry employed only 131,000 people. If Trump were to somehow bring all those jobs back, there’d still be more people employed by the retail shoe sales industry (224,000).
More than 300 million people are now living with depression, which is the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, according to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The post Over 300m have depression, says WHO appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Banks and JAMB trade blames over the inability of many candidates in registering for the 2017/2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
The post Banks, JAMB trade blames over UTME registration appeared first on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
By DOUG FEINBERG
DALLAS (AP) — UConn’s record 111-game winning streak came to a startling end when Mississippi State pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in women’s basketball history, shocking the Huskies 66-64 on Morgan William’s overtime buzzer beater in the national semifinals Friday night.
William hit a 15-footer to cap it, moments after a replay review awarded UConn two free throws for a flagrant 1 foul call that tied the game with 26.6 seconds left.
The Bulldogs (34-4) will play South Carolina for the national championship Sunday night in a matchup of two SEC teams.
Mississippi State (33-5) and UConn met in the Sweet 16 last season and the Huskies won by 60 points — the most-lopsided win in regional semifinals history. All season long the Bulldogs had that humiliating loss on their minds.
Now they’ve erased that defeat, beating UConn (36-1) — which had won the last four national championships — on the grandest stage in one of the sport’s greatest games.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma had a wry smile on his face after the final shot. There wasn’t much else he could do, another title suddenly beyond his grasp.
Mississippi State led 64-62 before a replay review gave Katie Lou Samuelson the two free throws that tied the game. After a UConn turnover, William held the ball at the top of the key before dribbling to her right and pulling up for the shot, with the ball in the air when the buzzer sounded.
The Bulldogs ran onto the court, piling up at center court while UConn players stood stonefaced. Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer grabbed William in a bear hug, with former Mississippi State star Dak Prescott — the Dallas Cowboys quarterback — helping lead the cheers.
UConn rallied from a 16-point deficit, its biggest during its NCAA record streak, to take a 59-56 lead in the fourth quarter. The teams were tied at 60 when the Bulldogs had a chance to win it in regulation, but William’s shot was blocked, sending the game into overtime.
The Huskies hadn’t lost in 865 days, with that defeat coming to Stanford on Nov. 17, 2014.
Neither team scored much in OT with Teaira McCowan’s layup with 1:12 left in the extra session breaking a 62-62 tie. It was the lone basket for Mississippi State in OT until William’s game-winner.
During their last two decades of dominance where they’ve won 11 national championships, the Huskies rarely found themselves trailing — let alone by double-digits. This was the first time this season that UConn was losing in the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs got off to a great start, taking it right at the Huskies like not many teams had done during the streak. The Bulldogs led 15-13 before scoring 14 straight points to go up 29-13. It was the biggest deficit UConn had faced during its historic streak and one of the largest during the last 22 years, which the Huskies have dominated with 11 national championships.
The Huskies rallied to within 29-25 as senior Saniya Chong scored seven points during a 12-0 run. Mississippi State answered and was up 36-28 at the half.
UConn came back in the third quarter behind its trio of All-Americans with Gabby Williams, Napheesa Collier and Samuelson keying a 12-3 run to start the second half. That run brought Huskies alums Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore, who were sitting 20 rows behind the UConn bench, to their feet.
STREAK BUSTER: The loss ended a 28-game NCAA Tournament winning streak for UConn. The last loss came to Notre Dame in 2012 in the Final Four. That was the last OT game in the national semifinals.
OT TROUBLES: UConn has lost its last five OT games.
QUARTERBACK CONNECTION: Prescott wasn’t the only QB in attendance on Friday night. Donovan McNabb was also in Dallas, cheering on niece Kia Nurse, who stars for Connecticut. Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson was supporting his sister Anna, who is a freshman at Stanford in the first game.
GOOD MORNING MISSISSIPPI: Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts was sitting at center court. She was cheering on the Bulldogs, who hail from her home state. Roberts brought out a Bulldogs jersey on her morning show.
___
Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg
UConn’s record 111-game winning streak came to a startling end when Mississippi State pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in women’s basketball history, shocking the Huskies 66-64 on Morgan William’s overtime buzzer-beater in the national semifinals Friday night.
William hit a 15-footer to cap it, moments after a replay review awarded UConn two free throws for a flagrant 1 foul call that tied the game with 26.6 seconds left.
Continue reading...JaVale McGee led the Warriors in scoring halfway through their game against the Rockets on Friday. His 13 points before halftime came in just six minutes of action.
Twitter certainly noticed. His name trended during halftime.
Javale Mcgee playing like an MVP 😂😂😂
— richhomietomi (@TbellsTomi) April 1, 2017
JaVale McGee out here ballin.
— Simba (@RYANcmBUSH) April 1, 2017
JaVale McGee is HOOPING
— Jovan Hubbard (@jdhubbar) April 1, 2017
JaVale McGee is on fire!!🔥
— Neil Irving (@NeilJIrving24) April 1, 2017
JaVale McGee is doing work right now off the bench 😂
— Čëdrïč G ™ (@green_machine5) April 1, 2017
Javale McGee is EATING the Rockets lunch, lol.
— Jon Snark (@Parkour_Lewis) April 1, 2017
“The JaVale McGee Game.”
— Bonta Hill (@BontaHill) April 1, 2017
JAVALE MCGEE SCORING MACHINE
— Juanito Alimaña (@JediMasterRoman) April 1, 2017
salute to the god @JaValeMcGee34
— 🤜🏼🐸 (@MartyOropeza) April 1, 2017
Javale Mcgee exploding!!
— OG Ceez™ (@I_Am_BigCee) April 1, 2017
JaVale McGee havin’ a game tonight 🔥🍴
— Daniel (@danielyanez25) April 1, 2017
.@JaValeMcGee34 for MVP 🙌 http://pic.twitter.com/9Q46FSy3Qt
— ⚡️CHAD FUTURE⚡️ (@chadfuture) April 1, 2017
JaVale McGee closing in on that MVP award.
— Game E!ght (@game_eight) April 1, 2017
I hope @JaValeMcGee34 playing good enough for you now @SHAQ ! Straight balling just for you
— Tajaiii Antonio (@tajaiiiantonio) April 1, 2017
That boy @JaValeMcGee34 is on fire 🔥 and @andre with the buzzer beater at the half?!, #DubNation
— Brittany (@Britt_bermudez) April 1, 2017
Javale McGee so nice 😂💯
— LongLiveCleato 😔 (@3_maleke) April 1, 2017
Javale McGee out here getting buckets damn
— Royce Smith (@RoyceGotBars) April 1, 2017
My G @JaValeMcGee34 is getting ready to SHOW OUTfor this Playoffs… watch… younger and More athletic than Bogut.. And LESS INJURY PRONE
— TRILLiam DANKespeare (@Check_N2_Hash) April 1, 2017
@JaValeMcGee34 🔥🔥🔥😂
— Tonio (@TonioLc) April 1, 2017
Javale McGee putting Golden State on his back 🤣
— aaron 16 (@AaronHollar3) April 1, 2017
Javale McGee is anchoring the @warriors offense right now!
— Lyndon Baty 🍀 (@LyndonBaty5) April 1, 2017
CALGARY, Alberta — The good news for the Sharks is that they’re done with March.
The bad news is that there isn’t much reason to think April will be much better.
A combination of some tough luck in the offensive zone and a handful of mistakes at the other end Friday sent the Sharks to a 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames, their eighth defeat in nine games.
Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and forward Melker Karlsson scored for the Sharks, who have been held to two goals or less in all eight of their most recent losses.
Vlasic’s goal at the 8:25 mark of the second period cut the Flames’ lead to 2-1. But goals by Matt Stajan and Alex Chiasson in the latter half of the second was far too much for the Sharks to overcome, as goalie Martin Jones was replaced by Aaron Dell to start the third period.
Jones stopped 18 of 22 shots. Flames goalie Brian Elliott stopped 36 of 38 shots.
The Sharks remained stuck at 93 points and are now just one point ahead of the Flames, who clinched a playoff spot with the victory, for third place in the Pacific Division.
Regardless of what happened Friday, the Sharks were going to be all too glad to turn the page on the calendar.
The Sharks went 6-10 in March as they and saw what was a nine-point lead in the division on the morning of March 15 dwindle to nothing. They then entered Friday three points back of first place Anaheim, which went 10-2-2 in March to put itself in an ideal spot to win its fifth straight division crown.
Add in a facial injury to Logan Couture that’ll keep him out for an undetermined amount of time and you have a San Jose free-fall that’s coming at the most inopportune time.
The Sharks play in Vancouver against the Canucks on Sunday in their final road game of the regular season, then return to SAP Center to play the Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Flames in their final homestand.
The Sharks can still win the Pacific Division or finish as low as the second wild card spot.
The latter is looking more likely than the former with each game.
In a first period typical of some of their frustrations this month, the Sharks created a few quality scoring chances only to come out it down by a goal.
Johnny Gaudreau took a pass near the Sharks blue line, eluded a check from Mikkel Boedker and passed the puck back to Sam Bennett.
With both Brent Burns and Boedker looking at the puck, Gaudreau was able to slip free, take the back pass from Bennett and tip it past Jones for a 1-0 Flames lead at the 12:26 mark of the first.
The scoring sequence began after Tomas Hertl couldn’t handle a pass from Burns in the neutral zone, turning the puck over to the Flames.
Burns later rang a shot off the post on a Sharks power play. Earlier in the period, Karlsson nearly gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead but was unable to steer home a loose puck in front of the Flames net as he was lying in the ice.
Jones, who started Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Oilers, was 2-0 this season in the second game when he started back-to-back nights.
Jones has gotten a decent amount of rest this month, splitting starts with Dell over the first 12 games of March. Friday’s game marked Jones’ fourth straight start.
“I think we’ve got to get him in a rhythm,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said of Jones. “I think we knew that we were trying to follow last year’s formula a little bit and give him a little bit of a break down the stretch, he played a lot of games.
“We did that, Deller did a great job, kept us competitive. And now it’s about getting him in a rhythm. I don’t know if there is a right answer, but, I know his character, I know what he’s capable of and I know he’ll be there come playoff time.”
• Joonas Donskoi and Joel Ward were scratched Friday. Donskoi had not registered a point in 13 games since he returned from an upper body injury on March 6 and Ward had gone without a point in eight games. Kevin Labanc was reinserted into the lineup after he was scratched from Thursday’s game in Edmonton, and Marcus Sorensen was back in after he sat for the last two games vs. the Oilers and New York Rangers.
ATLANTA — Three people were arrested Friday in connection with a raging fire that collapsed an elevated portion of Interstate 85 in Atlanta and shut down the heavily traveled route through the heart of the city.
Deputy Insurance Commissioner Jay Florence said Basil Eleby faces a charge of criminal damage to property, and Sophia Bruner and Barry Thomas each were charged with criminal trespass.
“We believe they were together when the fire was set and Eleby is the one who set the fire,” Florence told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Florence would not discuss how the fire was started or why, saying those details would be released as the investigation progresses.
Traffic was bumper to bumper on streets near the shut-down portion of the interstate as drivers were forced to take a detour the day after the blaze.
The collapse took place a few miles north of downtown, and the effects could fall most heavily on commuters from Atlanta’s densely populated northern suburbs. They will have to find other routes to work or ride mass transit.
Connie Bailey-Blake, of Dacula, 37 miles northeast of Atlanta, waited for a MARTA commuter train to reach her job downtown. She typically drives, often by way of the interstate.
“I’m supposed to be at work at 9 a.m. and it’s 9:15 a.m.,” Bailey-Blake said. “The first few days are going to be difficult. This will be my new life.”
Amelia Ford picked a new route to work by car and said it took her 45 minutes to travel 3 miles from her Atlanta home to the nearest open on-ramp to the interstate.
Georgia Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said 350 feet of highway will need to be replaced in both directions on I-85, which carries about 400,000 cars a day through the city and is one of the South’s most important north-south routes.
He said repairs will take months but declined to be more specific.
The collapse effectively “puts a cork in the bottle,” Georgia State Patrol Commissioner Mark McDonough said.
The fire broke out Thursday afternoon in an area used to store state-owned construction materials and equipment, sending flames and smoke high into the air. Fire authorities said they had not determined how the blaze started.
McMurry said his department stored coils of plastic conduit used in fiber optic networks beneath the span but insisted they were noncombustible.
No injuries were reported from the fire and collapse. Firefighters shut down the section of highway before it gave way, and made it to safety themselves after hearing the road cracking and seeing concrete go flying, authorities said.
In the meantime, MARTA increased rail service and said additional staff would be on hand to help passengers figure out how to get where they’re going.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao promptly released $10 million for the initial repair work, and the Federal Highway Administration promised more in emergency repair funds. Officials gave no estimate of how much the job would cost.
Built in 1953 and renovated in 1985, the span scored high in its most recent inspection, receiving a rating of 94.6 out of 100 in 2015, said Natalie Dale, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Transportation Department.
Lauren Stewart, director of the Structural Engineering and Materials Laboratory at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, said intense heat can compromise even steel-reinforced concrete.
“With fires, especially fires that burn for long periods and with high heat, you can see structures, anything from buildings to bridges, can have their material properties degrade,” Stewart said.
It’s happened before. In 1996, a fire in a big pile of tires beneath I-95 in Philadelphia left a span too weak to handle cars, forcing authorities to shut down 4 miles of the busy East Coast route for repairs.
Andy Herrmann, a retired partner with the New York-based engineering firm Hardesty & Hanover, said there have also been a few instances of gasoline trucks crashing and causing intense heat that damaged overpasses.
In one example, a tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline ignited after crashing into a guardrail on an interchange connecting Interstate 80 to Interstate 880 in Oakland. Heat from the flames exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the overpass to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, officials said at the time.
Herrmann said concrete will undergo severe cracking at about 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit and start disintegrating at higher temperatures. Building roads to withstand such heat would be prohibitively expensive, he said.
“We have limited dollars for maintaining our bridges,” Herrmann said. “This is such a rare thing to occur.”
HOUSTON — The driver of a pickup truck that collided with a church minibus in rural Texas, killing 13 people, apologized after the crash and acknowledged he had been texting while driving, a witness said Friday.
Jody Kuchler told The Associated Press he was driving behind the truck and had seen it moving erratically prior to the Wednesday collision on a two-lane road about 75 miles west (120 km) of San Antonio, near the town of Concan. Kuchler said the truck had crossed the center line several times while he followed it.
Kuchler, 55, a self-employed welder, said he and his girlfriend were driving back to their home in the nearby town of Leakey when he came across a truck that was driving erratically across the road.
“He kept going off the road and into oncoming traffic and he just kept doing that,” said Kuchler, who followed the truck for at least 15 minutes.
Kuchler said he called the sheriff’s offices for both Uvalde and Real counties and told them “they needed to get him off the road before he hit somebody.”
Kuchler said he witnessed the crash and afterward, he checked on both the bus and the truck and was able to speak with the driver of the truck, who has been identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as 20-year-old Jack Dillon Young, of Leakey.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was texting.’ I said, ‘Son, do you know what you just did?’ He said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry,'” Kuchler recalled.
Kuchler first shared the account of what happened with the San Antonio Express-News.
The wreck occurred along a curve in the road where the speed limit is 65 mph, according to Department of Public Safety officials.
Department of Public Safety Sgt. Conrad Hein declined to comment on Friday on the cause of the crash or if texting might have played a role. But officials have said the truck driver appeared to have crossed the center line.
Federal investigators would not comment on the report Friday. However, Jennifer Morrison, the investigator in charge of the team from the National Transportation Safety Board, said Friday that distracted driving will be among the issues investigated.
The First Baptist Church of New Braunfels, Texas, said its members were on the bus returning from a three-day retreat at the Alto Frio Baptist Encampment in Leakey, about 9 miles (15 kilometers) from the crash site.
Young remains hospitalized following the crash. Twelve people died at the scene, authorities said. Another bus passenger died at a San Antonio hospital. One of the bus passengers remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition, according to the church.
Texas is unusual in that it has no statewide ban on texting while driving. Dozens of cities across the state prohibit the practice, but local ordinances may not have applied in the rural area where Wednesday’s crash occurred. Laws in 46 other states ban sending or reading email, using apps or engaging in other use of the internet while driving.
Texas’ GOP-controlled Legislature approved a statewide ban in 2011 but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Rick Perry, who characterized such prohibitions as government micromanagement and said educating drivers was the key to deterrence. A similar proposal passed the Texas House a few weeks ago but has yet to make it to a Senate floor vote.
The number of motor vehicle deaths in the U.S. last year topped 40,000 for the first time since 2007, according to the National Safety Council. The number of vehicle crash deaths in Texas rose 7 percent last year to 3,464, slightly higher than the national rise. One-in-10 driving fatalities in 2015 were caused by some kind of distraction, the U.S Department of Transportation said.
The death toll of the Texas crash was high despite the fact that most, if not all, of the elderly occupants of the bus were wearing seat belts, Morrison said. The driver and front passenger wore three-point lap-and-shoulder belts while those in the seats behind wore lap belts only, she said.
Three-point seat belts are always preferable to lap belts because they hold the upper torso in place and help prevent head injuries, said automotive safety advocate Joan Claybrook. One of the problems with lap belts only is that in a frontal impact crash, people will remain in their seats but their upper bodies will go forward and their heads can strike the back of the seat in front, she said.
If the passengers wearing lap-only belts are seated along the sides of the buses, instead of facing forward, they will often hit their heads on the sides of the vehicle or the windows, said Henry Jasny, senior vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. A frontal crash of this type would be like “hitting a brick wall,” he said.
The NTSB identified the church minibus as a 2004 Ford E-350 series. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the only safety issues identified with that vehicle model from that particular year was a fuse problem reported in 2007 in vehicles that had been retrofitted to become ambulances.
Not the greatest audio but a lot of fun to watch!
via NAIJA Society
http://ift.tt/2huhMvk
Did Stephen Curry just troll the Cavaliers?
Curry caused a bit of buzz Friday afternoon when he “Liked” an Instagram post by Bleacher Report that referred to Cleveland’s recent woes.
The post featured LeBron James and his quote: “We’re just in a bad spot.”
👀 http://pic.twitter.com/UPxTLWevHK
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 31, 2017
Curry called the Instagram action a fluke when asked about it before Friday night’s game.
“Accident,” Curry told ESPN’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss. “Total accident.”
Curry seems an honest guy, so perhaps it was a mishap. Still, it’s easy to imagine a smirk on Curry’s face as he clicked “Like” on IG.
In Tal Afar District, northwest of Mosul, a dire lack of functional medical facilities is preventing the population from accessing health care. In response, MSF is expanding its activities in the area, opening a maternity clinic in October 2016 and, more recently, a stabilization unit and children’s ward in the village of Tal Maraq.
Brazilian administrator Fabio Biolchini just returned from a year with the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) emergency team, responding to epidemics and other crises across the breadth of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Here, he reflects on his experiences.
I’ve just come back from DRC, where I lived for one year on my fourth assignment with MSF, after working in Haiti, Turkey, and Central African Republic.
An MSF-supported hospital in northern Syria was bombed on March 25, killing two people and causing severe respiratory symptoms among patients and staff.
NEW YORK, MARCH 31, 2017—A hospital in northern Syria that receives support from the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was bombed on March 25, killing two people and causing severe respiratory symptoms among patients and staff, MSF said today, denouncing the attack.
This short 360° documentary from the Financial Times follows a child with typhoid, explains how an outbreak spreads in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and how Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) responds.
Use your mouse to drag the view from side to side, up and down. Or use the gray button in the top left corner of the video.
The Stanford Cardinal lost in their bid to play in the NCAA Women’s Final, losing to South Carolina 62-53.
Details came to light as White House began releasing financial disclosure forms for around 180 top officials, and will likely fuel conflict of interest concerns
Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, are retaining scores of property investments while they work in the White House, according to financial disclosures likely to fuel concerns over a conflict of interest.
The Associated Press reported that the couple are holding on to assets of at least $240m while the New York Times, making a case that Kushner will continue to benefit from most of his business empire through a series of trusts, gave a figure of $741m.
Continue reading...OAKLAND — With a torrid month of March, which has included 24 dunks, huge shots, great defense and needed production in Kevin Durant’s absence, Andre Iguodala is making a late push for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
Iguodala only averages 7.3 points per game, which isn’t among the NBA’s top 100 bench players in scoring per game. The award typically goes to one of the league’s highest scoring reserves. But during his pregame availability on Friday, Steve Kerr pleaded with award voters to consider Iguodala, who, he said, contributes to “winning” more than any other reserve in the league.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever really pushed any of our players for awards — Steph for MVP, Draymond for Defensive Player of the Year. Maybe I have,” Kerr said. “It’s not something I normally do. But I am sort of intrigued by the Sixth Man of the Year award. It seems like it should just say highest scoring player off the bench award. Depends on how people look at it. But if you want to look at the best Sixth Man in the game, in terms of winning, there’s no way anyone is better than Andre. He’s like a starter for us. He’s played backup point guard. He’s currently our backup power forward. He guards the best player every single night — Kawhi Leonard, James Harden. He comes in and automatically guards the best guy. I think he leads the league in assist to turnover ratio (he does: 4.58). This guy, he’s phenomenal.”
The Warriors are playing two of the league’s leading candidates for the award on Friday night: Houston’s Lou Williams and Eric Gordon. Williams is averaging an NBA-best 17.9 points per game off the bench this season with the Rockets and Lakers. Gordon is averaging the next most: 16.5 points in 57 games as a reserve.
Because of his pedestrian scoring numbers, Iguodala remains unlikely for the award. But Kerr’s push may help.
“People are going to look at the stats and go, well, he’s averaging six, seven points, however many,” Kerr said. “Then they’re going to find someone who averages 17 and say: ‘I’m going to vote for that guy.’ But those of you with votes, I’ll remind you that this game is about more than just scoring. There’s my push for Andre. He’ll probably cuss me out for it.”
When lifelong cigarette smokers Richard Rosas and Manny Mendoza on Friday confronted the reality of a new $2-a-pack tax – set to split their wallets on Saturday — they both said it seemed like the right time to finally quit.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” said Rosas, a 62-year-old San Jose construction worker on Friday afternoon, just after buying his regular $7 pack of Camel Crush cigarettes at Mary’s Market & Water near midtown San Jose.
Rosas knows how happy that “cold turkey” decision would make his wife and 10-year-old granddaughter, both of whom have asthma. Every chance the little girl gets, he said, she searches his car for the cigarettes he hides from her and — somewhat poetically — crushes them up in her fingers in front of him.
“It’s not good for me, and it’s not good for her,” he admitted sheepishly.
That’s exactly the kind of comments backers of Proposition 56, which California voters overwhelmingly passed in November, like to hear.
Until now, California had one of the lowest tobacco taxes in the country — 87 cents per pack. Now it has one of the highest — $2.87.
Proposition 56 did more than that: It also expanded the definition of “tobacco products” to include any type of device sold in combination with nicotine — e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes, e-hookahs – according to the state Board of Equalization, which administers and collects state taxes. So they’ll all be heavily taxed too, beginning on July 1.
Expected to generate $1.4 billion in its first year, the additional tax will go mostly toward Medi-Cal, which provides health coverage for California’s poor and which backers say shoulders $3.5 billion a year for treating tobacco-related illnesses. The rest of the new tax will go to support cancer research and smoking-prevention programs.
Statistics from the California Department of Public Health show that about 3.1 million — or one out of nine California adults — smoke. Every year, an estimated 34,000 Californians die from smoking.
Opponents of Proposition 56 said during the campaign that with just 13 percent of the new tobacco tax money earmarked for anti-smoking efforts, the tax would mostly benefit insurers and other “wealthy special interests” on the backs of smokers, many of whom are poor.
Even Rosas was skeptical about where all the new tax revenue was really heading.
“I’m suspicious. What are they going to do with all that money?” he said, wryly pointing out that the tax that kicks in on April Fool’s Day.
That got a laugh out of Mendoza, 73, who upon further reflection wasn’t quite certain he could actually give up cigarettes. “Maybe I’m going to start chewing tobacco — or smoke cigars,” he quipped.
The reaction of other Bay Area residents to the cigarette tax hike bounced all over the place Friday — from dismay to anger to a sense of optimism.
Richmond resident Dana Shaw wasn’t happy, but she agreed that the added cost might make her kick the habit.
“It sucks,” Shaw said Friday at an Oakland bus stop. “They are already $5 to $6. They are $8.80 at my Safeway. Now they are going to cost up to $11. It’s a lot.”
At Monument Wines and Spirits in Concord, manager Joe Mulcahy said a few people have gone out of their way to stock up on their favorite brands before the tax kicks in.
“But I think there will be a lot of people who don’t know the tax is coming and will be surprised tomorrow,” Mulcahy said Friday.
Shervin Sayyah, who works at the store, noted that people often talk about quitting in the immediate weeks following a cigarette price increase or tax hike, but eventually they get used to it and cigarette sales don’t take much of a hit.
But this time, Sayyah added, the tax hike is so huge that it just might make an impact.
“It could be different,” she said.
Staff writers Annie Sciacca and Malaika Fraley also contributed to this article.
Randy Moss made headlines Friday for a bit of fake news.
The USL’s Charlotte Independence “signed” Moss, a 40-year-old former NFL star, to a “contract.” The soccer club announced the news via a news release and accompanying video.
In the video, Moss pulled on his famous No. 84 jersey with his name on it and picked up a pair of goalie gloves.
“You see the name on the back,” Moss said. “It’s real. It’s official.”
Except it was an early April Fool’s joke, the club confirmed to ESPN.
One clue: the first letters of the sentences in the aforementioned release spelled out “A-P-R-I-L-F-O-O-L-S.”
Moss, who played two seasons with the Raiders, hasn’t been in the league since 2012 — when he 28 passes for the 49ers. A comeback five years later in a new sport would be quite surprising, nevermind impressive.
Alas, Moss and the Independence were just having fun.
Raiders punter Marquette King chimed in on the development.
Welcome to the KickSquad @RandyMoss https://t.co/PI7H90Czmj
— Marquette King (@MarquetteKing) March 31, 2017
Here’s the video the Charlotte Independence posted with the news release:
Stanford University announced Friday it has accepted only one out of every 21 aspirants to its next freshman class in what remains the most-fiercely competitive campus in the country.
In all, 2,050 of 44,073 candidates received the good news, winning a coveted spot in the largest application pool in Stanford’s history.
That’s 4.6 percent. Less than a decade ago, in 2008, seats were offered to 9.5 percent of applicants.
“We continue to be awed and humbled by the interest Stanford receives from outstanding young people around the world,” Richard Shaw, dean of admission and financial aid, said in a prepared statement.
By comparison, the admission rate at Harvard was 5.2 percent; Columbia, 5.8 percent; Princeton, 6.4 percent; Yale, 6.9 percent; Duke, 7.3 percent and Brown, 8.3 percent.
About 18 percent of accepted Stanford students will be the first member of their family to attend college.
Successful applicants come from 82 different counties. That’s up from 59 countries about a decade ago.
Under Stanford’s financial aid program, parents with yearly incomes of less than $125,000 and typical assets for this income range will pay no tuition. For families with income below $65,000, Stanford picks up almost the entire tab for tuition, room and board.
“This year in particular we are proud of the intellectual strength and incredible diversity represented by this group,” said Shaw. “These students have already had incredible impact on their communities, and we know they will impact the world in immeasurable ways.”
Admitted students have until May 1 to accept Stanford’s offer.
Tiger Woods has confirmed he will not participate in next week’s Masters, the 14-times major winner admitting his game is “not tournament ready” as he battles continuing back issues. In the latest ominous glance towards the future Woods said on Friday he remains unclear as to when he may play again.
Woods has played only three competitive rounds in 2017, the last coming before he made a Friday morning withdrawal from the Dubai Desert Classic in early February. Woods, 41, cited back spasms having underdone three surgeries on the same area in recent times.
Continue reading...SAN FRANCISCO — Bruce Bochy finally made the call on the Giants’ fifth starter, and in what shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone, it’ll be veteran right-hander Matt Cain.
Despite a shaky spring, Cain was the pick over rookie left-hander Ty Blach, who will make the club as a swing man pitching short and long relief and possibly spot start if needed.
Cain, in the final year of a five-year deal that will pay him $20 million in 2017, posted a 7.82 ERA in spring training following a rough 2016 campaign in which he was 4-8 with a 5.64 ERA. But Bochy saw a pitcher who plowed through early spring adversity and showed enough improvement to win the job.
“I thought Matt handled everything well, he was healthy, he threw strikes, and he got better as it went,” said Bochy said. “His command of his secondary pitches really came around there at the end, so he deserves to be our fifth starter right now.”
White House deflects questions about Trump and Russian inquiry by pointing a finger at Obama administration for ‘potentially’ leaking classified information
The White House on Friday tried attack as a form of defence, deflecting questions about Donald Trump’s possible links to Russia by leveling serious allegations at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and chastising reporters for not investigating them.
At his daily briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer was even more combative than usual as he clashed with journalists from the New York Times and other outlets and accused the Obama administration of “potentially” leaking classified information for political ends.
Continue reading...Socialist Worker has a profile of Anthony Papa of the Drug Policy Alliance. He has a book out about his experiences after being released from prison, where he served a sentence for a drug crime that he'd been entrapped into committing. The book is called This Side of Freedom: Life After Clemency.
Snip:
On January 24, 1985, Anthony Papa, a young radio and auto repair worker, was entrapped in a bust planned by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Papa, in his late 20s, was living in the Bronx with his wife and young daughter, and struggling to provide for his family. Down on his luck, he took a chance to make some quick cash by delivering a package of cocaine to nearby Westchester County. When Papa handed over the package to two undercover narcotics officers, he was arrested. Papa was found guilty and sentenced to two 15-years-to-life sentences under the Rockefeller Drug Laws, with their mandated minimum sentences for low-level, nonviolent drug crimes.
Apple computers was founded on April 1, 1976. In this commercial for the Japanese human resources brand PERSOL, Steve Wozniak talks about how he "stumbled into a journal about digital computer topics" and how it changed his life.
via NAIJA Society
http://ift.tt/2huhMvk
Fifty years after graduating from Campbell High School and going their separate ways, a couple of friends decided it was time for a reunion.
Their plan was so popular that their little reunion is going to turn into a much bigger party for those who once walked the halls of the campus, which closed in 1980.
On June 17 anyone who attended the defunct school is invited to the Campbell High All School Reunion at John D. Morgan Park, located at 540 W. Rincon Ave.
Donald Russell, class of 1967 and a committee member organizing the reunion, initially planned a reunion with two high school buddies via Facebook. They figured it would be good to meet and reminisce about their high school days and catch up on what they’d been up since the last time they saw each other. Their graduation day all those years ago was June 16, and the plan was to relive that day in all its detail.
“The three of us were going to meet 50 years later on Friday, June 16, at 4:30 p.m. on the CHS lawn,” Russell wrote in an email to this newspaper.
However, Russell says that when other alumni got wind of the event, they wanted to join the reunion.
“The number grew, and people from other CHS classes wanted to join us,” Russell wrote.
Russell says a committee was put together to organize the reunion, and in January the group rented out parts of the park. Former teachers are also encouraged to attend.
School history
Campbell High School opened on Sept. 14, 1900, with 35 students. The first school building was located at Winchester Boulevard and Rincon Avenue.
In 1937 construction began at the intersection of Winchester Boulevard and Campbell Avenue. In the 1960s additional high schools were built within the Campbell Union High School District.
Campbell High School was closed in 1980 due to declining enrollment. The school site is now home to the Campbell Community Center. Students do still get an education at the site as the private Delphi Academy is housed there.
The high school auditorium has been transformed into the Heritage Theatre.
Notable alumni include Nobel prize winner in chemistry Dudley Herschbach, a 1950 graduate, and C.E. “Swede” Righter, who won an Olympic Gold medal in the 1920 games in Antwerp for rugby. Righter was a graduate of the class of 1912. Billy Wilson, a 1946 graduate, played in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers.
To RSVP for the reunion, send an email by April 15 with your name, number of people in your party and your graduating class to CampbellHigh1967Reunion@aol.com.
North Carolina grudgingly repealed its “transgender bathroom bill” Thursday under the threat of losing billions of dollars in business from companies and particularly from sports teams. But anyone who cares about human rights — and that’s what we’re talking about here — should reject this attempt to feign enlightenment.
The new bill makes it clear that the North Carolina Legislature still views equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans as, at best, suspect and, at worst, wrong.
But that lawmakers did anything at all shows the power of good people speaking up. So let’s keep it up, with words and dollars, until LGBT athletes, employees and travelers can go to Charlotte or Raleigh without fear of being treated as something less than other Americans.
And so that other states get the message.
North Carolina touched a nerve with its bathroom law, but 28 other states still allow discrimination against LGBT Americans in housing, health care and other areas. And the Trump administration is unlikely to defend LGBT rights as the Obama administration did. It’s really up to the private sector.
This is what brought former Attorney General Eric Holder and other representatives of the Gill Foundation, which fights for LGBT equality, to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation recently to speak to donors and — this is important — to valley executives about how they can help.
The transgender bathroom issue exploded into what Gill representatives call “transpanic,” potentially inflaming anti-LGBT sentiment. Holder’s main message was that tech can help in this fight.
It helped in North Carolina. Paypal dropped plans for a corporate center with 400 jobs. Executives of the lion’s share of technology companies joined bankers, retailers and airlines in protesting the law and warning that it would affect their business decisions.
But tech has, Holder says, a still largely untapped power. The sector’s egalitarian policies, if anything, have increased prosperity. CEOs can get the word out.
But it can’t be just about what’s good for business.
“I really think, at base, this is a moral issue,” Holder said. “This is a question of what kind of nation we’re going to be. … It’s a question about who we are as a people.”
Don’t look to North Carolina for the answer.
ONLINE EXTRA: A video of former Attorney General Eric Holder discussing LGBT rights with Mercury News Editorial Page Editor Barbara Marshman is attached to this editorial at http://ift.tt/2nTL6yX .
Dr Ejiro Imuere This is a topic so many have shied away from addressing. But this topic is what we expected many online "re...
