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WWE Smackdown Denver preview: What to know Friday night at Ball Arena

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

Coach Prime isn’t the only show in Colorado this weekend. World Wrestling Entertainment makes its return to Denver on Friday when “SmackDown” broadcasts live from Ball Arena. Here’s what you need to know:InformationTime: 6 p.m.Venue: Ball ArenaTV: FoxThe announced cardJohn Cena is special guest on “The Grayson Waller Effect”Cena, the longtime wrestler-turned-actor, recently returned to the WWE for a stint that includes appearances on episodes of “SmackDown” through the end of October. He and Waller had a confrontation at “Money in the Bank” in July.LA Knight vs. The MizKnight, who has arguably been receiving the biggest responses from crowds of late, and The Miz have been embroiled in a feud over the past month. This is a rematch of their match at Payback when Knight won with Cena as the special referee.The titlesUndisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman ReignsReigns, who leads The Bloodline — a faction consisting of his...

NFL Picks: Interesting divisional matchups, rookie QBs squaring off and Aaron Rodgers’ devastating injury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

Around the AFCHard Knock life: It’s difficult to imagine a more brutal letdown for the New York Jets than Aaron Rodgers rupturing his Achilles on the fourth play of his tenure there. Before he completed a pass. The Jets can still win games, but that’s the ultimate downer about Rodgers’ injury. Their defense looks elite. Running back Breece Hall is on the comeback trail, and receiver Garrett Wilson is special. But without Rodgers, what’s the ceiling?KC’s road test: The start of Kansas City’s season is getting interesting in a hurry. The Chiefs dropped their opener against Detroit and now go to Jacksonville for a tough road test. An 0-2 start isn’t a disaster — Cincinnati did it last year and still had a great season — but it certainly wouldn’t be ideal even with the best quarterback on the planet running the show. Travis Kelce’s return will help, but Trevor Lawrence and company are no cakewalk.Rookies clash: The Nos. 2 and 4 overall picks in the 2023 draft square off and three of the...

CU Buffs vs. CSU Rams football: How to watch, storylines and staff predictions for Rocky Mountain Showdown

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

Colorado State (0-1) vs. No. 18 Colorado (2-0)When/where: 8 p.m. Saturday/Folsom FieldTV/Radio: ESPN/850 AMBetMGM Line: CU -23.5, 59.5 over/underWeather: Mostly clear, with a low around 48Five storylinesPrime Hype: With College GameDay in Boulder for the first time since 1996, and Big Noon Kickoff back for a second straight Saturday, the Buffs’ hype is at an all-time high. Deion Sanders is everywhere — on your social media feed, the subject of talk shows and starring in his own Aflac commercial alongside Nick Saban. It’s no hyperbole that CU is the biggest story in college football right now. The most-watched team in the nation will take over the late night audience Saturday. Will CSU be ready to perform under the bright lights, especially after coach Jay Norvell ignited trash talk between the programs by calling out Sanders for wearing sunglasses during interviews?QB Disparity: While Shedeur Sanders has been the centerpiece of CU’s first couple wins over TCU...

Former Dodgers MVP Steve Garvey mulling bid for Feinstein Senate seat: report

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

Former Los Angeles Dodgers MVP Steve Garvey is considering a bid for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) Senate seat after she retires following the 2024 elections, The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. Several GOP state party insiders and operatives told the outlet that Garvey, who played first base for the Dodgers and San Diego Padres for nearly 20 years beginning in the late 1960s, would run as a Republican. They said he has been meeting with Republican donors and leaders throughout the state and will likely decide whether to run in about the next month. Andy Gharakhani, a Republican strategist who is advising Garvey, confirmed to the Times that Garvey is considering running. “He is being contacted by leaders up and down the state," Gharakhani said. "They’re recruiting him to run from both sides, Republican and Democrat, and he’s seriously considering it."The strategist also said Garvey would run on issues surrounding the cost of living and public safety. Se...

Opinion: Court decision hurts ability to remove internet false speech

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

A decision on Friday by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit puts in jeopardy one of the few tools that exist to deal with false speech on the internet.The court ruled that the White House, the FBI, the surgeon general’s office and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cannot communicate with social media platforms to encourage them to remove false speech. Although it narrowed a federal district’s broader injunction issued in July, the appeals court left in place a restriction of important speech by the federal government.False speech over the internet and social media can do great harm, even causing the loss of life. One aspect of the case involved the federal government’s concerns with false information being spread about COVID-19 and vaccines on social media. Federal officials rightly feared that false claims by anti-vaxxers would reduce vaccinations and put lives in jeopardy.The lawsuit against the Biden administration was brought by Loui...

Review: ‘Cassandro’ shows Bernal at his infectious best

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

By Jake Coyle | Associated PressAnyone who has eagerly followed Gabriel Garcia Bernal since his breakthrough roles in “Amores Perros” and “Y tu mamá también” likely never foresaw him one day in the world of lucha libra wrestling.Bernal, far from the most brawny actor, has been a slyer shape-shifter, whether in heels as a femme fatale in Pedro Almodovar’s “Bad Education” or on a motorcycle as Che Guevara in Walter Salles’ “Motorcycle Diaries.”But while almost anything with Bernal in it has been worth seeing, it’s been a little while — maybe his pair of movies with Pablo Larrain, 2012’s “No” and 2016’s “Neruda” — since Bernal had a sufficiently good part to, well, really go to the mat for.He’s found it, though, in “Cassandro,” Roger Ross Williams’ based-on-a-true-story drama about the Mexican wrestler Saúl Armendáriz. He was an exótico in 1990s lucha libra wres...

Mama bear, cubs surprise diners on busy California street

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

A mother bear flanked by two cubs wandered southbound down a busy Lima Street in Sierra Madre on Thursday, Sept. 14, as surprised lunchtime diners scrambled inside and public safety personnel alerted the family to change direction.It all happened near the patios of the restaurants that line Sierra Madre Boulevard. It was just a few blocks from City Hall, where officials and residents have been sounding off on how to deal with a recent rise in the number of bear sightings – as recent as the day before, where a bear, apparently attracted by mangos, got into a home in the same general area as Thursday’s sighting.“It’s learned behavior now,” Police Chief Gustavo Barrientos said. “With positive and negative stimuli, you know, they know that by going through a window, there’s a reward and they’re going for it.”As she ambled east toward the closest eatery Thursday at lunchtime, Nano Cafe, the police PA system loudly alerted patrons to head inside, which also alerted the bear to change dire...

California issues $267 million in grants to combat epidemic of retail and other thefts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

More than $267 million in state grants will be distributed to law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in 51 cities and counties to help crack down on brazen retail, motor vehicle, catalytic converter and cargo thefts.Amid an epidemic of such thefts, many organized on social media and carried out by flash mobs, the California Board of State and Community Corrections on Thursday, Sept. 14, unanimously approved the allocation request from Gov. Gavin Newsom.Among recipients slated for funds that will begin flowing next month are the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles Police Department, which will each receive more than $15 million.Additionally, district attorney’s offices in Orange and Riverside counties each have been awarded $2 million to dedicate at least one prosecutor solely to organized retail theft cases.The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which sits at the epicenter of some of California’s most recent high-...

LA Police Department to test new Tasers with longer range

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

The Los Angeles Police Commission this week approved arming several hundred officers in Hollywood and South L.A. with new Tasers that have more than double the range as their old models, an upgrade they hope will help prevent officers from resorting to using their guns in encounters with combative people.The test pilot for the Taser 10 approved Tuesday, Sept. 12 will run for one year starting in late October. LAPD will deploy 200 Tasers each to the Hollywood, Central, Southeast and 77th Street stations. Officers already trained on the old Tasers will get two hours of additional training on the new devices.LAPD’s previous model, the Taser 7, fired two barbs attached by electric wires to the weapon itself, allowing officers to deliver an electric shock to a person with a pull of the trigger. That weapon had a range of 22 feet, said LAPD Deputy Chief Marc Reina.The new Tasers fire 10 barbs up to 45 feet, which officers can activate depending on which barbs have actually attached.Reina ...

Case against notorious California priest could be 1st in new wave of sexual abuse trials

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:09:50 GMT

A childhood sexual abuse case involving a priest who was one of Orange County’s most notorious predators is expected to be among the first of a massive wave of lawsuits filed against Roman Catholic dioceses statewide that are on track to go to trial next year.More than fifteen years after a string of dioceses — include Orange County and Los Angeles — agreed to pay hundreds of millions related to hundreds of claims of sexual abuse by the clergy, an even larger wave of litigation is on the horizon due to a state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for such cases, opening a three-year window to allow now-adult survivors to file lawsuits related to decades-old abuse.Roughly 2,000 Southern California childhood sexual assault cases allegedly involving the Catholic church were filed in Southern California during the three-year window, including roughly 250 against the Orange County Diocese, according to attorney Morgan Stewart, whose high-profile Orange County-based firm...