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SF Giants’ wild card deficit grows as Alex Cobb exits crucial start vs. D-backs in third inning

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

PHOENIX — The Giants understood the stakes at hand in this two-game series against the Diamondbacks. Win both and 2½-game gap in the wild card standings would be almost entirely erased; a split would clinch the season series and secure a potentially important tiebreaker.That factored in as much as the added days of rest for Alex Cobb’s troublesome hip when they chose to push his scheduled start back from Saturday in Colorado to Tuesday’s series opener in Arizona. It’s hard to imagine the decision backfiring worse.In an 8-4 loss, Cobb walked off the mound after throwing two pitches in the third inning Tuesday night, clearly bothered by the impingement in his left hip. He seemed to labor through all 52 of his pitches, put base runners on in each of his two innings and left having allowed five runs.The loss was the Giants’ 24th in 29 road games since July 18 and their fourth in their past five contests. This one dealt a serious blow to their postseason chances.W...

HS basketball stars team up for Napa prep school

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

NAPA, Calif. (KRON) -- Napa's Prolific Prep is known for turning out basketball stars. In addition to a number of high-major Division 1 stars, NBA players like Gary Trent Jr. and Jalen Green attended the North Bay high school. This year will be no different. Prolific Prep boasts the two top-rated recruits in the 2026 class: AJ Dybantsa and Tyran Stokes. Both sophomores will have targets on their back, but they are looking forward to growing together on their quest for a national championship. KRON4 went out to Napa to speak to the young stars. Stokes, a Louisville, KY native, has already been in Napa for a year. When he heard Dybantsa was a candidate to join him at Prolific Prep, he put his recruiting hat on. How 49ers’ Taybor Pepper became a long snapper "When my coaches first told me that they were interested in him, that's when I started heavily recruiting," Stokes said. "Every day I'm calling him randomly, 'AJ, slide, slide, slide. We might as well.'"Dybantsa is a Massachusett...

Player of the Week: Georgetown Prep’s Colin Reynolds

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

(new Image()).src = "https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=9be9c680-c459-4acb-af21-654a2ccca384&cid=c2ffed0c-3624-46c0-b10f-97c976d290a3";cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "9be9c680-c459-4acb-af21-654a2ccca384",mediaId: "639d29d1-5d81-4bb3-8815-004f577340a9"}).render("939bdcd2eeed4944b0e255488677e16d"); });Georgetown Prep running back Colin Reynolds rushed 30 times for 253 yards and four touchdowns, including the game-winning four-yard score in overtime, as the Little Hoyas edged Woodberry Forest, 28-25. For his efforts, Reynolds was named the Military Bowl DC Touchdown Club High School Football Player of the Week.Georgetown Prep running back Colin Reynolds rushed 30 times for 253 yards and four touchdowns, including the game-winning four-yard score in overtime, as the Little Hoyas edged Woodberry Forest, 28-25. For his efforts, Reynolds was named the Military Bowl DC Touchdown Club High School Football Player of the Week. (Courtesy Donhee Cui)“The first time I saw ...

This is what it’s like to maintain the US nuclear arsenal

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

KANSAS CITY NATIONAL SECURITY CAMPUS, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. will spend more than $750 billion over the next decade to revamp nearly every part of its aging nuclear defenses. Officials say they simply can’t wait any longer — some systems and parts are more than 50 years old.For now, it’s up to young military troops and government technicians across the U.S. to maintain the existing bombs and related components. The jobs are exacting and often require a deft touch. That’s because many of the maintenance tasks must be performed by hand. The Associated Press was granted rare access to nuclear missile bases and weapons production facilities to see how technicians keep the arsenal working while starting the government’s biggest nuclear overhaul since the Cold War. This is how they do it and who they are:SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLLBecause the U.S. no longer conducts explosive nuclear tests, scientists are not exactly sure how aging warhead plutonium cores affect detonation...

Inside the delicate art of maintaining America’s aging nuclear weapons

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

KANSAS CITY NATIONAL SECURITY CAMPUS, Mo. (AP) — In an ultra-sterile room at a secure factory in Kansas City, U.S. government technicians refurbish the nation’s nuclear warheads. The job is exacting: Each warhead has thousands of springs, gears and copper contacts that must work in conjunction to set off a nuclear explosion.Eight hundred miles away in New Mexico, workers in a steel-walled vault have an equally delicate task. Wearing radiation monitors, safety goggles and seven layers of gloves, they practice shaping new warhead plutonium cores — by hand. And at nuclear weapons bases across the country, troops as young as 17 keep 50-year-old warheads working until replacements are ready. A hairline scratch on a warhead’s polished black cone could send the bomb off course. The Associated Press was granted rare access to key parts of the highly classified nuclear supply chain and got to watch technicians and engineers tackle the difficult job of maintaining an aging nuclear arsen...

Japan records a trade deficit in August as exports to China, rest of Asia weaken

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s exports fell 0.8% last month from a year earlier, with steep declines in shipments to China and the rest of Asia, its largest regional market. Imports sank nearly 18%, the Japanese Finance Ministry said in preliminary data released Wednesday. That left a trade deficit of 930.5 billion yen ($6.3 billion) in August, for the second straight month of red ink, it said. Exports to Asian markets fell 8.8%, while imports dropped about 13%. A large share of that was an 11% drop in the value of shipments to China, whose economy has slowed in recent months as a hoped-for rebound from disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic fizzled. “We think the weak recovery in China will continue to have a negative impact on exports for a while, but semiconductors seem like they are bottoming out from the down cycle,” Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING, said in a report.He said the strong contribution to economic growth in the April-July quarter was expected to we...

Padres working on combined no-hitter after starter Blake Snell removed in 8th inning vs Rockies

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Padres left-hander Blake Snell carried a no-hitter though seven innings Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies before being removed from the game.Robert Suarez entered in relief and worked a perfect eighth to keep San Diego’s combined no-hit bid intact.Snell, the big league ERA leader who is making a push for his second Cy Young Award, threw 62 of his 104 pitches for strikes. He struck out 10 and walked four, running his major league-leading total to 96. His season high is 113 pitches and his career high is 122.Snell has never completed eight innings in the majors and San Diego manager Bob Melvin decided seven was enough this time. There was a smattering of boos at Petco Park when Suarez came into a scoreless game. Center fielder Trent Grisham and right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. both made nice running catches in the sixth to keep the no-hitter going, and Grisham made another nice grab in the seventh.Snell is 14-9 with a 2.33 ERA in 31 starts this season. ...

Homeowners face rising insurance rates as climate change makes wildfires, storms more common

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A growing number of Americans are finding it difficult to afford insurance on their homes, a problem only expected to worsen because insurers and lawmakers have underestimated the impact of climate change, a new report says.A report from First Street Foundation released Wednesday says states such as California, Florida and Louisiana, which are prone to wildfires and damaging storms and flooding, are likely to see the most dramatic increases in premiums. But the fire that destroyed the Hawaiian community of Lahaina on Aug. 8, as well as the historic flooding that happened in Vermont and Maine in July, are examples of events that could drive up insurance costs for homeowners in other states.“If you’re not worried, you’re not paying attention,” said California Sen. Bill Dodd, whose district includes the wine-country counties devastated by the LNU Complex fires in 2020.First Street estimates, factoring climate models into the financial risk of properties in its report, t...

Today in History: September 20, Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in tennis ‘battle of the sexes’

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

Today in History Today is Wednesday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2023. There are 102 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Sept. 20, 1973, in their so-called “battle of the sexes,” tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Houston Astrodome. On this date: In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships to find a western passage to the Spice Islands. (Magellan was killed enroute, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.) In 1881, Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding the assassinated James A. Garfield. In 1946, the first Cannes Film Festival, lasting 16 days, opened in France. In 1962, James Meredith, a Black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Democratic Gov. Ross R. Barnett. In 1964, The Beatles concluded their first full-fledged U.S. tour by performing in a charity concert at the...

UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt defends China’s invitation to AI summit

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:09:16 GMT

The U.K. will invite China to participate only in limited portions of an artificial intelligence summit planned for later this year amid hesitation from the U.S. and other allies, U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told POLITICO Tech.“We’re not going to invite China to every single part of the summit,” Hunt said, as he defended the decision to include Beijing despite widespread concerns about its use of AI technology for surveillance and suppression. He added that British officials intend “to be very open” about practices that “we don’t consider to be acceptable.”“If you’re trying to create structures that make AI something that overall is a net benefit to humanity, then you can’t just ignore the second-biggest economy in the world,” Hunt said in an interview that will air Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean that you make any kind of compromises with your values but sometimes dialogue can be beneficial.”The summit, announced in June by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is a U.K.-led eff...