Ingested Articles

LaMelo Ball returned from a 21-game absence with 11 points, leading the Charlotte Hornets to a 107-94 victory over the Detroit Pistons. A leading candidate for Rookie of the Year, Ball had surgery to repair a broken wrist sustained on March 20. The point guard played 28 minutes and added eight rebounds and seven assists, including a nifty underhand pass from his own backcourt to Miles Bridges. Terry Rozier led Charlotte with 29 points, including a 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and help stave off Detroit’s final rally late in the fourth quarter. 

Corey Kluber goes for his 100th career victory when he starts for the Yankees at home against Detroit. The 35-year-old Kluber is 99-60 in a big league career that started in 2011. The two-time AL Cy Young Award winner has posted just three wins in the last three years with Cleveland, Texas and New York while beset by injuries. Kluber faces the worst-hitting team in the majors. The Tigers have a team batting average of just under .200 — former Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera went 0 for 5 on Saturday and fell to .125.

Anthony Beauvillier scored twice and Semyon Varlamov stopped 28 shots for his league-leading seventh shutout of the season as the New York Islanders beat the New York Rangers 3-0 to clinch a playoff spot for the third straight season. Mathew Barzal added a breakaway goal and Josh Bailey had three assists to help the Islanders beat the Rangers for the sixth time in eight meetings this season, including the last three by a combined 13-1 margin. The 33-year-old Varlamov, who had three shutouts against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, added another as the Islanders dominated from start to finish. Alexandar Georgiev finished with 22 saves for the Rangers.

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts has departed the International Space Station and is aiming for a rare nighttime splashdown. The Dragon capsule undocked from the station Saturday night. SpaceX is targeting a splashdown around 3 a.m. Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida. It will be the first U.S. splashdown in darkness since Apollo 8's crew returned from the moon in 1968. Returning are NASA's Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan's Soichi Noguchi. They rocketed into orbit in November, only the second crew to be launched by SpaceX.

The New York Jets’ offense was downright offensive on most Sundays the past few seasons. Joe Douglas went to work on changing all that pick by pick early in the NFL draft. The Jets went with offense on their first four selections and kicked things off by taking their newest franchise quarterback in BYU’s Zach Wilson at No. 2 overall. It marked the first time the Jets drafted offensive players with their first four picks since 1983. Douglas then took defensive players with the team’s final six picks. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is winning support from top Democrats including Vice President Kamala Harris as he prepares to face a recall election later this year. The California Democratic Party's annual convention Saturday featured speakers who argued removing Newsom from office would roll back the state's liberal policy achievements. Harris, who is from California, says she and President Joe Biden support Newsom “100%." She and other speakers also highlighted Biden's activities during his first 100 days in office and urged Democrats to stay energized for both the recall and the 2022 midterms, when Democrats will try to hold power in the House and Senate.

Sam Burns appeared to be sailing along Saturday in the Valspar Championship. Then came the reminder how quickly it all can change at Innisbrook. Burns had a three-shot lead with five holes to play. On the final hole, he had to make an 8-foot bogey putt just to stay tied for the lead. Burns shot a 69. Keegan Bradley also shot a 69. They were at 14-under par, tying the 54-hole tournament record. One shot behind them was Max Homa with a 66. Homa made two more putts longer than 25 feet, including a 35-footer on the last hole.

Medina Spirit fought off three challengers in the stretch to win the Kentucky Derby, making Bob Baffert the winningest trainer in the race’s 147-year history with seven. Jockey John Velazquez earned his fourth Derby victory aboard the dark brown colt that was purchased as a yearling for $1,000 and cost current owner Amr Zedan $35,000. Baffert and Velazquez won back-to-back Derbies, having taken last year's edition with Authentic without spectators in the stands because of COVID-19.

From the moment San Francisco made the decision to trade two future first-round picks to move up from No. 12 to 3 in the NFL draft, the pressure on the organization was immense. General manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan spent the next month debating one of the most consequential decisions in franchise history before settling on taking North Dakota State’s Trey Lance as the quarterback of the future. After spending the final two days of the draft adding players to help Lance on offense and some to add depth on defense, the 49ers can finally catch their breath. 

As the NFL celebrated the conclusion of an in-person draft on the shores of Lake Erie that went swimmingly one year after a virtual event caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, one main fact emerged. For sure, the Southeastern Conference is the place to be for college football players. From 12 out of the SEC in the first round — six from national champion Alabama — to a total of 65 through the seven rounds that finished Saturday in Cleveland, the SEC dominated the selections the way it tends to dominate the college game.

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has stepped in to give the “Riders Up” command just before the Kentucky Derby as a last-minute substitute for originally scheduled local rapper Jack Harlow. No reason was immediately given for the quick change that put the four-time Derby winner in charge of the traditional call for jockeys to their mounts. But Lukas was ready. He delivered a clear, thorough command to the 19 riders gathered in the paddock for the premier race.

Jameson Taillon earned his first win in exactly two years, Aaron Judge had three hits and three RBIs, and the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 6-4. Gleyber Torres also drove in three runs as the Yankees won for the sixth time in seven games and improved to 13-14. Taillon allowed one run, three hits and struck out eight over five innings. The Yankees had lost in each of his four previous starts. Taillon’s previous win came on May 1, 2019, for Pittsburgh in his last outing before having Tommy John surgery. The Pirates traded him to the Yankees before this season.

Liverpool will like nothing more than to officially hand over its title as English Premier League champion to Manchester City on Sunday. City moved to the brink of reclaiming the league crown by beating Crystal Palace 2-0. One more win will complete the job for Pep Guardiola’s players. That's unless Liverpool does it for them with a victory at second-place Manchester United, the only team that can mathematically stop City. Liverpool heads to Old Trafford desperate for a win to keep alive its bid to qualify for next season's Champions League. Chelsea occupies the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot and is seven points ahead of Liverpool after a 2-0 win over Fulham.

Clerics and faithful from Eastern Orthodox churches are marking the annual Holy Fire ceremony inside Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher church. Hundreds packed in Saturday to the church revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, with only a few wearing masks and no distancing. Entry has been restricted to those fully vaccinated. Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III led the event. The scene at the church was a stark contrast to last year’s, when only a handful of religious leaders held the centuries-old ceremony in a near-empty setting enforced by the coronavirus pandemic. Israel has significantly lifted most of restrictions, including mask-wearing in public, after a world-leading vaccination drive.

Maine’s seaweed farmers are in the midst of a spring harvest that is almost certain to break state records. America’s seaweed farming industry is based principally in Maine, where the business has grown swiftly over the past several years. Atlantic Sea Farms, a Saco company that works with two dozen seaweed farmers, said it's likely to harvest more than 800,000 pounds of the gooey substance this year. The entire state accounted for 275,000 pounds in 2019. Industry members say the seaweed harvest has grown during the coronavirus pandemic because of increased demand for healthy foods.

The Missouri Legislature is the latest statehouse fighting to undo voter-backed ballot measures. Missouri's GOP-led Senate this past week voted against paying for voter-approved Medicaid expansion. The battle between Missouri lawmakers and voters is just one example of pushback to direct democracy. The purpose of ballot initiatives is to let voters address issues that lawmakers don't act on. Direct democracy expert Craig Burnett says by definition, voter-driven policies clash with what lawmakers want to do. Legislatures in response often try to claw power back and overturn ballot initiatives. South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Arizona and Florida are all states where lawmakers recently sought to undermine voter-approved measures. 

California is giving 76,000 inmates the opportunity to leave prison earlier. They include violent and repeat felons. The move comes as the state aims to further trim the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system. More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the previous one-fifth under new rules that take effect Saturday. About 13,000 inmates convicted of serious but nonviolent offenses will be eligible for release after serving half their sentences.

Two Western states known for rugged landscapes and wide-open spaces are bucking the trend of sluggish U.S. population growth, which dipped to the lowest level since the Great Depression. In Utah, births largely drove what has been the fastest growth in the country over the past decade. In neighboring Idaho, newcomers from California and other states helped it capture the second spot. Both states have long been lightly populated. Their expansion comes with breakneck economic growth that has driven housing prices far above wages and sparked concern about strains on infrastructure.

Brad Keselowski made it nine different winners through the first 10 races of the NASCAR Cup Series season last week at Talladega. Now, as the series shifts to Kansas Speedway, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick are among the stars trying to make it 10 of 11 on Sunday. Both have three wins at the speedway just west of downtown Kansas City. Also searching for their first wins this season are reigning series champion Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch, whose six wins across all series are the most in the 20-year history of the speedway.