Ingested Articles

Former NBA player and Hall of Fame coach Bobby “Slick" Leonard has died. The Indiana Pacers announced his death Tuesday. He went 573-534 and won three ABA championships in 14 seasons as a coach, the last 12 with the Pacers. He also made the winning free throws in the 1953 NCAA Tournament to give the Indiana Hoosiers the second of five national titles. In 1985, he became the Pacers color commentator on television broadcasts and later moved into the radio booth where he coined his trademark phrase “Boom, Baby!” when Pacers players made 3-pointers. Bobby “Slick” Leonard was 88.

Leaders of volcano-wracked St. Vincent say that water is running short as heavy ash contaminates supplies and they estimated that the eastern Caribbean island will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption of La Soufriere. Between 16,000 to 20,000 people have been evacuated from the island’s northern region, where the exploding volcano is located. More than 3,000 of them staying at more than 80 government shelters. Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said Tuesday no casualties have been reported, but he urged holdouts to evacuate. Falling ash and pyroclastic flows have destroyed crops and contaminated water reservoirs.

Health authorities are investigating highly unusual blood clots after use of two COVID-19 vaccines, and a rare immune response is the main suspect. The U.S. recommended a pause Tuesday in the use of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine while they examine six reports of the clots. That's out of nearly 7 million Americans who have been given the one-dose vaccination. Last week, European authorities said similar clots were possibly linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine. Scientists there first raised the possibility that some people were having an abnormal immune response. An FDA official said that's the theory as the U.S. now investigates clots in J&J recipients.

Stocks closed mixed on Wall Street Tuesday as gains from a handful of Big Tech companies were tempered by weakness elsewhere in the market. Treasury yields fell, which hurt banks but helped tech companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, notching another record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.1%. Among major tech stocks, Apple gained 2.4%. Johnson & Johnson fell 1.3% after U.S. regulators recommended a pause in using its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of possibly dangerous blood clots. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.62%. 

A white former police officer serving 20 years in prison for killing an unarmed Black man who ran from a South Carolina traffic stop said his lawyer never told him about an initial plea offer from prosecutors. He said that offer could have cut years off his sentence. Ex-North Charleston police officer Michael Slager is requesting a new sentence in federal court. But prosecutors say the error by Slager's former lawyer doesn't merit tossing out the 20-year sentence for the 2015 shooting. Slager pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge in 2017 for shooting Walter Scott in the back five times — a shooting captured on cellphone video. 

Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be any groundswell of support for the idea of boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics, which are scheduled to take place just 10 months from now. The U.S. State Department suggested earlier this month that an Olympic boycott was among the possibilities because of human rights issues in China, but a senior official said later a boycott has not been discussed. Count track great Edwin Moses among those hoping it doesn’t enter the conversation again.  

All divisional play during this shortened NHL season gives an added perk to most of the players traded at the deadline: They get to face different teams. After months of worrying only about the six other Canadian teams and not paying attention to the rest of the league, Sam Bennett will get to play against six Central Division opponents after a trade to Florida. Anthony Mantha gets to bang bodies with the Islanders, Penguins and Bruins now that he is with Washington..

Augusta National was behind the idea of the Asia-Pacific Amateur that was created in 2009. Former club chairman Billy Payne once said the idea was to create golfing heroes, not necessarily a Masters champion. Hideki Matsuyama is now both. Several Asian players from those early amateur events have gone on to get PGA Tour cards. It's an example of Augusta National joining with other organizations to create growth and inspiration in areas that are teeming with potential. According to those in the room when Matsuyama met with Augusta National members after his Masters win, Payne was close to tears.

Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida will permanently close the leaky Piney Point reservoir that poured millions of gallons of wastewater into Tampa Bay while threatening to burst open and flood nearby homes and businesses. The Republican governor said at a news conference at the site that problems at the chronically troublesome reservoir must end. The facility holds polluted water from an old phosphate plant. DeSantis said he directed the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a closure plan. DeSantis said the agency will spend $15.4 million to treat the water to reduce the nutrients that can cause algae blooms and fish kills.

Engineer Gena Johnson is one of Nashville's premiere talents behind the mixing board, working with Chris Stapleton, Ashley Monroe, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile and many more. She's the first woman to be nominated for engineer of the year by the Academy of Country Music. Johnson works at the best recording studios in Nashville, but also has a cozy home studio where she puts the finishing touches on albums. She also got to help record songwriter John Prine's last song “I Remember Everything,” which won two Grammys. Johnson said being the first woman nominated as an engineer feels good, but also feels like “we have a lot more work to do.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The effects of the coronavirus pandemic are expected to contribute over the next year to “humanitarian and economic crises, political unrest, and geopolitical competition,” according to a new intelligence report that also warns about the threats from…

NEW YORK (AP) — Screenplay writing, usually a fairly solitary, uneventful process, is more of a full-contact sport for a movie like “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” Work for the nine Oscar-nominated writers of the “Borat” sequel began conventionally enough. Brainstorming, a…

The National Transportation Safety Board says pilot error probably caused the 2019 crash of a World War II-era bomber in Connecticut that killed seven people and wounded six others. The board released a report Tuesday that also blames inadequate maintenance. Pilot Ernest McCauley reported engine trouble shortly after takeoff. The plane crashed into a maintenance building and burst into flames during a landing attempt. The NTSB says the plane's landing gear was put down too early and the plane was not traveling fast enough. Plane owner the Collings Foundation did not directly address the findings in a statement.

The “prime suspect” has been arrested in the 25-year-old disappearance of a California college student and the San Luis Obispo sheriff plans to announce “major developments” in the case. Paul Flores, 44, who was the last person seen with Kristin Smart before she vanished in 1996, was taken into custody Tuesday in the Los Angeles area. His father, Ruben Flores, was arrested as an accessory at his Arroyo Grande home, where sheriff’s investigators conducted another search. Defense attorney Robert Sanger confirmed Paul Flores was arrested in the Smart case but he declined further comment. 

PARIS (AP) — France suspended all flights from Brazil on Tuesday amid mounting fears over the particularly contagious coronavirus variant that has been sweeping the South American country. Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the suspension to parliament. “We note that…