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Broncos draft preview: Denver has top-end talent, needs quality depth in secondary

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

Editor’s note: This is the ninth and final in a series of NFL draft previews as it relates to the Broncos. Today: Defensive backs April 10: Quarterbacks | April 11: Running backs | April 12: Wide receivers | April 13: Tight ends | April 14: Offensive line | Tuesday: Defensive line | Wednesday: Edge rushers | Thursday: Inside linebackers Broncos’ in-house offseason moves: Signed cornerback Tremon Smith (two years, $5 million), re-signed cornerback Essang Bassey (one year, $1.01 million), re-signed safety P.J. Locke (one year, $1.01 million).Under contract: Cornerbacks Smith, Bassey, Pat Surtain II (two years plus 2025 fifth-year option), Damarri Mathis (three years), K’Waun Williams (one year), Ja’Quan McMillian (two years), Faion Hicks (one year), Delonte Hood (one year). Safeties: Locke, Justin Simmons (two years), Caden Sterns (two years), Delarrin Turner-Yell (three years), Devon Key (one year).Need scale (1-10): 7. Denver’s top-end talent in the secondary is elite with Surtain a...

Walters: Imperial Valley nears day of reckoning for use of distressed Colorado River.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

When white settlers forayed into what came to be known as the Imperial Valley at the dawn of the 20th century, they found a barren desert in California’s southeastern corner, unpopulated except for a few members of the Kamia clan of the Kumeyaay tribe.The harsh conditions, however, had a potential upside. With water, the desert could bloom with crops and the water was potentially available from the Colorado River, which flowed to the sea a few dozen miles to the east, on the other side of a massive stretch of Sahara-like sand dunes.The settlement of the valley was romantically portrayed in “The Winning of Barbara Worth,” a best-selling novel by Harold Bell Wright that later became a silent movie.A canal was dug, routed through Mexico to skirt the sand dunes, and the Imperial Valley, named for the Imperial Land Co., blossomed. It became a 500,000-acre provider of vegetables, alfalfa and other crops watered at very little cost from the Colorado and nurtured by year-round sunshine.By b...

Without Draymond Green, these key players stepped up to save Warriors’ season

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Draymond Green served his league suspension. Gary Payton II, a late scratch due to illness. The Warriors, down two games to none to the Sacramento Kings in the playoffs’ first round, were without their two best defenders understanding that one more loss would all but cut their end title defense.In the hours leading up to a pivotal Game 3, coach Steve Kerr and the veterans preached the need for the role players and, in some cases, guys who’ve completely fallen out of the rotation to step up. At practice, Green told them how to best take on his duties in his absence.It’s a tired call to action if it falls on def ears. But a sermon for the motivated.The Warriors’ 114-97 season-saving win on Thursday night at Chase Center doesn’t happen without a galvanized Moses Moody, Donte DiVincenzo, Jonathan Kuminga and JaMychal Green. For them, the next-man-up cliche turned into an inspired reality.“Humbly speaking, I’ve always been a...

Kowitt: Disney embraces its role as hero to DeSantis’s villain

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s war against Walt Disney Co. reached parody level on Monday when he floated his latest threat: building a prison next to its theme park complex in the state.While DeSantis is increasingly coming across as petty and vindictive in the debacle — and some might even say slightly unhinged — in a strange twist the conflict is giving Disney a chance to demonstrate its mettle and rewrite the narrative on its corporate values and ethics.For those who have not been following the drama worthy of its own full-length Disney treatment, here’s a recap: DeSantis and the media giant’s battle began last year when the company spoke out rather mildly against a Florida bill designed to ban elementary school classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity — dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics.DeSantis retaliated by disbanding Disney’s special districting, which allowed the company to self-govern Disney World. But before the new governing structure went in...

Former Santa Cruz County nurse pleads guilty in sex abuse case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — A former Watsonville nurse involved in a child sex case pleaded guilty Thursday to four out of 44 felonies and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, with the option for parole.As a part of a plea deal struck with the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office, Rashel Brandon, 48, will be required to testify at the trial of her former co-defendant and to register as a sex offender for life, upon release.“I would also like to apologize to the victims in this case; what was done to them by myself and others was heinous,” Brandon wrote, in part, in a statement she read aloud to the court Thursday. “It will affect them for the rest of their lives. For that, I wish I could turn back time and do what I should have done and contacted the authorities when I found out what my co-defendants had been doing for years.”Brandon also apologized to her family, friends, co-workers and the community, saying that “these crimes rocked every one of these people to the core.” Brandon said s...

Oakland A’s reach land deal in Las Vegas: So what comes next?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

The A’s took their biggest step yet toward realizing their long-explored departure from Oakland in a stunning late-night announcement that broke the hearts of their fans and knocked the city’s leaders on their heels.Despite decades of relocation threats, it was nonetheless surprising when A’s president Dave Kaval revealed late Wednesday that the team has signed a binding agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas, where they plan to move.Kaval announced that the A’s finalized a deal last week to buy a 49-acre site near the Vegas Strip, where they plan to construct a 35,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof hopefully in time for the 2027 season. Coincidentally, the parcel of land near Tropicana Boulevard and Interstate 15 is just down the road from Allegiant Stadium, where a former Oakland team — the Raiders — plays its games.Stunned Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who said she’d been negotiating daily with the A’s on a deal to bring the $12 billion Howard Terminal project to f...

Opinion: California students sound the alarm on climate change

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

California youth have sounded the alarm: climate change is not a future threat — it’s already here, flooding their streets, burning their neighborhoods, cutting their school days, upending their food systems and more.More than 120 middle and high school students submitted entries for CalMatters’ op-ed contest for Earth Day, which is Saturday. Here are some edited excerpts.I have never known a world in which summer temperatures did not break records. In 2018, when the Camp Fire cloaked my city in smoke, my friend created a song inspired by my asthma. It was entitled “If You Breathe, You’re Gonna Die.” We were 12 years old.We can combat climate change, but doing so will require bold, transformative action. This Earth Day, we must call on the California Department of Geologic Energy Management to stop issuing new oil permits.— Supriya P., high school student in Sacramento County. In 2015, I was in Porter Ranch during the time of the Aliso Canyon leak, and it was terrifying. I had ...

Woman dead after rock-hurling attacks on moving vehicles in Denver crime spree

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

Rock-throwing attacks on moving vehicles in west metro Denver and Boulder left a 20-year-old woman dead Thursday after the rock hurled at her yellow Chevy Spark crashed through the windshield, hitting her.The attacks Wednesday night and early Thursday by one or more assailants also targeted at least four other vehicles, all of them moving, and injured two drivers.No arrests had been made as of Thursday evening.The Jefferson County sheriff’s office described a vehicle of interest and identified its owner but later concluded that neither were involved in the crime spree Thursday night.In the moments before victim Alexa Bartell of Arvada was killed, in the 10600 block of Indiana Street about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, she was on her phone talking with a close friend, Jefferson County authorities said. Then the phone went silent.Bartell’s friend “used an app to locate Alexa’s phone,” and the friend went to the location along Indiana Street, Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley...

Man severely beaten after altercation over parking space at Cub Scout meeting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

A Cub Scout meeting in Michigan turned violent Tuesday night when one man allegedly punched another in the head repeatedly over a disagreement about a disabled parking space.According to Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer, the altercation took place at Roose Elementary School in Warren — in the school cafeteria where the Cub Scout meeting was being held. The 26-year-old male suspect approached the victim, indicated he was armed and threatened to shoot him.Police say the assailant was not armed, but did physically assault the other man.“There were several witnesses and the incident was recorded,” said Dwyer. “The suspect punched the victim in the head and knocked out several teeth and knocked him unconscious.”The victim was transported to Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital where he was initially listed in critical condition but was upgraded to stable condition Wednesday morning, according to Dwyer.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Former Santa Cruz Countu nurse plea...

Leaked Tape Reveals How Spy Camera Firm Used Ex-U.S. Official to Cover Up Uyghur Abuses

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:52 GMT

In the western territory of Xinjiang, known as the Uyghur Autonomous Region, China has created intense surveillance networks to monitor and persecute the population. Cameras line the streets, as well as the doors of homes and mosques, anchoring a system of repression that has led to the mass detention of thousands of people.Hikvision’s cameras make up a large part of this system. But the world’s largest security camera manufacturer has always denied their complicity in the violation of human rights against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.In 2019, facing increasing U.S. sanctions, Hikvison commissioned a human rights review of its five largest police projects in Xinjiang, which has a population of over 25 million. The company hired Pierre-Richard Prosper, the former ambassador-at-large for war crimes in the Bush administration State Department and a war crimes prosecutor at the United Nations in the late 1990s.The full review remained secret, but Hikvision released one sentence s...