Dejounte Murray is rejoining the Pelicans vs. Toronto and drawing inspiration from his motherSustainable future: Which nation is top of the green rankings?
Flag football uses talent camps to uncover new starsPHILADELPHIA — Eagles fans serenaded Saquon Barkley with chants of “MVP!” after a 9-yard run gave him the team’s season rushing record. Barkley set the record in style — passing Eagles Hall of Famers Wilbert Montgomery and record holder LeSean McCoy in a single game — as he rushed for 124 yards to push his season total to 1,623 in a 22-16 victory over Carolina. The total was enough for Barkley to top McCoy’s 1,607 yards in 2013. Barkley also maintained his pace to break Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, set in 1984 with the Los Angeles Rams. At his pace, Barkley should that reach milestone, even possibly ahead of the 17th game of the season that Dickerson and the NFL did not have in 1984. Barkley captioned an Instagram post “Thankful” with a checked box next to “franchise single-season rushing yards record.” People are also reading... Here’s a look at what’s ahead for Barkley and his chances of catching Dickerson: Where does Barkley stand? Barkley leads the NFL in rushing with 1,623 yards, a hefty 216 yards ahead of Baltimore's Derrick Henry at 1,407 (though the Ravens had a bye Sunday). He is averaging 124.8 yards per game. At that pace, and with one more game to play than Dickerson had, he would become the top single-season rusher in NFL history. He needs 483 yards over the final four games to top Dickerson’s 40-year-old record. Barkley is on pace for 2,122 yards, which would put him just 17 yards beyond Dickerson's 2,105 total. What's the schedule like? Just on the quality of defenses alone, Barkley faces little pushback down the stretch. He feasted against a Panthers defense that was one of the worst against the run in the NFL. Barkley averaged 6.2 yards on 20 carries against Carolina and could easily expect to match that pace over at least three of the next four games. The Steelers come to Philadelphia on Sunday and should provide the stiffest test to Barkley in his record pursuit. Pittsburgh is fourth in the NFL in run defense. After the Steelers, Barkley could run wild. The Eagles' final three opponents — Washington, Dallas and the Giants — all rank near the bottom of the league against the run. Can Barkley stay healthy? Barkley has been a workhorse this season and worked a heavy load in New York — when he was healthy. Barkley only twice played in 16 games with the Giants. He played in 14 games last season, missing three because of a high ankle sprain. He ran for 962 yards and six touchdowns. He was limited to two games in 2020 after he suffered a torn ACL. Barkley has played through minor injuries this season and proved his durability by leading the NFL with 266 carries. But injuries might not be his only potential problem. The Eagles' nine-game winning streak has them sitting as the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Should they clinch that spot early, the final game against New York could be meaningless and coach Nick Sirianni could have to decide if Barkley goes for the mark or sits out ahead of the playoffs. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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Gaetz withdraws from attorney general consideration
Phreesia Announces Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 ResultsNew coach Chris Holtmann has been tasked with rebuilding DePaul to the point where it can return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. Northern Illinois coach Rashon Burno knows what it takes to steer DePaul to the NCAAs because he was the starting point guard on the 2000 team that made the tournament -- the Blue Demons' only other NCAA appearance since 1992. Perhaps they can compare notes Saturday afternoon when Burno leads the Huskies (2-3) back to his alma mater as DePaul (5-0) hosts its sixth straight home game in Chicago. Last season, Burno's NIU squad helped accelerate DePaul's need for a new coach -- as the Huskies waltzed into Wintrust Arena and owned Tony Stubblefield's Blue Demons by an 89-79 score on Nov. 25. The Huskies built a 24-point second-half lead before coasting to the finish line. Can history repeat for NIU? There's just one problem with using last year's game as a potential barometer for Saturday's rematch: Almost no players on this year's teams were part of last year's squads. At DePaul, only assistant coach Paris Parham remains as Holtmann had the green light to bring in an all-new roster. UIC graduate transfer Isaiah Rivera (16.0 ppg, .485 3-point rate) and Coastal Carolina transfer Jacob Meyer (15.4 ppg, .406 on 3s) lead a balanced attack that focuses on getting half its shots from beyond the arc. At NIU, Burno retained only two players who competed against DePaul last year -- Ethan Butler and Oluwasegun Durosinmi -- and they combined for three points in 26 minutes in that game. The Huskies' main players used the transfer portal to join such programs as Kansas, Wisconsin, Penn State, Colorado State, James Madison, Georgia State and Niagara. With every starting job open, Butler has jumped into the lineup and produced 11.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per game. Transfers Quentin Jones (Cal Poly) and James Dent (Western Illinois) pace the Huskies with 14.4 and 14.0 points per game. NIU is on a two-game losing streak, most recently a 75-48 home defeat at the hands of Elon on Wednesday. Holtmann hopes to have Arkansas transfer Layden Blocker for Saturday's game. Blocker missed Tuesday's 78-69 win over Eastern Illinois with a quad injury. With the combo guard unavailable, point guard Conor Enright handed out a career-high 11 assists in a season-high 38 minutes. "We need (Blocker)," Holtmann said. "I don't want to play Conor 38 minutes." --Field Level MediaNASSAU, Bahamas — RJ Luis Jr. scored 18 points, Kadary Richmond added 12 and No. 22 St. John’s bounced back from a buzzer-beating, double-overtime loss the night before to rout Virginia 80-55 in the consolation game of the Baha Mar Championship on Friday night. Deivon Smith added 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Red Storm. St. John’s (5-1) continued its hot shooting in the Caribbean, knocking down 10 shots from beyond the arc. For a second straight game, UVA (3-2) found its offense derailed by a reliance on 3-pointers and a slew of turnovers. But on Friday, it wasn’t competitive on the defensive end either. Elijah Saunders led the Cavaliers with 12 points. Andrew Rohde scored 11 and Isaac McKneely had 10. Takeaways Virginia: The Cavaliers were the only unranked squad among the four teams at the Baha Mar Championship, and it showed. They've lost back-to-back games by at least 20 points for the first time since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, Tony Bennett’s second as coach. Bennett retired shortly before this season. St. John’s: The Red Storm responded to Thursday night’s loss to Baylor at the buzzer in double overtime. St. John’s was engaged and energetic, taking it to Virginia from the opening tip as Luis scored the game’s first points on a transition dunk. Key moment St. John’s used a 16-0 run, fueled by six Virginia turnovers, to open up a 35-16 lead with 3:01 left in the first half. The Cavaliers only trailed by three prior to the run. Key stat Virginia committed 16 turnovers in the game, 13 of them from Red Storm steals. Up next St. John’s stays in the Bahamas for a standalone game against Georgia on Sunday, while Virginia hosts Manhattan on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart's sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups. The changes announced by the world's biggest retailer on Monday followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The retreat from such programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump's incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser Stephen Miller , who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies. “There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination,” said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher at the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board. “This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino,” he added. Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a prominent gay rights index . Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, conservative groups using similar arguments have secured court victories against various diversity programs, especially those that steer contracts to minority or women-owned businesses. Most recently, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a victory in a case against the U.S. Department of Transportation over its use of a program that gives priority to minority-owned businesses when it awards contracts. Companies are seeing a big legal risk in continuing with DEI efforts, said Dan Lennington, a deputy counsel at the institute. His organization says it has identified more than 60 programs in the federal government that it considers discriminatory, he said. “We have a legal landscape within the entire federal government, all three branches -- the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the President -- are all now firmly pointed in the direction towards equality of individuals and individualized treatment of all Americans, instead of diversity, equity and inclusion treating people as members of racial groups,” Lennington said. The Trump administration is also likely to take direct aim at DEI initiatives through executive orders and other policies that affect private companies, especially federal contractors. “The impact of the election on DEI policies is huge. It can’t be overstated,” said Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at law firm Gibson Dunn. With Miller returning to the White House, rolling back DEI initiatives is likely to be a priority, Schwartz said. “Companies are trying to strike the right balance to make clear they’ve got an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome, and they want to get the best talent, while at the same time trying not to alienate various parts of their employees and customer base who might feel one way or the other. It’s a virtually impossible dilemma,” Schwartz said. A recent survey by Pew Research Center showed that workers are divided on the merits of DEI policies. While still broadly popular, the share of workers who said focusing on workplace diversity was mostly a good thing fell to 52% in the October survey, compared to 56% in a similar survey in February 2023. Rachel Minkin, a research associate at Pew, called it a small but significant shift in short amount of time. There will be more companies pulling back from their DEI policies, but it likely won’t be a retreat across the board, said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University. “There are vastly more companies that are sticking with DEI," Glasgow said. "The only reason you don’t hear about it is most of them are doing it by stealth. They’re putting their heads down and doing DEI work and hoping not to attract attention.” Glasgow advises organizations to stick to their own core values, because attitudes toward the topic can change quickly in the span of four years. “It’s going to leave them looking a little bit weak if there’s a kind of flip-flopping, depending on whichever direction the political winds are blowing,” he said. One reason DEI programs exist is because without those programs, companies may be vulnerable to lawsuits for traditional discrimination. “Really think carefully about the risks in all directions on this topic,” Glasgow said. Walmart confirmed will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. Walmart says its U.S. businesses sourced more than $13 billion in goods and services from diverse suppliers in fiscal year 2024, including businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans. It was unclear how its relationships with such business would change going forward. Organizations that have partnered with Walmart on its diversity initiatives offered a cautious response. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, a non-profit that last year named Walmart one of America's top corporation for women-owned enterprises, said it was still evaluating the impact of Walmart's announcement. Pamela Prince-Eason, the president and CEO of the organization, said she hoped Walmart's need to cater to its diverse customer base will continue to drive contracts to women-owned suppliers even if the company has no explicit dollar goals. “I suspect Walmart will continue to have one of the most inclusive supply chains in the World,” Prince-Eason wrote. “Any retailer's ability to serve the communities they operate in will continue to value understanding their customers, (many of which are women), in order to better provide products and services desired and no one understands customers better than Walmart." Walmart's announcement came after the company spoke directly with conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck, who has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford , Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply . Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. The company also will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees. A Walmart spokesperson added that some of the changes were already in progress and not as a result of conversations that it had with Starbuck. RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said companies that “abandon” their commitments workplace inclusion policies “are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.” She said the buying power of LGBTQ customers is powerful and noted that the index will have record participation of more than 1,400 companies in 2025.SAN ANTONIO , Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT has been named the Compact Truck of Texas at the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) annual Truck Rodeo held Sept. 26-27, 2024 . The TAWA Texas Truck Rodeo is a prominent annual event where top automotive media evaluate new vehicles based on performance, value, and overall appeal. Competing against strong contenders, the updated 2025 Santa Cruz XRT impressed judges with its rugged design, advanced technology, and enhanced off-road capability. "We are thrilled to see the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT recognized as the 'Compact Truck of Texas .' This award reflects our commitment to offering customers a versatile, fun-to-drive vehicle that is not only capable off-road but also packed with cutting-edge technology and design," said Ricky Lao , director of product planning, Hyundai Motor North America. "The Santa Cruz XRT brings together rugged capability with advanced safety features, making it the perfect choice for adventure-minded consumers seeking the best of both worlds." "The Texas Truck Rodeo is a premier event where vehicles are put to the test by seasoned automotive journalists, and the competition this year was fierce. The 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz XRT stood out for its impressive blend of rugged off-road capability, cutting-edge technology, and unique design," said Cory Fourniquet , president, Texas Auto Writers Association. "This recognition as the 'Compact Truck of Texas' is well-deserved and highlights Hyundai's commitment to delivering versatile and innovative vehicles that meet the needs of Texas drivers." The 2025 Santa Cruz XRT, featuring a new aggressive front design, XRT-exclusive enhancements including front tow hooks, all-terrain tires, and wrench-inspired wheels, sets a new standard. The model's updated interior boasts a panoramic curved display with an available 12.3-inch driver information cluster and infotainment touchscreen display, alongside standard wireless Apple CarPlay® and Android AutoTM, providing an intuitivedriving experience. Hyundai Motor America Hyundai Motor America offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs, and electrified vehicles, while supporting Hyundai Motor Company's Progress for Humanity vision. Hyundai has significant operations in the U.S., including its North American headquarters in California , the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama assembly plant, the all-new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, and several cutting-edge R&D facilities. These operations, combined with those of Hyundai's 835 independent dealers, contribute $20.1 billion annually and 190,000 jobs to the U.S. economy, according to a recent economic impact report . For more information, visit www.hyundainews.com . Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2025-hyundai-santa-cruz-xrt-named-compact-truck-of-texas-at-texas-auto-writers-associations-truck-rodeo-302314024.html SOURCE HyundaiHawaii Bowl tonight: Upgraded Bet365 bonus code offers $150 in bonus bets for Christmas Eve
After strong first game under new coach, Blues meet red-hot DevilsMETAIRIE, La. (AP) — Dejounte Murray plans to return to the New Orleans Pelicans ' lineup on Wednesday night for the first time since fracturing his left hand in a season-opening victory over Chicago on Oct. 23. And when Murray takes the court against the Toronto Raptors , his mother will be on his mind. After practice on Tuesday, Murray discussed his impending return and disclosed more details about the previously unspecified “personal matters” that caused him to leave the team during the final days of the preseason. His mother had a stroke, he said. “It was tough to leave and go deal with that. As she got better, she wanted me to come play,” Murray said of his last-minute decision to start against Chicago. He added that his hand injury near the end of that game was God's way of telling him, “‘Nah, you need to stay with your mom.’” “I was more concerned about my mother. That was my priority,” Murray continued. “I wasn’t really worried about my recovery.” Murray's mother has recovered well, he said, while he is “healthy and ready to help this team.” Story continues below video “I’m ready to hoop. Play for my mother — she’s going to be watching," Murray said. “I’m ready to compete, bring that winning spirit.” The Pelicans (4-14) certainly could use the help, having lost 14 of 16 games since opening the season with a pair of victories. Injuries have ravaged the roster. At times, all five starters have been out. Star power forward Zion Williamson has missed 12 games this season — one with an illness and 11 with a hamstring injury. Herb Jones has been sidelined by a shoulder strain and Brandon Ingram's status is in doubt after he sat out practice on Tuesday with calf soreness that also sidelined him during a loss on Monday night at Indiana. But at least two starters — Murray and fellow guard CJ McCollum — are expected to play against the Raptors. “I don’t care how many games we’ve lost. I just know every time I step on the floor I feel like we can win games,” said Murray, who had 14 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in his lone game with the Pelicans. "That’s just my mentality, and I feel like it can carry over to a lot of guys.” AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Riding a 6-game win streak, the Eagles head to Hollywood again for a rematch with the young RamsNone