NEW YORK — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the NFL's Manhattan headquarters on Wednesday evening to show their support for Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback who drew controversy last season for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial disparity. Kaepernick, who took his San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013, has yet to be signed by an NFL team ahead of the 2017 season. His supporters believe the reason is the political stance he chose to take rather than his ability to play the game. Many in the large crowd outside the NFL's offices on Wednesday evening wore Kaepernick jerseys and some held signs calling for a boycott of the NFL or reading “Black Lives Matter.” … [Read more...]

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Following a Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth, it was expected that Penn State football coach James Franklin would sign a contract extension at some point this offseason. Franklin got his extension, which runs through the 2022 season, a week ago Friday. He addressed his new contract for the first time during media availability Wednesday, stating that it provides "stability" for a program that is on the upswing, but still has progress to make. "We have started to build something here that can really be special, and it provides stability, obviously, for my family, but it also provides stability for assistant coaches, it provides stability for their family, it provides stability for our players, it provides stability, all those types of things," Franklin said. The Nittany Lions have gone 25-15 in Franklin's three years with the program. The three-year extension, which adds on to the initial six-year contract he signed when he joined the program in … [Read more...]

Rich Hill walked off the mound, toward the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout, and to his right the Pirates piled on Josh Harrison at home plate. Hill carried a no-hitter for 27 outs Wednesday night at PNC Park, and still he lost. Harrison clobbered a leadoff, walk-off home run in the 10th inning, breaking a scoreless deadlock and Hill’s no-hit bid in a 1-0 Pirates win. Hill allowed one hit in nine-plus innings. He struck out 10. The goat was third baseman Logan Forsythe, who scotched the perfect game by booting Jordy Mercer’s ground ball leading off the ninth inning. It was the first time in Major League history a bid for perfection was broken up by a ninth-inning error. Hill had been hunting for the second perfect game in Dodgers history. The other was thrown by Sandy Koufax Sept. 9, 1965. Right-hander Trevor Williams wasn’t perfect, but he matched Hill’s zeroes. The rookie tossed eight scoreless innings for his best start this season. He allowed seven hits and … [Read more...]

Federal regulators said Wednesday they don't plan to block Amazon.com Inc.'s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc., clearing the way for the biggest retail deal of the year so far. The Federal Trade Commission said it would no longer pursue an investigation into whether the mega-deal would lessen competition, just a few hours after Whole Foods' shareholders voted to approve the merger in a meeting at company headquarters in Austin, Texas. A shopper's purchase at a Whole Foods Market in Jackson, Miss., in June. Rogelio V. Solis / AP file Amazon has said it expects to wrap up the … [Read more...]

Story highlights Four countries face visa restrictions in a process initiated last week, DHS says Trump had targeted the nations, which refuse to accept their nationals Washington (CNN)The Trump administration will impose visa sanctions on four countries that refuse to take back foreign nationals deemed to be in the US illegally, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan said Wednesday. The four countries -- Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to a DHS source close to the deliberations -- come from a running list of countries the US designates as "recalcitrant" for not accepting, or delaying, repatriation of their own citizens after the US has tried to deport them. On the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump railed against the Obama administration, and his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, for not employing sanctions to pressure … [Read more...]

A United Nations committee has called on the U.S. government "to unequivocally and unconditionally reject and condemn racist hate speech and crimes" following a white-nationalist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia. The statement from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued Wednesday does not name President Donald Trump, but it is the president himself who has been criticized more than anyone else for what many said were inappropriate responsesto the racism on display at the rally. "The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has called on the Government of the United States of America, as well as high-level politicians and public officials, to unequivocally and unconditionally reject and condemn racist hate speech and crimes in Charlottesville and throughout the country," the committee said in a … [Read more...]

Story highlights Sources say President Donald Trump did not endorse Kelli Ward Ward is a Republican primary challenger to Sen. Jeff Flake Trump met with other possible Flake primary challengers on Tuesday (CNN)President Donald Trump huddled privately with potential Republican primary challengers to Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake before taking the stage in Phoenix on Tuesday night. The backstage meeting included former state GOP chairman Robert Graham and state treasurer Jeff DeWit -- two candidates Trump has urged to consider opposing Flake -- as well as Rep. Trent Franks and Graham's 13-year-old daughter. Faith Graham posted a photo of the group on her Instagram account. Two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN it was focused on ousting Flake -- who Trump calls "the flake." The sense among participants, the two sources said, was that Franks won't enter the Senate … [Read more...]

NEW YORK — Whole Foods shareholders and federal regulators approved Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of the organic grocer, a deal that could bring big changes to the supermarket industry and how people order groceries online. By buying Whole Foods, Amazon is taking a bold step into brick-and-mortar, with more than 460 stores and potentially very lucrative data about how shoppers behave offline. Two moves forward came Wednesday. Whole Foods shareholders gave their blessing to a union that its CEO had called “love at first sight.” And the Federal Trade Commission said in a brief statement that it had looked into competition concerns and would not block the deal. The FTC investigated whether the takeover “substantially lessened competition” or “constituted an unfair method of competition,” said Bruce Hoffman, the acting director of the agency’s Bureau of Competition. “Based on our investigation we have decided not to pursue … [Read more...]

ANALYSIS/OPINION: VICTORIA AND ABDUL: THE TRUE STORY OF THE QUEEN’S CLOSEST CONFIDANT By Shrabani Basu Vintage, $16, 352 pages Munshi is not a word usually associated with Queen Victoria, who reigned over England for 64 years and was the epitome of formality and dignity, yet her “munshi,” an Indian equerry who was her teacher and tutor, was a remarkably important part of her life. In “Victoria and Abdul,” (soon to be a movie starring Judi Dench), Shrabani Basu has done solid homework in her researching of a dramatic era when Britain was at the peak of its power. There has always been a certain irony in the fact that its ruler was a tiny and autocratic woman who never recovered from the death of her husband and apparently took little comfort from having given birth to nine children. Her chief consolation lay in her power and those who helped her maintain a position in which she was rarely questioned and even her domestic authority was … [Read more...]

Billionaire businessman, reality TV personality and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has his eye on a presidential run in 2020 — that is, if the man has a plan. “Is there a chance I am talking to the 46th president of the United States?” talk radio host Rich Eisen asked Mr. Cuban in an interview Tuesday. “I wouldn’t put it high on my list of probabilities, but we’ll see what happens. I’ve got a lot of time to decide. It’s flattering that people ask me about it, and I appreciate it, and there’s definitely a leadership void in this country. But I’m not jumping in,” replied Mr. Cuban. “You don’t try and pretend to be a politician. You have to have solutions. I am working on some projects, and if I think they can turn into solutions, then yeah, I’ll do it. If I don’t think I have the right answers, then I won’t do it.” In a hypothetical match-up with President Trump, Mr. Cuban would … [Read more...]

Story highlights The state party says it is sorry, and that the tweets were misinterpreted Confederate memorials have emerged as a significant issue in the Virginia gubernatorial contest Washington (CNN)The Republican Party of Virginia deleted tweets Wednesday saying the Democratic nominee for governor was dishonoring his "family's heritage" by calling for the removal of Confederate monuments. Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who won his party's gubernatorial primary, has called for monuments lionizing the Confederacy to come down, and in response, the Virginia GOP fired off a pair of tweets Wednesday that generated ire online. The party wrote: "[email protected] has turned his back on his own family's heritage in demanding monument removal (1/2)" and "Shows @RalphNortham will do anything or say anything to try and be #VAGov - #Pathetic 2/2" Northam said earlier this year he … [Read more...]

Dershowitz: Many of Those Tearing Down Statues Want to 'Tear Down America' Pence: 'I Believe in More Monuments, Not Fewer' to Celebrate Progress Tonight, "The Story" is in Louisville, Kentucky, live from the state fair. That’s Lou-a-vull, if you’re from New Jersey and need a pronouncer, like me! The people here are so friendly and welcoming. One man’s t-shirt at the fair sums it up: "Powered by: Prayer, Family, Dreams and Hard Work." With the president’s fiery speech in Phoenix last night, and the battle over race and Confederate statues hitting the Bluegrass State, as well as their senior senator, Mitch McConnell, at loggerheads with the president, there is so much on the minds of people here. We have been speaking all afternoon to families and livestock owners and visitors from neighboring states like Indiana. They are by and large very supportive of the president. Not surprising in a state he won 62 percent to 32 percent over Hillary Clinton. They talk about … [Read more...]

Story highlights Only 3% of voters in a new poll say Trump discouraged white supremacists 59% of voters -- and 91% of Democrats -- say he's encouraged them "I got the white supremacists, the neo-Nazi. I got them all in there," Trump said Washington (CNN)Yes, it's true President Donald Trump has now explicitly condemned white supremacy groups -- but virtually no one in the United States thinks his comments and behavior have actually discouraged any white supremacist groups. A mere 3% of American voters in a new Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday say Trump's actions as president have discouraged white supremacists. … [Read more...]

Story highlights Sen. Claire McCaskill was asked whether confederate monuments should be removed The Missouri Democrat answered it has a lot to do when the monuments were built Bowling Green, Missouri (CNN)Politicians, including President Donald Trump, should resist framing this month's deadly clashes in Virginia as a fight over monuments, Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said Wednesday. "Making what happened in Charlottesville about monuments is distracting ... and divisive," McCaskill said Wednesday. "What Charlottesville should really be about is unifying this country against hatred and bigotry." McCaskill, who is up for re-election next year in a state Trump won in 2016, called the division in the country "obvious" and said she wished the President "would focus more about the unification piece of this than picking things that would continue to divide us." The racial … [Read more...]

ANALYSIS/OPINION We might be ready to watch some football, but fewer and fewer prep students are gearing up to play. According to a recent report by the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of high school participants fell by 25,901 in 2016-17. Enrollment is down 4.5 percent over the past decade and schools in the Midwest and Northeast are dropping the sport at a startling rate. However, the NFL doesn’t have anything to worry about as a new season approaches. Despite all the concerns about safety, concussions and long-term effects, and despite the high-profile instances of early retirements, we’re generations away from the point where a player shortage is remotely possible. Our Fridays are suffering a bit. But our Sundays (and Saturdays) should be fine. Granted, it’s all connected. Youth football leagues — the pipeline for high schools — have experienced a nearly 30 percent drop in participation between 2008 and … [Read more...]

ANALYSIS/OPINION: “Cops” is a cable-TV reality show and “Bad Boys” is its theme song. Now viewers in a growing number of places can get the street action watching bad boys take on the cops on the nightly news. The expansion of civil unrest across the American landscape is ominous enough, but the ferocity of the abuse of the nation’s men and women in blue is more alarming still, a precursor to anarchy. The truly deplorable who hold the upholders of the law in contempt must get a grip, or be restrained, before the violence crosses the line into a primitive land of no return. The shooting of a total of six police officers last weekend in three different cities, including two dead in Kissimmee, Fla., erases all doubt that a badge is not the shield it once was. The gunman in Kissimmee who fired at the two officers who were making a night patrol in a high-crime neighborhood, will be charged with first-degree murder. Across Florida, in Jacksonville, two … [Read more...]

ANALYSIS/OPINION: President Trump took his determination to build the border wall this week to Arizona, ground zero for illegal immigration, and threatened to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn’t include a down-payment on the wall in the budget this year. “The obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it,” he told a rally in Phoenix, “but believe me, if we have to close down our government we’re building that wall.” Democrats in the Senate, showing unaccustomed concern for “wasteful government spending,” say they won’t agree to the $1.6 billion the House has approved, but they’re not the only obstructionists. Radical environmental groups have joined the effort to prevent construction of the wall, citing concerns about the impact on habitats of ocelots and butterflies, among other critters. The Center for Biological Diversity, together with Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, a Democrat and a … [Read more...]

ANALYSIS/OPINION: In cowboy movies the guys in the white hats always win, but life is not a cowboy movie. The majority of Americans (including me) would like to see the neo-Nazi movement disappear, as people in it are nuts — but then the Constitution gets in the way, as any American has the right to peacefully assemble. So as much as we can all hate what neo-Nazism stands for, we must tolerate these people when they exercise their constitutional rights. In Charlottesville earlier this month the guys in the white hats arrived to do battle with clubs and other weapons. Arriving is one thing, but using those weapons is against the law. In using these weapons the guys in the ‘white hats’ became the guys in the black hats. Now who’s right? We would like the president to condemn the white supremacists and be sympathetic to the “Americans.” But to do that would in effect be lying. Mr. Trump, who did not want to be caught in a lie, said both sides … [Read more...]

ANALYSIS/OPINION: I find the calls for President Trump to resign disgusting, pathetic and obnoxious. What they mean, in effect, is that tens of millions of people who did not vote for Donald Trump want to nullify and dismiss the votes of tens of millions of other people who, like me, did vote for him. These calls are the height of arrogance and are dismissive — to the point of being an outright violation of our Constitution — of citizens’ rights to vote for the candidate of their choice. We have reached the point that many countries do when one group decides they have the right and power to act as judge, jury and executioner over the citizens who have inalienable rights from God. Playing God may be OK in the view of the hate-filled political far left and the anarchists engaged in the destruction of public and private property. But God will have the last say with those who would cast stones against people who still believe we are all sinful and should never … [Read more...]

Congressional Republicans working to craft a tax reform package are taking their pitches to major Fortune 500 companies this week, as they look to coalesce support from the business community ahead of an expected legislative push in the fall. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Wednesday the GOP learned their lesson from the failed health care process, where outside groups were often at odds and there were conflicting messages out of the House, Senate and White House. “Unity between the House, the Senate, and the White House first, nail down understandings, get on the same page, and then go forward together. That’s the big lesson,” Mr. Ryan said at an Intel facility in Oregon. Mr. Ryan spoke to Intel employees Wednesday as he tried to push the tax reform process forward. Republicans still have to fill in a lot of the details, but have generally called for lowering rates for individuals and businesses and scrubbing the code of all but the most popular exemptions. … [Read more...]