Category Archives: WPTF News

Dick Vitale has an extension with ESPN — and a college basketball event in his honor

Dick Vitale has an extension with ESPN — and a college basketball event in his honor

Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Vitale is sticking around college basketball with a new contract extension and a new event named in his honor. ESPN announced Monday that Vitale has signed a contract through the 2027-28 season. In addition, ESPN Events is launching the Dick Vitale Invitational. The first matchup is a game between Duke and Texas on Nov. 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the opening days of the college basketball season. The announcement comes on Vitale’s 86th birthday and months after he returned to the airwaves after being gone for two years amid a fourth cancer battle.… Continue Reading

Sly Stone, leader of funk revolutionaries Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82

Sly Stone, leader of funk revolutionaries Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82

NEW YORK (AP) — Sly Stone, an electrifying musician, songwriter and showman whose Sly and the Family Stone transformed popular music in the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 82. His time on top was brief, from roughly 1969 to 1971, but his influence on music and culture lasted for decades after. No band better captured the gravity-defying euphoria of the Woodstock era or more bravely addressed the crash. From early hits as rousing as their titles —“I Want To Take You Higher,” “Stand!” — to the sober aftermath of “Family Affair” and “Runnin’ Away,” Sly and the Family Stone spoke for a generation whether or not it wanted to hear the message.… Continue Reading

US stocks drift higher as trade talks start with China in hopes of avoiding a recession

US stocks drift higher as trade talks start with China in hopes of avoiding a recession

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting higher as the world’s two largest economies begin talks on trade that could help avoid a recession. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 58 points, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5%. Markets are waiting to hear what comes of trade talks between the United States and China taking place in London. Treasury yields eased in the bond market after a survey suggested consumers’ expectations for coming inflation eased a bit. Chinese stocks rose, while indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across the rest of Asia and Europe.… Continue Reading

College sports commissioners laud $2.8B antitrust settlement, call for Congress to act

College sports commissioners laud $2.8B antitrust settlement, call for Congress to act

Conference commissioners lauded a judge’s approval of a $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement as a means for bringing stability and fairness to an out-of-control college athletics industry. They also acknowledged there would be growing pains. Commissioners of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC renewed their call for congressional action to codify the settlement and emphasized that cooperation at every level of college sports would be necessary to make it work.… Continue Reading

Apple unveils software redesign while reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war

Apple unveils software redesign while reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during a developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology. The presummer rite was more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event in 2023 when Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset and last year when the company hyped AI features that didn’t pan out as envisioned. Although Apple announced helpful AI tools and a redesign of its iPhone software in a decade, the company is still facing about its ability to innovate and ability to navigate a gauntlet of other challenges.… Continue Reading

Warner Bros. Discovery to split into two companies, dividing cable and streaming services

Warner Bros. Discovery to split into two companies, dividing cable and streaming services

NEW YORK (AP) — Warner Bros. Discovery will calve off cable operations from its streaming service, creating two independent companies as the number of people “cutting the cord” brings with it a sustained upheaval in the entertainment industry. HBO, and HBO Max, as well as Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, will become part of the streaming and studios company. The cable company will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as the Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, based in New York City, jumped 11% at the opening bell.… Continue Reading

California governor plans to file lawsuit against Trump over National Guard deployment to protests

California governor plans to file lawsuit against Trump over National Guard deployment to protests

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he planned to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump in response to the administration’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard to confront immigration protesters who took to the streets in Los Angeles. Newsom, a Democrat, said that commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the governor of that state is “illegal and immoral.” The streets of the sprawling city of 4 million people were mostly quiet Monday morning, the day after crowds blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire. Law enforcement responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Sunday’s protests were centered in several blocks of downtown and a handful of other places.… Continue Reading

Trump deploys California National Guard to LA to quell protests despite the governor’s objections

Trump deploys California National Guard to LA to quell protests despite the governor’s objections

PARAMOUNT, Calif. (AP) — President Donald Trump is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops despite the governor’s objections to Los Angeles over where protests Saturday led to clashes between immigration authorities and demonstrators. The White House said in a statement Saturday that he was deploying the Guardsmen to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, objected to the move and said in a post on X that the move from the Republican president was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”… Continue Reading

101 dogs living in packed, filthy conditions removed from North Carolina home

101 dogs living in packed, filthy conditions removed from North Carolina home

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Dozens of dogs found living in packed, filthy conditions have been removed from a North Carolina home. Animal control officers responding to a complaint in Raleigh discovered 101 dogs crammed in stacked cages or roaming in confined quarters on Wednesday. News outlets report the homeowner agreed to relinquish the dogs, along with 21 chickens. The dogs were taken in by eight different shelters and were undergoing medical assessments. The Wake County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says many of the dogs it took in had matted fur as well as skin and dental issues.… Continue Reading

Video shows dolphin calf birth and first breath at Chicago zoo. Mom’s friend helped

Video shows dolphin calf birth and first breath at Chicago zoo. Mom’s friend helped

CHICAGO (AP) — A bottlenose dolphin at the Brookfield Zoo Chicago gave birth to a calf early Saturday morning with the help of a fellow mom. Video of the birth inside the Illinois aquarium shows the 35-pound calf ejected into the water and sprint to the surface for its first breath, under the watchful eye of the other, older female bottlenose dolphin. A staff veterinarian says that kind of help during a birth reflects dolphin practice in the wild. Brookfield Zoo Chicago is celebrating the first birth from its dolphin group in over a decade. It will close part of the aquatic area while the new calf bonds with its mom and the group. The calf will be named this summer.… Continue Reading

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