Month: April 2019

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. —Mississippi 5A state champion Neshoba Central remained atop the USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25 poll.

The (34-0) Rockets wrapped a perfect season with their 39th-straight win, beating Pearl River Center, 6-2, back on May 11 to claim a sixth-straight state crown. They have won 55 of their last 56 games.

The three teams immediately below them — Madison (22-0) at No. 2, third-ranked Katy (38-1) and No. 4 Keller (31-2-1) — also remained the same, while Los Alamitos (25-2), Hamilton (33-2) and Keystone (30-0) jumped up a spot apiece this week. Meanwhile, Hurricane (18-1), Tualatin (25-0) and East Carter (34-0) each moved up two places to round out the top 10.

Shawnee Heights (22-0), Scott County (30-2) and Smyrna (17-1) joined the lower third of the rankings this week at Nos. 19, 20 and 24, respectively.

State rankings submitted by NFCA member coaches are used to compile the USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25.

USA Today Sports/NFCA High School Super 25 Poll – May 24, 2018

Rank

Team

2018 Record

Previous

1

Neshoba Central (Miss.)

34-0

1

2

Madison (Va.)

22-0

2

3

Katy (Texas)

38-1

3

4

Keller (Texas)

31-2-1

4

5

Los Alamitos (Calif.)

25-2

6

6

Hamilton (Ariz.)

33-2

7

7

Keystone (Ohio)

30-0

8

8

Hurricane (W. Va.)

18-1

10

9

Tualatin (Ore.)

25-0

11

10

East Carter (Ky.)

34-0

12

11

Donovan Catholic (N.J.)

24-0

13

12

Center Grove (Ind.)

28-1

14

13

Eagle (Idaho)

28-2-1

5

14

Norco (Calif.)

25-3

15

15

Freedom (Calif.)

20-1

16

16

Clovis (Calif.)

29-2

19

17

Huntingtown (Md.)

16-0

20

18

Milford (Mass.)

16-0

21

19

Shawnee Heights (Kan.)

22-0

NR

20

Scott County (Ky.)

30-2

NR

21

New Palestine (Ind.)

24-1

25

22

Orange Lutheran (Calif.)

26-5

17

23

Jackson (Wash.)

21-1

24

24

Smyrna (Del.)

17-1

NR

25

Male (Ky.)

26-5-1

23

Dropped out: Hoover (Ala.), Marist (Ill.), Spanish Fork (Utah),

REGINA — Saskatchewan’s coroner’s service has released its report into the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and it calls for tougher enforcement of trucking rules and mandatory seatbelts on highway buses.

The office has made recommendations to six different government agencies after reviewing the crash.

The coroner also says the Ministry of Highways should review its policy on signs at intersections and Saskatchewan Government Insurance should implement mandatory truck-driver training.

There is a recommendation that the chief coroner create a mass fatality plan and that the Saskatchewan Health Authority review how it identifies the dead and injured in such an event.

Watch: Bus crash victim’s father’s biggest hope is to change attitudes. Story continues below.

Sixteen people were killed and 13 others were injured in last April’s collision.

A semi-truck barrelled through a stop sign at a rural intersection and was struck by the Broncos hockey bus.

The report lists the deaths as accidental and the chief coroner is not calling for an public inquest.

In December, the Saskatchewan government announced it will make training mandatory for semi-truck drivers starting in March. Drivers seeking a Class 1 commercial licence will have to undergo at least 121 1/2 hours of training.

Transport Canada announced in June that the department will require all newly built highway buses to have seatbelts by September 2020. Some charter bus companies say many new vehicles already have seatbelts, although there is no way to ensure passengers are wearing them

OKLAHOMA CITY — All-Tournament Team selection Madison Glaubke hit a booming two-run homer and Most Outstanding Player Hanna Hull took things from there, as Virginia Wesleyan University captured its second-straight NCAA Division III national championship on Monday at OGE Energy Field at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex.

Glaubke had two hits, and two-time NFCA All-American Hull pitched an one-hitter, to fuel the Marlins’ 3-1 victory over Illinois Wesleyan in the decisive third game of the best-of-three championship series.

Hull, who also won Most Outstanding Player honors last season, finished the finals in Oklahoma City with 60 strikeouts over just 41 innings and six starts. She threw 418 of her 643 pitches at the tournament for strikes, and recorded a no-hitter, two one-hitters and a three-hitter. Hull allowed just four hits over her first three starts and 21 innings for the (55-3) Marlins at the eight-team event.

The win broke Virginia Wesleyan’s own NCAA Division III record for wins in a season, after the Marlins posted 54 victories during last year’s title run.

Glaubke’s blast to left in the bottom of the first scored Kiersten Richardson, who had led off the inning with a walk. Three-time All-American and fellow All-Tournament Team selection Cassetty Howerin added an insurance run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly that scored Richardson, who had walked, took second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Glaubke’s single to center.

But it was Illinois Wesleyan (39-13-1) who jumped in front first, getting on the scoreboard in the top of the first without the benefit of a hit. All-Tournament Team selection Jillian Runyon was hit by a pitch, stole second, and took third on Sydney Alery’s groundout. She scored on a wild pitch following All-American and fellow All-Tournament Team choice Sam Berghoff’s walk.

The Titans’ Bree Walker earned All-Tournament Team honors after scattering six hits over the first five innings of Tuesday’s finale, which followed up a stellar Monday, in which she pitched all eight innings of game two for Illinois Wesleyan and came on in relief of All-American Ally Wiegand in the first contest.

After dropping the opening game of the best-of-three championship series, 6-1, on Monday, the Titans forced a winner-take-all third contest by winning game two, 5-4 in eight innings, later in the day.

The founder and senior partner of Baring Vostok private equity fund, Michael Calvey, will be detained in Moscow for two months after his bail got rejected. The US citizen is accused of a large-scale fraud involving a Russian bank.

The investor was put in pre-trial custody by a Moscow court on Saturday. The court rejected the request of Calvey’s defense to release him on 5 million rubles ($75.5 thousand) bail. The prosecution, on its part, insisted that the detention was an absolute necessity, as the US citizen might try and flee the country.

Calvey’s defense has already vowed to challenge the detention order.

“We do not agree with the court’s ruling and we will challenge it at the Moscow city court. We’ll request either home arrest or bail,” Calvey’s attorney, Dmitry Kletochkin told TASS.

Several other suspects, including partners of the Baring Vostok fund, namely Philippe Delpal, Vagan Abgaryan and Ivan Zyuzin – were ordered to remain in pretrial custody earlier on Friday. All individuals are suspected of taking part in a fraud, which involved Russia’s Vostochny Bank.

The investigators believe that Calvey embezzled 2.5 billion rubles ($37.5 million) from Vostochny Bank via a fraudulent scheme. The investor and his associates have allegedly persuaded the bank’s board to accept a package of shares of an enterprise instead of paying off a debt. While the shares were said to be worth over 3 billion rubles (some $45 million), their real cost was merely 600,000 rubles ($9,000).

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the fifth consecutive year, Byron Nelson High School (Texas), under the direction of Kathy Schoettle, posted the top GPA (4.518) in the high school weighted category, while Urbana University (NCAA DII) garnered the overall college GPA with a 3.840 and East Islip (N.Y.) High School (3.918) led the high school unweighted category in the Easton / NFCA Top 10 Academic Team rankings for the 2017-18 school year. Individually, 6,280 softball players earned Easton / NFCA Scholar-Athlete honors.

The rankings and honors recognize the academic prowess of softball teams across the Association’s membership categories. NCAA Division III led the way with 1,600 student-athletes earning a 3.5 grade-point average or higher for 2017-18. NCAA Division I and Division II followed with 1,311 and 1,026 honorees. High School weighted and High School unweighted earned 743 and 589 distinctions. Two-year colleges amassed 553 recipients and NAIA totaled 456.

Grand Canyon University (3.790) and Otterbein University (3.751) led NCAA Division I & III, while Spring Arbor (3.695) posted the top NAIA mark and Iowa Western Community College set the two-year college standard with a 3.700 GPA.

2017-18 Scholar-Athletes | 2017-18 Academic Teams

NCAA Division I 
1. Grand Canyon– 3.790; 2. Northern Kentucky- 3.670; 3. Charlotte- 3.649; 4. SIUE- 3.616; t5. Sam Houston State- 3.598; t5. Robert Morris- 3.598; 7. Southern Illinois- 3.596; 8. Alabama- 3.590; 9. Detroit Mercy- 3.571; 10. DePaul- 3.569.

NCAA Division II 
1. Urbana- 3.840; 2. Upper Iowa- 3.717; 3. Bridgeport- 3.713; 4. California (Pa.)- 3.684; 5. Rockhurst- 3.674; 6. Illinois Springfield- 3.673; 7. Arkansas-Monticello- 3.665; 8. Southeastern Oklahoma- 3.660; 9. Grand Valley- 3.630; 10. McKendree- 3.627.

NCAA Division III 
1. Otterbein- 3.751; 2. Johnson & Wales- 3.720; 3. Penn State Brandywine- 3.680; 4. MIT- 3.670; 5. Stevens Tech- 3.633; 6. Endicott- 3.615; 7. Saint Mary’s (Ind.)- 3.611; 8. Nebraska Wesleyan- 3.610; 9. Bethel (Minn.)- 3.606; t10. Suffolk- 3.596; t10. Ithaca- 3.596.

NAIA 
1. Spring Arbor- 3.695; 2. Central Methodist- 3.626; 3. USCB- 3.594; 4. Siena Heights- 3.591; 5. Williams Woods- 3.555; 6. St. Ambrose- 3.549; 7. Vanguard- 3.548; 8. Hannibal-LaGrange- 3.546; 9. Baker- 3.543; 10. Bellevue (Neb.)- 3.527.

Junior College 
1. Iowa Western CC- 3.700; 2. Southern Union State CC- 3.650; t3. Butler CC- 3.610; t3. College of Southern Idaho- 3.610; 5. Allen CC- 3.590; 6. East Central College- 3.570; 7. East Mississippi CC- 3.561; 8. Seminole State College of Florida- 3.516; 9. Northeast Mississippi CC 3.493; 10. Northwest Mississippi CC- 3.471.

High School (Unweighted) 
1. East Islip (N.Y.)- 3.918; t2. Pollok Central (Texas)- 3.815; t2. Loogootee Community (Ind.)- 3.815; 4. Rock Creek (Kan.)- 3.812; 5. Silver Lake (Kan.)- 3.810; 6. Topeka-Seaman (Kan.)- 3.796; t7. Central High School of Clay County- 3.785; t7. La Monte (Mo.)- 3.785; 9. Oaks Christian School (Calif.)- 3.771; 10. Milford (Neb.)- 3. 755.

High School (Weighted) 
1. Byron Nelson (Texas)– 4.518; 2. Flower Mound (Texas)- 4.510; 3. Holly Hill Academy (S.C.)- 4.380; 4. Eaton (Texas)- 4.370; 5. Grapevine (Texas)- 4.300; 6. James F. Byrnes (S.C.)- 4.242; 7. River Hill (Md.)- (4.230); 8. Lincoln Southwest (Neb.)- 4.209; 9. Cambridge Christian (Fla.)- 4.129; 10. Olathe North (Kan.)- 4.120.

QUEBEC — The parents of a man behind the deadly Quebec City mosque attack have issued an open letter questioning the severity of the minimum 40-year sentence handed down to their son last week.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 29, received his sentence Friday for killing six men and injuring six others at the Islamic Cultural Centre mosque on Jan. 29, 2017.

His parents, Raymond Bissonnette and Manon Marchand, say in the letter released Monday that the sentence is the harshest imposed in Quebec since the death penalty was abolished in 1976.

They say the Crown’s request for six consecutive life sentences, which would have prevented their son from seeking parole for 150 years and guaranteed that he end his life behind bars, amounted to circumventing the abolition of the death penalty and would terminate all hope of rehabilitation.

Watch: Crown prosecutors and members of Quebec City’s Muslim community react to Bissonnette’s sentence. Story continues below.

Meanwhile, Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot concluded a sentence of 50 years or more would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for the 29-year-old.

Bissonnette’s parents say he suffered psychological and physical bullying during his years in school that had “devastating effects” on his personality.

“If we really want to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, it seems to me that the solution is not to lock someone up forever, but rather try to better understand and prevent bullying, which is a serious societal problem that continues to make victims among our young,” the letter reads.

His parents say people who commit serious crimes should still have the possibility to apply for parole after 25 years — a “glimmer of hope” they say would encourage rehabilitation.

“Unlike other countries, Canada has chosen an open-door policy, welcoming people from all over the world and giving them hope for a second chance in life,” the letter says. “Why deny convicts even the faintest hope?”

Sentence denounced by survivors

Legal experts have said Bissonnette’s sentence is likely to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.

However, it has been denounced by survivors of the attack and other Muslim community members.

Boufeldja Benabdallah, president of the mosque that was attacked, said last week that community members were stunned by the decision and felt the judge was more concerned about the dignity of the killer than that of the victims and their families.

Bissonnette pleaded guilty last March to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder after he walked into the mosque during evening prayers and opened fire. The murder victims were Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Azzeddine Soufiane, 57; and Ibrahima Barry, 39.

The latest US Treasury Department data shows that foreign investors slashed their holdings of American debt in November by $105 billion, from a year earlier, to $6.2 trillion.

China, the largest foreign holder of US debt, slashed its holdings for a sixth straight month in November. Beijing had $1.12 trillion in US Treasuries, down from $1.138 trillion in October. The decline brought China’s Treasury holdings to the lowest level since May 2017, the data showed.

The two largest foreign creditors of the US — China and Japan — have both been unloading US Treasury securities. China’s holdings fell by $55 billion from a year earlier, Japan’s by $47 billion to $1.04 trillion. Tokyo has now reduced its stash by 16 percent since the peak of $1.24 trillion at the end of 2014.

Russia, which is no longer a leading creditor of the United States after an unprecedented dumping of the US Treasury bonds in April and May, has slashed its stockpile by $1.815 billion in November to $12.814 billion.

Since last year, Russia has slashed around 85 percent of its US Treasury holdings, from $96.9 billion in January 2018 to $12.8 billion in November.

READ MORE: China’s yuan to challenge greenback as world’s main currency – Bank of England governor

Over the past 12 months, the US gross national debt has ballooned by $1.5 trillion to $22 trillion as of January 30, according to the Treasury.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

The US based aviation corporation has paused deliveries of the ill-fated Boeing 737 MAX to customers after the aircraft type was grounded around the world following the deadly crash in Ethiopia.

Trump grounds troubled 737 MAX aircraft, Boeing stock tumbles

The move was announced by the company on Thursday. No time frame on when the deliveries might be resumed was immediately provided, yet the production itself continues.

“We continue to build 737 MAX airplanes while assessing how the situation, including potential capacity constraints, will impact our production system,” a Boeing spokesman said.

The decision comes after Boeing 737 MAX planes were grounded and banned from the airspace of the majority of the world’s countries, including the United States. The plane type was targeted with the restrictions after a crash in Ethiopia on Saturday, which killed 157 people – everyone on board. The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after take-off, taking a steep nosedive.

While the exact causes of the tragedy have not yet been established, the crash appears to resemble another catastrophe involving a 737 MAX aircraft. Last October, a Lion Air jet crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board.

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OTTAWA — After initially refusing, Netflix has agreed to remove images of the 2013 Lac-Megantic disaster from its blockbuster film, “Bird Box.”

“Netflix and the filmmakers of ‘Bird Box’ have decided to replace the clip,” a spokesman for the streaming company said in an email to The Canadian Press. “We’re sorry for any pain caused to the Lac-Megantic community.”

People in the Quebec town and across the province were shocked after learning in January that footage from the derailment and explosion that killed 47 people was used in the drama starring Sandra Bullock.

Demands that the brief scene be removed came from politicians at all levels, including Lac-Megantic Mayor Julie Morin.

Morin said she is satisfied with Netflix’s decision. “Yes, there was a delay, but I think in the end, what’s more important for me, is that we have a solution to this situation we felt was important to settle,” she said in an interview.

Quebec Culture Minister Nathalie Roy wrote to the company Jan. 18 calling for it to take out footage of the burning town. The company initially apologized and promised to do better, but until now it had refused to edit the film.

Three months later, Netflix decided to change course.

Footage to be removed within next two weeks

Morin said the film industry needs to reconsider its use of stock footage. “I think it’s important for the industry to reflect on this,” she said in an interview. “It appears that has happened in this case.”

In a written statement, Roy said “the gesture was long-sought by Quebecers.”

The House of Commons adopted a motion Jan. 29 demanding Netflix remove the images and compensate the town.

The Canadian Press learned that the footage will be removed from the film within the next two weeks.