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Column: Camilo Villegas’s comeback was sparked by a caddie who loves to coach

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

The road back for Camilo Villegas began with a detour to San Diego and a question to a caddie who wasn’t even his: “When are you going to help me?”Villegas started what figured to be a challenging year in the Bahamas on the Korn Ferry Tour, and he meant to stay for a second tournament in the islands until he received a last-minute sponsor exemption to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.That’s where he had a chance meeting with an Argentine caddie who is more than what he seems. For Villegas, a 41-year-old Colombian, it changed the course of his year.Jose Luis Campra — his friends call him “Pepa” — grew up at the same course in Cordoba that produced Angel Cabrera and Eduardo Romero. He had aspirations of playing after getting a finance degree from Jacksonville State in Alabama. But then a few fruitless years on the Challenge Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamerica suggested he take a different path.He always wanted to teach. Caddying helps pay the bills.Campra runs an aca...

Bills fire offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey after sloppy loss to Denver drops team to 5-5

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo Bills fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey on Tuesday with the Josh Allen-led attack stagnating over a six-week stretch and the three-time defending AFC East champions falling further out of the playoff picture.The move came a day after a 24-22 loss to the Denver Broncos in an outing Allen committed three of Buffalo’s four turnovers and the offense was held under 26 points for a sixth straight outing to match the longest stretch since the quarterback’s rookie season in 2018.Second-year quarterbacks coach Joe Brady takes over as interim coordinator. He joined the Bills after spending the previous two seasons as Carolina’s offensive coordinator.Buffalo (5-5) has lost four of six and prepares to host the New York Jets on Sunday.Dorsey was unable to complete his second season on the job after being Allen’s hand-picked successor to take over after Brian Daboll was hired to coach the New York Giants. Daboll spent four seasons in Buffalo, with his hi...

AUTO RACING: Three-peat champion Max Verstappen and Formula One take center stage in Las Vegas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

All Times EasternNASCAR CUP SERIESLast race: Ryan Blaney raced to his first career NASCAR championship by banging his way past fellow contender and 2021 champion Kyle Larson in the closing laps at Phoenix Raceway to give Team Penske back-to-back Cup titles. Joey Logano won the title last year, and Ross Chastain won the race, becoming the first driver to win the season finale while not in contention for the championship.Next race: Season openers Feb. 4, Los Angeles (non-points race), and Feb. 15, Daytona Beach, Florida.Online: http://www.nascar.comNASCAR XFINITY SERIESLast race: Cole Custer pulled away in a three-wide race with fellow contenders Justin Allgaier and John Hunter Nemechek and held off Allgaier at Phoenix to win his first Xfinity Series championship.Next race: Season opener Feb. 17, Daytona Beach, Florida.Online: http://www.nascar.comNASCAR TRUCK SERIESLast race: Ben Rhodes’ fifth-place finish in a crash-filled, quadruple-overtime Truck Series finale at Phoenix was enoug...

Fire-damaged Los Angeles freeway to take three to five weeks to repair, governor says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fire-damaged Los Angeles freeway to take three to five weeks to repair, governor says.Source

Biden says his goal for Xi meeting is to get US-China communications back to normal

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden said on the eve of his much-anticipated meeting with China’s Xi Jinping that his goal for the talks is simply to try to get U.S.-Chinese communications back on stable ground after a tumultuous year.Biden said Tuesday shortly before departing for San Francisco to meet Xi and attend this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that the nations must get “on a normal course corresponding” once again even as they have sharp differences on no shortage of issues.“Being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another if there’s a crisis. Being able to make sure our militaries still have contact with one another,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “We’re not trying to decouple from China, but what we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better.”The long complicated U.S.-Chinese relationship has come under heavy strain over the last year, with Beijing bristling over new U.S. export controls on advan...

Broncos beat Bills in New York for first time in 16 years

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — They say good things happen in threes. Just ask the Denver Broncos who are now riding a season-saving three-game winning streak.With a record of 4-5, there is now a path back to relevance. This is the first three-game winning streak since the beginning of the 2021 season under head coach Vic Fangio. Flash forward three seasons, and now under the visor of head coach Sean Payton, there is still room for improvement.“We are by no means at our sweet spot,” said Payton as the Broncos corralled the Bills 24-22 Monday night, breaking their 16-year losing streak in Buffalo, New York. “There’s so many things we’ve got to clean up offensively.” Broncos coach Sean Payton is the NFL’s admittedly absent-minded perfectionist, sentimentalist Led by an efficient and time-consuming offense, quarterback Russell Wilson’s two touchdown passes (18) now eclipse his 2022 season total (160). And on the defensive side, it’s been a complete turnaround since allowing 70 points in Miami. In t...

Father of group home abuse victim sues staffing company involved with hiring caregivers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

Edward Taylor, the father of abuse victim Edward Ware, has called for a news conference to shed light on a tragic incident that claimed his son’s life and although three people have been charged in this incident, Taylor said it isn’t enough. The event started on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at 1370 NE 138th Street, North Miami, where Taylor’s attorney announced that he is going to sue the caregivers and the company that hired them. Ware, an autistic adult reliant on Care Assist Home Care Inc. for support at the Family Tree Concept group home, tragically lost his life on December 21, 2021. Surveillance footage captured the horrifying moment when three caregivers physically restrained Ware, leading to his suffocation and death.Taylor entrusted Care Assist Home Care Inc. with his son’s well-being, expecting safe living conditions and proper care for his medical and behavioral needs. Instead, the unimaginable occurred. Driven by the need for justice and to bring attenti...

Lawmaker calls for national ban on children’s toy due to health risks

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

(CNN) — Government officials, public health professionals and concerned parents are calling on Congress to ban water beads, a children’s toy that they say poses significant health risks.In a news conference Monday, Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey announced that he will be introducing a bill at the House of Representatives this week aimed at instating a national ban on beads marketed to kids.“They are specifically marketed to kids. In a single small package you can have 25, 50, or even 75 thousand of these beads and it just takes one to cause harm to a child,” said Pallone. “They are not labeled as dangerous to small children, there’s no warning, and they’re not hard to get.”However, Pallone said that product warnings are not enough. “We have to ban them because there’s absolutely no way to ensure through any kind of education that they’re going to be safe or that that kids won’t handle them after they’ve fallen on the floor,” he added.Water beads are tiny balls made...

Manslaughter arrest in death of hockey player whose neck was cut with skate blade

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — Police in England arrested a man Tuesday on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of American ice hockey player Adam Johnson, whose neck was cut by a skate during a game.Johnson, 29, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers against the Sheffield Steelers in a Champions Cup game Oct. 28 when the blade cut his neck.South Yorkshire Police did not name the suspect or provide his age. He was in police custody.The player who cut Johnson’s neck was Matt Petgrave, 31, who plays for Sheffield.“Our investigation launched immediately following this tragedy and we have been carrying out extensive inquiries ever since to piece together the events which led to the loss of Adam in these unprecedented circumstances,” Detective Chief Superintendent Becs Horsfall said.Fans had a moment of silence for Johnson at the Steelers next game and gave Petgrave a standing ovation.Johnson was a Minnesota native who appeared in a total of 13 NHL games with the Pittsburgh Penguins ...

Sacked Suella Braverman says Rishi Sunak has ‘betrayed the nation’ over immigration

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:39:06 GMT

LONDON — Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman accused Rishi Sunak of betraying his “promise to the nation” on immigration, in an excoriating letter sent just a day after she was sacked by the U.K. prime minister.In her first intervention since being ousted by Sunak, Braverman — popular on the right of the Conservatives and seen as a future leadership contender — said the prime minister had “manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver” on a host of pledges.She accused him of “wishful thinking” over his flagship pledge to cut the numbers of people crossing the English Channel in small boats, and painted the prime minister as having “put off tough decisions in order to minimize political risk to yourself.”Those policies include Sunak’s key pledge to “Stop the Boats.” Braverman’s punchy intervention comes on the eve of a major Supreme Court judgment on whether the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to ...