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  • New limits for a rent algorithm that prosecutors say let landlords drive up prices

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    Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other’s moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors to end what critics said was illegal “algorithmic collusion.”

    The deal announced Monday by the Department of Justice follows a yearlong federal antitrust lawsuit, launched during the Biden administration, against the Texas-based software company. RealPage would not have to pay any damages or admit any wrongdoing. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.

    RealPage software provides daily recommendations to help landlords and their employees nationwide price their available apartments. The landlords do not have to follow the suggestions, but critics argue that because the software has access to a vast trove of confidential data, it helps RealPage’s clients charge the highest possible rent.

    “RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price,” said DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater, who emphasized that the settlement avoided a costly, time-consuming trial.

    Under the terms of the proposed settlement, RealPage can no longer use that real-time data to determine price recommendations. Instead, the only nonpublic data that can be used to train the software’s algorithm must be at least one year old.

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    “What does this mean for you and your family?” Slater said in a video statement. “It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm.”

    RealPage attorney Stephen Weissman said the company is pleased the DOJ worked with them to settle the matter.

    “There has been a great deal of misinformation about how RealPage’s software works and the value it provides for both housing providers and renters,” Weissman said in a statement. “We believe that RealPage’s historical use of aggregated and anonymized nonpublic data, which include rents that are typically lower than advertised rents, has led to lower rents, less vacancies, and more procompetitive effects.”

    However, the deal was slammed by some observers as a missed opportunity to clamp down on alleged algorithmic price-fixing throughout the economy.

    “This case really was the tip of the spear,” said Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel for the American Economic Liberties Project, whose group advocates for government action against business concentration.

    He said the settlement is rife with loopholes and he believes RealPages can keep influencing the rental market even if they can only use public, rather than private, data. He also decried how RealPages does not have to pay any damages, unlike many companies that have paid millions in penalties over their use of the software.

    Over the past few months, more than two dozen property management companies have reached various settlements over their use of RealPage, including Greystar, the nation’s largest landlord, which agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit, and $7 million to settle a separate lawsuit filed by nine states.

    The governors of California and New York signed laws last month to crack down on rent-setting software, and a growing list of cities, including Philadelphia and Seattle, have passed ordinances against the practice.

    Ten states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington — had joined the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit. Those states were not part of Monday’s settlement, meaning they can continue to pursue the case in court.

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  • How to connect with old friends and why it matters

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    NEW YORK (AP) — When Jennifer Austin met Molly in second grade, they quickly became best friends. They giggled through classes until the teacher separated them, inspiring them to come up with their own language. They shared sleepovers and went on each other’s family vacations.

    But they gradually drifted apart after Austin’s family moved to Germany before the girls started high school. Decades passed before they recently reconnected as grown women.

    “Strong friendships really do stay for the long haul,” Austin, 51, said. “Even if there are pauses in between and they fade, that doesn’t mean they completely dissolve or they go forgotten. They’re always there kind of lingering like a little light in the back.”

    Early friendships are some of the deepest: the schoolmates who shared bike rides and their favorite candy. The roommates who offered comfort after breakups. The ones who know us, sometimes better than we know ourselves.

    But as adults take on jobs and the responsibilities of homes and families, it can be challenging to stay connected with everyone we’ve loved.

    Technology plays a role, too. Loneliness has increased since the television was invented and intensified with the introduction of smartphones, according to psychologist Marisa Franco, a University of Maryland assistant clinical professor and author of “Platonic,” a book about the science of attachment.

    Once they’ve lost touch with friends, some people are reluctant to reach out, fearing rejection. But most of those on the receiving end appreciate the effort more than we expect, Franco said.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    “People are delighted to hear from their old friends and open to connections,” she said.

    Franco suggests reminiscing about a shared memory to span the time and distance. It can be something as simple as, “This pic came up and I just realized I wanted to check in on you,” she said. Propose a meetup. If the friend lives far away, try scheduling a phone date to catch up.

    Below, six people who tried to rekindle lost friendships reflect on distance, loss and reconnection.

    A missing piece

    Heather Robb and Laine DiPasquantonio were nearly inseparable in their 20s, when they both lived in Boston. They went to concerts and vacationed together. DiPasquantonio was there when Robb met her future husband and attended their wedding as a bridesmaid.

    But sometime after Robb married and DiPasquantonio moved to Colorado, their circle of friends scattered. They became busy raising children, juggling jobs and caring for aging parents.

    “It’s terrible because you don’t know it’s happening,” Robb, 60, said in a joint interview. “I think it was simply space and time. We were all in different cities, we were all in that busy time of toddlers.”

    Years passed with occasional holiday cards and texts but few meaningful interactions. DiPasquantonio saw photos on social media of Robb skiing and traveling with other friends. “I wasn’t sure there was so much room for me, from a distance,” she said.

    “Aww, I feel badly about that,” Robb replied. “I would argue that’s the bad side of social media.”

    The women found their way back to each other when Robb, president of Heather Robb Communications, had a business trip to Denver in April. She called to see if DiPasquantonio wanted to get dinner. “I didn’t know if she was going to be that happy to hear from me. I actually had some trepidation in reaching out,” Robb said.

    When she did, Robb learned her friend was about to undergo surgery for breast cancer. Instead of meeting for dinner, DiPasquantonio, a placement specialist at Harmony Senior Referrals, invited Robb to stay for the weekend. A mutual friend flew out to join them.

    “I was so tickled that you called and wanted to get together. It was awesome,” DiPasquantonio, 63, said during their interview. “What took us so long, right?”

    They’ve remained close since.

    “It just feels so good. It feels like there was a missing piece,” Robb said.

    Just do it

    Reyna Dominguez, 18, had the same best friend since first grade. But when Dominguez moved from Long Island to Brooklyn, her friend began college. Dominguez started working in a salon and their schedules didn’t align. About six months passed without communication.

    After graduating cosmetology school, Dominguez texted her friend to share the news.

    “I was a bit anxious that she was not going to respond. But she did, and I was so relieved and happy,” Dominguez said.

    Now they’re in touch about once a month and planning to get together.

    “It’s important to stay in touch because sometimes I do get lonely, like I have no one to really talk to,” Dominguez said. “But with her, she knows all about my life.”

    Dominguez encourages anyone considering reaching out to an old friend to go ahead. “I say just do it. You have nothing to lose,” she said. “I guess the worst they could do is not respond to you, but I feel like you’ll still be happy with the thought, ‘I tried.’”

    Staying close

    Andrew Snyder’s best friend since 5th grade lives a plane ride away, but that hasn’t stopped them from keeping in touch. They call or email each other at least once a month and see each other several times per year.

    At key points in their lives, they’ve visited each others’ homes “so when we talk about things, we actually can understand,” said Snyder, 50, who teaches philosophy and economics in New York City.

    Living in different cities means it requires work to stay connected, but it’s important to Snyder, who feels that friendships are thinning out as people spend more time looking at cellphone screens.

    “Friendship and cooking your own food, and exercising and being outside, these are the things that used to be real life, and now I think they’re all fading,” Snyder said. “I don’t think the real issue is time anymore. I think the real issue is a sense of overwhelm and a sense of depletion that we all feel.”

    No regrets

    Kim Ventresca, 22, drifted from her best friend while attending college. She reached out a few times and they reconnected when the friend was having a rough time. But they stopped talking again when Ventresca was going through mental health and relationship challenges. Eventually, the other young woman told Ventresca she no longer wanted to be friends.

    “I’ve got some new friends now, and I feel like it’s probably better because some things happen for a reason,” she said. “I’m hoping that she’s alright and that she is doing OK.”

    Ventresca, who works as a social media manager and receptionist in New Jersey, said she still recommends reaching out to missed friends, even if it’s awkward.

    “The worst thing that happens is you get ‘left on read’ or delivered or declined,” she said.

    Secret language

    After Austin’s family moved to Germany, she didn’t see her childhood best friend again for 20 years, through a chance meeting on a New York City subway platform. They reconnected briefly, but contact lapsed again.

    Molly’s 2021 visit with one of her children to a college near Austin’s home provided another chance to restore the friendship. They’ve remained close since.

    “Something at that point just shifted,” Austin, owner of KindPoint Communications, said. “Things really picked up and we just basically outright said, ’Let’s just keep this momentum going. Let’s not wait another 20 years.’”

    ___

    Send your wellness questions and story ideas to [email protected]. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well.

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  • Cities and states are turning to AI to improve road safety

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    As America’s aging roads fall further behind on much-needed repairs, cities and states are turning to artificial intelligence to spot the worst hazards and decide which fixes should come first.

    Hawaii officials, for example, are giving away 1,000 dashboard cameras as they try to reverse a recent spike in traffic fatalities. The cameras will use AI to automate inspections of guardrails, road signs and pavement markings, instantly discerning between minor problems and emergencies that warrant sending a maintenance crew.

    “This is not something where it’s looked at once a month and then they sit down and figure out where they’re going to put their vans,” said Richard Browning, chief commercial officer at Nextbase, which developed the dashcams and imagery platform for Hawaii.

    After San Jose, California, started mounting cameras on street sweepers, city staff confirmed the system correctly identified potholes 97% of the time. Now they’re expanding the effort to parking enforcement vehicles.

    Texas, where there are more roadway lane miles than the next two states combined, is less than a year into a massive AI plan that uses cameras as well as cellphone data from drivers who enroll to improve safety.

    Other states use the technology to inspect street signs or build annual reports about road congestion.

    Every guardrail, every day

    Hawaii drivers over the next few weeks will be able to sign up for a free dashcam valued at $499 under the “Eyes on the Road” campaign, which was piloted on service vehicles in 2021 before being paused due to wildfires.

    Roger Chen, a University of Hawaii associate professor of engineering who is helping facilitate the program, said the state faces unique challenges in maintaining its outdated roadway infrastructure.

    “Equipment has to be shipped to the island,” Chen said. “There’s a space constraint and a topography constraint they have to deal with, so it’s not an easy problem.”

    Although the program also monitors such things as street debris and faded paint on lane lines, the companies behind the technology particularly tout its ability to detect damaged guardrails.

    “They’re analyzing all guardrails in their state, every single day,” said Mark Pittman, CEO of Blyncsy, which combines the dashboard feeds with mapping software to analyze road conditions.

    Hawaii transportation officials are well aware of the risks that can stem from broken guardrails. Last year, the state reached a $3.9 million settlement with the family of a driver who was killed in 2020 after slamming into a guardrail that had been damaged in a crash 18 months earlier but never repaired.

    In October, Hawaii recorded its 106th traffic fatality of 2025 — more than all of 2024. It’s unclear how many of the deaths were related to road problems, but Chen said the grim trend underscores the timeliness of the dashboard program.

    Building a larger AI database

    San Jose has reported strong early success in identifying potholes and road debris just by mounting cameras on a few street sweepers and parking enforcement vehicles.

    But Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat who founded two tech startups before entering politics, said the effort will be much more effective if cities contribute their images to a shared AI database. The system can recognize a road problem that it has seen before — even if it happened somewhere else, Mahan said.

    “It sees, ‘Oh, that actually is a cardboard box wedged between those two parked vehicles, and that counts as debris on a roadway,’” Mahan said. “We could wait five years for that to happen here, or maybe we have it at our fingertips.”

    San Jose officials helped establish the GovAI Coalition, which went public in March 2024 for governments to share best practices and eventually data. Other local governments in California, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Washington, as well as the state of Colorado, are members.

    Some solutions are simple

    Not all AI approaches to improving road safety require cameras.

    Massachusetts-based Cambridge Mobile Telematics launched a system called StreetVision that uses cellphone data to identify risky driving behavior. The company works with state transportation departments to pinpoint where specific road conditions are fueling those dangers.

    Ryan McMahon, the company’s senior vice president of strategy & corporate development, was attending a conference in Washington, D.C., when he noticed the StreetVision software was showing a massive number of vehicles braking aggressively on a nearby road.

    The reason: a bush was obstructing a stop sign, which drivers weren’t seeing until the last second.

    “What we’re looking at is the accumulation of events,” McMahon said. “That brought me to an infrastructure problem, and the solution to the infrastructure problem was a pair of garden shears.”

    Texas officials have been using StreetVision and various other AI tools to address safety concerns. The approach was particularly helpful recently when they scanned 250,000 lane miles (402,000 kilometers) to identify old street signs long overdue for replacement.

    “If something was installed 10 or 15 years ago and the work order was on paper, God help you trying to find that in the digits somewhere,” said Jim Markham, who deals with crash data for the Texas Department of Transportation. “Having AI that can go through and screen for that is a force multiplier that basically allows us to look wider and further much faster than we could just driving stuff around.”

    Autonomous vehicles are next

    Experts in AI-based road safety techniques say what’s being done now is largely just a stepping stone for a time when a large proportion of vehicles on the road will be driverless.

    Pittman, the Blyncsy CEO who has worked on the Hawaii dashcam program, predicts that within eight years almost every new vehicle — with or without a driver — will come with a camera.

    “How do we see our roadways today from the perspective of grandma in a Buick but also Elon and his Tesla?” Pittman said. “This is really important nuance for departments of transportation and city agencies. They’re now building infrastructure for humans and automated drivers alike, and they need to start bridging that divide.”

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  • Flight delays persist as government shutdown leads to air traffic controller shortages

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    Flight delays continued at U.S. airports Sunday amid air traffic controller shortages as the government shutdown entered its second month, with Newark airport in New Jersey experiencing delays of two to three hours.

    New York City’s Emergency Management office said on X that Newark delays often ripple out to the region’s other airports.

    Travelers flying to, from or through New York “should expect schedule changes, gate holds, and missed connections. Anyone flying today should check flight status before heading to the airport and expect longer waits,” the social media post added.

    George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago O’Hare were also seeing dozens of delays and one or two cancellations, along with major airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Miami, according to FlightAware.

    As of Sunday evening, FlightAware said there were 4,295 delays and 557 cancelations of flights within, into or out of the U.S., not all related to controller shortages. In July, before the shutdown, about 69% of flights were on time and 2.5% were canceled.

    U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.

    “We work overtime to make sure the system is safe. And we will slow traffic down, you’ll see delays, we’ll have flights canceled to make sure the system is safe,” Duffy said Sunday on CBS’S “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

    He also said he does not plan to fire air traffic controllers who don’t show up for work.

    “Again when they’re making decisions to feed their families, I’m not going to fire air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. “They need support, they need money, they need a paycheck. They don’t need to be fired.”

    Earlier in October, Duffy had warned air traffic controllers who had called in sick instead of working without a paycheck during the shutdown risked being fired. Even a small number of controllers not showing up for work is causing problems because the FAA has a critical shortage of them.

    The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday on X that nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay for weeks.

    Staffing shortages can occur both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports for the month of October despite isolated staffing problems throughout the month.

    Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a long-standing shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.

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  • Sundance Film Festival reveals details about Robert Redford tributes and legacy screenings

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    Robert Redford’s legacy and mission was always going to be a key component of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, which will be the last of its kind in Park City, Utah. But in the wake of his death in Septemberat age 89, those ideas took on a new significance.

    This January, the institute that Redford founded over 40 years ago, plans to honor his career and impact with and a screening of his first truly independent film, the 1969 sports drama “Downhill Racer,” and a series of legacy screenings of restored Sundance gems from “Little Miss Sunshine” to “House Party,” festival organizers said Tuesday.

    “As we were thinking about how best to honor Mr. Redford’s legacy, it’s not only carrying forward this notion of ‘everyone has a story’ but it’s also getting together in a movie theater and watching a film that really embodies that independent spirit,” festival director Eugene Hernandez told The Associated Press. “We’ve had some incredible artists reach out to us, even in the past few weeks since Mr. Redford’s passing, who just want to be part of this year’s festival.”

    Archival screenings will include “Saw,” “Mysterious Skin,” “House Party,” and “Humpday” as well as the 35th anniversary of Barbara Kopple’s documentary “American Dream,” and 20th anniversaries of “Half Nelson” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” with some of the filmmakers expected to attend as well.

    “Over the almost 30 years of Sundance Institute’s collaboration with our partner, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, we’ve not only worked to ensure that the Festival’s legacy endures through film preservation, but we’ve seen that output feed an astonishing resurgence of repertory cinema programming across the country,” said festival programmer John Nein. “The films we’ve preserved and the newly restored films screening at this year’s festival, including some big anniversaries, are an important way to keep the independent stories from years past alive in our culture today.”

    Tickets for the 2026 festival, which runs from Jan. 22 through Feb. 1, go on sale Wednesday at noon Eastern, with online and in person options. Some planning is also already underway for the festival’s new home in Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, but programmers are heads down figuring out the slate of world premieres for January. Those will be revealed in December.

    “There’s a lot more to come and a lot more to announce,” Hernandez said. “This is just laying a foundation.”

    Redford’s death has added a poignancy to everything.

    “Seeing and hearing the remembrances took me back to why I felt compelled to go to the festival in the first place,” Hernandez said. “It’s been very grounding and clarifying and for us as a team it’s been very emotional and moving. But it’s also been an opportunity to remind ourselves what Mr. Redford has given to us, to our lives, to our industry, to Utah.”

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  • Colleges are fighting to prove their return on investment

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — For a generation of young Americans, choosing where to go to college — or whether to go at all — has become a complex calculation of costs and benefits that often revolves around a single question: Is the degree worth its price?

    Public confidence in higher education has plummeted in recent years amid high tuition prices, skyrocketing student loans and a dismal job market — plus ideological concerns from conservatives. Now, colleges are scrambling to prove their value to students.

    Borrowed from the business world, the term “return on investment” has been plastered on college advertisements across the U.S. A battery of new rankings grade campuses on the financial benefits they deliver. States such as Colorado have started publishing yearly reports on the monetary payoff of college, and Texas now factors it into calculations for how much taxpayer money goes to community colleges.

    “Students are becoming more aware of the times when college doesn’t pay off,” said Preston Cooper, who has studied college ROI at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “It’s front of mind for universities today in a way that it was not necessarily 15, 20 years ago.”

    Most bachelor’s degrees are still worth it

    A wide body of research indicates a bachelor’s degree still pays off, at least on average and in the long run. Yet there’s growing recognition that not all degrees lead to a good salary, and even some that seem like a good bet are becoming riskier as graduates face one of the toughest job markets in years.

    A new analysis released Thursday by the Strada Education Foundation finds 70% of recent public university graduates can expect a positive return within 10 years — meaning their earnings over a decade will exceed that of a typical high school graduate by an amount greater than the cost of their degree. Yet it varies by state, from 53% in North Dakota to 82% in Washington, D.C. States where college is more affordable have fared better, the report says.

    It’s a critical issue for families who wonder how college tuition prices could ever pay off, said Emilia Mattucci, a high school counselor at East Allegheny schools, near Pittsburgh. More than two-thirds of her school’s students come from low-income families, and many aren’t willing to take on the level of debt that past generations accepted.

    Instead, more are heading to technical schools or the trades and passing on four-year universities, she said.

    “A lot of families are just saying they can’t afford it, or they don’t want to go into debt for years and years and years,” she said.

    Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been among those questioning the need for a four-year degree. Speaking at the Reagan Institute think tank in September, McMahon praised programs that prepare students for careers right out of high school.

    “I’m not saying kids shouldn’t go to college,” she said. “I’m just saying all kids don’t have to go in order to be successful.”

    Lowering college tuition and improving graduate earnings

    American higher education has been grappling with both sides of the ROI equation — tuition costs and graduate earnings. It’s becoming even more important as colleges compete for decreasing numbers of college-age students as a result of falling birth rates.

    Tuition rates have stayed flat on many campuses in recent years to address affordability concerns, and many private colleges have lowered their sticker prices in an effort to better reflect the cost most students actually pay after factoring in financial aid.

    The other part of the equation — making sure graduates land good jobs — is more complicated.

    A group of college presidents recently met at Gallup’s Washington headquarters to study public polling on higher education. One of the chief reasons for flagging confidence is a perception that colleges aren’t giving graduates the skills employers need, said Kevin Guskiewicz, president of Michigan State University, one of the leaders at the meeting.

    “We’re trying to get out in front of that,” he said.

    The issue has been a priority for Guskiewicz since he arrived on campus last year. He gathered a council of Michigan business leaders to identify skills that graduates will need for jobs, from agriculture to banking. The goal is to mold degree programs to the job market’s needs and to get students internships and work experience that can lead to a job.

    A disconnect with the job market

    Bridging the gap to the job market has been a persistent struggle for U.S. colleges, said Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute, a think tank that studies the workforce. Last year the institute, partnering with Strada researchers, found 52% of recent college graduates were in jobs that didn’t require a degree. Even higher-demand fields, such as education and nursing, had large numbers of graduates in that situation.

    “No programs are immune, and no schools are immune,” Sigelman said.

    The federal government has been trying to fix the problem for decades, going back to President Barack Obama’s administration. A federal rule first established in 2011 aimed to cut federal money to college programs that leave graduates with low earnings, though it primarily targeted for-profit colleges.

    A Republican reconciliation bill passed this year takes a wider view, requiring most colleges to hit earnings standards to be eligible for federal funding. The goal is to make sure college graduates end up earning more than those without a degree.

    Others see transparency as a key solution.

    For decades, students had little way to know whether graduates of specific degree programs were landing good jobs after college. That started to change with the College Scorecard in 2015, a federal website that shares broad earnings outcomes for college programs. More recently, bipartisan legislation in Congress has sought to give the public even more detailed data.

    Lawmakers in North Carolina ordered a 2023 study on the financial return for degrees across the state’s public universities. It found that 93% produced a positive return, meaning graduates were expected to earn more over their lives than someone without a similar degree.

    The data is available to the public, showing, for example, that undergraduate degrees in applied math and business tend to have high returns at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, while graduate degrees in psychology and foreign languages often don’t.

    Colleges are belatedly realizing how important that kind of data is to students and their families, said Lee Roberts, chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, in an interview.

    “In uncertain times, students are even more focused — I would say rightly so — on what their job prospects are going to be,” he added. “So I think colleges and universities really owe students and their families this data.”

    ___

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Dodgers’ Ohtani roughed up by Rockies, leaves game after getting hit on right thigh by line drive

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    DENVER (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani had a forgettable outing in his first career pitching start against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

    Ohtani left Wednesday’s game after giving up five earned runs and nine hits in four innings and getting hit in the leg by a comeback line drive.

    With runners at second and third and one out in the fourth inning, Ohtani got hit by a 93-mph line drive off the bat of Colorado’s Orlando Arcia on his right leg that caused him to limp and grimace in pain. The liner struck the reigning National League MVP and ricocheted toward the first base line. Ohtani gave chase and grabbed the ball on the line, spun to make a throw, but had no play as a runner scored.

    After a mound visit from manager Dave Roberts and team medical personnel, Ohtani stayed in the game and got the last two outs of the inning, with the Dodgers trailing 5-0 at the time. The Dodgers lost to Colorado 8-3.

    Roberts said after the game that the line drive hit Ohtani on the thigh and managed to avoid his knee and any on-bone contact.

    “I was just really relieved that it was the thigh, because it hit him flush,” Roberts said. “If you’re talking about the kneecap, that’s a different conversation. When I saw the ball mark on his thigh, I was very relieved, relative to the situation.”

    Through a translator, Ohtani said he had recently been hit in the same spot on his leg by a pitch.

    “I’m glad it didn’t hit the knee,” Ohtani said through a translator. “I think we avoided the worst-case scenario. So, I’m going to focus on the treatment.”

    Ohtani was making his 10th start of the season after not pitching in the 2024 season while recovering from elbow surgery. The earned runs that he allowed matched the most he had permitted since July 2022, and the nine hits allowed matched a career high.

    “I put the team in a bad spot,” Ohtani said. “It was just a very regrettable outing. I wish I could have done better.”

    Even after getting hit by the line drive, Ohtani stayed in the game and drew a walk in his at-bat in the fifth inning. But, he did not bat in the eighth and was replaced by Alex Call, who struck out. Ohtani finished with a double and a walk and extended his on-base streak to 18 games.

    Roberts said he’s “confident” Ohtani will play Friday against the San Diego Padres. Even before the injury, Ohtani was scheduled to sit out Thursday’s series finale against the Rockies.

    He entered Wednesday without a decision and a 3.47 ERA. This season, he hasn’t thrown more than 4 ⅓ innings or 80 pitches. Against the MLB-worst Rockies, he threw 66 pitches, 49 for strikes.

    Ohtani is batting .284 with 44 homers, one behind NL-leading Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies, with 83 RBIs.

    ___

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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  • Barbashev, Stone and Olofsson each score two, Golden Knights top Avalanche 8-4 in season-opener

    Barbashev, Stone and Olofsson each score two, Golden Knights top Avalanche 8-4 in season-opener

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    LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ivan Barbashev, Mark Stone and Victor Olofsson each scored two goals and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Colorado Avalanche 8-4 on Wednesday night in the teams’ season opener.

    Barbashev also had two assists, linemate Jack Eichel had four and defenseman Shea Theodore added three. Adin Hill finished with 28 saves.

    Mikko Rantanen had three goals, while Casey Mittelstadt also scored for the Avalanche. Alexandar Georgiev made 11 saves. Justus Annunen came in for Georgiev and stopped two of the four shots he faced.

    Takeaways

    Avalanche: As their number one goaltender, Georgiev struggled terribly in allowing five or more goals in a regular-season game for the 34th time in his career. He came into the game with a 4-4-2 mark against Vegas, with a 2.59 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.

    Golden Knights: Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy stressed the importance of chemistry with his forwards during training camp, starting with one center and one wing building chemistry before adding a third element once he was confident with the initial pairing. Cassidy seemingly got it right with his top line of Stone, Barbashev and Eichel, as the trio combined for 10 points.

    Key moment

    After falling behind 1-0 midway through the first period, the Golden Knights wasted no time in tying the game when Olofsson sniped Georgiev from near the bottom of the right circle, firing it short side just over the goalie’s right shoulder.

    Key stat

    Rantanen’s hat trick was the eighth of his career, and second one of the calendar year. His last was last season in St. Louis on March 19. Five of Rantanen’s eight hat tricks have come on the road.

    Up Next

    The Avalanche host Columbus on Saturday, while the Golden Knights continue their season-opening three-game homestand by hosting St. Louis on Friday.

    ___

    AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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  • Change-of-plea hearings set in fraud case for owners of funeral home where 190 bodies found

    Change-of-plea hearings set in fraud case for owners of funeral home where 190 bodies found

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    DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has canceled an October trial date and set a change-of-plea hearing in a fraud case involving the owners of a Colorado funeral home where authorities discovered 190 decaying bodies.

    Jon and Carie Hallford were indicted in April on fraud charges, accused of misspending nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, jewelry and other personal expenses. They own the Return to Nature Funeral Home based in Colorado Springs and in Penrose, where the bodies were found.

    The indictment alleges that the Hallfords gave families dry concrete instead of cremated ashes and buried the wrong body on two occasions. The couple also allegedly collected more than $130,000 from families for cremations and burial services they never provided.

    The 15 charges brought by the federal grand jury are separate from the more than 200 criminal counts pending against the Hallfords in state court for corpse abuse, money laundering, theft and forgery.

    Carie Hallford filed a statement with the court Thursday saying “a disposition has been reached in the instant case” and asking for a change-of-plea hearing. Jon Hallford’s request said he wanted a hearing “for the court to consider the proposed plea agreement.”

    The judge granted their request to vacate the Oct. 15 trial date and all related dates and deadlines. The change-of-plea hearings were set for Oct. 24.

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  • Kroger and Albertsons defend merger plan in federal court against US regulators’ objections

    Kroger and Albertsons defend merger plan in federal court against US regulators’ objections

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    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Supermarket chain Albertsons told a federal judge Monday that it might have to lay off workers, close stores and even exit some markets if its planned merger with Kroger isn’t allowed to proceed.

    The two companies proposed what would be the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history in October 2022. But the Federal Trade Commission sued to prevent the $24.6 billion deal, alleging it would eliminate competition and raise grocery prices in a time of already high food price inflation.

    In the three-week hearing that opened Monday, the FTC is seeking a preliminary injunction that would block the merger while its complaint goes before an in-house administrative law judge.

    “This lawsuit is part of an effort aimed at helping Americans feed their families,” the FTC’s chief trial counsel, Susan Musser, said in her opening arguments on Monday.

    Musser said Kroger and Albertsons currently compete in 22 states, closely matching each other on price, quality, private label products and services like store pickup. Shoppers benefit from that competition, she said, and will lose those benefits if the merger is allowed to proceed.

    Customers also are wary of the merger, the lawyer said. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, for example, 278 shoppers wrote to the FTC to express their concerns about a combined Kroger and Albertsons, which would own five of the city’s eight supermarkets.

    But Kroger and Albertsons insist the FTC’s objections don’t take into account the rising competition in the grocery sector. Walmart’s grocery sales totaled $247 billion last year compared to $63 billion in 2003, for example; Costco’s sales have grown more than 400% in the same period.

    “Consumers are blurring the line of where they buy groceries,” Albertsons attorney Enu Mainigi said.

    Mainigi said Albertsons’ customers now spend 88 cents of every dollar at competitors that range from Aldi and Trader Joe’s to Dollar General. Albertsons can’t compete with larger rivals that have national scale, but joining forces with Kroger would help it do that, she said.

    Kroger attorney Matthew Wolf also defended the proposed merger.

    “The savings that come from the merger are obvious and intuitive. Kroger may have the best price on Pepsi. Albertsons may have the best price on Coke. Put them together, they have the best price on both,” Wolf said.

    The two sides also disagree on Kroger and Albertsons’ plan to sell 579 stores in places where their stores overlap. The buyer would be C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands.

    The FTC says C&S is ill-prepared to take on those stores. Laura Hall, the FTC’s senior trial counsel, cited internal documents that indicated C&S executives were skeptical about the quality of the stores they would get and may want the option to sell or close them.

    But Wolf said C&S has the experience and infrastructure to run the divested stores and would be the eighth-largest supermarket company in the U.S., if the merger plan goes through.

    The commission also alleges that workers’ wages and benefits would decline if Kroger and Albertsons no longer compete with each other.

    Before the hearing, several members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International union gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland to speak out against the proposed deal.

    “Enough is enough,” said Carol McMillian, a bakery manager at a Kroger-owned grocery store in Colorado. “We can no longer stand by and allow corporate greed that puts profit before people. Our workers, our communities and our customers deserve better.”

    The labor union also expressed concern that potential store closures could create so-called food and pharmacy “deserts” for consumers.

    For people in many communities across the U.S., when a grocery store shutters, “their only source of food actually is walking to the nearest gas station,” said Kim Cordova, the president of UFCW Local 7, which represents over 23,000 members in Colorado and Wyoming.

    Mainigi argued the deal could actually bolster union jobs, since many of Kroger’s and Albertsons’ competitors, like Walmart or Costco, have few unionized workers.

    U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson is expected to hear from around 40 witnesses, including the CEOs of Kroger and Albertsons, before deciding whether to issue the preliminary injunction. If she does decide to temporarily block the merger, the FTC’s in-house hearings are scheduled to begin Oct. 1.

    But Nelson’s decision will seal the merger’s fate, according to Wolf. He said the FTC’s in-house administrative process is so long and cumbersome that merger deals almost always fall apart before it’s through. Earlier this month, Kroger sued the FTC, alleging the agency’s internal proceedings were unconstitutional and saying it wants the merger’s merits decided in federal court.

    The attorneys general of Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming all joined the case on the FTC’s side. Washington and Colorado filed separate cases in state courts seeking to block the merger.

    Kroger, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw’s. Together, the companies employ around 710,000 people.

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  • Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will lose same amount of Colorado River water next year as in 2024

    Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will lose same amount of Colorado River water next year as in 2024

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will continue to live with less water next year from the Colorado River after the U.S. government on Thursday announced water cuts that preserve the status quo. Long-term challenges remain for the 40 million people reliant on the imperiled river.

    The 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) river is a lifeline for the U.S. West and supplies water to cities and farms in northern Mexico, too. It supports seven Western states, more than two dozen Native American tribes and irrigates millions of acres of farmland in the American West. It also produces hydropower used across the region.

    Years of overuse combined with rising temperatures and drought have meant less water flows in the Colorado today than in decades past.

    The Interior Department announces water availability for the coming year months in advance so that cities, farmers and others can plan. Officials do so based on water levels at Lake Mead, one of the river’s two main reservoirs that act as barometers of its health.

    Based on those levels, Arizona will again lose 18% of its total Colorado River allocation, while Mexico’s goes down 5%. The reduction for Nevada — which receives far less water than Arizona, California or Mexico — will stay at 7%.

    The cuts announced Thursday are in the same “Tier 1” category that were in effect this year and in 2022, when the first federal cutbacks on the Colorado River took effect and magnified the crisis on the river. Even deeper cuts followed in 2023. Farmers in Arizona were hit hardest by those cuts.

    Heavier rains and other water-saving efforts by Arizona, California and Nevada somewhat improved the short-term outlook for Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which is upstream of Mead on the Utah-Arizona border.

    Officials on Thursday said the two reservoirs were at 37% capacity.

    They lauded the ongoing efforts by Arizona, California and Nevada to save more water, which are in effect until 2026. The federal government is paying water users in those states for much of that conservation. Meanwhile, states, tribes and others are negotiating how they will share water from the river after 2026, when many current guidelines governing the river expire.

    Tom Buschatzke, director of Arizona’s Department of Water Resources and the state’s lead negotiator in those talks, said Thursday that Arizonans had “committed to incredible conservation … to protect the Colorado River system.”

    “Future conditions,” he added, “are likely to continue to force hard decisions.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Amy Taxin contributed from Santa Ana, Calif.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Hail hurts dozens of concertgoers, scraps Louis Tomlinson show at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver

    Hail hurts dozens of concertgoers, scraps Louis Tomlinson show at Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver

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    DENVER (AP) — A brief but fierce storm pummeled concertgoers with golf ball-sized hail as they scrambled for cover at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver, injuring dozens and forcing the cancellation of the show’s headliner, former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson.

    As many as 90 people were treated for injuries from Wednesday night’s storm at the outdoor venue in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and seven people were taken to a hospital, West Fire Rescue said. Some were hurt by hail and others had broken bones, bruises and cuts while seeking shelter, but no injuries were life threatening, fire rescue spokesperson Ronda Scholting said.

    Hail piled up like snow in some spots in the amphitheater, which was carved out of a sedimentary rock formation. The show was initially delayed because of the weather, with fans told to take cover in their vehicles, according to tweets from the venue. The concert was subsequently canceled.

    Sprinkles of hail began falling as Nicole Criner 28, and her sister were making their way to the car to escape the intensifying storm. Before they could make it, larger hail stones began pelting them, and they grabbed a small plastic sign at the venue’s entrance to cover their heads.

    Criner said the sign kept their heads partly covered, but their hands, backs and shoulders were pelted by stinging hail. Criner’s glasses fell from her head and were swept away in a river of hail flowing nearby.

    Criner shared a video of the moment to Twitter where concertgoers can be seen running as her sister screamed in pain from the hail striking them. Others sought hiding places under trees and in bushes.

    “We were hiding under this like plastic sign, but it was super windy, and we were trying to hold it above us on our heads but then our hands were getting hit with the hail,” she said. “We weren’t completely sheltered so we got hit on our shoulders and our back.”

    Criner and her sister escaped the hail when a car drove up and the driver called them inside along with others who couldn’t find anywhere else to hide. Bleeding with a bump on her head, Criner and her sister were able to reconnect with their father and his girlfriend they had lost in the chaos.

    A day later, she said, she was still sore and bruised.

    “I still have an egg bump on my head,” she said Thursday, when another round of thunderstorms dropped large hail in parts of the Denver area.

    Beth Nabi, 44, had flown in from Dublin, Ireland, to watch one of her favorite musicians perform at the Colorado venue. At around 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, she said, she could see lightning and thunder approaching in the distance.

    As the weather deteriorated, concertgoers were encouraged to seek shelter.

    But not wanting to give up hope on seeing Tomlinson, Nabi stuck around. She said the hail started falling while she was in a bathroom and that the bathroom quickly filled up with other concertgoers trying to escape the hailstorm.

    “I came out of the bathroom stall to a bathroom filled with as many people who could cram in there, all seeking shelter,” she said.

    The storm lasted about 10 minutes before she could leave the bathroom and see all the hail covering the ground.

    “The hailstorm was just crazy. It was apocalyptic. It was fast,” she said.

    To cap things off, she returned to her rental car to find its windshield cracked in several places and the hood dented. Nabi said she is anxiously waiting to hear on when the concert will be rescheduled.

    “I am gutted it didn’t go on,” she said. “’I’m hoping we get some news on when it can be rescheduled, and I hope I can make it because I was so looking forward for the experience at that venue.”

    Tomlinson tweeted that he was “devastated” about the cancellation and promised to return.

    “Even though we didn’t play the show I felt all of your passion! Sending you all love!” he wrote.

    Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater is located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Denver.

    ____

    Dupuy reported from New York.

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  • Senate votes to keep Biden rule toughening requirements on stabilizing braces for firearms

    Senate votes to keep Biden rule toughening requirements on stabilizing braces for firearms

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — New rules that require owners to register stabilizing braces for firearms will stay in place after the Senate rejected a Republican effort on Thursday to overturn them.

    President Joe Biden had promised to veto the resolution overturning the rules if it had passed. In January, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives finalized the new regulations on pistols with stabilizing braces, also called pistol braces, that require owners to register them and pay a fee or remove the braces. The agency found the accessories can make pistols as dangerously powerful and easy to conceal as short-barreled rifles or sawed-off shotguns.

    The Senate voted 50-49 to reject the resolution, with all Democrats voting against it and all Republicans voting for it. The Republican-led House had passed the resolution earlier this month.

    The regulation, which went into effect June 1, was one of several steps Biden first announced in 2021 after a man using a stabilizing brace killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. A stabilizing brace was also used in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, that left nine people dead in 2019 and most recently in a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

    Republicans argue that the braces are needed for Americans who have disabilities to be able to shoot guns with one hand. Sen. John Kennedy, the Louisiana Republican who sponsored the resolution, said he believes the regulations are a “backdoor way to subject pistols to more smothering regulations” and create a national gun registry.

    Democrats said that the country needs more gun regulations, not fewer, as mass shootings proliferate.

    The GOP effort to overturn the rule was “outrageous and it is completely removed from the conversation that families and kids are having all across the country,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., ahead of the vote.

    The new rule is also being challenged in several lawsuits by gun owners and state attorneys general who say it violates the Second Amendment by requiring millions of people to alter or register their weapons. In some cases, judges have recently agreed to temporarily block enforcement of the rule for the plaintiffs.

    Biden mentioned the rule in a speech last week as he urged tougher gun restrictions around the country. This month marks the one-year anniversary of legislation passed by Congress that toughened background checks for the youngest gun buyers, sought to keep firearms from domestic violence offenders and aimed to help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier to take weapons away from people judged to be dangerous.

    Biden noted that the pistol brace rule is one of several steps his administration has taken to try and curb gun violence.

    The braces are essentially turning a gun into a short-barreled rifle, he said, “which has been a weapon of choice by a number of mass shooters.”

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  • NBA-champion Nuggets try to run it back in a Northwest Division that added a wealth of young talent

    NBA-champion Nuggets try to run it back in a Northwest Division that added a wealth of young talent

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    DENVER (AP) — The parade is just a memory for the NBA-champion Denver Nuggets and the party is beginning to simmer down.

    Back to the business of finding a way to remain at the NBA’s mountaintop.

    The Nuggets went in search of some cost-control players in the NBA draft to build around a core that includes Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Finals MVP Nikola Jokic. This approach may be a way to bring back sixth man Bruce Brown, who opted out and is set to be a free agent. Or another veteran eager to help defend the title.

    It took Denver 47 NBA seasons to get to the top. Staying there won’t be easy, either, with the Northwest Division adding a wealth of young talent Thursday night. Portland paired Scoot Henderson (No. 3 pick) with Damian Lillard. Utah added Taylor Hendricks and Keyonte George to continue their youthful trend. Minnesota will run it back with Anthony Edwards & Co., and Oklahoma City added point guard Cason Wallace to go with standout Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

    Denver picked up Gonzaga forward Julian Strawther at No. 29 and Penn State point guard Jalen Pickett at No. 32 as part of a deal with the Indiana Pacers. They also got Hunter Tyson out of Clemson with the 37th selection.

    The Nuggets are hoping to strike gold again, like they did last summer when they took Christian Braun out of Kansas at No. 21. Braun turned in valuable minutes off the bench during the Nuggets’ run to their first championship.

    One thing’s for sure: The new Jazz picks certainly stood out.

    Their suits, anyway.

    Hendricks, the No. 9 pick out of Central Florida, wore pink and George, the Big 12 freshman of the year from Baylor, donned a snazzy print suit.

    DENVER NUGGETS

    — Team needs: Not many. They’re the defending champions.

    — Who did the team draft: Strawther, who is known for his big-shot ability (he drained a go-ahead 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds left to help Gonzaga beat UCLA in the Sweet 16). Pickett could help fill the void should Brown leave.

    — Whose game does the draft pick most compare to: Jordan Poole for Strawther. For Pickett, perhaps an Andre Miller.

    MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

    — Team needs: Planning to run it back with the Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns tandem inside and ceding more responsibility to star swingman Anthony Edwards, Minnesota is set for starters. Backup center Naz Reid is an unrestricted free agent and he’d leave a big hole.

    — Who did the team draft: After trading two future second-round picks to San Antonio to move into the 33rd spot, the Timberwolves will receive Leonard Miller, a 6-foot-10 forward from Canada who played with the G League Ignite last season. Miller averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds in 24 games. With their own pick at No. 53 overall, the Timberwolves went with UCLA guard Jaylen Clark. He had surgery in March to repair an Achilles injury.

    — Whose game does the draft pick most compare to: Just 19, Miller needs development, but perhaps his game can evolve to resemble Jarred Vanderbilt. Depending on how he recovers from the Achilles surgery, perhaps Clark can develop into a Matisse Thybulle-type defender.

    OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

    — Team needs: Interior strength, 3-point shooting.

    — Who did the team draft: Wallace, Dallas’ pick at No. 10; Hunter Tyson at 37; Keyontae Johnson at 50.

    — Whose game does the draft pick most compare to: Wallace: Jrue Holiday because of his floater and defense; Tyson: Danilo Gallinari because of his size and ability to stretch the floor; Johnson: A smaller Zion Williamson because of his versatility and strength.

    PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

    — Team needs: Help for Lillard after missing out on the playoffs for the second straight season.

    — Who did the team draft: Henderson out of the G League Ignite with the third overall pick, forward Kris Miller out of Iowa with the No. 23 pick, and French guard Rayan Rupert with the No. 43 pick.

    — Whose game does the draft pick most compare to: Henderson is a tenacious point guard that some compare to Russell Westbrook.

    UTAH JAZZ

    — Team needs: Shooters, switchable defenders and backcourt depth.

    — Who did the team draft: Hendricks, George, No. 28 Brice Sensabaugh out of Ohio State.

    — Whose game does the draft pick most compare to: Hendricks can shoot and defend like Bobby Portis; George is a creative shot-maker like Anfernee Simons or Bradley Beal; Sensabaugh is a pure shooter in the mold of T.J. Warren.

    ___

    AP Sports Writers Cliff Brunt and Anne M. Peterson along with AP freelancers Brian Hall and Matthew Coles contributed to this report.

    ___

    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Rapidly growing Denver picks Mike Johnston as new mayor amid mounting big-city problems

    Rapidly growing Denver picks Mike Johnston as new mayor amid mounting big-city problems

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    DENVER (AP) — Former Colorado state senator Mike Johnston claimed victory as opponent Kelly Brough conceded Tuesday night in a runoff election to become Denver’s next mayor.

    Unofficial results showed Johnston with 54.05% of the vote to 45.95% for Brough late Tuesday night. Johnston was ahead by 8,000 votes shortly after polls closed and that lead grew to nearly 11,000 votes as the night went on.

    Johnston will be the city’s first new mayor in more than a decade, replacing Michael Hancock, who was elected in 2011 and was term-limited.

    Brough, the former president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, told supporters Tuesday night that she had called Johnston and “wished him godspeed in the work ahead because our city is challenged and it needs a lot of work.”

    The two moderates were the top vote-getters in a 16-way race in April, sending the race to Tuesday’s runoff.

    Denver has become the tech and business hub of the Mountain West but now faces problems similar to those in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Johnston will helm a rapidly growing city faced with out-of-control housing costs and increased homelessness.

    The job of Denver mayor has launched careers, notably that of John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who went on to become Colorado’s governor and is now a U.S. senator. Another Democratic mayor, Frederico Peña, went on to become U.S. Energy Secretary under former President Bill Clinton.

    Peña endorsed Johnston, who also had a larger warchest, including nearly $5 million raised from outside contributions.

    A tech and aerospace hub, the Denver metro area’s population has almost doubled over the past three decades, reaching 3 million. Fears that rapidly growing Denver is lurching toward a fate like other major cities defined the race.

    Candidates debated whether to enforce a ban on growing homeless encampments, further fund the police, impose rent control and allow what are often called “safe injection sites” — where people may use drugs under supervision to prevent overdoses.

    The ban was a legacy of Hancock’s administration.

    Johnston, who got slightly more votes than Brough in the April election, has said voters want the next mayor to do a good job of taking multiple approaches to problems.

    “We do have the same problems that San Francisco and Seattle face,” he said in April. “If we get that wrong, you end up like a lot of other big cities where no middle class people can live.”

    Brough campaigned on her knowledge of Denver and experience as a CEO. Besides leading the Denver chamber of commerce, she has been chief strategy officer for Metropolitan State University of Denver and was Hickenlooper’s chief of staff for three years when he was mayor.

    Denver’s homelessness rate has grown by over 12% over the past two years. Whether to enforce the ban divided candidates in the April election but Johnston and Brough both have said they would enforce it.

    The future mayor will also inherit a city experiencing a rise in gentrification, the highest crime rate in decades, and a surge in opioid overdoses that reached 473 deaths in 2021.

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  • For Heat, the familiar challenge of navigating a rocky road awaits

    For Heat, the familiar challenge of navigating a rocky road awaits

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    DENVER (AP) — Udonis Haslem has been through almost everything in his 20 seasons with the Miami Heat. On that list: Game 1 losses in the NBA Finals.

    He’s seen lots of those — six of them, actually, in seven tries during his Heat career. Being down 1-0 in the finals against the Denver Nuggets is not optimal, but Haslem knows it doesn’t doom Miami’s chances, either. All three of his championship rings came in series where the Heat lost a finals opener.

    And that will be the message for three days, all the way until tip-off of Game 2 on Sunday night.

    “It can be done,” Haslem said.

    He’s right. And by now, the Heat have just come to expect that nothing they want will come easily.

    Virtually the entire season has been topsy-turvy for the Heat, and evidently, the jagged path is the one they’re going to take all the way to the end. A 104-93 loss in Game 1 on Thursday night came when Miami shot poorly, struggled big-time from 3-point range until a late flurry and shot only two free throws — the fewest, the NBA said, by any team in any of the 4,359 games in league postseason history.

    “That’s how we’ve been all year,” said Heat guard Max Strus, who went 0 for 10 from the field — 0 for 9 from 3-point range — in Game 1. “We’re battle-tested. We’ve been through a lot of down moments this year. So, we know how to deal with it and we’ll be ready.”

    The list of adverse moments the Heat have endured this season is lengthy, to say the least.

    They didn’t get over the .500 mark for the first time until about a week before Christmas. They sputtered for much of the year, never able to put a long string of wins together. There have been 45 different winning streaks of at least five games in the NBA this season, by 21 different teams — and the Heat weren’t one of them. They lost a play-in game to Atlanta, trailed in the elimination play-in game late against Chicago, nearly blew a 3-0 lead against Boston in the East final … and keep finding ways to make it right.

    “That’s just how our path has been,” said Caleb Martin, who was 1 for 7 in Game 1. “That’s everybody’s comfort zone. We’re never worried in situations like this. People might be saying it’s going to be tough or whatever the case may be, but we don’t think like that. We’re going to be ready.”

    There will also be a history lesson before Sunday night. Haslem will certainly be among the professors.

    In the 2006 finals, Miami lost the first two games in Dallas, woke up after Game 2 to learn that city was already planning the parade and won the next four games. In 2012, Miami lost Game 1 in Oklahoma City by 11 points — just like Thursday’s margin — and won the next four games. And in 2013, Miami rallied after a Game 1 loss to beat San Antonio in a seven-game classic, the series that was highlighted by Ray Allen’s game-tying and season-saving 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds left in Game 6.

    Like Haslem was saying, it can be done.

    “I feel like we’ll bounce back,” said center Bam Adebayo, who led the Heat with 26 points and 13 rebounds in Game 1.

    It’s unlikely that Miami only gets to the line two times in Game 2. It’s unlikely that Strus will go 0 for 10 again Sunday. It’s unlikely that Jimmy Butler will score only 13 points again in Game 2; that’s what he had in Game 1, or 15 points below his average for the playoffs coming into the finals.

    “I think whenever we watch this film, it’s going to look way worse than it really is,” Butler said. “But that’s the only way you’re going to learn from it.”

    Even if all those offensive numbers rise, it still doesn’t guarantee anything. Denver will make adjustments as well, just like Miami.

    But if this adverse season has taught Miami anything, it’s that they’re comfortable while in trouble.

    “That’s what you expect,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You don’t expect it to be easy when you get to this final round. This is a great challenge. It’s going to require more. We will get to work and see what we can do better, what we can do harder, what we can do with more effort, what we can do with more focus, etc.”

    ___

    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • JetBlue strikes a deal to sell Spirit’s LaGuardia operation if it succeeds in buying Spirit

    JetBlue strikes a deal to sell Spirit’s LaGuardia operation if it succeeds in buying Spirit

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    JetBlue Airways said Thursday it has agreed to sell Spirit Airlines’ holdings at New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Frontier Airlines if it succeeds in buying Spirit.

    The announcement seemed designed to persuade regulators to approve JetBlue’s proposed $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit. The Justice Department and several states have sued to block the deal, arguing that it would reduce competition and drive up fares by eliminating low-fare Spirit.

    Frontier is the ideal buyer for the LaGuardia operation, in JetBlue’s view, because it is the nation’s second-biggest budget airline, after Spirit.

    “We are committed to ensuring our combination with Spirit preserves ultra low-cost carrier access in New York,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said. “We are pleased that this agreement with Frontier will maintain the same level of ultra low-cost carrier service at LaGuardia Airport.”

    Denver-based Frontier tried to buy Spirit last year – the boards of both airlines agreed on a sale — but was outbid by New York-based JetBlue.

    Spirit’s holdings at LaGuardia include six gates at the Marine Air Terminal and the rights to 22 daily takeoff and landing times or “slots.” Because of congestion in the New York area, slots are limited at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airport, making them particularly valuable to airlines like Frontier that hope to grow in the New York market. Financial terms were not disclosed.

    Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said the agreement “will enable us to significantly expand our operations at LaGuardia” and reach more consumers in the New York City area.

    The move by JetBlue to divest some Spirit assets comes two weeks after a federal judge sided with the government and struck down a JetBlue-American Airlines partnership on New York and Boston flights, saying the deal violated antitrust law. A different judge in Boston is handling the government’s lawsuit against the JetBlue-Spirit sale, with a trial scheduled for October.

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  • Nuggets shaking off team history, staking claim for first NBA title

    Nuggets shaking off team history, staking claim for first NBA title

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Denver Nuggets played with disruption on their minds in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

    Everybody on that tight-knit bench Monday night seemed to know their team had never reached the NBA Finals, had never swept a playoff opponent and had never beaten the Los Angeles Lakers in a postseason series. The Nuggets have given their fans comparatively little to cheer in their 47 seasons in the NBA, and they’ve rarely seized the basketball world’s attention despite a solid list of famous alumni.

    But with their confidence soaring in the midst of a dominant playoff run, these Nuggets were determined to secure their latest bit of history Monday night. They kept that attitude even after LeBron James dropped a 31-point first half that could have made a lesser team with a 3-0 series lead start thinking about Game 5 back home.

    “Yeah, that’s never been our mentality,” Aaron Gordon said. “That hasn’t been our mentality all year, like, to concede. We’re not that type of team.”

    After Nikola Jokic conjured his latest triple-double playoff masterpiece and Gordon blocked James’ shot at the buzzer, the Nuggets had torn up their franchise’s history and written a bold new chapter with a clinching 113-111 victory.

    They’re the first Denver team to earn the right to play for an NBA title, and this often-overlooked franchise will be favored to win when the Nuggets get back on the court in nine days. No wonder the conference championship celebration had a little extra energy, with the Nuggets mobbing Jokic after he received his conference finals MVP trophy.

    High-scoring Jamal Murray took a moment to savor the slow growth of a team that has finally blossomed into something beautiful and sturdy.

    “We just want to make the most of the opportunity,” Murray said. “First Nuggets team to do this and that. We want to go all the way and stay locked in. I think our chemistry is at an all-time high, the way we play, the way we read the game without even speaking. We talk that language on the court. It’s just beautiful basketball, honestly. It’s so fun to play with this team and with (Jokic) and with the coaching staff that has groomed us into the team that we are.”

    This group led by Jokic and Murray has surpassed all the greats who have worn the many, many uniforms of the team that started life as the ABA’s Denver Rockets in 1967. The Nuggets had plenty of winning seasons and kept their fans entertained while frequently playing a high-octane, high-altitude style of ball in the NBA, but they never got closer to a title than the conference finals.

    The team that showcased David “Skywalker” Thompson, Alex English, Dan Issel, Dikembe Mutombo, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Carmelo Anthony to the world finally has the chance to hang its first championship banner, thanks to a Serbian second-round pick, a Canadian sharpshooter and its talented, selfless supporting cast.

    “It’s just a great mixture,” Gordon said. “It’s a great group of guys. The camaraderie is there, the chemistry is there, the talent is there, the IQ is there and the unselfishness is there. It’s really a brotherhood. We really do it for the person next to us. It’s rare in this league to find a team that has a bunch of unselfish guys that buy in and really do it for the man next to them.”

    The Nuggets are one of 11 active NBA franchises without a title, and three additional teams haven’t won it in their current city. Denver lost the 1976 ABA Finals to the New York Nets in its only other championship series, but this June certainly looks like the Mile High City’s turn to celebrate.

    Coach Michael Malone shared warm hugs after the game with Nuggets owners Stan and Josh Kroenke, who are about to have the third team in their Kroenke Sports & Entertainment portfolio playing for a championship in the past 16 months: The Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl in February 2022, and the Colorado Avalanche claimed the Stanley Cup four months later. Arsenal is also finishing second in the Premier League in what could be its best season in nearly two decades.

    “We all know in this business, patience is not a word that comes easily,” Malone said. “For them to have patience after that third-year, 46-win effort that came up just short of the playoffs (in 2017-18), they saw something in Nikola, in Jamal, in myself, and allowed it to come to fruition. That’s a rarity in this business.”

    Jokic averaged a triple-double in the Western Conference finals, putting up 27.8 points, 14.5 rebounds and 11.8 assists in the four-game series, and he did it against Anthony Davis, one of the world’s best defensive players when healthy. Murray had four consecutive 25-point games, highlighted by his vicious 23-point fourth quarter in Game 2.

    While the Nuggets have a stellar roster, they’re built around their star duo that’s just four wins away from history after outdueling James and Davis.

    “Ooh, that’s a bad duo,” Gordon said with a grin. “Those are bad boys right there. I mean, you could stack those two up with anybody. When I say anybody, I mean anybody. You put those two up against anybody, you’re going to have a hell of a fight.”

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