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Showing posts from September 11, 2019

Jets kicking saga turning Adam Gase into jokester

Another week, another kicker. The Jets signed Sam Ficken on Tuesday, their fourth kicker in a month, and he practiced with the team for the first time on Wednesday. “Got a new one,” coach Adam Gase said jokingly. “Why not? Let’s go baby. It’s the NFL, baby. Not For Long.” If Gase could not laugh at the situation, he might cry. The Jets waived Kaare Vedvik after signing Ficken. Vedvik lasted a week with the Jets and became disposable after missing an extra point and a 45-yard field goal in Sunday’s 17-16 loss to the Bills. Gase said he was confident in Vedvik until he watched him warm up Sunday. Vedvik hooked several kicks left when warming up. “He had a good week of practice,” Gase said. “I was feeling good. When we left practice the last day he kicked, I was feeling good. I was like, ‘All right.’ His stroke looked good, everything looked good. When I went out in pregame, not so good. I didn’t feel so good.” Ficken won a five-man tryout on Tuesday. Gase said he made all of his k...

Judy Garland’s wild final years of drugs and cruelty

Onstage and on screen, Judy Garland boasted big, beautiful eyes and one of the most iconic singing voices in Hollywood history. She was Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” and Esther in “A Star Is Born”; the singer of “The Man That Got Away” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Behind the scenes, however, Garland was somewhere over the cuckoo’s nest. The actress, who died from a drug overdose on June 22, 1969, at just 47 years old, is the subject of a new movie called “Judy,” which hits theaters Sept. 27. The film, starring Renée Zellweger, depicts Garland’s final weeks performing a series of acclaimed concerts in London. But years before her untimely demise, she was already drug-addicted, alcoholic, sex-obsessed and suicidal. Stevie Phillips, who began as a secretary at the New York-based Freddie Fields Associates, worked her way up to become Garland’s manager from 1961 to 1964, accompanying the singer on her cross-country concert tours and witnessing all her bizarre behavior along the way....

Flight makes emergency landing in Bahamas after smoke reported

A flight from the Dominican Republic to Orlando made an emergency landing in the Bahamas Wednesday morning after the on-board crew reported a smoke in the cargo hold, a report said. The flight touched down in Nassau soon after it took off when the crew reported the smoke, the Sun Sentinel reported. Passengers at first evacuated the plane normally, but the captain then made the decision to spring the emergency slides and have the remaining crew members and passengers exit down them. No injuries were reported during the evacuation, according to the report. “Initial inspections of the aircraft found no signs of any issues,” JetBlue told the newspaper in an email. “The aircraft will be further inspected and customers are continuing on to Orlando aboard a new aircraft.” Credit: Source link The post Flight makes emergency landing in Bahamas after smoke reported appeared first on Fox USA Live . from Fox USA Live https://ift.tt/2AcPi1O

Hemingway the goose, Waffles the mini horse adopted together

An unlikely pair of best buds — a miniature horse and a goose — were adopted together Wednesday after being rescued from the same Pennsylvania farm in July. Waffles, the 6-year-old mini horse, and his beaked pal Hemingway, were saved from a property on Route 152 in Hilltown Township, where they were being kept in filthy conditions, with limited clean water and not enough shelter for the winter, the Bucks County SPCA said. The animals grew inseparable while they shared a barn stall — and the SPCA set the condition that they needed to be adopted together. Their sweet story quickly went viral and was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” After sifting through more than 150 adoption applications, the shelter found the perfect home for the unusual pair of best friends in the Philadelphia area. Their new owner works at a veterinary office and has experience with large animals, but she didn’t want to be further identified, Bucks County SPCA spokesperson Cindy Kelly told The Philadel...

Giants’ DeAndre Baker facing resiliency test after torching

Playing cornerback in the NFL is a bit counterintuitive — you have to study, study, study, retain all sorts of information, then instantly forget what happened from one play to the next, from one game to the next. DeAndre Baker in his first game for the Giants was more bad than good and the entire defensive backfield was shoddy in the season-opening 35-17 loss to the Cowboys. Baker is looking ahead to his first regular-season game at MetLife Stadium, Sunday against the Bills, and somehow wants you to believe he is bolstered by what went down in his NFL debut. “My confidence is way higher now than going into the first game,’’ Baker told The Post. Way higher? After getting beaten by Amari Cooper for a touchdown and appearing as if he gave way on a 62-yard completion to Michael Gallup? Way higher? After Dak Prescott compiled a perfect passer rating and might have gotten dizzy trying to sort out which open receiver to throw to? Yes, the rookie insists, way higher. “Now we got a litt...

Rangers get Brendan Lemieux contract done before training camp

That’s one down for the Rangers. On the eve of the beginning of training camp Thursday, the Blueshirts agreed to terms with restricted free agent forward Brendan Lemieux to a one-year deal, the team announced. Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The gritty 23-year-old forward had a one-year qualifying offer of $874,125 this summer, and could have held out of camp. The Rangers still have to get defenseman Tony DeAngelo under contract, though the team doesn’t have much cap room to negotiate with the 23-year-old blueliner, who could become the team’s first camp holdout since Derek Stepan in 2013. Credit: Source link The post Rangers get Brendan Lemieux contract done before training camp appeared first on Fox USA Live . from Fox USA Live https://ift.tt/2LXXrg7

Dorm room design reaches new heights in the age of Instagram

Natalie Held wasn’t able to see her junior-year room at Boston University before moving in, so she found the floor plan through the university’s housing website and started plotting out her space weeks before moving. The 19-year-old student of political science, journalism and women’s studies from Fairfield, Conn., saved inspirational images to a folder on Instagram, then designed her decor around key pieces: a crescent moon-shaped mirror, personal Polaroids and a lightbox. Her room has a stack of feminist books — “Becoming” by Michelle Obama and “The Notorious RBG,” among them — throw pillows with empowering quotes, a letterboard sign promoting her podcast series and online shop “Blessed Be the Brains,” all bathed in hues of millennial pink and accented with string lights. “I would definitely say I went above and beyond,” says Held, who posts photos of her room and her pink-infused style to the 1,875 followers on her Instagram account @natateaaa. “I have a few friends who have done...

FDNY firefighter charged with attempted murder

An FDNY firefighter has been charged with attempted murder in Rhode Island, with cops saying he stabbed two men nearly a dozen times — in their necks and torsoes — during a melee outside of a bar. John Decarlo, 35, of Brooklyn, had gotten into an altercation with the victims inside of the All Stars Bar and Grill in Warwick, RI, early Wednesday around 1:15 a.m., which spilled out into the parking lot, according to local police. Officers got a call about the ruckus and arrived to find the two men — identified by The Providence Journal as Matthew Theberge and David Ryan, both 25 and from Warwick — with multiple stab wounds. They were rushed to Rhode Island Hospital and listed as being in stable condition. Four other men, who were identified by police, also allegedly took part in the mayhem and were charged with disorderly conduct. Sources told The Post that the group was with Decarlo — an ex-Marine who was reportedly in town on military business as a member of the Army Reserve — at t...

Kevin Durant keeps battling Twitter trolls

Sensitive Nets star Kevin Durant has never encountered an internet troll he hasn’t pushed back against. And predictably his raw, open WSJ Magazine interview stirred up a hornet’s nest of responses for him to take issue with. Durant always has opted to take on critics rather than let comments roll off his back. He has fought with unverified eggs on Twitter and concocted burner accounts to fight even dirtier. And Twitter being Twitter, well, he had plenty of critics to fight with again this week. In the WSJ Magazine article, Durant described the “toxic” vibe he got not only from fans in Oklahoma City but also from Thunder employees after he left the team in free agency three years ago. And by “toxic,” he meant fans coming to his house, vandalizing property in his neighborhood, burning his jersey and even making videos depicting replicas of his jersey being showered with a hail of bullets. Yes, bullets. A vexed Durant said in the interview he never will go back to play for Oklahoma ...

Ohio boy denied lunch at school cafeteria

Worst. Birthday. Ever. An Ohio boy had his school lunch taken away from him on his 9th birthday because he owed a debt, according to multiple reports. Jefferson Sharpnack, a student at Green Primary School in Uniontown, had picked out a lunch of cheesy breadsticks to eat. But when he approached the register to check out, the lunch lady took his tray away from him without a word, replacing it with a slice of cheese and bread. And it was all over a $9 debt the student allegedly owed to the cafeteria. According to a report in News 5 Cleveland, Jefferson had recently moved in with his grandmother, Diane Bailey, and was supposed to be enrolled in a free and reduced lunch program. While they were waiting for the paperwork to process, he came home with a note saying he owed $9 on his lunch account. So Bailey called the school to sort it out, believing he was in good standing. Instead, the birthday boy had his lunch denied in front of the entire cafeteria. “In my mind, he didn’t owe an...

Speaker Corey Johnson moves to repeal conversion therapy ban

The City Council is planning to repeal a ban on so-called “conversion therapy” aimed at turning gay people straight ­– a move aimed at avoiding a court challenge that could potentially set a pro-conversion therapy precedent nationwide. Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is gay, plans to introduce a bill Thursday to reverse the city’s ban of conversion therapy approved two years ago – even though he still considers the practice “barbaric and inhumane.” “This was a painful decision that was made after leading LGBTQ advocates requested that the Council repeal our 2017 bill,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the move. “After intense deliberation, the Council concluded that it was best to take this drastic step. The courts have changed considerably over the last few years, and we cannot count on them to rule in favor of much-needed protections for the LGBTQ community.” Johnson added, “I can’t stress enough how agonizing of a decision this was, but ultimately I listened to the adv...

RA accused of sex assault freed by judge who calls him ‘high-achieving’

A residence hall assistant at the University of Florida who was arrested for sexually assaulting a female student last month was allowed to walk free on bond after a judge deemed him to be a “high-achieving” senior. Ian Milaski, 21, was also given a break on the bond — with the same judge lowering his initial $125,000 amount on account of Hurricane Dorian “threatening his southern Florida home” and “his obligations as a double-major” who is “slated to graduate in May 2020,” WCJB reports. “[Milaski] personally performed more than 210 hours of community service in the last two years,” the judge wrote in an emergency motion last Friday, granting the reduced bond and Milaski’s release. The young man was told to have no contact with the victim, who is described as a young female student who lived in the dorms. She told police that Milaski had asked her to bring him some water on Aug. 25 — claiming he was drunk and in need of some help. When the woman arrived, he allegedly tried to “mak...

Browns fan banned over beer toss: I wasn’t even there!

Drink it in: The Browns may have just punished the wrong fan in the aftermath of Sunday’s beer toss. After a Cleveland fan was caught on camera dousing the Titans’ Logan Ryan on Sunday, the team vowed to dish out an indefinite ban to the offender from FirstEnergy Stadium. Now, the punished fan says he wasn’t even at the game. Eric Smith told Cleve Scene that he was DJing a wedding on Sunday afternoon, and spent time at home with his family until leaving for the gig at 2 p.m. (the game started at 1 p.m ET) Smith received a call Wednesday from Bob Sivik, the Cleveland Browns’ Vice President of Ticket Sales & Service, banning him from the stadium. “I said please, please send me the footage,” Smith said. “And he was like, ‘You don’t have to get defensive if you’re innocent.’ ” I legit just got a got from the @Browns telling me I’ve been banned from the stadium for throwing the beer in Logan Ryan’s face Sunday. I’m fairly certain I haven’t been to a game since 2010. — Eric ...

NYCHA fails to fix toxic mold complaints from city housing tenants

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s embattled Housing Authority failed to fix nearly 60,000 of the leak and toxic mold complaints it received from tenants in recent months — roughly three in every five — despite spending six years under court orders requiring rapid fixes, new court filings show. Tallies based on new data provided by the scandal-rocked agency show the New York City Housing Authority opened 100,760 work orders following complaints about broken pipes and mold between May 1 and July 31 — and fixed just 40,859 of them. “NYCHA is finally being honest about how they are falling short on mold,” said the Rev. Getulio Cruz, a top clergy leader with Metro IAF, which represents the groups that sued NYCHA over mold back in 2013. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of tenants have seen no real improvement. The data analysis was provided to the independent watchdog imposed on NYCHA by a Manhattan federal judge because of its continued failure to quickly repair pipes and kill toxic mold in the c...

Ex-prison cook gets jail for kitchen sex with female inmate

A former cook at a women’s prison in Westchester County is headed to jail himself for having sex with an inmate in the lockup’s kitchen. Garth Trail, former head chef at the Taconic Correctional Facility, was sentenced Tuesday to four months in jail and 10 years of probation for “engaging in a sexual act” at the state prison in 2017, according to Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. Trail, 63, resigned just days after prison officials got wind of the forbidden tryst — and was charged with engaging in a criminal sex act with an inmate last year. Trail pleaded guilty to the charge in November. In addition to his months in jail, Trail will have to register as a sex offender. Credit: Source link The post Ex-prison cook gets jail for kitchen sex with female inmate appeared first on Fox USA Live . from Fox USA Live https://ift.tt/2LrK8W5

Renee Zellweger delivers gut-wrenching portrayal

You may never be able to comfortably watch “The Wizard of Oz” again after “Judy” gets its hooks in you. Renée Zellweger gets deep inside the skin of late-career Judy Garland in a biopic from director Rupert Goold (“True Story”) that makes the savvy choice of sticking with a finite time period, rather than running through an entire life’s highlight reel. We join the Hollywood legend as she’s scraping by from club gig to gig with her two young children in tow, having established herself as so “difficult” (read: constantly drunk and high), no one will hire her for film work. One of her ex-husbands (Rufus Sewell) is suing for custody, her kids are tired of schlepping from one hotel to another and Garland herself seems perpetually adrift — even when she’s sober. It’s a devastating performance from Zellweger, whose unique face takes on an almost ghostly resemblance to Garland’s under an aggressively hairsprayed ‘do and colorful, but dated, pantsuits. In flashback, the young Garland (Darc...

‘The Goldfinch’ movie review: An epic wreck

“The Goldfinch” should be called “CliffsNotes: The Movie,” because after seeing this pedantic film adaptation, I now know all 3 billion plot points of Donna Tartt’s acclaimed 2013 novel. And, like skimming a colorless cheat sheet, I still have no clue what’s so great about it. We witness more than a decade in the life of Theodore Decker, who is dealt a blow at 13 years old when his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He survives the tragedy and pockets the titular painting, hiding the rare work his entire life. On his own and traumatized, Theo (Oakes Fegley) is sent to live with the Barbour family on the Upper East Side. Nicole Kidman is Mrs. Cellophane as the family matriarch. As soon as Theo finds happiness with the WASPs, his stooge of a pop (Luke Wilson) barges in and drags the boy to Las Vegas to live with him and his trashy girlfriend Xandra (Sarah Paulson). With all the guardian change-ups, Theo’s tale can at times resemble that of Little Orphan ...

Trump administration allowed to deny migrants asylum

As of Wednesday, the Trump administration is officially allowed to enforce a new policy denying asylum to migrants at the southern border who have not sought protection from the US or other countries. A US District judge had blocked the policy from going into effect nationwide — days after it was unveiled in July — but the Supreme Court decided to reverse the decision in a brief order late in the day. Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor both dissented from the high court’s ruling, which came after a federal appeals court panel initially chose to uphold the blocking in district court. Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued Wednesday that the asylum rule — which is meant to bar immigrants from entering the country without seeking protection from the US or nations they travel through — was supposed to keep out people “who declined to request protection at the first opportunity.” “It alleviates a crushing burden on the U.S. asylum system by prioritizing asylum ...