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p777 slot How California ranks as the most active political stateOTTUMWA — The Fairfield boys basketball team was riding high going into the second quarter on Tuesday night. The Trojans had scored eight of the first 11 points in their annual early-season rivalry renewal with Ottumwa and were holding on to a 13-12 lead after 3A state high jump champion Eli Zillman made his presence felt. Zillman sank a go-ahead 3-pointer on one end of the court before utilizing his elite leaping skills to block Chase Thompson's attempt to put Ottumwa back on top just before the end of the period. Over the next eight minutes, however, the Bulldogs would take over the game on both ends of the court. Thompson would get his revenge on the Trojans immediately by sinking a 3-pointer on the first possession of the second quarter, giving Ottumwa the lead for good to open a decisive period as the Bulldogs held Fairfield without a field goal for nearly nine minutes during a 13-1 run that would ultimately prove to be the difference in a 54-46 victory, allowing Ottumwa to bounce back after opening the season one week earlier with a 62-39 loss to Iowa City High. "You always feel better when you get a win. That second quarter is how I expect our team to play for 32 minutes," Ottumwa head boys basketball coach Neil Hartz said. "We know we can do it for one quarter. Now, we have to do it for four quarters. The intensity and talking was huge for us. We didn't do a very good job of that against Iowa City High. In this game, we were switching everything." That defensive intensity forced Fairfield almost exclusively for long jumpers, including multiple shots with the shot clock running out after possessions in which the Trojans could not find the passing lanes into the post. Lucas Konczal was able to make his way to the free throw line shortly after Thompson's go-ahead 3-pointer, making one attempt to put Fairfield on the board early in the second quarter. It would prove to be the only point the Trojans would score until a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the second half by Andrew Myers. In between, the Bulldogs not only stymied Fairfield's half-court attack, but turned Trojan turnovers into instant points with steals leading to lay-ups for Nehemiah Wolfing and Kase Hickman, opening a 22-14 Ottumwa lead. "The intensity on defense and our communication was really the difference in that quarter," Ottumwa senior Traevios Brown said. "Our whole team was in synch. Any mistakes that (Fairfield) made really kept us up." Hickman would score off a rebound that came as a result of a block by Parker Derby before feeding Brown for his fifth field goal of the first half, allowing Ottumwa to take a 25-14 lead into half. Brown came within a rebound of a double-double, leading the Bulldogs with 21 points and nine rebounds in the team's first victory of the season. "You've just got to battle through the physicality," Brown said. "You hope you'll get a call, but no matter what you've got to finish at the rim." After ending the first half helping to secure the final four points for the Bulldogs, Hickman seemed to just be picking up steam early in the second half answering the opening 3-pointer by Myers by driving in for a basket before sinking a 3-pointer from the corner to answer a 3-pointer that was banked in by Konczal, keeping Ottumwa in front 29-19. Just a few minutes later, however, Hickman would be out of the game. The Bulldog junior took a nasty fall on a block attempt, going up and over Riley Perkins landing on his forehead suffering an injury that would keep Hickman on the bench for the rest of the contest. "When Kase went out, it felt like we lost a little bit of our intensity," Hartz said. "He's instant momentum when he comes in. It just seems to like it changes how everyone else plays. When he went down, it seemed to change our mentality for a little bit." After being held without a point in the first half, Myers would score a team-leading 17 points all in the final 16 minutes for Fairfield making seven field goals including three from beyond the 3-point arc. The Trojans continued to cut away at the lead with consecutive 16-point quarters, getting as close as 52-46 entering the final minute before Derby clinched the game stealing a pass and scoring on a lay-up to put the Bulldogs up eight while clinching a 10-point night for the Ottumwa senior. "You're just not going to win a lot of games when you only score one point in a quarter," Fairfield head boys basketball coach Nate Perkins said. "We didn't shoot the ball very well in the first half. We also had a lot of turnovers. We did a better job handling the ball in the second half. We've still got a lot of young guys out there playing. There's still a lot of room for growth. They get better every time they go out." Fairfield (1-3) returns to Southeast Conference play at Washington on Friday while Ottumwa (1-1) heads to Des Moines Roosevelt in the team's Iowa Alliance Conference south division opener.

Kinziger and Illinois State knock off UAB 84-83NoneJapan and the Philippines signed a 1.6 billion yen ($10.65 million) security assistance deal on Thursday to boost the Southeast Asian nation's maritime security and surveillance abilities amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea. Both the Philippines and Japan, two of the United States' closest Asian allies, have taken a strong line against what they see as aggressive behavior by Chinese vessels amid decades-old disputes over maritime sovereignty. Japan will provide the Philippine Navy with equipment such as rigid-hulled inflatable boats and coastal radar systems under its Overseas Security Assistance program to enhance its maritime domain awareness capabilities. "The project is expected to contribute to maintaining and strengthening regional security and to enhance the security of the vital sea lanes, and will be of significance to Japan's security," Japan's embassy in Manila said. The Philippine Air Force will receive equipment to support its air surveillance radar system, boosting monitoring capabilities, it added. "The strengthened security cooperation reflects Japan and the Philippines' shared commitment to regional peace and stability," the Philippines' Department of National Defense said in a statement. In July, the Philippines and Japan signed a landmark military pact allowing deployment of forces on each other's soil, smoothing military cooperation between the two countries. Japan has no claim to the South China Sea, but has a separate maritime dispute with China in the East China Sea. On Wednesday, the Philippines accused Chinese coast guard vessels of firing water cannons and side-swiping a Manila fisheries bureau boat on a resupply mission in a contested shoal in the South China Sea. China has maintained that its actions were lawful and professional.

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Shaken Pep Guardiola admits title race could be over NEXT WEEK as ‘fragile’ Man City suffer fifth defeat in a rowRALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's elections board dismissed formal protests Wednesday by several Republican candidates who trailed narrowly in their races last month and had questioned well over 60,000 ballots cast in November, The State Board of Elections' decisions sided with the Democratic candidates, including those for a state Supreme Court seat and a key General Assembly seat. These matters are now expected to be resolved in the courts. The board voted in favor of denying the protests of GOP Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin, who after a recent statewide machine recount trailed Associate Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast. No additional recounts had been ordered after a partial hand recount completed Tuesday failed to suggest that Griffin could catch up to Riggs. Riggs is one of only two Democrats on the seven-member court, which has been a partisan flash point in the state over the past two years involving redistricting, photo voter identification and other voting rights. The board on Wednesday considered protests filed by Griffin, a current Court of Appeals judge, and three candidates for the General Assembly covering three categories of voting. They included votes cast by people with voter registration records lacking driver’s licenses or containing partial Social Security numbers; overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were deemed North Carolina residents; and military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots. The board is composed of three Democrats and two Republicans. In three of four dismissal motions Wednesday, the votes were 3-2 along party lines. The vote on the other motions was unanimous. Griffin did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the decisions. Riggs' campaign has said that she is the winner and that Griffin should concede immediately. Speaking after the hearing, Riggs mentioned that her parents were among the 60,000 voters whose registrations were being challenged, and “I can personally attest they are in fact lawful votes." One of the protesters is GOP Rep. Frank Sossamon, who trailed Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn. A Cohn victory would mean Republicans fall one seat short of retaining their current veto-proof majority for the next two-year General Assembly starting next month. The board could have ultimately ordered corrected ballot tallies, more recounts or new elections if it determined the evidence showed election law violations or irregularities called into question the results of the protested elections. Scores of protests filed by Griffin and the legislative candidates are still being considered by county boards. During Wednesday's hearing, Riggs' attorneys urged the state board to throw out the protests. They called that an illegal attempt to change the election rules after votes have been cast and counted and out of line with protest rules. “The voters that protesters are challenging here today unquestionably are eligible voters,” said Will Robertson, an attorney representing the three Democratic legislative candidates and the state Democratic Party. “These protests are not only facially invalid but they’re an affront to democracy and to the rule of law in North Carolina.” Citing the state constitution, attorneys for Griffin said that elections boards cannot count the ballots of people who have never lived in North Carolina. And they said the state board erred by generating voter registration forms that did not make clear that state law requires an applicant to provide the identifying numbers. “We filed these protests because we believe the winners of these elections should be determined by eligible voters and only be eligible voters,” Craig Schauer, an attorney for Griffin and GOP legislative candidates, told the board. In addition to the substance of the protests, Democratic board members also threw out the protests because they determined that voters did not receive appropriate legal notice that their votes were being challenged. Griffin sent postcards to a voter or the “current resident” stating that “your vote may be affected” by a protest, according to legal briefs and evidence. It included a QR code that mobile phone users could visit to obtain information. Democrats said people may have thrown the postcard away or considered it a scam. The state board's decisions came days after the state Democratic Party sued in federal court to block the State Board of Elections from ruling in any way to throw out the disputed ballots. Griffin led Riggs by about 10,000 votes on election night, but that lead dwindled and flipped to Riggs as qualifying provisional and absentee ballots were added to the totals.UCF, LSU face off with improved focus in mind

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Business Leader Chooses to Live and Work in Downtown St. Paul Mark Henneman, longtime leader of the investment advisory firm, has undergone three major transitions in his life since 2022. Two of them demonstrate his confidence in the future of downtown St. Paul, which has been beset by a . For two decades, Henneman served in a variety of leadership roles at Mairs & Power, which was founded in St. Paul in 1931 by George Mairs Jr. Much of Henneman’s time was spent working in the firm’s office in the First National Bank Building in downtown St. Paul. When Henneman was CEO, the firm conducted an extensive study process to identify a new office location. Sites outside of St. Paul were considered, but the firm’s leadership . In 2022, the Mairs & Power office moved from First National to the 25th floor of Wells Fargo Place at 30 East 7th Street. This year, Henneman has experienced two major changes in his life. In October, . Henneman will remain with the firm as chairman through the end of 2026. In late summer, Henneman and his wife moved from a single-family home to a condo in downtown St. Paul. In a recent interview at the Mairs & Power office, Henneman talked with about the decision to live downtown. “I love downtown St. Paul,” Henneman said. “The things that we love about it are the thriving arts [scene.]” Henneman and his wife enjoy theater and music offerings downtown, which include events at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. “My wife and I, we just walk to all these different venues,” he said. He noted substantial investments that have been made in cultural venues downtown. “They’re vast and that’s just created a great way of life for us.” Henneman isn’t naïve about the fact that downtown faces economic and social challenges. He also recognizes that not everybody views downtown St. Paul the way that he does. In some instances, when people learned that he now lives downtown, Henneman said he got reactions such as: “Why would you move downtown? It’s dangerous.” Often, he said, the people who have the harshest views of downtown St. Paul spend little or no time there. “The impressions of downtown St. Paul are not the reality of downtown St. Paul,” Henneman said. “We’re very comfortable down here. We know there are areas you don’t want to go to at night. But that was true where we lived before.” Henneman is among the business, government, and nonprofit leaders who serve on the board of the , which is a coalition that’s focused on making downtown a better place to live, work, and play. “There is a homeless issue for sure,” Henneman said. “That doesn’t make us feel unsafe down here. It makes me feel bad, and it feels like a problem that we’d love to help solve.” There are many unoccupied office spaces in downtown St. Paul, including in the First National Bank Building where Mairs & Power previously was headquartered. The office vacancy rate in St. Paul’s central business district was 31% in the third quarter of this year, . “We’re in the midst of a commercial real estate meltdown,” Henneman said. “But I think that’s presenting an incredible opportunity, and one that I want to participate in and help with.” In mid-November, the Downtown Alliance released a report from architectural and design firm Gensler concluding that . The Gensler report focused on the elements of the buildings’ physical structures and their locations. It provided some baseline data for developers, government officials, and other stakeholders who now need to determine the financial feasibility of housing conversion projects. “There are issues that are coming up in the short term,” Henneman said. “It looks, frankly, kind of bleak. But I feel strongly that the long term [outlook] is excellent, and that the things that are going to be happening over the next few years will make downtown something special.”New airport technology lets liquids, laptops stay in carry-ons