David Ross participated in seven postseasons as a player with four teams and one season on “Dancing With the Stars.”

But the pressure Ross faced before is nothing like what he’s going through now managing the Chicago Cubs in this crazy National League wild-card chase.

The challenge of getting this Cubs team into the postseason has been one of the biggest of his life and is why Ross sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night.

“Way different as a manager than as a player,” Ross said Tuesday before the Cubs’ 7-6 loss to Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s fun, and you try and prepare and keep it all the same, but inside you’re riding it.

“But within that it’s fun. (Julian) Merryweather the other day walks the first two guys (in the ninth inning) and gets out of that. You’re carrying it. I don’t get that (feeling) golfing on the weekend. That’s what you sign up for — the nerves, the adrenaline, a little bit of anxiety. Shoot, that’s what fuels you in the morning and wakes you up in the middle of the night when things aren’t going well.”

Tuesday’s shocking loss was one of those nights. The Cubs blew a 6-0 sixth-inning lead and watched the Braves score the tying and go-ahead runs with two outs in the eighth on Sean Murphy’s fly ball that Seiya Suzuki misplayed.

It was shades of the 1998 wild-card race, when Cubs outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball in the ninth to lose a game to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 23 at County Stadium. That play led to the infamous “Oh, no” call by Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo.

Pat Hughes, who called both games, said the play …read more

Source:: The Denver Post

MLB’s tickets for postseason Orioles games are running out — the official retail site only had a handful of playoffs games still open Monday evening, four days after sales went live.

You can still grab tickets from resellers, though they could be pricier. SeatGeek is the MLB’s “official ticket marketplace,” though the main difference between using that website and others, like StubHub or Vivid Seats, is that the others will take a few more clicks. Ticketmaster, the beleaguered admissions giant, had some resale tickets available Monday night but only for the American League Division Series.

The MLB site only had tickets for the three wild-card games, all starting at $120. The Orioles could wind up in a wild-card spot if they don’t clinch the AL East title before Sunday, the end of the regular season. If the Orioles take that title, they will not play in the wild-card series next week.

Resellers had wild-card tickets for Camden Yards going for less than $120. But the price is higher for games that the team is more likely to play — from about $153 for the division series, on Oct. 7, 8, 10 and possibly 11 and 13, and from $240 for the American League championship series. Those hopeful to watch the World Series at Camden Yards will have to pony up more; those tickets were starting at $2,674, but the going rate for the first game was over $9,000.

There is another option, though you have to be a Capital One cardholder. The bank is offering exclusive access to get postseason tickets starting at 1 p.m. Tuesday, when wild-card and division series tickets go live. …read more

Source:: The Denver Post

Luis Robert Jr. slid awkwardly while stealing second base in the first inning of Sunday’s rainy game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

“As soon as I did it, I felt something in my knee and right away I knew something was wrong,” Robert said through an interpreter Tuesday.

The Chicago White Sox center fielder remained in the game and tracked down a flyball for the final out of the bottom of the first.

“I tried to play through but after the flyball to center field, I felt, it wasn’t good,” Robert said.

Robert exited in the second inning. That turned out to be his final game of 2023.

The Sox placed Robert on the 10-day injured list Tuesday with a mild MCL sprain in his left knee. According to the Sox, Robert is expected to recover with rest and rehabilitation in two to four weeks.

It was a fantastic season for Robert, who established career highs in nearly every offensive category.

Robert slashed .264/.315/.542 with 36 doubles, 38 home runs, 80 RBIs, 90 runs, 20 stolen bases and an .857 OPS in 145 games.

He ranks second in the American League in home runs and extra-base hits (75), third in slugging percentage, fifth in total bases (296), tied for sixth in OPS and seventh in doubles.

“I’m proud of playing as many games as I did,” Robert said. “I’ve said that if I’m ever to play every day, I know I’m able to do good things on the field.

“That’s why to me it’s the biggest accomplishment for me this year.”

Robert said the wet conditions were “a factor” for Sunday’s injury, adding “I didn’t position my knee in the right way and that contributed to that too.”

The stolen base was his 20th of the season. He is the only player in majors this season to record 35-plus …read more

Source:: The Denver Post

It all comes down to the final week for the Chicago Cubs, a team that has toyed with its fans emotions from opening day.

Six road games against two playoff-bound teams, the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, to decide whether the Cubs are October-worthy.

For anxiety-ridden Cubs fans who’ve followed their team from Day 1, the obstacles to the postseason party couldn’t be more pronounced. One is the best team in baseball, with a lineup ESPN speculated could be the greatest of all time. The Cubs are not of the Braves’ “caliber,” some might say, but they did beat the Braves in two of three games at Wrigley Field in early August.

The other is the Cubs’ longtime irritant from up Interstate 94, the traditionally overachieving Brewers, who have replaced the St. Louis Cardinals as the team’s archrival to a generation of fans. The Cubs’ turnaround this season can be traced directly to a wild 7-6, 11-inning win over the Brewers on July 4 in Milwaukee, a game starter Justin Steele aptly described as “drunk.”

By Sunday night fans will know whether a Cubs season defined by peaks and valleys will end in ecstasy or heartbreak.

The Cubs enter Tuesday one game ahead of the Miami Marlins for the third National League wild-card spot and tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who hold the tiebreaker over the Cubs. If the Cubs go 6-0 they’re in, no matter what the Marlins or Cincinnati Reds do.

The Cubs can’t afford to finish tied for the third spot, as the Marlins and Reds also own the season series tiebreaker. Major League Baseball’s shortsighted decision to eliminate Game 163s ensured someone would one day lose out on a playoff spot via the head-to-head tiebreaker.

MLB didn’t want …read more

Source:: The Denver Post

No Oriole was more beloved or more integral to the story of the franchise than Brooks Robinson, who died Tuesday at age 86.

Robinson played his first game for the Orioles in 1955, the year after the franchise arrived in Baltimore, was a key member of the club’s first four World Series teams and lasted long enough to suit up with a new generation of stars, led by Eddie Murray.

Here are 10 moments that capture what Robinson meant to baseball and to Baltimore.

1970 World Series

After watching Robinson dismantle the Cincinnati Reds with his glove and his bat, Pete Rose put it simply: “Brooks Robinson belongs in a higher league.”

What else was there to say about Robinson’s magnum opus? He hit .429 over five games, with two home runs and six RBIs. His home run off Gary Nolan provided the winning margin in Game 1. His two-run double put the Orioles on the board in their 9-3 win in Game 3.

But it was Robinson’s incomparable glove at third base that left the strongest impression on a national audience. He ranged several feet wide of the foul line to snare what looked like a sure hit for future teammate Lee May and made a perfect one-bounce throw to get May by a step. It’s the play that lives on in highlight reels, but Robinson made a half-dozen nearly as good over the course of the series. He was never better.

1983 Hall of Fame induction

As great as Robinson was on the field, Baltimoreans cherished him just as much for his decency toward everyone who crossed his path. Not only would he sign an autograph for anyone who approached, he would chat with the person like an old friend or neighbor.

After Robinson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1983 with 91.98% of the …read more

Source:: The Denver Post

An American Airlines flight attendant was discovered dead at a Marriot hotel after failing to show up at Philadelphia International Airport (Pictures: NBC/Marriott)

A female flight attendant was discovered dead with a cloth stuffed in her mouth at a hotel near an airport in Philadelphia.

Her body was found in a Marriott hotel room at 1 Arrival Road near Philadelphia International Airport around 10.45pm on Monday, two days after she was expected to check out.

The 66-year-old woman had ‘a cloth in her mouth’ when investigators found her, said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.

Investigators told WPVI it was a sock in her mouth.

Cops discovered the body of a 66-year-old woman in the Marriot hotel room (Picture: NBC)

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her identify has not been released and her cause of death has not been determined.

Officials have confirmed that the woman worked for American Airlines.

Police told KYW-TV that the woman is from Las Vegas.

Cops have ruled her death as suspicious and it is being investigated by the Homicide Detectives Division.

The flight attendant was found two days after she was supposed to check out of the Marriot hotel (Picture: Marriott)

The woman appears to have suffered a ‘sudden death’ and she was ‘on several medications’, Small told NBC10. The hotel room did not show sings of forced entry and no weapons were recovered.

Bottles of prescription drugs that were sealed were discovered in the room, WPVI reported.

No arrests have been made in the case, according to Small.

It was not immediately known why hotel staff did not find the woman for two days after she was supposed to check out.

Officials confirmed that the woman was a flight attendant for American Airlines (Picture: AP)

The …read more

Source:: Metro News

Katie Walsh | Tribune News Service

Thankfully, the Writers Guild of America and major Hollywood studios reached a tentative agreement over the weekend, ending 146 days of picketing. While pencils are not back up again for the TV and film writers in the guild, it’s a great sign for progress, and new productions will likely begin soon.

There’s still an interesting grab bag of new stuff to stream this week, from spinoff miniseries to long-standing reality TV favorites, to other curios available on streamers. So let’s check out what’s new this week.

First up, the “John Wick” prequel “The Continental: From the World of John Wick” is a three-part miniseries that premiered last week on Peacock, with Episodes 2 and 3 dropping Friday, Sept. 29, and Friday, Oct. 6, respectively. The miniseries focuses on the mysterious hotel for assassins that features in the Wick movie franchise, and takes place in the 1970s, offering ample opportunity to play in the styles of kung fu and blaxploitation. Colin Woodell of “The Flight Attendant” and “Ambulance” stars as a young Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the movies). The only hang-up? No Keanu Reeves, and franchise director Chad Stahelski is also not behind the camera. But if you’re jonesing for the kind of shoot-em-ups that “John Wick” provides, check it out on Peacock, or stream the first three “John Wick” movies there.

Rose Matafeo in a scene from “Starstruck,” which returns this week for its third season. (Mark Johnson/HBO Max/TNS)

On Thursday, Sept. 28, the third season of Rose Matafeo’s charming rom-com “Starstruck” streams on Max. The series stars Matafeo as a nanny who finds out she’s had a one-night stand with a famous actor, Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel). In the third season, Jessie has to part ways with Tom but finds …read more

Source:: Los Angeles Daily News

Our experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here’s how). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

Investing feels more accessible than it’s ever been. Whether you prefer a hands-off approach or love to pore over market research and make trades — or fall somewhere in between — the best investment apps and stock trading apps can make it that much easier to reach your goals.

Our list of best investment apps skews toward so-called robo-advisors — which use an algorithm to manage your investments — because, in many ways, they feel most accessible to average investors; fees and balance minimums are generally low and your big-picture goals can help create an individualized and diverse portfolio that doesn’t require much ongoing maintenance.

But we’ve also included a few of the best online brokerages that offer both active trading and automated portfolios.

The best investment apps offer all kinds of traders access to worthwhile accounts and investment products (including stocks, bonds, ETFs, crypto, and more) with low fees, access to research, educational resources, and accessible user interfaces. If you’re new to the world of investing, you can also check out the best investment apps for beginners.

Best Investment Apps

E*TRADE – Product Name Only: Best investment app overall

SoFi Invest – Product Name Only: Best investment app with no fees

Fidelity Go – Product Name Only: Best investment app for hands-off investors

Robinhood Investing – Product Name Only: Best investment app for active traders

M1 Finance – Product Name Only: Best investment app for …read more

Source:: Businessinsider

BOULDER — The man accused of killing 10 people at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder told mental health professionals he bought guns because he intended to carry out a mass shooting and “commit suicide by cop,” a psychologist testified Wednesday.

The two-day competency hearing in Boulder County District Court is the first significant court appearance for Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa since he was arrested more than two years ago and charged with with the murder of 10 people during the March 21, 2021, mass shooting at the Table Mesa King Soopers.

Alissa, who has schizophrenia, said in August that he was suffering from hallucinations on the day of the attack and that he would prefer to plead not guilty by reason of insanity to the first-degree murder charges lodged against him, testified forensic psychologist Loandra Torres, who evaluated Alissa for competency at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo.

Alissa was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in December 2021, stalling the criminal case against him until state psychologists found him competent in August.

Boulder County District Court Judge Ingrid Bakke must now affirm or reject those evaluators’ findings after listening to testimony about Alissa’s condition and treatment during this week’s hearing. Her decision will determine whether the criminal case against Alissa can move forward or will remain stalled.

A competency evaluation considers whether a criminal defendant is mentally ill or developmentally disabled, and whether that mental illness impedes the defendant’s ability to understand the court process and assist in his own defense. Competency refers only to a defendant’s current mental capacity and is distinct from an insanity defense, which focuses on the defendant’s mental state at the time of the alleged crime.

Two forensic psychologists testified Wednesday that Alissa has schizophrenia and that he had not been treated, hospitalized or medicated for the …read more

Source:: The Denver Post

The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down student loan forgiveness will cost borrowers thousands of dollars.

Westend61/Getty Images

The resumption of student loan repayments will amount to $5.5 billion-$8.2 billion per month, Fitch said.
As a result, consumer spending will slow sharply, then turn negative early next year.
Fitch also predicted student loan delinquency rates will quickly reach pre-pandemic levels or above.

Student loan payments resume next month, draining billions of dollars a month from consumers, who will start pulling back sharply on spending, Fitch Ratings forecast in a Wednesday report. 

If all 27 million borrowers in forbearance start paying back their student loans again, Fitch estimated that would amount to $5.5 billion-$8.2 billion monthly, reducing real consumption growth by 7 to 10 basis points.

That means real consumer spending will contract by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2024 and by 3% in the second quarter, reversing from the estimated growth of 3% and 1.2% in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, in 2023.

The loans were put on pause for the past three years. The Biden administration has offered a repayment plan that would give some Americans $0 payments, but Fitch predicted that student loan delinquency rates would rapidly climb towards pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s campaign to steady inflation by raising interest rates — with another hike projected for this year — is starting to affect consumers.

“Strong income growth has been largely responsible for the recent strength in consumer spending. However, wage income – the dominant driver of household income dynamics – looks set to slow as employment and wage growth weaken,” said Olu Sonola, head of US regional economics at Fitch. “Debt service is expected to trend higher in the coming quarters as student loan payments resume and higher financing costs take hold for much longer.”

The resumption …read more

Source:: Businessinsider

Former President Donald Trump infuriated many anti-abortion voters last week when he refused to commit to national abortion restrictions and seemed to blame them for Republican losses in the 2022 mid-term elections. Trump even criticized the six-week abortion ban signed by Florida Governor (and fellow Republican candidate) Ron DeSantis. So, not only is Trump balking at national restrictions but he is criticizing a state restriction. What are pro-life voters to do?

Politically, Trump may feel he does not need the pro-life vote as much as he did in his previous presidential runs. After all, he is so far ahead in all primary polls that absent an extremely unusual event he is all but the presumptive Republican nominee. He hasn’t even felt compelled to participate in any of the primary debates, skipping the first one to sit for a hugely popular interview with Tucker Carlson.

Trump has attempted to placate pro-life voters by repeating that he is the most pro-life president in American history and by touting that the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade on his watch and with his nominees. He is positioning himself as a moderator and dealmaker, promising to finally make peace on the abortion issue after 52 years of political warfare.

It is understandable that Trump may feel he has more wiggle room on the abortion issue this time. Pro-life voters are likely sufficiently angered by the rapid advance of Cultural Marxism and social chaos of the past three years under Biden that they are ready to jump at even the possibility of a return to more socially conservative values to the White House. If pro-life voters just stay home on election day, they may end up with something far worse than a generally friendly occupant in the White House.

But it doesn’t need to be this way. I strongly …read more

Source:: Los Angeles Daily News

Michelle Andrews | (TNS) KFF Health News

Rick Jaenisch went through treatment six times before his hepatitis C was cured in 2017. Each time his doctors recommended a different combination of drugs, his insurer denied the initial request before eventually approving it. This sometimes delayed his care for months, even after he developed end-stage liver disease and was awaiting a liver transplant.

“At that point, treatment should be very easy to access,” said Jaenisch, now 37 and the director of outreach and education at Open Biopharma Research and Training Institute, a nonprofit group in Carlsbad, California. “I’m the person that treatment should be ideal for.”

But it was never easy. Jaenisch was diagnosed in 1999 at age 12, after his dad took him to a San Diego hospital because Jaenisch showed him that his urine was brown, a sign there was blood in it. Doctors determined that he likely got the disease at birth from his mom, a former dental surgical assistant who learned she had the virus only after her son’s diagnosis.

People infected with the viral disease, which is typically passed through blood contact, are often outwardly fine for years. An estimated 40% of the more than 2 million people in the U.S. who are infected don’t even know they have it, while the virus may quietly be damaging their liver, causing scarring, liver failure, or liver cancer.

With several highly effective, lower-cost treatments now on the market, one might expect that nearly everyone who knows they have hepatitis C would get cured. But a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in June found that is far from the case. A proposal by the Biden administration to eliminate the disease in five years aims to change that.

Overall, the agency’s analysis found, during …read more

Source:: Los Angeles Daily News

Matt Vasilogambros | Stateline.org (TNS)

Despite a megadrought, states in the West have been able to avoid drastic cuts to their allocations of Colorado River water this year not only because of surprising storms but also thanks to generous financial incentives from all levels of government that have encouraged people to conserve.

The temporary Colorado River water-sharing agreement that Arizona, California and Nevada announced in May depends on an injection of $1.2 billion from the federal government. Some of the 30 tribal nations in the river basin also are getting federal dollars. The Gila River Indian Community, for example, will receive $233 million from the feds over the next three years, mostly to conserve water.

Fueled by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the feds will spend a total of $15.4 billion for drought resiliency programs over the coming years, mostly for large-scale projects for water storage and recycling but also to persuade people to use less water.

Water experts worry that paying people to conserve isn’t a long-term solution; states must make long-term investments and rethink water-sharing agreements if the Colorado River is to survive, they say.

But in the meantime, the money is helping to sustain the river basin. Conservation spurred by federal dollars has spared the seven Western states whose 40 million residents depend on the Colorado River’s water from painful cuts, said Michael Cohen, a senior researcher at the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, California-based water think tank. (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming comprise the upper basin, and Arizona, California and Nevada make up the lower basin.)

The federal government has a long history of sending money when disasters such as a hurricane or earthquake hit, Cohen said. The drought is no different.

“It’s hugely important,” Cohen said. “This is an example …read more

Source:: Los Angeles Daily News

As I have said over the years, I am not at all concerned about a federal government shutdown. My worry is that it might open back up again.

A shutdown is an occasional phenomenon wherein hundreds of thousands of government bureaucrats have to stop not working for a few weeks.

Given past shutdowns, we are now at the point where government workers know they have the best of all worlds. They get to stay at home, get paid when the government opens, and not have to work for weeks. It is the trifecta for a bureaucrat.

It is important for politicians to pin the blame for any impending shutdown on the other side. The last standoff saw Pelosi shutting down the government because she refused to fund Trump’s border wall. You do not want to get into blinksmanship with Nancy Pelosi to see who is the first one to blink. She hasn’t been able to blink since 2011.

Maybe that is why Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell locks up.  Like blinking, if you negotiate and just stare, the other side folds and gives you what you want.

Biden takes a different tack. If you want money from government, you do not deal with him.  You have to go through his family CFO and Appropriations Chairman, Hunter Biden.

Perhaps we do not need all these old dudes in D.C. running up debt. They will not be around to pay for it. With politicians like Senators Mitch McConnell, John Fetterman and now Representative Lauren Boebert, many of our politicians are stroking out of late.

A shutdown makes us reorganize our financial priorities, and reminds taxpayers that Washington is awful at handling our money. All of this could have been avoided if Washington politicians didn’t have the budgeting skills of an Ole Miss frat boy.

Washington Congressmen are just grown-up …read more

Source:: Los Angeles Daily News

Biden became the first sitting US president to appear at a picket line when he joined United Auto Workers on the 12th day of its strike. Meanwhile, Trump is skipping a presidential debate to address union workers at a Detroit rally. The bid for union voters points to Michigan as a likely battleground in the 2024 presidential race.

Read the original article on Business Insider

…read more

Source:: Businessinsider

Two outside companies that Denver Public Schools hired to tutor students in an effort to make up for lost learning fell short of some targets that could have earned the companies extra pay.

Though one company fared better than the other, many students didn’t hit the academic benchmarks spelled out in the district’s contracts. Some students struggled with participation, and staffing was a challenge for the company that tutored students in person.

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“It was definitely a learning experience,” said Angelin Thompson, the director of expanded academic learning for DPS. “It’s great if you can do it with fidelity and if you have qualified tutors. There are just a lot of components that go into it that make it effective or ineffective.”

But because the contracts with the companies linked part of their payments to the achievement of certain …read more

Source:: The Denver Post