Report: LeBron James expected to remain with Lakers

Report: LeBron James expected to remain with Lakers

Despite an offseason of rumors and speculation, LeBron James is expected to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2025-26 season, The Athletic reported Wednesday. The Lakers and James have not engaged in talks about a trade or buyout, and the NBA's all-time leading scorer is expected to report to camp with the Lakers this fall, per the report. There haven't been any signs, either, that James wants out. James picked up his $52.6 million option last month to return for an eighth season with the Lakers. He will be returning to a team this time around on which, for the first time in his career, he is the second option. Luka Doncic, acquired in a stunning trade from the Dallas Mavericks in February, is expected to be the centerpiece for Los Angeles in the upcoming season. Apparently fueling the trade or buyout rumors is a statement made by James' longtime agent, Rich Paul, last month that included this line, "We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career." Trading James, given his salary, would be difficult since NBA trades must be for players with contracts of similar value due to the salary cap. The Lakers, according to The Athletic, also are reluctant to take on a player earning in the $50 million range if he has additional years on the contract. The Lakers will be free of James $52.6 million once his contract expires at the end of the upcoming season. James, 40, is entering his record-setting 23rd NBA season. He has played in 1,562 regular-season games and is 50 shy of breaking Hall of Fame member Robert Parish's NBA record. James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists in 70 games in 2024-25 to rank in the top 22 in each category. He is a 21-time All-Star, four-time league MVP and four-time NBA champion. He has scored a record 42,184 regular-season points, and 50,473 in the regular season and playoffs combined. James entered the NBA as an 18-year-old after being selected No. 1 in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. He turns 41 in December. --Field Level Media

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Report: LeBron James expected to remain with Lakers

Report: LeBron James expected to remain with Lakers Despite an offseason of rumors and speculation, LeBron James is expected to remain with ...

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Lightning strike kills Olympic bronze medalist Audun Grønvold. Norwegian skier was 49

Lightning strike kills Olympic bronze medalist Audun Grønvold. Norwegian skier was 49

Audun Grønvold, a Norwegian skier who won Olympic bronze in ski cross in 2010, died July 15 after being struck by lightning over the weekend. He was 49. The Norwegian Ski Federationconfirmed Grønvold's death in a statement July 16, indicating Grønvold was struck by lightning while on a trip to his family's cabin July 12. He was quickly taken to a hospital to receive treatment, the federation said, but succumbed to his injuries a few days later. "Norwegian skiing has lost a prominent figure, who has meant so much to both the alpine and freestyle communities," federation president Tove Moe Dyrhaug said in a statement. "... There will be a big void after Audun." Grønvold was born in Hamar, a lakeside town about 80 miles north of Norway's capital city, Oslo. He first got his start in alpine skiing, also known as downhill skiing, and established himself a rising talent in one of the country's most popular sports. According to the ski federation, he spent more than a decade on Norway's alpine national team before switching to ski cross, in which skiers race directly against one another through a course with jumps and turns. Grønvold won bronze in ski cross' Olympic debut at the 2010 Vancouver Games, then went on to become a national team coach and board member for the federation, according to its statement. He also worked as a skiing broadcaster. "It's just terribly sad and tragic," Marius Arnesen, who coached Grønvold in the early 2000s,told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. "(He was) a thoughtful and wonderful boy who, when it comes to skiing, had a fantastic feeling for the surface in the snow." Grønvold is survived by his wife, Kristin Tandberg Haugsjå, and three children.According to Norwegian national broadcaster NRK, Haugsjå also confirmed her husband's death in a Facebook post, describing him as "my great love and my best friend for 20 years." "The loss of you is enormous," she wrote, according to NRK. Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media@tomschad.bsky.social. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Audun Grønvold, Olympic skier from Norway, dies after lightning strike

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Lightning strike kills Olympic bronze medalist Audun Grønvold. Norwegian skier was 49

Lightning strike kills Olympic bronze medalist Audun Grønvold. Norwegian skier was 49 Audun Grønvold, a Norwegian skier who won Olympic bron...

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Senate weighs amendments to foreign aid, public media funding cuts

Senate weighs amendments to foreign aid, public media funding cuts

Washington— The Senate kicked off what's expected to be another lengthy vote series Wednesday afternoon as Congress works to deliver on President Trump's request to rescind $9 billion in spending by Friday. The Senatenarrowly advancedthe request late Tuesday. Three Republicans opposed the package and Vice President JD Vance had to cast the two tie-breaking votes to move it forward. The House approved the original $9.4 billion rescissions request last month, but it has faced pushback in the Senate, where some Republicans have opposed slashing foreign aid and public broadcasting funding. Both chambers need to approve the request before it expires at the end of the week, or the funds will have to be spent as lawmakers previously intended. The Senate's decision to consider amendments to the package means the House will need to approve the final Senate version. The rescissions request targets roughly $8 billion for foreign assistance programs, including the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. The package also includes about $1 billion in cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public radio and television stations, including NPR and PBS. Senate Republicans met with Mr. Trump's budget director, Russell Vought, on Tuesday as GOP leaders worked to get holdouts on board ahead of the procedural votes later in the day. Vought left the meeting saying there would be a substitute amendment that would eliminate $400 million in cuts to an AIDS prevention program, one of the main concerns of Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said he hoped the House would accept the "small modification." When asked about the $400 million change, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters, "we wanted them to pass it unaltered like we did." "We need to claw back funding, and we'll do as much as we're able," Johnson added. But the change did not satisfy Collins, who voted against advancing the package. Collins was joined by two other Republicans senators: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The holdouts said the administration's request lacks details about how the cuts will be implemented. "To carry out our Constitutional responsibility, we should know exactly what programs are affected and the consequences of rescissions," Collins said in a statement Tuesday. In a floor speech ahead of the procedural votes, Murkowski also said Congress should not give up its budget oversight. "I don't want us to go from one reconciliation bill to a rescissions package to another rescissions package to a reconciliation package to a continuing resolution," she said. "We're lawmakers. We should be legislating. What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told, 'This is the priority, we want you to execute on it, we'll be back with you with another round.' I don't accept that." Cuts to local radio and television stations, especially in rural areas where they are critical for communicating emergency messages, was another point of contention in the Senate. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who had concerns about the cuts, said funding would be reallocated from climate funds to keep stations in tribal areas operating "without interruption." Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would vote for the package, but expected that Congress would later have to try to fix some of the cuts once they determine the impacts. "I suspect we're going to find out there are some things that we're going to regret," he said Wednesday on the Senate floor. "I suspect that when we do we'll have to come back and fix it, similar to what I'm trying to do with the bill I voted against a couple of weeks ago — the so-called big, beautiful bill, that I think we're going to have to go back and work on." Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Trump claims Epstein conspiracy theory is a hoax started by Democrats

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Senate weighs amendments to foreign aid, public media funding cuts

Senate weighs amendments to foreign aid, public media funding cuts Washington— The Senate kicked off what's expected to be another lengt...

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Trump team relaxes work-from-home ban for federal employees for religious reasons

Trump team relaxes work-from-home ban for federal employees for religious reasons

By Courtney Rozen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal employees can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious fasts and prayers, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, after previously demanding that workers report to offices full time. President Donald Trump ordered all federal employees on Inauguration Day to report to their work sites five days per week. The Office of Personnel Management called on agencies to "adopt a generous approach" to allowing employees to work remotely before and during religious holidays, agency director Scott Kupor said. Employees who want to take breaks during the workday while they are fasting should also get permission to work from home, he said. Agencies that opt to deny an employee's request to work remotely for religious reasons must justify it with "evidence of significant operational impact," he said. It is the latest example of the Trump administration relaxing its policy that employees with desk jobs must report to the office full time. Trump railed against remote work arrangements for federal employees on the campaign trail, threatening after the election to "dismiss" staff that didn't report to the office. The Office of Personnel Management later exempted military spouses. Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who had led Trump's cost-cutting effort, predicted in November that revoking "the COVID-era privilege of staying home" would trigger "a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome." More than 1 million federal employees—almost half of the federal civilian workforce—were eligible to work remotely at least part of the time as of May 2024, according to a Biden administration report. Around 10% of that workforce was entirely remote. (Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Leslie Adler)

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Trump team relaxes work-from-home ban for federal employees for religious reasons

Trump team relaxes work-from-home ban for federal employees for religious reasons By Courtney Rozen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal employees ...

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Mountain West Conference pauses expansion amid legal dispute with Pac-12

Mountain West Conference pauses expansion amid legal dispute with Pac-12

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Mountain West Conference, in the process of going through a major membership transition, will "pause" adding new schools, Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Wednesday at the conference's football media days. The conference willadd Grand Canyonin all sports except football beginning this year. Hawaii, which plays football in the Mountain West, will join as a full member in 2026, as will Texas-El Paso. Northern Illinois will play only football in the Mountain West and UC Davis will be a non-football member. Five schools will leave the Mountain West for the Pac-12 Conference next year — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. Both conferences are in a legal dispute about poaching fees and areheaded back to courtafter failing to reach an agreement. "We're going to pause right now as far as additional membership," Nevarez said at her annual football news conference. "Never say never, but we really want to get through our media rights negotiation, take a deep breath and then we'll readdress the issue." Nevarez said she hoped to announce a new media deal soon. She also touched on several other topics: — The Mountain West is paying for any costs associated with adding Grand Canyon a year early. — Conference headquarters will relocate from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Las Vegas in July 2026. The Mountain West has been in Colorado Springs since its inception in 1999. — Nevarez said the Mountain West did not support conferences receiving more than one automatic berth to the College Football Playoff. The Big Ten Conference prefers such a format buthas lost support from the Southeastern Conferencefor that type of model. ___ AP college football:https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-pollandhttps://apnews.com/hub/college-football

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Mountain West Conference pauses expansion amid legal dispute with Pac-12

Mountain West Conference pauses expansion amid legal dispute with Pac-12 LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Mountain West Conference, in the process of go...

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Former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías to be reinstated from domestic-violence suspension, wants to continue MLB career

Former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías to be reinstated from domestic-violence suspension, wants to continue MLB career

(Content warning: This story contains alleged depictions of domestic violence.) Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Uríascompleted his domestic-violence suspensionand will be reinstated by Major League Baseball on Thursday. Once he is officially eligible to play again, Urías will lookto continue his MLB career, agent Scott Boras told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. "He still has every intention to continue his career," Boras said Monday. "He's getting in shape. Obviously, he'll have options that are open to him." Boras declined to get into specifics on the options or possible deals Urías has on the table. It's believed multiple teams have checked in on Urías, per Shaikin. Any team who signs Urías will have to wait some time before he's ready to pitch in games. Urías reportedly needs to get in shape. It's unclear if he could do that in time to return to the mound this season or if he would need the entire offseason to get back into baseball shape. Urías, 28, hasn't pitched in the majors since the 2023 MLB season. He posted a 4.60 ERA over 117 1/3 innings before he was suspended under the league's domestic-violence policy that September. It marked the second time in his career Urías was suspended by the league under that policy. Urías received a 20-game suspension in 2019 after he was arrested and charged with domestic battery. Urías served that suspension and returned to the team for the 2020 season. He was on the mound when the Dodgers won the World Series later that year, throwing a scoreless 2 1/3 innings to close out the contest. He performed well for the team over the next two seasons, posting a 2.57 ERA over 360 2/3 innings and earning down-ballot Cy Young award votes in 2021 and 2022. Urías was in the midst of an injury-riddled year when he received his second suspension from MLB in 2023. Urías was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence after allegedly getting into a physical altercation with his wife outside BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. That charge was eventually changed to five misdemeanors. Urías pleaded no contest to one of those charges. The other four were dropped. In 2024,video emergedof the 2023 incident, which showed Urías shove his wife into a fence. Urías appeared to take a swing at his wife as the two were being separated by witnesses. Urías' contract ended after the 2023 season and he went unsigned in 2024 while the league continued to investigate the situation. In March, the league announced Urías would be suspended through the 2025 MLB All-Star break, paving the way for his expected reinstatement Thursday.

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías to be reinstated from domestic-violence suspension, wants to continue MLB career

Former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías to be reinstated from domestic-violence suspension, wants to continue MLB career (Content warning: This s...

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Barack Obama Jokes Michelle 'Took Me Back' as Duo Makes Fun of 'Rumor Mill' (Exclusive)

Barack Obama Jokes Michelle 'Took Me Back' as Duo Makes Fun of 'Rumor Mill' (Exclusive)

Barack Obama joined wife Michelle Obama for the latest episode of herIMOpodcast, where the two joked about the rumors surrounding their marriage Michelle's co-host and brother Craig Robinson quipped, "Wait, you guys like each other?" Barack, meanwhile, joked that their relationship had been "touch and go for a while" PresidentBarack Obamamade a long-awaited appearance onMichelle Obama's podcast this week, where the two wasted no time poking fun at the speculation about their relationship. Michelle and her co-host and brother,Craig Robinson, opened the show by teasing the "very, very,veryspecial" guest set to join them that day. "This is the episode that everyone's been waiting for with bated breath," Craig announced, "because we have my brother-in-law, your husband, the former president of the United States." Michelle added, "He made time in his busy schedule to come on. We are honored." As soon as Barack, 63, and Michelle, 61, shared a welcoming embrace, the teasing began. Michelle Obama/YouTube "Wait, you guys like each other?" Craig joked, as Michelle replied, "That's the rumor mill." While he took his seat, Barack quipped, "She took me back! It was touch and go for a while." Michelle teased, "Now, don't you start," before Craig told the couple, "It's so nice to have you both in the same room." With a laugh, Michelle told him, "I know, because when we aren't, folks think we're divorced." Barack and Michelle are no strangers to gossip about their personal lives, with split rumors emerging as they made solo outings and worked on individual projects this year. Even afamily phototo celebrate their daughter Sasha's 24th birthday in June wasn't enough to convince some that the couple was very much together. Barack Obama / Instagram In a May interview onThe Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlettpodcast, Michelle confronted some of the speculation head-on. "The beauty of my husband and our partnership is that neither one of us was really ever gonna quit at it, 'cause that's not who we are," she said. "And I know that about him. He knows that about me." As for her decisions not to attend certain public events after leaving the White House — specifically, herdecision to skipPresidentDonald Trump's January inauguration — Michelle said that she's finally starting to feel she has "permission to do what I want to do." "I think at 61, I'm finally owning my wisdom," she said. "I think it takes women until we're about 60 to be like, 'I think I know a thing or two.' " On herIMOpodcast in April,Michelle shared more about her decisionto skip the inauguration. "People couldn't believe that I was saying no for any other reason, they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart," she said. "It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that was right for me, that was a hard thing for me to do." On today'sIMOepisode, Michelle and Barack discussed the challenges facing men and boys, and why they both think it could have beendifficult to have a sonafter raising Sasha and her older sister, Malia, 27. Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The former president admitted, "I think I might've been more judgmental, harder, and I would've tried to — I'd like to think I would have been more self-aware enough to combat that, but I just think father-son relationships, for me, particularly if I don't have a dad around to show it to me, might've been more difficult." Barack was raised by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, after she and his father, Barack H. Obama, Sr., divorced when he was 2 years old. Read the original article onPeople

byMario Satorik

in

July 16, 2025

Barack Obama Jokes Michelle 'Took Me Back' as Duo Makes Fun of 'Rumor Mill' (Exclusive)

Barack Obama Jokes Michelle 'Took Me Back' as Duo Makes Fun of 'Rumor Mill' (Exclusive) Barack Obama joined wife Michelle Ob...

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