LAS VEGAS (April 28, 2024)—Three-time WNBA Champion, and two-time league MVP Candace Parker introduced her retirement right now following a storied 16-year profession.

Please go to Candace’s instagram web page for her official announcement.

Please click on right here for an announcement from the Aces.

The 6-4 ahead/heart signed with the Aces previous to the 2023 season, and began the primary 18 video games of the 12 months main Las Vegas to a 16-2 file. She was averaging 9.0 factors, 5.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals per recreation earlier than having surgical procedure on her left foot which sidelined her for the rest of the season. With the 2023 WNBA crown, the No. 1 choose within the 2008 WNBA Draft grew to become the primary participant in league historical past to win a championship with three completely different groups, having additionally finished so with Los Angeles (2016) and Chicago (2021).

Named to the WNBA High 20 at 20 and W25 groups, Parker is a 10-time All-WNBA honoree who performed her first 13 seasons within the league with the Los Angeles Sparks. She grew to become the primary participant in WNBA historical past to be named Rookie of the 12 months and Most Worthwhile Participant in the identical season when she averaged 18.5 factors, 9.5 rebounds and three.4 assists whereas serving to the Sparks to a 10-win enchancment in 2008.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Parker led LA to 11 playoff appearances, together with the 2016 WNBA Championship. She earned her second MVP award in 2013 when she averaged 17.9 factors, 8.7 rebounds and three.8 assists.

The Tennessee grad signed as a free agent with Chicago on February 1, 2021, and led the Sky to their first-ever WNBA Championship that very same 12 months.

As a collegian, Parker led the Girl Vols to the 2007 and 2008 NCAA Championships, incomes Last 4 Most Excellent Participant accolades each years.

Since 2018, Parker has labored as an analyst and commentator for NBA on TNT, throughout the WNBA offseason. In 2019, she labored as an analyst for the NCAA Division I Males’s Basketball Championship Recreation, and started serving as an analyst and commentator for NBA TV and NCAA Match protection on CBS Sports activities.

Kendrick Lamar simply reminded us there isn’t any substitute for actual emotion in rap beef.

This morning, the LA rapper launched his response within the ongoing feud between himself and Drake, by dropping a six-minute diatribe aimed toward Drizzy as a rap artist and, extra importantly, as an assassination of his character on a human stage.

“Euphoria” not solely references Drake’s involvement with the MAX hit drama of the identical title but in addition expresses the extent of elation Lamar seemingly feels in lastly getting this stuff off his chest. Lamar’s tune is the most recent plot level within the timeline of hostility between the 2 rap titans thought of to be a part of hip-hop millennial Mount Rushmore. This can be a timeline that goes again over a decade and was not too long ago reignited to start with of 2024 with a storm of messy diss tracks — each genuine and synthetic.

On the primary verse, Lamar makes use of a peaceful, cool but sinister supply: “Know you a grasp manipulator, and routine liar, too / However do not inform no lie ’bout me, and I will not inform truths ’bout you.”

However fairly rapidly, his rhymes erupt into tunnel-visioned, blood-boiling disgust on the deepest stage. Lamar accuses Drake of being an insufficient father to his son, mocks his Toronto slang, jeers at his rumored cosmetic surgery, alludes to him being a snitch, calls again to previous beefs Drake has remained mum about and even comes for Drake’s complete identification, questioning his Blackness. These lyrical photographs, whereas undoubtedly disrespectful, actually usually are not something too explosive. In reality, these are accusations rap followers have heard earlier than about Drizzy through disses by Rick Ross, Megan Thee Stallion and Pusha T. However at 3:10, Okay.Dot breaks his normal poetic type to checklist out each element concerning the streaming-era star he simply merely can not stand:

I hate the best way that you simply stroll, the best way that you simply speak
I hate the best way that you simply gown
I hate the best way that you simply sneak diss
If I catch a flight it is gonna be direct
We hate the b****** you f*** as a result of they confuse themselves for actual ladies
Discover I say, “We”
It isn’t simply me; I am what the tradition feeling

Deployed in fast succession, this caliber of a callout is so visceral and actual that it is precisely what’s been lacking on this rap beef. To rap fandoms and music critics alike, a lot of this high-profile hip-hop conflict has simply felt off. Artificial, gummy, uninspired. Within the age of synthetic all the things, even the disagreement between Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Drake (plus a number of others alongside the best way) has been marked by its detachment from the entire inventive premise of a rap beef — to indicate off your expertise, up the ante and embarrass your opp into submission.

It has been a month (March 26) since Lamar threw the primary stone within the long-brewing beef along with his sub on the Future and Metro Boomin monitor “Like That”: “Motherf*** the massive three, n****, it is simply huge me.”

After J. Cole dropped the monitor “7 Minute Drill” on April 5 in response to “Like That,” Cole rescinded his diss and introduced publicly that he was bowing out of the meat utterly whereas onstage at his label’s annual Dreamville Fest as a result of, level clean, Cole’s coronary heart wasn’t in it.

On April 19, Drake lastly unleashed his official response to Lamar with “Push Ups,” coming at Lamar’s previous pop-leaning options, his “pip-squeak” stature, mocking TDE’s tour gross sales and even name-checking “Like That” producer Metro Boomin within the course of. However the best way “Push Ups” was rolled out created a brand new frontier of Web Age confusion amongst rap followers. When it first dropped, some assumed the low high quality, on-line leak was an AI-generated facade and never Drake himself. The legitimacy of “Push Ups” was confirmed by reside streamer DJ Akademiks and ultimately hit DSPs, however this disorientation created an added layer of Web chatter, one Drake might capitalize on. Proving he was taking cues from social media timelines, Drake doubled down on his response to Lamar with one other monitor, “Taylor Made Freestyle” only a few days later. Solely this time, he began off the tune with AI-generated verses from the late Tupac Shakur and the very alive Snoop Dogg.

The try and irk Lamar with manipulated voices of two West Coast legends was a uniquely 2024-type of transfer, however in the end, it undercut any efficiency of the tune. The Shakur property issued a stop and desist to the Toronto rapper for “unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and persona” and the monitor was promptly taken down from social media.

Firing again with a monitor that is as savage and emotional as “Euphoria” on a random Tuesday morning through YouTube is taken into account an old-school vitality in at this time’s period of infinite distribution avenues and a conversation-driving chess transfer that leads again to 1 supply. This file drips with ranges of seething, petty hatred for Drake that is clearly been on Okay.Dot’s coronary heart for years. At its core, “Euphoria” is fueled with begrudged, drained, emotional baggage from Okay.Dot that is solely gotten heavier with time and cannot be mimicked or manufactured. It is freed from gimmicks, media personalities, gatekeeping or ChatGPT. This beef is over or it is simply getting began. For actual this time.

Candace Parker at all times stated she’d know when it could be time to retire. That day got here Sunday.

The three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist introduced on social media that her profession was over after 16 seasons.

“The competitor in me at all times desires 1 extra, however it’s time,” Parker wrote in an Instagram submit. “My HEART & physique knew, however I wanted to present my thoughts time to simply accept it.”

Parker, 38, had informed The Related Press in November she needed to play one other season if she may get wholesome from a foot damage that saved her off the courtroom final season. However she cautioned that she did not wish to “cheat the sport,” or herself, and expressed the identical in asserting her retirement forward of the Aces’ try to win a 3rd title in a row. Parker has had 10 surgical procedures over her profession.

“I promised I would by no means cheat the sport & that I would go away it in a greater place than I got here into it. … I at all times needed to stroll off the courtroom with no parade or tour, simply privately with those I really like,” she wrote. “What now was to be my final recreation, I walked off the courtroom with my daughter. I ended the journey simply as I began it, together with her.”

Parker performed her first 13 seasons within the league with the Los Angeles Sparks, establishing her dominance early as a No. 1 choose who received Rookie of the 12 months and league MVP in the identical season. Parker was the one WNBA participant to perform that feat, averaging 18.5 factors, 9.5 rebounds and three.4 assists whereas serving to the Sparks to a 10-win enchancment in 2008.

Parker earned her second MVP award in 2013 and received her first title in 2016 with the Sparks. She’d go on to win a second title with the Chicago Sky in 2021 and a 3rd with the Las Vegas Aces final season.

“It is robust, it is bittersweet for myself as a result of I’d have liked to have her with us this 12 months. Alternatively I do know precisely what it seems like when it is time, it is time. The physique tells you. It isn’t what your thoughts or your coronary heart is saying. It is your physique,” Aces coach Becky Hammon stated. “She modified the sport. She modified what it meant to be a positional basketball participant. She performed all positions. She’s the one if you discuss those who are actually enjoying and arising, they practiced Candace Parker’s strikes.”

She’s the one participant in league historical past to win a championship with three totally different groups.

“The recollections Candace Parker created for a era of ladies’s basketball followers will stay ingrained in our collective conscience ceaselessly, however she has given a lot extra to the sport past her accolades and statistics,” The Aces stated in an announcement. “As a teammate and mentor, a mom and spouse, a baller, broadcaster, and businesswoman she has impressed numerous younger individuals, each girls and boys, to chase and obtain their goals.”

Parker performed for the late Pat Summitt’s final two nationwide championship groups at Tennessee in 2007 and 2008. She then left with one 12 months of eligibility remaining.

2-time Olympic gold medallist

She received Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 earlier than shockingly being left off the 2016 staff.

“I feel clearly Candace has had a tremendous profession. I am a little bit bit unhappy about it since you love going up in opposition to her, the legend that she is,” Liberty star Breanna Stewart stated. “What she has accomplished on and off the courtroom has been superb for our league. Admire all she’s accomplished to assist me get to the place I’m. We’ll positively miss her this season.”

Liberty coach Sandy Brondello coached Parker abroad in Russia for a number of years throughout the winter.

“She’s a trailblazer. Only a fantastic human being and what she’s accomplished for this sport,” Brondello stated. ‘Hopefully it is celebrated. I’ve received loads of respect for her. Our youngsters grew up collectively after I was teaching in Russia. It is sort of unhappy. Everybody is aware of when it is the suitable time.”

Parker started working in broadcasting throughout her enjoying profession. She has labored as an analyst for the NCAA Event with CBS Sports activities and for NBA TV.

She had surgical procedure on her foot in July 2023 and informed the AP it nonetheless pained her on the finish of final 12 months.

“This low season hasn’t been enjoyable on a foot that is not cooperating,” she wrote in her submit Sunday. “My mission in life, like Pat Summitt at all times stated, is to `chase individuals and passions and you’ll by no means fail.’ Being a spouse & mother nonetheless stays precedence .1 & I’ve discovered that point flies, so I plan to take pleasure in my household to the fullest!”

LAS VEGAS – Yearly, when spring bleeds into summer season, the desert warmth awakes a refrain of Las Vegas singers that rival any residency you’ll discover on the Strip – cicadas.

However these critters usually are not those you’ve most likely been listening to about.

This 12 months has just lately been dubbed the 12 months of “cicada-geddon” as two broods of cicadas emerge from their rising durations underground, which had been every 13 and 17 years lengthy.

These gained’t go west of Oklahoma, although, based on scientists.

As an alternative, someday beginning in Might or June, the Mojave Desert can be abuzz with male Apache cicadas, vibrating a membrane of their stomach known as a “tymbal” to draw a feminine mate.

They’re not harmful. Nonetheless, for a lot of a Las Vegan, they will show to be pesky.

“We get calls after they’re singing so loud and doubtless a 3rd to a half of the Vegas inhabitants is making an attempt to sleep in the course of the day,” mentioned Jeff Knight, Nevada’s state entomologist.

Apache cicadas, about 2 inches lengthy, are one among nearly two dozen species of cicadas in Nevada, Knight mentioned. They’re the one ones that reside within the city middle of Las Vegas.

These big-eyed creatures spend most of their lives underground. As soon as they hatch from eggs planted in timber, they burrow within the earth till they see the sunshine once more as adults and shed their exoskeletons.

Their habitat consists of northern Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah and, in fact, Southern Nevada.

Cicadas (pronounced suh-kay-duhs) are a relentless in Las Vegas every summer season, Knight mentioned, and a few years can convey them out extra in full drive. Scientists don’t actually know why numbers differ yearly, and the state doesn’t hold monitor of inhabitants numbers, he mentioned.

By and enormous, Apache cicadas don’t disturb their surrounding atmosphere apart from females that may harm twigs or branches on timber to put their eggs.

“They’re a little bit of a nuisance, particularly if one takes off from a bush subsequent to individuals and startles them,” Knight mentioned. “They don’t carry illness, they usually don’t chew.”

Brian McCardie, the Scottish actor who portrayed the youthful brother of Liam Neeson’s titular hero in Michael Caton-Jones’ historic drama Rob Roy, has died. He was 59.

McCardie died “all of the sudden at dwelling” on Sunday, his sister Sarah announced on X. “A beautiful and passionate actor on stage and display screen, Brian cherished his work and touched many lives, and is gone a lot too quickly,” she wrote.

Born on Jan. 22, 1965, and raised close to Glasgow, McCardie appeared on the BBC cleaning soap opera EastEnders in one among his earlier roles.

He went on to play gang lord turned police informant Tommy Hunter on the primary two seasons of the BBC drama Line of Responsibility (2012-14) and extra just lately confirmed up on such different British collection as Time, Crime, The Tower and Domina and the miniseries Riot.

Within the U.S., he was seen on episodes of Shameless and Outlander, and he had a job within the upcoming Outlander prequel, Blood of My Blood.

McCardie scored excessive marks for his emotional efficiency as Alasdair MacGregor in Rob Roy (1995), additionally starring Jessica Lange.

His movie résumé additionally included a flip as Scottish soccer legend Dave Mackay in The Damned United (2009), starring Michael Sheen as Leeds United coach Brian Clough, and work in Velocity 2: Cruise Management (1997), 200 Cigarettes (1999), Low Winter Solar (2006), Filth (2013), Ghosts (2014), Caton-Jones’ Our Girls (2019) and Broken (2024).

The Ontario authorities is introducing new measures to crack down on cellphone use and vaping in faculties because the province sees an “alarming rise” of vaping and cellphone distractions in lecture rooms.

In an announcement Sunday, Training Minister Stephen Lecce mentioned the province is eradicating distractions as a part of its back-to-basics plan, and addressing the “unfavorable impression” of cell gadgets, social media and vaping in lecture rooms.

“Each mother or father and instructor we converse to has shared the rising downside of cellphone distractions at school … along with the disturbing rise of vaping in faculties [among] our youth,” Lecce mentioned at a information convention in North York Sunday.

“We will likely be denying cellphone use throughout tutorial time. We should be daring, we should be complete and we have to act with urgency at the moment.”

Beginning in September, college students in kindergarten to Grade 6 will likely be required to maintain telephones on silent and “out of sight” for the whole college day, except they’re granted permission to make use of it, the province mentioned.

Equally, college students in Grades 7 to 12, won’t be permitted to make use of their cellphones throughout class time with out permission.

“If they don’t comply, they are going to be requested to give up their telephones or they might be despatched to the workplace,” Lecce mentioned.

“There are progressive self-discipline insurance policies listed on this. It might probably embody as much as suspension if there [are] repeat violations.”

The Progressive Conservative authorities initially banned cellphone use in 2019, saying college students can solely use private cell gadgets throughout tutorial time whether it is for instructional functions, for well being functions or for particular wants. It left it as much as boards and faculties to implement.

Boards such because the Toronto District Faculty Board have beforehand mentioned such bans are arduous to implement. The board had a process on cellphone utilization — earlier than their latest vote to change it — that mentioned children ought to solely be on cellphones for instructional functions. The board’s chair mentioned it could be utilized in a different way in every college and is not extensively identified. 

Lecce mentioned Sunday that the distinction between the 2019 ban and the most recent one is that there will likely be consistency in making use of and implementing the brand new measures throughout all college boards within the province, calling the outcomes of the final ban “blended.”

WATCH | Specialists weigh in on cellphone use in lecture rooms:

Ought to cellphones be banned from faculties?

Some specialists say classroom cellphone bans will enhance studying and cut back bullying, however others say they’re nonetheless a great tool for scholar security.

Colleges to determine when tech use is suitable

It can fall to highschool workers to determine when the usage of know-how is suitable, and Lecce mentioned he’ll “have the backs” of the lecturers, principals and superintendents who would be the ones implementing the brand new authorities coverage.

Quebec and British Columbia have already made comparable strikes to ban the usage of cellphones at school, however Lecce mentioned Ontario would be the first to dam entry to all social media platforms on college networks and gadgets.

As a part of these modifications, lecturers will endure obligatory coaching, based on the province. Report playing cards will now additionally embody feedback on college students’ distraction ranges at school.

Lecce touted the measures as essential steps to assist college students focus at school and enhance security in faculties.

“Our coverage contains enforcement to make sure compliance and consistency provincewide,” he mentioned.

The announcement comes after 4 main Ontario college boards sued a few of the largest social media corporations to over their merchandise, alleging the best way they’re designed has negatively rewired the best way kids assume, behave and be taught and disrupted the best way faculties function.

The general public district college boards of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa-Carleton, together with Toronto’s Catholic counterpart, are on the lookout for about $4.5 billion in whole damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which function the platforms Fb and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively, based on separate however comparable statements of declare filed in March.

Trainer unions skeptical on modifications

The Ontario Secondary Faculty Academics’ Federation stays skeptical about whether or not a blanket ban will enhance issues, the group’s president mentioned Sunday.

“I am not likely certain how that is going to alter something going ahead,” mentioned Karen Littlewood.

Academics are hesitant to remove college students’ telephones as a result of they’d be accountable if the gadgets are misplaced, broken or stolen, she mentioned.

“It results in so many points and so many issues,” she mentioned. 

WATCH | E-cigarette researchers talk about what substances individuals are inhaling:

The modifications replicate a few of the calls for made by the Elementary Academics’ Federation of Ontario in its most up-to-date spherical of bargaining with the province.

The group steered the modifications as a method to tackle growing violence and disruption in faculties, the federation mentioned in an announcement issued Sunday.

However the union says it should reserve judgement on the brand new insurance policies till it has seen the complete vary of modifications intimately.

Vaping ban protects college students from ‘preventable threats’

Along with the brand new restrictions on cellphones and social media use, Lecce mentioned vaping will likely be banned in all college alongside tobacco, nicotine and hashish merchandise.

College students caught carrying such merchandise can have them confiscated, and faculties will likely be required to inform dad and mom if that occurs, he mentioned.

The federal government mentioned it has earmarked $30 million from its 2024 funds to put in vape detectors and different safety upgrades in faculties.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer of well being, mentioned the vaping ban in faculties will assist defend college students from “preventable threats.

“Ontario is seeing a rising variety of youth in Grades 7 by 12 report utilizing vaping merchandise that comprise and emit many poisonous substances,” Moore mentioned.

“These merchandise can have an effect on the respiratory, immune and cardiovascular programs, and nicotine in these merchandise is especially dangerous to youth mind improvement.”

The Ford authorities introduced it’s introducing new limits on cellphone use in faculties and banning vaping units in a transfer to cut back distractions in lecture rooms and enhance the well being of youngsters.

Throughout an announcement Sunday morning, Ontario Schooling Minister Stephen Lecce mentioned the province is implementing a back-to-basics plan that can be applied within the fall and contains a number of the strongest measures within the nation referring to restrictions on cellphone use and banning vaping in faculties.

“Now we have heard loud and clear from dad and mom and academics alike that cellphones in lecture rooms are distracting youngsters from studying,” mentioned Lecce.

“Our authorities is introducing the hardest coverage in Canada to sort out this situation by cracking down on cellphone utilization throughout class time, in addition to banning vaping in all faculties. In the case of cellphones, our coverage is ‘out of sight and out of thoughts,’ as we get college students again to the fundamentals by restoring focus, security and customary sense again in Ontario faculties.”

1:19
‘Lecturers need youngsters to concentrate,’ Ford says as Ontario limits cellphone use in faculties

As a part of the brand new plan, youngsters in kindergarten to Grade 6 can be required to maintain telephones on silent and out of sight for the whole faculty day except they get specific permission from an educator. In the meantime, these in grades 7 and up will see cellphone use banned throughout class time.

The brand new coverage may also require all publicly funded faculty boards to dam entry to all social media platforms on faculty networks and units, a transfer the federal government says is the primary of its variety amongst Canadian provinces.

The province mentioned academics will endure necessary coaching as a part of these modifications. Report playing cards will now embody feedback on college students’ distraction ranges in school.

Vaping units may also be banned from faculties and school-related settings, together with hashish, nicotine and tobacco merchandise, Lecce mentioned.

If caught vaping, college students can be required to give up their units and oldsters can be notified instantly.

The federal government famous that $30 million within the 2024 Finances will go towards putting in vape detectors and different safety upgrades in faculties.

To assist these initiatives, the federal government additionally introduced $17.5 million funding to bolster psychological well being helps to attach college students and households with psychological well being providers.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Well being, mentioned eradicating vaping merchandise from faculties will assist shield college students from these “preventable threats.”

“Ontario is seeing a rising variety of youth in Grades 7 by means of 12 report utilizing vaping merchandise that comprise and emit many poisonous substances,” mentioned Moore.

“These merchandise can have an effect on the respiratory, immune and cardiovascular programs, and nicotine in these merchandise is especially dangerous to youth mind improvement.”

The modifications mirror a number of the calls for made by the Elementary Lecturers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) in its most up-to-date spherical of bargaining with the province.

The group, which represents over 80,000 schooling staff within the province, urged the modifications as a option to tackle growing violence and disruption in faculties, the federation mentioned in an announcement issued Sunday.

Nevertheless, the union mentioned its upset that the Ford authorities didn’t assessment the coverage modifications with the union previous to Sunday’s announcement.

“Throughout current central bargaining between ETFO and the federal government, ETFO fought for enhancements that will tackle growing violence and disruption in faculties – a key precedence for our 83,000 members,” the union mentioned.

The union mentioned that regardless of its makes an attempt to make enhancements to highschool environments “in a collaborative approach” with the provincial authorities, ETFO was not given the chance to assessment the revisions earlier than the Ford authorities launched them.

“That is extraordinarily disappointing,” the union mentioned.

ETFO says it would reserve judgement on the brand new insurance policies till it has seen the complete vary of modifications intimately.

The Ford authorities’s modifications come after 4 of Ontario’s largest faculty boards introduced plans final month to sue the father or mother firms of Fb, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

The schoolboards allege the social media platforms are disrupting pupil studying, contributing to a psychological well being disaster and leaving educators to handle the fallout.

The Toronto District Faculty Board, the Peel District Faculty Board, the Toronto Catholic District Faculty Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District Faculty Board filed 4 separate however related instances in Ontario’s Superior Court docket of Justice in late March.

The lawsuits declare the social media platforms are designed for compulsive use and have rewired the best way kids suppose, behave and be taught.

With recordsdata from the Canadian Press.

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Alberta authorities launches on-line survey on cellphones at school

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