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Ex-columnist Sabrina Maddeaux, once touted as rising Conservative star, drops out of ‘corrupted’ nomination race

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Sabrina Maddeaux says the race was tipped in favour of an unnamed candidate.Ryan Emberley/The Globe and Mail

A former political columnist who has been a high-profile voice within the Conservative Social gathering has dropped out of a nomination race, alleging “a corrupted course of.” The celebration says her claims are “utterly false.”

Sabrina Maddeaux left her column on the Nationwide Put up in January to run for the Conservative nomination within the Ontario using of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill. The nomination race contains former MP Costas Menegakis and is very coveted as a result of it’s extensively believed the Conservatives would win it again from the Liberals within the subsequent election.

In a prolonged social-media put up Thursday, Ms. Maddeaux stated the race was tipped in favour of an unnamed candidate who she believes had entry to membership lists that no marketing campaign was alleged to have. She stated an unknown particular person, falsely claiming to be a Conservative within the using, used the listing to ship two e-mails to native celebration members that had been “stuffed with defamatory smear assaults and deliberate misinformation.”

One of many e-mails included quotes and hyperlinks to her previous columns and articles courting again greater than a decade, starting from a critique of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s document to getting a pleasure flag painted under her panty line.

Ms. Maddeaux stated in an interview that sections of the e-mails included “outright lies” and not one of the articles referenced amounted to a scandal. She additionally argued that ones courting again greater than a decade “shouldn’t be related to working a marketing campaign.”

The e-mails had been despatched two weeks in the past. She stated her marketing campaign requested the celebration to analyze and ship its personal e-mail notifying members that the e-mail was not from an area celebration member. Nonetheless, she stated she’s obtained no updates from the celebration and so determined to go away the race.

“With out motion by the Social gathering, the democratic course of has been irrevocably corrupted and rigged in a single candidates’ favour,” she stated in her social-media put up.

Conservative Social gathering spokesperson Sarah Fischer stated in a press release to The Globe and Mail that Ms. Maddeaux’s marketing campaign additionally despatched e-mails utilizing membership lists she shouldn’t have had entry to.

“The allegations Sabrina Maddeaux made are utterly false,” Ms. Fischer stated. “It’s frequent for the Social gathering to obtain complaints from nomination candidates about their opponents over suspicions of wrongdoing and using lists.”

She didn’t reply to a question about whether or not the celebration ever investigated the complaints.

Two Conservative Social gathering sources stated Ms. Maddeaux was leaving the race after solely signing up about 50 new members. They stated the quantity was very low, particularly in a hotly contested race, and sure would have led to a loss.

The Globe shouldn’t be figuring out the sources as a result of they weren’t permitted to reveal the inner info.

Ms. Maddeaux disputed the quantity and advised The Globe her marketing campaign had signed up greater than 200 members and recognized greater than 1,100 supporters.

The celebration has not but introduced a date for the nomination vote.

With studies from Laura Stone and Ian Bailey

Ricki Lake weight loss: Star opens up to GMA after losing 35 pounds ‘This is what happy looks like’

Ricki Lake is talking out for the primary time about her current weight reduction journey, saying she was capable of shed 35 kilos with out utilizing treatment.

Lake instructed “Good Morning America” she decided to take a wager on herself, and within the course of, found a newfound happiness.

“I really feel the most effective I can keep in mind feeling in my life,” Lake instructed ABC Information’ Kayna Whitworth. I’ve this new marriage and I am so blissfully pleased with this superb man, my good man. And if I pinpoint one factor that was not working in our lives, is that we had been carrying this further weight.”

All through her longtime profession, Lake has been an open ebook about her weight challenges and well being struggles. However within the final seven months, she mentioned she and her husband teamed as much as drop some weight and commenced to share their joint journey on Instagram.

“It has been a dedication. You realize, it has been a monetary dedication. It has been a like, a time dedication,” Lake mentioned. “However it’s superior. Like, I am simply, I am so completely satisfied and happy with us.”

Lake mentioned at 55 years outdated, she is in perimenopause and mentioned a health care provider prompt she go on treatment to assist her drop some weight, an thought she wasn’t on board with.

“He was saying you were not going to achieve success with out it, is what he mentioned to me,” Lake recalled. “And I like a problem. And I like proving folks improper. And so, it pissed me off.”

Lake mentioned she was “reluctant” about counting on medicines and as a substitute wished to tackle a way of life change.

“I simply was reluctant. And I wished to offer it a go by myself. And so I mentioned to my husband, ‘You need to go on this experience with me?’ And he is like, ‘Positive,'” Lake mentioned.

Lake and her husband of two years, Ross Burningham, started intermittent fasting, began following the keto eating regimen and commenced exercising, together with doing Pilates and sleep monitoring.

Lake mentioned their main modifications paid off and he or she has dropped 35 kilos since October. She mentioned Burningham has dropped almost 40 kilos.

“This can be a way of life change. I’ve made this my job. And it is turn into my pleasure,” Lake mentioned. “Like, I simply, I adore it. I believe it is protected to say I am in the most effective form of my life.”

“I say, ‘That is what completely satisfied seems to be like.’ That is actually, I might cry. I am so completely satisfied. I am so completely satisfied,” Lake added.

In March, Lake confirmed off her weight reduction by donning her well-known pink swimsuit, which she wore for the duvet of Us Weekly in Might 2007. She just lately re-wore one other gown she walked the pink carpet in on the 2007 Tribeca Movie Pageant.

“Oh, this outdated factor?? Simply had it hanging round. Initially wore this gown to the Enterprise of Being Born world premiere in 2007 and now right here I’m carrying it once more in 2024!” Lake captioned her Instagram submit.

Burningham in contrast his spouse’s “dedication” to her weight reduction journey as certainly one of a canine chasing a bone.

“She’s tenacious,” he mentioned. “When she decides that she’s gonna do one thing, she’s all in and simply goes after it. And it is inspiring.”

For anybody seeking to make a change themselves, Lake mentioned she recommends ranging from a spot of positivity and gratitude after which placing within the exhausting work to make it occur.

Along with her newfound power, Lake is pouring herself into serving to others by her work with Group Entry, a corporation that gives job coaching and housing help to folks combating psychological sickness. It is a trigger she embraces in honor of her late husband Christian Evans, who died by suicide after experiencing psychological well being points.

“I believe he is magic up there and he is watching over me,” Lake mentioned. “I imagine he handpicked Ross for me. Yeah, I’ve a deep, deep realizing that he is left his mark with me.”

Lake mentioned now, she’s trying ahead to the long run, and her greatest days are simply on the horizon.

“I have been well-known since (I used to be) 18 years outdated, from ‘Hairspray.’ And but, these are the sweetest of days,” Lake mentioned.

Copyright © 2024 ABC Information Web Ventures.

Former journalist drops out of Conservative nomination race, claims the process has been ‘corrupted’

A former Nationwide Submit journalist is bowing out of the race to hold the Conservative Celebration banner in a Toronto-area driving as a result of she says she has “clear proof of a corrupted course of.”

In a social media put up Thursday, Sabrina Maddeaux stated she’s suspending her race for the occasion’s nomination in Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill. She stated she has been “the clear goal of extremely unethical, and potential unlawful, efforts to sway the vote” as a result of one other candidate allegedly had the occasion’s membership checklist earlier than she did.

“Sadly, I now not place confidence in the election’s integrity,” she stated.

WATCH |  Former journalist drops out of Conservative nomination, alleges ‘corrupted course of’ 

Former journalist drops out of Conservative nomination, alleges ‘corrupted course of’

Sabrina Maddeaux, a former candidate for the Conservative nomination within the Ontario driving of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, tells Energy & Politics that she hopes ‘there’s an investigation and that voters can study what was actually taking place.’

“I name on the Conservative Celebration of Canada to safe our democratic nomination course of, shield our values and stand as much as corrupt campaigns that present disdain for each.”

Maddeaux didn’t say which candidate allegedly had the membership checklist.

She urged a mass e mail despatched to occasion members within the driving disparaging her candidacy was proof that somebody unfairly had entry to the names and phone particulars of native Conservatives in contravention of occasion guidelines.

Conservatives name declare ‘fully false’

A spokesperson for the occasion instructed CBC Information Maddeaux’s allegations a few competitor and the membership checklist are “fully false.”

“It’s normal for the occasion to obtain complaints from nomination candidates about their opponents over suspicions of wrongdoing and the usage of lists,” Sarah Fischer stated.

“In actual fact, we acquired a criticism about Ms. Maddeaux’s marketing campaign sending out an e mail to present and former members of the occasion when she mustn’t have had entry to a membership checklist.”

Conservative sources who spoke to CBC Information on the situation they not be named stated Maddeaux offered solely about 50 memberships within the nomination race — a low quantity meaning she seemingly had no likelihood of successful the nomination.

“That is not the case,” Maddeaux stated in an interview when requested in regards to the declare relating to her membership gross sales. “We undoubtedly offered greater than 50 memberships.” She stated later her marketing campaign has offered “over 200” memberships.

Maddeaux stated she’s not talking out now as a result of she was poised to lose. She stated she would have gone quietly if she misplaced a contest she perceived as honest.

“This isn’t the way in which I needed issues to go,” she stated. “It is so tough and heartbreaking. We have been really very assured in our marketing campaign and our probabilities of successful.”

Requested whether or not she nonetheless helps occasion chief Pierre Poilievre, Maddeaux stated she was impressed to run due to the chief’s “imaginative and prescient for change.”

“I might nonetheless like to help that and him as chief, however there nonetheless does appear to be some points inside the occasion equipment,” she stated.

Sabrina Maddeaux on the marketing campaign path. (Sabrina Maddeaux/Twitter)

Maddeaux was in a tricky combat for the York Area driving nomination towards former MP Costas Menegakis, who held the driving from 2011 till the occasion’s defeat within the 2015 election.

He ran once more in 2019 and 2021 in neighbouring Richmond Hill and misplaced each occasions to a Liberal, one thing Maddeaux highlighted in a previous interview as a motive to choose her as a substitute for the nomination.

Maddeaux introduced herself as a “contemporary Conservative voice.” Menegakis instructed True North earlier this 12 months he is an “skilled hand on the wheel,” whereas Maddeaux is a political neophyte.

The driving they each have been jockeying to characterize was held by a Conservative as not too long ago as 2019, which suggests it is a winnable seat for the occasion, given how effectively the Conservatives are doing within the nationwide polls.

Conservative MP Andrew Scheer with Costas Menegakis in Richmond Hill, Ont. on Wednesday, September 18, 2019. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

The occasion membership checklist is an important doc disseminated to potential occasion nominees. It is what candidates use to focus their campaigns on members who’re really anticipated to vote, which saves the marketing campaign time and assets.

“If one marketing campaign has this checklist and others do not, the nomination is successfully rigged of their favour. Every single day with an official checklist is akin to campaigning for weeks with out one. That is how important it’s,” Maddeaux stated.

Beneath the Conservative Celebration’s guidelines, the membership checklist can solely be given to nomination candidates after the “closing discover” is issued, when nominations are closed to different potential occasion nominees.

However the occasion’s member checklist, housed in its Constituent Info Administration System (CIMS), has been broadly utilized in election circles in recent times, when the occasion held three nationwide management campaigns and dozens of nomination conferences for 4 common elections.

Maddeaux alleges a ‘smear job’

Maddeaux stated she has proof to recommend that one other unnamed candidate had an inventory — which incorporates private contact particulars of occasion members — earlier than the “closing discover” and used it to disseminate disparaging particulars about her to sink her probabilities of successful.

“A mass e mail was despatched to an up to date model of the official membership checklist that no candidate was allowed to have but. Nobody had been greenlit. The topic: “IMPORTANT INFO: Sabrina Maddeaux,” she stated.

The e-mail, written by somebody supposedly named Norman McDaniel, was “a smear job,” Maddeaux stated.

The e-mail cited her previous writings on firearms, former prime minister Stephen Harper, lingerie and Marilyn Monroe and urged she was out of step with Conservative values.

The e-mail instructed occasion members the neighborhood “deserves higher.”

“It is a candidate who doesn’t share our values and can embarrass us ought to she make it to Parliament,” the e-mail stated. The occasion confirmed there was no Norman McDaniel within the driving, Maddeaux stated.

Maddeaux stated the e-mail “purposely mischaracterized” her work and was “inflammatory.”

She requested the occasion to analyze two weeks in the past however she has been dissatisfied with their response to her considerations.

Fischer confirmed the occasion “acquired a criticism from her marketing campaign about emails being circulated to members within the driving highlighting issues Ms. Maddeaux has written and stated previously.”

The Conservatives have confronted at the very least two different allegations of occasion brass favouring one candidate over one other in a nomination race.

Final 12 months in Oxford, a driving in southwestern Ontario, Arpan Khanna acquired the nod over the daughter of the outgoing MP.

That prompted accusations that Khanna, who beforehand ran in Brampton, Ont. and served because the co-chair of Poilievre’s management marketing campaign, was a parachute candidate who unfairly displaced an area chief and an anti-abortion campaigner.

The occasion has insisted the race was honest and Khanna simply received essentially the most votes within the nomination.

Khanna went on to win a federal byelection, however by a more in-depth margin than some had anticipated within the strong Conservative driving.

Conservative MP Arpan Khanna is launched by Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre, proper, within the Home of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Earlier this 12 months, native Conservatives additionally raised considerations in regards to the occasion supposedly favouring former Ontario PC MPP Parm Gill to run in a driving in Milton, Ont., in accordance with a report in The Hill Instances.

Squabbles over a political occasion supposedly favouring one candidate over one other should not uncommon. The Liberals have confronted comparable claims previously.

In 2015, Ottawa lawyer David Berstchi sued three senior Liberal marketing campaign workers after his approval to hold the Liberal banner was revoked.

After Bertschi was knocked out of the race, former Canadian Forces common Andrew Leslie was acclaimed because the candidate in Ottawa-Orleans.

Hall of Fame defensive back Jimmy Johnson dead at age 86

Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame defensive again Jimmy Johnson, a three-time All-Professional and member of the All-Decade Group of the Seventies, has died. He was 86.

Johnson’s household informed the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame that he died on Wednesday evening at dwelling within the San Francisco space after a prolonged sickness.

Johnson, inducted into the Corridor of Fame in 1994, performed his whole 16-year professional profession with San Francisco. He appeared in 213 video games, greater than another 49ers participant on the time of his retirement.

“Jimmy Johnson was terribly athletically proficient,” Corridor of Fame President Jim Porter mentioned. “The 49ers loved the luxurious of utilizing him on offense and protection early in his profession to fill group wants. As soon as he settled in at left cornerback, he flourished. The notion {that a} ‘lockdown’ cornerback may lower the sector in half for the opposition was true with Jimmy. Solely not often would different groups’ quarterbacks even look his course, and as a rule regretted the choice in the event that they challenged him.”

The 49ers drafted Johnson sixth total in 1961 out of UCLA — the Chargers of the upstart AFL took him within the fourth spherical of that league’s draft — and he grew to become a starter virtually instantly as a cornerback. He had 5 interceptions as a rookie.

However he was so versatile that the Niners used Johnson on offense in 1962, when he made 34 receptions for 627 yards and scored 4 touchdowns.

Stopping opponents from compiling such stats was his forte, nonetheless, and by 1964 Johnson was a fixture on the nook. He remained there till retiring after the 1976 season, totaling 47 interceptions, returning two for scores, and incomes a status as a stingy cowl man with a nostril for the ball.

“Jimmy embodied the essence of what it meant to be a 49er,” the group mentioned in an announcement. “He was the final word gentleman and will probably be remembered for his humility, kindness and loveable demeanor.”

In 1971, within the midst of a three-year run as an All-Professional, Johnson received the George Halas Award for brave play.

“It’s important to be labored on, cornered in and cornered out to turn into pretty much as good as you may be,” Johnson mentioned when he entered the Corridor of Fame. “So truly I really feel standing right here at this time that I by no means reached that stage, I by no means reached pretty much as good a soccer participant as I might be. However due to God and inside expertise I used to be in a position to current an image to these people who had been voting for the Corridor of Fame, and my longevity and the extent of sport that I performed from my rookie season to my final. That on this wondrous 12 months of 1994 I’ve been given the chance, the wonderful alternative, to turn into a member of essentially the most fantastic society: The Nationwide Soccer League Corridor of Fame.”

It reached the purpose when Johnson was at his peak that opponents not often threw his method. He was Deion Sanders lengthy earlier than “Prime Time” hit the NFL.

“Jim doesn’t obtain a lot publicity as a result of the opposition avoids him as a lot as doable,” San Francisco quarterback John Brodie as soon as mentioned. “Discuss to veteran quarterbacks like John Unitas and Bart Starr they usually’ll let you know they name few go patterns in Jimmy’s space. The one purpose Johnson doesn’t lead the league in interceptions is he doesn’t get the possibility.”

Former 49ers coach Dick Nolan as soon as mentioned Johnson was a greater cornerback than two of his different gamers, (Corridor of Famer) Mel Renfro and (two-time All-Professional) Cornell Inexperienced with the Cowboys.

The brother of Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, Jimmy Johnson performed two methods at UCLA. He was a wingback on offense and a defensive again, whereas additionally competing in monitor as a hurdler and broad jumper.

His brother was Johnson’s presenter for enshrinement within the Canton, Ohio, corridor.

“Rafer Johnson is in truth my hero and that’s a tremendous factor in itself,” Jimmy Johnson mentioned that day. “Most younger males rising up often have a hero in one other city, one other metropolis, one other nation, and they’re going to write to this particular person, obtain an autographed picture after which tack that picture up on the wall and worship that picture, play for that picture and get inspiration from that picture. No such downside for me.

“I had a brother dwelling with me on a day-to-day foundation that I used to be in a position to discuss to, ask the pertinent questions, get the pertinent suggestions and get corrected in my course, if wanted. I have to say I have to give brother Rafer credit score for all the pieces that I’ve completed within the discipline of athletics. And I simply want that we may cut up this trophy, this bust of myself, proper down the center as a result of he certainly deserves half of it.”

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Barry Wilner is a retired Professional Soccer Author for The Related Press. Wilner coated the NFL for the AP for greater than 30 years.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Toronto aura une équipe de basketball féminin de la WNBA, selon des sources

Toronto accueillera la 14e équipe de la WNBA et première formation de la ligue au Canada, selon des sources de CBC Sports activities. La nouvelle équipe de basketball féminin professionnel devrait disputer son premier match en mai 2026.

L’annonce officielle doit être faite à Toronto le 23 mai, selon les informations de CBC.

Le milliardaire Larry Tanenbaum serait parvenu à obtenir la nouvelle équipe de la Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (WNBA) par l’entremise de sa société de portefeuille, le Kilmer Group.

Deux équipes américaines de la WNBA avaient disputé un match préparatoire à Toronto en mai 2023, soulevant un grand enthousiasme dans la Ville Reine. Le match affichait complet.

Toutefois, MLSE, propriétaire des Raptors et des Maple Leafs, n’avait pas soumis la candidature de Toronto pour décrocher une équipe d’growth à l’époque. M. Tanenbaum est président de MLSE.

L’aréna Banque Scotia de Toronto a accueilli le premier match de l’histoire de la WNBA en sol canadien en mai 2023.

Picture : Radio-Canada / Nav Rahi

La nouvelle équipe torontoise jouerait au Colisée Coca-Cola, situé au parc des expositions, près du centre-ville. L’amphithéâtre compte 8 000 locations, soit environ la moitié de l’aréna Banque Scotia, où sont disputés les matchs des Raptors.

La WNBA n’a pas voulu confirmer la nouvelle pour l’immediate. Nous continuons à avoir des discussions productives avec différents groupes intéressés dans plusieurs marchés, mais nous n’avons pas d’annonce pour le second, indique la ligue, qui ajoute que l’approbation du conseil des gouverneurs de la NBA et de la WNBA est nécessaire pour toute équipe d’growth.

L’effet Caitlin Clark

L’arrivée de la joueuse vedette Caitlin Clark dans la WNBA a fait augmenter le rayonnement du basketball féminin tant aux États-Unis qu’au Canada.

Premier choix au dernier repêchage, elle disputera son premier match de la saison pour le Fever de l’Indiana contre le Solar du Connecticut le 14 mai.

La WNBA a présenté son deuxième match préparatoire en sol canadien le 5 mai dernier à Edmonton.

Les matchs de la ligue féminine ont lieu au printemps et en été, à l’opposé des matchs de la saison régulière de la NBA.

Les Raptors de Toronto n’ont pas réussi à se tailler une place en séries éliminatoires cette année.

Avec les informations de CBC Information

Pro Football Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson, who played for 49ers, dead at 86

The skilled soccer world at present is celebrating the profession of JIMMY JOHNSON, a flexible and gifted all-around athlete who grew to become a dominant cornerback within the Nationwide Soccer League over 16 seasons, all spent with the San Francisco 49ers.

A member of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame’s Class of 1994, Johnson died Might 8, 2024, at his residence. He had remained within the San Francisco space after his profession and had been in declining well being for a while, his household mentioned.

“Jimmy Johnson was terribly athletically proficient. The 49ers loved the luxurious of utilizing him on offense and protection early in his profession to fill group wants,” Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame President Jim Porter mentioned. “As soon as he settled in at left cornerback, he flourished. The notion {that a} ‘lockdown’ cornerback may lower the sector in half for the opposition was true with Jimmy.

“Solely not often would different groups’ quarterbacks even look his course, and as a rule regretted the choice in the event that they challenged him.”

Born March 31, 1938, in Dallas, Johnson moved to central California as a younger boy. He grew to become a gifted all-around athlete and group chief who was named captain of his highschool’s soccer, baseball and basketball groups. He additionally ran observe.

Later, at UCLA, he gained the NCAA 110-meter hurdles championship and was named an All-American, inviting comparisons to his older brother, 1960 Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson.

Jimmy by no means shied away from the competitors at residence – “Youthful brothers at all times need to be like their older brothers,” he as soon as mentioned – however he additionally noticed its drawbacks.

“I’ve acquired one other brother who dropped out of sports activities as a result of he acquired uninterested in having individuals inform him to comply with in Rafer’s footsteps,” he associated to a sportswriter. “They gave me the identical jazz. I did not prefer it both, however as a substitute of letting it bug me, I made a decision to just accept it as a problem to see if I may make it alone in sports activities.”

Soccer offered the outlet for Johnson to exhibit a little bit of individuality within the context of a group sport he loved.

He performed wingback and defensive again for the Bruins and was voted each the group’s greatest blocker and its greatest tackler. He additionally earned the group’s Iron Man Award for logging essentially the most minutes one season.

“I performed loads of soccer, possibly not as a lot as I wished to,” he mentioned. “I may have performed 60 minutes.”

Johnson’s sturdiness and flexibility caught the eyes of professional scouts, and the San Francisco 49ers selected him within the first spherical of the 1961 NFL Draft with the sixth total choice. Coaches initially meant to play him on offense.
 

Harm creates alternative

Johnson dislocated his wrist whereas working towards for the annual Faculty All-Star Recreation, nevertheless, and he remained in a solid firstly of his rookie camp.

Unable to catch a soccer, however too good to remain on the sidelines, he moved to security. By the point Johnson’s rookie season led to 1961, he had intercepted 5 passes – second most on the group – and had gained distinction as a positive tackler.

“He is an actual good one. Mark my phrases. He’ll be round for some time,” mentioned JACK CHRISTIANSEN, at the moment a 49ers assistant only some years away from his personal enshrinement in Canton. “He has the three necessities: large pace, nice reflexes and the willingness to deal with with authority.”

In 1962, Johnson reverted to offense. He caught 34 passes for 627 yards – each second highest for the 49ers, with a team-leading an 18.4 yards-per-catch common. In a sport towards Detroit, he totaled 11 receptions for 181 yards. In a victory over the Bears, he sealed a 34-27 win with an 80-yard TD reception that set a group file.

Johnson started the 1963 season at huge receiver, however a skinny secondary pressured the 49ers to maneuver him again to security in Week 4. In 1964, he was moved to left cornerback, a place he would maintain the remainder of his profession, though Christiansen, just lately put in as head coach, left open the door for a transfer again to receiver in 1965.

He requested Johnson instantly: “Do you need to play offense, or do you need to play protection?”

Johnson made the selection in the identical method he made many others over his lifetime – with eager evaluation and self-awareness.

“If he had requested me that 4 years earlier, I might have certainly chosen the high-profile offense place,” Johnson advised an interviewer, “however these first 4 years had given me an perception on what protection was all about, and the pure indisputable fact that I knew that I may have an extended profession as a defensive participant than an offensive participant.

“So, I checked in on the left nook and spent the remainder of my profession toiling to be the most effective I may very well be.”

Johnson quickly can be considered top-of-the-line man-to-man corners within the historical past of the Nationwide Soccer League. He completed his 16-year NFL profession with 213 video games performed, a group file till future Corridor of Famer JERRY RICE surpassed it a quarter-century later. His 47 interceptions stood because the group file till one other future Corridor of Famer, RONNIE LOTT with 51, pushed Johnson down a slot.

Contemporaries mentioned Johnson may have recorded dozens of further interceptions, apart from one small element: Quarterbacks stopped throwing in his course.

“Jim would not obtain a lot publicity as a result of the opposition avoids him as a lot as potential,” teammate John Brodie mentioned. “Discuss to veteran quarterbacks like JOHN UNITAS and BART STARR, they usually’ll inform you they name few move patterns in Jimmy’s space. The one motive Johnson would not lead the league in interceptions is he would not get the prospect.” 

Dick Nolan, who succeeded Christensen because the 49ers’ head coach, was one other huge Johnson fan.

“I coached three defensive backs I felt had been nice: MEL RENFRO and Cornell Inexperienced with the Dallas Cowboys and Johnson,” Nolan mentioned. “Jimmy is the most effective I’ve ever seen.” 
 

Corridor of Fame humility

One in all Johnson’s 49ers defensive backfield teammates, Kermit Alexander, was equally laudatory.

“He is one of the phenomenal athletes I’ve ever seen,” mentioned Alexander, who performed one season with Johnson at UCLA and 7 years with the 49ers. “There are such a lot of issues he can do. He is an especially managed particular person and really, very proficient. In the entire time we performed collectively, I by no means noticed him lose his cool, on or off the sector. The explanation his honors had been so late in coming was that he by no means beat the drums for himself.”

Johnson, in actual fact, had been eligible 14 years earlier than being elected to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame regardless of a resumé that included four-time first-team All-Professional nods, choice to 5 Professional Bowls and a spot on the NFL’s All-Decade Staff of the Nineteen Seventies.
“Jim is likely one of the greatest corners in professional soccer,” Corridor of Fame receiver FRED BILETNIKOFF of the Oakland Raiders as soon as mentioned in reward. “I simply hope he makes a mistake of some kind so I can get a bonus.”

Johnson shared a mutual respect for the huge receivers he confronted week in and week out.

“I do not take a look at somebody and suppose that he cannot beat me,” Johnson mentioned. “When you play lengthy sufficient, you are going to get beat. The query and the important thing to your effectiveness is how usually.”

Johnson intercepted at the very least one move in every season of his NFL profession – besides 1962, when he performed offense completely. His single-season excessive got here in 1965 (six); he picked off 5 passes in 1969 to match the quantity from his rookie season.

In 1971, Johnson gained the George Halas Award, given by the Professional Soccer Writers Affiliation, for brave play after competing within the remaining half of the season with one other damaged wrist. From 1970 by means of 1972, Johnson was a first-team All-Professional and helped the 49ers to a pair of NFC title video games, each losses to the Dallas Cowboys.

Teammates chosen Johnson to obtain the Len Eshmont Award because the group’s “most inspirational participant” for each the 1965 and the 1975 seasons.

Johnson deliberate to retire after the 1975 season, his fifteenth within the league, however Monte Clark, a former highschool teammate and shut buddy, took the 49ers’ head teaching job heading into the 1976 season. Johnson agreed to play another 12 months as a favor to Clark, beginning 13 video games for a group that completed 8-6 and second within the NFC West.

Just one 12 months later, the group retired his jersey at “Jimmy Johnson Evening at Candlestick Park.”

“Jimmy Johnson has not solely been an incredible soccer participant, he has been one of many sport’s most interesting residents all through his profession,” mentioned Joe Thomas, the 49ers’ normal supervisor. “There isn’t a one within the NFL who doesn’t have the very best respect for him, each as a participant and as a person.”

Introducing his brother for enshrinement into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, Rafer Johnson mentioned: “Jimmy is a quiet man, however he performed with dedication and dedication. Most of all, Jim was and is a mild man and a real gentleman.”

Along with his election to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, Johnson is a member of the Fresno Athletic Corridor of Fame (1978), Bay Space Sports activities Corridor of Fame (1990), UCLA Athletics Corridor of Fame (1992) and a constitution member of the San Francisco 49ers Corridor of Fame (2009).

His legacy shall be preserved eternally in Canton, Ohio.

Toronto awarded WNBA expansion team to begin play in 2026

Ladies’s skilled basketball is coming to Toronto. 

CBC Sports activities has discovered that Kilmer Sports activities Inc., headed by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, has been granted an enlargement franchise with the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation.

An announcement is anticipated Could 23 in Toronto, with the group to start play in Could 2026, based on 4 individuals with data of the deal however who will not be approved to discuss it.

The WNBA didn’t verify the Toronto transfer.

“We proceed to interact in productive conversations with possession teams in quite a lot of markets and the granting of any enlargement groups requires a vote of the WNBA and NBA board of governors,” the league mentioned.

Tanenbaum is a minority proprietor and chairman of sporting large Maple Leafs Sports activities and Leisure which owns the Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC, Argos and Marlies.

The 79-year-old initially pursued the enlargement group via MLSE, however it was turned down by different members of the board. 

Larry Tanenbaum, left, presents a hoop to Kyle Lowry in 2019 to have a good time the Toronto Raptors’ NBA championship. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

The WNBA not too long ago expanded to 13 groups with San Francisco-based Golden State to start play subsequent 12 months, and commissioner Cathy Engelbert mentioned in April Toronto was among the many cities being thought of because the 14th group.

In a press release, Courtney Glen, vice chairman of public affairs and communications for the Kilmer Group, mentioned the group has “no replace right now.”

A WNBA spokesperson mentioned: “We proceed to interact in productive conversations with possession teams in quite a lot of markets however don’t have any information to report right now.”

WATCH | What a Toronto WNBA group means for the town, gamers and followers:

Toronto is getting a WNBA group. What it means for the town, gamers and followers

Ladies’s skilled basketball is coming to Toronto in Could 2026. CBC Sports activities has discovered that Kilmer Sports activities Inc., headed by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, has been granted an enlargement franchise with the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation.

Mayor Olivia Chow mentioned in a tv interview on Friday she was conscious there was motion on Toronto getting a girls’s basketball group.

“Watch for it. Hopefully, there will likely be one thing afterward,” mentioned Chow in an interview with native information channel CP24. “Basketball, it is simply nice and having position fashions, it is time.

“Hopefully, there will likely be excellent news quickly and I can not anticipate that to occur.”

A supply mentioned the group would play at Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,000-seat enviornment at Toronto’s Exhibition Place which is residence to the Marlies and the place Toronto’s Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League franchise is at present taking part in its first playoff sequence.

Canada’s Bridget Carleton greets followers after her Minnesota Lynx group’s pre-season sport in opposition to the Chicago Sky in Toronto final Could. (Chris Younger/Canadian Press)

Skilled girls’s sports activities has been on the rise in Canada with the formation of the PWHL that has two different Canadian franchises in Ottawa and Montreal, in addition to a brand new girls’s soccer league that’s anticipated to start play in 2025. 

A 12 months in the past, Toronto’s Scotiabank Enviornment bought out for the WNBA’s first pre-season sport in Canada and on Saturday, greater than 16,000 tickets have been bought for a sport in Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

The league not too long ago held its novice draft, with NCAA star Caitlin Clark going first total to the Indiana Fever.

Kilmer Sports activities Inc. is a brand new arm of Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Group, and it has employed former European soccer govt Ivan Gazidis to guide the brand new group. Teresa Resch can be a part of the brand new group after leaving her job with the Raptors as vice chairman of basketball operations.

WATCH | How sports activities followers are reacting to potential Toronto WNBA enlargement group:

How sports activities followers are reacting to Toronto’s WNBA enlargement group

CBC Sports activities has discovered that Kilmer Sports activities Inc., headed by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, has been granted an enlargement franchise with the WNBA. The official announcement is about for Could 23 and the group is anticipated to start taking part in in 2026. Ali Chiasson spoke to excited Torontonians outdoors Scotiabank Enviornment.

Former NBA player Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis sentenced to 40 months for defrauding league insurance plan

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Boston Celtics participant Glen “Massive Child” Davis was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in a federal jail for his participation in a scheme New York prosecutors stated defrauded an insurance coverage plan for NBA gamers and their households of greater than $5 million.

Greater than 20 folks had been convicted within the case, a lot of them onetime NBA gamers who submitted fictitious dental and medical claims to the NBA Gamers’ Well being and Profit Welfare Plan. A jury discovered Davis and former Detroit Pistons guard Will Bynum responsible in November.

Davis could have three years of supervised launch after he serves his time period, and he has been ordered to pay $80,000 in restitution. Davis’ legal professional, Sabrina Shroff, declined to remark. Bynum was sentenced final month to 18 months in jail and three years of supervised launch and in addition should pay $182,224 in restitution.

Prosecutors stated medical doctors and dentists working with the gamers created fraudulent invoices that had been submitted to the supplemental insurance coverage plan for reimbursement.

Davis was discovered responsible of well being care fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to make false statements and conspiracy to commit well being care and wire fraud.

Davis was the Southeastern Convention participant of the 12 months whereas main LSU to the 2006 NCAA championship recreation. He performed for 3 groups over eight NBA seasons and was a member of the Celtics’ 2008 title crew.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Northern lights may appear in Iowa due to geomagnetic storm

Chances are you’ll need to search for within the sky this weekend, Iowans.

The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s House Climate Prediction Middle forecasts the potential for a extreme geomagnetic storm starting Friday night.

When a coronal mass ejection, or an eruption of photo voltaic materials, reaches Earth, a geomagnetic storm can happen, in line with the prediction heart.

Geomagnetic storm ranges might proceed Saturday night, and probably Saturday in a single day, stated Shawn Dahl, a service coordinator with the prediction heart in an e-mail to the Register.

Among the many impacts of this storm is that an aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, could also be seen for folks throughout America.

Right here’s what to know so that you don’t miss out on a putting show of lights within the sky.

What are the northern lights forecast in Iowa?

Iowans can anticipate to see the northern lights this weekend, Dahl stated.

The geomagnetic storm has the potential to be thought-about a G4 on NOAA’s House Climate Scales, thought-about extreme, starting Friday night and into Saturday, in line with Dahl.

A G4, in line with the size of 1-5, means an aurora may be seen “as little as Alabama and northern California.”

Friday evening can have a stronger chance of seeing the aurora in Iowa, in line with an up to date forecast posted Friday morning by the House Climate Prediction Middle.

How can I see the northern lights in Iowa?

To see the northern lights, you’ll want clear skies.

Friday evening might see rain within the early night in central Iowa earlier than turning principally clear round 7 p.m. For jap Iowa, rain might stick round by means of about 10 p.m.

In Des Moines, Ames and Iowa Metropolis, Saturday evening is predicted to be “principally clear,” in line with the Nationwide Climate Service as of Friday morning.

To extend your possibilities of seeing the aurora, you need to journey to areas the place there may be much less gentle air pollution, Dahl stated.

Traditionally, one of the best time to see the lights is between 10 p.m. and a couple of a.m.

Chances are you’ll need to carry your telephone with you while you step out to view the aurora. The digital camera in your system is delicate and may decide up the lights higher than your eye, USA TODAY reported.

What’s a geomagnetic storm?

A geomagnetic storm is “a serious disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere,” in line with the prediction heart.

Earth’s magnetosphere protects our planet from photo voltaic and cosmic particle radiation and erosion of our ambiance by photo voltaic wind, in line with NASA.

The storm happens as a consequence of a “very environment friendly trade” of vitality from photo voltaic wind — “the fixed movement of charged particles streaming off the solar,” says NASA — into the house surroundings surrounding Earth, in line with the prediction heart.

A extreme geomagnetic storm may cause issues for energy techniques, spacecraft operations and extra.

Go to swpc.noaa.gov for updates on the geomagnetic storm.

What are the northern lights?

The phrase aurora refers back to the gentle produced when electrons from house, touring down Earth’s magnetic subject, collide with atoms and molecules of the higher ambiance, in line with the prediction heart.

The colourful aurora types when particles flowing from the solar get caught up in Earth’s magnetic subject. The particles work together with molecules of atmospheric gases to trigger the famed glowing inexperienced and reddish colours of the aurora.

USA TODAY reporter Doyle Rice contributed to this report.

Paris Barraza is a trending and common project reporter on the Des Moines Register. Attain her at pbarraza@registermedia.com. Comply with her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis sentenced to 40 months in prison over fraud scheme

NEW YORK — Former NBA ahead Glen “Large Child” Davis was sentenced by a federal decide Thursday to 40 months in jail, plus three years’ supervised launch, for his November 2023 conviction in an alleged scheme to defraud the league’s well being care advantages plan.

Twenty-two individuals — 18 of them former gamers, together with Terrence Williams and Keyon Dooling — have been sentenced within the case for submitting false medical claims with the NBA Gamers’ Well being and Profit Welfare Plan.

Davis, 38, who has maintained his innocence since indictments within the case have been handed down in October 2021, was discovered responsible of a number of fraud fees and conspiring to make false statements. He was ordered to pay $80,000 in restitution. The situations of his supervised launch embody attending a monetary administration class and receiving obligatory drug therapy.

Williams, the supposed ringleader of what the Southern District of New York U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace has described as a “wide-ranging scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of {dollars},” was sentenced to 10 years final August.

However apart from Williams, no former NBA participant has acquired extra jail time than Davis. Final month, former NBA guard Will Bynum, who was convicted alongside Davis in November, was sentenced to 18 months, partly for mendacity to a jury whereas beneath oath.

Davis’ protection lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined remark. The press workplace of the Southern District of New York additionally declined remark.

In court docket, assistant U.S. lawyer Ryan Finkel characterised Davis as having allegedly executed a “refined and clever effort” to masks his misdeeds.

A raft of pre-sentencing paperwork submitted to the court docket on Davis’ behalf included letters of testimony from household, former coaches and a number of officers with the NBA gamers’ union: NBPA common counsel Ron Klempner and government director Andre Iguodala.

“On behalf of all of our NBPA members previous and current, I respectfully ask that you simply take into account Glen’s accomplishments and the optimistic impression he has had on these round him when figuring out his sentence,” Iguodala wrote in his letter. “I acknowledge the seriousness of this authorized matter and admire the thoroughness of the judicial course of and ask for leniency with these elements in thoughts.”

However apart from two journalists and a half dozen attendees affiliated with the prosecution, no different members of the general public attended the sentencing.

“It pains me that there is no such thing as a one right here for Mr. Davis,” Shroff advised the court docket whereas combating by means of tears. She acknowledged her consumer’s “poor selections” however argued for a time-served sentence with necessities for group service, psychological well being remedy and therapy for a hashish habit.

Davis, who helped the Boston Celtics win the 2008 championship and retired from the NBA after his ultimate season in 2014-15, grew more and more animated all through the listening to, shaking his head, burying his face in his arms and sighing deeply in disbelief.

“After I misplaced basketball, I misplaced myself,” he pleaded to Choose Valerie E. Caproni earlier than the sentence was handed down. “I ask you, your honor, to assist me get again to who I’m.”