After suffering a sprained ankle during Sunday night’s 22-6 loss to Atlanta at U.S. Bank Stadium, quarterback J.J. McCarthy is expected to miss some time for the Vikings.

He more than likely won’t be available for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, and while head coach Kevin O’Connell didn’t think McCarthy would need to be placed on injured reserve, he didn’t completely rule out the possibility.

“I do want to see how he responds to treatment this week,” O’Connell said. “(I) just give him a ton of credit for having the toughness to get that thing taped up and keep playing.”

Asked exactly when the injury happened, O’Connell pointed to a play on which McCarthy escaped the pocket and scrambled up the left sideline for 16 yards.

Notably, McCarthy appeared to come up a little bit lame in real time, then threw incomplete to star receiver Justin Jefferson on the next play — perhaps because he couldn’t fully step into the throw.

If McCarthy is can’t go this weekend, veteran quarterback Carson Wentz would be the Vikings’ starter and rookie Max Brosmer would serve as the backup.

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City prosecutors say they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to restore a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz after an appeals court overturned the verdict in July.

The Manhattan district attorney’s made the disclosure in a court filing Sunday asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hold off on enforcing its decision in the case of Pedro Hernandez. The former convenience store clerk became a suspect over 30 years after the first grader vanished.

The ruling presents “substantial legal questions,” prosecutor Stephen Kress wrote. The district attorney’s office has now “committed to seek Supreme Court review,” he said.

In overturning the conviction, a three-judge 2nd Circuit panel ordered Hernandez freed unless he is retried “within a reasonable period.”

Kress asked that the appeals court wait until the Supreme Court’s filing deadline of Oct. 20 before sending the case back to a lower-level federal judge to set a retrial date. That could be put on hold indefinitely if the high court agrees to weigh in on the case.

The 2nd Circuit previously granted prosecutors a 30-day extension that was to expire Sunday. It hasn’t ruled on the new request.

Hernandez opposes the prosecution’s request for more time.

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He has already been tried twice. His 2017 conviction came after a prior jury couldn’t reach a verdict. Now 64, he has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Hernandez’s lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that sometimes made him hallucinate. They emphasized that the admission came after police questioned him for seven hours without reading him his rights or recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape, at least twice.

At issue in the 2nd Circuit appeal was the state trial judge’s response to jurors’ questions about whether they had to disregard the recorded confessions if they found the first, unrecorded one was invalid. The judge said no.

The appeals court, in overturning Hernandez’s conviction, said the jury should have gotten a more thorough explanation of its options, which could have included disregarding all of the confessions.

Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan’s downtown Manhattan neighborhood when the boy vanished. Police met him while canvassing the area but didn’t suspect him until they got a 2012 tip that he’d made remarks years earlier about having killed a child in New York, not mentioning Etan’s name.

Etan’s case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who had been allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods.

The Patzes’ advocacy helped establish a national missing-children hotline and made it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of Etan’s disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.

By PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A potential strike has been averted that could have shut down the nation’s largest commuter rail system this week.

Unionized workers for the Long Island Railroad announced they voted overwhelmingly Monday to authorize their labor leaders to call a strike if an agreement on a new contract isn’t reached.

But officials representing locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers said they’ve also asked President Donald Trump to intercede by forming an emergency board that delays the potential for a strike at least for a few more months.

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Union leaders said the earliest a strike could happen is in January while the Presidential Emergency Board, once formed, reviews the contract dispute and presents its recommendations.

A strike, which could have happened as early as Thursday under federal rules, would have impacted some 250,000 riders who ride the LIRR to work each day to and from New York City and its eastern suburbs.

A work stoppage would have also thrown a wrench in the Ryder Cup, which begins Sept. 26. The three-day men’s golf tournament between players from the U.S. and Europe is expected to bring 225,000 spectators to Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale on Long Island.

“This action does not mean a strike won’t happen, but it does mean it won’t happen now,” said Gil Lang, general chairman for the union representing LIRR locomotive engineers, at a news conference at the union’s office in Manhattan on Monday.

“We will continue to be the adults in the room,” he added. “A strike is the last thing we want, and we’ll do everything we can to avoid that.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the LIRR and other area transit systems, dismissed the union’s announcement as a “cynical delay” that “serves no one.”

“If these unions wanted to put riders first, they would either settle or agree to binding arbitration,” spokesperson John J. McCarthy said in a statement. “And if they don’t want to strike, they should say so — and finally show up to the negotiating table.”

The agency and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had resisted calling for an emergency board even though they have the power to do so.

Instead, the MTA announced plans last week to provide commuters with free shuttle buses to take them from some LIRR train stations to subway stops in the New York City borough of Queens in the case of a strike.

Hochul, a Democrat, has also blamed the Trump administration in recent days for the prospect of a strike, even as she’s called on both sides to resume negotiations.

Spokespersons for the White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The last LIRR worker strike happened more than three decades ago and lasted about two days in 1994. Workers nearly walked out in 2014 before then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal with unions.

In this most recent contract dispute, five labor unions representing about half the train system’s workforce are seeking a 16% raise over four years. The MTA has proposed a 9.5% wage increase over three years.

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

McDonald’s said Monday it plans to invest $200 million over the next seven years to promote regenerative agriculture practices on cattle ranches.

The Chicago burger giant said the investment was its largest to date in support of regenerative agriculture in the U.S. The company has also funded regenerative projects on potato farms in Canada and Europe.

“As a brand that serves more than 90% of Americans every year, we recognize the responsibility we have to help safeguard our food systems for long-term vitality,” Cesar Piña, McDonald’s chief supply chain officer for North America, said in a statement.

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Regenerative techniques aim to conserve water, enhance soil health and reduce the need for synthetic chemicals and fertilizers. Other big companies, including General Mills, Nestle, Walmart and PepsiCo, have also been investing in regenerative farming projects in recent years.

On cattle ranches, ranchers practicing regenerative agriculture move cattle frequently and let the land recover for weeks or months. That helps produce more grass with deeper roots, which take more carbon from the air to help improve soil.

McDonald’s said its investment will help accelerate regenerative grazing and water and wildlife conservation on ranches spanning 4 million acres in up to 38 states.

McDonald’s is working with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which will independently award competitive grants to organizations that will assist participating ranchers. The company said some of its suppliers, including Cargill, Golden State Foods and Coca-Cola, are also providing funding to the foundation.

Jeff Trandahl, the executive director and CEO of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, said regenerative practices can ultimately improve the productivity of grasslands and increase ranches’ profitability. The foundation expects the first round of awards will be announced in January.