By JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press

Curling dates to the 1700s and was among the handful of sports at the first Winter Olympics in 1924.

It didn’t return until the 1998 Games with both men’s and women’s competition. It has grown in popularity and size: Curling will be the first sport to open competition, two days before the opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Games in February.

FILE – Rachel Homan, right, throws a rock during Canadian Olympic curling trials action against Team Brown in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

How it works

In a curling match, two teams compete to see which can get the most granite stones closest to a bullseye target called the tee by sliding it on a narrow sheet of ice. The distance between where a player must release the stone and the tee at the other end is about 93 feet (28 meters). The sheet is only 5 meters or 16.4 feet wide and it shares stones for each team every round so it gets crowded.

Each round, for up to 10 rounds, teams have eight chances to slide the specialized 44-pound (20 kg) stones toward the tee. They can aim directly for the center, try to knock their opponents’ stones away or nudge their own stones closer to the target. Strategies include blocking and takeouts.

Each throw involves all four teammates. One slides the stone, using a handle to make it curl, while others sweep the ice as the stone moves, altering its speed and direction. Team captains, called skips, advise on strategy. Whichever team gets consistently closest to the target wins the match.

Terms to know; The house (the overall scoring area, centered by the tee); Ends, which are similar to an inning in baseball in that each team shoots eight rocks (two per person) or 16 total; the hammer, or the last stone of an end; the hog line, which is when a player must release their stone (21 feet from the tee); and pebbling, the droplets of ice on the sheet that impact the speed of the stone.

Granite rock that has been used to create curling stone blocks lies outside Kays Curling stone factory in Mauchline, Scotland, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Who to watch

Canadian Brad Jacobs is making his second Olympic appearance after leading Canada to gold at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Standout Bruce Mouat of the United Kingdom will compete in two events in Cortina, mixed doubles and the men’s championship.

The Swedes are the defending Olympic men’s champion. On the women’s side, the U.K. is the defending women’s champion but Sweden and Canada are among the favorites.

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The U.S. will be represented in all three curling disciplines. Daniel Casper will lead the men’s team, Tabitha Peterson the women’s and Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin will be in mixed doubles.

Venues and dates

All matches will take place at the Cortina curling stadium, with competition beginning Feb. 4. The mixed doubles final is Feb. 10, men’s semifinals Feb. 19 and the final Feb. 21 while the women’s semis are Feb. 20 and the final Feb. 22.

Memorable moments

The Canadian men had won gold for three straight Olympics (2006, 2010 and 2014) before the Americans led by skip John Shuster grabbed headlines by upsetting Sweden to win the U.S. its first Olympic gold in curling.

Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner won mixed doubles in 2022, giving Italy its first Olympic curling championship. Constantini is from Cortina, so she and Mosaner will draw huge crowds as they try to win gold at home.

Fun facts

An average curling match takes three hours, according to World Curling. Mixed doubles at Cortina will see two married couples and one sibling team face off. Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant will compete against Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann of Switzerland. Swedish siblings Rasmus Wranå and Isabella Wranå will also compete as a team.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By ANDREW DAMPF, Associated Press

Alpine skiing in its Olympic form dates back more than a century and the sport made its debut at the 1936 Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Events have been modified over the years, but the individual competitions familiar to most fans like downhill and slalom remain. Here is what to know for the Winter Olympics in Italy next month.

How it works

There are five different events in Alpine skiing at these Olympics for both the men and women. The individual events are: downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom. Then there is the team combined event, which will be making its Olympic debut.

In downhill and super-G, otherwise known as the “speed events,” each competitor gets only one run. Giant slalom and slalom are contested over two runs, with the top 30 finishers from the opening leg starting in reverse order for the second leg. The team combined features two-person teams with one racer competing in a downhill run and the other in a slalom run, with their combined times producing the results.

Who to watch

Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn are the two of the most accomplished skiers of all time. Shiffrin excels in slalom and giant slalom while the 41-year-old Vonn excels in downhill and super-G. It’s possible that they could pair with each other in team combined. The American squad also includes downhill world champion Breezy Johnson and defending super-G silver medalist Ryan Cochran-Siegle.

The host Italians have a strong squad with Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone — if she returns in time from injury — and Dominik Paris. Swiss standout Marco Odermatt is the top men’s racer.

Venues and dates

Men’s events at these Olympics will be held in Bormio and women’s events in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The schedule features the men’s downhill on Feb. 7, the women’s downhill Feb. 8; the men’s giant slalom is Feb. 14, the women Feb. 15; and the men’s slalom is Feb. 16, with the women’s slalom on Feb. 18 the final Alpine event.

Memorable moments

French standout Jean-Claude Killy swept gold in all three men’s events on home snow at the 1968 Grenoble Games.

Shiffrin became the youngest slalom gold medalist as an 18-year-old at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Austria’s Hermann Maeir bounced back from a horrific crash in downhill at the 1998 Nagano Games to win gold in super-G and giant slalom.

Fun facts

Alberto Tomba is the most decorated Italian skier in Olympic history with five medals: three golds and two silvers, won at Calgary in 1998, Albertville in 1992 and Lillehammer in 1994. While he’s from the Bologna area, Tomba spent many winters training in Cortina before he became a star.

Deborah Compagnoni, who was born in Bormio and raised just up the road in Santa Caterina di Valfurva, won skiing golds at three straight Olympics: 1992, 1994 and 1998.

Combined is the oldest skiing event at the Olympics, having featured when the sport made its debut in 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen. But the event’s format has changed multiple times over the years.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967.

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.

“CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks,” said Patricia Harrison, the organization’s president and CEO.

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Many Republicans have long accused public broadcasting, particularly its news programming, of being biased toward liberals but it wasn’t until the second Trump administration —- with full GOP control of Congress — that those criticisms were turned into action.

Ruby Calvert, head of CPB’s board of directors, said the federal defunding of public media has been devastating.

“Even at this moment, I am convinced that public media will survive, and that a new Congress will address public media’s role in our country because it is critical to our children’s education, our history, culture and democracy to do so,” Calvert said.

CPB said it was financially supporting the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in its effort to preserve historic content, and is working with the University of Maryland to maintain its own records.

Gov. Tim Walz ended his bid for a third term as Minnesota governor Monday — seeming to cap a political career that sent the former teacher and National Guard veteran all the way to national stage when he was named Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz speaks to reporters after filing campaign finance paperwork for his 2018 gubernatorial campaign on Monday, March 27, 2017. Walz’ daughter Hope and wife Gwen look on. (David Montgomery / Pioneer Press)

That year he joined Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale as Minnesotans to be on a national ticket.

Walz, a Democrat, got involved in politics during the 2004 John Kerry presidential campaign. He was first elected to Congress in 2006, defeating incumbent U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a Republican, in Minnesota’s 1st District. The largely rural district covers much of the southern portion of the state and is seen as fairly conservative.

While in Congress Walz was on the Agriculture, Armed Services and Veteran Affairs committees.

In 2017, Walz announced he was running for governor. He was elected the next year, defeating GOP candidate Jeff Johnson. He and running mate Peggy Flanagan at the time chalked up their victory to their theme of “One Minnesota,” a relatively centrist message that they would seek common ground across the state. Walz won re-election in 2022 defeating Dr. Scott Jensen.

A hunter, Walz was something of a moderate and even had the endorsement of the NRA early in his career. However, after becoming governor he would sign a number of gun-control bills.

Pandemic, riots

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, left, laughs after Gov. Tim Walz requested a “Hello Kitty” bandage after receiving an updated COVID-19 booster shot during a news event in the Governor’s Reception Room at the State Capitol building in St. Paul on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

During the pandemic in 2020 Walz ordered all nonessential workers to stay at home and called for the closure of schools and banned large public gatherings. During the pandemic he directed hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal relief funds to local governments, food shelves and food banks.

Also in 2020 George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer sparking riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Walz activated the National Guard in response though critics said it should have happened sooner.

In an interview with the Pioneer Press months afterward, he noted the challenges of that time.

“I’m not going to make the case that every decision we made was correct, but I can assure people that we made it with the best data at the time, with the best interests of Minnesota at heart,” Walz said.

2023 Legislature, 2024 campaign

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, left, speak at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti)

The 2023 Legislature — under DFL control — passed a $72 billion budget that Walz and DFLers called the “One Minnesota” budget.

It included bills to create $1.5 billion in new child tax credits, boost funding for education by $2.2 billion and provide free public college tuition to people from families earning $80,000 or less each year. It also provided free meals to Minnesota students regardless of income.

GOP critics point to billions in new taxes in the budget despite the state’s historic $17.5 billion budget surplus. And, they disputed Walz’s “One Minnesota” characterization, saying the bills had minimal input from the minority — which represents districts containing just under half of the state’s population.

Walz was named as Harris’ running mate in 2024 after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. He didn’t hesitate to paint his political opponents in a negative light.

“These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room,” Walz said in a TV interview during the campaign.

While Harris seemed to think Walz would help shore up her campaign in the Midwest, the ticket went on to lose to Donald Trump and JD Vance. Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — once part of the so-called “Blue Wall” — went for the Republican ticket.

New fraud cases

News of fraud in state-run Medicaid programs has garnered significant attention in recent months, but before that came the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal.

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In that case, the now 78 defendants have been accused of claiming reimbursement from the state education department for meals they never served in a federal pandemic children’s food program. More than 50 have been convicted.

At a news conference last month announcing charges against six individuals who authorities say defrauded the state of millions in various schemes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said he believed “a significant amount” of the $18 billion paid out by 14 “high-risk” Medicaid-funded programs since 2018 was lost to fraud — possibly half or more.

The governor has made efforts to address the fraud. Last year, he directed the creation of a fraud investigation unit at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

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And, the Department of Human Services moved to shut down a Medicaid-funded housing stabilization program beset by fraud after news emerged in July of a federal investigation into several providers. Walz also recently named Tim O’Malley, former superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension under Gov. Tim Pawlenty, to serve as director of program integrity, essentially fraud-prevention czar.

But the moves haven’t stemmed the criticism, particularly from the GOP, that he reacted too late and hasn’t done enough on the issue.