Wild beat Lightning to get back on track ahead of trade deadline

posted in: All news | 0

As if general manager Bill Guerin needed any extra motivation to go big game hunting at the trade deadline, the Wild once again showcased their seemingly limitless potential on Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena.

A few hours after Guerin made a minor move to acquire depth center Michael McCarron, the Wild snapped a brief losing streak with an impressive 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It was a hot start for the Wild as defenseman Brock Faber cashed in early in the first period to make it 1-0. It was beautiful sequence as Faber took a feed from winger Marcus Johansson near the right circle, then beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy top shelf.

The score held up largely because of goaltender Filip Gustavsson between the pipes. He made 12 saves for the Wild amid heavy pressure in the opening frame to keep the Lightning off the scoreboard.

A snipe from winger Mats Zuccarello on the power play helped the Wild stretch the lead to 2-0 early in the second period before Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov cut the deficit to 2-1 with a snipe of his own.

Though it looked like the Wild be locked in a tight contest the rest of the way, winger Yakov Trenin put forth an outstanding individual effort to make it 3-1. He hustled into the offensive zone at the end of his shift and was rewarded with a goal that took the edge off.

The dagger came midway through the third period courtesy of superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes. He corralled a loose puck, dangled through a host of defenders, and found the back of the net to make it 4-1 in favor of the Wild.

As the game wound to a close, superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov finalized the score at 5-1 with backhanded shot into an empty net. In the process, Kaprizov successfully rewrote the record books, passing former star winger Marian Gaborik for the most goals in franchise history.

Related Articles


Wild trade for 6-foot-6 forward Michael McCarron


What are the Wild getting in new addition Robby Fabbri?


US Olympic gold medalists Hilary Knight and Quinn and Jack Hughes appear on ‘Tonight Show’


NHL trade deadline: Wild fully ‘in the game’


Scrappy Blues steal one from Wild with late rally

In Battle for Shriveled Soul of GOP, Congressman and YouTuber Will Face Off Again (Again)

posted in: All news | 0

On Tuesday night, a three-term Republican congressman dogged by an affair with a staffer who ended her life by self-immolation lived to fight another day against a gun-obsessed YouTuber who’s used his platform to make light of the Holocaust. Or is it the other around? Perhaps I should say that Brandon Herrera, “the AK guy” who’s in his second bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales after narrowly failing in 2024, is the one who’s lived to aim a possible death-blow at Gonzales in the May 26 runoffs.

Either way, the Texas GOP is clearly in fine shape. (Quico Canseco, who once represented an earlier version of the same congressional district, came in at single digits in the four-way primary Tuesday.)

Congressional District 23, a sprawling monstrosity from El Paso to San Antonio—60-percent Hispanic but plus-15 for Trump based on the 2024 results—was Texas’ swingiest U.S. House seat before the GOP redrew it firmly into their column. Gonzales, a Navy vet, has repped it since 2021. He very narrowly avoided defeat in a 2024 runoff with Herrera. Gonzales was running then without the endorsement of Donald Trump; the congressman had blasphemously voted for a commission to investigate January 6 (but, on the other hand, Herrera had mocked Barron Trump, so the then-ex-president stayed neutral). Gonzales had also dared to support a milquetoast piece of gun-related legislation following the school massacre in 2022 in Uvalde, which is in his district. 

This time around, Gonzales got the Trump nod back in December, which likely would’ve set him up for an easier go-round—until a truly disruptive scandal burst onto the primary scene. A cloud had hovered since last fall when Gonzales’ aide committed suicide and the right-wing outlet Current Revolt reported the congressman and she’d had an affair. But the issue seemed perhaps containable until last month when the San Antonio Express-News nailed the story down. The details of the aide’s death are horrifying, and I won’t recount them here—you can find them elsewhere if you need. In a recent social media thread, Trump declined to restate his endorsement of Gonzales, and a growing number of fellow House Republicans called for the latter’s resignation.

The supercharged scandal seemed to raise the possibility that Gonzales could now lose outright. That didn’t happen Tuesday, but he fell well short of 50 percent. Typically, Texas incumbents who are pushed into runoffs lose—the math is simple: 50-percent-plus-one didn’t want you the first time; why would they the second time? Gonzales bucked these odds once by a hair, but he faces new headwinds, to understate the matter. 

All of this raises the very bleak prospect that Herrera, a professional gun fanatic and gun-rights extremist, could come to represent Uvalde, home to the worst school shooting in state history—one that likely could have been prevented with a simple age-limit increase for weapons of war. We’re talking specifically here about a man who was praised by a mass shooter as recently as August in Minneapolis. 

Of course, there is another major political party in Texas, at least in theory and perhaps this year in reality. Despite the heavy Trump lean of the district, the state Democratic Party chair recently called it a “real opportunity for Democrats.” And if Texas Latinos are shifting back into the Democratic column, maybe it really is. (It probably won’t hurt that Texas Hispanic primary voters clearly broke for James Talarico at the top of the ballot and that Talarico prevailed.) 

In the 23rd’s Democratic primary, Katy Padilla Stout easily outpaced the pack of four candidates on Tuesday. As described in her Express-News endorsement, she is a former schoolteacher who’s served on the Bexar County Child Welfare Board and is a mom with four kids, two adopted through foster care. She told the paper’s editorial board she hoped to help build a middle class of “happy, healthy families.”

On her campaign site, she writes in her Gun Violence section: “As a mother, I can’t describe the pit in my stomach when I drop them off at school every morning, knowing that they are more at risk than I was growing up”—and she lists at least some basic firearm control measures.

Well, Amen to that.

The post In Battle for Shriveled Soul of GOP, Congressman and YouTuber Will Face Off Again (Again) appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Explosions sound in the Iranian capital as war with US and Israel enters a fifth day

posted in: All news | 0

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  — Explosions sounded in Iran’s capital city Wednesday as its war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.

Iranian state television reported explosions around Tehran as dawn broke. Meanwhile, Israel said its air defenses were activated due to incoming missile fire from Iran.

Five days into a war that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested would last several weeks or longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country.

Explosions also hit Lebanon, where Israel said it is retaliating against Hezbollah militants.

Lebanon’s state-run media reported that at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a residential complex in the city of Baalbeck.

A day earlier, Israel launched airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site, and Iran struck back against Israel and others, targeting U.S. embassies and disrupting energy supplies and travel.

The American embassy in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. consulate in the United Arab Emirates came under drone attacks. Iran has fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel, though most of the incoming fire has been intercepted. Eleven people in Israel have been killed since the conflict began.

In other developments, the Pentagon identified four U.S. Army Reserve soldiers who were killed in a drone strike Sunday at a command center in Kuwait. The strike also killed two other service members.

The spiraling nature of the war raised questions about when and how it would end.

Trump’s administration has offered various objectives, including destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, wiping out its navy, preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring it cannot continue to support allied armed groups.

While the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Trump urged Iranians to overthrow their government, senior administration officials have since said regime change was not the goal.

Trump on Tuesday seemed to downplay the chances of the war ending Iran’s theocratic rule, saying that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel campaign is finished.

Trump says people the US had in mind to lead Iran are dead.

Speaking Tuesday from the Oval Office, Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over.

As far as possible leaders inside Iran, “the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump said.
“I guess the worst case would be do this, and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen,” Trump said. “We don’t want that to happen.”

Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years. It’s only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen.

Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.

Israel and US strike nuclear facilities and other targets

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, said American forces have struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran since the war began. In a video posted Tuesday on X, Cooper said the U.S. has “severely degraded Iran’s air defenses” and taken out hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers and drones.

“We’ve just begun,” Cooper said.

Satellite images published Tuesday by Colorado-based company Vantor showed the domed roof of Iran’s presidential complex in Tehran had been destroyed, supporting Israel’s claim of an overnight strike. Iran did not acknowledge the damage or report any casualties.

Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the Israeli military struck a building in the Iranian city of Qom where clerics were expected to meet to discuss selecting a new supreme leader. He said the army was still assessing whether anyone was hit.

The Israeli military said it also conducted airstrikes on Iranian sites that produce and store ballistic missiles, and that it destroyed what it called Iran’s secret, underground nuclear headquarters.

Without providing evidence, it said the site was used for research “to develop a key component for nuclear weapons.”

There was no immediate public comment from the U.S. or Iran about the site Israel named.

Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so and says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Iran hits US Embassy in Riyadh and Washington pulls out staff

An attack from two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire,” according to the Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound.

An Iranian drone struck a parking lot outside the U.S. consulate in Dubai, sparking a small fire, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Washington. He said all personnel were accounted for.

U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon said they were closed to the public.

The U.S. State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. And U.S. citizens were urged to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries, though many were stranded because of airspace closures.

The State Department said Tuesday it’s preparing military and charter flights for Americans wanting to leave the Middle East. Other countries were arranging flights for their citizens.

Hundreds have died, including children

The U.S.-Israeli strikes have killed at least 787 people in Iran, according to the Red Crescent Society. In Lebanon, where Israel launched retaliatory strikes on the Iranian-supported militant group Hezbollah, 50 people were killed, including seven children, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Kuwait, which had previously reported a single death, said Wednesday that an 11-year-old girl was killed by falling shrapnel as Kuwaiti forces were intercepting “hostile aerial targets.” In addition, three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain.

The U.S. military has confirmed six deaths of American service members.

Four of the Americans killed were identified as Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who received a posthumous promotion in rank. They were assigned to the Iowa-based 103rd Sustainment Command.
___
Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Michelle Price and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, David Rising in Bangkok, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Hallie Golden in Seattle, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Related Articles


US soldiers who died in Iran war remembered as devoted parents and reservists


White Bear Lake woman identified as one of four Army Reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait


Trump says ‘someone from within’ Iranian regime might be best choice to lead once war ends


Questions mount in Congress over Iran war’s costs, risks and exit plan


Military families anxious about unknowns of Iran war, proud of their service members

Anthony Edwards scores 41 as Timberwolves beat Grizzlies 117-110 for 4th straight win

posted in: All news | 0

By TYLER MASON

Anthony Edwards scored 41 points as the Minnesota Timberwolves overcame a sluggish first half to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 117-110 on Tuesday night.

The Timberwolves, who moved into fourth in the Western Conference over the weekend, have won four in a row and seven of eight. Memphis saw its two-game winning streak end.

Julius Randle added 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Wolves and Ayo Dosunmu contributed 14 points off the bench.

Jaylen Wells led Memphis with 19 points and Cedric Coward added 15. Memphis went on a 12-2 run to cut it to four points in the final minute but couldn’t complete the rally.

Edwards, fresh off being named Western Conference Player of the Week, took over in the fourth quarter. He scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers, as the Wolves pulled away. It was his ninth 40-point game of the season, and fans serenaded him with “MVP!” chants in the final minute.

Minnesota trailed by 11 in the first half and shot 3 of 16 from deep before halftime. Edwards had all three of the Wolves’ 3-pointers.

Wells had 15 first-half points to send Memphis into halftime with a 62-57 lead.

Minnesota picked up its defensive intensity and finally drew even in the third quarter at 72-all. Edwards converted a layup to put the Wolves on top 74-72, and Minnesota never trailed again.

Kyle Anderson made his return to Minnesota, coming off the bench one day after the Wolves brought him back following his release by Memphis. Anderson previously played for Minnesota in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. He had two points in 13 minutes.

The Wolves out-rebounded the smaller Grizzlies 51-33.

Up next: The Timberwolves host Toronto on Thursday.

Related Articles


Back with his beloved Timberwolves, Kyle Anderson aims to help in championship chase


Timberwolves make Kyle Anderson signing official. Here’s his new jersey number


Timberwolves top Nuggets for third straight win


Can Kyle Anderson be the antidote for what ails these Timberwolves?


Timberwolves grit out win at Clippers