Latest news with #Browning
USA Today
2 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
OLB Baron Browning named Arizona Cardinals' bounce-back candidate in 2025
OLB Baron Browning named Arizona Cardinals' bounce-back candidate in 2025 With a few possible candidates, PFF names OLB Baron Browning as their top bounce-back player in 2025 The Arizona Cardinals hope to bounce back from a bad end to their season, going from 6-4 and in the NFC West lead to losing five of their final games. They also have players who could bounce back. Who is their most likely bounce-back candidate? PFF gave a bounce-back candidate for each team. For the Cardinals, it is linebacker Baron Browning. On the surface, the Cardinals extending a player who earned just a 58.0 PFF grade last season may not seem wise. However, Baron Browning found his groove as a pass rusher after being traded to Arizona and could be poised for a return to his 2023 form. From Weeks 10 through 18 last season, Browning ranked 16th among qualified edge defenders with a 77.3 pass-rush grade. He also ranked sixth among that same group with an 18.6% pass-rush win rate. A full season of that level of production would significantly improve the outlook of Arizona's pass rush. Browning gradually increased his playing time late in the season and the Cardinals re-signed him for two more seasons. They hope he can be the player who had 9.5 sacks in 24 games in 2022-2023. His issue has been staying healthy. He is now in an improved outside linebacker room with Josh Sweat and with BJ Ojulari returning. And Zaven Collins, who led the Cardinals with five sacks, remains on the roster and could improve in his third year playing off the edge. Browning isn't the only player who could bounce back. Ojulari, who missed all last season, is another possibility, as is tackle Jonah Williams, who went down twice with knee injuries. If Browning can produce five to seven sacks in a rotational role, he will be well worth his two-year deal and the trade to acquire him last season. Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire's Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Tips for preparing the most dreaded of all speeches: the wedding toast
Beginner Be brief: It doesn't matter what else you do or don't do, this is priority number one. Time is relative, and it passes much more slowly for the audience than it does for the performer. You can be 'that person' who cries, or flubs the Browning sonnet, or forgets the groom's name, or has a sneezing fit in the middle of the toast, and be remembered fondly. You cannot be that person who goes on for 10 minutes and be remembered fondly. Advertisement Be clean: This, no matter how well you know the wedding couple. No matter how outrageous their sense of humor is. No matter how much their wedding may feel like a party rather than a sacred occasion. Just don't take the risk of a double-entendre, ribald story, or even a reference to a private joke ('and we all know how Bill loves his Turtle Wax . . .') that you don't think anyone else will get. Just don't do it. Intermediate Find a peg: Start with a story about one or both members of the couple, or a poem or song lyrics that remind you of them or that they love, or a Bible verse, or what have you. Yes, of course you've known Pat all your life and are so delighted that Pat and Chris have found each other. Everyone feels that way at Pat and Chris's wedding; that's why they're there. So start off with something a little more specific for your toast than generalized good wishes. Advertisement Find a hook: The peg is the image you start your toast with. The hook is the thing that pulls it into the present: 'I'll never forget that treehouse that Pat and I built together, and I know the home that Pat and Chris will make together will be just as creative and fun-filled as that treehouse was—and probably feature fabulous wood flooring!' The hook can be a comment about the beauty of the ceremony, a tribute to the partner you know the least well, a wish for the future, or so on. Advanced Figure out your character: Usually, there are several toast-makers at a wedding. As the date nears, find out how you fit into the lineup. Are you the Respected Patriarch? The College Buddy? The Future Mother-in-Law? The Bratty Little Brother? Ideally, toasts should balance the sentimental and the humorous, the serious and the silly, and show a rounded picture of the wedding couple—both as a couple and as individuals. Figure out your best contribution. And if you know you're going to be following Uncle Lou Longwind, be willing to take one for the team and make your toast even shorter. Express your full sentiments to the wedding couple later—they'll be grateful for your restraint. Go against type: Depending on your role in the toast lineup, you might find it effective to serve your toast with a twist. Everyone expects the English professor to open up with Shakespeare or Browning—how much more surprising, and therefore moving, to hear a simple childhood story and heartfelt wish for happiness. Everyone expects the Respected Patriarch to intone words of wisdom—what if he told an embarrassing (clean!) story from his own nuptials instead? Don't be afraid of being a cliche, but don't be afraid to do the unexpected, either. Advertisement Miss Conduct is Robin Abrahams, a writer with a PhD in psychology.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Guns bought in the US and trafficked to Mexican drug cartels fuel violence in Mexico and the migration crisis
The Mexican security forces tracking Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – the leader of a deadly drug cartel that has been a top driver of violence in Mexico and narcotic addiction in America – thought they finally had him cornered on May 1, 2015. Four helicopters carrying an arrest team whirled over the mountains near Mexico's southwestern coast toward Cervantes' compound in the town of Villa Purificación, the heart of the infamous Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel. As the lead helicopter pulled within range, bullets from a truck-mounted, military-grade machine gun on the ground struck the engine. Before it reached the ground, the massive helicopter was hit by a pair of rocket-powered grenades. Four soldiers from Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense were killed in the crash. Three more soldiers were killed in the firefight that followed, and another 12 were injured. The engagement was the first known incident of a cartel shooting down a military aircraft in Mexico. The cartel's retaliation for the attempted arrest was swift and brutal. It set fire to trucks, buses, banks, gasoline stations and businesses. The distractions worked. Cervantes, also known as 'El Mencho,' escaped. The Browning machine gun that took down the helicopter was traced to a legal firearm purchase in Oregon made by a U.S. citizen. And a Barrett .50-caliber rifle used in the ambush was traced to a sale in a U.S. gun shop in Texas 4½ years before. Many military-grade weapons like these are trafficked into Mexico from the U.S. each year, aided by loose standards for firearm dealers and gun laws that favor illicit sales. We – a professor of economic development who has been tracking gun trafficking for more than 10 years, and an investigative journalist – spent a year sifting through documents to find the number, origins and characteristics of weapons flowing from the U.S. to Mexico. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – the agency known as ATF tasked with regulating the industry – publishes the number of U.S. guns seized in Mexico and traced back to U.S. dealers, but it doesn't provide an official trafficking estimate. The 2003 Tiahrt Amendments bar the ATF from creating a database of firearm sales and prohibit federal agencies from sharing detailed trace data outside of law enforcement. To estimate weapons flow, we gathered trafficking estimates, including leaked data, previous research, firearm manufacturing totals and the ATF trace data. The model we generated gave us a conservative middle estimate: About 135,000 firearms were trafficked across the border in 2022. In contrast, Ukraine, engaged in a war with Russia, received 40,000 small arms from the United States between January 2020 and April 2024 – an average of 9,000 per year. Our analysis also found: This flow of weapons is connected to the drug trade in the U.S. and enables increased gang violence in Mexico, causing more people to flee across the border. An increase in guns trafficked to Mexico from the U.S. relates to an increase in Mexico's homicide rate. More of the most destructive weapons come from independent gun dealers versus large chain stores – 16 times as many assault-style weapons and 60 times as many sniper rifles. The trafficking flow drives an arms race between criminals and Mexican law enforcement; the U.S. gun industry profits on sales to both. ATF oversight of dealers reduces the likelihood their guns are resold on the illicit market. Since 2008, the U.S. has spent more than US$3 billion to help stabilize Mexico through the rule of law and stem its surges of extreme violence, much of it committed with U.S. firearms. Many programs are funded through the U.S. State Department, which is facing budget cuts, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has sustained deep cuts. Meanwhile, the gun industry and its supporters have undercut these efforts by fighting measures to regulate gun sales. From 2015-2023, 185,000 guns linked to crimes in Mexico were sent to the ATF to be traced – the process of using a firearm's serial number and other characteristics to identify the trail of gun ownership. About 125,000 of those weapons have been traced back to the U.S. Our analyses show that U.S.-Mexico firearms trafficking has dire implications for ordinary Mexicans – and that U.S. regulatory actions can have an enormous impact. This adds to a growing body of research tying U.S.-sold guns to Mexico-based gangs and cartels, illegal drug trafficking, homicide rates, corruption of Mexican officials, illicit financial transactions and migration trends. The Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel is poised to be the biggest player in the drug cartel game. El Mencho, still at large, is one of the most powerful people directing the flow of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamines into the United States, while orchestrating campaigns of fear, intimidation and displacement in Mexico. The Browning .50-caliber rifle that aided El Mencho's evasion in 2015 was manufactured by a company based in Morgan, Utah, and legally sold to Erik Flores Elortegui, a U.S. citizen. Elortegui fled the country after he was indicted in Oregon for smuggling guns into Mexico and is now at the top of the ATF's most wanted list. He wasn't alone in his gunrunning schemes. According to a grand jury indictment, Elortegui purchased 20 firearms through an accomplice, Robert Allen Cummins, in 2013 and 2014. Cummins was straw purchasing – buying weapons under his name for Elortegui. Before she gave Cummins a 40-month prison sentence in 2017, Judge Ann Aiken admonished him for the pain and suffering his weapons were likely going to cause. She told him to read 'Dreamland,' which chronicles America's opioid crisis and its connection to Mexican drug cartels. In 2021 the ATF teamed up with academics to produce the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment. It showed that the share of firearms trafficked to Mexico, already the top market for illegal U.S.-to-foreign gun transfer, increased by 20% from 2017 to 2021. Gun sales are strictly regulated within Mexico. But homicides have risen to disturbing heights – three times that of the U.S. – since the lapse of the U.S. assault weapons ban in 2004. Research suggests the two are linked. After their mother was killed by organized crime five years ago, Emylce Ines Espinoza-Alarcon's sister's family migrated to the States, she said. Espinoza-Alarcon, her children and other relatives were more recently driven from their homes by violence. 'As a parent, you try to flee to a different place where they might be safe,' Espinoza-Alarcon said. She said she believes American weapons are to blame, but there 'is nowhere else for us to go.' A 2023 survey found that 88% of the 180,000 Mexican migrants to the U.S. that year were fleeing violence – a flip from 2017 when most were coming for economic opportunity. ATF inspections keep illicit guns in check, our analysis shows. The agency's primary enforcement tools are inspections, violations reports, warning letters and meetings, and, when inspectors find violations that are reckless or willfully endanger the public, revocation notices. But the bureau's 2025 congressional budget request points out that it would need 1,509 field investigators to reach its goal of inspecting each dealer at least once every three years. The ATF is 'focusing on identifying and addressing willful violations,' a spokesperson wrote in a November 2024 email, referring to the zero-tolerance revocation policy the Biden administration put in place in 2021 that dramatically increased the number of revocations. Meanwhile, the ATF announced in April 2025 that it was repealing the revocation policy and reviewing recent rules, including one that clarifies when a gun is a rifle. The webpage listing revocations, including detailed reports, was also removed from the ATF site. This is a condensed version. To learn more about the connections between U.S. gun sales, U.S. regulations, Mexican drug cartels and migration, read the full investigation This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Sean Campbell, The Conversation and Topher L. McDougal, University of San Diego Read more: For opioid addiction, treatment underdosing can lead to fentanyl overdosing – a physician explains Gun trafficking from the US to Mexico: The drug connection US gun trafficking to Mexico: Independent gun shops supply the most dangerous weapons The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Splash & Sizzle 2025 kickoff lets people donate food for free pool admissions
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Ozarks Food Harvest and Springfield-Greene County Park Board have started their kickoff for the 2025 Splash & Sizzle event, which gives special discounts on pool admissions for those who donate canned food. According to Browning, this is one of Ozarks Food Harvest's longest-running partnerships, which began back in 2001. Starting now through September 1, people can get admission into all of the Springfield-Greene County Park Boards' outdoor pools between 5:30-6:30 p.m. by either donating $1 or one canned food item per person. Pool locations are as follows: Fassnight Pool – 1305 S. Main Ave. Grant Beach Pool – 1401 N. Grant Ave. Meador Pool – 2600 S. Fremont Ave. Silver Springs – 1100 N. Hampton Ave. Westport Pool – 3157 W. Mt. Vernon St. Learn more at Splash & Sizzle 2025 – Ozarks Food Harvest Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Age
23-05-2025
- The Age
How an ‘invisible' police unit has hounded criminals for generations
'I had a .25 calibre Browning automatic in my shirt pocket, and as I chased Cody, he's turning around. By this time, he's got his gun to go. I counted five shots that he fired in my direction – five. And when we got that far, I fired two in the air above him, and he called out, 'I've had enough.' So I caught up to him and pulled the gun from him.' Unluckily, Cody chose the wrong copper to try to beat in a foot race, as Cairns was a local decathlon and long jump champion. Luckily, Cairns was a pacifist and didn't shoot him. There is brave, and then there is crazy brave: Robbo Robertson firmly fits the latter category. Called to a bank silent alarm, Robertson's partner Rod Porter (they were both unarmed) walked into the branch confident it would be a false call. 'I opened the door and saw an old lady on the ground,' Porter recalls. 'I thought the old dear had fallen over, and I leant over to help her up.' His mood changed when a bandit yelled out to his partner: 'Shoot him, shoot him.' There was a gunman on the counter pointing a shotgun at the cop. Porter ran (he was no Stawell Gift winner) with the two armed crooks in pursuit. Robertson fired up the Dogs' Valiant, tried to hit the gunmen, then put the car between Porter and the bandits. When they took off in their stolen getaway car, Robertson 'rammed them up the arse. That made them really happy.' Porter was hiding in a yard and when he emerged, Robertson said: 'Quick, get in. I know where they went.' Porter remembers thinking: 'This is a bloody stupid idea. This man is an idiot – why are we doing this?' Both offenders were arrested. The Dogs follow on foot, cars, bikes and motorbikes, and once when an offender went bush, an enterprising officer borrowed a horse from a nearby paddock and rode in bareback, finding the crook's hideaway. Then there was the non-ventilated 'super truck' in which a cop, often in 40-degree heat, would sit for up to 10 hours watching a suspect house. Stripped of most of their clothes, the officer would use a peephole to peek and an empty bottle to pee. 'It was a good way to lose weight,' one said. In the early 1990s two crooks planned to break into a jeweller's house in Malvern East, where they would hold the wife and children hostage, forcing him to return to his shop, open the safe and provide a fortune in valuable stones. The Dogs were following them because they were wanted for another job. As they did dry runs on the house, their bugged conversations revealed the hostage plan. On the night of the planned abduction, the Dogs were watching from a flat overlooking the house. Police had moved the family and replaced them with mannequins, apparently sleeping in their beds. The crooks were behind a brick wall across the road. What they didn't know was that on the other side of the wall was the special operations group, waiting for the right moment. In crept the crooks, throwing back the blankets in the main bedroom, only to find two dummies. They bolted into the welcoming arms of the special operations group. Game over. Another call for help started with police in Nepal, went to the Australian Federal Police, then to Victoria, and, finally, the Dogs. A man had grabbed a woman in Melbourne after meeting her on a dating site, and then made a ransom demand to her Nepalese parents. Somehow the Dogs found a likely address in Pakenham. One surveillance officer peered through a knothole in the fence from a vacant block to see a man digging a hole. It was not to plant tomatoes. Retired senior sergeant Michael 'Mouse' O'Connor, a veteran Dog, takes up the story. With reports from the ground and support from the air, it was clear the man was digging a grave. 'He lay down in it to see it was the right size. I was sure she was dead. Then he marches her out – she was wrapped in Glad Wrap. The SOG were en route, but it would have been too late. I told the boys to go.' One dropped on all fours, so others could use him to vault over the fence. 'She was scooped up, and all she could say was, 'Where did you come from?'' says O'Connor. Some cases were sophisticated but not life and death. Australians are world-class shoplifters, and in the 1970s a family that would later become notorious gangsters were followed and grabbed with products worth $400,000. In another case, a group of lithe young women entered a shop, then left, all apparently eight months pregnant. One mob were more Benny Hill than The Untouchables – a shoplifting gang that used an attractive female member in a mini-skirt to bend over in a store, leaving the male shop assistant apparently hypnotised, allowing the rest of the crew to grab anything that wasn't nailed down. Loading After the 1976 Great Bookie Robbery, a relative of Ray Chuck, the mastermind of the job, was followed to Queensland, where he lived in a beachside caravan park. As the target didn't have a car, there wasn't much action and the Dogs deputised the woman who ran the park to eavesdrop on the crook's calls that were made on the park's party line. Over six weeks, the woman did all the work while the Dogs crew took up surfing. Police sometimes say they have hit a brick wall, but in one case such a wall saved crooks from certain arrest. The notorious Gym Gang, a stick-up crew that pulled jobs over 24 years that netted well over $4.5 million, had just grabbed their biggest haul. In 1994, the gang pretended to be a road crew working on the Monash Freeway, stopping an armoured van carrying about $2.3 million that had just been picked up at the Reserve Bank. As they had rehearsed, the gang drove the van to a dead-end lane in Richmond to load into another vehicle. What they didn't know was that behind the wall of a brick building at the end of the lane was the secret office of the surveillance branch. The Dogs had security cameras facing the main street, but none into the laneway – meaning they missed their chance to nab the gang. After the job, the Dogs would follow many of the suspects, finding they often met on suburban sports ovals to try to avoid listening devices. (One rode his bike everywhere in the hope he would be able to pick out the Dogs. Sometimes he did, but most times he didn't.) While one of the necessary skills is to be able to move without being noticed, there is also an art in staying still and not being seen. Ian 'Vag' Whitmore earned his nickname, according to O'Connor, because he could lie in a gutter for hours like a vagrant. 'He would hide in a garden or up a tree for eight or 10 hours to get photos and great results.'
