Latest news with #Plaschke
USA Today
a day ago
- Health
- USA Today
Bill Plaschke reveals Parkinson's disease diagnosis: 'It hurts to even say it.'
Bill Plaschke reveals Parkinson's disease diagnosis: 'It hurts to even say it.' Show Caption Hide Caption Kon Knueppel on the drive of former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg Kon Knueppel chats with Bryan Kalbrosky ahead of the NBA Draft about his former teammate Cooper Flagg and what makes him special Sports Seriously Bill Plaschke, the award-winning Los Angeles Times columnist and longtime "Around the Horn" panelist on ESPN, revealed this week that he has Parkinson's disease. He made the announcement as part of an LA Times column about a boxing program he attends for those trying to slow the effects of the condition. "I've got Parkinson's, and it hurts to even say it," Plaschke wrote. "I'm still mobile, still active, I don't have the trademark tremors that distinguish the famously afflicted Michael J. Fox or the late Muhammed Ali but, damn it, I've got it." Plaschke, 66, noted that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's four years ago after feeling weakness in his right arm, but had only told his family until now. The neurodegenerative disease has no cure and progressively impacts how a person moves and speaks. OPINION: Don't forget harsh price NFL players pay Plaschke wrote that it's a struggle for him to get dressed and "my pills come in gallon jugs and I spend entire Dodger games trying to discreetly swallow them in the press box." "I don't smile as much now," he added. "It's harder to smile when afflicted with the trademark Parkinson's masked face. When I FaceTime with my darlin Daisy, I worry she won't see past my dour expression and never know how much her granddaddy loves her." Plaschke has written for the Los Angeles Times since 1988 and became a sports columnist there in 1996. He has been named the national sports columnist of the year by the Associated Press Sports Editors nine times and is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He was also one of the original panelists on "Around the Horn," beginning in 2002, and remained a regular contributor to the show until its 23-year run ended last month. Plaschke sounded a hopeful note at the end of his column, citing the inspiration provided by Kaizen Kinetics and everyone else dealing with Parkinson's disease through its boxing program. "I have Parkinson's," Plaschke wrote, "But, by God, it doesn't have me."
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RCSO hosts demonstration for top non-lethal training company, as Sheriff continues to push public safety efforts
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Richmond County Sheriff Eugene Brantley says it's his mission to continue prioritizing the safety of the public and his officers. One of his goals is for his deputies to be able to handle encounters without lethal force—and resolving conflicts before they turn deadly. That's why the Sheriff's office spent Wednesday morning getting a demonstration from a company that specializes in making non-lethal weapons for law enforcement. The company, PepperBall, is a Chicago-based company that has been making non-lethal weapons for law enforcement for more than 20 years. Regional Sales Director Jake Miller says their product stands out from the competition. 'A lot of law enforcement weapons are impact, and we are just area saturation based, with the option to directly impact somebody,' said Miller. 'So, we give negotiation that a lot of places can't offer, and plus our product is so non-lethal: families just drop their kids off to play paintball on a Saturday, and our product is almost identical to everything they're using.' The Richmond County Sheriff's Office joined other local law enforcement agencies for a demonstration of how PepperBall's various products are used. The Cobb County Sheriff's Office is one of 5,000 across the country that currently has the technology installed. CEO Robert Plaschke says the results have been positive. 'Mesa (Arizona) is the same population size, same number of officers. By their account, they've had 10 times where they did not have to use their firearms. So, 10 officer-involved shootings have been avoided because they've been able to deescalate the situation using PepperBall,' said Plaschke. According to the Sheriff's Office, data shows police departments using this training see 30 to 50% fewer use-of-force complaints, and lower injury rates for civilians and officers. Sheriff Brantley says it's an option worth looking into, as many deputies are encountering more situations involving people with mental illness. 'They don't fully understand what they're doing, because they don't have the mental capacity to process what's actually going on. So, this is one of the ways we could still accomplish our goal of bringing some sense of normalcy to the situation,' said Brantley. 'All it's intended to do is to change their thinking so that they stop doing what they're doing—and they start to listen to what the police officers ask them to do, which is to simply engage them,' Plaschke said. Sheriff Brantley says they have not installed the system yet, but it's an option they will consider following Wednesday's demonstration. 'This is just the beginning phase,' Brantley said. 'We're just looking at this as being something else that we can use as opposed to using a tazor or going hands-on.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
No. 1 seed USC enters women's NCAA tournament with championship expectations
When USC rose last March to the top line of the NCAA tournament, after almost four decades in relative obscurity, it felt at the time like the culmination of a once-proud program's stirring return to relevance. But a year later, standing atop the tournament field for a second straight season, no one is looking at the top-seeded Trojans as a charming upstart any longer. USC once again earned a No. 1 seed, this time in the Spokane regional, and will host No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro (25-6) in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday. If the Trojans win, they will face the winner of No. 8 Cal (25-8) vs. No. 9 Mississippi State (21-11) on Monday. Where USC entered March last season as a program on the rise, just hoping to crash the party featuring the sport's more established powerhouses, the Trojans now enter this tournament with not just Final Four aspirations, but expectations. Read more: Plaschke: JuJu Watkins is best player in America … and USC might be the best team USC hasn't made a Final Four since 1986, when Cheryl Miller and Co. lost to Texas in the national title game. The Trojans have had little trouble delivering on towering expectations so far this season, led by sophomore superstar and Big Ten Player of the Year JuJu Watkins. They lost just two games in the regular season — once in November, the other in February — to teams now seeded among the top two in their respective regions. USC enters this tournament coming off a loss after falling to UCLA in the Big Ten tournament final last weekend. But the Trojans had already beaten their crosstown rivals twice before that to secure a Big Ten regular season title, the first in their new conference. Last March, as a No. 1 seed for the first time since that 1985-86 season, USC rolled into the Elite Eight, only to run into a buzzsaw in Connecticut, a program that had been to the Final Four in 14 of the previous 15 years. But USC has even more firepower at its disposal in this tournament, having added an All-Big Ten forward in Kiki Iriafen, as well as the nation's top recruiting class, to join with Watkins. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
