Latest news with #Whalen
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Paige Bueckers' pro debut in Minnesota was a reflection of her roots and inspiration
MINNEAPOLIS — Ten miles southwest of where Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers received a roaring ovation Wednesday night at the Target Center, she first learned how to shoot a basketball. She was just another anonymous ponytailed kid who spent her winters in the gymnasium. It's a part of the culture here, she says now with the gift of hindsight, and a credit to biting Minnesota snowstorms — basketball blessings in the form of subzero temps and bone-chilling winds. Bueckers grew up playing in gyms across the state, then the region, then the country, her name slowly gaining more recognition and acclaim with every passing season. She did so in the shadows of a basketball dynasty being born with the Minnesota Lynx on the shoulders (and passes) of another Minnesota kid — Lindsay Whalen, a point guard who grew up in an era without the WNBA. Whalen, who hailed from Hutchinson, stayed home and led the Gophers to their first Final Four appearance in 2004 before being drafted by the Connecticut Sun as the No. 4 pick. When Whalen came back to Minnesota in 2010, Bueckers was 10 years old, an avid basketball fan eager for the success Whalen and the Lynx were about to achieve. Advertisement From 2011 to 2017, the Minnesota Lynx won four WNBA titles. The core players from that run — Whalen, Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles — now have their numbers retired, hanging from the Target Center rafters. Bueckers vividly remembers those days of regularly attending games. She can recount the rivalry with the Los Angeles Sparks, the 2017 WNBA Finals series played at the Barn (Minnesota's home gym) while the Target Center underwent renovations, and the way Cheryl Reeve coached. 'The dynasty Cheryl created is something to admire and aspire to be,' she said. Wednesday night, five years after leaving for UConn — where Bueckers became an international basketball star; name, image and likeness darling; and finally, last month, a national champion — she was back in her home state. But this time, she was there as a visitor. Over the last few years, she's rarely made it back, typically only in August to see family and friends, soak up the last parts of summer and visit the Minnesota State Fair. Advertisement In her first appearance in Target Center as a WNBA player, she notched her first professional double-double — 12 points and 10 assists. Even with the small heroics from the No. 1 draft pick, it wasn't enough to tip the scales for the Wings, who dropped to 0-3 on the season with the 85-81 loss. Before this homecoming, Bueckers was peppered with questions about her return. What would it be like? How would she feel? What local haunts would she visit? She had prepared for it like any other game, she said — a veteran-like answer to an expected question. When Wednesday came, she really tried to approach it as she would if it were in any other venue. But this one, she acknowledges, hit differently. When she took the floor, it wasn't just any other opponent; it was the Lynx. It wasn't just any other coach; it was Reeve (with Whalen and Brunson as assistants beside her). And it wasn't just any other gym; it was the Target Center. For years, she has talked about inspiring the next generation of players. But here, those words about seeing herself in the stands were different. They weren't theoretical. Advertisement 'To see all the little girls and people in the stands and realize that was you just about 10, 15 years ago,' Bueckers said. 'You never take it for granted how blessed we are to be able to play in this league and to play at this level.' In high school, Bueckers played in the Target Center for the 2018 state title with her Hopkins team. She scored 37 points, but the rest of her team scored just 26 as it lost to Eastview. After the game, Eastview coach Molly Kasper said: 'She is going to probably be in the WNBA one day.' The breadcrumbs Bueckers left in the Target Center along the way provided even more proof. Advertisement Four years later, Bueckers was back at the Target Center with UConn as a sophomore point guard in her second consecutive Final Four appearance. She led the Huskies in scoring (14) and rebounds (six), but it wasn't enough to overcome South Carolina. Now, three years later, she was back as a WNBA rookie. So, no, Wednesday night was not just like any other night. It couldn't have been. She understands there are players not much older than she who grew up without a professional league to which they could aspire. She knows there are plenty of women who put in the time she did without knowing whether the WNBA would exist in which to play. Bueckers had a dynastic franchise in her backyard, growing up at a time in Minnesota when professional athletic excellence was synonymous only with women's professional sports. From 2011 to 2018, the Twins and Timberwolves each made the postseason only once, the Vikings made the playoffs three times and once out of the wild-card game. The Wild — the most successful major professional franchise at the time not named Lynx — got to the NHL conference quarterfinals once. Advertisement Meanwhile, the Lynx were on a historic run that set a standard for WNBA teams for years to come. And Bueckers was there to witness it all. 'They were everything I aspired to be,' Bueckers said of that dynasty. 'It gave me something to work for and admire. To be able to see what you want to be is very important. Growing up, that was a huge part of the reason why I wanted to be in this league.' Today, Bueckers is here certainly because of her own making, but also because of the people and players — many of whom wore Lynx uniforms — who showed her how it could be done. In the stands Wednesday night, hundreds could tell their own Bueckers story about how they know her or how she inspired them. In her own way, Bueckers could turn that back to them. She couldn't point out all of her family members, Hopkins and AAU teammates and friends in the arena, but she was grateful to have them there for a night that, she acknowledged, was different from all the others. 'To have them here, it means everything to me,' she said. 'Because they were a huge part of my story in getting here.' Advertisement Among that group, she includes her Wednesday night opponent: the Minnesota Lynx. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Minnesota Lynx, Dallas Wings, WNBA 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Yahoo
Trial for ex-Gurley police officer charged with manslaughter moved to October
GURLEY, Ala. (WHNT) — A former Gurley police officer charged with manslaughter in a deadly 2023 wreck will stand trial in October, according to court documents. Christopher Whalen is set to stand trial on October 6, according to court documents. Whalen is charged with manslaughter in the death of Matthew Norwood, who was killed from injuries sustained during a wreck near the intersection of Interstate 565 and Jordan Lane, according to ALEA. Norwood was driving a Toyota Corolla when he was hit by the Ford Explorer driven by Whalen, who was pursuing a Nissan Maxima. The Explorer was Whalen's on-duty assigned patrol vehicle. ALEA said the Nissan Maxima was not struck or directly involved in the crash. Norwood was transported to Huntsville Hospital following the wreck, where he died from injuries. Whalen was also transported to Huntsville Hospital to be treated for his injuries. In November 2023, ALEA told News 19 that they had concluded their investigation into the chase and turned over the findings to the Madison County District Attorney's Office. In January, Whalen resigned from the Gurley Police Department, according to a Town of Gurley official. The official said that Whalen is no longer affiliated with the town in any capacity and that the town's investigation was never finalized as Whalen resigned before it had been completed. A Madison County Grand Jury indicted Whalen on August 30, 2024. He previously had a trial date set for February of this year. Following several continuation motions that were granted, he will now stand trial later in 2025. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Dispatchers field 11 frantic 911 calls on Seekonk house fire
SEEKONK, Mass. (WPRI) — The investigation continues into a fire that decimated a Seekonk home earlier this week. Firefighters rushed to the Emily Way home Monday afternoon after receiving nearly a dozen frantic 911 calls from neighbors and passersby. 'The sky is pitch black,' one caller told the dispatcher. 'Thick black smoke and everything.' 'The house is fully engulfed,' another caller noted. 'It looks like an electrical fire on the side of the house.' 'We can see [the fire] from our window,' a neighbor explained to another dispatcher. The thick black smoke billowing from the home could be seen for miles, including from the nearby Audubon Caratunk Wildlife Refuge. 'In the back of the woods, there's a lot of black smoke coming up,' a man calling from within the refuge explained to the dispatcher. LISTEN: 911 callers describe Seekonk house fire (Story continues below.) Seekonk Fire Chief Shaun Whalen told 12 News the single-family home partially collapsed within minutes of their arrival. It took firefighters nearly three hours to knock down the flames, which burned the house down to its foundation. Whalen said the family who lived there is currently out of the country. No one else was inside the home except for their two dogs, who Whalen said both died in the fire. The cause of the fire remains unknown at this time. In the meantime, Seekonk Youth Soccer is collecting donations for the family at the Cole Street soccer fields this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monetary donations are also being accepted through Venmo, as well as on a GoFundMe page created by a family friend. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Miami Herald
23-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Trump touts manufacturing while undercutting state efforts to help factories
Steve Whalen loves his home state of Delaware and he's proud to manufacture computers there that police officers use to "catch bad guys." He said tariffs on imports from China and other countries, along with sharp cuts to government spending and the winding down of a program for small manufacturers, will make it harder for him to do that. "We got into business to keep costs low for the 'good guys,' but tariffs or anything else that raises prices keeps us from doing that," said Whalen, co-founder of Sumuri LLC in Magnolia, Delaware, which makes computer workstations for police and government investigations. Whalen has to buy materials overseas, often from China, and he said the tariffs could force him to triple his price on some workstations to $12,000. Tariffs are the main tool President Donald Trump is wielding to try to boost manufacturing in the United States, calling the achievement of that goal "an economic and national security priority." But the higher levies have led to retaliation and suspended shipments, and Whalen said they are just one of several Trump administration actions squeezing his small manufacturing business. The wave of federal spending cuts, which has affected grants to state and local governments, could make his customers put off purchases. And the administration has moved to cut off funding for a $175 million state-based program that provides expert advice to smaller factories like his. The Delaware version of that program, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, helped Sumuri fit expanded product lines into the limited space in its small-town factory. "We were really having a tough time trying to figure out how to utilize our space efficiently," Whalen said. "They came here and helped us organize and optimize, and it made a huge difference." On April 1, the Trump administration cut off funding for 10 such manufacturing programs that were up for renewal in Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming. Other state MEP programs will expire over the next year. The administration gave a reprieve to those 10 states until the end of the fiscal year after objections from Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which manages the program, extended funding for the 10 states "after further review and consideration" and will "continue to evaluate plans for the program," said agency spokesperson Chad Boutin. The program has come under fire from Republicans since the George W. Bush administration first tried to end it in 2009, and again during the first Trump administration, but Congress has continued to fund it. The conservative Heritage Foundation said in a 2023 book that MEP's functions "would be more properly carried out by the private sector." 'Dots don't quite connect' Buckley Brinkman, executive director of the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity, which works with his state's MEP program, said it didn't make much sense for the administration to shutter the program as it seeks to boost the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs. "It's one of those things where the dots don't quite connect," Brinkman said. "I mean, jeez, here's a part of government that doesn't cost a whole lot, in the grand scheme of things - less than $200 million a year - that's returning 10-to-1 to the national treasury, working on a priority for the president." A 2024 Upjohn report found an even higher return: 17-to-1 on $175 million in the 2023 fiscal year, creating $3 billion in new federal tax revenue. In Wisconsin, which has lost more than 138,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, some parts makers report that business is booming as manufacturers seek to avoid tariffs by finding U.S. alternatives to Chinese manufacturers, Brinkman said. But more broadly, he doubts that the tariffs will spark a manufacturing boom in the state. "Do we want all this manufacturing back? Do we have the will to get it back? The answer to both those questions is 'no,'" Brinkman said. "Even without the tariffs we don't really want Americans doing a lot of those jobs that are in Chinese factories right now." In Delaware, the MEP helped Sumuri manage its expansion, but unpredictable tariffs and budgets are now a bigger danger, said Jason Roslewicz, Sumuri's vice president of business development. He's had to devote two employees to monitoring supply lines, tariff news and competitor pricing to stay afloat. "We went from putting things together in a basement to a 19,000-square-foot facility, doing exactly what we're supposed to do here in the U.S., and it's all in danger of coming apart because of this problem," Roslewicz said. Other small manufacturers express similar concerns. TJ Semanchin, who owns Wonderstate Coffee in Madison, Wisconsin, said his business roasting and distributing coffee is in crisis because of the tariffs. Wonderstate's costs have almost doubled between tariffs on imported coffee and packaging materials from China, plus a cyclical rise in coffee prices. "I'm borrowing money to pay for this and at some point we'll have to raise prices. We'll have no choice," Semanchin said. But many Republican state officials, and even some Democrats, have backed Trump's tariff push, including Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who credited the Trump administration with "reshoring manufacturing and restoring this middle class which has been eviscerated over the last 20 years." "There's dislocation in the short term, there's long-term opportunity," Youngkin said in an April 15 interview on CNBC. He said his state is hearing more interest from manufacturers looking to build or expand local factories since Trump took office. For instance, Delta Star recently announced a plan to add 300 jobs building power transformers in Lynchburg. "The president has been clear that there will be some level of tariffs, and folks are coming, and that's good for Virginia," Youngkin said in the CNBC interview. Virginia's MEP program, called Genedge, claims successes in streamlining production and quality control for local factory products including TreeDiaper, an automated tree watering device made in Ashland, and for advising EDM, a Lynchburg plastic product assembler that needed more efficient production to keep overseas competition at bay. But Virginia's MEP is one of the state programs slated to expire in the next year. Long-term trend The slide in U.S. manufacturing jobs has continued on and off since 1979, and many experts say tariffs will not bring them back. Despite a modest bounce back under the Biden administration, the number of manufacturing jobs has declined from nearly 20 million in 1979 to less than 13 million today, even as the total U.S. workforce has grown from 89 million to 159 million during that period. Manufacturing faces labor shortages, with many factories operating below capacity because they can't find enough workers, according to Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. That doesn't bode well for a mass reshoring of factories from China and other countries, but Miller doesn't expect that to happen anyway. "Firms are not planning on reshoring much of the work that was offshored 20 to 25 years ago," Miller said. "I'm not concerned about having enough workers for manufacturing jobs that would be reshored because this isn't going to happen." In a 2024 survey by the libertarian Cato Institute, 80% of Americans said America would be better off if more people worked in manufacturing, but only 25% said they personally would be better off working in a factory. The Chinese government has poked fun at the idea with memes of American workers struggling to make Nike sneakers with sewing machines. Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, said the idea of a manufacturing rebirth is a "mirage being conjured to attract the support of workers who have been underpaid in an increasingly unequal economy for the last 40 years, and are desperate for some hope of renewed upward mobility." Manufacturing "isn't the magic wand to make that happen," McCartin said. "What we need is to raise workers' wages and make the economy less prone to producing inequality," McCartin said. "That mission is not at all what Trump is about. He is dealing in stale nostalgia." ____ Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached atthenderson@ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump touts manufacturing while undercutting state efforts to help factories
Employee Jericho Talatala assembles a forensic computer workstation used in police investigations at the Sumuri LLC plant in Magnolia, Del., which could be hurt by tariffs and reduced government spending. Tariffs meant to encourage U.S. manufacturing could have the opposite effect because many materials are imported from China. (Courtesy of Sumuri LLC) Steve Whalen loves his home state of Delaware and he's proud to manufacture computers there that police officers use to 'catch bad guys.' He said tariffs on imports from China and other countries, along with sharp cuts to government spending and the winding down of a program for small manufacturers, will make it harder for him to do that. 'We got into business to keep costs low for the 'good guys,' but tariffs or anything else that raises prices keeps us from doing that,' said Whalen, co-founder of Sumuri LLC in Magnolia, Delaware, which makes computer workstations for police and government investigations. Whalen has to buy materials overseas, often from China, and he said the tariffs could force him to triple his price on some workstations to $12,000. Tariffs are the main tool President Donald Trump is wielding to try to boost manufacturing in the United States, calling the achievement of that goal 'an economic and national security priority.' But the higher levies have led to retaliation and suspended shipments, and Whalen said they are just one of several Trump administration actions squeezing his small manufacturing business. The wave of federal spending cuts, which has affected grants to state and local governments, could make his customers put off purchases. And the administration has moved to cut off funding for a $175 million state-based program that provides expert advice to smaller factories like his. USDA cuts hit small farms as Trump showers billions on big farms The Delaware version of that program, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, helped Sumuri fit expanded product lines into the limited space in its small-town factory. 'We were really having a tough time trying to figure out how to utilize our space efficiently,' Whalen said. 'They came here and helped us organize and optimize, and it made a huge difference.' On April 1, the Trump administration cut off funding for 10 such manufacturing programs that were up for renewal in Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming. Other state MEP programs will expire over the next year. The administration gave a reprieve to those 10 states until the end of the fiscal year after objections from Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which manages the program, extended funding for the 10 states 'after further review and consideration' and will 'continue to evaluate plans for the program,' said agency spokesperson Chad Boutin. The program has come under fire from Republicans since the George W. Bush administration first tried to end it in 2009, and again during the first Trump administration, but Congress has continued to fund it. The conservative Heritage Foundation said in a 2023 book that MEP's functions 'would be more properly carried out by the private sector.' Buckley Brinkman, executive director of the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity, which works with his state's MEP program, said it didn't make much sense for the administration to shutter the program as it seeks to boost the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs. 'It's one of those things where the dots don't quite connect,' Brinkman said. 'I mean, jeez, here's a part of government that doesn't cost a whole lot, in the grand scheme of things — less than $200 million a year — that's returning 10-to-1 to the national treasury, working on a priority for the president.' A 2024 Upjohn report found an even higher return: 17-to-1 on $175 million in the 2023 fiscal year, creating $3 billion in new federal tax revenue. In Wisconsin, which has lost more than 138,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, some parts makers report that business is booming as manufacturers seek to avoid tariffs by finding U.S. alternatives to Chinese manufacturers, Brinkman said. But more broadly, he doubts that the tariffs will spark a manufacturing boom in the state. 'Do we want all this manufacturing back? Do we have the will to get it back? The answer to both those questions is 'no,'' Brinkman said. 'Even without the tariffs we don't really want Americans doing a lot of those jobs that are in Chinese factories right now.' I mean, jeez, here's a part of government that doesn't cost a whole lot, in the grand scheme of things … that's returning 10-to-1 to the national treasury. – Buckley Brinkman, director of Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity In Delaware, the MEP helped Sumuri manage its expansion, but unpredictable tariffs and budgets are now a bigger danger, said Jason Roslewicz, Sumuri's vice president of business development. He's had to devote two employees to monitoring supply lines, tariff news and competitor pricing to stay afloat. 'We went from putting things together in a basement to a 19,000-square-foot facility, doing exactly what we're supposed to do here in the U.S., and it's all in danger of coming apart because of this problem,' Roslewicz said. Other small manufacturers express similar concerns. TJ Semanchin, who owns Wonderstate Coffee in Madison, Wisconsin, said his business roasting and distributing coffee is in crisis because of the tariffs. Wonderstate's costs have almost doubled between tariffs on imported coffee and packaging materials from China, plus a cyclical rise in coffee prices. 'I'm borrowing money to pay for this and at some point we'll have to raise prices. We'll have no choice,' Semanchin said. But many Republican state officials, and even some Democrats, have backed Trump's tariff push, including Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who credited the Trump administration with 'reshoring manufacturing and restoring this middle class which has been eviscerated over the last 20 years.' 'There's dislocation in the short term, there's long-term opportunity,' Youngkin said in an April 15 interview on CNBC. He said his state is hearing more interest from manufacturers looking to build or expand local factories since Trump took office. For instance, Delta Star recently announced a plan to add 300 jobs building power transformers in Lynchburg. 'The president has been clear that there will be some level of tariffs, and folks are coming, and that's good for Virginia,' Youngkin said in the CNBC interview. Virginia's MEP program, called Genedge, claims successes in streamlining production and quality control for local factory products including TreeDiaper, an automated tree watering device made in Ashland, and for advising EDM, a Lynchburg plastic product assembler that needed more efficient production to keep overseas competition at bay. But Virginia's MEP is one of the state programs slated to expire in the next year. The slide in U.S. manufacturing jobs has continued on and off since 1979, and many experts say tariffs will not bring them back. Despite a modest bounce back under the Biden administration, the number of manufacturing jobs has declined from nearly 20 million in 1979 to less than 13 million today, even as the total U.S. workforce has grown from 89 million to 159 million during that period. Manufacturing already has made a comeback Manufacturing faces labor shortages, with many factories operating below capacity because they can't find enough workers, according to Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. That doesn't bode well for a mass reshoring of factories from China and other countries, but Miller doesn't expect that to happen anyway. 'Firms are not planning on reshoring much of the work that was offshored 20 to 25 years ago,' Miller said. 'I'm not concerned about having enough workers for manufacturing jobs that would be reshored because this isn't going to happen.' In a 2024 survey by the libertarian Cato Institute, 80% of Americans said America would be better off if more people worked in manufacturing, but only 25% said they personally would be better off working in a factory. The Chinese government has poked fun at the idea with memes of American workers struggling to make Nike sneakers with sewing machines. Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, said the idea of a manufacturing rebirth is a 'mirage being conjured to attract the support of workers who have been underpaid in an increasingly unequal economy for the last 40 years, and are desperate for some hope of renewed upward mobility.' Manufacturing 'isn't the magic wand to make that happen,' McCartin said. 'What we need is to raise workers' wages and make the economy less prone to producing inequality,' McCartin said. 'That mission is not at all what Trump is about. He is dealing in stale nostalgia.' Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
