fpslem

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On the day of the race, Reto and Christine stood waiting in central Zurich, holding their handmade cardboard signs. “Hopp Muriel.” “Go Muriel.” They began to worry when she did not pass them at the end of the course’s first lap. They contacted Swiss Cycling’s team car, but nobody could tell them any news.

Muriel never finished the World Championships. She had crashed, on a descent leading towards Kusnacht, a suburb on the shores of Lake Zurich, with 45km remaining. The area is heavily wooded, and having left the road, she disappeared from view.

It was only after the race ended that a track marshal found Muriel unconscious in the woods.

At one of the world’s biggest cycling races, just a 10-minute drive from her front door, she had been lying alone and injured for about an hour and a half.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23394148

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Travel for this past Sunday’s rout of the New York Giants looked a bit different for Jackson and the Ravens, who improved to 9-5 on the season before returning to Baltimore ahead of Saturday’s marquee rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers that could decide the division. They chartered a private Amtrak train out of Baltimore’s historic Penn Station. Turns out a lot of the players prefer it to flying — at least for shorter trips.

Moving trucks, likely carrying equipment, still left the team’s Owings Mills practice facility Friday afternoon. But the whole team, including trainers and staff, made the roughly two-hour-and-change train ride north, according to a team spokesman. Some players said that train travel is physically less demanding on the body, while others like that it’s easier to hang out with each other in a train car than in a plane cabin.

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Travel for this past Sunday’s rout of the New York Giants looked a bit different for Jackson and the Ravens, who improved to 9-5 on the season before returning to Baltimore ahead of Saturday’s marquee rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers that could decide the division. They chartered a private Amtrak train out of Baltimore’s historic Penn Station. Turns out a lot of the players prefer it to flying — at least for shorter trips.

Moving trucks, likely carrying equipment, still left the team’s Owings Mills practice facility Friday afternoon. But the whole team, including trainers and staff, made the roughly two-hour-and-change train ride north, according to a team spokesman. Some players said that train travel is physically less demanding on the body, while others like that it’s easier to hang out with each other in a train car than in a plane cabin.

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Five years ago Nashville was named the best pro sports city in America by the Sports Business Journal.

Now look at us.

Nashville's major league pro sports teams have taken a collective nosedive to the bottom of the standings. Postseason playoff games in our city are like affordable housing or convenient downtown parking: they're a thing of the past.

Why it matters: Despite the bad on-field products, Nashville fans still basically come out to support their teams.

All three franchises enjoy solid attendance marks, but they're not rewarding their supporters with reasons to celebrate. There's also the issue of tax dollars. Nashville and the state of Tennessee have ponied up billions to build pro sports venues and support the teams' operations.

Flashback: In 2019 when we were named the No. 1 pro sports city, Nashville was basking in the glow of hosting the NFL Draft, while the Predators and Titans routinely reached the postseason.

Nashville's pro sports scene was epitomized by the throngs of fans who flooded downtown in 2017 for the watch parties during the Predators' thrilling run to the Stanley Cup finals. The Nashville SC was on the brink of launching and the overall pro sports vibes in Music City were better than ever.

Zoom in: Let's start with the Titans.

The team's streak of missing the playoffs is now at three seasons following the latest debacle. The Titans are now 3-10 this year under new coach Brian Callahan.

Finishing with the worst record in the league is not out of the question.

The Predators spent more money on free agents this offseason than any team in the NHL, a whopping $128 million according to Spotrac.

The big spending has not paid off. The Preds have the worst record in the entire league, with a measly 20 points. The first-place Minnesota Wild, by comparison, have 42.

The Nashville SC are not immune to Music City's losing ways.

They missed the playoffs this year for the first time, finishing 13th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference. As a result, the team made a coaching change in hopes of getting back on track.

The bottom line: Diehard support + government tax breaks should inspire our teams to give Nashville fans the winning teams they deserve.

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Private insurance companies have earned the public’s distrust. They routinely put profitability above their policyholders’ well-being. And a system of private health insurance provision also has higher administrative costs than a single-payer system, in which the government is the sole insurer.

But the avarice and inefficiencies of private insurers are not the sole — or even primary — reasons why vital medical services are often unaffordable and inaccessible in the United States. The bigger issue is that America’s health care providers — hospitals, physicians, and drug companies — charge much higher rates than their peers in other wealthy nations.

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Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel says he will "come back stronger" from surgery after breaking multiple bones in a crash.

The 24-year-old Belgian sustained rib, shoulder blade and hand fractures in a crash during training in Belgium on Tuesday.

He also suffered lung contusions, dislocated his right clavicle and tore several ligaments after colliding with the open door of a postal vehicle.

"After a scary accident on training yesterday, I underwent surgery last night and everything went well," Evenepoel wrote on Instagram on Wednesday alongside a photo of him with his right arm in a sling.

"It's going to be a long journey but I'm fully focused on my recovery and I’m determined to come back stronger, step by step.

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Frustrated staff at a Coles-owned bottle shop have retaliated against drivers flouting parking rules outside their store, by seeking revenge on those found in their designated customer spaces.

Seemingly fed-up with people using the 'customer only' spaces outside the First Choice Liquor Market store in Newstead, Brisbane — which they own — management decided to take action. Photos show a car with P-plates blocked in by a yellow bollard with a note left on its back window.

The typed note addressed to the driver informs them of "the purpose" of the space which is to "have an available spot for customers" to park. It's understood there is ample signage stating parking beyond 15 minutes is prohibited and that fines apply.

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A Manhattan federal judge in a long-running lawsuit against the city’s beleaguered Department of Correction said Wednesday that a third-party receiver should be appointed to oversee use-of-force and safety issues in the city’s jails.

Laura Taylor Swain, chief district judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, cited nine years of failed promises by jail officials in her 65-page decision.

“The glacial pace of reform can be explained by an unfortunate cycle demonstrated by DOC leadership, which has changed materially a number of times over the life of the Court’s orders, wherein initiatives are created, changed in some material way or abandoned, and then restarted,” she wrote.

She ruled that fining the city or taking other measures to force reforms would not be enough.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22618167

Goodlettsville police say they responded this morning to a bomb threat at the home of Pete Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense.

The heavy police presence led to the closure of portions of Patton Branch and Madison Creek roads in the Sumner County portion of Goodlettsville Wednesday.

This is one of a number of threats and swatting attacks against Trump cabinet nominees across the country.

“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

She said the attacks “ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting.’ In response, law enforcement and other authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”

Swatting entails generating an emergency law enforcement response against a target victim under false pretenses.

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Goodlettsville police say they responded this morning to a bomb threat at the home of Pete Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense.

The heavy police presence led to the closure of portions of Patton Branch and Madison Creek roads in the Sumner County portion of Goodlettsville Wednesday.

This is one of a number of threats and swatting attacks against Trump cabinet nominees across the country.

“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

She said the attacks “ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting.’ In response, law enforcement and other authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”

Swatting entails generating an emergency law enforcement response against a target victim under false pretenses.

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People in the area believe they were kept out of a vote to build a pickleball court feet away from their homes. They said the courts could bring more traffic and noise pollution to their backyards, so they are organizing to stop it.

Metro Parks said the pickleball courts would replace three deteriorated tennis courts in Charlotte Park, but the issue involves the residents living just feet away from the courts, who claim they did not know the project was happening.

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The group that unsuccessfully opposed Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum ahead of the November election is taking a new approach, filing suit in Davidson County Chancery Court on Wednesday seeking to declare the vote void.

Nearly two-thirds of Nashville voters backed the proposal, which establishes a half-cent sales tax surcharge to be dedicated to Nashville’s transit system, sidewalks adjacent to the transit system and traffic signal updates.

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