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  • Pakistani passenger plane crashes near Karachi, 107 on board

    Pakistani passenger plane crashes near Karachi, 107 on board

    KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A passenger plane carrying 107 passengers and crew belonging to state-run Pakistan International Airlines crashed near the southern port city of Karachi on Friday, a civil aviation official said.

    There were no immediate reports on the number of casualties. The aircraft arriving from the eastern city of Lahore was carrying 99 passengers and eight crew members, said Abdul Sattar Kokhar, spokesman for the country’s civil aviation authority.

    Witnesses said the Airbus A320 appeared to attempt to land two or three times before crashing in a residential area near Jinnah International Airport. The residential area on the edge of the airport known as Model Colony is a poor area and heavily congested.

    A resident of the area, Abdul Rahman, said he saw the aircraft circle at least three times, appearing to try to land before it crashed into several houses.

    Police and military cordoned off the area.

    Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted: “Shocked & saddened by the PIA crash. . . Immediate inquiry will be instituted. Prayers & condolences go to families of the deceased.”

    Local television reports showed smoke coming from the direction of the airport and video emerging of the aircraft flying low over a residential area seemed showed apparent flames shooting from one of the engines. Ambulances were on their way to the airport and there were reports of some injuries, possibly residents on the ground.

    Airbus did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the crash. The flight typically takes an hour and a half from the northeastern city of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, to Karachi.

    Airworthiness documents showed the plane last received a government check on Nov. 1, 2019. PIA’s chief engineer signed a separate certificate April 28 saying all maintenance had been conducted on the plane and that “the aircraft is fully airworthy and meets all the safety” standards.

    Ownership records for the Airbus A320 involved in the crash showed China Eastern Airlines flew the plane from 2004 until 2014. The plane then entered PIA’s fleet, leased from GE Capital Aviation Services.

  • AP source: NHLPA board voting on playoff format to return

    AP source: NHLPA board voting on playoff format to return

    The NHL Players’ Association’s executive board is voting on a 24-team playoff proposal as the return to play format, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

    The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday night because the vote was still ongoing. Results of the vote could be in as soon as Friday night.

    Even if the executive board votes to approve the format, it doesn’t yet seal the deal for the NHL season resuming. The league and players union still need to negotiate other details, including health and safety protocols.

    But the format is a substantial piece of the return to play puzzle.

    Under the plan proposed by the joint NHL/NHLPA Return To Play Committee, the top four teams in each of the Eastern and Western Conferences would play each other for seeding while the remaining 16 teams face off in a best-of-five series play-in round to set the final 16 to compete for the Stanley Cup.

    That would mean byes for Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia in the East and defending champion St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas and Dallas in West. Pittsburgh, Carolina the New York Islanders and Rangers, Toronto, Columbus, Florida and Montreal would also make it in the East and Edmonton, Nashville, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Arizona and Chicago in the West.

    “I feel like if you’re doing the 24-team thing, it basically gives a team a chance that had no chance of making it, which if you play 82 there’s maybe 6, 8% chance that the team in 12th place (in the conference) makes it,” Carolina player representative Jordan Martinook said Wednesday, more than 24 hours before the executive board meeting. “Nobody’s ever seen this before, but at the end of the day, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are 16 teams, seven games a series.”

    This format would lead to the traditional four rounds of seven-game series.

    “I don’t think there’s going to be a perfect scenario where everyone’s super excited about,” Nashville’s Ryan Johansen said earlier Thursday. “As long as everybody can agree and be happy with the decision that will be made, that’s really all that matters.”

    If the NHLPA’s executive board and the league’s board of governors approve the plan, the who of returning would be set. The where, when and how must still be determined, including how many cities will host games, quarantine regulations and testing.

    “Nothing’s really certain until it’s certain, so things can change so quickly and they have on different things,” Return to Play committee member James van Riemsdyk of the Flyers said Wednesday. “We’re trying to keep as many options open and navigate through different things and hopefully come up with a vision that obviously first and foremost is the health and safety of everyone.”

    Commissioner Gary Bettman this week said the league was looking at eight or nine locations to serve as hub cities for the resumption of the season.

    It’s unclear when the league and players will agree to begin the second phase of preparations for return, which would be the reopening of team practice facilities and voluntary workouts. The following step would then likely be a three-week training camp before games resume.

    “Obviously it’s an important thing to navigate through all the different issues that there are so that ultimately we can try to find a safe way to get things going here,” van Riemsdyk said. “There’s been some different talks and things like that and talking about a bunch of different things and trying to sort through some different issues.”

  • The NBA seems on the cusp of a comeback plan

    The NBA seems on the cusp of a comeback plan

    Something is finally clear in the uncertain NBA: Players believe they’re going to play games again this season.

    The obvious questions — How? Where? When? — remain unanswered. Testing, part of the new normal of this coronavirus era, will be a major component to any return-to-play plan that the NBA comes up with. The Disney campus near Orlando, Florida makes so much sense, given its massive size, multiple courts and its ties to league broadcast partner ESPN. And the sooner games begin, the sooner the process of figuring out next season can start as well.

    Several people familiar with the details of the conversations have told The Associated Press this week that players around the league are being urged to start getting mentally and physically ready for training camps that could be just a few weeks away. It might not be a unanimously approved notion, but 2-1/2 months into this pandemic-caused shutdown, the NBA finally seems on the cusp of being able to move forward.

    “I have faith in Adam Silver and the NBA, and the NBA teams … they’re not going to have us come back if it’s even a question of us getting hurt,” Jared Dudley of the Los Angeles Lakers said this week. “And that’s where the testing, being clean, and doing everything that I feel that they’ll do to keep us safe.”

    Pick a scenario for the return-to-play plan, and someone has surely heard it already. Bringing back all 30 teams and resuming the regular season is an option. So is bringing back something like 20 teams and having an expanded playoff of sorts, a notion that essentially mirrors what the NHL is talking about these days. A condensed playoff has also been discussed.

    The latest sign of momentum: Milwaukee owner Marc Lasry, speaking Thursday on CNBC, said the NBA’s board of governors will meet again next week and that he believes “within the next six to eight weeks we should be playing.”

    Silver, the commissioner who has had to deal with a series of turbulent matters from the strained China relationship in the preseason, to the deaths of David Stern and Kobe Bryant in January, and now a pandemic that will almost certainly affect the league’s financial health for the next several years — is listening to any and all ideas.

    “The direction that the league office has received from our teams is, again, all rules are off at this point given the situation we find ourselves in, that the country is in,” Silver said last month. “If there is an opportunity to resume play, even if it looks different than what we’ve done historically, we should be modeling it.”

    The calendar dictates that those decisions are going to come soon, backed up by the fact that Silver told players two weeks ago that he wants to be able to bring forward a return-to-play plan in “two to four weeks.” By that timeframe, the window is about to open.

    “I’m really excited about the possibility of coming back,” Cleveland forward Kevin Love said in remarks broadcast on the NBA’s Twitter channel this week. “I think there’s so much good that can come from it. … People need that escape and as athletes too, we want to get back to what we love most.”

    It’s going to be different. Fans won’t be at games, barring some seismic shift in thinking. Home-court advantage won’t exist since games will almost certainly all be at neutral sites. Even the Orlando Magic won’t have the home-court edge; they might be able to use their own homes if the NBA comes to Central Florida, but it’s not like the games will be in their arena.

    And someone is probably going to test positive when play resumes. If that happens, he’ll almost certainly have to sit out a minimum of two weeks. If a playoff series is held on an every-other-day basis, that means once someone is positive there’s no way he can return to that series. Imagine if LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo tests positive; the title chances for the Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks would basically be gone in an instant.

    But in a season where the NBA is certainly going to lose money, quite possibly $1 billion or more, there is an obvious appetite for getting back to work if safety can be assured.

    “This has been like being an anxious kid that wants to do something but can’t, or an anxious dog where you tell him to sit and he looks at you like ‘C’mon bro’ and his tail starts wagging because he’s so excited,” All-Star Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat said. “It’s been a whole spectrum of the unknown.”

  • Man who filmed Arbery shooting video charged in his slaying

    Man who filmed Arbery shooting video charged in his slaying

    SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The Georgia man whose cellphone video of Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting helped reignite the case was charged with murder Thursday, making him the third person arrested more than two months after the slaying.

    The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said 50-year-old William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. was arrested on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. Agents later searched Bryan’s home, several TV stations reported. The GBI said in a statement that it would hold a news conference Friday morning.

    Arbery was slain Feb. 23 when a white father and son armed themselves and pursued him after spotting the 25-year-old black man running in their neighborhood. More than two months passed before authorities arrested Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. Gregory McMichael told police he suspected Arbery was a burglar and that Arbery attacked his son before being shot.

    Bryan lives in the same subdivision just outside the port city of Brunswick, and the video he took from the cab of his vehicle helped stir a national outcry when it leaked online May 5.

    The video quickly drew a strong reaction from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who called it “absolutely horrific.” The Georgia Bureau of Investigation soon took over the case from local police, and the arrests of the McMichaels followed on May 7.

    Under Georgia law, a person can be charged with felony murder for committing any felony that causes the death of someone else. It does not require intent to kill and carries an automatic life sentence.

    In the Glynn County police incident report on the shooting, Gregory McMichael told an officer that at one point Arbery “began running back the direction from which he came and `Roddy’ attempted to block him which was unsuccessful.” It’s the only mention in the police report of any potential involvement by Bryan.

    Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. He has previously insisted Bryan played no role in Arbery’s death.

    “Roddie Bryan is not now, and has never been, more than a witness to the shooting,” Gough said in a statement on the case Monday. “He is not a vigilante. Roddie did not participate in the horrific killing of this young man. Mr. Bryan has committed no crime, and bears no criminal responsibility in the death of Ahmaud Arbery.”

    Meanwhile, attorneys for Arbery’s parents cheered the news of Bryan’s arrest.

    “We called for his arrest from the very beginning of this process,” attorneys S. Lee Merritt, Benjamin Crump and L. Chris Stewart said in a statement. “His involvement in the murder of Mr. Arbery was obvious to us, to many around the country and after their thorough investigation, it was clear to the GBI as well.”

    Bryan’s video of the shooting was taken from the driver’s seat of a vehicle following Arbery as he runs along a residential street. A pickup truck is parked in the road ahead of Arbery, with one man in the truck’s bed and another standing beside the open driver’s side door.

    The video shows Arbery run around the truck to the right before he cuts back in front of it. Then a gunshot can be heard, followed by a second shot. Arbery can be seen punching a man holding what appears to be a shotgun, who then fires a third shot point-blank. Arbery staggers and falls face down in the street.

    Gregory McMichael retired last year after more than two decades as an investigator for the local prosecutor’s office. Because of those ties, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case. Two outside prosecutors assigned the case have also stepped aside.

    The McMichaels remain jailed in Glynn County waiting for a preliminary court hearing and for a judge to decide whether to free them on bond pending trial. Attorneys for the father and son have urged people not to rush to judgment in the case.

  • Dispute erupts over virus aid for Louisiana local government

     BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan for steering more than $800 million in congressional aid to local government agencies struggling with the coronavirus outbreak ran into roadblocks Thursday with House Republicans who want a say in how the dollars are spent.

    GOP lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee proposed their own approach for using the dollars. They raised objections that the Democratic governor charted plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in federal virus aid without engaging the House and Senate.

    “We wanted as a body to have some input and opportunity to participate in the process,” said Appropriations Chairman Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, a Houma Republican, who inserted spending plans for the federal aid into a Senate-backed budget bill.

    The legislative plan would carve out $200 million for small business grants and leave the remaining $600 million-plus for local government expenses related to the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus. The disbursement to local agencies — such as sheriff’s offices, city councils, school districts and more — would flow through a different program than Edwards planned.

    Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, the governor’s chief budget adviser, said the proposal advancing in the House would delay the state’s ability to get relief aid to local agencies.

    “You are creating a bureaucratic process,” he told the committee. “If you want to get the money out, you should defeat this bill.”

    Louisiana received $1.8 billion in direct congressional relief aid through the CARES Act to respond to COVID-19, with up to 45% available to help local government agencies respond to the coronavirus disease. Louisiana’s congressional delegation urged Edwards to use the full 45%, more than $800 million, for those local government expenses, and the governor agreed.

    Dardenne detailed to local government agency officials Monday the administration’s plans for disbursing the money, in line with federal guidelines requiring its use for virus-related expenses. The governor’s Division of Administration created a website with information about the process and how to register for expense reimbursement. Applications were slated to start June 1, with Dardenne saying the first payments would go out in July.

    But the legislation advanced by the Appropriations Committee in a 13-9 vote Thursday would change those plans.

    In addition to the carve-out for small business grants, the local government aid would have to be divvied up based on parish population and the parish’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Lawmakers would have to agree to the allocations before the money could be disbursed.

    Dardenne said local government agencies likely wouldn’t have enough COVID-19 expenses to use up all $800 million, suggesting he didn’t necessarily disagree with carving out $200 million for small business grants. But he said the other provisions would slow payments to local agencies.

    Zeringue said he’d be willing to negotiate on a final version: “This is not intended to slow down the process.”

    Republicans pushed ahead with advancing the bill to the full House for debate. Democrats on the committee voted against the proposal, siding with the Edwards administration.

    ___

    Senate Bill 189: www.legis.la.gov

  • New Louisiana unemployment applications lowest since March

    New Louisiana unemployment applications lowest since March

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — About 28,800 Louisiana residents filed for unemployment last week — more than 12 times as many as a year earlier, but the lowest number since pandemic restrictions began pounding the state’s economy. The number of was down nearly 11,300 from the previous week, according to state and federal data.

    The agencies said about 321,700 Louisiana residents were receiving state unemployment payments last week as the coronavirus outbreak continued. That edged down about 3,400 from the previous week’s peak but was nearly 24 times the 13,500 on unemployment a year earlier.

    Since business restrictions in Louisiana were eased only Friday, “it is impossible to determine if the phase 1 reopening had any effect on the total number of initial claims filed,” the Louisiana Workforce Commission said in an unsigned emailed statement.

    It said more than 493,000 state residents have received nearly $1.9 billion in state unemployment and federal pandemic aid as the outbreak has battered the U.S. economy.

    Shopping malls, fitness centers, barbers and hair and nail salons were able to reopen Friday at 25% capacity and casinos could reopen Monday. However, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the changes May 11 to give companies time to prepare.

    The state Department of Health said about 36,500 people have diagnosed with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus and 2,506 have died. However, numbers of hospitalized patients and those on ventilation continued to drop, to 884 and 107 respectively.

    Nearly two-thirds of the 1,188 new cases reported Thursday were from labs that had not sent in data before, and some of those cases dated back to late March, said Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Alex Billioux.

    “We also have increased testing,” he said in a news release. “That only 6.1% of all these test results are positive is a good sign. Our goal is to keep that number below 10%, the goal set by the federal government.”

    Billioux said officials believe they’re starting to see the effects of comprehensive testing in nursing homes and other “congregate settings” and at workplaces where outbreaks have occurred.

    “This is what suppression of COVID-19 looks like—and it is critical to moving our state forward,” he said.

    For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.

  • Mississippi gov condemns church fire amid virus pandemic

    Mississippi gov condemns church fire amid virus pandemic

    HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday condemned a church fire that’s being investigated as an arson. First Pentecostal Church in Holly Springs burned on Wednesday, about a month after it filed a lawsuit challenging city restrictions on gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    News outlets reported that investigators from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office found graffiti in the church parking lot that read: “Bet you stay home now you hypokrites.”

    The Republican governor said during a news conference in Jackson that the fire and the message make him “heartbroken” and “furious.”

    “This is not who we are as a people,” Reeves said. “This is not who we are as a state.”

    Pastor Jerry Waldrop said he and other church leaders have no idea who might have set the fire or left the graffiti.

    “No enemies that we know of,” Waldrop said. “We don’t know anyone that we even think could be capable of doing something like this.”

    The church sued the city of Holly Springs in April, alleging police officers had disrupted a church Bible study and Easter service. Holly Springs City Attorney Shirley Byers said nearly 40 worshipers inside the church building were not practicing social distancing on April 10 when a violation citation was issued for the church.

    Churchgoers practiced social distancing while indoors and only held indoor services when bad weather would not allow them to gather outside, the lawsuit said. Byers said the city amended its local order in late April to allow for drive-thru church services.

    The governor’s safer-at-home order, which is set to expire Monday, allows churches to operate as essential businesses, but it limits the size of indoor gatherings. The Republican governor has also asked pastors to follow public health recommendations on social distancing and other practices to mitigate the spread of the virus. Reeves issued guidelines this week for places of worship to restart services inside their buildings.

    Authorities are offering a reward for tips on the arson investigation.

  • Arkansas woman arrested in attempted murder of marshal

    OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — An Arkansas woman is being held without bond for her alleged role in the attempted murder of a deputy U.S. Marshal in Mississippi.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Mississippi’s Northern District said in a news release Thursday that Xaveriana Cook, 23, appeared in U.S. Magistrate Court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on multiple charges from a shoot-out in Oxford on May 15.

    U.S. Marshals were trying to arrest Cook’s boyfriend, Hunter Carlstrom, on a warrant charging him with the May 5 murder of James “Caveman” Sartorelli who was shot in the head at his home in Smithville, Arkansas.

    Authorities made a traffic stop May 15 and Carlstrom and Cook were together in her car when members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force tried to arrest Carlstrom on the warrant. During the stop, Carlstrom shot a deputy and law enforcement returned fire, killing him.

    At Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill identified the deputy as Bob Dickerson, who sustained internal injuries that required surgery, The Oxford Eagle reported. His condition was not immediately available Thursday.

    Cook was arrested on several charges including transportation of stolen firearms, possession of stolen firearms, and aiding and abetting the attempt to kill a deputy U.S. Marshal. Authorities testified at the detention hearing that officers found stolen guns that had been taken from Sartorelli’s house.

    After about three hours of testimony, U.S. Magistrate Judge Roy Percy found that Cook presented a flight risk and ordered her held without bond. It was not immediately known whether she’s represented by an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

  • Starting jackpots for Louisiana Lotto to rise in August

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana is upgrading its flagship state lottery game.

    The Louisiana Lottery said it will begin offering starting jackpots of $500,000 for the Louisiana Lotto with the Aug. 5 drawing. The change doubles the starting jackpot and marks only the fourth time Lotto has changed in its 28-year history, KATC-TV reported.

    “There will be more to love about Lotto this summer with more frequent $1 million-plus jackpots that our loyal Lotto players enjoy,” Lottery President Rose Hudson said in a news release Wednesday. “Our players have spoken, and we listened with a Louisiana game that is still just a dollar.”

    To create the larger starting jackpots, the redesigned game will require players to select six numbers out of 42. That bumps the overall odds of winning to 1 in 34.4 The previous matrix was six numbers out of 40 with overall odds of 1 in 30.

    The match-5 and match-4 prizes will continue to be pari-mutuel, meaning the actual prize won will be determined by dividing each respective tier’s prize pool by the total number of winners for that drawing.

    Because the matrix will change, the lottery will temporarily suspend the multidraw option for Lotto to prevent future draw purchases that eclipse the new version’s sale date of Aug. 2. Multidraw will return to full functionality under the new game matrix Aug. 2.

  • NFL looks at adding “booth umpire” and tech adviser for refs

    NFL looks at adding “booth umpire” and tech adviser for refs

    The NFL is considering adding a “booth umpire” and a senior technology adviser to the referee to assist the officiating crew.

    The league also is looking at other rules changes, including an alternative to the onside kick.

    NFL clubs received a list of potential rules changes on Thursday. Owners will vote on the proposals at the upcoming league meeting to be held by video conference on May 28.

    The league’s competition committee told teams last month it supports studying ways to determine how officiating personnel who have access to a video feed could help on-field officials. A booth umpire would serve as an eighth game official.

    If owners don’t approve adding a booth umpire and/or a senior technology adviser, the league could test a version of both rules in the preseason for possible future implementation.

    The proposal that would give teams another option instead of an onside kick permits a team to maintain possession of the ball after a score by substituting one offensive play. The kicking team would attempt a fourth-and-15 from its 25-yard line. This could be done a maximum of two times per game.

    Onside kicks have become infrequent — and hardly ever successful — since the NFL changed rules on alignments for kickoffs.

    Other rules changes that’ll be discussed:

    — Making permanent the expansion of automatic replay reviews to include scoring plays and turnovers negated by a foul, and any successful or unsuccessful extra-point attempt.

    — Providing the option to the defense for the game clock to start on the referee’s signal if the defense declines an offensive penalty that occurs late in either half. This would eliminate instances when an offense could benefit time-wise from committing a penalty.

    — Expanding the defenseless player protection to a kickoff or punt returner who is in possession of the ball but who has not had time to avoid or ward off the impending contact of an opponent.

    — Preventing teams from manipulating the game clock by committing multiple dead-ball fouls while the clock is running.

    The Eagles had proposed restoring preseason and regular-season overtime to 15 minutes and to implement rules to minimize the impact of the overtime coin toss. But they have withdrawn the idea.

    Owners are expected to drop the use of video reviews on pass interference after a one-year trial that caused as many headaches as it solved issues. The competition committee has recommended not renewing the rule that was put in place for last season after an egregious missed call in the 2018 NFC title game affected the result.