LUY-Development

Author: Imported Author 1932006

  • FAA says Boeing can resume self-certifying its jets as airworthy


    Boeing will be allowed to take responsibility for certifying all of its 737 Max and 787 planes starting next week, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

    The FAA said that after months of review the agency decided that Boeing’s final safety checks on its planes are good enough to ensure they are airworthy.

    Since September, Boeing and the agency had been taking weekly turns performing the safety checks that are required before aircraft are cleared for delivery and declared safe to fly. The FAA said Friday that the plane maker and government inspectors were both issuing similar findings as they issued airworthiness certificates.

    Federal regulators took full control over 737 Max approvals in 2019, after the second of two crashes that were later blamed on a new software system Boeing developed for the aircraft. The FAA ended the company’s right to self-certify 787 Dreamliners in 2022, citing ongoing production quality issues.

    “Safety drives everything we do, and this step forward is only possible because we are confident it can be done safely,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said.

    Government inspectors will continue to oversee Boeing’s factories, but Bedford said they will now be able to focus more on finding and addressing potential defects earlier in the manufacturing process. The plane maker said it will continue working to improve safety.

    “Boeing will continue to work under the oversight of the FAA in building safe, high-quality commercial airplanes that comply with all airworthiness certification requirements,” Boeing said in a statement.

    Over the past year the FAA has also been easing the monthly production limits it imposed on Boeing’s 737 Max jets after a panel flew off one of those planes operated by Alaska Airlines midflight in January 2024. That limit has gradually increased from 38 per month to reach 47 per month this summer.


  • Mullin pushes states to comply with election demands, echoing Trump’s claims about midterm risks


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday warned that state officials could lose funding or face investigations if they fail to go along with President Donald Trump’s election security demands, part of the Republican president’s longstanding attempt to undermine Americans’ confidence in the vote.

    Experts said the threats — issued just months before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress — were likely hollow because Trump’s voting initiatives have been stalled by judges and the Constitution gives states control over how elections are run.

    Nevertheless, Mullin’s remarks, delivered from the White House complex one day after Trump’s primetime address on the topic, could further doubts about election processes and create headaches for states as they prepare for November.

    “We absolutely can build confidence in the American people, but the states have to do their part,” Mullin said.

    Trump continues to falsely claim that Democrat Joe Biden won only because of fraud in 2020, and he’s tried to marshal the powers of the federal government to rewrite that history since he returned to office last year — even though judges and his own attorney general in his first term concluded the election was legitimate.

    Mullin insisted that the president was not relitigating the 2020 election, “although he definitely could at this point.”

    “This is just about exposing what took place and making sure it never happens again,” he said.

    Mullin’s claims of noncitizen voters rely on incomplete data

    During his remarks, Mullin advanced an unsubstantiated claim Trump made Thursday that the federal government had found 250,000 noncitizen voters on the rolls in California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He said the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation was conducted using public data, which election experts say is insufficiently detailed and updated to properly identify whether a registered voter is a noncitizen.

    Election officials in California and Pennsylvania said they would review the Trump administration’s findings but noted that they conduct their own voter list maintenance and noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare. Research has supported that finding.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, responded to Mullin’s threats with a post on social media.

    “California has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them,” he wrote. “Try us.”

    In Nevada, Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, also a Democrat, said he was confident in the integrity of the state’s voter file.

    “We are constantly looking at the information to figure out how many registered voters in Nevada don’t have a Social Security number on file,” he said. “We have done significant work to make sure our voter rolls are as clean as possible.”

    Mullin also pledged to aggressively monitor public voter lists to pursue potential voter fraud cases before and after the 2026 election.

    “If you are an illegal or you are voting illegally, we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will prosecute you,” he said.

    He urged states to participate in DHS’ recently overhauled SAVE program, a federal tool central to the Trump administration’s efforts to nationalize elections. At least 25 states have used it to check their voter rolls since April 2025, after the Trump administration significantly expanded its search abilities, and the Trump administration has demanded that states submit their sensitive voter data to the program to fully audit their voter lists.

    Mullin said if state officials don’t participate in SAVE, they could face fines, penalties or prison time.

    But the overhauled program’s use was recently blocked by a federal judge over concerns about privacy and wrongful purges of eligible voters. The case included voters whose registrations were wrongly flagged by the program, temporarily threatening their place on the rolls.

    David Becker, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, said Mullin was making empty threats.

    “Every court to consider the DOJ’s demands — 15 of them to date, six of those judges appointed by President Trump — have confirmed that the federal government cannot legally demand access to states’ sensitive voter data,” he said. “What he’s suggesting is illegal.”

    In addition, Trump’s efforts to pass the SAVE Act, federal legislation that would require proof of citizenship for voter registration, has stalled in the Senate. Republicans don’t have enough votes to change the filibuster rules and pass it without Democratic support.

    Cybersecurity support for election officials has been diminished in Trump’s second term

    Mullin also elevated Trump’s concerns about vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines — which voting experts have long acknowledged. While Trump suggested Thursday that these risks make it possible to “rig” the vote, election officials say there are numerous safeguards in place to prevent that, including physical security, voting machine tests, postelection reviews and paper ballot backups in most of the country.

    To address the concerns, Mullin said the nation’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which sits under DHS, would release an updated election infrastructure plan within 30 days and provide cyber threat resources to election officials if they participate in SAVE.

    However, Trump has broadly dismantled the agency’s election security operation.

    CISA was largely absent from its long-held role assisting states in last year’s elections after the Trump administration conducted a review of its election work, placed more than a dozen election-focused staffers on administrative leave and slashed $10 million from two cybersecurity initiatives, including one dedicated to helping state and local election officials. The agency is also still without a Senate-confirmed director and has cycled through a series of acting leaders.

    Aguilar said his state has stepped up and will protect its own elections in the absence of federal help.

    “The fact that they think they’re going to come in prior to the general election in November and provide us infrastructure, that’s nuts,” he said. “Actions speak louder than words, and in their case, it’s all been talk.”

    ___

    Swenson reported from New York.


  • Chinese AI model takes US tech industry by surprise with abilities rivaling Claude and ChatGPT


    Another powerful new artificial intelligence model from China took the U.S. tech industry by surprise Friday, the latest sign that Chinese startups that publicly release their “open-source” AI technology are making the California titans of AI sweat.

    The newest Kimi K3 model from Beijing-based startup Moonshot, run by a Pink Floyd-loving entrepreneur who earned his doctorate in Pittsburgh, appears to be catching up to the best versions of Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

    “This may be the single biggest release of the year,” and marks a moment when open-source Chinese models are surpassing closed U.S. models, said Anastasios Angelopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Arena, a platform for evaluating AI systems.

    Kimi K3 topped the charts in Arena’s ranking of what it calls “front-end coding capability,” a measure of an AI large language model’s performance. “More results are rolling in that are likely to continue to show it is at the top of the pack,” Angelopoulos said on social media.

    It was not likely a coincidence that K3’s unveiling came shortly before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s opening address Friday to the nation’s annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.

    American-led restrictions have blocked China from accessing some of the world’s most advanced technologies, spurring China’s efforts to build its own know-how and intensifying the rivalry between the world’s two biggest economies.

    “The development of artificial intelligence should not be a solo performance by any single country but rather a symphony of global cooperation,” Xi said at the event.

    Chinese AI models have shown large strides

    K3 follows another major AI model release last month from the Chinese startup Zhipu, or Z.ai. Its new flagship GLM-5.2 model is already widely used by software developers around the world who say it can perform work almost as well as top U.S. models at a lower price.

    The hype over the new Chinese model resembles the market-shaking panic that followed Chinese startup DeepSeek ‘s new model release in early 2025, though not everyone finds it justified. The response to K3 is an “overreaction shockingly similar” to DeepSeek’s release last year, said tech analyst Patrick Moorhead on social media. He said it could be good for parts of the broader AI industry but poses a revenue challenge to Anthropic and OpenAI.

    During the conference, which runs until Monday, tech giant Huawei has also been showcasing a new AI computing system called the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, a signal that China increasingly is amassing the domestic hardware it needs despite U.S. restrictions on imports from chipmakers like Nvidia.

    Moonshot hasn’t said what hardware it used to build K3, but the startup is a partner with Huawei.

    The price to use K3 is the highest yet for a Chinese AI model, but is still half as expensive as OpenAI’s high-performing GPT-5.6 Sol model, according to a Friday report by Bank of America research analysts.

    U.S. politicians and several major U.S. AI companies including Anthropic and OpenAI have accused Chinese AI models of illicit “distillation” of their models to extract their technologies, a claim that Beijing says is “groundless.”

    Anthropic in February accused DeepSeek, Moonshot and a third China-based AI lab, MiniMax, of engaging in campaigns to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models” using the distillation technique that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.”

    Anthropic said that distillation can be a legitimate way to train AI systems but it’s a problem when competitors “use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.”

    But it can go both ways. San Francisco-based startup Anysphere, maker of the popular coding tool Cursor, has acknowledged that one of its top products was based on Moonshot’s K2.5 model. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning to close a deal to buy Cursor for $60 billion later this year.

    K3 marks a leap for ‘open-source’ AI models

    Moonshot co-founder and CEO Yang Zhilin earned his Ph.D. in 2019 at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is said to have made fundamental contributions to the machine-learning field and was known for a love of rock bands like Pink Floyd.

    The pride among his former colleagues at the Pennsylvania school transcends the U.S.-China rivalry.

    “What a huge win for the open-source community! It feels like just yesterday Zhilin was graduating from my lab at CMU,” wrote his former adviser Russ Salakhutdinov, who is also a former director of AI research at Apple.

    Developers who build “open-source” AI make key components of the technology accessible for anyone to examine, modify and build upon. Proponents say open-source practices promote innovation, while critics warn that making powerful AI models publicly accessible poses safety and security dangers. ___

    Associated Press writer Chan Ho-him contributed to this report.


  • Foodborne illnesses at restaurant chains are rare but can sicken customers


    NEW YORK (AP) — Big U.S. restaurant chains don’t get linked to foodborne illness outbreaks often, but the number of meals they serve causes a lot of concern when contamination of some kind sickens customers.

    Federal health officials identified iceberg lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations in five states as a source of widespread infections from the diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation identified a single supplier as the source of the suspect lettuce.

    Taco Bell issued a statement on Thursday saying that “the affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states.” The company described the move as precautionary.

    A federal official who was briefed on the outbreak investigation and not authorized to discuss it identified the supplier as Taylor Farms, a company based in Salinas, California, that produces fresh vegetables for commercial use and meal kits and bagged lettuce products sold at supermarkets.

    Federal health officials stressed that other “brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels” could be identified as the investigation continues.

    Here’s a brief history of some other recent outbreaks that roiled restaurant companies and sometimes changed how food safety is regulated in the U.S.

    Taylor Farms provided onions implicated in an outbreak linked to McDonald’s hamburgers

    E. coli bacteria caused a 2024 food poisoning outbreak tied to raw onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers. The outbreak sickened at least 104 people in 14 states, including 34 who were hospitalized, according to the FDA. One person in Colorado died.

    McDonald’s said the onions came from Taylor Farms and temporarily pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu in the affected states. Other national restaurant chains temporarily stopped using fresh onions in some of their locations.

    Likely E. coli contamination gets lettuce pulled from Wendy’s sandwiches

    Wendy’s pulled lettuce from sandwiches in its restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania in August 2022 after some people reported falling ill.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at the time that it was trying to determine whether romaine lettuce was the source of an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 37 people and whether romaine used at Wendy’s was also served or sold at other businesses.

    One person was also sickened in Indiana, according to the CDC.

    Extensive E. coli outbreak at Chipotle leads to criminal charges

    In 2015, Chipotle was hit by an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people and it temporarily shut down dozens of restaurants on the West Coast, but that was just the beginning. A month later, 30 Boston College students, including at least eight members of the men’s basketball team, complained of gastrointestinal symptoms after eating at a Chipotle restaurant.

    Federal officials declared the outbreak over by February 2016, but the chain shut down every one of its restaurants to retrain employees and allow them to regroup.

    By the end of the year, however, Chipotle Co-CEO Montgomery Moran stepped down as sales plunged.

    In 2020 Chipotle Mexican Grille agreed to pay a record $25 million fine to resolve criminal charges that it served tainted food that sickened more than 1,100 people in the U.S. between 2015 and 2018.

    The company admitted that poor safety practices, such as not keeping food at proper temperatures to prevent pathogen growth, sickened customers in Los Angeles and nearby Simi Valley, as well as Boston, Sterling, Virginia, and Powell, Ohio.

    Taco Bell removes green onions nationwide after an E. coli outbreak sickens dozens

    In December 2006, Taco Bell ordered the removal of green onions from its 5,800 restaurants nationwide after samples taken by investigators appeared to contain a harsh strain of E. coli. The outbreak sickened at least 71 people in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with most of them hospitalized, according to the CDC.

    Eight people developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic-uremic syndrome.

    Eventually, it was determined that contaminated lettuce was the probable cause, with the vegetable used in numerous dishes on the menu.

    Almost immediately, Taco Bell launched a newspaper ad blitz and sent its president on a string of media interviews to assure customers that its food was safe.

    Deadly outbreak traced to Jack in the Box hamburgers leads to regulatory changes

    Four deaths and more than 700 illnesses in Washington, Idaho, California, and Nevada between 1992 and 1993 eventually were traced to undercooked Jack in the Box restaurant hamburgers contaminated with E. coli.

    The ensuing investigation by federal regulators changed regulatory practices in the U.S., experts say.

    An investigation by the CDC identified five slaughter plants in the U.S. and one in Canada as the likely sources of animals used in the contaminated lots of meat and identified potential control points for reducing the likelihood of contamination. The animals slaughtered in domestic slaughter plants were traced to farms and auctions in six western states. No one slaughter plant or farm was identified as the source.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture mandated a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system, which helps identify and control hazards within the system of food production. The system provided for more monitoring and controls to rapidly limit the spread of outbreaks.

    Jack in the Box lost more than $44 million in 1993 and did not post another annual profit for another three years.


  • Bill Belichick’s 1st college team struggled at UNC. He’s hoping lessons learned lead to more success


    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NFL coaching great Bill Belichick spent a bumpy debut season at North Carolina trying to blend a roster full of newcomers and adjusting to life in the college ranks.

    It was a learning experience even for someone with a résumé featuring six Super Bowl titles as a head coach and ranking as one of the NFL’s all-time leaders in coaching wins.

    “Look, I learn every year, I learn things every day,” Belichick said Friday morning during the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason football media days.

    “Every week is a learning experience for me. Try to listen to the people that are around me that work for us, that do various things, whether it’s academics, training, nutrition, offense, defense, special teams, so forth. Try to do the best I can to help put it all together.

    “Recruiting, fundraising — you name it. There are a lot of different things and I can improve in all of them.”

    It was a rough debut for the 74-year-old Belichick, best known for his time hoisting trophies and winning with relentless precision alongside star quarterback Tom Brady with the New England Patriots.

    His arrival at the college level was a spectacle, one that put a national spotlight on a school with a football program that had long been an ACC also-ran compared to its tradition-rich men’s basketball program being among the nation’s blueblood elite.

    There’s less buzz this time around. There’s no curiosity to imagining what it will look like for Belichick to roam a college sideline sporting his trademark hoodie garb. And the Tar Heels’ poor on-field performance offers little reason to expect a big leap in Year 2.

    Yet similar to what he was known for in his Patriots tenure, Belichick is focused on his internal evaluation. And he sees cause for optimism.

    “Last year when we started, we were literally starting from scratch,” he said. “We’re above that now for sure.”

    Belichick is hoping there’s more continuity from spring drills

    Belichick has pointed numerous times to the Tar Heels getting a late run into recruiting after his December hiring, starting with jumping into the transfer portal and then pulling from the high school ranks. That meant pulling together a roster to get started with spring drills, then going through more waves of roster changes leading into preseason camp.

    “The biggest thing last year was just how behind we were,” Belichick said of his December 2024 arrival.

    By the time the Tar Heels started last season, they had 70 new players.

    “This time a year ago, we didn’t have a quarterback who had taken a snap even in spring ball for us,” Belichick said.

    “Last year we didn’t have any player-run practices. We couldn’t actually line up a team and run against another team without the coaches being out there because we didn’t have anybody that knew enough on either side of the ball to do that. Whereas this year these guys have done it all spring and all summer.”

    To that point, the Tar Heels have plenty of newness on the roster with 40 true freshmen and 17 redshirt freshmen. But UNC also had 35 of the first-year freshmen arrive in time to go through spring practices while there’s enough returnees to offer continuity and better stability.

    “Culture’s a lot different, work ethic’s different,” Belichick said. “I’m not taking anything away from the guys that were here. But compared to a year ago, we just know a lot more about what we’re doing and how to do it and our culture’s a lot different.”

    UNC knows what to expect for Belichick’s second season

    Belichick’s appearance at this ACC Kickoff event last year was the center of attention. So too was his nationally televised Labor Day debut in front of a sellout home crowd against TCU.

    Yet the Tar Heels lost that game in a blowout in what turned out to be a harbinger of frustration to come. And Belichick’s mere presence on the sideline only magnified the pressure that arose from on-field troubles and unwanted off-field headlines, from an assistant coach’s suspension to tabloid-like interest in Belichick’s relationship with 25-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson.

    “Seeing a guy like Coach Belichick, who’s constantly in the spotlight — I mean, the guy could cure cancer and people would still write negative pieces about him,” offensive lineman Christo Kelly said.

    “But seeing how he handles himself through everything, seeing how he’s continued to block out the noise, it really sets the standard for what we should be doing.”

    By the end of the year, Belichick had fielded a team that had more losses by double-digit margins (five) than total wins, with two home losses ending in an empty stadium with Tar Heels fans having fled early for the exits. UNC’s three wins against Bowl Subdivision opponents came against teams with a combined 8-28 record (Charlotte, Syracuse and Stanford), while the Tar Heels failed to make a bowl for the first time since 2018.

    At least nothing should surprise the Tar Heels this year about playing under the Belichick microscope.

    “We really felt like it was all Carolina — Carolina for Carolina, nobody else was really rooting for us, everybody wanted to see Coach Belichick fail,” receiver Jordan Shipp said.

    “It was just like we knew that we were in this by ourselves. And everybody that was here last year, we know that feeling. So now we know what to expect.”

    ___

    AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football


  • MLB restricts dugout iPad use to prevent use of AI to make decisions

     

    NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball is restricting iPad usage in dugouts to prevent the tablets from running artificial intelligence to help make decisions.

    The tablets have access to video and league-provided data, and also included a custom tab where teams could access other programs. MLB made the custom tabs inaccessible to teams starting Wednesday night, when the second half of the season started.

    “In many cases, the custom tab had expanded the use of the dugout iPads beyond their originally intended purpose to include recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling, and other in-game decisions traditionally made by players and coaches,” MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword wrote in a June 11 memo to general managers, assistant GMs and video coordinators.

    The memo, first reported by The Athletic, was obtained by The Associated Press.

    A review by the competition committee found clubs had been compliant with the regulations.

    “Instituting this prohibition beginning with the second half of the season is intended to provide clubs that have relied on the custom tab with appropriate lead-time to make any necessary adjustments,” Sword wrote.

    MLB started a pilot program allowing use of iPads in dugouts with restrictions late in the 2015 season and expanded their use in 2016 under a deal with Apple. Video was eliminated in the 2020 COVID season following the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, then returned in 2021.

    ___

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

     

  • Far above the Earth, NASA’s Apollo lunar lander put astronauts on the moon


    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — America’s most daring, extraordinary feat — landing astronauts on the moon — remains the pinnacle of achievement by anyone anywhere. Ever.

    And the lunar lander — a groundbreaking piece of America — is up there still, far away.

    NASA put 12 men on the lunar surface more than half a century ago, beginning with Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The two became the first humans to explore another world when their lander, bearing the patriotic name Eagle, settled onto the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969. “The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong radioed as a spellbound Earth erupted in cheers and tears.

    Just 6½ hours later came the most momentous and memorable line of all. Armstrong descended the ladder and stepped onto the gray, gritty dust: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

    At 23 feet (7 meters), the Apollo lunar module stood a little taller than a giraffe and looked just as ungainly. It had two sections: a lower descent stage with four legs and an upper stage that housed the crew. The descent stage got the moonwalkers to the lunar surface and remained behind as the men blasted back into lunar orbit.

    All six descent stages will be there for perpetuity, clumped around the equator on the moon’s near side.

    NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and other countries’ satellites around the moon have photographed them. Resembling whitish splotches from orbit, the descent stages pinpoint the touchdown sites not only of Eagle but Intrepid, Antares, Falcon, Orion and Challenger. Its moon landing nixed, Apollo 13’s lunar module Aquarius was turned into a lifeboat that got its crew of three safely home. The ascent stages are scattered all over the moon — smashed to bits, no longer needed once the moonwalkers were back inside the command module. Some speculate, however, that Apollo 11’s ascent stage might still be orbiting.

    For NASA’s new Artemis program, private businesses are handling lunar lander details and operations. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are scrambling to get their landers ready for a docking test in low-Earth orbit with a NASA crew capsule next year. If Artemis III’s docking rehearsal goes well, NASA could launch its first moon landing with astronauts since Apollo as early as 2028. SpaceX’s Starship is so tall that moonwalkers will need a 10-floor elevator to descend to the lunar surface. The Apollo astronauts used a nine-rung ladder.

    On that long-ago day, President Richard Nixon said in a phone call to Armstrong and Aldrin as the pair stood alongside the U.S. flag they had just planted 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) from home. Said Nixon: “For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one.”

    ___

    Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


  • Titans to honor ALS-diagnosed Chris Johnson by inducting him into Ring of Honor


    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans will induct Chris Johnson, the sixth man in NFL history to run for 2,000 yards in a season, into their Ring of Honor during halftime of their regular-season opener Sept. 13.

    The Titans announced the honor Friday following Johnson’s announcement June 29 on ABC’s “ Good Morning America ” that he was diagnosed with ALS, the fatal nervous system disease a year earlier.

    “Chris Johnson holds a special place in the hearts of our organization and our fans,” Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said. “His stats speak for themselves, and he will forever remain a leader in our record books, but the man behind the yardage deserves just as much celebration.”

    Johnson was the 24th pick overall in 2008 by the Titans and played six of his 10 seasons in the NFL with Tennessee. He rushed for 7,965 yards and had 58 total touchdowns in that span. Those totals both rank fourth for a franchise that also had Earl Campbell, Eddie George and Derrick Henry.

    He earned the nickname “CJ2K” in 2009 when he finished with 2,006 yards rushing to join O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis and Jamal Lewis in the exclusive 2,000-yard club. Johnson also had 2,509 yards from scrimmage, a single-season record that still stands in the NFL.

    That earned him The Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award.

    Johnson will be inducted at halftime of the Titans’ opener against the New York Jets, the team the running back played for in 2014. He becomes the 20th inductee into the Titans’ Ring of Honor with former radio analyst and assistant coach Dave McGinnis being inducted posthumously later this season.

    ___

    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl


  • A body is recovered after San Francisco boat tragedy but 2 remain missing


    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police have recovered the body of a woman who was one of three people missing after a boat sank this week in San Francisco Bay.

    The body was identified as Tondra Madruga, 58, also known as Tondra Miller, the San Francisco medical examiner said Friday.

    Madruga’s body was recovered Thursday by a police marine unit, two days after the Volare, a 49-foot (15-meter) cabin cruiser, sank with 20 people aboard after being hit by a wave and capsizing. The group was on the boat to scatter the ashes of a loved one.

    “Our family is heartbroken by the loss of our beloved mother, daughter, sister, and aunt, Tondra Madruga,” family member Quin Madruga said on Facebook. “Our hearts remain with every family impacted, and we sincerely appreciate your kindness and understanding.”

    One man, Clifford Boisa, died immediately after being retrieved from the chilly water. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended rescue efforts Wednesday evening but police are still looking for the missing.

    Ralph Boisa said his extended family and some close friends were on the boat Tuesday to celebrate the life of his daughter, who died over a decade ago. Madruga was a friend.

    The two people who remain missing are Ralph Boisa’s sister, Carol, and Clifford Boisa’s wife, Jackie, he said.

    Madruga’s body was discovered in San Francisco Bay near Treasure Island, a former naval station, when a boater first reported it, police said.

    The bay is notorious for its strong currents, and within hours of the boat’s sinking, rescuers were also searching the open ocean beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Crews searched more than 800 square miles (over 2,000 square kilometers), according to the Coast Guard. That’s an area roughly half the size of Rhode Island.

    The boat is believed to be submerged on the rocky seabed in water 120 feet (36 meters) deep. When the wreck is located, authorities will determine whether a safe recovery can be conducted, police said.


  • Trey McBride is voted the NFL’s top tight end by an AP panel


    Trey McBride was the bright spot last season for a dismal team in Arizona.

    He was the most productive tight end in the NFL, a near-unanimous All-Pro selection and made his second straight Pro Bowl.

    McBride’s success has also landed him the top spot at tight end in a preseason survey by The Associated Press. He received five first-place votes from a panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers who ranked the top five players at the position, basing selections on current status entering the 2026 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second- through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

    George Kittle finished second with three first-place votes. Brock Bowers came in third, followed by Sam LaPorta and Kyle Pitts.

    1. Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals

    McBride had a breakout year in 2024 and followed that up with a record-setting season in 2025.

    He caught 126 passes last season, breaking Zach Ertz’s record for most in a season by a tight end, had 1,239 receiving yards, and his 11 receiving touchdowns tied for first. McBride also led tight ends with 566 yards after the catch.

    He got one second-place vote and two thirds to go with the five firsts in voting for this season’s Top 5.

    2. George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers

    Kittle had 57 receptions for 628 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in only 11 games last season, averaging 11.0 yards per reception.

    He had just two drops and 259 yards after the catch.

    The seven-time Pro Bowl pick and two-time All-Pro is one of the best blocking tight ends in NFL history.

    Kittle, who tore his Achilles in San Francisco’s playoff victory over the Eagles, got two second-place votes to go with the three firsts and appeared on seven ballots.

    3. Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders

    After a sensational All-Pro rookie season, Bowers was plagued by injuries last year. He caught 64 passes for 680 yards and seven TDs in 12 games and made his second Pro Bowl.

    Bowers gained 296 yards after the catch, and had three drops. A dynamic receiver, Bowers is still a work in progress as a blocker.

    He received three second-place votes and was on each ballot.

    4. Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions

    LaPorta was limited to nine games because of injuries last season and had 40 catches for 489 yards and three TDs.

    He wasn’t charged with any drops and totaled 273 yards after the catch. LaPorta is one of the best all-around tight ends in the league and an asset in Detroit’s run game because of his outstanding blocking skills.

    5. Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons

    Pitts earned second-team All-Pro honors after a career-high 88 catches for 928 yards and five TDs last season.

    Pitts, who was the highest-drafted tight end in NFL history in 2021 when the Falcons selected him No. 4 overall, lived up to expectations as a rookie when he made the Pro Bowl. But he was disappointing until a breakthrough season last year.

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    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl