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Here are the Bay Area’s semifinalists for the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

Nearly 1,140 Bay Area students have been recognized as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program — a countrywide competition among high school seniors. These students are among 16,000 semifinalists across the nation — less than 1% of the nation’s high school seniors — who will now be considered for around 7,140 scholarships worth nearly $28 million next spring.It’s the third-to-last step in the process. About 95% of semifinalists are expected to to be named finalists, and approximately half of those finalists will earn a scholarship. Over 1.3 million high school juniors in 21,000 high schools entered the competition through the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, or PSAT, which serves as the initial screening of program entrants. The semifinalists announced this week include the highest-scoring students in each state.AlamedaAlameda High SchoolCanavese, Madeleine G.Goldwasser, Bella R.Zhu, AngelicaAlbanyAlbany H...

Will 49ers’ Deebo Samuel resume his touchdown trend against the Rams?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

SANTA CLARA — The last time Deebo Samuel played at SoFi Stadium, he scored, of course. He does that a lot against the Rams. But he also sulked away heartbroken after the 2021 season’s NFC Championship Game loss to the Rams.A hamstring injury kept him out of last season’s 31-14 rout there, so when he returns with the 49ers for Sunday’s Week 2 matchup, it’s noteworthy that he does so as a first-time captain.“It just shows the hard work and stuff I put in this offseason, for the players to vote me in as a captain, it’s real big,” said Samuel, 1-of-6 captains this season.He has scored seven touchdowns in eight career games against the Rams, including a 44-yard catch-and-run to tie the score at 7 in that eventual NFC Championship Game defeat in January 2022. Otherwise, he’s scored three times on receptions, and three times on runs, all of which contributed to his positional pseudonym as the 49ers’ “wide back.”He didn’t sco...

Oakland Zoo's last female elephant moved to new herd in Tennessee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

(BCN) --Donna, the Oakland Zoo's 43-year-old African elephant, has moved to a new home in Tennessee following the death of her long-time elephant companion Lisa earlier this year. Donna came to Oakland in 1990 from the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and quickly bonded with Lisa, growing so close that the pair slept together in the same barn for years, according to Oakland Zoo officials. Donna and Lisa were the last female elephants at the zoo, following the 2019 death of 50-year-old M'Dunda. "Female elephants are deeply social with each other and create close, lifelong bonds," said Colleen Kinzley, vice president of animal care, conservation and research at the Oakland Zoo. "Our priority has been to ensure Donna, now the sole female at Oakland Zoo, can live out her life with other compatible females." Hank the Tank’s cubs raised in captivity at Sonoma County facility To that end, Donna was moved by truck to The Elephant Sanctuary, an Association of Zoos and Aquariums-acc...

Rayo Vallecano beats Alaves 2-0 after back-to-back losses in Spanish league

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Rayo Vallecano recovered from back-to-back losses in the Spanish league to beat Alaves 2-0 at home on Friday.Isi Palazón converted a penalty two minutes before halftime, and summer signing Jorge de Frutos sealed the win with a goal off a counterattack in the 82nd.Álvaro García played a key role in both goals. The winger was fouled in the area to set up Isi’s spot kick, and he provided the assist for De Frutos in the second goal.Rayo is coached by Francisco Rodríguez after Andoni Iraola left to take over Bournemouth in the off-season. Rayo started the season with two wins before it was routed 7-0 at home by Atletico Madrid and then lost 1-0 at Real Betis before Friday’s victory.Alaves was promoted at the end of last season. It has won two and lost three.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

Louisiana island town to repeal ordinance, let driver fly vulgar anti-Biden flag

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A resort island town on the Louisiana coast will repeal an anti-obscenity ordinance and let a contractor fly a flag from his truck that carries an obscenity aimed at President Joe Biden, under the terms of a lawsuit settlement filed Friday in federal court. The settlement came in a lawsuit the Tulane First Amendment Law Clinic filed in January against the town of Grand Isle on behalf of Ross Brunet of Cut Off, Louisiana, who works on the island regularly. The suit said he repeatedly flew three flags from his truck. One promoted breast cancer awareness. Two bore vulgarities aimed at Biden and people who voted for him. Brunet was ticketed seven times, according to the lawsuit. He successfully defended himself against four tickets. Despite winning those cases, he was later ticketed three more times. The last three cases were dropped after the town adopted an ordinance stating that signs on vehicles “shall not contain language deemed offensive and vulgar nor obscene i...

Man convicted of bomb threat outside Library of Congress sentenced to probation after year in jail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man whose bomb threat near the U.S. Capitol forced evacuations and sparked an hourslong standoff with police in 2021 was sentenced to five years of probation Friday. Floyd Ray Roseberry was experiencing a mental-health crisis at the time of the threat, and during the year that he served in jail after his arrest he stopped a violent assault on a guard, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said. “I’m very optimistic that this was the worst day of your life and nothing like this will ever happen again,” Contreras said. In August 2021, Roseberry, of Grover, North Carolina, drove a black pickup truck onto a sidewalk near the Library of Congress and began shouting to people in the street that he had a bomb, authorities said. It came as Washington was still on edge months after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and his threat forced many of the same workers to again flee from their offices. Roseberry, 52, professed a litany of antigovernment grievan...

U.S. judge orders Argentina to pay $16 billion for expropriation of YPF oil company

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A U.S. judge ruled that Argentina must pay $16.1 billion to minority shareholders of state-controlled oil company YPF due to the government’s 2012 nationalization of a majority stake in the firm.U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York issued final judgment Friday detailing the dollar amount that the South American country would have to pay.Preska on Friday ordered Argentina to pay $14.38 billion to Petersen Energía, including $7.5 billion in damages and $6.85 billion in interest and $1.7 billion to Eton Capital, including $897.75 million in damages and $816.58 million in interest. Interest will continue to accrue if Argentina fails to pay, Preska said.Argentina, which is currently suffering dire economic woes that include a low level of Central Bank reserves, rising poverty and a galloping inflation of more than 100% per year, has vowed to appeal the ruling.A week earlier, Preska had made clear it was siding with the plaintiffs in the long-runni...

Martin Truex Jr. in staring down elimination from NASCAR playoffs after winning regular season title

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

A shell-shocked Martin Truex Jr. has slumped into Bristol Motor Speedway fighting for his season.Truex won the regular-season title but two bad races to open NASCAR’s playoffs has him on the brink of elimination headed into Saturday night’s race at Bristol, Tennessee. The bottom four drivers in the 16-driver field will be cut from the championship sprint and Truex, winner of three races this season, is 13th — below the cutline. A cut tire three laps into last weekend’s race at Kansas — and an 18th-place finish in the playoff opener at Darlington — has Truex in serious trouble headed into one of his weaker tracks. In 32 previous starts on Bristol’s concrete configuration, a winless Truex has a meager four top-10 finishes. “It’s obviously a terrible spot to be in,” Truex said Friday. “Last week we didn’t even get a chance to race, which was disappointing. Coming off a tough Darlington race, and then, you know, two laps in (at Kansas) you feel ...

Detroit high schools produced the most NFL players in opening week with 19

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

Sauce Gardner’s hometown is practically an NFL factory.There were 19 players from Detroit high schools on NFL rosters for opening week, the most of any city. Bradenton, Florida, had the second-most players (17), followed by Houston with 16 players.“Detroit football is tough, it’s real gritty and grimy there. There’s a lot of talent, though,” said Gardner, the New York Jets’ All-Pro cornerback, who attended Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School in Detroit. “Lots of people with a story. The majority of people that I know in the league from Detroit, they worked really hard to get out, and they made it.”Las Vegas (15), Miami (14) and Atlanta (14) were next on the list. Overall, Texas had the most players of any state with 187. Florida (178) and California (173) were next. Georgia (150) was the only other state with more than 100.“High school football is the bedrock for advancement in our great game,” said Roman Oben, the NFL’s vice president of football development. “Recently, we ha...

All Blacks score 11 tries in big win over Namibia blemished by first Rugby World Cup red card

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:49 GMT

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — Scrumhalf Cam Roigard and flyhalf Damian McKenzie scored two tries each and made a strong bid for first-team roles as New Zealand beat Namibia 71-3 in the Rugby World Cup on Friday.Roigard had his double inside the first seven minutes of his World Cup debut and provided assists in first-half tries by McKenzie and Leicester Fainga’anuku, and in the second half to David Havili. The All Blacks scored 11 tries in all. McKenzie converted eight for a 26-point haul.The New Zealand lineup wasn’t second string but featured nine changes from the team which lost to France 27-13 in the first match of the tournament, including the new halves pairing of Roigard and McKenzie. Both may need to be considered at least for bench roles in the All Blacks’ top lineup later in the tournament.Roigard showed a sharp nose for opportunities and, despite rain which sometimes was torrential in the first half, McKenzie kept the ball in hand more often than playmakers Beauden Barrett...