ob777
ob777
Warriors at ‘inflection point’ after Christmas Day lossCARSON, Calif. (AP) — The LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls have been Major League Soccer mainstays since the league's inaugural season in 1996, signing glamorous players and regularly competing for championships through years of success and setbacks in a league that's perpetually improving and expanding. Yet just a year ago, both of these clubs appeared to be a very long way from the stage they'll share Saturday in the MLS Cup Final . The Galaxy were one of MLS’ worst teams after a season of internal turmoil and public fan dissent, while the Red Bulls were merely a steady mediocrity seeking yet another coach to chart a new direction. A year later, these MLS founders are meeting in the league's first Cup final between teams from North America's two biggest markets. “Two original clubs being able to put themselves in this situation, I think it’s great,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “To see two clubs that have been at it as long as this league has been around be here, I think it’s a special moment. Couldn’t be two more different and contrasting styles as well, which could make for an interesting game, and I would imagine a high-intensity game.” Everything changed in 2024 after a dismal decade for the Galaxy , who are favored to cap their transformation by winning their team's record sixth MLS championship with a roster that's dramatically different from its past few groups — albeit with one massive injury absence in the final. The transformation of the Red Bulls happened only in the postseason, when a team that hadn't won a playoff game since 2017 suddenly turned into world-beaters under rookie coach Sandro Schwarz. New York struggled through the final three months of league play with only two wins before posting road playoff victories over defending champ Columbus , archrival New York City FC and conference finalist Orlando to storm into the Cup final. “We know about the history (of our club), and we know tomorrow will define what that could mean,” Schwarz said Friday. “To feel the pressure for tomorrow, it’s necessary, because it’s a final, and without pressure it’s not possible to bring the best quality on the field.” The Red Bulls have never won an MLS Cup, only reaching the championship match once before. What's more, they've somehow never won a Cup in any tournament, although they’ve collected three Supporters’ Shields for MLS' best regular-season record. The Galaxy’s trophy case is large and loaded, and those five MLS Cups are on the top shelf. But not much of that team success happened in the past decade for the club that famously brought David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard and many other international stars to Hollywood. In fact, this season has ended a grim era for the Galaxy, who haven't lost all year at their frequently renamed home stadium — which was the site of protests and boycotts just a year ago. The club's fans were tired of LA's steady underachievement and ineptitude in the front office run by team president Chris Klein, who was fired in May 2023. One year ago Thursday, the Galaxy hired Will Kuntz, a longtime Los Angeles FC executive who engineered his new club's roster transformation, most dramatically by landing new designated players Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil — two international talents that LAFC also had in its sights. “I give Will and the group up there a ton of credit,” Vanney said. “It’s one thing to have players you like, and it’s a whole other thing to get them here and get them to connect with your group.” Pec and Paintsil combined for 32 goals and 27 assists while boosting the incumbent talents of striker Dejan Joveljic and Riqui Puig, the gifted Barcelona product who runs the offense from the midfield. The Galaxy clicked in the postseason, scoring a jaw-dropping 16 goals in four matches. Puig has been the Galaxy's most important player all season, but he won't be in the MLS Cup Final after tearing a knee ligament late in last week's conference final victory over Seattle . The loss of Puig — who somehow kept playing on his injured knee, and even delivered the game-winning pass to Joveljic — makes the Galaxy even more difficult to anticipate. “He played a lot in the regular season, so it was not so easy to analyze all these games now without him,” Schwarz said. “But the main focus is to analyze what we need to do, because it’s not clear now how they’re playing without him.” The Galaxy could give some of Puig's responsibilities to Marco Reus, the longtime Dortmund standout who joined LA in August. Reus is nursing a hamstring injury, but Vanney expects him to play. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
RA Capital Management Announces Close of $1.4 Billion Acquisition of Aliada Therapeutics by AbbVie
Original MLS clubs LA Galaxy, NY Red Bulls cap their amazing turnarounds with showdown for MLS Cup
None
Wab Kinew took on two roles as Christmas approached. He was Santa to neighborhoods on our river banks, and the Grinch to social service agencies that have made perpetuating homeless encampments their business model. For months The Winnipeg Sun has shown the stark evidence that encampments on the Red and Assiniboine brought violence, intimidation and criminal activities to property and business owners and residents in the areas around Assiniboine Avenue, West Broadway and Waterfront Drive. We told the stories of the victims — the busted fences and break-ins, the vandalism and graffiti, the dirty used needles all over the ground, and of seeing a little girl staying among the rogue addicts with no urgency from the authorities to find her. A day after my column revealed that fed-up residents had suggested moving the encampments to the Legislature grounds, Premier Kinew told the media enough was enough and that “the idea that we accept tents as a permanent solution, I think it’s time we leave that in the past.” What he didn’t speak of, was why it was tolerated for so long. But earlier this fall, city councillor Sherri Rollins explained it was in no small part, because of court decisions outside Manitoba. Activist judges had bestowed rights on the homeless who set up encampments, without prescribing their responsibilities to the community. Publicly-funded agencies and social justice warriors locally insisted the homeless had a right to pitch tents and tarps where they choose, pollute rivers parks and private property, do whatever they wanted, and dictate the quality of life for law-abiding Winnipeggers. The premise, established in a B.C. Supreme Court case, was that municipalities couldn’t evict homeless camps unless it proved there was sufficient space in local shelters to provide alternate accommodation. One Ontario ruling that followed actually insisted that the City of Waterloo had to allow on-site drug use for shelters to qualify as “accessible.” “Winnipeg does not allow camping in parks or public land,” Rollins wrote to me in October. “We have three large encampments at 300 Assiniboine, Granite and in Point Douglas as well as many more smaller ones. So why don’t we simply enforce the bylaw? It is not simple. We have a bylaw like other cities, that has been challenged the same way others are being challenged across the country. While I would not say I am proud we have largely not seen the disputes leading to court action of other cities.” That has all changed after an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled the City of Hamilton had not breached the Charter rights of 14 people evicted from public parks between 2021-23. “The public is generally sympathetic to the homeless, but it tires of seeing its public spaces appropriated by lawless, unsanitary encampments,” wrote Justice James Ramsey. “There has to be a balance, and the democratic process is best equipped to achieve that balance.” What he cited was the balance that beleaguered residents near Winnipeg encampments have demanded for years. “I observe that the most vulnerable includes not only the homeless but also the elderly person and the child who want to use a sidewalk or a city park without tiptoeing through used needles and human faeces,” his decision stated. The same day as the court ruling, Kinew told CBC, “2025 is going to be the year you as the average Manitoban start to see big steps on homelessness.” Having compiled an inventory of entry-level housing like bachelor suites, he says the province will “move camp by camp” to fill those units and provide mental health and other services to the new tenants, and elevate them to better accommodations in a graduated process he hopes will ensure success. More importantly, “We make it clear no one is coming back to this area in terms of tents,” Kinew told Global News. “We’re not going to allow tents to be set up in this area once we have people in housing and with supports people need to be successful.” How he’s going to do that is a good question but the City finally enforcing the existing bylaws is a good guess. St. Boniface Street Links founder Marion Willis called it “significant step forward,” telling Global “I feel a bit validated because that’s exactly what our team has been doing now for the past four or five years,” she said. “I congratulate the province on maybe having the courage to try something different.” The media continually promoted organizations that scored contracts and donations to deliver water, food and “harm reduction supplies” and keep their payrolls padded while the sites expanded and turned downtown into a horror show. But that is now out of tune with Kinew’s policy. Yet to be mentioned is that his government has suspended funding to Regional Health Authorities that fund agencies handing out free needles in rural areas until a proper needle exchange and clean-up protocols are incorporated. When it’s imposed in Winnipeg that will be another lump of coal for the harm reduction ideologues. Ensuring a steady supply of housing units to lodge people who’ve become homeless is the linchpin of Kinew’s vision. Siloam Mission has previously announced plans to build 700 to 1,000 housing units within the next 10 years. Patrick Allard says there should be room for the private sector to also contribute — especially in the North End. “There are enough vacant and boarded up homes in my neighbourhood that could be renovated and rented out at affordable rates,” Allard told The Sun . Allard spoke at City Hall a couple weeks ago about the idea at the Property and Development Committee, chaired by Coun. Rollins, and told how he’s restored three vacant houses to the market in the last year. The inner-city real estate investor and landlord suggested the committee explore reinstating a Rental Housing Improvement Program (RHIP) cancelled by the province in 2019. Noting the number of run-down and abandoned homes on the tax rolls, he believes “The city and/or province could offer landlords either forgivable loans or a repayable loan over 30 years to renovate and make the home safe, and the landlord agrees to keep the rents at a prescribed affordable rate for 15-20 years.” In return the city or province is registered on title to protect the taxpayer, and the governments earn interest and tax roll increases as the property value goes up. Kinew has mentioned that the private sector will have a role to play in the new housing plan, and Allard’s suggestion could be a big boost to helping get the homeless into safe accommodations and off our streets permanently. — Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show. Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca
New pension rules could be a ‘gamechanger’ for people’s retirements
Watchdog ruling denies free speech and fair comment
Original MLS clubs LA Galaxy, NY Red Bulls cap their amazing turnarounds with showdown for MLS CupDejan Kulusevski cannot wait to play Man City again after Tottenham run riot
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.
Just like that, with the 2024 Presidential election in the books, electric vehicle (EV) investors are left to wonder if the U.S. is about to hit a major industry speed bump. President-elect Donald Trump has occasionally spoken out against EVs, and the transition team is rumored to be heavily considering ending the $7,500 federal tax credit, which could soften EV demand. But if Lucid Group ( LCID 1.94% ) CEO Peter Rawlinson is to be believed, Lucid's investors might not have much to worry about. Here's why. Transition time Lucid has recently rewarded patient investors, some of whom have hung around through multiple delivery disappointments and production snags, with three consecutive quarters of deliveries in 2024. In fact, the young EV maker has already outsold its 6,001-delivery mark set in 2023 by over 1,100 vehicles through the first nine months of 2024. This delivery momentum, if you want to call it that, could hit a speed bump with Reuters reporting that Trump's transition team is "planning to kill" the industry's $7,500 federal tax credit. According to the report, Tesla representatives supported the plans to end the tax credit. Tesla CEO Elon Musk fully endorsed Trump and is reported to believe that losing the tax credit will hurt the rest of its competitors far more than it will hurt Tesla. One person disagrees. Rawlinson spoke on Bloomberg Television and, to paraphrase, he essentially said that Lucid had taken the mantle of technology leadership from Tesla and believes it's in a strong position regardless of the incoming administration and that "Lucid, among all the EV makers, is really the most immune from that [ending tax credit]." It's true that Lucid would be somewhat insulated from the impact of losing the tax credit, as its Air sedan doesn't qualify for the $7,500 credit anyway, and Rawlinson noted that many of its consumers make over the income threshold allowed to qualify for the tax credit. Falling behind If the tax credit is abolished, Lucid may not feel as much of an impact as some rivals, but make no mistake: Losing the tax credit is a blow to the U.S. EV industry's early progress. The industry has already fallen behind countries such as China in EV technology, development, and infrastructure. In fact, an example of China's explosive EV growth can be seen in the delivery growth of EV maker BYD . As recently as 2021, BYD recorded fewer than 750,000 global deliveries, but it is expected to reach 4 million global deliveries in 2024. Is Lucid a buy? Lucid isn't a buy for any single reason, such as being more insulated from losing the federal tax credit or that its deliveries have surged in 2024. However, Lucid could be a buy for some investors who believe in the company's high-end EV technology and vehicles despite their equally high prices. Lucid's Gravity will boost deliveries through 2025 as the production ramps up and the more affordable trims hit production; Lucid will begin production of a more expensive trim initially. Lucid also has a more affordable midsize electric SUV that will start under $50,000, not including shipping, and it will be the first of at least three midsize EVs, with production expected in late 2026. Lucid has some delivery momentum, a product pipeline, and a wealthy backer in Saudi Arabia's PIF, and it shouldn't hit a massive speed bump if the new administration ends the tax credit. For those combined reasons, Lucid could be an intriguing option for investors willing to accept heavy risk on a young, unprofitable company in an industry with a bright future .
- Previous:
- Next: r777 stable
