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Bridge: March 17, 2023

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

This week’s deals have treated good timing as declarer: playing the cards in the best sequence. Cover today’s East-West cards. Decide how to proceed at four hearts when West leads the queen of spades. (North-South’s auction was old-fashioned but not necessarily ineffective.)When I watched the deal, South didn’t concern himself with timing: He took the ace of spades and let the ten of trumps ride. West won, and the defense cashed two spades and the ace of clubs for down one.FIRST SPADESouth’s best approach, which offers an extra chance, is to duck the first spade, win the second and take the A-K of trumps. If the queen fell, South would have 10 tricks.When East-West play low trumps, South starts the diamonds. West, with the missing queen of trumps, must follow three times, so South discards dummy’s last spade on the fourth diamond. He ruffs his last spade with dummy’s ten of trumps, losing one trump, one spade and one club.Did you find the wa...

Understanding the Silicon Valley Bank Run

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

In a matter of a few days, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed when a panic set in, causing a run on deposits. “The blue chip VCs suggested something, then that leaked to other ones, then other ones — we had all our investors calling us and basically demanding we pull our cash,” one source told Ryan Grim. This week on Deconstructed, Grim is joined by Damon Silvers, who has been involved in trying to prevent financial fraud and crisis for more than 20 years. He was the deputy chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the 2008 bank bailout, and was formerly the policy director of the AFL-CIO.Grim and Silver discuss what led to a rush of Silicon Valley Bank depositors withdrawing all at once, the subsequent fallout, how the weakening of Dodd–Frank in 2018 paved the way for the current banking crisis, and what reforms are needed to prevent a future and even bigger economic catastrophe.Transcript coming soon.The post Understanding the Silicon Valley Bank...

Miller, transfers lead Maryland women in March Madness

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Brenda Frese used the transfer portal to overhaul her roster.The result is a Maryland team very much to the coach’s liking — a group that can press, force turnovers and score.The second-seeded Terrapins open the women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday against 15th-seeded Holy Cross, and what they lack in size, they can make up for with skill and athleticism. The winner of that game faces either seventh-seeded Arizona or 10th-seeded West Virginia in the second round.Injuries and inconsistency plagued Maryland in 2021-22, and although the Terps ultimately reached the Sweet 16, a couple significant players transferred out after the season. Angel Reese became a first-team All-American this year at LSU, and Ashley Owusu went to Virginia Tech.Frese reloaded with transfers Abby Meyers (Princeton), Lavender Briggs (Florida), Elisa Pinzan (South Florida) and Brinae Alexander (Vanderbilt). Meyers is the team’s second-leading scorer, and Briggs is shooting ...

NBA feud or rivalry? Warriors, Memphis drama is must-see TV

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

Stephen Curry offers a simple answer for all the back and forth between his four-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the upstart Memphis Grizzlies over the past two seasons. For Curry, it’s not a feud or a bitter rivalry. The Warriors don’t have the same history with the Grizzlies that they do with say, the Cavaliers. Or with LeBron James in whatever uniform he’s wearing.“Just a team that is tough to beat,” Curry said about the Grizzlies. “They’re really talented. … Also a team that you’re going to need to play well to beat, but the history isn’t there yet.”Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. disagrees.“Every time we touch the floor, it’s a rivalry,” Jackson said. “We saw this team many times. We feel like every single time we’re out there with them, it’s a rivalry for sure.”There always seems to be some drama, a little something extra when the teams meet: hard fouls, trash-talking or some other theatrics. Warriors guard Jordan Poole said earlie...

MARCH MADNESS: An AP trivia quiz for the NCAA Tournament

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

How well do you know the women’s NCAA Tournament? Try your luck this AP trivia quiz about the history of March Madness. Don’t cheat!1. Connecticut has won 11 national championships and Tennessee has won eight. Name the two schools tied for third with three titles each.2. UConn accounts for six of the nine unbeaten seasons in the women’s college basketball. Name the three programs to have done it once.3. Which player has scored more than 40 points twice in the same women’s NCAA Tournament? 4. Which player set the NCAA Tournament record with 14 steals in a single game?5. What team had the most lopsided victory in tournament history but didn’t win the national championship that year? 6. Which player set the NCAA Tournament record with 27 rebounds in a single game? 7. Who is the first player to dunk twice in the same NCAA Tournament game? 8. Which team that holds the record for most points in an NCAA Tournament game failed to win the national championship that year?9. ...

On the rise, Big Ten eyes women’s NCAA tourney breakthrough

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark has looked over the women’s NCAA Tournament bracket, eyed the potential matchups facing her second-seeded Hawkeyes and the rest of their Big Ten brethern, and come to a rather optimistic conclusion.“The Big Ten can certainly place two in the Final Four,” she said. “I don’t think that’s a stretch by any means.”Just one would end a long dry spell.In an almost impossible amalgamation of bad luck, poor draws and underachieving basketball, the Power 5 conference — with its big budgets and high-profile programs — has only advanced a women’s team to the national semifinals once since 2005, and that was league newcomer Maryland in 2015. And it’s been since 1999, when Katie Douglas and Stephanie White-McCarty led Purdue to a national title win over Duke, that the league crowned its only NCAA champion.“Understand, we’ve played some of the best teams in America all year long. The Big Ten is loaded — Maryland, Ohio State, Indiana, all of us t...

Arizona, Virginia add to reputations for March sadness

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

Arizona and Virginia rightfully lay claim to proud college basketball traditions, whether you’re talking about the Wildcats winning the national championship in 1997, the Cavaliers doing it 22 years later or the many stars the programs have sent to the NBA and overseas.They also have developing reputations for NCAA Tournament disappointments.The stunning loss by second-seeded Arizona to No. 15 seed Princeton on Thursday, and fourth-seeded Virginia’s collapse in the closing seconds against Furman, were merely the latest examples of their humiliating March heartbreaks. The Wildcats have been bounced by teams seeded worse than them in five consecutive NCAA tourney trips, while the Cavaliers were bumped by a No. 13 seed for the second straight year and five years to the day since becoming the only No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed.“It doesn’t take away from what these guys have done and what we’ve experienced over the years, but you wanted it when you felt like you had it, and...

Denver weather: More sunshine but chilly start to weekend

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Even though sunshine is back for St. Patrick's Day, temperatures will be below average with light winds. Slow warming is expected over the weekend in the Denver weather forecast.Weather today: Abundant sunshineMostly sunny skies are back for Friday with light winds. Highs stay below average in the low 40s with light snow in the central and southern mountains.Pinpoint Weather: Daily forecast for March 17. Finally, Denver has its 1st measurable snow of March Weather tonight: Clear and coolDenver will have clear skies overnight Friday as winds become light and variable. Temperatures dip into the upper teens.Pinpoint Weather: Overnight forecast for March 17.Looking ahead: Warming and staying dryThe weekend will see slow warming with dry conditions. Mostly sunny skies are across most of the state on Saturday with cooler highs in the low 40s. Sunday is a bit warmer in Denver with temperatures nearing the 50-degree mark. Sunny skies are across the Front Range with a few ...

Police investigating mobile home fire in Davie; 1 injured

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

A Davie mobile home located along Southwest 16th Street and 86th Avenue was engulfed in flames, sending one man to the hospital. The extent of the man’s injuries is currently unknown, but he was taken to the hospital for medical attention. Fire crews were quick to respond to the scene, working diligently to contain the fire to the one mobile home.The cause of the fire is still under investigation and authorities have yet to determine the exact origin of the flames.

Meloni government backs bridge in earthquake zone

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:00:22 GMT

Giorgia Meloni’s Italian government has agreed to resuscitate an ancient project to build a suspension bridge connecting Sicily to mainland Italy — which happens to be in the middle of an earthquake zone.Rome aims to “resume as quickly as possible the planning process for the bridge over the Strait of Messina,” a governmental decree issued late Thursday night said. Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini, the project’s staunchest advocate, hailed it as “historic day” for Italy.The bridge “has the ambition of becoming the most modern and sustainable in the world,” the far-right League leader tweeted Thursday evening, labeling the project “a model for an Italy which believes in itself.”Plans to build a bridge across the 3.7-kilometer-wide Strait of Messina to connect the island of Sicily to the rest of Italy have been discussed for millennia, going all the way back to the Romans, according to some historians. They were revived...