A Macomb County youngster drowned Friday night at an indoor swimming pool at a facility in northern Oakland County, police said.

According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the 5-year-old girl from Sterling Heights died about 7:30 p.m. at the Deer Lake Athletic Club on the 600 block of White Lake Road in Independence Township.

The sheriff’s office said detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Authorities did not release the child’s name.

Sheriff’s officials said additional information will be released as the investigation proceeds.

By Coty M. Davis, Tribune News Service

SAN FRANCISCO — For six years, Detroit Pistons fans have grown accustomed to watching Isaiah Stewart serve as an enforcer and defensive anchor. In the first 46 games of this season, Stewart has elevated his production on defense even more.

He is leading the league’s second-best defense and is currently in the running for several defensive awards. While registering a career-best average of 1.9 blocks per game, Stewart ranks sixth in total rejections with 78. He leads the NBA in defended field-goal percentage at the rim, holding his opponents to 43.0% shooting.

Stewart will be honored with a bobblehead giveaway before the Pistons’ home game against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. But the bobblehead won’t feature Stewart defending the rim. Instead, it’s Stewart riding a tractor and dressed in farmer’s overalls.

“This bobblehead represents my love and passion for farming. I have a tractor that I operate and use on my land,” Stewart told The Detroit News. “I’m interested in all different kinds of crops. If my mind isn’t on basketball, my mind is on farming. I am always researching something about farming every single day. I feel like it’s my calling.”

In southern California, Stewart owns two agricultural properties called Paraiso De La Luz, which is Spanish for “Paradise of Light.” His main hub focuses on producing tropical and subtropical fruits such as figs, finger limes, grapes, kumquats, mangos, passion fruit and pomegranates. Two hours down the road, he owns a desert hub that solely produces dates, in partnership with Sam Cobb Farms.

During the offseason, Stewart works diligently on his crops. When the Pistons are in season, however, he relies on his employees and the property manager for daily updates.

“It speaks to his character, his intelligence. He’s a guy who wants to make the world better. He understands what the world needs, in terms of farming and the environment. I think it is amazing,” Jalen Duren said to The Detroit News. “He’s always coming in here, talking about the new cows he’s got, or whatever new trees he planted. I think what he’s doing is great. I’m inspired.”

Stewart’s passion for farming began at his childhood home in Rochester, N.Y. He has fond memories of watching his father, Dela Stewart, tending to the family’s backyard garden. His father grew a variety of vegetables, including cucumbers, greens and tomatoes. Stewart’s favorite part of watching his father was seeing him transform his work into delightful meals.

The hard work that the elder Stewart put into the family garden instilled a strong work ethic in his son, which ultimately helped him reach the NBA. However, he could never have predicted that his efforts would later inspire his son to pursue farming as a second career more than 20 years later.

“He had a garden in our backyard. Every year, as soon as the weather got good enough, he would go back there and clean it up. Uproot everything. Make a fence with sections of different plants,” Stewart said. “I know he is proud of what I am doing. With him being from Jamaica, and his father did it – that is who he got it from – and now, I’m doing it.”

Stewart’s upbringing and passion have laid the groundwork for his farming career as he strives to be a pioneer in the industry.

Black farmers once dominated the agricultural business, but over several decades, the demographic has significantly diminished. As he continues to inspire a generation of NBA hopefuls in Detroit, Stewart hopes his agricultural work will increase the number of Black farmers nationwide.

Stewart intends to sell his harvest in grocery stores one day to provide consumers with high-quality produce. It’s his way of bringing better fruits and vegetables to consumers, who might be missing out because of infrastructure problems some farmers face when trying to deliver their crops to supermarkets.

“My family loves it. They see how invested I am in it and how much I care about it,” Stewart said. “They know what I’m striving to be. I am not doing this for fun. I’m doing it because I want to be one of the best farmers in the world when it is all said and done.”

©2026 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A 5-year-old Sterling Heights girl drowned Friday at an Independence Township club, according to Oakland County sheriff’s officials.

Police were called shortly after 7:30 p.m. Friday to the Deer Lake Athletic Club, 6167 White Lake Road. The family-athletic club has three pools.

Sheriff’s officials are not releasing the victim’s name at this time. The incident remains under investigation.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — More often than not, it’s Da’ron Mason that leads the scoring charge for Bloomfield Hills, in triumph or defeat.

But the Black Hawks’ 53-41 victory over Pontiac in front of a packed house Friday night showed why the OAA Blue frontrunners go beyond their star senior.

“This was one of those games, I didn’t have any feel for the stat line, who scored what, who did a good job on the glass,” Black Hawks head coach Brian Canfield said. “It was a full team effort. Then, you look at the book, Carter Hartfield had 17, but everyone else … when Da’ron’s the fourth-leading scorer and you can still pull that game out and win by double-digits, that’s pretty significant for us.”

Mason finished with seven points and was among a handful of Black Hawks who scored between a handful and eight in the win.

“We just came out knowing we had trust in each other,” Mason said of the effort in the second half. “I have trust in all those guys. I’m just glad they trust me to get them that pass. We knew we were the better team and had to show them (Pontiac) that.”

Bloomfield Hills came in on an eight-game winning streak, and the only game during that span decided by fewer than nine points was its 43-42 win in Pontiac on Jan. 9 when the two teams last met.

With the Black Hawks at 5-0 in the league and Pontiac the next-best contender at 3-1 going into the rematch, Friday’s result was going to have major ramifications, and the Phoenix had to feel good about their chances midway through. Caden Covington had two 3-pointers in the first quarter and JJ Claudio knocked down three in the second and had 17 points already by halftime when Pontiac led 29-20.

“I just think we came out with energy, and we executed very well in the first half,” Phoenix head coach Dion Harris said. “I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but we got shots at the basket, hit shots, and didn’t turn it over much in the first half. These kids play well when everything’s going right.”

Canfield and Mason sent a message at the interval, though.

“We knew that we were playing under our skill level, and we felt like we could do more and we had to bring the energy up,” Mason said. “We all came together as a collective and said we needed to play harder, especially on the defensive side. We had to come out and show them that’s what we do, we play 90 full feet.”

Those words of self-affirmation paid dividends, apparently.

A corner triple by Brennan Bies chopped the lead down to just four less than 90 seconds into the third quarter, and Ryan Hunt knocked down 3-pointers just a little over a minute apart, the second of which knotted the contest at 33-33 with 3:34 left in the quarter.

“I think they dame out in the second half, hit the first two threes, and we had to call a timeout,” Harris said. “That took away some of our mojo, our energy, and we didn’t come down and score those first three or four possessions. It’s hard for these guys to come back out of that when they other team goes on a run and we miss consecutive shots. We still don’t know how to play through that.”

The teams were tied at 36 at the end of the third, but the fourth was all Bloomfield Hills (14-2, 6-0). Hartfield and Carter Canfield each connected from distance in the first 48 seconds to force a Pontiac timeout, then Hartfield scored and Hunt got a turnaround jumper to bounce a few times on the iron and fall. A sharp pass into the post by Meyer Saperstein to Canfield capped off a 12-0 run by the Black Hawks with about 3:30 remaining.

Photos of Bloomfield Hills vs. Pontiac in an OAA Blue boys hoops contest

All the while, Pontiac (8-6, 3-2) couldn't buy a make from 3-point range, and its second-half woes from the charity stripe (3 of 10) only made matters worse. The Phoenix only had two points throughout the entire quarter until Claudio (22 points) connected from NBA range with 38 seconds left in regulation.

On the game turning, Coach Canfield said, "I thought the first quarter was back and forth, then they knocked down two threes, and I told guys at the (end of it), 'You won that first quarter, you had played better for a longer period of time, but they just got two threes.' And they continued to make threes. Both teams executed well, but they made perimeter shots, we didn't.

"Da'ron struggled in the first half, and obviously when you have a player of that caliber (struggle), he's such an important part of the team, the team's gonna struggle. The second half, the turnaround was a couple adjustments with spacing against the defensive pressure that gave us some open looks on the perimeter, and we're a really good shooting team, so I didn't think we were going to continue to miss shots like that ... Another big part of that is, early fourth quarter, Da'ron picked up his fourth foul, and after I've just said when a player of that caliber doesn't play well, we need him, but he was on the bench when we went on that run.

"It's been the same story (for our team). They've been in close games for a half our so, sometimes three quarters, but at some point in fourth quarters, we've been able to tighten up the defense, secure rebounds and pull out the win."

Asked whether he believed the circumstances contributed to how his team performed down the stretch, Harris replied, "Absolutely. I think that added pressure, it effected us. I don't want to say we can't play under pressure but we've had three opportunities (against Avondale, Pershing and now Bloomfield Hills) to make statements in games, and we need better leadership out on the floor so we can overcome those moments where things aren't going right ... We have about a month left before state starts and we have to focus all our energy on getting better at what we need to do to make a playoff run now."

Even with the win, Coach Canfield wasn't about to declare the OAA Blue as belonging to the Black Hawks, who continue their second go-around against league opponents on Feb. 6 against Troy. "Look, we have a two-game lead with four games left for us, but I've done this long enough to know I'm not counting on anything until it's final," he said. "And for us, it is just one game at a time. Anybody in our league can beat anybody, but our goal is to be the best team we can be regardless of the record, and in order for us to do that, we have to win the next game."

The Ark experimented with the format of its annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival on Friday night, Jan. 30, at Hill Auditorium.

And in Greensky Bluegrass, it couldn’t have found a better band to do that with.

For the first night of the 49th annual incarnation of the Ark’s largest fundraising event, the festival eschewed the usual multi-act bill (six will be part of the lineup on Saturday. Jan. 30) with truncated sets and presented a more traditional headliner-with-opening act (Junior Brown). That allowed Greensky, formed more than 25 years ago in Kalamazoo, to do what it does best — take a couple hours and stretch out, mixing tight songcraft with improvisational daring do, its five members improvising and dancing around expansive song arrangements.

It’s certainly worked for the group, whose plugged-in approach with acoustic instruments has made it one of the darlings of the nu (blue)grass world and a large-venue headliner around the world.

But the Greenskyers were clearly stoked to be playing their first Folk Festival, as well as returning to Ann Arbor for the first time since 2013; dobro player Anders Beck told the audience that the group, which headlined at the Fillmore Detroit last August, was actually planned to not play shows this winter and instead focus on making a new album, but that the Folk Festival was a gig on the band’s bucket list.

“It’s good to be playing Greensky Music in Michigan,” he noted.

The troupe’s two-hour, 16-song set certainly reflected that feeling as well as the sea change in approach for the festival, with many Greensky faithful standing throughout while some mainstays noticeably drifted out during the show.

Following a characteristically fiery set from country singer-guitarist Brown — an Ark regular resplendent in his suit and cowboy hat and dazzling as always on his hybrid “guit-steel” double-neck guitar — Greensky set the tone with a fast-paced “Past My Prime,” with mandolinist Paul Hoffman singing and the Beck picking through the first of his many solos during the night and the band’s custom light show immersing itself onto Hill’s walls and ceilings. But the set hit stride as the next three songs — “Monument,” “Streetlight” and a warp-speed “Burn Them” — flowed into each other, their sturdy melodies giving way to improvisational forays by Beck, Hoffman, guitarist-vocalist Dave Bruzza and banjoist Michael Bont, while Mike Devol held things together on his bass.

Likely takeaways for Greensky fans were epic, extended performances of “Whatchoo,”the Traveling Wilburys “Handle With Care” and “Don’t Lie,” as well the dobro-mandolin exchange during “Weather,” a particularly emotive “Windshield” and a playful romp through “Fixin’ to Ruin.” The group also covered fellow Michigander Billy Strings’ “While I’m Waiting Here,” and it encored with appropriate version of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman’s “Drink Up and Go Home.”

Whether it was a successful start for the festival will be the subject of review and discussion in days to come. But, no question, it was another successful — and more than that, really — night with an undeniably upper-strata live act.

The Ark’s 49th Ann Arbor Folk Festival concludes at 7 p.m. Saturday,. Jan. 31 at Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor. Amos Lee, Dawes, the Crane Wives, Jon Muq, Rabbitolgy and emcee Ryan Montbleau perform. 734-761-1800 or theark.org.

By HILLEL ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) — From her house up high in Colorado’s Elk Mountains, author Shelley Read can only look out in amazement at the worldwide success of her debut novel, “Go as a River.”

“There were upward of 30 translations already secured before the novel was introduced in the U.S.,” says Read, a fifth-generation Coloradan who lives with her husband in Crested Butte, in a home they built themselves. “And that is when I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It’s thrilling, scary, magnificent.”

Published in 2023 by Spiegel & Grau, “Go as a River” received little major review attention beyond trade publications when first released and its honors are mostly regional, including a High Plains Book Award and a Reading the West Book Award. But her novel has been a hit in the U.S. and well beyond, appearing on bestseller lists everywhere from North America to Scandinavia and selling more than 1 million copies. Mazur Kaplan, co-founded by producer Paula Mazur and independent book seller Mitchell Kaplan, is working on a film adaptation. Eliza Hittman, whose credits include the award-winning “Never Rarely Sometimes Only,” is expected to direct.

Read’s 300-page novel spans from the 1940s to the 1970s, and centers on a 17-year-old Colorado farm girl’s ill-fated romance with an itinerant Indigenous man and how it haunts and changes lives for decades to come. “Go as a River” proves that some books can break through without high-profile endorsements or author name recognition. It also adds the 61-year-old Read to a special list of first-time authors — from Frank McCourt to Louis Begley — middle aged or older who finally get around to that book they had been meaning to write and receive wide acclaim.

“What she’s done is unusual,” says Spiegel & Grau co-founder Cindy Spiegel. “Every now and then someone comes along who has a vision that they’ve held for many, many years and they really do write it down. Most people don’t.”

A native of Colorado Springs, Read is a graduate of the University of Denver who has a master’s degree from Temple University’s creative writing program. She is a longtime educator who parsed and absorbed so many books, with works by Virginia Woolf and Czeslaw Milosz among her favorites, that one of her own inevitably came out on the other end.

A teacher with a story of her own

For nearly three decades, she taught writing and literature among other subjects at Western Colorado University. During that time, a character kept turning up in her thoughts, the germ of what became her novel’s protagonist, Victoria Nash. There was something about Victoria, an empathetic quality, Read related to. But she had her career and two young children, and “was just trying to keep my head above water as a super busy mom and with a lot of very intense challenges.”

With Victoria unwilling to leave her be, Read began jotting down notes on Post-its, napkins and other papers that might be around. With her husband’s encouragement, she took early retirement and committed to completing her book. She had written stories in her early years, but had never attempted a full-length narrative.

“I had no idea where it was going. I had no intentions about where it was going, because I had never written a novel before,” Read says, speaking via Zoom from her home. “Once I figured out this was going to be a novel, I was like, ‘Oh no!’ I have studied novels thousands of times throughout my life, but I never even considered that I would write one.”

Read stepped down in 2018 and by the following year had finished a manuscript, drawn in part from such historical events as a 1960s flood in Iola, Colorado, and from her lifelong affinity for the local landscape. First-time authors of any age struggle to find representation, but during a 2017 writers conference at Western Colorado University, Read had met Sandra Bond, a Denver-based agent. A “Colorado girl,” Bond calls herself.

“We hit it off immediately,” Bond says. “We have very similar backgrounds in growing up in Colorado.”

Writing is rewriting

Read’s manuscript “knocked my socks off,” Bond remembers, but it wasn’t an easy sell. The second half of the book “didn’t quite meet the standards of the first” and Bond didn’t have the editing skills to fix it. “Go as a River” was turned down by 21 publishers before Spiegel signed it up. Spiegel & Grau, which began as a Penguin Random House imprint and reopened in 2020 as an independent a year after PRH shut it down amid a corporate reorganization, has worked with authors ranging from Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sara Gruen to Iain Pears and Kathryn Stockett.

“I had a feeling Cindy might be able to see how to guide Shelley in revising the second half — what was really working and what wasn’t and why,” Bond says.

Spiegel and Read worked on revisions — the finished version is entirely from Victoria’s perspective; the original draft shifted narrators midway. Meanwhile, the publisher showed the manuscript to the international agent Susanna Lea, who “read it one sitting” and quickly arranged for meetings with foreign publishers. It was mid-July, and she remembers tracking down publishers in Norway and Finland and other parts of Scandinavia at a time of year when book executives usually are on vacation.

“Suddenly, they were all reachable,” she says.

Read is working on a second novel, set in southeastern Colorado, where her homesteader-grandparents lived. Meanwhile, royalties from “Go as a River” allowed her a few indulgences, from installing solar panels on her house to a little travel, not to mention paying off college tuition for her son and building up the family retirement savings.

“Not too sexy,” she acknowledges. “We’re still do-it-yourselfers, & I still drive an old Toyota pickup. The main thing about the royalties is that I get to be a writer for a living, and that is a dream come true.”

By Ted Kulfan, Tribune News Service

DETROIT – After the magic of the evening had faded, after all the history of the moment had soaked in, Patrick Kane was ready to put it in the background.

Kane achieved history in Thursday’s 4-3 shootout loss to Washington, assisting on Ben Chiarot’s second-period goal. Kane passed Westland’s Mike Modano with 1,375 points, making the Hall of Fame-bound Buffalo native the NHL all-time leader in points among U.S.-born players.

The Wings knew Kane was going to break the record eventually. It was just a matter of time. But in Kane’s estimation, it was nice to finally get the record, and now concentrate on what the Wings can accomplish the rest of the season. The Wings are among the top teams in the Eastern Conference and poised to break their nine-year playoff drought.

“It’s nice to have it over with in some ways,” Kane said. “Just kind of worry about the rest of the season, and what we can accomplish as a team and hopefully go do something special as a group. At the start of the season there’s a lot of attention and talk about 500 goals and possibly getting this record.

“So, it’s nice to get there, be done with it and move on.”

Kane scored goal No. 500, another impressive milestone, Jan. 8 against Vancouver, also at Little Caesars Arena.

That was an exciting moment for Red Wings fans. But Thursday night might have been even more special.

“One of those hockey moments that you’ll remember where you were when he got it, if you’re a big fan of Patrick Kane or you’re part of our team,” coach Todd McLellan said. “Now he can just move on and stack numbers on top of that number. But you have to work hard to get it and we’re all happy for him.”

On the record-smashing play Thursday, a nice passing play, Kane found Alex DeBrincat, who set up Chiarot for a one-timer.

“Great play all-around,” Kane said. “(Andrew Copp) Copper pulling up, hitting me with some speed, hitting Cat, pulling up and hitting the late guy. Copper gets to the net and a great shot by Benny.”

Kane’s teammates streamed onto the ice and mobbed him. The LCA crowd, which gravitated toward Kane as soon as he signed with the Wings in 2023, erupted in cheers.

“Incredible for him and his family and really special to just be able to witness that live,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “I know a lot of those points were in Chicago (that Kane scored), but to see how our fans have embraced him and how he’s embraced our city is really special and says a lot about how much he loves the game. No matter where he’s playing, if people appreciate him, he’s going to give love back to them.”

The depth of the moment, the history of it all, wasn’t lost on Kane’s teammates.

“It’s hard to really grasp how special it is,” said DeBrincat, a long time teammate of Kane’s in Chicago and now in Detroit. “A lot of people have known he’s going to hit it (get the record) and is one of the best American players to ever play, and we knew that before tonight.

“But it is special to pass Modano. He’s been working hard for it, so he deserves it. It’s part of what makes him special.”

Kane looked to set the record in the first period, setting up DeBrincat for a goal. But video confirmed both players looked to be offside, erasing the goal.

“Pretty crazy the way you think you have it and then it comes back for offside,” Kane said. “I don’t think many of us knew it was offside on the ice, but there was a feeling something was going on when the guys didn’t come from the bench.”

Kane has long been an American player that U.S. youngsters have gravitated to because of his offensive wizardry and team success with the Blackhawks (three Stanley Cups). Thursday’s record was another watershed moment in an impactful career.

“Throughout my career, there’s been some American guys that have come up to me and said some really nice things, some younger guys that appreciated the way I played when I was younger and they were younger and I was a guy they looked up to,” Kane said. “(It’s) pretty cool to hear that when it’s something you’re not really expecting.”

Kane also appreciated a video message Modano supplied that was broadcast during the next timeout after Kane set the points record.

“He’s one of the best American players of all time,” Kane said of Modano. “He’s a guy I looked up to a lot when I was younger. I remember the moment he passed Phil Housley in San Jose on a breakaway goal, and to see him up there (on the scoreboard), as a former Red Wing too, sending a message like that was pretty classy.”

Kane, 37, didn’t immediately delve into his future, other than focusing on the Wings’ potential the rest of this season. He’s playing this season on a one-year, $3 million contract. But it’s extremely likely Kane will play at least one more season, given his success this season.

“He’s still got it,” DeBrincat said. “He’s still one of the smartest players I’ve ever played with, and obviously the skill is there. As long as he wants to go, he’s going to be able to go and be a difference-maker in the league for a while.”

Top of the charts

Most NHL points by U.S.-born players:

Patrick Kane: 1,375

Mike Modano: 1,374

Phil Housley: 1,232

Jeremy Roenick: 1,216

Joe Pavelski: 1,068

Note: Brett Hull (1,391 points) was born in Canada but represented the U.S. in international events.

©2026 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — Still suffering from a post-holiday drag? After the fun of Christmas and New Year’s, it’s completely understandable if you’re having a hard time snapping back into a routine.

The fact that it’s still getting light too late and dark too early — we won’t set our clocks forward for spring until March 8 — only adds to the funk that is a Western Pennsylvania winter, marked by gray skies, a freezing mix of snow and rain and slushy sidewalks.

After a steady diet of festive desserts, rich and hearty sides and too much alcohol, “everyday” cooking might feel daunting on a busy weeknight. A relaxed holiday schedule has left many of us out of practice in getting dinners on the table at a set time. And if you’ve over-indulged over the past few weeks, you might be trying to eat less to shed those extra holiday pounds.

We get it. It can be tough to get back on track and re-establish home cooking habits, especially when the frozen dinner aisle and takeout make it so easy to compromise. That’s why it’s often best to start the process with baby steps — simple meals that don’t call for lots of ingredients or take too much time (or effort) start to finish.

To help inspire you, we’ve assembled five flavorful recipes that each require no more than six everyday ingredients and only take about a half hour to prepare on the stovetop.

Don’t love washing pans? Me either! All of the following are made and served from a single skillet, guaranteeing easy cleanup.

There is a slight catch: All five dishes assume you have kitchen staples like vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic cloves, unsalted butter, sugar and various spices already on hand.

All prove, however, that sometimes the simplest dinners are the best ones, and they don’t have to be boring.

Easy Lemon Chicken

PG tested

I’ve made this dish for my family too many times to count, and still it’s a favorite. You can use less butter if you’re trying to cut down on fat and calories. For a gluten-free dish, dust the chicken in cornstarch or almond flour instead of all-purpose flour.

I think it’s best on rice, but kids love their noodles!

2 whole chicken breasts, boned, skinned and halved

4 tablespoons butter, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Salt and pepper

2 lemons

Chopped fresh parsley

Cooked rice or noodles, for serving

Wash and dry chicken breasts. Pound them flat between two pieces of waxed paper or inside a resealable plastic bag with a mallet or rolling pin.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour flour in a plastic bag, season with salt and pepper, and drop the breasts in to coat. Shake off excess flour.

Turn heat up to moderately high and put chicken breasts in the skillet. Depending on how thin you’ve pounded them, they should cook approximately 3 minutes on each side or until cooked through and still tender. When they’re done, season with salt and pepper, remove to a plate and set aside while you make the sauce.

Add 2 remaining tablespoons of butter to the chicken skillet and melt, scraping up brown bits in the pan.

Juice 1 lemon and slice the other. Add juice and lemon slices to skillet and cook until bubbly, then return chicken to the pan, spooning sauce over. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Serve with rice or cooked noodles.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Rigatoni with Tomato Cream Sauce

PG tested

Nothing is more comforting in winter than a bowl of pasta with red sauce. Here, crushed tomatoes simmer with cream and grated Parmesan to create a super-fast super-savory sauce for rigatoni. Add a simple green salad and loaf of crusty Italian bread for a complete meal.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 (28-ounce) can whole San Marzano tomatoes

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon concentrated tomato paste

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Salt, to taste

Red pepper flakes, to taste

4 cups cooked rigatoni or penne noodles

In a deep skillet, heat butter until melted.

Add tomatoes to pan, crushing them with a fork or potato masher. Simmer, stirring often, until the tomatoes have broken down, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

Stir in heavy cream and tomato paste and cook until the sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in Parmesan cheese and toss to combine. Taste, add salt and, if you like some spice, a few pinches of red pepper flakes.

Add cooked pasta to pan and toss to combine.

Serve in warmed bowls, with extra Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Pork and Coconut Pineapple Rice

PG tested

If there ever was a marriage made in culinary heaven, it has to be pork and pineapple. This easy recipe pairs bite-sized chunks of sweet, juicy pineapple with tender bites of teriyaki-marinated pork tenderloin. The combo is piled high on a bed of creamy, equally tropical coconut rice.

For pork

1/4 – 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into bite-sized chunks

20-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained, or 1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and cubed

Olive oil, for sauteing

For rice

2 cups jasmine rice

1 (14-ounce) can unsweetened full-fat coconut milk

1 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

Generous pinch of sugar

Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Marinate pork in 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce for 2-3 hours or overnight.

Rinse rice in several changes of cold water until the water runs clear. Use a large fine-mesh sieve to drain any remaining water and place rice in a pot.

Add coconut milk, water, salt and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.

Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook for 5 minutes, then fluff and cover to keep warm.

While rice is cooking, prepare pork. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a nonstick skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Add pork, discarding the excess sauce. If you add all the sauce with it, it will steam the meat instead of caramelizing it.

Leave pork undisturbed in the hot pan for a few minutes to get better caramelization. Throw in pineapple and cook for 2-3 minutes so it gets saucy and caramelized, too. If desired, add a few additional tablespoons of sauce after everything is brown.

Portion cooked rice into bowls and top with a scoop or two of the saucy pineapple pork. Finish with chopped cilantro and slices of pickled jalapeño, if you happen to have any in the fridge.

Serves 4.

— Adapted from pinchofyum.com

Skillet Tortellini with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes

PG tested

Tortellini are great for last-minute meals because they are so easy to cook and go with many different sauces. In this recipe, they are cooked directly in the pan with sweet Italian sausage along with sweet cherry or grape tomatoes.

The original recipe calls for dried tortellini, but I substituted frozen pasta. Fresh basil adds both color and freshness. If you have some grated Parmesan in the fridge, add that, too, for a cheesy finish.

1 pound bulk sweet or hot Italian sausage

2 garlic cloves, sliced thin

12 ounces frozen cheese tortellini

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering.

Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 4 minutes.

Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup water, tortellini and a pinch of salt and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pasta is tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes and cook until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, drizzle with olive oil to taste and sprinkle with basil.

Serves 4.

— Adapted from “Five Ingredient Dinners” by America’s Test Kitchen

Single-Seared Garlic Shrimp Tacos

PG tested

Tacos are a welcome weeknight meal because they don’t take a lot of time or effort. These feature quick marinated shrimp and an easy green cabbage slaw. They’re simple but super satisfying.

Both flour and corn tortillas work; just be sure to warm them on a hot skillet or in the microwave before stuffing them with shrimp and cabbage to keep them pliable.

2 limes

Salt and pepper

2 cups thinly sliced cabbage

1/2 small red onion

4 teaspoons, plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

24 large shrimp (about 1-1 1/2 pounds), peeled, deveined and patted dry

1 bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped (about 1/2 cup)

8 corn or flour tortillas, warmed in a microwave or on a hot skillet

In large bowl, whisk juice from 1 lime, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Mix in cabbage and onion. Set aside, tossing occasionally, while you prepare the shrimp.

In medium bowl, stir together 2 teaspoons oil, half the minced garlic, chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add shrimp and stir to combine. Allow to marinate for 5 minutes.

In a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high, heat 1 teaspoon of oil until shimmering.

Add half the shrimp in an even layer and cook, undisturbed, until deep golden brown on the bottoms, about 2 minutes. Stir, then transfer to plate.

Repeat with another 1 teaspoon oil and the remaining shrimp, but leave shrimp in pan. Return first batch to pan.

Add remaining minced garlic; cook over medium, stirring, until the shrimp are opaque throughout, about 1 minute.

Transfer to a clean plate or bowl.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil and cilantro to the cabbage mixture and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide the shrimp among the tortillas (3 to each), top with cabbage mixture and serve with lime wedges.

Serves 4.

— Adapted from “Milk Street Shorts: Recipes That Pack a Punch” by Christopher Kimball

©2026 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Boston University researchers in a groundbreaking study found that those with CTE have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia.

The largest study of its kind from the Boston University CTE Center reveals that the progressive brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy should be recognized as a new cause of dementia.

The BU researchers discovered that those with advanced CTE — who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts — had four times higher odds of having dementia.

“This study provides evidence of a robust association between CTE and dementia as well as cognitive symptoms, supporting our suspicions of CTE being a possible cause of dementia,” said Michael Alosco, associate professor of neurology at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

“Establishing that cognitive symptoms and dementia are outcomes of CTE moves us closer to being able to accurately detect and diagnose CTE during life, which is urgently needed,” added Alosco, who’s the co-director of clinical research at the BU CTE Center.

The researchers studied 614 brain donors who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts, primarily contact sport athletes.

By isolating 366 brain donors who had CTE alone, compared to 248 donors without CTE, researchers found that those with the most advanced form of CTE had four times increased odds of having dementia.

The four times odds are similar to the strength of the relationship between dementia and advanced Alzheimer’s disease pathology, which is the leading cause of dementia.

Dementia is a clinical syndrome that refers to impairments in thinking and memory, in addition to trouble with performing tasks of daily living like driving and managing finances. Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause, but there are several other progressive brain diseases listed as causes of dementia that are collectively referred to as Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (ADRD).

With this new study, the authors argue that CTE should now also be formally considered an ADRD.

The study also reveals that dementia due to CTE is often misdiagnosed during life as Alzheimer’s disease, or not diagnosed at all. Among those who received a dementia diagnosis during life, 40% were told they had Alzheimer’s disease despite showing no evidence of Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy. An additional 38% were told the causes of their loved one’s dementia was “unknown” or could not be specified.

In addition, this study addressed the controversial viewpoint expressed by some clinicians and researchers that CTE has no clinical symptoms. As recently as 2022, clinicians and researchers affiliated with the Concussion in Sport Group meeting, which was underwritten by international professional sports organizations, claimed, “It is not known whether CTE causes specific neurological or psychiatric problems.”

Alosco said, “There is a viewpoint out there that CTE is a benign brain disease; this is the opposite of the experience of most patients and families. Evidence from this study shows CTE has a significant impact on people’s lives, and now we need to accelerate efforts to distinguish CTE from Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia during life.”

As expected, the study did not find associations with dementia or cognition for low-stage CTE.

The BU CTE Center is an independent academic research center at the Boston University Avedisian and Chobanian School of Medicine. It conducts pathological, clinical and molecular research on CTE and other long-term consequences of repetitive brain trauma in athletes and military personnel.

 

 

By Ariana Perez-Castells, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Job hunters beware: some of the hard-earned skills listed on your resume are going unnoticed by potential employers.

Workers’ profiles on job posting websites often feature general abilities, like leadership, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, a recent report from the Wharton School says. But they’re not highlighting the “specialized, execution-oriented skills,” employers are seeking. That’s created a “skills mismatch economy.”

“People are not representing their skills in a way that’s necessarily resonating with the skills that employers want,” said Eric Bradlow, the vice dean of artificial intelligence and analytics at the Wharton School, who co-authored the report.

Meanwhile, AI has been speeding the shift from a “role-based labor market to a skills-based economy,” the report outlines, making it all the more poignant to know what skills employers actually want.

Bradlow, says generative AI has been “a positively destructive bomb on roles and titles,” by making workers able to carry out tasks that they didn’t know how to do in the past. So “having a specific job title is becoming less relevant.”

The Wharton School worked in partnership with Accenture, a professional services firm, to analyze millions of job postings and worker profiles for the report. The study used data from Lightcast, a labor market data provider, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bradlow spoke with The Inquirer about their findings.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What are some skills included on resumes that don’t make much difference to employers, because everyone seems to have them?

A: Do we think it’s important to communicate? Well, yeah, of course, it is. Do we think it’s important to have leadership skills and manage teams well? Yeah, of course. Last time I checked, those were really important parts of the job — but everybody puts that down. We’re not saying in the report that those skills aren’t important. What we’re saying is there’s an over supply of people stating those skills, as opposed to companies saying these skills are what’s going to get you the job.

Companies are realizing that depth of skill is what’s going to be really important.

Q: Do people lack the specialized skills employers are looking for? Or are they just failing to highlight them on their resumes?

A: That’s something, trust me, I wish I could answer.

If we had people’s transcript data, or if we knew what courses someone had taken, then we could try to get an understanding of what skills people actually have.

I think two things are going to happen, based on this Wharton-Accenture Skills Index gap report. Number one is, you will see a migration where people [will say] “I need to acquire those skills, if I don’t have them, if I want a job.” Second, you’ll see [organizations] — whether it’s an academic institution or a for-profit institution — saying “wait a second, here, we need more people with this skill. We’ll create a certification program.”

Q: You found that some skills are actually tied to higher-paying jobs. Was that surprising?

A: I’m not sure I had hypotheses about which skills would be paid higher or lower.

I think maybe the part that surprised me a little bit was that there wasn’t massive swings and variation like “if you have this skill, your salary doubles.” That’s not what we found in the data.

Q: What advice would you give someone crafting their resume?

A: One is talk about the specific skills you have. Every resume I read says “I’m an effective communicator, experienced leader.” That’s fine, but that’s not what’s going to stick out and become differentiated, because everyone’s going to say that. To the degree that you have specific expertise and depth or skills, those are the kinds of things to put on the resume.

The second thing I would say is that … we should be in the skills acquisition business, be a lifelong learner. Skills will always be valued. Jobs in a particular workflow can go away. People with skills will be hired.

Take, for instance, a customer support agent in a customer satisfaction group. If you’re someone with exceptional problem solving skills, you’re hearing your customer, and you’re able to tie it to some remedy, that skill is not going to go away even if the job you’re currently in happens to go away.

Q: What skills are needed more or needed less because of the adoption of AI recently?

A: I don’t view it as AI replacing humans. I view AI as that decision-support tool you should use for every decision. If I were an employer today, I wouldn’t even consider hiring someone that didn’t recognize the power of artificial intelligence as a decision-support aid. I don’t know what business decision — pricing decision, product launch decision, product design decision, possibly even hiring decision — [for which] I wouldn’t use artificial intelligence as a decision support tool.

I would also say, equally, I’m very concerned about the agentic use of AI — in some sense totally handing over high stakes decisions.

Q: From where you stand, is AI coming for people’s jobs, as we often hear, or is it coming for their skills? What’s the difference?

A: Go through the history of mankind.

The train engine came. So you mean we don’t need as many horses? Electricity came. You mean we don’t need as much coal? Green energy came, and so now we don’t need as much nuclear fusion?

Doesn’t technology always come and translate one set of jobs to another set of jobs? It’s not AI is coming for your job. What companies are realizing about AI is there are certain roles and functions that AI can do extraordinarily well, with high accuracy, and in some cases better than humans can do. These tend to be functions, by the way, that many humans don’t like doing anyway.

I don’t see AI coming for your job any more so than any set of technology. This is an extraordinarily disruptive technology, but we’ve lived through periods of extraordinarily disruptive technology.

©2026 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By PAT GRAHAM

Before Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn and other World Cup ski racers chase gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics, they will star in a new docuseries that gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it’s like on the circuit.

Some of the biggest names in the sport are featured in ESPN’s five-episode series called “On the Edge: World Cup Ski Racing,” which starts Friday with three segments. Besides Shiffrin and Vonn, the docuseries features Swiss standout Marco Odermatt and Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the Norwegian-born racer who represents Brazil and definitely likes to entertain.

The last episode in the series, titled “The World’s Stage,” will air on April 10 and focus on Swiss racer Camille Rast as she reflects on the fatal fire in a bar in the ski resort Crans-Montana during a New Year’s celebration. That particular episode will also look back at the Olympics and how the 41-year-old Vonn, who returned to the circuit after a partial knee replacement, and others performed.

The Milan Cortina Games are Feb. 6-22.

The series kicks off with the spotlight on Shiffrin and her fiancé, Norwegian standout Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, as they support each other following their returns from severe injuries.

“This kind of storytelling is so important to the future of our sport,” Sophie Goldschmidt, the president & CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, said in a text to The Associated Press. “‘On the Edge’ gives ski racing an even bigger platform and broader reach — and that’s how you inspire participation.

“We hope this series encourages more kids to fall in love with ski racing and dream of becoming the next Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn or Ryan Cochran-Siegle. We have so many amazing stories to share about both our U.S. and international athletes.”

The project is directed by filmmaker Pat Dimon, who explores the journey of racers toward Olympic gold and the grind behind the World Cup season. It also features racers such as New Zealand’s Alice Robinson; Italy’s Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone and Dominik Paris; and Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen.

“Growing up a lifelong skier in Vermont, I learned that what matters most often happens away from the gates and finish line,” Dimon said of the series that premieres on the ESPN app and ESPN on Disney+. “’On the Edge’ is about seeing past the polished surface and dropping into the real line of World Cup racing — the grind of travel, the toll of injuries, the pressure, and the mindset it takes to be and stay at that level.”

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing and AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER, SAVANNAH PETERS and STEWART HUNTINGTON

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and slid it into his wallet.

Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said, and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids.

Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They’re waiving fees, lowering the age of eligibility — ranging from 5 to 18 nationwide — and printing the cards faster.

It’s the first time tribal IDs have been widely used as proof of U.S. citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond.

“I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” Wilkins said. “I find it terribly frustrating and disheartening.”

As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.

“As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De León, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of Isleta Pueblo.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to more than four requests for comment over a week.

Native identity in a new age of fear

Since the mid- to late 1800s, the U.S. government has kept detailed genealogical records to estimate Native Americans’ fraction of “Indian blood” and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education and other services owed under federal legal responsibilities. Those records were also used to aid federal assimilation efforts and chip away at tribal sovereignty, communal lands and identity.

Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the last two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become commonplace and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove U.S. work eligibility and for domestic air travel.

About 70% of Native Americans today live in urban areas, including tens of thousands in the Twin Cities, one of the largest urban Native populations in the country.

There, in early January, a top ICE official announced the “largest immigration operation ever.”

Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs became commonplace in some neighborhoods. By this week, more than 3,400 people had been arrested, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Border Patrol officers were on the ground.

Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to Minneapolis — the birthplace of the American Indian Movement — to accept ID applications from members there. Among them were the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.

Turtle Mountain citizen Faron Houle renewed his tribal ID card and got his young adult son’s and his daughter’s first ones.

“You just get nervous,” Houle said. “I think (ICE agents are) more or less racial profiling people, including me.”

Events in downtown coffee shops, hotel ballrooms, and at the Minneapolis American Indian Center helped urban tribal citizens connect and share resources, said Christine Yellow Bird, who directs the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s satellite office in Fargo, North Dakota.

Yellow Bird made four trips to Minneapolis in recent weeks, putting nearly 2,000 miles on her 2017 Chevy Tahoe to help citizens in the Twin Cities who can’t make the long journey to their reservation.

Yellow Bird said she always keeps her tribal ID with her.

“I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “I never thought I would have to carry it for my own safety.”

Some Native Americans say ICE is harassing them

Last year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said that several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised citizens to carry tribal IDs with them at all times.

Last November, Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who told her that her tribal ID looked fake.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe this week banned ICE from its reservation in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, one of the largest in the country.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota said a member was detained in Minnesota last weekend. And Peter Yazzie, who is Navajo, said he was arrested and held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix for several hours last week.

Yazzie, a construction worker from nearby Chinle, Arizona, said he was sitting in his car at a gas station preparing for a day of work when he saw ICE officers arrest some Latino men. The officers soon turned their attention to Yazzie, pushed him to the ground, and searched his vehicle, he said.

He said he told them where to find his driver’s license, birth certificate, and a federal Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. Yazzie said the car he was in is registered to his mother. Officers said the names didn’t match, he said, and he was arrested, taken to a nearby detention center and held for about four hours.

“It’s an ugly feeling. It makes you feel less human. To know that people see your features and think so little of you,” he said.

DHS did not respond to questions about the arrest.

Mantz, the Choctaw Nation citizen, said he runs pest-control operations in Minneapolis neighborhoods where ICE agents are active and he won’t leave home without his tribal identification documents.

Securing them for his children is now a priority.

“It gives me some peace of mind. But at the same time, why do we have to carry these documents?” Mantz said. “Who are you to ask us to prove who we are?”

Brewer reported from Oklahoma City and Peters from Edgewood, New Mexico.

A Waterford Township man is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly robbing two stores at knifepoint at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets on Tuesday, allegedly threatening police officers when they confronted him and then fleeing in his car.

Ryan David Kissel, 29, is charged with two counts of armed robbery, felonious assault, fleeing/eluding police-third degree, and two counts of assaulting/resisting/obstructing police in connection with the Jan. 27 incident.

According to the Auburn Hills Police Department, officers responded to the mall, located at 4000 Baldwin Road, at around 7:30 p.m. on Jan, 27 after receiving 911 calls about a man armed with a knife who had robbed two stores. Kissel reportedly threatened officers who approached him the parking lot, then got into his car and drove away.

As stated in a news release from the police department, “Officers pursued the suspect until it was deemed too dangerous to continue, and the pursuit was terminated.” A “Be On the Lookout” alert was sent out to area police agencies as an investigation continued, police said.

No injuries were reported in the alleged robberies, police said.

At approximately 9:30 p.m., on Jan. 27, Kissel was taken into custody at his home in Waterford. Charges were issued the next day. At Kissel’s arraignment on Jan. 29 in 52-3 District Court, Magistrate Marie Soma set bond at $250,000 with no 10% provision. If he posts bond, and is released from the Oakland County Jail, Kissel is to be monitored by electronic tether and prohibited from returning to Great Lakes Crossing Outlets.

Kissel’s next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 12 for a probable cause conference followed by a preliminary exam a week later. Armed robbery is punishable by up to life in prison.

In the news release, the Auburn Hills Police Department acknowledged assistance from the mall’s security staff and the Waterford Police Department for “outstanding cooperation and professionalism.”

“Their timely communication, coordinated response and investigative assistance were instrumental in the safe identification and apprehension of the suspect. This incident highlights the importance of strong partnerships between private security and law enforcement agencies in protecting our community,” the news release stated..

Anyone who witnessed the incident or has additional information about it is asked to call the Auburn Hills Police Department at 248-370-9460.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Birmingham Groves dictated tempo from the start and raced to an 80-39 victory over Bloomfield Hills in a battle for first place in the Oakland Activities Association White Division.

Both teams came into the game unbeaten in league play. But it didn’t take long for Groves to assert control of the game. After the teams battled to an 8-8 start, the Falcons closed the first quarter on a 14-2 run and never looked back.

The Falcons full cast came to play. Groves came in waves, pressed all night, and generally filled the stat sheet every which way. The Falcons dressed 10 players and all of them scored, each had at least one rebound, and eight players had at least one steal as everyone got into the act.

“We wanted everyone to score, so that was the cool thing,” Falcons head coach Jessica Duleba said. “I think you got to see our style of play is pretty fun.”

Still, when the Falcons needed a bucket to get on track or stem a brief run by the Black Hawks, it was either Harlem Simpson or Jacey Roy that they turned to. Simpson, who recently hit 1,000 for her career, finished with a game-high 26 points, including 20 points in the first half. Roy added 17 points, and Mallory Killian added 13 points for the Falcons.

“I’m happy with our performance. The shooting was good tonight,” said Duleba, whose team has now equaled or exceeded 80 points in eight games during its current win streak that followed an 0-2 start to the year.

The Black Hawks played well in spurts. When they could break the press or get a defensive stop or two, Bloomfield Hills was very competitive. But as soon as they started to turn the ball over, Groves would score in transition, put on a quick spurt, and extend its lead.

“I felt that we threw the ball away three times in the first half, and they scored three threes,” Black Hawks head coach Renardo Brown said. “That’s what we’ve got to learn. We’ve got to learn to break it (the press), and then run something,” he added.

Photos of Birmingham Groves vs. Bloomfield Hills in OAA White girls hoops action

Raina James came off the bench to lead the Black Hawks with 12 points. Julianna Socha had a game-high nine rebounds for Bloomfield Hills, and though they also spread the scoring around, outside of James, no one else came close to double figures for the Black Hawks.

With the win, Groves (10-2 overall) improves to 5-0 in the OAA White and assumes full control of the league race. The Falcons begin their second trip through the league on Tuesday with a road game against Auburn Hills Avondale.

“We really wanted this one. We lost to them in districts last year, so we had this one on our list,” Duleba said. “We’re just happy to get this one. We split it last year (in the regular season) and lost in districts, so we keep that as our motivation. We have a lot of teams on our list this year, and we’re trying to prove that we belong and that we should be in the top teams around here, that we deserve some recognition, too.”

The Black Hawks (7-3, 3-1 OAA White) have a quick turnaround, hosting Walled Lake Central in a non-league contest on Friday.

The teams could meet two more times this year – once more in league play and possibly again in districts.

“I played four freshmen tonight,” Brown said. “We’re going through some growing stages right now. But I think give us three or four more games down the road, we work on what we need to work on, and we probably can put a better show out there. But we’ve got to meet them again, probably in the playoffs here, and that’s what it’s all about.”

A Walled Lake marijuana producer is under state investigation.

Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency filed a formal complaint against Prism Triangle at 850 Ladd Road in Walled Lake.

The complaint lists two counts of not employing a lab manager, one count of not using state-approved testing methods and one count of not meeting state standards for sampling and testing marijuana and marijuana products.

State officials who inspected the company in 2025 found evidence that the company did not meet standards for testing recreational marijuana for pesticides and did not have a lab manager with an advanced degree in medical or laboratory science.

In August, 2025, state officials were alerted to the fact that the company was not using approved testing methods to detect a mold called aspergillus, which may cause people to develop a fungal lung infection.

Investigators found that the company improperly recorded test results and used equipment that was not property calibrated.

The state has the right to impose fines or sanction a license by suspending, restricting, revoking or refusing to renew it. The company has 21 days to respond to the complaint and request a formal hearing.

Prism Triangle officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Oakland Press.

ROCHESTER HILLS — Stoney Creek relied on the free-throw shooting of junior forward Calista Ivezaj to pull out a 41-38 win over visiting West Bloomfield on Thursday.

She made 11 of 14 free-throw attempts overall and only missed one of her eight tries in the fourth quarter, leading all scorers with 21 points in the Cougars’ success.

“Going into it, we were just prepping a lot, taking practice very seriously,” said Calista, who was coming off a career-high 26 points in Stoney Creek’s last outing, a 59-16 win against Fenton. “We know these league games are gonna be tough. It’s a rivalry, everything there, but we were just focusing on what we do best and locking in on what we know we can execute.”

Stoney Creek, West Bloomfield and Clarkston have been the top-three teams in the OAA Red in some order going back to 2023-24, but the league title has eluded the Cougars. In the first of their four games against those two opponents, a victory over the Lakers is a first step toward claiming one this winter.

“One of our biggest goals has always been winning the OAA Red,” Calista said. “Coming out (of it), (Stoney Creek head coach Columbus Williams) just said, ‘This is the start. We’re sending the message we’re here to play, not play around.’ We’re be focused for the rest of the OAA (schedule).”

After a commanding 15-4 start by the hosts, West Bloomfield (9-4, 3-2) scored five unanswered early in the second quarter to make it a four-point contest, and from there little separated the two league contenders. The Lakers finished off the opening half on a 6-0 spurt that included a 3-pointer by star senior guard Sheridan Beal, and it was Stoney that led by one, 29-28, after three quarters of action.

“We were trying to control the tempo at that point with the lead that we had,” Williams said of the early action. “Their guards put a lot of pressure on us and our girls didn’t read the flow of the game the right way, then we threw a few turnovers in that second quarter that allowed them to get back into the game.”

Following a floater by freshman guard Bailey Finnie’s floater that had the Lakers within one early in the fourth, both teams went scoreless over the course of several trips until the Cougars rebounded a missed 3-pointer and senior Jadelynn Freeman sank a baseline jumper with 3:20 to go.

After two Calista Ivezaj free throws and a split pair by Malia Taylor, Izzy Ivezaj hit Calista underneath for a bucket that made 37-31, but Beal sliced the lead in half with 1:40 to go when she was fouled on a made 3-pointer, though she didn’t sink the free throw.

Photo gallery from Stoney Creek vs. West Bloomfield in an OAA Red girls hoops contest

Beal missed her next two shots, but teammate Tiara Hopkins-Butler deposited the second miss to keep the Lakers within two at 38-36 with 1:09 remaining, and after the Cougars committed a backcourt violation, Beal drove the lane and knocked down a pull-up jumper that tied the game as 50 seconds remained.

Despite that, West Bloomfield fouled afterward and sent Isabelle Sutton to the line, where she made one of two with 43 ticks left, and the last four shots by the Lakers, including a potential game tying 3-pointer after Calista Ivezaj's final two free throws, didn't fall, preserving Stoney's triumph.

The Ivezajs -- Calista, Izzy and Abby -- used their height and length to combine for at least a handful of blocks.

That helped take advantage of one of West Bloomfield's shortcomings. The Lakers are down a pair of key players from the beginning of the year, including forward Londyn Hall (ACL), the only other returning starter other than Beal from last year's team that reached the Division 1 semifinals.

"We're down two starters, and I don't have a floor general, someone who's going to get them where they're supposed to be," Lakers head coach Darrin McAllister said. "It's tough from where we started, what we expected to do. We had to pivot."

Beal, who saw a ton of attention from Freeman and the rest of the Cougars' line of forwards, finished with a team-high 19 points. She's yet to be held to single-digit scoring this season.

"Sheridan's doing a lot more things now," McAllister said. "Going back to losing your starting point guard, at the end of the game, we're putting the ball in her hands as opposed to her being the off-guard. London, she was a tremendous post player, and it's putting pressure on other post players. But hopefully, and I'm confident, we'll get it together and by the postseason we'll be better than we are now.

"If I had hair, I'd be pulling it out right now. But I'm not crying over spilt milk. I can't do that. We've been to the Breslin four times in four years and some people haven't gone in a 30 or 40-year career. So I'm putting it on me."

West Bloomfield and Stoney Creek will rematch in the final league game of the season for both teams on Feb. 24. Meanwhile, the Cougars play Lake Orion on Tuesday, then will face Clarkston, the Red Division's other 4-0 team, in back-to-back games, beginning with an away game against the Wolves on Feb. 6.

"With the snow day we had, looking at both our crazy calendars, that's how we put it," Williams said of the consecutive matchups upcoming with Clarkston. "Personally, I like it, because if we win (both), we've got the league settled within four days."

By Charles E. Ramirez, cramirez@detroitnews.com

Southeast and central Michigan continue to feel the freezer burn on Friday morning.

Dangerously frigid temperatures prompted the National Weather Service to issue a cold weather advisory, and dozens of schools canceled classes.

The advisory is in effect until 10 a.m. for areas north of Interstate 96, including Michigan’s Thumb and the Bay City-Midland-Saginaw area, the weather service said.

NWS warns temperatures across the region will start at between 5 and 20 degrees below zero. Detroit had reached 3 by about 8 a.m. Friday and was expected to reach a high of 14. The city’s normal high temperature in January is 32.3.

Wind chills are expected to drop to 20 below zero north of I-96 and 15 below zero near Flint and the M-59 corridor, according to the forecast.

NWS also said the coldest conditions are expected by mid-Friday morning.

Some areas of the region may also see some snow on Friday. The eastern part of Michigan’s Thumb could get 1 to 3 inches of snow from Friday night through Saturday morning, thanks to lake effect snow showers from Lake Huron.

Light snow and flurries are possible for the rest of the region, with a dusting to a tenth or two of an inch possible, the NWS said.

Meanwhile, among the districts closed amid the extreme cold is Dearborn Public Schools.

“All Dearborn Public Schools will be closed on Friday 1/30/26. Wind chill temps for Friday A.M. forecasted between -15 to -20 depending on conditions. District uses -20 as a threshold for closing. Temps expected to rise throughout the day but out of an abundance of caution for students in the A.M. schools will be closed,” officials said in a statement on the district’s website.

The Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights followed suit.

“All Crestwood School District school buildings and offices will be closed on Friday, January 30, 2026 to address building needs due to the recent extreme cold conditions,” it said.

Detroit Public Schools Community District remained open on Friday. Earlier this week, district officials said the school system had used its sixth and final ‘forgiveness’ day for weather, but planned to petition the state for more.

The cold will stick around over the weekend. On Saturday, Detroit’s high should climb to 19, according to the weather service. The city is also looking at isolated snow showers between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.

NWS also predicts wind chills will range between 10 below zero and minus 15 for parts of southeast Michigan, the weather service said. Wind chill values in Detroit could fall as low as minus-5.

On Thursday, Detroit officials said they were keeping the city’s overnight stand-by shelters and respite locations open for an additional day due to the continued cold.

Shelters provided by the city with Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries at 13130 Woodward Ave., the Pope Francis Center at 2915 Hancock, and the Neighborhood Service Organization at 882 Oakman Blvd. will remain open until Monday. Earlier this week, officials announced the shelters would be extended through Sunday.

“Our priority is keeping every Detroiter safe and warm,” Mayor Mary Sheffield said in a statement. “During these bitterly cold conditions, the City of Detroit is making sure every resident has access to a safe and warm place.

“If you need shelter, call our Housing HelpLine at 866-313-2520, visit any police precinct, or go directly to a stand-by shelter. No one should have to face this extreme cold alone.”

NWS meteorologists predict that sunshine on Sunday will push temperatures into the lower 20s, and highs in the 20s will linger over the next week.

In Detroit, the mercury could reach 22 on Sunday. The city’s average high temperature in February, which begins Sunday, is 35.2.

As the deep freeze continues across the region, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on Friday reminded the public to be careful when venturing out onto lakes, ponds, and rivers.

The office said fluctuating temperatures and underwater currents can create dangerous, unstable ice conditions often invisible from the surface. Officials also said there is no such thing as ice that’s 100% safe.

“We want everyone to enjoy the winter season, but safety must be the priority,” Sheriff Troy Goodnough said in a statement. “Ice conditions can change rapidly. Just because the ice was safe yesterday, or appears safe from the shore, does not mean it is safe today. We urge everyone to check the ice thickness prior to venturing onto it.”

Extended Detroit Forecast

Saturday: Partly sunny; high 19, low 5.

Sunday: Sunny; high 22, low 6.

Monday: Mostly cloudy; high 26, low 14.

Tuesday: Partly sunny; high 26, low 13.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy; high 25, low 12.

Thursday: Partly sunny; high 26.

Source: National Weather Service

©2026 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MICHAEL BIESECKER, REBECCA SANTANA and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday.

“We’re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened,” Blanche said during a news conference.

Blanche did not explain why DOJ decided to open an investigation into Pretti’s killing, but has said a similar probe is not warranted in the Jan. 7 death of Renee Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. He said only on Friday that the Civil Rights Division does not investigate every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances and facts that “warrant an investigation.”

“President Trump has said repeatedly, ‘Of course, this is something we’re going to investigate,’” Blanche said of the Pretti shooting.

Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing Pretti’s parents, said Friday that “the family’s focus is on a fair and impartial investigation that examines the facts around his murder.”

FBI to take over federal investigation

The Department of Homeland Security also said Friday that the FBI will lead the federal probe into Pretti’s death.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem first disclosed the shift in which agency was leading the investigation during a Fox News interview Thursday evening. Her department previously said Homeland Security Investigations, a departmental unit, would head the investigation.

“We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to conclusion, and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people,” Noem said, speaking to Fox host Sean Hannity.

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Homeland Security Investigations will support the FBI in the investigation. Separately, Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, is doing its own internal investigation into the shooting, during which two officers opened fire on Pretti.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about when the change was made or why. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear whether the FBI would share information and evidence with Minnesota state investigators, who have thus far been frozen out of the federal investigation.

In the same interview, Noem appeared to distance herself from statements she made shortly after the shooting, claiming Pretti had brandished a handgun and aggressively approached officers.

Multiple videos that emerged of the shooting contradicted that claim, showing the intensive care nurse had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground, with one removing a handgun from the back of Pretti’s pants as another officer began firing shots into his back.

Pretti had a state permit to legally carry a concealed firearm. At no point did he appear to reach for it, the videos showed.

Videos emerge of previous altercation

The change in agency comes after two other videos emerged of an earlier altercation between Pretti and federal immigration officers 11 days before his death.

The Jan. 13 videos show Pretti yelling at federal vehicles and at one point appearing to spit before kicking out the taillight of one vehicle. A struggle ensues between Pretti and several officers, during which he is forced to the ground. Pretti’s winter coat comes off, and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.

When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun, and it is not clear whether federal agents saw it.

Schleicher, the Pretti family attorney, said Wednesday the earlier altercation in no way justified the shooting more than a week later.

In a post on his Truth Social platform early Friday morning, President Donald Trump suggested that the videos of the earlier incident undercut the narrative that Pretti was a peaceful protester when he was shot.

“Agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist, Alex Pretti’s stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer, and then crazily kicking in a new and very expensive government vehicle, so hard and violent, in fact, that the taillight broke off in pieces,” Trump’s post said. “It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!”

Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.

By Max Bryan, mbryan@detroitnews

Oakland County’s community mental health agency and a nonprofit that provides mental health services in the county are accusing each other of acting in bad faith as the county absorbed part of the nonprofit’s services Thursday.

Crisis care nonprofit Common Ground announced in a statement Thursday afternoon that it was ending its adult crisis services at its Pontiac location because the Oakland Community Health Network “failed to issue multiple monthly payments” to the nonprofit.

Adult services at Common Ground include a crisis helpline, walk-in assessments and a sober support unit for adults experiencing mental health crisis or substance abuse. Common Ground CEO Heather Rae said 8,000-9,000 people use the nonprofit’s adult crisis services annually.

In its own statement following Common Ground’s, OCHN announced it was immediately assuming responsibility for the services. OCHN is contracted through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to lead the county’s provider service network.

“That the attempts to cause panic among the Oakland County residents and the citizens of the county are very shocking and disappointing, because you’re talking about people whose lives have been put at risk when they believe help is no longer available for them at their most vulnerable,” said OCHN CEO Dana Lasenby.

Common Ground members have attended county meetings since November opposing OCHN absorbing its services.

“Transition meetings between the organizations were initially productive and focused on program continuity and collaboration. However, discussions ultimately stalled as Common Ground shifted its focus toward financial demands rather than operational coordination for the people served,” OCHN’s statement reads.

Rae contends OCHN hasn’t paid the nonprofit since November for its crisis residential unit or sober support unit and hasn’t paid for its main contract since December. In its statement, Common Ground claims OCHN told them Tuesday they didn’t plan to make these payments, citing “outstanding cost settlement reviews.”

Rae said the cost settlement — more than $1 million — is usually worked out in late spring or summer. OCHN claims those funds that Common Ground owes the network were an overpayment.

“It is premature for them to have a number because it is not as simple as that. We go through an audited process, an in-depth review of payments made, expenditures, and we arrive together at a number, and we work that for as long as it takes,” Rae told The Detroit News on Thursday. “Usually, it takes a month or two to arrive at what is the reality of who owes who and how much.”

Rae also claimed Common Ground’s amount would be much smaller if the amounts OCHN hasn’t paid them were factored in.

Lasenby called Rae’s claims about the $1 million and monthly payments “inaccurate.” She said they have tried to work out the overpayment amount with Common Ground “for quite a bit of time now.”

Lasenby also said the last payment they made to Common Ground was in December.

“January payment was not made because of a contractual breach of the provider,” Lasenby said.

In addition to the money claims, Rae said Common Ground issued 155 layoff notices in December for Feb. 13, when OCHN was originally supposed to absorb the services. OCHN claimed in its statement that it has transitioned more than 55 employees from Common Ground “to support the continuation of crisis services” and expects that number to grow as employees transition from the nonprofit.