A Lake Orion High School special education teacher is the Region 9 Teacher of the Year for the 2026-27 school year.

Erik Meerschaert, who was named the Oakland County High School Teacher of the Year in 2024-25, is one of 10 regional educators selected and now a finalist for the Michigan Teacher of the Year.

“We celebrate not only an exceptional educator, but a true champion for students,” said Superintendent Heidi Mercer. “Erik represents the heart of our district—dedicated, innovative, and unwavering in their commitment to helping every child succeed.”

A graduate of Western Michigan University, Meerschaert joined the district in 2019.

“Erik has been a dynamic force in engaging students through meaningful classroom activities and hands-on learning experiences,” said Lake Orion High School Principal Dan Haas. “His approach emphasizes active participation, ensuring that every student, regardless of ability, feels included and motivated. Erik serves as a role model by fostering an environment where students are encouraged to challenge themselves while being supported every step of the way.”

By Andrew Van DamThe Washington Post

Around Y2K, the mighty American private sector hit a momentous milestone. For the first time on record, frontline managers – supervisors, team leads, foremen, forewomen, etc. – outnumbered back-office managers.

That seemed significant, especially for the working-class folks for whom these noncommissioned-officer-style positions provided a rare path to the upper reaches of the career ladder. As quickly as the milestone was crossed, the trend reversed, according to our analysis of about 37 million responses to the census and American Community Survey from 1950 to 2024.

Once ascendant, supervisory jobs crop up all over our lists of the hardest-hit jobs of Americans’ working lives, even as white-collar management soars to new highs. What happened?

Having been burned by data-collection changes before, our first instinct was to take a long, hard look at how the Census Bureau classifies jobs. Or, more accurately, to spend 15 seconds emailing an extraordinarily talented economist and hoping they’ve already done the work for us.

We were in luck. Utrecht University economist Anna Salomons responded within an hour, even though the hour in question was already a wee one in the Netherlands. For her blockbuster 2024 analysis, Salomons and her collaborators collected and analyzed detailed Census Bureau job descriptions from 1930 to 2018 to figure out how our economy had evolved, mutated and automated.

She first mentioned that the change in occupational definitions around the 2000 Census was “notoriously large” and, like us, wondered if that might cause some of the shift we saw in the numbers.

But two factors argue against that thesis. First, as Salomons suggested, we’re using a system from our friends at IPUMS that carefully adjusts for all those changes in the raw census definitions.

Second, the changes come gradually after the inflection point – if a census definition change was the culprit, you’d expect a sudden swerve. But what if, Salomons suggested, those changes in definition took place outside of the friendly confines of the Census Bureau?

Specifically, she suggested we look at title inflation, which immediately blew the case wide open. Or at least blew it ajar.

It seems quite possible that, over the past few decades, jobs that were once called some variation on “supervisor” were now called some variation on “manager.”

A fancier title (and no change in pay) may, at least temporarily, fool a worker who’d been angling for a raise or promotion. But could it really fool the almighty Census Bureau?

We fear the answer must be “probably.” The American Community Survey’s superpower – that it hears directly from about 2 million U.S. households each year – is also, in this case, its Achilles’ heel. Because it must rely on what those households say.

The census crew does its utmost to elicit clean answers, but even the most carefully designed questions would struggle to distinguish a manager from a “manager.”

The survey asks not just for your occupation but also for your most important work activities or duties. That detail, plus answers to other questions throughout the survey, such as education level, give the clerks at the National Processing Center – and the government robot that handles the easiest cases – as much information as possible when they’re determining which job a respondent really performed.

But not everybody fills out those activities. And not every manager-in-name-only will provide enough information to reclassify them as a supervisor or even as an individual contributor. So, a certain percentage of inflated titles will slip through.

But that would mean census surveys still reflect a real trend toward title inflation. And why are titles inflating? Based on a lifetime of observation, we’d guess some of corporate America’s brightest minds have noticed that a title upgrade allows you to give a worker a “promotion” without a change in responsibility – or in pay.

Particularly crafty economists may even have found a way to measure one narrow instance of this. Salomons points to an analysis forthcoming in the Review of Financial Studies. In it, economists analyzed about 450,000 online job postings with salaries near the cutoff that makes you eligible for management under the Fair Labor Standards Act. (The postings came from 2010 to 2018, when the cutoff was $455 a week. It currently sits at $684.)

The authors – Lauren Cohen at Harvard University, and Umit Gurun and Bugra Ozel at the University of Texas at Dallas – found that jobs paying just above the legal cutoff are about five times more likely to have managerial titles than are similar jobs with pay just below it.

Why? Well, even a dubious title such as calling a barber a “grooming manager” or a front-desk clerk a “director of first impressions” could provide cover for employers looking to claim that person is exempt from overtime pay. The economists estimate such spurious classifications save employers about 13.5 percent on the pay of each “manager.”

To be sure, as Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, told us, the definition for overtime-exempt employees says nothing about titles – it’s purely about job function. Faux-promoting a worker to “manager” shouldn’t change anything. But in reality, she said, bosses often use these titles as a smoke screen.

“Titles can still matter a lot in practice,” Ozel said. “A ‘manager’ label can shape expectations about whether overtime is available and can muddy the record for anyone trying to assess the role from the outside. … Job duties are hard to observe and document without access to internal records and day-to-day work.”

But this dynamic, while suggestive, applies only to a narrow slice of the workforce. In any given year, less than a tenth of the workforce earned enough to put them within fudging distance (20 percent) of the cutoff.

What else might drive this title inflation?

Our best clue came in a call from Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University management expert who longtime readers may recognize is also a remote-work data impresario.

Bloom pointed out the rise of managers coincides with what he calls the overeducation of the American workforce. College graduates once made up a tiny, elite minority. Now, America’s colleges churn out so many that they outnumber the share of young people who never made it past high school.

As a result, Bloom said, there aren’t enough highfalutin’ positions for all those brand-new baccalaureates. Of course, employers would still love to attract these talented young grads to their unfilled lower-falutin’ positions. But to do so, they’d need to get creative.

“How do you get a college graduate to do a job that’s honestly probably better suited to a noncollege graduate?” Bloom asked. “You just shove the word ‘president’ into the title!”

When we took Bloom’s hint and charted the rise in managers by education, the fallout of his observation became clear. The increase in managers with a bachelor’s degree or higher drowns out any other trend. If we explain that segment, we explain the whole thing.

We started by looking at where all those college-educated managers worked.

As we should have guessed, they’re in the industries with the most-educated workers overall. In almost every major industry, as more educated workers roll in, the number of educated managers rises at the same rate.

Let’s look at an appropriate example: the industry of higher education. In that business, a four-year degree (or something fancier) gave you almost a 5 percent chance of being in management in 2000. By 2024, the share of educated workers in that sector had more than doubled, but your chances of being a manager conditional on having a college degree didn’t really change.

Many industries – banking, real estate, hospitals – follow this pattern. The exception? Computer services, which added more jobs than all but a handful of (mostly low-wage) industries over this time period, also saw your odds of becoming a manager double.

That matches what we heard from Ben Hanowell, an anthropologist who now helps direct ADP Research, the research arm of the outfit that probably processes your paycheck each month. The company’s endless piles of proprietary payrolls allow Hanowell to produce metrics that us mere civilians can’t match.

In his analysis, Hanowell found that U.S. teams got slightly smaller after the pandemic – an average manager went from 7.4 direct reports to about 7.3. But over that time, tech firms have gone from 6.5 workers per manager to about 5.3, with much of the drop coming after the pandemic.

So, while there are some situations where individuals became more likely to be managers, the much more common story is: People with college degrees had the same odds of becoming a manager as they always did, so as we got more people with college degrees, we got more managers.

But are these Potemkin promotions, or do they signal a change in the economy?

It hinges on whether the new boss, the “manager,” is truly the same as the old boss, the “supervisor.” We don’t have enough data right now to compare their actual duties, but we can at least look at their pay.

And sure enough, when we compare managers to similarly paid supervisors since the turn of the millennium, a clean pattern pops out. At every step of pay scale, managers rose, and supervisors fell in roughly equal quantities (after accounting for workforce growth over that time). To us, that looks a lot like replacement.

To be sure, they may not all be simple swaps in which a firm hires a college graduate to be a glorified supervisor with a cool title. We could also be seeing centralization. Perhaps work that once fell to supervisors – say, scheduling or coaching – now shifts to a central, college-educated staff of trainers and human resources professionals.

Around the edges, we expect those trends have been exacerbated by the decline of small businesses, since a megacorp in search of efficiency will centralize more functions. Similarly, the rise of outsourcing and perhaps gig work means jobs that were once done by small teams with supervisors inside the company are now handled by huge outside contractors.

And of course the increasing reliance on gig workers and outsourced workers that such a model implies might also help explain why tech’s managers now seem to manage so few employees – many of the folks they’re managing are now working outside the company.

But experts like Shierholz confirmed our hunch that the dominant force seemed to be the simplest: Job titles are getting a college-friendly makeover even if the jobs themselves don’t change much. Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed, agreed this seemed plausible based on his impressions from the online job site’s vast archives of job postings.

“We’re seeing a lot of jobs that have manager in them, but they are doing these more direct manager or direct supervising type of jobs,” Stahle said. “They are managers who are more directly involved in the day-to-day operations rather than a higher-up.”

Today is Sunday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2026. There are 312 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 22, 2022, three white men were convicted of federal hate crimes in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, who was jogging through their neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, when he was attacked in 2020. (The men are serving life sentences after being convicted of murder in state court.)

Also on this date:

In 1732, the first president of the United States, George Washington, was born in Westmoreland County in the Virginia Colony.

In 1784, a U.S. merchant ship, the Empress of China, left New York for the first trade voyage of an American ship to China.

In 1819, a weakened Spain, facing revolutions in Latin America, signed a treaty ceding Florida to the United States.

In 1862, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated to a full six-year term as president of the Confederate States of America after his election the previous November. He previously served as the Confederacy’s provisional president.

In 1959, the inaugural Daytona 500 race was held; although Johnny Beauchamp was initially declared the winner, the victory was later awarded to Lee Petty.

In 1967, more than 25,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City, aimed at smashing a Viet Cong stronghold near the Cambodian border.

In 1997, scientists in Scotland announced they had successfully cloned an adult mammal for the first time, a sheep they named “Dolly.”

In 1980, the “Miracle on Ice” took place at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, as the U.S. Olympic hockey team upset the Soviet Union, 4-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal two days later, 4-2, over Finland.)

In 2010, Najibullah Zazi, accused of buying products from beauty supply stores to make bombs for an attack on New York City subways, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. (He spent nearly a decade after his arrest helping the U.S. identify and prosecute terrorists and was given a 10-year sentence.)

In 2020, pioneering Black mathematician Katherine Johnson, who calculated rocket trajectories and Earth orbits for NASA’s early space missions and was later portrayed in the 2016 film “Hidden Figures,” died at the age of 101.

In 2024, a private lander built by Intuitive Machines made the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years, but the spacecraft only managed a weak signal and spotty communications with flight controllers.

Today’s birthdays:

• Actor Paul Dooley is 98.
• Actor James Hong is 97.
• Actor Julie Walters is 76.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Julius Erving is 76.
• Golf Hall of Famer Amy Alcott is 70.
• Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 67.
• Golf Hall of Famer Vijay Singh is 63.
• Hockey Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine is 61.
• Actor Paul Lieberstein (TV: “The Office) is 59.
• Actor Jeri Ryan is 58.
• Actor-singer Lea Salonga is 55.
• Tennis Hall of Famer Michael Chang is 54.
• Singer James Blunt is 52.
• Actor Drew Barrymore is 51.
• Comedian Iliza Shlesinger is 43.
• Dancer and singer Genneya Walton is 27.
• Rapper Molly Brazy is 27.

ORCHARD LAKE – The third time facing Huron Valley this year was lucky for South Lyon Unified, who defeated the Titans 7-3 Saturday night to advance to Wednesday’s D3 regional finals.

Huron Valley had won the two regular season meetings, including a 6-5 overtime thriller just under three weeks ago at Lakeland Ice Arena.

“We didn’t change much up (from the earlier matchups),” Unified head coach Dennis Gagnon said. “We just scored more than they did. The puck bounced our way. Hockey is a game of bounces, and we earned our bounces, for sure. But it still boils down to bounces and luck.”

Unified came out hot, needing just 1:16 to get on the board when Aiden Petrovich converted a center ice turnover, getting a breakaway and flipping a backhanded shot into the net for a quick lead. Barely three minutes later, Braden Hillebrand barreled down the win, cut behind the net and then found Alex Kero trailing the play for a quick shot and a 2-0 lead.

Hillebrand would score with 6:51 to play in the period, making it 3-0 and South Lyon Unified seemed to have things well in hand.

But the Titans would not go down without a fight. Unified had jumped out to a 3-0 lead the last time the teams met back on Feb. 2, and the Titans came back to win that one in overtime. And for a while, this looked like it could be a repeat.

“We had a slow start. They (Unified) were on fire. It’s hard to come back. At times, it looked like we were chipping away at it, and then they would get a goal right back,” Titans head coach Tim Ronayne said.

The Titans’ power play connected with 48.7 seconds to play in the first period when Nate Dell scored a one-timer from down low. Then, just 2:28 into the next period, the Titans scored again when Austin Scanlon won a faceoff clean back to Lucas Brethauser, whose shot from the top of the right circle seemed to have eyes for the net. Suddenly, it was 3-2 and the Titans had all the momentum.

But this time, Unified had the answers whenever the Titans pushed back. South Lyon Unified restored the two-goal margin just 24 seconds later on a goal from Grant Daugherty, then added another pair before the period had ended with Petrovich and Hillebrand each picking up their second goals of the game.

Huron Valley had a bit of a push early in the third period when Nate Dell got a power-play marker to cut things to 6-3. Even so, the final period was a penalty-filled affair with South Lyon Unified picking up a few penalties in the early stages of the third, and then Huron Valley took several late penalties, short-circuiting any late rally by the Titans.

Photo gallery of a D3 hockey regional semifinal between South Lyon Unified and the Huron Valley Titans

Both sides first met this winter on Dec. 17 in Brighton. In that initial showdown, unlike in the last two, scoring was scarce early as neither team found the back of the net in the first period. However, the Titans struck four times in the final frame in a 5-2 win. Dell and Scanlon assisted Tommy Colt for the game-winner in OT of the February matchup that decided the LVC.

South Lyon Unified (22-4-2) advances to Wednesday’s regional final where it will face Division 3 defending champion Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, who thrashed Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard on its own ice in the evening's first semifinal.

“We’ll just enjoy this one and look forward to the next one,” Gagnon said. “You can’t ask for anything better, can you?” he added.

Huron Valley finishes its first year as a unified team (Lakeland and Milford) with a 16-12-1 record and the Lakes Valley Conference Championship.

“it’s a disappointing way to end the year, but all said and done, we had a great year,” Ronayne said. “It’s our first year being unified, and it was a lot of fun coaching all these guys. The most impressive thing was that they all got along. They melded together, and they’re all brothers. That’s a life lesson in itself right there."

South Lyon Unified defeated the Huron Valley Titans 7-3 in the D3 regional semifinal played on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026 at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s.

ORCHARD LAKE – The Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Eaglets opened the defense of their D3 state title by rolling to a 10-2 victory over the Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard Fighting Irish.

St. Mary’s started strong with two goals in the first six minutes and never looked back. Sophomore Brandon Kondrat got things going for St. Mary’s, capitalizing on a turnover to snap a shot into the net from close range with 12:48 to play in the first period. Dominic Pizzo’s one-timer exactly 100 seconds later made it 2-0, and both goals would be typical of things to come.

St. Mary’s made a living down low in this one. The Eaglets scored most of their goals from point-blank range, getting tip-ins and close in shots early and often, but especially in the third period when they put the Fighting Irish away with four quick goals, ending the game with 6:55 still on the third period clock.

“That was really the goal after the first period – start getting more of that (getting shots in deep) and being able to move that puck across the whole zone rather than using just half of it,” Eaglets head coach Brian Klanow said.

Pizzo was the top scorer for the Eaglets with two goals and one assist, while Matthew Mourad also had three points (one goal, two assists). Charlie Roberts, J.T. Birkett, John Brown, Cam Sussex, and Daniel Ramos each had two points as the Eaglets spread the scoring throughout virtually the entire team. Nine different players scored and 17 Eaglets got at least one point.

Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard’s top line scored a pair of goals with Kai He and Stephen Joffe both scoring for the Fighting Irish. But that was about all the offense for the Fighting Irish, who mustered just 12 shots on goal for the night.

The Fighting Irish played hard throughout the game and battled up and down the line up, from goalie Zeke Talusan to a defense anchored by Jakub Sienkiewicz, right up to the forward lines. Gabriel Richard scratched and fought for every loose puck and every inch of ice they could get. But the young Fighting Irish just could not overcome St. Mary’s firepower.

Photos of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard in a D3 hockey regional

With the win, the Eaglets (22-4-2) move on to Wednesday’s regional final where they will host South Lyon Unified, winners of the second semifinal on Saturday night.

“We have to come out, put our heads down, and play like a team the whole game,” Klanow said.

Gabriel Richard finishes the year 14-13-1 overall, even with a roster loaded with freshmen and sophomores.

“Everyone gave it everything they had on the ice. I’m just proud of the effort and proud of the way the guys played today,” Fighting Irish head coach Clint Robert said. “We just wanted to be a family in the locker room, and I thought in the locker room the guys really bonded well. It felt like family, and I think that’s important especially with having the majority of the guys back next year. Despite the lopsided outcome here, I think the way the guys battled and for them to see what it takes and what a top team looks like, I think it’s going to be good for us moving forward,” he added.

Orchard Lake St. Mary’s defeated Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard 10-2 in the MHSAA D3 regional semifinal played at OLSM on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.

WARREN – Jay’den Williams admits that his bedroom walls are getting littered with wrestling memorabilia and most of it is items he has earned.

The Roseville senior 165-pounder, ranked first in the state, brought home some more poster brackets and a medal to add to his growing collection Saturday at Warren Cousino High School.

Williams – who is 37-1 for the season and 186-4 for his stellar four-year career – recorded a 20-3, technical fall victory over Rochester Adams’ Dominic Beccari in the finals at the Division 1 Individual Regional.

“I have too many,” laughed Williams, a three-time state finalist and a sate champion as a junior. I don’t have room anymore. Let’s see – I have four from (Macomb County), four from districts, four from regionals and one from (the state finals).”

Williams was one of 14 regional winners Saturday at Cousino, as standout wrestlers tangled for some eight hours to determine state qualifiers. The top four individuals in each weight class advance to the MHSAA Division 1 state finals March 6-7 at Ford Field in Detroit.

Rochester Adams’ Deacon Morgan will be joining Williams and 55 others from the Cousino regional at the state finals in two weeks and he was impressive ripping through the field in the 144-pound weight class. Last year’s state runner-up has been ranked in the top three in the state and his aggressive fast-paced style helped him record a 19-3, technical fall victory over fellow state-ranked opponent Lucas Harper from Macomb Dakota. 

“I try my best to keep the pace. I just keep my head in the game and keep working and be relentless,” said Morgan. “I do keep up the pace and try to wear my opponent down.”

With last year’s state champion now in college, the door is open for Morgan this season.

“Last year I was second in the state, so the goal is still to win a state championship,” he added.

Rochester Stoney Creek produced one champion, as Jawad Bazzi outlasted Romeo four-sport star Owen Perry 7-3 in the finals at 150. Romeo produced five finalists and tied Adams for the lead with three champions.

Warren Mott had a pair of champions on the day. John Kaminski recorded a 13-5 major decision win over Dax Fegley of Troy in the 157-pound finals. Two weight classes later, Ethan Drozdowski emerged as the 175-pound champ when he defeated Fraser’s Mitchell Nash.

Romeo’s Tommy Jaynes’ quest for glory in the 190-pound division continued, as he added three more wins Saturday to give home 153 for his career and ended his day with a 17-2 technical fall win over Darnel Boyd of Roseville.

“This is the next step,” said Jaynes, a state runner-up last season who is 49-1 this season. “I just have to keep pushing, eating right and manage my nutrition. But I don have to thank God. He gives me the ability to be able to go out there and do this. I just need to keep working hard and remain focused on the goal.”

Adams’ Maxim Vostryakov (215) improved to 39-9 on the season and his major decision victory of 9-1 over Troy’s Selah Houston gave him his first individual regional title.  He came three days after his team captured its first regional title since 1999. Adams’ John David Quinlan (126) prevailed with a 9-5 victory over Romeo’s Ethan Miller in the finals match.

“Personally, for me, I’ve had blast this season. I love my teammates and I love the fact that we won a team regional and that I was able to get one as an individual, too,” said Vostryakov. “Last year I lost in the blood rounds and I’m excited to be able to win today and also win that team regional in the same week.”

Quinlan is also a big part of the Adams success story this year.

“All of this is a great feeling. This team is a close as a team I’ve been one and to win a individual regional here today and to win team regionals earlier this week is amazing. We had three winners today and Max (Vostryakov) clinched it against Romeo the other day for us to win the first regional match,” noted Quinlan. “We have a lot of very good wrestlers and I think we had seven qualify today (for the state finals).”

Landon Cooke of Utica pinned Dearborn Fordson’s Mehdi Beydoun in 4:00 with a broken hand to improve to 22-3. Cooke was injured over the Christmas break with a broken bone in his right hand and missed nearly a month of action.

“I think this title is big because this will help with my seeding at state,” said Cooke. “I missed quite a bit of time and sat out nearly a month because I broke (a bone in) my hand. I won the county meet and then the injury happened right after Christmas. This is my second tournament win, but it is the regional and that’s important. My goal is to try to get up there (on the podium) and be All-State, maybe even top three.”

Sterling Heights Stevenson 106-pounder Anthony Bertollini won his finals match via forfeit after his opponent, Tristan Ciaramitaro of Chippewa Valley, picked up a minor injury at the end of his semifinals victory and opted out. Detroit Cass Tech’s Cyrus Woodberry edged Dearborn Fordson’s Rasoul Charafeddine 4-3 in the 113-pound title bout, while Roseville’s Branden Halsey (132) defeated Fraser’s Connor Wilson 9-4 to win his division.

Romeo sophomore Nico Adamo pinned Fraser’s Zack Courtney in 3:48 to win his 120-pound weight class, while his older brother Valentin Adamo captured a thrilling, 3-1 overtime victory over Dakota’s Carl Nihranz to end the marathon day. Both wrestlers are ranked in the top 10 in the state.

“I just had to trust myself and keep pushing out there,” said Valentine Adamo. “Carl is one of my wrestling partners (outside of high school) and we’re friends. We train together a lot and we’ve wrestled each other a couple of times before. I knew it would be a close match.”

The younger Adamo captured his first regional title.

“This should help me with my seeding. I want to be All-State and I think winning regionals is a big step towards that,” said Nico Adamo. “I didn’t start off the season too well. I only finished seventh at the county meet. I would love to have that day back. But I think that motivated me because I am wrestling a lot better now.”

CHICAGO (AP) — Jalen Duren had 26 points and 13 rebounds in his return from a suspension to help the Detroit Pistons take charge in the second half and roll to a 126-110 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.

Duren helped establish Detroit’s dominance after sitting out two games for his role in a fight at Charlotte on Feb. 9. He got a technical foul in this one for casually dropping the ball on the face of Chicago’s Nick Richards in the third quarter while Richards was down on the floor.

Josh Giddey had 27 points on 10 for 16 shooting — including five 3-pointers — but the Bulls couldn’t keep pace with the Pistons after trailing only 53-50 at the half. Matas Buzelis, Jalen Smith and Issac Okoro each added 15 as the Bulls committed 23 turnovers leading to 28 Detroit points.

Detroit outmuscled Chicago, scoring 68 points in the paint, compared to the Bulls 38. The Pistons had 26 on second chances and Chicago just 16.

The Bulls played without Jaden Ivey, who will be out two weeks with knee soreness after playing just four games with Chicago following a trade from Detroit. Anfernee Simons left the game with a left wrist injury

Bulls coach Billy Donovan was back on the bench after missing a game to attend his father’s funeral.

The Pistons led by no more than six points in a tight, scrappy first half. Detroit outscored Chicago 44-26 in third quarter and opened the lead to as much as 28.

Up next

Pistons: Host San Antonio on Monday

Bulls: Host New York Knicks on Sunday.

— By MATT CARLSON, Associated Press

By Evan Woodbery, Tribune News Service

TAMPA, Fla. — Let’s start with the good, because it’s brief.

Rookie shortstop Kevin McGonigle smoked an opposite-field single in his first at-bat of spring training. Veteran outfielder Corey Julks homered. There were a handful of solid defensive plays.

That about covers it.

Everything else about the Detroit Tigers’ Grapefruit League opener Saturday at George Steinbrenner Field was pretty lousy.

The Tigers lost to the New York Yankees 20-3 in a game that lasted three hours but felt about double that. Seven of the Tigers’ eight scheduled pitchers issued walks. The Yankees poured on nine runs in the eighth inning, drawing four walks against Matt Seelinger before hitting a grand slam and a three-run homer off Woo-Suk Go.

Yankees pitchers were far more efficient, though the Tigers did manage a couple of runs against well-regarded prospect Carlos LaGrange.

McGonigle smacked a 100 mph fastball to left field in the first inning. He dashed to third on a wild pitch and then scored when the catcher’s throw sailed into the outfield.

It was just a spring game, but McGonigle had done his homework, checking out some video of his past matchups against LaGrange.

“I just went back and looked at the film from last year when I faced him, and he threw me a lot of off-speed,” McGonigle said. “I knew he would try to go with a heater and beat me. He threw that first one, and I was late on it, and I told myself, ‘I can’t be late again.’ So I got it again and was able to put it in play.”

Even in a lopsided spring game, there was a moment of perspective for the rookie.

“Always the first game, no matter where I’m at, the nerves and adrenaline are going,” he said. “Just looking across the diamond and seeing (Aaron) Judge and all those guys, it’s really special. But after that first pitch of the at-bat, it was go time. Once that game starts, it’s game on.

“I always treat every game as the same. Whether it’s Fall League, regular season, or spring training, I always try to go out and compete and help the team win. So yeah, I definitely did some study last night (on LaGrange).”

Julks, a non-roster invite who spent the last two seasons in the Chicago White Sox system, homered to left field in the third to score the other run off LaGrange.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer off reliever Burch Smith in the third inning and then another two-run bomb off Ricky Vanasco in the fourth.

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer picked by judges to serve as the top federal prosecutor for a Virginia office that pursued cases against foes of President Donald Trump was swiftly fired Friday by the Justice Department in the latest clash over the appointments of powerful U.S. attorneys.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the firing of James Hundley on social media shortly after he was unanimously chosen by judges to replace former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. While the law says that the district court may choose U.S. attorneys when an initial appointment expires, the Trump administration has insisted that the power lies only in the hands of the executive branch.

“EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does. James Hundley, you’re fired!” Blanche said in a post on X.

Hundley, who has handled criminal and civil cases for more than 30 years, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday evening.

The firing of Hundley is the latest reflection of tumult in one of the Justice Department’s most elite prosecution offices, which since September has been mired in upheaval following the resignation of a veteran prosecutor amid Trump administration pressure to prosecute two of the president’s biggest political foes, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

That prosecutor, Erik Siebert, was effectively forced out and swiftly replaced by Halligan, a White House aide who secured indictments against Comey and James but was later deemed by a judge to have been unlawfully appointed. The cases were dismissed, but the Justice Department has appealed that decision.

Halligan resigned from the position last month after judges in the district signaled continued skepticism over the legitimacy of her appointment.

U.S. attorneys, the top federal prosecutors in regional Justice Department offices around the country, typically require Senate confirmation but the law does permit attorneys general to make temporary appointments for limited time periods. In several instances, though, the Justice Department has attempted to leave its temporary appointees in place in ways that have invited court challenges and drawn resistance from judges who have found the appointments unlawful.

Last week, a lawyer appointed by judges to be the U.S. attorney for northern New York was fired by the Justice Department after spending less than a day in the job. Judges in the district appointed Kinsella after declining to keep the Trump administration’s pick, John Sarcone, in place after his 120-day term elapsed.

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s vision of the Supreme Court, in which his three appointees are personally loyal to him, collided with the court’s view of itself Friday when six justices voted to strike down Trump’s signature economic policy — global tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law.

The outcome led Trump to launch an unusually stark personal attack on the justices, with special rancor reserved for the two Trump appointees who defied him.

The case represented a challenge of Trump’s many untested, yet forcefully stated imperatives on everything from trade to immigration policy and the court’s ability to maintain its independence and, at times, act as a check on presidential authority.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said in the White House briefing room several hours after the court issued its decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Trump said he expected as much from the three Democratic appointees on the court. “But you can’t knock their loyalty,” he said. “It’s one thing you can do with some of our people.”

Asked specifically about Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, who were part of the majority, Trump said, “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, if you want to know the truth, the two of them.”

Vice President JD Vance, whose wife, Usha, spent a year as a law clerk to Roberts, echoed the president’s criticism, though he didn’t make it personal. “This is lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple,” Vance wrote on X.

Legal opposition to the tariffs crossed political lines, with a key challenge coming from the libertarian-leaning Liberty Justice Center and support from pro-business groups like the Chamber of Commerce.

Trump has had a checkered history with the court dating back to the start of his first White House term in 2017, though he won his biggest court battle in 2024, a presidential immunity ruling that prevented him from being prosecuted over efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.

In the first year of his second term, he won repeated emergency appeals that allowed him to implement major aspects of his immigration crackdown and other key parts of his agenda.

Presidential criticism of Supreme Court decisions has its own long history. President Thomas Jefferson was critical of the court’s landmark Marbury v. Madison case, which established the concept of judicial review of congressional and executive action. President Franklin Roosevelt, frustrated about decisions he thought blunted parts of the New Deal, talked about older justices as infirm and sought to expand the court, a failed effort.

In 2010, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union speech, with several members of the court in attendance, to take aim at the court’s just-announced Citizens United decision that helped open the floodgates to independent spending in federal elections. Justice Samuel Alito, who hasn’t attended the annual address since, mouthed the words “not true” in response from his seat.

Trump, though, crossed a line in the way he assailed the justices who voted against him, Ed Whelan, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote in an email.

“It’s entirely fine for a president to criticize a Supreme Court ruling that goes against him. But it’s demagogic for President Trump to contend that the justices who voted against him did so because of lack of courage,” Whelan wrote.

Some presidents also have criticized justices they appointed for decisions they’ve made.

Following the seminal Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told friends that appointing Chief Justice Earl Warren had been his biggest mistake, according to biographer Stephen E. Ambrose.

Objecting to a dissenting vote in an antitrust case, President Theodore Roosevelt once allegedly said of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, wounded in action during the Civil War, that he ”could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone.”

But these remarks were conveyed in private, not at a livestreamed presidential appearance in the White House briefing room.

On a personal level, Trump has had a sometimes tense relationship with Roberts, who has twice issued public rebukes of the president over attacks on federal judges.

Trump didn’t mention Roberts by name on Friday, but he seemed to be assailing the chief justice when he said he lost the case because the justices “want to be politically correct,” “catering to a group of people in D.C.”

Trump used similar language when he criticized Roberts’ vote in 2012 that upheld Obamacare.

Similar to the timing following the Citizens United ruling, the president and some members of the court, dressed in their black robes, are likely to be in the same room Tuesday when Trump delivers his State of the Union address.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once nodded off during a presidential speech in the House of Representatives, attributing her drowsiness to some fine California wine. No justice is likely to be napping Tuesday night.

By MICHAEL PHILLIS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Friday it backs a 10-year deadline for most cities and towns to replace their harmful lead pipes, giving notice that it will support a tough rule approved under the Biden administration to reduce lead in drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court in Washington that it would defend the strongest overhaul of lead-in-water standards in three decades against a court challenge by a utility industry association.

The Trump administration has typically favored rapid deregulation, including reducing or killing rules on air and water pollution. On Friday, for example, it repealed tight limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal plants. But the agency has taken a different approach to drinking water.

“After intensive stakeholder involvement, EPA concluded that the only way to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s mandate to prevent anticipated adverse health effects ‘to the extent feasible’ is to require replacement of lead service lines,” the agency’s court filing said.

Doing so by a 10-year deadline is feasible, the agency added, supporting a rule that was based in part of the finding that old rules that relied on chemical treatment and monitoring to reduce lead “failed to prevent system-wide lead contamination and widespread adverse health effects.”

The EPA said in August it planned to defend the Biden administration’s aggressive rule, but added that it would also “develop new tools and information to support practical implementation flexibilities and regulatory clarity.” Some environmental activists worried that that meant the EPA was looking to create loopholes.

Lead, a heavy metal once common in products like pipes and paints, is a neurotoxin that can stunt children’s development, lower IQ scores and increase blood pressure in adults. Lead pipes can corrode and contaminate drinking water. The previous Trump administration’s rule had looser standards and did not mandate the replacement of all pipes.

Standards aimed at protecting kids

The Biden administration finalized its lead-in-water overhaul in 2024. It mandated that utilities act to combat lead in water at lower concentrations, with just 10 parts per billion as a trigger, down from 15. If higher levels were found, water systems had to inform their consumers, take immediate action to reduce lead and work to replace lead pipes that are commonly the main source of lead in drinking water.

The Biden administration at the time estimated the stricter standards would protect up to 900,000 infants from having low birth weight and avoid up to 1,500 premature deaths a year from heart disease.

“People power and years of lead-contaminated communities fighting to clean up tap water have made it a third rail to oppose rules to protect our health from the scourge of toxic lead. Maybe only a hidebound water utility trade group is willing to attack this basic public health measure,” said Erik Olson, senior director at the Natural Resource Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit.

The American Water Works Association, a utility industry association, had challenged the rule in court, arguing the EPA lacks authority to regulate the portion of the pipe that’s on private property and therefore cannot require water systems to replace them.

The agency countered on Friday that utilities can be required to replace the entire lead pipe because they have sufficient control over them.

The AWWA also said the 10-year deadline wasn’t feasible, noting it’s hard to find enough labor to do the work and water utilities face other significant infrastructure challenges simultaneously. Water utilities were given three years to prepare before the 10-year timeframe starts and some cities with a lot of lead were given longer.

The agency said they looked closely at data from dozens of water utilities and concluded that the vast majority could replace their lead pipes in 10 years or less.

Replacing decades-old standards

The original lead and copper rule for drinking water was enacted by the EPA more than 30 years ago. The rules have significantly reduced lead in water but have been criticized for letting cities move too slowly when levels rose too high.

Lead pipes are most commonly found in older, industrial parts of the country, including major cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee. The rule also revises the way lead amounts are measured, which could significantly expand the number of communities found violating the rules.

The EPA under President Donald Trump has celebrated deregulation. Officials have sought to slash climate change programs and promote fossil fuel development. On drinking water issues, however, their initial actions have been more nuanced.

In March, for example, the EPA announced plans to partially roll back rules to reduce so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water — the other major Biden-era tap water protection. That change sought to keep tough limits for some common PFAS, but also proposed scrapping and reconsidering standards for other types and extending deadlines.

PFAS and lead pipes are both costly threats to safe water. There are some federal funds to help communities.

The Biden administration estimated about 9 million lead pipes provide water to homes and businesses in the United States. The Trump administration updated the analysis and now projects there are roughly 4 million lead pipes. Changes in methodology, including assuming that communities that did not submit data did not have lead pipes, resulted in the significant shift. The new estimate does correct odd results from some states — activists said that the agency’s initial assumptions for Florida, for example, seemed far too high.

The EPA did not immediately return a request for comment. The AWWA pointed to their previous court filing when asked for comment.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and JESSE BEDAYN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly released records show a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.

The death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since the start of a nationwide immigration crackdown in President Donald Trump’s second term. On Friday, DHS said the shooting on South Padre Island last March occurred after the driver intentionally struck an agent.

The shooting involved a Homeland Security Investigations team that was conducting an immigration enforcement operation in conjunction with local police, according to documents obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington.

The records are part of a tranche of heavily redacted internal documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the nonprofit obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Though Martinez’s death on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media outlets at the time, federal and state authorities did not disclose that the shooting involved the team from HSI. In a statement Friday, DHS said the driver who was killed “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent,” resulting in another agent firing “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”

The department did not respond to questions about why it had made no media release or other public notification of the officer-involved shooting over the last 11 months.

Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, said her son was just days past his 23rd birthday when he and his best friend drove from San Antonio down to the beach for the weekend to celebrate. South Padre Island, located on the Gulf Coast just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, is a renowned spring break destination that attracts tens of thousands of college-aged partiers each March.

Martinez worked at an Amazon warehouse, liked to play video games and hang out with friends. His mother said he had never had any prior run-ins with law enforcement.

“He was a typical young guy,” Reyes told The Associated Press. “He never really got a chance to go out and experience things. It was his first time getting to go out of town. He was a nice guy, humble guy. And he wasn’t a violent person at all.”

Records show federal agents were assisting police

According to an internal two-page ICE incident report included in the newly disclosed documents, shortly after midnight, HSI officers were assisting South Padre Island police by redirecting traffic through a busy intersection after a vehicle accident with several injuries.

A blue, four-door Ford with a driver and passenger approached the officers, who ordered the driver to stop. The report does not say why. Initially, the driver didn’t respond to commands but did eventually come to a stop, according to the report.

Agents then surrounded the vehicle, telling those inside to get out, but the driver “accelerated forward” and struck an HSI special agent “who wound up on the hood of the vehicle,” the report said. An HSI supervisory special agent standing by the side of the car then fired his weapon multiple times through the open driver’s side window, and the vehicle stopped.

Paramedics already on the scene of the accident quickly provided medical aid and the driver was taken by ambulance to a regional hospital in Brownsville, where he was pronounced dead, according to the report. The passenger, also a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody.

The HSI officer who the report says was struck by the vehicle was treated for an unspecified knee injury at a nearby hospital and released.

The names of the two HSI agents involved in the shooting and the names of the two men in the car were all redacted from the ICE report, but Reyes confirmed the dead driver was her son. She said he was shot three times.

State investigation into shooting is still ‘active’

The report says the Texas Rangers responded to the shooting scene and took the lead as the primary agency investigating the shooting.

Reyes said she first learned her son had been shot by a federal agent, rather than a local police officer, about a week after he was killed. She was contacted by an investigator from the Rangers who she said told her there were videos of the shooting that contradicted the account provided by federal agents. DHS did not immediately respond to an email Friday about the claim that there is video showing a different account.

She said she was told by the investigator that the state report into the shooting was completed in October and that the case would be presented to a grand jury for potential criminal charges.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers, said in a statement Friday that the investigation into the shooting is still “active” and declined to offer more information.

Messages left with the office of Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz, an elected Democrat whose jurisdiction includes South Padre Island, received no response Friday. South Padre Island Police Chief Claudine O’Carroll also did not respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys for the family said Friday they have spent the past year pursuing accountability and transparency.

“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation into why HSI was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” attorneys Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm said in a statement.

Agents involved were part of a border task force

According to the ICE report, the HSI agents involved in the shooting were part of a maritime border enforcement security task force typically focused on combating transnational criminal organizations at seaports. Over the last year, however, officers from across multiple federal agencies have been reassigned to prioritize immigration enforcement.

In January, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis, was killed in the driver’s seat of her SUV by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Trump administration officials initially attempted to paint Good as a “domestic terrorist” who tried to ram officers with her vehicle before multiple videos emerged of the incident that cast doubt on the government’s narrative.

As in the Good case, experts in police training and tactics questioned why a federal officer apparently positioned himself in front of Martinez’s vehicle.

“You don’t stand in front of the car, you don’t put yourself in harm’s way,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a police use-of-force expert at the University of South Carolina. He added that there’s never a scenario where it’s justified, “because you don’t know whether this person is going to flee, and if he flees, you could be dead.”

Alpert said investigators will likely review any available body camera video or other footage to examine how swiftly Martinez moved the car forward, if he merely took his foot off the break or pressed down hard on the accelerator.

Martinez’s mother said she didn’t believe he would ever intentionally assault a law enforcement officer.

“They didn’t give him a chance,” Reyes said. “It’s so excessive. They could have done anything else besides that. It’s like they shoot first and ask questions later.”

Bedayn reported from Denver.

By Ansar Khan, Tribune News Service

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat played youth hockey with Megan Keller while growing up in Farmington Hills and saw at an early age how good she was.

Keller, who went to North Farmington High School and played basketball and softball in addition to hockey, grew up to be one of the best players on her women’s teams and on Thursday scored in overtime to lift the United States past Canada 2-1 for the Olympic gold medal, capping a dominant run for Team USA.

“Really happy for her,” DeBrincat said. “I was tuned into that. I was pretty pumped, so it’s awesome. This is her third Olympics, and she’s already got two gold (medals), so definitely cool for her and we’re excited for them.”

DeBrincat and Keller played together for a few years around ages 8-10 when girls played on boys teams. He is a close friend of Keller’s brother, Ryan, who plays for the Utah Mammoth.

“Definitely cool to see her career and what she’s been able to do,” DeBrincat said. “She’s a big spokesperson for the women’s hockey community, really growing the game and one of those faces that has really taken the game to the next level.”

Todd McLellan’s oldest son, Tyson, also played with Keller as a youth.

“I think of where she was and watching her do what she did yesterday is really remarkable,” McLellan said. “She was one of the better players on that boys team.

“Like a lot of the dads, you go out and help in practice and stuff, and she was committed and you could see she was not by any means out of place and a lot of times leading the way.”

Keller, 29, tied for the team lead with nine points (three goals, six assists). The U.S. went 7-0, outscoring opponents 33-2.

“It was pretty crazy to see they only let up two goals the whole tournament,” DeBrincat said. “For a minute there, I thought they were going to lose giving up two goals the whole tournament. Obviously, Canada looked good, too, but I think the U.S. right now is probably on the next level.”

McLellan noted how far women’s hockey has come over the past couple of decades.

“I think the athletes are exceptional,” McLellan said. “They’ve just gotten so much better than they were in the past and it’s great they’re getting the support they get.”

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By RIO YAMAT

The ability of federal safety regulators to oversee airplane maintenance at United Airlines has been hindered by inadequate staffing, high employee turnover and the improper use of virtual inspections instead of on-site reviews in some cases, according to a government watchdog audit released Friday.

The U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general said the Federal Aviation Administration lacks sufficient staffing and workforce planning to effectively monitor United’s large fleet. Past audits by the government watchdog also highlighted FAA challenges overseeing other airline maintenance programs, including at American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air.

The FAA declined to comment on the findings but referred The Associated Press to a letter it sent the inspector general’s office that was included in the audit report. In it, the FAA said it agreed with most of the recommendations and was taking steps to address them by the end of the year.

“FAA will implement a more systemic approach to strengthen inspector capacity and will take other measures to ensure that staffing levels remain sufficient to meet surveillance requirements,” the letter said.

The recommendations included a reevaluation of staffing rules, an independent workplace survey of inspector workloads and office culture, and improved training on accessing and using United’s safety data — a current gap that the report said currently keeps inspectors from fully evaluating maintenance issues and safety risk trends.

In a statement to AP, United said it works closely with the FAA on a daily basis in addition to employing its own internal safety management system.

“United has long advocated in favor of providing the FAA with the resources it needs for its important work,” the carrier said.

The inspector general’s office said the audit was conducted between May 2024 and December 2025, amid a series of maintenance-linked incidents at United.

It found that the FAA sometimes had its personnel conduct inspections “virtually” when it lacked staffing or funding for travel even though agency policy requires postponing reviews that can’t be done on site. Doing the work remotely can create safety risks because inspectors may miss or misidentify maintenance problems, the reported stated.

“Inspectors we spoke with stated that their front-line managers instructed them to perform inspections virtually rather than postponing inspections,” the report said.

The audit also found that ongoing staffing shortages at the FAA inspection offices tasked with United’s oversight have resulted in fewer inspections being conducted, limited surveillance of the carrier’s maintenance operations and an “overall loss of institutional knowledge.”

In March 2024, passengers had to be evacuated from a United plane that rolled off a runway after landing in Houston. The next day, a United jetliner bound for Japan lost a tire while taking off from San Francisco but later landed safely in Los Angeles.

In December 2025, a United flight experienced an engine failure during takeoff from Dulles International Airport before safely returning to the airport.

Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed.

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — The next time you see a senior citizen barreling down the mountain, maybe doing a double-cork while he’s at it, don’t think twice. That might just be your neighborhood’s friendly new Olympic champion.

Alex Ferreira, the freeskier who occasionally dons prosthetics to look 80 and calls his alter ego “Hotdog Hans” when he’s not kicking butt in the halfpipe, added a gold medal Friday night to the silver and bronze he’d won at the last two games to “finish the rainbow,” as his mother said.

The 31-year-old, a longtime fixture on the slopes and in the schools and rec centers in Aspen, Colorado, also put America in the win column for the first time in two weeks of halfpipe, slopestyle and big air action at the Livigno Snow Park.

“I’m going to drink copious amounts of beer,” Ferreira said when asked how he would celebrate.

He’s fun like that. This was a popular victory all across the park, squeezed out of a tight, brutal, all-night battle with Estonia’s Henry Sildaru — who skis slopestyle and big air, too, just like Eileen Gu — and Canada’s Brendan Mackay.

Bedlam and tears broke out in the stands after Mackay laid down the night’s last run, a solid one, but came up 2.75 points short of Ferreira’s winning score: 93.75.

When the Canadian’s mark came up, Ferreira bent to one knee and flashed a smile that lit up the mountain.

“Best moment of my life,” he said.

Asked what the best thing about the new gold medalist was, Mackay said there was too much to list.

“But honestly, the biggest thing that stands out about Alex, is that he is just an incredibly nice guy,” he said.

Among those near the medal stand to congratulate Ferreira was two-time Olympic titlist David Wise, who made the trip despite not making the Olympic team. He was ranked eighth in the world in halfpipe this season — a true sign of how deep the American team runs.

Also sharing hugs was Nick Goepper, the American three-time medalist in slopestyle who switched to the halfpipe in search of his first gold.

In the evening’s most visceral sign of what this contest really meant, Goepper threw caution to the wind on his last run and flung his body high above the halfpipe, his back slamming wickedly on the deck before he bounced to the bottom of the pipe.

He was lucky to walk away from that — not as fortunate that Mackay’s 91 on the last run of the night bumped him from third to fourth by a scant 2 points.

“To go for it in that moment took serious guts,” Ferreira said. “He is a real man.”

Drama involving Hess extended beyond the halfpipe

Clutch skiing and huge crashes were only part of the drama that played out among these halfpipe riders. The show started two weeks earlier.

American Hunter Hess opened the morning’s qualifying by landing a good run, then putting his thumb and forefinger in the shape of an “L,” in a nod to the eruption that occurred Feb. 8 when President Donald Trump called Hess a “total Loser,” in response to Hess’ saying “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.”

“I had a week that was pretty challenging,” Hess said after qualifying, speaking of the threats and vitriol lobbed his way after the president weighed in. He finished 10th in the final and did not stop for interviews.

Ferreira fills in the final missing piece to a fantastic career

Ferreira, not surprisingly, spent the entire aftermath of the contest smiling. There’s more to come.

He has already shot six episodes of his YouTube streamer “Hotdog Hans,” an entertaining trip to the mountain in which the 80-something daredevil does truck-driver grabs and 1080s in front of unsuspecting resort goers who cannot believe their eyes.

“Just trying to bring some humor and funniness to the world,” he explained.

In between the fun and games lies a more serious pursuit.

Ferreira went 7 for 7 in World Cup events in 2024 — the sort of undefeated streak that really doesn’t happen much in sports, especially not in this one, where talent, like the medals, are spread very evenly across the United States, Canada, Estonia — the world.

Those sort of streaks, in Olympic off-years, can sometimes leave a guy wondering.

“You don’t want to peak two years before the Games,” said Gus Kenworthy, the 2014 slopestyle silver medalist who finished sixth in this one. “But I’m stoked for him that it worked out tonight. It was one of the best runs I’ve seen him do in a long time, maybe ever, and I’m happy.”

When Ferreira’s skis smacked down lightly on the fifth of five butter-smooth landings in the contest winner, he started whipping around his right ski pole — his signature move in what now goes down as his signature win.

A few minutes later, his sisters and parents were crying and he was on the top step of the podium, singing out loud as the “Star-Spangled Banner” played for the first time at the Livigno Snow Park.

He used to be the best freeskier in the world without an Olympic title. Not anymore.

“He had the silver, the bronze and he needed the gold,” said Alex’s mother, Colleen Ferreira. “He was driven. A year ago, he said he was going to do this, and he did it.”

AP Sports Writer Joseph Wilson contributed.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

MILAN (AP) — The much-anticipated but never guaranteed U.S.-Canada showdown for gold in men’s hockey at the Olympics is on.

Jack Hughes scored two goals, including one with a highlight-reel individual effort, and the Americans rolled into the final by routing Slovakia 6-2 in the semifinals on Friday night.

That NHL-run event ended a drought of nearly a decade without an international tournament featuring the best hockey players in the world. Three fights in the first nine seconds in the first meeting put the 4 Nations in the spotlight, and their epic final won by Canada in overtime only built the anticipation for the Olympics.

After Canada did its part by rallying to beat Finland earlier in the day, the U.S. had no trouble against the Slovaks, who made an improbable run and were simply overmatched. They’ll face the Finns for bronze on Saturday night, looking for just the second hockey medal in the country’s history after getting the first with a third-place finish in Beijing in 2022.

The U.S. is playing for gold after the semifinals were a much easier go than the quarterfinals against Sweden, when overtime was needed to survive a scare. Dylan Larkin (Waterford), Tage Thompson, Hughes and Eichel scored the four goals on 23 shots that chased Samuel Hlavaj out of Slovakia’s net past the midway point of the second period.

Thompson, one of just a handful of newcomers who did not play at the 4 Nations, exited later in the second after blocking a shot. He was held out the rest of the way, according to the NBC broadcast.

Hughes got his second just after a power play expired, and Brady Tkachuk scored on a breakaway with just over nine minutes left to provide some more breathing room.

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce Twp./Walled Lake Northern) his job as his teammates outshot Slovakia by a substantial margin. Everything he has done at the Olympics has validated coach Mike Sullivan’s decision to go with Hellebuyck as the U.S. starter over Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman.

The U.S. last reached the final in 2010 when it lost to Canada in overtime on Sidney Crosby’s famous golden goal. Crosby’s status is uncertain this time after getting injured in the quarterfinals Wednesday and not playing Friday against Finland.

— By STEPHEN WHYNO, Associated Press

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The federal government is asking a court to “run roughshod” over the First Amendment after seizing electronic devices from a Washington Post reporter’s Virginia home last month, an attorney for the newspaper argued Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter didn’t rule from the bench on the newspaper’s request for an order requiring authorities to return the devices taken from the Virginia home of Post reporter Hannah Natanson. Porter had authorized the search by FBI agents investigating allegations that a Pentagon contractor illegally leaked classified information to Natanson.

Porter said he intends to issue a decision before a follow-up hearing scheduled for March 4.

“I have a pretty good sense of what I’m going to do here,” the magistrate said without elaborating.

Pentagon contractor Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones was arrested on Jan. 8 and charged with unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. Perez-Lugones is accused of taking home printouts of classified documents from his workplace and later passing them to Natanson.

Federal agents seized a phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and a Garmin smart watch when they searched Natanson’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, on Jan. 14. Last month, Porter agreed to temporarily bar the government from reviewing any material from Natanson’s devices.

Post attorney Simon Latcovich said the information contained on Natanson’s devices could expose hundreds of confidential sources who routinely provided her with dozens, if not hundreds, of tips every day.

“Since the seizure, those sources have dried up,” he said.

If Porter intends to privately review the material contained on Natanson’s devices before deciding what can be shown to the government, Latcovich asked him to allow attorneys for the Post and the reporter to see it first so they can argue for keeping at least some of it under wraps.

Justice Department attorney Christian Dibblee said the government recognizes that Porter didn’t authorize a “fishing expedition.”

“The government does take that seriously,” he said.

The newspaper’s attorneys accused authorities of violating legal safeguards for journalists and trampling on Natanson’s First Amendment free speech rights.

Justice Department attorneys argued that the government is entitled to keep the seized material because it contains evidence in an ongoing investigation with national security implications.

The case has drawn national attention and scrutiny from press freedom advocates who say it reflects a more aggressive posture by the Justice Department toward leak investigations involving journalists.

“There is a pattern here, your honor, that this is a part of,” Latcovich said.