newyorkpost--2020-05-04--George Soros ex Adriana Ferreyr still upset about reneged real estate

Click to email this to a friend ( Opens in new window ) Ten years ago billionaire George Soros , then 79 , washed his Brazilian performer girlfriend Adriana Ferreyr , then 27 , out of what ’ s left of his hair .
Her subsequent 2011 lawsuit was front-page .
She wanted $ 50 million .
Even her lawyer Robert Hantman may have thought that was overboard .
She ended up with zero , and the case was dismissed .
Back story : Soros had promised her a $ 2 million apartment .
After they split , he gave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawsuit , stemming from his newest girlfriend ’ s new real estate , accused Soros of slapping and choking Adriana .
That was then , this is now .
Ferreyr is still worked up about this .
Her lawsuit was dismissed , but she continues to spread these allegations around , and not just to the tabloids .
Hell hath no fury like an ex-ladyfriend scorned .
Back when the subway was a nickel was comic Tom Dreesen opening for Frank Sinatra onstage and maybe opening Frank ’ s door , too .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , there ’ s no comedy clubs open .
So he ’ s taking to Zoom .
May 9 .
Live .
8 p.m. EST .
Laughs in your living room .
It ’ s $ 25 .
Dreesen : “ I ’ ll answer questions and tell funny stories about Frank .
Tales never been told before.
” For reservations , to get him on your carpet , audiences must punch in TheManWhoMadeSinatraLaugh.com .
The title ’ s almost as long as his act … Next on line ?
Melissa Rivers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s posting nifties from mom Joan Rivers .
“ It ’ s my new thing .
On Instagram , ” she said .
“ Every day I ’ m posting another joke from Mom ’ s file.
” I ’ ve seen those enormous categorized files .
They filled a warehouse floor .
She ’ s using the hashtags # WWJS ( “ What would Joan say ?
” ) and # JoansJokeCards .
“ And on Twitter , I ’ ve launched ‘ Love Quarantine Style.
’ It ’ s submissions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are moving , even if we ’ re not .
The gems of “ Uncut Gems ” are being auctioned for NYC community outreach .
The recent wave of studio A24 ’ s auctions includes Kevin Garnett ’ s 2008 championship ring and the Weeknd ’ s wig .
A load of on-camera tchotchkes are on the block , like Adam Sandler ’ s glasses and bejeweled Furby pendant .
So , listen , up and Adam .
All to benefit Queens Community House .
Bid at A24Auctions.com .
Please try to pay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ ve read five John Grisham books .
Loved them .
Just thought— should anyone care — or ask — I ’ d mention it … Also I ’ ll mention that the Times Square Alliance budget is maybe not budgeting money for this year ’ s annual New Year ’ s Eve hoo-ha .
.
.
One more mentionable .
Not just needy folk on foot walking to and lining up at some food banks .
It ’ s cars idling outside .
Noble CV crusaders include Sandy Weill , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up masks .
Rockers the Chainsmokers donated coverings to hospitals .
Now nonprofit Kids for Kids launched Feeding First Responders .
OWYN is distributing protein drinks and pizzas .
Patrially employed Brooklyn dude : “ I ’ ve been rich and I ’ ve been poor — and it ’ s obvious why Bill Gates laughs a lot — and I don ’ t. ” Only in New York , kids , only in New York .

Ten years ago billionaire George Soros, then 79, washed his Brazilian performer girlfriend Adriana Ferreyr, then 27, out of what’s left of his hair. Her subsequent 2011 lawsuit was front-page.
She wanted $50 million. Even her lawyer Robert Hantman may have thought that was overboard. She ended up with zero, and the case was dismissed.
Back story: Soros had promised her a $2 million apartment. After they split, he gave it to his new girlfriend. The lawsuit, stemming from his newest girlfriend’s new real estate, accused Soros of slapping and choking Adriana.
Soros has denied the allegations.
That was then, this is now. Ferreyr is still worked up about this. Her lawsuit was dismissed, but she continues to spread these allegations around, and not just to the tabloids.
Hell hath no fury like an ex-ladyfriend scorned.
Comics: past, present & future
Back when the subway was a nickel was comic Tom Dreesen opening for Frank Sinatra onstage and maybe opening Frank’s door, too. That was then. Now being now, there’s no comedy clubs open. So he’s taking to Zoom. May 9. Live. 8 p.m. EST. Laughs in your living room. It’s $25. Dreesen: “I’ll answer questions and tell funny stories about Frank. Tales never been told before.” For reservations, to get him on your carpet, audiences must punch in TheManWhoMadeSinatraLaugh.com. The title’s almost as long as his act …
Next on line? Melissa Rivers. Now and new and 52, she’s posting nifties from mom Joan Rivers. “It’s my new thing. On Instagram,” she said. “Every day I’m posting another joke from Mom’s file.” I’ve seen those enormous categorized files. They filled a warehouse floor. She’s using the hashtags #WWJS (“What would Joan say?”) and #JoansJokeCards. “And on Twitter, I’ve launched ‘Love Quarantine Style.’ It’s submissions on love and romance.”
Get your gem
Some things are moving, even if we’re not. The gems of “Uncut Gems” are being auctioned for NYC community outreach. The recent wave of studio A24’s auctions includes Kevin Garnett’s 2008 championship ring and the Weeknd’s wig. A load of on-camera tchotchkes are on the block, like Adam Sandler’s glasses and bejeweled Furby pendant. So, listen, up and Adam. All to benefit Queens Community House. Bid at A24Auctions.com.
Please try to pay attention
My ninth week of isolation. I’ve read five John Grisham books. Loved them. Just thought— should anyone care — or ask — I’d mention it … Also I’ll mention that the Times Square Alliance budget is maybe not budgeting money for this year’s annual New Year’s Eve hoo-ha . . . One more mentionable. Not just needy folk on foot walking to and lining up at some food banks. It’s cars idling outside.
Giving it up
Noble CV crusaders include Sandy Weill, who sent his jet to Vegas to pick up masks. Rockers the Chainsmokers donated coverings to hospitals. Now nonprofit Kids for Kids launched Feeding First Responders. OWYN is distributing protein drinks and pizzas.
Patrially employed Brooklyn dude: “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor — and it’s obvious why Bill Gates laughs a lot — and I don’t.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--Global coronavirus death toll surpasses 250,000

A staggering quarter of a million people worldwide have now succumbed to the coronavirus , according to figures reported on @ @ @ @ @ deaths from COVID-19 , and more than 3.5 million confirmed cases in total have been @ @ @ @ @ according to a real-time tracker from Johns Hopkins University .
About a quarter of the @ @ @ @ @ in the US , which also had a third of the cases .
New York @ @ @ @ @ 19,420 deaths and accounted for 318,953 of the cases .

A staggering quarter of a million people worldwide have now succumbed to the coronavirus, according to figures reported on Monday.
At least 251,059 deaths from COVID-19, and more than 3.5 million confirmed cases in total have been reported around the globe, according to a real-time tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
About a quarter of the fatalities, 68,689, were in the US, which also had a third of the cases.
Trump on Sunday said deaths in the US could reach 100,000 — twice as many as he had forecast two weeks ago.
New York State alone saw close to 19,420 deaths and accounted for 318,953 of the cases.
The grim tally came as countries — including Italy — and several US states, such as Florida, began to partially lift lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.
Some states were easing restrictions even as their case count continued to grow. They included Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas, according to a New York Times database.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, laid out a four-phase strategy for reopening businesses in the Empire State.


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--US Treasury to borrow eye-popping $3T this quarter

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the US economy will begin ...

The US Treasury Department on Monday said it plans to borrow nearly $3 trillion in the second quarter of 2020 — more than five times larger than the previous record — as the federal government spends at a frantic pace to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on the US economy.
In a statement, Treasury said it would borrow $2.999 trillion during the April-June quarter — higher also than the previous record borrowing for a full fiscal year of $1.8 trillion in 2009.
“It is larger than what we would typically do in a year,” a senior Treasury official said. The Treasury’s net borrowing last fiscal year, by contrast, was $1.28 trillion.
Monday’s estimate is $3.055 trillion more than the original target for the quarter issued in early February, when it was still unclear whether the coronavirus would spread widely in the US. At that time, it appeared as though the federal government would pay down $56 billion of debt in the current quarter, leading Treasury to forecast a negative estimate for new net marketable debt in the period.
But with the virus spreading rapidly soon after that projection — and tanking the economy along with it — Congress has appropriated nearly $3 trillion to help individuals and companies weather the business shutdowns implemented to slow the pace of the pandemic.
The new borrowing target is more than five times larger than the previous single-quarter record set back in the second half of 2008 to combat the financial crisis.
“Even before the pandemic there was going to be some increased funding needs going forward. But now all things are out the window,” said Mike Lorizio, senior fixed income trader at Manulife Investment Management in Boston.
Monday’s estimate assumes a cash balance of $800 billion at the end of June.
Treasury said it expects to borrow $677 billion during the July-September quarter, assuming an end-September cash balance of $800 billion.
It borrowed $477 billion through credit markets in the January-March quarter, ending the period with $515 billion in cash.
Additional details of Treasury’s quarterly refunding will be announced Wednesday. In February, Treasury said it would announce details of a planned new 20-year bond in May.
“Current financing needs also make it such that Treasury does not need to make any offsetting cuts to 10- or 30-year offerings to ‘make room’ for the new 20-year bond,” a report from Jefferies said. “At this point, Treasury needs to find every available avenue to raise as much cash as efficiently as possible.”
Asked if there was capacity in the market to absorb such a huge volume of debt in just three months, a senior Treasury official said: “We do believe that it’s out there.”


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--Child advocates slam Chirlane McCray’s $1B ThriveNYC program

First Lady Chirlane McCray ’ s $ 1 billion “ ThriveNYC ” mental-health program has failed to keep city students out of psych wards — and advocates are demanding something that actually works , The Post has learned .
The nearly $ 30 million that McCray ’ s controversial initiative pumped into the education system during the 2018-2019 school year did nothing to reduce the number of incidents for which cops were called and students were sent for psychiatric evaluations , official school safety data show .
The number — 3,547 — was unchanged from 2017-2018 , even though ThriveNYC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from $ 21.6 million to $ 29.2 million , according to a City Council financial document .
The disastrous results have led a coalition of 41 organizations — including Advocates for Children of New York , the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society — to complain that ThriveNYC programs “ do not provide direct , ongoing support to students in school.
” “ They ’ re not working directly with students to help address the behavior .
They ’ re not working directly with school staff , either , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Children of New York .
Instead , the coalition is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to come up with $ 15 million in funding for a new program to provide one-on-one counseling for emotionally troubled students when they return to school in the fall .
The money , Yuster said , could come from “ inefficiencies ” in ThriveNYC ’ s budget , which critics have accused of failing to produce measurable results in helping New Yorkers cope with serious mental illness .
In addition to individual long-term counseling for the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proposed “ Mental Health Continuum ” would providing coaching for teachers , family support and referrals to hospital-based mental health clinics .
Yuster said the plan was “ ready to go ” and would “ meet the needs of students who need help the most.
” It would also help end the DOE ’ s practice of “ continuing to call on the NYPD to remove thousands of them from class each year –- who sometimes even handcuff them as young as 5 years old , ” she said .
Last week , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ initiative would lead the effort to help students traumatized by the coronavirus pandemic when they return to school in September .
But Liz Haela , a special education teacher at Bronx middle school , said she wasn ’ t even aware that McCray ’ s program was in schools .
“ Students will thrive if there are more service providers who can address their needs and develop relationships with them , ” she told The Post .
McCray spokeswoman Siobhan Dingwall defended ThriveNYC ’ s work with city students and said additional assistance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made historic investments in mental health and increased support in schools , ” Dingwall said .
“ We agree that we need to build upon this already significant work to ensure we are meeting the greater needs of students as they return to school .
The Department of Education is developing a strategy , planning to meet with advocates in the coming week , and details of the plan will be shared soon .
”

First Lady Chirlane McCray’s $1 billion “ThriveNYC” mental-health program has failed to keep city students out of psych wards — and advocates are demanding something that actually works, The Post has learned.
The nearly $30 million that McCray’s controversial initiative pumped into the education system during the 2018-2019 school year did nothing to reduce the number of incidents for which cops were called and students were sent for psychiatric evaluations, official school safety data show.
The number — 3,547 — was unchanged from 2017-2018, even though ThriveNYC boosted its annual spending in city schools from $21.6 million to $29.2 million, according to a City Council financial document.
The disastrous results have led a coalition of 41 organizations — including Advocates for Children of New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society — to complain that ThriveNYC programs “do not provide direct, ongoing support to students in school.”
“They’re not working directly with students to help address the behavior. They’re not working directly with school staff, either,” said Dawn Yuster of Advocates for Children of New York.
Instead, the coalition is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to come up with $15 million in funding for a new program to provide one-on-one counseling for emotionally troubled students when they return to school in the fall.
The money, Yuster said, could come from “inefficiencies” in ThriveNYC’s budget, which critics have accused of failing to produce measurable results in helping New Yorkers cope with serious mental illness.
In addition to individual long-term counseling for the most troubled students, the coalition’s proposed “Mental Health Continuum” would providing coaching for teachers, family support and referrals to hospital-based mental health clinics.
Yuster said the plan was “ready to go” and would “meet the needs of students who need help the most.”
It would also help end the DOE’s practice of “continuing to call on the NYPD to remove thousands of them from class each year –- who sometimes even handcuff them as young as 5 years old,” she said.
Last week, de Blasio said his wife’s initiative would lead the effort to help students traumatized by the coronavirus pandemic when they return to school in September.
But Liz Haela, a special education teacher at Bronx middle school, said she wasn’t even aware that McCray’s program was in schools.
“Students will thrive if there are more service providers who can address their needs and develop relationships with them,” she told The Post.
McCray spokeswoman Siobhan Dingwall defended ThriveNYC’s work with city students and said additional assistance was planned.
“This administration has made historic investments in mental health and increased support in schools,” Dingwall said.
“We agree that we need to build upon this already significant work to ensure we are meeting the greater needs of students as they return to school. The Department of Education is developing a strategy, planning to meet with advocates in the coming week, and details of the plan will be shared soon.”


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--Drawer slams shut on Victoria’s Secret acquisition

A deal to sell Victoria ’ s Secret has been scrapped after its private equity buyer sued to get out of the deal on a coronavirus-related claim .
L Brands — the retail conglomerate owned by billionaire Les Wexner — said Monday it has scrapped its deal to sell a controlling stake in the struggling lingerie chain to Sycamore Partners , a New York-based buyout firm , in a deal that had valued the retailer at $ 1 billion .
Less than two weeks ago , Sycamore had filed a lawsuit to end the deal , claiming that L Brands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by closing Victoria ’ s Secret stores and failing to pay their rent during the pandemic .
The companies agreed to settle the litigation and neither of them will pay a termination fee , Sycamore said in a statement .
Shares of L Brands — which had tanked when the deal was originally announced in February , as Wall Street found the $ 1 billion valuation shockingly low — slumped again late Monday , falling more than 14 percent in after-market trades .
Columbus , Ohio -based L Brands named longtime Chief Financial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Victoria ’ s Secret effective immediately .
Wexner stepped down as CEO of L Brands , which also owns Bath & Body Works , in February .
L Brands said in a statement that it will “ take the necessary steps to prepare Victoria ’ s Secret [ along with its teen-focued Pink brand ] to operate as a separate , standalone company .
”

A deal to sell Victoria’s Secret has been scrapped after its private equity buyer sued to get out of the deal on a coronavirus-related claim.
L Brands — the retail conglomerate owned by billionaire Les Wexner — said Monday it has scrapped its deal to sell a controlling stake in the struggling lingerie chain to Sycamore Partners, a New York-based buyout firm, in a deal that had valued the retailer at $1 billion.
Less than two weeks ago, Sycamore had filed a lawsuit to end the deal, claiming that L Brands had violated the terms of their agreement by closing Victoria’s Secret stores and failing to pay their rent during the pandemic.
The companies agreed to settle the litigation and neither of them will pay a termination fee, Sycamore said in a statement.
Shares of L Brands — which had tanked when the deal was originally announced in February, as Wall Street found the $1 billion valuation shockingly low — slumped again late Monday, falling more than 14 percent in after-market trades.
Columbus, Ohio -based L Brands named longtime Chief Financial Officer Stuart Burgdoerfer as interim chief executive of Victoria’s Secret effective immediately.
Wexner stepped down as CEO of L Brands, which also owns Bath & Body Works, in February.
L Brands said in a statement that it will “take the necessary steps to prepare Victoria’s Secret [along with its teen-focued Pink brand] to operate as a separate, standalone company.”


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--The only Pulitzer the 1619 Project deserved was for fiction

As it was designed to do , The New York Times ’ woefully mistaken 1619 Project just won a Pulitzer Prize .
Worse , the award for commentary actually went to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her essay introducing the series — that is , to the article that brought the most sustained criticism from historians across the spectrum for its naked errors of fact .
The project ’ s central conceit is that “ out of slavery grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional : its economic might , its industrial power , its electoral system.
” Hannah-Jones even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was fought to preserve slavery — a claim so contrary to the truth that the Times eventually corrected that part of her essay , though only to add two words : Now it says “ some of ” the founders fought chiefly for that reason .
It ’ s still not true — and the experts she consulted told her so .
Leslie M. Harris , a black history prof at Northwestern , says she warned Hannah-Jones : “ Far from being fought to preserve slavery , the Revolutionary War became a primary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Colonies.
” Apparently , willful error can now win you the most elite prize in journalism .
Nor was that her only distortion .
Hannah-Jones also claims that President Abraham Lincoln “ opposed black equality.
” As part of The Post ’ s weeklong Twisted History series on the 1619 Project , historian Allen Guelzo pointed out that that Lincoln called for black voting rights and was hailed by Frederick Douglass as “ emphatically the colored man ’ s president.
” But Hannah-Jones ’ project barely mentions Douglass — a giant of 19th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ freedom fighters .
Even the Rev .
Martin Luther King Jr. and the entire civil-rights movement get short shrift because they contradict her thesis .
Slavery and Jim Crow are tremendous stains on America ’ s history .
But Hannah-Jones took it far beyond that , insisting that they are the nation ’ s essence .
That ’ s why the country ’ s top US history scholars — Princeton ’ s Sean Wilentz and James McPherson , Brown ’ s Gordon Wood , CUNY ’ s James Oakes — united to denounce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Pulitzer committee now thinks that facts are irrelevant to journalism .

As it was designed to do, The New York Times’ woefully mistaken 1619 Project just won a Pulitzer Prize. Worse, the award for commentary actually went to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her essay introducing the series — that is, to the article that brought the most sustained criticism from historians across the spectrum for its naked errors of fact.
The project’s central conceit is that “out of slavery grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system.” Hannah-Jones even argued that the main reason American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery — a claim so contrary to the truth that the Times eventually corrected that part of her essay, though only to add two words: Now it says “some of” the founders fought chiefly for that reason.
It’s still not true — and the experts she consulted told her so. Leslie M. Harris, a black history prof at Northwestern, says she warned Hannah-Jones: “Far from being fought to preserve slavery, the Revolutionary War became a primary disrupter of slavery in the North American Colonies.”
Apparently, willful error can now win you the most elite prize in journalism.
Nor was that her only distortion. Hannah-Jones also claims that President Abraham Lincoln “opposed black equality.” As part of The Post’s weeklong Twisted History series on the 1619 Project, historian Allen Guelzo pointed out that that Lincoln called for black voting rights and was hailed by Frederick Douglass as “emphatically the colored man’s president.”
But Hannah-Jones’ project barely mentions Douglass — a giant of 19th century America — or other great black freedom fighters. Even the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the entire civil-rights movement get short shrift because they contradict her thesis.
Slavery and Jim Crow are tremendous stains on America’s history. But Hannah-Jones took it far beyond that, insisting that they are the nation’s essence. That’s why the country’s top US history scholars — Princeton’s Sean Wilentz and James McPherson, Brown’s Gordon Wood, CUNY’s James Oakes — united to denounce Hannah-Jones’ core claims.
Too bad the Pulitzer committee now thinks that facts are irrelevant to journalism.


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--Bill de Blasio chooses to be helpless in the homeless subway crisis

MTA workers were seen cleaning around a homeless man sprawled ...

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How many homeless people must die before Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov.Andrew Cuomo take meaningful action to get them out of the subways? Is there even a number?
Two vagrants were discovered dead on trains within a 12-hour period over the weekend, yet on Monday de Blasio insisted his approach to dealing with the homeless-riddled subway system is “working” and he won’t shift direction.
“We’re going to apply that strategy more, and more intensely,” he vowed.
Trouble is, those two corpses just add to the already vast in-plain-view evidence that his “strategy” is a colossal failure. And more of the same just means more chaos on the trains: more filth, more stench, more disease. And more death.
Here’s the key problem: De Blasio sends workers to try to persuade these people to leave the subway and seek services in hospitals or shelters. But many of the homeless — who are often mentally ill or substance abusers, and so in no condition to make rational choices for themselves — refuse.
Meanwhile, their decision to not merely remain aboard but to convert cars into their own private shelters — sleeping on benches, hoarding their life’s belongings, using the trains as toilets — isn’t just a danger to them; it makes the system repugnant and perilous for everyone else.
Yet de Blasio has never had any desire to second-guess their decisions and force them off the trains or streets. Indeed, he tapped as his homeless czar a lawyer, Steven Banks, who spent most of his adult life fighting to create legal rights for the homeless to make horrific choices at the public’s expense. It’s morally deranged.
In other words: De Blasio, Banks & Co. insist they can’t do more — but that’s because of the limits they’ve chosen to impose on the police and social-service workers.
Cuomo hasn’t been much better. Yes, Gov. Fix-It personally helped clean a subway car this weekend. But he has also eliminated hospital beds for the mentally ill. And neither he nor any other key leader has pushed for laws that could make it easier for cops and social-service workers to require these people to get help.
The gov has also ordered the MTA to shut the whole subway system down each night in the name of cleaning cars — a move that’s also plainly intended to ensure the homeless have to move on. But those shutdowns make commutes tougher for hours, and will likely impede the city’s recovery. Too bad Cuomo is no longer willing to rely on tough love instead.
We’ve warned that letting the homeless commandeer trains creates a public-health disaster. That’ll only get worse as the bodies pile up. It’ll also steer others not just from the subway — but from the city itself. If de Blasio and Cuomo can’t regain control of the subway, the city may never recover.


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--Chad Green’s stock with Yankees is rising: ‘One of our best’

Part II in a series analyzing the New York Yankees ...

Part 9 in a series analyzing the New York Yankees
With Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees’ 2019 bullpen thrived despite having Dellin Betances for just two-thirds of an inning in September.
Since Betances signed with the Mets as a free agent, the Yankees won’t have one of baseball’s premier relievers but will have a chance to possess an improved pen because Chad Green won’t likely be needed as an “opener” if and when the season begins.
When spring training was paused on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Yankees were locked into Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton and Jordan Montgomery in the rotation and enough depth to fill out the fifth spot even with Domingo German suspended. That depth included Jonathan Loaisiga and Luis Cessa at the top of the chart and if needed due to injury or poor performance Deivi Garcia, Clarke Schmidt and Michael King waiting in the minors.
That would leave Aaron Boone to use Green exclusively in the pen, a place the hard-throwing right-hander dominated in 2018 when he posted a 2.50 ERA in 63 games (no openers) and struck out 98 in 69 innings.
As good as Green was in 2018, he was that bad to start last season when he was sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in late April thanks to a 16.43 ERA in 10 relief outings. In 7 ²/₃ innings, Green gave up 15 hits (four homers) as batters hit a whopping .395 against him and posted a 1.228 OPS.
When the right-handed Green returned to the varsity, he morphed into the 2018 version with a 2.64 ERA in 44 games (15 starts) and worked 61 ¹/₃ innings in which he limited hitters to a .223 average and posted a .653 OPS. He struck out 91 compared to 15 walks.
“I don’t want to put any pressure on him at all, but I think Chad is one of our best pitchers,’’ Ottavino told The Post’s Joel Sherman in June.
Green credited a simple change in his delivery for the success in the 44 games upon returning from SWB.
An NL talent evaluator believes Green, who will be 29 on May 24, is good enough to pitch the seventh and eighth innings for the Yankees and the ninth for other teams. And end his days of pitching the initial inning of a game.
“Not make him an opener,’’ the scout said of Green.
The Yankees won the first nine games Green started in 2019 and went 11-4 overall. Green pitched to a 3.72 ERA as an opener but was aided by the Yankees scoring 64 runs in the nine-game winning streak and 93 in the 15 games.
Green started Game 6 of the ALCS against the Astros in Houston and put the Yankees in 3-0 hole by giving up a three-run, two-out home run to Yuri Gurriel in the first that helped the hosts cop a 6-4 victory that ended the Yankees’ season.
Chapman, Britton, Kahnle and Ottavino (postseason aside) turned in solid seasons for the Yankees last year. Assigning Green to full-time relief duty strengthens a strong point.
“They have a lot of options late and that give guys breathers which is something not a lot of teams have,’’ the scout said.


newyorkpost--2020-05-04--US factory orders hit a record low in March

The US economy suffered its fastest contraction since the Great ...

New orders for US-made goods suffered a record decline in March and could sink further as disruptions from the novel coronavirus fracture supply chains and depress exports.
The report from the Commerce Department on Monday was the latest in a series of increasingly bleak economic data. It also bolstered analysts’ views that the economy would struggle to rebound even as parts of the country start to reopen after nationwide lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.
“This is going to be an extremely difficult first half for manufacturing,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior director at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pa. “The coronavirus has significantly disrupted global supply chains.”
Factory orders dropped 10.3 percent, the largest decrease since the series started in 1992, after dipping 0.1 percent in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast factory orders would tumble 9.7 percent in March.
Factory orders decreased 2.8 percent year-on-year in March.
Manufacturing, which accounts for 11 percent of US economic activity, is, together with the rest of the economy, reeling from nationwide lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported on Friday that its measure of national factory activity dropped to an 11-month low in April. The ISM’s forward-looking new orders sub-index plumbed to levels last seen in December 2008.
Manufacturing was already under pressure from the Trump administration’s trade war with China. Manufacturing output declined in the first quarter at its sharpest pace in 11 years. Business investment has contracted for four straight quarters.
The longest economic expansion in US history ended in the first quarter, with gross domestic product declining at a 4.8 percent annualized rate, its steepest pace since the 2007-2009 Great Recession.
Stocks on Wall Street fell amid a US-China spat about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. The dollar .DXY rose against a basket of currencies, while US Treasury prices fell.
Monday’s report showed unfilled orders at factories dropping 2 percent in March after nudging up 0.1 percent in the prior month. Inventories at factories fell 0.8 percentin March after declining 0.4 percent in February. Shipments of manufactured goods decreased 5.2 percent in March after slipping 0.3 percent in the prior month.
Economists said the continued drawdown of factory inventories suggested a much sharper pace of stock depletion relative to what the government assumed in its advance GDP estimate of the first quarter that was published last week.
The government estimated that business inventories fell at a $16.3 billion rate in the January-March quarter after increasing at a $13.1 billion pace in the fourth quarter.
Based on the factory orders data, the inventory liquidation was much bigger than initially thought, economists say, suggesting the government would lower the first-quarter GDP estimate when it publishes revisions later this month.
“With the latest information now in hand, we think the first-quarter real change in inventories is tracking around a minus $57 billion rate,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. “We lowered our tracking of first-quarter real GDP growth by 0.8 percent percentage point to a minus 5.5 percent rate.”
Economists say it would take at least two years to bring the economy back to pre-coronavirus levels. They expect a wave of bankruptcies and a long period of high unemployment.
At least 30 million Americans have filed claims for unemployment benefits since mid-March when state and local government ordered nonessential workers to stay at home to slow the spread of COVID-19.
In March, transportation equipment orders plunged 41.3% after increasing 4.6% in the prior month. Orders were weighed down by a 296.2% dive in demand for civilian aircraft and parts. Though Boeing (BA.N) said its aircraft orders rose in March relative to February, it also reported big cancellations of its troubled 737 MAX jetliner, which has been grounded since March 2019 following two fatal crashes.
There was a 65.3 percent decline in orders for ships and boats in March. Motor vehicle and parts orders dropped 6.7 percent in March. That offset a 63.7 percent surge in orders for defense aircraft and parts. Machinery orders fell 0.5 percent in March after decreasing 1.1 percent in February. But orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components orders increased 0.8 percent in March.
The government also reported that orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, which are seen as a measure of business spending plans on equipment, dipped 0.1 percent in March instead of edging up 0.1 percent as reported last month.
Shipments of core capital goods, which are used to calculate business equipment spending in the GDP report, fell 0.2 percent in March as previously reported.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Coronavirus bug multiplies in the gut, detailed images show

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that his election was ...

The first detailed, glowing images have emerged of the novel coronavirus — showing the deadly pathogen multiplying in the gut, according to a report.
A British team at the University of Dundee’s School of Life Sciences released some of the sharpest photos yet recorded of the bug, which has killed over 247,000 people around the world, the Sun reported.
The images from a powerful microscope show the formation of Sars-CoV-2 particles in a tissue model of a person’s gut and how the virus assembles and leaves intestinal cells.
The scientists collaborated with experts at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, the Erasmus MC University Medical Centre in Rotterdam and Maastricht University in the Netherlands to isolate the highly detailed images.
Led by Dundee’s Professor Jason Swedlow, the team discovered that the virus can infect the cells of the intestine and multiply there.
The researchers also successfully grew the virus in test tubes and monitored the response of the cells, with findings that could explain why about a third of patients experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea and how the virus can often be detected in stool samples.
Previous 1 of 9 Next Advertisement Illustration of the coronavirus at the edge of an intestinal cell. Kèvin Knoops, Raimond Ravelli and Maaike de Backer/Maastricht University The coronavirus is colored white, and the intestinal cells are colored blue and green. Joep Beumer/Hubrecht Institute Advertisement The progression of coronavirus infecting an intestinal cell over time. Mart M. Lamers et al. Mart M. Lamers et al. Mart M. Lamers et al. Advertisement Mart M. Lamers et al. Advertisement
“We’re excited to publish these important new datasets in IDR, where they can be seen by researchers around the world, who can also scan the images and view the Sars-CoV-2 virus up close on their computer,” Swedlow said, referring to the Image Data Resource.
“We have included annotations from the authors so anyone who reads the paper from the research teams in the Netherlands can easily see what the authors published, but also can examine other parts of the data and maybe make their own discoveries,” the cell biologist said.
“This kind of sharing of data has never been more important than in our current situation where we urgently need to work together around the world to find out more about this disease and ultimately be able to treat or control it,” Swedlow added.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Trump says he prevented war with North Korea, slams Bush on Iraq war

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that his election was the only reason the US hasn ’ t gone to war with North Korea — and he called former President George W. Bush ’ s invasion of Iraq “ the worst decision made in the history of our country.
” During an exclusive , Oval Office interview with The Post , Trump said he hadn ’ t turned out to be the trigger-happy leader his opponents made him out to be .
“ Remember everyone said I ’ d be in a war within the first 24 hours [ in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
They don ’ t understand me , ” Trump said in the hour-long chat during which he also predicted a strong economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis by the end of the year , and offered his opinions on presumptive Democratic challenger Joe Biden ’ s best pick for a running mate and the sex-assault allegations facing the former vice president .
“ You look at North Korea — where ’ s the war ?
You would have been in a war in North Korea if I didn ’ t get elected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right now.
” Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have developed an unlikely friendship , writing letters and holding several get-togethers once thought impossible .
The Republican president — who is approaching the end of his first term and seeking a second — was asked about his hopes for his legacy .
The question prompted him to launch into a ferocious criticism of George W. Bush ’ s decision to go to war against Iraq following the Sept. 11 , 2001 attacks , and said he ’ d reduced the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bush and former President Barack Obama , Trump ’ s predecessor .
“ You look at where we are with the troops , the footprint is much different .
We ’ re down to 8,000 in Afghanistan , down to 4,000 in Iraq , we ’ re down to zero in Syria .
It ’ s a much different deal , much different than people thought .
“ That doesn ’ t mean we won ’ t fight it if we have to , but we spent $ 8 trillion dollars in one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go into the Middle East , probably the worst decision made in the history of our country , going into the Middle East .
Millions of people were killed on both sides , ” he said .
“ We fought it as a police force .
We were like traffic cops .
We didn ’ t fight the war the way you fight a war to win .
I would rate that as the worst decision made in the history of our country.
” The remarks followed Trump ’ s Sunday criticism of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not backing him during the recent presidential impeachment proceedings .
Trump , 73 , said his legacy would likely be the unprecedented 252 federal judges he had nominated , as well as two Supreme Court justices , remaking the US justice system in his image .
“ We have a lot of judges waiting to be approved .
This is a very unique situation .
You know , some people have just a tiny number of judges , ” he said .
“ My legacy , I think it ’ s going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That ’ s what I ’ d like it to be .
That I was a great president , I took care of the people , I protected the people.
” Trump , who wants a $ 2 trillion infrastructure package in the next coronavirus package , lamented the fact it was hard to fund simple fixes to roads , highways and bridges in the US .
“ If you want to fix a window in a school , or if you want to fix a pothole or a highway , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get the money .
It ’ s sad .
”

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that his election was the only reason the US hasn’t gone to war with North Korea — and he called former President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq “the worst decision made in the history of our country.”
During an exclusive Oval Office interview with The Post, Trump said he hadn’t turned out to be the trigger-happy leader his opponents made him out to be.
“Remember everyone said I’d be in a war within the first 24 hours [in office] because of a personality type? They don’t understand me,” Trump said in the hour-long chat, during which he also predicted a strong economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis by the end of the year, and offered his opinions on presumptive Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s best pick for a running mate and the sex assault allegations facing the former vice president.
“You look at North Korea — where’s the war? You would have been in a war in North Korea if I didn’t get elected, you would be in a war right now.”
Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have developed an unlikely friendship, writing letters and holding several get-togethers once thought impossible.
The Republican president — who is approaching the end of his first term and seeking a second — was asked about his hopes for his legacy.
The question prompted him to launch into a ferocious criticism of Bush’s decision to go to war against Iraq following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and said he’d reduced the number of US troops deployed overseas by both Bush and former President Barack Obama, Bush’s successor and Trump’s predecessor.
“You look at where we are with the troops, the footprint is much different. We’re down to 8,000 in Afghanistan, down to 4,000 in Iraq, we’re down to zero in Syria. It’s a much different deal, much different than people thought.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t fight it if we have to, but we spent $8 trillion in one of the worst decisions ever made to go into the Middle East, probably the worst decision made in the history of our country, going into the Middle East. Millions of people were killed on both sides,” he said.
“We fought it as a police force. We were like traffic cops. We didn’t fight the war the way you fight a war to win. I would rate that as the worst decision made in the history of our country.”
The remarks followed Trump’s Sunday criticism of Bush, a fellow Republican, for not backing him during the recent presidential impeachment proceedings.
Trump, 73, said his legacy would likely be the unprecedented 252 federal judges he had nominated, as well as two Supreme Court justices, remaking the US justice system in his image.
“We have a lot of judges waiting to be approved. This is a very unique situation. You know, some people have just a tiny number of judges,” he said.
“My legacy, I think it’s going to be that I was a great president. That’s what I’d like it to be. That I was a great president, I took care of the people, I protected the people.”
Trump, who wants a $2 trillion infrastructure package in the next coronavirus package, lamented the fact it was hard to fund simple fixes to roads, highways and bridges in the US.
“If you want to fix a window in a school, or if you want to fix a pothole or a highway, it’s like a big deal to get the money. It’s sad.”


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--United Airlines asks staff to consider ‘voluntary separation’ as layoffs loom

United Airlines has reportedly asked employees to consider putting themselves on the chopping block as the coronavirus crisis forces the company to cut jobs .
United chief operations officer Greg Hart urged some employees in a memo to consider leaving their gigs under a “ voluntary separation ” deal as the Chicago-based carrier prepares to “ right size ” its workforce , CNN reported Monday .
The warning came despite United and other airlines receiving hefty federal bailouts to keep workers employed while the global pandemic depresses demand for travel .
“ We recognize that this is painful news , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most accurate assessment of what lies ahead for our company , ” Hart said , according to CNN .
United indicated in two other memos that it plans to axe 30 percent of its administrative and management employees along with 30 percent of its pilots in October , Reuters reported Monday .
The airline reportedly employs about 12,250 pilots and some 11,500 management and administrative staff .
United did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning .
United is due to receive a roughly $ 5 billion lifeline from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meant to shore up airlines during the coronavirus crisis .
The pandemic has forced carriers to slash their flight capacity , park planes and cut spending .
But the aid only guarantees that United won ’ t furlough US employees or cut their pay before Sept. 30 , company officials have said .
The package includes a $ 3.5 billion grant and a $ 1.5 billion loan .
“ We anticipate spending billions of dollars more than we take in for the next several months , while continuing to employ 100 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Benenati told Reuters .
“ That ’ s not sustainable for any company.
” United ’ s stock price has plunged more than 71 percent this year as the virus crisis roiled the global travel industry .
Shares in the company dropped 5.1 percent to $ 25.26 Monday after investment maven Warren Buffett revealed his company Berkshire Hathway had dumped its stakes in airlines .
The pandemic has also slammed other major US carriers , including Delta , American and Southwest , whose share prices have plummeted 61.4 percent , 65.7 percent and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respectively .

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United Airlines has asked employees to consider putting themselves on the chopping block as the coronavirus crisis forces the company to cut jobs.
United chief operations officer Greg Hart urged some employees in a memo to consider leaving their gigs under a “voluntary separation” deal as the Chicago-based carrier prepares to “right size” its workforce.
The warning came despite United and other airlines receiving hefty federal bailouts to keep workers employed while the global pandemic depresses demand for travel.
“We recognize that this is painful news, but it provides what we believe is the most accurate assessment of what lies ahead for our company,” Hart said in the memo, which United provided to The Post after CNN reported on it Monday.
United is planning to ax at least 30 percent of its management and administrative employees in October, according to a separate memo from executive vice president Kate Gebo. And another memo indicated the airline will also cut 30 percent of its roughly 12,250 pilots, Reuters reported Monday.
United is due to receive a roughly $5 billion lifeline from a federal “Payroll Support Program” meant to shore up airlines during the coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has forced carriers to slash their flight capacity, park planes and cut spending.
But the aid only guarantees that United won’t furlough US employees or cut their pay before Sept. 30, company officials have said. The package includes a $3.5 billion grant and a $1.5 billion loan.
“We anticipate spending billions of dollars more than we take in for the next several months, while continuing to employ 100 percent of our workforce,” United spokeswoman Rachel Rivas said in a statement. “That’s not sustainable for any company.”
United’s stock price plunged more than 71 percent this year through Monday as the virus crisis roiled the global travel industry. Shares in the company dropped 5.1 percent to $25.26 Monday after investment maven Warren Buffett revealed his company Berkshire Hathway had dumped its stakes in airlines.
The pandemic has also slammed other major US carriers, including Delta, American and Southwest, whose share prices have plummeted 61.4 percent, 65.7 percent and 48.8 percent, respectively, so far this year.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Chris Christie: US should reopen because there will ‘be deaths no matter what’

Former New Jersey Gov .
Chris Christie insisted this week that the US needs to end its coronavirus lockdown despite models now predicting almost 135,000 fatalities — saying there “ are going to be deaths no matter what.
” “ Of course , everybody wants to save every life they can — but the question is , towards what end , ultimately ?
” the former presidential hopeful told CNN Monday .
“ Are there ways that we can thread the middle here ?
” he asked , suggesting people just wear masks , gloves and social distance .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are going to be deaths no matter what.
” Christie , 57 , spoke as the University of Washington ’ s Institute for Help Metrics and Evaluation ( IMHE ) now predicts more than 134,475 US deaths by August — more than double earlier predictions of 60,000 .
The increase reflects “ increased human mobility and the easing of social distancing measures in many US states , ” the institute warned .
But Christie — whose Garden State has seen the nation ’ s highest death toll , 7,910 , outside of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ economic devastation ” was “ equally sad.
” “ We ’ ve got to let some of these folks get back to work , because if we don ’ t , we ’ re going to destroy the American way of life in these families — and it will be years and years before we can recover , ” he said .
He compared the sacrifice Americans must now make to that of the two world wars .
“ The message is that the American people have gone through significant death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Dana Bash on The Daily DC Podcast .
Of lives “ sacrificed ” in the wars , he said , “ We decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life .
“ In the very same way now , we have to stand up for the American way of life .
”

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie insisted this week that the US needs to end its coronavirus lockdown despite models predicting almost 135,000 fatalities — saying there “are going to be deaths no matter what.”
“Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can — but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?” the former presidential hopeful told CNN Monday.
“Are there ways that we can thread the middle here?” he asked, suggesting people just wear masks and gloves and socially distance.
“There are going to be deaths — there are going to be deaths no matter what.”
Christie, 57, spoke as the University of Washington’s Institute for Help Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) is predicting more than 134,475 US deaths by August — more than double earlier predictions of 60,000.
The increase reflects “increased human mobility and the easing of social distancing measures in many US states,” the institute warned.
But Christie — whose Garden State has seen the nation’s highest death toll, 7,910, outside of New York’s 19,415 — insisted the “economic devastation” was “equally sad.”
“We’ve got to let some of these folks get back to work, because if we don’t, we’re going to destroy the American way of life in these families — and it will be years and years before we can recover,” he said.
He compared the sacrifice Americans must now make to that of the two world wars.
“The message is that the American people have gone through significant death before,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on “The Daily DC Podcast.”
Of lives “sacrificed” in the wars, he said, “We decided to make that sacrifice because what we were standing up for was the American way of life.
“In the very same way now, we have to stand up for the American way of life.”


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Dr. Fauci dismisses theory that coronavirus was made in Chinese lab

President Trump on Thursday claimed he ’ d seen evidence linking the ...

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White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci threw cold water on the theory that the novel coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab — contradicting what President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been saying, according to a report.
“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,” Fauci told National Geographic in an exclusive interview.
“Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.
He added that he doesn’t believe “an alternate theory — that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped.”
The top US infectious diseases expert’s statements contradict an April 30 comment by Trump that he had seen convincing evidence that the deadly bug originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
On Sunday, Pompeo told ABC News that there was “enormous evidence” the virus originated in the lab in Wuhan — the city where the outbreak emerged in December — but he did not provide details to support the claim.
“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” said Pompeo, a former CIA director, adding that he did not think the virus was man-made or genetically modified.
The US intelligence community last week said it “concurred” that the virus “was not man-made or genetically modified,” but added that it would “continue to examine” whether the outbreak began via “contact with infected animals, or if it was the result of an accident” at the Wuhan lab, the BBC reported.
Responding to Pompeo’s comments, China’s state-owned Global Times said in an editorial Monday that the top US diplomat had “stunned the world with groundless accusations.”
The World Health Organization says the White House claims are “speculative” and that it has seen no “specific evidence,” according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, Fauci said in his National Geographic interview that he is most concerned that the US will be hit in the fall and winter by a second wave of the illness if it does not blunt the infection rate soon.
“Shame on us if we don’t have enough tests by the time this so-called return might occur in the fall and winter,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s a chance that this virus is just going to disappear,” Fauci added. “It’s going to be around, and if given the opportunity, it will resurge.”
But Fauci said he is optimistic that a vaccine will be ready within a historically short period of time and that one promising candidate may move into advanced clinical trials early this summer.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Trump: Coronavirus briefings will return, blasts ‘angry’ CBS News reporter

President Trump lashed out at the press during the White ...

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WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that “everybody” enjoyed his White House coronavirus briefings — including himself — and vowed they will be back, just not daily.
In an Oval Office interview with The Post during which he predicted a strong economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis by the end of the year, and offered his opinions on presumptive Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s best pick for a running mate and the sex assault allegations facing the former vice president, Trump said the briefings were must-see TV.
And he credited his frequent clashes with reporters for making engaging content.
“We set every record with those press conferences. Six million people all the time. You know we had tremendous numbers, literally, it was in [Fox News host] Bret Baier’s slot, and we did like 30 in a row,” Trump said.
“I heard, is this true? It was the highest-rated hour in cable television history. That’s what I heard. I don’t know if that’s true.”
Trump, who ended the daily briefings last week, said there would continue to be one or two a week as he pivots from crisis management to reopening the economy. He said his new White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, would be holding court at some of those sessions.
The president mused about the difference between his coronavirus briefings and his formerly packed rallies, made impossible by the spread of the virus, which has sickened more than 1 million Americans, killed nearly 70,000, and left 30 million unemployed.
A lack of re-election rallies before November would be “a big disadvantage,” he said.
“I hope we’re going to be able to get the rallies back before the election,” Trump said. “I actually think it’s very important. I think that would be a big — a big disadvantage to me if we didn’t, if we couldn’t have the rallies back.
“People are wanting the rallies. They want to have them so badly. They were informative but they were fun.”
Trump asked reporters from The Post whether rallies or his coronavirus briefings at the White House were more important, connecting the two forums as ways to “get around the fake news.”
“So, which is more important, the rally or the press conferences?” Trump inquired.
Asked for his own preference, the president said: “I think they both work. You know, they are very different, though, I suspect.”
Trump said he enjoys sparring with reporters in the White House briefing room and that he believes “everybody” likes watching it, even senior citizens who his advisers began to believe were being turned off by hostile exchanges.
“I was told that some people didn’t like the combative attitude so much. And I can a little bit understand that. But I would say from the standpoint of watching it and wanting to watch, that would be more interesting than having boring questions asked.
“And you know, at the same time, they shouldn’t be asking the same question every press conference just trying to get a rise, you know.”
Trump claimed that if he turned off the cameras facing journalists, they would “take a different attitude. They wouldn’t care, you know. But then it wouldn’t be as good a viewing.
“A lot of people love when the press hits me, you know, when I go at it with the press — they like it,” Trump said. He admitted he liked the arena, too.
“Yeah, I do, I, I’m OK with it. I’d rather have a normal, you know, normal — a more normal situation, but I do. And they like it. Some people don’t like it. I have a feeling everybody likes it because, you know, it’s more exciting than sitting there falling asleep.”
Related Video Trump wants Comcast to probe Joe Scarborough over Florida ‘cold case’
He singled out two CBS News journalists as people who particularly irritated him — Weijia Jiang and Paula Reid — during the briefings.
“It wasn’t Donna Reed, I can tell you that,” Trump said, referring to the film and TV star best known for playing Mary Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life” and later starring as the mom in an eponymous family TV sitcom of the ’50s and ’60s.
“Paula Reid, she’s sitting there and I say, ‘How angry. I mean, what’s the purpose?’ They’re not even tough questions, but you see the attitude of these people, it’s like incredible.
“So you know, I enjoyed it,” Trump concluded.
“You know, we didn’t stop them. I mean, this is breaking, this, but we didn’t stop them. Because we’ll probably do maybe one a week, sometimes two depending on the news, but Kayleigh’s going to be able to do them,” Trump said.
“We’ll do them. We get a lot of people watching, and it’s the way that you get around fake news. In other words, I have a much bigger audience than anybody’s ever had.”


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Baby completes chemotherapy, strolls out of hospital to cheers

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Cheers for lil’ Aaron! The staff at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, brought out the fanfare for 10-month-old Aaron after he finished his chemotherapy treatment. Watch the heartwarming video as the tot exits the hospital in a baby walker and confetti rains down on him.
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newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Why Ray J’s stuck in the quarantub

Why Ray J’s stuck in the quarantub

Click to email this to a friend ( Opens in new window ) After Ray J ’ s wife accused him of leaving her “ stranded ” in Las Vegas while eight months pregnant , she ’ s now keeping an eye on him while he ’ s in quarantine .
Tiffany Haddish and Common ’ s romance is real but there seems to be something off about their “ virtual ” dates .
And DJ Khaled had to shut down a twerker gone wild during his Instagram Live feed .
Remember last year ’ s infamous debacle in which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of leaving her “ stranded ” in Las Vegas while eight months pregnant ?
Well , she ’ s now keeping a close watch on him — even while he ’ s in quarantine by himself Ray J told Page Six that he ’ s in quarantine 10 minutes away from his LA home in a luxury hotel .
This is all to make sure he ’ s virus-free before joining Love and their kids at home .
And Love is keeping an eye on his Instagram to making sure he ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He tells us he has to start his 7-day quarantine over again if he hangs out with anyone .
“ I ’ m lonely right now .
I don ’ t want to quarantine by myself .
I keep telling Princess , but she says , ‘ If I see one person over there with you , you got to start over , ’ ” he says .
“ So I really have to lock myself in , because I really miss my kids.
” In November , Princess Love accused the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a Sin City hotel after they attended the BET Awards , though they later reconciled .
They share daughter Melody Love , 2 , and 5-month-old son Epik .
It seems that Common and Tiffany Haddish have signed a — no doubt lucrative — endorsement deal with dating site Bumble , and the new couple has been promoting the dating app ’ s remote video dating feature during the lockdown .
Except for one issue – they are together .
“ While we are at home a lot of times alone , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the rapper told Men ’ s Health while plugging the app .
Last week Bumble even let fans watch the couple ’ s supposed “ first virtual date ” on its Instagram account .
“ We can ’ t be in the same place right now , ” Common says in the clip , “ It ’ s good to see you.
” Haddish and Common are clearly living together under the same roof for at least four weeks .
DJ Khaled ’ s loyal husband status was tested recently on his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a one-on-one chat — but she wanted to do more than talk .
“ Oh s - - t , no no don ’ t do that , ” Khaled — whose real name is Khaled Mohamed Khaled — says to the scantily clad fan as she begins twerking on camera and telling him she “ has to get the water.
” “ I got love and everything I ’ m saying like , I got a family and everything … talk to me normal , talk to me normal , don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 44 , pleaded , covered his eyes as the woman pours water onto her butt .
Khaled then posted a recording of the clip to Instagram with a caption to his fans begging them to be “ respectful , ” of his non-single status .
“ I have love for everyone please take it easy when I ’ m on fan luv ig luv .
Again I have love for everyone please lets be respectful nothing but love BLESS UP !
” Khaled wrote on the post , which has racked up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sunday night .
The “ Wild Thoughts , ” artist and wife Nicole Tuck , 44 , are longtime partners , and welcomed their second child in January .
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After Ray J’s wife accused him of leaving her “stranded” in Las Vegas while eight months pregnant, she’s now keeping an eye on him while he’s in quarantine. Tiffany Haddish and Common’s romance is real but there seems to be something off about their “virtual” dates. And DJ Khaled had to shut down a twerker gone wild during his Instagram Live feed.
Here’s a closer look at today’s stories:
Ray J(ust) follow the rules
Remember last year’s infamous debacle in which Ray J’s wife accused him of leaving her “stranded” in Las Vegas while eight months pregnant? Well, she’s now keeping a close watch on him — even while he’s in quarantine by himself
Ray J told Page Six that he’s in quarantine 10 minutes away from his LA home in a luxury hotel. This is all to make sure he’s virus-free before joining Love and their kids at home. And Love is keeping an eye on his Instagram to making sure he’s isolating properly, according to Ray J.
He tells us he has to start his 7-day quarantine over again if he hangs out with anyone.
“I’m lonely right now. I don’t want to quarantine by myself. I keep telling Princess, but she says, ‘If I see one person over there with you, you got to start over,’ ” he says. “So I really have to lock myself in, because I really miss my kids.”
In November, Princess Love accused the singer of ditching her and their daughter in a Sin City hotel after they attended the BET Awards, though they later reconciled. They share daughter Melody Love, 2, and 5-month-old son Epik.
Bumble BS?
It seems that Common and Tiffany Haddish have signed a — no doubt lucrative — endorsement deal with dating site Bumble, and the new couple has been promoting the dating app’s remote video dating feature during the lockdown. Except for one issue – they are together.
“While we are at home a lot of times alone, alone doesn’t mean lonely,” the rapper told Men’s Health while plugging the app. Last week Bumble even let fans watch the couple’s supposed “first virtual date” on its Instagram account.
“We can’t be in the same place right now,” Common says in the clip, “It’s good to see you.”
Haddish and Common are clearly living together under the same roof for at least four weeks.
Twerkers gone wild
DJ Khaled’s loyal husband status was tested recently on his Instagram Live when he invited one woman for a one-on-one chat — but she wanted to do more than talk.
“Oh s - - t, no no don’t do that,” Khaled — whose real name is Khaled Mohamed Khaled — says to the scantily clad fan as she begins twerking on camera and telling him she “has to get the water.”
“I got love and everything I’m saying like, I got a family and everything … talk to me normal, talk to me normal, don’t do that,” Khaled, 44, pleaded, covered his eyes as the woman pours water onto her butt.
“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” he said repeatedly.
Khaled then posted a recording of the clip to Instagram with a caption to his fans begging them to be “respectful,” of his non-single status.
“I have love for everyone please take it easy when I’m on fan luv ig luv. Again I have love for everyone please lets be respectful nothing but love BLESS UP!” Khaled wrote on the post, which has racked up over 4.3 million views since being posted Sunday night.
The “Wild Thoughts,” artist and wife Nicole Tuck, 44, are longtime partners, and welcomed their second child in January.
Catch up on all episodes of “We Hear” by subscribing to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Blue-state coronavirus bailouts are unfair to Republicans, Trump says

Under the current arrangement , the agency is only on the ...

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WASHINGTON — States left cash-strapped by the coronavirus crisis shouldn’t count on federal bailouts — especially states run by Democrats, President Trump told The Post on Monday.
During a sit-down in the Oval Office, Trump echoed recent remarks by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who last month refused to open federal coffers for “blue state” governments — including New York’s — that have been hit hard by the pandemic.
“I think Congress is inclined to do a lot of things but I don’t think they’re inclined to do bailouts. A bailout is different than, you know, reimbursing for the plague,” said Trump, who also predicted a strong economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis by the end of the year, and offered his opinions on presumptive Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s best pick for a running mate and the sex assault allegations facing the former vice president.
“It’s not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help — they’re run by Democrats in every case. Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic — very little debt.”
Trump also said, “You look at Illinois, you look at New York, look at California, you know, those three, there’s tremendous debt there, and many others.
“I don’t think the Republicans want to be in a position where they bail out states that are, that have been mismanaged over a long period of time,” he said.
Related Video Trump dismisses bailouts for ‘poorly run’ states led by Democrats
The comments are sure to infuriate New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has sparred with Trump and McConnell over their unwillingness to help coronavirus-stricken states.
Cuomo has called McConnell’s suggestion that states declare bankruptcy “the most un-American, most uncharitable, ugly statement of all time,” and noted that New York “puts more money in the federal pot” than it gets back — unlike McConnell’s home state of Kentucky.
The imbalance has cost the Empire State $116 billion since 2015.
Last week, New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin emerged as a lone Republican voice urging the federal government to help the Big Apple, telling The Post that bankruptcy was not an option.
When asked about Cuomo’s assertions, Trump said New York got a lot in return and blasted the state’s “hostile” and “nasty” Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
“We give a lot to New York, you know, including great defense, defense to the whole country,” he said.
“So much more could be done for New York, but the leadership is so hostile in the form of your two senators.”
He added: “You want to work for people, you want to work together with everyone and then you have these people, hostile as can be, always nasty.”
“Then they come in and want things. It’s not like a working environment that you want to be involved with. I never even had a phone call from Schumer or Kirsten,” he said.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Babe Ruth’s baseball swing helped spark teaching revolution in golf

Brett Cyrgalis ’ new book , “ Golf ’ s Holy War : The Battle for the Soul of a Game in an Age of Science ” ( Simon & Schuster ) is set to be released Tuesday .
It is about the conflict between art and science that has arisen in the game , and the modern question of how we embrace or resist technology .
This is a modified excerpt from the chapter “ Babe Ruth and Teaching ’ s Evolutionary Jump.
” As golf became a more quantifiable game , a strange word emerged into the lexicon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that only two players in the history of the game owned their swings — Ben Hogan and Moe Norman .
But how can a person own a motion ?
The connotation is of an ingrained and unbreakable confidence in mechanics .
It is the reaching of the point where no outside influence — say , a coach — is needed .
And yet in this age of science and technology , which took a huge jump forward after Woods won his first major championship as a professional at the 1997 Masters , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a malleable part of each person ’ s nature , to being envisioned as an entirely blank canvas .
Golfers became programmable machines , and their hardware and their outside programmer — the coach — were considered the largest determinants of their success .
Amazing how just one word entering the lexicon can speak volumes .
Even more amazing how that mind-set began — with one of the best baseball players ever .
From 1929 to 1934 , Babe Ruth had a backup on the Yankees named Sam Byrd .
Often referred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Byrd would come in for the prodigious slugger late in games as a defensive replacement or a pinch runner .
Byrd carved out a nice little career , starting when he hit .312 in 203 plate appearances in his rookie season .
Yet the native Georgian always loved golf , and soon after Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam in 1930 , the Yankees came to Atlanta and Jones asked Yankees manager Joe McCarthy if Byrd could sneak out for a round .
According to a story the Birmingham News later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clubs on a course he had never seen and shot 1-under par , tying Jones .
When asked what he thought of Byrd ’ s game , Jones said , “ He ’ s the best man off a tee I ever saw.
” When asked if Byrd really was “ one of the best , ” Jones clarified , “ No , not one of the best ; the very best man with a driver I ever saw.
” Byrd traced his proficiency back to Ruth , who taught him how to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called up in 1929 .
Ruth explained a drill he used where he kept a handkerchief under the lead arm — in Byrd ’ s right-handed stance , that meant his left arm .
The goal of the drill was to keep the swing of the bat level , avoiding an uppercut or a downward chop , which would both result in poor contact .
Ruth added that all good hitters “ brace ” on their back leg , coil around it , then fire through with big muscles — meaning the core @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transferring their weight to the front leg .
It ’ s exactly what a grainy video of Ruth hitting a home run looks like .
By keeping the lead arm in close to the body , the whole thing stays “ connected.
” The drill is still used across sports today , with PGA Tour players often using headcovers instead of handkerchiefs .
Byrd used Ruth ’ s methodology with some success in baseball , and when Byrd thought about the golf swing , all he did was change it to an inclined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a flat table for the baseball swing , then tipping it over to about a forty-five-degree diagonal for golf .
To Byrd , that made the baseball swing and the golf swing identical , just on different planes .
One day while Byrd was playing golf with famed newspaper columnist Grantland Rice , the idea for a collaboration on a book about the differences in the two swings was born .
“ Well , Granny , ” Byrd said , “ it ’ s going to be a darn short book.
” Byrd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bout with malaria and took on a job with Ed Dudley , who worked as the head pro at three-year-old Augusta National Golf Club during the winters and at Philadelphia Country Club in the summers .
Despite battling the putting yips , Byrd had a solid playing career , winning six times on the PGA Tour and making the final of the 1945 PGA Championship ( then a match-play event ) , losing to Byron Nelson in the midst of Nelson ’ s 11-tournament winning streak .
By 1960 , Byrd was giving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course he owned in Birmingham , Alabama .
That year , he hired a gangly seventeen-year-old named Jimmy Ballard , who began making a name for himself as a teacher using Babe Ruth ’ s idea of “ connection.
” By 1970 , Ballard took on a student named Mac McLendon , who had been an All-American golfer at LSU , almost won in his rookie year on Tour , but then hit a major rough patch .
“ You can get a lot of lessons on a practice tee on Tour , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I just got myself all fouled up.
” After years of work , McLendon teamed with childhood friend Hubert Green to win the 1974 PGA Tour event at Walt Disney World .
He picked up his first solo victory in 1976 , and two more in 1978 .
He was the proud reclamation project of Jimmy Ballard , and people started flocking .
Suddenly , teachers seemed necessary .
Jack Grout worked as an assistant at Glen Garden Country Club in Fort Worth , Texas , starting in 1930 , when Ben Hogan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the caddie yard .
In 1950 , he moved on to Scioto Country Club in Columbus , Ohio , where he met a 10-year-old Jack Nicklaus and the two would start a teacher-student relationship that lasted a lifetime .
Throughout most of Nicklaus ’ historic career , which included a record 18 major championships , their schedule consisted of meeting in the cold , early spring and hitting out of what they called “ an open-ended Quonset hut.
” There was no overacting method , just the fundamentals .
The rest was left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own .
“ Jack Grout never set foot on the practice tee , ” Nicklaus said , “ never one time when I played golf.
” It wasn ’ t very different from Nicklaus ’ s contemporaries , either .
From Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino , to Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson , these were all headstrong men , hardly relying on anyone but themselves to prepare for competition .
Which is not to say that perfection wasn ’ t dangled in front of their faces , with a historical template there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up in the era of Hogan , ” Nicklaus wrote .
“ Everything I saw of him and read of him and heard of him indicated that he had achieved utter mechanical perfection in the striking of a golf ball .
Perfect repetition .
Flawless automation .
This was my dream .
All I needed to achieve it was sufficient time to work at my game .
“ I was kidding myself .
When I turned professional , suddenly I had all the time and opportunity I needed .
And I discovered , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that : a dream .
No matter how much work I did , one week I would have it and the next I couldn ’ t hit my hat.
” Acceptance of that inconsistency is a big part of what made Nicklaus so great .
But the inability to accept it , or the driving desire to eliminate something that was inherent in the game , was what drove so many people so deep into instruction .
By way of McLendon ’ s success , Ballard was the teacher whom everyone wanted to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interesting origin in Babe Ruth , and anytime pro golfers could consider what they did more athletic and more in line with other sports , the more they liked it .
In 1988 , Ballard achieved what he liked to call the “ Teachers ’ Grand Slam.
” At the time , he was teaching Sandy Lyle , who won the Masters ; Curtis Strange , who won the first of his back-to-back U.S .
Opens ; Ballesteros , who won the British Open ; and a Swedish kid named Christian Harden , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quite the professional sweep , as the PGA Championship was won by Jeff Sluman , but surely an impressive bit of résumé building for Ballard .
He was named “ Teacher of the Decade ” by Golf Magazine , a newly coined title that would have been almost unfathomable in any decade prior .
The celebration of the coach signaled a drastic shift in the nature of the teacher-student relationship .
McLendon eventually retired from pro golf to become a stockbroker —something he always dreamed of doing .
Ballard continued to think he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work he did .
But by the time Tiger Woods came along , whoever was teaching Woods at the moment was a big part of the story .
Each time Woods switched teachers , it signaled a new avenue of purchase to own a motion .
It would only get more definitive as science progressed .
And to think , Babe Ruth started the whole thing .
This excerpt from Golf ’ s Holy War by Brett Cyrgalis is used by permission of Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster , copyright © @ @ @ @ @

Brett Cyrgalis’ new book, “Golf’s Holy War: The Battle for the Soul of a Game in an Age of Science” (Simon & Schuster) is set to be released Tuesday. It is about the conflict between art and science that has arisen in the game, and the modern question of how we embrace or resist technology. This is a modified excerpt from the chapter “Babe Ruth and Teaching’s Evolutionary Jump.”
As golf became a more quantifiable game, a strange word emerged into the lexicon: own. Tiger Woods famously said that only two players in the history of the game owned their swings — Ben Hogan and Moe Norman. But how can a person own a motion?
The connotation is of an ingrained and unbreakable confidence in mechanics. It is the reaching of the point where no outside influence — say, a coach — is needed.
And yet in this age of science and technology, which took a huge jump forward after Woods won his first major championship as a professional at the 1997 Masters, the golf swing evolved from being thought of as a malleable part of each person’s nature, to being envisioned as an entirely blank canvas. Golfers became programmable machines, and their hardware and their outside programmer — the coach — were considered the largest determinants of their success.
Amazing how just one word entering the lexicon can speak volumes. Even more amazing how that mind-set began — with one of the best baseball players ever.
From 1929 to 1934, Babe Ruth had a backup on the Yankees named Sam Byrd. Often referred to as “Ruth’s legs,” Byrd would come in for the prodigious slugger late in games as a defensive replacement or a pinch runner.
Byrd carved out a nice little career, starting when he hit .312 in 203 plate appearances in his rookie season. Yet the native Georgian always loved golf, and soon after Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam in 1930, the Yankees came to Atlanta and Jones asked Yankees manager Joe McCarthy if Byrd could sneak out for a round. According to a story the Birmingham News later published in 1937, Byrd used borrowed clubs on a course he had never seen and shot 1-under par, tying Jones. When asked what he thought of Byrd’s game, Jones said, “He’s the best man off a tee I ever saw.” When asked if Byrd really was “one of the best,” Jones clarified, “No, not one of the best; the very best man with a driver I ever saw.”
Byrd traced his proficiency back to Ruth, who taught him how to hit a baseball when he was first called up in 1929. Ruth explained a drill he used where he kept a handkerchief under the lead arm — in Byrd’s right-handed stance, that meant his left arm. The goal of the drill was to keep the swing of the bat level, avoiding an uppercut or a downward chop, which would both result in poor contact. Ruth added that all good hitters “brace” on their back leg, coil around it, then fire through with big muscles — meaning the core muscles between the hips and shoulders — transferring their weight to the front leg. It’s exactly what a grainy video of Ruth hitting a home run looks like. By keeping the lead arm in close to the body, the whole thing stays “connected.” The drill is still used across sports today, with PGA Tour players often using headcovers instead of handkerchiefs.
Byrd used Ruth’s methodology with some success in baseball, and when Byrd thought about the golf swing, all he did was change it to an inclined plane. The image was that of a flat table for the baseball swing, then tipping it over to about a forty-five-degree diagonal for golf. To Byrd, that made the baseball swing and the golf swing identical, just on different planes. One day while Byrd was playing golf with famed newspaper columnist Grantland Rice, the idea for a collaboration on a book about the differences in the two swings was born.
“Well, Granny,” Byrd said, “it’s going to be a darn short book.”
Byrd eventually quit baseball in 1936 after a bout with malaria and took on a job with Ed Dudley, who worked as the head pro at three-year-old Augusta National Golf Club during the winters and at Philadelphia Country Club in the summers. Despite battling the putting yips, Byrd had a solid playing career, winning six times on the PGA Tour and making the final of the 1945 PGA Championship (then a match-play event), losing to Byron Nelson in the midst of Nelson’s 11-tournament winning streak.
By 1960, Byrd was giving lessons at a driving range and par-3 course he owned in Birmingham, Alabama. That year, he hired a gangly seventeen-year-old named Jimmy Ballard, who began making a name for himself as a teacher using Babe Ruth’s idea of “connection.” By 1970, Ballard took on a student named Mac McLendon, who had been an All-American golfer at LSU, almost won in his rookie year on Tour, but then hit a major rough patch.
“You can get a lot of lessons on a practice tee on Tour,” McLendon said decades later. “I just got myself all fouled up.”
After years of work, McLendon teamed with childhood friend Hubert Green to win the 1974 PGA Tour event at Walt Disney World. He picked up his first solo victory in 1976, and two more in 1978. He was the proud reclamation project of Jimmy Ballard, and people started flocking. Suddenly, teachers seemed necessary.
Jack Grout worked as an assistant at Glen Garden Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, starting in 1930, when Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson were both teenagers in the caddie yard. In 1950, he moved on to Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, where he met a 10-year-old Jack Nicklaus and the two would start a teacher-student relationship that lasted a lifetime.
Throughout most of Nicklaus’ historic career, which included a record 18 major championships, their schedule consisted of meeting in the cold, early spring and hitting out of what they called “an open-ended Quonset hut.” There was no overacting method, just the fundamentals. The rest was left for Nicklaus to figure out on his own.
“Jack Grout never set foot on the practice tee,” Nicklaus said, “never one time when I played golf.”
It wasn’t very different from Nicklaus’s contemporaries, either. From Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino, to Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson, these were all headstrong men, hardly relying on anyone but themselves to prepare for competition. Which is not to say that perfection wasn’t dangled in front of their faces, with a historical template there to be emulated.
“I grew up in the era of Hogan,” Nicklaus wrote. “Everything I saw of him and read of him and heard of him indicated that he had achieved utter mechanical perfection in the striking of a golf ball. Perfect repetition. Flawless automation. This was my dream. All I needed to achieve it was sufficient time to work at my game.
“I was kidding myself. When I turned professional, suddenly I had all the time and opportunity I needed. And I discovered, fast, that my dream was just that: a dream. No matter how much work I did, one week I would have it and the next I couldn’t hit my hat.”
Acceptance of that inconsistency is a big part of what made Nicklaus so great. But the inability to accept it, or the driving desire to eliminate something that was inherent in the game, was what drove so many people so deep into instruction.
By way of McLendon’s success, Ballard was the teacher whom everyone wanted to work with. His method had an interesting origin in Babe Ruth, and anytime pro golfers could consider what they did more athletic and more in line with other sports, the more they liked it. In 1988, Ballard achieved what he liked to call the “Teachers’ Grand Slam.” At the time, he was teaching Sandy Lyle, who won the Masters; Curtis Strange, who won the first of his back-to-back U.S. Opens; Ballesteros, who won the British Open; and a Swedish kid named Christian Harden, who won the British Amateur — not quite the professional sweep, as the PGA Championship was won by Jeff Sluman, but surely an impressive bit of résumé building for Ballard.
He was named “Teacher of the Decade” by Golf Magazine, a newly coined title that would have been almost unfathomable in any decade prior. The celebration of the coach signaled a drastic shift in the nature of the teacher-student relationship.
McLendon eventually retired from pro golf to become a stockbroker —something he always dreamed of doing. Ballard continued to think he never got enough credit for the breakthrough work he did. But by the time Tiger Woods came along, whoever was teaching Woods at the moment was a big part of the story. Each time Woods switched teachers, it signaled a new avenue of purchase to own a motion.
It would only get more definitive as science progressed. And to think, Babe Ruth started the whole thing.
This excerpt from Golf’s Holy War by Brett Cyrgalis is used by permission of Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, copyright © 2020 by Brett Cyrgalis.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Nearly $1 million dumped on roadside during California police chase

A landslide forced the evacuation of several residents in upstate ...

LOS BANOS, Calif. — Nearly $1 million in cash was dumped on a Central California road during a police chase that ended with the arrests of two New York men who apparently planned to buy marijuana with the money, the California Highway Patrol said.
Frank Capraro, 23, and Desmond McDay, 25, both of Medford, were arrested Friday evening, the Merced Sun-Star reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether they had obtained lawyers.
The chase began shortly before 6:30 p.m. when a CHP officer tried to stop one of three black SUVs that appeared to be traveling together on Interstate 5 south of Los Banos in Merced County, authorities said.
During the chase, one SUV straddled lanes to block the patrol car, which maneuvered around it and kept chasing the first car, a Chevrolet Suburban.
The Suburban stopped on the shoulder of the road at one point and the driver got out, dumped two cardboard boxes and then took off again before finally stopping for good, the CHP said.
The driver of the Suburban and a second SUV that was stopped in traffic were both taken into custody, but the SUV that had tried to block the officer escaped, authorities said.
The cardboard boxes contained $915,000 in cash, and a police dog alerted to the odor of drugs on the money, authorities said.
Officers also found walkie-talkies that the drivers apparently had been using to communicate during the chase, the CHP said.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Landslide in upstate New York leaves homes dangling on edge of massive crater

TEHRAN , Iran — The new coronavirus pandemic has brought back ...

A landslide forced the evacuation of several residents in upstate New York and left homes dangling dangerously close to the edge of a cliff on Sunday.
Photos were taken of the area in Waterford, located about 11 miles northeast of Albany, which saw trees uprooted, much of a driveway destroyed, and one home just inches away from falling into the massive crater.
Authorities were told 150 feet of land slid into the crater and there is concern that more will continue to fall.
A dozen residents were displaced and have found temporary places to reside.
An individual needed help getting out of his home after debris fell on his driveway and blocked access to the road, the station reported.
There were no injuries or loss of structures reported, according to emergency officials.
Police said they utilized a drone to assess the damage, which allowed responders to maintain a safe distance from the collapse. It examined the area above and below the slide without having anyone physically enter the potentially unstable area.
Engineers were at the scene Sunday and the area will be monitored this week. The cause of the landslide is unknown at this time.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Iran opens long banned drive-in movies in midst of coronavirus pandemic

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TEHRAN , Iran — The new coronavirus pandemic has brought back something unseen in Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution : a drive-in movie theater .
Once decried by revolutionaries for allowing too much privacy for unmarried young couples , a drive-in theater now operates from a parking lot right under Tehran ’ s iconic Milad tower , showing a film in line with the views of hard-liners .
Workers spray disinfectants on cars that line up each night here after buying tickets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cinema Machine ” in Farsi .
They tune into the film ’ s audio via an FM station on their car radios .
With stadiums shut and movie theaters closed , this parking-lot screening is the only film being shown in a communal setting amid the virus outbreak in Iran , one of the world ’ s worst .
Iran has reported more than 98,600 cases with over 6,200 deaths , though international and local experts acknowledge Iran ’ s toll is likely far higher .
“ It was very fascinating , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at least for people my age , ” said Behrouz Pournezam , 36 , who watched the film along with his wife .
“ We are here mostly for the excitement to be honest , the movie itself didn ’ t matter that much .
I didn ’ t care what movie it is or by whom or which genre.
” The film being shown , however , is “ Exodus , ” produced by a firm affiliated with Iran ’ s hard-line Revolutionary Guard .
The film by director Ebrahim Hatamikia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from salt water brought by local dams .
The farmers , led by an actor who appears to be the Islamic Republic ’ s answer to American cowboy stand-in Sam Elliott , drive their tractors to Tehran to protest the government .
There is precedent for this anger .
Iran had built dams across the country since the revolution — especially under hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — that environmentalists blame for damaging waterways and farmland .
But this film instead involves “ a peasant protest against the local authority that symbolically resembles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the state-owned Tehran Times said .
Rouhani , a relative moderate in Iran ’ s Shiite theocracy , has increasingly faced hard-line criticism amid the collapse of his nuclear deal with world powers .
Those allied with his administration have criticized the film .
Moviegoer Atefeh Soheili , however , was glad just to enjoy entertainment outside of her home .
“ Now I ’ m sitting here with clean hands and if I want to eat something or relax I don ’ t need to worry about distancing from other people @ @ @ @ @

Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.
TEHRAN, Iran — The new coronavirus pandemic has brought back something unseen in Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution: a drive-in movie theater.
Once decried by revolutionaries for allowing too much privacy for unmarried young couples, a drive-in theater now operates from a parking lot right under Tehran’s iconic Milad tower, showing a film in line with the views of hard-liners.
Workers spray disinfectants on cars that line up each night here after buying tickets online for what is called the “Cinema Machine” in Farsi. They tune into the film’s audio via an FM station on their car radios.
With stadiums shut and movie theaters closed, this parking-lot screening is the only film being shown in a communal setting amid the virus outbreak in Iran, one of the world’s worst. Iran has reported more than 98,600 cases with over 6,200 deaths, though international and local experts acknowledge Iran’s toll is likely far higher.
“It was very fascinating, this is the first time this is happening, at least for people my age,” said Behrouz Pournezam, 36, who watched the film along with his wife. “We are here mostly for the excitement to be honest, the movie itself didn’t matter that much. I didn’t care what movie it is or by whom or which genre.”
The film being shown, however, is “Exodus,” produced by a firm affiliated with Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard. The film by director Ebrahim Hatamikia focuses on cotton farmers whose fields die from salt water brought by local dams. The farmers, led by an actor who appears to be the Islamic Republic’s answer to American cowboy stand-in Sam Elliott, drive their tractors to Tehran to protest the government.
There is precedent for this anger. Iran had built dams across the country since the revolution — especially under hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — that environmentalists blame for damaging waterways and farmland. But this film instead involves “a peasant protest against the local authority that symbolically resembles President Hassan Rouhani’s government,” the state-owned Tehran Times said.
Rouhani, a relative moderate in Iran’s Shiite theocracy, has increasingly faced hard-line criticism amid the collapse of his nuclear deal with world powers. Those allied with his administration have criticized the film.
Moviegoer Atefeh Soheili, however, was glad just to enjoy entertainment outside of her home.
“Now I’m sitting here with clean hands and if I want to eat something or relax I don’t need to worry about distancing from other people,” she said.


newyorkpost--2020-05-05--Baseball resumes in South Korea as coronavirus spread slows

SEOUL , South Korea — South Korea on Tuesday reported its lowest daily increase in coronavirus cases since Feb. 18 @ @ @ @ @ as the country restarts professional sports and prepares to reopen schools .
South Korea ’ @ @ @ @ @ and Prevention on Tuesday reported three fresh infections and two more virus-related deaths , bringing @ @ @ @ @ and 254 fatalities .
After reporting around 500 new cases daily in early March , @ @ @ @ @ past month amid tightened border controls and waning transmissions in the worst-hit city of Daegu @ @ @ @ @ cases on Tuesday .
Health authorities still raise concern over a broader “ quiet spread @ @ @ @ @ to learn how widespread the virus is .
Amid the slowing caseload , officials have @ @ @ @ @ decided to reopen schools in phased steps , starting with high school seniors on May @ @ @ @ @ s professional baseball league will begin its new season without fans in the stands on @ @ @ @ @ soccer league will kick off under similar conditions on Friday .

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Tuesday reported its lowest daily increase in coronavirus cases since Feb. 18, continuing a downward trend as the country restarts professional sports and prepares to reopen schools.
South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday reported three fresh infections and two more virus-related deaths, bringing national totals to 10,804 cases and 254 fatalities.
After reporting around 500 new cases daily in early March, infections have slowed over the past month amid tightened border controls and waning transmissions in the worst-hit city of Daegu, which reported zero new cases on Tuesday.
Health authorities still raise concern over a broader “quiet spread” and plan antibody tests to learn how widespread the virus is.
Amid the slowing caseload, officials have relaxed social distancing guidelines and decided to reopen schools in phased steps, starting with high school seniors on May 13.
South Korea’s professional baseball league will begin its new season without fans in the stands on Tuesday, while the pro soccer league will kick off under similar conditions on Friday.