NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to records Friday after data suggested the job market remains solid enough to keep the economy going, but not so strong that it raises immediate worries about inflation . The S&P 500 climbed 0.2%, just enough top the all-time high set on Wednesday, as it closed a third straight winning week in what looks to be one of its best years since the 2000 dot-com bust. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 123.19 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.8% to set its own record. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
Nico Iamaleava passed for four touchdowns and Dylan Sampson rushed for 77 yards and set a school-record for TDs as No. 11 Tennessee rolled to a 56-0 victory over UTEP on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, Tenn. Sampson scored on a 14-yard TD run early in the second quarter for the game's first points to deliver his 22nd TD of tje season to break the Tennessee single-season mark set by Gene McEvers in 1929. Iamaleava was 15 of 20 for 173 yards for Tennessee (9-2), while Bru McCoy caught a pair of TD passes and Squirrel White and Ethan Davis each had a TD reception. Tennessee moved its all-time record to 2-0 against the Miners, also having blanked the Conference USA school 24-0 in 2018. Jermod McCoy and John Slaughter had interceptions for the Volunteers, while Dominic Bailey recovered a fumble to set up a score. Skyler Locklear was 10-of-19 passing for 50 yards with an interception for UTEP (2-9), while rushing for 37 yards on eight carries. JP Pickles also had a turn at QB for the Miners and was 10 of 15 for 72 yards. Kenny Odom had eight receptions for 70 yards. Both defenses set the tone in the first quarter. The UTEP defense allowed just one first down to the Southeastern Conference team in three ugly series in the opening quarter and only 22 yards. In the second quarter, Sampson ended a 68-yard drive by dashing up the middle for 14 yards for the record-setting score to take a 7-0 lead with 13:22 remaining before halftime. After Bailey's fumble recovery, Iamaleava flipped a screen pass that White took 9 yards to the end zone nearly six minutes later. Davis put the Volunteers up 21-0 when he grabbed a short pass for a 1-yard TD. Iamaleava then found Bru McCoy from 18 yards with eight seconds left in the second quarter for a 28-0 halftime lead. McCoy caught his second TD and Peyton Lewis rushed for a pair for a 49-0 lead in the third quarter, but the biggest roar from Volunteers fans came when it was announced Florida beat No. 9 Ole Miss 24-17, to enhance the Volunteers' College Football Playoff hopes. Cameron Seldon's 3-yard run capped the scoring as the Volunteers finished the season undefeated at home for the second time in four years. --Field Level Media
12 Information Technology Stocks Moving In Friday's Pre-Market SessionThe bare goal statistics suggest Burnley are not among the Championship’s great entertainers but, as Connor Roberts’ long strike rescued a point for Scott Parker’s side on Friday night, they and Middlesbrough managed to serve up an absorbing encounter despite atrocious conditions. Roberts, still fondly remembered in his native Wales by the nickname of his youth, “The Crynant Cafu” — a nod both to his home village and the legendary Brazilian right back — claimed his first goal for the club since scoring the winner against the same opposition in April 2023, when Burnley were on the verge of promotion to the Premier League. His latest effort may not prove to be as significant, but it at least earned a point from a game which did no harm to the promotion hopes of either team. Having negotiated the previous 488 minutes without conceding a goal, Burnley made it just past the 500-mark before Anfernee Dijksteel capitalised on some uncharacteristically poor defending from the hosts.
Michele Horne doesn’t want to have the same conversation next year. The past two years, Concord police have asked for retention bonuses for current sworn officers, pitched as a stopgap measure necessary to keep an already slim staff. To Horne, the request ceases to be temporary when it becomes an annual ask. “It’s not stopgap if we’re doing it year after year,” said Horne during a meeting Monday night. “If we’re going to do it year after year we need to be transparent and simply build it into the budget.” Despite concerns about long-term solutions and requests for a report on spending and staffing, Concord City Council approved $405,000 in retention bonuses for officers. Adding in last year’s allocation, the department has received nearly $1 million on top of its $15.9 million budget, for this purpose. In part, it’s worked, according to Police Chief Bradley Osgood. This year, the department lost eight officers compared to 19 departures in 2023. Five left while two officers retired, and one left on disability. Vacancies, new officers in training, and injuries leave the department lacking 21 percent of its sworn staff, according to a report from Deputy Police Chief Steven Smagula. Article continues after... Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess “There are very few qualified police applicants to hire and our current police officers are being heavily recruited by several law enforcement organizations across the state and region” he wrote. The addition of two new police officer positions in 2022, when vacancies were already prominent in the department, made it more difficult to reach full staff. Retention and recruitment should warrant a larger conversation, at-large Councilor Nathan Fennessy said. “We need to think about whether there are other things we can do besides throwing money at the issue,” he said. To Judith Kurtz, also an at-large councilor, that conversation starts by better understanding the challenges of the department. Last month, the police department gave a presentation to the city council on the new social worker position added earlier this year. Kurtz would like to see a similar explanation for the retention funding. “The stopgap financial measure will be necessary in perpetuity if we don’t get creative about how to handle the challenges to our staff,” she said. “I think that data is being collected, I would like to be aware of it and understand what’s happening as things move forward.” The police and fire departments will present to the full council in March or April regarding budgets, according to at-large Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton, who chairs the public safety advisory board. Information about retention bonuses will be included in the presentation, she said. However, this is not the first time council members have requested more information on the retention bonuses program. Last year, when the initial half million was awarded, then-Councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins asked for a six-month report. Her motion, which would have required the department to outline the types of service calls and recommendations for staffing solutions, failed. “This is not a problem that we are going to be able to outbid ourselves in the long run, so I think we would do best for the public safety and Concord to start to have those conversations now,” she said then. Members of Concord’s Fire Department, who said they were representing themselves, also spoke out in favor of the move Alan Robidas, a battalion chief, described the importance of the relationship between police and fire. “We know that we can rely on them and likewise they can rely on us,” he said. In his 23 years working for the city, though, he’s never seen so many officers cycle through the department, he said. While Robidas spoke, fellow firefighters held up signs in the front row of the council chambers. Unionized Concord firefighters have been without a contract since July 1, after the previous three-year collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30. “I have seen my fair share of police officers come and go but I don’t feel there’s ever been a time where I so frequently respond to an incident and the patrolman looking back at me is a stranger or an officer that I know who says they are working another double,” he said. “I can’t begin to tell you what a morale killer it is.”Ryan Day defends Ohio State’s ‘exclamation point’ touchdown against Indiana