Author: admin

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson once clashed on the court in the 2001 NBA Finals, but now the basketball legends are joining forces to revive the Reebok brand they helped make iconic.In the Netflix docuseries, “Power Moves,” which premiered this week, the Hall of Famers swap jerseys for executive titles, with O’Neal stepping in as president of Reebok Basketball while Iverson takes on the role as vice president. The six-episode series offers a behind-the-scenes look at their mission to spark a cultural resurgence for the classic sneaker company.O’Neal, standing 7-foot-1, sees himself as a voice for…

MOKWA, Nigeria (AP) — On May 29, Mallam Hassan Umar stood waist-deep and barefoot in muddy water, his eyes on the remnants of his Arabic school, now reduced to sludge and shattered wood by devastating floods.The Islamic teacher, clutching only the threadbare clothes he escaped with, started shouting the names of the pupils he housed and might never see again. Some pupils tried to escape with him through the back of the house, which also doubled as the school. But that attempt quickly turned perilous. The tightly packed layout of the neighborhood, combined with the absence of a proper drainage…

MILLVALE, Pa. (AP) — Workers have completed a phase of conservation work on historic murals by the late artist Maxo Vanka at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church near Pittsburgh. The vivid results underscore the original power of the murals, which Vanka painted more than 80 years ago, fusing traditional Catholic iconography with searing social commentary. The team of more than a dozen workers cleaned off grime, extracted corrosive salts from the walls, stabilized plaster and delicately filled in areas of lost paint with new pastels and watercolors. Working on a 32-foot-tall scaffold, art conservator Kate Pirelli works on cleaning a…

MILLVALE, Pa. (AP) — How do you conserve 80-year-old murals that have accumulated decades’ worth of soot, salt and other deterioration?Slowly and carefully, using everything from scientific analysis to seaweed extract to everyday tools — like cosmetic sponges and shish kebab sticks.That was the approach taken by a conservation team as they labored on a section of murals at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church near Pittsburgh.The walls and ceiling of the church are covered with an acclaimed set of murals painted by the late Croatian American artist Maxo Vanka in 1937 and 1941. They mix religious imagery with dramatic depictions…

MILLVALE, Pa. (AP) — When the scaffolding came down inside the unassuming hilltop church near Pittsburgh, it revealed a raging storm of biblical proportions.A wide-eyed Moses holds the Ten Commandments aloft in righteous fury, ready to shatter the tablets when his followers abandon God for a golden calf. Lightning sizzles and a tornado surges in the background.The late artist Maxo Vanka created the mural in 1941, based on a scene from the Book of Exodus. It’s one of 25 murals that cover the walls and ceilings of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church.Vanka, a Croatian American immigrant like most of the…

OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — The D-Day generation, smaller in number than ever, is back on the beaches of France where so much blood was spilled 81 years ago. World War II veterans, now mostly centenarians, have returned with the same message they fought for then: Freedom is worth defending.In what they acknowledge may be one of their last hurrahs, a group of nearly two dozen veterans who served in Europe and the Pacific is commemorating the fallen and getting rock-star treatment this week in Normandy — the first patch of mainland France that Allied forces liberated with the June…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is moving to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University, his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school from an international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body.In an executive order signed Wednesday, Trump declared that it would jeopardize national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.“I have determined that the entry of the class of foreign nationals described above is detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard’s conduct has…

Plumes of smoke are blanketing large swaths of the U.S. and parts of Europe, which presents risks for those breathing it. The Midwest, Northeast and Great Lakes regions of the U.S. have “very unhealthy” air quality, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and experts say people should take precautions.What counts as bad air?The EPA’s Air Quality Index converts all pollutant levels into a single number. The lower the number, the better.Anything below 50 is classified as “healthy.” Fifty to 100 is “moderate” while 100-150 is unhealthy for “sensitive groups,” and anything above 150 is bad for everyone. The Air Quality…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Democratic-sponsored proposal to limit per-student payments to Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools and make other changes to how they operate narrowly passed the state House on Wednesday over Republican objections that it would imperil the online learning programs. The 104-98 vote, with only two Republicans in favor, sets down a marker on the perennially contentious issue of school funding as state lawmakers work to complete the coming year’s state budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.The bill’s $8,000 limit on how much public school districts would have to reimburse the cyber charters was the…

Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican from Long Island, is making a second push to simplify federal contracts so more small businesses can understand and compete for them.Newsday via Getty Images One barrier that keeps small businesses from chasing federal contracts might soon come down. And it’s not cost or competition. It’s the writing. On Tuesday, the House passed the Plain Language in Contracting Act by voice vote. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican from Long Island, now heads to the Senate. It calls on federal agencies to write all new small business contracts using “plain language” and…