Sizing up the best starting options for the U.S. national team Orrin McKinze Gaines II has been in Germany for close to a year, but now he’s back in the U.S. as a part of Wolfsburg’s squad for the upcoming Florida Cup. A highly-rated member of Wolfsburg’s development squad, the 18-year-old is a lightning-fast attacker able to play on either wing. Originally from Austin, Texas, he had planned to attend UCLA before the offer arrived from Wolfsburg last year following a successful trial....

A fake report went viral saying that she had been arrested at her home in Boca Raton, Florida, pushing her name to the top of Twitter’s trending topics for several hours on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. After the 66-year-old was informed she was the subject of the false reports, she used her verified Twitter account to refute the bogus claims. “Just got a phone call that my name is trending....

The trait was linked to living 11 to 15 percent longer, on average, and achieving what is known as “exceptional longevity”. Optimism appeared to lengthen life even when researchers accounted for potentially life-shortening factors like socioeconomic status, health conditions, diet, and whether a person smoked or drank. The authors of the paper, published in the journal PNAS, defined optimism as expecting good things to happen, and the belief that the future will be positive because we can control important outcomes....

OCPs do not prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This article reviews the types of OCPs, their effectiveness, benefits, side effects, costs, and where to get them. Types Oral contraceptives use synthetic female hormones to prevent pregnancy. Combination pills and progestin-only (minipills) are the two main OCP types. Your healthcare provider may instruct you to take them conventionally, for extended use, or continuously. Combination Birth Control Pills Combination birth control pills are the most commonly prescribed....

Jennifer Morlok, a therapist at Oregon’s counseling center, notified university administrators and a Justice Department attorney via a letter that the school infringed on the privacy rights of Doe, who alleges she was gang-raped by three Oregon basketball players in March 2014. The alleged violation of privacy stems from a lawsuit the student filed against the university and basketball coach Dana Altman after one of the alleged assailants, Brandon Austin, was recruited while being investigated for rape at another school....

Oregon now joins Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana in having more people hospitalized with COVID than ever since the pandemic began At Salem Hospital in Oregon’s capital, the intensive care unit is at capacity, with COVID patients in 19 of 30 available beds last week. The youngest patient was only 20 years old. Over at a hospital in Roseburg, one of western Oregon’s former timber towns, a COVID patient died in the emergency room last week waiting for an ICU bed to become available....

Chay Lopez said his stepson, who is half-Black, was playing outside their apartment in a West Salem, Oregon apartment complex during the Independence Day weekend. The incident occurred the same weekend that an Oregon State Police officer was accused of using white supremacy hand gestures toward Black Lives Matter protesters, KGW reported. Lopez said while the child was playing, his neighbor, identified as Marcus Ray Wilson, threw a firecracker in his stepson’s direction....

The number may seem high considering the Don Best/Linemakers Ratings have Oregon with only a 1.5-point edge, but there’s a lot more that has to be measured for what will be the highest wagered upon college football game of the season, and it begins with public perception. The Ducks’ 59-20 thrashing of No. 3 Florida State in the Rose Bowl made quite an impression. One key question oddsmakers have to ask is which team gained more public favor with its win....

Running back Ayele Forde, a senior, will not suit up for the Ducks after failing a drug test. Oregon coach Mark Helfrich broke the news at Saturday’s media event in Arlington, Texas. The first College Football Playoff championship game will be played at Cowboys Stadium. Kickoff is 8:30 p.m. ET. “How you manage those things is what matters most. And our guys have managed all those situations very, very well,” Helfrich said....

Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle decided to show some love to five of his team’s walk-on players instead against rival Oregon on Wednesday night. MORE: Best states for college hoops | 10 best tourney players | Weirdest scoring attempt of all time That’s how three freshmen in Matt Dahlen, Tanner Sanders and Dylan Livesay, as well as sophomore AJ Hedgecock and junior Justin Stangel got the starting nod. Four of those five players joined the team after an open tryout in October, and one was a practice player from former head coach Craig Robinson’s squad....

But Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy made absolutely no effort to cover home plate following a passed ball by catcher Pedro Severino in a tie game Thursday vs. the Dodgers. He watched one run score. Then he watched another runner trot home. While the Orioles (47-98) are one of the worst teams in MLB this year, it was still jarring to see that display. Bundy said afterward he thought it was a normal strikeout, according to MASN, but even then, he could have eventually pretended he was interested in running toward the open base when it became clear what was going on....

Video of the grounds crew losing its battle against the tangled tarp rocketed around the internet Sunday afternoon. The crew couldn’t restore the drenched infield even after the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. MORE: Angels rookie knocks ball over the fence with his glove “I don’t know if you’d call it a rain delay,” Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg told reporters, per MLB.com. “I think it was more of a tarp delay....

Goal’s MLS Team of the Playoffs Toia had been the first overall pick of the MLS expansion draft by Atlanta from the Montreal Impact just hours before. “We are happy to acquire Donny,” Orlando City assistant general manager Niki Budalic told Orlando City’s official website. “He’s an athletic fullback with MLS experience that will fit into Jason (Kreis’) style.” Toia spent 2015 and 2016 with the Impact, playing 48 games over that span, starting 44....

The seven-bed, five-bath home in the exclusive Californian neighborhood was bought by Ibrahim Bin Laden, Osama’s eldest half-brother, in 1983. He reportedly snapped up the two-acre estate for $1.6 million, but it’s now on the market for $28 million. The listing, on Zillow and Coldwell Banker Realty, indicated the price was based on “land value,” adding this home was all about “location, location and location.” The house, which has a bubblegum pink exterior, needs “major” repairs after lying vacant for 20 years....

Pistorius, who is to be sentenced next month after being found guilty in the negligent killing of his girlfriend, could compete at any time because the South African Olympic committee has no regulations preventing someone with a criminal record from representing the country. “As he stands right now, he’s free (to compete),” South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee chief executive Tubby Reddy told The Associated Press on Monday....

Though there were several songs at the Oscars—three of them were from the movie “Enchanted,” and the Academy unwisely dragged out each performance separately instead of grouping them together—the night was still a rather tuneless affair. “No Country for Old Men” picked up four wins, including Best Picture, Director (for Joel and Ethan Coen), Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Spanish actor Javier Bardem). Curiously enough, all the other acting winners were foreign too....

The soldiers get pulled in every direction, improvising every step of the way. “Within three blocks, we can be involved in high-intensity combat, low-intensity peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance,” says Col. Gregg Martin. With raised voices and salty language, the keyed-up soldiers bicker over prison conditions or some detail of the Geneva Convention, and try to keep up with the pro-Saddam graffiti that pops up faster than they can slather white paint over it....

Even in a climate of corporate cost-cutting, Oldfield’s company (she prefers that it remain unidentified) and many other New Economy survivors continue to invest money in training sessions that do not involve blackboards, computers or conference rooms. Instead, they send their employees on increasingly elaborate, and even risky, “team-building” trips. From white-water rafting to caving and rock climbing, corporate trainers are raising the difficulty level on challenges for the cubicle set....