Author: admin

LOS ANGELES — As Bob Chesney walked to the podium in the Luskin Hotel ballroom on UCLA’s campus, a Bruin-branded football rolled off the table in front of the 48-year-old as he whisked by. Chesney, introduced Tuesday morning as UCLA’s 20th head football coach, pointed at athletic director Martin Jarmond. “Ooh, that’s not good,” Chesney said, before laying down a joke. “That was you that fumbled it – not me,” he said. In years past, such a moment before Chesney’s opening remarks, just minutes after first addressing his new football team in the Wasserman Football Center, could’ve been viewed as…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI said Tuesday it has picked Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue, a message to wary investors that the ChatGPT maker is serious about making a profit from its artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI said Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and “help more businesses put AI to work in their day-to-day operations.” Dresser had already spent more than a decade at Salesforce when the software pioneer announced in 2020 it was buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion. She helped integrate Slack into the software company before Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff picked…

By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday challenged a court order that complicated efforts to seek a new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey by making a trove of evidence off-limits to prosecutors. An order issued over the weekend by a federal judge in Washington barred the Justice Department at least temporarily from accessing computer files belonging to Daniel Richman, a close Comey friend and Columbia University law professor who prosecutors see as a central player in any potential case against the former FBI director. Prosecutors moved Tuesday to quash that order, calling Richman’s request…

EL SEGUNDO — Veteran reserve guard Marcus Smart practiced Tuesday and expects to make his return to the court in the Lakers’ NBA Cup quarterfinal matchup against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena. “Back’s feeling good,” Smart said after Tuesday’s practice. “Felt good in practice. We did some tests, passed the tests. We’re gonna give it a shot [on Wednesday], see how it feels. But right now, I’m playing. Hopefully, can continue to feel better with another day … and it stays that way. But as of right now, everything is good to go for me.”…

By DEE-ANN DURBIN Cracker Barrel posted lower-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter and trimmed its revenue forecast for the year as it continued to feel the fallout from a botched plan to revamp its logo and restaurants. The Lebanon, Tennessee-based restaurant chain said Tuesday its revenue fell 5.7% to $797.2 million in the three months ending Oct. 31. That was lower than the $800 million Wall Street anticipated, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Cracker Barrel said its same-store restaurant sales dropped 4.7% while sales in its retail shops dropped 8.5%. Those declines were also slightly higher than analysts…

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday her country intends to send more water to the United States but not immediately despite threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to raise tariffs by 5% on Mexican imports if more water is not delivered as part of a water-sharing agreement. Sheinbaum said Mexico is proposing a water delivery this month and another one in the coming years. The proposal will be discussed in a virtual meeting with U.S. officials Tuesday, she said. Mexico is behind water deliveries to the United States from the Rio Grande River because of drought…

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Angels purchased another lottery ticket. The Angels swung a deal to get former top prospect Vaughn Grissom, an infielder whose status has fallen since disappointing performances with the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox. The Angels sent Class-A outfielder Isaiah Jackson to Boston to complete the trade. Jackson was the Angels’ eighth-round pick last summer, and he’d played just 10 professional games, hitting .219. Grissom, who turns 25 next month, is out of options. He will come to spring training with a chance to win a bench spot or possibly even everyday at-bats. He has primarily…

By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press President Donald Trump’s administration is threatening to pull federal funding for public transportation in Chicago unless the city tightens security after a man allegedly set a woman on fire inside a commuter train in November. Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that Trump is politicizing “a heinous tragedy” while doing nothing to make Illinois communities safer. Federal Transit Authority Administrator Marc Molinaro sent a letter Monday to Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson demanding the Chicago Transit Authority develop and implement an updated safety plan by Dec. 19.…

INGLEWOOD — There are few adjectives that Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh will spare in talking about Justin Herbert, especially in the aftermath of a week in which the quarterback treated hand surgery as a minor inconvenience. “He’s a superhero,” Harbaugh said Monday night after Herbert guided his team to a 22-19 overtime victory over Philadelphia. “He’s a competitive maniac. He was even stiff-arming guys with a broken hand, and he had surgery a week ago (and was) out here tonight. It felt like we were in a movie where the quarterback’s doing these things and you get to a point…

By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Navy admiral who is retiring early from command of the campaign to destroy vessels allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela spoke to key lawmakers Tuesday as Congress seeks more answers on President Donald Trump’s mission, which, in one instance, killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of an initial strike. The classified video call between Adm. Alvin Holsey, who will be retiring from U.S. South Command in the coming days, and the GOP chairs and ranking Democrats of the Senate Armed Services Committee represented another determined step by…