Lately the crooks are getting to the grease before Griffin’s trucks do - especially in Houston. “The grease doesn’t solidify” in the Texas heat Griffin says, so thieves “can just suck that product out year-round.” Lt. John Butcher of the Houston Police Department says that while some use vacuum trucks like Griffin’s, lower-tech oil rustlers “scoop the grease up with a bucket and dump it into 55-gallon drums.” That method has drawbacks for the crooks, Butcher says....

Earning a technical foul for a comment to the losing team’s bench just before he made a ceremonial exit from a game he thoroughly dominated with perhaps the greatest performance of his career. He would never arrive. The smart money surely was on option No. 2, but it turned out the other was more fun than any of us could have imagined. It was as if Paul willed every one of his most famous qualities – the insistence on irritating the opposition, the vision to connect with teammates at impossible angles, the dreadful theatrics that do not hint at his effectiveness as a commercial actor, the ridiculous ballhandling skill that unnerves opponents, the petulance that does that even more so – it was all there Wednesday night at the Staples Center as the Suns blew out the Clippers to claim the first spot in the 2021 NBA Finals....

An airstrike on March 9 struck the maternity and children’s hospital providing refuge to adults and children, leaving three dead and 17 wounded while causing global outrage. Foreign officials and media quickly condemned the attack. Experts told Newsweek in an earlier report that the bombing is a “horrific” example of a potential war crime committed by Vladimir Putin’s forces, and it is one of many that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an investigation on since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24....

Thunderstorms that brought heavy winds and over three inches of rain to the Sioux Falls area on Tuesday were observed by locals in a seldom seen shade of green. The National Weather Service (NWS) said that the severe weather was part of a derecho, an extended series of connected storms that include winds in excess of 58 miles per hour. Winds from the storm reached speeds of up to 99 miles per hour in some areas of South Dakota....

Greene, a Georgia Republican, warned about what she views as threats to children and conservative values during a discussion on her show MTG Live, which was posted to Rumble on Thursday. During the discussion, the congresswoman explained one reason she worries for children is because some are raised by “fake” parents. “Children are in the greatest danger in America today because traditional family values are being destroyed—the idea that mom and dad together, not fake mom and fake dad, but the biological mom and biological dad, can raise their children together and do what’s right for their children,” she said....

As the global economy shifts away from fossil fuels, the demand for electric vehicles and the raw materials used to make their batteries has skyrocketed. Analysts have forecasted that we will need to establish over 300 new mines over the next decade to keep up with this demand. The challenge is knowing where to open them. “Out of every 200 projects, 199 of them fail to find an economic ore body,” Josh Goldman, the president of the startup KoBold Metals, told Newsweek....

A Paradigm Partners poll published on Tuesday shows Abbott with just 32.52 percent support among likely Republican primary voters in the state, behind former Texas GOP chair Allen West on 38.36 percent. The poll was conducted for West’s campaign and differs starkly from other polls published late last year that appeared to show the Republican primary race was uncompetitive. The Paradigm Partners poll was conducted among 1,486 likely Republican primary voters on January 9, 2022 and has a margin of error of +/-2....

The Cowboys defensive end had his 10-game suspension reduced to four games, the league announced Friday. MORE: Disgraced athletes | Hardy appeal focused on NFL’s shifting punishment standards Hardy may not be happy with the new suspension length, according to ESPN. When his alleged act of domestic violence occurred last year, a two-game suspension was generally the severe end of the punishment scale. Hardy appealed the May decision that he would be suspended for the first 10 games of 2015 for “conduct detrimental to the league in violation of the NFL constitution and by-laws, the NFL player contract and the NFL personal conduct policy” after the alleged incident....

Paul Arriola? In a game the United States had no choice but to win in order to qualify for the 2022 World Cup? Jesus Ferreira as the center forward? If that doesn’t tell you coach Gregg Berhalter is firm in his convictions, what would? The USMNT’s increasingly anxious fan base still was livid over the 1-0 defeat absorbed at Panama on a Sunday evening last October, still blaming that result on the seven Major League Soccer veterans who started that game....

After multiple media outlets reported Marshall was staying, Marshall’s son Kellen tweeted confirmation. MORE: Who’s in, who’s out: College coaching vacancies Alabama athletic director Bill Battle announced late Wednesday that Marshall had chosen the Shockers over the Crimson Tide. CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander reports Marshall will receive a seven-year contract. Marshall and Wichita State have not commented on the reports. Reports earlier Wednesday said Wichita had improved its offer to Marshall, who was considered a favorite to replace the fired Anthony Grant at Alabama....

Atleti lodged a complaint to FIFA this week over their La Liga rivals’ alleged pursuit of the France star. The move came in response to Barca director Guillermo Amor stating club president Josep Maria Bartomeu could have met with Griezmann’s family. However, Simeone insists the 26-year-old’s state of mind has not been affected by the speculation surrounding his future. “The board is managing it in the best way, looking for what is best for the club,” Simeone told reporters ahead of Friday’s trip to Espanyol....

Griezmann, 27, has been strongly linked with a move to Barcelona in the close-season, despite being contracted with Atletico until 2022. The forward showed once more just why he is in demand, scoring a brace in Atletico’s 3-0 win over Marseille in the Europa League final on Wednesday. But Griezmann, who has now won two trophies since arriving at Atletico in 2014, said any discussions about his future would have to wait....

CJ McCollum led New Orleans with 30 points and nine assists in its entertaining 113-102 win over Memphis. Larry Nance Jr. contributed 19 points, seven rebounds and a few highlight-reel dunks, and Jose Alvarado added 12 points and six assists off the bench. Morant filled up the box score with 36 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, but he didn’t get much help from the rest of the Grizzlies’ starters....

But more interesting manifestations can be seen in the bucolic groves of academe, in which industrialists, financiers and corporations each year swap billions in cash for prestige. While the American brand may be tarnished in foreign policy (Iraq), financial management (subprime) and even basketball (the 2004 Olympics), “U.S. higher education still has a sterling international brand,” says Peter Frumkin, professor of public affairs at the University of Texas. “People love to have their names associated with leading research universities....

How does this small piece neatly encapsulate several important trends? A Touch of Conscience. These days, any company that markets to or needs to hire well-educated proto-yuppies must take bold action on topics of concern ranging from global warming to poverty. Or, if it doesn’t actually want to take the action, it must at least appear to be concerned. Doing good isn’t a serious commitment or an end in itself....

“Mary” is a tough act to follow. For “Me, Myself & Irene” they’ve refurbished an old screenplay co-written with Mike Cerrone and cast the great elastic man of comedy to play their split-personality hero, a sweet-tempered soul who has eaten so much crow in his life that when he finally snaps he turns into a model of machismo run amok. The father of three brilliant, trash-talking African-American sons (his wife left him for a black midget Mensa member, played by Tony Cox), Charlie/Hank is diagnosed with “advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage....

Dorothy, a teenager who runs a fan account dedicated to Ariana Grande, managed to keep her followers updated after she was grounded on August 4. It started with one tweet in which she announced she would not be able to come online, because her mom had taken her phone. However, the online detox enforced by Dorothy’s mother was short-lived. She found another way to stay online. The teenager started using a Nintendo DS to check her Twitter account but was quickly caught, much to her followers’ dismay....

Although the bacterium is not usually harmful to adults, it can cause serious side effects in infants. People who are positive for GBS will need to be treated with antibiotics during labor to help prevent the baby from being infected. This article will discuss the cause, symptoms, risk factors, complications, and prevention of group B strep. Causes Bacteria are microscopic, single-celled organisms that live in the environment. For example, Streptococcus (strep) is a type of bacteria found inside and outside humans and animals....

Dad did always love me. He still does-or so he says on the rare occasions when we catch one another on the phone. He had his priorities when I was young, and now I have mine. I’m in jail, and my primary concern is my trial. I’m sure he understands. I always did. My parents married when they were young and idealistic. I was only 2 when they gave up on their marriage and went their separate ways....

Listen: “I come out onto a balcony which doesn’t exist, I look at the playground in my courtyard, There’s nothing left of it,” Nakhmudov sings in staccato, rough-edged Chechen. Another song, “Train to Hell,” evokes Stalin’s mass deportation of the entire Chechen nation during World War II. “The message in my music is my tiredness, my total disappointment. We are fed up with war, with poverty, with our everyday routine in the ruins,” says a friend and fellow rapper, Anzor Bisayev, 28, who taught himself to play a broken guitar his parents gave him at 18....