“It’s always tough when a women’s sports team or league fails . . . We believe that there is a business here [and] we can’t wait to continue to build our brand, our business, and the sport of professional women’s hockey,” Rylan explained. “There’s definitely enough talent out there [for two leagues] and we want to make sure that players have a place to play this fall. We have approval to move on two markets, but that doesn’t mean we’re stopping there....

The clip, which lasts for several minutes, shows the man at the Burly Coffee & Better Read Than Dead store in the Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn repeatedly calling the sign offensive and demanding it is taken down. “You need to take off the sign, it’s offensive,” the man, later identified as Abraham “Avrumy” Knofler, says. Pointing to the sign, he adds: “This is the most racist thing out there, I’m not a racist....

Last week, New York’s leaders announced that the city would once again halt indoor dining on Monday—which was operating at 25 percent capacity—as the pandemic has once again surged locally. Speaking to CNN on Monday morning, De Blasio discussed that decision and said further restrictions will likely be implemented. “You’re talking about the potential, and again I’m quoting from Governor [Andrew] Cuomo and I think he’s right, there’s a potential of having to do a full pause—a full shutdown in the coming weeks, because we can’t let this kind of momentum go,” de Blasio said....

“We are going to start a huge sting operation to go and get these illegal fireworks at the base, meaning everywhere they are being sold around New York City and even where they are being sold in surrounding states that we know are flowing into New York City,” the mayor said during a Tuesday press conference. The mayor said the sheriff’s office, the New York City Fire Department and the New York City Police Department “have come together in an illegal fireworks task force....

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced during a Tuesday press conference that the state will send 2 million at-home testing kits to schools. These tests can then be sent home with students if one of their classmates tests positive. Those who test negative using the kit will not have to quarantine. The city will also increase the number of random coronavirus tests each school conducts. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated students will eligible to receive the random testing when school resumes next week after the holiday break....

The officer has been identified as Anastasios Tsakos, a 14-year veteran of the force. Tsakos, 43, leaves behind a wife and two young children, a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning that Tsakos was “tragically killed while protecting NYers. The entire NYPD hurts tonight as we reconcile the loss of our brother. A loss not only for our NYPD family, but all of NYC....

Can Ronaldo really play until he’s 41? Ireland has beaten Georgia, Moldova and now Austria since drawing its opening game against Serbia, which trails O’Neill’s men by two points at the top of Group D. Although his side is in pole position after winning 1-0 in Vienna on Saturday thanks to James McClean’s second-half goal, O’Neill believes beaten opponent Austria is still in the mix to reach the tournament - along with Serbia and Wales....

The polling was conducted by data and survey company Dynata and commissioned by the producers of the upcoming film Reagan. The biopic, which stars Dennis Quaid as the 40th president, is set for release early next year. The poll asked 1,058 American respondents whom they’d vote for in a matchup between Ronald Reagan and the other presidents who have held office since his administration. Obama beat Reagan by 14 percentage points—57 percent to 43 percent—but Reagan won against every other past president....

“If it fails, I think it will set back the cause of progressivism for several more decades,” Steven Rattner, former head of Obama’s Auto Task Force, said in an interview Thursday morning with MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Rattner’s comments come on the morning after President Joe Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress. In his speech, the president announced his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, a 10-year plan that would expand access to early childhood education; provide tuition-free community college; fuels tax breaks for families; and fund paid family leave among other family-focused programs....

Despite upward economic data for July, the U.S. centralized bank is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter point Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade, analysts predict. Yellen appeared at the Aspen Economic Strategy Group meeting in Aspen, Colorado, on Sunday, where she told attendees she believes Trump’s trade wars have hurt the economy and she believes inflation is too low. Yellen, who was chair of the Fed in the Obama administration from February 2014 through February 2018, said she supports a 25-basis-point cut to the central bank’s benchmark interest rate, CNBC first reported....

The U.S. repeatedly blocked the U.N. Security Council’s attempt to issue a press release calling for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, according to the Associated Press. It also opposed a resolution calling for an end to the conflict, arguing that it could “undermine” its own “efforts to de-escalate,” with President Joe Biden having told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that “he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire....

Entering Week 1, every team has a theoretical chance to reach the playoffs. AccuScore has simulated every regular-season game 10,000 times to predict the probability for each team to reach the postseason. The table below shows those probabilities based on William Hill odds for each team. WEEK 1 NFL PICKS: Straight up | Against the spread Each week, AccuScore will update its 2018 NFL postseason forecast by simulating the entire NFL season 10,000 times to predict win totals, division winners and probabilities of reaching the playoffs on the road to Super Bowl 53....

If things continue as they have, the winner of this year’s NFC East — be it the leading Eagles, or the Giants, Cowboys or Washington Football Team — could go down as one of the worst division winners since the NFL’s divisional realignment in 2002. Right now, the two worst divisional winners by record since then are the only division winners to finish sub-.500, the 2010 Seahawks and the 2014 Panthers....

There’s no smooth path for college and professional football to make equal decisions for a game played with so-similar rules on an otherwise equal playing field. The NFL is a business comprised of map dots in 30 important U.S. cities, all of them able to collectively coordinate games and crowd control to accomodate a multi-billion dollar business. College football this fall could be like, well, walking into a college frat house party on a rival campus, and then leaving not knowing whether you need an Uber, a tetanus shot or some penicillin....

The New England Patriots look every bit the juggernaut everyone expected them to be, steamrolling the Miami Dolphins 43-0 a week after they put 33 on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Dolphins, on the other hand, look even worse than feared. Miami might publicly insists it is not tanking, but results tell a different story. If the Patriots have started the season on the front foot, the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens have followed suit and are all 2-0....

Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis will be joined by future Hall of Famers Ray Lewis, Tony Gonzalez and Charles Woodson at the 2017 Pro Bowl in Orlando, Fla. PHOTOS: Best images from the 2016 Pro Bowl “Playing in the Pro Bowl was always exciting for me,” Bettis, a six-time Pro Bowler, said in a league release. “It meant a lot to be recognized as one of the best in the game, and I’m looking forward to returning as a captain and sharing in the experience with the current and next generation of football’s best....

“We had a record-setting year last year, and we’re pacing strongly ahead of it,” Fox Sports ad sales executive Neil Mulcahy said. MORE: NFL’s all-breakout team According to SBJ, NBC is charging a record $700,000 per 30-second spot during “Sunday Night Football” and $560,000 per 30-second spot during Thursday night games, posting a 10-12 percent increase. NBC’s Sunday game has been TV’s top-rated prime-time show for five consecutive seasons, but CBS and Fox stress that the late Sunday afternoon games actually deliver higher ratings....

At the Combine, “average is good” when it comes to testing. As long as players have average athleticism (as compared to previous NFL Combine performances and relative to their peers), their college film will reflect their grade. NFL DRAFT: SN’s 2018 Mock Draft But for some players, the NFL Combine is a chance to shine and show NFL evaluators that their athleticism exceeded what they showed on film and makes their upside that much higher....

The NFL has invited 324 of its top draft prospects to Indianapolis to participate in the 2022 combine. That’s not quite as many as there were in 2020, but that still means there will be plenty of top-tier talents willing to showcase what they have as they look to move up a level. Per usual, the SEC has the most invitees, but this diverse group will feature prospects from 105 different colleges....