Wimbledon’s expansion plans boosted when judge dismisses legal challenge

Wimbledon's expansion plans boosted when judge dismisses legal challenge

LONDON (AP) —Wimbledon's expansion plans, which would almost triple the size of the tennis tournament grounds, received a boost Monday when a judge dismissed a campaign group's legal challenge. The Save Wimbledon Park group took legal action against the Greater London Authority's decision to grant planning permission last year. Aside fromconcerns about the environmentand overall scale, opponents argued that the adjacent property that was a golf course when the All England Club bought it in 2018 is subject to restrictions that favor preservation of open spaces for the public. Wimbledon's plan includes adding an 8,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof and 38 other grass courts that would allow theAll England Clubto move its qualifying event on-site to boost attendance and revenue. "In short, the defendant's decision on the relevance of deliverability, applying to both the statutory trust and the restrictive covenants, was a planning judgment rationally exercised and having regard to appropriate and relevant factors," judge Justice Saini said. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament that holds itsqualifying rounds at a completely separate location. There are also too few practice courts in the current setup, requiring some of the world's best players to share courts. "We are delighted that Mr. Justice Saini has dismissed the challenge to the GLA's decision to grant planning permission for our plans to transform the former Wimbledon Park golf course," said Deborah Jevans, chair of the All England Club. "It is clear that we have a robust planning permission that enables us to create a permanent home for the Wimbledon qualifying competition as well as delivering 27 acres of beautiful new park land for local people, providing public access to land that has been a private golf course for over 100 years," Jevans added. The next hurdle in the process is a hearing in January over whether there is a statutory trust over the former golf course land. ___ AP tennis:https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

July 21, 2025

Wimbledon’s expansion plans boosted when judge dismisses legal challenge

Wimbledon's expansion plans boosted when judge dismisses legal challenge LONDON (AP) —Wimbledon's expansion plans, which would almos...

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Bengals owner Mike Brown optimistic about Trey Hendrickson deal as players report to training camp

Bengals owner Mike Brown optimistic about Trey Hendrickson deal as players report to training camp

Cincinnati Bengals training camp is set to get underway Tuesday, but the team still faces some significant questions about which players will be there. The Bengals remain locked in a contract stalemate with All-Pro defensive end Trey Hendrickson, leading to questions over whether he'll report to camp and take part in drills. Despite that uncertainty, though, Bengals owner Mike Brown expressed optimism that a deal with Hendrickson will get done. Brown told reporters, "I think it'll get done," in regards to a new deal for Hendrickson. Brown doubled down, saying the team was not looking to trade Hendrickson and is "working on getting [a deal] done." Mike Brown on Trey Hendrickson: "We are not going to trade Trey. We are working on getting it done."On negotiating with the All-Pro: "We've been through a few — and he pushes hard, he gets emotional. We never have an easy time of it. And if there's one thing that is… — Charlie Clifford (@char_cliff)July 21, 2025 If that happens, it would end months of posturing from both sides. Hendrickson, who is entering the final year of his contract, is looking for a long-term deal after racking up a league-high 17.5 sacks last season. That performance earned Hendrickson his fourth selection to the Pro Bowl and his first All-Pro selection. After starting his career with the New Orleans Saints, Hendrickson has blossomed into a superstar with the Bengals, making the Pro Bowl in each season with the team. The 30-year-old has been vocal about getting a new deal, saying hewill not play for the teamon his current deal. While he was a surprise show at the team's offseason training, he skipped mandatory minicamp. That decision spurredrenewed contract talksbetween the sides. That contract hasn't come yet, leading to questions about how Hendrickson will handle training camp Tuesday. Team director of player personnel Duke Tobin said he expects everyone "under contract" to report to the team. That would include Hendrickson, who is signed through 2025. Duke Tobin confirms there has been continued dialogue with Trey Hendrickson's camp regarding a new contract."We believe everyone under contact should be here for camp."Remains to be seen how Hendrickson handles this beginning Wednesday. — Charlie Clifford (@char_cliff)July 21, 2025 Tobin also confirmed both sides have continued to talk about a new deal. He later added that he's not sure if they'll be able to reach a deal before the start of the regular season. Bengals exec Duke Tobin said they hope to reach a deal with DE Trey Hendrickson. Unclear if that can be done before the start of the season. — Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby)July 21, 2025 Hendrickson isn't the only prominent player stuck in a contract-related tiff with the team. First-rounder Shemar Stewart is the only player taken in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft who has yet to sign with his team. Stewart, who has been working out at his alma mater, Texas A&M, has not signed with the team overunusual contract guaranteesthat are not typically included in rookie deals. Brown took a different track on the Stewart negotiations Monday, saying it was "a form of foolishness" that no agreement has been reached.

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

July 21, 2025

Bengals owner Mike Brown optimistic about Trey Hendrickson deal as players report to training camp

Bengals owner Mike Brown optimistic about Trey Hendrickson deal as players report to training camp Cincinnati Bengals training camp is set t...

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Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR's career wins list. With 60 in sight, how far can he go?

Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR's career wins list. With 60 in sight, how far can he go?

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Denny Hamlin has stood his ground that wins — enough of them to soon earn his place inside NASCAR's career top-10 list — matter more to his legacy thana championship. Easy to say, of course, with 58 race victories to zero titles. The 44-year-old Hamlin, still driving the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing as he's done since his rookie season in 2006, is motivated to reach the top 10 this season over the final 15 races of the Cup season. Kevin Harvick is 10th on the career list with 60 and Kyle Busch, still active with Richard Childress Racing, is ninth with 63, giving Hamlin realistic numbers to shoot for the rest of the season. Best to take advantage at tracks where he's had success, such as Dover Motor Speedway, where hewon Sundayfor the second straight year and third time overall, compared with a track like this weekend's race on the Indianapolis oval, where Hamlin is 0 for 16. "I don't think I've ever wanted to go back to back so bad," Hamlin said of Dover. "(Indy's) a track that I've just come so fricking close to winning. I just want to cross off all the major racetracks on our schedule." Hamlin is a driver who thrives in the chaos like few others — if any can — in the series. His win at Dover came days after the race team he owns with Michael Jordan suffered a setback in itscourt fight with NASCAR. He insisted ahead of the race that the legal issues never caused a distraction for him in the race car, then proved it on the mile concrete track with a series-best fourth win of the season. Maybe more dark clouds — like the ones that opened up Sunday, causing a rain delay just laps ahead of the scheduled finish — can fuel Hamlin at Indy. "All I can hope is that something happens this week that derails everything and then I'll do better," Hamlin said. Hamlin then turned to a NASCAR employee and cracked, "Maybe it'll come from them." Can Hamlin realistically get to 60 in 2025? He won eight times in 2010, six times in 2019 and seven in 2020, all totals that would get him to 60 this year. "When you get him in a situation where he's got the ball in his hands and it's time to go win the race, he finds a way to do that most times," crew chief Chris Gayle said. It's a fitting analogy for a race team owned by a former NFL coach. At his pace, Hamlin remains a contender to cash in thisNovember at Phoenix Racewayand win his first NASCAR championship — even if he lost out on the $1 million prize in the series' first In-season challenge. $1 million is on the line The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who floated the idea of a midseason tournament on his "Actions Detrimental" podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media "such a win for our sport and drivers." He jokingly added, "I will collect my 1M royalty next season." Hamlin earned the No. 1 seed — and was promptly eliminated in the first race by Ty Dillon, the No. 32 seed. Dillon faces Ty Gibbs next week at Indianapolis to decide the first winner of the tournament. Was the In-season challenge a success? Hamlin said the five-race, bracket-style tournament overall was a success — but not without a few kinks. Some of the seeding was off, such asShane van Gisbergennot qualifying for the field, then ripping off consecutive wins on the Chicago street race and Sonoma Raceway during the tournament races. And sure, everyone loves a Cinderella in March. But two in July isn't necessarily making the tournament the NASCAR story of the summer. "I think it has been unfortunate, right, you probably had a lot of the top seeds get knocked out pretty early in it, but overall, I thought the implementation of it has been good," Hamlin said. The other side of the argument is this: Would any fan or media outlet really care about a pair of winless drivers such as Gibbs (the sixth seed) or Dillon at this point of the season without $1 million at stake? "For a team like us, at this point in the season, we're not exactly where we want to be yet, but we're trending in a good direction," Dillon said on TNT. "Our story doesn't get told in years past. It's mainly the guys trying to fight for the points position. It's the guys running up front, trying to win the race. But our story and our growth in the year stops getting told. I'm grateful we've been able to show our personality as a team." Unlike the All-Star race where the winner pockets $1 million, the driver with the best finish earns the cash prize, a ring, jackets and a trophy. How they fared Dillon had luck on his side during his run, with his lone top-10 finish coming in the first race in Atlanta. He advanced in that race after Hamlin crashed out and finished 31st. Dillon twice has finished 20th, including at Dover. He has a best finish of 13th in five career races on the Indy oval. Gibbs, the grandson of team owner and football and NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs, and Dillon have failed to win in a combined 374 Cup races. Dillon has only two career top-five finishes in a career that dates to 2014. The 22-year-old Gibbs has a much better pedigree, winning the 2022 Xfinity Series title, a series in which he was a 12-time winner. He has six top 10s already this season and could make NASCAR's playoffs on points. Gibbs has three straight top 10s in the tournament, including a fifth-place finish at Dover. Gibbs finished 23rd on the Indy oval last season. He's done enough to impress his grandfather. "There's some people there that we got off to a terrible start, it was awful, (but) I had people on that group that came to me encouraging me, ideas for me, after it. I think they care for Ty. It just was a huge deal," the 84-year-old Gibbs said. "This sport will really measure you. But those guys have fought back." ___ AP auto racing:https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

July 21, 2025

Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR's career wins list. With 60 in sight, how far can he go?

Denny Hamlin continues climb in NASCAR's career wins list. With 60 in sight, how far can he go? DOVER, Del. (AP) — Denny Hamlin has stoo...

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Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of 'character assassination' in $10 million defamation claim

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of 'character assassination' in $10 million defamation claim

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's former interim police commissioner has filed a $10 million defamation claim against Mayor Eric Adams for reportedly suggesting he was mentally unfit for the job of top cop. The filing comes less than a week after the ex-commissioner, Thomas Donlon,sued Adams and his top deputies, accusing them of operating the department as a criminal racket that rewarded unqualified loyalists and punished whistleblowers. Donlon said he was sidelined for trying to clean up the corruption. After that lawsuit was filed, Adams privately told members of a nonprofit business advocacy group at a meeting that he'd fired Donlon, 71, from his brief stint as commissioner last fall because he was "rapidly deteriorating mentally," according to attendees. Donlon cited news reports about those comments in his legal claim. The department's former top spokesperson, Tarik Sheppard, who was also named in Donlon's lawsuit, told reporters that his former boss was "going through some cognitive issues" and believed "there was this conspiracy against him." Their comments amounted to a defamatory "public character assassination" intended to "weaponize mental health to silence a whistleblower," Donlon's attorney, John Scola, said Monday. Donlon, a former FBI official, was appointed by Adams in September to lead a department reeling fromoverlapping federal investigationsand high-level resignations. He was replaced by the current commissioner, Jessica Tisch, in November. During his short tenure, federal authoritiessearched Donlon's homefor decades-old documents that he said were unrelated to his work at the department. He has not been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with that search. In his short time as commissioner, Donlon said he uncovered "systemic corruption" by members of the mayor's inner circle, including a scheme to reward unqualified loyalists with lucrative promotions in exchange for political favors. In his lawsuit, Donlon accused Sheppard of misappropriating the commissioner's rubber stamp signature to give himself a raise, then threatening to kill Donlon when confronted about it. Sheppard, who left the department in May, has denied that allegation. Inquiries to City Hall about the defamation claim were not immediately returned. In a statement last week, a spokesperson for Adams, Kayla Mamelak Altus, described Donlon's claims as "absurd." "These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who — when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world — proved himself to be ineffective," she said. The defamation claim adds to a recent spate of litigation brought by police officals against Adams, focusing scrutiny on his leadership as he seeks re-election on a platform emphasizing managerial competence and public safety. Earlier this month, four high-ranking former NYPD officialsbrought separate lawsuitsaccusing Adams and his deputies of allowing rampant corruption and cronyism within the police department. In response to those suits, a spokesperson for Adams said the administration "holds all city employees — including leadership at the NYPD — to the highest standards."

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

July 21, 2025

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of 'character assassination' in $10 million defamation claim

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of 'character assassination' in $10 million defamation claim NEW YORK (AP) — New York City...

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Jeffrey Epstein case: Read the 2006 Florida grand jury transcripts

Jeffrey Epstein case: Read the 2006 Florida grand jury transcripts

PALM BEACH, Florida − Amid a firestorm of controversy after the Justice Department's recent announcement that it would not be releasingJeffrey Epstein documents, Attorney GeneralPam Bondifiled a motion July 18 in New York federal court, seeking the release of grand jury transcripts for the indictments of Epstein in July 2019 and his associateGhislaine Maxwellin June 2020. PresidentDonald Trumpdirected Bondi to seek the release after MAGA supporters called for more transparency in the case and a report by the Wall Street Journal describinga bawdy letter from Trump to Epsteinfor Epstein's 50th birthday. The transcripts of the 2006 Jeffrey Epstein Florida state grand jury that resulted in only a solicitation of prostitution charge against him are already public, thanks to a lawsuit by The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network − but it took nearly five years to get them released. More:Trump's on a roll. Why isn't he smiling? Answer: Jeffrey Epstein The Post's case is cited in the petitions to make the federal indictments public, filed in both the Epstein and Maxwell criminal cases. The newspaper had sued after learning in a 2019 investigation thatprosecutors had tanked their own caseduring the secret proceeding. Circuit Judge Luis Delgado released the 176-page transcript on July 1, 2024. On the day The Post published its investigation, the newspaper sued to lift the veil of secrecy for the public and for the survivors. The following document shows the stunning details of the proceeding, including the prosecutor telling the only two victims who testified that they themselves were criminals. Jeffrey Epstein secret transcripts:Victim was asked, Do you know 'you committed a crime?' Hear Palm Beach Post Investigations Editor Holly Baltz discuss what the transcripts reveal (at 8:10): More:Could Pam Bondi have prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein when she was Florida's top legal officer? This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Read the 2006 Florida grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein case

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

July 21, 2025

Jeffrey Epstein case: Read the 2006 Florida grand jury transcripts

Jeffrey Epstein case: Read the 2006 Florida grand jury transcripts PALM BEACH, Florida − Amid a firestorm of controversy after the Justice D...

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