At least 11 people were taken to hospitals after a shooting Sunday night in a South Carolina beach town, authorities said.

Horry County Police did not give the conditions of anyone hurt or detail how they were injured in the incident, which happened about 9:30 p.m. in Little River.

Investigators were getting reports of more people arriving at the hospital in private vehicles, Horry County Police said on social media.

About 90 minutes after the shooting, police called it an isolated incident and said there is no risk to the community. They did not release any information on possible suspects or what led to the shooting.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Women charged with helping New Orleans jail escapees get food and transportation

The shooting happened around a boat dock near the Intracoastal Waterway.

Video from the scene showed dozens of police cars and ambulances rushing in and out of the area.

A North Myrtle Beach police officer responding to the shooting accidentally shot himself in the leg at a marina about 3 miles (5 kilometers) away and is in the hospital in stable condition, North Myrtle Beach spokeswoman Lauren Jessie said.

Little River is about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach.

By Sheila Yasmin Marikar, Bloomberg News

At Nashik International Airport, there are so many posters advertising vineyards and wine tastings, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve landed in California’s wine country rather than India’s west, 100 miles north of Mumbai.

Yet in the past two decades, Indian wine production has, in fact, become a thing, and Nashik is its epicenter. The greater wine industry is taking notice: Sula Vineyards, India’s leading winemaker, won the gold medal for cabernet sauvignon from the Global Wine Masters last May, the highest honor an Indian bottling has received at that annual competition. A viognier from Grover Zampa, which has vineyards in Nashik as well as Bangalore, in India’s south, was named best of show at January’s Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America competition.

Beyond winning awards, Nashik is fueling a thirst for wine in a country where alcohol consumption is restrained and mostly limited to whiskey. Its recent successes are not only resonating with locals but also generating renewed interest in international travel to India and bringing a new audience to the region. Ten years after Chandon, part of the LVMH-owned Moët Hennessy portfolio, opened its first winery in Nashik, the brand’s president, Arnaud de Saignes, touts the region’s “potential to produce premium grape varieties” and calls India a “dynamic market,” “with a growing appreciation for high-quality wines.”

Why travelers should go

“The concept of wine in India doesn’t make sense, initially,” says Lisa Alam Shah, the director of Micato Safaris India, a luxury tour operator that’s arranged subcontinental adventures for the likes of Hillary Clinton and the Ambani family. Part of that, she says, is because India heavily taxes alcoholic beverages, which makes it difficult for residents to access quality wines and spirits made abroad.

But her clients are increasingly “looking for something new beyond the Taj Mahal and the palaces of Rajasthan.” So Shah has helped develop Micato’s new tour to Nashik, on offer since last year. “The word ‘authentic’ is overused, but that is what people want, whether they completely understand it or not,” she says. “Nashik, right now, feels quite authentic.”

The highway that leads from Mumbai to the vineyards is modern, but sections of it involve winding dirt roads and wayward cows. (It’s a good idea to hire a driver, as Micato does for its guests.) And while wine is central to the experience, it’s hardly the full extent of what to do there. This is a place to sample brut rosé and cabernet-shiraz and then take a sunset boat ride on the reservoir of Gangapur Dam, one of Asia’s largest. The region also houses Trimbakeshwar, a revered and architecturally significant shrine to Shiva that dates to 1755 and contains a special three-faced representation of the Hindu god, and the 2,000-year-old Pandav Leni Caves, once frequented by Buddhist monks.

The game changer

Chandon may be a name known around the world, but Sula Vineyards has put Nashik on the map for international wine lovers. Founded in 1999 by Rajeev Samant, a former Oracle engineer who returned home after quitting his Silicon Valley job, it produces more than 50% of the wine consumed in India.

Sula’s production is encyclopedic: It makes more than 70 labels, from a pineapple-y sparkling rosé to an oaky chardonnay to a tannin-thick cabernet sauvignon that could pass for something out of Napa. Sula’s Nashik tasting room— billed as India’s first when it opened in 2005 — features a bar that can easily accommodate 100, a gift shop filled with kitschy T-shirts (think: “Partners in Wine”) and a theater that plays a short movie about Sula’s rise.

Since 2010 it’s also operated a vineyard resort, the Source, which looks like a cross between a Spanish hacienda and a Tuscan villa — albeit with an intricately painted elephant sculpture in the lobby. Suites look out onto vineyards of chenin blanc and groves of queen of the night, intoxicatingly redolent when they blossom after dark. Instead of mimosas at breakfast, there’s a “build your own chai” bar and an accompanying “chaiwala,” which is essentially a mixologist but for tea. The rates start at about $100 per night.

“My dad was born in Nashik,” says Samant of his connection to the land. While attending Stanford University in the 1980s, he visited Napa Valley. A decade later, his father showed him a parcel of land he was thinking of selling. “It reminded me of California,” Samant says of the area’s verdant rolling hills and dirt roads. “I said, ‘I don’t think you should sell this. I‘m going to try to do something here.’”

Now more than 350,000 visitors pass through the tasting room each year — as of April, more than 331,774 have come through in 2025 alone. “The notable spike reflects the growing popularity of wine tourism in India,” says Sula representative Kinjal Mehta, as well as the fact that the cooler months are the most popular time to visit Nashik.

While the majority of visitors are domestic, Sula says that the share of international visitors is growing. On a recent Thursday evening, the tasting room was packed with swillers of all stripes, from sari-clad grandmothers to polo-shirt-wearing bros broadcasting big bachelor party energy. A sign hung near the cellar door bears a believable, albeit unverifiable claim to fame: “More people taste their first wine here than any other place in the world.”

A caveat of selling wine experiences to a new-to-wine market, however, is that the 30-minute tastings feel very Wine 101. “Don’t drink it like a shot,” one employee admonishes during my visit, dispensing sparkling rosé into proffered glasses, then clarifying that it’s not in fact made from roses. Around a horseshoe-shaped bar, heads reverently nod. Afterward, many guests head to an on-site pizzeria bustling with parents and kids, washing down slices of paneer-topped pies with jammy zinfandel. Instagram opportunities abound.

A wild west for world-class wines

Sula is not the only game in town. About a half-hour drive from the Source is Vallonné, a humble winery producing some of the best wines in the region, owned and operated by Sanket Gawand. A Nashik native, Gawand cut his teeth at wineries in Bordeaux, France, and Bologna, Italy, before opening his own outfit. He also serves as Vallonné’s winemaker and runs its tastings, which take place in the cellar amid stainless steel tanks. He manages a team of 10 that harvests nine lakefront vineyards by hand. Vallonné’s viognier and Anokhee cabernet sauvignon stand up to their French inspirations more so than any other wines sampled in Nashik this fall — in my opinion — but Gawand admittedly lacks the public-relations prowess of more popular neighbors like Sula.

“We’re not good at marketing,” he says, with an amiable shrug.

Maybe he doesn’t need to be. The four rooms at Vallonné’s upstairs inn — quaint furnishings, vineyard views, priced at about $70 per night — are consistently booked, and its restaurant serves what might be the best food in the region. The all-day menu, which is also available to walk-in guests, includes succulent lamb kebabs and toothsome Hakka noodles made all the better with a glass of Vallonné’s crisp chenin blanc.

Diamonds in the rough such as Vallonné are best reached with the help of a local guide like Manoj Jagtap, a Nashik native who began conducting tours 10 years ago under the moniker “The Wine Friend.”

“I’ve got a group of eight Aussies coming tomorrow,” Jagtap tells his charges — me, my mother and a family friend — midway through a recent day trip that included Vallonné, Chandon and Grover Zampa. “During the winter harvest season, it’s nonstop.”

When to go

Fall and winter are prime time for the region, and the success of the past season signals that planning for next year will be more essential than ever. Since 2008, Sulafest, a wine and music festival akin to Coachella, has brought about 20,000 visitors to Nashik every February. Hotels drive up their rates; locals sell yard space to day trippers in need of parking. It’s the marquee event for Sula Vineyards and Nashik as a whole.

“There is potential for India to produce far, far better wines,” says Gawand, who believes that he and his peers are just getting started. “Many Indians are traveling abroad,” tasting quality wines and returning home with an elevated thirst. “Once consumers start understanding quality, the winemakers here will be forced to level up.”

A sip of Vallonné’s 2016 cabernet sauvignon — rich, smooth and redolent of sun-ripened red fruit — suggests that India’s winemakers are well on their way. To his competitors, Gawand raises the proverbial glass.

“We are a dense population,” he says. “Even if there are another 1,000 wineries, everyone will be well. There is more than enough business to go around.”

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Gas prices across the country haven't been this low over Memorial Day weekend since 2021, according to GasBuddy.

The current national average is $3.18 a gallon.

In Michigan, the average price for a gallon of regular is $3.21, according to AAA. That's down more than 40 cents from last year.

In Metro Detroit, a gallon of gas is costing about 47 cents less than last year at an average of $3.16.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Detroit police are investigating a violent incident that left one man dead and three others injured near Jayne Park on Detroit's east side.

The incident occurred just before 10:30 p.m. last night near Conant and East Davison streets, according to Detroit police.

Four male victims were involved in the violent encounter. Two men were shot, one fatally. Another man was stabbed, and a fourth man was struck by a vehicle.

Authorities have not yet identified the victims, and the conditions of the three surviving men remain unknown.

Detroit police are currently searching for those responsible, but have limited information about the incident.

Unfortunately, police don't have anybody in custody. And, they have very few answers about what caused this violent incident on the city's east side.

This is an ongoing investigation. Detroit police are asking anyone with information to call the Detroit Police 11th Precinct at 313-596-1140.

Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Someone was recently telling me about a vacation they took with their partner, and when they mentioned some moments of friction that came up, my mind immediately went to “Couples Therapy.” Everyone experiences conflict in life, even with those closest to you, and it can be tricky to work through that. But the show’s psychoanalyst Orna Guralnik is wonderfully perceptive when it comes to helping people talk about what’s really going on.

The unscripted series returns on Showtime for the second half of Season 4, which premiered last year. Featuring all new couples, it’s functionally a new season. (I’m unclear why Showtime makes this confusing distinction, but if I were to guess, it’s related to money and maybe results in a cheaper deal on the network’s end.)

Sometimes people just aren’t compatible. But in many cases, the bickering and fights in these relationships are about something deeper. Picking at one another endlessly or obsessing over something that doesn’t really matter is a way to fill the space between two people who are trying to make some kind of connection, Guralnik says. But it’s all noise and you’re “nowhere real.” The reason analysts might be able to help is that they are trained to “listen for that and to find a way to move from noise to signal.”

Four couples are featured. Rod and Alison have been married for nearly 20 years and they have a dynamic we’ve seen on the series before: She comes across as a harpy, whereas he is passive-aggressive and then retreats into himself. At one point, the energy feels so contentious that Guralnik stops to ask: Are you fighting right now? No, you’ll know when that happens, Alison tells her. To which Guralnik says: “I’m just curious about the tone.” Alison doesn’t deny it: “Oh, I have a tone.” I couldn’t help but laugh because Alison is brusque and abrasive — at least she’s self-aware! “This is how it’s always been,” she says of her marriage. “We have no patience for each other.”

Another couple, Boris and Jessica, have been together about half as long, but the tension between them is just as intense. They’ve recently relocated to New York City. She is thriving, but he hates everything about their new life, even though they’ve finally achieved some stability. “We are just aliens to each other,” he tells Guralnik.

(Boris is the novelist Boris Fishman, and this raises some questions about when the season was filmed; according to his Wikipedia page, in 2024 he began teaching at the University of Austin “where he lives with his wife and daughter.” Presumably they moved. Presumably they are still together. This is important, considering where they live is a primary source of discord between them.)

Kyle and Mondo have been together for six years. The former is deaf and immigrated to the U.S. from Poland as a child. Sometimes he feels smothered by his partner. At other times, because of his disability, he feels left out of things or prefers to spend time with his deaf friends. Kyle also wants an open relationship and Mondo is unenthusiastic about this, while also dealing with other issues, including grief for a mother who died from COVID. Despite their problems, they come across as the couple who seem to have most retained the feelings of affection that first drew them together.

Finally, there’s Nick and Katherine. “We’re on our own islands,” one of them says. “We take care of things, the bills are paid. But there isn’t love.” He’s still working through a difficult experience he had in college that he is initially reluctant to reveal. She has some lingering issues with disordered eating. Both avoid talking about the feelings of insecurity they feel individually, lest those emotions explode beyond their control.

I generally find “Couples Therapy” to be free of the usual gimmicks and tricks that are used to juice most reality TV. But at least one moment gave me pause. A couple is sniping at each other in the waiting area outside Guralnik’s office and she can hear them — or so we’re led to believe. Whether that’s actually the case or a trick of editing, I don’t know. We see Guralnik gently stroking her sweet dog Nico, an Alaskan Klee Kai who often accompanies her to work, and it’s almost as if she’s trying to calm herself before opening the door and inviting them in. But again, this was a rare moment when I questioned if there was some manipulation happening in how that moment is portrayed. Also, the female half of one couple consistently wears an assortment of sweatshirts that have sleeves covered in sequins. It’s a distinctive look, so much so that my cynical side wondered if she had a line of sweatshirts she was covertly promoting by wearing them to each and every session.

I’ve always wondered why people agree to bare their lives and messy relationships on the show. It’s a question that probably applies to all reality TV, but this one especially requires a vulnerability about one’s sexual behaviors, embarrassing flaws and personal history (and what can feel like shameful remnants of long-ago trauma) in ways that seem unique. The participants are not just revealing this to strangers who make up the bulk of the show’s viewership, but also, by default, to potentially gossipy friends, neighbors, colleagues and professional acquaintances. Even if your relationship is hanging on by a thread, this feels like a deterrent. Then again, there is no fee paid by the couples here. Guralnik typically charges $700 per session. And she’s really good. Maybe, if you’re feeling desperate enough — and also exhibitionist enough — it’s worth the tradeoff.

Whatever the factors compelling people to take part, I’m grateful they’re willing to let us see inside the most private moments of their relationships, because with Guralnik’s guidance, I always feel smarter and more compassionate about humans in general. The idea that conflict doesn’t have to be intractable is so profound as to be easily overlooked.

“I think it’s very frightening for people to have a raw, honest experience — in real time — with their partner,” Guralnik says, and as a result, “there are many ways people avoid real communication.”

“Couples Therapy” is a look at what it means to break down those walls and see what’s really behind them.

“Couples Therapy” — 4 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: 8 p.m. Fridays on Showtime (streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime)

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.

Ditalini, that petite tube-shaped pasta (sometimes referred to as “macaroni salad pasta”), is a welcome addition to simple soups. I like to team it with peas, onion, and celery. Diced pancetta comes to the party too, adding an appealing meaty flavor profile with a hint of sweetness. Fresh mint and parsley, added just before serving, add a delightful brightness to the mix.

Pasta and Pea Soup

Yield: 4 to 5 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

4 ounces diced pancetta

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 cups (32 ounces) chicken broth

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups ditalini

1 1/2 cups frozen peas

1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus extra for passing at the table

Optional: Hot sauce, such as Frank’s RedHot sauce, to taste; see cook’s notes

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons minced fresh mint

Cook’s notes: I like to add a few drops of Frank’s RedHot sauce to the mix. It provides both needed acidity and subtle heat. Add a few drops and taste the broth. Add more if needed.

DIRECTIONS

1. In a Dutch oven or large saucepan, heat oil on medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, pancetta, salt, and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened and pancetta is just starting to very slightly brown, about 6 to 8 minutes.

2. Add broth and water and bring to a boil on high heat. Add pasta, stir, and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently, stirring frequently, until pasta is al dente (tender but with a little bite), about 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in peas (you don’t have to thaw them). Stir in cheese. Remove from heat.  If using, stir in hot sauce such as Frank’s RedHot. Taste and add more salt and/or pepper if needed. Stir in parsley and mint.

3. Ladle into bowls and provide more cheese at the table for optional garnishing.

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at CathyThomasCooks.com.

Whether it's trying out new chords on the violin or learning new words at the counter, Bindi Ray knows practice is the key to her success.

"Well, I've always loved reading and words," she said. "First of all, whenever I say a word that I don't know, I look it up and make sure I know how to spell and the definition of it."

After joining her school spelling club, she went on to win her school bee and later the regional. It earned her a spot at the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee during its centennial celebration.

"I know it's the 100th year, so there's a lot of excitement around that because the Bee's been around so long," Ray said. "I feel like the Bee is important because it helps remind people that words, and learning in general, can be fun."

RELATED STORY | Buzz builds ahead of the 100th year for the Scripps National Spelling Bee

She will join more than 240 other students coming from all 50 states, several U.S. territories, and a half-dozen other nations.

Foreign countries are something speller Luke Noblezada is all about, with his hobby of collecting currencies from around the world.

"Here's some Indian money, Argentina, Guyana," he said, as he showed off several bills.

Much like Bindi, Luke also plays an instrument, having picked up playing the trumpet from his dad. His focus now, though, is preparing for the Bee by studying as many words as possible. It's a preparation that also takes him around the world.

"Each [word] has a different origin from French, some of them from Latin, from Greek," he said.

All of the spellers competing are now part of the century-long legacy of the Bee.

"It stays very true to the heart of what it's always been, which is a bunch of like-minded kids getting together, celebrating academic achievement and celebrating competition too," said Corrie Loeffler, the Bee's director. "That's what makes it fun."

Loeffler does more than just head the Bee she is also a former Bee participant.

RELATED STORY | It takes 'hard work': Scripps National Spelling Bee moderator talks winning

"It is really a great honor to be leading the Bee into its 100th anniversary, once in a lifetime, honestly, and something that I take very seriously, not just to celebrate everything that's come before, but also looking ahead to the future," she said.

It's a future they hope will keep the Bee going for another 100 years.

You can watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee during a live, two-night event, with the semifinals on May 28 and the finals on May 29. It all starts at 8 p.m. ET on Scripps News and over-the-air on our sister station, Ion Television.

By Alyssa Bereznak, Los Angeles Times

It was, of all things, a Reddit post that changed the trajectory of Casey Johnston’s life in 2013. Up until that point, her workouts and diet were informed by tips from magazines, radio and other media that promised she’d look good and stay fit if she watched her calories and kept up her cardio. But the post she stumbled upon, in which a woman shared results from her new weightlifting workout, seemed to contradict that advice.

“Here’s this person who’s doing everything the opposite of what I was doing,” Johnston said. “She wasn’t working out that much. She was eating a lot. Her workout seemed pretty simple and short and she was not trying to lose weight. But aesthetically, she looked smaller and more muscular. I though you could only make that change by working out more and more and by eating less.”

That was enough to plunge Johnston into an entire subculture of women who were trading the latest exercise trend for a barbell. When Johnston decided to follow in their path, she was not only surprised by how her body changed, but the mental shift that came along with it. That journey inspired her to create her long-running “She’s a Beast” newsletter, and more recently, a book.

“A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting,” (Hachette) charts Johnston’s transformation through weightlifting in captivating scientific and emotional detail, articulating the sneaky ways that gender can inform body image, and what women in particular can do to reclaim both their literal and figurative strength.

The Times spoke with Johnston, an L.A. resident, about how she braved the weightlifting gym as a beginner, her previous misconceptions about caloric intake and the way building muscle gave her the confidence to reshape other parts of her life.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Your book describes the journey you took to make your body stronger alongside your own mental evolution. Why was it important for you to tell both of those stories?

There’s so much more interplay between our bodies and our minds and our personal backgrounds than we afford it in our day-to-day life. As I was getting more into health, I realized that I hate the way we talk about it. It’s a lot of shoving it into corners. Like, Oh, it should be easy. Just eat less, or just take the stairs instead of the escalator. The more I thought about it, I was like, these are big forces in my life: How I’ve been made to think about food, or made to think about exercise.

Let’s say you maybe you don’t like your bank, but how often do you deal with your physical bank location? Not that much, twice a year for me, maybe. But stuff like eating breakfast, or you’re supposed to work out a few times a week. These are everyday things. It’s like a cabinet that you have to open every day, but it’s broken. It’s worth trying to understand it and have a good relationship with it, because it’s something that you’re doing all of the time. We’re so, so used to shutting it down.

Because of that, I spent a lot of time digging into my own personal background, being like: Why do I think about food the way that I do, or exercise? I think that there’s an important aspect of accountability there too. You have somebody who’s telling you it’s easy, like, Just do X, Y, Z. Well, it’s not easy for me. Why is it easy for you? Those are valuable questions that people don’t ask, or are discouraged from asking. And then when it’s not easy for them, they just feel guilty that it’s not easy, and then they blame themselves. We are all bringing different stuff to this, so to show somebody what I’m bringing to it will help, hopefully help them think about: What are they bringing to it?

Your book talks about the belief system that dictated your exercising and dieting habits. Where did it come from?

Magazines, for whatever reason, played such a big role in my conception of how bodies work. But also TV and infomercials and Oprah and even radio.

I mentioned in the book a SELF magazine cover. There was a whole study about disordered eating in there, how prevalent it was. It was all the way in the back of the magazine. The conclusions of it were something like, three quarters of women have some form of self-chiding that they’re doing about, you know, oh, I ate too much. Or, I need to lose weight, or I hate the way my stomach looks. And that study was not on the cover of the magazine. Everything on the cover was about how to lose weight, how to eat fruit to lose weight, 26 tricks to fit in your bikini. I don’t remember what it was exactly, but that was the conversation. Even with awareness of things going on under the surface, it was still this overwhelming amount of messaging about it.

It was, of all things, a Reddit post that challenged these ideas for you. What did your subsequent research reveal to you?

There were a lot of posts like that. It was not just her, it was this whole subculture. There’s this middle ground of people who have this relationship with lifting weights that’s more normal than I thought it could ever be. I was used to people lifting weights who need to be extremely strong or extremely huge and muscular, because they’re bodybuilders. I had not really heard of anyone lifting weights if they weren’t trying to be one or both of those things. So I didn’t know that this was an available modality to me.

What are some misconceptions that you were harboring about muscles and caloric intake?

I had not been aware that by eating too little, you can deplete your muscle mass. Muscle mass is like the main driver of our metabolism. So the less muscle mass you have, the more you destroy through dieting. The lower your metabolism is, the harder it is to lose weight. Also, the longer you’ve been dieting, the lower your metabolism is going to be. So it becomes this vicious cycle of the more you diet, the harder it is to diet, and the less results — as they would say — you’re going to have.

I was like, O kay, that’s really bad. But you can also work that process in reverse. You can eat more and lift weights and build back your muscle, restore your metabolism. So I had been asking myself, W hy does it feel like I have to eat less and less in order to stay the same way? Am I just really bad at this? Am I eating more than I thought? And it was like, No, I’m not. I’m neither bad at this nor imagining it. It’s literally how things work.

It was very gratifying to find out, but then also a relief that I could undo what I had done. And the way to do it was by lifting and by eating more protein.

Muscles are protein, basically. So by lifting weights, you cause damage to your muscles. And after you’re done working out, your body goes in and repairs them with all the calories and protein that you eat, and repairs them a little bit better than they were the next time. And you could just do this every time you work out. That same cycle repeats. Your muscles grow back. You get stronger and you feel better.

People are really intimidated by gyms. Even more so when it comes to weightlifting in them. You pinpoint this feeling in your book when you describe the moment you realize you would have to “face the bros.” How were you able to overcome your fears in that department?

I wanted so much to see if this worked and how it worked, that I was able to get to the point of OK, I’m gonna give this a try and accept that I might be accosted in an uncomfortable way, or not know what I’m doing, and I will figure it out at some point. I was definitely very scared to go into [a weightlifting] gym, because it felt like the worst thing in the world to be in someone’s way, or be using the equipment wrong, or to be perceived at all.

But I was buoyed along by wanting to give all of this a chance, and I knew that I couldn’t give it a chance if I didn’t get in there. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t get in there and immediately was like, Oh, I’m too afraid to use the spot racks. There was an on-ramp.

But what I tell people now in my capacity as an advice-giver is you have to give yourself that space to get used to something. It’s like starting a new school or starting a new job. You don’t know where the pens are. You have to give yourself a few days to figure it out.

You’ve written so much in your newsletter about functional fitness and compound movements. Why is that so much more valuable than machine lifting?

Machines are designed to work usually a limited amount of muscles, or even one muscle at a time. And they do that by stabilizing the weight for you in this machine. You’re moving on a gliding track for almost everything you could do. When we are handling weights, loads of things, like a child, groceries, boxes of cat litter, bags of dog food, I hear often you’re not doing it on like a pneumatic hydraulic. Your body is wiggling all over the place if you’re not strong. So learning to stabilize your body against a weight is sort of an invisible part of the whole task. But that’s what a free weight allows you to learn: to both hold a heavy weight and move in a particular direction with it, like squat, up and down with it, but at the same time, your body is doing all this less visible work of keeping you upright, keeping you from falling over. And your body can’t learn that when a thing is like holding the weight in position for you while you just move it in this one very specific dimension.

One of the uniting themes of your book is this idea of fighting against your body versus trusting it. Would it be safe to say that you began your fitness journey in the former and landed in the latter?

I definitely started off fighting my body. I just thought that’s what you do with your body. All of the messaging we get, it’s like deep in our American culture, this Protestant denial of your physical self and hard work. If it’s not hard, you’re not doing it right. And I did make a transition from it being hard to listening to my body, trusting it. Just by learning that there was this different dynamic between food, working out and myself that I wasn’t aware of for most of my life.

And once I got into lifting, I learned that all of these things can work better together. But an integral part of it was: You can’t get into lifting without [asking], That rep that I just did — how did that feel? Was it too hard? Was it too easy? Was the weight too high? Is my form weird? I ate a little more yesterday … do I feel better in the gym?

Running had been about pushing down feelings in the way that I was accustomed to from my personal life. You’re pushing through, you’re feeling pain, but trying to ignore it and go faster and faster. It was a lot of like, You got to unplug and disconnect.

So lifting, the dynamic of lifting through asking how do things feel, refracted into the rest of my life. How does it feel when somebody doesn’t listen to you at work? Or your boyfriend argues with you at a party? Lifting opened me up to this question in general, of how things made me feel.

A lot of us are used to thinking of ourselves as your brain is this and your body is that. You are your brain and all of the horrible parts that are annoying and betray you are your body. But there’s so much interplay there. It’s like your body is the vector that tells you, and when you learn to ignore it, you don’t learn to really meaningfully understand your own feelings. I had learned in my life to ignore those signals. When lifting built up my sense of: How does my body feel when it does certain things? It opened up my awareness of the experience of: How does my body feel when bad things or good things happen in the rest of my life?

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©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Ariana Arghandewal, Bankrate.com

Credit cards are widely accepted in most parts of the world, which is great for those who want to maximize rewards on their trips abroad. Not only do many cards offer generous rewards on travel spending, but they also provide convenience and an added layer of protection in case your trip doesn’t go as planned.

Using a credit card is better than using cash in most cases. However, you may still encounter issues when attempting to use your credit card abroad, so make sure to plan accordingly.

Can I use my credit card abroad?

In most cases, yes! The country you’re visiting may have different banks, but many of the payment networks common in the U.S. are widely accepted around the globe. Some credit cards, most commonly travel credit cards, even have no foreign transaction fees and earn rewards on specific purchases worldwide, such as restaurants. This helps you save money and earn more in rewards when you travel.

However, it’s important to know that while your card can be used abroad, it doesn’t mean it will always work. If your card is worn down or tends to be a little faulty at home, it can be just as finicky outside the country. Or if your credit card issuer is unaware that you’re traveling, they may assume your identity is stolen and decline your purchases. Some payment networks are also less common abroad. Luckily, there are workarounds to a few of the most common issues you may come across.

Bankrate tip

See Bankrate’s Travel Toolkit for tips and insights to boost your savings and maximize your travel.

How to make sure your credit card works abroad

A handful of factors may prevent your credit card from working overseas. Most of them have simple solutions and require just a bit of advance planning.

—Use a widely accepted issuer. Visa and Mastercard are the most widely accepted credit card payment networks worldwide. While American Express and Discover can come in handy in many situations, you may want to bring a backup Visa or Mastercard while traveling abroad, just in case.

—Use chip and PIN cards or a digital wallet. In many countries around the world, chip and personal identification number (PIN) cards are the norm. These cards use a microchip and PIN to validate transactions, instead of a cardholder’s signature. Rather than swiping the magnetic stripe through the card reader, consumers insert the card into the machine and enter the PIN associated with the chip. If you have a card with a chip in your wallet, set a PIN so you don’t run into trouble using it abroad.

Digital wallets are also becoming the norm for storing credit cards, debit cards, and even boarding passes for your flight. They often lead to faster, more secured payments with a lower risk of being lost or stolen. So, it may be beneficial to set one up and add your card. This way, you can keep the physical card tucked away as a backup.

—Notify your bank of your travel plans. If you’ve booked any part of your trip on your credit card, notifying your bank isn’t usually required. If you did not use your credit card for any bookings, then providing advance notice of your travel plans reduces the odds of your bank declining your transactions abroad. Knowing that you’ll be in Paris for a week, your bank is less likely to reject your purchases at patisseries. They’ll know your credit card isn’t compromised — you’re just being a tourist.

Is it worthwhile to use a credit card abroad?

Yes, using your credit card abroad provides security and convenience that cash does not. You’ll potentially earn rewards on every purchase, which you can save and redeem toward future travel experiences. The items you buy may also be covered by purchase protection, giving you extra peace of mind. More importantly, you won’t have to carry large amounts of cash and worry about the security risk it poses.

While you should bring some cash for smaller purchases or in a city where it’s the main form of payment accepted, a credit card provides stronger protection and other added benefits.

Are there fees for using a credit card abroad?

You’ll encounter two types of fees when using a credit card abroad — foreign transaction fees and merchant fees. Foreign transaction fees are around 3% and can be avoided since many travel rewards cards waive them.

Merchant fees can include surcharges or convenience fees for using your card. These fees help to offset the merchant’s processing costs and can vary from 3% to 8%. These fees help offset the costs of the added protection you receive from a credit card.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much consumers can do about these fees. You can either pay the fee, use cash or shop somewhere else to get around them. Still, there is a small way to save some money when using your card.

If a merchant asks whether you want to pay in U.S. dollars or the local currency, always opt for the local currency. Your credit card issuer is likely to give you a much better conversion rate than the local business owner will.

Also, always opt out of dynamic currency conversion, which allows cardholders to handle transactions in their home currency when shopping or taking money from an ATM. While you may be able to know the actual price of your purchase, the additional fee often makes the purchase higher than it would be otherwise.

The bottom line

What you pack in your wallet matters as much as what you put in your carry-on when you travel abroad. You’ll want to bring one or more credit cards with a widely accepted payment network. Even better, bring one that offers purchase and travel protection, generous rewards and travel perks. You may encounter a few issues when using a credit card to pay for purchases, but there are workarounds. By following safe use practices, you won’t have to carry large sums of cash or worry about your transactions getting declined.

©2025 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will delay implementation of a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union from June 1 until July 9 to buy time for negotiations with the bloc.

That agreement came after a call Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who had told Trump that she “wants to get down to serious negotiations,” according to the U.S. president’s retelling.

“I told anybody that would listen, they have to do that,” Trump told reporters on Sunday in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to return to Washington. Von der Leyen, Trump said, vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.”

In a social media post Friday, Trump had threatened to impose the 50% tariff on EU goods, complaining that the 27-member bloc had been “very difficult to deal with” on trade and that negotiations were “going nowhere.” Those tariffs would have kicked in starting June 1.

But the call with von der Leyen appeared to smooth over tensions, at least for now.

“I agreed to the extension — July 9, 2025 — It was my privilege to do so,” Trump said on Truth Social shortly after he spoke with reporters on Sunday evening.

For her part, von der Leyen said the EU and the U.S. “share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship.”

“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” she said. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”

By SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday indicated there was progress with Iran on its nuclear program and hinted that an announcement could come in the “next two days.”

He was notably more upbeat than the Omani mediator of the talks between the United States and Iran, who said Friday that the two nations made “some but not conclusive” progress in the fifth round of negotiations in Rome.

“We’ve had some very, very good talks with Iran,” Trump told reporters in northern New Jersey after leaving his golf club, where he spent most of the weekend. “And I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good.”

He emphasized that “we’ve had some real progress, serious progress” in talks that took place on Saturday and Sunday.

“Let’s see what happens, but I think we could have some good news on the Iran front,” Trump said.

Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, represented the U.S. at the talks at the Omani Embassy in Rome.

The two countries are discussing how to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting some economic sanctions that the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic.

Phil Robertson, who starred in the hit A&E show "Duck Dynasty," died at age 79, several family members confirmed on social media.

Robertson's daughter-in-law, Korie Robertson, shared the news on her Facebook page on Sunday.

"Thank you for the love and prayers of so many whose lives have been impacted by his life saved by grace, his bold faith, and by his desire to tell everyone who would listen the Good News of Jesus. We are grateful for his life on earth and will continue the legacy of love for God and love for others until we see him again," she said.

Korie Robertson added that in addition to a private ceremony, there would be a public celebration of his life.

Robertson's son Jase recently revealed that his father was not doing well after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Jase Robertson also wrote about his father's death on social media.

"My dad has gone to be with the Lord today! He will be missed, but we know he is in good hands, and our family is good because God is very good! We will see him again!" he wrote.

"Duck Dynasty" followed the Robertson family and their family-owned business, Duck Commander, which makes products for duck hunters. The show ran from 2013 to 2018 and was, at the time, one of the most popular unscripted television shows on cable.

The Abigail’s Pride LGBTQ+ festival returns to Brandon Township park this year with more activities to bring people together.

This year’s festival will be Saturday, June 7, from 4 to 8 p.m.

Last year, the Ortonville village council voted 4-2 against approving an event permit for the annual festival.

Soon after Abigail Rowe, founder of Abigail’s Pride and co-organizer of the festival, met with Brandon Township Supervisor Jayson Rumball and received approval to move the event to the township’s 12-acre park where there was more room for activities.

“Knowing where we are going to be and how to put things together has made it much simpler,” said Rowe. “I think that we have found a good place to settle so that we can continue to have the festival and continue to do this event.”

In Rowe’s eyes, the shift to the park changed the tenor of the festival from past years.

“The inclusiveness and the openness felt more like other pride festivals that I have been to. It felt safer and more comfortable at the park,” she said. “But it still maintained that more family-friendly, family-oriented aspect that we strive for with Abigail’s Pride.”

During last year’s event, Oakland County Parks brought out three bounce houses, Michigan Entertainment and Talent Company had several interactive stations and children were flying kites all around the park.

As with last year, Rowe said they will have around 50 vendors, non-profit booths and sponsor displays, three food trucks and an ice cream truck set up throughout the four hour festival. This year they will also add a live DJ for the event.

She said the process of organizing the event has become more streamlined and knowing they have a permanent venue has made life easier for her and her team.

“The team has been great and I have been able to help with the festival, but still lead a normal life as a college student knowing what we have in place now,” said Rowe,who just completed her freshman at Saginaw Valley State University. “Things have come together very well again this year and I hope it will stay like this for years to come.”

For more information go to the Abigail’s Pride facebook page or https://abigailspride.godaddysites.com.

Sixteen years ago, Rochester Hills’ deer cull was over almost as soon as it began.

That’s according to opponents, who are now trying to stop three other Oakland County cities that are planning culls, and to Matt Einheuser, Rochester Hills’ natural resources manager. The cull occurred before Einheuser worked for the city, but he has researched its effects on the deer population.

A cull is an organized hunt on designated land by trained sharpshooters intended to reduce the number of deer in an area where experts say they are overpopulated.

The Rochester Hills hunt, held in winter 2009, drew hundreds of protesters to City Council meetings. Some protesters even showed up at sites where the hunt was being held. Opponents filed a lawsuit to try to stop it. Opposition grew after photos circulated on social media of blood trails in the snow, allegedly left by a deer that was shot but didn’t die immediately.

“It was horrible. I can’t even listen to it anymore – so disgusting,” said Monique Balaban of Rochester Hills, who opposed the cull in that city and is now active in the Advocates for Michigan Wildlife Coalition. The group is considering several avenues – including lawsuits – to try to stop Farmington Hills, Farmington and Southfield from holding culls next year.

The Rochester Hills cull, which employed sharpshooters from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, only killed 16 deer before the city halted it, Einheuser said. Culls in other areas of Michigan have thinned the deer population by as few as 50 animals or as many as several hundred.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources generally recommends that a cull should reduce the deer population by 35-40% per year for several years. The DNR recently estimated the deer population in the Farmington Hills area at about 1,500 animals.

Vehicle-deer crashes – one of the main reasons that cities plan culls – have dropped dramatically in Rochester Hills in recent years. But Einheuser said the cull is probably not responsible for the decrease.

The city recorded 153 vehicle-deer collisions in 2020. In 2021-2024, the frequency ranged between 102-123.

After the cull, the city formed a deer management committee, which recommended several nonlethal means of controlling the effects of deer co-existing with humans.

These included placing flashing signs that warn motorists of deer crossings in areas with the most vehicle-deer collisions.

The flashing signs are more effective than older “deer crossing” signs seen in many municipalities, he said.

“Those kind of get lost in the background. Drivers don’t really pay attention to them,” he said.

The city also works with local nurseries to educate residents about landscaping that is more deer-resistant, Einheuser said.

Einheuser said experts believe the deer population in Rochester Hills shrank because of an epidemic of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, which broke out shortly after the cull.

No population estimates are available for Rochester Hills, currently or at the time of the cull, but Einheuser said researchers believe the deer herd is just now beginning to recover from EHD.

The disease, which is often fatal, is transmitted by small flying insects called midges, known in the Midwest as “no-see-ums.”

The Huron-Clinton Metroparks have also conducted calls almost every year since 1999, according to a report in Hometown Life.

Annual aerial surveys determined the need for culls in order to keep herds healthy. Third-party wildlife biologists studied the deer populations in the parks and concluded that “data indicates herd stress due to lack of nutrition.”

None of the 13 metroparks in southeast Michigan hosted culls last year, only the fourth time since the program began more than 25 years ago.

“Population estimates currently do not reach the density threshold for management action in 2024, so no culls were, or will be, performed in any Metroparks,” Danielle Mauter, chief of marketing and communications for the Metroparks, said last year.

DNR officials believe that could be a sign that the culls worked, the story said.

Michelle Dimaria of West Bloomfield Township, also active in Advocates for Michigan Wildlife Coalition, disagrees.

“To me, anything that you have to repeat for 25 years doesn’t work,” she said.

Metroparks officials could not be reached for comment on whether the culls were held this year.

Two of the 13 parks – Kensington in Milford Township and Indian Springs in White Lake Township – are in Oakland County.

In 2021, the cull was canceled at Kensington after authorities say a Royal Oak man threatened by phone to shoot the officers taking part in it. Authorities deemed the threat credible. The man was charged with malicious use of a telecommunications device, a misdemeanor.

UPCOMING CULLS

The city councils in Farmington Hills and Southfield recently voted to contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct culls next year. Farmington Hills also expects to add a bow hunt in 2027 that will be conducted by public safety officers.

The Farmington City Council voted to contract with Farmington Hills to manage the cull.

Culls are expected to cost $20,000 each for Farmington Hills and Southfield. Farmington is a smaller city and the cost is expected to be lower, but no estimate was released.

Officials in all three cities said they have looked at nonlethal means of deer population control for years. Farmington Hills, for example, enacted a ban on feeding deer in 2017. While the city did not issue any citations, ordinance officers gave a number of residents a warning.

Residents in all three cities have asked officials to address deer overpopulation for years, complaining of seeing as many as 20 deer in their yards and having landscaping decimated.

Farmington Hills and Southfield officials say the number of car-deer crashes continues to rise. Along with vehicle repair costs for motorists and the risk of the loss of human life, car-deer crashes create costs for municipalities, which often pay for the disposal of the large animal carcasses. If the animal dies on private property, the homeowner sometimes has to pay the disposal cost.

DNR officials also say the deer population in southeast Michigan is reaching a point where it may become unhealthy for the animals.

Farmington Hills and Southfield officials say all venison from culls will be donated to food banks.

The culls will not be announced. Southfield Mayor Ken Siver said the city wants to keep protesters from showing up.

Local police will be on hand to keep protesters or bystanders from entering parks and other large pieces of property where culls are underway.

Culls will be conducted over two to five nights, with sharpshooters in trees using thermal imaging equipment to locate deer.

Opponents say that despite the precautions, they still fear for the safety of nearby residents and pets, or even those who are out for a nighttime walk.

They remain unconvinced that all nonlethal methods of limiting car-deer crashes and controlling deer population have been explored. They say the DNR promotes culls as the only solution.

“There is so much bad and missing data,” Dimaria said.

Farmington, Southfield approve deer culls; following Farmington Hills’ lead

Farmington Hills council OKs deer cull

First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Rochester is hosting a concert by a local mountain dulcimer group, the River Strings of St. Clair County.

The 7 p.m. Friday, May 30 concert will take place at the church, 1315 N. Pine Street, Rochester.

The event is free, but donations will be collected during intermission and after the concert to support the church’s music program.

The River Strings of St. Clair County group was established in 2007 in Algonac. Initially formed as a mountain dulcimer group, members soon began to add other instruments such as guitar, banjo and fiddles, and now perform with a variety of instruments including penny whistle, conga drum, ukulele, wooden spoons, washboard, harmonica and marimbula, an African bass thumb drum. The group enjoys performing various genres of music including folk, gospel, pop, rock, Celtic, calypso, Cajun, Tin Pan Alley, rags, waltzes and classical.

“We’re thrilled to have the River Strings of St. Clair County back again,” the Rev. Scott Cunningham said. “Their concerts are joyful and fun for all ages.”

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will delay implementation of a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union from June 1 until July 9 to buy time for negotiations with the bloc.

That agreement came after a call Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who had told Trump that she wants to get down to serious negotiations, according to the U.S. presidents retelling.

RELATED STORY | Trump threatens 25% tariff on Apple iPhones, 50% import tax on European Union

I told anybody that would listen, they have to do that, Trump told reporters on Sunday in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to return to Washington. Von der Leyen, Trump said, vowed to rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.

In a social media post Friday, Trump had threatened to impose the 50% tariff on EU goods, complaining that the 27-member bloc had been very difficult to deal with on trade and that negotiations were going nowhere. Those tariffs would have kicked in starting June 1.

But the call with von der Leyen appeared to smooth over tensions, at least for now.

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I agreed to the extension July 9, 2025 It was my privilege to do so, Trump said on Truth Social shortly after he spoke with reporters on Sunday evening.

For her part, von der Leyen said the EU and the U.S. share the worlds most consequential and close trade relationship.

Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively, she said. To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Palou has become the first driver from Spain to win the Indianapolis 500 by holding off former Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson over the closing laps Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Palou, who has won three IndyCar titles in four years — including the last two, came to the speedway with four wins through the first five races this season. But it was No. 6, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” that he had circled on his calendar.

Without an Indy 500 win, Palou said his career resume would never be complete.

Palou stopped the car just beyond the Yard of Bricks, climbing out of it and nearly losing his balance as he raised his arms in triumph. He jumped down and took off in a run down the front stretch, pulling off his gloves and tossing them behind him, and ultimately was engulfed by his father, Ramon, and his Chip Ganassi Racing team in a jubilant celebration.

Scott Dixon gave him a big hug, so did Dario Franchitti, with both Ganassi Indy 500 winners welcoming Palou into the exclusive club.

“I cannot believe it. What an amazing day. What an amazing race,” Palou said. “I cannot believe it. It was tough. Tough conditions out there, especially if you were like, third or fourth in the pack. Even leading, the fuel consumption was super high, so they didn’t want me to lead. I wanted to lead, honestly, so yeah, made it happen.”

Meanwhile, Ericsson climbed from his car and pressed his hands to his face at the disappointment of coming oh-so close to a second Indianapolis 500 victory.

Ericsson, the 2022 Indy 500 winner, finished second for Andretti Global in a 1-2 finish for Honda. David Malukas was third for A.J. Foyt Racing and the highest-finishing Chevrolet.

Josef Newgarden’s bid to win three consecutive Indy 500s ended with a fuel pump issue. He was trying to become the first driver to come from the back row to win because he and Team Penske teammate Will Power were dropped to the back of the field for failing inspection before qualifying.

Power wound up 19th, the highest-finishing Penske driver on a miserable day for the organization owned by Roger Penske. He earlier this week fired his top three IndyCar executives for a second technical infraction in just over a year, and has had to defend the optics of his teams failing inspections when he also owns IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy500.

Penske has won the Indy 500 a record 20 times.

It was Indy 500 win number six for Ganassi, who has been on a dominating wave since hiring Palou ahead of the 2021 season. Palou then won the championship that year, has added two more titles and now seems on pace for a fourth one.

“The guy is just unbelievable — I don’t know what else to say,” Ganassi said. “It is an incredible thing — it’s going to make Alex Palou’s career, it is going to make his life, and it has certainly made mine.”

Palou started the race tied with Pato O’Ward as the co-favorites, listed at +500 by BetMGM. O’Ward finished fourth — the fifth time in six career starts the Mexican has finished sixth or higher.

Kyle Larson won’t complete “the double” after crashing out of the Indianapolis 500 before he headed to North Carolina to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race.

DETROIT – What a comfort it must be, what a gift, for manager AJ Hinch to be able send Tarik Skubal to the mound every five days or so.

All the angst and frustration of three straight galling home losses to the Central Division rival Cleveland Guardians seemed to dissipate the minute No. 29 ran onto the field Sunday morning.

(Yes, morning. Game time was 11:30 a.m. to accommodate Roku.)

Skubal, the reigning American League Cy Young winner, struck out 13 and pitched his first career complete game, and the Tigers salvaged the finale of the series with a 5-0 win over the Guardians, before a crowd of 37,031 at Comerica Park.

The Guardians managed just two hits and Skubal’s 13 strikeouts matched his career high.

It was a masterful 94-pitch performance, reminiscent of his seven-inning gem against Texas on May 9. Like he did that day, Skubal set down the first 15 batters before giving up a lead-off hit in the sixth.

Josh Smith got him in the Texas game. It was third baseman Will Wilson who broke it up Sunday, driving a 97-mph sinker into the right-center gap for a double.

It was evident Skubal right out of the gate that Skubal had his A-stuff. He blew through the Guardians lineup in 25 pitches. He had a seven-pitch second inning and an eight-pitch third. The Guardians tried to bunt their way on — fail. They tried to attack early in counts — fail. They tried to sit on his off-speed pitches — fail.

They had no answer for him on this day.

He mixed the changeup off electric four-seam fastballs (97.9 mph average velocity) and sinkers (97.7 mph). His 71st and 72nd pitches were clocked at 100 and 101.7 mph. In the eighth inning he was throwing 90-mph changeups and 92-mph sliders.

Going into the ninth, he had 21 whiffs on 52 swings.

The Tigers offense all came in one big chunk.

After leaving the bases loaded in the second and stranding two more in the third, they batted around and chased lefty starter Logan Allen with a five-run fourth.

It was Zach McKinstry who broke the seal. He drove a 3-2 sweeper into the left-field seats, a two-run homer. Of his 28 career homers, that was just the second off a lefty.

It had a liberating effect on the Tigers’ hitters. Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres doubled. Andy Ibanez had an RBI single. He went to second on a throw to the plate and then aggressively scored on a throwing error by Allen on a tapper hit by Riley Greene.

Torres’ double marked the eighth straight time he reached base in the series.

The Melvindale community is coming together to support their police chief as he fights cancer, hosting fundraisers and showing the strength of their tight-knit city.

Watch Faraz's story in the video player below: Melvindale community rallies behind police chief battling cancer

Chief Robert Kennaley, a law enforcement veteran of 20 years who took charge just over a year ago, began his battle with cancer at the start of 2025.

"The main reason we are here today is to support our Chief," said Lisa Boruki, who attended the Melvindale Police Department's fundraiser.

Corporal Mohammed Hacham describes Kennaley as a generous leader with a big heart.

"Everybody walking in today is talking about him like he handed them a gift card, or he gave a kid an ice cream," Hacham said.

Mayor Nicole Shkira emphasized that Kennaley's impact extends beyond his official duties.

"Kennaley is my right hand. This is a partnership. We went in this together. So I need to be strong and get through this. So Kennaley Strong, that's what we are," Shkira said.

The U.S. Navy veteran's cancer diagnosis came after doctors performed multiple biopsies.

"They did a triple biopsy. Cause he had some on his tongue, his tonsil gland, and three on lymph nodes," said Lorie Kennaley, the chief's wife.

"It hit us both like a bomb in our stomachs," she said.

This July will mark 20 years of marriage for Lorie and Chief Kennaley.

"I've never seen him like that before. You know, anytime you hear cancer, it's very scary and unknown," Lorie said.

Chief Kennaley has completed 35 radiation sessions to date, a difficult treatment process that has taken a physical toll.

"They can't tell you 100 percent that he will be cured. The doctors told us that this is the hardest part, because the chemo and radiation continue to work. And it attacks your good cells, your immune system. His throat is really sore. The radiation causes big sores in your throat, so he can't really swallow. He hasn't eaten in a month," Lorie said.

Despite these challenges, Kennaley recently hit a major milestone when he rang the bell marking the completion of his treatment.

"I really got emotional and then the people that came down and wanted to be there ... they only allowed seven, but there's a lot of people that want to be there," Lorie said.

The community's response reflects the impact Chief Kennaley has had on those around him.

"Well let me tell you, he's always put others first. I've had so many people reach out to me and tell me the good things he's done for them to get them where they're at, so it's that Bible verse, you know, you reap what you sow," Lorie said.

For Corporal Hacham, the chief has become a father figure.

"For me, he's a father. I lost my dad, and this was the next step in my life is becoming a police officer, and he was the next person that came into my life and actually showed me he cares about me," Hacham said.

"One of the most decent human beings, and we want him to know how much we love and support him," Boruki said.

While the community sees him as their chief, Lorie sees the same strong, loving man she married.

"He's a leader. I mean, you can ask my kids, family, anybody in the department, anybody in the city. If you found anybody upset with him, I'd be surprised. He's just a good guy," she said.

As the Kennaleys look forward to the day when the chief is in remission, they're also planning to renew their vows next month.

"Our vows will be to continue to support and love each other, through sickness and in health. And no matter what, we're gonna take care of each other's backs and support not just us but everybody around us, and I would say thank you for all the wonderful years and all the wonderful years ahead of us, and I love you so much," Chief Kennaley said.

Those wishing to support Chief Kennaley can find his GoFundMe information here.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.