Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine echoed what coach Matt LaFleur recently said about rookie Rashan Gary, praising the motor and effort level of the Packers' first-round pick. Pettine appreciates a young player who puts in the work, both in terms of an individual desire to be great and the effort made between the lines and from whistle to whistle. "He's been solid. You can tell football is really important to him. He wants to be great. He's soaking it up," Pettine said Monday . "The one thing you love about him is his effort. Sometimes we have to slow him down in the walkthrough. He's got a great motor, which is great from a coaching standpoint. We want to coach you how to play, not how hard to play. The effort is there every play." Although Gary still needs to learn the entirety of the scheme and improve the technical side of his game, Pettine sees big things in his future once it all comes together. "Once he gets the assignment stuff down and the technique stuff down, now you apply the effort to it, he's going to make a lot of plays," Pettine said. The Packers have been playing Gary, the 12th overall pick, at a variety of positions, including outside linebacker and interior pass-rusher. He's been impressive, especially from an athletic standpoint, during the early portions of camp. LaFleur specifically pointed out Gary's motor when asked about the rookie after the Packers' first padded practice Sunday. "It is early, so we'll see once we get to the game action, but he's done a lot of nice things," LaFleur said after Sunday's practice . "The one thing I've really liked that he's shown is the effort he plays with. The way we define that is if you see a change of speed, a burst, then to max speed and then to the finish. He's had some good clips to show to the team." Jul 25, 2019; Green Bay, WI, USA; Green Bay Packer tight end Robert Tonyan (85) works during training camp at Ray Nitschke Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports Tonyan improving: Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett sees improvement from tight end Robert Tonyan to start his second season, specifically as a blocker in the run game. Getting better in the run-blocking aspect of playing the tight end position could help make Tonyan a dual-threat player in the offense. "Tonyan's done a really nice job. He's always been pretty good in the pass game. One thing that coach (Justin) Outten has done a great job with him, and they've worked great together, is learning and embracing the run game," Hackett said. "When you have a guy that's a pass threat down the field and he has the ability to run block, that stock really helps that guy. I think that's something that Bobby's done a nice job with, and he's going to continue to get better." During the first four days of practice, Tonyan has received plenty of snaps with the first-team offense, often as the second tight end behind Jimmy Graham. He's positioning himself to have a legitimate role in LaFleur's offense to start the 2019 season. Convenient neighbors: Special teams coordinator Shawn Mennenga said punter JK Scott and long snapper Hunter Bradley actually live next together in a shared duplex, providing extra opportunities for the two to practice the snap operations. Mennenga can see improvement in Bradley, the second-year snapper. "He's been much improved from last season and through the camp," Mennenga said. "He's trending up and I think he'll continue to do that." MORE: Trevor Bauer angrily fired a baseball over the centerfield wall before being pulled from game Tom Brady disobeys Bill Belichick at practice, and suffers the consequences Most improved Packers defender? Mike Pettine picks DL Montravius Adams Browns Are Foolishly Changing Their Great Uniforms in 2020 Report: Steelers likely to be looking for new naming rights partner for Heinz Field


The Peoria Unified School District got the keys to the Arizona Challenger Space Center's old home a year and a half ago and hasn't put it to use, but recently approved plans will bring new life and a new name to the building next year. The school board in late May approved $1.6 million in renovations that will transform the building into the Sunrise Mountain Arts Center and move arts classes there. That will in turn free up seven classrooms in the adjacent Sunrise Mountain High School, near 83rd Avenue and Lake Pleasant Parkway. It will cost an additional $383,000 to repurpose the high school's old art classrooms into regular classrooms. The moves will provide space for another 210 students on the main campus, which is at capacity, Chief Operations Officer John Croteau told board members. Sunrise Mountain High School, in Peoria's growing north side , ended the 2018-2019 school year with 1,906 students and is projected to hit 2,053 in the 2019-2020 school year. It had 1,871 students in the 2017-2018 school year, according to numbers from the Arizona Department of Education. "We need to use that building," Croteau said at the school board meeting. "We need to address some of the (overcrowding) issues in the north." Meanwhile, the Challenger Space Center that once occupied the space is fundraising to reopen in north Phoenix. Acclaimed mural will remain The district's arts center is expected to open in August 2020. The massive building has a unique, circular shape and a 2,300-square-foot rotunda with a towering mural spanning four stories. The 28,000-square-foot space center opened in 2000 as one of dozens of Challenger Centers developed around the world after the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster that killed five astronauts and two others, including teacher Christa McAuliffe. The idea was to inspire young people about science and space exploration. The building's 360-degree mural illustrating the Big Bang and space exploration, by the late NASA artist and movie illustrator Robert McCall, will remain. Old plans for space fell through The school district acquired the building in a land swap in 2017 as the Arizona Challenger Space Center was long beleaguered by financial troubles. At the time, the district's MET Professional Academy, which gives high school students college credit and working experience in medicine, engineering and technology, was supposed to move into the building. The move would have created extra space in Old Main, which houses MET and the district's Flex Academy, by bringing about 75 MET students to the renovated facility. For more stories that matter, subscribe to azcentral.com . However, the school board tabled those plans last spring after a report found the move would cost $1.5 million   more than board members expected. The district's new plans cost more than that, but school board members said it meets a pressing need for crowded Sunrise Mountain. Challenger center finds new home The Arizona Challenger Space Center temporarily found a home at Phoenix's Metrocenter Mall . In November, it moved to Paradise Valley Unified School District's old Foothills Elementary School building off 44th Street, just south of Union Hills Drive. The center is raising funds and has not yet reopened. The center had raised $250,000, but needs $250,000 more for exhibits and to make the facility ADA compliant, Executive Director Beverly Swayman said. Donations can be made at azchallenger.org/donate.html . The center is on a renewable two-year lease with the Paradise Valley school district and doesn't have an opening date scheduled yet. It won't have one until officials finish retrofitting the building and reassembling the space mission simulator, Swayman said. Why the hold up? Moving artifacts is one thing, but it turns out moving a space mission simulator is more difficult. "You can imagine how many technical components go into that and fitting it in a different-sized space," Swayman said. The space center is leasing the building at $1 a year and will partner with the school district to provide students STEM-oriented workshops, tours and classes. "There's a fourth industrial revolution and we need to make sure we're training students for that," Swayman said. "We need to adapt." The museum will have all the same exhibits and flight simulator from its Peoria location, plus new community events, including family stargazing nights, open to the public, Swayman said. "The move was way harder than we anticipated," she said. "It's not the exact same thing transported to a new location. It's a completely new format." Reach reporter Joshua Bowling at jbowling@azcentral.com or 602-444-8138. Follow him on Twitter @MrJoshuaBowling . Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today . This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Peoria's old Arizona Challenger Space Center to get new life in 2020


Editor's note: The video above was originally published in December 2018. Los Hernandez, LLC is recalling around 9,090 pounds of chicken and pork tamales that were produced without the benefit of federal inspection. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) announced the recall on Friday. The tamales were produced from December 3, 2018, through February 7, 2019, and shipped to Los Hernandez Tamales Restaurant in Union Gap, Washington. They include: 30-lb. boxes of "Los Hernandez Authentic Pork TAMALES Hand Made." 30-lb. boxes of "Los Hernandez Authentic Chicken TAMALES Hand Made." The products may have been individually wrapped and sold to customers between December 2019 and May 1, 2019. There are no specific identifying labels for customers who may have purchased and carried out the tamales from the restaurant. FSIS said some customers may have the recalled product in their freezer. Customers with the recalled tamales in their freezer are urged not to eat them and should throw them away or return the product to where they were purchased. Click here for more information.


Dakari Monroe worked his way up from a special teams player to a core defender in his four-year career at San Jose State. Monroe is not the biggest, strongest or fastest corner out there, but he's intelligent and a strong competitor. He sports inside and outside versatility at the CB position, but his size might limit him to the inside at the next level. One thing that Monroe has done a really good job of is being around the football during his college career. He always does his best to get his hands on the ball. He has a combined 24 interceptions and passes defended over the past two seasons at San Jose State. Monroe earned one Mountain West Player of the Week honor during the 2018 season. His six tackle and two interception performance against Nevada helped his team to their only victory of the season. Stats: 2015: two games, one tackle and one pass defended. 2016: six games, 16 tackles and one fumble recovery. 2017: 10 games, 32 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, three interceptions and three passes defended. 2018: 12 games, 56 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions, one touchdown and 14 passes defended. Pro Day Results (via draftscout.com ): Height: 5-10 Weight: 190 Hands: 8 5/8 40 Yard Dash: 4.57 20 Yard Dash: 2.65 10-yard dash: 1.55 225-pound bench: 11 Vertical: 35.5 inches Broad Jump: 116 inches 20-yard shuttle: 4.41 3 Cone Drill: 7.41 Highlights: Takeaway Thursday Dakari Monroe with a big game Saturday. 2 INTs #LetsGo pic.twitter.com/4tTZ5pRwxn - San José State Football (@SJSUSpartanFB) December 1, 2017 Fit with the Chiefs: One thing that is clear with Monroe, he's very close to being the 90th man on the offseason roster. The Chiefs waived Monroe to make room for tryout players following rookie minicamp. Following the retirement of linebacker Martrell Spaight, the Chiefs re-signed Monroe . He has to make a strong impression to work his way up the food chain, otherwise he could be cut well before the start of the season. Monroe is appealing to the Chiefs because of his versatility. He has experience playing outside corner, nickel corner and he previously worked his way up playing special teams. His production in his two seasons as a starter for San Jose State was quite impressive, despite playing for a struggling team in both seasons. I don't expect Monroe to make a strong push for the 53-man regular season roster. The indications the Chiefs have shown us thus far is that he's unlikely to make it. His best shot will be to earn a chance at the practice squad and working on the scout team. From there he can perhaps grow, develop and find an opportunity with the Chiefs in the future. Chiefs' undrafted free agents Position Player School Article Release Date WR Jamal Custis Syracuse 5/27 DE Tim Ward Old Dominion 5/28 RB James Williams Washington State 5/29 CB Mark Fields Clemson 5/30 WR Cody Thompson Toledo 5/31 CB Jalin Burrell New Mexico 6/1 LB Gary Johnson Texas 6/2 TE/FB John Lovett Princeton 6/3 OT Dino Boyd Cincinnati 6/4 WR Felton Davis Michigan State 6/5 LB Darius Harris Middle Tennessee 6/6 TE Joe Fortson Valdosta State 6/7 RB Marcus Marshall James Madison 6/8 QB Kyle Shurmur Vanderbilt 6/9 CB Dakari Monroe San Jose State 6/10 S Andrew Soroh Florida Atlantic 6/11 P Jack Fox Rice 6/12 CB Herb Miller Florida Atlantic 6/13 OT Chidi Okeke Tennessee State 6/14 MORE: NHL fans weren't impressed with Mike Milbury's questions for Pam from 'The Office' Roundup: Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger Get Married, Chicago Poop Vandal, Johnny Manziel Talks XFL WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling impressing staff going into Packers minicamp Bears believe Clinton-Dix is an upgrade over Amos Brian Gaine's failure in Houston has a lesson for the Lions and Bob Quinn


After an exit in the second round in 2018, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford opted to keep the core largely intact, believing that the team still had another long playoff run left in it. It was certainly a reasonable belief to have considering the talent that Pittsburgh had on the roster. Rutherford wasn't rewarded for his faith, however, as the Pens were swept at the hands of the Islanders in the first round. Clearly, changes are coming to the status quo. These are among the key items on the Penguins' to-do list this offseason. Murray extension talks Last month, Rutherford indicated that his top priority was signing goalie Matt Murray to a long-term contract extension. He's entering the final year of his bridge contract, one that carries a $3.75MM cap hit, and he will be in line for a raise on his next deal. The big question will be how much of a raise he should get. While Murray is the undisputed No. 1 following the departure of Marc-Andre Fleury to Vegas two seasons ago, he hasn't been without his struggles since then. He also has only reached the 50-game mark once in his career, and while there is certainly a trend toward lowering the workload for a starter, that number is still on the low side. Accordingly, Murray is going to have a tough time commanding anywhere close to top dollar for a starting goalie. He'll still need to get enough of a raise to justify foregoing an opportunity to test the open market, as he'll only be one year away from being eligible to do so next summer. Finding the magic number to fit in with Pittsburgh's tight salary cap structure and still be enough to keep Murray happy on a long-term pact will be a tricky negotiation to navigate. End the Kessel speculation It came out last season that the Penguins engaged in trade talks regarding Phil Kessel , but Rutherford tried to pour cold water on it at the time. Fast forward to just one week ago when word leaked that a deal that would have seen him go to Minnesota was nixed when the winger invoked his partial no-trade clause. Considering this and how things went for him in 2018-19, it's getting harder to envision him remaining with Pittsburgh. It appears the time has come for a trade. For as much flak as Kessel receives for his all-around game, there's no denying that he can be a significant difference-maker offensively. He reached the point-per-game mark for the second straight year, and over the past three seasons, only 10 players around the league have more points than the 244 he has picked up. With Toronto paying 15 percent of his contract, his remaining $6.8M annual average value is certainly fair value for a top-line forward, if not a small bargain. The challenge here though is not only going to be finding fair value for Kessel, but also a place he's willing to go to. His trade protection is fairly substantial. He only has to submit an eight-team list that he's open to being dealt to. Assuming that not all of those teams will have interest (for varying reasons), that's a pretty small list for Rutherford to work off of. Even with that, it looks like the two sides will part ways sooner than later. Open up cap flexibility It's hard to talk about the Penguins without mentioning the salary cap and the annual tap dancing the team has to do to stay under it. 2019-20 figures to be no exception. The team presently has just under $79.M committed to 18 players for next season, per CapFriendly . The minimum salary increases to $700K for next season so, basically, the Pens have enough to pay a few players the minimum   and that's it. That's not a lot of wiggle room to accomplish much of anything. Things aren't much better for the year after that. Their spending dips to $68.5M but with only 14 players signed, and Murray's new deal won't be a cheap one. They'll also have to re-sign or replace a top-four defenseman in Justin Schultz at that time. By the time they do that, they'll basically be down to league-minimum signings again. That's part of the reason that Rutherford has more of a willingness to shake things up. He basically has no other choice. It's hard to be a sustainable contender, but it's even trickier when you're forced to merely add around the margins or match salaries in any trade you make. As those changes to the core get made this summer, finding a way to get NHL-ready talent back will certainly be important, but so too will be ensuring that those players are cheaper. Rutherford has shown he can do a good job with minimal cap room to work with, but more flexibility and options can only benefit the Penguins as they look to retool and get back into contending in the Metropolitan Division.


If there's one thing the Oklahoma City Thunder could use in their continued pursuit of improving the roster it's a shooter. Given the Thunder finished in the lower third (22nd) in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage (34.8), it seems like a no-brainer. A sharpshooter on the perimeter would help open things down low for Steven Adams and provide Russell Westbrook a better chance at finding the right option when he drives and dishes. However, in Rookie Wire's first mock draft (USA TODAY Sports Media Group's new property), Michael Visenberg projects the Thunder will select Matisse Thybulle from Washington 21st overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. The 6-foot-5 wing 40.5 percent and 36.5 percent from three in his sophomore and junior seasons, respectively. But he dropped all the way down to 30.5 percent as a senior. Visenberg likes what the 22-year-old brings to the table defensively: The king of STOCKS (that is steals+blocks), Thybulle was masterful in Washington's zone these past two seasons. He was a true artist on defense, coming up with key plays, able to defend multiple positions with great instincts, length (7'0 wingspan), as well as fantastic lateral ability. He skipped the Combine, which is probably a sign of a first-round promise, with many feeling that he could possibly be a guard version of Andre Roberson. Certainly seems to make him a possible fit for the Thunder, who would also appreciate the occasional corner 3. Unguarded shots are in Thybulle's wheelhouse and what he brings on defense alone should have him in a team's rotation. Visenberg's full mock draft can be found on Rookie Wire . MORE: Most bizarre and incredible catches by fishermen in past decade NBA trade rumor rankings: Rockets on the move? Aaron Rodgers raves about Packers WR Jake Kumerow: 'I'm a big fan of him' With QB in place, Jets GM Joe Douglas won't ignore the trenches News: Do Cowboys have best group of QBs across the entire league?


They came from the sky. Their landings frightened Siberian locals and got Washington buzzing. As the Cold War raged, the Russians did the impossible in 1961 and 1963: They sent the first man and woman into space. Soviet propaganda and international press attention turned Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova into mythic figures. Their names are some of the few that people who lived through the Soviet era still like to hear. And despite being ambassadors of peace, they advanced the start of the Cold War. "If you could bring a man safely back from space, you could also do the same for a nuclear warhead," Dr. Emmett Sullivan of Royal Holloway University of London explains. "America's fears were made real. Sputnik dented America's confidence beyond the Soviet Union's A- and H-Bomb tests. Gagarin crowned that and became the ultimate Soviet Space Race Hero." Gagarin   just 5'2" in real life   towers above the Moscow skyline as a 130-foot-tall statue . Tereshkova was an Olympic Torch bearer for the Sochi Olympics. A recent documentary on Gagarin produced by Russia Today , often criticized as the heart of Putin's propaganda machine, showed artist Boris Kukuliev sketching the first man in space as a kind of sci-fi warrior. "This comes from the heart, you know. I've never even seen him in person," Kukuliev enthused . "For me, this is the image of a hero." But just like engineers didn't fully know what would happen to the human body in space, no one could have predicted what being a Russian space hero would do to these intrepid trailblazers. Yuri Gagarin's life as a cosmonaut   the Russian term for astronaut   was nowhere near as straightforward as the flight that made him famous. From the outside, Gagarin's upbringing seemed to make him an ideal Soviet hero. He was from a modest, rural family that had survived occupation during World War II. After an apprenticeship, he joined the air force and learned to fly fighter jets. His tenacity, hard work and intelligence caught the eye of recruiters looking for candidates for a top-secret project: sending the first person into space. Skydiver Valentina Tereshkova was also caught up in space fever. After the success of Gagarin's 108-minute flight on April 12, 1961, the Soviets clamored to put a woman in orbit   something the U.S. wouldn't do until 1983 . Compared to Gagarin's quick jaunt, Tereshkova's flight two years later took almost three grueling days. As soon as Gagarin and Tereshkova each reached ground, they were whisked up in the political machine. But fame came at a cost. The tone of the space race had changed dramatically. After the Cuban missile crisis, Sullivan tells OZY, the Soviets were more interested in building nuclear warheads, not manned spacecraft. "By the time of Tereshkova's achievement, the shift of emphasis was such that the first woman into space failed to have the seismic impact that Sputnik and Gagarin had," he says. That, and the Soviet space program was not the big success the propaganda made it out to be. With NASA scrambling to compete, the Russians cut corners and took deadly risks. But the Russian space myth, according to Slava Gerovitch, MIT historian and author of the upcoming Voices of the Soviet Space Program , didn't make room for stories of failure. Gagarin and Tereshkova were profoundly shaken by the death of Vladimir Komarov , their friend and fellow cosmonaut who died when his Soyuz 1 capsule crashed upon re-entry in 1967. Gagarin, knowing the technology wasn't ready, had fought until the last minute to stop Komarov's flight. Tereshkova was not allowed back in a plane by Soviet authorities. Gagarin started drinking heavily and died in a plane crash just a year before American astronauts reached the moon. The exact circumstances of his death remained a mystery until just last year . The Russian space myth still lives on. Visiting Gagarin's tomb is a pre-launch tradition for cosmonauts. And while Tereshkova, now 77, is no longer a propaganda tool, she has set her sights on space once again as one of the oldest volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars. The space race ended long ago, but at least one former cosmonaut may reclaim the stars on her own terms.


Arsenal likely expected a difficult fight against a team determined to keep themselves clear of the drop zone on Monday. What they got was a team without any semblance of focus or a plan, and they had no problem running over Hull City, 3-1. The Tigers' best chance of the first half came in the 23rd minute, when Sone Aluko botched a free header from inside the six-yard box off an excellent cross by Robbie Brady. They did almost nothing after this, and quickly allowed three goals. Alexis Sanchez scored the first, and it was a bit lucky. After drawing a foul on Jake Livermore that should have resulted in the showing of a second yellow card, Sanchez hit a free kick that deflected off Michael Dawson and sailed past Steve Harper, who never had a chance. Aaron Ramsey got the Gunners' second just five minutes later, finishing off a stunning through ball by Santi Cazorla. Ramsey turned provider just before the break, emulating Cazorla with a similarly spectacular Hollywood pass to Sanchez, who rounded Harper and passed the ball into the back of the net. Fearing a red card for Livermore, Steve Bruce brought him off in favor of David Meyler at halftime. It was a positive change, with Meyler providing some more energy without any bookings. That added energy helped lead to a goal for Hull, in the 56th minute. Laurent Koscielny won the ball during a Hull counter, but couldn't get up and recover in time to close down Ahmed Elmohamady. He played a cross towards the center of the box for Stephen Quinn, who headed into the back of the net. Instead of sparking a comeback, that goal just served to wake up Arsenal. They started playing much better after that, keeping the ball well enough to prevent Hull from ever looking like they would score another goal. Hull City : Harper, McShane, Dawson, Chester, Brady, Quinn (Jelavic 81'), Huddlestone, Livermore (Meyler 46'), Elmohamady, Aluko (Robertson 65'), N'Doye Goals : Quinn (56') Arsenal : Ospina, Monreal, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Bellerin, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey (Wilshere 68'), Özil, Giroud (Walcott 86'), Sanchez Goals : Sanchez (28', 45'), Ramsey (33') 3 things 1. Hull looked awful from the start - From the opening couple minutes, it was clear that Hull weren't going to put pressure on the ball, nor were they organized defensively or dangerous on the counter. They were just 11 bodies, and if Steve Bruce did put together any kind of coherent gameplan, his team never looked like they had intentions of executing it. They were just bad, and were always going to be bad. 2. Mesut Özil dominated without getting on the box score again - An advanced playmaker is expected to rack up assists in big numbers, but Mesut Özil isn't exactly doing that. What he is doing is making the pass before the assist, starting attacks and helping his team keep possession in tough spots. He isn't on the box score, but once again, he was Arsenal's best player. 3. The Tigers need a win this weekend - Hull finish the season away to Tottenham Hotspur, then at home against Manchester United. They don't want to be in a situation where they absolutely need a win in either of those games. They have to take all three points at home against Burnley.


The Twins have selected the contract of righty Cody Stashak and recalled fellow reliever Lewis Thorpe , per a club announcement. They'll take the active roster places of first baseman C.J. Cron , who's headed to the injured list with a thumb malady, and righty Zack Littell , who was optioned down. Stashak, 25, earned his way to the big leagues with a strikeout-laden showing in the upper minors to open the year. He has been particularly impressive since moving up to Triple-A, turning in 22 1/3 frames of 1.61 ERA ball with a sterling 31:4 K/BB ratio. While he has functioned primarily as a reliever in recent seasons, Stashak did get two starts at Rochester and has been tasked with multi-inning work at times. It's not promising to see Cron headed back to the IL so soon after his reinstatement. It seems his thumb troubles have reared up again, meaning the Twins will go without a hitter who has turned in 350 plate appearances of ..263/.320/.494 work this season. The Twins will go with a three-man bench for at least a stretch.


LOS ANGELES (CBSLA)   DMV offices will stay closed Thursday until 1 p.m. for statewide employee training. The half-day training will prepare employees for the onslaught of federally-mandated REAL ID applications and reinforce training on customer service. Gov. Gavin Newsom has formed a "strike team" to overhaul the agency, which is famous for long wait times, woefully outdated technology, poor customer service, and lately, the problematic rollout of the REAL ID, which will be required for air travel starting in October 2020. Wednesday's training for more than 5,000 staff at 183 DMV field offices has been dubbed "Operation Excellence." During the closure, customers will still be able to conduct transactions online or at any DMV Now self-service kiosk at grocery stores and select libraries. Some transactions can also continue at AAA offices.


In the history of organized sports - going back to ancient Greco-Roman tag team wrestling matches - the modern NBA laps the field as the only league more interesting when no one is playing. A dubious distinction, to be sure. But true. The Association's regular season, at least, is unmemorable. Interminably long. The basketball is lousy, unless you're a fan of traveling, carrying the ball, missed 3s and dunks. The best players take a quarter of the season off ("load management," the new NBA term for fleecing ticket holders) as fans who pay their mortgages to watch Understudy Games get foreclosed on. Teams don't always show up. The star-driven officiating is horrible. But then free agency begins, the rumor mill spinning out pulp fiction by the minute. The season that matters begins with the handing out of the O'Brien Trophy, which is supposed to be when it ends. The anticipation for this free agency had been insane, like Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Rajesh standing in line for Comic-Con. When it finally opened, it became a drag race (except for patient Kawhi on a tricycle), complete with burnouts, going zero-to-60 in two seconds. Beaten into submission over the years has been the overused commissioner's creed: "For the good of the game." Until now. Six of the 15 members of the 2018-19 All-NBA teams no longer are with their clubs. Remember when then-Commissioner David Stern nixed Chris Paul's trade to the Lakers for the game's good. Current commish Adam Silver either doesn't have the power or simply doesn't want to use it. He doesn't want to. He loves this crap. But how long can a top-heavy league stand? I don't give one damn that L.A. again is the center of the league's universe, now that the Lakers have added A.D. to LeBron, and the Clippers, of all people, Kawhi. Leonard basically brokered the deal that sent Oklahoma City's Paul George to the Clips that will give the Thunder every draft pick for the next 10 years (etc.) - and then OKC picked up more when it shipped Russell Westbrook, the most misunderstood great player of all our lifetimes, to Houston. Thunder fans in recent years have lost James Harden, Kevin Durant, George and Westbrook? OKC called Tom Werner for fire sale advice. The best players, in charge now, dictate where they want to be. Not good for any league. The smaller-market teams are going to go the way of the dictionary. The NBA is an expensive ticket. Why would fans attend when their teams can't keep their attractions? How can they know in advance which visitors are sitting? Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com


Alamo Biscuit Company on Huebner may be in just their second month of business, but with an owner with more than two decades of experience, he knows when something suspicious rolls in. "It's part of running a business," Chef Ceasar Zepeda told KENS 5. "It's one of the parts you don't think about. But it's there all the time." 'It' is scheming, and it's something Chef Zepeda says is a reality in the restaurant industry. "Over the phone, scams happen weekly, daily sometimes, and we're used to them." But Zepeda said what came in on Saturday afternoon was completely different. He got call around 3:00 p.m. from his manager. "She said, 'two guys are here; they have their uniform with CPS and they said they were going to turn off the electricity and we won't have it turned back on for three days,'" he explained. "I said no, it doesn't sound right." Zepeda said the men demanded $750 to keep the electricity on. "I called CPS, and immediately they said 'no, it's a scam, call the police because it's not us.'" Zepeda said his manager came back to the front of the restaurant and the two men and their truck with what looked like a CPS Energy logo was gone. "That whole scenario you just described where they want money at the door, they're demanding payment and they make it seem like its urgent or you're going to get cut off, those are all signs that it's not a legitimate CPS employee at your business or at your home," John Moreno, a CPS Energy spokesperson, told KENS 5 over the phone. "CPS [Energy] does not do business that way." CPS Energy confirmed the business did report this incident and Zepeda did say they called police but he told this cautionary tale in hopes that no one falls victim to it. "$750 for a small business is a lot of money, and to lose that it could be devastating," Zepeda continued. "So if this helps one person, I'm super happy." CPS Energy has tips online for any customers who are suspicious by a call or a visit: CPS Energy says if customers receive calls from anyone claiming to be from the utility who threatens to cut off service if payment is not made immediately, they should hang up and call customer service directly at 210-353-2222. If someone approaches your home or business claiming to be CPS Energy, always ask for an employee ID. If you feel like you're in immediate danger, you should call 911. POPULAR ON KENS5.COM: TCEQ recommends keeping outdoor time at a minimum Wednesday due to expected high amounts of air pollution Man accidentally discharges rifle while warding off SAPD suspect, bullet hits sleeping neighbor WATCH: San Marcos officer struck by alleged drunken driver stands again Carrizo Springs facility to hold immigrant children already closing Report: Ginobili was offered Spurs assistant coaching position


President Trump has defended his threat to impose steep new tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico, rejecting concerns of economists and some fellow Republicans that the proposed increase of up to 25% could hurt U.S. businesses and consumers as much as it punishes Mexico. Mr. Trump is threatening to slap tariffs on all Mexican imports from Monday, starting at 5%, unless Mexico stems the flow of migrants reaching the U.S. southern border. "Tariffs are a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful word if you know how to use them properly," Mr. Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingram on Thursday in France, where he was taking part in 75th D-Day anniversary commemorations . Mr. Trump said the U.S. Congress bears some of the blame for the circumstances at the border, where record numbers of migrants -- primarily from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -- have crossed illegally into the U.S. in recent weeks from Mexico. But he said Mexico was also culpable, "because they are letting people walk up through their country and they shouldn't let anybody walk up through their country." "Now I've told Mexico if you don't stop this onslaught, this invasion -- people get angry when I use the word 'invasion,' people like Nancy Pelosi that, honestly, they don't know what the hell they're talking about," Mr. Trump said, taking a new shot at his rival, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives. The president accused Mexico, through what he views as inadequate enforcement of its own borders, of allowing "an invasion without guns" across the U.S. frontier. "They send in $500 billion worth of drugs, they kill 100,000 people. They ruin a million families every year," Mr. Trump claimed. "If you look at that, that's really an invasion without the guns." On Thursday U.S. officials told CBS News that Mexico's government had offered to deploy 6,000 troops along its own southern border and to overhaul its asylum laws in a bid to appease the Trump administration and avoid the new tariffs being imposed on Monday. There has reportedly been debate within the Trump administration about delaying the June 10 deadline, but White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that the U.S. was "still moving forward with tariffs at this time." Mr. Trump dismissed concerns that hiking tariffs on Mexican imports could hit U.S. consumers and manufacturers , claiming instead that if they were imposed the U.S. would, "make a fortune, because all the companies are going to move back into the country." The impact of tariffs CBS News' MoneyWatch reported on Thursday, however, that many U.S. companies, especially small to medium size manufacturers, would struggle to absorb the costs of moving their operations out of Mexico, and struggle even more to move those operations onto U.S. soil where labor costs are much higher. Michelle Casario, an assistant professor of economics at Villanova University, told CBS News this week that if even the first-tier 5% tariff is levied on imports from Mexico, American "consumers could expect to see higher prices from avocados to tomatoes, beer to tequila, phones to computers to televisions, and even higher prices at the gas pump," due to how intertwined the neighboring nations' economies have become during 25 years of free trade. Due to those concerns, and the fact that any reciprocal tariffs imposed by Mexico could hurt American farmers who export south of the border, Mr. Trump faces considerable opposition within his party . In the Senate, at least, it's possible that Republicans could try to block him from moving forward with the planned tariff hike. Mr. Trump told Fox News that such opposition from Congress -- including from his own party members -- was diminishing his bargaining power as his administration negotiates with the Mexican government to get it to crack down on the migrant flow. The president said Congress, "should be saying, 'we are with the President, we will do whatever he wants to do,' and Mexico would fold like an umbrella." Instead, Mr. Trump complained that, "I have these people -- and I'm saying there are some Republicans, too -- I think they should be ashamed of themselves… they come out and they talk about 'tariffs are bad,' so, they are killing-- they are hurting my negotiation."


We're nearing the one-year anniversary of Pittsburgh acquiring right-hander Chris Archer from Tampa Bay in a whopper of a trade. The Pirates, under the impression they were getting back a front-line starter, sent high-caliber prospects Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows to the Rays in exchange for Archer last July 31. Unfortunately for the Pirates, the deal has been a catastrophe to this point. Archer has flopped, while Glasnow and Meadows may be turning into core pieces for the Rays. With two-plus months left in his first full season as a Pirate, Archer's on pace for a career-worst campaign. The 30-year-old has offset an impressive strikeout rate (10.07 K/9) with control problems (4.69 BB/9) and home run issues (2.29 HR/9) en route to a 5.49 ERA/5.91 FIP in 78 2/3 innings. Stunningly, among 110 pitchers who have thrown at least 70 frames in 2019, the once-excellent Archer ranks sixth from the bottom in ERA and second last in FIP. Now, Archer's in the process of trying to turn around his fortunes, as he explained to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Archer will hope to do a 180 with a different repertoire. He dumped his two-seam fastball in a June 22 start against the Padres and plans to rely more heavily on his signature slider. Archer told Mackey batters' "slugging percentage on my two-seamer was extremely high. One way to eliminate the damage is just to not throw the pitch that has the most damage. It's not a complex thing. It was just getting banged. I got rid of it." Archer's right. Hitters own a ludicrous .867 slugging percentage against the pitch   one Statcast classifies as a sinker and says he has turned to 15.8% of the time this season. Archer didn't throw a sinker in any of the three full seasons before the Pirates acquired him, but it became a prominent part of the mix last year. While Archer told Mackey that "I probably tried to change too much" upon relocating to Pittsburgh, he and pitching coach Ray Searage insist the hurler   no one else   determines what he throws. Searage indicated he and Archer have a great relationship. Whereas Archer's two-seamer was a disaster before he scrapped it, his slider has been eminently effective throughout his career. That includes this season, during which hitters have mustered a toothless .290 weighted on-base average/.293 expected against it. Archer believes it's "one of the best pitches in baseball." And yet, he has leaned on it far less than usual this season, having tossed it at a 35.1% clip. That's down 6.6 percent from last season and 9.5% compared to 2017. Simply throwing more sliders and fewer sinkers won't be the solution alone, according to Searage, who told Mackey that Archer also must improve his four-seam fastball command. In Searage's estimation, that will lead to a decrease in homers against Archer, who had never allowed HRs on more than 16.2% of fly balls in a season until 2019. This year, he's giving them up at a 23.8% rate. Only two starters have been worse in that department. Archer has had enough.


The weather report shows more hot temperatures are in store for Dallas, due to last through Monday, according to drone-powered weather forecasting service Saildrone . Temperatures will reach 100 degrees today and 96 on Wednesday. The immediate forecast also has partly cloudy skies in store for today. Skies will become fully overcast on Wednesday. Winds are expected to reach a modest high of 13 mph on Thursday, and continue to be in the teens through Saturday. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


SAN DIEGO   Tim Zaal was a scary guy. At 17, in boots studded with razors, he brutally beat a gay teenage runaway on the streets of Hollywood. By his 20s, he was a full-fledged acolyte of the white supremacist movement. He had a reputation to live up to. And he did. Throughout Southern California, he used violence to prove his devotion to saving the white race. In Normal Heights, he and fellow skinheads would target gay men. In Belmont Park in Mission Beach, they'd look for minorities to harass. He did jail time for assaulting an Iranian couple whom he mistook for Jews. An ocean away, TM Garret was another kind of menace. He spread white power propaganda in his native Germany through neo-Nazi bands with names like Wolfpack and Hounds of Hell. He started his own chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. His allegiance to the cause was spelled out in tattoos   the word "skinhead," a Celtic cross. To them, it was a raucous good time, built on a community, a cause, and an identity. Can hate that deep be reversed? "Unequivocally, yes," said Pete Simi, an associate professor of sociology at Chapman University in Orange County who researches extremist movements. While the in-your-face skinhead movement that Zaal and Garret came up in is somewhat fading, it is being replaced with a new force that presents the same, hateful ideologies in softer tones and harnesses the power of social media to radicalize a new generation. "It's old hate in new wrapping," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, founder of the Digital Terrorism and Hate Project at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The stakes have also gotten deadlier, with the shooting at a Poway synagogue last month the latest example of mass violence in the name of protecting the white race. But Zaal and Garret are testaments of something else   hope. "Sometimes there's this tendency to think once you go down that road it's a permanent deal, there's no hope for redemption," Simi said. "That's an inaccurate and dangerous way of looking at it. It guarantees it will be much more difficult for people to change if it is viewed as a beyond-all-hope kind of thing." But, Simi cautioned, "It's not a clean or easy process."     Extremists leave their groups for a variety of reasons. But it's not usually because they've suddenly realized that what they are involved in is morally reprehensible. The impetus is usually more mundane   dissatisfaction with the direction of the group, infighting, personal drama or even parenthood. In many ways it's like they've just burned out from the whole thing, Simi said. Even if they still cling to their old beliefs, disengagement from the group   either online or offline   is the first, most important step, Simi said. That alone typically makes for less violence. "What this can teach us is that trying to push counter-narratives meant to show them their beliefs are misguided, that's not at all that effective," Simi said. Instead, it's more beneficial at this early stage to plant seeds. Things aren't really what you think they are. This is not what you expected. The inner transformation comes later, and can take a long time. "For me, it was three- to five-year process," said Zaal, 55. But in some ways, it's never over. According to Simi's research, which includes interviews with 90 former white supremacists, hate can be like an addiction, bringing with it unwelcome, involuntary thoughts and feelings that can resurface year later. One woman in recovery recounted to Simi an episode in which she got into an argument with a Latina fast-food worker, accusing her of messing up the order. Without realizing it, the former white supremacist reverted back to her old ways. "The next thing she knew she was hurtling slurs, did the Nazi salute and stormed out with a "Sieg Hiel!" Simi recalled. "By the time she got in the car she kind of came to, was completely ashamed and crying. It was this weird momentary relapse."     Zaal grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles. When he was about 11, his older brother was shot and wounded by a black man. "It was kind of a traumatic event, something that stuck with me many, many years," Zaal said. "Ironically, my brother was able to forgive the person who shot him two or three years later. For me it was a different situation. I had the belief they were out to get me, so if they're out to get me, I'm out to get them." "I based my beliefs on something that was not even a personal thing. It was a lot of hearsay." As a young adult in the early 1980s, he immersed himself in the hardcore punk music scene, which introduced him to skinheads. He approached a few groups, interested in joining, but they were "very standoffish," Zaal said. "I was looking for community." He tried to join the military but when he was rejected there, he was more determined than ever to pursue his skinhead dreams. In San Diego on a job one day, Zaal decided to reach out to Tom Metzger, a rising figure in the U.S. white nationalist movement who happened to run his operations from his Fallbrook home. He looked up Metzger's number in the phone book, dialed and Metzger picked up. "I told him I was interested in the movement, wanted to do something for my race. I ended up in his back room talking about politics and he gave me a card for a group in Orange County. I contacted them, and the rest is history." Zaal joined the Western Hammerskins, an arm of one of the more organized neo-Nazi groups that operate across the country. "I had to prove myself. I was involved with a lot of violence," Zaal admitted. He added, "I sought to live up to what was expected of me, I guess." The skinhead community was fulfilling for a decade or so, then he began to question what he was doing with his life. When his young son called a black man the N-word in a supermarket one day, it was a wake-up call. "It was like being in a cult," he said. He eventually decided to leave. He moved to the Ozarks   which happen to be heavy Ku Klux Klan territory. At one point, his job in the petrol chemical industry forced him to go on a road trip through the Deep South. "I had a preconceived notion of what it was going to be like. In Houston it would be a bunch of illegal aliens. In Lake Charles or New Orleans or Mobile, it would be a bunch podunk black folks with corncob pipes," Zaal said. "It was the complete opposite." "I was treated with compassion and respect by different people of ethnic backgrounds," he recalled. "I got back home to Klan land and the contrast between the two was so great. It was so apparent that the real world was not the world I'd been living in for years and years and years." It's an experience he wants to give other recovering white supremacists   when they are ready. Because much of the white nationalist ideology is based on fear, and second-hand knowledge. "So let's get first-hand knowledge … get them out of their comfort zone," Zaal said. "That's how most of us got out of that mindset."     What doesn't get white supremacists out of that mindset: yelling at them. "Yelling at someone never in history changes someone's mind," said Garret, 43. Instead, it circles the wagons and strengthens a bigot's resolve: This society hates us for what we believe, therefore we must be right. Non-combative conversations searching for common ground can be hard to come by, especially in these polarizing political times and with the often eviscerating tone of social media. "The person who says 'Eff Trump, all Trump supporters are racist,' how is that any better?" Garret asked. "I'm not saying tolerate the ideology but we need to tolerate them as human beings." An empathetic approach can also be an especially big ask for religious and ethnic groups who have been the target of such hate, including violence. But there are some who are passionate about having those uncomfortable encounters. Garret points to his friend, Memphis entertainer Daryl Davis, who is black and has befriended scores of Klansmen who subsequently left the group. "He's like, 'I want to know how those people tick. Why do you hate me if you don't know me?'" Garret said. Zaal was forced to face his past in an uncomfortable encounter of his own   in a chance meeting with the gay victim he'd attacked as a teen. Their journey to healing is documented in a film, "Facing Fear." Mere acknowledgment of one another's fears can be a big step toward breaking down barriers, Garret said. Reflecting on his own time as a skinhead, he said: "My enemies felt real to me, even if it was stupid."     Garret's dad died when he was 8, and his mom was "fighting her own demons." In his small German town, he was the weird kid who finally got the attention he'd craved with racist jokes. So he ran with it. "At that point I was known as the Nazi kid. I didn't like it because I didn't feel like it," he recalled. But the label had a self-fulfilling prophecy to it. "All of the sudden I'm not a nobody … It was better than the kid you could push around. I thought it was respect, but it was probably more like fear. I stuck with it." Like many during the '80s and '90s, Garret was radicalized through the hardcore punk music scene, becoming a band leader himself. His German nationalist pride morphed into all out white power. He joined the KKK   first brought to Germany by Americans post-World War I   but struggled with the contrast between the "Christian Identity" doctrine favored by Americans and the more pagan basis for European white nationalism. Asked to translate a booklet for a radical Scandinavian group into German, Garret was at first honored, then troubled by the violence and terror it called for. "Everybody has doubts," Garret said of those in the movement. "You put them on the side, put the next doubt on the side, and that stack of doubts becomes a bump, then a little mountain, then a big mountain, until you can't deal with it anymore. "But if you want to leave, you see society hates you back. Who wants a Nazi back?" When Garret could no longer bury the existential questions that had been mounting inside him, he fled. He and his family ended up in a small German town, on Christmas Eve, broke. The only apartment available to rent was owned by a Turkish Muslim man who lived in the unit downstairs. Garret had a history with Turkish Muslims. One night, Garret and his crew pulled a prank on a Turkish Muslim teen. The teen retaliated with his own crew in tow, and Garret ended up with a gunshot wound to his hip in a cornfield. But now, his family was desperate, and the man took them in. The landlord started to offer Garret money to fix computers, and a relationship began to form. When the landlord invited Garret to dinner one night, he uneasily accepted the invitation. He panicked when he saw what the landlord's wife was serving   fish soup. "I didn't like fish soup," Garret said. He was afraid what would happen next. "I thought this is when he's going to rip off his mask and show his horrible Muslim terrorist face," Garret said. He finally got the guts to speak up, announcing he didn't like fish soup. "What happened? Nothing. His wife brought over some chicken." He added: "What racist hate was left there, he broke it down and he laid it down in front of me, crumbled." Garret, who moved to the Memphis area and started businesses in the entertainment industry, is now an outspoken advocate against hate, giving presentations across the country. He works with other "formers" to transition people out of the hate movement and partners with tattoo shops so recovering extremists can cover up the markings of a past life. He was pained when a gunman killed 11 people in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October. After that, he began working with the Jewish community and the Simon Wiesenthal Center fighting anti-Semitism. Zaal works with the center, too. "I celebrated more Jewish holidays in the last 12 months than Christian holidays," Garret said. When a gunman   identified by authorities as 19-year-old John T. Earnest   killed one person and wounded three others inside the Chabad of Poway, it hit him even harder. "It didn't feel that far away anymore. I felt so much more hurt than I was after Pittsburgh," Garret said. "I felt more numb and helpless."     Researchers have learned a lot about treating former skinheads from Zaal's and Garret's day. But experts admit little is known about the new generation, or if old tricks will have the same effect. "I think as far as the generation now, we need to start figuring out what is driving some of these white adolescents moving in that direction," said Simi, who says he has worked with some, but not many, of the younger members of the contemporary white nationalist movement. "Maybe there are still a lot of similarities." At the most basic level, part of the solution calls for getting kids offline and into the real world   not just troubled youth, but all youth. "Young people have to have actual relationships outside virtual friendships," Rabbi Cooper said. But anti-hate messaging also has to reach youth where they are. In March, Life After Hate, a nonprofit founded by "formers" that helps people leave hate groups, began partnering with Facebook to provide outreach to users searching for hate material. The pop-up messages provide a listening ear and way out. "Radicalization doesn't begin with violence. It often begins with vulnerabilities and grievances," the nonprofit's announcement said. "And we want people to know that we are here to listen to them. That simple gesture can create change." But it's not yet clear how effective that effort is. People who work with extremists say it would be Pollyanna-ish to expect dramatic turnarounds. But if it reaches one person, they say. "If there are going to be any changes made, it's not going to be from the top down," Zaal said. "It's going to be from the bottom up on a human level. It has to be."     ©2019 The San Diego Union-Tribune Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


Southeast Asia has become one of the hottest travel destinations in recent years for everyone from celebrities and influencers to budget travelers, and it's really not difficult to see why. 6 of Southeast Asia's Most Breathtaking Destinations That You Need to See Before You Die Southeast Asia has become one of the hottest travel destinations in recent years for everyone from celebrities and influencers to budget travelers, and it's really not difficult to see why. As though the dreamlike landscapes , fine-sand beaches, and vast mountain ranges aren't reason enough to visit, it also has a rich cultural and spiritual history often dating back thousands of years. If you're thinking of heading to Southeast Asia for your next trip (and you definitely should), keep reading to learn more about its provinces that hold some of the world's most aesthetically and historically monumental sites. Then get ready to pack your bags and catch your flight ! Bali, Indonesia Home to nine spectacular temples both ancient and fairly new, Bali's incredible spiritual retreats, stunning landscapes, and warm hospitality will make you want to keep extending your stay. Among the temples, Tanah Lot is one of the oldest sites for worship perched on the shores of the Indian Ocean and looks just like a floating castle straight out of a fairy tale. Uluwatu Temple is also one of Bali's most spectacular Hindu worship sites, overlooking the shores that make up some of the finest beaches in Bali. A more recent though equally magnificent site, Tirta Gangga Royal Water Palace is made up of stone statues on the holy Agnes waters that are surrounded by the breathtaking rural terrain of eastern Bali. Phang-nga, Thailand The second rainiest province in Thailand, Phang-nga holds one of the world's largest rainforests and is central to Thailand's finest conservation areas. Phang Nga Bay , an archipelago of 42 islands, is known for its picturesque limestones jutting from the Strait of Malacca waters. Its scenery often rings a bell to that of Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, and geologists suggest that these mini mountains resulted from the same tectonic plate collision! For next-level sublime island scenery, the 11 Similan Islands , located right off the coast of Phang-nga and Phuket, and are home to some of the most unique ecosystems and clearest blue waters. While strict laws limit, and on some islands entirely prohibit, visitors to preserve its precious wildlife, these islands are a peaceful and remote place for snorkeling and diving. Siem Reap, Cambodia An ancient stone village from the Khmer Empire, this northwestern province of Cambodia has evolved throughout the decades to become one of the country's biggest tourist attractions, with as many visitors as seen in Europe. From rice fields in the south to the vast rainforests in the north, this town holds an abundance of rural and agricultural landmarks in addition to the greatest fresh water reserve in all of Southeast Asia. Of Cambodia's hundreds of temples from the ancient Khmer Empire, the Angkor Wat temple complex is by far the most esteemed for its intricate, world-renowned architecture and internal artifacts. Directly translated to "temple mountain," it was originally built as a spiritual home for the Hindu god Vishnu and has since become popular among Buddhist pilgrims and an estimated one million tourists per year. At the heart of the Cambodian jungle is another magical temple complex dating back to the Khmer Empire. Ta Prohm was built in the 12th and 13th centuries as a Buddhist monastery that centered around wisdom and learning and is still widely recognized for its beautiful strangler trees that wrap around the stones of the temple. Uva, Sri Lanka Uva is the second-least populated province on the island of Sri Lanka and an incredible scenic escape and eco-conscious atmosphere for anyone looking to live more green. The province is particularly known for its waterfalls, elevated plantations, and unique climate conditions that accommodate the production of its high-quality and one-of-a-kind flavored teas. Among its gorgeous rural sites, Ella Rock is central to the province's famous tea production and overlooks some of the most beautiful green plantations in the village of Ella. Interwoven in its terrain is also the Nine Arch Bridge, a stone train track from the British Colonial Period and a gorgeous romantic stop for unmatched views of Ella's surrounding jungle. For bluer scenery, the Bambarakanda Falls is Sri Lanka's tallest waterfall with a pool base clean enough to bathe in. Surrounded by the scenic hill town of Kalupahana, the waterfall is a secluded, peaceful spot for picnicking and relaxing. Palawan, Philippines Palawan, the largest island province in the Philippines, is perhaps one of the most underrated tropical destinations, given its incredible subterranean waters, rock formations, and rare wildlife from both sea and land. While its main island Palawan was deemed "The Best Island In The World" by Travel + Leisure magazine, its neighboring islands are also dreamlike and suitable for hiking, diving, and horseback touring, among other recreational activities. Among these islands, the fine white sand and bright blue water of El Nido is an unmatched tropical paradise and the primary gateway to the sublime Bacuit Archipelago with 45 stunning limestone cliffs. In addition, Coron Island is particularly famous for the Japanese World War II shipwrecks that have permanently anchored underneath its shores - though its views also make the site one of the most photographed in all of the Philippines. Vientiane, Laos Vientiane is the capital and most-populated province of Laos. Rather than bucket-listing and specific sightseeing, this province is best for taking in as a whole for its languid and laid-back culture and atmophere. Among its charming villages, Vang Vieng is a scenic rural town along the Nam Song River and surrounded by strikingly gorgeous mountains and caves. Once an agricultural landmark, this scenic village evolved to accommodate visitors in an array of adventurous activities, like tubing and water-sliding along the river, caving, and hot air-ballooning for a gorgeous, aerial view of the village.


Strolling down a tiny street in Venice's San Marco district, a couple pauses in front of a hand-crafted leather goods stall, one of hundreds of "authentically Venetian" shops lining the cobblestone streets of the city's tourist thoroughfares. Holding hands, they stop to embrace in front of the famed Grand Canal. "Watch out where you're going!" a hurried passerby barks at the couple, who are oblivious to the oncoming foot traffic. "This is Europe, walk on the right side!" It's a scene frequently replayed across the city, and one that's now almost as famous as Venice's medieval piazzas, its architecture and artworks and its winding waterways echoing to the songs of gondoliers. Venice received more than 36 million international tourists in 2017, a near 10% rise on the previous year. While travelers fuel the city's economy, they're also the primary contributors to Venice's biggest problem: overcrowding. From April to October, an estimated 32,000 cruise ship passengers disembark here daily, according to the Port Authority. In August, an additional 465,100 day-trippers make their way to the city, adding to the chaos of an additional 2.2 million tourists who will stay overnight, according to recent National Tourism Agency figures. Many Venetians believe that everyone should have a chance to experience the beauty of their city, but say that a constant swell of tourists is ruining the experience for everyone. Cruise ships have caused significant environmental damage to the city's waterways and lagoons -- sometimes colliding with other vessels . Short visits put a strain on the city's overstretched infrastructure, and cheap Airbnb rentals have driven up the cost of accommodation and living conditions for locals, some of whom have decided to leave altogether. A fragile, amphibious society Tourists have been visiting Venice since the early 18th century and have always been a vital part of the cityscape. But how to keep that sustainable and intact for the future is a big question, says Luca Velo, a researcher at the University of Venice. "The main issue today is the lack of general vision for the future of the city," he tells CNN Travel. "We don't actually know how much mass tourism will impact the future, for ourselves and for the extraordinary environment that we have here." But for years, local authorities argue they've been taking those steps. In November 2017, Italy's government announced a ban on cruise ships weighing over 100,000 tones from entering from Venice's Grand Canal, instead diverting them to Marghera, a neighboring industrial area. Last spring, city authorities brought in turnstiles designed to restrict th e movement of visitors in some of the city's most crowded arteries over a long holiday weekend. And in the high season, English-speaking police-assistants, known as "decorum angels," can be found patrolling some of the busiest areas in town, warning tourists who dare to dip their feet in the canals or who are caught eating or drinking in an undesignated area -- that they could be facing a fine of up to €500 (about $585). Now, Venice is planning to take its most controversial step yet. In September, a new measure requiring day-trippers to pay an entrance fee into the city of up to $11 (€10) will come into effect. Tourists overnighting in Venice will be exempt as a city tax is already included in the hotel rate. Residents, some 30,000 commuters, students and children under six will also not be required to pay. Simone Venturini, Venice's deputy mayor and councilor for economic development, tells CNN Travel that the money will go towards costs such as waste and security management. Day-trippers who benefit from city services without spending much inside the city itself will, he says, "at least leave a contribution that will allow the municipality to lessen costs that currently fall on the shoulders of the citizens." "We believe those who comes here should stay a few days and experience [the city] slowly, lose themselves in the canals of Venice and appreciate all the islands and places that are perhaps less famous to San Marco at the Rialto bridge," Venturini says, adding that tourism "must be managed not [by] closing the gates and blocking the city, but by incentivizing quality tourism." While the authorities believe the fee will help make the city more sustainable for tourists and locals alike, others say it's an undemocratic, exclusionary system that also draws parallels to an amusement park. Across Europe, cities are struggling to tackle overtourism. In Belgium, Bruges is cutting advertising for day trips and reducing the number of cruise ships allowed to dock at Zeebrugge port. Amsterdam 's soaring visitor numbers reached 18 million in 2018, prompting the Netherlands tourism board to halt advertising campaigns, stating that its focus is now on "destination management" rather than "destination promotion." 'What time does Venice close?' Marco Gasparinetti, an environmental lawyer and spokesperson for Venice's largest activist group Gruppo 25 Aprile , told CNN Travel that American tourists sometimes ask him when Venice closes. Gasparinetti believes that the proposed access fee skirts Venice's real problem with overcrowding and won't deter tourists. His group, whose primary campaign is to preserve the number of residents in the city so that it doesn't turn into a "kind of theme park," is calling for a quota instead. For Venice to be enjoyed by tourists, the city also needs to exist as a place for everyday life, he says. Fifty years ago, approximately 150,000 people lived in the city. Now, only some 53,000 residents are left. Between an aging population and a highly educated young population looking for work opportunities outside of the tourism sector, Venice sees a net loss of around 1,000 inhabitants a year. "We need to create conditions for people to stay," he says, adding that there are no jobs for young graduates, "unless you want to waitress or work selling tourist stuff at a kiosk." Although the city attracts new residents each year, they tend to be extremely wealthy, Gasparinetti notes, saying that the city is losing its middle class. Meanwhile, many Venetians who leave end up renting out their apartments on Airbnb, which some say encourages more tourists than the city is equipped to handle. Artist Deirdre Kelly, who has lived in the city for 15 years, believes that instead of focusing on a tourist tax, the Venice authority should try to manage Airbnb and other rental schemes. "It brings tears to my eyes to see these articles that show where all the red dots are," she says, referring to the Airbnb's search function which shows prospective travelers available rental options. "It actually looks like Venice is bleeding to death." A golden pot Tourism -- and tourism sector jobs -- are the staple of life for many inhabitants. Venice's Port Authority President Pino Musolino says that while the cruise ships might bring in plenty of foot traffic to the city, they also help to create up to 6,000 jobs for the locality. "30 million plus tourists per year is a golden pot and a very easy one," Musolino tells CNN Travel. "It's all gain and no losses," he says. Still, Musolino believes that its time to start thinking about creating jobs outside of the tourism sector, agreeing that limiting the amount of travelers at certain times of the year would help. "[It's] not because we want to close city or put up gates," Musolino says, but to challenge the idea that Venice is just an "open-air museum." "I don't think anybody would be happy to live in a city that is just a beautifully wrapped box with nothing inside."


The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are in the midst of a four-game series to conclude the first half of the MLB season. The first game on the 4th of July saw Los Angeles come out on top by the score of 5-1. It now boasts an eye-opening 60-29 record . Despite this, new Padres infielder Manny Machado seems to think his team will win a World Series before the Dodgers. Just check out Machado responding to a heckler during Thursday night's game. Manny Machado:" I'll bet you my contract, we'll win the World Series before you guys do" @barstoolsports @Dodgers pic.twitter.com/7M6mVzfGIJ   Zack Baly (@zbaly2) July 5, 2019 As we are sure you know, Machado played part of last season with the Dodgers after being traded by the Baltimore Orioles. While Los Angeles would go on to the World Series, Machado struggled big time . He hit just .182 in a five-game series loss to the Boston Red Sox. Machado's Padres might be a talented young team, but they don't yet compare to the division-rival Dodgers. Any talk of San Diego winning a title before Los Angeles is just insane. Related slideshow: 2019 MLB season (Provided by imagn)


PHILADELPHIA (AP) Jay Bruce delivered another big hit in a familiar spot. The veteran slugger ripped an RBI double in the bottom of the 10th inning against his former team, and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied to beat the reeling New York Mets 5-4 Wednesday night. ''I want to be the guy up at the plate with a chance to end it,'' Bruce said following his 12th career walk-off hit. Mets lefty Jason Vargas tied a career high with 10 strikeouts in his first start since being fined for an expletive-filled confrontation with a reporter. But he was pulled after only 77 pitches and the Phillies overcame a 4-0 deficit against New York's leaky bullpen. Rhys Hoskins drew a walk from Stephen Nogosek (0-1), and J.T. Realmuto singled. Roman Quinn ran for Hoskins and Bruce, traded by the Mets twice in the last two years, sent a long drive over center fielder Juan Lagares' head to give Philadelphia its third straight win over New York after a seven-game losing streak. Vargas baffled hitters with his assortment of off-speed pitches, allowing two runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings. But he exited after Realmuto doubled to start the seventh and Bruce flied out to deep center. Cesar Hernandez greeted Seth Lugo with a ground-rule double into Philadelphia's bullpen, cutting the deficit to 4-2. Pinch-hitter Brad Miller walked with two outs and Scott Kingery reached on a wild pitch after striking out swinging. Jean Segura then hit a tying, two-run single to right-center. ''The last three out of four batters squared it up, so let's get our best reliever in there,'' Mets manager Mickey Callaway said, explaining his decision to remove Vargas. The Phillies were happy to see him depart. ''We weren't able to solve that puzzle and we did a better job when the relievers came in the game,'' manager Gabe Kapler said. Edgar Garcia (2-0) tossed a perfect 10th for the win and the rookie pitcher ended up dumping a water cooler on Bruce's head to celebrate the victory. Dominic Smith and Jeff McNeil each hit a solo homer for the Mets, who have lost four in a row. Vargas had to be restrained from going after a Newsday beat writer in the team's clubhouse following a loss at Wrigley Field on Sunday. He called it ''an unfortunate distraction'' on Monday and answered questions for the first time since the altercation following the loss to Philadelphia. ''I don't think all the information is really out there,'' Vargas said. ''I don't think this is a time to get into that. But I think that anybody that knows me, anybody that has played with me, there's never been a situation like that. So to think it happened out of the blue, it's foolish.'' Vargas declined to explain what he meant. ''It's over,'' he said. ''Our organization made a statement. We put an end to it. But I think it's pretty obvious all the info isn't out there.'' Segura hit a solo homer off Vargas in the sixth after he retired 11 straight batters. Philadelphia's Nick Pivetta gave up four runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. He has a 4.30 ERA in six starts since a brief demotion to Triple-A. Smith gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the fourth on his seventh homer and third in three games. He drove a 1-1 pitch the opposite way into the left field seats. McNeil led off the fifth with an opposite-field shot to left-center to make it 2-0. The Mets chased Pivetta with two runs in the sixth. Tomas Nido lined an RBI single and McNeil drove in a run with a double. ROSTER MOVE The Mets selected right-hander Chris Mazza's contract from Triple-A Syracuse. He was 3-5 with a 3.59 ERA over 12 starts in the minors. RHP Walker Lockett was optioned to Syracuse and left-hander LHP Ryan O'Rourke was designated for assignment. TRAINER'S ROOM Mets: RHP Noah Syndergaard is expected to return from the injured list and start Sunday night against Atlanta after striking out nine in a rehab start for Class A Brooklyn on Tuesday. He has been out with a strained right hamstring. Phillies: RHP Tommy Hunter could join the bullpen in Miami this weekend after one more rehab appearance. He has been sidelined all season with an elbow injury. UP NEXT RHP Zack Wheeler (6-5, 4.69 ERA) starts for the Mets on Thursday afternoon and ace Aaron Nola (6-2, 4.55) goes for the Phillies. --- More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Mookie Betts is pretty good against Danny Duffy. Betts hit a two-run homer off Duffy in a four-run third inning and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-5 Thursday to complete their first series sweep in nearly a month. Betts is 7 for 11 with five home runs against Duffy (3-3). ''I put some good swings on some good pitches,'' Betts said. Betts has six hits, five home runs and a walk in his last seven plate appearances against Duffy. ''I've got to a better job of not serving it to him on a platter,'' Duffy said. ''He's got five bombs against me in 11 at-bats. ... If you make stupid mistakes like that he's going to capitalize.'' Boston outscored the Royals 23-8 over three games and extended its winning streak to four. The Red Sox swept a series for just the fourth time this year, the first since May 10-12 against the Chicago White Sox. The World Series champions are 27-16 following a 6-13 start and face the second-place Rays in a four-game weekend series at Fenway Park. ''We have some confidence going against a really good ballclub,'' Betts said. ''Ride the wave through this weekend.'' Kansas City has lost six straight and nine of 10, dropping to a big league-worst 19-43. With a doubleheader coming up Saturday against Tampa Bay, Boston gave Ryan Weber his third start. He allowed two runs and five hits in 1 1/3 innings, and Colten Brewer (1-2) followed with two scoreless innings of two-hit relief. Matt Barnes, Boston's seventh pitcher, allowed Jorge Soler's one-out RBI double in the ninth but got his fourth save in seven chances by striking out Ryan O'Hearn and Chelsor Cuthbert. Duffy allowed four runs and four hits in 2 1/3 innings. Eduardo Nunez's hard drive went off the inside of Duffy's right kneecap and ricocheted to O'Hearn, who tagged Nunez for the final out of the second. Duffy retired one of six batters he faced in the third. ''It's sore, but it didn't affect me,'' Duffy said. ''If I go back out there it's because I can. If I can, there are no excuses.'' Betts' 10th home run tied the score, and Rafael Devers put Boston ahead with a two-run single. Soler's fifth-inning homer cut the deficit to 4-3, but Christian Vazquez hit a two-run triple in the seventh and scored on Scott Barlow's wild pitch. Cuthbert and Alex Gordon homered for the Royals. TRAINER'S ROOM Red Sox DH J.D. Martinez was removed in the fifth inning because of back spasms. ... LHP Brian Johnson, on the IL since April 6 because of elbow inflammation, is to make his sixth minor league injury rehab appearance Sunday. UP NEXT Red Sox: RHP Rick Porcello (4-5, 4.76 ERA) starts Friday's opener of a four-game series against visiting Tampa Bay. Royals: RHP Homer Bailey (4-6, 6.05 ERA) takes the mound Friday at home against the White Sox. --- More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports


Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says the mindset that has helped the team dominate the sport has nothing to do with "tree-hugging" ideas. The German squad has been F1's dominant force since the start of the hybrid era in 2014, winning both the drivers' and constructors' championships every year since then. It currently leads the 2019 standings by 135 points from Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton comfortably at the top of the drivers' classification. Mercedes is seen as one of the best teams Formula 1 has ever had, and Wolff believes part of the secret for his squad's success has been staff continuity, something he reckons has been achieved through making the team a very appealing place to work. "I know that they receive offers because they tell me," Wolff said about how he keeps his staff intact. "I think that we have been able to create an environment where you actually enjoy your job. "It is a good place. There is no politics. I have zero tolerance for internal politics. We can do politics to the outside, when we see regulations, when we seek regulations that are good for the sport or good for us; but zero tolerance for internal politics." He added: "It is about brutal honesty with each other. We blame the problem but not the person. If somebody makes a mistake then we try to understand why and we try to avoid it in the future, or develop that person, and I think that it is truly about taking care of the human and their objectives. "I think it is as simple as it is. We truly care about each other. It is not some kind of tree-hugging sentence that we have read somewhere on a billboard. It is the mindset that works in this team: and it translates into all areas of the organisation. "Even now when I go through the drawing office, there are plenty of young people that have joined us over the years and in combination with the ones that have been there before it is a very strong group that everybody is buying into this mindset." Read Also: Wolff sees "agenda" behind rumours he could replace Carey Mercedes has been often accused of downplaying its own performances, but Wolff insists the team's cautious mindset is legitimate and not a "psychological game". "I hear people say to us when we reflect about our performance: come on! It's a home run this championship," he said. "And the way our mindset works is deep scepticism about whether the performance levels are enough to make it. "It is not some kind of that we are trying to play, it is really an attitude and a respect for the performance of the others, that can come at any time, and that we have seen glimpses of that makes us stay grounded. "You cannot buy anything from previous performances; whether it is eight race wins in a row or five championships in a row. As a matter of fact, it always starts from zero at the next track. "And it is a mindset that the team has had over the years that has kept us honest."


Inside a Scottsdale office building are the heads and bodies of 168 people who have been "cryonically preserved" with the hope that death will not be permanent. One of the most famous occupants at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation is baseball legend Ted Williams, whose head and body are stored separately inside large cylindrical stainless-steel tanks at the foundation's offices. Alcor, which began in California in 1972, has operated in Arizona since 1994. The nonprofit company's office houses 168 "patients" and 90 pets (cats, dogs, one turtle and one chinchilla), who have died but are being preserved at subzero temperatures in a way that may allow them to be revived and one day live again, Alcor officials say. Alcor considers its patients as not dead, but rather in a suspended, in-between state. The company has 1,250 still-living "members" who have made the legal arrangements and paid up to $200,000 apiece to reserve a spot in one of Alcor's thermos-like tanks when they die. Each tank is stocked with liquid nitrogen to keep bodies at a temperature of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit and can hold five heads and four whole bodies. So far, cryonics has proven far more popular with men than women. About 75 percent of Alcor members and patients are male. 'This is still an experimental process' Alcor is not a big organization. About eight members die per year, but there have been years when none has died. One of the reasons for its low membership is that Alcor does virtually no marketing. They don't want to mislead the public into thinking that they have a guaranteed ticket to the future after they die, officials said. "It's an engineering problem, how to make it happen," Alcor co-founder Linda Chamberlain said. "We want people to understand that this is still an experimental process. We don't want anyone to come into this, make arrangements and think this is like going to the hospital and having open-heart surgery, that their chances are just as good. It's not there yet." When "members" die, they become patients who may choose to remain anonymous. Those non-confidential patients who have waived anonymity may have their photo and name up on the wall inside Alcor's offices, where patients are regarded as people company officials will eventually encounter again. The photos are a daily reminder to Alcor employees of "why we're here" and "who we're working for," Chamberlain said. Besides Ted Williams, patients include Dick Clair Jones , who was a writer for CBS-TV's "The Carol Burnett Show" and a co-creator of the NBC-TV situation comedy "The Facts of Life"; American scientist Marvin Minsky , who co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's artificial intelligence laboratory; and Chinese science fiction writer Du Hong. Though Alcor prefers that patients die in Scottsdale, they deploy a team anywhere in the world when one of their members dies. The team includes two physicians, a medical response director and Alcor CEO Max More. They bring with them a folding ice bath and other equipment to the places where members die, and will contract to use an operating room if needed to infuse patients with a chilled organ transplant solution and cryoprotective chemicals. For more stories that matter, subscribe to azcentral.com . Bioethics expert: 'It is just not doable' Not surprisingly, many are skeptical of Alcor's mission. While human embryos can be successfully frozen for in vitro fertilization, there's a big difference between freezing a cluster of cells and a human being, critics say. "The whole thing is too science fiction-y. I still believe no one will be able to do what they wish, which is to bring back the dead," said Arthur Caplan , a professor of bioethics at New York University. "It is just not doable." In the event cryonics does work, Caplan questions whether anyone would really want to come back to life 400 or 500 years from now. He compared it to having a person from the 16th century suddenly dropping into 2019. "I fear you would become mentally deranged by it all," he said. The Maryland-based Society for Cryobiology says storing a preserved body, head or brain on the chance that a future generation may restore it to life "is an act of speculation or hope, not science." Chamberlain keeps an open mind. While it's easy to be dismissive, no one can say for certain what will be possible in the future, she said. And it's a gamble she and other cryonics devotees are willing to take. Case in point: Alcor recently received an anonymous donation of $5 million from one of its members to do more research into cryonics and reanimation. Uproar over Ted Williams' frozen head Some Alcor patients are classified as "neuro," which means they've donated their heads only, and that comes at a cost of $80,000. Others choose the whole body, at the more expensive price of $200,000. Many members pay by taking out a life insurance policy in the amount of the Alcor fee. Half of the money paid goes into the preservation process and half into a patient trust to cover the costs of long-term storage and revival. Prices for cryopreserving a pet can vary by size, and how much of the pet is frozen. The pet option is available only to Alcor members. A price list for pets ranges from $2,500 to $30,000. Williams, the longtime Boston Red Sox superstar who died in 2002, is what's known as a "neuro with whole body," so his head was removed from his body and cryopreserved, but both parts are at Alcor. Alcor no longer offers a "neuro with whole body" option, as it is considered outdated, Chamberlain said. At one time the company offered the option of preserving the body and head separately because technology was not as adept at cryoprotecting the brain, she explained. "He was a confidential member," Chamberlain said of Williams. "But there was so much newspaper coverage that it doesn't do us any good to deny it." Williams' cryopreservation attracted extensive media attention after a former Alcor employee wrote a tell-all book, saying Williams' head had been mistreated in the Alcor lab. Alcor has consistently denied the allegations. The Ted Williams story also included a well-publicized family fight, with one of Williams' daughters opposed to the idea of her father's cryopreservation. RELATED: Man suing Alcor for $1M   and the return of his dad's frozen head Chamberlain says Alcor strongly prefers that members sign up when they are still alive and not leave it up to their next-of-kin because those are the situations that can and do put Alcor in legal fights. Alcor has been sued by relatives of its members before. "We usually say no to last-minute cases," Chamberlain said. "Right or wrong, you end up spending money in court. We try to avoid that." The reason so many patients preserve only their head is because in the future, scientific advances may allow for a new body to be generated using a person's DNA, said Chamberlain, a cheerful woman whose email sign-off reads, "Boundless Life." Since most patients died with old, sick bodies, the idea of getting a new one is popular   110 of the patients are "neuro" only and have just their heads preserved; the rest chose to have their whole body preserved. Technologically, "neuro" is the superior option, Chamberlain said, and it's also cheaper, but some people have emotional issues about separating their heads from their bodies. "Anybody who is over the age of 40 has a certain amount of blockages in their arteries and vessels, and those blockages will prevent us from introducing our cryoprotective chemicals," she explained. "Their cryoprotection will be minimized because of that." Alcor has no outside regulation Alcor is exempt from a 2017 Arizona law that regulates the body-donation industry but has yet to be enforced. Judith Stapley, executive director of the Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, said that since Alcor is handling dead people, "there should be some outside entity regulating it and making sure all protocols are in place to protect the public." Alcor's regulation is "all internal," Chamberlain said. While Alcor is concerned that "fly by night" organizations could be attracted to opening their own cryonics facilities, Chamberlain said it's important that any regulation is done by the correct authority. Oversight by the state's funeral board would not be appropriate, she said. "We don't necessarily want to be controlled by some organization that doesn't know what we're doing and would be inappropriately managing us," she said. The nonprofit does not turn away bodies if they have infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. "We suit up in (protective) bunny suits," Chamberlain said. "In the 1980s, when the AIDS crisis was at its peak, we had many AIDS patients. We just used the very best protection that we could to protect ourselves from being infected." Cryonics plan: Freeze, wait, reanimate Many Alcor members specify the age they'd like to be when they come back to life, and 25 is probably the most popular, said Chamberlain, whose husband, mother and father-in-law are all cryopreserved at Alcor. "It's all about these guys, the patients," Chamberlain said, looking at photos of her family members on the office walls. "This is who we are working for. We're not just selling Frisbees or something. ... We have family members and friends who are in our patient care bay. So it is not just a business." Chamberlain founded the company with her NASA engineer husband, Fred Chamberlain. The company always has been nonprofit so that their mission and procedures would not be dictated by shareholders, she said. The Chamberlains first bonded over cryonics after reading a 1964 book by American academic Robert Ettinger titled "The Prospect of Immortality." Ettinger is considered the "father of cryonics," Chamberlain said. He laid out the basic idea of cryonics   freeze, wait and reanimate. Ettinger's idea was if a body could be cooled to a low enough temperature to stop the dying process, the body could be held there until the technology is developed to bring that person back to life. The "freezing" technique is now more sophisticated than in the past. Cryoprotective chemicals prevent crystals from forming and allow liquids in the body to form a glass-like substance, Chamberlain said. The whole process from death to freezing tank can take a week or longer. "Looking at the progress of medical technology just over the last 50 years it's more of a question of when than if," Chamberlain said. "It's been a part of my life for the past 47 years. I can't really imagine not doing this for myself and my family. ... I enjoy life and I don't want it to end." Reach the reporter at Stephanie.Innes@gannett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. MORE IN THIS SERIES Arizona is a hotbed for the cadaver industry Despite state law, body donation industry still unregulated This Phoenix company put body donation industry in spotlight 5 things you need to know before donating your body to science This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Scottsdale cryonics facility hopes frozen dead people will live again