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Google Parent Posts Surge in Profit, but Expenses Also Jump
Google parent Alphabet Inc. posted surging profits as advertisers kept swarming to the search giant amid a global debate about internet privacy that threatens to affect its main revenue generator.
Alphabet’s earnings also got a multibillion-dollar boost from the company’s stakes in startups including Uber Technologies Inc. but were tempered by the costliest spending spree in its 14-year history as a public company.
Net…
Senate panel narrowly endorses Mike Pompeo for secretary of state after Trump intervenes with key Republican
Secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo narrowly eked out an endorsement from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday after President Trump and a Democratic senator intervened at the last minute, all but guaranteeing that he will be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.
Pompeo had seemed unlikely to secure a majority of the panel’s support. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who had pledged to oppose him, tweeted moments before the vote that Trump had talked with him and changed his mind.
Paul’s key concern had been that Pompeo, currently director of the CIA, would not support Trump’s campaign pledge to pull troops out of Afghanistan. The senator also had called on Pompeo “to support President Trump’s belief that the Iraq war was a mistake.”
“Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next secretary of state,” Paul said.
The panel’s vote was largely symbolic, since Pompeo had secured enough votes to be confirmed by the full Senate earlier in the day, when two Democrats facing difficult reelection challenges in 2018 — Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) — announced that they would back his nomination on the floor.
But Trump’s supporters were determined to have Pompeo enter office without the mark of being the first secretary of state in almost a century to fail a committee vote.
The committee ultimately voted 11 to 10 along party lines to endorse Pompeo. But because of a quirk in the Senate rules, the panel could not send its recommendation to the full Senate, as one of those 11 Republicans — Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) — was not present for the vote. He was out of town delivering a eulogy at his best friend’s funeral, senators said.
A negative vote on Pompeo’s nomination would not necessarily have precluded the full Senate from taking it up. But for GOP leaders, time was of the essence: They want Pompeo to be confirmed in time to attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers Friday.
At the urging of panel chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Democratic Sen. Christopher A. Coons (Del.) volunteered to change his vote to “present” — making the vote 11 in favor, 9 opposed and 1 present, and enabling the committee to quickly push Pompeo’s nomination to the floor.
“Senator Isakson is one of my closest friends here . . . and he’s been through an incredibly hard day,” Coons told reporters. He said it would have been “heartless” to shuttle Isakson off his return flight straight to a delayed committee vote when the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
The gesture was an increasingly rare one in the politically divided Congress, where it is difficult for lawmakers to extend personal gestures without facing political scrutiny. As Coons explained his decision to reporters outside the committee room, a protester yelled at him: “You care more about your friend than you do this country!”
Coons said he still intended to vote against Pompeo’s nomination on the Senate floor. At this point, only three Democrats — Manchin, Donnelly and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), who announced her support last week — have committed to back Pompeo’s confirmation.
[Mounting opposition to Pompeo makes positive Senate committee vote unlikely]
Last year, 14 Democrats voted to confirm Pompeo as CIA director, but several have already stated that they will not back him to serve as secretary of state.
On Monday, White House officials again urged Senate Democrats to support Pompeo’s nomination, with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying on Fox News Channel that the administration hoped “that some members will change their minds.”
Democrats have raised several objections to Pompeo’s nomination, arguing that his previous statements favoring the use of force over diplomatic options, his record of controversial quips about American Muslims and same-sex marriage, and concerns that he would not challenge Trump on matters of foreign policy made him unfit to serve as secretary of state.
Pompeo’s supporters appeared to be bracing for a negative outcome in the Foreign Relations Committee, arguing that the panel is not representative of the full Senate. Last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told reporters that “the Senate will set [the panel] straight” if it refused to endorse Pompeo’s nomination. Cotton also issued a threat to Democratic senators such as Manchin and Heitkamp who are facing difficult elections, noting that if they oppose Pompeo “and they’re up for reelection, they may suffer the consequences.”
Senate leaders are expected to put the nomination to a floor vote later this week.
Trump’s supporters pointed to the integral role that Pompeo, as CIA director, has had in advising the president on national security and foreign policy matters, including how to approach the Iran nuclear deal, which is nearing a critical extension deadline of May 12, and promised denuclearization talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with whom Pompeo met to discuss the terms of the summit expected next month.
But politically, the tone for Pompeo’s tenure will be set in part by how his floor vote stacks up against that of his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, who was ousted earlier this year. Tillerson was confirmed as secretary of state by a vote of 56 to 43, “a remarkably low level of support,” said Jeff Rathke, a former career Foreign Service officer and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
If Pompeo secures more votes for his confirmation, “it could suggest marginally greater confidence from the Senate,” Rathke continued. But he noted that the strength of Pompeo’s bipartisan mandate will be “historically low” and “will mean a reinforcement of the partisan divide on foreign policy.”
Others say that Pompeo will make his reputation once in office — and that if he helps to rebuild the relevance of the department, which flagged in morale and staffing under Tillerson’s stewardship, the politics surrounding his confirmation vote will not matter.
“Opponents say they want the State Department rebuilt and the secretary to have positions different from the president. Pompeo has promised the first. The second is not reasonable,” said Ronald E. Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and a former career diplomat. “If confirmed, he will be judged on his performance going forward.”
John Wagner and John Hudson contributed to this report.
Toronto Van Driver Kills at Least 10 People in ‘Pure Carnage’
The carnage was reminiscent of deadly attacks by Islamic State supporters using vehicles that have shaken up Nice, France, Berlin, Barcelona, London and New York. But late Monday, Canada’s public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said this time appeared to be different.
“The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous,” he said, “but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security based on the information at this time.”
With the driver under arrest, the Canadian authorities began the process of reconstructing how — and why — a day filled with the promise of early spring became a scene of horror. The authorities released few details about Mr. Minassian on Monday night.
“There were a lot of pedestrians out, a lot of witnesses out, enjoying the sunny afternoon,” said Peter Yuen, the deputy chief of the Toronto police service.
John Flengas, the acting E.M.S. supervisor for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, which said it received 10 victims from the scene, described it as “pure carnage.” He told CTV News on Monday that he had seen “victims everywhere.”
One witness said the van had mowed down everything in its path: pedestrians, mailboxes, electrical poles, benches and a fire hydrant. Another, who rushed to help the pedestrian struck while crossing the street, said, “Pieces of the van went flying everywhere.”
Meaghan Gray, a spokeswoman for the Toronto police, said the authorities received a report at 1:30 p.m. on Monday that the van had mounted a curb near Yonge Street and Finch Avenue West. Stephan Powell, a spokesman for the Toronto Fire Department, said pedestrians were struck at “at least two locations.”
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Ten victims were taken to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, Dr. Dan Cass, its executive vice president, said at a news conference. Two were declared dead on arrival, five were in critical condition and three were in serious condition, he said.
Dr. Cass said that he did not have information about the nature of the victims’ injuries and that the hospital had not yet confirmed the identities of the dead.
In a statement on Monday, John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, said, “My thoughts are with those affected by this incident and the front-line responders who are working to help those injured.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “We’re monitoring the situation closely.”
Yonge Street is Toronto’s main artery, and is widely celebrated as the longest street in Canada. It cuts through the city from Lake Ontario through downtown before reaching the suburbs and then into farmland.
The deaths occurred in the far north, a densely populated part of the city surrounded by many new condominium towers. On Monday, many shops in the area remained closed, at the request of the authorities. And a makeshift memorial was developing at a stone wall just south of Finch Avenue.
Konstantin Goulich, a local resident, appeared with bags of markers and rolls of cardboard from a dollar store.
Credit
Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press
“Guys please come and write how you’re feeling: your wishes for the victims, if you’d like to say something. Every bit of support counts,” Mr. Goulich said to passers-by.
“If you can’t write in English, write in your own language write in Chinese, write in Korean,” he said.
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Late in the day, well south of the scene of the killings, extra security was obvious around the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto, where the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing Boston in a playoff game. Large municipal dump trucks, apparently filled with sand and gravel, were used to block off roads, including one major thoroughfare near the ice rink.
After the game, which Toronto won, jubilant fans streamed out of the arena, but the only sign of the day’s events on Yonge Street were clutches of police officers wearing bulletproof vests. Some fans expressed shock about the carnage that had taken place earlier in the day.
“We don’t expect this in Canada,” said one fan, Luca Pitsocia, a 21-year-old aspiring paramedic.
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Cole Burston/Getty Images
The van used in the rampage was stopped about a mile south of where it took place, said Dan Fox, a civil servant who passed the vehicle on his way to work on Monday. He said it had “significant damage.”
“It looked like the side of the van had scraped along the side of the building,” Mr. Fox said in a phone interview, the sound of police sirens wailing behind him. “The driver-side door was open, but I didn’t see anyone in or around the van.”
The episode in Toronto appeared to be the deadliest use of a vehicle in Canada to deliberately mow down pedestrians.
Last October, a police officer in Edmonton was struck with a car and stabbed, and four other people were later deliberately hit by a U-Haul truck. The driver of both vehicles, a Somali immigrant, was arrested in what Prime Minister Trudeau called a terrorist attack.
In 2014, a driver in the Montreal area struck two members of the Canadian armed forces and was shot and killed by the police, who described the attack as Islamist terrorism. One of the victims died.
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In travel ban case, Supreme Court considers ‘the president’ vs. ‘this president’
The Supreme Court’s final oral argument of the term will be one of its most important and potentially far-reaching, an examination of the president’s authority to protect the country by banning some foreigners who seek entry.
But, similar to a debate that has consumed Washington for the past 15 months, a major issue for the court is separating “the president” from “this president.”
The justices on Wednesday will consider President Trump’s third iteration of a travel ban that bars most nationals from a small group of mostly Muslim nations. It is the first time the court has considered the merits of a policy that has consumed the administration since its start, and raises deep questions about the judiciary’s role in national security issues usually left to the political branches.
The first version of the ban was issued just a week after Trump took office, and lower courts have found that it and each reformulated version since exceeded the authority granted by Congress and was motivated by Trump’s prejudice — animus, as courts like to say — toward Muslims.
[Appeals court strikes down Trump travel ban — again]
The state of Hawaii, which is leading the challenge of the ban, told the Supreme Court:
“For over a year, the president campaigned on the pledge, never retracted, that he would ban Muslims from entering the United States.
“And upon taking office, the president issued and reissued, and reissued again, a sweeping and unilateral order that purports to bar over 150 million aliens — the vast majority of them Muslim — from entering the United States.”
Hawaii’s brief, by Washington lawyer Neal K. Katyal, cites not only Trump’s campaign comments, but also his actions as president, including the time he retweeted “three anti-Muslim propaganda videos” from a widely condemned far-right British organization.
This led to a response by the solicitor general of the United States to the justices of the Supreme Court that could have been written only in this era, about this chief executive:
“The president’s retweets do not address the meaning of the proclamation at all.”
Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco urged the court not to get distracted by the president’s bluster — he has said nice things about Muslims, too, the brief states — and to keep its examination on the law.
“The Constitution and acts of Congress . . . both confer on the President broad authority to suspend or restrict the entry of aliens outside the United States when he deems it in the nation’s interest,” Francisco wrote.
If the president’s comments and tweets were not a factor, many legal experts said, the court would be likely to extend the deference to the political branches it has shown in the past when considering issues of immigration and national security.
Washington lawyer Gregory G. Garre, who defended executive authority as President George W. Bush’s solicitor general, said the law makes such respect clear.
“No matter where the court ends up, the president starts with two significant pluses — the executive’s inherent constitutional authority over foreign affairs and a textually broad grant of authority by Congress to regulate the entry of aliens determined to be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” Garre said.
Los Angeles lawyer Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. agrees, with a caveat: But Trump.
“This case comes to the court with this backdrop of a president who has been shattering norms, even brazenly saying they don’t matter,” said Boutrous, who filed a brief on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urging the court to strike down the ban.
His brief on behalf of the bishops said that the travel ban is a result of “blatant religious discrimination” and that it “poses a substantial threat to religious liberty that this court has never tolerated before and should not tolerate now.”
Trump’s efforts to ban certain travelers has a complicated backstory. He first issued a proclamation banning travel from certain countries a week after taking office. It went into effect immediately, causing chaos and protests at airports around the world.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued an injunction. Instead of appealing to the Supreme Court, the administration enacted a second version of the plan. That was stopped by two regional courts of appeals.
Before the Supreme Court could consider the merits of the second plan, the administration in September announced a new one.
[Supreme Court dismisses expired Trump travel ban]
It blocked entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, and certain visitors from North Korea and Venezuela. The latter two countries are not part of the challenge before the Supreme Court, and the administration on April 10 removed Chad from the list.
Francisco told the court that the third edition of the ban responds to the criticisms by lower courts of the first two, and was the result of a “worldwide review of the processes for vetting aliens seeking entry from abroad.”
The resulting ban was no different from what past presidents have occasionally imposed, he said. Congress specifically has granted authority that the president “may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens” after a finding that the entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” Francisco wrote.
But challengers to the ban point to another section of the law, which says a person may not be denied an immigration visa “because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.”
Allowing the president to ban citizens of a nation, the challengers said, amounts to giving the president a “line-item veto over the entire immigration code.”
Besides examining the immigration statute, the court has said it will review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that the ban violates the First Amendment’s guarantee against religious discrimination.
And the court will also consider whether the judiciary even has authority to “look behind” the face of an immigration proclamation to examine whether it was drawn with improper motives.
Again, the court was urged to look beyond Trump.
“The scope of this court’s decision here will have an impact on this (and future) president’s ability to protect our national security interests as he (and Congress) sees fit,” said a brief filed by national security experts supporting Trump. “At the end of the day, it is not the role of the judiciary to intercede in such matters, and this court should clearly say so.”
The challengers are backed by a large number of organizations that contend otherwise. Religious groups say it is the job of the court to guard constitutional protections against religious discrimination. Universities say the ban harms them in recruiting students and scholars. A different set of national security experts say the ban will harm U.S. interests in the long run.
The libertarian Cato Institute says its research leads to the conclusion that the ban is based more on discrimination than protection.
“Not a single person from these countries has killed anyone in a terrorist attack in the United States in over four decades,” the brief stated. “Nationals of the designated countries have also been much less likely to commit other serious crimes than U.S.-born persons or other foreign nationals.”
The justices may have already signaled that they are inclined to rule for the administration. In December, the court issued a stay of a lower court’s injunction and allowed the ban to take effect, with only Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor noting their objections.
[Justices allow full enforcement of Trump ban while challenges continue]
Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, said only once in the more-than-a-decade Roberts court have the justices granted a stay without later reversing the opinion of the lower court.
In a conference call with reporters sponsored by the Federalist Society, Blackman predicted the same would happen in this case. But he, too, addressed the question of how the court would view Trump, and made his case for reversing the lower courts in a way it is unlikely the Trump administration itself would endorse.
“If the court rules here for President Trump, I don’t see that many lingering problems; I don’t know that we’ll ever have a president again like Trump, who says such awful, awful things on a daily basis,” Blackman said.
“I worry much more if they rule against President Trump, and they give courts [a] green light to parse campaign statements and the like, this could potentially hamstring not just this president, but also future presidents.”
The case is Trump v. Hawaii.
Martha, Bela Karolyi defend training environment, say they didn’t know about abuse
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The criminal cases heard around the world are officially over. Michigan Judge Janice Cunningham sentenced Larry Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison.
USA TODAY
Martha and Bela Karolyi conceded the training environment at the ranch where they built the U.S. gymnastics team into a powerhouse was intense. But in their first interview since sexual abuse allegations against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar became public, the couple denied creating an environment that was abusive or that enabled his abuse.
In an hourlong NBC News Dateline special on Sunday, the Karolyis responded to criticism from several gymnasts and that have been laid out in two lawsuits against them. They also said they didn’t know Nassar was sexually abusing gymnasts.
“I feel extremely bad,” said Martha Karolyi, the longtime national team coordinator, on Dateline. “I don’t feel responsible, but I feel extremely hurt that these things happened and it happened everywhere but it happened here, also.”
The extent of what happened at the ranch and of Nassar’s abuse of hundreds of gymnasts over two decades, both in his role at USA Gymnastics and as a physician at Michigan State, has engulfed the sport.
McKayla Maroney, a member of the Fierce Five that won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, gave Dateline some of her most detailed comments on the abuse she says Nassar inflicted on her from the first time he treated her.
Maroney is one of more than 260 athletes who has accused Nassar of abusing them under the guise of medical treatment. Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber also have said Nassar abused them.
More: McKayla Maroney raised questions about Larry Nassar’s conduct in 2011
More: USA Gymnastics settles lawsuit that started investigation
Nassar, 54, is serving a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography charges. He was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault in Michigan and faces a minimum of 40 years in prison after his federal sentence is over.
The Indianapolis Star, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, first made public the allegations against Nassar in August 2016 after being contacted by Rachael Denhollander, who said she’d been abused by Nassar.
Maroney came forward in October, and she gave a statement that was read during one of Nassar’s sentencing hearings in Michigan.
She told Dateline of abuse she endured every time Nassar treated her. Like many other gymnasts and parents, she criticized USA Gymnastics for not prioritizing athlete well-being.
“All they cared about was their reputation, money, gold medals and that was it,” Maroney said. Asked who “they” was, Maroney said, “Martha, the camp, everybody, every single person that worked there.”
The Karolyis, both now retired, conceded the atmosphere at the ranch was “intense.”
“It’s a very serious atmosphere to try to come as close as possible as perfection,” Martha Karolyi said. “You have to find out who are the best ones, who are the best ones who are able to stand the pressure?”
The environment the Karolyis created and how that led to Nassar’s abuse are part of two lawsuits filed against them in 2016. The lawsuits allege the Karolyis hit or scratched gymnasts, that they withheld food and water and that they made comments about gymnasts’ weight.
In their Dateline interview, the Karolyis denied those claims.
“Verbally, we were not abusive. Emotionally, it depends on the person. You have to be a strong person to be able to handle the pressure,” Martha Karolyi said.
“Maybe you say a little overweight, but in order to be a good gymnast, you need to have the right ratio between strength and weight.”
The Karolyis first made a name for themselves as Romania’s coaches at the 1976 Olympics, where Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in history, a feat she would go on to duplicate six times in Montreal. But the Karolyis fell out of favor after Bela Karolyi criticized the judging at the Moscow Olympics, and the couple defected to the United States in early 1981.
They eventually opened a gym in Houston and, in 1984, Mary Lou Retton became the first U.S. woman to win the Olympic all-around title, gymnastics’ biggest prize.
The Karolyis retired after the 1996 Games, where Martha Karolyi was head coach of the Magnificent Seven, the first U.S. women’s team to win Olympic gold. But after a series of disappointing results, USA Gymnastics asked them to come back and take over the U.S. women’s program.
In late 1999, Bela Karolyi became the first national team coordinator and implemented a semi-centralized training system, where gymnasts trained at home but came to the Karolyi ranch outside of Houston once a month for national team camps. Bela Karolyi stepped down after the Sydney Olympics, and Martha Karolyi replaced him in early 2001 and stayed in the role until after the Rio Olympics in 2016.
In the Dateline interview, Bela Karolyi said the couple did not hit gymnasts in the U.S. system.
“Probably about 50 years ago in Romania when … even slapping or spanking, that was a common procedure, yes,” Bela Karolyi said. “I never touched anybody (in the United States) and if anybody comes up with that one, that’s a dirty lie.”
While the Americans became the world’s most dominant team under the Karolyis, winning 97 world championship and Olympic medals, some have said their exacting standards fostered an atmosphere in which gymnasts and their coaches were afraid to speak up. It was that culture that allowed Nassar to prey on young gymnasts, some have said.
“Larry acted like our friend. He always had a sympathetic ear for complaints about our coaches,” Wieber said Wednesday during an appearance before a Senate subcommittee investigating sexual abuse in the Olympic movement. “He would bring us food, candy and coffee at the Olympics when we were hungry. I didn’t know that these were all grooming techniques that he used to manipulate and brainwash me into trusting him.”
In their Dateline interview, the Karolyis said they didn’t know of Nassar’s abuse. Martha Karolyi said she “never, ever (heard), not one single complaint” about the doctor.
“I heard during the testimonies that some of the parents were in the therapy room with their own child and Larry Nassar was performing this,” Martha Karolyi said. “And the parent couldn’t see. How I could see?
“The whole gymnastics community couldn’t recognize this,” she added. “Everybody said Larry Nassar is a good doctor, Larry Nassar is a good guy.”
Maroney, who said Nassar abused her at the ranch and on national team trips that included the world championships and Olympics, expressed doubt about the Karolyis in the Dateline interview.
“They just want to say, oh, we didn’t know. You knew what I ate. You controlled what I wore. You controlled what I said. How could you not know?” she said. “That’s what everybody says, that it’s not their responsibility. They were the leaders of everything.”
USA Gymnastics has previously planned to purchase the ranch from the Karolyis and maintain it as their national training center. But after Biles, a five-time Olympic medalist in Rio, questioned returning to the site where so many gymnasts were abused, USA Gymnastics said in January that it would no longer hold training camps there.
USA Gymnastics has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the Nassar case as well as other sexual misconduct complaints. Former CEO Steve Penny was forced to resign in March 2017, and the entire board stepped down after the U.S. Olympic Committee threatened to decertify the federation.
The USOC also has asked Ropes Gray to investigate how it and USA Gymnastics responded to the Nassar allegations. This follows a report last summer by former federal prosecutor Deborah Daniels, who found that “a complete cultural change” was needed because USA Gymnastics had not done enough to educate its staff, members and athletes about protecting children from sexual abuse.
USA Gymnastics, which asked Daniels to investigate the organization, is in the process of implementing her 70 recommendations. It also required athletes to be accompanied by a chaperone other than a coach at training camps and international assignments this spring.
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Cavaliers vs. Pacers 2018 results: Cleveland stays alive behind LeBron James to tie series at 2-2
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a pulse. The Cavs outlasted the Indiana Pacers, 104-100, to win Game 4 and tie the series at 2-2. LeBron James again carried Cleveland, but it was the three-point shooting from his supporting cast that made the difference.
Cleveland secured the win with a 10-2 run late in the fourth quarter keyed by a huge three-pointer from Kyle Korver. Korver and J.R. Smith each knocked down four threes and combined for 30 points to give Cleveland the supplemental scoring punch it needed.
LeBron took it from there. James was brilliant again across 46 minutes, finishing with 32 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. He went 0-of-5 from three, but was a bull going to the basket and money (8-of-9) from the foul line. It’s the 100th time in James’ career he’s scored 30 points in a playoff game. Think about that.
Indiana was in this game until the very end. Victor Oladipo struggled, finishing with 17 points on 5-of-20 shooting. His teammates picked him up. Domantas Sabonis was automatic inside, leading Indiana with 19 points. Myles Turner (17 points) again played an efficient game and even hit three threes, while Lance Stephenson added 11 points and five assists while again irritating LeBron all night.
Jordan Clarkson also added 12 points for the Cavs.
The series is now tied at 2-2 entering Game 5 in Cleveland. The Cavs needed this win badly, and they got it.
Here’s a running blog of what happened during the game.
Cavaliers 104, Pacers 100, final.
A Victor Oladipo triple cuts the deficit to three, then Stephenson forced a tie-up following the inbound pass. The referees reviewed the play and decided Stephenson fouled Jeff Green on the play, Green got two free throws and the game was essentially sealed.
Here’s the call:
Jump ball forced by Lance Stephenson.
Referees review, then decide to call a foul on LANCE.
CORRECT CALL? pic.twitter.com/7LR4SWodVU
— NBA Buzz (@OfficialNBABuzz) April 23, 2018
Cavaliers 99, Pacers 95 (2:20 in the fourth)
A huge three from Kyle Korver gives Cleveland a fourth-point lead. He’s got 16 points.
Pacers 91, Cavaliers 89 (6:12 in the fourth)
The Pacers have seven players in double figures in scoring, but no one with more than Domantas Sabonis’ 19 points. It’s a good representation of who these Pacers are as a team: so selfless and balanced, with every player on the floor capable of hitting an outside shot and defending their position.
The Cavs are in for a hell of a fight if they want to avoid going down 3-1 in this series.
Also: Lance Stephenson is being very Lance Stephenson.
Cavaliers 87, Pacers 87 (8:17 in the fourth)
Most important quarter of the NBA season to date is coming up
— Playoff Mike P (@MikePradaSBN) April 23, 2018
That might even be an understatement when you consider how it plays into LeBron James’ free agency decision.
The Cavs led by as many as 16 in the first half. This is huge.
Cavaliers 73, Pacers 68 (5:44 in the third)
Last five scoring possessions:
— JR Smith three.
— Bojan Bogdanovic three.
— Jose Calderon three.
— Bojan Bogdanovic three (again).
— Kyle Korver three.
Let’s gooo.
Cavaliers 60, Pacers 50 (halftime)
Another game, another double-digit halftime lead for Cleveland, who got 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting from a scorching LeBron James in the first half to go with six rebounds and four assists. Jordan Clarkson added 12 points for the Cavs and didn’t miss a shot.
Cavaliers 40, Pacers 28 (8:53 2Q)
J.R. Smith has nine early points for Cleveland, including this three from beyond half court to end the first quarter.
Preview
The Cavaliers have their backs against the wall — well, figuratively. They inexplicably dropped Game 1 and find themselves in a 1-2 deficit against a raging Pacers team looking to protect home court. That doesn’t bode well for Cleveland in its efforts to return to the NBA Finals for a fourth straight season.
The Cavaliers can wear all the suits they want; that won’t help them play the defense they need to slow the fast-paced Pacers down. What Cleveland needs is continuity, and maybe a few other rotational pieces. It’s too late for either.
The Pacers and Cavaliers are facing off for what will be a ferocious Game 4 in Indiana. Victor Oladipo has been nothing short of outstanding. So has LeBron James. But Indy’s role players have run circles around Cleveland’s, and there are no signs that will change any time soon.
Cleveland is without George Hill, which means Jose Calderon will get the start. That’s a 36-year-old being tasked to dart around the court, chasing the speedster, Darren Collison. Good luck with that.
If the Cavaliers lose on Sunday, they’ll fall to a 1-3 deficit, and even though the series is shifting back home, they’ll need to win another game on the road if they’re going to make it out of the first round. LeBron James has never been eliminated this early into the playoffs. Will this be the year The King’s streak comes crashing down?
Trump Tempers His Optimism on North Korea: ‘Only Time Will Tell’
President Donald Trump tempered his optimism on North Korea on Sunday, saying that “only time will tell” how things turn out, as U.S. lawmakers sounded skeptical about promises made by Pyongyang ahead of possible historic talks between the countries’ leaders.
“We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they won’t — only time will tell,” Trump said Sunday on Twitter.
In another sign that a successful outcome with North Korea is far from assured, the Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that Trump won’t be willing to make concessions, such as lifting economic sanctions, until North Korea has substantially dismantled its nuclear arsenal. The Journal cited U.S. officials it didn’t identify.
In an earlier tweet, the president criticized NBC journalist Chuck Todd for suggesting that the U.S. had given too much ground to North Korea in negotiations ahead of the potential meeting with Kim: “Wow, we haven’t given up anything they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, no more testing!”
Symbolic Move
Sunday’s comments followed those from Trump on Friday after Kim pledged to halt nuclear testing in what was seen as a largely symbolic gesture aimed at softening the ground for talks between the two leaders. Trump hailed “big progress” and said he looked forward to the summit with North Korea’s leader, which could go ahead in May or June.
This satellite image shows the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in March 2018.
Kim told a ruling party meeting in Pyongyang on Friday his regime would suspend tests of atomic bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles after achieving its goal of building a nuclear arsenal, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea will shutter its Punggye-ri test site, a secluded mountain facility believed to be damaged after a hydrogen bomb test in September.
However, the reclusive state’s media has steered clear of using the term “denuclearization” to describe Pyongyang’s offer. Kim has made no commitment to give up the estimated 60 nuclear bombs and the unknown number of intercontinental ballistic missiles he already has — and that could be the sticking point for the White House.
Pompeo Vote
Trump was back on Twitter after returning to Washington from Florida Sunday afternoon. “Funny how all of the Pundits that couldn’t come close to making a deal on North Korea are now all over the place telling me how to make a deal!”
White House legislative director Marc Short said Sunday that the administration has “cautious optimism” about North Korea.
The ongoing negotiations with Pyongyang reinforce the need for a fast vote to confirm Mike Pompeo as the new U.S. Secretary of State, Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Michael Pompeo
Pompeo, in his role as CIA director, recently traveled to North Korea in secret to lay the groundwork for Trump’s potential meeting with Kim.
U.S. lawmakers sounded more skeptical than optimistic on Sunday.
Easily Reversible
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said Kim’s efforts should be met with caution. The Republican, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said North Korea’s leader has staged a “great public relations effort” to woo Trump.
Corker’s committee will vote Monday on Pompeo’s nomination, which would then move to the full Senate. The former Kansas lawmaker is nearing the votes he needs for confirmation after Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota said she’ll cross party lines to back him.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, termed North Korea’s pledge to suspend missile testing was “a beginning.”
“The question is whether it lasts or not,” Feinstein said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “The reputation of the North Koreans has been that they don’t necessarily keep their agreements.”
Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and a close ally of Trump, said Friday’s announcement by North Korea was easily reversible. “It’s better than continued testing, but it’s not much better than that,” Cotton, a member of Senate’s intelligence and armed services committees, said on CBS.
Climate change: Michael Bloomberg offers $4.5m for Paris deal
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Reuters
Michael Bloomberg says he hopes the US will rejoin the climate agreement
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he will pay $4.5m (£3.2m) to cover the lapsed US financial commitment to the Paris climate accord.
He said he had a responsibility to help improve the environment because of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the deal.
The withdrawal was announced last June and sparked international condemnation.
It will make the US in effect the only country not to be part of the Paris accord.
The Paris agreement commits the US and 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels.
“America made a commitment and, as an American, if the government’s not going to do it then we all have a responsibility,” Mr Bloomberg said on CBS.
“I’m able to do it. So, yes, I’m going to send them a cheque for the monies that America had promised to the organisation as though they got it from the federal government.”
His charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies, offered $15m to cover a separate climate change shortfall last year.
It said the money would go to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In January, President Trump said the US could “conceivably” return to the deal if it treated America more fairly.
“It’s an agreement that I have no problem with but I had a problem with the agreement that they (the Obama administration) signed,” he told reporters.
Mr Bloomberg said he hoped that by next year Mr Trump will have reconsidered his position on the deal.
“He’s been known to change his mind, that is true,” he said. “America is a big part of the solution and we should go in and help the world stop a potential disaster.”
What is in the Paris climate agreement?
The deal unites all the world’s nations in a single agreement on tackling climate change for the first time in history.
Coming to a consensus among nearly 200 countries on the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions is regarded by many observers as an achievement in itself and has been hailed as “historic”.
As well as the limit on global temperatures, it includes a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity and a requirement for rich countries to help poorer nations by providing “climate finance”.
Waffle House shooting victims ID’d as worker, star athlete, music artist
Authorities have identified the victims of Sunday’s shooting that left four people dead at a Waffle House in Tennessee. They were identified as 29-year-old Taurean C. Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joe R. Perez, 21-year-old DeEbony Groves and 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva.
Two patients were receiving care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Sunday, one was listed in critical condition and the other in stable.
Nashville Mayor David Briley described the shooting as “a tragic day” for the city.
“My heart goes out to the families friends of every person who was killed or wounded,” Briley said in an statement. “I know all of their lives will be forever changed by this devastating crime.”
Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29
Taurean Sanderlin of Goodlettsville was a restaurant employee and was killed outside.
DeEbony Groves, 21
DeEbony Groves, 21
DeEbony Groves of Gallatin was inside the restaurant and was fatally shot.
Local media writes that Groves was remembered as a brilliant young woman and tenacious basketball player. She was an exceptional student and star athlete at Gallatin High before enrolling at Belmont University where she placed on the dean’s list.
“She was a brilliant young lady, very, very intelligent and a very hard worker,” former Gallatin High School basketball coach Kim Kendrick said of Groves. “She was a very likable young lady. She was one of three seniors on her team, and she was a great role model for the other players because of her hard work and dedication to her studies and to her school.”
Groves was a senior at Belmont University majoring in social work.
CBS affiliate WTVF-TV posted a statement from the university saying the campus community is “shocked and devastated”:
“DeEbony Groves was a senior at Belmont University majoring in social work. The entire campus community is shocked and devastated by how such senseless violence has taken the life of this young woman, an individual full of immense potential. We extend our thoughts and prayers to her family and friends as they come to terms with unimaginable grief. Belmont will be offering counseling and other support services to members of our campus in the coming hours and days.”
Joe R. Perez, 20
Joe Perez of Nashville was at the restaurant at the time of the shooting and was killed outside.
Perez’s mother posted on Facebook that “today is the hardest day of my life. Me, my husband and sons are broken right now with this loss. Our lives are shattered.”
Joe Perez, 20
Akilah DaSilva, 23
Akilah DaSilva, 23
Akilah DaSilva of Antioch was critically wounded inside the restaurant and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
DaSilva’s mother, Shaundelle Brooks, told CBS News her son was a student at Middle Tennessee State University where he pursued a career in musical engineering.
“He meant the world us. He was humble, kind, compassionate, outgoing and very creative. We could describe him in so many words. He spoke through his creativity and he entertained the world through his music,” she said. “Akilah … meaning the intelligent one who reasons.”
CBS affiliate WTVF-TV writes that DaSilva went by the nickname “Natrix.”
DaSilva’s family said he was one of six siblings and “hopes that in the midst of this senseless act of terrorism and hate, his life will not be in vain.”
“He had a smile that could light up a room and a laugh that would warm your heart,” his family said. “He embodied compassion and had a zeal for life. A loving son and selfless friend, he was a beacon of hope, love, and strength in his family.”
They added: “We hope that this tremendous loss will spark tangible action in true gun law reform so no other family would ever have to experience this sort of tragedy.”
A verified GoFundMe page has been setup in DaSilva’s honor.
The family said his girlfriend, 21-year-old Shanita Waggoner, was one of those wounded in the shooting. They said she underwent surgery and doctors were “trying to save her leg.”
CBS News’ Gisela Perez contributed to this report.