Mounties say a Chilliwack, B.C., man has been charged with three criminal offences after a crash between a tractor and BC Highway Patrol vehicle during a 2023 protest. They say the 54-year-old was arrested on Dec. 18 and will appear in Surrey Provincial Court on Jan. 16, charged with fleeing police, dangerous operation of a vehicle and assaulting a police officer with a weapon. RCMP said last year that the tractor was one of several vehicles involved in a convoy that began in Chilliwack and was travelling to Vancouver. The tractor driver sustained serious injuries in the crash that left an officer with minor injuries. Photos from the collision posted to social media at the time showed a John Deere tractor on its side, and that it was flying a black and white flag that read “stop SOGI 123,” an apparent reference to a set of classroom guidelines on sexual orientation and gender identity. Several protests erupted in cities across Canada last fall by those opposed to the educational resource intended to create more inclusive classrooms. The Independent Investigations Office issued a statement in February after concluding its investigation into the Highway 17 crash in Surrey, saying it had cleared police of any wrongdoing.AP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:49 p.m. ESTNoneOregon State rebounded from a fourth-quarter dry spell Wednesday as the Beavers rallied for a 54-49 win over Boston College at the Baha Mar Championship in Nassau, Bahamas. Kennedie Shuler hit a jumper with 1:02 left for the go-ahead basket, and the Beavers (2-5) held on to snap a four-game losing streak. This was the consolation game of the Baha Mar, with No. 2 Connecticut and No. 18 Mississippi playing afterward for the championship.casino games background 。

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By EDDIE PELLS When the page turns on 2024, it will be time to say goodbye, once and for all, to the amateur athlete in college sports. Related Articles Sports | Team of the Week: Cuyamaca College makes history with state soccer championship Sports | San Diego’s Athletes of the Week include holiday tournament stars in basketball and wrestling Sports | Netflix is airing 2 NFL games on Christmas Day. Here’s what to know Sports | Padres roster review: Brandon Lockridge Sports | Fantasy Football Week 17: Waiver Wire Targets In theory, the concept held on stubbornly via the quaint and now all-but-dead notion that student-athletes played only for pride, a scholarship and some meal money. In practice, the amateurs have been disappearing for years, washed away by the steady millions, now billions, that have flowed into college athletics, mostly through football and basketball both through legitimate and illicit means. In the coming year, the last vestiges of amateur college sports are expected to officially sputter out — the final step of a journey that has felt inevitable since 2021. That’s when the Supreme Court laid the foundation for paying college players in exchange for promotions — on social media, TV, video games, you name it — featuring their name, image or likeness (NIL). The changes have come in spasms so far, not always well thought out, not always fair and not regulated by any single entity like the NCAA or federal government, but rather by a collection of state laws, along with rules at individual schools and the leagues in which they play. But on April 7, the day final approval is expected for the landmark, $2.8 billion lawsuit settlement that lays the foundation for players to receive money directly from their schools, what was once considered anathema to the entire concept of college sports will become the norm. David Schnase, the NCAA’s vice president for academic and membership affairs, acknowledges that maintaining the unique essence of college sports is a challenge in the shifting landscape. “You can use the word ‘pro,’ you can use the word ‘amateur,’ you can attach whatever moniker you want to it, but those are just labels,” Schnase said. “It’s much less about labels and more about experiences and circumstances. Circumstances are different today than they were last year and they are likely going to be different in the foreseeable future.” Few would argue that college athletes should get something back for the billions they help produce in TV and ticket revenue, merchandise sales and the like. But is everyone going to cash in? Are college players really getting rich? Recent headlines suggest top quarterback recruit Bryce Underwood was lured to Michigan thanks to funding from billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and that a top basketball recruit, A.J. Dybantsa, is heading to BYU — not a hoops powerhouse — for the reported price of $7 million. For every Underwood or Dybantsa, though, there are even more Matthew Slukas and Beau Pribulas. Sluka’s agent says his son agreed to play quarterback at UNLV after a promise of receiving $100,000 and quit three games into the season after the checks never came. Pribula was the backup quarterback at Penn State who abruptly entered the transfer portal earlier this month, choosing the college version of free agency over a chance to play with the Nittany Lions in the College Football Playoff. He’s not the only one hitting the portal in hopes of getting rich before new regulations related to the NCAA settlement take effect. “We’ve got problems in college football,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. The settlement will overhaul the current system. Currently, players receive money via third-party collectives that are booster-funded groups affiliated with individual schools. Coming up fast: the schools paying the athletes directly — the term often used here is “revenue sharing” — with collectives still an option, but not the only one. “It’s going to be more transparent,” said Jeff Kessler, the plaintiffs’ attorney and antitrust veteran who helped shape the settlement. “If anything, having the schools handling all the payments is only going to improve the system.” The NCAA has started collecting data about NIL payments, which date to July 2021. Its first set of numbers, which includes data from more than 140 schools across more than 40 sports in 2024, show a bracing disconnect between have and have-nots. For instance, average earnings for football and men’s and women’s basketball players is nearly $38,000. But the median earning — the middle number among all the data points on the list — is only $1,328, a sign of how much the biggest contracts skew the average. The statistics also show a vast difference in earnings between men and women, an issue that could impact schools’ ability to comply with Title IX. That 1972 law requires schools to provide equal athletic scholarships and financial aid but not necessarily that they spend the same dollar amount on men and women. Heading into 2025, there is no clarity on how this issue will play out. Regardless, the numbers are jarring. The NCAA data set shows the average earnings for women in 16 sports was $8,624, compared with $33,321 for men in 11 sports. Men,’s basketball players averaged $56,000 compared with $11,500 for women. The biggest losers from this move toward a professional model could be all the swimmers and wrestlers and field hockey players — the athletes in the so-called non-revenue sports whose programs also happen to serve as the backbone of the U.S. Olympic team. Only a tiny percentage of those athletes are getting rich, and now that universities have to use revenue to pay the most sought-after players in their athletic programs, there could be cuts to the smaller sports. Also, someone’s going to have backfill the revenue that will now go to the players. Well-heeled donors like Ellison are not around for every school, nor have private equity firms started sending money. The average fan will have to pony up, and the last six months have seen dozens if not hundreds of athletic directors begging alumni for money and warning them of changes ahead. Already there are schools placing surcharges on tickets or concessions . How will fans respond to a more transactional model of college sports? “I don’t know that fans have this really great love for the idea of 100% pure amateurism,” said Nels Popp, a University of North Carolina sports business professor. “I think what they care about is the colors and the logos and the brand. I don’t know that it matters to them if the players are making a little bit of money or a lot of money. They’ve been making money for the last couple years, and I don’t know that that’s making fans really back off.” The last time amateurism came under such assault was in the 1980s, when the Olympics unwound the final remnants of pretending the vast majority of their athletes were anything other than full-time professionals. The transformation was tinged with a note of honesty: The people putting on the show should reap some benefits from it. Even 40 years later, there’s an good argument they remain underpaid. The contours of the same debate are shaping up in college sports. Athletes are pushing for a players’ association that would add more transparency to a business that, even with the changes coming, is still largely dictated by the schools. The NCAA, while acceding to the need to pay the players, wants nothing to do with turning them into actual employees of the schools they play for. It’s an expensive prospect that is winding its way through the legal system via lawsuits and labor hearings that many in college sports are desperate to avoid for fear it will push the entire industry off the financial cliff. Among the few things everyone agrees on is that things aren’t going back to a time when athletes pretended to play for pride while the money moved under tables and through shadows. And that this, in fact, could only be the start, not the end, of the transformation of college sports. “At some point, I think people might have to understand that maybe college athletes don’t go to college anymore,” Popp said. “Or maybe they don’t go to class during the season. There could be more radical changes, and as long as they’re wearing the right logo and the right colors, I’m not sure that fans really care.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The condemnation came as the House of Lords debated regulations paving the way for a scheme which would require animal lovers on the British mainland to have documentation in order to visit Northern Ireland. Critics view the move as further evidence of Northern Ireland still having to follow EU rules post-Brexit and being treated differently from the rest of the UK – a major source of contention to the unionist community. The paperwork, which will be free to apply for, includes a declaration that the owner will not travel onwards to Ireland or another EU country with their pet or assistance dog. Animals will have to be microchipped and have their own individual pet travel document, which will be valid for its lifetime. Northern Ireland residents returning after a stay in Great Britain with their pet or assistance dog will not need a travel document. The scheme is being introduced under the Windsor Framework, a revised deal for Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements aimed at tackling issues caused by the protocol. Raising her concerns in Parliament, Baroness Hoey, a Northern Irish Brexit supporter and former Labour MP, said: “These regulations are in effect about a new aspect of the Irish Sea border that has not had expression until this point because of the grace periods.” She added: “The experience of visiting Northern Ireland with your pet dog or cat, or even a ferret, will be made to feel like a visit to a foreign country. Lady Hoey went on: “This could spell the end of holiday trips for pet owners from GB to NI and then on to the Republic, when they want to explore both Northern Ireland and the Republic. “If they have a pet passport, they will have renounced their right to go to the Republic. That makes the border more of an obstruction than having border control posts on it, because at least in that eventuality, you could still cross over it.” Rejecting claims it was a result of the UK leaving the EU, she said: “The reality is that this is happening precisely because Northern Ireland has not got Brexit. “As we say repeatedly, it is still subject to EU rules and the EU could change the rules overnight.” Former DUP deputy leader Lord Dodds of Duncairn said: “Every one of the statutory instruments that come forward under the Windsor Framework must be properly debated, because these laws are being brought forward to implement what a foreign jurisdiction has decided should be the law of the United Kingdom. “In the 21st century, we should not accept colonial rule. We abolished it elsewhere. We believe it should not be tolerated for one second. People should have the democratic right to decide their laws for themselves, in their interests.” He added: “The ridiculous part about this debate is that we are having to debate European laws regulating the movement of pet animals owned by British citizens between one part of the United Kingdom and another. That is an outrage.” Lord Dodds went on: “As I said, there will be hundreds, thousands more of these regulations, in all areas, affecting the daily lives of people in Northern Ireland. They all add up to a grievous assault on Northern Ireland’s constitutional position.” But former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick said: “I support the Windsor Framework because it is a necessary legal device to deal with the complexities that were presented to us in Ireland, north and south, on the issue of Brexit. “We need a pragmatic solution rather than choosing to have political contests and duels simply for the sake of them.” Introducing the regulations, environment minister Baroness Hayman of Ulloch said: “This scheme will simplify the requirements associated with moving pet dogs, cats and ferrets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland significantly. “It replaces single-use animal health certificates with a free-of-charge lifelong travel document and removes the need for costly pet health treatments. “Pet owners who travel frequently with their pets, or those who rely on the services of an assistance dog to travel independently, will benefit substantially from this change in approach.” However, she acknowledged the concerns raised by peers and promised to continue engagement with them.