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Ross Hodge of North Texas hired as coach at West Virginia

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Ross Hodge of North Texas hired as coach at West Virginia


West Virginia hired Ross Hodge of North Texas as its men’s basketball coach on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old Hodge replaces Darian DeVries, who left after one season for Indiana. Hodge agreed to a five-year deal to become West Virginia’s fourth coach in four seasons. Terms of the contract weren’t immediately disclosed.

“Ross Hodge is a proven winner and leader who has demonstrated success at every stop of his career,” West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement.

Hodge is 46-23 in two seasons as coach of the Mean Green, who are 27-8 this season and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals next Tuesday in Indianapolis.

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Hodge has been part of staffs that went to three NCAA tournaments, including an upset of Purdue as a No. 13 seed in 2021.

Hodge may not have been on everyone’s radar when the West Virginia job opened, but others believed to be in the running went elsewhere: Drake’s Ben McCollum was hired at Iowa, Colorado State’s Niko Medved went to Minnesota, and New Mexico’s Richard Pitino landed at Xavier.

All Baker needed to do was to go back to his past.

Baker was the AD at North Texas from 2016 to 2022. Hodge was an assistant coach for the Mean Green for six seasons under Grant McCasland. After McCasland took over at Texas Tech in 2023, Hodge became the Mean Green’s head coach and went 19-15 in the school’s first season in the American Athletic Conference despite numerous injuries.

Hodge is credited as the architect of the North Texas defense. The Mean Green had the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense in 2021-22 and 2022-23, when they won 25 and a school-record 31 games, respectively, including capturing the 2023 NIT championship.

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“I have such respect for the toughness, grit and pride of the people of West Virginia, and my hope is that we can reflect that with how our team competes on the court,” Hodge said.

A Dallas native, Hodge also was an assistant under McCasland at Arkansas State and served under Larry Eustachy at Colorado State and Southern Miss.

West Virginia was left stunned last week, first when it was snubbed from the NCAA Tournament despite a 19-13 record and six Quad 1 wins, then by DeVries’ departure two days later.

DeVries had been hired at West Virginia a year ago to replace interim coach Josh Eilert, who steered the Mountaineers through a nine-win season in 2023-24 after Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins resigned following a June 2023 drunken driving arrest.

After DeVries left, Baker was asked whether it was important to find someone with ties to the program in the hope of having a coach for the long term.

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“I know that there can be a knee-jerk reaction when you lose a coach after a year,” Baker said last week. “Human nature is to think, ‘Oh God, we have to get somebody who’s connected to here.’ I just think your job is to go out and get the best coach that you can. And you want to have coaches that other people covet and want to come after. Because the alternative to that is, nobody wants your coach. And that’s not very good.”

West Virginia’s roster will undergo its third straight season of makeovers. Five players on the current roster have entered the NCAA transfer portal, including four starters. Baker has said he hopes the players will give the new coach a chance to recruit them back for next season.





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Texas sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids, addicting users

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Texas sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids, addicting users


Netflix was sued Monday (May 11) by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused the streaming company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent, and designing its platform to be addictive. Ram Nabong reports.



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Texas sues Netflix, alleges platform spied on kids and collected data

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Texas sues Netflix, alleges platform spied on kids and collected data


The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday, accusing the company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent and designing the platform to be addictive.

Texas claims that Netflix has falsely represented to consumers that it didn’t collect or share user data while it actually tracked and sold viewers’ habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies.

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The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claims that “Netflix’s endgame is simple and lucrative: get children and families glued to the screen, harvest their data while they are stuck there, and then monetize the data for a handsome profit.”

The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watched you,” Texas added in the lawsuit.

NETFLIX CO-FOUNDER REED HASTINGS TO STEP DOWN, DEPARTURE IS ‘SPOOKING INVESTORS’

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The complaint quotes comments made by former CEO Reed Hastings who said in 2020, while he was still leading the streaming company, that “we don’t collect anything,” amid questions over Big Tech companies’ data collection practices.

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Netflix was also accused of quietly using “dark patterns” to keep users watching on its platform, such as an autoplay feature that starts a new show after a different show ends.

NETFLIX RAISES SUBSCRIPTION PRICES ACROSS ALL PLANS

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit. (Cheney Orr/Reuters)

Paxton said in a press release that Netflix “has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it.”

The attorney general said he’s charging Netflix under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks to require Netflix to stop the unlawful collection and disclosure of user data, require Netflix to disable autoplay by default on kid’s profiles, and to secure injunctive relief and civil penalties.

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FOX Business reached out to Netflix for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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6 people found dead inside a boxcar in Texas, officials say | CNN

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6 people found dead inside a boxcar in Texas, officials say | CNN


Six people were found dead inside a cargo train boxcar in a Texas city along the southern border on Sunday, officials said.

The bodies were found in a Union Pacific train at a rail yard in Laredo, around 160 miles south of San Antonio, just after 3:30 p.m. local time, said Jose Espinoza, a public information officer with the Laredo Police Department.

The circumstances of their deaths are unknown, said Laredo police spokesperson Joe Baeza, according to CNN affiliate KGNS, and an investigation is underway.

Union Pacific operates across the border and is the only railroad that services all access points into Mexico, according to the freight company’s website.

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Temperatures on Sunday afternoon in Laredo were in the low-mid 90s, though it’s unclear whether heat was a factor.

Union Pacific said it was saddened by the incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.

Laredo police said they received a call around 3 p.m. from an employee at the Union Pacific rail yard, KGNS reported. The bodies were discovered during a routine rail car inspection, police said. No survivors were found.

CNN has reached out to Laredo police for more information.

“It’s a very early phase of the investigation. There’s not a lot to reveal right now,” Baeza said, KGNS reported.

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The immigration status and ages of the deceased are not yet known, Espinoza said.

US Customs and Border Protection referred CNN to the Laredo Police Department, saying “The incident remains under investigation by Laredo Police Department and Homeland Security Investigation and Texas Rangers.”

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, HSI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“It’s a very unfortunate event,” Espinoza told CNN. “It was too many lives that were lost.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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