Arizona
D-backs’ Torey Lovullo: ‘I want to stay here for the rest of my life’
Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo has the team playing red-hot baseball, winners of six straight games and tied atop the division and National League.
Lovullo has been a leader in the clubhouse for a young team for a franchise that has not been exposed to a winning culture since 2017.
The skipper, despite three consecutive years under 75 wins, is on his third-straight one-year contract to guide the team. In his six-plus years at the helm, the manager has posted a 446-482 record for the D-backs.
Now that the team has had some success, Lovullo could be a hot name for bigger markets looking to make a splash with an experienced manager.
“We have a love for this city and a love for this town unlike anyone else. I want to stay here for the rest of my life. I love Arizona, I love this community and I bleed Sedona red,” Lovullo told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo.
“I do not want to go anywhere. I would sign a lifetime contract tomorrow if I could. Baseball just isn’t built that way. I’m going to honor my contract. … We have great ownership that has shown unbelievable support in me. We almost set a franchise record in losses and they still showed faith in me. We are one-third through the season, let’s get through this season, see where it takes us and just push this thing forward.”
Lovullo has not only helped change a culture, and been progressing young talent at a great rate.
Players like Corbin Carroll, Zac Gallen, Geraldo Perdomo, Christian Walker, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and many more have shown consistent growth under Lovullo.
The team currently ranks third in the majors in doubles, third in triples, sixth in RBIs, batting average and slugging and fourth in stolen bases.
Arizona ranks 21st in payroll in the 2023 season at just over $115 million, the lowest payroll in the NL West.
The D-backs are striving to make their first playoffs since Lovullo’s first season as manager in 2017 when the team won the Wild Card game but was swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in three games.
Arizona
Newest Arizona members of Congress sworn in during opening day in DC
Gary Farmer is an actor, musician, and activist whose made a career in indigenous media. His performances in television and film have received rave reviews. The1989 film “Powwow Highway”, in which he stars, was just inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Arizona
Yassamin Ansari, Abe Hamadeh set to become Arizona’s newest members of Congress
Arizona District 3 Congresswoman elect Yassamin Ansari talks victory
Congresswoman elect Yassamin Ansari gives victory speech on Nov. 5, 2024, after being elected to represent Arizona’s 3rd district in Congress.
Arizona’s two newest U.S. House members are set to get sworn into their posts as the 119th Congress gets underway.
Republican Abe Hamadeh, a lawyer, and Democrat Yassamin Ansari, a former Phoenix vice mayor, are expected to take their oaths of office on Friday, shortly after the House resumes session.
Hamadeh will replace Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., who is retiring from Congress to serve on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
He will represent Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, an overwhelmingly Republican area that covers parts of Maricopa and Yavapai counties, including Glendale, Peoria, Sun City West and New River.
Propelled by an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump, Hamadeh defeated a crowded field of other Republicans in Arizona’s July 30 primary election and sailed to an easy victory in the Nov. 5 general election.
Hamadeh, a self-described “America First warrior,” largely echoed Trump’s positions on the campaign trail. He will serve on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee.
Ansari will represent Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, a stretch of Maricopa County that includes parts of Phoenix and Glendale. She is replacing Democrat Ruben Gallego, who has swapped his House seat for a U.S. Senate seat. Her House committee assignments have not been announced.
During the primary election, Ansari hewed closer to the political center than her opponent, former state Sen. Raquel Terán of Phoenix. Ansari ran on a progressive platform but staked out more centrist turf on issues like policing and U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.
She beat out Terán by just 39 votes, and, like Hamadeh, won her November election in a landslide.
Ansari plans to join the House’s Progressive Caucus, the Democrats’ most left-leaning faction on Capitol Hill.
Arizona
3 arrested in connection with good Samaritan's killing in Arizona
Three people were arrested this week in connection with the death of a good Samaritan in Arizona last month, officials said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department identified two of the three people arrested Monday as Jack Upchurch, 40, and Elmer Smith, 19. The third person is 16 years old. NBC News does not typically identify minors accused of crimes.
The trio were arrested in connection with the death of Paul Clifford, 53, whose body was found near a smoldering car northeast of Tucson last month.
Sabrina Vining, a woman who identified herself as Clifford’s daughter in an online fundraiser, said her father disappeared after he left his house at 11:30 p.m. Dec. 23 to help a “stranger with a stranded vehicle.”
NBC affiliate KVOA of Tucson reported that Clifford’s family reported him missing after, they said, a strange man knocked on Clifford’s door and asked for help with his car.
He was later found dead, the sheriff’s department said. It did not provide a cause or manner of death.
Officials said they received information Monday about a possible location for the three suspects.
Detectives searched the area and obtained a search warrant for a property, which the Pima Regional SWAT team carried out.
The suspects barricaded themselves inside a home and eventually called 911 to negotiate a surrender, the sheriff’s department said. They left the residence and were taken into custody.
The sheriff’s department did not release any information about a motive or how it connected the suspects to Clifford’s killing.
The three suspects were booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center on felony arrest warrants, officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether they have legal representation. Jail records do not list attorneys for any of the three.
Upchurch was being held on a $1 million bond, Smith on $1.025 million bail and the minor on a half-million-dollar bond, according to jail records.
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