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The NFL’s Rooney Rule has long been a topic of conversation, even debate. The state of Florida is among the most recent to weigh in with state Attorney General James Uthmeier saying Wednesday he has issued an investigative subpoena to the NFL regarding the rule. Uthmeier, who threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March if it didn’t suspend the 23-year-old rule, sent the subpoena along with a letter to NFL executive vice president and attorney Ted Ullyot. Uthmeier believes the rule violates Florida law by requiring race-based considerations in hiring. The Rooney Rule has been expanded several times over the years and now extends to searches for general managers, coordinators and quarterback coaches. Teams are required to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. At least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position. Critics argue it has led to too many token interviews, designed to check off a box rather than providing a real shot at a job. That is one of the elements in the 2022 lawsuit filed by former Dolphins head coach — now Vikings defensive coordinator — Brian Flores, who accused the NFL and three teams of racist hiring practices. The rule was named after late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who was head of the league’s Workplace Diversity Committee at the time, and requires teams to interview diverse candidates (minority or female) for head coach, general manager and coordinator vacancies. It was designed to increase diversity in leadership by requiring in-person interviews, but it has faced criticism over the years for failing to significantly boost minority hiring. The Workplace Diversity Committee’s initial focus was on the historically low number of minorities in head coaching positions. The policy originally required every team with a head coaching vacancy to interview at least one diverse candidate before making a new hire. Over the years, the Rooney Rule has expanded to include a greater number of positions across NFL clubs. Yes. In 2022, the league expanded the Rooney Rule to include women as a part of the minority candidate definition. NFL teams can include women as minority candidates for vacancies involving head coach, general manager, coordinators, QBs coach and senior personnel. Yes. In November 2020, owners approved a proposal rewarding teams who developed minority talent who went on to become general managers or head coaches across the league. If a team loses a minority executive or coach who has been with the franchise for at least two years to another team, that team receives a third-round compensatory pick for two years. If a team loses both a coach and a personnel member, it receives a third-round compensatory pick for three years. The NFL can fine teams in excess of $500,000 for violating the rule. It also can take away draft picks or invalidate a hire. However, the only punishment on record came in 2003 when Detroit was fined $200,000 for hiring Steve Mariucci before interviewing a minority candidate. The 2006 season was considered a huge breakthrough. There were seven Black head coaches that year, and two of them met in the Super Bowl for the first time ever. When Tony Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts defeated Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears in the title game, minority coaches appeared to be the biggest winners. No one could deny Black coaches could do the job as well as their white counterparts. The number of minority head coaches reached an all-time high in 2024 with nine, a list that included six Black head coaches. But that number dwindled to five ahead of the 2026 season. Of the record-tying 10 new head coaches hired this offseason, there was only one minority with Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, getting the job in Tennessee. Eleven teams, roughly a third of the league, have never had a Black non-interim coach. The list includes Baltimore, Buffalo, Carolina, Dallas, Jacksonville, the Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans, the New York Giants, Seattle, Tennessee and Washington. Three of those teams have had minority coaches: the Panthers (Dave Canales), the Titans (Saleh) and the Commanders (Ron Rivera). ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve. President Donald Trump had picked the former Fed governor to replace Jerome Powell, believing that Warsh can deliver the booming economy the president had promised voters. Warsh takes over a divided central bank wrestling with the economic fallout from the war started by the U.S. and Israel with Iran on Feb. 28. The conflict has driven up energy prices and made it even more difficult for the Fed to bring inflation down to its 2% target. But Trump has demanded lower interest rates, not the higher ones that might be needed to keep inflation in check. Warsh, who had positioned himself as an inflation hawk earlier in his career, has more recently aligned himself with Trump’s views, arguing that artificial intelligence and other technologies can boost productivity and economic growth without igniting inflation. Trump had consistently attacked Powell for refusing the deep rates the president believes will boost the economy. And his Justice Department had launched an investigation into the Fed that was widely seen as an attempt to oust Powell. The legal drama delayed Warsh’s confirmation. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he would oppose Warsh until the Justice Department dropped the investigation, which it finally did last month. In an unusual move, Powell said he would remain on the Fed’s governing board indefinitely after Warsh came on as chair, citing Trump’s “unprecedented” attacks on the central bank’s independence. Although Powell’s term as chair is ending, his term as a Fed governor doesn’t expire until 2028. Powell’s continued presence could make things awkward for Warsh, especially if he tries to convince other Fed officials to go along with rate cuts. Trump has said that Warsh comes from “central casting,” revealing a lot about the president’s own views of the 56 year-old’s looks and conventional pedigree. Warsh has many of the trappings of a traditional pick to lead the world’s most important central bank, yet he’s doing so at a decidedly unconventional moment for the Fed as Trump has said the new chair needs to cut its benchmark rates to the White House’s liking. Rate cuts of the degree sought by Trump could temporarily boost growth, but they also pose the risk of overheating the economy at a time when inflation is already elevated and affordability is a top concern for much of the American public. Warsh was previously a runner-up for the Senate-confirmed post of Fed Chair in 2017, when Trump selected Powell to lead the central bank. Trump has since said that he was given bad advice regarding Powell. Warsh is credentialed with degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University Law School. He is also married to Jane Lauder, the daughter of billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, a major Republican donor. Senate Democrats have condemned Warsh for not fully divulging the details of his own wealth, which amounts to at least $100 million. His investments include stakes in Polymarket and SpaceX, but he hasn’t revealed the size of those holdings. He promised to sell all such assets within 90 days of being sworn in. At 35, Warsh became the youngest governor on the Fed’s seven member board, serving in that post from 2006 to 2011. He was previously an economic aide in George W. Bush’s Republican administration and was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Warsh worked closely with then-Chair Ben Bernanke in 2008-09 during the central bank’s efforts to combat the financial crisis and the Great Recession. Bernanke later wrote in his memoirs that Warsh was “one of my closest advisers and confidants” and added that his “political and markets savvy and many contacts on Wall Street would prove invaluable.” Still, Warsh appeared in key moments to be misguided about the depth of the challenges confronting the U.S. economy as mortgage defaults and layoffs mounted in the Great Recession. He wanted the Fed to keep its benchmark rates higher when the economy was at risk of deflation and possibly collapsing. Warsh raised concerns in 2008 that further interest rate cuts by the Fed could spur inflation. Yet even after the Fed cut its rate to nearly zero, inflation stayed low. And he objected in meetings in 2011 to the Fed’s decision to purchase $600 billion of Treasury bonds, an effort to lower long-term interest rates, though he ultimately voted in favor of the decision at Bernanke’s behest. Warsh also behaved at times like a pre-Trump Republican, calling in a 2010 speech for ending “the creep of trade protectionism” that he declared to be the opposite of “pro-growth policies.” Trump has since largely overhauled GOP dogma by pushing for massive hikes in import taxes, having unilaterally imposed them last year by declaring an economic emergency. Warsh has been working as a visiting economics fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank located at Stanford University. He is also a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a partner at the Duquesne Family Office, which manages the wealth of billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller. In what appeared to be an active campaign for the Fed post, Warsh criticized the Fed in interviews, calling for “regime change” and assailing Powell for engaging on issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion, which Warsh said are outside the Fed’s mandate. In a interview last year on CNBC, Warsh said Fed policy “has been broken for quite a long time.” “The central bank that sits there today is radically different than the central bank I joined in 2006,” he added. By allowing inflation to surge in 2021-22, the Fed “brought about the greatest mistake in macroeconomic policy in 45 years, that divided the country.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Safety experts recommended Wednesday that airlines develop realistic training to prepare their pilots to deal with smoke filling the cockpit like what happened on a Southwest Airlines plane after a bird strike. The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilots who safely landed that plane back in New Orleans told investigators that the situation they encountered was far more challenging than anything they had ever experienced in training. “If such an event occurred at night or in instrument meteorological conditions, the consequences could be catastrophic,” the NTSB determined. The Federal Aviation Administration receives reports of smoke in the cockpit almost daily, but the NTSB said the agency still doesn’t require airlines to conduct realistic smoke-in-cockpit simulations. Instead the training usually just consists of a discussion of what to do in that situation. The FAA didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to the new recommendation. The Southwest pilots at the controls during this incident in December 2023 said they had trouble seeing their instruments and checklists. They quickly donned oxygen masks and followed emergency procedures to land. None of the 139 people aboard were hurt. Southwest and the Airlines for America trade group didn’t immediately respond to the new report. Last year, the NTSB urged Boeing and engine maker CFM to quickly develop a software fix for the engines on the 737 Max to help prevent smoke from filling the cockpit or cabin after a safety feature is activated following a bird strike. The plane and engine makers didn’t immediately provide an update Wednesday on the fix. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Four Memphis residents are suing U.S. and Tennessee officials, saying they have been harassed, arrested and physically mistreated for engaging in activities protected by the First Amendment such as observing and recording law enforcement agents in their city. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court targets the Memphis Safe Task Force, comprising agents from 13 federal agencies that President Donald Trump ordered to the city to fight crime alongside Tennessee State Troopers and the Tennessee National Guard. Since late September, hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement personnel tied to the task force have made traffic stops, served warrants and searched for fugitives in the majority Black city of about 610,000 people. The lawsuit says the task force has conducted over 120,000 traffic stops. “In the professed name of crime control, Task Force agents have stopped, menaced, and arrested Memphians engaging in routine, day-to-day activities,” the lawsuit states. “In response, Memphians encountering Task Force agents in public, including Plaintiffs, have stopped to gather information about and record Task Force activities.” The U.S. Department of Justice released a statement on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit. “In eight months, the Memphis Safe Task Force has made over 9,000 arrests, including 951 known gang members, and located 150 missing children, drastically increasing public safety in the Memphis community. The Department will not tolerate any action that puts our law enforcement officers at risk. We strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and remain committed to fair, impartial, and professional law enforcement practices to keep Memphians and the American people safe.” Hunter Demster, a Memphis resident and plaintiff, says he regularly sees the task force stopping cars in his neighborhood, which has a large Hispanic population. In one interaction, he was surrounded by task force agents after he filmed a traffic stop and told the people in the car that they had a right not to speak to police. “It is a terrifying feeling,” Demster said. “I did nothing illegal. I used my First Amendment protected rights to hold up a phone and say some ‘know your rights’ information.” Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberty Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said the Tennessee law is written so broadly that officers have wide discretion to invoke it against observers even when the observers are not impeding their actions. “When observers go to the scene of task force activity and they are observing, they’re gathering information,” Kim said. “They are picking up their phones and cameras and documenting what’s happening. That’s all core protected First Amendment activity. And it’s not a basis for the government to essentially react in the way that they’re reacting.” Federal officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, former Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, have visited Memphis to praise the task force. Miller in October predicted the surge in law enforcement would make the city “safer than any of you could ever possibly imagine” and that “businesses and investment are going to pour in, and Memphis will be richer than ever before.” The task force is part of a larger effort by Trump to use National Guard troops and surge federal law enforcement in cities, particularly ones controlled by Democrats. Following troop deployments in the District of Columbia and Los Angeles, he referred to Portland, Oregon, as “war-ravaged” and threatened apocalyptic force in Chicago. Speaking last year to U.S. military leaders in Virginia, Trump proposed using cities as training grounds for the armed forces. The lawsuit accuses task force agents of systematically retaliating against the four plaintiffs and other members of the public engaged in similar observations. It claims the threats and harassment are the “direct result of federal policy” that views observing federal agents performing their duties in public as a threat of harm to those agents. The lawsuit also claims that federal and state officials have failed to train their agents not to retaliate against citizens engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment. The lawsuit asks the court to declare that retaliation against the plaintiffs for observing and recording law enforcement activity is unconstitutional and to prohibit the agents from further retaliation. It also targets a Tennessee law that requires observers to stand at least 25 feet (7.6 meters) away from law enforcement officers, if they are warned to do so, or face arrest. The suit asks the court to declare unconstitutional the use of the “Halo Law” against defendants who are not interfering with agents or impeding their duties. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — OG Anunoby could only participate in some parts of practice when the New York Knicks returned to work Wednesday. Luckily for them, they still have time to wait. With at least a few more days before the Knicks would start the Eastern Conference finals, they can be patient with Anunoby’s recovery from a hamstring injury that forced him to miss the last two games of their second-round sweep of Philadelphia. Coach Mike Brown said the starting forward did some things, though not when the Knicks went full speed. He said Anunoby looked fine with what he did, though it certainly sounds like there’s a gap between what that was and the intensity of an NBA postseason game. Brown added that he isn’t sure when Anunoby can do more — and the Knicks don’t even know how soon that would need to be. Game 1 against Detroit or Cleveland could be Sunday, though the series wouldn’t begin until next week if those teams, who were tied 2-2 entering Game 5 on Wednesday, go the distance. “They told me what he could do today. They have not told me what he could do tomorrow, so I don’t know what he’ll be able to do for Game 1,” Brown said. Anunoby is one of the Knicks’ most important players, a top defender whose offensive game has hit its peak during this playoff run. The Knicks were able to win two games without him against a tired Philadelphia team that never recovered after needing seven games to beat Boston in the first round, but it would be difficult to beat the top-seeded Pistons or Cavaliers without him. Brown isn’t thinking that far ahead. The Knicks plan to take Thursday off and practice again Friday, and he said only then will he ask for his next Anunoby update. “At least for me, I’m taking it one game at a time,” Brown said. “I don’t want to know from medical or anybody else anything beyond that, because when I do that stuff I get my hopes up and I don’t like doing that at all.” The Knicks have plenty of reason for hope after a dominant run through the first two rounds. They have won seven straight games since falling behind 2-1 against Atlanta in the first round and outscored the Hawks and 76ers by a combined 194 points, the largest margin ever through a team’s first 10 postseason games. They finished off the Hawks on April 30 and were back on the court against the 76ers on May 4. They could be idle more than twice as long this time. “The first series we had what, four days’ break I think it was? That was good enough,” forward Josh Hart said. “This right now, I think at least a week if not nine days, that’s a long time. So obviously it’s good for recovery, but mentally I’m watching the games, I’m just like just waiting, just waiting to get back out there.” Brown has some experience. His Cleveland Cavaliers swept the first two series in 2009, then were off more than a week before the opener of an East finals series they lost to Orlando. He replaced an ailing Steve Kerr for most of the 2017 postseason as the Golden State Warriors swept their first three series, leaving them a 10-day gap between the end of the West finals and the start of the NBA Finals. “I’ve been part of sweeps, I’ve been part of getting swept and been part of long layoffs and short turnarounds, so you worry about different stuff at different times,” Brown said. “Like, quick turnaround you’re like: ‘Oh my God, we can’t prepare. Oh my god, guys are tired.’ And long layoffs, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we got too much time, we’re not going to stay sharp.’” He said the key during long layoffs is to manufacture ways to keep players’ minds sharp and the Knicks believe it will work. “I think we have our plan,” All-Star Jalen Brunson said. “Obviously utilize rest, but then when we’re in the gym we’re doing everything that we need to do to stay in rhythm, stay having the edge that we need to have, focusing on the things that we need to focus on and continuing to prepare.” ___ AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba Brought to you by www.srnnews.com