The starting lineup for the 2019 Daytona 500, which takes the green flag Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET, was partially set when William Byron won the pole in qualifying a week prior to the race. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, will join him on the front row, starting second. But the first two spots in the 2019 Daytona 500 lineup are all that are set going into Thursday’s Gander RV Duel races at Daytona, which will determine the other 38 starting positions....

The Belgium international has three assists from six games in the Premier League this season as his side sit joint top of the table. Man City 10/11 to win PL De Bruyne’s displays have earned praise from coach Pep Guardiola, who claims the ex-Chelsea player is one of the best he has ever worked with. The 26-year-old has become one of the most senior players at City and feels everything is going well at present....

The whale, known to marine biologists as 2470, was found dead by Jorge Fontes and Bruno Macena from the Institute of Marine Sciences on November 18. The mammal had been regularly sighted by teams from Whale Watch Azores, a group that tracks whales around the Portuguese islands in the North Atlantic. The exact cause of death remains a mystery, Whale Watch Azores said in a Facebook post. All marine biologists have to go off is the large cut and some possible bruising around its head, the group said on Facebook....

Even if there is no additional carnage, Lucasville is the bloodiest U.S. prison uprising since 33 inmates died in a riot at the New Mexico State Penitentiary in Santa Fe 13 years ago. Inmates insist they will hold fast to their demands, including amnesty for crimes committed during the riot, an end to forced integration of cellmates, increased religious freedom for Muslim prisoners and a halt to compulsory tuberculosis tests, which Muslims object to on spiritual grounds....

A recent piece of artwork released by Marvel concept designer Andrew Kim shows plans to feature the character Deadpool in a notable scene from the Shang-Chi movie which ended up featuring a different notable MCU cameo. While fans reacted to the concept art suggesting Deadpool could have already appeared in the MCU, another spoiler-heavy report suggested the exact point at which Ryan Reynolds’ character may actually join the Marvel Cinematic Universe....

The debate was opened by JoFire04, who wrote: Do you consider yourself Deaf and Disabled or just Deaf? (This includes people who are hard of hearing or any type of hearing loss). Deaf and Disabled: Why?Deaf Only: Why? What is the difference between Deaf and Disability? Is it because of hearing loss or because of language/culture? How does Disability affect Deaf and vice versa? How does either affect the whole human species, individually or as a populated society?...

Nelson, who spoke on the phone Friday afternoon as he was boarding a plane from Washington, D.C., to Jacksonville, Fla., for the weekend, was not forthcoming with specifics in terms of who will be approached for donations (as a senator, he is specifically forbidden from raising soft-money donations), or the timing of the new primary. The senator was, however, clearly frustrated over waiting for other people to fix the problem....

A portion of the punditry can’t resist comparing the campaign to the tech boom of the ’90s–an overinflated bubble that left its naive believers drenched in soap scum. Try telling that to the architect of Dean’s strategy, campaign manager Joe Trippi. “It wasn’t a dot-com bust,” he insists. “It was a dot-com miracle.” Point taken. It was only through the Internet that an obscure former governor raised more bucks than a pack of better-known heavy hitters....

But what about when there is no defense and Jordan is free to create without restraint? That's when you get results like this pregame dunk from Jordan, which was just dirty. [HT: Beyond The Buzzer]

In the argot of the area, Makawi was a “collaborator”–one of hundreds, if not thousands, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian informers have helped Israel control the occupied territories for more than three decades. But since the latest surge of violence erupted last September, Israeli authorities are paying or intimidating agents into providing life-and-death information, including names of those behind the uprising. Now, Palestinians are retaliating. Officials in Gaza and elsewhere have rounded up dozens of suspected collaborators and sentenced four of them to death in hasty trials....

We were interested in getting to the sports bar we’d picked out to watch the United States in a pre-World Cup match against Germany, but LSU’s pre-Sweet 16 press conference was conflicting with that. And to make it more of a challenge, Tigers All-American Glen “Big Baby” Davis was so danged funny, we didn’t want to bolt and miss anything good. We got in front of that big-screen TV in time, of course, and we watched the game and continued what had become an annual tradition for us during March Madness....

Ford, 42, who refused to be interviewed for this story, has yet to announce his future plans. Rumors have him doing everything from taking over at Versace to becoming a Hollywood film producer. But the story of his career at Gucci is an illuminating one for the luxury-fashion industry. Indeed, his tenure paralleled a decadelong boom for luxury couture, which now does $100 billion in sales a year. Yet his departure shows that in today’s conglomerate-heavy market, being one of the world’s most successful designers is no guarantee of a job....

Outfitted with a tactical vest and a rifle with a high-capacity magazine equipped to hold up to 100 rounds, Connor Stephen Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, Ohio, was shot dead after police officers said he tried to enter a local bar, Ned Peppers. In his wake, nine people were left dead, including his sister, Megan Kathleen Betts, 22; while another 27 were injured — 14 by gunshot wounds, police officials said Monday....

“I feel clean,” quips one. “You look clean,” says another. Now comes the day’s requisite insight into the mysterious male mind. “Losing your hair,” explains Bonaduce, “is No. 1–the No. 1–source of depression among men.” Adds Lopez, “I agree with you, Danny. It’s a big heated discussion when close buddies and you start talking about what’s bumming you out.” This is the part where they reveal the joke, right? Surely Clark–the trustworthy father figure from “American Bandstand”–will stand up and reveal that men aren’t really this shallow....

In his Monday press briefing, Newsom reported the average daily number of new cases last week was 7,764, compared to roughly 9,800 the week before—a 26.2 percent reduction. However, Ghaly said technical issues with the state’s test reporting system “absolutely affected” the numbers. “This issue has undercounted the county’s positive cases and affects the number of COVID-19 cases reported each day and our contact tracing efforts,” a spokesperson for LA County said....

Greg Schuler, a molecular biologist turned computer jock at the National Institutes of Health, had just spent the weekend, sitting on the sofa with his laptop in front of his fireplace at home, writing a 674-line program to reanalyze the overlaps. When he sicced it on the redundant sequences, the answer popped out: the Human Genome Project had already passed the 2 billion mark, on March 9. It had taken four years to determine the first billion letters in the human genome, but only four months for what Schuler calls “that next odometer moment....

Christian Laettner and The Shot, Duke vs. Kentucky, 1992 East Regional final. I was sitting at the press table directly behind the Kentucky bench when Sean Woods landed that ridiculous banked half-hook directly over Laettner’s reach. I said to myself, and this is true, “What a great ending to a fabulous game.” I had no idea what was coming next. Mario Chalmers’ 3-pointer that forced overtime vs. Memphis, 2008 championship game....

Half a year has passed since the Patriots beat the Colts in the AFC title game — January 18, six months ago as of Saturday. Yet the final word from Roger Goodell and the NFL on the scandal born that day in Foxborough has yet to come down. Tom Brady’s original four-game punishment was announced May 11 and his appeal was June 23. Tuesday, Goodell said “there is no timeline” for a final ruling....