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College of the Ozarks, represented by attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), on April 15 filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a directive from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The directive was due to an order signed by President Joe Biden on his first day in office titled “Protecting and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,” which required an interpretation of the word “sex” in the Fair Housing Act that would not discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation....

Kennedy made his comments Wednesday on the Fox News program America’s Newsroom. The show’s co-host Dana Perino asked his criticisms of the bill, noting that Kennedy always has “a way with words.” “This is not a coronavirus bill,” Kennedy began. “This is a left of Lenin, neo-socialist wish list. I mean it’s just … it is chock full of spending porn.” Vladimir Lenin was a Soviet Union premier who supported Marxism and communism....

“I have no desire to escalate tensions with Russia or any other country,” Biden said in a statement Monday, adding that he’d rather focus on other global issues like efforts to end COVID-19. “But if any foreign power recklessly chooses to interfere in our democracy, I will not hesitate to respond as president to impose substantial and lasting costs,” Biden wrote. Biden said he’d direct his administration to “leverage all appropriate instruments of national power and make full use of my executive authority to impose substantial and lasting costs on state perpetrators....

To prove that he has moved beyond a military-leaning approach to global affairs, Biden will need to embrace a foreign policy that concretely reorients America’s relationship to the world away from domination toward cooperation. And as the inheritor of Trump’s erratic foreign policy legacy, Biden must not accept a mangled status quo; he will need to make a sharp, consistent break left. Already there are signs that a Biden presidency could adopt a more diplomatic international stance than his early campaign gave reason to hope....

Speaking Thursday afternoon from the president’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, McCarthy criticized Biden and other Democrats shortly before Biden was to deliver an address of his own in Philadelphia. The White House has said Biden’s speech will be about “the continued battle for the Soul of the Nation.” McCarthy said he has heard Americans’ frustrations during visits to nearly every state ahead of the midterm elections this fall. “What is clear to me, and clear to you, is that Washington and the White House aren’t listening,” he said....

The former vice president told an audience in Derry, New Hampshire, that coal miners could easily transition into programming jobs. “Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet in a mine, sure in hell can learn to program as well, but we don’t think of it that way,” he said. The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel tweeted that Biden made the remarks while he was “riffing on how Obama put him in charge of judging the ‘jobs of the future....

“We want to be specific about what we’re trying to accomplish in this moment and what these six steps will do,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday in a brief preview of Biden’s remarks. “We know that increasing vaccinations will stop the spread of the pandemic [and] we’ll get the pandemic under control, we’ll return people to normal life. That’s what our objective is.” Biden consulted with his top COVID-19 advisers at the White House Wednesday afternoon in preparation for Thursday’s remarks, which are scheduled for 5 p....

Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, released a statement Thursday in which he expressed his disappointment in the decision by the Biden administration to expand Bears Ears National Monuments and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Both national monuments were downsized drastically under the previous administration. Trump cut Bears Ears, on lands considered sacred to Native American tribes, by 85 percent and slashed Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly half. “Yet again, Utah’s national monuments are being used as a political football between administrations,” Utah Senator Mitt Romney said....

A CNBC/Change Research poll, released Thursday, showed Biden gaining ground against his Republican opponent, with support from 54 percent of likely voters compared to Trump’s 41 percent. Biden’s 13 point lead in the survey nearly doubles his national polling average of 7.5, according to Real Clear Politics. The nationwide survey was conducted Tuesday night and Wednesday, in the hours after the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden in Cleveland, Ohio....

What’s actually being said: Don’t mix your politics with our sports. The NFL and its team owners, like Bidwill (the latest scion of the family that has owned the team since it was in Chicago), can’t pretend otherwise anymore. No more getting fooled, not that anyone should have been fooled even before Bidwill heartily and publicly endorsed his old high school classmate for the vacant Supreme Court justice seat minutes after he was nominated Monday night … and the franchise he runs posted it on its Twitter and web sites....

And the Arkansas coach isn't about to back down, despite a host of criticism from up-tempo, no-huddle coaches across the country. Bielema, speaking to the media before a meeting of the White County Razorback Club, said he expects the proposal to prohibit snapping the ball until at least 10 seconds run off the 40-second play clock to pass when the NCAA playing rules oversight panel votes on March 6. He also reiterated his stance that the proposal is safety-based — saying he wants to be proactive and make a change before a fatal injury....

We have two teams already through to the semifinals, with Iowa State taking care of Kansas State. The Cyclones will take on Kansas, which beat Oklahoma State in overtime. Says Bill Self of the Cowboys: "They're good. I don't know what seed line they'll be on, but they're playing like a top four seed right now. That's a great win for us." MORE: Seniors we’ll miss | Tournament Week results & schedules | Live scoreboard | TOURNAMENT SEEDINGS, TV TIMES: ACC | American Athletic | Big 12 | Big Ten | Big East | Mountain West | Pac 12 | SEC...

“I will take full responsibility.” That is what Tan Cheng Hoe said after a major shake-up in the Malaysia national team following the disappointing 2-2 draw against Mongolia on Thursday night. Barely 24 hours after the dust had settled on Malaysia’s first international match of 2018, 14 players were released and nine others were brought into the squad. Coincidentally, all 14 players that will no longer be a part of the team to face Lebanon and Nepal are from one club, Johor Darul Ta’zim....

In that time, the Wildcats have compiled a 63-9 conference record, won four straight Big East regular season titles and the national championship in 2016. This year, Villanova — led by star point guard Jalen Brunson — is in prime position to win a fifth straight regular season Big East crown. But the Wildcats could be threatened by Xavier and Seton Hall, who each return a senior that may end up being voted an All-American in Trevon Bluiett and Angel Delgado, respectively....

The largely uncharted ocean of Internet broadcasting, into which sports leagues are only now dipping their toes, could become such a source of revenue that small-market baseball teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins will no longer take the field with kick me signs on their backs. The reason: a January decision by Major League Baseball’s owners, typically as fast-moving as a glacier, to consolidate all Internet ventures under one umbrella and share the revenue among all clubs....

But reputations are fragile. In recent months BP has suffered a refinery explosion that killed 15 people in Texas City, Texas; a spill in Prudhoe Bay that was the largest ever on Alaska’s north slope, and accusations that the company’s trading arm manipulated energy markets. Key investors have asked whether there is a systemic problem at the company. U.S.-based BP executives have been lambasted about safety standards in congressional hearings....

Memos obtained from companies like ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell show that oil firms have possessed scientific knowledge of the devastating role of fossil fuel emissions since the 1980s. Nonetheless, companies allegedly promoted disinformation around the harm of their products through lobbying campaigns and secretly funding studies aimed to combat data affirming climate change. These efforts recently came under greater scrutiny after an investigation by Greenpeace U.K. brought renewed attention to the issue....

On top of continuing to broadcast on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network, the conference will now add CBS, NBC and NBCUniversal’s Peacock to a record-shattering, seven-year deal that will run from 2023 through the 2029-30 athletic season. It will also see the Big Ten end its 40-year relationship with ESPN. The network has dominated the college football landscape in terms of media rights and opinions for much of the 21st century; that the conference would walk away from the network illustrates how massive its new deal is, as well as ESPN’s loosening stranglehold on the sport....

OSU survived the opening round, 63-61 over Purdue, when the Boilermakers' attempt a buzzer-beating game-winner fell short. MORE: Game details | Big Ten results | Get latest results, track games The Buckeyes did not shoot even 36 percent from the field, and they made only 65 percent of their free throws. What they did well was rebound, with LaQuinton Ross getting 14 to go with his 19 points. Center Amir Williams grabbed 10....