speed

Brenen Thompson is from Spearman, Texas, at the top of the panhandle, where the gusts are constant and the only tourist attraction is a collection of old windmills.

Have you checked out Thompson’s speed numbers?

Prepare to be blown away.

Thompson, newest receiver for the Chargers, ran the 40-yard dash in a forehead-slapping 4.26 seconds — a mere .04 off the NFL combine record. What the former Mississippi State star lacks in size — he’s a shade under 5 feet 10 and 164 pounds — he makes up for in an ability to almost teleport from one spot to another.

Not the biggest position of need for the Chargers, who took him in the fourth round, but a nifty weapon for new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, who in the past has drawn up schemes for such scorchers as Jaylen Waddle, Travis Benjamin and Tyreek Hill.

Now, for the plodding part. OK, the Chargers didn’t race to the podium to select offensive linemen — their undoing last season — but they have remade their offensive line anyway.

First, they’re getting back Pro Bowl tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, who missed all or most of last season with leg injuries; signed center Tyler Biadasz and guard Cole Strange in free agency; and drafted Florida center Jake Slaughter in the second round, with the idea of him playing guard.

So if the plan works out, the Chargers will start five linemen who weren’t even in uniform for them for the January playoff loss to New England. Good thing, because that injury-ravaged line was a fire-drill mess last season.

In years before the Jim Harbaugh regime, the Chargers didn’t embrace the notion of trading down for more picks. But general manager Joe Hortiz likes doing that, and turned what would have been a quiet weekend — two selections on Day 3 — into a six-pick bonanza.

The club took Memphis tackle Travis Burke in the fourth round, presumably adding depth at the position because he’s not the type of player who is going to move inside to guard (and he’s almost certainly not going to unseat Slater or Alt). Depth is good at that spot, because as the Chargers were reminded last season, you’ll sooner find a stray $100 bill on the street than a capable NFL tackle.

The Chargers rounded out the draft by selecting a pair of guards in the sixth round, Logan Taylor of Boston College and Alex Harkey of Oregon. Whereas Taylor was a four-year starter, Harkey started one season at right tackle for the Ducks — he bounced from Colorado to Texas State to Oregon — and projects as an interior lineman in the pros.

Oregon’s Alex Harkey is among the four offensive linemen the Chargers selected in the 2026 NFL draft.

(Mark Ylen / Associated Press)

With the third of their four fourth-rounders, the Chargers took Arizona safety Genesis Smith. He has the cover skills and range to play the deep part of the field, and he’ll be learning from the best in All-Pro Derwin James Jr. Harbaugh is constantly saying, “Competitors welcome,” and Smith figures to be just that. If there’s trust on the back end, James can move up closer to the line of scrimmage to make plays and wreak havoc.

If a player is especially tough and violent on the field, the Chargers will affix a magnetic hammer sticker next to his name on the draft board. That’s what they did with South Carolina defensive tackle Nick Barrett, their final pick of the fourth round. The team typically carries five or six defensive linemen, and Barrett joins a group that includes Teair Tart, Jamaree Caldwell and Dalvin Tomlinson.

The Chargers already ramped up their pass rush by selecting Miami’s Akheem Mesidor at No. 22, a player widely projected to be off the board by then. Doesn’t matter the division, a strong pass rush is always essential. But having that in the AFC West, with Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Denver’s Bo Nix and No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza heading to Las Vegas, turning up the heat on quarterbacks is especially important.

Mesidor, who began his career at West Virginia and finished at Miami, was among the oldest players in the draft at 25. Some saw his age as a negative.

“I’ve been doubted my whole life. I’m ready to come in and earn the respect of my teammates and my coaches and compete,” he told reporters. “The age stuff, any of the negativity that people push into the media about me, is all out the window. It does not faze me, I’m here to play football.”

In the NFL, you can never have enough good pass rushers, and the team that winds up winning the Super Bowl is often the one at or near the top in getting to the quarterback. But first things first. The Chargers have to win a playoff game, something they haven’t done in two seasons under Harbaugh and six with Justin Herbert at quarterback.

Thompson could help in that regard. The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss., told this story last year: When the future Chargers wideoout was 6, his mother signed him up for flag football in Texas.

She told her young son that she would reward him with $1 for every flag he grabbed, and $5 for every touchdown he scored. After the first game, the two had to make a trip to the ATM.

After all, who has $65 at the ready?

April 18 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Saturday to accelerate research for some psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders.

Surrounded by podcaster Joe Rogan and veterans, the president signed the order that could lead to use of the psychedelics in controlled, therapeutic settings.

“We’re taking this decision, this decisive step, to confront one of the most urgent public health challenges facing our nation, the mental health crisis,” Trump said Saturday in the Oval Office.

“Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life,” Trump said.

The order directs the Food and Drug Administration to speed its review of new treatments. Trump said the order applies to certain drugs that are already in the “advanced stages of clinical trials.”

Rogan said he sent the president “some information” about the drugs after he heard about them on his podcast, The Hill reported.

“I sent him that information. The text message that came back: ‘Sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let’s do it.’ Literally that quick,” Rogan said.

Trump mentioned ibogaine, which has been used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in other countries. He said the administration would be “opening the pathway” for the drug to be included in the Right to Try Act, which allows terminally ill patients to participate in clinical trials for treatments still under FDA review, The Hill reported. Trump signed that act into law in 2018.

“Under this new program in this administration, drugs can get approved in weeks, not a year or year plus, but in weeks, if they are in line with our national priorities,” FDA Commissioner Martin Makary said at the signing.

“This is an unmet public health need, and there are potentially promising treatments,” Makary said. “That’s why there’s a sense of urgency around this. That’s why we’re doing it now.”

In 2024, 471 U.S. service members died by suicide, and there were 1,515 attempts reported, according to the Pentagon’s Annual Report on Suicide in the Military.

Some of the drugs included are ibogaine; LSD; psilocybin; known as magic mushrooms; and MDMA, known as ecstasy. Trump added that the government had just committed $50 million in additional funding for ibogaine research, The Post reported.

“Federal prohibition of psychedelic medicine in America is over,” said W. Bryan Hubbard, an advocate for access to ibogaine, The Washington Post reported.

Kevin Sabet, who was a White House drug policy adviser over three presidential administrations, disagreed. He said the order will “send the wrong message” and encourages hasty, potentially dangerous research.

“People need to realize there is little to no evidence for most of these drugs and most of the conditions they claim to alleviate,” Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, wrote in a text message to The Post.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has championed the idea of using psychedelics to help with mental health conditions. On Saturday, he said officials owed it to veterans “to turn over every stone.”

“It’s disturbing to me and to the president that hundreds, in fact, thousands of veterans are having to travel to Mexico or other countries to experiment with interventions that hold great promise,” Kennedy said.

The order calls on the federal government to relax restrictions on psychedelics, including ibogaine, for potential treatments.

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to speed up the review of a handful of psychedelic drugs, including the controversial ibogaine.

Trump was joined by podcaster Joe Rogan during Saturday’s Oval Office event.

Rogan, considered one of the most influential podcasters in the country, has been a leading proponent of ibogaine, which is derived from a plant that grows in West Africa and has been embraced by some military veteran groups as a treatment for post-traumatic stress.

Speaking at the event, Rogan recounted how he had previously texted information to Trump about ibogaine.

He recalled that the president quickly texted back: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approval? Let’s do it.”

Advocacy groups have long pushed for more research into the possible use of psychedelics to treat an array of issues, including depression.

“Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life,” Trump said at the signing.

“If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it’s going to have a tremendous impact.”

At one point, the president quipped that he would be open to taking psychedelics himself: “Can I have some, please? I’ll take some.”

But he quickly pivoted away from the joke. “I don’t have time to be depressed. You know, if you stay busy enough, maybe that works, too. That’s what I do,” he said.

Increasing research into psychedelics has proven a rare issue with bipartisan support in the US, where ibogaine and other psychedelics remain banned under the federal government’s most restrictive category for illegal drugs.

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr had previously pledged to ease access to psychedelics for medical use.

Trump’s executive order calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to direct at least $50m to states that have enacted or are developing programmes to advance psychedelic drugs for serious mental illness.

It also arrives ahead of several actions from the FDA to loosen restrictions.

This week, the agency will issue so-called “national priority” vouchers for three psychedelics, which the agency’s commissioner, Marty Makary, said will allow certain drugs to be approved quickly “if they are in line with our national priorities”.

The FDA is also taking steps to clear the way for the first-ever human trials of ibogaine in the US. Previous research had been stalled by concerns over the drug potentially triggering fatal heart problems.

Ibogaine was first used by members of the Bwiti religion in African nations like Gabon for religious ceremonies.

Rogan’s endorsement helped boost Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. He has since publicly questioned the administration’s war with Iran, saying it runs counter to Trump’s campaign pledges.

Also present on Saturday was Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL whose memoir about his time in Afghanistan, Lone Survivor, was later made into a film.

He praised ibogaine during the ceremony: “It absolutely changed my life for the better.”

SACRAMENTO — Every two years, elite athletes compete in the Olympics, biennial plants — like carrots and onions — produce seeds and people across America look on with consternation and mounting impatience as California counts its election ballots.

The prolonged tally has become as much a part of electioneering in the Golden State as wall-to-wall advertising, high-flown promises and overstuffed mailboxes groaning beneath the weight of endless campaign fliers.

The tabulation — which can last weeks past election day — is the product, in large part, of a commendable objective: Encouraging as many people as possible to vote.

California, which mails a ballot to every eligible voter, ranks near the top of states in the ease of its elections. That’s something to be celebrated. Voting is a way to help steer the direction of our state and nation and invest, as an active participant, in its future.

Yay, participatory democracy!

Unfortunately, the lag time between election day and the final results has led to all sorts of wild, unfounded claims, peddled mainly by Republicans seeking to curry favor with the sore-losing President Trump by parroting his conspiratorial gabbling.

“They hold the elections open for weeks after election day,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said recently, falsely suggesting that chicanery cost the GOP three House seats in California in 2024. “It looks on its face to be fraudulent.”

That’s a lot of, um, hooey.

There is no rampant cheating or election fraud in California. Period. Full stop.

Still, those sorts of phony statements have deeply diminished faith in our elections and our increasingly rickety democracy.

So — what if it were possible to preserve California’s friendly voting system while, at the same time, speeding up the tabulation of its many millions of ballots?

Kim Alexander believes it’s possible to do both.

“We need to stop explaining why it’s taking so long and start figuring out how to [produce election results] in a more satisfying way,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we could do better and do differently. It just takes some creative thinking and some will.”

Simply put, “The longer it takes to count ballots, the more voter confidence erodes.”

Alexander, head of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, has spent more than three decades working to make the state’s elections more efficient, more transparent and more accountable.

Her interest in politics and election mechanics came about while growing up in Culver City, where her father served as a councilman and mayor.

As a 7-year-old, stationed in the garage, it was Alexander’s job to track the returns in her dad’s first campaign, toting up the numbers at an election night party while her mom, posted in the kitchen, called the city clerk for updates. Even at that young age, Alexander learned the importance of a fair and efficient tabulation process.

Over the years, she watched as her father’s political career was stymied by a Democratic gerrymander, which blocked any hopes he had of being elected to Congress or the Legislature as a moderate Republican. She saw firsthand the influence of money in politics. (Her father told her of turning away donations that came with strings attached.) That helped turn her into a political reformer.

After working as a legislative staffer and serving a stint at Common Cause, the good-government lobbying group, Alexander took over the California Voter Foundation in 1994.

As a political noncombatant, Alexander won’t say how it feels, and whether these days she’s more or less optimistic, watching as reckless attacks on our elections come from inside the White House. “I like to describe myself as a realist with high goals,” is all she’d allow.

There are good reasons why it takes California so long to count its ballots.

First off, there are a lot of them; more than 16 million residents voted in the last presidential election, more than the population of all but 10 states. Voting by mail has exploded in popularity and it takes longer to count those ballots, as many don’t arrive until after election day. Also, there are a number of safeguards to prevent fraud and ensure an accurate count. “We’re checking all the signatures,” Alexander said. “We’re making sure nobody votes twice.”

Simply explaining those facts can help build trust, she said. However, that won’t speed up the state’s vote counting. Here, Alexander suggested, are some things that can:

— Increase funding for California’s 58 counties to expand equipment, staff and the space needed to process ballots. In recent years, the state has been asking local election officials to do more and more without reimbursing their costs.

— Educate voters and encourage them to turn their ballots in earlier. Along those lines, a system called “sign, scan and go” allows voters to return their mail ballots in person at a designated polling place. A pilot program in Placer County found that that shaved three to four days off processing time. The system could be implemented statewide.

— Better manage California’s voter database, doing so from the top down in Sacramento, rather than having counties oversee their data and feed it into the system. That bottom-up approach creates delays and a lag time in processing ballots.

— Create “ballot swap” days to speed delivery of out-of-county ballots where they belong, also saving time. (Under California law, voters can return their ballot anywhere in the state, but it must be routed to their home county to be tabulated. That process can now take more than a week.)

The problem, apart from perennial budget pressures, is that interest in election mechanics — a technical and arcane subject if ever there was one — is episodic and fleeting. It’s like worrying about a leaky roof when the temperature is 95 degrees outside and the sun is blazing.

But even without voters clamoring to address California’s slow-poke vote count, lawmakers should act.

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently rose to defend the state’s “safe and secure elections” against one of Trump’s many unwarranted attacks. If he wants to burnish his credentials for a 2028 presidential run — which Newsom very much does — one way would be to speed up delivery of its election results.

That way the rest of the country won’t be asking again in November: What the heck’s with California?

PHOENIX — After a few days away, Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts returned to Camelback Ranch over the weekend, now a father of three after his wife, Brianna, gave birth.

The 33-year-old Betts said earlier in camp he was looking to ease into spring training ahead of his 13th major league season in an effort to turn the page from a career-worst statistical year in 2025. There have been encouraging signs as he’s hitting .316 in Cactus League play, which includes a home run in Sunday’s split-squad win over the Chicago Cubs.

“I just want to get better,” Betts said. “I’m not content with being where I’m at. I want to continue to get better in life and everything, and you know, be able to kind of teach my son how to be great. You know, I’ve got to go through it first. When you’re open-minded, there’s endless possibilities.”

Betts kept an open mind when he first learned of teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s unique workout routine, which includes javelin throwing, yoga, and working with personal trainer Osamu Yada. Betts credits his improved defense at shortstop to the new training methods that he’s adopted.

“I’m not fully in his whole routine,” Betts said of Yada, who is often referred to as Yada Sensei. “But I wake up every morning and do my stretch routine that Sensei showed me, throwing the javelins every day. I think throwing javelins is the reason why I can make a play in the hole like that and throw it in the air on a line. I’m really grateful for Yoshi and Sensei, because they have definitely changed my perspective, changed my life, changed my game.”

Betts graded as a below-average defender in his first season at the shortstop position in 2024, posting a minus-6 in Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-3 in Outs Above Average. Last season, he saw a sizable improvement, leading MLB shortstops in DRS (+17) and placing in the top-third in OAA (+6).

It wasn’t hard for Betts to look at Yamamoto and think that the Japanese superstar may have been onto something.

“So I mean, Yoshi came over and [got] $300 million, and he hadn’t even thrown a pitch over here,” Betts said. “So, I’m pretty sure he does something right.”

Betts has yet to see the workouts translate offensively, but expects that to come in due time.

“He said eventually I’ll feel where it helps me hitting, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Betts said. “I think he should be back, so you’ll see us back working, and eventually I’ll get it, but he said it will take a little time.”

In the meantime, Betts believes he’s found an easy fix that should return him to the MVP-caliber player he had been for close to a decade. Betts says he lost 10 mph in bat speed last season.

“I think the most important part is now that I think I’m 178 [pounds] now, almost 180 [pounds], so I’m able to just have speed,” Betts said. “When I lost all the weight, I was down 10 mph in speed. You’ve got guys throwing 100 mph with a slow bat, it’s going to be hard to do. It’s not an excuse, but it’s a fact. So, now I’ve got my speed back, I don’t have to hurry up and make decisions so fast.”

Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “I like where he’s at physically. He looks stronger.”

A stomach illness prompted Betts to lose 15 to 20 pounds . last spring, putting him behind the eight-ball, and he never quite caught up after that.

“[I was] down 10 mph in bat speed,” Betts said. “Do you know how hard it is for somebody that weighs 160 lbs. to gain bat speed, to gain strength and play a game all at the same time during the season? It’s tough to do. I tried it. I failed at it. But we’re in a new spot now, and we’ll try to stay here.”