[FoxNews] Ditka won a Super Bowl with Dallas and was a Super Bowl winning coach with the Bears
Mike Ditka, one of the greatest examples of a great player becoming a great coach in NFL history en route to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has passed away at the age of 86.
The death of one of the NFL's greats was announced Friday morning by his family in a statement.
"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka," the statement said. "While the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach, and leader of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family.
"Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.
"With love and gratitude, The Ditka Family."
Ditka was a great tight end who won the Super Bowl with Dallas, and was a Super Bowl winning coach with the Chicago Bears. He also became something of an iconic figure as fans and celebrities copied his look and imitated his no-nonsense talk.
Drafted by the Chicago Bears in 1961, he became the first modern receiving tight end and the first tight end selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ditka won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1961 and made five consecutive Pro Bowls from 1961-65 and earned five All-Pro selections.
He played for the Bears from 1961-66, the Philadelphia Eagles from 1967-68 and the Dallas Cowboys from 1969-72, finishing with 427 receptions, 5,812 yards and 43 touchdowns.
The Bears called Ditka a proud icon of their organization in a statement on Friday.
"We are deeply saddened by the passing of legendary and treasured Chicago Bear and Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka," the Bears said in a statement. "Mike’s impact on the Chicago Bears organization, over decades as a player, coach, and proud icon and ambassador for our organization, is immeasurable."
"His integral role in bringing world championships to our city and our franchise, both as a player and as our coach, established prominence and excellence at a world-class level, but also created a lifetime of cherished memories in the hearts and minds of Bears fans that will last for generations. We extend our love, prayers, and heartfelt condolences to the Ditka family, and join all Bears fans in deep sadness and reverence as we remember and honor Mike Ditka."
Ditka played on teams that won the 1963 NFL championship with Chicago and Super Bowl VI with Dallas following the 1971 season.
Ditka retired as a player after the 1972 season, entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988.
The NFL released a statement on Ditka's passing: "The NFL is deeply saddened by the passing of Hall of Fame coach and tight end, Mike Ditka.
"Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones."
Most people remember him for reviving a floundering Bears franchise in the 1980s. He definitely did that.
Ditka coached the famous 1985 Bears that rampaged through the NFL with an 18-1 record, losing only to the Miami Dolphins, and then going on to a Super Bowl title.
The Bears blew out the New England Patriots in that Super Bowl.
Ditka began his coaching career immediately after retiring when he joined Tom Landry’s Cowboys staff in 1973 and spent nine seasons as an assistant coach, winning Super Bowl XII during the 1977 season.
He became Chicago’s head coach in 1982 and was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1985 and 1988, coached the Bears through 1992 and later led the New Orleans Saints from 1997-99.
Ditka was a no-nonsense man. He rarely had any filter.
After one particularly disappointing practice while he was with the Saints, Ditka took some of his frustration out on reporters.
His most famous exchange came during a 1999 Saints news conference, when New Orleans was 2-7:
Reporter: "Why are you in such a bad mood?"
Ditka: "What do you care? If you were 2-7, you’d be in a bad mood too."
After he retired from the NFL, Ditka worked as an NBC, CBS and ESPN football analyst, operated restaurants and business ventures, and made public appearances.
He was beloved in Chicago. He was beloved in Dallas.
He will long be remembered as a colorful part of NFL lore.
[FoxNews] The quake struck at a depth of 6 miles near Panama's southern coast, with shaking felt in the capital
A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Panama's southern coast Friday, shaking the country's capital as officials investigated a potential tsunami threat.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the earthquake at magnitude 8.0 before lowering its estimate to 7.7. The quake struck at 1:56 p.m. ET, at a depth of 7.8 miles, near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama.
A 5.5 magnitude aftershock followed, with its epicenter approximately 50 miles east of the initial earthquake.
The Panama Canal said operations were continuing normally following Friday's earthquake, with emergency protocols activated and technical teams inspecting facilities for possible damage. Canal officials said their priority was ensuring the safety of workers, vessels, crews and nearby communities as assessments continued.
The earthquake was felt in Panama City and in San José, the capital of neighboring Costa Rica, according to Reuters.
Tsunami officials warned that waves reaching 3 to 10 feet above tide levels were possible along some coastal areas of Panama, while parts of Ecuador could experience waves of approximately 1 to 3 feet.
Smaller tsunami waves of less than 1 foot above tide levels were forecast for coastal areas of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said in a series of posts on X that he was visiting areas affected by Friday's earthquake and coordinating emergency assistance with government officials.
Mulino said he had ordered the mobilization of personnel, resources and aid for affected communities, along with structural assessments to determine the extent of the damage. He also thanked neighboring countries for their support and said assistance from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) would go toward helping those affected.
The president said he was traveling through Penonomé with government officials to coordinate relief efforts and thanked the United States and other countries for their offers of assistance.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Friday post on X that the State Department was rapidly mobilizing resources and personnel to assist Panama at the request of the Panamanian government. Rubio said the U.S. was closely monitoring the earthquake and directed Americans needing assistance to the department's 24-hour consular hotline at +1-202-501-4444 from abroad or +1-888-407-4747 from the U.S. and Canada.
The U.S. Embassy in Panama also said it was assessing potential damage and working to account for the safety and whereabouts of visitors and personnel. In a separate X post, the embassy urged Americans in Panama to enroll in the State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at STEP.State.gov and follow its social media accounts for updates.
Despite the potential danger to coastal communities near the earthquake, officials said a Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.
Moscow, October 9, 2026, 2:27 PM — Regnum News Agency. Three clouds of solar plasma are moving toward Earth, the first of which will reach the planet after 6:00 PM Moscow time. This was reported on October 9 by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"The first of the clouds, ejected on Tuesday, October 6, during a solar flare of class M1.4, will arrive at Earth today after 6:00 PM Moscow time, causing magnetic storms of level G2 and, presumably, triggering intense auroras at latitudes of 55–60 degrees and higher," the laboratory's website said.
Scientists indicated that two other plasma clouds, which left the Sun on October 7 and 8, will merge en route to Earth and jointly impact the planet on October 11 at midday. After the plasma clouds reach Earth, solar activity will decline sharply, the experts added.
The first magnetic storm of the fall occurred on September 8th. The event was weak, classified as Category 1 on a five-point scale. The disturbances were associated with a plasma cloud ejected by the Sun.
Anton Reva, a senior researcher at the Space Plasma Physics Department at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute, previously told Regnum that the next solar cycle maximum is expected in 2036–2038. This period typically sees the greatest number of magnetic storms. The current cycle's maximum was recorded in 2025.
More from regnum.ru
Scientist Reva warned of two magnetic storms at the end of the week.
Moscow, October 9, 2026, 5:30 PM — Regnum News Agency. A magnetic storm will begin on Earth on the evening of October 9, and another one is expected on Sunday. Both will be mild. Anton Reva, a senior researcher in the Space Plasma Physics Department at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute, spoke with Regnum News Agency on Friday.
According to the scientist, a magnetic storm will hit Earth on October 9. It will begin after 6 p.m. and last until 3 a.m. Its intensity will be slightly above level one (minimum) on a five-point scale.
"The amplitude will be somewhere around G1–G2, meaning it's a minor magnetic storm. Nothing serious is to be expected. The plasma cloud should reach us around evening. After that, there won't be any magnetic storms throughout Saturday; conditions will be calm," Reva noted.
A magnetic storm expected on the night of October 9-10 is linked to a solar flare that occurred on Wednesday. On Thursday, October 8, experts recorded another plasma ejection, which could trigger another magnetic storm within the week.
"Yesterday there was a moderate solar flare. The cloud is expected to reach us on Sunday, October 11, and another minor magnetic storm—around G1—will occur. There won't be any major magnetic storms, but two minor storms of G1–G2 magnitude are possible," Reva explained.
The scientist added that geomagnetic storms associated with the arrival of a plasma cloud toward Earth last five to six hours. The delay from the flare to the magnetic storm is approximately two days.
Earlier, meteorologist Mikhail Leus explained that the October 9 magnetic storm was caused by several M-level flares, the second-lowest possible intensity. Two plasma clouds reached Earth on Friday. By October 11, the planet's geomagnetic field should return to a calm state.
I’m glad the honourable Congressman from the great state of California is looking in this — they don’t get to act like Chinese robber barons in our land of the free. We fought hard for our freedoms — they don’t get to bully is into giving them up.
[FoxNews] Rep Ro Khanna convened a roundtable after the Chinese glass manufacturer refused to comply with a Congressional inquiry
A Chinese glass manufacturer’s decision not to comply with a congressional oversight inquiry prompted Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., to convene a revealing roundtable with the plant’s former workers, where they described a series of hazardous work conditions and fears for their safety.
Khanna, the ranking member on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), first reached out to Fuyao Glass America and its Chinese parent company Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co., Ltd. in July, requesting documents detailing the company’s business and labor practices.
Fuyao quickly drew the attention of Americans in the Rust Belt and beyond when it became the subject of the 2019 Netflix documentary "American Factory," which chronicled its takeover of a former General Motors plant outside of Dayton, Ohio.
The company has since been mired in scandals ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for workplace safety violations to the 2018 death of factory worker Ricky Patterson.
In a subsequent October letter to Fuyao leadership, Khanna decried the company’s refusal to dialogue, condemning them for only sending one single letter in response to his numerous inquiries. Fuyao's Sept. 23 response, Khanna wrote in his Oct. 1 letter to the company, "answers virtually none of the Committee’s questions in a material way and fails to include any document submissions."
Despite Fuyao’s silence, Khanna made the journey to Western Ohio, an area of the country decimated by a loss of manufacturing jobs in recent decades.
Khanna convened a roundtable discussion on Tuesday involving former Fuyao employees and current union leaders at the Industrial Division of the Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) headquarters in Dayton, Ohio.
During the discussion, former Fuyao workers described unbearable heat, an inability to communicate with their Chinese supervisors and apparent labor violations involving their Chinese counterparts, among other grievances.
"The heat in there is unbearable. They don't care," Tiffany Moore, who worked at Fuyao for three years, told the group.
"There's the language barrier. They can't communicate with you. When you try to communicate with them, they'll send someone else to you. Maybe one of them speaks English," Moore continued.
Like many of the former Fuyao employees at the table, Moore now works at Duramax, a General Motors-owned engine manufacturer, where she says she is much happier. But to even apply for the position she had to employ clandestine measures to avoid retaliation from her Fuyao bosses.
"You can't put your two weeks in because if you put your two weeks, they'll get rid of you before your two weeks come up for any reason. They'll tell you they don't have to have a reason to get rid of you just so that they can fill your position. So when I left there, I had to actually sneak out, do my orientation at DMAX. And then call them and tell them that I wasn't coming back and for them to release my 401k," Moore said.
Demetria Hodges, another worker who fled Fuyao for Duramax, recounted the time a Chinese forklift driver, who she believed to be unlicensed, struck her with the machine and faced no accountability.
"It was on camera, they have cameras in there, and they acted like they didn’t know who the forklift driver was," she told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. "So when I tried to pursue a lawsuit and my workman’s comp, they pretended like they didn’t know who the person was."
While the American workers described abysmal conditions for themselves, they said the Chinese workers were treated even worse.
"They were treated horrible," Moore told the group. "They weren't allowed to take anything from us. They weren't really allowed to communicate with us. They weren't allowed to mix with us."
Moore, Hodges and others said the Chinese workers were almost always the ones chosen for promotions because Fuyao could pay them less. They also said the company was constantly busing in new workers from elsewhere.
"They used to rotate them out every couple months. Like they will go to New York and get a bus for or a van full of people and bring them down here. And they work for a certain amount of months, and then they rotate and send them back," Hodges said.
When Hodges explained that workers were still forced to come to work the day after part of the factory caught fire, Khanna asked her if the workers were undocumented.
"I believe that's why they accepted it because they were undocumented," Hodges said.
Darrell Jones, another former Fuyao employee, told Khanna he felt the workers needed a union backing them, a point which quickly drew heated commentary from the group.
"They wouldn't let a union come in there," Moore chimed in. "You couldn't even speak of a union being in there."
"Or you could lose your job," Hodges added.
Jones went on to explain that Fuyao threatened employees, telling them the company would take away their health insurance if they unionized. Hodges then added that the company offered employees a one-time pay bump of $2 an hour if they voted no on a planned unionization referendum.
"They said if we ever get a union there, he was going to shut it down," Jones recalled a supervisor telling him.
Jones also recalled the circumstances that led up to the tragic 2018 death of 57-year-old Fuyao factory worker Ricky Patterson.
"When that guy got smashed by that glass, we had to work that day," Jones recounted.
"He was a little shaky because he had just lost his mom. He was trying load up to glass. He cut one end of it. And then he was supposed to put the forklift in front of it, but he didn't put the forklift in front of it. When he cut that first side, the other side was loose," Jones said.
"Crushed him," he concluded.
OSHA fined Fuyao $7,000 in an informal settlement for a safety violation that led to Patterson's death.
"There's a guy used to work there, he passed away, he used to tell me all the time, he said he told you guys that 'you ought to be able to expect deaths in that plant,'" Sam Sanders, the president of IUE-CWA's local Dayton chapter told the group.
"He said what?" someone asked.
"Expect deaths in that plant," Sanders reiterated.
[Reuters] A contractor linked to Super Micro Computer (SMCI.O) has pleaded guilty in a scheme to illegally export computer servers containing advanced Nvidia (NVDA.O) AI chips to China, a federal court filing showed on Friday.
Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun pleaded guilty to four counts, including conspiracies to violate US export controls, smuggle goods from the US, defraud the country and obstruct justice. He entered the plea on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The United States and China are competing for dominance in AI, with both investing billions of dollars in a technology seen as critical to economic growth, national security and military capabilities.
In March, prosecutors charged Sun and two others associated with Super Micro, including a co-founder of the AI-server maker, with conspiring to divert about $2.5 billion worth of US AI technology to China in violation of export laws.
The scheme began around October 2023, with Sun and others conspiring to export servers from a US manufacturer, widely believed to be Super Micro, to China without the required licenses, according to the indictment.
Asked for comment on the guilty plea, California-based Super Micro referred to its prior statements that the company was not named as a defendant in the indictment and that it had no impact on its business operations. Super Micro terminated Sun and cut ties with the other defendants earlier this year.
A lawyer for Sun declined to comment.
Also indicted were the co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw and Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, who was a sales manager at Super Micro's Taiwan office, while Sun was a contractor.
A lawyer for Liaw - who co-founded Super Micro in 1993 and joined its board in 2023 - did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chang's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
The indictment described Sun as a broker and “fixer” who facilitated orders and took steps to conceal the scheme. He helped stage "dummy" servers in December 2025 and made false statements to a US Department of Commerce officer during an inspection of supposedly stored servers, which had already been diverted to China, according to the indictment.
Washington has restricted sales of advanced AI chips to China, citing national security concerns. The indictment said Nvidia's B200, H100 and H200 graphics processing units, and servers containing them, were subject to the restrictions.
[FoxNews] The M4L AWARE system flags DEI contracts, gender policies and curriculum changes every 12 hours to mobilize parents
Moms for Liberty is deploying artificial intelligence to monitor school board agendas across more than 13,000 school districts nationwide, giving parents advance warning about controversial policies before local officials vote on them, Fox News Digital has learned.
"The Biden admin targeted our parents for showing up to school board meetings, but we were just getting started," Tina Descovich, Moms for Liberty co-founder and CEO, told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Wait and see what happens when parents receive timely information about what is being discussed at their school board meetings."
The new system, dubbed M4L AWARE, which stands for Agenda Watch, Alert, Response, and Engage, scans school board agendas every 12 hours for issues involving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), gender policies, curriculum changes and Title IX, according to the parental rights organization.
When the system flags a high-priority item, it sends local Moms for Liberty chapters a plain-language summary and a ready-to-share alert designed to help parents organize before a school board meeting.
The organization says its system is designed to give chapters a window of roughly 72 hours to mobilize parents, sign up for public comment and scrutinize proposals before board members cast their votes.
"Moms for Liberty is harnessing AI to increase the oversight of school boards across the nation, empowering parents like never before," Descovich said. "For five years, we’ve asked parents to show up at school board meetings, and they have. The problem is that it’s incredibly time-consuming to sift through thousands of pages in agendas each week, and school districts count on that."
Descovich said the new AI tool will allow Moms for Liberty members and other parents to quickly identify concerning policies buried deep within school board agendas, even when they are released late in the week, giving families time to respond before officials take action.
The announcement of the tool comes on the heels of a Monday report from the Justice Department's Weaponization Working Group that the FBI opened 25 "Guardian assessments" involving parents following then-Attorney General Merrick Garland's Oct. 4, 2021, memorandum addressing threats against school officials.
The report said that an FBI whistleblower disclosed that one mother was investigated following a tip that noted she was a gun owner and belonged to what was described as a "right-wing mom's group." A separate joint DOJ-Education Department release identified that organization as Moms for Liberty.
The Working Group concluded that the memo, according to the DOJ press release, "was the product of pressure exerted by the White House and wrongly weaponized the Department of Justice against parents."
Oct 8 (Reuters) - SpaceX struck a deal on Thursday to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum portfolio, moving Elon Musk's satellite venture closer to mounting a direct, orbital challenge to legacy wireless giants across the United States.
The Elon Musk-led space company will pay about $8 billion in cash for the assets to the seller, private-equity firm Grain Management, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. SpaceX and Grain did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
SpaceX's Starlink Mobile satellite-to-cellular service has existing global 2 GHz mid-band spectrum for high-bandwidth capacity. The new spectrum will enable its signal to pass through obstacles.
Low-band frequencies can travel long distances and penetrate dense structures such as walls and tree cover, addressing a major technical hurdle previously faced by satellite-based mobile networks.
By pairing nationwide low-band airwaves with high-frequency space capacity, SpaceX is positioning Starlink Mobile to bypass conventional cell towers entirely and challenge the wireless oligopoly on both broad coverage and in-building reliability.
The deal raises the stakes for legacy carriers, transforming satellite direct-to-device connectivity from a supplementary safety feature for remote dead zones into a full-scale commercial rival capable of unseating terrestrial cellular networks.
Shares of T-Mobile US, Verizon and AT&T fell around 6% in extended trading. The three carriers formed a satellite-focused joint venture in May that some analysts believe is intended to respond to the threat from SpaceX.
"The incumbent wireless carriers have been vocal in expressing skepticism that SpaceX's network will be able to match the quality of their networks," William Blair analysts said.
"We expect SpaceX to offer a very compelling Starlink broadband and Starlink Mobile bundle. The company may also include Grok in the package," referring to the AI chatbot developed by Musk's xAI.
The transaction, which involves acquiring 100% of Grain Management's nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio, remains subject to Federal Communications Commission approval. Grain acquired the airwaves from T-Mobile earlier this year.
"We are going to see more investment, more opportunities for a range of providers, and America leading the world in next-gen technologies — to the benefit of consumers all across the country," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in response to the deal between SpaceX and Grain.
Grain CEO David Grain said the deal has "the potential to change where and how Americans connect."
Most existing mobile handsets support the 800 MHz frequency band, eliminating the need for consumers to purchase proprietary satellite phones.
Verizon spokesman Rich Young noted there were still hurdles after SpaceX's spectrum purchase. "This company can have tons of spectrum available, but if they do not have the network to use it, it doesn't matter. It's just empty airwaves," Young said.
The FCC also approved Starlink Mobile's Gen2 constellation application this week, authorizing SpaceX to launch 15,000 satellites that are optimized for 2 GHz spectrum globally.
The new orbital fleet will operate in very low Earth orbit, delivering expanded bandwidth and low-latency connections to standard handsets.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BREAKING: Israel says pilot tried to hijack flydubai flight to Tel Aviv that diverted, landed in Saudi Arabia
