casino games to win real money CINCINNATI (AP) — The Cincinnati Bengals have found all manner of ways to lose close games this season. Sunday's 44-38 loss to AFC North rival Pittsburgh can be blamed on a defense that missed tackles and allowed 520 yards of offense, and three turnovers by Joe Burrow. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.

Pep Guardiola spoke of his relief after Manchester City finally got back to winning ways with a comfortable 3-0 defeat of Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. The champions had descended into crisis after a run of seven games without a win – six of which were defeats and the other an embarrassing 3-3 draw after leading 3-0. Four of those losses had come in the Premier League, heavily damaging their chances of claiming a fifth successive title, but they appeared to turn the corner by sweeping Forest aside at the Etihad Stadium. “We needed it,” said City manager Guardiola. “The club, the players, everyone needed to win. A good night's work 🫡 Thank you for backing us all the way, City fans 🩵 — Manchester City (@ManCity) “But it is just one game and in three days we are at Selhurst Park, where it has always been difficult. “We played good. We still conceded some transitions and missed some easy things and lost some passes that you have to avoid, but in general, the most important thing was to break this routine of not winning games and we won it.” Kevin De Bruyne, making his first start since September after overcoming a pelvic injury, made a huge difference to a side that appeared rejuvenated. His powerful header was turned in by Bernardo Silva for the opening goal and the Belgian followed up with a powerful strike to make it 2-0. The 33-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season but it was a strong riposte to recent suggestions of a rift with Guardiola. A sweet strike 💥 ⚡️ | — Manchester City (@ManCity) “I’m so happy for him,” said Guardiola of De Bruyne’s telling contribution. “Last season he was many months injured and this season as well. “I’m so happy he’s back. He fought a lot, he’s worked and he’s back with his physicality. The minutes he played in Anfield were really good and today he played 75 fantastic minutes.” Jeremy Doku wrapped up a pleasing win when he finished a rapid counter-attack just before the hour but there was still a downside for City with injuries to defenders Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji. Guardiola said: “For Nathan it doesn’t look good and Manu has struggled a lot over the last two months. We will see. “Phil (Foden) has bronchitis but when he doesn’t have fever he will be ready.” Despite City’s dominance, Forest did have some bright moments and manager Nuno Espirito Santo was not downbeat. He said: “When you lose 3-0 and you say it was a good performance maybe people don’t understand, but I will not say that was a bad performance. “There are positive things for us in the game. Of course there are a lot of bad things, mistakes, but we had chances. “We didn’t achieve but I think we come out proud of ourselves because we tried. For sure, this game will allow us to grow.”Head of Canada’s diplomatic service holds interference briefing for foreign diplomats

NoneTHOUSAND OAKS, Calif. , Dec. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN ) will present at Citi's 2024 Global Healthcare Conference at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday , Dec. 5, 2024. Peter Griffith , executive vice president and chief financial officer at Amgen, Jay Bradner , executive vice president of Research and Development and chief scientific officer at Amgen, and Susan Sweeney , executive vice president of Obesity and Related Conditions at Amgen, will participate in a fireside chat at the conference. The webcast will be broadcast over the internet simultaneously and will be available to members of the news media, investors and the general public. The webcast, as with other selected presentations regarding developments in Amgen's business given by management at certain investor and medical conferences, can be found on Amgen's website, www.amgen.com , under Investors. Information regarding presentation times, webcast availability and webcast links are noted on Amgen's Investor Relations Events Calendar. The webcast will be archived and available for replay for at least 90 days after the event. About Amgen Amgen discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers innovative medicines to help millions of patients in their fight against some of the world's toughest diseases. More than 40 years ago, Amgen helped to establish the biotechnology industry and remains on the cutting-edge of innovation, using technology and human genetic data to push beyond what's known today. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline that builds on its existing portfolio of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, inflammatory diseases and rare diseases. In 2024, Amgen was named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by Fast Company and one of "America's Best Large Employers" by Forbes, among other external recognitions . Amgen is one of the 30 companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average ® , and it is also part of the Nasdaq-100 Index ® , which includes the largest and most innovative non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization. Amgen is one of the 30 companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is also part of the Nasdaq-100 index. In 2023, Amgen was named one of "America's Greatest Workplaces" by Newsweek, one of "America's Climate Leaders" by USA Today and one of the "World's Best Companies" by TIME. For more information, visit Amgen.com and follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn , Instagram , TikTok , YouTube and Threads . Amgen Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations and beliefs of Amgen. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements on the outcome, benefits and synergies of collaborations, or potential collaborations, with any other company (including BeiGene, Ltd. or Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.), the performance of Otezla ® (apremilast) (including anticipated Otezla sales growth and the timing of non-GAAP EPS accretion), our acquisitions of Teneobio, Inc., ChemoCentryx, Inc., or Horizon Therapeutics plc (including the prospective performance and outlook of Horizon's business, performance and opportunities, any potential strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities expected as a result of such acquisition, and any projected impacts from the Horizon acquisition on our acquisition-related expenses going forward), as well as estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial metrics, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, reimbursement activities and outcomes, effects of pandemics or other widespread health problems on our business, outcomes, progress, and other such estimates and results. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, including those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by Amgen, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Unless otherwise noted, Amgen is providing this information as of the date of this news release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those we project. Our results may be affected by our ability to successfully market both new and existing products domestically and internationally, clinical and regulatory developments involving current and future products, sales growth of recently launched products, competition from other products including biosimilars, difficulties or delays in manufacturing our products and global economic conditions. In addition, sales of our products are affected by pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny and reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers, including governments, private insurance plans and managed care providers and may be affected by regulatory, clinical and guideline developments and domestic and international trends toward managed care and healthcare cost containment. Furthermore, our research, testing, pricing, marketing and other operations are subject to extensive regulation by domestic and foreign government regulatory authorities. We or others could identify safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with our products, including our devices, after they are on the market. Our business may be impacted by government investigations, litigation and product liability claims. In addition, our business may be impacted by the adoption of new tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities. If we fail to meet the compliance obligations in the corporate integrity agreement between us and the U.S. government, we could become subject to significant sanctions. Further, while we routinely obtain patents for our products and technology, the protection offered by our patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors, or we may fail to prevail in present and future intellectual property litigation. We perform a substantial amount of our commercial manufacturing activities at a few key facilities, including in Puerto Rico , and also depend on third parties for a portion of our manufacturing activities, and limits on supply may constrain sales of certain of our current products and product candidate development. An outbreak of disease or similar public health threat, such as COVID-19, and the public and governmental effort to mitigate against the spread of such disease, could have a significant adverse effect on the supply of materials for our manufacturing activities, the distribution of our products, the commercialization of our product candidates, and our clinical trial operations, and any such events may have a material adverse effect on our product development, product sales, business and results of operations. We rely on collaborations with third parties for the development of some of our product candidates and for the commercialization and sales of some of our commercial products. In addition, we compete with other companies with respect to many of our marketed products as well as for the discovery and development of new products. Discovery or identification of new product candidates or development of new indications for existing products cannot be guaranteed and movement from concept to product is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guarantee that any particular product candidate or development of a new indication for an existing product will be successful and become a commercial product. Further, some raw materials, medical devices and component parts for our products are supplied by sole third-party suppliers. Certain of our distributors, customers and payers have substantial purchasing leverage in their dealings with us. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of our products that implicate an entire class of products could have a material adverse effect on sales of the affected products and on our business and results of operations. Our efforts to collaborate with or acquire other companies, products or technology, and to integrate the operations of companies or to support the products or technology we have acquired, may not be successful. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to realize any of the strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities arising from the Horizon acquisition, and such benefits, synergies or opportunities may take longer to realize than expected. We may not be able to successfully integrate Horizon, and such integration may take longer, be more difficult or cost more than expected. A breakdown, cyberattack or information security breach of our information technology systems could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our systems and our data. Our stock price is volatile and may be affected by a number of events. Our business and operations may be negatively affected by the failure, or perceived failure, of achieving our environmental, social and governance objectives. The effects of global climate change and related natural disasters could negatively affect our business and operations. Global economic conditions may magnify certain risks that affect our business. Our business performance could affect or limit the ability of our Board of Directors to declare a dividend or our ability to pay a dividend or repurchase our common stock. We may not be able to access the capital and credit markets on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks Elissa Snook , 609-251-1407 (media) Justin Claeys , 805-313-9775 (investors) SOURCE Amgen

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Republicans filed a lawsuit Monday to try to force a rerun of a state House race where the incumbent Democrat won by 14 votes — but in which investigators concluded that election workers probably destroyed 20 valid absentee ballots after failing to count them. It's a race that could determine the balance of power in the Minnesota House, where leaders from both parties are working out the details of a power-sharing agreement that currently presumes a 67-67 tie when the Legislature convenes next month. A Republican victory in a special election could shift that balance to a one-vote GOP majority. Democrats have a one-vote majority in the state Senate. So regardless of the outcome in the disputed race, Minnesota will be returning to some degree of divided government in 2025 after two years of full Democratic control. “The actions of Scott County elections officials constitute a serious breach of not only Minnesota Election Law, but the public trust in our electoral system,” the lawsuit said. Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke was declared the winner last week of the swing suburban Shakopee-area District 54A race by 14 votes after a recount and the official canvass. But Scott County election officials had said earlier, after a post-election audit, that they were unable to account for 21 absentee ballots in the district southwest of Minneapolis. County Attorney Ronald Hocevar reported last Wednesday that his preliminary investigation determined that election workers most likely threw at least 20 of those absentee ballots away, and that they may have been in a paper bale that a recycler had already sent away for shredding. He wrote that they “most likely will not be recovered,” and that even if they were found, it's unlikely that an unbroken chain of custody could be proven to assure that they weren't tampered with. In Minnesota, absentee voters complete their ballots, place them in a security envelope to protect their privacy, then place that envelope inside a signature envelope with identifying information on the outside so that election workers can check those ballots in. Once the counting begins, the ballots are supposed to be removed from the security envelopes and tabulated. The county attorney concluded that the 20 ballots, all from the same precinct, were properly accepted for counting on Oct. 17, but “most likely were never removed from their secrecy envelopes,” and were probably still in them when those envelopes were thrown away. The investigation didn’t determine what happened to the 21st ballot, which was cast in a different precinct. It’s not the first time in recent years that absentee ballots have gone missing. When a small number of military ballots in Pennsylvania ended up in a trash can in 2020, President Donald Trump repeatedly seized on the case to support his claims of fraud heading into that election. After investigating, authorities found a temporary county election worker had mistakenly discarded seven military ballots in the trash and mishandled two others. The ballots were later retrieved from a garbage dumpster and counted, and the worker was fired. Minnesota House Republicans filed Monday's lawsuit on behalf of GOP candidate Aaron Paul, asking a court to declare the results invalid and Tabke's seat vacant, saying the “undisputed facts” make it impossible to rely on the results. The current House minority leader, Rep. Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, said a new election is the best way to protect the integrity of the process. "We appreciate the efforts by Scott County to investigate this matter and be transparent about their findings,” Demuth said in a statement. But House Democrats said they believe they will win the court challenge. “Rep. Brad Tabke won the election in District 54A by the count on Election Night and in the recount," current Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, said in a statement. "We expect Rep. Tabke will prevail again in the election contest.” Republicans also filed a lawsuit last month over a different House race, in the suburban Roseville area, where they allege the winner doesn't live in the district. Democrats deny that, and the district is heavily Democratic, so that case is unlikely to change the balance of power even if there's a special election. ___ Associated Press writer Christina Almeida Cassidy contributed to this story from Atlanta.

AMGEN TO PRESENT AT CITI'S 2024 GLOBAL HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE

By Jack Flemming, Los Angeles Times (TNS) It’s a brisk day in Johannesburg, a tiny mining town tucked among the Rand Mountains in the Mojave Desert. The landscape is vast and rugged, a mish-mash of rock, dirt and creosote bushes, swaths of gray and brown under a deep blue sky. The terrain appears completely untouched by man, but a closer look reveals dozens of cavities pocked across the rolling hills. They look like monster snake holes. Those curious holes are abandoned mines, and they’re driving a real-estate boomlet in a place that hasn’t had one in more than a century. As the price of gold climbs, the demand for Randsburg’s craggy land has been reawakened. “The market is heating up,” said David Treadwell, a real estate agent based in Hemet. “I get 2-3 leads per month on buyers looking for patented mine claims. If you can get the gold out of the ground, there’s money to be made.” Treadwell has carved out a niche for himself in the desert, selling multiple gold mining properties over the last few years. He helped his uncle sell a 47-acre gold mining property in 2017, buying ad space in a local mining journal to spread the word. “From there, people would call and say, ‘I saw you’re selling a gold mine. Wanna sell mine too?’” he said. Treadwell has sold mines to amateurs and professionals alike. Small claims sell for less than $50,000, while bigger properties with more potential bring in a few hundred thousand dollars or more. Last year, he sold the St. Elmo mine — a historic mining property in Atolia with 11 mining shafts on it, some of them hundreds of feet deep — to entrepreneur Sean Tucker. On a cold November Tuesday, a mile outside of town, Tucker’s bright yellow Diedrich D-120 drill rig pierces the desert silence. His two-man team is drilling holes and gathering samples, boring into the earth two feet at a time to see which spot has the most gold to set up larger mining operations next year. They crowd around the towering machine as the rig starts burrowing into the dirt with a 140-pound hammer, digging into the ground with swift, strong strokes. After about 30 seconds, the drill reaches two feet underground, creating an eight-inch-wide hole. They pull out the auger and take a sample of the excavated dirt. “There’s gold here,” he said with a smile. Then the drill goes back into the ground to burrow two feet further, or until they reach bedrock. There’s no time to waste. There are many holes to be dug, and the winter sun is fleeting. The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 is one of the defining moments in California history, with roughly 300,000 forty-niners flocking here to make their fortune from the U.S. and abroad. California became a state by 1850 — the genesis of its evolution into the fifth-largest economy in the world. While most of the mining took place in Northern California and the Sierra Nevada mountains, Southern California experienced smaller, more disparate gold rushes in the following decades — in places like Big Bear, Azusa Canyon, Silverado Canyon in Orange County, the Cuyamaca Mountains of San Diego County and the Picacho District in Imperial County. One of the largest was in the Rand District in Kern County, where gold was discovered in 1895. The sun-blasted town of Randsburg sprang up virtually overnight, and the area’s largest mine, the Yellow Aster, produced the modern equivalent of more than $25 million over the next 30 years. Gold prices eventually stagnated after the Great Depression, hovering under $40 per ounce from 1933 to 1970. Most miners moved on. But over the last few years, the price of gold has soared to an all-time high; it currently sits at $2,630 per ounce. As a result, prospectors — both professional and amateur — are journeying back into these high desert mines for a chance at finding the the precious metal that moves mountains. “It’s a modern day gold rush,” Tucker said. “People are snapping up claims as quickly as possible.” In 2020, Tucker founded Gold Discovery Group, a gold mining operation based in Johannesburg, a mile from Randsburg. He owns 97 acres across five properties in the area and also leases the mining rights to 2,519 acres across 37 properties. Through geological surveys and historical documents, he estimates that there is $2 billion worth of gold under his properties. Of course, it’s not as simple as digging down and getting it. He needs drilling permits from the Bureau of Land Management, mining permits and reclamation plans to show how he plans to restore the land once he’s done mining it. But according to Tucker, the business model is there. His all-in sustaining cost — the total cost of getting the gold out of the ground — sits at roughly $1,220 per ounce. The price of gold is north of $2,600, leaving a profit margin of roughly $1,400. He’s spent about three and a half years acquiring permits and surveying the land, and he’s currently in the discovery phase, which involves drilling small holes to see which spots have the most gold. His team — master driller Martin Delgadillo and assistant driller Roderick McVay — has been permitted to drill 393 holes. So far, they’ve drilled 226. Working in the open desert can be brutal. The summer sun is unrelenting, with temperatures soaring past 100. Winter brings howling winds and freezing lows. Tucker has spent about $5 million so far and estimates he’ll spend $4 million more before his mines start producing gold. His plans call for placer mining, a process that involves separating gold from the dirt and gravel beneath the ground, which he estimates was deposited in Johannesburg through ancient flash-flood and heavy rain events. “It’s primal. There’s something in the ground that we want, and we’re getting it out,” Tucker said. “It’s what California was founded on, but now we’re coming back with modern technology.” No stranger to out-of-the-box endeavors, Tucker owned a pro bicycling team, Toyota-United, in the mid-2000s before founding Galleon Ventures, a deep-sea treasure hunting company that aimed to find sunken treasures in shipwrecks off the coast of Colombia. When drama within the Colombian government shut down his operation, he started seeking out a different kind of treasure: one buried in California. Tucker plans to start mining by next fall and will hire 80 people within the next three years. He owns an entire city block in Johannesburg, where he plans to build housing for the miners. “Now, we just have to hope the market stays where it is.” While California has come a long way since the gold rush, many of its mining towns haven’t. In its 19th century heyday, Randsburg boasted a population of 3,500 with churches, saloons, hotels and a thousand-seat opera house. Today, a sign leading into the community describes it as a “living ghost town.” A cluster of Old West-style wooden buildings line the quiet promenade, and a handful of shacks and ranches dot the surrounding hills. It is dead still on a Tuesday in November. The 2020 census lists a population of 45, with an average age of 73. Randsburg holds a special place in gold mining lore as the producer of the largest known nugget in California history. Known as the Mojave Nugget, the 156-ounce behemoth was found there with a metal detector in 1977 and now sits on display at the Natural History Museum of L.A. County. Many properties in the Randsburg area come with patented mining rights, which is key. If you lease mining rights from the BLM (which anyone can do if you pay the yearly fees ), you can mine the property, but you’re prohibited from building anything on top of it. If you buy a normal property, such as a house, you typically don’t get the mineral rights, so you can’t dig too far down — typically the limit is 20 feet. But if you buy a property with patented mineral rights, you own the surface and all the land beneath it, and you’re free to do whatever you want. Buyers can build a house or burrow hundreds of feet into the ground looking for gold. “In order to receive a patent back in the day, you had to prove the existence of significant mineral production,” Treadwell said, implying that properties with patents likely have plenty to mine beneath the surface. “ This one I’m listing is 1,700 feet north of the Calico mines , so chances are there’s something down there.” Plenty of gold is still being found. California led the nation in new gold discoveries last year, and a total of 10,373 gold-bearing locations have been unearthed in the Golden State, according an analysis of U.S. Geological Survey data by SD Bullion . Gregory Kuchan, a Douglas Elliman real estate agent, is currently listing a property with two mine shafts on it for $49,950. The lot spans 30 acres in Garlock, an old mining town-turned-ghost town just outside Randsburg. Kuchan, who’s based in Del Mar, said it’s outside his normal listing area, but he’s leaning into the forty-niner history and the gold rush potential to market the property. “You only need to find about 18 ounces to make this property pay for itself!” said the listing’s marketing materials. California’s original gold rush was an era of terror and lawlessness, as greed among miners led to murder, native massacres and citizen vigilantism. Things are more quiet today. But in the desert, there’s a muted sense of danger, a feeling that the normal protections of civilization are gone. Brian Fergusson, a 68-year-old crane operator who lives in Nevada and works in San Pedro, bought a 50-acre gold mine in Randsburg for $105,000 in 2020. He threw himself into the project, spending a week installing a 2,600-gallon water tank, an outhouse and a plywood shack to sleep in with stud walls and a steel door. Then, he went back to work. When he returned a few weeks later, it was all gone. “I’ve talked to people in the area, and there’s an extreme problem with thieves,” Fergusson said. “They don’t steal the gold — that requires work. If something sits on the land, someone will take it.” There’s also inherent danger in the mining itself: cave-ins are a problem, but bad air is the real killer. “You can crawl into a pocket with no oxygen without even realizing it, then black out and die,” he said. Related Articles Real Estate | 3 excellent Bay Area bottle shops (plus their holiday gift recommendations) Real Estate | Healthcare titan plans huge South Bay medical hubs in $800 million project Real Estate | Where is California’s cheapest place to live? Real Estate | Google pays San Jose advanced benefits as downtown village plan lags Real Estate | Developer targets starting construction of downtown San Jose housing project in early 2026 Fergusson has been prospecting as a hobby for about a decade, and finally bought his own claim after searching around for five years. He chose this one because a U.S. Geological Survey document said that 2,500 ounces of gold had been taken from the 20 mines on the property in the early 1900s, which would be worth more than $6.5 million today. Right after buying the land, he crushed up a piece of ore and found what miners call flour gold — tiny, fine specks of gold. The 20-30 pieces didn’t even add up to a 10th of a gram, but it was enough to know that there’s more to be found. Since then, he’s been drywashing, a waterless process that uses air to separate heavy materials, such as gold, from the lighter dirt and sediment. Fergusson has sunk money into other hobbies: rock climbing, scuba diving, etc. But this is the first hobby he’s had that pays him back. He expects the land value to go up as well; he spent $105,000 on his claim in 2020, and someone recently bought a smaller lot near his for $175,000. But for him, it’s about the hunt. “When you wash out the pan and there’s gold in the bottom, it’s euphoric,” he said. Rudy Salazar, a 61-year-old truck mechanic from Orange County, got into gold mining less as a hobby and more as a moneymaking opportunity. David Treadwell pointed him toward a 58-acre property in Randsburg, and he spent nine months staring at it on Zillow before pulling the trigger in 2022. “When I started looking into chasing gold, I realized the ground is still packed with it. Man has only scratched the surface,” Salazar said. “We’re all sitting on a gold mine in California. So why am I not going after it?” His land features five gold mines and shares a fence line with the famed Yellow Aster mine, so he’s confident that there’s plenty of gold beneath the surface. Reaching it will be the tricky part. As opposed to placer mines, his property holds lode mines. To get it out, he’ll need to extract the gold from veins hidden within solid rock. Salazar spends his days exploring the mine shafts and sampling veins to see which ones hold the most gold. He’ll ramp up operations within months or years, depending on the samples. In the meantime, it’s a struggling business venture — one that he spent his entire retirement savings on. He’s aware of history potentially repeating itself. During the gold rush, most miners didn’t find fortunes, but the merchants — people selling pans, or garment makers such as Levi Strauss and his copper-rivet blue jeans — did. So far in the modern gold rush, real estate agents are making more than the gold-seekers. “Getting a job that pays well, that’s real gold. People love the gold rush story, but I’m also aware of its outcome,” Salazar said. But he’s happy with the investment so far. And like so many Californians before him, he’s fueled by the promise of wealth, the secret riches buried in the earth, the “Eureka” moment always just out of reach. “I sit there alone. Everybody’s gone. My hands are waterlogged,” Salazar said. “It’s not easy. But I hope it pans out.” ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.