Minn. Senate revives Vikings stadium bill Minn. Senate revives Vikings stadium bill ADVERTISING ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota Senate committee narrowly approved a public subsidy on Friday to help the Vikings build a new football stadium, reviving the team’s
Minn. Senate revives Vikings stadium bill
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota Senate committee narrowly approved a public subsidy on Friday to help the Vikings build a new football stadium, reviving the team’s struggling effort just hours after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visited the state Capitol to jumpstart what had been a stalled stadium debate.
The Senate’s Local Government and Elections Committee passed the bill on an 8-6 vote after a hearing that stretched nearly four hours. While the stadium bill still faces a long haul in the waning days of Minnesota’s legislative session, the committee’s vote gave the $975 million stadium proposal new life four days after a companion bill’s defeat in a House committee sparked near panic among supporters.
The setback in the House had prompted the visit Friday by Goodell. He and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II met Friday morning with Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders to stress the urgency of resolving the Vikings’ decadelong pursuit of a replacement for the Metrodome.
Though the Vikings will play next season in the dome, their lease there has expired. That has raised fears the franchise could get snatched by Los Angeles or another city seeking its own football team — a prospect Goodell did not exactly squelch.
Season over for
Cavs center Varejao
CLEVELAND — For the second straight season, Anderson Varejao won’t cross the finish line with the Cavaliers.
Cleveland’s hustling center was shut down for the remainder of the season on Friday by the Cavs because he’s still has soreness around his broken right wrist.
Varejao broke his wrist on Feb. 10 against Milwaukee, and while the fracture has healed, the area close to his wrist was causing him discomfort. It’s the second straight year Varejao has had his season cut short. Last year, he played in just 31 games before tearing a tendon in his right foot that required surgery.
The Cavs initially thought Varejao would miss no more than eight weeks, but Vareajo’s symptoms never completely subsided, and the team decided to end his season with five games remaining.
Former NFL safety Easterling dies at 62
ATLANTA — Former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, who helped lead the team’s vaunted defense in the 1970s and later filed a high-profile lawsuit against the NFL targeting the league’s handling of concussion-related injuries, has died. He was 62.
Easterling played for the Falcons from 1972 to 1979, helping to lead the team’s “Gritz Blitz” defense in 1977 that set the NFL record for fewest points allowed in a season. After his football career, he went on to start a successful financial services company in Richmond, Va. He died Thursday in Richmond, said his wife, Mary Ann Easterling. She declined to release the cause of his death.
Djokovic, Nadal into Masters semifinals
MONACO — Novak Djokovic dropped serve four times before beating Robin Haase 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Monte Carlo Masters semifinals on Friday, saying he had thought about pulling out of the event following his grandfather’s death.
Playing the day after his grandfather died, the top-ranked Djokovic looked distracted at times against Haase. He missed a first chance to serve out for the match at 5-1 before breaking the unseeded Dutchman for the seventh time to seal victory.
The win kept Djokovic on course for a final against seven-time defending champion Rafael Nadal, who overcame a slight blip in the first set before beating Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5, 6-4 for his 40th straight win at Monte Carlo.
Fourth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was upset 7-5, 6-4 by ninth-seeded Gilles Simon in an all-French match.
By wire sources
