St. John’s journey to the Super Regionals, a stage they hadn’t reached in 14 years, got off to a rocky start.

After a stunning victory over the No. 10 seed Florida State the previous weekend, the Johnnies faced a formidable challenge against Alabama. They struggled to make a mark against Alabama’s formidable pitcher, Tyler Fay, while their own ace, Liam O’Leary, faltered significantly.

This combination led to a disappointing 8-0 loss against the seventh-seeded Crimson Tide at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Saturday night.

To keep their dreams of reaching the College World Series alive for the first time since 1980, St. John’s now faces the daunting task of winning the next two games.

This uphill battle is made even more challenging by the impressive form of Alabama, which boasts a perfect 4-0 record in the NCAA Tournament and a dominant 24-6 tally on their home turf.

The Red Storm are making their first appearance in the Super Regionals since 2012.

Their run to the NCAA Tournament marked their second trip in three years to the postseason after a six-year drought.

Fay limited St. John’s (35-25) to two hits over 7 ¹/₃ innings.

He struck out nine and walked three.

The Red Storm’s best chance against Fay came in the seventh.

They loaded the bases with none out, but Fay retired the next three batters in order, ending the threat.

O’Leary, meanwhile, lasted only 3 ¹/₃ frames.

He fell apart in the fourth, walking four hitters and forcing in two runs.

Justin Lebron, Alabama’s superstar shortstop and a projected top 20 draft pick, had three hits and two RBIs for the Crimson Tide (41-19).

The setback snapped the Johnnies’ eight-game winning streak and marked their fifth shutout of the season.

Southpaw Evan Chaffee, an Alabama transfer, is expected to get the start Sunday afternoon as St. John’s hopes to keep its season alive.

Scott Pelley, the former correspondent for 60 Minutes, has made striking remarks in a recent interview with The New York Times, alleging that CBS News is in a state of disarray.

Pelley, 68, appeared emotional as he expressed to the Times that he believes there is a subtle political bias present at both CBS News and 60 Minutes, according to a newly released promotional video.

During his conversation with Lulu Garcia-Navarro from the Times, Pelley claimed that CBS leadership has shown favoritism towards a particular political party.

This interview, marking Pelley’s first since his dismissal from CBS News on Tuesday night, will be available to stream on the Times’ YouTube Channel this Sunday. His firing followed a Monday confrontation with Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of 60 Minutes.

In the clip, Pelley also shared his optimism that CBS executives might reconsider their current direction.

‘My hope is that the leadership of Paramount will say to themselves, “OK. This isn’t working. We have respected journalists saying that there is a thumb on the scale for one political party over another.”

‘And there’s a subtle political bias I’ve never seen at 60 Minutes before. Or at CBS News before,’ he says.

A visibly emotional Pelley adds during another portion: ‘We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News, in my view, is on fire.’

Former 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley sat down with the New York Times this week to discuss his firing, in an interview set to air Sunday

The saga started with a Monday team meeting where Pelley accused CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of ‘murdering 60 Minutes’ in front of staff.

He then turned to Bilton, a filmmaker with no broadcast experience, by framing him as unqualified for the position and loyal to only Weiss, a former right-leaning opinion writer hired by then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison in October.

A recording of the meeting was promptly leaked to the press. 

Pelley was fired the following day. A CBS statement slamming Pelley for ‘misconduct’ made the move known that night.    

Weiss went on to tell staffers during a conference call on Wednesday: ‘Despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.

‘We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose,’ she said.

Weiss said she was ‘only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect’ and that Pelley had ‘broken’ that cardinal rule.     

Remaining correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim all announced their decision to stay with the show that Friday in a memo to staff, which made no mention of Pelley.   

A wave of firings hit 60 Minutes the week before – a point Pelley repeatedly raised during the Monday meeting.

Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss issued a statement earlier this week laying out CBS’s version of transpired before Pelley’s firing

Pelley accused Weiss of ‘murdering 60 Minutes’ during a Monday team meeting with new 60 Minutes executive Nick Bilton. The conversation that followed was leaked to several media outlets

He told Bilton – who replaced longtime executive Tanya Simon – that he has ‘slender qualifications for [his] job’ and that he ‘will never be welcome [at 60 Minutes]’, a transcript of the leaked recording showed.

The conversation that followed grew so tense that Bilton eventually had to tell Pelley that he would not be ‘intimidated.’ 

CBS’ managing editor, Charles Forelle, also had to step in twice to say Pelley was being ‘rude’, according to a recording obtained by multiple outlets.

Stahl, Whitaker and Wertheim all had sharp critiques for how Weiss handled the staffing changes the week before in their statement.

‘We’re still deeply upset by the firings of Tanya [Simon] and Draggan [Mihailovich], strong leaders who everyone respected,’ they wrote. Simon and Mihailovich had been the show’s top producers.

The trio also said they also never received an ‘explanation’ as to why correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were fired.

Alfonsi blamed CBS’s decision not to renew her contract on a clash she had with CBS brass back in December, after a decision to hold one of her segments that had been critical of the Trump administration.

Pelley stuck up for her, Simon, Vega, and Mihailovich during his tirade, calling the execution of their exits ‘cruel.’

Correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim told fellow staff Friday they will stay with 60 Minutes despite Pelley’s claims

In his first of two official statements on Tuesday night, Pelley claimed that ‘new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.’

‘I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them,’ he wrote. 

Another portion claimed the people around him as of late had not been performing up to par.   

Pelley issued a second statement to The New York Times on Wednesday following Weiss’s conference call.

He told the paper: ‘Weiss knows what she said is not true. In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to ‘find a way back,’ as Weiss had said in the editorial meeting. 

‘At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution’.

He published a new message to Instagram on Saturday, shortly before the Sunday Times interview was announced. 

‘To all of you who have been so kind, you are the wind in my sails. So deeply grateful,’ he wrote, referencing an attached photo of him sailing a ship .

Pelley, 68, also published a message to Instagram Saturday, thanking fans for their ‘kind[ness]’

Bilton, meanwhile, praised Stahl, Whitaker, and Wertheim hours prior to their announcement that they would stay in his own Thursday email to staff.

In it, he doubled down on his commitment to the show’s editorial independence. 

‘We talked about what makes 60 Minutes exceptional, about the traditions and legacy of the past, about how you do the work that produces such momentous pieces,’ the former New York Times columnist and filmmaker wrote.  

‘We also talked about change: About new audiences, new platforms, and new ways of storytelling that these new audiences need. 

‘We’ll speak more about that in the weeks to come.’

The Daily Mail has approached CBS News for comment. 

DES MOINES, Iowa — For the first time since securing his place as the Democratic nominee for Iowa’s gubernatorial race, Rob Sand is set to energize supporters at a rally this Sunday. He will be joined by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who is lending his influential support as the countdown to November’s election begins.

The contest between Sand and his Republican rival, Zach Lahn, is shaping up to be among the most fiercely contested in the nation. Voters in Iowa are grappling with pressing issues, including a budget shortfall, a struggling agricultural sector, and a widespread cancer crisis.

Despite Sand’s efforts to distance himself from partisan politics, the Democratic Party is placing its bets on him to carve a new path in Iowa, following a series of electoral disappointments in recent years.

“We are fully committed to turning Iowa blue,” declared Beshear, who also chairs the Democratic Governors Association and is considered a potential presidential candidate for 2028. “The time for change is now, and Iowans recognize that Rob Sand is the leader who will prioritize their needs and uplift families rather than leaving them behind.”

Sand, who faced no challengers in the Democratic primary, now knows his opponent after Tuesday’s primaries decided a tumultuous five-way race among Republicans.

Little known before his bid for governor, Lahn made a splash as a business owner criticizing farm consolidation and tax breaks for corporate giants, a regenerative farmer who subscribes to Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement and a former political operative who galvanized Iowa’s conservative grassroots.

Iowa has open races for both governor and U.S. senator for the first time since 1968, plus three battleground congressional races. National attention on the state has soared in recent months, drawing President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to Iowa.

Democrats will have an uphill climb with a 200,000-person deficit in statewide voter registration, and they are outnumbered in every House district. Sand, along with Senate candidate Josh Turek, say they can win over independents and Republicans who are frustrated with party politics and a Republican trifecta in Washington and Des Moines that they blame for the state’s challenges.

Turek will face U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who already has portrayed Turek as a liberal puppet for party leader Sen. Chuck Schumer.

Lahn has also rejected Sand’s nonpartisan pitch.

“Rob Sand is not a moderate,” Lahn said in his victory speech Tuesday. “He’s a liberal career politician pretending to be someone he’s not.”

Sand says divided government is a good thing

Sand is vocal about his dislike of partisanship, his distrust of both political parties and his desire for divided government in Iowa. He says he thinks most Iowans feel the same.

Even if Sand is elected governor in November, he will likely have to work with Republican majorities in the state House and Senate, which recently passed bills to restrict the executive’s power that outgoing Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law.

“I’m not here to tell you that the answer to 10 years of one-party control is to give the other party 10 years of one-party control. I don’t think that’s right,” Sand said Tuesday after casting his primary ballot. “But I do think that it’s time to say enough to the people who have had 10 years of one-party control. It’s time for balanced government in Iowa.”

Neither Sand or Lahn use their party’s traditional blue or red in campaign materials, opting instead for green. They both say they aren’t beholden to their party establishments and that Iowans want a new direction, though Lahn’s Republican Party has held a statehouse trifecta for nearly a decade.

Sand’s campaign has given about $750,000 to the Iowa Democratic Party already this cycle, funding that Republicans call hypocritical for a candidate who claims he is not a party man. The Sand campaign says that sum reflects his investment in a state party-run coordinated campaign that will help him get elected as governor, even as it also supports candidates up and down the ballot.

Beshear brings national support as he considers his own future

As Democrats continue to debate what went wrong in 2024 and the direction of the party, Beshear has offered up his own example as the leader of a red state for lessons on how the party can go forward.

Beshear said he is trying to be a “voice of reason in the chaos” of Trump’s administration and that he is comfortable being listed among the names of Democrats considering a presidential bid in 2028, even as he said he is focused on the critical midterms.

In addition to rallying with Sand, Beshear will also be at a “Beers with Beshear” fundraiser for congressional candidate Sarah Trone Garriott, who wants to unseat Republican Rep. Zach Nunn in the competitive House district that includes Des Moines. Beshear said he will see Turek too.

The Democratic Governors Association, which Beshear chairs, gave the Iowa Democratic Party about $140,000 so far this cycle, according to filing reports.

In a tragic incident off the coast of South Florida, an American Airlines flight attendant lost her life after being struck by a boat while snorkeling. Her body was later discovered washed ashore on a local beach.

The victim, Kellie Melinda Williams, was found by two fishermen on Hollywood Beach around 8 p.m. Wednesday. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, as reported by CBS Miami, her body exhibited injuries indicative of a collision with a vessel.

On Saturday, authorities identified the 31-year-old Williams and confirmed that her death resulted from blunt force trauma.

Investigators noted that Williams was snorkeling or diving near Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park on June 3. Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation investigators are collaborating with Hollywood detectives to delve deeper into the circumstances surrounding the case.

As of now, no information has been released regarding the boat involved or its occupants, and no charges have been filed related to Williams’ death.

One witness recalled seeing people pulling Williams’ body out of the water Wednesday night.

“Two fishermen were fishing right off the beach, and I saw them from my window pulling something, then I saw them drag something onto the shoreline,” Emilio Benitez told NBC6 South Florida. “And it turned out to be a lady’s body.”

Williams’ parents said their daughter was an accomplished snorkeler, describing her as a “great person,” according to the outlet.

The California native had recently moved to the Sunshine State and had gotten married within the last year.

The Miami-based Association of Professional Flight Attendants announced Williams’ death to her colleagues in an Instagram post on Friday.

“It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our colleague and fellow MIA Flight Attendant, Kellie Williams,” the organization said in an Instagram post. “Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with Kellie’s family, friends, and loved ones during this difficult time.

Williams was employed by American Airlines.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague,” the airline told NBC 6 South Florida. “Our thoughts and support are with her family, loved ones and colleagues at this time.”

A beloved former model-turned-actress captured the hearts of classic film enthusiasts when she made a rare public appearance in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

At 77, the actress, who skyrocketed to fame with her role in the iconic 1970s miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man,” looked remarkably youthful as she greeted fans during her outing.

Renowned for her performance alongside Nick Nolte in the groundbreaking series, she earned both a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Sporting a casual ensemble of a black top and faded jeans, the former cover star maintained her chic style, reminiscent of her glamorous red carpet appearances during her career in the 1970s disaster film genre.

Her role in “The Towering Inferno,” where she starred with legends Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, solidified her status in Hollywood’s celebrated era of disaster movies.

She later starred in The Concorde… Airport ’79, continuing her run in the popular disaster film genre of the era.

A former model turned screen star delighted fans of 70s cinema as she stepped out for a rare outing in Los Angeles on Tuesday

The actress, who became a household name for her role in one of television’s earliest blockbuster miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, looked strikingly youthful at 77 as she enjoyed her public appearance

Dressed casually in a black top and faded jeans , the former cover girl still cut a chic figure, reminiscent of her red carpet days during a run of disaster films in the 1970s

If you guessed Susan Blakely, you’re spot on!

Back in 2021, Blakely got candid about the surprising way she landed her breakout role in Rich Man, Poor Man.

‘I had done a movie called Report to the Commissioner. Carol Burnett saw the film. She was friends with [producer] Harve Bennett, and she told him he should cast me,’ she told Closer.

‘I never knew until later. Carol is an idol of mine, but she never told me because she’s so humble. She didn’t want to take credit.’

Reflecting on her time with her co-stars Nick Nolte and Peter Strauss, she said, ‘Oh, I love Nick. He is such a consummate actor, but also a nice, fun guy. And Peter was fabulous – we’ve reconnected recently. 

‘There were other leading men in that show who were fabulous, too: Bill Bixby, who my character married, Ed Asner and Robert Reed.’

Blakely also shared how she came to appear in the Newman disaster film The Towering Inferno.

‘I probably wouldn’t have said yes to Towering Inferno if I had read the script! But I was on another shoot, and my agent told me who else was doing it. I was just in love with Paul Newman. He was my biggest crush. So when I heard Paul Newman was in it, I said if he was doing it, I was doing it.’

Susan Blakely, born on September 7, 1948, in Frankfurt, Germany, the daughter of an Army colonel, attended the University of Texas at El Paso before moving to New York to study acting; Above, in 1977

Starring opposite Nick Nolte and Peter Strauss in the hit series Rich Man, Poor Man, Blakely went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama and earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie

Back in 2021, Blakely got candid about the surprising way she landed her breakout role in Rich Man, Poor Man, telling Closer: ‘I had done a movie called Report to the Commissioner. Carol Burnett saw the film. She was friends with [producer] Harve Bennett, and she told him he should cast me’

Blakely in 1980’s Make Me an Offer

Blakely and Sharon Stone attend the 2026 Annual Movies for Grownups Awards

When asked if she spent much time with Newman on set, she said, ‘Yes, but we weren’t in a lot of scenes together. When William Holden said, “Susie, I want you to meet Paul Newman,” I looked at him and my heart started to race! He was the sexiest man, the best actor, and he turned out to be the kindest man, too.’

‘I also got to know Joanne Woodward. They had a bunch of us actors out to Malibu. They were just such down-to-earth people.’

She continued, ‘I had a fabulous time. I got to hang out with William Holden, who was a wonderful man, and Fred Astaire, who was amazing. I was such a novice and so nervous, but he was just so humble and sweet. 

‘I also met my husband on that set, but we didn’t hit it off then. I remembered him when we met again later.’

That chance meeting would prove more significant in later years, with Blakely eventually marrying media expert, public relations consultant and filmmaker Jaffe in 1982.

She had previously been married to lawyer Todd Merer, with the couple divorcing in 1981. 

Beyond her breakout TV and disaster film roles, Blakely enjoyed a varied and prolific career in both television and cinema. 

She took on leading roles in made-for-TV movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Will There Really Be a Morning?, portraying Frances Farmer.

She also appeared in Over the Top, My Mom’s a Werewolf and Hate Crime, while guest-starring on hit series such as This Is Us, NCIS, Murder, She Wrote and Cougar Town.