{"id":205645,"date":"2026-03-28T12:41:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-captive-freed-baseballs-back-chuck-norris-dies-week-in-review-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T12:41:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:41:35","slug":"u-s-captive-freed-baseballs-back-chuck-norris-dies-week-in-review-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-captive-freed-baseballs-back-chuck-norris-dies-week-in-review-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. captive freed, baseball's back, Chuck Norris dies: Week in review – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weather is hitting extremes in much of the country. In the West, a smothering heat dome moved east after almost two weeks of record March temperatures; four spots in Arizona and California hit 112 degrees, and dozens of locations set heat records all the way to Pennsylvania and \u00a0South Carolina. \u201cBasically, the entire U.S. is hot,\u201d said Gregg Gallina of the National Weather Service. In Hawaii, islanders were struggling to recover from catastrophic flooding after back-to-back \u201ckona storms,\u201d or intense, subtropical low-pressure systems, swept through homes, washed away roads and threatened a major dam.
Dennis Coyle, an American who was held for more than a year in Afghanistan, is back on U.S. soil<\/a>, welcomed home with the embraces of loved ones<\/a> at Joint Base San Antonio. The researcher from Colorado, 64, was detained in January 2025 by the ruling Taliban, who said it decided to free him\u00a0after a request by his mother and after its high court decided his time in detention was \u201csufficient.\u201d His family, in a statement to the USA TODAY Network<\/a>, thanked the Trump administration for winning his release after \u201cthe most challenging and uncertain 421 days of our lives.\u201d
The \u201cDirty Dozen\u201d list<\/a> of fruits and vegetables that contain the most pesticides and \u201cforever chemicals\u201d<\/a> is out, and it\u2019s not pretty. Among them: spinach, kale, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, apples, pears, grapes, peaches and plums, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group<\/a>, which releases the annual report. On the positive side, the group also lists the \u201cClean Fifteen,\u201d or the produce items with the least residue. They include sweet corn, sweet peas, mushrooms, onions, avocados, cauliflower, carrots, watermelon, bananas and mangoes. So what\u2019s a shopper to do? Stick to the 15, the group advises, or buy frozen or organic. And, of course, wash everything real good.
Chuck Norris, the toughest of Hollywood tough guys<\/a>, is gone. The martial arts legend and star of TV\u2019s \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger\u201d died March 19 at age 86, and tributes have poured in from fans and famous friends as diverse as Sylvester Stallone and Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>. But still alive and kicking is the internet meme \u201cChuck Norris Facts\u201d<\/a> (sample: \u201cWhen Chuck Norris does push-ups, he doesn\u2019t push himself up, he pushes the Earth down\u201d). Just nine days before his death, Norris himself added to his legend with an Instagram video: \u201cI don\u2019t age. I level up.\u201d
Baseball is back for 2026 with a new umpire on the field \u2212 one players can\u2019t argue with. For the first time in the major leagues, the Automated Ball-Strike System \u2212 ABS, or \u201crobot umps,\u201d some may call it \u2013 will allow a pitcher, catcher or batter to challenge, on a limited basis, a human umpire\u2019s ball or strike call. Managers are already strategizing on who should use it, how and when. \u201cAll I know is that we won\u2019t let our pitchers challenge,\u201d the Cincinnati Reds\u2019 Terry Francona said. \u201cThey think everything is a strike.\u201d \u2212 Compiled and written by Robert Abitbol<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weather is hitting extremes in much of the country. In the West, a smothering heat dome moved east after almost two weeks of record March temperatures; four spots in Arizona and California hit 112 degrees, and dozens of locations set heat records all the way to Pennsylvania and \u00a0South Carolina. \u201cBasically, the entire U.S. is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-205645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}