Staying in that position through Week 17 will be very difficult, however, thanks to one of the league’s toughest second-half schedules. The Bills were impressive in Sunday’s 34-14 beatdown of the fading Raiders. They again executed their run-heavy offensive game plan with Tyrod Taylor and LeSean McCoy to a T. They were relentless on defense again, too, forcing four takeaways and returning one of them, a fumble, for a TD....

The Bills (12-3) enter Week 17 as the No. 2 seed in the AFC, tied in record with the Steelers but holding the tiebreaker on Pittsburgh thanks to a Buffalo win against the Steelers earlier this season. The Chiefs have already locked up the No. 1 seed in the AFC, so Buffalo can’t move up, and the Bills can only drop one spot depending on Sunday’s results. In the old playoff format, the top two seeds in both conferences received a first-round bye, but now it’s only the top seed as seven teams from the AFC make the postseason....

A teammate who requested anonymity ripped the defensive end in an interview with the Buffalo News, saying Williams has “totally checked out” on the team. MORE: 9 coaches on the hot seat | Best/worst contracts of 2015 “It’s been clear to me that Mario doesn’t care about anybody but himself,” the player said. “He followed that up by not giving any effort during the season and complaining about the scheme instead of manning up and saying he played like crap and doesn’t care....

Several Republican and Democratic congressional lawmakers, including Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Michael Bennet of Colorado, and John Curtis of Utah, traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, for the climate change summit. The annual event was delayed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During a panel event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a small group of U.S. lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle presented a unified front as they stressed the importance of addressing the impacts of climate change....

This is the deal: You accuse my side of a failure of bipartisanship and I accuse your side of a failure of bipartisanship, and after the requisite number of supposedly outraged sound bites, we both subside. The airwaves continue to resonate with our charges against one another, however: Bipartisanship has collapsed! The deal is off! It was their fault! No, it was their fault! O, woe! Story at eleven....

The cryptocurrency blasted through the $20,000 barrier between 8.35 a.m. and 8.40 a.m. ET on the morning of Wednesday, December 16, according to the Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp, peaking at $20,800 at 9.35 a.m. Bitcoin’s previous high point came on November 30, when it hit $19,850. It’s been a remarkable year for Bitcoin investors. Just nine months ago the value of Bitcoin plummeted sharply, dipping below $4,000 at one point in March, amid the economic fears brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic....

But for cryptocurrency investors, the answer to the Ghostbuster question may well be, “No one.” The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a federally mandated organization created by the Securities and Investor Protection Act of 1970 that protects investors’ losses up to $500,000 if their brokerage firm fails, does not have authority over cryptocurrency transactions. Without such protection, some cryptocurrency investors may be left without immediate recourse if something goes awry and they believe they’re not at fault....

The world’s largest, and most recognized, cryptocurrency surged to $52.85 at its peak last night and was up 1.71 percent in the last 24 hours of trading, according to Coin Market Cap—a website that tracks digital currencies. Bitcoin’s rise in value comes as El Salvador will today become the first country in the world to accept the cryptocurrency as legal tender. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced on Monday the Central American country held 400 Bitcoins....

TikToker @_michelleboller posted the video late last week: in it, a green-screen effect shows a screenshot of the text message, which starts by listing all of the things the sender loves about the recipient. “I fell in love with you,” begins the message. “Idk how to explain it but i did and i just think you’re an amazing person with a great personality and i just love your laugh.”...

BKFC confirmed MMA journalist Chris Taylor’s earlier report that the main event will be Mike Perry vs. Julian Lane. Former UFC contender Chad Mendes will be making his BKFC debut as well. “KnuckleMania’s going to be tremendous, Feb. 19, Hollywood, [Fla.], again,” BKFC president Dave Feldman told MMA Fighting. “Last time we were there, I don’t know if anyone knows this, there wasn’t more people there but we sold more tickets than any combat sport in history at the Hard Rock Hollywood Casino....

Jett and his Kidder colleagues, scandal-fatigued readers may recall, had constructed an elaborate trading strategy involving government bonds. What they did, though, was so arcane and divorced from reality that it seemed impossible–even for Jett’s bosses, who he says knew what he was doing–to determine if the trades created real profits or were an exercise in shuffling paper. This is what happens when the quest for profits becomes the tail that wags a kennel’s worth of dogs....

But something about the way the accounts spoke didn’t seem quite right. They tweeted like people doing bad impressions of Black women, saying ridiculous things and mangling basic elements of African American Vernacular English. “Obviously racist word salad,” was how internet activist Shafiqah Hudson described it this summer in an episode of my podcast about internet culture and marginalized voices. She was right. The accounts were just pretending to be Black women in an attempt to spread confusion and mistrust in Black online communities, and to foment racial animosity in American society....

The UH-60 firefighting helicopter crashed into a marsh near the Leesburg airport in Lake County, Florida, around 40 miles northwest of Orlando, at around 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) told Click Orlando. Four people were onboard the helicopter at the time of the crash, and Leesburg Fire Rescue confirmed in a statement on Facebook that none of the passengers have been recovered. “The crash appears to be a total loss....

The path to racial comity turned rockier in 1991. Hard times have a way of hardening hearts and heads. Shut-out minorities demanded more. And many whites felt it was time to say, enough. This year, everyone seemed to consider himself a victim. Launching his bid for the White House, Nazi turned Republican David Duke displayed his presidential timber when explaining his overseas trade policy: “We must go to the Japanese and say ‘You no buy our rice, we no buy your cars’....

Western Washington University will provide space for 40 students to live in the housing program, which is located on the fourth floor of the college’s Alma Clark Glass Hall. That building is named for the first Black student who attended the university. Other colleges have introduced similar Black Affinity Housing programs and there has been criticism of the programs, with some comparing it to the racial segregation of the past....

As his biographer Anthony Seldon points out in “Blair Unbound,” post-9/11 security concerns made it increasingly difficult for the Blairs to go to public places of worship. So the Blairs arranged for a Catholic Royal Air Force chaplain to visit Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, virtually every Saturday to say Mass for the family in private. While in office, Blair, 54, was reluctant to move across the aisle, as it were, in a country where the Church of England is the officially established religion, where the monarch is the supreme governor of the church, and where the prime minister, acting for the crown, signs off on episcopal appointments, including that of the senior prelate, the archbishop of Canterbury....

Apparently Boston's Kris Humphries didn't get the memo. DeAndre Jordan looks like he just witnessed a murder.

For the 2022 model year, Ford will offer the Ranger Splash Package and Splash Limited Editions, taking design inspiration from the original Ranger Splash of the 90s. “Ranger customers love to personalize their trucks – more than 80 percent customize their Ranger with an appearance package – and with Splash, we’re giving them something exclusive,” said Chad Callandar, Ford Ranger marketing manager. “Every few months, we’re going to roll out another exterior color for Ranger that will be offered one time only and in very limited quantities....

To ensure you don’t miss a second of the festivities happening between February 19 and February 20, we’ve got a full recap of the schedule and any stream links you might need to tune in to specific panels. For those who don’t mind spoilers, we’ve outlined a few potential leaks that might cue fans in on what to expect. Schedule and start time - What time does BlizzCon start? BlizzCon 2021 runs from 5 p....