Chuck E. Cheese is entering a new era: mall arcades.

Created for “lifelong fans” of the child-friendly pizza chain, “Chuck’s Arcade” is designed for adults and will combine video games with Chuck E. Cheese’s iconic animatronic characters.

“Chuck’s Arcade is a modern-day love letter to the games and people who made Chuck E. Cheese great,” the company said in a press release.

“Chuck E. Cheese has spent decades mastering the arcade experience — it’s in our DNA,” David McKillips, CEO of Chuck E. Cheese, said in a press release. “Chuck’s Arcade is a natural evolution — an opportunity to extend our arcade legacy into new formats that engage both lifelong fans and a new generation through a curated mix of retro classics and cutting-edge experiences.”

So far, Chuck’s Arcade locations are now open in major malls across the country, including:

• St. Petersburg, Fla.
• Trumbull, Conn.
• Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.
• Victor, N.Y.
• Buford, Ga.
• El Paso, Texas
• Nashua and Salem, N.H.
• St. Louis, Mo.

CNN reports Chuck E. Cheese’s expansion comes five years after it filed for bankruptcyduring the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 10-year anniversary of Alabama’s 2015 national championship is approaching. So, too, is the 60-year anniversary of the 1965 national championship.

Both will be recognized during the 2025 Alabama football season.

UA announced Monday that Alabama will celebrate the 2015 national championship team during the Tennessee game on Oct. 18. The 1965 team will be honored during the Oklahoma game on Nov. 15, which is also homecoming.

Each of those weekends will serve as a reunion for those teams.

Alabama will also play host to a 1975 SEC Championship reunion during the Wisconsin game on Sept. 13.

The Sept. 6 game against ULM will also be a celebration/recognition of “100 years of Alabama football champions.”

The 2015 team won a national championship during the College Football Playoff era under Nick Saban. Running back Derrick Henry won the Heisman Trophy that season. The coaching staff featured a handful of future head coaches: Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss), Kirby Smart (Georgia), Mario Cristobal (Miami), Billy Napier (Florida) and Mel Tucker (formerly Michigan State). Scott Cochran, then the strength-and-conditioning coach, is now leading West Alabama. The Crimson Tide beat Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl before defeating Clemson in the national championship game.

Paul “Bear” Bryant coached the 1965 team that won a national championship, as recognized by the AP and Football Writers. Alabama finished 9-1-1 that season, beating Nebraska 39-28 in the Orange Bowl.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.

A new location of Big Whiskey’s American Restaurant & Bar is planning to open this fall.

The City of Alabaster announced that renovation work is set to wrap by the end of this month.

In a social media post, the city said the restaurant will train employees in August before opening to the public in September.

“We can’t wait!” the city announced.

The Missouri-based franchise will be located in the former O’Charley’s building in Alabaster’s South Promenade shopping center.

The project was first announced last year, which added patio dining areas.

Big Whiskey’s opened a Hoover location in Stadium Trace Village back in July 2020.

There is also a location in Madison, and another one set to open at 6225 Tattersall Blvd. in Hoover.

The franchise, known for cocktails and spirits, was founded in downtown Springfield, Mo. in 2006 and has restaurants in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Florida. It’s menu features lunch, dinner and brunch options, from salads and soups, to steaks, seafood and Southwestern dishes.

A record 72 million people were expected to travel at least 50 miles from their home around the Independence Day holiday. Of those, some 18.5 million travelers were expected to fly during the Fourth of July period, which started Tuesday, July 2 and extended through Sunday, July 6.

The surge means large crowds and the potential for longer wait times.

“It’s clear that travel is on the rise this summer,” TSA said. “Remember, if you’re traveling anytime soon, be sure to arrive at your airport early, make sure you have a valid form of ID with you.”

Busiest travel days

Sunday was the biggest day with some 2.9 million people going through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

Holiday travel is part of a broader upswing that’s been seen throughout the year, according to TSA data. New statistics released by the agency showed June 22, 2025 was the busiest travel day in TSA history with 3,097,633 people going through checkpoints. Five other dates from 2025 made the busiest travel day top 10: May 23, 2025; June 27, 2025; June 19, 2025; May 22, 2025; and June 29, 2025.

Here are the top 10 busiest travel days in TSA history:

1. June 22, 2025 – 3,097,633
2. Dec. 1, 2024 – 3,088,836
3. July 7, 2024 – 3,013,622
4. May 23, 2025 – 3,010,183
5. June 23, 2024 – 2,996,495
6. June 27, 2025 – 2,988,598
7. June 19, 2025 – 2,980,935
8. May 22, 2025 – 2,960,413
9. June 29, 2025 – 2,958,696
10. July 18, 2024 – 2,957,170

According to baseballreference.com, Satchel Paige was born on July 7, 1906, in Mobile – 119 years ago today.

However, pick any year from 1901 and 1909, and there’s a news source that, at some point, has listed it as Paige’s birth year. But if 1906 is the correct year, then Paige was two days past his 42nd birthday when he pitched in the newly integrated Major Leagues for the first time on July 9, 1948.

At that point, Paige was playing it coy about his age, telling reporters that a goat had eaten either his birth certificate or the family Bible. It led to one of his many pearls of wisdom: “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”

Paige’s 1948 autobiography, “Pitchin’ Man,” has a chapter titled “About My Age,” which starts: “Now about my age. That’s usually a subject for women, but I guess we got to go into it because the way everybody is fussing, it seems it’s as important as the secret of the atomic bomb.” Paige then cites a variety of people – his mother, ex-wife, a judge who fined him for a speeding ticket, the guys he played bingo with – who all had different ages for him, without confirming any as correct.

Paige’s ability to pitch past retirement age for almost any other player raised curiosity about the secret to his longevity, and an interview on that subject led the pitcher to develop his famous “master maxims,” usually referred to as “Six Rules for Staying Young” or “Six Rules for a Happy Life.” Paige had the rules printed on his business card.

The rules said:

1. Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.

4. Go very light on the vices such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

6. Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.

“Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you” put Paige in “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.” His exploits on the diamond landed him in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be enshrined for his Negro Leagues performance.

Paige arrived in Cleveland as a famous baseball player, even though the recognized Major Leagues had kept the doors closed to him for the prime seasons of his career. Paige pitched as a pro in five decades and did so for dozens of teams from Alaska to South America. That included the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro National League from 1927 through 1930.

RELATED: THE 22 BEST MAJOR LEAGUE CAREERS BY PLAYERS WITH ALABAMA BASEBALL ROOTS

His 6-1 record down the stretch as the first Black pitcher in the American League helped Cleveland win the 1948 pennant. He had four more MLB seasons ahead of him, including two as an All-Star, plus three full minor-league campaigns remaining. Paige was pitching regularly for the Miami Marlins of the Triple-A International League at 52, going 10-10 with a 2.95 earned-run average in 1958.

Paige also burnished his reputation in competition beyond the Negro Leagues during the segregated era. In the offseason in Paige’s heyday, top baseball players sometimes would supplement their incomes with barnstorming tours, traveling to places outside the 10 cities with American or National League teams. Paige headlined clubs of Negro Leaguers that opposed squads of American and National League players led first by Dizzy Dean and then by Bob Feller, pitchers who preceded Paige into the Hall of Fame.

Paige’s final big-league appearance was a publicity stunt dreamed up by Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley, who just two nights before Paige’s return to the Majors had held Bert Campaneris Appreciation Night, during which the Kansas City shortstop played one inning at each of the nine positions.

Paige started a game between two also-ran teams on Sept. 25, 1965. He pitched the first three innings against the Boston Red Sox, giving up one hit – a double to future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski – and struck out one without walking a batter. Paige threw 28 pitches – a number less than half his age.

Paige died on June 8, 1982.

On June 24, Mobile opened its Hall of Fame Walk on Water Street, featuring a statue of Paige along with the four other members of the Baseball Hall of Fame born in the Port City – Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ozzie Smith and Billy Williams – and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Robert Brazile.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.

Many parents in a fast-growing part of Madison County are relieved that a new school is on the way.

Hazel Green Middle School is headed to northern Madison County to address overcrowding.

Amy Cochran has lived in the area for 13 years. She’s had three boys graduate from the system, one in middle school and another in fifth grade.

She said she’s seen issues with overcrowding for years, especially in middle school. Cochran believes children will be safer in less crowded schools. She’s right, the National Library of Medicine published a report that school overcrowding is linked to increased bullying behavior.

“It’s too crowded, and those kids are on top of each other, and they fight more,” Cochran said. “If you’re uncomfortable, because you’re all kept in a hallway, you’re gonna have kids who fight. That’s just how it’s gonna go. And I’ve had one of mine beat up in the bathroom, so I’ve personally experienced bullying myself with my children, and it’s just going to be so great to be able to have those numbers shrunk down.”

The school will house 1,200 seventh and eighth graders. District 1 Madison County Board of Education member David Vess says they’re just trying to keep up with growth. He sees several new subdivisions in the area whenever he drives around.

“We’re busting at the seams in Hazel Green,” Vess said. “It’s what it boils down to. And we’ve got to make some room to accommodate that growth,”

The $53 million school will be on the same campus as Hazel Green High School. They will add a right turn lane towards Fayetteville to help with traffic leaving the campus.

Cochran and other parents say traffic is a huge concern. She said she knows county and school leaders are doing the best they can to help ease the roads. However, it takes her four times as long to arrive at the elementary school on a Monday morning than usual, plus she says carpool is chaotic and takes a long time to navigate through.

“They just don’t have enough room,” Cochran said. “No matter what they try, it still backs up and backs up and backs up and backs up, and then it backs up into the high school. I don’t know how they’re going to fix all the other traffic, because it is a mess.”

There will be some changes to other schools in the Hazel Green district. Meridianville Middle School will transition to an intermediate school for fifth and sixth grades. The district will add a new wing with 12 new classrooms to the growing Hazel Green High School.

It will all start with the new Hazel Green Middle School. It’s set to open for the 2027-2028 school year, and the groundbreaking will be later this month.

What would you do if you opened the door and found an unexpected package? You’d probably be excited – after all, who doesn’t like a surprise?

But what if that “surprise” was actually part of a scam that could compromise your identity and potentially cost you big bucks?

That’s just what’s involved in a scam that’s known as “brushing.” While not new, it appears the scam is making its rounds once again, according to a recent warning from the U.S. Postal Service.

How does brushing work?

Here are the elements of a brushing scam, according to the United States Postal Inspection Service:

• A person received packages containing various sorts of items – typically low cost, or worthless things that don’t cost much to send- that were not ordered. The package may be addressed to the recipient but there is not a return address, or, if there is, it is an international third-party company.
• The package is sent to give the impression the recipient is a verified buyer. After the package is received, a fake review is posted using the recipient’s name on a website. The fake review helps fraudulently boost or inflate a product’s ratings and sales numbers, USPIS said, which could lead to more sales.
• There’s a new version of the scam that also involves quishing, or phishing scams using a QR code. The QR code that accompanies the unsolicited package directs you to scan to learn who sent the gift or to get more information, but instead sends you to a fake website when you scan it. The websites often look legitimate and appear to be a bank, government organization or other institution. Instead, the sites are designed to secure your personally identifiable information, or PII.

What’s the big deal?

So you receive an unsolicited package? Toss it in the trash – no harm, no foul, right?

Wrong, post officials said.

“These packages are often sent by online retailers or third parties who use compromised personal information to create fake transactions. The goal is to inflate product reviews and sales rankings,” U.S. Postal Inspector Kelly McNulty told KOB 4 News in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “If customers receive brushing packages, it’s important to report them to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and make a plan to review and protect your personal data.”

“This is about more than just a package,” she added. “Treat your personal information like cash.”

Brushing scams can be an indication your personal details – things like your full name, phone number and address – have been compromised. That information can then be used by thieves to steal your identity and your money.

How to protect yourself from brushing scams

Advice from USPIS on how to protect yourself from brushing scams:

• Don’t pay for the merchandise, even if you are contacted and pressured by the sender.
• Return package to sender. If your package has a return address and it is unopened, mark it “return to sender” and it will be returned at no charge.
• If you’ve opened it and don’t want to keep it, throw it out. If it’s something you want to keep, you are allowed to do so and don’t have to pay for it.
• Change your passwords on your accounts. Your PII may have been compromised.
• Closely monitor your credit reports and bills.
• Notify authorities if the merchandise is organic (seeds, foods or plants) or an unknown liquid.
• If the unsolicited merchandise comes from Amazon, eBay or another third-party company, go to that company’s website and file a fraud report. Also, ask the company to remove any fake reviews under your name.

Craig Robinson is leaving comedy for good.

In a recent video post on Instagram, “The Office” actor revealed that he is giving up comedy to focus on “something bigger.” In the caption of the post, he wrote, “Life update: I’m officially quitting comedy to focus on my true calling. Stay tuned. I’m working on something huge.”

“Hey, everybody! Just wanted you to hear it from me: I am quitting comedy,” Robinson said in the video. “But not for nothing. It’s been an amazing run, and y’all have been amazing and wonderful, but I’m following something bigger. So, thank you so much, I love you and stay tuned.”

Robinson teased what his next venture might be in a follow-up post, asking for advice about how to start a small business. He wrote in the caption, “Turns out having a dream and building a business with your friends are two VERY different things. I can’t go into detail just yet, but for real though any help would be huge.”

Robinson broke out playing warehouse foreman Darryl Philbin across 118 episodes of “The Office.” Some of his other notable TV credits include “The Cleveland Show,” “American Dad,” “Mr. Robot,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Killing It” and “Big Mouth.”

On the film side, Robinson has appeared in “Hot Tub Time Machine,” “This Is the End,” “Sausage Party,” “Dolemite Is My Name” and “The Bad Guys.”

Robinson still has a few projects on the horizon before stepping away from comedy. He will soon appear in the Netflix animated adventure “In Your Dreams” and “The Bad Guys 2.”

© 2025 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

President Donald Trump on Sunday signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County after deadly flash flooding through Texas’ Hill Country.

“These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing,” Trump said in a social media post announcing the signing.

The declaration comes one day after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem arrived to survey the storm-battered region, including a visit to Camp Mystic, where a group of girls were apparently caught in fast-moving floodwaters.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has expanded the state’s disaster declaration beyond Kerr County to include counties near Austin, but Sunday’s federal declaration appeared confined to Kerr County, the hardest-hit area.

Over the weekend, assets from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection have been assisting the local search and rescue efforts, state and federal officials said at Saturday’s news conference.

Trump’s declaration will provide federal disaster assistance to individuals seeking housing, home repairs and loans to cover home damages, according to a FEMA news release.

It will also make federal funding available to government agencies and nonprofit organizations for emergency work and facility repair and replacement “on a cost-sharing basis.”

The president said the Coast Guard and state first responders have saved more than 850 people from the flooding.

Following Trump’s declaration on Sunday, Noem said in a social media post that her department is deploying federal resources to Texas first responders and will continue supporting state and local officials “as search efforts continue and recovery begins.”

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(Staff writer Suryatapa Chakraborty contributed to this report.)

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©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Sean “Diddy” Combs got a standing ovation from fellow inmates when the music mogul returned to jail after winning acquittals on potential life-in-prison charges, providing what his lawyer says might have been the best thing he could do for incarcerated Black men in America.

“They all said: ‘We never get to see anyone who beats the government,’” attorney Marc Agnifilo told The Associated Press in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.

Combs, 55, remains jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn after his conviction Wednesday on prostitution-related charges, which could put him in prison for several more years. Any sentence will include credit for time already served. So far that’s almost 10 months.

After federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and the Miami area in March 2024, Agnifilo said he told the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer to expect to be arrested on sex trafficking charges.

“I said: ‘Maybe it’s your fate in life to be the guy who wins,’” he recalled during a telephone interview briefly interrupted by a jailhouse call from Combs. “They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.”

Blunt trial strategy works

The verdict in Manhattan federal court came after a veteran team of eight defense lawyers led by Agnifilo executed a trial strategy that resonated with jurors. Combs passed lawyers notes during effective cross-examinations of nearly three dozen witnesses over two months, including Combs’ ex-employees.

The lawyers told jurors Combs was a jealous domestic abuser with a drug problem who participated in the swinger lifestyle through threesomes involving Combs, his girlfriends and another man.

“You may think to yourself, wow, he is a really bad boyfriend,” Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors in her May opening statement. But that, she said, “is simply not sex trafficking.”

Agnifilo said the blunt talk was a “no brainer.”

“The violence was so clear and up front and we knew the government was going to try to confuse the jury into thinking it was part of a sex trafficking effort. So we had to tell the jury what it was so they wouldn’t think it was something it wasn’t,” he said.

Combs and his lawyers seemed deflated Tuesday when jurors said they were deadlocked on the racketeering count but had reached a verdict on sex trafficking and lesser prostitution-related charges. A judge ordered them back to deliberate Wednesday.

“No one knows what to think,” Agnifilo said. Then he slept on it.

Morning surprise awakes lawyer

“I wake up at three in the morning and I text Teny and say: ”We have to get a bail application together,” he recalled. “It’s going to be a good verdict for us but I think he went down on the prostitution counts so let’s try to get him out.”

He said he “kind of whipped everybody into feeling better” after concluding jurors would have convicted him of racketeering if they had convicted him of sex trafficking because trafficking was an alleged component of racketeering.

Agnifilo met with Combs before court and Combs entered the courtroom rejuvenated. Smiling, the onetime Catholic schoolboy prayed with family. In less than an hour, the jury matched Agnifilo’s prediction.

The seemingly chastened Combs mouthed “thank you” to jurors and smiled as family and supporters applauded. After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defense team, a few chanting: “Dream Team! Dream Team!” Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried.

“This was a major victory for the defense and a major loss for the prosecution,” said Mitchell Epner, a lawyer who worked with Agnifilo as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey over two decades ago. He credited “a dream team of defense lawyers” against prosecutors who almost always win.

Agnifilo showcased what would become his trial strategy — belittling the charges and mocking the investigation that led to them — last September in arguing unsuccessfully for bail. The case against Combs was what happens when the “federal government comes into our bedrooms,” he said.

Lawyers gently questioned most witnesses

During an eight-week trial, Combs’ lawyers picked apart the prosecution case with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations. Combs never testified and his lawyers called no witnesses.

Sarah Krissoff, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, said Combs’ defense team “had a narrative from the beginning and they did all of it without putting on any witnesses. That’s masterful.”

Ironically, Agnifilo expanded the use of racketeering laws as a federal prosecutor on an organized crime task force in New Jersey two decades ago, using them often to indict street gangs in violence-torn cities.

“I knew the weak points in the statute,” he said. “The statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.”

He said prosecutors had “dozens of fail points.”

“They didn’t have a conspiracy, they just didn’t,” he said. “They basically had Combs’ personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.”

Some personal assistants, even after viewing videos of Combs beating his longtime girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, had glowing things to say about Combs on cross examination.

Once freed, Combs likely to reenter domestic abusers program

For Combs, Agnifilo sees a long road ahead once he is freed and resumes work on personal demons, likely reentering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest.

“He’s doing OK,” said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily.

He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and “realizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on.”

“He burns hot in all matters. I think what he has come to see is that he has these flaws and there’s no amount of fame and no amount of fortune” that can erase them,” he said. “You can’t cover them up.”

For Agnifilo, a final surprise awaited him after Combs’ bail was rejected when a man collapsed into violent seizures at the elevators outside the courtroom.

“I’m like: ‘What the hell?’” recalled the lawyer, who has experience in treating seizures.

Agnifilo straddled him, pulling him onto his side and using a foot to prevent him from rolling backward while a law partner, Jacob Kaplan, put a backpack under the man’s head and Agnifilo’s daughter took his pulse.

“We made sure he didn’t choke on vomit. It was crazy. I was worried about him,” he said.

The man was eventually taken away conscious by rescue workers, leaving Agnifilo to ponder a tumultuous day.

“It was like I was getting punked by God,” he said.