Italy Denies Paying Off Taliban In Afghanistan

Around the AFC Allen on top: As great as Josh Allen has been over seven seasons in Buffalo, he’s almost always been in the shadow of at least one other quarterback in the league. In his one All-Pro season, it was Aaron Rodgers with the Packers. Since then, it’s been Patrick Mahomes with the Chiefs or Joe Burrow in Cincinnati.

Employees of Denver’s unionized Starbucks stores went on strike Saturday to protest what they say is the coffee company’s refusal to negotiate over pay and address unfair labor practice complaints. The strike organized by Starbucks Workers United started at Starbucks’ Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles locations Friday and expanded to include stores in Denver, Columbus and Pittsburgh on Saturday. Barista Shay Mannik joined his coworkers on the picket line outside of the chain’s University Hills store Saturday morning.

My husband and I work full-time for one of the wealthiest companies in the world. So why can’t we afford to start a family? For four years, my husband, Andrew, and I have driven delivery vehicles for Amazon throughout Southern California. My job means a lot to me. Rain or shine, I make over 160 stops a day delivering packages in my community, and I’m proud knowing that what I do makes a difference in people’s lives.

SAN JOSE — It wasn’t a typical game day question, but Jared Bednar needed nanoseconds to offer his answer. Does the coach of the Colorado Avalanche ever have time to sit back and appreciate the guys this organization selected near the top of the draft and what they’ve become? “Every day,” he said. The Avalanche boasts three of the very best players in the world — Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen — all of whom were selected in the top of an NHL draft by Colorado.

In his last months of college wrestling, Andrew Alirez is more focused on performing well than worrying about results. If he wrestles to the best of his ability, without getting all hung up on the score or the match, he said, then he’ll do what he returned to Northern Colorado this year to do: win a second NCAA title. “I just feel in my heart nobody has seen the best version of me out there,” he said.

OAKLAND — Rickey Henderson, the Oakland kid who became the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history and his hometown A’s biggest star, has died. Henderson would have turned 66 on Christmas Day. After a frenzy of social media speculation overnight, multiple sources confirmed to the Bay Area News Group on Saturday morning that Henderson had died on Friday.