Photos: Patriots 30, Lions 28

Watching a player writhe in pain might have been the best thing for the Avs’ mental health. Thursday night, goalie Scott Wedgewood fell awkwardly onto Sabres forward Zach Benson, who was pushed into the net. With Wedgewood in agony, the officials refused to stop play as the puck trickled toward the corner. Coach Jared Bednar blew a gasket.

Chiefs (15-1) at Broncos (9-7) When: Sunday, 2:25 p.m. MT Where: Empower Field at Mile High Radio/TV: 850 AM, 94.1 FM/CBS Broncos-Chiefs series: Denver is 55-73 in 128 regular-season games dating back to 1960; the Broncos lost 16-14 in the last meeting, on Nov. 10 on the road, and have dropped eight of the last nine games against Kansas City. In the spotlight: Broncos prepare for Chiefs backup QB Carson Wentz The Broncos don’t care if Carson Wentz has fallen from grace.

Protect public art from vandals. Keep it indoors. Having a public art program in Denver which uses a developer’s tax to fund artists to create works of art in public spaces around the city is a great thing. Having those same works of art defaced by gangs who “mark” them with their “signs” is horrible. So until these gangs can be prevented from doing their thing, we should not be placing new public art works in places where they are sure to be defaced. That, unfortunately, means in our public parks, particularly along Denver’s wonderful Cherry Creek hike and bike trail. Murals on walls along this trail have been ravaged from Confluence Park to Colorado Boulevard, especially the huge mural across the creek from Cherry Creek Mall. Yet the Denver Arts & Venues agency continues to offer the Public Arts Program a free pass to commission new murals and other works of art on its property, as if gang markings would not inevitably follow. There are plenty of indoor locations in our city where public art works will be safe.

From an early age, we are taught that obedience is good, and disobedience is bad. Saying yes is polite and agreeable, while saying no is often seen as selfish or disruptive. These lessons shape us psychologically, socially, and even neurologically. When we are rewarded for compliant behavior, our brain rewards us with a hit of dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington will be awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor on Saturday in a White House ceremony. President Joe Biden will bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The White House said the recipients have made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.” Four medals are to be awarded posthumously.

Since former President Jimmy Carter’s death on Dec. 29, commentators have focused on two supposedly defining features of his presidential tenure: his successes in promoting peace and human rights internationally, and his failures in leading the American people through the economic and cultural wilderness of the late 1970s. This conventional wisdom ignores one of the most important and ironic legacies of Carter’s career: the powerful brand of civic populism he brought to the presidency, but later abandoned in favor of the “expert-knows-best” technocratic culture that had already come to dominate much of Washington. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Today, political and cultural elites tend to associate “populism” with the demagogic appeals to right-wing, anti-immigrant, and nationalist sentiments permeating the last few election cycles.