RENTON, Wash. (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks have finalized a four-year contract extension with left tackle Charles Cross.
The contract runs through the 2030 season and includes $75 million guaranteed, according to multiple reports. Cross, 25, was already under contract through 2026 because the Seahawks exercised his fifth-year option earlier in the season.
“It means a lot to me,” Cross said Wednesday. “This team, this organization, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This place is definitely special, and I believe that and everyone in this building.”
The Seahawks selected Cross in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft with a pick they acquired when they traded Russell Wilson. Cross has started 62 games, including 14 this season for the Seahawks, who are the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
“I feel great just being in Seattle, being around my teammates, the organization here,” Cross said.
Cross missed the last three games of the regular season with a hamstring injury, which he said happened during Jason Myers’ game-winning field goal against Indianapolis on Dec. 14. Cross practiced Wednesday and is expected to be back for the playoffs.
The Seahawks received a first-round bye and will host the lowest remaining seed on the weekend of Jan. 17-18, giving Cross plenty of time to get back to full strength.
“I feel like it’ll help me a lot,” Cross said, “just being able to recover and get the reps, get more reps in and refine what I’ve been working on.”
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FILE - Seattle Seahawks tackle Charles Cross (67) walks off the field following an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons, Dec. 7, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Stew Milne, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed the pioneering hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa’s lawsuit to reclaim ownership of their master recordings from Universal Music Group.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote on Thursday sided with the recording giant, arguing that the Grammy-winning group never owned the copyrights to their sound recordings and didn't transfer them to anyone else.
“Plaintiffs can only terminate copyright transfers that they executed,” the judge wrote. “None of the contracts identified by Plaintiffs indicate that they ever owned the Master Tapes.”
UMG argued that the recordings were “works made for hire,” which would not allow for the reclaiming of rights. Salt-N-Pepa’s lawsuit said their agreements with the label made it clear that they were not.
“Even with the court’s complete rejection of their claims, we remain open and willing to find a resolution to the matter and turn the page so we can focus our efforts on working together to amplify Salt-N-Pepa’s legacy for generations to come,” UMG said in a statement.
Representatives for Salt-N-Pepa said in a statement that they disagreed with the judge's decision and “fully intend to pursue our rights on appeal,” adding: “We remain committed to vindicating and reclaiming our rights as creators under the Copyright Act."
The Queens, New York, duo of Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton became Salt-N-Pepa in 1985. They were later joined by DJ Spinderella, who was not part of the early agreements under dispute and is not involved in the lawsuit.
Salt-N-Pepa signed with Next Plateau Records and released their debut album "Hot, Cool & Vicious" in 1986. Next Plateau was an independent label at the time, and it’s now under the banner of Universal’s Republic label. Some of the group's hits include 1993’s “Shoop” and 1987’s “Push It.”
In 1995 they became the first female rap group to win a Grammy, and in 2021, they received a Grammy lifetime achievement award. In November, they followed Missy Elliott as the second female hip-hop act in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, handed the Influence Award.
At the podium during the induction ceremony, James noted the group's legal fight: "This is the Influence Award. We have to keep using our influence until the industry honors creativity the way the audience does — with love, respect and fairness.”
In their lawsuit, Salt-N-Pepa claimed that the 1976 Copyright Act gives artists the right to reclaim ownership of master recordings and terminate past agreements after 35 years.
But the judge sided with UMG's argument that there is no evidence that James and Denton granted the label copyright that they can now reclaim.
FILE - Sandra Denton, from left; DJ Spinderella and Cheryl James of Salt-N-Pepa arrive at the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Missy Elliott, from left, and Sandra Denton with Cheryl James, right of Salt-N-Pepa, react during the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
