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‘The Righteous,’ an opera set among American Southwest church communities, to premiere in 2024

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Santa Fe Opera will present the world premiere of “The Righteous” by composer Gregory Spears with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith on July 13 next year. The opera, set among church communities in the American Southwest, stars baritone Michael Mayes as a preacher who becomes governor during a period stretching from the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 to the Gulf War in the 1990s, the company announced Wednesday. The cast includes countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, bass-baritones Greer Grimsley and Nicholas Newton, sopranos Amber Wagner and Elena Villalón, and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano.Spears and Smith collaborated on “Castor and Patience,” which premiered at the Cincinnati Opera last July. Smith won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2017-19.Jordan de Souza conducts a production directed by Kevin Newbury, which will be given six performances through Aug. 13, 2024.Santa Fe’s 2024 season ...

Justice Jackson reports flowers from Oprah, designer clothing as Thomas delays filing disclosure

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disclosed Wednesday that she received a $1,200 congratulatory floral display from Oprah Winfrey and $6,580 in designer clothing for a magazine photo shoot in her first months as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. The details of gifts given to Jackson were among the reports provided by most members of the court in their annual filings, which give a partial window onto their finances. The reports were released Wednesday. But the report that was most anticipated — that of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been under scrutiny for his receipt of undisclosed gifts from a Republican donor — was not among the filings. Thomas, along with Justice Samuel Alito, sought an extension for up to 90 days.Thomas’ receipt of gifts, valued at several hundred thousand dollars, from the Republican donor Harlan Crow has prompted calls for ethics reform on the nation’s highest court. It was not clear why either man needed more time.Once a year t...

Los Angeles Times announces 74 job cuts due to economic challenges

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday announced plans to cut 74 jobs due to economic challenges as the newspaper strives to transform itself into a digital media organization.In a message to staff, Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida wrote that employees whose positions are eliminated from the Pulitzer Prize -winning newspaper were being notified and that a staff meeting would be held to answer questions.“We have done a vast amount of work as a company to meet the budget and revenue challenges head on. But that work will need acceleration and we will need more radical transformation in the newsroom for us to become a self-sustaining enterprise,” Merida wrote.The cuts will eliminate about 13% of newsroom positions and affect full-time and temporary workers including editors, audio producers and managers, the Times reported. The cuts follow a series of layoffs at news organizations including the Washington Post and NPR.The move also comes days after journalists at two ...

Missouri governor signs ban on transgender health care, school sports

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Transgender minors and some adults in Missouri will soon be limited from accessing puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries — as well as some school sports teams — under bills signed Wednesday by the state’s Republican governor.Beginning Aug. 28, Missouri health care providers won’t be able to prescribe those gender-affirming treatments for teens and children. Most adults will still have access to transgender health care under the law, but Medicaid won’t cover it. Prisoners in the state must pay for gender-affirming surgeries out-of-pocket under the law, the governor’s spokesperson Kelli Jones said.Gov. Mike Parson called hormones, puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries “harmful, irreversible treatments and procedures” for minors.“We support everyone’s right to his or her own pursuit of happiness,” Parson said in a statement Wednesday. “However, we must protect children from making life-altering decisions that th...

Italian lawmaker who fought to allow nursing one’s baby during working session is now first to do so

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

ROME (AP) — An Italian lawmaker who fought for a rule so that women can be allowed to nurse their babies during a parliamentary session has now become the first woman to do just that. Bipartisan applause broke out on Wednesday when Gilda Sportiello, a member of the lower Chamber of Deputies, nursed her 2-month-old son during a legislative vote. In the previous legislature, Sportiello had successfully pushed for a rule to be passed by the chamber’s rules committee to allow women to participate in voting and debates while nursing their children until their babies are 12 months old. She and baby Federico’s father, Riccardo Ricciardi, are both lawmakers from the populist 5-Star Movement. La Repubblica daily quoted Sportiello as saying that she hopes her pioneering act will inspire all workplaces in Italy to make it easier for working mothers to nurse their infants if they want to while on the job. “From today on, if the highest Italian institutions allow workers to nurse at their workpl...

Man convicted in 2018 California state park killing sentenced to life in prison

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man convicted last month in the shooting death of a father who was camping with his daughters at a Southern California park was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison. A jury found Anthony Rauda guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Tristan Beaudette and of the attempted murders of the two young girls. Rauda fatally shot Beaudette in the head while the 35-year-old father camped in a tent with his daughters on June 18, 2018 in Malibu Creek State Park, roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of downtown Los Angeles. He was taken into custody in late 2018 in a ravine near the park with a rifle in his backpack.The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Rauda was sentenced to a total of 119 years to life. Rauda’s attorney, Nicholas C. Okorocha, declined to comment on Wednesday’s sentencing but said he appreciated the “deeply moving” victim impact statement delivered by Beaudette’s wife, Erica. Beaudette’s daughters, then ages 2 and 4,...

Stock market today: Wall Street drifts as drops for tech overshadow gains elsewhere

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting Wednesday, as drops for Microsoft and other big-name tech stocks overshadow gains for much of the rest of Wall Street.The S&P 500 was 0.4% lower in late trading even though the majority of stocks within the index were rising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 116 points, or 0.3%, at 33,690 with less than an hour remaining in trading. The Nasdaq composite was lagging the market with a drop of 1%. Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet all fell at least 3% and were the heaviest weights on the S&P 500. Because they’re some of Wall Street’s most valuable stocks, their movements pack extra punch on the index. It’s a reversal from much of this year, where stocks of high-growth companies led the way on hopes for easier interest rates from the Federal Reserve and excitement around artificial intelligence. But tech stocks are seen as some of the hardest hit by higher interest rates, and yields were on the rise in the Treasury m...

Four directors step down from Indigo board, Reisman also leaving in August

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

Nearly half the board of Indigo Books and Music Inc. is stepping down — including founder and executive chair Heather Reisman — in a stunning announcement that saw one director allege poor leadership and treatment.Reisman, who built Indigo into Canada’s biggest bookstore chain over a quarter-century, said she will retire this summer.More immediate is the resignation of four other directors, including Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa. Appointed to the board in 2020, Oriuwa stepped down “because of her loss of confidence in board leadership and because of mistreatment,” Indigo said in a release Wednesday.The company provided no explanation for the departures of the three other directors — Frank Clegg, Howard Grosfield and Anne Marie O’Donovan — who collectively had served on the board for 40 years.The four resignations had taken effect when the statement was released Wednesday morning.The announcements mark another major hiccup for the company after a February cyberattac...

Kirby Puckett's junior college playing days in Chicago area earn him spot in another Hall of Fame

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

CHICAGO — He made himself into one of the best players of his generation in Major League Baseball in Minnesota, but that journey actually began in the Chicago area. Growing up in the city, late Twins star Kirby Puckett would really begin to make a name for himself at a junior college in River Grove, doing so alongside a former Cubs & White Sox outfielder."He was pretty much the best player that I've ever played with," said Lance Johnson about late Baseball Hall of Famer and Triton College teammate in their one year at the school.Now that part of his career is being honored by the National Junior College Athletic Association as they'll posthumously induct Puckett into their Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Thursday in Charlotte. That provides those in Chicago, including Johnson, the opportunity to reflect on his one incredible season with the Trojans."He was unbelievable. He's probably the first player that I saw that could do whatever he wanted, when he wanted, and when the tea...

3 Chicago chefs win prestigious food award

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:06 GMT

(NEXSTAR/WGN) – About two dozen lucky (and undoubtedly hardworking) chefs and restaurant teams around the country received one of the food world's top honors this week. The James Beard Award winners were announced Monday at a ceremony in Chicago. Chicago restaurants, or a few of their chefs, took home the top prize in two categories.Tim Flores and Genie Kwon of Kasama won the "Best Chef: Great Lakes" category that represented Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The restaurant in Chicago's East Village neighborhood became the world's first Filipino Michelin-starred restaurant in 2022.Damarr Brown of Virtue in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood won the crown of "Emerging Chef." Last year, the Windy City-native was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in America for his work as Chef de Cuisine at Virtue. WATCH: Dean Richards on the 2023 James Beard Awards red carpet The first James Beard Awards were given out in 1991. They "celebrate excellence across a range of experiences—from fi...