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MIAA state softball tournament preview and picks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

As the MIAA state softball tournament kicks into full swing, a familiar name finds itself once again back in the fold.Courtesy of Louisville-bound outfielder Ara Venturelli and Texas Tech commit Sam Lincoln, No. 3 Taunton finds itself as a premier contender for the Division 1 crown. The Tigers, however, will have plenty of competition.Top-seeded Central Catholic and No. 2 King Philip both have the pieces to bring home the crown. Peabody is a serious contender behind Northeastern Conference most valuable player Abby Bettencourt.The Middlesex League has a host of teams that may upset the apple cart with No. 11 Woburn, No. 16 Arlington and No. 17 Reading all serving as sleepers. A great-first round matchup between the Rockets and Spy Ponders is sure to draw plenty of attention.Division 2 figures to be a battle royale between a bevy of teams who have experience playing deep into June. Defending champion Westfield is the top seed while Merrimack Valley Conference counterparts No. 2 Bille...

Michael Malone, long before coaching the Nuggets in the NBA Finals, was a fiery point guard at Loyola Maryland

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

They cannot help but laugh when they watch Michael Malone prowl the Denver Nuggets’ sideline, grinning wryly as he exhorts his players to defend or shouting himself hoarse as he demands justice from officials.Peel away 30 years, and that sharp-witted, sharp-tongued bulldog is the same guy who used to design plays on the fly during practices at Reitz Arena. Former Loyola Maryland teammates knew Malone’s intense focus and rare basketball IQ long before most of the world caught on. So when they glimpse their old point guard coaching the best players in the world in the NBA Finals, they figure that’s just about right.“We had a couple of kids of coaches on our team, but his basketball IQ was just through the roof,” recalled John Boney, who played with Malone for two years as a forward on those Loyola teams. “To where you would see some of the coaches on our team asking for Mike’s opinion, even as a freshman.”Malone worked as a college and N...

Postcards sent to voters ahead of District 4 special election

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

SAN DIEGO — The County of San Diego has sent out nearly 400,000 postcards to registered voters in the Fourth Supervisorial District listing their options for the Aug. 15 special election.The election will be to fill the vacant seat for the remainder of the current term, which ends in Jan. 2027.The seat was vacated by former supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who officially resigned from the board on May 15 after allegations surfaced in March accusing Fletcher of sexual assault.You can follow along with the timeline of how the Fletcher scandal unfolded here.The election is open only to registered voters in District 4. You can check to see whether you live in the district here.According to the County, voters will receive an election ballot packet in the mail on the week of July 16. The packet will include their ballot, an "I Voted" sticker, voting instructions and other important election information. 3 candidates in running to replace Fletcher in District 4 seat Early voting will begin Mo...

Comedian Brett Goldstein to perform in San Diego

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Fresh off the heels of the highly-anticipated series finale of "Ted Lasso," Brett Goldstein is headed to San Diego for a standup comedy show.The award-winning actor and comedian, who plays Roy Kent in the wholesome Apple TV series, will perform at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Saturday, June 10.The event is only for guests ages 15 and up, because in typical Roy Kent fashion, there will be a good amount of swearing during the show.General sale tickets go on sale Friday, June 2 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased here. Presale tickets went live Thursday at 10 a.m. with the code "DISCO."According to the Civic Theatre's website, tickets will start at $69.50 for the San Diego show, which includes a $3.50 facility restoration fee.You can find a full list of upcoming performances at the Civic Theatre here.Goldstein, who won two Primetime Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the angry, aging football star Roy Kent, has seen his star rise since "Ted Lasso" began.He created and wrote the...

Conservative trustees choose ‘Mighty Banyans’ for Florida college mascot

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

The New College of Florida trustees dominated by conservatives appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis chose a new mascot Thursday for the Sarasota school: The Mighty Banyans.The tree mascot will replace one that has been in use since 1997, which is the mathematical formulation of the Null Set. That’s usually expressed as “( )” and was viewed by many students, faculty and alumni as perfectly suited to the quirky, historically progressive college that doesn’t use traditional grades.This new mascot features a brown, fierce-looking banyan tree with “arm” branches raised in a muscular flex pose. It does retain the Null Set brackets as eyebrows and sports a leafy hairdo. New College is adorned with banyan trees big enough for a person to climb inside on its bayside campus.“It needed to be something uniquely New College,” said interim President Richard Corcoran.Among many changes under the new trustees, New College is upgrading its sports teams to include b...

32 Mississippi school districts still under federal desegregation orders

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) — There are 32 school districts in Mississippi still under federal desegregation orders, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s assistant attorney general said Thursday. Enforcing the open desegregation orders fit into a broader body of civil rights work launched in Mississippi that is examining jails, police departments and hate crimes in the state, according to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation of public schools across the country, she said the Justice Department is ensuring school districts provide Black students in Mississippi with equal access to education programs.“In our ongoing efforts to fulfill the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education, we currently have 32 open cases with school districts here in Mississippi,” Clarke said. “And in each of those cases, we are working to ensure t...

UN warns of new threat to global food security after Russia limits Ukraine grain shipments

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Warning of a new threat to global food security, the United Nations said Thursday that Russia is limiting the number of ships allowed to pick up Ukrainian grain at Black Sea ports in its campaign to get Kyiv to open a pipeline for a key ingredient of fertilizer to get to world markets.U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed serious concern that only 33 ships departed from Ukrainian ports in May, half the number compared to April, and exports of grain and other foodstuffs totaled just 1.3 million metric tons last month, less than half the amount of the previous month.He said Russia informed the center in Istanbul coordinating the arrivals, departures and inspections of ships involved in the Black Sea Grain Initiative “of its decision to limit registrations in the port of Yuzhny as long as ammonia is not exported, and currently it’s not.”Ammonia is a key ingredient for fertilizer and Moscow wants Ukraine to open a pipeline from the Russian city of Togliatti to...

AP obtains records shedding new light on Jeffrey Epstein’s jail suicide and frantic aftermath

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Two weeks before ending his life, Jeffrey Epstein sat in the corner of his Manhattan jail cell with his hands over his ears, desperate to muffle the sound of a toilet that wouldn’t stop running.Epstein was agitated and unable to sleep, jail officials observed in records newly obtained by The Associated Press. He called himself a “coward” and complained he was struggling to adapt to life behind bars following his July 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges — his life of luxury reduced to a concrete and steel cage.The disgraced financier was under psychological observation at the time for a suicide attempt just days earlier that left his neck bruised and scraped. Yet, even after a 31-hour stint on suicide watch, Epstein insisted he wasn’t suicidal, telling a jail psychologist he had a “wonderful life” and “would be crazy” to end it.On Aug. 10, 2019, Epstein was dead.Nearly four years later, the AP has obtained more than 4,000 pages of docum...

Family mourns 2 young boys killed by gunfire as they played in Pennsylvania yard

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

LEBANON, Pa. — Relatives of two young boys killed by gunfire as they played with kittens in the backyard of their Pennsylvania home were mourning them Thursday as authorities announced two men were charged with their slayings.Brothers Jesus and Sebastian Perez-Salome, ages 8 and 9, and a third victim were killed Tuesday night in Lebanon. An adult and a teen were charged in the shooting, and police said they were seeking a third suspect.In a phone interview Thursday from his home in Puerto Rico, the children’s uncle Felix Muniz Torres said their mother was working at a nearby convenience store when she heard the shots ring out.She ran over to find them shot, he said. Her other child, who is 13, was fortunately at a school event.“She’s in shock and is unable to speak coherently,” Muniz Torres said.He described his nephews as “very innocent and polite,” always together playing, mostly with their superhero figures.“They were very close,” he said. Alex Torres Santos, 22, and a 16-year-ol...

Movie review: ‘Past Lives’ is a gorgeous meditation on love, chance – and the choices we make

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:36 GMT

Two minutes away, the Uber app promises at one point in “Past Lives.” And if you’re like me, you may find yourself — perhaps for the first time in your Uber-riding life — hoping that promise is a bald-faced lie.Because you’ll want more minutes, many more, for the couple presumably about to be separated by that Uber, even though they’re simply staring at each other on the street, saying absolutely nothing.This is but one small moment of playwright Celine Song’s gorgeous, achingly wistful feature debut. But it highlights her striking confidence as a filmmaker. Time and again, Song, who both writes and directs here, makes the unflashy, understated choice — and in so doing, darned near breaks our hearts, with a tale that feels universal yet rich in detail, urgent yet unrushed. And if, also like me, you suddenly feel tears forming, they may surprise you, precisely because nobody’s been trying to force them.We begin with a trio chatting in a New York bar — a woman flanked by two men...