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Ontario’s Bridget Carleton excited for first-ever WNBA game in Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — The WNBA’s first-ever game in Canada is a full-circle moment for Bridget Carleton.The Chatham, Ontario, native will be suiting up for the Minnesota Lynx in a preseason game Saturday against the Chicago Sky at Scotiabank Arena.“I think growing up, I never really even dreamed about playing in the WNBA,” the 25-year-old Carleton told The Canadian Press. “I didn’t think I was going to be that good, I think because I knew it was such a small league and only the best of the best, so I was always just kind of focused on college and Team Canada and the Olympics.“A lot of people still live in Toronto who have helped me get to where I am and they always believed in me. … So a huge credit to them for seeing things in me that I didn’t see and to get me to where I am today and (it) kind of comes full circle.”Carleton returned to Minnesota on Monday after playing for Perfumerias Avenida in Spain.Perfumerias was swept by Valencia in the best-of-three league final, losing 81-69...

Recent rain could bring benefits through the summer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

HUDSON, Colo. (KDVR) — While the recent wet weather is creating a mess for some people, it is a miracle for others. “I went to bed and it was raining. And then I woke up and it was still raining. And then it rained all day,” Anita Rossi said.Rossi owns Rossi Dairy and Produce in Hudson. She says she stayed inside her home for two days while it rained, which is unheard of for a farmer. “Especially with the last few years, I mean it’s been a 20-year drought or whatever it is,” Rossi said.  Colorado rain totals top 5 inches over 3-day period The recent spring storm dropped between 2 and 5 inches of rain across the Eastern Plains. It may be enough moisture to pull the region out of its drought. “I don’t remember seeing all these puddles,” Rossi said. “They’ve been dry for so long and they’re all there. There’s water everywhere.”Water is a critical resource for them to grow crops that include pumpkins, hard squash, corn and alfalfa. However, Rossi said they plan ahead and pla...

‘Hialeah Hillbilly’ Ricky Valido on his passion for country music

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

South Florida isn’t exactly known as a hot bed of country music. One local musician is sure he can change that. After all, with a nickname like the “Hialeah Hillbilly,” how can he lose?Ricky Valido, singing: “We are living the swamp life/out in the glades/deep in the sawgrass/with the gators and the rattlesnakes/yeah we’re doin’ the swamp stomp.”Country music fans, meet your hometown hero, Ricky Valido.Ricky Valido: “Well, I am a country music singer/songwriter/performer. I’m mainly from Hialeah, Florida. This is where I was born and raised.”Ricky says his SoFlo roots are a plus when it comes to his career.Ricky Valido: “I think that that’s made kind of a point into what differentiates me from maybe the stereotypical country singer country artist.”The love of music runs deep in Ricky’s family.Ricky Valido “My great grandparents, they moved here to Hialeah in the ’60s from Cuba, and they b...

Mayor Wu looks to bail out Boston Council with new redistricting map

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

A proposed redistricting map put forward by Mayor Michelle Wu alters many of the contentious changes made by the Boston City Council, in a prior map that a federal judge threw out for potential violations to the Constitution.Wu urged the City Council to take action on either her proposed map, or one that the body may create on its own, by its Wednesday meeting to allow for sufficient review and passage by May 30, the deadline for keeping the city’s preliminary election date, Sept. 12, in place.The mayor told the Council in a Friday letter that she put forward her own redistricting map “to help ensure a swift and smooth resolution to redistricting.” She said her administration redrew districts with this past Monday’s court ruling, and the city’s legal obligations under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in mind.“As mayor, I believe that putting whole neighborhoods in single council districts encourages neighborhood organizing and civic engagement,” Wu wrote. “With that goal in mind, our ...

Chicago White Sox reinstate third baseman Yoán Moncada from the injured list: ‘I’m expecting the same guy back’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

Yoán Moncada made a splash in the season-opening series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.He had two three-hit games, homered twice and drove in four while helping the Chicago White Sox split the four games.After being sidelined for more than a month with lower back soreness, the third baseman returned from the injured list Friday as the Sox opened a three-game series against the Astros at Guaranteed Rate Field.“I feel much better,” Moncada said through an interpreter Friday afternoon. “For now on I just have to keep getting treatment and doing my exercises to feel as good as I can.”. The Sox also optioned infielder Lenyn Sosa to Triple-A Charlotte and outrighted reliever Alexander Colomé to Charlotte.Moncada entered Friday with a .308/.325/.564 slash line with four doubles, two home runs, five RBIs and four runs in nine games. He last played April 9 at Pittsburgh.“(He’s an) extremely talented player on both sides of the bal...

Tiny bats in Vermont provide ‘glimmer of hope’ against fungus devastating species

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

Deep in a cool, damp cave in Vermont, tens of thousands of furry, chocolate brown creatures stir.The little brown bats, survivors of a deadly fungus that decimated their population, went into hibernation last fall. Now in early May, they’re waking, detaching from their rock wall roosts and making their first tentative flights in search of the moths, beetles and flying aquatic insects they devour.It’s here, in deep passages that creep into a Vermont mountain, where scientists found one of the first North American outbreaks of the fungus that causes white nose syndrome. Bat bones litter the cave floor like dry lawn-mower cuttings. Look closer and you’ll find tiny skulls.And the bats are still dying.White nose syndrome is caused by an invasive fungus first found in an upstate New York cave in 2006, a short bat flight from the Dorset, Vermont, colony. The fungus wakes bats from hibernation, sending them into the frigid, winter air in search of food. They die of exposur...

MSTCA Twilight Invitational

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

FOXBORO – With the preferable warm weather to compete in after a handful of chilly dual meets, Durfee’s Shakira Cadet had a performance at yesterday’s MSTCA Twilight Invitational that should make the state’s triple jumpers stand up and take notice.The defending All-State champion and the school record-holder, Cadet leaped to a season-best of 37-feet, 9-1/2 inches, setting the stage for the final month of the season.Cadet is getting amped up for the state meet and is excited to defend her title. “It’s exciting and nerve wracking,” said the UMass–bound senior. “I hadn’t been consistent with my speed, but if felt really good today.”The warm conditions resulted in a slew of personal bests for many of the sprinters and field event athletes. Franklin’s terrific hurdler, Sarah Dumas raced to an impressive win in the 100 hurdles in 14.78 and Aiden Robert of Wareham won the 110 hurdles in 14.70.It was a perfect storm for...

Funeral for slain Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy draws 3,000 mourners

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

HUDSON, Wis. (AP) — Some 1,500 law enforcement officers from several states were among 3,000 mourners paying final respects Friday to a Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy who was fatally shot by a suspected drunken driver during a traffic stop.The funeral for St. Croix County Sheriff’s Deputy Kaitlin “Kaitie” R. Leising was held in the gymnasium of Hudson High School while a montage of photos from her life were shown on a large screen overhead. Leising’s family, including her wife, Courtney, and their 3-month-old son, Syler, stood to the side of the casket, hugging visitors.In less than a year with the sheriff’s office, Leising earned commendations and the admiration of her colleagues, Sheriff Scott Knudson said.“There was so much to like about Kaitie,” he said, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.Services lasted more than six hours as officers first arrived for three hours of visitation, then sat for the funeral before silently marching to the high school parking lot for an h...

Little progress has been made in curbing too high inflation, Fed’s Jefferson says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve governor Philip Jefferson said Friday that inflation remains too high and there has been “little progress” made toward bringing it down to the central bank’s 2% target, a pessimistic assessment given signs in a report earlier this week that price increases might be slowing. Jefferson, who was nominated by President Joe Biden earlier Friday to the position of Fed vice chair, also said in a speech at the Hoover Institution in California that the turmoil in the U.S. financial system following the failure of three large banks will likely have only a limited impact on the economy. Jefferson’s potential elevation to the No. 2 spot on the Fed’s seven-member board would give him greater influence over interest rate policy and make him a close colleague of Chair Jerome Powell. While inflation has declined from its June peak by about 2.75 percentage points to 4.2% in March, compared with a year ago, Jefferson said that “nearly all” of the de...

Anti-corruption advocate hopes new financial crime body can start ‘scaring bad guys’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:24 GMT

Anti-corruption advocate James Cohen says Canada’s reputation has for years been “hammered” over its weak record of prosecuting financial crimes.But now the executive director of Transparency International Canada is hopeful there’s political will to tackle the problem, and that the establishment of the Canada Financial Crime Agency will finally start “scaring the bad guys.”Cohen’s group released a white paper this week about the Trudeau government’s plan to create the agency, outlined in the latest federal budget, to tackle financial crime across the country. He’s cautiously optimistic, but his organization also warns that the feds may be missing an opportunity to tackle corruption and securities fraud by focusing solely on money laundering. The 2023 budget outlined how the Trudeau government intends to make the Canada Financial Crime Agency the “lead enforcement agency against financial crime.”“It will bring to...