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Red Sox Point/Counterpoint: What are Sox biggest offseason storylines?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

The World Series is officially here, and at some point in the next week or so either the Texas Rangers will celebrate their first championship in franchise history or the Diamondbacks their first in over 20 years.It should be a great series, but obviously for Red Sox fans the real show will begin once the final out has been recorded.This has the potential to be a transformational offseason. The Red Sox have a new chief baseball officer in Craig Breslow, money to spend and big decisions to make. So what are the biggest storylines fans should follow once the Hot Stove starts heating up?The Herald’s Red Sox beat writers debate.Gabrielle Starr: Without a doubt, the top league storyline is Shohei Ohtani. He’s unlike any other player we’ve ever seen, so his free agency is sure to be one for the ages, and he’s all but guaranteed to get a record-breaking contract. Will he become baseball’s first $500 million player? With such a truly unprecedented player, it fe...

The campaign spotlight this weekend is on Nevada, where dueling elections could confuse GOP voters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada is a pivotal early state on the 2024 election calendar, but it’s gotten much less attention than leadoff Iowa and New Hampshire.Not this weekend.Most of the Republican presidential candidates are in Las Vegas for the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting, which has taken on greater significance this year because of the Israel-Hamas war. Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party’s nomination, will follow his speech before that group with an evening appearance at a campaign organizing event where his team will try to lock in commitments from voters who may attend the Feb. 8 caucuses.With the support of the former president’s allies, Nevada will have a primary election on Feb. 6, as required by state law, and caucuses two days later that are run by the state party. That setup has drawn criticism from within the Nevada GOP about potential voter confusion and concerns that the state party is attempting to tilt the scale for Trump.A stat...

EPA to strengthen lead protections in drinking water after multiple crises, including Flint

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

Decades after officials banned lead in gasoline for new cars and stopped the sale of lead paint — huge steps toward eliminating lead exposure to the public — there are still an estimated 500,000 U.S. children with levels of lead in their blood that are considered high, and experts say lead in drinking water is one important reason. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to further reduce lead levels in drinking water and tighten a rule that failed to prevent drinking water crises in cities like Flint, Michigan and Newark, New Jersey. Although the specifics aren’t public, the agency says it will propose requiring that utilities actively replace harmful lead pipes.President Joe Biden has already called for eliminating the country’s estimated 9.2 million lead pipes, lines that connect water mains under the street to homes and businesses and are responsible for most of the lead that gets into drinking water.But it’s costly to send out workers to dig up the pipe, lay new ones...

Pope’s big meeting on women and the future of the church wraps up – with some final jabs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis’ monthlong meeting on the future of the Catholic Church was wrapping up Saturday with voting on a final document on the role of women and how the church can better respond to the needs of the faithful today.Organizers and participants alike have tried to temper expectations for any big changes to emerge, especially on hot-button doctrinal issues such as the church’s views on homosexuality. They have insisted that the mere process of forcing bishops to sit down at round tables to listen to ordinary Catholics for a month was the important novelty of the gathering.But there was no denying that Francis’ big Synod on Synodality, as the meeting is called, and the two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics that preceded it, has indeed generated expectations.Progressives have hoped the gathering would send a message that the church would be more welcoming of LGBTQ+ people and offer women more leadership roles in a hierarchy where they are barred from ord...

New Speaker Mike Johnson holds favor with conservatives. Can he unite the GOP where others failed?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — New House Speaker Mike Johnson inherits many of the same problems that bedeviled Republican leaders with far more experience. At least for now, however, he holds favor with the ultra-conservative wing of his party that toppled previous House speakers. But can he unite House Republicans where others failed?The Louisiana Republican emerged last week from the lower ranks of the House GOP leadership to ascend to speaker after lawmakers, driven by a faction of hard-liners, ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the job and then rejected two more top-ranked Republicans in leadership as well as conservative favorite Rep. Jim Jordan.To his supporters, Johnson represented a turn to “decentralizing the power” from the speaker’s office, with a goal of cutting government spending and engaging forcefully on socially conservative priorities.“The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt,” Johnson said in a speech after taking the gavel.While not a member of th...

A spider web of Hamas tunnels in Gaza Strip raises risks for an Israeli ground offensive

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — As an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip looms in its most devastating war yet with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried deep underground.An extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by the Hamas militant group stretches across the densely populated strip, hiding fighters, their rocket arsenal and over 200 hostages they now hold after an unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Clearing and collapsing those tunnels will be crucial if Israel seeks to dismantle Hamas. But fighting in densely populated urban areas and moving underground could strip the Israeli military of some of its technological advantages while giving an edge to Hamas both above and below ground.“I usually say it’s like walking down the street waiting to get punched in the face,” said John Spencer, a retired U.S. Army major and the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.U...

Man in hospital after being shot in Mimico

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

A man is in hospital after being shot in Mimico late last night. Police were called to Lake Shore Boulevard West and Park Lawn Road at 11 p.m. Friday to reports of gunshots. No victim was found in the area.Shortly after, a man in his 30s showed up at a Toronto hospital on his own with a gunshot wound. His injuries are considered non-life-threatening. No further details have been released.

Sharp increase in Afghans leaving Pakistan due to illegal migrant crackdown, say UN agencies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.N. agencies have reported a sharp increase in Afghans returning home since Pakistan launched a crackdown on people living in the country illegally. They urged Pakistan to suspend the policy before it was too late to avoid a “human rights catastrophe.” Pakistan earlier this month said it will arrest and deport undocumented or unregistered foreigners after Oct. 31. Two provinces bordering Afghanistan have set up deportation centers. The government says the campaign is not aimed at a particular nationality, but it mostly affects Afghans who make up the bulk of foreigners living in the country.U.N. agencies said Friday there are more than 2 million undocumented Afghans in Pakistan, at least 600,000 of whom fled after the Taliban takeover in 2021.Afghanistan is going through a severe humanitarian crisis, particularly for women and girls, who are banned by the Taliban from education beyond sixth grade, most public spaces and many jobs. There are also restrictio...

Saturday Forecast: Low 50s, wind chills up to 30 mph

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

Saturday: Temperatures to reach up to low 50s, wind chills 5-15 mph. Saturday Night: Temps reach mid 30s, high winds, chance of showers Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Sunday: Chance of cold showers in after noon. cloudy, high: 45Extended outlook calls for dry and sunny but cold on Monday with our first widespread frost / freeze of the season. High 42. Cold for Halloween with partly sunny skies and chance of a few snow showers. High 40

Israel unleashes 'most intense' bombardment, knocking out communications

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:11:48 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Saturday heavily bombed Gaza backed with infantry and armored vehicles backed by massive strikes from the air and sea.The bombardment, described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the war, also knocked out most communications in Gaza. This largely cut off the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people from the world, while enabling the Israeli military to control the narrative in a new stage of fighting.The military released grainy images Saturday showing tank columns moving slowly in open areas of Gaza, many apparently near the border, and said warplanes bombed dozens of Hamas tunnels and underground bunkers.“The forces are still on the ground and are continuing the war,” said the army spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, indicating that the next stage has begun in what is expected to evolve into an all-out ground offensive in northern Gaza.Early in the war, Israel had already amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border. Until now, troops had...