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3 takeaways from the Chicago Cubs’ 3-3 road trip, including Dansby Swanson’s power surge and Seiya Suzuki’s return

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

Jameson Taillon won’t overreact to one bad start.“But I also don’t want to just push it aside and move on,” Taillon said Sunday after the Chicago Cubs’ 11-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays completed a 3-3 road trip.Taillon surrendered eight runs in three-plus innings, his worst start in six weeks. It was reminiscent of his bad stretch over the first 2 1/2 months: too many hard-hit balls and inconsistent defense behind him.He plans to look back on Sunday’s start but believes he’s still on the right track.“I’m very execution-based,” Taillon said, “so there were some balls that found holes today and stuff like that. But I also feel like if I executed a higher percentage of my pitches, I would have put us in a better spot.“Whenever those weird things are happening behind you, it’s good to just fall back and resort to really executing at a high level, and when you don’t do that, that’s the type of gam...

It’s not just salary: workplace benefits to look for

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

Salary is just one component of the package that businesses may offer their employees. Though salary is important, an honest comparison of companies can benefit from a look at the larger picture –  and that includes an analysis of what companies offer in addition to financial compensation.Some people feel that certain perks outrank salary on their professional priority list. The Society of Human Resource Management indicates 92% of employees feel employment benefits are important for overall job satisfaction. They’re also a driving factor when candidates read job postings.Certain benefits are standard offerings, while others take perks a step further. The following are some of the benefits job seekers may encounter in job listings and during the interview process.Health insurance: Offering health insurance is mandatory in certain areas, while in others it is up to the employer. Insurance costs may be taken care of by an employer, while in most cases employees have a port...

Cedric Mullins plays hero twice in Orioles’ 5-3 win over Mariners in 10 innings

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

Cedric Mullins leaped at the center field wall, extending his gloved right hand beyond it. He fell to the dirt on the warning track, uncertainty still hanging over a packed T-Mobile Park.Then, Mullins rose to his feet and emphatically swung his left arm, letting the stadium know he in fact robbed what would have been a game-tying home run for the second out of Sunday’s ninth inning.Seattle Mariners right fielder Dominic Canzone evened the game with a solo shot two pitches later, but that simply provided the opportunity for more heroics from Mullins, who blasted a go-ahead, two-run home run in the 10th to carry Baltimore to a 5-3 victory.Mullins wasn’t in the Orioles’ lineup, his third game back with Baltimore after a second stint on the injured list for a right groin strain. But manager Brandon Hyde expected him to make an impact in some way. He entered as a defensive substitution in the bottom of the sixth, after Baltimore (73-45) evened the game at 2 with a run i...

Dear Abby: Financial adviser only wants to speak to husband

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband and I have some money in a mutual fund. Our new, very young financial adviser, “Alec,” seems sexist. He has phoned us four times asking to speak with my husband, and each time my husband refuses to speak to him. Since my name is also on our account, my husband said that I should speak to him. I have told Alec twice that my husband has hearing aids and it’s difficult for him to hear people on the phone, which is why he wants me to be the contact. But Alec continues to ask for my husband.I’ve told him that I feel he’s being sexist, but he denies it. He said he tries very hard not to be, and he’s sorry if I feel he is. Alec called asking for my husband again today. We let it go to voicemail. Now I’m wondering if I should return his call and complain again, write him a letter or complain to his superiors.Should I continue to let his calls go to voicemail? Should I complain in writing to him? We don’t want to move mone...

Fletcher seeking $10K in fees from accuser over alleged failure to disclose messages

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is pushing for over $10,000 in legal penalties against the former MTS employee who accused him of sexual assault, arguing that she has failed to produce evidence requested by his lawyers in the ongoing lawsuit.In new court motions filed on Thursday, Fletcher called for the fine on the grounds that a request he submitted during the discovery process for all written communications between himself and his accuser, Grecia Figueroa, has been improperly delayed.According to court documents, the communications -- including texts, direct messages on social media and emails -- were first asked for in a set of written requests sent to Figueroa's legal team on June 20. Timeline: Unfolding of the Nathan Fletcher scandal His team sought the messages for his defense, the motion says, believing it would provide additional context to screenshots of messages included in Figueroa's initial complaint and affirm his recounting of their ...

Landslide at Myanmar jade mine leaves more than 30 people missing, rescue official says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar left more than 30 people missing, and a search and rescue operation was underway on Monday, a rescue official said.The incident occurred in Hpakant, a remote mountainous town in Kachin state about 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. The area is the epicenter of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mines.The leader of a local rescue team coordinating search efforts told The Associated Press on Monday that more than 30 miners who were digging for jade were swept into a lake when the landslide hit near Manna village around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared being arrested by the military. Earth and debris from several mines near the village slid 304 meters (about 1,000 feet) down a cliff into the lake below and struck the miners on the way, he said.He said 34 people were confirmed missing and local rescue teams were searching the lake on Monday. Ei...

A central Kansas police force comes under constitutional criticism after raiding a newspaper

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

MARION, Kan. (AP) — A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper’s office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher’s view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death.Several press freedom watchdogs condemned the Marion Police Department’s actions as a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protection for a free press. The Marion County Record’s editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, worked with his staff Sunday to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials for its next edition Wednesday, even as he took time in the afternoon to provide a local funeral home with information about his mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner. A search warrant tied Friday morning raids, led by Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, to a dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. She is accusing the newspaper of invading her pri...

Two-year timeline of events in Afghanistan since 2021 Taliban takeover

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Here is a look at key dates since the Taliban came back to power two years ago, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country:Aug. 15, 2021 — The Taliban march into Kabul as internationally backed President Ashraf Ghani flees the country.Aug. 26, 2021 — Islamic State group suicide bombers and gunmen kill over 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops in an attack on the crowds trying to be evacuated at Kabul’s airport. March 23, 2022 — On the day high schools are opening, the Taliban suddenly reverse a promise to allow girls above the sixth grade to attend schools. Girls who showed up for the first day of classes are told to go home. May 7, 2022 — The Taliban Virtue and Vice Ministry issues orders that women in public must wear all-encompassing robes and cover their faces except for their eyes. It advises them to stay home unless they have important work outside the house.June 22, 2022 — A powerful earthquake hits a remote region of eastern Afghanistan, killing mo...

Former Mississippi officers expected to plead guilty to state charges for racist assault

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

BRANDON, Miss. (AP) — Six former Mississippi law officers are expected to plead guilty to state charges on Monday for torturing two Black men in a racist assault after recently admitting their guilt in a connected federal civil rights case.Prosecutors say the officers, who are all white, nicknamed themselves the “Goon Squad” because of their willingness to use excessive force and cover it up, including the attack that ended with a victim shot in the mouth.In January, the officers entered a house without a warrant and handcuffed and assaulted the two men with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects. The officers mocked them with racial slurs throughout the 90-minute torture session. They then devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun on one of the men, which could have sent him to prison for years.The officers are expected to plead guilty to state charges including home invasion, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to hinder prosecution, as well as aggravated assault...

Ecuador was calm and peaceful. Now hitmen, kidnappers and robbers walk the streets

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:32:51 GMT

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Belen Diaz was walking home from college one evening when a motorcycle carrying two men made a menacing U-turn.Terrified that she was about to be robbed for the eighth time in three years, the teaching student banged on a cab window until the driver drove her home. Diaz got away safe, but there was an unrelated fatal shooting the next day outside her gated community of two-story homes on the edge of the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil. Ecuador was one of the calmest countries in Latin America until about three years ago. Today, criminals prowl relatively wealthy and working-class neighborhoods alike: professional hitmen, kidnappers, extortionists and thousands of thieves and robbers. Mexican and Colombian cartels have settled into coastal cities like Guayaquil and grabbed chunks of the trade shipping hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine from neighboring Colombia and Peru to countries overseas.One of the candidates in a special Aug. 20 presidential e...