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Dan Rodricks: The comeback Orioles, Lamar and the Ravens, roasting potatoes and a few more things nobody asked about | COMMENTARY

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

Nobody asked me, but the way the Orioles are playing so far — giving up runs early in games, coming back in the middle to late innings — means, for night games at least, you can watch both “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” before flipping to MASN in time for the good stuff.A reader asked me to “pressure the Orioles to televise their games on broadcast television [because they] don’t have cable and can’t watch them. MLB has made baseball a pay to play game.” Well, yeah and duh. Why would the Orioles, who try to maximize revenue every way possible — have you seen the beer prices this season? — allow games on free TV again when they own MASN? Sorry, but I have more important pleas to make to the Orioles, like signing Adley Rutschman to a long-term deal.One more baseball item: As much as the next fan, I like fun dugout celebrations of home runs and clutch hits. But the Orioles’ “sprinkler” is not ...

Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla learns lessons, pushes right buttons in first playoff series

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

ATLANTA — Joe Mazzulla took the blame.The Celtics’ epic Game 5 collapse had come down to poor offensive execution. They committed four turnovers in the final four minutes. Their pace slowed. They lacked a sense of urgency. Mazzulla, the first-year head coach, recognized his faults in those moments. Then, two nights later, he put those lessons into action as the Celtics thrived in crunch time to eliminate the Hawks.“I thought last game, because of me and my play calling, we played slow,” Mazzulla said. “I thought this game, I kind of learned from that, and they were proactive.”Mazzulla had a successful first regular season, especially given the circumstances that faced the Celtics and his situation as they entered training camp. But the playoffs presented a totally new challenge for him. He was excited for it, but also untested in that environment, engaging in a tug-of-war of adjustments over a series.There were growing pains, as Game 5 showed. But Mazzulla pressed all the right butt...

Authorities arrest man in connection with 2 explosions in Weare, New Hampshire

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

Authorities have arrested a man in connection with two explosions in the past two days in a wooded area of Weare, N.H.Dale Stewart, 54, was arraigned on multiple charges in Hillsboro County Superior Court in New Hampshire following his arrest today.The Boston field office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced it was investigating the explosions yesterday.According to that announcement, the first of the two explosions took place a little after 6 p.m. Wednesday near the 300-block of Dustin Tavern Road. No one was injured in that explosion, according to the ATF statement.A second explosion happened just before 7 a.m. Thursday near the first block of Sugar Hill Road where authorities said a passerby suffered minor injuries.This is a developing story.

The busiest days to fly around Memorial Day 2023

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

Memorial Day may mark the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S., but it’s the days ahead of it that kick off big airport crowds.The holiday symbolizes the beginning of the summer vacation season for many Americans. But it’s hardly a vacation for airport employees, who typically get pummeled with the largest crowds of the year to date.Some days around the long weekend are significantly busier than others, and if you can afford to be flexible when flying Memorial Day weekend, you’ll save money and avoid chaos.The best and worst days to fly Memorial Day weekendNerdWallet analyzed the past two years of Transportation Security Administration checkpoint data for the six days before and six days after Memorial Day, which shows how many passengers were screened at TSA checkpoints.In 2021 and 2022, the Friday before Memorial Day was the most-crowded day to travel before the holiday, which is observed on the last Monday of May. As far as post-holiday, the Sunday after has attracted the l...

TMU student union suing former execs for alleged fraud, mismanagement totalling $250K

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

The undergraduate student union at Toronto Metropolitan University has launched a lawsuit against five former union executives, alleging fraud and financial mismanagement that it claims resulted in $250,000 in losses.The Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union filed a statement of claim this week, detailing the allegations against executives from the 2021-22 academic year.The statement of claim alleges former student union president Siddhanth Satish and former executives Vaishali Vinayak and Tarmanjit Mann defrauded the union for their own personal gain while two other former executives were willfully negligent in overseeing the union’s finances.It alleges the executives authorized withdrawals from the union’s bank account to pay for Toronto Raptors tickets used or resold by the executives, business class flights without rationale, a virtual reality headset and payments to third-party vendors without board approval.The lawsuit further alleges executives repeatedly sig...

2 abortion bans failed, 1 passed in US statehouses this week

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

Ten months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and a nationwide right to abortion, states are pushing in opposite directions on the issue.This week, one state adopted a ban, two states tried to but didn’t get support from enough lawmakers and three states advanced measures to protect abortion access. These are the latest developments among a slew of legislative and court actions on abortion.Here’s what’s happening:BANNING ABORTIONNorth Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Monday signed a law that made his state the 14th with a ban in effect on abortions at all stages of pregnancy.The ban has narrow exceptions. Abortions of pregnancies caused by rape or incest are allowed only in the first six weeks. And they’re allowed later only for specific medical emergencies.The practical impact in the state is expected to be small since there have been no abortion clinics there since one moved last year from Fargo to nearby Moorhead, Minnesota.And the ban is expec...

Window to safely airlift people from Sudan closing quickly, Canadian officials say

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

OTTAWA — The commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command says the window is closing quickly to safely airlift people out of Sudan amid fighting between the country’s military and paramilitary forces.Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie says it’s believed a Turkish crew member was injured when one of Turkey’s planes was shot from the ground as it left Khartoum this morning — though it’s not clear which side was responsible. He says that event changed the threat assessment this morning and led to the cancellation of a planned Canadian evacuation flight. A second flight that Canada had planned for this morning was cancelled due to a mechanical issue with the plane’s ramp.But Auchterlonie says the two Hercules planes the Canadian military has deployed to the region are now on the way to Khartoum, where Canadians are waiting for rescue.A senior official from Global Affairs Canada says the government is very confident that enough flights are planned over the ...

Champagne vows to take actions if telecoms don’t reach deal for TTC cell service

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

Canada’s industry minister vowed to step in if Canada’s major telecom providers don’t reach an agreement to ensure wireless service is available for all riders on Toronto’s subway system.Speaking at a press conference in Montreal on Friday, François-Philippe Champagne said he’s not shy about “pushing the telcos to do what’s right for Canadians.”“Because some of them, they listen to me — they tend to do that when I speak about them — if they don’t come to an arrangement together that would serve Canadians, that would increase the coverage, that would increase the 911 services in the subway system in Toronto, we’ll take action and we’ll make sure that we do what’s right for Canadians,” Champagne said.Last week, the minister penned a letter to the executives of Bell Canada, Telus Communications Inc., Quebecor Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. calling on the major carriers to reach a deal that would allow any company to access the TTC’s wireless network a...

OpenAI: ChatGPT back in Italy after meeting watchdog demands

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

ChatGPT’s maker said Friday that the artificial intelligence chatbot is available again in Italy after the company met the demands of regulators who temporarily blocked it over privacy concerns.OpenAI said it fulfilled a raft of conditions that the Italian data protection authority wanted satisfied by an April 30 deadline to have the ban on the AI software lifted.“ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy,” San Francisco-based OpenAI said by email. “We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy.” Generative AI systems like ChatGPT, which use vast pools of online data like digital books, blog posts and other media to generate text, images and other content mimicking human work, have created buzz in the tech world and beyond.But their rapid development has stirred fears among officials and even tech leaders about possible ethical and societal risks, with European Union negotiators scrambling to update draft artificial intelligenc...

Illinois officials: 'Do not eat' these fish from these 10 bodies of water in the state

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:12:10 GMT

ILLINOIS — While the Illinois Department of Public Health has had a statewide fish consumption warning in place for decades, there are 10 locations with specific fish they caution should not be eaten by anyone.The primary cause of the "do not eat" advisories are Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are a group of more than 200 man-made chemicals. Though PCBs were banned in the 1970s because of their ill effects on health, they were so widely used they continue to persist in the environment, according to the IDPH website. Rain showers expected Friday, through the weekend Methylmercury is also to blame for a few of the "do not eat" advisories. It's a "very poisonous form of mercury" which causes damage to the central nervous system. It forms when bacteria react with mercury, according to UCSF Health.Here are the 10 locations and the specific fish for each which should not be eaten, regardless of age or gender:Calumet River System in Cook CountyCommon Carp 12" or longer due to PCBs...