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5 things to watch in the Chicago Bears-Minnesota Vikings game — plus our Week 6 predictions

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

The Chicago Bears enter Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field coming off their first win in nearly a year.After the Bears broke a 14-game losing streak against the Washington Commanders on “Thursday Night Football” last week, they had nine days to prepare for the Vikings — and a chance at their second win in a row. As kickoff approaches between the two 1-4 teams, here’s our snapshot look at the game.Players in the spotlightVikings receiversSome of the biggest news across the NFL this week came from Minnesota, which put star wide receiver Justin Jefferson on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.Jefferson, the 2022 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year after he led the league with 128 catches for 1,809 yards, is out at least the next four games, starting with Sunday at Soldier Field.It’s obviously a significant loss for the Vikings and quarterback Kirk Cousins, who connected with Jefferson for 36 catches for 571 yards t...

Rising star to watch: Rachel Bobbitt

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

When Canadian songwriter Rachel Bobbitt was 12, she chanced to discover the music of Leonard Cohen. And that moment, now a good ten years ago, proved to be a pivotal one.“He was the first artist that made me say, ‘I didn’t know we were allowed to say things like that, that you could use the English language this way’,” she recalls. “It felt really special because my parents didn’t listen to him and I didn’t have any friends who did. And I felt really smart because he expects so much of his audience — and also the fact that he was Canadian just seemed crazy to me. I must have spent that whole day going over his Wikipedia page.”Recently signed to the Fantasy label, Bobbitt makes a return to the Boston area at Deep Cuts Monday evening, on a bill with Will Butler. It’s her second visit this fall, following a show at the Crystal Ballroom last month.During her teen years Bobbitt earned some online fame by posting a long string of cover songs on the now-defunct social media platform ...

Friday’s high school roundup/scores: Meghan Downes, Billerica net victory over Masconomet

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

Meghan Downes racked up 20 assists and 23 service points, while Lily Todorova and Keira Moore had six kills each as Billerica (11-4) bested Masconomet 3-0 in a nonleague girls volleyball matchup.Addison Pillis grounded 11 kills, and Ella Stein notched 10 kills and two aces as Ipswich (13-0) downed Beverly, 3-0. … Morgan Etna recorded eight kills and two aces, while Gaby Campbell posted 13 kills for Hamilton-Wenham (11-3) in a 3-0 win against Swampscott. … Elsa Richards contributed six kills and 16 assists, and Christine Mbachi registered nine kills as Essex Tech (10-5) swept Bishop Fenwick, 3-0.Taylor Lines scattered five aces, while Mia Bradshaw finished with four aces and six assists for South Shore Voke (13-2) in a 3-0 Mayflower Athletic Conference win over Bristol Aggie.Julie Hall tallied 11 kills as Central Catholic (6-9) bested North Andover 3-1 in Merrimack Valley Conference action.Field hockeyAvery Bent scored twice and dished an assist, pairing with two goals from Kelly Dev...

'We have nepotism': SDPD police captain claims discrimination in lawsuit

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego police captain and his attorneys have come forward with troubling accusations against the department that includes claims of discrimination and corruption.“It's true in our department, we have nepotism, bullying and preferential treatment… this exists at our department and has existed for some time now,” San Diego Police Captain Albert Leos said.Leos and his attorneys are suing the police department with claims of discrimination and corruption. According to his attorneys, the department has kept Leos and other Hispanics from advancing to top positions.Leos, who has 36 years of experience, says he was inspired to become a police officer after serving the 1984 McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, where he was working when he was just 16 years old. Parents sue Hyatt Hotels Corporation after death of 1-year-old son Leos says he’s been passed over numerous times in his attempts to be promoted within the department.“Captain Leos tried, he applied, six different ti...

Australians decided if Indigenous Voice is needed to advise Parliament on minority issues

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians voted in a referendum Saturday on whether to enshrine in the nation’s constitution a mechanism for Indigenous people to advise Parliament on policies that affect their lives.Proponents said creating an Indigenous Voice via the constitution would recognize the special place that Indigenous people have in Australian history while giving them input in government policies.Opponents argued it would divide Australians along racial lines without reducing Indigenous disadvantage.Bipartisan support regarded as essential in Australia for successfully changing the constitution never emerged, and Indigenous leaders were divided on the idea.WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS?The Aboriginal people of Australia’s mainland are culturally distinct from Torres Strait Islanders who come from an archipelago off the northeast coast. So Australia’s Indigenous population is known collectively as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.They accounted for 3.8% of ...

Evolving crisis fuels anxiety among Venezuelans who want a better economy but see worsening woes

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

SAN JOAQUIN, Venezuela (AP) — The avocado trees across the road from Jose Hernandez’s tin-roofed home help feed several retirees in the rural community of San Joaquin along a highway two hours southwest of Venezuela’s capital. He and his neighbors cut the avocados with the owner’s permission and sell them to motorists at a nearby toll booth or on the streets of the nearby city of Valencia, which has not emptied out as much as San Joaquin from migration over the last decade.They live day by day. Their pension these days amounts to $3.70 a month, only 20 cents more than the cost of a gallon of bottled water. So no sales mean no food.“Sometimes, we even have to barter avocados for food in other neighborhoods. We want jobs!” Hernandez, 67, exclaimed while sitting on his dusty, cement-floor porch with a neighbor. “He was a carrier, I sold merchandise downtown. Right now, there is no work. All the young people have already left. This neighborhood is desolate!”The political, social a...

Australians cast final votes in a referendum on whether to create an Indigenous Voice

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians cast their final votes Saturday in the country’s first referendum in a generation, deciding whether to tackle Indigenous disadvantages by enshrining in the constitution a new advocacy committee.The proposal for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament bitterly divided Australia’s Indigenous minority as well as the wider community.Indigenous activist Susanne Levy said the Voice would be a setback for Indigenous rights imposed by non-Indigenous Australians.“We’ve always had a voice. You’re just not listening,” she said, referring to the wider Australian population.Levy spent Saturday at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, an Indigenous land rights protest that has existed in the heart of the national capital, Canberra, since 1972.The collection of ramshackle shelters and tents in a park used to be across a street from the Australian Parliament before lawmakers moved into their current premises in 1988. Old Parliament House is now a museum that was used S...

Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders mass evacuation with ground attack looming

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza after Israel’s military urged about 1 million people to leave for the territory’s south ahead of an expected ground invasion following the surprise attack a week ago by the ruling Hamas militant group — despite warnings from the U.N. that evacuating nearly half of Gaza’s population would be calamitous.Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with their possessions crowded a main road southward from Gaza City as Israeli airstrikes hammered the territory Friday. Hamas’ media office said warplanes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people.The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people abducted in Hamas’s assault on Israel nearly a week ago.In urging the evacuation, Israel’s military said it planned to target underground Hamas hideouts around Gaza City. But Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fea...

Louisiana governor’s race ignites GOP hopes of reclaiming position as Democrats try to keep it blue

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana’s gubernatorial election commences Saturday, Republicans are hoping to reclaim the governor’s mansion after an eight-year hiatus while Democrats try to keep the coveted position in a state where Donald Trump garnered a majority of the votes during the last two presidential elections. Six major candidates — four Republicans, one Democrat and one independent — are vying for the seat that is being vacated by Gov. John Bel Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South. With Edwards unable to run due to consecutive term limits, the election opens a huge opportunity for Republicans to win Louisiana’s top position.Louisiana is one of three states with a gubernatorial election this fall, along with Mississippi and Kentucky.In total, 14 candidates are competing to succeed Edwards under a “ jungle primary ” system in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear together on the same ballot on Saturday. If no candidate tops 5...

Emotions run high as Poland prepares to hold a high-stakes national election

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:01:47 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is holding an election Sunday that many view as its most important one since the 1989 vote that toppled communism. At stake are the health of the nation’s democracy, its legal stance on LGBTQ+ rights and abortion, and the foreign alliances of a country on NATO’s eastern flank that has been a crucial ally to Ukraine.Political experts say the election will not be fully fair after eight years of governing by a conservative nationalist party that has eroded checks and balances to gain more control over state institutions, including the courts, public media and the electoral process itself.Opponents of the ruling Law and Justice party fear it could be their last chance to preserve the constitutional system won at great cost through the struggle of many Poles, from former President Lech Walesa to the millions who supported his Solidarity movement.The election “will decide the future of Poland as a country of liberal democracy, a system that has bee...