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Column: Chicago Bulls could break the mold of the city’s sports futility this winter

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

It’s probably too early to be overly concerned about the Chicago Bulls’ shaky start.The season is only 10 games old after Sunday’s 119-108 win over the Detroit Pistons, and we’ve seen this Bulls’ core long enough to know they can go on a roll when it plays up to its talent level.But with the rest of our professional teams enduring nothing but agony and heartbreak in 2023, and the possibility of a nuclear winter for the Chicago sports scene on everyone’s minds, the onus is on the Bulls to save the city.The Bears and Blackhawks have no shot. Only the Bulls have a chance to break the mold, and it has to start now.After a rare three-day break in the schedule, the Bulls entered a nine-day stretch Sunday that could have a significant impact on the rest of the season.Five of their six games will be played at the United Center, giving the Bulls a chance to revert to the form of the start of the 2021-22 season.Their only road game is Monday in Milwaukee, w...

NH special operations soldier among 5 killed in helicopter crash, Pentagon

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

By TARA COPP (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon on Monday identified the five Army aviation special operations forces killed when their UH-60 helicopter crashed in the Eastern Mediterranean.The military’s European Command said the helicopter went down over the weekend during an air refueling mission as part of military training.The five service members who died were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Stephen R. Dwyer, 38, of Clarksville, Tennessee; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Shane M. Barnes, 34, of Sacramento, California; Staff Sgt. Tanner W. Grone, 26, of Gorham, New Hampshire; Sgt. Andrew P. Southard, 27, of Apache Junction, Arizona; and Sgt. Cade M. Wolfe, 24, of Mankato, Minnesota.The U.S. has built up its force presence in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. There are two carrier strike groups operating in the region, U.S. Air Force squadrons have received additional crews and warplanes, and U.S. special operations forces...

Police seek to identify person of interest after shooting outside of Halloween party

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

Toronto police are trying to identify a person of interest after gunshots were fired outside of a Halloween party at a short-term rental.Officers were called to the Eglinton Avenue West and Scarlett Road area on Sunday, Oct. 29, at around 4 a.m. after reports of shots fired.Police say a large party was taking place in a short-term rental unit when gunshots were heard outside the address, causing partygoers to flee in a panic.When officers arrived they found shell casings.Luckily no one was injured.Police have released an image of a person of interest in the shooting.

Jill Biden will lead new initiative to boost federal government research into women’s health

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday announced a White House initiative to improve how the federal government approaches and funds research into the health of women, who make up more than half of the U.S. population but remain understudied and underrepresented in health research. That underrepresentation can lead to big gaps in research and potentially serious consequences for the health of women across the country, Biden administration officials and others told reporters during a White House conference call to announce the new effort. The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research will be led by first lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. President Biden said he’s long been a believer in the “power of research” to help save lives and get high-quality health care to the people who need it. He was to sign paperwork Monday directing federal departments to get to work on the initiative. “To achieve scientific breakthroughs and str...

Congressional delegations back bill that would return land to Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The congressional delegations from Nebraska and Iowa have thrown their support behind legislation that would return land to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska that the federal government took decades ago but never developed.The Army Corps of Engineers took the roughly 2.5-square-mile (6.5-square-kilometer) tract of land along the Missouri River in Iowa in 1970 through eminent domain for a recreation project, but it was never built. The tribe has been trying to get it back.“The Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to condemn and seize land from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska was a classic case of government overreach,” Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, said in a statement last week. “My colleagues in the Nebraska and Iowa delegations and I want to see this wrong corrected, and the land returned to the Winnebago people.”In recent years, some tribes in the U.S., Canada and Australia have gotten their rights to ancestral lands restored with the growth ...

Quebec tribunal says jail violated rights of Black man left naked in cell for hours

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

Quebec’s human rights tribunal has found that provincial jail guards violated the rights of a Black inmate who was left for hours naked and wet in a cell without a mattress. In a Nov. 3 decision, Judge Christian Brunelle ordered the provincial government and several guards at a Quebec City jail to pay Samuel Toussaint a total of $41,500 in damages and ordered the Public Security Department to create a plan to fight discriminatory profiling.Toussaint, who was 21 at the time of the 2016 incident, was serving an intermittent sentence on weekends.The tribunal says that he flicked a cigarette toward a guard who had told him to stop smoking in the parking lot, resulting in a series of escalating interventions by jail staff.Brunnelle says guards found Toussaint unco-operative and cut his clothes off with a knife, moved him around the jail while he was naked, and didn’t follow decontamination procedures after they pepper-sprayed him.The judge says the behaviour of the guards — a...

Why David Cameron is a surprising choice as new UK foreign policy chief after fateful Brexit vote

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

LONDON (AP) — As political comebacks go, former British Prime Minister David Cameron’s return to government as foreign secretary is more dramatic and unexpected than most.After unsuccessfully campaigning during the 2016 Brexit referendum for Britain to vote to “remain” in the European Union, Cameron resigned immediately and has been out of politics since.He is not even a lawmaker, and his return to senior government leadership as an unelected member of Parliament’s House of Lords, though not unprecedented, is rare and has prompted concerns about accountability.Monday’s major Cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sees Cameron joining a small club of former British premiers who have returned to government in a lesser role. Only about a dozen other former British leaders have done so since the 1700s.Questions have been raised about Sunak’s decision given that Cameron’s legacy on Brexit and other political decisions remains deeply contentious.A look...

Small plane crashes into car after overshooting runway during emergency landing near Dallas

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A small plane overshot the runway while landing at a Texas airport over the weekend and struck a car driving along a nearby road, injuring one person, authorities said.Video shows the propeller plane smash through a fence during an emergency landing in the Dallas suburb of McKinney on Saturday. It then bounced and skidded onto the road, losing a wheel and colliding with a silver sedan that was driving perpendicular to the single-engine plane’s path.“I saw the airplane coming down the runway quickly I knew that he wasn’t gonna have time to stop,” Jack Schneider, a bystander who recorded footage of the crash on his phone, told WFAA-TV. “It was clearly going too fast, the tires were smoking.”Following the afternoon crash, medics evaluated both people in the plane and took the car’s driver to the hospital with minor injuries, according to a statement from the McKinney Fire Department.The flight originated in Midland, a Texas oilpatch city 330 mil...

For Craig Counsell, the chance to manage the Cubs was one he couldn't pass up

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Craig Counsell was ready for a new challenge and couldn't pass up the opportunity to manage the Chicago Cubs.The Cubs hired the 53-year-old Counsell away from Milwaukee last week, landing the former big leaguer with a record contract and firing David Ross in a pair of surprising moves. He became the majors’ highest-paid manager with a five-year contract worth more than $40 million.“I just thought that a new challenge was where I had to push myself,” Counsell said Monday at his introductory press conference.Counsell led the budget-conscious Brewers to five playoff appearances in six years, including three NL Central titles. His contract expired at the end of the season, making him one of the biggest managerial free agents in recent years. "From a baseball standpoint, I think I saw quickly that the organization is just in great health," Counsell said. "It's time for the Cubs. There is a lot of momentum happening here and it feels close and that means there is a real exc...

61st annual production of 'The Nutcracker' returns to Ballet Austin

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:18:50 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Ballet Austin is poised to ring in the holiday season with its annual production of "The Nutcracker," beginning in December. The dance organization will host 15 performances between Dec. 2 and Dec. 23 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, per a Monday release. Ballet Austin's performance will feature Stephen Mills' original choreography and the artistry of 150 dancers, including some Ballet Austin Academy students, officials added.As part of this year's rendition, "The Nutcracker" will include a live accompaniment of Tchaikovsky’s score performed by the Austin Symphony Orchestra.“One of the most gratifying things about The Nutcracker is knowing that people are sharing their holiday tradition with us, making us a part of their family during this very special time,” Stephen Mills, Ballet Austin’s Sarah & Ernest Butler Family Fund artistic director, said in the release. “When they leave the theater, if they leave elated or inspired or just happy to be with the...