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Column: When it comes to hype, Matt Mervis is following in Anthony Rizzo’s Chicago Cubs footsteps

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

Matt Mervis arrived at Wrigley Field Friday morning to make his Chicago Cubs debut in the opener of a three-game series against the Miami Marlins.It was the most anticipated debut by a Cubs prospect since Kris Bryant in 2015, though Mervis’ call-up more closely resembles that of first baseman Anthony Rizzo 11 years ago.Rizzo’s Cubs debut on June 26, 2012, was one of the most hyped events in years and served as the unofficial start of president Theo Epstein’s rebuild.“I’m here to stay,” Rizzo said before the game. “I’m just going to work hard every day, learn, get better, go through the ups and down of a baseball player, the nicks and bruises, and that’s about it.”WGN-Ch. 9 hyped the arrival with a commercial promoting the broadcast. The newspapers added into the hysteria, including a Chicago Tribune graphic comparing Rizzo’s arrival on the North Side with Babe Ruth going from the Red Sox to the Yankees. The headline w...

April hiring gains reflect a still-resilient US job market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

By PAUL WISEMAN (AP Economics Writer)WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added a healthy 253,000 jobs in April, evidence of a labor market that still shows surprising resilience despite rising interest rates, chronically high inflation and a banking crisis that could weaken the economy.The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate fell in part, though, because 43,000 people left the labor force, the first drop since November, and were no longer counted as unemployed. In its report Friday, the government noted that while hiring was solid in April, it was much weaker in February and March than it had previously estimated. Job gains for those months was downgraded by a combined 149,000. And hourly wages rose last month at the fastest pace since July, which may alarm the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.April’s hiring gain compares with 165,000 in March and 248,000 in February and is still at...

‘Yellowstone’ to end in November, sequel starts in December

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The popular television western “Yellowstone” with Kevin Costner will end this fall and be replaced almost immediately by a sequel. But like any good drama, there’s some mystery involved.The sequel, still untitled, will premiere December on the Paramount cable network, which also televises “Yellowstone,” Paramount said on Friday.Behind Costner, who plays Montana rancher John Dutton, series creator Taylor Sheridan launched a phenomenon. The opening of its fifth season last November was seen by 12.1 million viewers on the night of its debut, more people than any other scripted series last fall — a remarkable feat for a show not on a broadcast network.“We’ve been able to create a show that didn’t start out being popular but did it on its own terms,” Costner told The Associated Press last fall.“Yellowstone” will wrap up with new episodes airing in November; how many was not announced on Friday. Those episodes haven’t been filmed yet, and it’s...

Liberal party convention set to hear from Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jean Chrétien

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

OTTAWA — Former U.S. secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is set to take the stage at the Liberal party convention this evening for a conversation with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. She is expected to draw a big crowd, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not be in the room as he travels to attend the King’s coronation in London.Former prime minister Jean Chrétien and François-Philippe Champagne are scheduled to address the party faithful in the lead-up to Clinton’s appearance.Trudeau told reporters this morning that Canadians will be faced with a clear choice in the next election, between fear and anger or a more positive vision — echoing the way Democrats painted Clinton’s 2016 run against former president Donald Trump.The prime minister also borrowed a phrase of Clinton’s in his address to the convention crowd on Thursday evening. He said Canadians must be there for each other through difficult times with “clear eyes&...

S&P/TSX composite up more than 200 points in broad-based rally, U.S. stocks also up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading as strength in the energy, base metal and technology sectors helped lead a broad-based rally, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 244.41 points at 20,482.60.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 414.18 points at 33,541.92. The S&P 500 index was up 59.53 points at 4,120.75, while the Nasdaq composite was up 206.63 points at 12,173.03.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.46 cents US compared with 73.71 cents US on Thursday.The June crude contract was up US$2.81 at US$71.37 per barrel and the June natural gas contract was up four cents at US$2.14 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was down US$37.50 at US$2,018.20 an ounce and the July copper contract was up three cents at US$3.89 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula gets 2 feet of snow, a May record

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) — A record May snowfall buried parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula under more than 2 feet of snow this week, with one spot getting twice that amount over several days starting in late April, the National Weather Service said.About 28.7 inches (72.9 centimeters) of snow fell between Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoon at the weather service’s Marquette office, where records date back to 1959, the office said. A record-setting 26.2 inches (66.5 centimeters) of that fell between Monday and Tuesday in Marquette, making it the snowiest May on record in the city overlooking Lake Superior, said meteorologist Don Rolfson.About 19.8 inches (50.3 centimeters) of the snow fell Monday in Marquette and that became the largest snowfall recorded in a day in the month of May in over 50 years, he said. The snow was very wet, making it heavy, slushy and difficult to remove from roadways, Rolfson said.While it’s not unusual for Marquette to get some May flurries, he ...

Suspect arrested in Serbia’s 2nd mass shooting in 2 days

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A gunman killed eight people and wounded 14 in two villages in Serbia, authorities said, shaking a nation still in the throes of grief over a mass shooting at a school a day earlier. Police arrested a suspect Friday after an all-night search.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called the shootings late Thursday an attack on the whole nation . Vucic said the suspect wore a T-shirt bearing a pro-Nazi slogan, but he did not speculate about the motive. Police said the suspect was a man born in 2002. The slayings came a day after a 13-year-old boy used his father’s guns to kill eight fellow students and a guard at a school in Belgrade, the capital.The back-to-back bloodshed sent shockwaves through a Balkan nation scarred by wars, but unused to mass murders. Though Serbia is awash in weapons left over from the conflicts of the 1990s, the last mass shooting before this week was in 2013, when a war veteran killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.Public figures, ...

B.C. communities brace for weekend rain as floods forecast in southern Interior

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

People in the British Columbia community of Grand Forks are hustling to get ahead of a deluge of melting snow and rain after learning a costly lesson about flooding five years ago.Meanwhile, parts of Cache Creek remain inundated by floodwaters.Grand Forks, not far from the Canada-U.S. border, is one of many communities under threat in B.C.’s southern and central Interior.A week of record temperatures followed by rain have combined to create conditions ripe for flooding.Grand Forks Mayor Everett Baker says officials with the city of about 4,100 residents been shoring up its defences since the spring of 2018, when 95 homes were lost to a flood.So far, 10 properties in the city are under evacuation order while another 34 have been placed on evacuation alert due to flood risk. The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary has issued an alert for an additional 591 properties affecting an estimated 1,182 people in the surrounding area.Baker says residents and officials in Grand Forks a...

Quebec coroner formally identifies the two firefighters swept away in floodwaters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

SAINT-URBAIN, Que. — The Quebec coroner’s office has confirmed that two bodies pulled from a river Wednesday in the province’s Charlevoix region were those of volunteer firefighters who had been swept away by floodwaters.A spokesperson says the two men who disappeared on Monday during a rescue mission were Régis Lavoie, 55, and Christopher Lavoie, 23.Police on Wednesday found their bodies about 500 metres apart in the Rivière du Gouffre, in St-Urbain, Que.Quebec Premier François Legault has said that one of the firefighters used his own amphibious ATV to try to reach a couple whose home was surrounded by water in the town about 110 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.But details of the intervention that led to the deaths of the two men — who according to news reports were not related — remain unclear, and Legault has asked that people not rush to judgment.About 100 Quebec municipalities and roughly 1,450 homes were affected by the recent bout of flooding, mos...

Biden said to pick Air Force general as Joint Chiefs chair

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to nominate a history-making Air Force fighter pilot general with years of experience in shaping U.S. defenses to meet China’s rise to serve as the nation’s next top military officer, according to two people familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. would replace the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose term ends in October. Brown has long been considered a front-runner for the position and Biden is likely to announce his nomination shortly, according to a U.S. official and former defense official who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. While Brown would not be the first Black chairman — the late Army. Gen. Colin Powell was the first — it would be the first time that both the Pentagon’s top military and civilian leadership positions were held by African Americans. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, t...