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Opening day for Chicago Cubs a family affair

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

Jerry Pritikin remembers when he used to pick up trash at Wrigley Field with his brother to get a free ticket to the next Cubs game. His first opener was in 1947.Pritikin, 86, known widely by Cubs fans as the “Bleacher Preacher,” is a lifelong fan and a fixture of the ballpark. He sits outside the stadium in the sun, wearing a straw hat with a propeller on top.“Back in the day, I convinced someone to wear this hat for a play because it looked like the winds of Wrigley when he walked. It would spin,” he said Thursday outside Wrigley Field as fans headed inside to catch the Cubs taking on the Milwaukee Brewers on opening day.With a twinkle in his eye, Pritiken said that Wrigley is no longer the “The Friendly Confines” he remembers as a kid. At Pritikin’s first game, Hank Greenberg was playing in his first National League game.“Greenberg was the first $100,000 ballplayer. Today, a bad player makes $100,000,” Pritikin chuckled.In Dec...

Varsity Insider: Montverde track, Rob Perry talks NBA, double-duty coaching

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

Montverde Academy has assembled what might be the most talented track and field program in Florida high school history and showcased that at the FSU Relays last weekend.The Eagles’ domination in the speed events included national best times in the boys 100 meter dash (10.06 seconds) and 200 (20.57) by senior Issam Asinga in his first outdoor races of the 2023 season.Adaejah Hodge, also a senior, did the same on the girls side with winning times of 11.18 and 22.84.Asinga’s 100 time is not eligible for record status because it was aided by a 3.1 meters per second wind, well over the 2.0 limit. But his speed is undeniable. He tied the U.S. high school record with a 6.57-second time in the 60-meter dash at the New Balance Nationals indoor meet March 11. And his wind-legal 200 time last weekend is one of the best in Florida history.Similarly, Hodge’s 200 time at FSU was wind-aided. But she proved her mettle by running a high school indoors record time of 22.77 at the Ne...

Brandon Nimmo’s two-run double lifts Mets to Opening Day win over Marlins

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

MIAMI — The Opening Day matchup in Miami was exactly what you want to see as a baseball fan. Two aces were on the hill for the Mets and their NL East foes, the Miami Marlins.Max Scherzer might be a decade older than reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara but he’s still one of the aces that other pitchers have to chase.Neither pitcher gave a whole lot, and the Mets took what they could but still ended up tied at the end of the sixth inning. It was when they got to the Marlins’ bullpen that they were able to get some separation with a two-run double by Brandon Nimmo in the seventh inning to beat the Fish, 5-3, on Thursday at LoanDepot Park.Mets fans were counting on Scherzer for a big outing to get the team off to a strong start. The day started with the news that Justin Verlander would be skipping his first two starts because of a teres major strain, and the club already lost closer Edwin Diaz and left-handed starter Jose Quintana during spring training.A...

Trump indictment and hush money investigation, explained

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MEG KINNARD (Associated Press)Donald Trump has become the first former president to be indicted in a criminal case after a grand jury investigation into hush money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign.The unprecedented indictment comes as the Republican faces other legal investigations and launches a bid to return to the White House in 2024.The indictment will test the Republican Party already divided over whether to support Trump next year, in part due to his efforts to undermine his 2020 election loss.Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accuses prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated “witch hunt” to damage his campaign.Here’s a look at the hush money case, the grand jury investigation and possible ramifications for Trump’s presidential campaign:WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT? The grand jury spent weeks meeting in secret to probe Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to ...

Red Sox notebook: Offense heats up in frigid 10-9 loss to Orioles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

Give the Red Sox credit for this much, they made things interesting in the end.On a day when it felt like the game was as good as done by the middle innings, the offense came to life and clawed its way back down the stretch, ultimately falling one swing short in their 10-9 Opening Day loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park.The home team scored five runs of their runs from the eighth inning on, and in the bottom of the ninth, Masataka Yoshida came to the plate with two on, one out, and a chance to win the game with one swing.Boston’s new left-fielder grounded into what should have been a game-ending double play, but sloppy defense by Baltimore gave the Red Sox new life, albeit briefly. Jorge Mateo botched the throw to first and Yoshida advanced to second on the error. That brought Adam Duvall to the plate with the tying run at second, but he struck out to end the game.How did Yoshida feel about his major league debut?“It was very cold, but my heart was burning,̶...

Gwyneth Paltrow won her ski case: Here’s how it played out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — When two skiers collided on a beginner run at an upscale Utah ski resort in 2016, no one could foresee that seven years later, the crash would become the subject of a closely watched celebrity trial.But Gwyneth Paltrow’s live-streamed trial over her collision with Terry Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist, in Park City emerged as the biggest celebrity court case since actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off last year — spawning memes, sparking debate about the burden of fame, and making ski etiquette rules of who was uphill and who had the right of way relevant beyond those who can afford resort chairlift tickets.On Thursday, Paltrow won her court battle after a jury decided the movie star wasn’t at fault for the crash. Here is a look back at highlights from the two-week trial:___LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND THE FAMOUSFor seven days, attorneys highlighted — and downplayed — Paltrow and Sanderson’s extravagant lifestyles.Sanderson’s attorneys sought...

Taiwan’s leader, in US, stresses security for her island

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In a highly sensitive U.S. visit, Taiwan’s president is delivering a message that keeping her self-ruled island strong will help ensure the world’s safety — even as her travel is carefully calibrated to try to contain what furious Chinese officials warn could be a strong response.Taiwan is billing President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to New York as simply a “transit,” but she kept a full agenda of events Wednesday and Thursday before flying to Central America. Most provocatively in the eyes of Beijing, her trip is expected to include a meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy next week. In a sign of the sensitivity of her visit, little about Tsai’s full itinerary has been made public, and her events Thursday were closed to the news media. The visit — while important for Taiwan in demonstrating its overseas support — is fraught for both Taiwan and the U.S. because China views Taiwan as its territory and treats any dealings between U.S. and Taiwanese officials as a ch...

Trump, indicted in Stormy Daniels case, claims innocence, ‘political persecution’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, the only U.S. president ever to be impeached twice, made even more ignoble history Thursday as he became the first former commander-in-chief ever to be indicted by a grand jury on criminal charges.In typical Trump style, he wasted no time trying to turn it to his advantage.“This is Political Persecution and Election interference at the highest level in history,” Trump declared in a statement after multiple media reports, citing anonymous sources, broke the news of the indictment. The charges flow from the Stormy Daniels affair in which so-called “hush money” payments were made during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of extramarital sexual encounters. The indictment remains sealed, but the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation was focused on payments that were made to Daniels, a porn star, as well as to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.Trump described the indictment as “unthinkable”...

UK agrees to join Pacific trade pact in post-Brexit deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. has agreed to join an Asia-Pacific trade pact that includes Japan, Mexico and Australia — the biggest new trade deal Britain has struck since leaving the European Union three years ago.The British government said Friday that it had clinched an agreement after almost two years of negotiations to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.The government said membership would reduce tariffs on British dairy products and other goods and remove red tape for services, boosting the U.K. economy by 1.8 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) “in the long run.”Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the deal “demonstrates the real economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms.”“Joining the CPTPP trade bloc puts the U.K. at the center of a dynamic and growing group of Pacific economies, as the first new nation and first European country to join,” Sunak said.The deal comes as the U.K. pursues an “Indo-Pacific tilt” in its economic and foreign ...

Rush for diabetes and weight-loss drug Ozempic puts cross-border sales in spotlight

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:16 GMT

VANCOUVER — The B.C. government’s bid to restrict the sale of diabetes drug Ozempic to prevent non-Canadian residents draining supplies was the right move and a long time coming, says Brett Skinner, founder and CEO of the Canadian Health Policy Institute. Nearly two decades ago, Skinner warned that policymakers in Canada had to wise up to the market realities for pharmaceuticals and realize large-scale demand from Americans for cheaper Canadian drugs threatened the country’s limited supplies. In the case of Ozempic, its popularity has soared in recent years thanks to a ubiquitous advertising campaign coupled with celebrity-driven social media chatter about its effectiveness as a means of losing weight, a so-called “off label” use for the drug. B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said on Tuesday he wants a federal clampdown on sales to non-residents after it was discovered that Americans were being sent thousands of doses of Ozempic in the mail from B.C., the majority prescribed by a sin...