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Sabalenka reaches Madrid final; Karatsev ends Zhang’s run

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the Madrid Open final for the second time in three years by defeating Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-1 on Thursday.The 2021 champion in the Spanish capital will face either top-ranked Iga Swiatek or 12th-seeded Veronika Kudermetova, who will play later Thursday.The second-seeded Sabalenka opened with a 3-0 lead before Sakkari pulled even. The 24-year-old player from Belarus then won nine of the last 11 games, including the last five, to comfortably close out the match.The Australian Open champion is seeking her fifth WTA 1000 title and 13th career title overall.The ninth-seeded Sakkari has a 7-22 record in semifinals. It was the first time the 27-year-old Greek was playing in the last four in Madrid.Men’s qualifier Aslan Karatsev reached his first Masters 1000 semifinal after ending a strong run by Chinese player Zhang Zhizhen 7-6 (3), 6-4.The 121st-ranked Russian saved all three breaks points he faced in the first set and converted his only opp...

West Virginia settles with Kroger, opioid money now tops $1B

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia has settled with Kroger for $68 million over its role in distributing highly addictive prescription painkillers into the U.S. state that has lost more lives to opioid overdoses per capita than any other.That brings West Virginia’s total opioid litigation dollars up to more than $1 billion, more than any other state per capita, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said at a press conference at the state Capitol in Charleston. “Let this be a warning to others: We fight hard for those affected the most by the opioid epidemic and will stop at nothing in getting justice for them,” he said. Kroger was the last remaining defendant in a lawsuit involving Walgreens, Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid. The state had been scheduled to go to trial with the pharmacy chain in June. The settlement with Kroger resolves the lawsuit that alleged the pharmacy chain failed to maintain effective controls as an opioid distributer in the state, contributing to oversupply t...

Alabama fires baseball coach after report of suspicious bets

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is firing baseball coach Brad Bohannon after a report of suspicious bets involving his team, with the school saying he violated “the standards, duties and responsibilities expected of university employees.”The firing announced Thursday came three days after a report warning of suspicious wagers prompted Ohio’s top gambling regulator to bar licensed sportsbooks in the state from accepting bets on Alabama baseball games.Alabama said in a statement that athletic director Greg Byrne has initiated the process of firing Bohannon “for, among other things, violating the standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of university employees.” Jason Jackson will serve as interim head coach.The university said there would be no further comment “pending an ongoing review.” Alabama had said Tuesday that it was looking into the report.Matthew Schuler, executive director of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, issued an emergency order on Monday “prohibiting ...

Average long-term US mortgage rate slips to 6.39% this week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged lower this week, a modest boost for homebuyers looking for relief as a stubbornly low inventory of properties for sale fuels bidding wars in many markets.The average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate home loan fell to 6.39% from 6.43% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, it averaged 5.27%. The average rate fell for five straight weeks before rising the last two weeks of April.This week’s drop in mortgage rates is welcome news for prospective homebuyers, many of whom have been pushed to the sidelines during the past year as the Federal Reserve cranked up its main borrowing rate in a bid to tamp down persistent, four-decade high inflation.All told, the Fed has raised its benchmark rate 10 times since March 2022, including an increase this week that pushed it to 5.1%, the highest since 2007, from virtually zero early last year.Shifts in the Fed’s short-term lending rate don’t dire...

Bud Light boosts spending in US to counter sales declines

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

Bud Light’s parent company said Thursday it will triple its marketing spending in the U.S. this summer as it tries to boost sales that plummeted after the brand partnered with a transgender influencer.But Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris also downplayed the impact of the backlash, saying Bud Light’s U.S. sales declines in the first three weeks of April represented only 1% of InBev’s global volumes. Doukeris also said the company sees signs that Bud Light demand is stabilizing.“We believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this,” Doukeris said during a conference call with investors Thursday.On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video of herself cracking open a Bud Light on her Instagram page. She showed off a can with her face on it that Bud Light sent her — one of many corporate freebies she gets and shares with her millions of followers.Three days after Mulvaney’s post, Kid Rock posted a video of himself ...

Review: Lily James, Shazad Latif anchor charming rom-com

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

The romantic comedy may be on the endangered genres list in Hollywood, but thankfully our friends in England have continued to concoct and export enjoyable confections at a steady clip. Earlier this year, we were treated to the delightful “Rye Lane,” a vibrant and fresh take on the meet cute that’s currently streaming on Hulu. And now we have “ What’s Love Got to Do With It? ” starring Lily James as a documentary filmmaker, Zoe, who turns her lens to the arranged marriage of her childhood friend, Kaz (Shazad Latif). Within a conventional rom-com package, the ending of which isn’t the slightest of mysteries, tropes are subverted, big questions are asked about marriage and love, and a warm spotlight is shined on Pakistani culture. Also Emma Thompson gets to drink and dance and say mildly offensive things to her daughter (James’ Zoe) and her best friends next door. The film, directed by Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”), was written by Jemima Khan, a noted documentarian and an editor at publ...

Declaran culpables de conspiración sediciosa a cuatro miembros de Proud Boys

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

(CNN) —  Cuatro miembros del grupo de ultraderecha Proud Boys fueron declarados culpables de conspiración sediciosa por un jurado en Washington por su papel para impedir por la fuerza el traspaso pacífico del poder del entonces presidente Donald Trump a Joe Biden tras las elecciones de 2020.Los acusados Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Enrique Tarrio y Dominic Pezzola se enfrentan a una serie de cargos, incluidos tres cargos separados de conspiración, obstrucción de la votación del Colegio Electoral y manipulación de pruebas.El veredicto marca la tercera vez que los fiscales consiguen condenas por conspiración sediciosa en la histórica persecución del Departamento de Justicia contra quienes irrumpieron en el Capitolio aquel día.El jurado no pudo llegar a un veredicto sobre el cargo de conspiración sediciosa contra Pezzola. A diferencia de los demás acusados en este juicio, Pezzola no ocupa supuestamente un cargo de liderazgo en la organización y se mostraba inactivo ...

Jury finds Ed Sheeran didn't copy Marvin Gaye classic

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury concluded Thursday that British singer Ed Sheeran didn't steal key components of Marvin Gaye’s classic 1970s tune “Let’s Get It On” when he created his hit song “Thinking Out Loud.”As the New York jury answered the single question of whether Sheeran proved he didn't infringe upon the copyright in the affirmative, the crooner briefly put his hands over his face in relief before standing and hugging his lawyer.The verdict came after a two-week trial that featured a courtroom performance by Sheeran as the singer insisted, sometimes angrily, that the trial was a threat to all musicians who create their own music. Which names are most commonly used in song titles? Sheeran sat with his legal team throughout the trial, defending himself against the lawsuit by the heirs of songwriter Ed Townsend, who created the 1973 soul classic with Gaye. They said “Thinking Out Loud” had so many similarities to “Let's Get It On” that it violated the song's copyright protection.At...

Stranahan High School evacuated due to bomb threat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

A South Florida high school is being evacuated due to a bomb threat, Thursday afternoon. Police are on the scene at Stranahan High School, located at 1800 SW 5th Place in Fort Lauderdale. 7Skyforce hovered over the school where the student body was seen on the football field. Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.

Heat still waiting to see if Butler can play in Game 3

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:52 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — NBA playoff scoring leader Jimmy Butler was with the Miami Heat for their film session Thursday, without any clarity yet if his sprained ankle will be healed enough for him to play in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Knicks on Saturday.And if Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has an answer, he’s not tipping his hand.“No update. … I’m not going to get into all the minutiae of it,” Spoelstra said. “When we find out how he is feeling on Saturday, we’ll let you know. That’s what the deal is.”Butler missed Game 2 of the series — a 111-105 win for the Knicks — because of the ankle, which he sprained with about 5 minutes left in Miami’s Game 1 victory at Madison Square Garden.It was only the fourth game Butler has missed since the last week of January, and two of those were the final two games of the regular season with the Heat locked into the play-in tournament at that point.Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, after Game 2, made clear that...