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Column: Gridlocked White Sox need to improve their messaging to a beaten-down fan base

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

Sitting in gridlock on the Kennedy Expressway late Friday night thanks to the caravan-created traffic tsunami, I had a lot of time to think about annus horribilis, the worst year in Chicago White Sox history.My first thought was about Sox fans leaving Guaranteed Rate Field and finding themselves stuck on a highway with exits blocked. How many of the announced crowd of 18,001 were trying to make their way back home and blaming themselves for going to watch a terrible Sox team play out the string in a 10-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins?My next thought was one of sympathy for the Sox players, coaches, executives and fellow media members who soon would be exiting the ballpark and dealing with the same traffic nightmare as the fans. Would anyone call in sick Saturday to avoid a repeat after Friday night’s game against the Twins?But as I crawled past another blocked-off exit on my way north, it finally dawned on me that the postgame gridlock was another perfect metaphor for the Sox se...

Patriots-Dolphins preview: What to expect on Sunday Night Football

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

Sunday’s stakes for the Patriots are clear.If the Pats lose to Miami, they will be 0-2. Since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, fewer than 10% of teams that started 0-2 later made the playoffs. The Patriots would also fall to 0-1 in the AFC East and open the door to at an 0-2 division start with their first road game scheduled for next week at the Jets.If the Pats intend to surprise this season with a 10 or 11-win campaign, Sunday is the perfect, and perhaps only, place to start.All they must do to upset the favored Dolphins is limit the most explosive offense in the league and out-flank a defense taking baby steps in its new system. Sounds easy enough, right?Either way, the pressure’s on. As far as Week 2 games go, Sunday’s will be as big as they get.When the Patriots runThe Patriots’ ideal game plan starts with a clock-killing run game. The trouble is, nothing has been ideal about the state of their offensive line.Left tackle Trent Brown and rookie guard/tackle Sidy...

EU pledges crackdown on ‘brutal’ migrant smuggling during visit to overwhelmed Italian island

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

MILAN (AP) — EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged the swift return of irregular migrants and a crackdown on the “brutal business” of migrant smuggling Sunday during a visit with Italy’s premier to a tiny fishing island overwhelmed with nearly 7,000 arrivals in a single day this week. “We will decide who comes to the European Union, and under what circumstances. Not the smugglers,” von der Leyen declared after touring the island’s hotspot. The Red Cross said 1,500 migrants remained in the center built to accomodate hundreds. Tensions have spiked on the island, which is closer to Tunisia than the Italian mainland, with residents expressing impatience with the constant flow of migrants trying to reach Europe from North Africa arriving on their shores — not just this week but for decades. In the face of the new crisis, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has pledged tougher measures and is calling for a naval blockade of North Africa to prevent migrants ...

A Supreme Court redistricting ruling gave hope to Black voters. They’re still waiting for new maps

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s decision siding with Black voters in an Alabama redistricting case gave Democrats and voting rights activists a surprising opportunity before the 2024 elections.New congressional maps would have to include more districts in Alabama and potentially other states where Black voters would have a better chance of electing someone of their choice, a decision widely seen as benefiting Democrats.It’s been more than three months since the justice’s 5-4 ruling, and maps that could produce more districts represented by Black lawmakers still do not exist. Alabama Republicans are hoping to get a fresh hearing on the issue before the Supreme Court. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana never even bothered to draw a new map.Khadidah Stone, a plaintiff in the Alabama case, said the continuing opposition was “appalling” but “not surprising.” She noted that Alabama is where then-Gov. George Wallace blocked Black students from integrating the University of...

Four in hospital after stabbing in Adelaide and Simcoe area

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

Four people have been transported to hospital after a stabbing in the Adelaide and Simcoe Streets area on Sunday morning.At approximately 3:09 a.m. police responded to reports of a stabbing. Paramedics transported two male victims to hospital with stab wounds in life-threatening condition, who are now in serious but non-life-threatening condition.There were two other male victims assaulted with a weapon and transported to hospital, one with minor injuries and one with non-life-threatening injuries.A suspect description is unknown at this time.

One dead due to single vehicle collision on Highway 401 near Markham Road

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

A 19-year-old motorcycle rider from Pickering has been pronounced deceased after single vehicle collision on Highway 401 near Markham Road on Sunday. The eastbound Express lanes are detoured at Kennedy Road and expected to be closed until 10:30 a.m. Any witnesses of the incident are asked to call Toronto OPP.

UN committee votes to list ruins near ancient Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A U.N. conference voted Sunday to list prehistoric ruins near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine, a decision likely to anger Israel, which controls the territory and does not recognize a Palestinian state.Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The listing refers to the Tel es-Sultan archaeological site nearby, which contains prehistoric ruins dating back to the ninth millenium B.C. and is outside the ancient city itself.The decision was taken at a meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. Israel quit UNESCO in 2019, accusing it of being biased against it and of diminishing its connection to the Holy Land. Israel also objected to UNESCO’s ...

After castigating video games during riots, France’s Macron backpedals and showers them with praise

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is extending an olive branch to video gamers after previously linking computer games to rioting that rocked France earlier this year.Posting on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, Macron backpedaled on remarks in June where he blamed video games for having “intoxicated” some young rioters. Those comments dismayed some in the gaming community, even beyond France. Japanese game director Kastuhiro Harada tweeted in response that “blaming something is a great way to escape the burden of responsibility.” Macron started his unusually lengthy post this weekend with a mea culpa, saying; “I startled gamers.” He then sought to clarify his thinking and showered video games and the industry with praise. “Video games are an integral part of France,” Macron declared.“I expressed my concerns at the end of June because delinquents had used video game habits to trivialize the violence on social networks,” he said. “It is thi...

Group hopes to resurrect 128-year-old Cyclorama of Jerusalem, near Quebec City

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

MONTREAL — The last cyclorama in Canada has been hidden from public view since it closed in 2018, but a small group of people are hoping to revive the unique Quebec-based attraction.The Cyclorama of Jerusalem — a 360-degree painting 14 metres high by 110 metres around — has sat across the street from the renowned basilica in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, northeast of Quebec City, since 1895. The panorama depicts what the city of Jerusalem may have looked like at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus. But the fate of the attraction has followed the waning interest in religion among Quebecers, and in 2018 the local family that owns the site closed it because it was unprofitable and needed repair. Attempts to sell it were unsuccessful. But the following year, the Quebec government declared the cyclorama a heritage property.Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré resident Annie Lévesque is among a group of volunteers working to find a way to have the massive panoramic painting opened to the public once more.“I...

Debate over pronouns pits parental rights against the rights of children, experts say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:56 GMT

OTTAWA — Politicians and others who support policies that would require parental permission for teachers to use a student’s preferred pronouns at school say they are about including parents in the lives of their children. Those opposed say the issue is not about the rights of parents at all, but rather the protection of children — particularly transgender and nonbinary students who may not feel safe revealing their gender identities at home.The answer to what “parental rights” mean in the context the ongoing debate lies somewhere in the middle, experts say. And rushing to push forward legislation could have dire effects on transgender and nonbinary children.Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, takes issue with the framing of these policies. “That’s an easy sell,” she said. “They’ve set a trap with ‘parental rights’ as a political argument.”She said using ...