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Column: Moment of truth arriving for Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer, who has a big decision to make

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

One of the dilemmas facing Chicago Cubs President Jed Hoyer as he makes his big trade-deadline decision is whether to break up the nucleus of a team that fans really seem to like.What makes sense business-wise might not be the right call in terms of satisfying the customers, and all fans are customers, whether it’s buying tickets or merchandise or a direct-to-consumer streaming product from the team-owned TV network that airs their games.Trading Marcus Stroman and Cody Bellinger should bring back a slew of players who could help the Cubs down the road, perhaps as early as 2024. Keeping them and trying to get over .500 and into the 2023 postseason, knowing they could very well leave after the season, would be risky and potentially could set the timeline for winning back a year.The fact the Cubs have begun to take advantage of a soft spot in their schedule, winning six of seven from the Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox, adds to the degree of diffic...

Henry Lee, forensic scientist who testified in OJ Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey trials, defends work in overturned murder convictions

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

Forensic scientist Henry Lee on Wednesday defended his 1985 examination of evidence in a murder case in which two convictions were later overturned, stating that he did not fabricate evidence about blood found on a bathroom towel.In 2019, the state Supreme Court threw out the 1989 murder convictions of two New Milford teenagers, Ricky Birch and Shawn Henning, in the murder of Everett Carr and ordered a new trial. They then filed a wrongful-conviction suit against Lee, eight police investigators and the town of New Milford.On Friday, U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden ruled that Lee fabricated evidence in the murder case and is liable for potentially tens of millions of dollars in damages in their wrongful-conviction suit.Daniel Shular / Hartford CourantHenry Lee is seen at a July 2019 news conference.“I have no motive nor reason to fabricate evidence,” Lee wrote in his statement. “My chemical testing of the towel played no direct role in implicating Mr. Birch and Mr. Henning or anyon...

Massachusetts fire officials suspend fireworks shooter’s license after unexploded fireworks washed up on Chappaquiddick Island

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

The state fire marshal has suspended a fireworks shooter’s license after unexploded commercial-grade fireworks shells washed up on Chappaquiddick Island following a Martha’s Vineyard Fourth of July show.The technician who ran the Edgartown show is now banned from pyrotechnics work in Massachusetts for the next five years.Also, his employer Central Maine Pyrotechnics could face a two-year suspension in the Bay State if the company violates the terms of a licensing disposition reached on Wednesday, according to State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey.The suspension handed down from state fire officials comes after the discovery of more than two dozen unexploded commercial fireworks shells, which washed ashore on Chappaquiddick Island after the fireworks display.The shells ranged from three to eight inches in diameter and were highly explosive, with the potential to cause grave physical injury or worse, officials said.“Fireworks are inherently dangerous,” Ostroskey s...

Ticker: Fed hikes key rate 11th time; Automakers partner on DC charging network

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate Wednesday for the 11th time in 17 months, a streak of hikes that are intended to curb inflation but that also carry the risk of going too far and triggering a recession.The move lifted the Fed’s benchmark short-term rate from roughly 5.1% to 5.3% — its highest level since 2001.Coming on top of its previous rate hikes, the Fed’s latest move could lead to further increases in the costs of mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and business borrowing.A key question swirling around  the Fed is whether Wednesday’s increase will be its last or whether it will hike again later this year. At his news conference, Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank has made no decisions about any future rate increases.“The process of getting inflation down to 2% has a long way to go,” Powell said.Automakers partner on DC charging networkGeneral Motors Co. and Stellantis NV are joining five other automakers to create a joint ven...

Ohio officer fired after letting his police dog attack a surrendering truck driver

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A police officer in rural Ohio was fired Wednesday after he released his police dog on a surrendering truck driver despite state troopers telling him to hold the K9 back.The Circleville Police Department said Ryan Speakman “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers” and his termination is “effective immediately.” His firing comes a day after the department said he was on paid administrative leave, which is standard during use-of-force investigations.The town’s civilian police review board has found Speakman didn’t violate department policy when he deployed the dog, Wednesday’s police statement said, adding that the review board doesn’t have the authority to recommend discipline.Department officials said they would have no further comment on the matter “at this time” since it’s a personnel matter. Messages seeking comment from Speakman were not immediately returned.The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Associat...

Trainer of champion Maximum Security gets 4 years in prison in racehorse-drugging scheme

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The trainer of racehorse champion Maximum Security was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday for his role in a widespread international scheme to drug horses to make them race faster.Jason Servis was sentenced by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty to one felony and one misdemeanor charge alleging that he used unapproved drugs on the horses he trained. He was also ordered to pay $311,760 in forfeiture, $163,932 in restitution and a $30,000 fine.“You have undermined the integrity of the sport of horse racing,” Vyskocil told Servis as she announced the sentence. “You cheated. You lied, and you broke the law.”Servis, 65, of Jupiter, Florida, was among more than 30 defendants, including veterinarians, charged in March 2020 after a multiyear federal probe of the abuse of racehorses through the use of performance enhancing drugs.Authorities said participants in the fraud — affecting races in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio,...

Mangrove forest thrives around what was once Latin America’s largest landfill

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — It was once Latin America’s largest landfill. Now, a decade after Rio de Janeiro shut it down and redoubled efforts to recover the surrounding expanse of highly polluted swamp, crabs, snails, fish and birds are once again populating the mangrove forest.“If we didn’t say this used to be a landfill, people would think it’s a farm. The only thing missing is cattle,” jokes Elias Gouveia, an engineer with Comlurb, the city’s garbage collection agency that is shepherding the plantation project. “This is an environmental lesson that we must learn from: nature is remarkable. If we don’t pollute nature, it heals itself.”Gouveia, who has worked with Comlurb for 38 years, witnessed the Gramacho landfill recovery project’s timid first steps in the late 1990s.The former landfill is located right by the 148 square miles (383 square kilometers) Guanabara Bay. Between the landfill’s inauguration in 1968 and 1996, some 80 million tons of garb...

3 US Marines found at North Carolina gas station died of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three U.S. Marines found unresponsive in a car at a North Carolina gas station died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.Deputies from the Pender County Sheriff’s Office found the three men Sunday morning in a privately owned Lexus sedan parked outside a Speedway gas station in the coastal community of Hampstead. Autopsies performed Wednesday by the North Carolina Medical Examiner determined that all three deaths were the result of carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the sheriff’s office. The Pender County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately make clear whether their deaths were accidental.“I am saddened by the timeless and tragic death of these three young men, who served our country honorably,” Sheriff Alan Cutler said. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with their families and colleagues during this time.”The lance corporals, identified by the U.S. Marine Corps as Tanner J. Kaltenberg, 19, of Madison, Wisconsin...

Qualtrough returns as Canada’s sports minister, replaces St-Onge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

Carla Qualtrough returns as federal minister of sport a more experienced cabinet member, and at a tumultuous time.The former Paralympic swimmer will face continued calls for a national inquiry into Canadian sport, which her predecessor Pascale St-Onge said was in a safe-sport crisis.Qualtrough was reassigned the sports file in Wednesday’s cabinet shuffle in Ottawa. St-Onge was shifted to the heritage department, which has sport under its umbrella.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed sport leaders for the fifth time in his Liberal government’s eight years and amid a flood of athlete complaints and reports of abuse, maltreatment and harassment.Safe-sport issues dominated St-Onge’s 21 months as sport minister.Parliamentary committees have heard revelations in recent months from tearful athletes about mental, physical and sexual abuse, and their fears for their careers if they reported it to their organizations’ leadership.Canada had never had a sport minister l...

Quebec judge denies request to appeal decision maintaining school prayer space ban

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:08:56 GMT

MONTREAL — A Muslim organization and a civil rights group seeking to suspend Quebec’s ban on prayer spaces in public schools have been denied leave to appeal a court decision that maintained the ban.Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Robert Mainville ruled Wednesday that he’s not convinced the appeal — which sought to allow the prayer spaces while the courts hear a constitutional challenge — had a reasonable chance of success.“The courts will not lightly order that a duly adopted law or regulation be rendered inoperative before it has undergone a full constitutional review, since it is presumed to have been adopted in the public interest,” Mainville wrote.The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims are challenging the constitutionality of the prayer space ban. A lawyer for the two groups had argued before Mainville on Monday that a Quebec Superior Court judge erred in June when he refused to suspend the ban.Olga Redko sai...