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Battenfeld: Biden declaration that COVID emergency over is a decoy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

President Biden’s declaration that the COVID-19 emergency is over is a political decoy – designed to get the nasty problem out of the way and claim victory before his 2024 re-election campaign.More than 500 people a day in the U.S. continue to die from the coronavirus so good luck telling those suffering families that the pandemic is past. And Democrats don’t really believe the emergency is over. They would still be ordering precautions and restrictions if they had the chance or the political will.Biden is doing what most politicians do – taking credit for something that’s not really his and shifting blame to others, like Donald Trump.Remember it was Biden who inexplicably said COVID was over last year, so it was no big stretch for him to make it official this week.Biden was so desperate to get the issue past him that he signed the bill terminating the national emergency one month earlier than he was supposed to.And the bill was actually authored and passed by Senate Republica...

ASK IRA: Readers have spoken (at least these readers) and they want Heat put out of their misery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

A bit of a change in the formatics today with a strong sentiment having emerged in the wake of the Heat play-in loss to the Hawks.Q: Hey Ira, This Heat season needs to be put to rest. I will gladly cheer for the team to win on Friday night, but a loss will signal a makeover is needed. We must get more skill, length and athleticism. – David, Venice.Q: Usually I hate when the teams tank and I am happy Heat hardly ever does it. Having said that, what’s the point in making the playoffs as the No. 8 team and then getting thrashed 4-0 by the Bucks? I’d rather lose the Friday game and get a lottery pick. – Parag, Weston.Q: Please lose on Friday and don’t even make it close. We have zero shot against Milwaukee and the difference between picking No. 14 and No. 20 is monumental. We can get a starting point guard or power forward, could even get a center with range and let Bam Adebayo play free. We don’t have the capital for a blockbuster trade without gutti...

Orioles broadcasters making smooth adjustment to baseball’s new pitch clock

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

Last year, Jim Palmer sent Ben McDonald to his barber. Over a minute and a half, the Orioles pitchers-turned-broadcasters went back-and-forth about Dawn, her ownership of Shearz Inc. of Little Italy, her tattoos and the fact it had been more than a decade since she had given someone a flattop before McDonald walked through the door.“These are the stories we can’t tell on TV anymore because it’s too fast,” McDonald quipped.But beyond the occasional lost anecdote, the Orioles’ broadcasters say they haven’t felt a significant change in how they go about their jobs since MLB introduced a pitch clock among its rule changes for the 2023 season.Through 12 games, Baltimore’s average time of game is about 2 hours and 46 minutes, down half an hour from the same period last year. With much of that cut from the deadtime between pitches, that’s meant 30 fewer minutes for insights and hijinks from the team’s Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and Ori...

Boston City Council weighing pay hike for their staff; top pay could hit $103K

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

After voting to give themselves a 20% raise last year, the Boston City Council is now looking to do the same for their staff.City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would hike the office staff budget from $315,000 to $390,000 for each city councilor, and $385,000 to $460,000 for the council president.If the council votes to increase their office staff budgets, it would be the third salary increase granted for staffers since last June, when respective office budgets bumped up to $303,142 and $314,000, and would quickly follow current figures set by the panel in January, according to city documents.Fernandes Anderson said the salary hikes are necessary to keep up with inflation and the high cost of living in Boston. While not included in the ordinance, she is seeking a minimum pay rate of $72,000 for low-level staffers, and suggested that chiefs of staff make as much as $103,000, or roughly the same as their bosses make now.Related ArticlesPoli...

Australia’s most powerful cyclone in 12 years to cross coast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A tropical cyclone nearing Australia is forecast to be the most powerful storm in 12 years to hit the country, bringing wind gusts of up to 315 kilometers (196 miles) per hour as it crosses the northwest coast, meteorologists said Thursday.Cyclones are common along the sparsely populated Pilbara coast of Western Australia state and fatalities are rare, but authorities fear that Cyclone Ilsa’s extraordinary wind speeds could take some in its path by surprise.Ilsa reached the highest Category 5 intensity Thursday over the Indian Ocean and is expected to maintain that destructive level as it crosses the Pilbara coast by early Friday, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.Category 5 cyclones have mean wind speeds exceeding 200 kph (124 mph) with gusts exceeding 280 kph (174 mph). They typically cause widespread destruction, the bureau said. The last Category 5 storm to cross the Australian coast was Cyclone Yasi in 2011. Yasi caused hundreds of millions of do...

Doctors: Italy’s Berlusconi continues to improve in ICU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

ROME (AP) — Doctors caring for former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi reported a further “constant improvement” in his condition Thursday as he receives treatment for a lung infection and apparent kidney problems caused by chronic leukemia.The 86-year-old remained in intensive care at Milan’s San Raffaele clinic, where he was admitted April 5 with breathing problems. After his hospitalization, Berlusconi’s longtime physician, Dr. Alberto Zangrillo, revealed the former three-time premier had been dealing with chronic leukemia for some time and was being treated for a related lung infection.Zangrillo and oncologist Dr. Fabio Circeri reported Thursday that Berlusconi experienced “a further constant improvement in the respiratory and renal functioning” over the previous 72 hours. The treatment had helped to contain inflammation and a high number of white blood cells, the doctors said. An elevated white blood cell count indicates an infection, and leukemia typically causes an overprodu...

Biden to expand migrant access to health plans: US officials

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to announce that his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the matter.The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before the formal announcement on Thursday.The 2012 DACA initiative was meant to shield from deportation immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents as young children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, the immigrants were still ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition for having “lawful presence” in the U.S. That’s what Biden’s ...

Russia identifies Ukrainian suspect in war blogger’s killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

Russia’s top security agency on Thursday accused a Ukrainian man of involvement in a bombing that killed a well-known Russian military blogger at a St. Petersburg cafe.Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, an ardent supporter of the war in Ukraine who filed regular reports on the fighting from the front lines, was killed on April 2 as he led a discussion at a riverside cafe in the historic heart of St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city. Over 50 people were injured.A 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident, Darya Trepova, who was seen on video moments before the blast presenting Tatarsky with a statuette that contained explosives, was quickly arrested. According to Russian media reports, Trepova told investigators she was asked to deliver the statuette but didn’t know what was inside it.Russian authorities described the bombing as an act of terrorism and blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for orchestrating it. Ukrainian authorities have not directly responded to the accusation, but an a...

Norway expels 15 Russian diplomats suspected of intel work

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

Norway’s government said Thursday that it was expelling 15 Russian diplomats from the country because they were suspected of gathering intelligence while working at the Russian Embassy in Oslo. Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said the move was “an important measure to counter and reduce the scope of Russian intelligence activities in Norway, and thereby secure our national interests.”Norway’s government said the activities of the Russians declared persona non grata were “incompatible with their diplomatic status.” The Associated Press

Parts of High Park off limits today as crews conduct controlled burns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:54:27 GMT

West-end Toronto residents may notice significant smoke billowing from High Park on Thursday — but there’s no cause for alarm.The City of Toronto will be conducting controlled prescribed burns in the park from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.As a result, access to the park will be closed off to all vehicles beginning at 7 a.m. until the smoke has dissipated. Public access will also be restricted in areas around the burn sites.“A prescribed burn is a deliberately set and carefully controlled fire that burns low to the ground and consumes dried leaves, small twigs and grass stems, but does not harm larger trees,” reads a release from the City. “The City has been safely executing prescribed burns in High Park for almost two decades.”2023 High Park prescribed burn sites map. (City of Toronto)The City says Thursday’s summer-like forecast is expected to provide “optimal weather conditions” for crews to conduct the burn. The expected conditions sho...