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Mets’ Justin Verlander nearing return from teres major strain: ‘Throwing feels absolutely wonderful’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

Help is on the way.Justin Verlander is returning to the mound Friday for a rehab start from the teres major strain he suffered in spring training and plans to join the Mets’ rotation shortly thereafter. The three-time Cy Young Award winner said he feels “99 percent” healthy and is ready to join the Amazin’s.“Throwing feels absolutely wonderful. All positive signs,” Verlander said Tuesday at Citi Field. “I want to be back out there competing. It was tough. I take a lot of pride in being out there on the mound, being there for the boys. This is a bit frustrating especially because it took a little longer to bounce back from than we thought initially. But no point crying over spilled milk, so here we are.”Verlander was continuing to throw throughout his injury speeding up the timeline for his build-up. The right-hander tossed a simulated game on Sunday in Port St. Lucie combined with favorable MRI results that kicked his return into high ...

US, South Korea unveil new nuclear deterrence plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

By AAMER MADHANI, COLLEEN LONG and ZEKE MILLER (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol announced Wednesday the two nations will bolster the response to North Korea’s persistent nuclear threat with an agreement that includes plans to dock U.S. nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea for the first time in over 40 years, bolster training between the two countries and improve information sharing between the allies.The new extended nuclear deterrence effort was unveiled as Biden hosted Yoon for a state visit at a moment of heightened anxiety over an increased pace of ballistic missile tests by North Korea.Biden delivered a blunt warning to Pyongyang at an afternoon Rose Garden news conference with Yoon, saying: “A nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners is unacceptable, and will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action.”Yoon said that the new co...

Heat’s Adebayo opens up on hamstring strain, ‘constant treatment, 24 hours’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

It was not something that Bam Adebayo chose to bring up, but considering he has spent the past several days on the Miami Heat injury report listed with a strained left hamstring, it also was a reality he was asked to address.So, yes, it has not been the complete Adebayo amid his uneven play over the past week.“Constant treatment, 24 hours,” said Adebayo, who was listed as probable for Wednesday night’s Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the teams’ best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.Adebayo spoke Wednesday morning at Fiserv Forum after sitting out the team’s morning shootaround.“In the treatment room, three, possibly four times a day,” the 25-year-old All-Star center said. “And just trying to make sure I’m healthy enough to play and keep playing.”He said there was not a specific moment that he could cite being injured.“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know I woke up one morning and I wa...

Colorado’s big snowpack powers massive ‘pulse’ of water being shot through Grand Canyon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

A huge amount of the water that flows down from Colorado’s snowy mountains into the West’s depleted Lake Powell reservoir is rocketing out of pipes this week to power a massive, simulated flood through the Grand Canyon — the first one in five years to try to revitalize canyon ecosystems the way nature once did.Federal operators of the Glen Canyon Dam atop the Grand Canyon opened jets to begin this surge before sunrise Monday, sending what they described as “a pulse” of water whooshing through the Colorado River as it curves through the base of the canyon.U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said they’ll maintain the surge until Thursday evening, ensuring a flow for 72 hours at 39,500 cubic feet per second of water.This “High Flow Experiment” will require 270,000 acre-feet of water, federal officials said — enough to sustain more than half a million households for a year. By comparison, Denver Water typically captures 290,000 acre-feet of water, or more than 94 billion gallons, from ...

Man with knife shot by CHP officer on I-805 identified

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

SAN DIEGO — Authorities publicly identified the man suspected of advancing towards a California Highway Patrol officer with a knife on Interstate 805, prompting the officer to shoot him.Around 7:48 a.m. Monday, a CHP officer was conducting a traffic stop on the right shoulder of northbound I-805 at Imperial Avenue, Sgt. Brian Pennings said. While the officer was walking back to his patrol car, he saw that a man had pulled a vehicle up behind him.According to CHP, the man was 28-year-old Jose Murillo Jr., who exited his vehicle and began approaching the officer with a knife in hand.“Despite numerous verbal commands to the suspect, the suspect failed to stop, failed to drop the weapon and continued to charge towards the officer,” Pennings said. “This resulted in the officer unfortunately having to use his weapon to stop forward progress.” Mother, young daughter identified as pair killed in I-15 crash Murillo was taken into custody and transported to a nearby hospital with non-life t...

Montana gov seeks to expand TikTok ban to other social apps

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

Montana’s governor is asking lawmakers to expand the state’s proposed TikTok ban to more social media companies that provide certain data to foreign adversaries.Earlier this month, state lawmakers passed a bill that would make Montana the first state in the U.S. with a total ban on the popular social media platform. That would go much further than similar bans already in place in many other states and the federal government that bar the use of TikTok on government-issued devices.Similar to many national lawmakers and government officials, proponents of the law in Montana have claimed the Chinese government could harvest U.S. user data from TikTok and use the platform to push pro-Beijing misinformation or messages to the public. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has said it has never been asked to hand over its data, and has been vigorously opposing the legislation.Under the recently-passed bill, downloading TikTok would be illegal in Montana. And any “entit...

Funding to support oral histories in boarding school era

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. government is embarking on an effort to record the oral histories of survivors and descendants of boarding schools that sought to “civilize” Indigenous students, often through abusive practices.The Interior Department announced a partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities on Wednesday to document the experiences of thousands of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students at federally funded schools across the country. The National Endowment for the Humanities is contributing $4 million for the project.“The first step toward addressing the intergenerational consequences of these schools is to squarely acknowledge and examine the history of a federal system intended to separate families, erase Native languages and cultures, and dispossess Native peoples of their land,” National Endowment for the Humanities’ chair Shelly Lowe said in a statement. Lowe is Navajo.The endowment has supported other efforts, including a ...

How Montreal singer La Zarra came to represent France in Eurovision with ‘Évidemment’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

LONDON — Just a few years ago, Fatima Zahra Hafdi was working in a series of hair salons in Montreal, hoping to one day find her true creative passion in life. Next month, she steps onto the stage as La Zarra in perhaps the world’s most famous music competition, the Eurovision Song Contest, where she will represent France with the track “Évidemment” (“Obviously”). She co-wrote the song with Benny Adam, and they co-produced it with fellow Montrealers Banx & Ranx.Countries all across Europe send an artist or band with a three-minute song to Eurovision every May. Among its most famous winners? Céline Dion, who won for Switzerland in 1988.Last year, 161 million viewers watched the contest on television, with many more watching online.Unlike Dion, who was essentially parachuted into Switzerland just for Eurovision, La Zarra is already well known in France. Her biggest hit to date, 2021’s “Tu t’en iras” (“You’ll Leave”) went platinum there and led to her winnin...

Mississippi River flooding prompts evacuations, sandbagging

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

Communities along the Upper Mississippi River scrambled Wednesday as the always-massive river swelled to near-record levels, forcing some to evacuate while others downstream stacked sandbag walls and closed off flood-prone areas.The river has grown so large because of a huge snowpack in northern Minnesota that began to quickly melt last week because of rising temperatures.A small number of people had to leave their homes in Wisconsin as the river kept rising. Others stacked sandbags in the small community of Buffalo, Iowa, in anticipation of flooding this weekend and early next week.The Mississippi was expected to be especially high along parts of Wisconsin and to crest Wednesday or early Thursday in La Crosse. In Iowa, forecasts predict the river will reach the third-highest level ever recorded when it crests Saturday about 160 miles to the south in Davenport, Iowa.Improved floodwalls and other temporary measures should prevent significant problems, but crews were constantly monito...

Florida man gets prison term for role in attack on Capitol

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:41:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to four years and two months in federal prison for attacking police officers during the insurrection and storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Christian Matthew Manley, 27, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in the District of Columbia, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in November to assaulting, resisting and impeding law enforcement while using a dangerous weapon. According to court documents, Manley joined with others in objecting to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump. A mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying election results for Biden over Trump, a Republican, authorities have said. Five people died in the violence.According to the criminal complaint, Manley was captured on video outside the Capitol wearing a flak jacket and armed with bear spray, a collapsible police baton and handcuffs. Video shows Man...