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Spain’s king asks conservative leader Feijóo to form government

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative Popular Party, has been given the first shot at forming a new Spanish government.Spain’s king, Felipe VI, on Tuesday decided that Feijóo, whose party won the most votes in last month’s inconclusive national election, should try and form a coalition.But Feijóo’s efforts will surely be doomed. The PP failed to secure the number of seats in parliament needed to govern, and even with the backing of the far-right Vox party, Feijóo won’t be able to overcome the opposition of a majority of Spain’s MPs.Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is in a better position to remain in post. Sánchez and his left-wing allies control 171 of the 350 seats in the parliament, which means that in order to form a government he would need to persuade several MPs belonging to the Catalan separatist Junts party to vote for him.However, last week Sánchez received a boost when Junts gave its votes to Francina Armengol, the Socialist candidate for ...

Kingston man arrested after allegedly placing rocks in road to damage vehicles

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

A 31-year-old Kingston man was arrested Monday after a monthslong investigation into rocks allegedly placed on a local roadway to damage passing vehicles, Kingston police announced. Kingston police said Cameron Currier was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday morning on multiple charges linked to accusations that he placed large rocks in the roadway on Pembroke Street on various days dating back to February. Police in a statement said the rocks weighed between 15 and 50 pounds and damaged multiple vehicles, ripping out undercarriages, causing fluid spills and triggering airbags in some cases. Police said the rocks were placed in the middle of the road along a half-mile span of Pembroke Street near Reed Street — described as a heavily wooded and dark area with no residences directly abutting it. “Clearly, this was incredibly dangerous,” police said.Kingston police said detectives took over the investigation into these incidents in June “as the frequency and ...

Lauryn Hill to reunite with The Fugees for ‘Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ 25th anniversary tour

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

(CNN) — Lauryn Hill is set to reunite with The Fugees to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her smash 1998 debut solo album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” with an international tour.According to a news release sent to CNN on Tuesday, Hill will perform the iconic album on the tour, “revisiting the musical sentiment and nostalgia that caused it to resonate with so many fans.”The tour will kick off on September 8 in Minneapolis before heading to New York later that month to perform at the Global Citizen Festival. From there, Hill will make stops in Australia, Canada and various cities throughout the United States, culminating with a final show in November in Seattle.The Fugees will be joining Hill for the US dates in October and November.“‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ is and was a love song to my parents, my family, my people, my musical and cultural forebears, my teachers, my loves, my Creator,” Hill said of her first album in the release.She continued, “I wrote love s...

Aspirin can help reduce risk of second heart attack, but study finds less than half of eligible adults take it

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

(CNN) — For adults who have survived a heart attack or stroke, taking aspirin regularly may reduce the risk of another cardiovascular event. But a new study suggests that less than half of these cardiovascular disease patients around the world are using aspirin to prevent a new event.Among people with a history of cardiovascular disease who were surveyed in the new study, only about 40% reported taking aspirin to prevent another heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular event.The proportion of patients using aspirin to reduce the risk of a secondary event varied by country, however, ranging from 16.6% in low-income countries such as Afghanistan, Benin and Ethiopia to 65% in high-income countries such as Czechia, the UK and the US, according to the study, published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA.“We had hoped that the rates of aspirin use for secondary prevention would be much higher. Particularly I think, overall, globally, there has been an emphasis on im...

Springfield Police Department wants hundreds of records removed from discipline database

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

The Springfield Police Department petitioned state regulators Tuesday to remove hundreds of entries associated with its officers from an online disciplinary records database only hours after it launched.Department leaders first saw the database Tuesday morning after it was published, spokesman Ryan Walsh said. After reviewing it, Walsh said “we are having conversations” to remove more than 220 of their 417 complaints and “numerous officers” from the database maintained by the Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission.“Any outcome that resulted with a ‘retraining’ are not disciplinary and are not sustained complaints. We expect to have this issue remediated in the near-future,” Walsh said in a statement to the Herald.Walsh said the department hopes to have the records removed “as soon as possible.” He said the issue may have stemmed from having to submit records multiple times to the POST Commission over the past two years as regulators sought to gather them for publication.“W...

Home sales slumped in July as rising mortgage rates and prices discouraged many would-be homebuyers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

By ALEX VEIGA (AP Business Writer)LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in July to the slowest pace since January, as elevated mortgage rates and a stubbornly low inventory of homes on the market combined to discourage many would-be homebuyers. Existing home sales fell 2.2% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. That’s below the 4.15 million pace that economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales slumped 16.6% compared with July last year. It was also the lowest home sales for the month of July since 2010. The annual sales decline was steepest in markets across the Northeast and Midwest, where sales slumped 20% or more, the NAR said.Despite falling sales, competition for a near-historic low level of homes on the market helped drive prices higher. The national median sales price rose 1.9% from July last year to $406,700, marking the first annual increa...

Family travel 5: Sustainable tourism

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

Lynn O’Rourke Hayes | (TNS) FamilyTravel.comAs temperatures rise, hurricanes whirl and wildfires burn, the conversation about climate change and our role in it is intensifying. And, with increased documentation about the environmental, economic and social impact of travel, families may be wondering how best to be a responsible traveler.Here are five ideas to consider:1. Choose wiselyPopular vacation spots like the Machu Picchu, Venice, Italy and many National Parks have begun taking steps to protect their destinations from the effects of overcrowding by managing access, establishing visitor fees and sharing information about responsible practices.If you still plan to visit tourism hot spots, consider a shoulder or off-season trip when the impact may be less. When researching your next family adventure, review second-tier cities, parks with fewer visitors, uncrowded beaches or other locations not currently experiencing a high profile, as your holiday possibilities. Consider visiting ...

Macy’s makes move to open smaller stores in West, Northeast

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

NEW YORK — Macy’s is expanding its small-store format into the West and Northeast, looking to offer more convenient shopping, increase customer visits and add new shoppers.The department store chain said Tuesday that last month it opened a location in Highland, Indiana, and plans to open small stores in Boston, Las Vegas and San Diego in coming weeks, bringing the total number of its small-format stores to 12. The new stores range in size from 30,000 to 50,000 square feet, roughly one-fifth the size of its regular department storesMacy’s said the four new stores will bear the iconic brand’s nameplate, but the other eight stores will still be called Market by Macy’s. The department store opened its first small-format store in 2020 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Macy’s operates little more than 500 stores under the namesake brand.Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Macy’s upscale sister Bloomingdale’s, as well as big box stores like Target, have been exp...

Rampant theft hitting earnings, Dick’s says 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

Dick’s Sporting Goods profit slipped in its second quarter and missed Wall Street’s expectations as the retailer cut its full-year profit outlook, citing worries over theft at its stores.Shares declined more than 24% in morning trading Tuesday.For the period ended July 29, Dick’s earned $244 million, or $2.82 per share. A year earlier the company earned $319 million, or $3.25 per share.Analysts polled by FactSet predicted earnings of $3.81 per share.“Our Q2 profitability was short of our expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated inventory shrink, an increasingly serious issue impacting many retailers,” President and CEO Lauren Hobart said in a statement.Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that a large portion of Dick’s quarterly profit drop appeared to be from theft.“In our view this is a particular issue for Dick’s as many of the products it sells are desirable and have good resale values...

What Ken teaches men: Psychologist examines the emotional growth of Barbie’s boyfriend

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:52:14 GMT

Spoiler alert: The following interview discusses several plot elements of the film “Barbie.”Before psychologist Eric FitzMedrud donned a pink tie and joined his wife for a date night to see the summer blockbuster movie “Barbie,” he was all too familiar with the anxiety that the character of Ken feels about his place in the world and in Barbie’s life.FitzMedrud specializes in counseling individuals and couples on relationships and sexual issues and is set to publish a book, “The Better Man: A Guide to Consent, Stronger Relationships, and Hotter Sex” (Wonderwell, 2023), in September. The book offers men advice on how to get past the conflicting messages they receive about how to be “enough.” On one hand, he writes, men are told that they can’t be masculine enough unless they reject feminism and embrace the “abject misogyny” of certain cultural figures. Or, they worry about how to enter into relationships and sex, with a post-#MeToo awareness about consent.All along, FitzMedrud says th...