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Red Sox to play series in Dominican Republic next spring training

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

Next March the Boston Red Sox will play a pair of spring training games against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Dominican Republic, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced Wednesday night.The Red Sox and Rays will play at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on March 9-10, 2024.The series is one of four international showcases planned as part of the league’s MLB World Tour initiative. The league will kick off its regular season with a two-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in Seoul, South Korea on March 20-21. The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies will play two games in Mexico City on April 27-28, and the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies will play two games in London on June 8-9.Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said in a statement that the organization is excited and honored to play in the Dominican Republic.“This unique opportunity builds on our long-standing connection to the Dominican Republic and allow...

Top-seeded John Broderick advances to final 8 at Massachusetts Amateur

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — A day that started with a seven-man playoff to reach match play and which featured a bushel full of lower seeds pulling upsets ended with the cream of the crop still left in the 115th Massachusetts Amateur.Led by top seed John Broderick, the field was trimmed from 32 to eight after two exciting rounds of match play at the Essex County Club.Broderick’s day was relatively easy compared to some of his competitors as he closed out Frank Vana 3 & 2 in the opening round before ousting Brian Higgins on the 17th in the Round of 16. For the sophomore at Vanderbilt, who shot a course record 62 on Tuesday, facing a player the caliber of Vana offered a chance to focus right back in on the task at hand.“A player like Frank can just wear you down. You can’t beat him with pars. I learned that real quick,” Broderick said. “I kind of treated today as I was already playing well so I just wanted to keep it going.”Broderick’s opponent in the quarterfinals on Thursday will be...

Major renovation eyed at Franklin Park’s White Stadium; could become home of Boston’s next pro soccer team

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

City officials are eyeing a major renovation at Franklin Park’s White Stadium, transforming it from a long-neglected venue to a community hub for recreation, arts and more.Mayor Michelle Wu and officials from Boston Public Schools’ athletics department toured the 78-year-old stadium Wednesday, before the community gets a chance to learn more about the city’s vision of what the venue could become via a Zoom meeting Thursday at 6 p.m.Boston Unity Soccer Partners, an all-female group behind a bid for Boston’s next professional women’s soccer team, submitted the only response to the city’s request for proposals to lease, improve and use the stadium’s West Grandstand and adjacent areas in the park as part of a public-private partnership.The requested project carries an estimated $30-million price tag, with the city and Boston Unity Soccer Partners funding it in half. City officials said Wednesday it’s still too early to know how much it will cost as they’re still evaluating the proposal ...

Opening South Boston beach now up to the city, but boss away in England

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

If state wildlife officials had the final say, Southie residents could now be cooling off at the L Street Beach behind the renovated Curley Center.But even with MassWildlife determining last week that beach access would not harm the threatened piping plovers, the city still has to complete its own review.“They don’t need any extra permissions because we have already issued our determination,” a MassWildlife spokesperson told the Herald on Wednesday. “As long as they follow their beach management plan, there is no other review on our end.”City officials say the Conservation Commission is scheduled to vote July 19 on the beach management plan, which outlines conditions the city needs to take for access not to have an adverse effect on the piping plover.The Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, head of the city’s Environment Department, which oversees the Conservation Commission, has been out of town. She received an invite from the U.S. Embassy of London to participate in a discussion that took...

Tornado touches down near Chicago’s O’Hare airport amid severe weather warnings

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday following warnings of severe weather for the city.A confirmed tornado was on the ground around 7 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Chicago. “This tornado has been touching the ground intermittently so far and is moving east. There are additional circulations along the line south of O’Hare. Seek shelter if in the warned area,” it said.Video from TV stations showed hundreds of people taking shelter in an O’Hare concourse. Some 166 flights were canceled and nearly 500 were delayed, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.The National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings for portions of the city Wednesday evening. Tornado sirens sounded at least twice across Chicago, warning people to take cover and ringing through the city’s buildings.Lynn Becker, a longtime Chicago resident, posted video to Twitter with the sirens s...

Human smuggler who rammed Coast Guard boat off California sentenced to 5 years in federal prison

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A boat captain who rammed a U.S. Coast Guard vessel off Southern California after smuggling a dozen people into the country was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison. Jesus Jeovanny Alcaraz-Valdez was sentenced in San Diego for the December 2022 incident by a judge who called his actions “extremely reckless and extremely troubling,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.Alcarez piloted a panga boat — a small, fishing-style vessel often used by human smugglers — to illegally bring an estimated 12 people into the United States from Mexico, prosecutors said.The immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala paid up to $24,000 each for the trip, authorities said.The boat brought them before dawn near the coast off the San Diego seaside suburb of Coronado, where Alcarez told them to take off their life jackets and enter waist-deep surf even though some couldn’t swim, the U.S. attorney’s office said.Eight people were taken into custody...

Snow shovels in hand, volunteers help Vermont communities clear the mud from epic floods

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

ANDOVER, Vt. (AP) — Volunteers pulled out their snow shovels Wednesday to clear inches of mud after torrential rain and flooding inundated communities across Vermont, trapping people in homes, closing roadways and littering streets and businesses with debris.The water drained off most streets in the state capital of Montpelier, where the swollen Winooski River flooded basements and ground floors, destroying merchandise and furniture across the picturesque downtown. Other communities cleaned up as well from historic floods that were more destructive than Tropical Storm Irene in many places. Dozens of roads remained closed, and thousands of homes and businesses are damaged.But with people still being rescued, high water still blocking some roads and new flash flood warnings issued with more rain on the way, the crisis is far from over, according to state Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison. “Vermonters, keep your guard up, and do not take chances,” she said. Morrison said urb...

Northern lights might be visible this week, but most of the US won’t see them

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The northern lights could put on a show this week — though the audience will be much smaller than some early forecasts had suggested.The sky spectacle will be fairly typical: Stretches of Canada have a chance to spot the shimmering curtain of the aurora borealis, while a few in the U.S. could see a faint reddish glow on the horizon. Here’s what to know about the updated predictions.WHO CAN SEE THE LIGHTS THIS WEEK?An early forecast by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, suggested that the northern lights could be visible much farther south than usual this week. But that forecast was based on long-term predictions about the solar activity responsible for the display. Forecasts using more current data from NOAA predict nothing special for the U.S. “For the same reasons that it’s hard to predict weather on Earth, it’s hard to predict weather in space,” said Northeastern Univ...

Solar storm on Thursday expected to make northern lights visible in limited US states

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

A solar storm forecast for Thursday is expected to give skygazers in some states along the U.S.-Canada border a faint glimpse of the northern lights which — at their peak — produce a colorful sky show when solar wind hits the atmosphere. Northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, are most often seen in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, but an 11-year solar cycle that’s expected to peak in 2024 has the potential to make the lights visible in places farther to the south. Three months ago, the light displays were visible in Arizona, marking the third severe geomagnetic storm since the current solar cycle began in 2019.The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has forecast auroral activity on Thursday, based on long-term outlook.Auroral activity also has been forecast for Canada.Those in small slices of the contiguous U.S. — including parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and Montana — could also get a peek. But for them, the aurora will probably be a “faint glow on the ...

Suspect in Vegas Strip resort standoff a fugitive in Colorado kidnapping case, authorities say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:53:00 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man accused of instigating a hostage standoff and throwing furniture out of a broken 21st-floor window at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip is a fugitive in a Colorado kidnapping case, authorities said Wednesday.A judge set bail at $750,000 for Matthew John Ermond Mannix, 35, of Golden, Colorado. But even if he posts bail, Mannix would remain jailed — at least until a Thursday morning hearing on the warrant from his home state.Prosecutor John Jones had asked Justice of the Peace Rebecca Saxe to set bail at $2 million. He cited “extreme violence” during the Tuesday standoff that lasted more than five hours, “excessive damage” to property, and danger posed to hotel guests who fled as items ranging from a coffee maker to a desk fell into the hotel swimming pool area.Jones told the judge that Mannix has criminal convictions for kidnapping in 2022 and property damage in 2012 in Colorado, and said multiple people have court orders of protection against him. The pros...