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ASK IRA: Are the Heat not alone in the NBA’s season of misery?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

Q: I think one word to use this season is perspective. Outside of Milwaukee and Boston there are plenty of other teams who had high expectations and way more talent than us, with average records. You take the Lakers, Mavericks, Clippers, Hawks and Warriors. All have arguably more talent but worse records. This year has been a struggle for many teams given injuries and overall boredom it seems with the season. Don’t you think we should judge this team once they make it into the postseason? Everyone keeps saying blow it up, but many of the teams with all these stars aren’t faring much better. – Brett, Key Largo.A: I agree that this is a season of misery across the league, save, say for Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Denver, Sacramento and maybe New York. The reality is that even after the loss to the Nets, the Heat awoke Sunday with the 10th-best record in the NBA. No, not where they might have wanted to be, but still ahead of 20 other teams. Twenty. It’s alm...

‘Moneyball’ questioned first base’s challenges. Some Orioles are learning the position is ‘unlike any other.’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

One of the most intriguing competitions at Orioles spring training is among the left-handed hitters vying to be Ryan Mountcastle’s backup first baseman.The team compiled a group of these players with major league experience — including Ryan O’Hearn, Franchy Cordero, Josh Lester and Lewin Díaz — and invited them to spring training as nonroster invitees to compete for that spot.But will that seat on the bench even exist come opening day Thursday in Boston?The answer to that might depend on the club’s confidence in a separate group of players who could serve as insurance behind Mountcastle if the Orioles choose not to roster one of the left-handed hitting first basemen. Some of those players, such as utilityman Terrin Vavra and outfielder Anthony Santander, have spent time this spring learning how to play first base to give the team positional flexibility during the season.“If we need them in a pinch to play first for whatever reason, we feel co...

State Auditor’s plan to look at Legislature an ‘uber-reach,’ Speaker says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

The state auditor’s plan to look into the Legislature is not going as smoothly as she might have hoped.“She won a statewide election and worked very hard,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said. “Maybe she thinks she’s uber-powerful, that can audit anything. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t understand what she hopes to accomplish with this.”State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, true to a long standing campaign promise, announced on March 7 that her office was in the midst of conducting an audit of the state Legislature with which she hoped legislative leadership would be willing to participate and comply.However, neither Senate President Karen Spilka or Mariano have indicated they will play along with DiZoglio’s apparent quest for transparency, pointing to independent audits of both chambers annually conducted with the assistance of outside agencies as one reason and a need to maintain the separation of powers as another.Mariano doubled down this weekend, telling WCVB’s Sharman Sacchetti and Ed Harding...

Curley: Biden has bigger problems than Kamala Harris

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

According to reports, President Joe Biden is unimpressed with his right hand woman.No, not Dr. Jill Biden—or as Joe called her, the “first full-time lady.”The object of Joe’s alleged animosity is Vice President Kamala Harris.According to a report in Reuters, Joe doesn’t think the veep is cutting the mustard.The piece quoted two former White House officials.The first former official told the outlet that Biden would not have picked Harris if he didn’t think she was capable, before adding, “But it is a question of consistently rising to the occasion.”The second anonymous former official said, “A point of tension in their relationship is that I don’t think that the president sees her as somebody who takes anything off of his plate.”I’m sorry but—with the exception of the early bird special— what the hell is on Joe Biden’s “plate”?His schedule isn’t exactly jam-packed with events.The leader of the free world spends the bulk of his time dodging reporters. The rest of his itinerary t...

Opposition disrupts Indian Parliament after Gandhi’s ouster

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Members of opposition parties dressed in black disrupted India’s Parliament on Monday and protested in the capital, New Delhi, after Rahul Gandhi, a key opposition leader and fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was expelled from the legislature last week. Hundreds of supporters of Gandhi’s Congress party demonstrated in the heart of New Delhi and dozens were detained by police. Lawmakers from 18 opposition parties also protested together outside Parliament, donning black clothes to symbolize mourning and waving posters that warned India’s democracy is in danger. Gandhi’s expulsion on Friday came a day after a local court convicted him of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking Modi’s surname in an election speech in 2019. The actions against Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister, were widely denounced by opponents of Modi as assaults against democracy and free speech by a gov...

Kate Beaton’s graphic memoir ‘Ducks’ gives insight into working at Alberta’s oilsands

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

When Kate Beaton migrated west to work in Alberta’s oilsands, she didn’t know what to expect — other than a job that would allow her to pay down her student loans. Those making the move now, some 15-plus years after the comics artist worked in Fort McMurray, have more information about the industry thanks to social media, she said.“If you don’t have a personal connection to the actual area, the location, or the workforce, or the people that travel back and forth and work there, then it’s harder to have an understanding of day-to-day life there,” Beaton said in a phone interview from her home in Cape Breton. With “Ducks,” Beaton’s graphic memoir that’s now competing in Canada Reads, she sought to show people what the experience can really be like.The 430-page retelling of her two years in the oilsands portrays the industry as one burdened by misogyny and corporate interests, but also a place where employees can find unexpect...

Scotland’s ruling SNP picks new leader to succeed Sturgeon

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Scotland’s governing party will elect a new leader on Monday after a bruising five-week contest that exposed deep fractures within the pro-independence movement.The Scottish National Party is choosing a successor to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who unexpectedly stepped down last month after eight years as leader of the party and of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government.The SNP’s 72,000 members are choosing among Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and lawmaker Ash Regan. The winner will be announced on Monday afternoon. The new party leader is due to be confirmed as first minister by Scottish lawmakers on Tuesday.A formidable leader who led the SNP to a dominant position in Scottish politics, Sturgeon failed in her aim of leading Scotland out of the United Kingdom, and divided the party with a contentious transgender rights law.The three candidates to succeed her share the goal of independence, but differ in their economic and socia...

Who is bidding to buy English soccer club Manchester United?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The race to buy Manchester United is taking shape.Based on the publicly declared bids for one of the world’s most iconic soccer teams, the frontrunners are Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and local boy-turned-billionaire Jim Ratcliffe.There is also the possibility that the current American owners, the Glazer family, could yet retain control of the team, despite raising hopes among supporters they would finally walk away after repeated attempts by fans to drive them out.After a second round of bidding last week, Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe remain in contention for what is likely to be the biggest ever sale of a sports team, with the price estimated to reach up to $6 billion.Sheikh Jassim’s latest offer was placed on Friday night, a person with knowledge of the bid said.The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.American merchant bank Raine’s decision to extend the dead...

Amid strained US ties, China finds unlikely friend in Utah

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China’s global campaign to win friends and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world’s most powerful communist country.An investigation by the Associated Press has found that China and its U.S.-based advocates spent years building relationships with the state’s officials and lawmakers. Those efforts have paid dividends at home and abroad, the AP found: Lawmakers delayed legislation Beijing didn’t like, nixed resolutions that conveyed displeasure with its actions and expressed support in ways that enhanced the Chinese government’s image.Its work in Utah is emblematic of a broader effort by Beijing to secure allies at the local level as its relations with the U.S. and its western allies have turned acrimonious. U.S. officials say local leaders are at risk of being manipulated by China and have deemed the influence campaign a threat to national security.Beijing’s success...

First Citizens to acquire troubled Silicon Valley Bank

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:19:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — North Carolina-based First Citizens will buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech industry-focused financial institution that collapsed earlier this month, rattling the banking industry and sending shockwaves around the world. The deal could reassure investors at a time of shaken confidence in banks, though the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other regulators had already taken extraordinary steps to head off a wider banking crisis by guaranteeing that depositors in SVB and another failed U.S. bank would be able to access all of their money.Customers of SVB will automatically become customers of First Citizens, which is headquartered in Raleigh. The 17 former branches of SVB will open as First Citizens branches Monday, the FDIC said.Nasdaq-traded shares of First Citizen BancShares Inc. jumped 12.4% to $654.95 in premarket trading Monday. Shares in mid-sized San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, which serves a similar clientele as Silicon Valley Bank and had appeared t...