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Poetry in motion: Kondwani Fidel is an ambassador in verse for Baltimore and the Orioles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

Every Friday this year that the Orioles jog onto the field for another baseball game at Camden Yards, they bring a little piece of the Baltimore poet Kondwani Fidel with them.On a tag on the players’ new City Connect uniforms are words from one of Fidel’s poems: “YOU CAN’T CLIP THESE WINGS.” When closer Félix Bautista winds up to pitch, Fidel’s phrase stretches across The Mountain’s hips. When outfielder Austin Hays hits a home run, Fidel’s verse runs the bases.Talk about poetry in motion.The slogan was taken from a poem of Fidel’s in praise of his hometown that begins:“When the wells have almost run dry, and the hard times darken the sky, there’s a mantra we live by: ‘You can’t clip these wings.’”At age 30, Fidel is rapidly becoming Baltimore’s unofficial poet laureate, following in the iambic footsteps of Edgar Allan Poe in the 19th century and the comic poet Ogden Nash in the mid-...

Please put the Yankees up for sale: Hal Steinbrenner should let someone else own the team

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

It is time for Hal Steinbrenner to sell the Yankees. Now that the team with the second highest payroll in baseball has lost more games than it has won, having just dropped three in a row at home to the Red Sox. Now that they are all but out of the playoff picture, it is the time to examine what got them into last place and how things can be changed.The team’s biggest problem is their lack of leadership, on and off the field. On the turf, only Aaron Judge has demonstrated any capacity for providing inspiration to his teammates and their fans. And even #99 comes up short when compared with the Yankees’ last captain, #2, Derek Jeter.Jeter, not only excelled in his athletic determination, but he also recognized the importance of enriching the Yankee Universe. Derek set up his own foundation to help kids in the Bronx get to college. He met informally with admirers along River Ave. He visited one of the area’s sports bars and signed autographs. Judge hasn’t used an...

UK judge set to sentence Lucy Letby, the most prolific child killer in modern UK history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A judge on Monday is set to sentence Lucy Letby, the most prolific child killer in modern U.K. history, for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others while working as a neonatal nurse at a hospital in northern England.Justice James Goss could level the most severe sentence possible under British law by imposing multiple life terms to ensure that Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars.Following 22 days of deliberation, a jury at Manchester Crown Court convicted Letby, 33, of killing the babies over a yearlong period that saw her prey on the vulnerabilities of sick newborns and their anxious parents.The victims died in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016.Letby did not attend the hearing. That has fueled anger from the families of the victims, who wanted her to listen to statements read out in court by the parents of her victims about the devastation caused by her crimes.“You ...

14 people were shot, one fatally, in the same Milwaukee neighborhood, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Thirteen people were injured and one was killed in three separate shootings, just blocks from each other, over the weekend, Milwaukee police said. Four people were taken to the hospital with serious injuries following a shooting Sunday near 13th and Mitchell streets around 8:30 p.m., WISN-TV Milwaukee reported.Police said the victims included a 29-year-old woman, a 19-year-old man, a 22-year-old man and a 26-year-old man.A 22-year-old man was taken into custody and charges were pending, police said.Just over an hour later, at 9:45 p.m., a 56-year-old Milwaukee man was fatally shot a couple of blocks away near 16th and Bruce streets, police said. The shooter was still at large, police said.That shooting was about two blocks away from a mass shooting that injured nine people near 14th and Burnham streets on Saturday around 11:45 p.m. Six males and three females, between the ages of 16 and 42, were shot and all the victims were expected to survive, police said.A 22-yea...

Pakistan to compensate Christians who lost homes in rioting over alleged desecration of Quran

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Authorities in Pakistan are promising 2 million rupees ($6,800) in compensation for each of nearly 100 poor Christians who lost their homes when a Muslim mob angered over the alleged desecration of a Quran stormed their neighborhoods, burning at least 16 churches and damaging houses, officials said Monday.Police said they have arrested dozens more rioters in ongoing raids, bringing the total number of detainees to 160.Mohsin Naqvi, the top official in Punjab province, made the announcement on X, previously known as Twitter, a day after he visited Jaranwala in Punjab, where hundreds of Muslims went on a rampage last Wednesday over allegations that a Christian man and his friend had desecrated Islam’s holy book.Naqvi held a Cabinet meeting at a burned church in Jaranwala to get approval for the compensation for the victims of last week’s violence in the presence of local priests and residents.Hundreds of terrified Christians who fled their homes hav...

Women’s World Cup teams head home to different futures

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Teams headed home from the Women’s World Cup with uncertain futures but hopes that the monthlong tournament would spur new interest and further investment in the game.For some teams, like Nigeria, the Philippines and Jamaica, the struggle for funding, support and recognition will continue.More established teams like Germany, Brazil, Canada and the United States now begin the post-tournament soul-searching about what went wrong.Spain, which defeated England 1-0 in the final on Sunday, can revel as first-time champions.“We need to be ready, because after this FIFA Women’s World Cup women’s football is going to explode in every single one of your countries,” FIFA chief women’s football officer Sarai Bareman said at a women’s soccer conference held in the days before the final. “We need to be ready for it. There will be millions and millions of women and girls around the world who will sign up to play football for the first time ever aft...

Guatemala elects progressive Arévalo as president but there are legal moves to block him from office

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A progressive from outside Guatemala’s power structure was resoundingly elected the country’s next president Sunday in a reprimand to the governing elite over widespread allegations of corruption.Despite preliminary results showing a potential landslide for anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo, the attention immediately turned to whether he would be allowed to assume power as the Attorney General’s Office attempts to suspend his party’s legal status.With 100% of votes counted, preliminary results gave Arévalo 58% of the vote to 37% for former first lady Sandra Torres in her third bid for the presidency. The official results will still have to be certified.“We know that there is a political persecution underway that is being carried out through the institutions and prosecutor’s offices and judges that have been corruptly co-opted,” Arévalo said Sunday night. “We want to think that the force of this victory is going to make it clear that there is no pl...

Stock market today: Global stocks up as traders await Fed conference for interest rate update

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks were higher Monday as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s summer conference for signs of whether the U.S. central bank thinks inflation is under control or more interest rate hikes are needed to cool inflation.London, Tokyo, Paris and Wall Street futures advanced. Shanghai declined. Oil prices rose.Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index declined Friday ahead of this week’s closely watched Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference. Fed officials have used the event in previous years to indicate changes in policy direction.There “may be rude hawkish surprises” for investors who assume rate hikes are finished, said Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank in a report. Chair Jerome Powell “may allude to structurally higher (and potentially more volatile) inflation being the new norm.”In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.3% to 7,281.64. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 1% to 7,237.32 and the DAX in Frankfurt advanced 0.6% to 15,672.15.On Wall Street...

Biden administration announces more new funding for rural broadband infrastructure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

The Biden administration on Monday continued its push toward internet-for-all by 2030, announcing about $667 million in new grants and loans to build more broadband infrastructure in the rural U.S.“With this investment, we’re getting funding to communities in every corner of the country because we believe that no kid should have to sit in the back of a mama’s car in a McDonald’s parking lot in order to do homework,” said Mitch Landrieu, the White House’s infrastructure coordinator, in a call with reporters.The 37 new recipients represent the fourth round of funding under the program, dubbed ReConnect by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Another 37 projects received $771.4 million in grants and loans announced in April and June. The money flowing through federal broadband programs, including what was announced Monday and the $42.5 billion infrastructure program detailed earlier this summer, will lead to a new variation on “the electrification of rural America,” Landrieu said, repea...

Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:39:15 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard.At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.This current version of the Mirage, which reached U.S. dealerships a decade ago, sold for an average of $19,205 last month, according to data from Cox Automotive. (Though a few other new models have starting prices under $20,000, their actual purchase prices, with options and shipping, exceed that figure.)The Mirage, with hatchback and sedan versions, costs le...