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With Holiday, Porzingis in Boston and Harden trying to leave 76ers, Celtics the best of the Atlantic

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

When James Harden was twice scoring 40 points against Boston in last season’s playoffs, it was easy to picture a championship in Philadelphia’s future.Now it’s hard to picture a future at all between Harden and the 76ers.The only Atlantic Division team with the look of a champion at this point is the Celtics, who the Sixers had down and nearly out five months ago.With Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis arriving in Boston to join Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics should easily be the class of the division and maybe even once again the entire Eastern Conference after falling one game shy of the NBA Finals in 2022-23.The New York Knicks should be back in the playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets could be and the Toronto Raptors, under a new coach, will try to bounce back after missing them.The question mark is Philadelphia, at least until the saga with Harden has played out.The 76ers opted not to give him a contract extension after he struggled in the final two g...

Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, Norfolk Tides, sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings but expected to stay put

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

Ken Young wasn’t looking to sell, but he finally got an offer he couldn’t turn down.As a result, the Norfolk Tides, the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, will change hands for the first time in 30 years.Young, the team’s president and chief owner since 1993, has agreed to sell the club to Diamond Baseball Holdings, which owns more than 20 minor league baseball teams, the Tides and DBH announced Tuesday.Young, a longtime food service executive, said the ownership change puts the team in no danger of leaving, adding that the club’s staff will stay put.“They don’t want to go anyplace,” Young said, referring to DBH. “They know Norfolk’s a good market. The Tides will stay in Norfolk.”Subject to obtaining the consent of the International League and satisfying other standard closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed promptly.Norfolk is operating under a player development contract with the parent ...

Boston City Council punts vote on Mass and Cass tent ban

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

The Boston City Council won’t vote on the mayor’s anti-encampment ordinance for the Mass and Cass zone until next week, effectively putting off action until the final possible moment.After chairing a seven-plus hour working session on the ordinance Monday, City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who is tasked with pulling the matter from committee and calling for a vote, texted his colleagues Tuesday evening to inform them that he tested positive for COVID-19.“I will bring it out for a vote next week,” Arroyo told the Herald Tuesday.Related ArticlesPolitics | Council president calls for investigation into toddler found at Boston’s Mass and Cass Politics | Man stabbed at Mass and Cass area shelter, police Politics | Mass and Cass danger pushing homeless encampments throughout Boston Politics | Taking the needles out of Roxbury’s Clifford Park Politics | Boston police arrest suspect in late-night Mass and Ca...

Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Bradish, Ryan O’Hearn named finalists for player-voted MLBPA awards

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

The Orioles won 101 regular-season games thanks to a roster with top-to-bottom depth. But their peers recognized some individual standouts.Three Baltimore players were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players Association’s Players Choice Awards, as voted on by players across the league.Infielder Gunnar Henderson was nominated for American League Outstanding Rookie alongside Texas third baseman Josh Jung and Boston first baseman Triston Casas. The favorite for the league’s official Rookie of the Year honor, Henderson overcame a slow start to his first full season to bat .255 with an .814 OPS, 28 home runs, 29 doubles, nine triples and 10 steals. Although Henderson could be the Orioles’ first AL Rookie of the Year since 1989, teammate Ryan Mountcastle won the MLBPA’s version of the honor in 2021.In his second season, right-hander Kyle Bradish joins New York’s Gerrit Cole and Minnesota’s Sonny Gray as the finalists to be AL Outstan...

Ex-Oregon prison nurse convicted of sexually assaulting women in custody gets 30 years

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A former nurse convicted of sexually abusing women in custody at an Oregon prison has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Tony Klein’s sentence handed down Tuesday also includes five years of supervised release after prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office — District of Oregon. He had faced a possible life sentence.A federal jury in July convicted Klein on 17 counts related to sexual assault and four counts of lying under oath involving nine women. Jurors found he deprived the women of their constitutional right to not face cruel and unusual punishment while they served time at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility south of Portland in Wilsonville. He worked as a nurse at the facility from 2010 until 2018, interacting with women in custody who either sought medical treatment or worked in the prison’s medical unit. Prosecutors said Klein sexually assaulted many women entrusted to his care, making it clear to ...

Kansas agency investigated girl’s family 5 times before she was killed, a report shows

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Child welfare officials investigated the family of a 5-year-old Kansas girl five times in the 13 months before she was raped and killed, but couldn’t confirm allegations of neglect or drug use by her mother, and the family repeatedly declined offers of help, a report released Tuesday showed. The report by the state Department of Children and Families said in one case, the agency confirmed that the mother wasn’t properly supervising Zoey Felix, but the girl was placed with her father and because of that, “No safety concerns were identified.” After receiving allegations in late August of drug use and lack of utilities in the home, child welfare officials made seven failed attempts to reach the family over the next month.On Oct. 2, Zoey died after fire crews couldn’t resuscitate her at a gas station. Neighbors believe Zoey and her father had been camping in a grove of trees on a vacant lot nearby. Mickel Cherry, a 25-year-old homeless man, is charg...

Canada Pension Plan board says Alberta pension exit consults are biased, manipulative

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

EDMONTON — The board of the Canada Pension Plan says Alberta’s consultation with its citizens on quitting the CPP is not a straightforward fact-finding exercise but rather a biased manipulation of public opinion.Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner, in response, says he welcomes all feedback but says the CPP is not an innocent bystander given the disproportionately large share of assets it accrues from his province.The CPP launched its criticisms of Alberta’s pension exit public survey and advertising campaign in a letter Tuesday to Jim Dinning, the heading of a panel collecting public input on whether Alberta should leave the CPP. “We respectfully want to flag to you as head of the panel some troubling elements that in our view undermine the transparency, fairness, and integrity of the consultation process that has been put forward to the public so far,” Michel Leduc, the senior managing director of the CPP Investment Board, writes to Dinning.Leduc focuses on the government’s onlin...

Remains of at least 189 people removed from Colorado funeral home, up from 115, officials say

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The remains of at least 189 people have been removed from a Colorado funeral home, up from an initial estimate of about 115 when the decaying and improperly stored bodies were discovered two weeks ago, officials said Tuesday.The remains were found by authorities responding to a report of an “abhorrent smell” inside a decrepit building at the Return to Nature Funeral Home in the small town of Penrose, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Denver. All the remains were removed from the site as of Oct. 13, but officials said the numbers could change again as the identification process continues.The updated count comes as families who did business with the funeral home grow increasingly concerned about what happened to their deceased loved ones. Local officials said they will begin notifying family members in the coming days as the remains are identified.There is no timeline to complete the work, which began last week with help from an FBI team that gets deployed to mas...

Martin Scorsese is still curious — and still awed by the possibilities of cinema

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A moment from years ago keeps replaying in Martin Scorsese’s mind.When Akira Kurosawa was given an honorary Academy Award in 1990, the then 80-year-old Japanese filmmaker of “Seven Samurai” and “Ikiru,” in his brief, humble speech, said he hadn’t yet grasped the full essence of cinema.It struck Scorsese, then in post-production on “Goodfellas,” as a curious thing for such a master filmmaker to say. It wasn’t until Scorsese also turned 80 that he began to comprehend Kurosawa’s words. Even now, Scorsese says he’s just realizing the possibilities of cinema.“I’ve lived long enough to be his age and I think I understand now,” Scorsese said in a recent interview. “Because there is no limit. The limit is in yourself. These are just tools, the lights and the camera and that stuff. How much further can you explore who you are?”Scorsese’s lifelong exploration has seemingly only grown deeper and more self-examining with time. In recent years, his films have swelled in sca...

Palestinian ambassador warned Ottawa of rising tensions, urges Israel peace talks

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:52:40 GMT

OTTAWA — The Palestinian ambassador to Canada says she warned Ottawa six months ago that rising tensions in the region were going to explode into violence.“It’s not about justifying or not, (but) if you blow into a balloon, it has to pop,”Mona Abuamara, the chief representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to Canada, said in an interview Tuesday.The envoy said that Israel’s right-wing government has made it harder to work toward peace. She said Palestinians want Canada to be vocal about cases where Israel may have violated international law, citing this week’s siege on Gaza or the expansion of certain settlements.“Just implement the international law that you care so much about — that’s our only ask,” Abuamara said between meetings with MPs on Parliament Hill.Abuamara said she’s deeply disturbed by the recent bloodshed in the region, where more than 4,000 people have died on both sides of an escalating war.The recent con...