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Leubsdorf: A good night for Democrats, but…

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

Democrats have every reason to be pleased with the way this year’s scattered off-year elections showed them winning key races and the abortion issue retaining its political clout.But Tuesday’s successes came tempered with a warning of trouble ahead as yet another major poll showed President Joe Biden in serious reelection trouble, a problem likely to persist when the immediate glow wears off.The day’s races continued the pattern since the Supreme Court last year reversed its 1973 legalization of abortion rights: Democrats held Kentucky’s governorship with an increased margin, added Virginia’s House of Delegates to their control of the state Senate and made Ohio the latest state to guarantee the right to an abortion.In all three states, Democratic campaigns stressed the need to protect abortion rights, a crucial factor in their victories over the past year. “We head into 2024 with the wind at our back,” tweeted longtime Democratic strategist Simon RosenbergBut one year’s elections do...

McKenna: Mass. special education needs to get it right

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

The federal government is reviewing the special education system in Massachusetts to determine if students with disabilities are provided an appropriate education and if proper oversight of service providers such as public schools is given. In essence, this review focuses on the degree to which the civil rights of students with disabilities are met and protected. The state as well as the districts within it must comply with a number of mandates placed upon them by federal policy, all of which contribute to what is commonly referred to as a free appropriate public education (FAPE).However, districts must comply with these mandates while working within a number of persistent contextual factors that constrain their ability to achieve them. These constraints include the working conditions of special educators (e.g., number of students on their caseload, access to professional development that aligns with their responsibilities, access to necessary curricular resources and materials, acc...

Henry Winkler shares his journeys in new memoir

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

 Henry Winkler has been very public about his dyslexia. So when his youngest son Max suggested he write a memoir, Winkler immediately scoffed.“I’m so dyslexic, how am I going to write it?” he said he told Max in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I can’t spell or type.” His agent Esther Newberg had an easy solution: professional writer James Kaplan recorded 70 hours of their discussions and weaved it into a 244-page book called “Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond,” out now.The 77-year-old actor is known, of course, for his role as the Fonz on ABC’s “Happy Days” in the 1970s and 1980s as well as acting coach Gene Cousineau on the critically acclaimed dramatic HBO series “Barry.”Winkler said in the book that a therapist in recent years has helped him deal with lingering anger toward his parents, who often treated him poorly as a child because he struggled so much in school. He was suffering from dyslexia, which wasn’t diagnosed until he was an adult.But he ...

Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey, RB Keaton Mitchell added to injury report Thursday; several Browns return to practice

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

Once the NFL’s most-injured team earlier this season, the Ravens (7-2) enter Week 10 and Sunday’s crucial home game against the AFC North rival Cleveland Browns relatively healthy. But a few notable names were added to Thursday’s injury report.Cornerback Marlon Humphrey (hamstring), running back Keaton Mitchell (hamstring) and wide receiver Rashod Bateman (back) were all limited on a warm, rainy day in Owings Mills.Meanwhile, defensive tackle Michael Pierce (illness) did not practice for a second straight day, though he showed up to watch wearing a hoodie and shorts. Cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis (illness) also did not practice.Mitchell is coming off a breakout performance in which he had 138 yards and a touchdown on nine carries in Sunday’s blowout win over the Seattle Seahawks. Offensive coordinator Todd Monken said Thursday that the undrafted rookie out of East Carolina has earned more playing time after he missed the early part of the season with a should...

Dear Abby: Hovering hubby irked by wife’s online chats

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

Dear Abby: I discovered last year that my wife was exchanging flirty texts with a local man and had been doing so for years. I found out when I uncovered an image of an adult toy in her phone’s deleted images. At the time, I nearly divorced her, but although our marriage went through a tumultuous period, we are still together.She told me then she’d stop communicating with this man, but a few months ago, she reached out to him for help with a social media account issue she had, and now they chat daily on social media. Although it seems platonic now, it bothers me and has been a source of contention in our marriage. She says she has problems finding female friends, that he understands her medical issues and he’s her friend, and they are back to messaging regularly. I can see what’s being said, but it still gets me upset.Am I an ogre for asking her to stop? She says that she has changed her mind and will continue to contact him. I feel like our marriage may be o...

The Great Grift: COVID-19 fraudster used stolen relief aid to purchase a private island in Florida

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

YANKEETOWN, Fla. (AP) — A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about a mile off the coast of this little Gulf Coast town.Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida’s Withlacoochee Bay and the open view westward holds the promise of dazzling sunsets.It may have seemed like an ideal getaway for Florida businessman Patrick Parker Walsh. Instead, he’s serving five and half years in federal prison for stealing nearly $8 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds that he used, in part, to buy Sweetheart Island.While Walsh’s private island ranks among the more unusual purchases by pandemic fraudsters, his crime was not unique. He is one of thousands of thieves who perpetrated the greatest grift in U.S. history. They potentially plundered more than $280 billion in federal COVID-19 aid; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent.The loss represents close to 10% of the $4.3 ...

Manchin decision hurts Democrats’ Senate hopes and sparks new speculation about a presidential bid

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Joe Manchin’s decision not to seek reelection virtually ensures that the Democratic Party will lose his Senate seat next year in deep-red West Virginia, making the party’s steep path to retaining its razor-thin Senate majority even more difficult.Some Democratic officials are also concerned that Manchin’s announcement frees him to pursue a third-party presidential bid that could ultimately undermine President Joe Biden’s reelection. The 76-year-old Manchin has raised the possibility of a presidential bid in the past, and he made direct reference to national ambitions in the retirement video he posted on social media Thursday.“What I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together,” Manchin said. Manchin’s sudden announcement injects a new layer of uncertainty for Democratic leaders already anxious about the party’s pros...

Jewish refugees from Israel find comfort and companionship in a countryside camp in Hungary

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

BALATONOSZOD, Hungary (AP) — Zusha Pletnyov left his home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk in 2014, when Russian-backed rebels seized large swaths of eastern Ukraine. After living some years in the capital, Kyiv, he fled again to Israel when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February of last year. An observant Jew, Pletnyov moved with his wife and five children to Ashkelon, just miles from the Gaza Strip, in the hopes of building a new life. But when Hamas militants from Gaza launched their attacks last month, a new war forced him to take flight for a third time, now to a camp for Jewish refugees in rural Hungary. “Coming here for me and for my wife is such unimaginable relief,” said Pletnyov, whose apartment building in Ashkelon was hit by a Hamas rocket as the attacks began. “It’s a comforting place to be.” The 34-year-old and his family are now living in a state-owned resort, disused for nearly two decades, on the shores of the sprawling Lake Balaton in western H...

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen raises a storm over her plan to march against antisemitism

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has set off a cacophony of criticism over her plans to attend a weekend march to protest rising antisemitism in France, with critics saying that her once-pariah party has failed to shake off its antisemitic heritage despite growing political legitimacy.Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, numerous political parties and citizens are to attend the Sunday march. Le Pen has said that she and her National Rally party also will be there, in what some see as an attempt to leverage the Israel-Hamas war to make herself more palatable to mainstream voters.Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father, was convicted repeatedly of antisemitic hate speech and played down the scope of the Holocaust. Daughter Marine — runner-up in the last two presidential elections and likely a top contender in 2027 — has worked to scrub the party’s image, kicking her father out and changing its name from National Front to National Rally.But the party’s curr...

What’s streaming now: Chris Stapleton, Call of Duty, ‘The Killer,’ Tim Allen’s Santa return

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 13:33:08 GMT

Country superstar Chris Stapleton’s fifth studio album and a documentary about Albert Brooks that includes Steven Spielberg, David Letterman, Ben Stiller, Larry David, Chris Rock and Wanda Sykes are some of the new television, movies, music and games available on a device near you.Also among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are Michael Fassbender playing a hitman in David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Tim Allen putting on his Santa suit for season two of “The Santa Clauses” and “The Buccaneers,” Apple TV+’s eight-episode series answer to “Bridgerton.”NEW MOVIES TO STREAM— Michael Fassbender plays an unnamed hitman in David Fincher’s “The Killer,” debuting on Netflix on Friday. It’s based on a French graphic novel and adapted by Andrew Kevin Walker, who also wrote the screenplay for “Seven” (or “Se7en” for the purists), this nameless assassin has some very specific rules for his chosen profession which he monologues to...