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Best career season? Spoelstra says Heat’s Butler deserves All-NBA ‘without a doubt’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

Erik Spoelstra paused to consider the question, whether, at 33, this has been Jimmy Butler’s best season.But once Spoelstra took stock of the moment, particularly with Butler sitting out Sunday’s regular-season finale against the visiting Orlando Magic, the Heat coach had no trouble offering a fitting closing statement.“The way he’s played this year, for sure, is definitely at an All-NBA level, without a doubt,” Spoelstra said. “Like the biggest takeaway from this is he’s an All-NBA guy this season.”In his 12th season, Butler closed a career-best .539 from the field, his .560 effective field-goal percentage also a career high. And while his playing time was somewhat measured, he still finished with a career-best offensive rating and career-best scoring average per 100 possessions.Beyond that, he posted career highs in win shares per 48 minutes and box-score plus-minuses.The media vote for All-NBA and the rest of the league’s post...

Expelled Tennessee lawmakers both seeking seats again

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Two former Black Democratic lawmakers who were expelled by Republican colleagues in Tennessee say they want to be reappointed, then elected back to their seats, following their ouster for a protest on the House floor urging passage of gun-control measures in the wake of a deadly school shooting.Nashville’s metro council is likely to reappoint Justin Jones to the seat during a specially called Monday meeting. The Shelby County Commission plans to announce soon when it will meet to fill the vacancy left by Justin Pearson’s expulsion. Likewise, commissioners can reinstall Pearson, who is from Memphis.Both former lawmakers told NBC’s Meet the Press that they want to return to their positions as lawmakers. Special elections for the seats, which have yet to be set, will follow in the coming months.The expulsions have made Tennessee a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. The former lawmakers have quickly drawn prominent sup...

Quebec police watchdog investigating after head-on collision on provincial highway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s police watchdog is investigating after a driver travelling the wrong way on a provincial highway while being chased by police struck another vehicle Friday night, killing its occupant.The agency, known as the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, says police received multiple calls around 10 p.m. that night reporting a vehicle travelling in the wrong lane on Highway 55 near Trois-Rivières, Que., northeast of Montreal.It issued a news release saying a pair of provincial police officers activated their cruiser’s lights and siren before heading towards the area where the suspect vehicle was spotted.It says the officers saw the vehicle’s lights coming towards them and pulled into a lane designated for emergency vehicles.The agency says the officers reported the vehicle passed them without slowing down and they heard a crash immediately afterwards.It offered no details about the person killed in the collision, but said the driver of the suspect vehicle ...

Tiger Woods withdraws before completing third round of Masters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tiger Woods withdrew from the Masters before the resumption of the third round because of an injury Sunday, ending his streak of completing all 72 holes of every tournament he has played at Augusta National as a professional.The tournament announced about 90 minutes before play began that Woods, who is still hobbled by the effects of the 2021 car accident that nearly cost him his right leg, had withdrawn. He’d limped through practice rounds early in the week and again during the first and second rounds, but the limp had become more pronounced as the weather worsened.“I am disappointed to have to WD this morning due to reaggravating my plantar fasciitis,” Woods said on Twitter. “Thank you to the fans and to (at)TheMasters who have shown me so much love and support. Good luck to the players today!”The five-time champion finished his second round in cold, driving rain Saturday to make the cut on the number at 3-over. Woods extended his Masters streak to 23 str...

Health secretary slams abortion pill ruling as ‘not America’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top health official said Sunday that a court ruling threatening the availability of a main drug used in medication abortion was “not America” and he did not rule out defying the judge’s order if necessary. “We want the courts to overturn this reckless decision,” Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s health secretary, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We want, yes, that women continue to have access to a drug that’s proven itself safe. Millions of women have used this drug around the world.”He stressed that for now, women do have access to the abortion medication mifepristone after a federal judge in Texas, Donald Trump-appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk, put his ruling from Friday on hold for a week so federal officials could file a challenge. The drug was approved in 2000 by the Food and Drug Administration, which is overseen by the Health and Human Services Department headed by Becerra.Biden said his administration would fight ...

Cubans seek solutions and solace in Santería amid crises

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

HAVANA (AP) — From a two-room concrete home on the fringes of Cuba’s capital, the rumble of wooden drums spills out onto the streets.Neighbors gather at the door and kids climb a fence to peer inside. They watch as dozens of Cubans wearing white and African beads make offerings at a bright blue altar consuming half a room, asking for luck, protection and good health.While nearly 70% of Latin America’s 670 million people consider themselves Catholic, in Cuba, Santería is the name of the game. A fusion of African religions and Catholicism, Santería was one of the few religious practices to quietly endure through decades of prohibitions and stigma by the communist government.Now, as that stigma gradually fades and the country enters a moment of compounding economic, political and migratory crises, the religion is growing in popularity and expanding to new demographics.“Every day the religion grows a little more,” Mandy Arrazcaeta, 30, said among the throngs of people in his home dancin...

France: Marseille building collapses, fire stymies rescue

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — More than 100 firefighters worked against a ticking clock to extinguish flames deep within debris to save up to 10 people possibly buried after a building exploded and collapsed early Sunday in the French port city of Marseille.Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said at least four people were known to live in the collapsed building and as many as 10 may have been there, though persistent flames and fears of further collapse prevented rescuers from being able to search for victims some 15 hours after the explosion.“We cannot intervene in a very classic way,” Darmanin said during a visit to the site, about 11 hours after the five-story building collapsed shortly before 1 a.m. He said the fire was burning a few meters under the mounds of debris and that both water and foam represent a danger to victims’ survival. It was not known if anyone was killed, or what triggered the blast, he said.Firefighters, with the help of urban rescue experts, worked through the nig...

Hydro-Québec says some ice storm power outages will not be fixed before Tuesday

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

MONTREAL — Hydro-Québec says it hopes to reconnect power today to more than 50,000 customers who have been without electricity since last week’s deadly ice storm, but the utility admits some outages will not be resolved before Tuesday.Régis Tellier, Hydro-Québec’s vice-president of operations and maintenance, says around 114,000 clients remain without power, including approximately 80,000 in Montreal.He told reporters the utility has restored power to over 90 per cent of the more than one million customers who lost power after Wednesday’s ice storm and plans to reach 95 per cent today.He says the vast majority will have power back on Monday, but some complex cases may not be resolved until Tuesday. He says 1,500 hydro workers are on the ground but most of the remaining outages are small, affecting only a handful of people. The province has announced some grocery stores can remain open on Easter Sunday — a statutory holiday — to help residents running low on food after th...

Rockford police find woman dead in her living room

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

ROCKFORD, Ill. — A homicide investigation is underway after a woman was found dead Saturday inside her home in Rockford, according to police.Officers were called to do a welfare check at the home in the 3100 block of Guilford Road. Police said the front door was open when they arrived. Girl, 15, fatally shot in head on South Side ID’d The 26-year-old woman was found dead in the living room, according to a news release from the Rockford Police Department. The woman's name hasn't been released by the Winnebago County Coroner's Office.Her death is being investigated as a homicide and police said they don't believe it was a random act. Man killed after being hit by CTA train in Near West Side Anyone with information is asked to contact police online or call detectives at 815-966-2900.Anonymous tips can be submitted by texting RPDTIP and the tip to 847411, on the Rockford PD app or by calling Rockford Area Crime Stoppers at 815-963-7867.

The 44th Anniversary of the Wichita Falls tornado

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:13:56 GMT

April 10, 2023 will mark the 44th anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in Texas. On Tuesday, April 10, 1979 the city of Wichita Falls was struck by a tornado that leveled much of the southern part of the city.It's a day I won't ever forget. I was the chief meteorologist for the CBS affiliate, KAUZ-TV. I had the responsibility of reporting on a tornado that would ride into history for the deaths and destruction it left.The storms were easy to forecast given the atmospheric setup. A warm front lifted north bringing in warm, moist, and unstable air. A cold front with an associated area of low pressure was moving out of the Texas South Plains towards Wichita Falls. An area of low pressure was over Colorado . The upper-levels were such that thunderstorms were bound to happen in a part of what is commonly referred to as Tornado Alley. Warm and unstable air ahead of an approaching cold front helped fuel the tornado outbreakOur Monday, April 9 forecast alerted viewers that stro...