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New pickelball facility opens in Coconut Creek

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

Pickleball in the summer? Sounds like a hot sweaty experience.But thanks to a new SoFlo facility, you can whack balls all day in air conditioned comfort.Jean: “It’s if tennis and ping pong had a baby.”Alex Miranda: “Is it hype? Is the hype real?”Jean: “The hype is real, Alex. Pickelball, A, is addicting, B, its fun, C it’s social.”And at the Diadem Pickleball Complex in Coconut Creek, its bigger…Jean: “The acoustics and the ceiling height, there’s no place like this anywhere. Even these players traveling the world, they walk in here, they have the same reaction.”Brighter.Jean: “We have fantastic lighting because this was a college basketball gymnasium for college volleyball.”And cooler then ever.Alex Miranda: “The main selling point?”Jean: “Man. I’d say the ridiculous good looking guy on the wall over there.”Alex Miranda: “Well, aside from him.”Beat the heat ...

Dylan Cease shines as the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 in Game 1 of a doubleheader

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

Dylan Cease finished the second inning by striking out Nelson Velázquez and Nick Loftin.He began the third by striking out Drew Waters and Nick Pratto.Cease had one of his better starts of the season’s second half, helping the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2, in Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field.Cease allowed one run on four hits with eight strikeouts and one walk in 5 1/3 innings.“Today was solid,” Cease said. “I thought I commanded the ball pretty well, mixed it up good and the defense and offense played well. It was a good game.“I’ve been putting in a lot of work to make adjustments and I haven’t really seen a lot of results yet. But today is a step in the right direction.”It was his second time facing the Royals in the last week. He allowed four earned runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts and two walks on Sept. 5 at Kauffman Stadium.Cease allowed three solo home runs in that...

Revolution fire Richie Williams after Bruce Arena resignation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

The New England Revolution made wholesale changes in their coaching staff in the wake of head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena’s abrupt resignation on Saturday night.Clint Peay, head coach of Revolution II, will replace Richie Williams as interim head coach and he will be supplemented by Marcelo Santos as first assistant coach. In addition to Williams, the Revolution have parted ways with Arena’s two former assistant coaches. The Revolution released club legend Shalrie Joesph and Dave van den Bergh.The shakeup followed a series of team meetings on Tuesday morning involving Williams, the players, and members of team management at the Revolution’s training facility in Foxboro.Williams insisted during a 12:30 p.m. Zoom press conference that the team was onboard with moving forward with the status quo. Williams claimed the Revolution did not practice because they were tied up in meetings with the players, coaches, and team officials at the Revolution’s training facility.“We had b...

Lil Wayne and Olivia Rodrigo open the MTV Video Music Awards, NSYNC gives Swift night’s first award

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

By MARIA SHERMAN (AP Music Writer)Lil Wayne emerged to open the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards for a performance of his new single “Kat Food.” Immediately afterward, Olivia Rodrigo brought her “Vampire” music video set to the stage, before launching into her cheeky pop-punk single “Get Him Back!”Between the two tracks, snippets of her sold singles played aloud – symbolizing a move from her first record to her second.Tuesday’s show offered plenty of surprises in its opening moments, with the boy band NSYNC reuniting on the stage to present the first award for best pop video, which was given to Taylor Swift.In coordinating suits, Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, Chris Kickpatrick, and JC Chasez shared the stage with Swift, exchanging bracelets with her just as fans do at the superstar’s shows. “You’re pop personified,” she told the group.For the first time, only women are nominated in the show’s arti...

Healey to issue emergency declaration after rains batter homes, businesses

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

The governor will declare a statewide emergency in order to free up cash for communities slammed by relentless rain that has left the likes of Leominster devastated.Gov. Maura Healey was due to meet with her gubernatorial counterparts in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday for a National Governors Association event, but instead was in Bristol and Worcester counties to survey the “real devastation” caused by severe storm systems.“I am preparing a declaration for a state of emergency that will be a statewide declaration,” she said alongside MBTA General Manager Phil Eng and other state and local officials joining her in Leominster to view the flooded city. “That will enable us to do certain things and further free assets and resources.”Healey was in North Attleboro earlier, where she said she was with a woman when she learned that flooding there had done enough damage to her home it would have to be condemned.“She had 6 feet of water in her basement last night,” Healey said.Rain Tuesday nigh...

Nathan Fletcher asks court to remove sexual assault allegations from lawsuit

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher has filed new motions in court to ask a judge to remove significant portions from the ongoing lawsuit against him, including the allegations of sexual assault and harassment at the center of the case.The new motions filed by Fletcher's attorney last Friday reiterate his claims that the encounters between him and a former MTS employee, Grecia Figueroa, were "consensual" and that the lawsuit is not a "credible" recounting of these interactions.He also maintains that he had no control over Figueroa's employment with the transit agency and that her job "required very little, if any, direct interaction" with Fletcher.The motions ask the court to remove the allegations from the Figueroa's complaint that detail two instances of sexual assault by the former supervisor, as well as accusations that her job was abruptly terminated by MTS as a result of the incidents. Timeline: Unfolding of the Nathan Fletcher scandal "... the ev...

How Libya’s chaos left its people vulnerable to deadly flooding

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A storm that has killed thousands of people and left thousands more missing in Libya is the latest blow to a country that has been gutted by years of chaos and division.The floods are the most fatal environmental disaster in the country’s modern history. Years of war and lack of a central government have left it with crumbling infrastructure that was vulnerable to the intense rains. Libya is currently the only country yet to develop a climate strategy, according to the United Nations.The north African country has been divided between rival administrations and beset by militia conflict since NATO-backed Arab Spring uprising toppled autocratic ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.The city of Derna in the country’s east saw the most destruction, as large swaths of riverside buildings vanished, washed away after two dams burst. Videos of the aftermath show water gushing through the port city’s remaining tower blocks and overturned cars, and later, bodies lined up on sidewalks cov...

SNC-Lavalin rebrands to AtkinsRéalis in bid to shed scandal-plagued past, reset image

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

MONTREAL — SNC-Lavalin is changing its name to AtkinsRéalis as it faces an “inflection point” in its 112-year history, according to CEO Ian Edwards, after a tumultuous decade for the engineering giant.The rebrand follows 11 years markedby trouble with the law, including the Libya corruption scandal that tarnished its reputation and ensnared the highest office of the Canadian government, as well as lacklustre earnings at times.The company also hopes to shed the costly backlog of big, over-budget rail contracts that has plagued it for years and launch expansion plans after a steady slim-down regimen and, until 2021, declining revenue and headcount.“Four years ago when I became the CEO, I think we were very transparent: We said there’s a part of the company which is excellent, performs really well; there’s parts of the company which don’t … We’re going to stop doing what’s not working, we’re going to do more of what working re...

Slave descendants vow to fight on after Georgia county approves larger homes for island enclave

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

DARIEN, Ga. (AP) — Descendants of enslaved people living on a Georgia island vowed to keep fighting Tuesday after county commissioners voted to double the maximum size of homes allowed in their tiny enclave, which residents fear will accelerate the decline of one of the South’s few surviving Gullah-Geechee communities.Black residents of the Hogg Hummock community on Sapelo Island and their supporters packed a meeting of McIntosh County’s elected commissioners to oppose zoning changes that residents say favor wealthy buyers and will lead to tax increases that could pressure them to sell their land.Regardless, commissioners voted 3-2 to weaken zoning restrictions the county adopted nearly three decades ago with the stated intent to help Hogg Hummock’s 30 to 50 residents hold on to their land.Yolanda Grovner, 54, of Atlanta said she has long planned to retire on land her father, an island native, owns in Hogg Hummock. She left the county courthouse Tuesday night wonde...

Escaped Pennsylvania inmate still believed to be within specific perimeter, police say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:23 GMT

POTTSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Escaped murderer Danelo Souza Cavalcante is still believed to be within a search perimeter in a rural stretch of southeastern Pennsylvania hours after he stole a rifle from a garage and fled a homeowner’s gunfire, authorities said Tuesday.Heavily armed police descended on the South Coventry Township area closing roads and telling residents to lock their doors in the nearly 2-week-old manhunt. In the evening, Pennsylvania State Police said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Cavalcante was believed to be in the area of Routes 23 and 100, Fairview and Nantmeal Roads and Iron Bridge and County Park Roads.“Residents should secure buildings, property and vehicles,” police said. “Report sightings or related activity immediately to 911.”Helicopters hovered overhead throughout the day as officers brought in horses, search dogs and armored personnel carriers and began searching an 8- to 10-square-mile (21- to 26-square-kilometer) area of rolling farm country, forests ...