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Orioles roundtable: Looking at offseason’s top priorities, potential fits and more

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

The Orioles’ offseason is here, giving them the chance to improve a roster that won the American League East but was swept out of the playoffs by the eventual World Series champion Texas Rangers.Despite their regular-season successes, the Orioles have areas they can improve. Baltimore also has five players who are now free agents — Kyle Gibson, Adam Frazier, Aaron Hicks, Jack Flaherty and Shintaro Fujinami — and about three times as many who are eligible for arbitration, leaving holes and decisions.As the Orioles’ offseason gets underway, Baltimore Sun beat reporters Nathan Ruiz and Jacob Calvin Meyer and editor Tim Schwartz give their thoughts on what this winter should look like for Baltimore.What is the Orioles’ top offseason priority?Ruiz: Don’t let the words and exclamation points on the Camden Yards video board fool you: The Orioles remain without a long-term lease binding them to the ballpark and Baltimore. The 30-year “deal” an...

Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 37-3 win over the Seattle Seahawks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

The Ravens played rude hosts to another NFC contender, riding their overpowering defense and a neatly varied running game to blow out the Seattle Seahawks, 37-3.Here are five things we learned from the game.The Ravens are for realKyle Hamilton dropped to the turf for pushups — penance for an interception he did not make — as general manager Eric DeCosta looked on in mock disbelief.Was this a tense moment in a touch-and-go game between postseason contenders?Not at all. It was visual proof of just how loose the Ravens felt late in the third quarter after their defense had spent the afternoon beating up another NFC heavyweight.Just as the Detroit Lions had two weeks earlier, the Seahawks traveled to Baltimore a confident team, winners of five of their past six games and first in their division. They left thoroughly beaten, testifying to the home team’s quality.“They just went to work, and we didn’t stop them,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “...

Lucas: Maura Healey should send immigrants from Massachusetts to New Hampshire

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

Gov. Maura Healey ought to begin busing immigrants to New Hampshire.That is one way she could help cope with the endless invasion of immigrants — both legal and illegal — that has overwhelmed the state’s ability to house and feed them, not to mention the cost to taxpayers.New Hampshire will not like it, of course, just the way the residents of Martha’s Vineyard did not like it when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew in a couple of planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to the toney island in 2022.New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu will not like it either. Sununu, who recently announced the creation of a Northern Border Alliance Task Force to go after illegal immigrants crossing into New Hampshire from Canada, may now have to worry about his border with Massachusetts as well.While Joe Biden’s open southern border with Mexico gets all the attention — with an additional army of 5,000 immigrants loudly marching toward it today — the U.S border with Canada is open as well.But New Hamps...

QPAREB says Montreal home sales in October down 2% from year ago level

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

MONTREAL — The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers say home sales in the Montreal area in October fell two per cent compared with the same month last year to their second-lowest level since it began compiling market data in 2000.The association says Montreal home sales totalled 2,675 in October, down from 2,740 a year earlier.Single-family home sales totalled 1,347 in October, down six per cent compared with 1,438 in the same period last year, while condominium sales amounted to 1,018 transactions compared with 1,021 in October 2022.Plex sales rose 10 per cent to 307 sales compared with 279 sales of the small income properties a year earlier.Active listings rose to 17,518 in October, a gain of 12 per cent from 15,708 a year ago, while new listings climbed 10 per  cent to 5,816 compared with 5,306 a year earlier.The association says the median price of a single family home was $545,000, up from $510,000 a year ago, while the median price for a condominium was $390,...

Police say a shooter fired 22 shots into a Cincinnati crowd, killing a boy and wounding 5 others

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

CINCINNATI (AP) — Cincinnati officials are expressing outrage and horror at a drive-by shooting that sent more than a score of bullets into a crowd of children, killing an 11-year-old boy and striking four other children and an adult.Police Chief Terri Theetge told reporters Sunday that an occupant of a sedan fired 22 rounds “in quick succession” into a crowd of children just before 9:30 p.m. Friday on the city’s West End. A 53-year-old woman was hit along with the boy who died; three other boys aged 12, 13 and 15; and a 15-year-old girl. One victim remained hospitalized in stable condition.Mayor Aftab Pureval called the shooting “sickening and unimaginable” and said it occurred in a vibrant neighborhood next to a local park and near a historic elementary school. “Twenty-two rounds were fired,” Pureval said. “Twenty-two rounds in a moment — into a crowd of kids. No time to respond. No time to react.”Pureval said the neighborhood is suffering “unimaginable trauma.” On Saturday ...

Migration from Senegal surges as more than 32,000 people have landed in Spain’s Canary Islands

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s Canary Islands have set a new record for the number of irregular arrivals to the archipelago, with more than 32,000 migrants making the treacherous boat journey on the Atlantic Ocean to the European Union territory this year. Most migrants are leaving from Senegal.The islands, located near the African continent, have been used for decades as a stepping stone to Europe. Though the majority of arrivals are from Senegal, there are also boats departing from Gambia, Mauritania, Morocco and the Western Sahara. According to an Associated Press tally of figures released by Spain’s Interior Ministry and local emergency services, at least 32,029 people landed there from Jan. 1 to Nov. 5 — exceeding the notorious migration crisis of 2006, when 31,678 migrants disembarked in the Canaries. Smugglers in Senegal pack young people looking for better opportunities in Europe into old artisanal fishing boats. The journey from Senegal to the Canaries usually takes a week...

The Polish president will appoint a new prime minister after opposition coalition’s election win

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish President Andrzej Duda will appoint a new prime minister in a national address on Monday, an aide said. The announcement will trigger the process of forming a new government after general elections last month in which the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party lost its parliamentary majority to three allied opposition parties but emerged as the single biggest vote-getter. This has fed speculation over Duda’s choice. “Following consultations and after deep consideration, President Andrzej Duda has taken his decision regarding the so-called first step” (in forming a government), presidential aide Marcin Mastalerek said on X, formerly known as Twitter.He said the decision is “final” and not subject to pleas from politicians, whom he advised to “calmly watch the evening address.”An ally of the current government, Duda has said the two candidates for prime minister are the current conservative premier, Mateusz Morawiecki, and former prime minister and ...

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi goes on a hunger strike while imprisoned in Iran

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A campaign urging Iran to free Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said Monday that the activist has begun a hunger strike over the conditions of her imprisonment and the country’s requirement that women wear headscarves. The Free Narges Mohammadi campaign said she “through a message from Evin Prison has informed her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago.” It said Mohammadi and her lawyer for weeks have sought her transfer to a specialist hospital for heart and lung care.It did not elaborate on what conditions Mohammadi suffered from, though it described her as receiving an echocardiogram of her heart.Iranian state media did not immediately acknowledge that Mohammadi had gone on a hunger strike. Mohammadi, 51, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She has remained a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the death last year of a...

AP survey finds 55 of 69 schools in major college football now sell alcohol at stadiums on game day

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — College football tailgates are as synonymous with the game as blocking and tackling. Burgers, brats and beer go along with the cornhole and camaraderie for tens of thousands of people every Saturday, a beloved tradition seen outside stadiums big and small.“My dad almost gets more excited for football season than I do because of the tailgating and stuff like that,” said J.J. McCarthy, the star quarterback for No. 2 Michigan. For many years, the booze flowed only outside of stadiums. Not anymore: Selling beer and wine inside college football stadiums has become the norm over the past decade, a way for schools to bring in more revenue and attract fans who might otherwise be inclined to stay home.According to a survey by The Associated Press of Power Five conference schools and Notre Dame, 55 of 69 of them — 80% — now sell alcohol in the public areas of their stadiums on game days. Of the remaining schools, some sell alcoholic drinks in non-public areas of the...

US senators seek answers from Army after reservist killed 18 in Maine

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:26 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Two senators from Maine asked the U.S. Army inspector general on Monday to provide a full accounting of interactions with a reservist before he killed 18 people and injured 13 others in the deadliest shooting in the state’s history.U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent, told Lt. Gen. Donna W. Martin in a letter that it’s important to understand “what occurred, or failed to occur” at the federal level, including the Army, before Robert Card opened fire at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston.Fellow soldiers expressed concerns about Card’s mental health before the Oct. 25 shootings. One of them sent a text message in September saying, “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting,” according to law enforcement.The senators view their federal request as working in tandem with an independent commission that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is convening to explore the facts related to the shooting, inc...