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Column: 2023 MLB season begins with new rules, old narratives and the same opening-day dreams

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

After the success of the World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball begins its regular season Thursday at a ballpark near you.It’s a little like having dessert before a full-course dinner, knowing you’ll be full by the end but not caring a bit because it tasted so good.If MLB could bottle the feeling the WBC created and repackage it in October, when competition from the NFL typically hurts its postseason ratings, it would do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately baseball will have to count on getting a World Series matchup as delicious as the championship game between the United States and Japan.The 2023 season figures to be an important one for MLB, which instituted several rule changes in an effort to build a better relationship with younger fans allegedly turned off by long games with limited action between pitches. The balance between catering to kids raised on video games and older fans who understand the complex pitcher-hitter dynamic was difficult to reach, but the ...

With 9 games left, where do the Chicago Bulls stand in the NBA play-in tournament?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

The Chicago Bulls are fighting for a spot in the NBA play-in tournament, a battle for the last two playoff seeds in each conference. Here’s an explainer about the history of the event and how it works — and where the Bulls stand.When did the play-in begin?The NBA introduced the idea after the restart of the pandemic-delayed 2019-20 season, with a team needing to be within four games of the No. 8 seed to force a play-in for the last playoff spot in the conference.The Memphis Grizzlies finished a half-game behind the No. 8 seed Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference, and the Blazers won the first game of a play-in, thus earning the final playoff spot. In the East, the ninth-place Washington Wizards finished 7½ games behind the eighth-place Orlando Magic, meaning a play-in was unnecessary.How has the tournament evolved?The next year, the NBA expanded its play-in rules, with only the top-six seeds in each conference guaranteed of a playoff spot and the Nos. 7-...

Patrick Beverley relishes the old and new in his return to Chicago. ‘Wherever I’m going, I’m going home,’ the Bulls guard says.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

When Patrick Beverley finally came home, it wasn’t to the Chicago he used to know.This is a natural progression for any NBA athlete. Hometowns become a stop in the offseason calendar, stuck as a childhood memory as the city evolves without the athletes it raised.Now that he’s back, Beverley finds Chicago familiar and foreign all at once. He lives on a different side of the city than he grew up on, commutes each day to work at the arena where he used to sneak into games as a kid.But even with the novelty created by spending a decade away from home, Chicago is still the place that defined Beverley, a place he never really left.“I feel it every time I come into practice. I feel it every time I leave practice,” Beverley, 34, said. “I feel it every time I come into a game the same as when I leave the game. Wherever I’m going, I’m going home. I just can’t believe I’m in Chicago. It almost feels too good to be true.”It is somethin...

Pakistani ex-PM Khan sets out economic rescue plan at rally

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan led a rally in the eastern city of Lahore in the early hours of Sunday, setting out his ideas to revive the country’s spiraling economy and accusing the government of lacking a rescue plan.The International Monetary Fund has delayed a $6 billion bailout over Pakistan’s failure to meet the terms of a 2019 deal. The government blames that failure on Khan, now the opposition leader.Khan spoke to thousands of party supporters on a damp night in Lahore from a bulletproof box perched atop a shipping container. In his address, at the Minar-e-Pakistan landmark, the former cricketer railed against the government and challenged it to come forward with a rescue plan to bring the country out of its many economic difficulties. “We need surgery to correct the governance system of this country, for which ensuring rule of law is a must,” he said. “To reduce the current account deficit, we have to encourage our overseas Pakistanis to...

Ukraine official: Putin taking Belarus as ‘nuclear hostage’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top security official on Sunday denounced the Kremlin’s plans to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus, saying that Russia was taking its ally as a “nuclear hostage.”But Moscow said it was making the move in response to the West’s increasing military support for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the plan in a television interview that aired on Saturday, saying it was triggered by a U.K. decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium. Putin argued that by deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia was following the lead of the United States. He noted that Washington has nuclear weapons based in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. “We are doing what they have been doing for decades, stationing them in certain allied countries, preparing the launch platforms and training their crews,” he said. Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukrain...

California looks to spend some Medicaid money on housing

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — At the start of 2022, Thomas Marshall weighed 311 pounds. He had been hospitalized 10 times in five years, including six surgeries. He had an open wound on his left leg that refused to heal — made worse by living in a dirty, moldy house with five other people, two ball pythons, four Chihuahuas and a cage full of rats.More than a year later, Marshall has lost nearly 100 pounds. His wound has healed. His blood pressure has returned to normal levels. His foot, which had nerve damage, has improved to the point he goes on regular walks to the park.Lots of factors are at play in Marshall’s dramatic turnaround, but the one he credits the most is finally having stable housing, after the nonprofit Sacramento Covered helped him get a one-bedroom, 500 square-foot (46.4-square-meter) apartment in a downtown high rise. He has hardwood floors, white pine cabinets and a glass jar on the counter filled with Bit-O-Honeys.“To me it’s the most important 500 square...

Factory or farm? Oregon may alter land use for chipmakers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. (AP) — Aaron Nichols walked past rows of kale growing on his farm, his knee-high brown rubber boots speckled with some of the richest soil on earth, and gazed with concern toward fields in the distance. Just over the horizon loomed a gigantic building of the semiconductor chipmaker Intel. For exactly 50 years, the farms and forests that ring Oregon’s metropolitan centers have been protected from urban sprawl by the nation’s first statewide law that placed growth boundaries on cities. Cities cannot expand beyond those borders unless they make a request and justify it. Approval by cities and counties can take months or even a few years (larger expansions also need approval by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development).But now, a bill being considered in Oregon’s Legislature could authorize the governor to unilaterally expand those boundaries as part of Oregon’s quest to lure chip companies and provide land for them to build their factori...

Men shoot at police, officers fire back in Marshall Square

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

CHICAGO — Shots were exchanged between officers and two men who police put into custody for the possession of handguns Saturday night, police say.According to police, officers were conducting an investigatory street stop near the 2200 block of South Sacramento where two men were placed into custody for possessing handguns. Man fatally shot on West Side, officer injured in group incident Police say two unknown men were standing at the mouth of the alley when one of the men fired shots at the police. Officers retuned fire with no hits or injuries. Officers were able to catch up to the men and they were placed into custody. Another handgun was recovered and COPA is investigating the incident.

Austin neighbors frustrated over lingering burned homes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The view from Diana Melcer Whitson's front door in north Austin is eye catching for what she said are all the wrong reasons.“It's just gotten worse,” Whitson said as she looked at the house across the street.The front yard is filled with all kinds of oddities.“Mannequins that need to be dressed,” she pointed out. “Vacant vehicles.”And then there are the painted signs throughout the yard.  “It says, 'Love thy neighbor, even if she is bat-s--- crazy'”, Whitson read.Whitson says neighbors in her community have been trying for years to get the owner to clean up. Austin Code Department records show eight complaints in the last three years.A code department spokesperson described to KXAN Investigates a back-and-forth process where the owner would clean up sometimes to get in compliance and not act on other violation notices.The code department even got a warrant to remove junk from the front and back yards, but the spokesperson said the owner kept collecting more stuf...

Sunday sunshine before a mostly cloudy week

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:44:57 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The overnight was mostly clear before some clouds arrived in the upper flow. Those clouds will clear for some of the area during the morning. A mostly sunny sky is forecast from I-35 westward. There will be more cloud cover during the afternoon in our eastern counties where there is a low chance of rain.Low rain chance mostly east of I-35Highs will be warmer than normal again today. Highs should reach the low to mid 80s this afternoon especially in that area from the Hill Country eastward to the I-35 viewing area. Off to the east it looks like highs remain in the upper 70s because of the cloud cover and rain.Highs above the normal of 76°Afternoon humidity will be lowest in the western part of the area. More moisture means higher humidity where the spotty rain is forecast.Somewhat humid in our eastern counties this afternoonThe first of two cold fronts arrives overnight Monday to Tuesday morning with a 30% chance of rain/thunderstorms to a 10% chance of rain after su...