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Column: This World Series continues a disturbing trend of diminishing audiences. Why is no one watching?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

Seven years ago Thursday the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians staged an epic Game 7 of the World Series that averaged 40 million TV viewers.The once-in-a-lifetime win by the Cubs led MLB and Fox to crow that the game was healthier than ever, and who could dispute them after an audience like that?It was the most-watched World Series game in 25 years, since the Minnesota Twins beat the Atlanta Braves before 50 million viewers in another Game 7 in 1991. The 2016 Cubs were a likable, young team that figured to be back again, and around the league, team executives plotted their own rebuilds to emulate Chicago’s success. But that didn’t happen. The Cubs’ win in ’16 turned out to be a blip, not only for their hopes of creating a dynasty but for baseball’s resurgence on the national sports scene.Fast-forward to 2023, a year when new rules were implemented to bring fans a faster-paced game with more hitting and added speed on the base paths. It was an instant ...

Gaza crossing opens for foreign passport holders and wounded as Israeli strikes pound refugee camp

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

By NAJIB JOBAIN and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — After more than three weeks of siege, the first Palestinians — dozens of dual passport holders and seriously injured — were allowed to leave Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes pounded a refugee camp for the second day Wednesday.Even as bombings have driven tens of thousands from their homes and food, water and fuel run low, no one has been allowed to leave the embattled enclave, except for four hostages released by Hamas. Another captive was rescued by Israeli forces earlier this week. But a limited agreement appeared to have been reached Wednesday.Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera television, one of the few media outlets still reporting from northern Gaza, aired footage of devastation in the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City and of several wounded people, including children, being brought to a nearby hospital. The Hamas-run government said the strikes killed and wounded many people, but the exact toll was not yet known.Th...

Healey administration projected shelter costs could reach $1.1B in FY24, court docs say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

The Healey administration expected it could spend up to $1.1 billion this fiscal year on emergency shelters and associated costs for local homeless and migrant families if caseload trends continued and space was readily available, according to court documents.In a signed affidavit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, Administration and Finance Assistant Secretary Aditya Basheer laid out the projected cost as a judge weighed whether to put a hold on a plan to cap the number of families in emergency shelter, which has swelled this year partly because of a surge in migrant arrivals.“If family shelter net caseload continues to expand at a rate consistent with the activity of the last several months, the state projects a shelter caseload of approximately 13,500 families by the end of (fiscal year 2024),” Basheer wrote. “This would represent a 187% increase over the caseload contemplated in the FY24 budget. This projected caseload would result in family shelter and associated programs ...

The Supreme Court confronts the question of trademark rights in the ‘Trump too small’ case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — Another day, another Supreme Court case with a mention of former President Donald Trump.In arguments Wednesday, the justices will weigh a California man’s attempt to trademark a phrase mocking the former president and current Republican front-runner for 2024 as “too small.”Following a day of arguments in social media cases with echoes of Trump, the Justice Department is supporting President Joe Biden’s once and possibly future rival in urging the court to deny a trademark for the suggestive phrase “Trump too small” that Steve Elster wants to put on T-shirts.Government officials said the phrase “Trump too small” could still be used, just not trademarked because Trump had not consented to its use. But a federal appeals court said refusing trademark registration violated free speech rights.The high court has considered a raft of Trump-related cases in recent years. The justices hav...

‘Makes me sad’: New Quebec poll sees Premier Legault losing ground to Parti Québécois

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

Quebec Premier François Legault says he takes full responsibility for his party’s sagging poll numbers.He told reporters that a new Leger poll published today, conducted for the Journal de Montréal and Journal de Québec, makes him “sad.”His Coalition Avenir Québec party collected 30 per cent support, down four percentage points from September — and way off the highs of more than 40 per cent it consistently received before the 2022 election.The sovereigntist Parti Québécois — with only four seats in the legislature — is up four points from September to 26 per cent, good for second place. The PQ, led by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, is fresh off an October byelection victory in Quebec City, during which it collected more than 44 per cent of the vote and double what Legault’s party won.Meanwhile, the Quebec Liberal Party and Québec solidaire are tied at 15 per cent, and the Conservative party led by Éric Duhaime collected 12 per cent support in the Leger poll.Among ...

AP news site hit by apparent denial-of-service attack

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

The Associated Press news website experienced an outage that appeared to be consistent with a denial-of-service attack, a federal criminal act that involves flooding a site with data in order to overwhelm it and knock it offline.Attempting to visit the apnews.com site starting Tuesday afternoon would load the home page, although links to individual stories failed in various ways. Some pages remained blank, while others displayed error messages. The problem was resolved by Wednesday morning.AP’s delivery systems to customers and mobile apps were not affected by the outage. “We’ve experienced periodic surges in traffic but we’re still looking into the cause,” said Nicole Meir, a media relations manager at the company. When engineers thought they had a handle on surging traffic from one source, she said, it would resurface elsewhere.A hacktivist group that calls itself Anonymous Sudan said on its Telegram channel Tuesday morning that it would be launching attacks on Western news ...

Cleanup is done on a big Kansas oil spill on the Keystone system, the company and EPA say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The operator of the Keystone pipeline system has finished cleaning up a massive December 2022 oil spill, and the creek affected by it is flowing naturally again, the company and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say.Pipeline operator TC Energy promised to continue monitoring the site along Mill Creek in Washington County, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City. The Canada-based company and the EPA’s regional office announced Tuesday that berms that had diverted the creek around the spill site had been removed.The EPA said Kansas’ environmental agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also will continue to inspect the area for the next five years or “until it is determined that monitoring is no longer needed.”The spill dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of crude oil — each one enough to fill a standard household bathtub — into the creek as it ran through a rural pasture. The oil was recovered by mid-May, the company has said.The ...

Utility stocks help boost S&P/TSX composite, U.S. stock markets also higher

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

TORONTO — Strength in the utility stocks helped lead Canada’s main stock index higher in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets also rose.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 90.75 points at 18,964.22.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 151.33 points at 33,204.20. The S&P 500 index was up 19.96 points at 4,213.76, while the Nasdaq composite was up 76.93 points at 12,928.17.The Canadian dollar traded for 72.12 cents US compared with 72.09 cents US on Tuesday.The December crude contract was up US$1.70 at US$82.72 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was down five cents at US$3.53 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was up 50 cents at US$1,994.80 an ounce and the December copper contract was up two cents at US$3.67 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) The Canadian Press

Texas Rep. Kay Granger won’t seek reelection in 2024 after nearly 30 years in Congress

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the Republican chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday she will not seek reelection in 2024 after nearly three decades in Congress.Granger, 80, is the nation’s longest-serving GOP congresswoman and was first elected in 1996. Her district, which includes Fort Worth, is heavily Republican and is likely to remain out of reach for Democrats next yea r. “It’s time for the next generation to step up and take the mantle and be a strong and fierce representative for the people,” Granger said in a statement. Her decision ends a barrier-breaking career that included serving as Fort Worth’s first female mayor and Texas’ first GOP congresswoman. Her district includes a Lockheed Martin plant that builds the F-35 fighter jet, and over the years, she has been a key force in securing more military funding.Granger was among the Republicans who opposed Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid to become Hou...

Denmark drops cases against former defense minister and ex-spy chief charged with leaking secrets

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:18 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish prosecution dismissed Wednesday two separate cases against a former defense minister and an ex-head of the country’s foreign intelligence service due to the inability to divulge classified information in court. Both were charged with leaking state secrets,Last week, Denmark’s highest court ruled that the two cases which have been shrouded in secrecy, should be made public and sessions were to be closed off whenever sensitive information was presented.In a statement, Denmark’s prosecution authority said that “in the interests of the state’s security, it is no longer safe to make highly classified information available in criminal proceedings.” Prosecutor Jakob Berger Nielsen said in the statement that the legal process would have forced “the disclosure of confidential information.” Former defense minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, 76, had in several interviews in 2020 and 2021, alleged that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service — which is responsibl...