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Column: Red-hot Chicago Cubs walking on air as they begin a homestand against the LA Dodgers. ‘The team is playing like we hoped.’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

The Chicago Cubs returned to Wrigley Field on Thursday on the heels of a 5-1 West Coast trip, looking very much like a team determined to prove its hot start is not a fluke.While it’s easy for fans to get excited about the 11-6 record, how many games will it take for President Jed Hoyer to feel this is who the Cubs really are?“One (hundred) forty,” Hoyer said with a laugh.That would be another 123 games, or well into the playoff race in September. By that point the Bears will be back and hogging the spotlight again, as happens in Chicago even if one or both of the baseball teams are contenders.When Hoyer turned serious, he said the thing that encouraged him most about the start was the fact the team believes in itself and comes into each game prepared to win.“They come in every day prepared, they’re talking about baseball all the time, there’s real intensity there all the time,” Hoyer said. “The effort level to me I know isn’t go...

Man accused of shooting girl, parents arrested in Florida

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man accused of shooting and wounding a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard was arrested in Florida Thursday afternoon, authorities said.The violence was the latest in a string of recent shootings sparked by seemingly trivial circumstances.Robert Louis Singletary, 24, was arrested in the Tampa area by Hillsborough County deputies, according to online jail records. He was being held without bail on a fugitive warrant. He’s scheduled to appear in court Friday.Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill said at a news conference Wednesday that his department and the U.S. Marshals Service’s Regional Fugitive Task Force had been conducting a broad search for Singletary, who fled after the Tuesday night shootings near Gastonia, a city of roughly 80,000 people west of Charlotte. Singletary had been out on bond in a December attack in which authorities say he assaulted ...

Oregon secures 3-year supply of abortion-inducing medication

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said Thursday she has directed the state to obtain a supply of the most commonly used abortion medication in the U.S. amid fears that a court ruling could restrict access to it. The Democratic governor said regardless of the court’s decision about mifepristone’s availability, patients in Oregon will have access to it for years. “I will make sure that patients are able to access the medication they need and providers are able to provide that medication without unnecessary, politically-motivated interference and intimidation,” Kotek said in a statement. According to Kotek’s office, the state is partnering with Oregon Health & Science University to obtain 22,500 doses of mifepristone. The state joins Washington, California, New York and Massachusetts in buying bulk amounts of abortion medication in recent weeks.Maryland’s governor announced Friday that his state was doing the same, while New Jersey’s governor has said he’s considering...

Christie: Trump reruns would be worse than original show

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

HENNIKER, N.H. (AP) — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie delivered his opening arguments against Donald Trump on Thursday, sounding like the prosecutor he once was and the presidential candidate he might become again.“Tonight is the beginning of the case against Donald Trump,” Christie said in New Hampshire, where he devoted his entire opening remarks at a town hall meeting to pounding on the former president he once supported. “You’re not going to beat someone by closing your eyes, clicking your heels together three times and saying, ‘There’s no place like home.’ That’s not going to work,” he said. “In American politics you want to beat somebody? You have to go get them.”Christie called out several Republican candidates and potential candidates — including former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — for barely uttering Trump’s name and argued that Trump’s policy and character failures would only grow if he returns to office.“Donald Trump is a TV...

Families fear more delays in 2018 Texas school shooting case

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Family members of those killed and wounded during a 2018 attack on a Texas high school in which 10 people were fatally shot expressed concern Thursday that the already delayed case against the accused gunman could be further held up pending the possible removal of the trial judge, facing allegations of bias and prior legal ties to the defendant.“We don’t even have any confidence we’re ever going to trial at this point,” said Scot Rice, whose wife Flo was one of another 13 people shot and wounded during the attack at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018.Scot and Flo Rice, who was a substitute teacher, spoke after a court hearing over motions filed by lawyers for 22-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the accused shooter, who has been at a Texas state hospital since December 2019, when he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.Pagourtzis has been charged with capital murder in the shooting that left eight students and two teachers dead at the school some 35 m...

Alec Baldwin charge will be dropped in movie set shooting

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors said Thursday they will dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal 2021 shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western film “ Rust,” but cautioned that their investigation is not over and the actor has not been absolved yet.Special prosecutors Kari Morrisey and Jason Lewis announced their decision to dismiss the felony charge after “new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis,” without giving further details. An involuntary manslaughter charge against Hannah Gutierrez Reed, weapons supervisor on the film, remains unchanged, they said.“We cannot proceed under the current time constraints and on the facts and evidence turned over by law enforcement,” the prosecutors said in a statement. “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled. Our follow-up investigation will remain active and on-going.”Lawyers for Baldwin were first to...

1 dead in Brampton shooting, suspect fled in vehicle

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

A man is dead and police are searching for suspects after a shooting in Brampton.Peel police were called to the Bramsteele Road and Rutherford Road South area on Thursday night for reports of shots fired.One person was located with gunshot wounds and rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. The male victim was later pronounced dead.A police source tells CityNews that a suspect fled the scene in a vehicle.No other injuries were reported. The homicide bureau is investigating.

Radio host Larry Elder announces 2024 GOP bid for president

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, who sought to replace the California governor in a failed 2021 recall effort, announced Thursday he is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Elder, 70, made the announcement on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and followed up with a tweet.“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President,” he wrote.The long-shot candidate joins a Republican field that includes former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said he plans to seek reelection. Elder made his first bid for public office in 2021, when he received the most votes out of 46 people who were hoping to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall effort. But a majority of voters ended up ...

Man shot to death at a Starbucks in Mexico City

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A man was shot to death Thursday at a Starbucks coffee shop in an upscale neighborhood of Mexico City, and police saif he apparently had links to a northern Mexico drug cartel. City police said the shooting occurred inside the Plaza Carso shopping mall on the edge of the wealthy Polanco district. Photos posted by police showed crime scene tape around a seating area near the entrance to the coffee shop. City police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch wrote in his social media accounts that the victim had an outstanding arrest warrant in Oklahoma for drug trafficking.Harfuch said the man, whose name was not released, was “presumably linked to organized crime in the north of the country.”It was the second killing this month at a Starbucks outlet in Mexico. Earlier this month, a man was shot to death at one of the coffee shops in the Caribbean coast resort of Tulum. Prosecutors there said thieves tried to take the man’s watch and then opened fire. The Associated Press

Man hit by vehicle, then robbed at gunpoint on West Side

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:20:16 GMT

CHICAGO — A man was struck by a car and then injured after the vehicle's occupants robbed him at gunpoint on the city's West Side. Police said the incident happened in the 0-100 block of South Kedzie around 7 a.m. Thursday.The 30-year-old man told police he was crossing the street when a white sedan struck him, and four men exited the vehicle. The men displayed a gun and robbed the man of his personal property. About a dozen freight train cars derail in Blue Island According to police, one of the men then fired a shot before getting back into the vehicle and fleeing the scene. The 30-year-old was injured in the thumb and self-transported to Stroger Hospital in fair condition.Police originally said he was shot, but later said he wasn't shot but cut himself with his pocket knife.No one is in custody. Area Four detectives are investigating.