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Chicago baseball report: Is Pedro Grifol concerned with the White Sox pitching — and how will the Cubs celebrate home runs this year?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

The Chicago Cubs and White Sox have started the season with plenty of drama, some of it unwanted.Cubs manager David Ross fended off Twitter critics after a questionable move in a loss in Cincinnati, while Sox manager Pedro Grifol dealt with pitching woes in a historically bad start by his staff.There’s a long way to go, but things are already off to an interesting start for both teams.Every week throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened and what’s ahead for the Cubs and Sox.Cubs playing it old schoolEveryone has a gimmick these days for celebrating a home run hitter’s return to the dugout.The Milwaukee Brewers crown their guy with a cheesehead, and the Cincinnati Reds have a Viking theme. As former Cubs President Theo Epstein often said, it’s a copycat league.So what will be the Cubs’ home run celebration shtick? Or will this be a shtick-free season?“It has to be organic,” outfielder Ian Happ sai...

In mass rally, Israeli settlers march to West Bank outpost

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition.The mass rally also threatened to further raise tensions that have been heightened by days of unrest across the region over a contested Jerusalem holy site. In new violence, Israel troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank.Monday’s march took place in the northern West Bank — the scene of repeated violence in recent months. Thousands of Israeli police and army forces were reportedly deployed to secure the march, which added to the already combustible atmosphere that has accompanied the overlap of major Jewish and Muslim holy days. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks surrounding the...

New BOJ head says banks stable, rules out major policy shift

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The new governor of Japan’s central bank signaled Monday that he plans no drastic changes in its ultra-low interest rate policy, sticking to earlier messaging on the topic. Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said Japan’s financial institutions are not facing the sorts of turmoil seen recently with bank failures in the U.S. and Europe. He pledged to do his utmost to maintain stability in both prices and financial systems in the world’s third-largest economy.“Markets have calmed and, as far as the impact on the Japanese system, we have maintained the easy monetary policy, and there is ample capital and fluidity,” Ueda said.Japan’s central bank is seeing its first leadership change in a decade, at a time when inflationary pressures around the world remain a risk and central banks are fighting back with big interest rate increases meant to slow economic activity. Ueda is taking over what many see as the unfinished work of his predecessor, Haruhiko Kuroda, whose second five...

China military ‘ready to fight’ after drills near Taiwan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military declared Monday it is “ready to fight” after completing three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese president’s trip to the U.S. last week. The “combat readiness patrols” named Joint Sword were meant as a warning to self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its own, China’s military said earlier. “The theater’s troops are ready to fight at all times and can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts,” it said Monday.The exercises were similar to ones conducted by China last August, when it launched missile strikes on targets in the seas around Taiwan in retaliation for then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, but have been smaller and less disruptive.Military experts say the exercises serve both as intimidation and as an opportunity for Chinese troops to practice sealing off Taiwan by ...

Summer feel hitting Toronto this week with near record-setting warmth

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

Summer is that you? We’re just a few weeks into spring but the GTA is in for an incredible run of near record-breaking weather this week.An above seasonal stretch of mostly sunny skies begins Monday with daytime highs well into the double digits, and dipping into the 20s for multiple days later this week.CityNews meteorologist Jill Taylor says the city could see some cloud on Tuesday, but likely will not get any wet weather until next weekend.“Likely not record-setting highs, but certainly well above average for this time of year,” says Taylor. “The average high this time of year is 18 C.”Another gorgeous photo from @jjur68 on this Easter Monday. On the cool side this morning BUT a taste of summer on the way! Highs will climb to 20+°C this week. Cooler with near or just below seasonal air will be back next week pic.twitter.com/XdhARIkrYI— Jill Taylor (@JillTaylorCity) April 10, 2023Monday will see a guaranteed high of 18 C, with things feeling a ...

Sleep Country to buy Casper’s Canadian operations for $20.6 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

TORONTO — Sleep County Canada Holdings Inc. says it will acquire Casper Sleep Inc.’s Canadian operations.Toronto-based mattress retailer Sleep Country says it will pay US$20.6 million for the U.S. mattress-in-a-box company’s Canadian assets. Sleep Country will receive a US$4.5 million marketing transition fee from Casper over the next four years and three-year warrants which would convert into a one per cent stake in Casper.Sleep Country says it has also invested US$20 million in five-year convertible notes, which can be converted into about five per cent of Casper shares.The deal comes as the number of e-commerce companies selling compressed and rolled mattresses in boxes that ship directly to customers has soared in recent years.Sleep Country bought online mattress firm Endy for $88.7 million in 2018.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:ZZZ)The Canadian Press

Grand jury weighs charges for police in Jayland Walker death

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

A grand jury in Ohio will hear evidence this week to decide whether police officers should face criminal charges in the shooting of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man whose death sparked protests in Akron last summer.Eight officers fired dozens of rounds at Walker following a car and foot chase. Police said it began when they tried to pull him over for minor equipment violations and he failed to stop, then fired a shot from his car 40 seconds into the pursuit.Police body camera video showed Walker eventually bailed from his slowly moving car while wearing a ski mask and ran into a parking lot, where pursuing officers opened fire. A county medical examiner said Walker was shot at least 40 times. A handgun, loaded magazine and wedding ring were found on the driver’s seat of the car. Walker’s family called it a brutal and senseless shooting of a man who was unarmed at the time and whose fiancee recently died. Police union officials said the officers thought there was an imme...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 16-22

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 16-22April 16: Singer Bobby Vinton is 88. Midnight Oil singer-turned-politician Peter Garrett is 70. Actor Ellen Barkin is 69. Actor Michel Gill (“Mr. Robot,” “House of Cards”) is 63. Singer-bassist Jason Scheff (Chicago) is 61. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 60. Singer David Pirner of Soul Asylum is 59. Actor Jon Cryer is 58. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 58. Actor Peter Billingsley (“A Christmas Story”) is 52. Actor Lukas Haas is 47. Broadway actress Kelli O’Hara is 47. Actor Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) is 21.April 17: Actor David Bradley (“Game of Thrones”) is 81. Musician Jan Hammer is 75. Actor Olivia Hussey is 72. Actor Clarke Peters (“Treme”) is 71. Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 66. Actor Sean Bean (“Lord of the Rings”) is 64. Actor Joel Murray (“Dharma and Greg,” ″The Artist”) is 61. Singer Maynard James Keenan of Tool and of Puscifer is 59. Actor Lela Rochon is 59. Actor William Mapother (“Lost”) is 58. Actor Leslie Bega (“The Sopranos”...

Fire damages Massachusetts church after Easter services

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

A fire broke out at a Massachusetts church not long after Easter services, with more than 100 firefighters working to save the 114-year-old structure.The fire started at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge. Firefighters from 18 engine companies and eight ladder companies responded, Acting Fire Chief Tom Cahill said.Part of the roof collapsed, but the main structure and the steeple were still standing. Video of the multi-alarm fire showed heavy smoke coming from the steeple. No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire was under investigation.It wasn’t immediately clear when the last services had ended at the church. The Rev. Robin Lutjohann, the church’s pastor, said the building was empty at the time. He called fire “heartbreaking.” “It is a place that is loved by the community,” Lutjohann told WHDH-TV. “There’s a sign in front of the building, a banner that we’ve put up there, ever since COVID, during the season of Easter, which sa...

Kimberly Palmer: How to protect parents from financial scams

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:55 GMT

When a scam artist called Cameron Huddleston’s mom to tell her to wire money in order to claim a prize, Huddleston had to intercept the calls. Her mom, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, was convinced she had to wire the money as soon as possible.“That was a wake-up call for me. If you have any cognitive decline, you don’t see those red flags anymore,” says Huddleston, who lives in Kentucky and is the director of education at Carefull, a service built to protect aging adults’ daily finances. She also wrote the book “Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk,” on how to have important conversations about money with your parents.Scam artists often target older adults, partly because they have amassed greater wealth. “If you are thinking from a criminal’s perspective, which target will give you the greatest returns: a broke 20-something who is struggling with student loans or a baby boomer with a couple million dollars of retirement assets?” asks Marti DeLiema, assistant professor of social w...