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Column: Could the Chicago Bears choose your suburb as their new home? 20 more sites for a potential stadium.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

Your suburb could be home to a professional football team, making it the envy of all your neighbors.Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren is accepting applications.Act now before this offer expires.The Bears’ pursuit of a new state-of-the-art stadium to replace Soldier Field has gone off the rails since Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi called an audible, significantly raising the valuation of the Arlington Park property the McCaskey family purchased for $197 million.Naperville officials quickly pounced on the fumble, holding two meetings with the Bears about the possibility of moving to their leafy suburb 40 minutes west of downtown Chicago. Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor then wrote Warren proposing a lakefront stadium there, and a Rockford politician chimed in to lobby for his town.Everyone wants to be associated with the Bears.To no one’s surprise, the Bears, estimated by Forbes to be worth $5.8 billion, appear to be using the towns’ interest to help leverage a...

Massachusetts shark season is ramping up: Seal with shark bite washes up on North Shore beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

While much of the local shark focus is centered along Cape Cod, researchers want to remind people that sharks hunt for seals all along the state’s coast — as seen in a recent confirmed shark sighting.A seal with a shark bite washed up dead on a North Shore beach on Wednesday, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app. The dead prey was reported at Beverly’s West Beach.This doesn’t happen too often along the North Shore, but scientists get these reports from the north of Boston region every year, according to shark researcher John Chisholm.“They’re not super common, but they do happen every year,” Chisholm, who runs the MA Sharks Twitter account and confirms shark sightings for the Sharktivity app, told the Herald.“Most of the focus is on Cape Cod, but these sharks can show up everywhere,” he added. “They travel all along the coast.”In addition to this dead seal from a shark bite in Beve...

SDPD officer hit by vehicle in Pacific Beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego Police Department officer was struck by a vehicle Thursday in the Pacific Beach area, authorities said.The crash occurred at Garnet Avenue and Kendall Street, the SDPD watch commander confirmed with FOX 5 at 3:45 p.m. Bartender fighting for life after hit-and-run while walking to work According to police, the officer was hit from behind by the vehicle.The status of the officer is unknown at this time.No other details were released about the incident.Check back for updates on this developing story.

Evacuation orders lifted in B.C. and Alberta towns as wildfires recede

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

Tumbler Ridge resident Joline Couture feared the worst last week when she prepared to pack up and leave under an evacuation order as wildfires loomed outside the small community in British Columbia’s northeast. “It was absolutely terrifying,” Couture said. As a Canadian Ranger, Couture was also waiting on orders to go door to door to tell people to get out as winds whipped up the flames and pushed them toward the town. “We were told it’s not a matter of if the fire was gonna hit Tumbler Ridge, it was a matter of when it was gonna hit, so that was pretty terrifying, to know that I was going to be knocking at doors and telling people to pack everything that they could because they might not have a place to come home to,” she said. “And there were some people who said that they didn’t want to leave.”Now the imminent risk to the town has dissipated.Thanks to recent rain and favourable winds, Tumbler Ridge’s roughly 2,000 reside...

Virgin Galactic to send Italian researchers to space, then regular commercial flights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Virgin Galactic announced Thursday that monthly commercial flights to the edge of space will begin for ticket-holders in August, following a research flight planned for the end of June.The space tourism company will be taking up a team of specialists with the Italian Air Force and the National Research Centre of Italy to conduct microgravity research. The window for that research flight will begin June 27 and span the next three days, with timing depending on the weather. After that, those who have been waiting more than a decade for their ride aboard Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane are expected to get their chance. The company said the first of those flights will begin in early August, with monthly flights following that.“This next exciting chapter for Virgin Galactic has been driven by innovation, determination and a commitment to delivering an unparalleled and truly transformative customer experience,” CEO Michael Colglazier said in a s...

Biden digital director departing White House, expected to join to 2024 campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s digital director Rob Flaherty is departing the White House and is expected to join the president’s 2024 reelection campaign, which is ramping up its activities two months after launch.Flaherty, a veteran of Biden’s 2020 campaign, has been overseeing the largest-ever White House digital team as the director of the White House office of digital strategy. He was among the driving forces inside the White House to use celebrities and social media influencers to amplify Biden’s message, including the cast of “Ted Lasso,” Olivia Rodrigo and the Jonas Brothers. Biden aides believe they will need to leverage influencers ahead of the 2024 campaign to reach voters who now consume media through more untraditional pathways.Flaherty also worked at the Democratic National Committee and on Beto O’Rourke’s and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns. A person familiar with the matter who requested anonymously to discuss it in advance o...

Vegas Golden Knights to parade the Stanley Cup past marquees on casino-lined Strip on Saturday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Vegas Golden Knights plan to parade this weekend with the NHL Stanley Cup beneath the glittery marquees of the Las Vegas Strip and rally with fans in front of their home arena to mark the team’s league championship. The event is scheduled at (K)night, of course. VGK faithful who belt out that certain word, “NIGHT!” even during the national anthem, wouldn’t have it any other way.Clark County officials and the team announced Wednesday that Las Vegas Boulevard will be closed for the parade, which is set to begin at 7 p.m. Saturday near Flamingo Road and go to Tropicana Avenue.The fan rally is scheduled to start about 9 p.m. at Toshiba Plaza and the Park District in front of T-Mobile Arena.Golden Knights faithful packed the plaza and the arena on Tuesday, erupting in joy when Vegas defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 to take the best-of-seven championship series in five games, clinching the cherished NHL trophy in just the sixth year since the expansion fr...

Senate passes long-delayed bill aimed at unblocking Canadian aid in Afghanistan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

OTTAWA — The Senate has passed a bill intended to unblock Canadian aid in Afghanistan without amendment. The Criminal Code changes allow development workers to apply for exemptions from terrorism laws, which currently criminalize paying taxes to the ruling Taliban because it is designated as a terrorist group.Amendments from the Conservatives and NDP in the House of Commons also added a blanket exemption for humanitarian workers who are providing life-saving aid in response to emergencies.The passage of the bill by both chambers of Parliament comes more than a year after many of Canada’s allies issued exemptions for aid workers in their own terrorism laws.Some senators had expressed fears about how bureaucrats might enforce the bill, but the Senate gave unanimous consent to pass multiple stages of the bill all at once, ensuring it will become law before a scheduled summer break.The government has said that civil servants are impartial and courts can be called in to review reje...

Florida man executed for 1984 killings of teenage babysitter, mother of 2 slain months apart

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man was executed Thursday for killing a 14-year-old babysitter and a 38-year-old mother of two in separate attacks months apart in 1984 while children were sleeping in the homes he targeted.Duane Owen was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office. One of Florida’s longest-held death row inmates, Owen was 23 at the time of the attacks and 62 when he was executed.He was sentenced to death for the March 24, 1984, rape and fatal stabbing of Karen Slattery, 14, and for the rape and deadly hammer attack two months later on Georgianna Worden, 38. Both killings occurred in Palm Beach County.Authorities said Owen attacked two other women in Palm Beach County who survived. All four attacks occurred just before and after Owen’s 23rd birthday. Of the more than 290 people on Florida’s death row, Owen was one of the longest held there. Besides his death sentences, he also had received six lif...

Iran’s president meets Cuban counterpart in last leg of Latin American tour

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:12 GMT

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel on Thursday, wrapping up a Latin America trip that also included visits to Iran’s two other allies in the region — Venezuela and Nicaragua.During a trade forum with local businesspeople in Havana, Raisi said Cuba and Iran would seek to work together in biotechnology, mining, electricity generation and other areas.“I hope this meeting will help facilitate integration as well as an exchange of ideas and opinions,” Raisi said.Unlike his previous stops in Nicaragua and Venezuela, Raisi refrained from making harsh comments in public against Washington or the economic sanctions imposed on his country and its three allies in the region.After the forum, Raisi and Diaz-Canel toured biotechnology production plants in the western part of the capital, then headed to a closed-door reception at Cuba’s Palace of the Revolution.The leaders also signed several agreements on customs, justice,...