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Abortion rights amendment cleared for Ohio’s November ballot, promising volatile fight this fall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Presss)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters will have the opportunity this fall to decide whether to guarantee access to abortion in the state, setting up a volatile fight rife with emotional messaging and competing factual claims.State officials said Tuesday that a ballot measure to change the state constitution had enough signatures. It would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment that Michigan voters approved last November, it would require restrictions imposed past a fetus’ viability outside the womb, which is typically around the 24th week of pregnancy and was the standard under Roe v. Wade, to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits.“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, an...

Marquee Sports Network launches direct-to-consumer streaming option for Chicago Cubs fans to watch games

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

Chicago Cubs fans have another avenue to watch games.Marquee Sports Network on Tuesday announced the launch of a direct-to-consumer streaming product. A monthly subscription costs $19.99.The DTC option is available only in-market and is subject to Major League Baseball’s blackout restrictions. Current Marquee cable subscribers can access streaming without an additional cost.Live streams of games and the network’s original programming can be watched on Marquee’s new app, web browsers, mobile/tablet devices or connected TV platforms. Marquee’s app will feature 1080p resolution video and video-on-demand content. It also can support screencasting.“We’re thrilled to launch our new direct-to-consumer subscription option, providing all in-market Cubs fans with access to Marquee Sports Network, including live Cubs games,” Marquee general manager Mike McCarthy said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to bring Cubs baseball to the pas...

Yoán Moncada returns from the injured list as the Chicago White Sox host the City Series

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

Back issues have limited Yoán Moncada this season.The Chicago White Sox reinstated the third baseman from the 10-day injured list before Tuesday’s City Series game against the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate Field.Moncada went on the IL on June 14 with lower back inflammation. He was on the IL from April 11 to May12 with lower back soreness.Moncada has a .232/.279/.370 slash line with eight doubles, three home runs, 13 RBIs and 17 runs in 38 games this season.His return could mean some time at second base for Jake Burger.“We’ll figure that out,” manager Pedro Grifol said Sunday afternoon at Target Field in Minneapolis. “They’re both going to be in the lineup somehow, someway.”In Tuesday’s corresponding move, the Sox optioned catcher Carlos Pérez to Triple-A Charlotte. ()

What’s next for the Bruins after retirement of Patrice Bergeron?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

Amid the avalanche of well-deserved testimonials for the now retired Patrice Bergeron, there was an unsettling question not too far from the surface of the day’s main news of the Bruin captain’s retirement.Where do the Bruins’ go from here?With Bergeron headed for the rafters, and David Krejci most likely not returning, the B’s will still be able to dress four centermen, with the newly acquired Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown and Jesper Boqvist competing to fill the third and fourth pivot spots behind Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle.All of them possess varying degrees of capability at the NHL level. But it’s clear that the B’s lack some oomph down the middle, which has been a team strength for close to two decades.But they do have some trade chips with which to play if that’s the course GM Don Sweeney wants to take in his reset attempts.First, there is the B’s Jennings Trophy-winning goaltending duo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. Ullm...

Investigators pore over evidence from the home of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer as search ends

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago.At a press conference outside the Massapequa Park home where Heuermann lived with his wife and two kids, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said police had found a “tremendous amount of information” during their search.He declined to describe the bulk of the material, but said there was not a “singular piece of evidence” that jumped out to him.The search turned up at least 279 weapons kept inside a thick basement vault large enough for a person to walk into, Tierney said. Police took boxes of additional evidence from the house, which he described as a “very clutt...

Great Lakes are once again a hot destination for cruise ships

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

Tom Peterson | Stateline.org (TNS)DULUTH, Minn. — The Viking Polaris sliced through the dawn June fog, entering the harbor without fanfare. No horn blasts to this Midwestern port city’s landmark lift bridge. Onboard, all but a handful of cabins were dark as the 666-foot cruise ship ended its maiden Great Lakes voyage.Cruise ships, which once thrived on these lakes before all but disappearing in the 1970s, are making a remarkable comeback on this inland sea, wooed by competing states. Marketed as “expedition cruising,” the ships deliver tourists and their spending money to ports that for decades primarily served global markets with iron ore and wheat.“The [global] cruise industry is fairly mature,’ said Dave Gutheil, chief commercial officer of the Port of Cleveland. “There aren’t a lot of new places to go.”States and Canadian provinces worked together to change that. After drawing major industry players to the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem in recent years, states now must bal...

US to send up to $400 million in military aid to Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is sending up to $400 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, including a variety of munitions for advanced air defense systems and a number of small, surveillance Hornet drones, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, as attacks in the war escalated to include strikes in Moscow and Crimea.The package includes an array of ammunition — ranging from missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) to Stingers and Javelins. The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to quickly take items from its own stocks and deliver them to Ukraine, often within days.The U.S. is also sending howitzer artillery rounds and 32 Stryker armored vehicles, along with demolition equipment, mortars, Hydra-70 rockets and 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition. The Ho...

Orioles to celebrate 1983 World Series team Aug. 5; 2024 spring training schedule announced

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

As the first-place Orioles continue to build their case as World Series contenders, the franchise will honor its most recent championship season.The Orioles will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the club’s 1983 World Series title with a pregame ceremony Saturday, Aug. 5, before the 7:05 p.m. game against the New York Mets. Orioles legends and National Baseball Hall of Famers such as Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer and Cal Ripken Jr. will be among the former players in attendance, while the first 20,000 fans 15 and over will receive a Murray bobblehead.In addition to Murray, Palmer and Ripken, more than 20 members of the 1983 team have confirmed their attendance, according to the Orioles, including: Mike Boddicker, Al Bumbry, Storm Davis, Rick Dempsey, Dan Ford, Glenn Gulliver, Tito Landrum, Dennis Martinez, Tippy Martinez, Scott McGregor, Paul Mirabella, Dan Morogiello, Allan Ramirez, Gary Roenicke, Lenn Sakata, John Shelby, Ken Singleton, John Stefero and Bill Swaggerty.Murray and ...

A campaign to ask Ohio voters to legalize recreational marijuana falls short — for now

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH (Associated Press)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A proposal to legalize adult use of marijuana in Ohio narrowly fell short Tuesday of the signatures it needed to make the fall statewide ballot. Backers will have 10 days, or until Aug. 4, to gather more.Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose determined the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol was short by just 679 signatures of the 124,046 signatures required to put the question before voters on Nov. 7. Tom Haren, a coalition spokesperson, said he was confident the group could find the signatures by the Aug. 4 deadline.“It looks like we came up a little short in this first phase, but now we have 10 days to find just 679 voters to sign a supplemental petition — this is going to be easy, because a majority of Ohioans support our proposal to regulate and tax adult use marijuana,” Haren said in a statement.If the initiative makes the November ballot, a simple majority vote is required for it...

Ecuador suspends rights of assembly in some areas, deploys soldiers to prisons amid violence wave

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:45 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso is again making use of the executive’s power to suspend some people’s rights and to mobilize the military in an attempt to quell the most recent wave of violence that has left at least 18 people dead in the South American country.Lasso on Tuesday declared a state of emergency covering all of its prisons and ordered the deployment of 2,700 soldiers and police officers to regain control of the facilities. Less than 24 hours earlier, Lasso had announced an emergency measure suspending people’s rights to assembly and move freely in two provinces, one of which includes a city where a mayor was fatally shot over the weekend.The order covering the prisons came after clashes erupted Saturday at the country’s largest prison and escalated into the early hours of Sunday, with gunshots and explosions heard by people in nearby residential areas. The initial clashes at the Litoral Penitentiary, located in the port cit...