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Column: Willson Contreras has a lot to learn about being a true villain with the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

It’s not hard to become a villain at Wrigley Field, especially when you’re wearing a St. Louis Cardinals uniform.The formula is pretty simple.Be a star player. Have some big moments against the Cubs in Chicago. Rub it in their faces. Bonus points if you’ve ever been suspected of cheating.Former Cubs catcher Willson Contreras happily accepted the challenge this week in his return to his old home, waving his arms in the air after getting on base Monday to coax Cubs fans into booing him louder.It was entertaining to watch, unless perhaps you were the Cubs manager.“Every team has a different celebration — that could be to his teammates,” a grumpy David Ross said after the game. “I don’t know who that’s for, so that’d be stupid to comment on.”Baseball is entertainment, so kudos to Contreras for playing along and trying to breathe some life into a rivalry that has seen better days. Since Ryan Braun retired from the Milwauke...

Woman struck by falling utility box on Boston’s MBTA to file lawsuit

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

A woman who was injured at Harvard station earlier this month when an out-of-service utility box fell on her plans to file a lawsuit against the MBTA, her lawyers announced Wednesday morning.Video footage from the May 1 safety failure shows the box, which T officials said had served no purpose since 2013, fall from a column as other commuters stood nearby. The impact, attorneys for the woman said, led to a detached clavicle from her shoulder that “will require ongoing and long term medical treatment.”“The injuries also impacted her rigorous academic schedule during a crucial time for students,” a statement said. “… The aging Red Line platform where the incident occurred has additional reported structural deficiencies including a leaking ceiling that resulted in a panel falling on a woman in March.”https://www.bostonherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/MBTA-video-May.mp4Lawyers said the woman is a 28-year-old PhD student at Harvard University.MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said t...

Long popular in Asia, floating solar catches on in US

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

When Joe Seaman-Graves, the city planner for the working class town of Cohoes, New York, Googled the term “floating solar,” he didn’t even know it was a thing. What he did know is that his tiny town needed an affordable way to get electricity and had no extra land. But looking at a map, one feature stood out, he said. “We have this 14-acre water reservoir.” Seaman-Graves soon found the reservoir could hold enough solar panels to power all the municipal buildings and streetlights, saving the city more than $500,000 each year. He had stumbled upon a form of clean energy that is steeply ramping up. Floating solar panel systems are beginning to boom in the United States after rapid growth in Asia. They’re attractive not just for their clean power and lack of a land footprint, but because they also conserve water by preventing evaporation.A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability in March found that thousands of cities — more than 6,000 in 124 countries — c...

Groff, Lethem excerpts featured in free e-book compilation

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Fiction from such prize-winning authors as Jonathan Lethem, Lauren Groff, and Sigrid Nunez and a biography of the late Rep. John Lewis are among the upcoming works excerpted in a free e-book compilation published Wednesday. “Buzz Books 2023: Fall/Winter,” released by the industry newsletter Publishers Lunch, includes dozens of fiction and nonfiction books scheduled for later this year. Novels include Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds,” Lethem’s “Brooklyn Crime Novel,” Nunez’s “The Vulnerables” and Naomi Alderman’s “The Future.”The e-book release also features excerpts from Raymond Arsenault’s “John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community,” the young adult books “The Spirit Glass,” by Roshani Chokshi, and “The Spells We Cast,” by Jason June, and a novel by Cedric the Entertainer, “Flipping Boxcars.”The Associated Press

‘BlackBerry’ film taps into device that ruled pre-iPhone era

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

Almost everyone knows Steve Jobs’ uncanny vision, relentless drive and technological wizardry hatched the iPhone, a breakthrough that continues to reshape culture 16 years after the late Apple co-founder introduced the device to the world.But when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone was the must-have gadget. It was the BlackBerry, a device so addictive that it became known as the “CrackBerry” among tech nerds and power brokers hunched over a tiny keyboard that was best operated with both thumbs clickety-clacking.Now the BlackBerry is “that phone people had before they bought an iPhone,” a relic so irrelevant that the Canadian company that made it is now valued at $3 billion — down from $85 billion at its 2008 peak when it still controlled nearly half of the smartphone market.But its legacy is worth remembering — and audiences will get a chance to learn more about its origins in the new film, “BlackBerry.” It’s the latest movie or TV ser...

Oprah teams with Arthur C. Brooks on book about happiness

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey’s latest book project is one she helped write. Winfrey has teamed with the author, educator and Atlantic columnist Arthur C. Brooks on “Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier,” to be published Sept. 12 by Portfolio Books.“I started reading Arthur Brooks’ column ‘How to Build a Life’ during the early days of the pandemic,” Winfrey said in a statement released Wednesday by Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint. “I found myself happily anticipating each week’s lesson, which turned out to be a recipe for growing forward. When I discovered he taught happiness at Harvard, I wanted to extend that to the rest of us.”Brooks, who teaches a “Leadership and Happiness” class at Harvard, said in a statement that he had long admired Winfrey, who last year praised his bestseller “From Strength to Strength” and interviewed him for her “Super Soul” podcast.“As a social scientist, I look at the data and evidence on what leads to th...

WestJet flight caught fire shortly after landing at Pearson airport

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

No injuries were reported after a WestJet flight caught fire shortly after landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Tuesday night.A spokesperson for the airline says WestJet flight WS434 from Edmonton experienced a small engine fire in the tailpipe upon arrival.Crews were able to quickly put the fire out after the plane landed. Information from the Pearson website shows the flight landed at Terminal 3 at 8:50 p.m.Related:Pearson Airport turns to bolstered staffing, tech improvements to reduce travel chaosWestJet closes deal to buy Sunwing Vacations and Sunwing Airlines“The crew followed all standard safety procedures and were able to immediately extinguish the flames,” reads a statement from WestJet. “Emergency crews were called to the scene, however, were not required.”The airline says all guests and crew members were able to deplane the aircraft normally.An investigation into what caused the fire is underway. The aircraft has been been removed fr...

Stock market today: Wall Street rises after inflation data

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is mostly rising Wednesday after a report showed inflation is making strides toward easing, even if it remains too high. The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was edging down 20 points, or 0.1%, at 33,541, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher. Bond prices also climbed after the highly anticipated report said inflation at the consumer level was 4.9% last month, down from 5% in March and the lowest level in two years. That was slightly better than economists expected, and other underlying measures of inflation also came in very close to forecasts. Because the inflation data came in roughly as expected, Wall Street sees the door remaining open for the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates alone at its next meeting in June. That would be the first time it hasn’t raised rates at a meeting in more than a year, and a pause would offer some breathing room for the economy and financ...

Canada will allow online passport renewal services this fall, new design unveiled

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

Canadians will be able to apply to renew their passports online beginning this fall, says Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, as the government unveiled a new design for the Canadian travel document.It maintains a deep blue cover with a new outline of a maple leaf and the coat of arms now in the bottom left corner instead of the centre.Inside images of the country’s history, including Terry Fox and Vimy Ridge, are replaced with images of Canada’s diversity, nature and wildlife.“The new passport has been redesigned from cover to cover with state-of-the-art security features and new artwork, maintaining its status as one of the most secure and universally accepted travel documents in the world for all Canadians,” the federal government mentioned in a press release.All-new Canadian passport design – Toute nouvelle conception de passeport canadien https://t.co/UjM8lpmUtL— IRCC (@CitImmCanada) May 10, 2023Through the summer and months ahead, many people ...

Man fatally shot during argument outside fast food restaurant on South Side

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 14:04:25 GMT

CHICAGO — A man was fatally shot during an argument outside a fast food restaurant on the city's South Side.The shooting happened around 9:40 p.m. Tuesday in the 2100 block of East 71st Place. Police said a man was arguing with another man in front of a fast food restaurant, when the offender fired shots.The victim was transported to University of Chicago Medical Center with multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead. 36-year-old man shot, killed in Aurora No one is in custody. Area One detectives are investigating.