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Heat get reinvigorated Lowry before playoffs; Love taking charge(s); Butler, Adebayo, Herro out vs. Wizards

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

The goal after a month off due to knee pain and then a return 10 games ago was to be here, with a better Kyle Lowry, a productive Lowry, something close to the player the veteran point guard was at both the start of this season and the start of his Heat tenure at the beginning of 2021-22.For the Miami Heat, it is an ongoing process, but one moving toward mission accomplished at the most important stage of the season.“I could not feel better about it than when we started the process, and we knew we were going to have to shut him down,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the 37-year-old former All-Star being out from Feb. 4 through March 10 due to knee pain and then returning March 11.“There’s an unknown with that, and you know the clock is ticking against you. But he handled those five weeks really well, behind the scenes, and I think our communication between myself, Kyle, the training staff and our medical staff was as good as it’s ever been, which really he...

‘Great Discoveries in Medicine’ shows how modern advances are rooted in ancient methods

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

By Jacqueline Cutler, New York Daily NewsMedicine isn’t magic.It used to be thought of that way. Even today, it’s still often wrapped in mystery. But its pragmatic practitioners aren’t very different from mechanics, and their jobs are pretty much the same.First, figure out what’s wrong. Then, find what you need to fix it.That’s how breakthroughs happen, as explained in essays collected in “Great Discoveries in Medicine: From Ayurveda to X-rays, Cancer to Covid” and edited by William and Helen Bynum.Divided into broad sections — “Discovering the Body” and “Tools of the Trade” — the book explains how, over thousands of years, people have studied how our bodies work and invented an array of chemicals and machines to make them work better.But before doctors could understand how the body’s parts fit together, they had to take them apart. And they did it with style.“Early modern dissections were as much about showmanship as scholarship,” writes contributor Simon Chaplin. “Conducted in chu...

2nd man convicted in ’91 Hawaii killing seeks exoneration

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — The brother of a Hawaii man recently released after more than 20 years in prison for the killing and rape of a tourist has filed a similar request seeking exoneration.An attorney for the California Innocence Project, which is representing Shawn Schweitzer, filed a petition Thursday in one of Hawaii’s biggest murder cases. Schweitzer, his brother and a third man were indicted for the death of Dana Ireland, who was found barely alive in the bushes along a fishing trail in Puna, a remote section of the Big Island in 1991. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten, and later died at a hospital. The mangled bicycle she had been riding was found several miles away and appeared to have been run into by a vehicle. The slaying of the visitor from Virginia gained national attention and remained unsolved for years, putting intense pressure on police to find the killer. After seeing a jury find his brother guilty, Schweitzer and his family decided he needed to take a plea...

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) union workers vote to strike

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) union workers have voted in “overwhelmingly in favour of” strike action.The Public Service Alliance of Canada says the vote on behalf of 35,000 workers represented by both the PSAC and Union of Taxation Employees comes just more than a week before a final round of negotiations with the employer.The union says workers have been without a contract for more than a year, even as the cost of living continues to rise. It claims the federal government continues to have “major concessions on the table,” adding the CRA has yet to “respond to the union’s wage proposals.”The strike action vote comes just weeks before the income tax filing deadline.“Tax season is here,” said Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees. “Going on strike is never our first choice. But securing a strong strike mandate now gives us the leverage we need to reach a fair and decent contract. And if we need to take job action t...

Man dies of carbon monoxide poisoning during power outage, Quebec police say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

MONTREAL — Police say the third person to die in a vicious ice storm was a man in Saint-Joseph-Du-Lac, Que., who was running a generator in his garage.Insp. Jean Philippe Labbé says the man’s wife found him unconscious in the garage, and the 75-year-old died after being taken to hospital in Ste-Eustache.He says firefighters determined carbon monoxide levels in the garage were 20 times the norm.Earlier, Premier Francois Legault told reporters that a man in Ste-Eustache had died after bringing his barbecue indoors, but Labbé says that was a misunderstanding.Montreal’s health authority said dozens of people suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning after using outdoor appliances inside during the blackout caused by Wednesday’s ice storm.Officials say they received more than 60 reports of CO poisoning over the course of several hours today, while emergency rooms were at 200 per cent capacity.   Legault announced the latest death while touring Les Coteaux, Que., where ano...

Award-winning retired AP journalist Harold Olmos dead at 78

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

Award-winning Bolivian journalist Harold Olmos, whose gentlemanly manner belied a remarkable reportorial tenacity and who led Associated Press operations in Venezuela and Brazil after fleeing his coup-convulsed homeland more than four decades ago, has died at age 78.Olmos died Wednesday in the eastern lowlands city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, of a heart attack after a long illness, said his son, José Olmos. He said his father had struggled with diabetes.The journalist, a role model for younger colleagues with deep experience covering military challenges to democracy, had returned to his native country in 2006 after retiring from the AP. He launched a second career as a columnist, educator and author when Evo Morales, a leftist coca-growers’ union leader embraced by the country’s indigenous majority, began to dominate Bolivian politics.“He had very strong and public opinions,” his son said, particularly about what he considered to be an assault on press freedom by MoralesR...

Protected Iran critic speaks at sentence in plot against her

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — An Iranian opposition activist who U.S. authorities said was the target of two thwarted kidnapping or murder plots urged a federal judge in New York on Friday to hand a tough prison to a woman who unwittingly funded one of the planned attacks.Masih Alinejad, a onetime Iranian journalist, said her sense of safety has been shattered since authorities notified her in 2020 that she was being watched and that photographs were taken of her Brooklyn residence of 10 years. Since then, she has received U.S. government protection and has moved frequently between safe houses.“This crime left its mark. Every day when I go out in the street, I have to look over my shoulders. … I miss my tree-lined street and my neighbors who treated me as one of their own,” Alinejad told Judge Ronnie Abrams as she asked her to set an example by sending 48-year-old Niloufar Bahadorifar, of Irvine, California, to prison for as long as possible.Abrams did just that, announcing a four-year pris...

Study seeks to understand police recruiting and retention

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A police force and university in northern Virginia are teaming up for what they say will be a first-of-its-kind study that will seek over the next 20 years the assess the challenges police agencies face in recruitment and retention.Police departments across the country are reporting that they cannot hire officers fast enough to replace those retiring or resigning. An annual survey of nearly 200 agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum shows that resignations increased by 47 percent from 2019 to 2022.The Fairfax County Police Department, which is participating in the study announced Friday, is emblematic of the trend. Police Chief Kevin Davis said the police force is more than 200 officers short of the 1,484 officers it is authorized to employ, though he said a larger-than-normal academy class of 58 will soon fill some of the gap.Davis said at a press conference Friday that the study will help agencies like his understand what police need to do to attract t...

US sanction officials plan missions to clamp down on Russia

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top sanctions officials from the U.S. Treasury Department plan special international trips this month to pressure firms and countries still doing business with Russia to cut off financial ties because of the war on Ukraine. The message is that those working with Russia’s government must decide:1. Continue to provide Moscow with material support or2. Keep doing business with countries that represent 50 percent of the global economy.Those are the choices to be laid out, senior Treasury officials told reporters on a call Friday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the travel plans. Treasury officials Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson — specialists in sanctions and terrorist financing — will travel to Europe this month to meet with leaders of financial institutions in Switzerland, Italy and Germany. They plan to share intelligence on potential sanctions evaders and to warn of the potential penalties for failure to comply with international sanctions.Rosenb...

Best seasons in Chicago Fire history

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:36:56 GMT

Started in 1996, Major League Soccer is among the youngest professional sports leagues in North America. However, the league has expanded rapidly since kicking off with 10 teams nearly 27 years ago.The latest expansion enabled MLS to triple its initial size by its 28th season—St. Louis City became the 29th MLS club by opening its league account against Austin FC on February 25. By comparison, the NFL took 76 seasons to reach 29 teams. The NHL took 84 seasons and the NBA took 50. MLB, meanwhile, didn't reach 29 teams until 1998, 122 years after the formation of the National League and 97 after the American League. Those leagues grew at a snail's pace compared to MLS.With MLS reaching the 29-team mark, and because the league is solidly in the later years of its "young adult" phase, there's plenty of ways to dig into the data that chronicles the league's lore. One angle is to look into the best seasons in each franchise's history. Luckily, there's now just enough data to make...