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Ira Winderman: Heat feeling a draft, and already a bit lucky

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

Even before last Monday’s tiebreaker drawing for position in the NBA Draft, even before this playoff run comes to a close, the Miami Heat’s draft room appreciated the work ahead.Now locked into, at least for the moment, the No. 18 selection in the June 22 draft, by virtue of winning a draw for that position over the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, the totality of the work to follow can begin to be appreciated.Because once again, the little things will matter.For most of this past season, with the Heat hard up against the punitive luxury tax, the 15th and final roster spot was left vacant.For most of the past decade, an honorarium roster spot was set aside for Udonis Haslem.Now seemingly locked into the tax for 2023-24 and with Haslem retiring, that means two more roster spots come into play for assistant general manager Adam Simon and the rest of the Heat’s draft-evaluation staff.“This year you were at 14 most of the year,” he said. R...

Will Fox settlement alter conservative media? Apparently not

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Days after Fox News agreed to pay nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit over its airing of 2020 election lies, you’d be hard-pressed to notice anything had changed there.Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham led their shows Thursday talking about Hunter Biden, the president’s son. Ingraham’s show warned, “The left wants the government to be your only family.” Hannity targeted familiar villains — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Vice President Kamala Harris. Carlson mocked a speech on racial equity, saying it meant “that straight white men are bad.”Experts doubt the settlement will lead to much of a course correction in conservative media, save for a little less specificity to avoid future lawsuits.So far, that’s been the chief result of a Connecticut jury’s verdict last year that Alex Jones must pay $965 million to parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victims, after claiming the 2012 massacre was a hoax and t...

Like US, Brazil beset by school violence, but seeks own path

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

About two weeks after a man killed four children in a Brazilian daycare center, authorities already have rounded up some 300 adults and minors nationwide accused of spreading hate speech or stoking school violence.Little has been revealed about the unprecedented crackdown, which risks judicial overreach, but it underlines the determination of the country’s response across federal, state and municipal levels. Brazil’s all-hands effort to stamp out its emerging trend of school attacks stands in contrast to the U.S., where such attacks have been more frequent and more deadly for a longer period, yet where measures nowadays are incremental.Actions adopted in the U.S. – and some of its perceived shortcomings – are informing the Brazilian response, said Renan Theodoro, a researcher with Center for the Study of Violence at the University of Sao Paulo.“We have learned from the successes and the mistakes of other countries, especially the United States,” Theodoro told The Associa...

‘It’s a game-changer’: New antibody drug to help prevent serious RSV in babies approved

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

Health Canada has approved a new antibody drug to help protect babies from serious illness caused by respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.Nirsevimab, also known by its brand name Beyfortus, was authorized on April 19. It was developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi. Nirsevimab is “a monoclonal antibody to prevent serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in newborns and infants during their first RSV season,” Health Canada spokesman Mark Johnson said in an email to The Canadian Press on Friday.The drug, which is given by injection, is also authorized for children up to two years of age if they are at risk of serious infection, he said.Monoclonal antibodies are made in a laboratory to mimic natural antibodies to prevent or treat diseases. Nirsevimab attaches to a protein on the surface of the virus and hinders its ability to enter the body’s cells, especially those in the lungs, according to the European Medicines Agency...

Pittsburgh Jews keep defying hate as synagogue trial nears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Three Jewish congregations, resolute in their defiance of the hatred that tried to destroy them, are still waiting for justice.But united in their horror and grief, they haven’t been standing still as the criminal case for the massacre that changed everything has crawled through the federal court system. Four and a half years ago, a gunman invaded the Tree of Life synagogue on a Sabbath morning and killed 11 worshippers from the three congregations that shared the building — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life. The shooting, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood at the heart of Jewish Pittsburgh, was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.On Monday, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the long-delayed trial of the suspect, accused of dozens of charges including hate crimes resulting in death.The three congregations are wary of what’s to come. Some members may be called to testify, and they’re bracing for graphic evidence and testimony that ...

Truck driver uninjured after utility poles crash through windshield on Florida interstate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The driver of a semi-truck was miraculously uninjured after two utility poles flew through the cab of his truck on Friday morning.The accident, which occurred on Interstate 275 in Tampa, took place at approximately 10:30 a.m. The Florida Highway Patrol said the 33-year-old driver of the truck reported seeing a vehicle parked on the outside shoulder of the highway. This "phantom vehicle," as the Florida Highway Patrol called it, then veered into the right lane and cut him off, the driver said. PHOTOS: Car crashes into second story of California home The driver then slammed on the brakes, causing two utility poles to break free from tie-downs on the trailer and crash through the cab of the truck. Aerial footage showed the poles sticking out through both the front and rear windshields. The driver was somehow uninjured, the highway patrol confirmed.(FHP)(WFLA)The poles were made of metal and concrete and belonged to Duke Energy, according to the Florida Highway Pa...

Austin Energy send crews to Arizona for Navajo Nation electric grid project

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Soon, many families in the Navajo Nation will be able to turn on the lights in their homes for the first time.A group of utility companies, including Austin Energy and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, are partnering to make this possible. On Friday, Austin Energy sent 11 crew members and 10 trucks to Leupp, Arizona, where they will spend two weeks working on the Light Up Navajo project. The goal is to connect Navajo families to the electric grid. Last year, Austin Energy sent eight crew members to Arizona to work on the project."We went to a place where people had never had lights, some people who have never had power in their homes for generations. And so to get lights on for people who have never had it - to see the appreciation they had is pretty humbling," said Paul Peterson, an Austin Energy distribution electrician supervisor. Austin Energy said the project is important because Navajo families otherwise may have issues accessing running water, reliable ligh...

Where Texas stands on math and reading proficiency amid 20-year lows

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

(Stacker) – Several studies within the past year have shown just how detrimental remote learning has been to academic progress during the coronavirus pandemic, especially for students already disadvantaged by racial and economic achievement gaps.Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research, for example, looked at testing data from fall 2019 through fall 2021 of 2 million students in 10,000 schools across 49 states, including Washington D.C. Compared to testing data from the two years before the pandemic, its findings showed that remote learning, including hybrid models, was one of the primary causes of widening academic achievement gaps.Remote learning is only as effective as the resources a student can access, particularly for younger kids. High-performing fourth-grade students reported having greater access to resources like a computer, a quiet place to work, and a teacher to help them compared to low-performing students, according to a separate st...

Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic returns to Q2 Stadium for 50th anniversary

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year at Q2 Stadium in Austin. This is the second year Q2 is hosting Willie Nelson's annual concert. The new tradition started in 2022 after the event was virtual in 2020 and 2021. Willie Nelson & Family will perform with special guests Tyler Childers, Dwight Yoakum, Shakey Graves, Shane Smith & The Saints, Sierra Ferrell, Asleep At The Wheel and Particle Kid, according to a Thursday announcement on Nelson's Twitter. Tickets went on sale Friday to Club Luck members. The general public can buy tickets starting Friday, April 28 at 10 a.m. Premium packages are also available. Doors will open at 1 p.m., and the July 4 concert will start at 2 p.m.

Some Minnesota lakes may be ice-free for fishing opener

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:52 GMT

A little more than a month ago, John Downing, a limnologist who heads the University of Minnesota Sea Grant program in Duluth, crunched some historical and meteorological data to predict a later-than-normal ice-out for northern Minnesota lakes.Downing developed what he calls a lake ice-out “widget” where you can plug in a weather reporting station near your lake and figure, roughly, when ice out might occur.In mid-March, with virtually no melting so far in winter, Downing predicted ice-out for north-central Minnesota lakes about a week or so later than average, but still in time for the May 13 fishing opener.Now, past mid-April, Downing isn’t as sure all lakes will be ice-free by May 13, but he’s sticking with his prediction of mostly open water for the Minnesota opener. Last week’s spurt of unusually warm temperatures into the 70s across the Northland may have been enough to kick-start the melting process.“Ice-out will still be late, but it would have been later without that week o...