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Shohei Ohtani headlines majors’ soon-to-be free agents, and there’s a sizable gap to the next name

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — There is Shohei Ohtani, and then there is the rest of baseball’s soon-to-be free agents.With the season winding down and the playoffs coming up, it’s almost time for major league teams to go shopping once again. And there is one player that is sure to dominate the conversation until he makes a decision.It looks as if Ohtani is going to the open market after another stellar season with the Los Angeles Angels. The Japanese slugger is the favorite for the AL MVP award after batting .304 with 44 homers, 95 RBIs, eight triples and 20 steals. The right-hander also went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 23 starts on the mound.The questions surrounding Ohtani’s free agency once centered on the money and length of a contract that could set multiple financial records for the sport, and exactly which teams might be willing to go into that territory to secure his services.Those questions remain, but the situation has grown more complicated than it was as late as the All-S...

Lugo, Soto keep Padres’ slim playoff hopes alive with 4-0 win over Giants

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Seth Lugo allowed three hits and came within an out of his first career complete game, Juan Soto homered twice and the San Diego Padres stayed alive in the NL wild-card race, beating the San Francisco Giants 4-0 on Tuesday night.The teams are tied at 78-80, 4 1/2 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the final NL wild-card spot. They also are three games behind Cincinnati and four games in back of Miami.Lugo, who beat San Francisco behind six scoreless innings at Petco Park on Sept. 3, was just as crisp at Oracle Park. He had seven strikeouts and worked around three walks while throwing 123 pitches for his career-best eighth victory.The 33-year-old Lugo (8-7) pitched with runners on base in four innings, and retired 14 of 15 during one stretch. It marked the 17th time in 26 starts that Lugo has thrown 90 pitches or more.Lugo got the first out of the ninth on a line drive to second base. Luis Matos walked before Joc Pederson reached on a fielder’s choice. Thairo Estr...

Increíble: madre protege a su hijo mientras un oso negro irrumpe en su festejo y todo queda en video

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO — Una madre mexicana protegió valientemente a su hijo después de que un oso negro subió a la mesa en la que pasaban un día de campo y, a tan sólo centímetros de ellos, devoró los tacos y enchiladas con los que iban a festejar el cumpleaños del adolescente.Silvia Macías, de Ciudad de México, había viajado al Parque Ecológico Chipinque, en las afueras de la ciudad norteña de Monterrey, para celebrar el cumpleaños 15 de su hijo Santiago, quien tiene síndrome de Down.Poco después de que se sentaron a comer, el oso llegó y devoró papas a la francesa, enchiladas, tacos y salsa. Su amiga Ángela Chapa grabó un video en el que se ve a Macías permanecer estoica a unos cuántos centímetros de distancia de la boca del oso mientras abraza y le cubre los ojos a Santiago. Agachó la mirada para evitar hacer cualquier cosa que el animal pudiera considerar una amenaza.“Lo más grave era que Santiago se fuera a asustar”, recordó Macías el martes durante una entrevista con The Associated...

Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth by up to $2.2 billion, New York judge rules

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

NEW YORK — A state judge Tuesday found Donald Trump and his company liable for fraud for inflating his net worth in order to deceive banks and insurers, resolving one of the key claims in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the New York state attorney general just days before a trial is set to start.Attorney General Tish James’ office “has submitted conclusive evidence” that the former president and his co-defendants overvalued their assets by between $812 million and $2.2 billion from the years 2014 to 2021, the judge, Arthur Engoron, wrote in a court filing. “Even in the world of high finance, this Court cannot endorse a proposition that finds a misstatement of at least $812 million to be ‘immaterial.’”As part of his ruling, the judge canceled the business certificates of all of the defendants, which include the Trump Organization itself and numerous LLCs connected to the company, as well as the business certificates of any entity “controlled or beneficially owned by” Trump, his adul...

Four sexual assaults reported at Cal State San Marcos during fall semester

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

SAN MARCOS, Calif. -- Four sexual assaults have been reported since the start of the fall semester at Cal State San Marcos on campus housing.“We want to send a message that this is not okay and we need a culture that rallies because this is an issue for college students across the board nationally,” said Margaret Chantung, Chief Communications Officer. “In all these situations they have been students acquainted with each other. In each of these cases we’ve provided support to victims.”Cal State San Marcos school officials issued alerts and a video message to the student body making them aware. Every year, the university offers student and family orientations where they educate on sexual assault.“I always want to rally and support our students, never want our students to go through this and also think it’s important as a community to talk about this,” said Dean of Students Jason Schreiber. Body found on sidewalk; SDPD investigating Schreiber says this time of year nationwide at col...

Germany bans far-right group that tried to indoctrinate children with Nazi ideology

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Wednesday banned a far-right, racist group known for its indoctrination of children as police raided dozens of homes of its members and other buildings early in the morning.A statement from the German interior ministry said it banned the Artgemeinschaft group, an anti-democratic association with around 150 members. All of its sub-organizations, including the Gefaehrtschaften, Gilden, Freundeskreise, and Familienwerk e.V., were also banned, the ministry said.“We are banning a sectarian, deeply racist and antisemitic association,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.“This is another hard blow against right-wing extremism and (those) who continue to spread Nazi ideologies to this day,” she said, adding that the organization had attempted to indoctrinate their children and young people with their anti-democratic ideology.Under the cover of a pseudo-religious Germanic belief in gods, the Artgemeinschaft spread its Nazi world view, the ministry...

How did the Maui fire spread so quickly? Overgrown gully, stubborn embers may be key to probe

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

Melted remains of an old car tire. Heavily burned trees. A charred stump of an abandoned utility pole.Investigators are examining these and other pieces of evidence as they seek to solve the mystery of last month’s deadly Maui wildfire: How did a small, wind-whipped fire sparked by downed power lines and declared extinguished flare up again hours later into a devastating inferno? The answer may lie in an overgrown gully beneath Hawaiian Electric Co. power lines and something that harbored smoldering embers from the initial fire before rekindling in high winds into a wall of flame that quickly overtook the town of Lahaina, destroying thousands of structures and killing at least 97 people.But as investigators sift through blackened debris to explain the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, one fact has become clear: Hawaiian Electric’s right-of-way was untrimmed and unkempt for years, despite being in an area classified as being at high risk for wildfires.Aerial and s...

Qatar Airways executive says invasive gynecological examinations of passengers won’t be repeated

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A senior Qatar Airways executive told an Australian Senate inquiry on Wednesday there would be no repeat of an incident at Doha’s international airport in 2020 in which female passengers were subjected to invasive gynecological examinations.Australian Transport Minister Catherine King said three weeks ago that the examinations of 13 Australian women who had boarded a Qatar Airways plane to Sydney were a factor in her decision in July to refuse the Qatar government-owned airline additional flights to Australia.Qatar Airways Senior Vice President for Global Sales Matt Raos described the incident, which occurred when authorities were looking for the mother of a newborn baby found abandoned in a Hamad International Airport trash can, as “a one-off incident, a very extreme incident.”“We’ve had nothing like it previously in our history and we’re completely committed to ensuring nothing like this ever happens again,” Raos told the committee.Raos was respond...

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly lower after Wall Street retreat deepens

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Shares in Asia were mostly higher on Wednesday, shrugging off a sharp decline on Wall Street that took benchmarks back to where they were in June.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 recovered earlier losses, gaining 0.3% to 32,371.90. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng advanced 0.6% to 17,577.03. The Shanghai Composite index added 0.3% to 3,111.36. In China, concerns continued over heavily indebted real estate developer Evergrande. The property market crisis there is dragging on China’s economic growth and raising worries about financial instability.Evergrande’s Hong Kong-traded shares fell 2.5% following an unconfirmed report by Bloomberg that police have put its founder, Hui Ka Yan, under residential surveillance. Shares in Country Garden Holdings, another debt-encumbered developer, were down 1.1%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3% to 7,019.70. In Seoul, the Kospi edged 0.1% higher, to 2,466.72.On Tuesday, the S&P 500 tumbled 1.5% for its fifth loss in six days, c...

Takeaways from AP report on Maui fire investigation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:39 GMT

Investigators are trying to solve a mystery about the origin of last month’s deadly Maui wildfire: How did a small, wind-whipped fire sparked by downed power lines and declared extinguished flare up again hours later into a devastating inferno that killed at least 97 people?Here are the key takeaways of an Associated Press investigation into the probe: WHAT DO THEY THINK HAPPENED?The answer may lie in an overgrown gully beneath Hawaiian Electric Co. power lines and something that harbored smoldering embers from the initial fire Aug. 8 before rekindling in high winds into a wall of flame that quickly overtook the town of Lahaina, destroying thousands of structures and forcing residents to jump into the ocean to escape.Investigators led by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Maui County have declined to comment on specifics of the probe.But The Associated Press reviewed more than 950 photos taken last month showing investigators combing through th...