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Chicago Bears begin demolishing grandstand exterior at Arlington Park with stadium issue still up in the air

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

The Chicago Bears began demolition Friday of the grandstand exterior at the former Arlington International Racecourse — considered for many years to be one of the most beautiful racetracks in the country.The Bears have plans to build an enclosed football stadium on the site as part of a $5 billion housing and entertainment district. But team officials have said they will not build there unless they get an agreement on property taxes and public subsidies for infrastructure such as roads and utilities.The team began demolition of the interior of the grandstand on May 30. Piles of rubble could be seen on the paddock track, where spectators previously could see horses up close before they raced.The village of Arlington Heights and Cook County approved the permits to begin tearing down the grandstand and related structures.There are more than 30 buildings or structures on the property, including stables, offices and dorms where jockeys, trainers and their families used to live. Fut...

Maine man charged with killing his parents and 2 others indicted, faces more charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A man charged with four counts of murder for allegedly killing his parents and two others in a series of shootings that shook Maine earlier this year has been indicted, officials said on Friday.Law enforcement officials say 34-year-old Joseph Eaton confessed to police to the killings at a property in rural Bowdoin and injuring three people while shooting at vehicles on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth. He faces additional charges related to the highway shootings.The bodies were found in Bowdoin on April 18, days after Eaton’s release from prison. Eaton’s parents, Cynthia Eaton, 62, and David Eaton, 66, were killed along with their longtime friends, Bowdoin homeowners Robert Eger, 72, and Patti Eger, 62, officials said. Soon after the bodies were discovered, police responded to gunshots fired at several vehicles more than 20 miles (about 32 kilometers) to the south on the busy highway in Yarmouth. Bullets struck a family in one of the vehicles, wounding Sean Ha...

Despite widespread protest, Reddit CEO says company is ‘not negotiating’ on changes to data access

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you hopped on Reddit to scroll through your favorite forums this week, you may have encountered “private” or “restricted” messages. That’s because thousands of subreddits chose to go dark in an ongoing protest of some controversial changes announced by the online discussion network.The blackout, which began Monday, emerged out of outrage over Reddit’s upcoming changes to its application programming interface (API) access — notably the company’s plan to start charging high usage third-party apps, who have long-used the Reddit data at no cost to build resources for users not available through the official site or app.Organizers of the protest say that Reddit’s new policy threatens to end key ways of historically customizing the platform, which relies heavily on the volunteer labor of subreddit moderators. Many users currently rely on third-party apps to access features that are unavailable in the official Reddit app, particularly for content mode...

Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder dies after falling down a ravine in the Tour de Suisse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder died Friday, one day after crashing and falling down a ravine during a descent at the Tour de Suisse.The 26-year-old Mäder crashed after a left-hand turn on a fast downhill road approaching the end of the mountainous fifth stage into La Punt. His fall of about 30 meters was stopped by a stream. “Gino lost his battle to recover from the severe injuries he sustained,” his Bahrain-Victorious team said in a statement. “Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30 a.m. we said goodbye to one of the shining lights of our team.”Medical staff who reached Mäder found him motionless in the water, race organizers said Thursday. CPR was performed on him before he was airlifted to the hospital.“Our entire team is devastated by this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Gino’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult ti...

Donald Triplett, the 1st person diagnosed with autism, dies at 89

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

FOREST, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi man known as “Case 1,” the first person to be diagnosed with autism, has died.Donald G. Triplett was the subject of a book titled “In a Different Key,” a PBS documentary film, BBC news magazine installment and countless medical journal articles.But to employees at the Bank of Forest, in a small city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Jackson, he was simply “Don,” WLBT-TV reported.Triplett died Thursday, confirmed Lesa Davis, the bank’s senior vice president. He was 89.Triplett worked for 65 years at the bank where his father Beamon Triplett was a primary shareholder.“Don was a remarkable individual,” CEO Allen Breland said of Triplett, who was known as a fiercely independent savant. “And he kept things interesting.”Triplett, a 1958 graduate of Millsaps College, enjoyed golf and travel and was frequently flying to exotic locales, Breland said. “He was in his own world, but if you gave him two, three-digit numbers, he could multiply...

NCAA medical committee recommendations include removal of marijuana from banned drug list

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An NCAA medical committee wants to remove marijuana from the banned drug list and consider whether testing should be limited to performance-enhancing drugs.The legislation must still be introduced and approved by all three NCAA divisions. Administrators from Division II and Division III asked the committee to look into the marijuana issue and a final decision is expected this fall. The NCAA’s committee on safeguards and medical aspects of sports also recommended suspending marijuana testing at NCAA championship events until a final judgment about the proposal is made, establishing a trace-level threshold for a banned hormone and metabolic modulator and updates to the governing body’s best practices on mental health.But the marijuana proposal will likely be the most pivotal change.Last December, at a summit on marijuana use among college athletes, it was determined the drug is not performance enhancing and that NCAA schools should focus more on educating ath...

RCMP say no critical injuries in crash of bus with 30 aboard near Prince George, B.C.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

PRINCE GEORGE — Mounties say no critical injuries have been reported among 30 people on a charter bus that crashed on a forest service road north of Prince George, B.C.RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Cooper says numerous ambulances and police officers have been dispatched to the site.Cooper says the bus was carrying pipeline workers when it went off the road and Emergency Health Services says 17 patients have been taken to hospital. Cooper say the cause of the crash is still unclear, but early morning rain on the gravel road made the conditions “quite poor.”She says initial reports indicate there were no critical injuries, but the distance from Prince George is hampering communications as radio coverage is minimal in that area.Northern Health spokesperson Eryn Collins said the University Hospital of Northern B.C. in Prince George has activated a “code orange,” used in cases where an influx of patients is expected that could overwhelm the hospital.This report by The Canadian Press was first...

Zelenskyy urges African leaders to press Putin on release of political prisoners

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to a group of African leaders to ask his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to free political prisoners from Crimea and beyond — saying it would be an “important step” in their trip to Russia on Saturday.Seven African leaders — presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from the Republic of Congo and Uganda — visited Ukraine on Friday as part of a self-styled “peace mission” to both Ukraine and Russia to try to help end their nearly 16-month-old war. The African leaders were traveling to meet with Putin on Saturday in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.The mission to Ukraine, the first of its kind by African leaders, comes in the wake of other peace initiatives such as one by China, and it carried extra importance for the African countries: They rely in varying degrees on food and fertilizer deliveries from Russia and Ukraine, whose war has jeopardiz...

Q&A: Carlos Santana: ‘My guitar is my best lover, ever’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Take no prisoners — peacefully,” Carlos Santana sometimes tells his bandmates before taking the stage. “I don’t like to coast. I don’t like to rope-a-dope,” Santana says. “I want to get in the middle of the ring and knock the sucker out. That way the referee can’t steal the fight from me.”Santana, 75, can still whip a crowd into a frenzy like few others. He’s been doing it since he stormed onto the San Francisco scene in the late ’60s. He left the Woodstock audience dazed and stunned before the first Santana record came out. The new documentary by Rudy Valdez, “Carlos,” which is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be released this fall in theaters by Sony Pictures Classics, chronicles the meteoric rise of one of the most singular guitar players in rock history. The critic Robert Christgau once wrote: “He is less a man of style than of sound, a clear, loud, fluent sound that cleanses with the same motion no matter how often that motion is repeated.”Santa...

Carlos Santana: ‘My guitar is my best lover, ever’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:49 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — “Take no prisoners — peacefully,” Carlos Santana sometimes tells his bandmates before taking the stage.“I don’t like to coast. I don’t like to rope-a-dope,” Santana says. “I want to get in the middle of the ring and knock the sucker out. That way the referee can’t steal the fight from me.”Santana, 75, can still whip a crowd into a frenzy like few others. He’s been doing it since he stormed onto the San Francisco scene in the late ’60s. He left the Woodstock audience dazed and stunned before the first Santana record came out.The new documentary by Rudy Valdez, “Carlos,” which is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival and will be released this fall in theaters by Sony Pictures Classics, chronicles the meteoric rise of one of the most singular guitar players in rock history. The critic Robert Christgau once wrote: “He is less a man of style than of sound, a clear, loud, fluent sound that cleanses with the same motion no matter how often that motion is repea...