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Readers sound off on MLB rules, illegal pot sales and Ukraine foreign policy

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

Baseball is changing, so what about bad calls?Manhattan: Re “Yankees pitcher Domingo German throws perfect game against Oakland Athletics” (June 29): With German pitching the first perfect game since 2012, it’s the last, best moment to recognize Armando Galarraga’s “28-out perfect game” from June 2, 2010. I’m hoping someone in Major League Baseball’s headquarters in New York will take notice.In 1991, then-MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent cited Roger Angell’s 17-page “Homeric Tales” as influencing his decision to observe Roger Maris’ home run record without qualification. Today, the MLB can claim the change of heart comes from the thesis submitted to Commissioner Rob Manfred by undergraduate law students at Monmouth University — plus watching German’s 99-pitch feat.Jim Joyce, the umpire in the 2010 game, even co-wrote a book with Galarraga about his incorrect call, titled “Nobody’s Perfect....

Ransomware criminals are dumping kids’ private files online after school hacks

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

The confidential documents stolen from schools and dumped online by ransomware gangs are raw, intimate and graphic. They describe student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy — even suicide attempts.“Please do something,” begged a student in one leaked file, recalling the trauma of continually bumping into an ex-abuser at a school in Minneapolis. Other victims talked about wetting the bed or crying themselves to sleep.Complete sexual assault case folios containing these details were among more than 300,000 files dumped online in March after the 36,000-student Minneapolis Public Schools refused to pay a $1 million ransom. Other exposed data included medical records, discrimination complaints, Social Security numbers and contact information of district employees. Rich in digitized data, the nation’s schools are prime targets for far-flung criminal hackers, who are assiduously locating and scooping up sensitive files that not long ago were committed t...

Palestinians inspect damage after Israel ends raid of West Bank camp and warns it was not a one-off

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israel withdrew troops from a West Bank militant stronghold Wednesday but warned that its most intense military operation in the occupied territory in nearly two decades was not a one-off. Thirteen Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the two-day raid.Residents of the Jenin refugee camp emerged from their homes to find alleys lined by piles of rubble and flattened or scorched cars. Shopkeepers and bulldozers started clearing the debris. Thousands who had fled the fighting began returning.The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in the operation which included a series of airstrikes and hundreds of ground troops. But it remained unclear whether there would be any lasting effect after nearly a year and a half of heavy fighting in the West Bank.Ahead of the withdrawal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out similar operations if needed.“At these moments we are completing the mission, and ...

Hope and uncertainty linger as California turns the page on state-run youth prisons

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Juvenile offenders in California might now have a better chance at rehabilitation instead of facing a mostly punitive sentence in a youth prison system that often only reinforced the patterns of neglect and violence that led many of them into trouble in the first place.On Saturday, California shuttered its last three state-run youth lockups and passed day-to-day operations of juvenile halls to county probation departments. The plan decentralizes care of youth offenders and prioritizes keeping them closer to home in facilities focused less on punishment and more on reformation — all in hope of breaking “the school-to-prison pipeline,” as Gov. Gavin Newsom put it in 2020.But will it be enough?Advocates say the move away from a punitive approach reflects their belief that children who commit crimes are better served in settings that emphasize education, mental health care and other supportive services. But supporters and skeptics alike say there is still plenty of un...

A year of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians just escalated. Is this an uprising?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Airstrikes targeting Palestinian militants in a crowded residential area. Armored bulldozers plowing through narrow streets, crushing cars and piling up debris. Protesters burning tires. A mounting death toll.Israel’s large-scale military raid into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank this week had undeniable similarities with the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s — a period that claimed thousands of lives.But the current fighting — including the Jenin raid, which ended after two days on Wednesday — is also different from those intense years of violence. It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants.It’s also a symptom of a conflict with no foreseeable end. The Palestinian leadership is weakened, and the Israeli government has been accelerating the expansion of settlements that have eroded any chance of Palestinian statehood.WHAT IS AN INTIFADA?The word...

15 killed by floods in southwestern China as seasonal torrents hit mountain areas

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — At least 15 people have been killed by floods in southwestern China as seasonal torrents hit mountain areas, authorities said Wednesday. Another four people were reported missing by mid-morning in Chongqing, a vast mountainous region of 31 million, almost all of which has now been designated as having flood risk, according to the local government website. The Chongqing floods appear to be China’s deadliest amid deluges in other parts of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. In just one southwestern province, Sichuan, more than 85,000 people have been evacuated due to flooding, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Chongqing’s flood warning has been upgraded from level four to level three, reflecting the growing seriousness of the crisis. Rescue teams in inflatable boats were ferrying villagers to safety and workers were clearing roads blocked by landslides, according to photos posted on the government website. Seasonal flooding hits l...

France riots: Shot teenager's grandmother says violence must stop

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

The grandmother of the teenager shot dead by police during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb said on Sunday (2 July) she wanted the nationwide rioting triggered by his killing to end, after a fifth night of unrest.She said the rioters were using 17-year-old Nahel's death last Tuesday as an excuse to cause havoc and that the family wanted calm."I'm telling them [the rioters] to stop," the grandmother, identified as Nadia by French media, told BFM TV."Nahel is dead. My daughter is lost...she doesn't have a life anymore."Asked about a crowdfunding campaign that had received pledges of more than €670,000 for the police officer charged with voluntary homicide over the shooting, Nadia said: "My heart aches."The latest riots, following Saturday's funeral for Nahel in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, were less intense than the previous night, the government said. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 45,000 police would again be deployed on Sunday night.Since Nahel was shot, rioters have torch...

Single family residence in San Ramon sells for $2.3 million

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

2921 Bailey Way – Google Street ViewA 3,178-square-foot house built in 2009 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 2900 block of Bailey Way in San Ramon was sold on June 9, 2023, for $2,285,000, or $719 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, three bathrooms, an attached garage, and two parking spaces. The unit sits on a 6,307-square-foot lot.Additional houses that have recently changed hands close by include:A 2,592-square-foot home on the 3300 block of Sleeping Meadow Way in San Ramon sold in July 2022, for $2,280,000, a price per square foot of $880. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In June 2022, a 3,953-square-foot home on Wells Lane in San Ramon sold for $2,888,500, a price per square foot of $731. The home has 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.On Photinia Court, San Ramon, in June 2022, a 3,665-square-foot home was sold for $2,700,000, a price per square foot of $737. The home has 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. 

Luis Leon Sanchez ruled out of the Tour de France with a broken collarbone

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

PAU, France (AP) — Former Paris-Nice champion Luis Leon Sanchez has withdrawn from the Tour de France after a crash that left him with a broken left collarbone.The Spanish rider was involved in one of the many crashes that marred the finale of Tuesday’s fourth stage of the race.The Astana-Qazaqstan team said Sanchez was expected to travel home Wednesday to undergo surgery.“It all went so fast in that hectic finale, with so many turns in the end,” Sanchez said. “I had no control any more over my bike on that tricky surface.”Sanchez’s withdrawal is a blow to teammate Mark Cavendish’s hopes of adding another mass sprint to his tally and beat the all-time record of 34 stage wins he shares with Eddy Merckx. “We really lose an important rider for all kinds of stages, including the stages where he was part of the lead-out for Mark Cavendish,” team manager Alexandre Vinokourov said.Wednesday’s stage 5, the first in the mountains this year, could help reshuffle the ca...

Japón verterá pronto agua radiactiva de Fukushima al océano. ¿Hasta qué punto debemos preocuparnos?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

(CNN) — Japón pronto comenzará a liberar agua radiactiva tratada en el océano tras la aprobación del organismo de control nuclear de las Naciones Unidas para un plan controvertido que llega 12 años después de la fusión nuclear de Fukushima.El plan para liberar las aguas residuales lleva años gestándose, y el ministro de Medio Ambiente declaró en 2019 que “no había otras opciones” a medida que se agota el espacio para contener el material contaminado.Rafael Grossi, jefe del Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica (IAEA, por sus siglas en inglés), llegó a Japón este martes para visitar Fukushima y presentar la revisión de seguridad del organismo de la ONU al primer ministro Fumio Kishida.Pero la aprobación de la ONU no ha servido para tranquilizar a los residentes de los países vecinos y a los pescadores locales, que aún sienten el impacto de la catástrofe de 2011.Algunos han puesto en duda las conclusiones del IAEA, y China afirmó recientemente que la evaluación ...