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ASK IRA: Have we truly yet met the real 2022-23 Miami Heat?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

Q: Which Heat team will show up against the Knicks? 1) Beginning-of-season under-.500 Heat? 2) Midseason 20-11 team with good defense but can’t score? 3) Down-the-stretch Heat that can shoot again, but has poor defense? 4) Bucks killer? Do you have a crystal ball, because how do you know which one? – Morgan, New Orleans.A: I’m of the belief of different horses for different courses. So I’m not sure much of anything from the Bucks series carries over, because of the sharp contrasts between the Bucks and Knicks. I’m also not sure much carries over from the regular season, because all of that came with Tyler Herro in the mix. So again, seemingly as always with this team, it comes down to Jimmy Butler. And, to me, it comes down to Jimmy Butler having to be better than Jalen Brunson for the Heat to maximize their chances.Q: Now we will see if Bam Adebayo can play against a real center. Mitchell Robinson has been great for New York. — Shappy.A: But I...

Howie Carr: With Tucker Carlson’s gone, this time I’m really done with Fox News

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

This time I’m really done with Fox.I’ve said that before, at least to myself, especially after their premature call of the Arizona results on election night 2020.But getting rid of Tucker Carlson was the last straw. Given the new technologies, does anyone truly need Fox News Channel any longer?Full disclosure: I’m on the payroll of Newsmax — the streaming service, N2 — and I work out of their offices for more than half the year. But like everybody else I know I still watched Fox, or at least Tucker, until he was summarily axed last week, while at the absolute top of his game, and more importantly, the ratings.My own theory is that Tucker was the victim of a Deep State hit. All the stories about Rupert’s fiance, or the corporate emails, or the second-string producer’s lawsuit — nonsense, cover stories.Tucker’s problem was that he had drifted off the reservation. Someone got to Rupert’s kid, Lachlan, who is to the Murdoch clan what Fredo was to the Corleones.But why would even a pampe...

NFL Notes: Bill Belichick continues to march to the beat of a different drummer

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

From a predictability standpoint, this was a classic Bill Belichick draft.As in, it’s completely useless to try and predict which direction he’s going to go. Perceived needs just don’t apply.Belichick, and personnel head Matt Groh by extension, continues to march to the beat of a different drummer. That’s the biggest takeaway from the Patriots’ 2023 draft haul.While the prevailing pre-draft view was that Mac Jones needed help on offense, specifically at receiver and offensive tackle, Belichick disagreed.He used most of what would be considered his best, most impactful picks on defense. While the Pats took care of cornerback, which was important, and added a few more super-duper athletes for the defense, some glaring offensive needs weren’t completely addressed.A plug-and-play tackle to protect Jones, who was mauled last season?Nope. Not in this draft.After going with defense the first three picks, the Patriots added a center (Troy’s Jake Andrews), who is perhaps a long-t...

Ana Walshe case: Mysterious ransom note and confirmed Washington D.C. lover

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

Warrants released in the case of Brian Walshe, the Cohasset man accused of slaying his wife in the first hours of the year, confirm Ana Walshe was having an affair and also reveal a mysterious ransom note sent to police in the first days of the investigation.“We have the so named Ana Walshe with us here..we had a deal worth $127,000.. She messed up..we have her here with us and if she doesn’t pay the money..then she’ll never be back, and we know that the police and the FBI are involved.. Good luck finding us.”That’s the body of the email Cohasset Police Detective Harrison Schmidt found in his inbox at 5:18 in the morning on Jan. 7, just three days after police had entered Ana Walshe in the National Crime Information Center database as a missing or endangered person. That’s according to the affidavit filed Jan. 9 by Massachusetts State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino in an affidavit in support of a search warrant on electronic devices in the Walshe home.It was an unusual detail that ...

Report: 6 students shot, wounded at Mississippi house party

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) — Six high school students were injured after gunfire erupted at a house party in southern Mississippi, according to a news report.The Biloxi Sun Herald reported early Sunday that the shootings happened overnight Saturday in Bay St. Louis, about 29 miles (46 kilometers) west of Biloxi. All six students suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to area hospitals. Two were in serious condition.Two of the victims are students at Bay High School in Bay St. Louis. Four of the students attend Hancock High School in Kiln, 13 miles (21 kilometers) northwest of Bay St. Louis. None of them had attended Bay High’s prom, which was held earlier Saturday night. It wasn’t immediately clear how many shots were fired or if anyone had been arrested, the Sun Herald reported.The house where the party was held is less than a mile from the Hollywood Casino.The Associated Press

Chinese who reported on COVID to be released after 3 years

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese authorities were preparing Sunday to release a man who disappeared three years ago after publicizing videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the COVID-19 outbreak, a relative and another person familiar with his case said.Fang Bin and other members of the public who were dubbed citizen journalists posted details of the pandemic in early 2020 on the internet and social media, embarrassing Chinese officials who faced criticism for failing to control the outbreak. The last video Fang, a seller of traditional Chinese clothing, posted on Twitter was of a piece of paper reading, “All citizens resist, hand power back to the people.”Fang’s case is part of Beijing’s crackdown on criticism of China’s early handling of the pandemic, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to control the narrative of the country. He was scheduled to be released Sunday, according to two people who did not want to be identified for fear of government retribution. One of them s...

Indo-Pacific region wants to sidestep U.S.-China spat: Asian Development Bank head

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

OTTAWA — A senior economist whose organization oversees economic-development projects across Asia says Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy could help the region’s huge infrastructure needs, but risks falling flat if Ottawa tries to wedge countries against China.“It’s great for Canada to develop closer ties with all of the countries in the region,” said Albert Park, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank.“For a lot of leaders in Asia, they don’t want to have to pick sides.”Canada is a founding member of the ADB, which since 1966 has provided loans to businesses from Kazakhstan to Fiji, with much of the financing coming from Japan and the U.S.The bank is known for keeping tabs on each of the region’s economies and recently published a new assessment of macroeconomic trends, along with a forecast of growth and inflation for each country.The ABD expects a boost in growth across the region, and expects inflation to gradually moderat...

Aspen Matis: I was diagnosed with autism at 33. Here is why autism diagnostic tests leave females behind.

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

When I was 10, sitting around a picnic table with a bunch of girls from camp, I made a mistake. They were laughing, all making fun of Linda, one of our counselors. Though I didn’t get the jokes, I mimicked their laughter. When Linda walked up to us, I immediately told her what everyone had been saying. I assumed she’d find it funny, too. But she didn’t smile. And the girls became upset and refused to talk to me for the rest of the summer.I didn’t understand what I’d done wrong.Throughout adolescence, I did my best to mirror the social behavior of my most “normal” peers, copying the way they walked and flipped their hair. In the hallways, I avoided eye contact. On sidewalks, I practiced smiling at strangers, and they often smiled back. Still, I felt like an alien impersonating a human.In high school, my social challenges were compounded by increasing academic struggles. When fully focused, I read a page every eight minutes, so I was often up ...

Literary pick for week of April 30

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

Wordplay is back in person.Remember that beautiful May day in 2019 when thousands of people gathered in Minneapolis for the Loft Literary Center’s first Wordplay book festival? It was so much fun.The pandemic forced the festival to go virtual in 2020 and 2021, and it paused in 2022 while Arleta Little, the Loft’s executive and artist director, settled into her new position.Now the festival is back live from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 8, at locations in Minneapolis’ Mill City neighborhood. Wordplay is the largest Minnesota celebration of readers, writers and good books, with this year’s theme being Narrative Power, featuring authors whose books inspire revolution in topics ranging from racial justice and health and wellness to climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equity and equality.There are 35 authors on the program, representing a wide range of genres, backgrounds and perspectives. Among them are award-winning writers like Alexander Chee, Adrian Mate...

Noah Feldman: Can Texas really put the Ten Commandments in public schools?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:02:25 GMT

Earlier this month, the Texas Senate passed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom in the Lone Star State. It’s not that surprising in the wake of the Supreme Court’s blockbuster June 2022 decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton, which overturned all existing jurisprudence about the separation of church and state.Before that ruling, the Texas bill would’ve been an obviously unconstitutional establishment of religion, something prohibited by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Now, however, it comes under the disturbing category of “Who knows?”The Texas Senate certainly is trying to establish religion under any ordinary-language use of the term. But because the Supreme Court announced a vague new “history and tradition” test to replace the last 50 years of establishment-clause law, a court could conceivably conclude that mandating the Ten Commandments is just fine — a result that would invite a raft of new ...