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Kristian Winfield: All eyes on Ben Simmons’ contract as Nets head into free agency with big financial questions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

If the Nets aren’t making a move that firmly puts them back in the championship hunt, they will have to make some difficult decisions to ensure they do not broach the second apron, a new addition to the collective bargaining agreement that stiffens penalties for teams with an exorbitant payroll.Teams that spend in excess of $180 million in player salaries this season — like the Phoenix Suns, and their new core four of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Deandre Ayton — will be met with severe roster-building handicaps with implications that span multiple seasons.The handicaps include the inability to trade a draft pick seven years out, the inability to use a mid-level exception, the inability to receive more incoming salary than outgoing in a trade, and the inability to sign a player whose contract worth $12.2 million or more was bought-out.It’s exactly why a team like the Atlanta Hawks straight-up dumped John Collins, who was on the hook for another...

Missile kills 11 in a popular Ukrainian pizza parlor as Russia’s aerial barrage continues

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

By HANNA ARHIROVA (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday arrested a man they accused of helping Russia direct a missile strike that killed at least 11 people, including three teenagers, at a popular pizza restaurant in eastern Ukraine.The Tuesday evening attack on Kramatorsk wounded 61 other people, Ukraine’s National Police said. It was the latest bombardment of a Ukrainian city, a tactic Russia has used heavily in the 16-month-old war.The strike, and others across Ukraine late Tuesday and early Wednesday, indicated that the Kremlin is not easing its aerial onslaught, despite political and military turmoil at home after a short-lived armed uprising in Russia last weekend.There has been no apparent military push by Ukraine to exploit that turmoil, though the government has been tight-lipped about recent battlefield developments as it seeks to gain momentum in its recently launched counteroffensive.The Kremlin reeled from the weekend mut...

Boston opioid overdose deaths rise 7%, fentanyl and ‘tranq’ found in the drug supply

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

More than 350 people in Boston died from opioid overdoses last year, a nearly 7% increase as health officials remind residents about fentanyl in the drug supply and the dangers of opioid use.The Boston Public Health Commission also noted that the animal tranquilizer xylazine, known as “tranq,” has been found in the local drug supply and the powerful sedative leads to a higher risk of overdosing.Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported that Bay State fatal opioid overdoses hit a record-high last year. There were 2,357 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths in the state last year, surpassing the previous peak in 2021 by 57 deaths. That’s a 2.5% increase year-over-year.In Boston, 352 people died from opioid overdoses last year, a nearly 7% increase from 2021 (330 total deaths). From 2019 to 2022, Boston experienced a 36% increase in opioid-related deaths, more than twice the statewide rate of increase (16%) over the same time p...

The Yankees look lost at the plate, even as Anthony Volpe improves

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Not even the Athletics and their major league-worst pitching staff could snap the Yankees out of their offensive funk on Tuesday night.Oakland pitchers held the visiting Yanks to one lonesome run in a 2-1, A’s win. Only Josh Donaldson, in his return from a three-game benching, crossed the plate for the Yankees, as he hit a solo home run in the fifth inning.The Yankees stopped scoring there against a team that has a 6.02 ERA, easily the highest mark in baseball. The A’s, meanwhile, celebrated just their 21st win after the Yankees wasted a solid start from Jhony Brito by going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.“We had a couple chances, but again, just not creating enough opportunities for ourselves to breakthrough,” Aaron Boone said after the game, via YES Network. “We gotta get a little more consistent.”To the contrary, the Yankees’ offense has been consistent — just not in the ways Boone would like.The Bombers have been lost for...

Madonna postpones upcoming Celebration tour due to ‘serious bacterial infection’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Madonna has postponed her career-spanning Celebration tour due to what her manager called a “serious bacterial infection” and her ongoing recovery.Manager Guy Oseary wrote on Instagram Wednesday that the singer had spent several days in an intensive care unit after becoming ill on Saturday. He said the 64-year-old singer is expected to make a full recovery.The tour was set to kick-off in Vancouver on July 15.“Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care,” Oseary wrote.Live Nation confirmed the tour postponement, citing Oseary’s post.The Celebration tour is scheduled to make stops in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta and Boston, among other cities and its first leg was slated to end on Oct. 7 in Las Vegas. Oseary said details about rescheduled dates would be shared soon.

Sexual education in Massachusetts schools: State sends proposed framework to public comment

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Education officials may be in for a mixed bag when it comes to public comment regarding a proposed revision to the state’s health and physical education framework, which hasn’t been updated in 25 years.The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted Tuesday to release the framework, proposed by the Healey administration last week, for a 60-day public comment period. Members will decide in the fall whether to adopt the guidelines.Local school officials ultimately have the final say on how to implement the broad learning objectives outlined in the framework. Gov. Maura Healey is touting the guidelines as inclusive of “gay, queer, and trans students’ identities and needs.”Supporters argue the new framework is “grounded in science” and offers “medically accurate, age-appropriate” material, while opponents say the lessons are better suited to be taught outside the classroom.Such a curriculum could lead to decreased bullying and harassment, more classmates sticking up for peer...

Ex-NFL player among 11 deaths caused by dangerous rip currents off Florida, Alabama beaches

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

By FREIDA FRISARO (Associated Press)FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A former NFL quarterback, a firefighter from Georgia and two fathers who drowned while trying to save their children are among at least 11 recent victims of dangerous rip currents along Gulf of Mexico beaches stretching across Florida’s Panhandle to Mobile, Alabama.Many of the deaths have occurred on days with double red flags — which are posted at beach entrances and on lifeguard stations — that warn beachgoers of potential rip currents. Seven deaths since mid-June have occurred around Panama City Beach, including ex-NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett, 35, drowned Tuesday in nearby Destin after getting caught up in a strong rip current. Three people drowned off the coast of Alabama between June 20 and June 23, according to the Gulf Shores Police Department. The Gulf of Mexico’s white sandy beaches are a draw for tourists, and as the busy Fourth of July holiday approaches, officials are hoping b...

Dozens in 16 states charged with health care fraud schemes, including $1.9B in bogus claims

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and TOM MURPHY (Associated Press)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged dozens of people in several health care fraud and prescription drug schemes, including one totaling $1.9 billion and a doctor accused of ordering fake ankle braces for a patient whose leg had been amputated, officials said Wednesday.The scheme involving the submission of nearly $2 billion in bogus claims is one of the largest health care fraud cases ever brought by the Justice Department, the agency said. It’s one of several announced as part of a crackdown in states around the country. In total, 78 people in 16 states were charged in a series of separate cases, which also included an alleged scheme to buy back HIV medication from patients and then resell the pills.The defendants targeted vulnerable people and used the money they made to buy exotic cars, jewelry and yachts, federal investigators said. The federal government seized millions of dollars in cash, autom...

Smoke from Canada wildfires is increasing health risks in Black and poorer US communities

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Smoky air from Canada’s wildfires shrouded broad swaths of the U.S. from Minnesota to Pennsylvania and Kentucky on Wednesday, prompting warnings to stay inside and exacerbating health risks for people already suffering from industrial pollution.The impacts are particularly hard on poor and minority communities that are more likely to live near polluting plants and have higher rates of asthma. Detroit, a mostly Black city with a poverty rate of about 30%, had the worst air quality in the U.S. on Wednesday, leading the Environmental Protection Agency to warn that “everyone should stay indoors.”“The more breaths you’re taking, you’re inhaling, literally, a fire, camp smoke, into your lungs,” said Darren Riley, who was diagnosed with asthma in 2018, a few years after arriving in Detroit.“Many communities face this way too often,” said Riley, who is Black. “And while this wildfire smoke allows, unfortunately, many people to feel this burden, this is a burden that far too l...

Poor air quality from wildfires upends summer activities new reality sets in

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:17 GMT

Canadian wildfires triggered dangerous plumes of smoke and air pollution in parts of the country Wednesday, forcing many people to avoid the outdoors as poor air quality warnings cancelled some mail deliveries and curbed school recesses and sports training.A slew of disruptions followed special air quality statements from Environment Canada impacting large regions of central Canada, much of it stemming from forest fires over northeastern Ontario and Quebec.The agency said “high risk” conditions were not expected to improve in some areas until Thursday when air quality was still forecasted to pose “moderate risk” in much of Ontario. It all pointed to another day of a recommended moratorium on neighbourhood jogs and playground visits, especially for those with lung or heart disease, older adults and children who are at higher risk of adverse health effects.Ontario’s chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore suggested people get into the daily habit of checki...