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Track stymies Russian path to Olympics due to war in Ukraine

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

Track and field leaders signaled Thursday that it will be nearly impossible for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics next year if the war in Ukraine continues.The World Athletics Council kept its ban on Russian athletes in international events in place “for the foreseeable future.” It’s a move that goes directly against the International Olympic Committee’s efforts to find a way for Russian athletes to compete as neutrals in upcoming events.World Athletics will form a working group to determine under what conditions Russians might return to international competition, but for now, there is no apparent pathway.The move came on the same day that World Athletics finally lifted a seven-year suspension of Russia’s track federation for a doping scandal that dates back a decade.Though the federation is back in good standing so long as it adheres to nearly three dozen “special conditions,” that move did nothing to change the reality that Ru...

New Starbucks CEO plans to work in stores monthly

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

Starbucks’ new CEO Laxman Narasimhan says he plans to work a half-day shift once a month in one of the company’s stores in an effort to stay close to the company’s culture and customers. Narasimhan, who took the reins as CEO earlier this week, said in a letter to Starbucks’ employees Thursday that he also expects the company’s leadership team to be connected and engaged in stores. “While our performance is strong, our health needs to be stronger,” Narasimhan wrote in the letter. “We must care for the artists and the theater in the front of our stores, and the factory in the back.”The CEO’s plan to work in stores is new for Seattle-based Starbucks, but not unprecedented among big companies. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and his executive team make DoorDash deliveries once a month, for example.Narasimhan, 55, issued the letter prior to the company’s annual meeting, which was held virtually. The former PepsiCo executive has spent the last six months immersing himself in Starbucks, earning his b...

Autism now more common among Black, Hispanic kids in US

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time, autism is being diagnosed more frequently in Black and Hispanic children than in white kids in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.Among all U.S. 8-year-olds, 1 in 36 had autism in 2020, the CDC estimated. That’s up from 1 in 44 two years earlier. But the rate rose faster for children of color than for white kids. The new estimates suggest that about 3% of Black, Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander children have an autism diagnosis, compared with about 2% of white kids.That’s a contrast to the past, when autism was most commonly diagnosed in white kids — usually in middle- or upper-income families with the means to go to autism specialists. As recently as 2010, white kids were deemed 30% more likely to be diagnosed with autism than Black children and 50% more likely than Hispanic children.Experts attributed the change to improved screening and autism services for all kids, and to increased awarenes...

Soundtrack of this year’s March Madness begins with ‘CLANK!’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Folks across the country watching the first-round of the NCAA Tournament last week thought it rightfully funny when they saw a couple of stadium workers scurry up a ladder and place a construction level across the rim.Turns out Iowa State players, puzzled by their shots clanking off the iron during pregame warmsups, were right: It wasn’t perfectly horizontal.The NCAA acknowledged later that “a minor adjustment” was made before the game, and the Cyclones were quick to say afterward that it had no bearing on their 59-41 loss to Pittsburgh. But whether the rim was physically off-center, or caused Iowa State to be mentally off-base, the result was unmistakable: The Cyclones trailed 22-2 to start the game, finished 23.3% from the floor and, perhaps most jaw-droppingly, were an abysmal 2 of 21 from 3-point range.“It just wasn’t going in,” Cyclones sharpshooter Gabe Kalscheur said. “Sometimes that happens.”From the 3-point line, it’s happening more...

Zebra runs loose in Seoul before being taken back to zoo

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A young zebra walked, trotted, and galloped for hours in the busy streets of South Korea’s capital before emergency workers tranquilized the animal and brought it back to a zoo. The zebra — a male named Sero that was born in the zoo in 2021 — was in stable condition and being examined by veterinarians as of Thursday evening, said Choi Ye-ra, an official at the Children’s Grand Park in Seoul.She said the zoo was investigating how the zebra managed to escape. She didn’t immediately confirm media reports that the animal partially destroyed the wooden fencing surrounding its pen before busting out around 2:50 p.m.Social media was flowing with smartphone videos of the zebra trotting alongside lines of cars that were waiting for the greenlight at an intersection, and galloping through a street surrounded by commercial buildings as pedestrians stopped and gasped.Police and emergency workers managed to corner the zebra after it entered a narrow alleyway between hou...

Review: Salvant’s jazz album is a captivating musical mix

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

“Mélusine,” Cécile McLorin Salvant (Nonesuch Records) Cécile McLorin Salvant’s musical vocabulary is a marvel, and not only because she sings in four languages on “Mélusine.” The ambitious concept album mixes original tunes and inventive interpretations of material dating back as far as the 12th century into a potpourri that draws from jazz, Broadway, the Caribbean and more. It’s true roots music. The album was inspired by a European fable involving a hunting accident, pivotal bathing scenes and a marriage that goes sour (spoiler alert: The wife turns into a dragon). It’s confusing but fascinating, like a dream about a dream. Somehow, despite the unwieldy scope of the 45-minute set, Salvant never hits a false note. Whether the words are in French, English, Occitan or Haitian Creole, she sings them beautifully, navigating tricky melodies with the ease of Ella Fitzgerald and a playfulness that enhances Salvant’s astute sense of theatricality. She’s equally convincing singing about the...

Should there be public transportation to Red Rocks?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- If you ask someone who isn't from Denver what they associate the city with, any music lover will instantly respond with Red Rocks. But what many people who haven't lived or visited here will not know is just how far the venue is from downtown.Red Rocks is currently slated to host nearly 150 concerts this year, with the season-opening on March 31 and running through mid-November. Full list of Red Rocks concerts for 2023 The iconic venue has a capacity of 9,525, which means there could be up to 1.4 million people attending concerts in 2023. All of those people will have to find a way to get there which can be especially daunting if you don't own a car or are trying to avoid driving.RTD offers train service from Union Station to Golden Station at the Jefferson County Government campus, but this still leaves you five miles away from the entrance to Red Rocks. Denver mayoral candidate Ean Thomas Tafoya has recently launched a petition to get RTD service from Golden Sta...

‘I was poisoned by Russian agents,’ Georgia’s ex-President Saakashvili says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been detained by authorities in Tbilisi for over a year, suffering dramatic weight loss and severe ill health, told POLITICO he believed he was “poisoned by Russian agents.”The claim from the pro-Western politician forms part of a broader series of accusations about nefarious Russian influence. In particular, he insisted that Bidzina Ivanishvili, the oligarch founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, was acting under instruction from Moscow to “capture” the Georgian state. Although the vast majority of Georgians support closer ties with NATO and the EU, critics of Georgian Dream say the government has deliberately undermined a more westward political trajectory in order not to inflame relations with Russia. The Russian agents “infiltrated [the] Georgian security services,” Saakashvili said. “I remember vividly the day when poison was administered, I almost died.”“S...

Former lawmaker’s wife sentenced in theft of COVID-19 funds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The wife of a now-former Connecticut state lawmaker was sentenced Thursday to six months in federal prison in connection with her role in the alleged theft of federal coronavirus relief funds from the city of West Haven.Lauren DiMassa, one of several people arrested with former state Rep. Michael DiMassa in the investigation, had pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.Federal prosecutors said the city of West Haven paid Lauren DiMassa, nearly $148,000 for services she never provided to the city. She and her husband were accused of submitting fraudulent invoices to the city for coronavirus-related services including youth violence prevention, but instead they used the money for their own benefit, prosecutors said.“I am embarrassed and appalled at my own actions and simply wish to pay my debts and live out a quiet life with my family,” she wrote in a letter of apology to the judge.Judge Omar Williams ordered Lauren DiMassa to report to prison on May 23. He a...

Hot Property: Beacon Hill beauty delivers luxury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:50 GMT

High-end and ultra high-end buildings are no longer a novelty in Boston.That is, anywhere except for Beacon Hill, where there are luxury residences aplenty but luxury buildings with all the trimmings? Not so much.Enter The Archer and its 62 unique residences. Located at 45 Temple Street, the mid-rise building is so prime Beacon Hill, you can gaze out to the State House’s gold dome and manicured courtyard from the building’s shared roof deck.Among the units currently available, unit 409 is an impeccably styled, single-level four-bedroom, 2,958 square-foot condominium. Perched on the fourth floor with views rising above charming rooftops, the condo boasts dramatic 16-foot ceilings. Coupled with floor-to-ceiling paned windows in the living room and an open floor plan that includes a Wolf and Sub-Zero clad kitchen, the end result is a refined, loft-like atmosphere.Two parking spaces are available in the on-site garage, with valet parking, naturally.On top of the roof deck — not literall...