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Column: A long, bumpy road for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox comes to an end. Now comes an intriguing offseason.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

When the Chicago White Sox dealt popular third baseman Jake Burger to the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline, sending Sox fans into a tizzy, no one could have predicted it also would be a death knell for the Cubs.Burger helped lead the Marlins past the Cubs in the wild-card race, hitting .306 with nine home runs, 28 RBIs and an .871 OPS in 52 games heading into Sunday’s finale. The Marlins went 18-9 from Aug. 31 on, clinching the spot and eliminating the slip-sliding Cubs on Saturday.White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams was fired shortly after consummating the deal with Marlins general manager Kim Ng. His firing had nothing to do with the trade, but in the end Williams not only helped an old friend from the Sox organization in Ng, but also helped deliver the eventual knockout blow to the Cubs.While Williams is toasting himself, Sox and Cubs fans can do a slow burn.The Burger Effect was a fitting epitaph for this unique season of Chicago baseball, in which the Sox ...

Orioles reset: Baltimore’s depth fueled its best regular season in decades. Now comes the real test.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

Judging by regular-season wins and losses, Mike Elias has built Baltimore’s best roster in his lifetime.But these Orioles want to be evaluated by more than that. Later this month, they will get the chance.The Orioles’ 101 victories mark the franchise’s most in the 162-game regular season since 1979, three years before Elias, their executive vice president and general manager, was born. Months before his first birthday, a Baltimore team that won 98 games added seven more in October to become the 1983 World Series champion. The Orioles haven’t hung a pennant since.This group can end that four-decade drought. Elias has constructed an overwhelmingly deep roster, nailing his early-round draft picks, making savvy veteran additions and executing under-the-radar trades that paid off exceptionally. En route to winning the American League East, Baltimore posted a winning record against all of the other four teams in what’s regarded as baseball’s most ...

Car drives through fence at airport, briefly disrupting operations, officials say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

A car crashed through a fence at Maine’s busiest airport, traveled on a service road alongside a runway and then was abandoned, causing a brief disruption, officials said.The episode unfolded Sunday morning at Portland International Jetport, when the abandoned sedan was spotted after it had crashed into a second fence in a secure area of the airport, officials said. The 33-year-old driver was quickly located and charged with criminal trespass, leaving the scene of an accident, driving to endanger, and aggravated criminal mischief, police said.Airport officials closed the runway for about 45 minutes for a security sweep, but no flights were delayed. The motorist drove on a road alongside an airport runway but didn’t actually drive onto the runway or taxiway, said Zach Sundquist, the airport’s assistant director. No one was injured, and there was no threat to the public, police said.Portland,Maine, The Associated Press

Spin Master signs global toy licence deal for Dora, the new Dora the Explorer series

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

TORONTO — Spin Master Corp. says it has signed a deal for the global toy licence for Dora, the new reboot of the Dora the Explorer franchise coming next year.Financial terms of the agreement were not immediately available.The new animated Dora series is set to begin streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the spring of 2024 in the United States.Internationally, Dora will stream on Paramount+ and air on Nickelodeon channels in all markets where available.Spin Master says its Dora toy collection is expected to launch in the fall 2024.It is expected to include figures, dolls, playsets, vehicles, plush, role-play, games and puzzles, inspired by Dora, her companion Boots and other characters.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:TOY)The Canadian Press

Stock market today: US futures modestly lower after Congress narrowly averts a government shutdown

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

BANGKOK — Wall Street pointed modestly lower early Monday after Congress narrowly averted a U.S. government shutdown with a last-minute, weekend compromise.Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrials each ticked down about 0.2% before the opening bell Monday. After the worst month for markets this year, October begins with a slew of employment data. Reports on job openings, layoffs and the comprehensive monthly jobs report on Friday will give investors and economists new details on the country’s labor market, which has largely held up better than expected as the Federal Reserve cranked up interest rates in an effort to bring down inflation.Fed officials have hinted in recent weeks that rates will be likely remain elevated for longer than previously thought as the central bank tries to get inflation down its 2% target. Last week, the government reported that core prices rose 3.9% in August from a year ago, below July’s reading of 4.2% and the slowest such increase...

Work starts on turning Adolf Hitler’s birthplace in Austria into a police station

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

BRAUNAU AM INN, Austria (AP) — Work started Monday on turning the house in Austria where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 into a police station, a project meant to make it unattractive as a site of pilgrimage for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.The decision on the future of the building in Braunau am Inn, a town on Austria’s border with Germany, was made in late 2019. Plans call for a police station, the district police headquarters and a security academy branch where police officers will get human rights training.On Monday, workers put up fencing and started taking measurements for the construction work.The police are expected to occupy the premises in early 2026.A years-long back-and-forth over the ownership of the house preceded the overhaul project. The question was resolved in 2017 when Austria’s highest court ruled that the government was within its rights to expropriate the building after its owner refused to sell it. A suggestion it might be demolished was dropped.Th...

Rogers expands TTC subway wireless network access to customers at other carriers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

Rogers Communications Inc. says customers of all of the major Canadian wireless carriers can now connect to its 5G wireless network in the busiest sections of the Toronto subway system.The company says subway riders will be able to connect to its 5G network while in the Line 1 stations and tunnels in the so-called Downtown U from Union Station north to St. George and Bloor-Yonge, plus Spadina and Dupont stations. The area encompasses all of the subway stops in Toronto’s downtown core.Users will also be able to access the network in 13 stations on Line 2, along Bloor Street from Keele to Castle Frank, plus the tunnels between St. George and Yonge stations.Rogers acquired the cellular network in the subway system from BAI Canada earlier this year and has been working to upgrade it.The service to all carriers comes after months of tense back-and-forth negotiations between Rogers and rivals Bell and Telus over the best technical approach, as well as financial terms, for providing ...

Women’s voices and votes loom large as pope is set to open a Vatican meeting on church’s future

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A few years ago, Pope Francis told the head of the main Vatican-backed Catholic women’s organization to be “brave” in pushing for change for women in the Catholic Church. Maria Lia Zervino took his advice and in 2021 wrote Francis a letter, then made it public, saying flat out that the Catholic Church owed a big debt to half of humanity and that women deserved to be at the table where church decisions are made, not as mere “ornaments” but as protagonists.Francis appears to have taken note, and this week opens a global gathering of Catholic bishops and laypeople discussing the future of the church, where women — their voices and their votes — are taking center stage for the first time.For Zervino, who worked alongside the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio when both held positions in the Argentine bishops’ conference, the gathering is a watershed moment for the church and quite possibly the most consequential thing Francis will have undertaken as po...

New Van Gogh show in Paris focuses on artist’s extraordinarily productive and tragic final months

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Planted in a field, Vincent van Gogh painted furiously, bending the thick oils, riotous yellows and sumptuous blues to his will. The resulting masterpiece, “Wheatfield with Crows,” bursts off the canvas like technicolor champagne. Art historians believe the Dutch master painted it on July 8, 1890. As far as they can tell, Van Gogh then churned out another stunning work the very next day, July 9, of more wheat fields under thunderous clouds. In the painting’s vibrant greens, the mind’s eye can imagine the artist working frenetically amid the sashaying stalks.On or around July 10, then came yet another Van Gogh marvel — a painting of a tidy garden with a prowling cat. And the day after that, July 11, the artist appears to have headed back to the fields, likely having risen early as was his habit, painting them spotted with blood-red poppies, under skies of swirling blue.At age 37 and the height of his powers, Van Gogh was splurging out genius at a rate of a pa...

2 killed, 2 injured — including 7-year-old boy — in shooting on West Side

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:36:07 GMT

CHICAGO — Two men are dead and two others, including a child, are injured after a shooting on the city's West Side, according to Chicago Police.Officers say the shooting happened near West Madison Street and South Sacramento Boulevard in Garfield Park just after 2:30 p.m.Police say the three men and a 7-year-old boy were standing in a vacant lot in the area when a car, which was traveling southbound, pulled up and a person inside opened fire on the group.Officers say a 33-year-old man and a 31-year-old man were both shot in the head and taken to the hospital where they later died from their injuries. According to police, the 7-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to the head and was taken to Stroger Hospital in fair condition. The boy has been identified as Aden Carothers and will turn 8-years-old next month.The other person involved, a 38-year-old man who was shot in the lower back, was taken to the hospital in critical condition.Currently, it is unclear what led to the shooting.No ...