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Column: Will the Chicago Cubs have to do more with less under Craig Counsell? Takeaways from a lukewarm hot stove league.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

Hot stove takeaways for a lukewarm holiday season.When Craig Counsell talked about “solving for wins” at the MLB winter meetings in Nashville, Tenn., I thought I had misheard him.Then I realized the new Chicago Cubs manager was simply speaking a different language, like Theo Epstein when the former Cubs president arrived on the scene in 2011 and began using terms such as “parallel tracks” and teams “evolving” like “Galápagos Islands — that type of thing.”“If you can get one player that adds up to a lot of wins, that’s helpful,” Counsell said. “There’s no question about it. But you’re solving for wins and that’s a puzzle you’re putting together. That’s the hard part about roster building, and it’s the challenge that every team faces in an offseason with player movement.”That puzzle-solving ability is what helped make Counsell one of the game’s most respec...

Critics caution against plan to expand medical assistance in dying to those with mental illness

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

Hope is what kept Laurel Walker alive as thoughts of suicide overwhelmed her, and that is exactly what she says would be stripped from people battling the same darkness if Canada forges ahead with plans to expand medical assistance in dying to those with a mental disorder.Proponents of the expansion, set for March 17, maintain that providing MAID to people with an incurable physical illness without giving the same right to those with an irremediable mental illness amounts to discrimination on the basis of a disability. Critics counter that there is insufficient evidence to predict whether or not someone will recover from a mental illness. Recent comments out of Ottawa suggest expansion is not a certainty. Justice Minister Arif Virani said Wednesday that cabinet will consider the input of a joint parliamentary committee, medical experts and other stakeholders in deciding “whether we move ahead on March 17, or whether we pause.” Related: 'Weighing our ...

Convent-made delicacies, a Christmas favorite, help monks and nuns win fans and pay the bills

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — It’s the fortnight before Christmas and all through the world’s Catholic convents, nuns and monks are extra busy preparing the traditional delicacies they sell to a loyal fan base even in rapidly secularizing countries. For many monastic communities, especially those devoted to contemplative life and with vows of poverty, producing cookies, fruitcakes, even beer for sale is the only means to keep the lights on.But it’s also an enticing way to strengthen their ties with lay people who flock to their doors — and in some cases their websites — in the holiday season. “Our kitchen is a witness to God’s love to those outside,” said Sister Abigail, one of the 10 cloistered nuns of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Mexico City.“We are in the Lord’s presence, and we’re always thinking that it will make someone happy, the person who will eat this, or they will gift it and someone will receive it with joy,” added the sister, whose convent makes swe...

‘Smoke screen’: Canadian airlines use NDAs to keep a lid on passenger settlements

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

Colleen Dafoe was at the Halifax airport last December with her husband and daughter when WestJet told her their trip was cancelled.The airline suggested rescheduling them on a flight more than 10 days later, she said — well after the end of their planned vacation to the Dominican Republic to celebrate Dafoe’s 50th birthday with extended family. They never left Nova Scotia.Dafoe said she asked for a refund from WestJet, which refused and instead offered a vacation voucher valid for one year. Eventually, she turned to small claims court for the $1,200 in compensation she believed her family was owed under Canada’s passenger rights charter.Only after she launched the legal action did a WestJet lawyer offer to pay them the full amount — if they signed a non-disclosure agreement barring them from discussing the matter.“My husband and I hemmed and hawed about this. Part of us wanted to stand our ground and not accept the confidentiality clause, because airlines should not silence pe...

13-year-old boy seriously injured after drive-by shooting on South Side: CPD

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

CHICAGO -- A teen boy is in serious condition after he was shot during a drive-by shooting in South Chicago overnight.Police said the incident happened near the 8700 block of South Marquette Avenue around 12:40 a.m. overnight. Authorities offer new details after body found in trunk of burning vehicle on South Side He was driven to Trinity Hospital and was later transferred to Comers Hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the chest.There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating.

Sunday Forecast: Cloudy with some drizzle, high mid 40s

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

Sunday: Cloudy with some areas of drizzle. W 5-10 mph. High mid 40sSunday Night: Overcast skies and building NW winds. WNW 10-20 mph. Low: 30Monday: Blustery, cold & AM snow showers with falling temps. NW 15-25, G45 mphNoon temp around 27Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Extended outlook calls for more sunshine Tuesday with a high around 33. Back to near 40 on Wednesday with increasing clouds. Thursday is the Winter Solstice and we'll end up in the mid 40s with a chance of evening rain showers. Chance of rain on Friday with highs in the mid to upper 40s. 

Warming to some 70s today

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Some Hill Country communities fell to freezing before 6 a.m. Sunday. A combination of the clear sky, dry air, and light winds contributed to the sharp drop in temperatures.The wind is out of the west to northwest this morning. A warming southwest wind combined with another day of sunshine will send many highs to the upper 60s to low 70s this afternoon. Highs much above normal, which is 64°Another cold front moves across late tonight leaving a northwest to north wind for tomorrow resulting in most highs back to where they were Saturday ... the low to mid 60s. Another cold morning will greet early risers Tuesday when lows fall to the 30s.Winds will gust to between 20 and 25 mph tomorrow morning into early afternoon.We will lose the sunshine in favor of clouds Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday's highs will peak in the upper 50s to low 60s, warming Wednesday to the mid/upper 60s to around 70°.Central Texas' next rainmakerThe next upper-level low will drop south through the...

Letters: The history of the Lake Elmo airport and landscape is clear

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

Airports are contentious. But this one’s been there a long timeRecently, a number of Washington County residents have been engaged in an organized effort to complain about the Lake Elmo Airport, its recently re-aligned runway, and the airport’s flight school. According to public statements in print and television reporting, the recent runway realignment and the current flight school are to blame for making life at their residences unbearable.Airports are contentious. There are of course real effects upon communities surrounding any size airport, but not all residents in those communities are equally impacted. It is also true that airports have community value, with costs that can be both mitigated and absorbed. Working out who is impacted and what (if any) remedies are appropriate must be done within the history of the landscape.In the case of the Lake Elmo Airport, the history of the landscape is simple and clear: The airport opened in 1951, with most residences in Baytown To...

Police responded to over-night crashes and still looking for hit-and-run suspect

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

ST. LOUIS — Overnight, St. Louis police responded to two fatal crashes. The first occurred just after 3 a.m. on Germania Ave. at Sharpe Ave. in the Boulevard Heights neighborhood near the river. This was a one-vehicle crash.Around 5 a.m. this morning, another one-vehicle crash took place, killing a woman driver at Halls Ferry Circle in the Baden neighborhood of North Saint Louis.In a separate incident on December 15, police are actively searching for the owner of a vehicle involved in a deadly hit-and-run at Gravois Ave. and Nebraska Ave. in South St. Louis. The victim died in the hospital due to their injuries.Updates on these incidents will be provided as more information becomes available.

Colorado River drought task force achieves consensus — but some water experts say recommendations “fell short”

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:10:56 GMT

The final recommendations from a statewide task force charged with finding water-saving solutions for the drying Colorado River focus largely on expanding and tweaking existing programs.That outcome has underwhelmed some water experts, prompting calls for more decisive action to address overuse and drought on the river that’s the lifeblood of the American Southwest.Delivered after four months of hours-long meetings, all but one of the eight recommendations would expand or change current programs, including initiatives aimed at continuing the measurement of snowpack, improving water infrastructure and boosting a program to replace thirsty grasses with native plants.The task force’s prescriptions fail to meet the gravity of the crisis, said Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado. While some recommendations would mark good steps forward, Nordini said, other substantive topics discussed by the task force did not make it to the final proposals for action.“We just f...