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Why so many flock to Sedona’s vortexes — and what to really expect when you get there

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles TimesSEDONA, Ariz. — The rock formation known as Kachina Woman rises like an obelisk out of a cool green canyon. At its base, more than three dozen women are tucked into crevices in the rust colored stone, their faces turned toward the warm Arizona sun. Some sit with their legs crossed. Others are curled into a fetal position. They did not all come together, but they came for the same purpose: to soak up the energy of one of the most popular vortexes in Sedona.Surrounded by towering mesas and spectacular vistas, and located on the ancestral home of the Yavapai people, the small town of Sedona has long been a destination for New Age seekers and the astrologers, psychics, tarot readers, shamans and healers who cater to them. For the last 40 years, these spiritual pilgrims have been drawn to the region by tales of its mysterious and amorphous energy vortexes. Definitions vary, but Sedona’s vortexes are generally understood to be geographical sites of inv...

Like San Jose and San Francisco, some of America’s costliest cities offer best middle-class life

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

By Alex Tanzi | BloombergSome of the most expensive major cities in the US — like San Francisco and Washington — also offer the best living standards for mid- and lower-income households, according to a new study of metro areas by the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity.Higher prices in those places are more than offset by the higher wages on offer, according to the institute’s analysis, which ranks the 50 biggest US metro areas based on the economic well-being of middle- and working-class residents. San Jose comes out on top.The gauge is based on metrics that include the costs of basic goods and services — and how much they’ve gone up over the past two decades — as well as wages and broad measures of employment. One key finding is that the best-performing cities typically have a more equal mix of jobs across the pay spectrum.“Across the nation we are seeing both ends of the spectrum — communities where middle- and working-class families are faring well and others where ...

Northern states brace for invasion of Canadian ‘super pigs’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

By Steve Karnowski | Associated PressMINNEAPOLIS — An exploding population of hard-to-eradicate “super pigs” in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion.In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a “super pig” that’s spreading out of control.Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada’s leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, “the most invasive animal on the planet” and “an ecological train wreck.”Pigs are not native to North America. While they’ve roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada’s problem dates back only to the 1980s when it encouraged farmers to raise w...

JFK was killed 60 years ago. Why are his assassination records still sealed?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

By Brendan Rascius, McClatchy Washington BureauSixty years have now passed since President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. But despite the passage of time, records related to his assassination remain sealed by the government, fueling conspiracies that question the official telling of events.Multiple organizations and individuals have pressed for the documents to be released, including the Mary Ferrell Foundation — the largest online repository of JFK assassination records — which is suing President Joe Biden, demanding the documents be made public.John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy travel in the presidential motorcade in Dallas shortly before his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images/TNS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a presidential candidate and nephew of the former president, has also called for the files to be released.“What is so embarrassing that they’re afraid to show t...

How the JFK assassination changed TV news and the journalists who covered it 60 years ago

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

By Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles TimesOn Nov. 22, 1963, CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite battled to hold his emotions in check as he read a wire service report and looked up at the clock in a New York studio and announced that President Kennedy had “died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.”At NBC News, anchors Chet Huntley and Frank McGee listened as correspondent Robert MacNeil, on a muddy pay phone connection from Dallas, delivered the stunning details describing how Kennedy was gunned down while riding in a motorcade through the city’s downtown.The moments marked the dawn of a new era in media as the three television networks — NBC, CBS and ABC — that owned the audience 60 years ago stayed on the air for four days to provide live, continuous coverage of a national crisis for the first time.The marathon broadcasts set the template for the decades that followed, as viewers grew accustomed to seeing military invasions, revolutionary uprisings and terrorist attacks unf...

What to watch: ‘Saltburn’ should be on your must-see list

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

There’s a whole lot of naughtiness (“Saltburn,” “Napoleon,” et al) going on in theaters and on streaming platforms this week. But regardless of whether you’re game for that, there’s something available for most every taste.Here’s our roundup.“Saltburn”: Emerald Fennell has found her kindred spirit in the late, great novelist Patricia Highsmith, the influential noir author of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Strangers on the Train” — both of which got turned into classic films. Highsmith’s spirit inhabits every crevice of Fennell’s wickedly entertaining and just plain wicked follow-up to her feminist stunner “Promising Young Woman.” Barry Keoghan gives it his all — and I mean all — to play scrappy Oxford University student Oliver Quick, an envious and odd fella who gets an invite from the exceedingly handsome Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) to summer at his family over-the-top estate during their break. Oliver puts on his modest footwear and steps into t...

San Jose Sharks winger to miss game vs. Seattle Kraken

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc will miss Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Kraken because of an upper-body injury he suffered two days ago against the Vancouver Canucks.Late in the second period of Monday’s game, the Sharks’ Luke Kunin and Canucks forward Anthony Beauvillier were battling for the puck in front of Vancouver’s bench.When Labanc came in to support, Vancouver’s Nils Hoglander checked him, then put his right leg behind Labanc’s left leg and pushed him backward, causing the Sharks winger to land awkwardly onto his left shoulder.After a review, Hoglander was issued a five-minute major and a match penalty. On Tuesday, he was fined $2,864.58, the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement, by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for Slew-footing Labanc.Labanc, who has two assists in 13 games this season, is considered day-to-day for now, Sharks coach David Quinn said.“You get hit like that, the adrenaline&#...

Parents of San Jose toddler who died of fentanyl toxicity charged with murder

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

(KRON) -- Parents of an 18-month-old girl were charged with murder on Wednesday, three months following the death of the toddler due to fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity inside their San Jose home, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.At the time of the 18-month-old’s death on Aug. 12, the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office recorded a fentanyl blood concentration of 74 nanograms per milliliter in the child, which is nearly 15 times the 5 nanograms per milliliter that can kill a person. Both parents also had fentanyl and other opioids in their systems, the DA’s office said.The girl’s father, Derek Vaughn Rayo, 27, was served with a homicide warrant on Tuesday, the San Jose Police Department said. Rayo had already been in custody since Aug. 13 for an unrelated warrant. Police are searching for the mother, Kelly Gene Richardson, 28, who has also been charged with murder, officials said.Derek Rayo (San Jose Police Department)When SJPD arri...

SF-based court denies woman's appeal of Cristiano Ronaldo's 2010 hush-money settlement in Vegas rape case

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A U.S. appeals court sided Tuesday with Cristiano Ronaldo, rejecting an appeal by the lawyer for a woman trying to force the international soccer star to pay millions more than the $375,000 in hush money he paid her after she accused him of raping her in 2009.Kathryn Mayorga's lawyer had asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge's dismissal of the case in Las Vegas in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she filed in 2018.They argued U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey should not have rejected Mayorga's attempts to unseal and make public the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo. ‘Goosebumps’: MLB star Max Scherzer praises Coliseum playoff crowds A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court disagreed. It also rejected their argument that the judge abused her discretion by dismissing the case with prejudice, which prevented Mayorga from refiling the case, and...

Satellos Bioscience: Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:51:52 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — TORONTO (AP) — Satellos Bioscience Inc. (MSCLF) on Wednesday reported a loss of $2.7 million in its third quarter.The Toronto-based company said it had a loss of 2 cents per share._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MSCLF at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MSCLFSource