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Mike Lupica: Nikola Jokic leading the Nuggets into NBA Finals is all-time great basketball story

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

In this age when unselfish superstars like LeBron James and Steph Curry have won eight NBA titles between them, here comes Nikola Jokic, the best all-around player in the sport, who might win one of his own. If Jokic does that, he becomes one of the great pro basketball stories of all time. He is already the most complete big man since the young Bill Walton, as complete a big man as the sport has known.Jokic is that good. That doesn’t mean he and the Nuggets are a lock to win the title because they got an easy Game 1 off the Heat. Just appreciate what you are watching as you watch these NBA Finals, because he is the best all-around player we have right now, better than LeBron and better than Steph and better than Durant and Joel Embiid. Good for Embiid winning the MVP award, by the way. But come on: Nobody is more valuable to his team than Jokic is to the Nuggets.He comes to this moment from being the 41st pick in the 2014 NBA draft. Nobody ever drafted that low ever won two M...

Luis Severino and his velocity lack in clunker vs. Dodgers: ‘I was missing a lot of pitches’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES — With Clayton Kershaw and Luis Severino on the hill, the Yankees’ series opener against the Dodgers had the pieces in place for a pitching duel. But only Kershaw delivered on his end of the bargain as the Dodgers won, 8-4.Severino faced adversity from the jump, as Mookie Betts greeted the right-hander to Dodger Stadium with a leadoff home run. The blast — one of two for Betts in the game — set the tone for a six-run first for Los Angeles, which also received a two-run homer from Max Muncy.Former Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez added a solo shot in the third. All in all, Severino totaled four innings, nine hits, seven earned runs, three home runs, one walk, two strikeouts and a whopping 13 hard-hit balls over 83 pitches in his third start of the season.“I was missing a lot of pitches,” Severino said afterward. “Missed to Mookie Betts, a pitch inside. And this is a good team. They got good hitters, and I had to minimize those mistak...

Officials declare Halifax-area wildfire largely contained as rain brings relief

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

HALIFAX — A Halifax-area wildfire that forced thousands of residents from their homes over the past week is 85 per cent contained and no longer spreading, officials said Saturday morning.David Steeves, a technician of forest resources with Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, told reporters the fire was sitting at 9.5 square kilometres and is unlikely to grow due to a combination of firefighting efforts and long-awaited rain. “We are moving from a state of out of control to a state of being held,” he said. “And basically what that means is that, with the current resources that we have on site and with the suppression efforts that have taken place, the fire is not likely to spread.”Steeves said a number of areas of concern remain and crews continue to closely monitor hot spots around the fire’s perimeter. He warned the blaze was far from out and embers could still hide deep in places where the rain doesn’t penetrate, ...

Fears rise for civilian safety as Ukraine investigates locked air-raid shelters

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Concerns around civilian safety spiked in Ukraine on Saturday, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country’s air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage. The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service Saturday that of the “over 4,800” shelters it had inspected, 252 were locked and a further 893 “unfit for use.”That same day, the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office reported that four people were detained in a criminal probe into the 33-year-old’s death on Thursday outside the locked shelter. The prosecutor’s office said that one person, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest.According to the prosecutor’s office, the suspects face up to eight years in prison for official negligence that l...

Inside Russia’s penal colonies: A look at life for political prisoners caught in Putin’s crackdowns

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Alexei Navalny turns 47 on Sunday, he’ll wake up in a bare concrete cell with hardly any natural light.He won’t be able to see or talk to any of his loved ones. Phone calls and visits are banned for those in “punishment isolation” cells, a 2-by-3-meter (6 1/2-by-10-foot) space. Guards usually blast patriotic songs and speeches by President Vladimir Putin at him.“Guess who is the champion of listening to Putin’s speeches? Who listens to them for hours and falls asleep to them?” Navalny said recently in a typically sardonic social media post via his attorneys from Penal Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. Rallies have been called for Sunday in Russia to support him.Navalny has become Russia’s most famous political prisoner — and not just because o...

Weekend Gardening with Tim Joyce: Transplanting, invasive garlic mustard and more

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

Check out today's weekend gardening with Tim Joyce for tips on transplanting, invasive garlic mustard and more.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Hundreds dead in India train crash, the nation's worst rail disaster in decades

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

BALASORE, India (AP) — Rescuers found no more survivors in the overturned and mangled wreckage of two passenger trains that derailed in eastern India, killing more than 280 people and injuring hundreds in one of the country's deadliest rail crashes in decades, officials said Saturday.Chaotic scenes erupted after the derailment on Friday night about 220 kilometers (137 miles) southwest of Kolkata, as rescuers climbed atop the wrecked trains to break open doors and windows using cutting torches.The death toll rose steadily throughout the night. Scores of bodies, covered by white sheets, lay on the ground near the tracks while locals and rescuers raced to free the hundreds of people trapped in the rail cars under the twisted metal and broken glass. Army soldiers and air force helicopters joined the effort.An Associated Press photographer saw bodies still entangled in a badly mangled coach, as rescuers struggled to retrieve them working under the oppressive heat with temperatures reachi...

Do airline gate agents have an incentive to say your bag is too big?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – It can be infuriating to score a cheap flight, then watch the savings melt away thanks to a carry-on baggage fee – but do airline gate agents have an incentive to charge you?In the case of at least one U.S. airline, the answer is yes. In the wake of multiple TikTok videos claiming that customers were forced to pay fees despite having items that fit in the personal baggage checker, Frontier confirmed to Nexstar in a statement that agents do receive a commission, but only to incentivize team members "to ensure compliance with the bag size requirements to ensure all customers are treated fairly, including the majority who comply with the rules.”Frontier, like other low-cost airlines, offers ticket prices that are often substantially lower than other airlines but makes up that money with limited amenities and fees for anything other than a personal item.As for the strict carry-on policies of low-cost airlines, some see them as a good thing. "Good for Frontier! I wish all air...

ATCEMS: 1 taken to the hospital with serious injuries after vehicle rescue in east Austin

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin-Travis County EMS responded to a vehicle rescue call early Saturday morning in east Austin.Officials said the incident occurred near the 200-240 blocks of Bastrop Highway at 2:19 a.m.Medics took an adult patient from this incident as a Trauma Alert. ATCEMS said the patient has serious injuries that were not expected to be life-threatening.As of 3 a.m., ATCEMS said it was no longer on the scene, and no other information was available.

Pride Month 2023: Ways to celebrate in Central Texas

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- In the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village, and aggressively pulled members of the LGBTQ+ out of their safe haven and into the streets. It was not uncommon for police at this time to raid bars where lesbians and gay men were known to visit, but on this night, some decided to fight back. LGBTQ+ people had been protesting before this event, but the Stonewall uprising -- as it would later be known -- took the gay rights movement from the fringes to the mainstream, per the Library of Congress. One year after the riot in 1970, the first-ever Pride march was held in New York City. 53 years after the Stonewall riots, LGBTQ+ people around the world continue to celebrate how far they have come and acknowledge that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights is far from over. Though Austin's "official" Pride celebration isn't until August, there are several events, some for all ages and others for adults, being held across Centra...