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Yankees Notebook: Left field remains a ‘mixed bag’ and area of concern

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

Everyone knew the Yankees needed a left fielder over the offseason, but the team rolled into spring training with Oswaldo Cabrera and Aaron Hicks as the best options on the roster.Since then, Cabrera, Hicks, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jake Bauers, Billy McKinney, Franchy Cordero, Willie Calhoun, Greg Allen and Giancarlo Stanton have all played the position this season. Bauers went on the injured list Friday, while Calhoun and Allen were already on it. Hicks now plays for the Orioles.The collective group had given the Yankees mixed results offensively entering Friday’s series opener against the Cubs.According to FanGraphs, Yankees left fielders are 28th in on-base percentage (.285), 27th in WAR (0.1), 26th in wRC+ (84) and 24th in average (.227). The position has found ways to score, though, as the group ranks sixth in runs (92), eighth in home runs (22) and ninth in RBI (74).As for the defense, Yankees left fielders rank 28th in defensive runs saved (-12) and ultimate zone rating (-5...

Weymouth double murder trial: Jurors have not reached verdict in Emanuel Lopes case after week of deliberations

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

Jurors have now deliberated for a week in the trial of Emanuel Lopes, charged with murdering a Weymouth Police officer and a 77-year-old bystander in 2018, and have yet to reach a verdict.Closing arguments in the case were heard June 28 in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham and the jury began deliberating that day. With no deliberations over the weekend and the holiday, jurors have now had the case for a total of seven days. They were released at around 3 p.m. and instructed to continue deliberations on Monday.Lopes, 25, is accused of shooting Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, 42, and bystander Vera Adams, 77, in the early hours of July 15, 2018, nearly five years ago. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Norfolk Superior Court, including two counts of murder.The defense mounted a lack of criminal responsibility argument for Lopes, with defense attorney Larry Tipton arguing that his client has a long history of severe mental illness. In opening arguments, Tipton sa...

Red Sox notebook: Yu Chang excited to be back after ‘up and down’ recovery

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

Yu Chang was all smiles as he sat in the home dugout. Back in the lineup for the first time since fracturing his left hamate bone in late April, the Red Sox shortstop said he hasn’t been this excited to play in a long, long time.“I feel like coming back the first time I was called up to the major leagues,” Chang said Friday via translator Patrick Chu.It’s been a long time coming for Chang, who was activated from the 60-day injured list ahead of Friday night’s series opener against the Oakland Athletics. The 27-year-old broke a bone in his hand mid-swing back on April 24, and since then he endured two setbacks that kept him out several weeks longer than originally expected.Meanwhile, with both Chang and projected starter Trevor Story on the shelf, the heavily depleted Red Sox were forced to rely on a revolving door of replacements. The results haven’t been pretty.Chang acknowledged that the prolonged recovery process has been difficult, and at time...

Shark advisory posted at Carlsbad beach

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Lifeguards posted a shark advisory sign Friday afternoon at a beach in Carlsbad.The sign, which warns beachgoers to "swim at your own risk," was found at Lifeguard Hut Tower 28 at North Ponto Beach near Carlsbad Boulevard and Island Way. Here comes another heat wave San Diego No other information has been released by officials at this time about the incident that prompted the shark advisory.Check back for updates on this developing story.

DNA testing leads to former US Army soldier in 1978 killing of woman in Germany

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

DNA testing has led to the arrest of a Nebraska man who was repeatedly questioned over decades in the 1978 stabbing death of a woman while he was stationed with the U.S. Army in Germany, authorities said.Tommy Molina, 69, was arrested in the western Nebraska city of Gering on June 21, the U.S. Marshals Service in Omaha said in a statement Thursday. He is awaiting extradition to Germany to face a murder charge.German prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Schweinfurt believe Molina, 24 at the time, was having an extramarital affair with 18-year-old Cornelia Hümpfer when she was killed April 20, 1978.He was initially questioned days after the killing and then again in 1996, after he told his third wife, while intoxicated, that a woman with whom he’d been having an affair had revealed she was pregnant and that he killed her, authorities said in a complaint unsealed at his initial appearance June 30 in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska.If extradited, Molina will face murder charges ...

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin says he’s not running for open US Senate seat

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a congressman from the suburbs of the nation’s capital, announced Friday he will not run for the U.S. Senate seat that is opening with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin.Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee who is in his fourth-term, had been weighing a run for the rarely open Senate seat, but said in a statement Friday evening that he would instead seek reelection in the House.Raskin announced in April that he had completed chemotherapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with a 90% prognosis of no relapse and that his cancer was in remission. It was the second time Raskin had been diagnosed with cancer. He previously battled colorectal cancer in 2010.Raskin, 60, played a leading role in recent years as House Democrats twice impeached then-President Donald Trump and investigated Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He was the lead impeachment manager when the House impeached Trump one week aft...

UN condemns killings of two more Indigenous residents on Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.N. human rights office said Friday it condemned the killing of two more Indigenous residents on Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast. The office called on the Nicaraguan government to investigate and punish the crimes. The government has not yet confirmed or commented on the two killings.“The communities in this region have been seriously affected by violence in 2023,” the U.N. office said in its social media accounts. The area where the attacks occurred, known as the Bosawas nature reserve, is set aside for Indigenous groups and environmental protection. But settlers want to clear the land to ranch and farms. The reserve also has been hit by illegal mining and logging.Such killings often go unpunished in Nicaragua, where many of the settlers are thought to be former soldiers.The U.N. rights office said it “calls on the government to investigate and find those responsible for these attacks, take action to prevent this from happening again, and guarantee the rights of ...

Nebraska mom pleads guilty to giving daughter pills for an abortion and helping bury the fetus

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

MADISON, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty Friday to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an illegal abortion last year and helping to burn and bury the fetus. Under a plea agreement, Jessica Burgess, 42, of Norfolk, admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains. Charges of concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician were dismissed.Burgess was accused of helping her then-17-year-old daughter, Celeste Burgess, end her pregnancy. Madison County District Court documents show she ordered abortion pills on the internet. After the teen aborted the 29-week-old fetus, the two burned the remains and buried them in a field north of Norfolk in northeastern Nebraska. Authorities later found the burned fetus.Madison County Attorney Joe Smith has said it’s the first time he has charged anyone with illegally performing an abortion after 20 weeks, a restricti...

2 men arrested in Texas shooting that killed 3 and injured 8 at a gathering after a July 4 festival

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Two men were arrested Friday in a shooting that killed three people and injured eight others as a crowd of hundreds gathered in a Texas neighborhood on the eve of the Fourth of July, police said.Christopher Redic Jr., 20, and Brandon Williams, 19, were both taken into custody on murder charges related to the shooting late July 3 in the Fort Worth neighborhood of Como, Fort Worth police Chief Neil Noakes said. Noakes said investigators believe the shooting was gang-related and followed some kind of altercation.“I don’t know specifically whom they were shooting at,” Noakes said. “There’s a potential that altercation is what initiated the violence to occur.”He said there could be additional arrests. Police had previously said several men fired indiscriminately into the crowd. The shooting erupted about two hours after the end of the Independence Day celebration called ComoFest in the historically Black neighborhood. The celebration had been held in a park several bl...

Turkey’s Erdogan hosts Zelenskyy, says Ukraine deserves membership in NATO

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:31:00 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed support early Saturday for Ukraine joining NATO, saying the war-torn country deserves to join the alliance.Erdogan made the comment at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who arrived in Turkey as part of a European tour to rally support for Ukraine’s entry into the military alliance after the war with Russia comes to an end. NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, next week are expected to reaffirm that Ukraine will join their alliance one day.“There is no doubt that Ukraine deserves NATO membership,” Erdogan told reporters,His support for Ukraine comes as Turkey has been holding off giving its final approval to Sweden joining NATO, saying Stockholm is not effectively cracking down on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara views as threats to its security.Sweden, along with Finland, abandoned its decades-long neutrality and applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion o...