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Column: St. Louis Cardinals are trying to make Willson Contreras feel loved after putting him in a ‘timeout’ behind the plate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

Wilson Contreras was the talk of major-league baseball Monday as he returned to Wrigley Field with the St. Louis Cardinals.But instead of returning as the conquering hero who got the long-term deal he craved, Contreras was already the subject of trade talk on MLB Network, which spent part of the morning speculating where the former Chicago Cubs catcher would go only five weeks into the first season of his five-year, $87.5 million contract.Cubs fans gave Contreras a warm welcome Monday, though the marquee at Murphy’s Bleachers threw a little shade on him:“Hey Willson, How are things goin’ in St. Louis?”Everyone knew, of course.The decision by Cardinals management to take the catcher’s glove away from Contreras for the time being and make him a designated hitter and left fielder was widely seen as an indication they already had soured on the veteran.Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said that isn’t the case and the decision was being “proactiveR...

Pedro Grifol reflects on ‘a special moment’ as the Chicago White Sox manager returns to Kansas City

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

Pedro Grifol remembers making a stop in the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium once during his 10 seasons coaching with the Kansas City Royals.“It was late after a game. I said, ‘You know what, let me just go see what it looks like,’” Grifol said Monday.Grifol was back at the ballpark he called home for the first time as the Chicago White Sox manager as the team began a four-game series against the Royals.“This is a special place for me,” Grifol said. “We had some great runs and magical moments here. Just to come back to this place, look at the field and see some of the people that I have great relationships with, it’s a special moment.”Grifol was a special assignment coach for the Royals in 2013, the hitting coach in 2013-14, the catching coach from 2014-17 — working with seven-time All-Star Salvador Perez — and the quality control/catching coach in 2018-19 before becoming the bench coach in 2020.He was in that r...

‘You can’t ignore the numbers’: Chicago Cubs recall hot-hitting Christopher Morel from Triple-A Iowa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

Christopher Morel’s production at Triple-A Iowa became impossible for the Chicago Cubs to ignore.Days after president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and manager David Ross said there weren’t regular at-bats available in the majors for the hot-hitting Morel, the Cubs recalled the 23-year-old infielder/outfielder before Monday’s series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals.The Cubs optioned outfielder Nelson Velázquez to Iowa as the corresponding move. Velázquez appeared in seven consecutive games after the team promoted him, playing time that was aided by Cody Bellinger’s absence on the paternity list.Since April 28, Velázquez started just four of 10 games and was pinch-hit for twice. Only one of his starts came at designated hitter. The Cubs want Velázquez to receive regular playing time again, which made a return to Iowa the ideal option.Morel’s defensive versatility will create more opportunities for Ross to find spots for him i...

Nursing shortfall may get worse as industry battles burnout, lawmakers learn

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

State lawmakers who met virtually with representatives from the Massachusetts Nurses Association to kick off Nurses Week on Monday learned the vital industry is facing historic pitfalls amid widespread pandemic fueled burnout.As reported in the Herald last week, the nursing industry in Massachusetts is facing a potential wave of resignations and relocations as the sector struggles with both pay and staffing and while nurses continue to suffer under the strain of a global pandemic responsible for the deaths of more than one million Americans.“Nurses speak for you when you cannot,” state Rep. Denise Garlick, a registered nurse, said to open a virtual legislative briefing on the status of nursing in Massachusetts titled “Nurses Speak.”“We must listen and learn and act,” she said. “If we as a Legislature, as a society, can care for nurses, the nurses will care for the patients. They will care for us. But if we do not act, it is not only the nurse, but the patients — ourselves, our loved...

Posts show mall gunman researched attack, had Nazi tattoos

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

By JAKE BLEIBERG, GENE JOHNSON and LOLITA C. BALDOR (Associated Press)DALLAS (AP) — The man accused of killing eight people and wounding several others in a mass shooting at a suburban Dallas shopping mall researched when it was busiest and posted photos on social media in mid-April of a store near where he ultimately started his attack.The posts by Mauricio Garcia, whom authorities have identified as the gunman, on a Russian social networking site suggest the 33-year-old had been planning the attack for weeks before he stepped out of a silver sedan and opened fire Saturday.Garcia’s activity on the site also betrayed a fascination with white supremacy and mass shootings, which he described as sport. Photos he posted showed large Nazi tattoos on his arm and torso, including a swastika and the SS lightning bolt logo of Hitler’s paramilitary forces.Other posts indicated he had researched to find out when the shopping center in one of the Dallas-area’s most diver...

Tax cuts in limbo as Senate leadership seeks ‘progressive’ reforms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

The House and governor’s plans to cut taxes may have met a wall in the Legislature’s upper chamber, after the Senate president reiterated her oft-made call for “progressive” reforms without endorsing either previously offered proposal.“I said last spring, I said again in the summer, I said again in the fall and in January that I believe we should have permanent progressive tax relief that is smart and sustainable, and the Senate is taking a look at doing that,” state Senate President Karen Spilka said.The Ashland Democrat, speaking alongside House Speaker Ron Mariano and Gov. Maura Healey, was the center of attention at a Monday press conference offered after the trio left one of their fairly regular leadership meetings.Their last meeting came just before the House passed its response to Healey’s fiscal 2024 spending proposal and her plan to provide relief to a broad spectrum of taxpayers.Progressive lawmakers and advocates were quick to sound the alarm after either tax cut pa...

Nexstar Media Group to acquire KUSI-TV

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- The parent company of FOX 5, Nexstar Media Group, on Monday agreed to acquire the assets of KUSI-TV from McKinnon Broadcasting Company for $35 million.“KUSI-TV’s established local news operations serving viewers and advertisers across the San Diego community is a perfect fit with our station group and existing San Diego operations at KSWB-TV (Fox5),” Tom Carter, Nexstar’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “Their mission of serving the community by delivering the most local news in the market is consistent with Nexstar’s commitment to providing consumers expansive local content on linear and digital platforms." San Diego grant program to give some families, seniors $4K; find out if you qualify Nexstar owns America’s largest local broadcasting group, with 200-owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 212 million people.The transaction, subject to regulatory and other customary approvals, is expected to close later this year.

Ukraine, Sudan conflicts fuel alarming surge in tuberculosis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Top U.N. officials, health industry leaders and activists demanded Monday that the world invest more to develop new vaccines and tackle a surge in tuberculosis fueled by the impact of COVID-19 and conflicts including Ukraine and Sudan.At a crowded meeting punctuated by activists chanting “End TB Now,” there were speeches from many TB sufferers and a keynote by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who spoke about how her father passed on tuberculosis to her two-year-old sister: TB claimed his life at the age of 60, but her sister, now 50, is a survivor. Tuberculosis is the biggest infectious disease killer in the world today, taking the lives of around 4,400 people every day around the world including 700 children, Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership, said ahead of Monday’s hearing to prepare for a high-level meeting on Sept. 22 during the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.The U.N. deputy se...

Suncor Energy’s adjusted earnings decline 34 per cent year-over-year

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. says it earned $2.05 billion in the first quarter of 2023, down from $2.95 billion in the same quarter of 2022.The Calgary-based energy giant’s net earnings included a $302-million gain on the sale of the company’s wind and solar assets, which the company recently sold to Canadian Utilities Ltd. for $730 million.On an adjusted basis, Suncor says its operating earnings for the first quarter were $1.81 billion, or $1.36 per common share, a 34-per-cent decrease year-over-year.The company says the decrease in earnings was primarily due to decreased crude oil realizations, increased operating expenses, lower upstream production and refinery throughput and weakening crude oil prices.Suncor’s total upstream production was 742,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 766,100 boe/d in the prior year’s quarter.Refinery crude throughput was 367,700 barrels per day and refinery utilization was 79 per cen...

Goodyear plant in Mexico votes to throw out old-guard union

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:55 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Workers at a Goodyear tire plant in Mexico voted Monday to throw out an old-guard union that was accused of stealing a ballot box at a failed union election last month.The skullduggery at the plant in the north-central state of San Luis Potosi illustrated the uphill battle Mexican workers face in unseating old-guard unions that once kept wages low and enjoyed government protection. The Labor Department said employees voted 727 to 140 against renewing the labor contract held by a union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers. The vote opens the way for a new union organizing drive at the plant.The Confederation of Mexican Workers, or CTM, for decades functioned as a wing of the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI. By signing contracts behind workers’ backs, such unions long held Mexican industrial wages to about one-eighth or less of what workers earned doing similar jobs in the U.S..Mexico’s Labor Department said fraud occurred...