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Messi mania in Argentina as soccer star mobbed at restaurant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A steakhouse in the trendy Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo was mobbed by hundreds of frenzied soccer fans late Monday night when word spread that Lionel Messi was inside having dinner.People rushed to the exclusive Don Julio restaurant eager to get a glimpse of the man who led Argentina to its third World Cup title. Messi eventually needed a police escort to leave.Fans on the street corner chanted “Messi, Messi” and sang the words to “Muchachos,” which became the unofficial anthem for the Argentina squad that beat France in a thrilling final in Qatar.The scene witnessed in the neighborhood of Argentina’s capital known for its bars and restaurants illustrates how Messi has now become like the late Diego Maradona, who led Argentina to its second World Cup trophy in 1986, and he can no longer walk through Argentina’s streets without being mobbed.It wasn’t always this way.The man who is now cheered wherever he goes once used to suffer the indifference...

England’s Chilwell urges others to open up on mental health

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

BURTON, England (AP) — England player Ben Chilwell has experienced his share of setbacks in recent years and on Tuesday said he had benefited from being open about his mental health.Now he is urging more soccer players to follow his lead.“I have been talking to someone for a few years now and the stigma around it is silly, really, especially with men and men in football in particular,” Chilwell said. “As someone who has been talking to someone for a few years now and the way that it has helped me, it can definitely help everyone. The stigma around it is something that needs to go.”Chelsea defender Chilwell is back in the England squad after a hamstring injury ruled him out of last year’s World Cup.Chilwell was part of Three Lions coach Gareth Southgate’s squad for Euro 2020, but was forced to spend some of that tournament in isolation after coming into contact with Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour, who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. He didn’t see any action ...

Cuál sería la causa de los recientes colapsos bancarios

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

WASHINGTON — Parecía una buena idea: legisladores demócratas de estados muy republicanos con las oportunidades de reelección amenazadas colaborarían con el otro partido para reducir las regulaciones bancarias, demostrando voluntad de colaborar con el entonces presidente Donald Trump y de distanciarse de sus correligionarios.Esa improbable coalición votó en 2018 para anular partes de la ley de 2010 diseñada para evitar futuras crisis financieras.Pero ahora, muchos dicen que estos cambios contribuyeron a los colapsos del Silicon Valley Bank y del Signature Bank, y los subsiguientes temores de una crisis más generalizada en el sector bancario.MUCHOS APUNTAN A LA REDUCCIÓN DE REGULACIONESLos cambios se produjeron luego de una intensa campaña de presión política sobre el Congreso que costó decenas de millones de dólares, con cientos de cabilderos y promesas de dinero para campañas políticas.El episodio ofrece un recordatorio del poder que ejerce el sector bancario en Washington, donde ga...

Spring brings more wind, rain and snow to soaked California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A strong late-season Pacific storm brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California on Tuesday as the first full day of spring showed little change from the state’s extraordinary winter. The storm focused most of its energy on central and southern parts of the state, bringing threats of heavy runoff and mountain snowfall that forecasters said will be measured in feet. In the Monterey Bay region, a severe windstorm located over the ocean blasted Santa Cruz County with wind gusts up to 80 mph (129 kph) at midday. Trees and power lines were reported downed, the National Weather Service said.More than 126,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers were without power by early afternoon, mostly in the region south of San Francisco, according to PowerOutage.us. The National Weather Service said the storm is a Pacific low pressure system interacting with California’s 12th atmospheric river since late December. California’s unexpected s...

Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands project underway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

Officials called it a crucial effort to restore the Everglades, and it’s now underway.Miami-Dade officials and the United States Army Corps of Engineers broke ground on the final component of the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands project.Last September, the South Florida Water Management District approved the construction of a pump station to restore freshwater flows to the Wetlands.This project aims to stop pollutants from flowing into Biscayne Bay that are filled with toxins known to cause fish kills, while at the same time stopping saltwater from pushing west into the Everglades.

‘Absolutely a quick study’: Ukrainians master Patriot system faster than expected

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

FORT SILL, Okla. — A Ukrainian soldier runs across the field, shielding his face from the Oklahoma wind with one hand and dragging a long, fiber-optic cable with the other. He hooks the cable into another cord, linking the control station with the five Patriot launchers that fan out 90 meters apart across the grass, all pointed due north.The soldier is one of 65 Ukrainians, mostly men but a few women as well, who are wrapping up training here to operate the Patriot missile defense system, considered one of the most advanced in the world at shooting down threats such as missiles and aircraft.When the Pentagon announced in January that the Ukrainians would begin their training in Fort Sill, officials cautioned that the instruction could take months — even up to a year. But U.S. military officials here said the Ukrainians, who were already experienced air defenders when they arrived in January and were handpicked by Kyiv to complete the instruction, mastered the American syst...

Artist, brain injury survivor hosts art show at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

One woman using art to help with her healing recently hosted an art show at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, showcasing work that has helped her recover from a traumatic brain injury. March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. At Spaulding in Charlestown, Ali Rheaume helped mark the occasion Tuesday evening. Rheaume is an award winning artist from Franklin and a brain injury survivor. She entered Spaulding in 2017 with only 10% brain function after an injury in 2016. “I needed to learn how to walk, talk, eat, bathe — everything again,” Rheaume said of her recovery. Dr. Chris Carter, a neuro-psychiatrist, was part of Rheaume’s care team. “She was in a minimally responsive state at that point,” Carter said. “The interface at that stage is to try to understand how much she’s understanding [and] how she’s interacting with the environment.” From Spaulding, Rheaume went into speech therapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology. As...

Crime briefs: Romance in the times of international scams

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

A man the feds say scammed people out of millions of dollars by running romance scams with co-conspirators has been sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison.U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani on Tuesday sentenced Kofi Osei, 30, to 54 months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. Talwani also ordered Osei to pay more than $4 million in forfeiture and restitution.In a four-year scam, from 2016 to 2020, Osei opened at least 77 bank accounts using stolen identities to process the more than $8 million in fraud money he milked out of people after he and his co-conspirators began fake relationships with them through online dating profiles. More than $4 million of the profits went directly into Osei’s accounts.In the end, you smuggle yourselfA member of the Gangster Disciples street gang the feds say pushed fentanyl, cocaine, meth and suboxone throughout the greater Lawrence area, including in Haverhill and Methuen, was sentenced in federal court in B...

Marv Albert remembers Willis Reed as ‘heart and soul’ of the Knicks: ‘He was literally The Captain’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

“Here comes Willis Reed.”Marv Albert now says it was a throwaway line before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, but it became a signature sound byte of his Hall of Fame career — and the signature moment of the New York Knicks.Albert made the call on the radio knowing prior Reed’s intention of playing that night. The Madison Square Garden crowd, however, was in the dark until The Captain ran through the tunnel.“What I recall was the decibel level of the roar from the crowd in the building,” Albert said. “It was an explosion.”The Knicks famously beat the Lakers that night for their first championship, at least partly due to Reed’s presence intimidating the opposition into jitters. Almost 53 years later, Reed died Tuesday at 80 and Albert, upon hearing the news, immediately thought of the fitting nickname.“He was literally The Captain,” Albert said. “That’s my first thought. He’s the heart and soul of the t...

Whistleblower fired by Deval Patrick denied punitive damages, court rules

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:31:25 GMT

A whistleblower fired by former Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014 for interfering with a state decision that allowed Patrick’s brother-in-law to stay off the sex offender registry is not entitled to punitive damages, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.Essex Superior Court Judge James Lang wrote that while Patrick’s decision to fire Saundra Edwards, former chair of the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, “constituted an unlawful act of retaliation,” it was not done “out of an evil motive or any intent to harm the plaintiff’s career.“The court concludes that the evidence does not support a finding that Governor Patrick’s actionable conduct was undertaken in reckless indifference to the plaintiff’s rights,” Lang wrote.Upon becoming SORB chair, Edwards allegedly sought to change a 2007 decision from hearing officer A.J. Paglia, who ruled that Bernard Sigh’s 1993 spousal rape conviction in California — involving Patrick’s brother-in-law and sister — was “more akin” to indecent assault ...