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Director: Marriott’s ‘Damn Yankees’ about love, baseball, the underdog

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

When Lincolnshire’s Marriott Theatre asked San Diego-based James Vasquez to direct the musical, “Damn Yankees,” running April 12-June 4, there was no hesitation, just joy.“I love ‘Damn Yankees,’” said Vasquez. “Two of my favorite things in life are musical theater and baseball,” he said, and that’s what the show is about. The musical, which won seven Tony Awards, features lots of singing and dancing with a plot involving the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators and the race for the pennant in the 1950s.“Given the opportunity to tell this story again was something I wasn’t going to pass up,” said Vazquez, who directed the production in 2017 in San Diego.There’s plenty more Vasquez loves about the show besides it being about baseball.“For me it is a story about true love and about home,” he said. “We think the grass might be greener on the other side, but we are often reminded...

Healey to establish Latino Council to advise her administration

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

The governor will use her executive authority to create an entirely new state council aimed at improving the well-being of the state’s Latino communities, her administration has announced.“Our Latino community makes Massachusetts strong. With the collective vision and drive of this incredible group of Latino leaders, we will grow even stronger. Together, we can break down systemic barriers and expand access opportunities by prioritizing education, job training, entrepreneurship and affordability,” Gov. Maura Healey said with the Tuesday announcement.The governor, according to her office, will sign an executive order establishing a 40 member advisory board called the Governor’s Council on Latino Empowerment, tasked with advising the governor on “strategies to expand economic opportunities for and improve the overall wellbeing of Massachusetts’ Latino community.”The former executive director of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, Josiane Martinez, will chair the new ...

Former Team USA soccer stars succeessfully bring women’s pro team to the Bay Area

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

Some of the biggest women’s sports stars in Bay Area history are about to change the region’s sporting landscape.Four former U.S. national team stars and Santa Clara Broncos — Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner — have completed their nearly three-year mission to bring a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team to the San Francisco Bay Area.The NWSL announced Tuesday morning that the league has awarded expansion rights to its 14th team to an investment group led by the four former U.S. women’s national team stars and Sixth Street, a global investment firm, and other prominent women executives and community leaders.“This is a monumental occasion,” said Chastain, a primary star of the 1999 World Cup. “The impact that women’s soccer specifically is having on the sports landscape and business sector is something that we’ve been talking about for so long and we believed in. To see it coming back to the bay is truly incredible.”The team, which will announce i...

Affleck shoots, scores with winning ‘Air’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

MOVIE REVIEW“Air”Rated R. At the AMC Boston Common, Coolidge Corner and suburban theaters.Grade: A-Some might argue that the invention of the Air Jordan was not among the most important historical developments of the 20th century. But others would disagree, and with over $5 billion in sales for the Jordan Brand, of which Michel Jordan has had an at-the-time unprecedented, but well-deserved percentage, a case can be made. Reuniting the Academy Award-winning, “Good Will Hunting” buddies of Cambridge Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, “Air” was a “black list” screenplay written by Alex Convery. The film directed by Affleck (“Argo,” “The Town”) features Damon as driven, innovative Nike agent “Sonny” Vaccaro and director Affleck in a weird hairpiece as the eccentric, purple Porsche-driving Nike founder Phil Knight. Jordan is not portrayed in the film, although we do meet the parents, especially his mother and chief negotiator Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis).Also important to the story line are ske...

Rally rabbit: MLB team’s good luck charm has four lucky feet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

In a game where much depends on fate – a ball that takes an unlucky bounce, a sudden gust that sends a sure home run just foul, a hard hit ball that careens off the corner of a base and miraculously ends up in the first baseman’s glove – is it any wonder that ball players put a lot of stock in good luck charms?They follow rituals, wear lucky socks, eat the same pre-game meals, all in hopes of recapturing a bit of baseball magic. The San Francisco Giants’ lucky charm is a rabbit’s foot. Four of them, actually.Alex the Great, a giant Flemish rabbit who weighs in at 32 pounds (34 during the offseason), has become the Giants’ unofficially official rally rabbit. He has a proven record, when it comes to bringing good luck to the boys by the Bay. The Giants have won 24 games when Alex was in attendance and lost just four.Many of those victories, says Alex’s owner, Josh Row, were come-from-behind wins, including Alex’s first game, where the Giants were down two runs, before the rabbit magic...

UN says its female Afghan staffers banned from working

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Female Afghan employees of the United Nation have been banned by the ruling Taliban from working in the country, U.N. officials said Tuesday.The U.N. mission expressed “serious concern” after its female staffers were prevented from reporting to work in eastern Nangarhar province.“We will continue to pursue all avenues to ensure that we can reach the most vulnerable people, especially women and girls,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.He said U.N. officials were told through “various conduits” that the ban applied to the whole country.Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment and the group did not issue a statement.Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during its previous stint in power, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since seizing power in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war.Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade and women are barred from working, stu...

Woman charged with dangerous driving following fatal collision in Markham

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

A female driver has been charged following a fatal two-vehicle collision in Markham.York Regional Police were called to the Bur Oak Avenue and McCowan Road area just before 2:30 p.m. on January 14 for reports of a crash between two vehicles — an SUV and a Hyundai Elantra.It’s alleged that a 45-year-old male driver and a 75-year-old female passenger in the Hyundai were rushed to a local hospital with serious injuries. The woman died of her injuries in the hospital. Police did not update the man’s current condition.A 59-year-old female driver of the SUV was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.Police identified the woman as Joanne Chan of Markham. She’s been charged with dangerous driving causing death and will appear in court on May 4, 2023.

Winnipeg police say another Indigenous woman’s body has been found in a landfill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

Winnipeg police are reporting the discovery of another Indigenous woman’s body in a landfill.Police say the remains of Linda Mary Beardy, 33, were found Monday afternoon by staff at the city-run Brady landfill in south Winnipeg.Insp. Shawn Pike said Tuesday the death is suspicious and is being investigated by the homicide unit.He said Beardy’s body appears to have not been in the landfill for a long time.“From the time that these remains were left at or located at the Brady landfill was probably a matter of a couple of hours,” Pike said.Pike said the case is not believed to be linked to the remains of Rebecca Contois that were found in the same landfill last year, or the killings of three other women.“We have no information to suggest that there are any other victims, or that this investigation is related to any previous incidents.”Police have said they believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are in a different, privately run Prair...

Biden says tech companies must ensure AI products are safe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday met with his council of advisers on science and technology about the risks and opportunities that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence development pose for individual users and national security.Biden said that “tech companies have a responsibility to make sure their products are safe before making them public.”“AI can help deal with some very difficult challenges like disease and climate change, but it also has to address the potential risks to our society, to our economy, to our national security,” Biden told the group.The White House said the Democratic president would use the AI meeting to “discuss the importance of protecting rights and safety to ensure responsible innovation and appropriate safeguards” and to reiterate his call for Congress to pass legislation to protect children and curtail data collection by technology companies.Artificial intelligence burst to the forefront in the national and global conv...

Experts urge CRTC to take action forcing companies to provide cell service on TTC

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:00:51 GMT

TORONTO — Amid calls for the Big Three telecommunications companies to provide wireless phone service on the TTC following a recent wave of violence, experts say the federal telecommunications regulator should force Rogers, Bell and Telus to use the subway system’s existing infrastructure.Ben Klass, a PhD candidate at Carleton University who researches telecommunications policy, said it’s within the CRTC’s powers to issue a mandate if the providers won’t voluntarily give their customers the ability to call, text or browse the web while underground.He pointed to Section 24 of the Telecommunications Act, which sets out powers for the regulator to impose conditions on carriers governing the “offering and provision of any telecommunications service.” “The CRTC has the power to order these companies to offer service and also to set the conditions on which they do so,” said Klass.“It has extremely broad powers to deal with these types ...