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Callahan: 7 reasons for Patriots fans to be thankful for in a lost season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

It’s that time.Turkey. Football. Family. And, of course, giving thanks.The Patriots have made it hard for fans to feel grateful this year. Any hopes of a playoff run were shot just six games into the season. But even at 2-8, there are reasons to be thankful.Struggling to find the words? Well, here you go:1. ClarityThis was the promise of the 2023 season. Not a postseason run, winning record or even fun.Together, we would finally learn whether Mac Jones is fit to lead the franchise; whether the Patriots needed to enter a rebuild; if Bill Belichick was the man to lead the team for the foreseeable future. Those answers, painfully and definitively, are: no, yes and no.Most teams don’t learn about themselves so quickly in the NFL. We spent last season locked in endless debate about who was at fault for the Patriots’ failures: Jones or Matt Patricia, Belichick the coach or Belichick the GM. Wouldn’t you rather rip the Band-Aid off?That’s what’s happened...

OxyContin maker’s settlement plan divides victims of opioid crisis. Now it’s up to the Supreme Court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agreement by the maker of OxyContin to settle thousands of lawsuits over the harm done by opioids could help combat the overdose epidemic that the painkiller triggered. But that does not mean all the victims are satisfied.In exchange for giving up ownership of drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma and for contributing up to $6 billion to fight the crisis, members of the wealthy Sackler family would be exempt from any civil lawsuits. At the same time, they could potentially keep billions of dollars from their profits on OxyContin sales.The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Dec. 4 over whether the agreement, part of the resolution of Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy, violates federal law.The issue for the justices is whether the legal shield that bankruptcy provides can be extended to people such as the Sacklers, who have not declared bankruptcy themselves. The legal question has resulted in conflicting lower court decisions. It also has implications for other maj...

Hezbollah fires rockets at north Israel after an airstrike kills 5 of the group’s senior fighters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The militant Hezbollah group fired more than 50 rockets at military posts in northern Israel on Thursday, a day after an Israeli airstrike on a home in southern Lebanon killed five of the group’s senior fighters.The waves of rockets sent over the border represented one of the most intense bombardments since Hezbollah started attacking Israeli posts in the country’s north at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.Hezbollah has said that by heating up its actions on the Israel-Lebanon border, it is easing pressure on the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s crushing aerial, ground and naval offensive has left more than 13,300 Palestinians dead and caused wide destruction in the sealed-off enclave.The war was triggered by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that left about 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and resulted in about 240 hostages getting taken to Gaza.An agreement for a four-day cease-fire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held by th...

Greece’s left-wing opposition party slips into crisis as lawmakers quit in defiance of new leader

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s main left-wing opposition party, Syriza, suffered a damaging setback Thursday when nine lawmakers quit the party in protest against its newly elected leadership.Miami-based businessman Stefanos Kasselakis, 35, stunned party veterans when he won the leadership in late September in a primary-style contest. But he has failed so far to halt the party’s decline in popularity in the wake of a crushing general election defeat in June.Syriza has since dropped to third place behind Socialist opponents in opinion polls, boosting the dominance of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative government.On Thursday, Effie Achtsioglou, a former Syriza labor minister, led the walkout as nine lawmakers declared themselves independent.They joined the former finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos and another colleague who quit on Nov. 11 – reducing the number of seats held by Syriza in the election from 47 to 36 in the 300-member parliament.Critics of the new leader hav...

Rainbow Bridge border remains closed on U.S. Thanksgiving after fiery fatal crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

The Rainbow Bridge border crossing between Ontario and Western New York in Niagara Falls remains closed after a horrific crash on Wednesday that left two people dead.The fiery collision and explosion on the American side of the bridge around 11:30 a.m. prompted an FBI investigation and set off security alerts on both sides of the border, until officials determined it was a local police traffic matter and nothing more. “There’s no sign of terrorist activity with respect to this crash,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday evening. “We’ve identified this was a local individual, a Western New Yorker.”The driver and passenger in the Bentley involved in the crash were both killed. The identities of the two dead have not been released, but a person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press they were a husband and wife.Video released from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows the vehicle speeding into the customs area, strikin...

Retailers are ready to kick off Black Friday just as shoppers pull back on spending

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Retailers are kicking off the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season on Friday with a bevy of discounts and other enticements. But executives are growing concerned with a spending slowdown that could temper sales on the day after Thanksgiving as well as throughout the holidays.Shoppers, powered by a solid job market and steady wage growth, had demonstrated a resilience that confounded economists and ran counter to sour sentiments expressed in opinion polls. Such spending, while cautious, came despite higher prices in the grocery aisle and higher borrowing costs. But consumers are now coming under more pressure from dwindling savings, increased credit card debt and still stubborn inflation. In fact, shoppers cut their buying in October, ending six straight months of gains. Shoppers have gotten some relief from easing inflation, but many goods and services like meat and rent are still far higher than they were just three years ago.The latest quarterly results ...

Police: 5 teens injured outside of United Center in drive-by shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

CHICAGO — Five teens were shot outside of the United Center early Thursday morning after a concert let out.Just before 12:15 a.m., officers responded to the 2000 block of West Monroe on the report of a shooting.The shots fired caused a commotion outside of the United Center after left rodwave singer Ari Lennox's concert.CPD believes an unknown gunman fired shots from a vehicle; striking a 15-year-old boy, two 16-year-old boys and two 18 year olds.All of the victims were transported in good condition.No one is in custody. Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.

Letters: Support for small business redounds in our communities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

The case for small businessesAdvocates for shopping locally use the common plea of “support small businesses,” but why should we risk our hard-earned dollars experimenting with a new product or service primarily because the proprietor is local?Well, the foremost reason is it’s in your best economic interest: Small businesses create a “Local Multiplier Effect” returning more than three times as much per dollar to the local community than a chain competitor, according to the American Independent Business Alliance. Money spent at a small business is invested back into your community by creating new jobs, opening new businesses, and contributing to the local tax base, ultimately benefiting the local economy.Second, a small business’s story becomes a part of your community’s broader story and is something you can participate in. Small businesses identified a missing component to your community, designed a solution, and invested their livelihood to execute the idea and offer their product...

Thanksgiving warm up, followed by chilly weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

ST. LOUIS - A chilly start to the day, with temperatures bottoming out in the 20s and 30s area wide. Bundle up if you’re heading out to Turkey Trots Thursday morning! We’ll see a rather decent warm-up by the afternoon, with highs climbing into the mid and upper 50s under lots of sunshine.Another front will move through by this afternoon or early evening, keeping temperatures chilly for the long weekend (highs in the 40s, lows in the 20s or 30s through Sunday). We’re eyeing another storm system to the west that has a high chance of bringing another round of light precipitation late Saturday into early Sunday morning. St. Louis radar: See a map of current weather here Given how cold the air mass will be this weekend, confidence is increasing that the system could bring out the first snowflakes of the season. The best chance for a few flakes mixing with rain will be north of Interstate 70. Road temperatures will be rather warm, so any snowflakes that hit the roads will melt on cont...

Former alderman Brandon Bosley charged with filing false police report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:51 GMT

ST. LOUIS -  More legal troubles for former St. Louis Alderman Brandon Bosley.FOX 2's partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that he's charged with making a false report to police. Bosley asserted that a woman struck him in December, but later dropped the charges. Investigators say Bosley's story didn't hold up. Another St. Louis resident loses property via Recorder of Deeds Office Bosley is still facing federal charges of insurance fraud for falsely inflating the cost of repairs to his car. He pleaded not guilty in that case.