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Rizzo enjoys no shifts, helps Yanks take 2 of 3 from Angels

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Rizzo is among the players happiest with the new restrictions against defensive shifts.He singled in the opening run in a five-run first inning, going 3 for 3 with a pair of walks to help New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels 9-3 Thursday and take two of three in the high-profile matchup of MVPs.“Not having nine guys on the right side of the field definitely helps out a lot more,” Rizzo said. “It’s not really much in the back of my mind when I’m hitting but more after the fact or even when other guys are hitting.”Rizzo is batting .344, fourth in the American League and up from .224 last season. He has four homers, 10 RBIs and a 1.027 OPS.With the rise in shifts in the past decade, the left-handed hitter’s average dropped steadily from what had been a .273-to-.293 range from 2014-19.“He feels really good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Really started his to find his stroke a little bit literally the last couple days of spring training and obv...

Poll: Johnston holds slight lead over Brough in Denver mayoral race

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — The race to lead the state's largest city is heating up. The former CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Kelly Brough, is taking on former state Sen. Mike Johnston in the June 6 runoff.This week brought a first look at how Denver voters feel about the candidates ahead of that race. A bipartisan poll shows Johnston leading Brough 39% to 34%, but the margin of error is nearly 5%, making this a statistical tie. Also, 27% of voters said they're still undecided. GOP groups call Rep. Caraveo’s seat ‘vulnerable’ in 2024 Brough talked about that poll and, if elected, how she will tackle all the issues Denver is facing on "Colorado Point of View" this week.The new poll also showed 34% of voters said crime is the most important issue in the race. Brough said she wants to get the Denver Police Department up to full staff. She also discussed dealing with a rise in gun violence in Denver.“We’ve seen the buyback strategies, the really trying to address the consequences, ...

Extra room could mean extra income — and affordable housing for older adults

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

(KDVR) — A Front Range program pairs homeowners with extra space with renters looking for a room. The nonprofit organization is called Sunshine Home Share.“We work with older adults, 55 and over, who have an extra room in their house and they’re looking to rent that out to someone who needs affordable housing,” Sunshine Home Share's Becky Brazell said. How much do fees tack onto a Colorado short-term rental? A Sunshine Home Share flyer poses the question: “What would you do with an extra $11,196 per year?” Brazell said the intake process includes:ReferencesCriminal background checkCredit history"It’s affordable housing for someone who needs it and extra income for a provider, who also needs that extra income," Brazell said.Sunshine Home Share also serves the Colorado Springs Area.

Wife of victim carjacked during multi-county chase speaks out

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

The wife of a man who had his Tesla stolen in a carjacking during a dangerous police chase spoke with 7News about the phone call he made to her as it was happening. He was caught in the chaos of a police chase and was forced out of his car at gunpoint, Wednesday.It’s hard to imagine what that victim and his family have been through after South Florida watched the whole thing play out.“I thought he was dead; I didn’t know what was happening,” said Daniela Cristea. “I heard sirens, and it was just extremely scary, scariest moment ever.”Cristea said she could only fear the worst when her husband frantically called her on his Apple Watch minutes after he was carjacked at gunpoint on live TV.“I know there was something wrong because I heard sirens, and I couldn’t hear him,” Cristea said. The frightening moments happened along Commercial Boulevard in Tamarac after Edward Foster, 22, and Matthew Geimer Jr., also 22, led police on a tri-...

Victim speaks out after being beaten and mugged of purse in South Beach; 2 suspects arrested

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

A restaurant hostess is sharing details of a frightening encounter as she walked home from work on South Beach.“The streets are very empty and dark,” said the victim.And dangerous for a hostess was was simply headed home from work .“There was a girl near me, and she said, ‘Can you do me a favor?'” recalled the victim, who did not want to be identified.The encounter happened on Pennsylvania Avenue near 15th Street, on April 9, when a strange woman…“Began to run behind me, and she was telling me, ‘Don’t run, don’t run’ … She was chasing me,” said the 31-year-old, who feared for her life and ran away. “She was trying to get my purse.”But her horrible night got worse when, she said, a car pulled up with a man behind the wheel, blocking her ability to get away, and the woman who chased her grabbed her bag and began to beat on the victim.“Hitting me against the car many, many times,” said...

Sticker Shock: Repeated, unwanted locksmith ads plastered on doors angers some business owners

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

Some South Florida businesses are feeling “sticker shock” after getting stuck with repeated and unwanted advertisements from a locksmith company. And one town is taking action. 7’s Karen Hensel investigates.This two-block business district in Surfside is home to small business owners like Bernie Oberlender.Bernie Oberlender, Oberle Opticians: “I’ve been here 45 years.”But these little blue sticker ads have Bernie, an optician, seeing red.Bernie Oberlender: “I don’t know what to do. I’m beside myself.”Bernie says every time he scrapes them off, new stickers pop up, and over time, they have damaged the brass front door of his shop.Bernie Oberlender: “There, there.” Karen Hensel: “That’s awful.” Bernie Oberlender: “I had to scrape here.” Karen Hensel: “Yeah, I see the scratches.” Bernie Oberlender: “The heat, once it hits, it just makes it very difficult to peel off c...

‘I honestly don’t know if this is the last time’ — America’s great peacemaker returns to Belfast

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

BELFAST — He fought for peace in Northern Ireland — and now George Mitchell is fighting for his life.The former U.S. Senate majority leader from Maine, who became a diplomatic superhero in Northern Ireland after leading years of painstaking talks to produce the Good Friday Agreement, may be visiting his adopted homeland for the final time.He hopes not. But, as Mitchell reflected in an interview with POLITICO, he simply cannot know.Welcomed by well-wishers young and old this week as he returned to Belfast and to Queen’s University, where he served as chancellor for a decade following his peacemaking triumph in 1998, Mitchell opened a conference marking the accord’s 25th anniversary.For nearly 45 minutes, Mitchell argued passionately for the power of compromise, his message leavened with well-timed jokes poking fun at the entrenched attitudes — and tough-to-decipher vowels — that tested him in Northern Ireland.You’d never have known that Mitchell, 89, was making his first public speec...

The West’s shortsightedness makes life harder for Russia’s opposition

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former political prisoner and CEO of Yukos Oil company, is the author of “The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell for Putin’s Power Gambit — and How to Fix It.”Due to pressure from the regime, as the war in Ukraine continues, Russia’s opposition and its anti-war movement are working in the most difficult of conditions inside the country — and the circumstances they face outside Russia aren’t simple either.Still, in the spirit of self-criticism, we must admit we’re not being as effective as we would like in opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin.In the background, there’s the constant buzz of the regime, accusing critics of “selling out the Motherland.” They are traitors, the regime says; and from time to time, draconian prison sentences are handed down. My friend Vladimir Kara-Murza — one of the leaders of the Russian democratic opposition — was sentenced to 25 years just earlier this week.Yet, while the opposition is targeted by the regime and leading dis...

By the numbers: Europe’s pensions problem

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

The French have been protesting loudly against President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform — but their government is far from the only one with a plan to increase the retirement age. With workers living much longer lives than previous generations, the number of beneficiaries of old-age pensions has seen a constant rise across the EU in the last decades. Most member countries spent more money on pensions in 2020 than ever before. Some countries have laid out aggressive plans to delay workers’ retirement: Young Danish citizens are expected to work until they turn 74. Citizens currently joining the labor market in Estonia and Italy are right behind them. Here’s a look at the present and future of pensions across the Continent, in figures and charts.This infographic is from POLITICO Pro’s DataPoint library. DataPoint provides ready-to-use, customizable data presentation slides based on research by POLITICO journalists and data analysts. Use them in your newsletter...

Education reforms don’t add up, but Fox’s lawsuit does

Published Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:13:52 GMT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.I’m now back in Brussels, where children who go to Dutch-speaking schools are just back from holidays and children who go to French-speaking schools are still waiting to take their vacation (and children who go to international schools don’t need to take holidays because they weekend in ski lodges).It’s been a tough week for politicians and education. In Germany, Britta Ernst, who happens to be the wife of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is stepping down as education minister of the east German state of Brandenburg. Ernst wanted to cut 200 vacant teaching positions and staff them with social workers instead, a plan that didn’t go down well with her colleagues in the local Social Democratic Party, who presumably thought that hiring actual teachers was the way to go. Meanwhile in the U.K., Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to boost numeracy among Brits and promised to take on an “anti-maths mindset” that, he argued, se...