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Lowell Folk Festival boasts diverse, delightful lineup

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

Folk is Joan Baez in Harvard Square in 1960. And Robert Johnson at the crossroads in 1932. And Portuguese fado singer Sara Correia at the Lowell Folk Festival next week.Folk is the biggest, strangest and most diverse genre in the world. Probably because it isn’t a single genre but a million crisscrossing styles, inventions and reinventions. The Lowell Folk Festival brings a couple dozen of these styles to Mill City July 28-30 (for free!).Don’t know where to start? Start here or here or here or…Fred ThomasFunk is folk. And Fred Thomas is funk. The bassist cut his teeth, grew more, and cut them again holding down the low end for James Brown for over three decades. That’s Thomas on “The Payback” and “Make It Funky” and a score more ’70s staples. Now leading his own seven-piece band, Thomas will make you feel good, so good, so good.Hot Club of CowtownSomewhere between Django Reinhardt’s gypsy swing and Bob Wills’ Texas swing, this trio thrives. Come for Whit Smith’s hot licks, sta...

Editorial: Bidenomics is just tired liberalism on steroids

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

The White House wallowed in a bit of good news recently when the Labor Department revealed that inflation in June had cooled to its lowest pace — 3% — in more than two years. Still, Fed officials have signaled that another rate hike is coming because they don’t want to overreact to a single month’s improvement.President Joe Biden took the news as a validation of his economic policies, which is like the arsonist offering a bow after the massive blaze he started has been 50% contained. Despite recent progress, inflation remains higher than the Fed target rate of 2% and more than double what it was when Biden entered the White House. Administration officials would prefer not to talk about how the rate ever climbed beyond 9% in the first place, the highest in four decades.“Prices are going up at a slower rate overall, the good news is that things are not getting worse for American consumers,” Leo Feler, chief economist at the research firm Numerator, told The Wall Street Journal. “But t...

Dear Abby: Attraction simmers on pickleball court

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

Dear Abby: I play pickleball with a nice group of people. Partners normally split after each game. One day, however, a woman told me I was her favorite partner. From that day on, she played with me as often as possible, even though she could have chosen partners who were better players than me, and won more games.Abby, she is the most attractive woman I have ever met, and not just physically — she’s smart, friendly, athletic, caring, supportive and really fun to play with. I’m not used to having women like her pay attention to me, and it feels great. She’s married, but I can’t help having a crush on her, a feeling I’m pretty sure is not mutual — and therefore not appropriate — yet I think about her all the time.How can I get over this feeling? Should I tell her I have a crush on her, which would probably drive her away? Should I quit being her partner? Or should I just keep everything the same and hope the attraction gradually fades? I...

Voice of popular Pokémon character gives shoutout to San Diego

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- "Pikachu, I choose you" is a popular line among Pokémon fans around the world.Well, that Pokémon nostalgia was brought back to life from Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash Ketchum on the popular television series.Taylor signed autographs at the DCDcollects booth during Comic-Con at the San Diego Convention Center, which featured thousands of fans throughout the week. Comic-Con 2023 comes to a close While in San Diego, Taylor decided to visit Ash Street by Waterfront Park, where she filmed herself getting into character."Look, they named a street after me, probably because I'm a Pokémon master," Taylor said in her Ash Ketchum voice. "Thanks, San Diego, and thank you, San Diego Comic-Con, I choose you!" Taylor also thanked all the Pokémon fans who came to visit her on her social media."We had a blast and can’t wait for next year," she said.

They’re the names you don’t know. Hollywood’s ‘journeyman’ actors explain why they are striking

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Jason Kravits gets a lot of this: People recognize him – they’re just not sure how. “I’m that guy who looks like the guy you went to high school with,” says Kravits. “People think they’ve just seen me somewhere.”Actually, they have — on TV, usually as a lawyer, or a doctor. “I’ve had enough roles that I’ve been in your living room on any given night,” the veteran actor says. “But mostly people don’t know my name.”Kravits is one of those actors union leaders refer to as “journeymen” — who tend to work for scale pay, and spend at least as much time lining up work as working. They can have a great year, then a bad one, without much rhyme or reason. “We’re always on the verge of struggling,” says Kravits.And they, not the big Hollywood names joining the picket lines, are the heart of the actors’ strike. Many say they fear the general public thinks all actors get paid handsomely and are doing it for love of the craft, almost as a hobby. Yet in most cases it’s their ...

Jesuits confirm expulsion of priest artist, and lament Vatican norms preclude further sanction

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

ROME (AP) — The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist priest is definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn’t prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures.The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest but is no longer a Jesuit priest, after he didn’t appeal his June expulsion decree, said Rupnik’s former superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren.Rupnik, a Slovenian priest, is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church. His mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.Late last year, the Jesuits acknowledged Rupnik had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse over a 30-year period. He had largely escaped punishment until then, apparently thanks in part to his exalted status in the church and at the Vatican, where even Pope Francis’ role in the case came into q...

Fukushima plant water release within weeks raises worries about setbacks to businesses, livelihoods

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holiday makers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon.Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.The residents worry that the water discharge 12 years after the nuclear disaster could deal another setback to Fukushima’s image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods.“Without a healthy ocean, I cannot make a living.” said Yukinaga Suzuki, a 70-year-old innkeeper at Usuiso beach in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the plant. And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin. It’s not yet clear whether, or how, damaging the release will be. But residents say they feel “shikataganai” — meaning helpless. Suzuki has requested officials to hold the p...

Indonesian boat capsizes off Sulawesi island, leaving at least 15 people dead and 19 others missing

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An overloaded passenger boat capsized off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 15 people and leaving 19 others missing, rescuers said Monday.The vessel was traveling from Lanto village in Buton Central regency in Southeast Sulawesi province to nearby Lagili village when it capsized just after midnight on Monday, local search and rescue agency head Muhammad Arafah said.The wooden boat was carrying 40 people but was designed for just 20.Rescuers were searching Monday for 19 people who were still missing in rough seas, while 15 bodies had been recovered and six people were rescued, Arafah said.Three inflatable boats, two fishing boats and six divers were deployed to search for the missing people, he added.Thousands of residents had traveled to their villages to celebrate the regency’s 9th anniversary on Sunday, and many people were transported by fishing or passenger boats.Television news showed footage of people on fishing boats retrieving bodi...

Oui, oui: Jill Biden heads to Paris to help mark US return to UN educational and scientific agency

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden has represented her country at the Olympics in Tokyo, a king’s coronation in London and a royal wedding in Jordan. She gets another chance to put her ambassadorial skills to work this week when the United States formally rejoins a United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture around the globe.Biden was arriving in Paris early Monday after flying overnight from Washington to join other VIPs and speak at a ceremony Tuesday at the headquarters of the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization. The American flag will be raised to mark the U.S. return to membership after a five-year absence.UNESCO aims to foster global collaboration in education, science and culture. It also designates World Heritage sites, deeming them worthy of eternal preservation.The agency on Sunday condemned Russia’s attack on a cathedral in Odesa and other heritage sites in Ukraine in recent days and said it will send a team to the Black Se...

After decades of delays and broken promises, coal miners hail rule to slow rise of black lung

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A half-century ago, the nation’s top health experts urged the federal agency in charge of mine safety to adopt strict rules protecting miners from poisonous rock dust. The inaction since — fueled by denials and lobbying from coal and other industries — has contributed to the premature deaths of thousands of miners from pneumoconiosis, more commonly known as “black lung.” The problem has only grown in recent years as miners dig through more layers of rock to get to less accessible coal, generating deadly silica dust in the process. One former regulator called the lack of protection from silica-related illnesses “stunning” and one of the most “catastrophic” occupational health failures in U.S. history. Now the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has proposed a rule that would cut the current limit for silica exposure in half — a major victory for safety advocates. But there is skepticism and concern about the government following through ...