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After working on a new stride, Twins’ Matt Wallner called an audible in spring training

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

Like a lot of young baseball players, Matt Wallner spent a good chunk of his offseason working to refine his major league swing. The goal was to cut down on his movement in the batter’s box and get the bat through the zone more quickly.Part of that was working with Twins hitting coaches David Popkins and Derek Shoman at Shoman’s baseball and softball training facility in Elgin, Ill. Using at-bats from Wallner’s first major league experience last September, the coaches presented the 25-year-old outfielder with some solutions for refining his stride, the goal being to cut down on strikeouts.Wallner made a good first impression with the Twins, hitting a pair of home runs and driving in 10 runs in 18 games. He also batted .228 with 25 strikeouts.“And then right out of the gate in camp, it was good,” Shoman said.Briefly.“My rhythm didn’t really work with it, so I kinda banged it in spring training,” Wallner said.That’s OK, Shoman said. Wallner was clearly hitting well enough in St....

Brittney Griner working on memoir about Russian captivity

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

NEW YORK — Saying she is ready to share the “unfathomable” experience of being arrested and incarcerated in Russia, basketball star Brittney Griner is working on a memoir that is scheduled for spring 2024.Griner was arrested last year at the airport in Moscow on drug-related charges and detained for nearly 10 months, much of that time in prison. Her plight unfolded at the same time Russia invaded Ukraine and further heightened tensions between Russia and the U.S., ending only after she was freed in exchange for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.A WNBA All-Star with the Phoenix Mercury, Griner had flown to Moscow in February 2022 to rejoin UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian women’s team she has played for in the off-season since 2014.“That day (in February) was the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life which only now am I ready to share,” Griner said in a statement released Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf.“The primary reason I traveled back to Russia for work that day was b...

No injuries after fire at Schenectady sports complex

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Multiple fire departments responded to a fire at a sports complex Tuesday. The fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. at SPORTIME in Schenectady.Officials said some kids were inside at the time attending a school vacation week program. The chief of the Carman Road Fire Department said everyone got out safely. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! "The staff and the counselors did a really good job getting the kids out," Chief Scott Sloan said. "They were across the road, most of them were on this side, over by the outdoor tennis course when we got here."Officials faced obstacles getting to the scene because of some downed power lines on a nearby road. They're investigating whether the downed wires caused the fire.

Pedestrian dies days later after trash truck hit him in Aurora

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

A pedestrian hit by a trash truck in Aurora has died from severe injuries.The Aurora Police Department, which responded to the crash on April 4, confirmed the fatality on Tuesday. It counts as the city’s 14th traffic-related death in 2023.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | Both lanes of U.S. 40 reopened after avalanche near Winter Park Crashes and Disasters | Fire burning along Rampart Range Road near El Paso, Teller counties Crashes and Disasters | Denver police arrest man in connection with fatal Christmas Day shooting The incident occurred near East Alameda Parkway and South Buckley Road at about 12:15 p.m. An investigation determined that the 31-year-old man was hit by a Suzuki trash truck when he crossed Alameda Parkway against the walking signal.The pedestrian died on April 7. Neither the truck driver nor his passenger sustained injuries.The Aurora Police Department doesn’t cite speed or alcohol as contributing f...

Both lanes of U.S. 40 reopened after avalanche near Winter Park

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

Both lanes of U.S. 40 are reopened after an avalanche Tuesday afternoon near Winter Park.The Colorado Department of Transportation reported that both directions of U.S. 40 were reopened between Henderson Mine Road and Robins Roost at 5:06 p.m. They were initially closed for several hours after an avalanche occurred three miles east of Winter Park.Trooper Gabriel Moltrer with Colorado State Patrol said a dispatcher logged that both lanes were blocked by the snow slide at 1:28 p.m., with a road closure shortly thereafter.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | Fire burning along Rampart Range Road near El Paso, Teller counties Crashes and Disasters | Denver police arrest man in connection with fatal Christmas Day shooting Crashes and Disasters | Colorado judge sanctions DA Linda Stanley’s office over pattern of widespread discovery violations At 1:36 p.m., Grand County Sheriff’s Office advised that a vehicle may be stuck in t...

US women’s national team to play final World Cup tuneup match in San Jose

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

The last match that the U.S. women’s national team will play before heading to the 2023 women’s World Cup will be in the Bay Area.The USWNT will play Wales in their only send-off match on Sunday, July 9 at 1 p.m. PT at PayPal Park, the home of the San Jose Earthquakes — and the likely home of the Bay Area’s new NWSL team.It’s surely an excellent spotlight moment for women’s soccer ahead of the yet-to-be-named NWSL team’s arrival in the spring of 2024. The Bay Area team has four former national team players — Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner — as part of their ownership group.It’ll be the fifth match that the USWNT has played at the Earthquakes’ stadium, but the first since 2018. The Earthquakes noted that the four prior USWNT matches in San Jose were all sellouts.Earthquakes season ticket holders will get access to a presale for tickets on May 4 at 10 a.m. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, May 8 at 10 a.m.The match will be televised o...

California officials gird for potential disaster: When and where will the record melting snow go?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

This winter has been one for the record books, with snow piled so high across California’s mountain ranges that it’s collapsed roofs and extended ski season into summer.Now California officials are anxiously eyeing the weather and girding for potentially disastrous flooding in parts of the state — especially the southern Central Valley — as that bountiful snowpack begins to melt, flows down saturated ground and pours into already swollen rivers. Because the snow is thicker in some areas than it’s been in generations, it’s hard to say how quickly it will melt and difficult to predict what will happen as it does.“We’re in uncharted territory for the southern Sierra because we’ve never measured snowpack this thick,” said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center. How bad the snowmelt will be depends on how warm it gets and how fast, which affects when the snowpack “...

Germany moves to relax rigid family name system

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

Associated PressBERLIN — Germany’s justice minister on Tuesday launched plans to relax the country’s strict restrictions on family names — for example, allowing couples to take double-barreled surnames and pass them on to their children.The current system “is about as up-to-date as a coal stove and as flexible as concrete,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in a statement as he published the draft legislation.As it stands, one partner in a married couple — but not both — can add the other partner’s name to his or her surname, but their children can’t carry both surnames.The reform will allow both partners to take on a double surname, with or without a hyphen, and for their children to take that name too. Even if the parents both keep their original names, they will be able to give their children a double-barreled surname, regardless of whether they are married. The new system still won’t allow names that are more than double-barreled.Bus...

Letters: Tech’s duty | Save Winehaven | More than stats | Outrage appropriate | Touching account | Keep abortion legal

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Tech must help keeplocal news afloatApplause for your editorial — and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ bill — seeking some compensation from Big Tech, which uses journalistic content from others to make big money. It’s well known that local journalism has been in a death spiral — because of Big Tech — and the Wicks bill would rightfully assist in helping to keep these agents of democracy alive.As someone with a journalism degree and a short-lived life as a reporter, it would make me happy that local newspapers be thrown a lifeline. But even more, now as a locally-elected official, to see the scrutiny, coverage and transparency that healthy local journalism could again provide to local government would be an added bonus for our democracy.Paul FadelliEl Cerrito City CouncilRichmond must actto save WinehavenRichmond is home to Winehaven, an irreplaceable historical asset. Once California’s largest winery a...

Volcano erupts on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:51:05 GMT

Associated PressMOSCOW — A volcano erupted early Tuesday on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, spewing clouds of dust 265,600 feet into the sky and covering broad areas with ash.The ash cloud from the eruption of Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka’s most active volcanoes, extended more than 300 miles northwest and engulfed several villages in grey volcanic dust.Officials closed the skies over the area to aircraft. Local authorities advised residents to stay indoors and shut schools in several affected communities. Two villages had their power supplies cut for a few hours until emergency crews restored them.Ash fell on 41,699 square miles of territory, according to the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Geophysical Survey. Scientists described the fallout as the biggest in nearly 60 years.The village of Klyuchi, which is located about 30 miles from the volcano, was covered by an 3-inch layer of dust. Residents posted videos showing the ash cloud plunging t...