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Dev Shah wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee on the word ‘psammophile’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

By BEN NUCKOLS (Associated Press)OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Fifteen months ago, Dev Shah spent a miserable five hours spelling outdoors in chilly, windy, damp conditions at a supersize regional competition in Orlando, Florida, only to fall short of his dream of returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.“Despondent is the right word,” Dev said. “I just didn’t know if I wanted to keep continuing.”Look at him now.Soft-spoken but brimming with confidence, Dev asked precise questions about obscure Greek roots, rushed through his second-to-last word and rolled to the National Spelling Bee title Thursday night.Dev, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area, first competed at the national bee in 2019, then had his spelling career interrupted. The 2020 bee was canceled because of COVID-19, and in the mostly virtual 2021 bee, he didn’t make it to the in-person finals, held in his home state on ESPN’s campus at Walt Disney World.Th...

Johnston: Skepticism of my plan abounds, but yes, we can end unsheltered homelessness in Denver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

When I was a young first-year principal at a high school here in Denver, my mentor told me there are only two things you can offer students: truth and hope. She said, “if you never tell them the truth, they’ll wake up every morning searching for something that doesn’t exist. But if you don’t give them hope, they won’t go searching for anything at all.”That sentiment rings true in Denver today. On any given night, over 1,000 Denverites are outside trying to find a sidewalk to sleep on or a bridge to sleep under because they have nowhere else to go. These are the hard truths facing our city.A few weeks ago, I met a man waiting in line outside a shelter with a bag in one hand and a hard hat in the other. He was a disabled veteran who served two tours in Iraq, and when he came back to the United States, he got hooked on opioids. He told me that he has to be on-site for his construction job by 5:30 am, but he also needs to get on the bus at 5 am to go across town to the methadone clinic ...

Opinion: The president today’s America needs (is not Trump or Biden)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

The president America needs is, unfortunately, Czech, and the Constitution rules him out. He is also, sadly for the world, dead. Václav Havel, playwright and leader of those who opposed the Czechoslovakian communist regime — and went to prison for it several times — was elected the free nation’s first president after the 1989 “velvet revolution,” in which the regime just gave up. He served his nation as president from 1989 to 2003, and died in 2011.A few days ago, after reading through lots of news about current American politics, I came upon Havel’s memoir “To the Castle and Back” in a thrift store. Fifty pages in, I thought, “Why can’t we have a president like this?”One of the great men of this and the last century, Havel actually thought about the world and what was right to do, and not just what would get him what he wanted. And one of those right things to do, probably the most important thing to do, was to tell the truth, a...

Meta asks office workers to return to in-person work

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

By Samantha Delouya | CNNMeta is the latest tech company to call its workers back to the office, more than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic first compelled many companies to adopt flexible work-from-home policies.The internet giant — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — has asked that employees currently assigned to an office return to in-person work three days a week starting September 5.Meta employees who are designated as remote workers will be allowed to keep their remote status.RELATED: Facebook owner Meta will chop 1,100-plus additional Bay Area jobsIn a statement to CNN, a Meta spokesperson said the company’s updated policy was not set in stone.“We’re committed to distributed work, and we’re confident people can make a meaningful impact both from the office and at home. We’re also committed to continuously refining our model to foster the collaboration, relationships, and culture necessary for employees to do their best work.”Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, hinte...

Opinion: Political correctness used to be funny. Now it’s no joke

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

Back in the early ’90s it would have been hard to imagine a time would come when people would long for double denim, the glumness of grunge and Ethan Hawke’s patchy “Reality Bites” facial hair. Yet more unfathomable: that there would be any affection for anything about that era’s nascent political correctness with its penchant for words like “womyn” and other idealistic but often ill-conceived efforts to reimagine the dictionary.And yet! In the wake of my 30th college reunion last month at Brown University, a notorious locus for politically correct thought back in the day, those emergent PC exactitudes feel almost cute in their relative innocuousness. At that time, word purification rituals were experienced all in good fun or at least, in good fun-making. “Thatch,” the most popular comic strip in The Brown Daily Herald, offered readers its absurdist antihero, Politically Correct Man — immediately amended to Politically Correct Person — because “the world needs someone to guide it th...

Review: ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ dazzles like the original

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

By Jake Coyle | Associated PressLet’s get this upfront: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was the best comic-book film of the last decade.With an animation blizzard blown straight in from the pages of comics, “Into the Spider-Verse” took a supercollider to all the conventions of the superhero movie. Solemnity was out. Gone, too, was the idea of a chosen one. Spider-Man could be anyone, including a graffiti-tagging kid from Brooklyn, including a pig named Spider-Ham. The possibilities of the comic book movie were suddenly limitless. With Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” thumping, the vibes were, as they say, immaculate.So a lot to live up to. Yet five years later, the Spider-verse is still expanding in thrilling ways. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is the rare sequel that dazzles as much as the original did. It’s something to behold. Colors drip, invert and splatter in a shimmering pop-art swirl.If ̶...

Men with rifles kill security guard at underground California casino, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

Two men armed with rifles barged into an underground casino in Studio City and killed a security guard before fleeing without any money, the Los Angeles Police Department said.Anthony Rivas, 32, was working at the casino in the 3300 block of Cahuenga Boulevard at around 3:40 a.m. on Wednesday, May 31 when the men, who were both wearing ski masks, entered through the back of the building, LAPD said in a statement.When Rivas confronted them, he took a handgun from a holster on his waist. That’s when one of the men pointed his rifle at Rivas and shot him multiple times.The men searched the building, but didn’t find any money. They both ran back out the rear entrance and fled the area.When Los Angeles firefighters got to the location after a call about a shooting victim, they found Rivas and pronounced him dead.The coroner’s office identified Rivas on Thursday, June 1.This is not the first time violence has come to one of the San Fernando Valley’s increasing number of illegal casinos. L...

Body of California woman among those found near submerged Alaska boat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

By BECKY BOHRER and STEFANIE DAZIO | Associated PressJUNEAU, Alaska — Authorities have recovered the bodies of two sisters onboard a fishing charter boat that was found partially submerged off southeast Alaska amid rough seas. Two others remain missing from the charter, which was taken by two vacationing couples.Alaska State Troopers said they believe the bodies are those of Danielle Agcaoili, 53, of Waipahu, Hawaii, and her sister Brandi Tyau, 56, of Canoga Park, California. They were recovered from the boat around 5 p.m. Wednesday and taken to the state medical examiner’s office.Robert Solis, 61, Tyau’s partner, and the boat captain, Morgan Robidou, 32, of Sitka, Alaska, remain missing.Danielle Agcaoili’s partner Maury Agcaoili, 57, was found unresponsive in the water near the boat Sunday and later pronounced dead, according to authorities.The 30-foot aluminum charter vessel was overdue Sunday evening and last seen earlier that day near Sitka, a community about 90 miles (145 kilom...

8th grade California teacher charged with child molestation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

Police say they are seeking additional victims of a teacher at a Sherman Oaks middle school who was charged with child molestation.Kareem Spann, 46, a resident of Burbank, was arrested on Tuesday, May 30, on suspicion of lewd acts with a minor under 14 years old after police received “multiple reports from students of alleged ongoing inappropriate sexual conduct” by Spann while he was employed at Louis Armstrong Middle School, LAPD said in a news release Thursday.Detectives believe there are additional, unidentified victims, the release said.Kareem Spann (Courtesy LAPD) Spann worked at the school from 2022 to 2023, according to police. His current status is not immediately clear.The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed felony charges against Spann, whose bail was set at $120,000. He was arraigned Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty.Investigators said Spann began having an inappropriate relationship, which led to grooming, with a student in April. The grooming...

Deadly stretch of road drives new safety measures near a Northern Virginia high school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:13 GMT

Some additional safety measures are on the way for a deadly stretch of roadway where a pair of Oakton High School students were killed last year in Fairfax County, Virginia.The June 2022 crash on Blake Lane near Oakton High School in Vienna has prompted a number of safety improvements, including upgraded crosswalks and signs that warn of pedestrians.The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has been studying the roadway since the incident, evaluating everything from crosswalks, curbs, to the posted 35-mile-per-hour speed limit.“Our police officers have consistently patrolled the corridor and have issued a total of 351 citations to speeding drivers between June 8, 2022 and May 10, 2023,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said in a community letter that highlighted fixes underway or set to begin, which include:Establishing a school zone near Oakton High School and installation of a speed cameraVDOT completing a Slurry Seal placement that will improve friction on road...